Mark stared at his screens intently, tapping the side of his monitor head absentmindedly and bouncing his leg. He was sat cross legged in his pale blue spin chair in front of his desk, dressed in a pair of black sweatpants and a pale grey blanket hoodie.  Mark was supposed to be finishing writing something, but the monitor-headed man found himself unintentionally becoming sidetracked with one of the many devices on his chaotically organized desk.

“MAAAAAARK!!!” A voice shouted out behind him, his bedroom door slamming open, shaking the string of star shaped lights that lined the top edges of his bedroom walls. Mark let out a shout, nearly falling out of his chair as he spun around to face the intruder.

“Eggie! I told you not to barge in without knocking first!” He shouted back, his pause/play button eyes taking on a weary look.

Eggie was an anthropomorphic cat with a compact build, standing at a mere 3’0” with a bacon scarf wrapped around her neck. Her fur pattern gave her the appearance of a well rounded breakfast if it were a calico cat. Her right ear looked like a strawberry, her face a pancake with an egg where her left eye was and syrup covering her right. Eggie’s torso looked like a heel of bread, with white fur covering the front, and her limbs had the appearance of breakfast sausages. She wasn’t much older than Mark, only by a few months or so, but she had a tendency to act on the childish side when it came to purposefully deciding to annoy the monitor head.

“Bah! Don’t care!” She said, rolling her eyes as she strode further into the man’s room, completely disregarding Mark’s complaint. “Look, I need to run down to the mini mart in a bit. Care to join?”

Mark slumped, his screen quickly taking a look be that screamed ‘I forgot what I was doing and am scrambling to remember so I don’t have to go out’. The monitor sighed, and glanced back at his computer.

“I- uh- I’d love to but I still have to finish writing this email then after that I need to finish editing a video and then I need to check my commissions before I go-” The monitor stammered, fidgeting with the hem of his hoodie. Eggie scoffed.

“Excuses excuses, it’s break time for you anyway. So, by law of the house, you are legally obligated to join me on an outing!” The cat interrupted, clapping her paws together. She briefly looked off to the side before adding, “Plus you’ve been in the house for like three days straight and need to go outside.”

Mark glowered at Eggie, who gave him the most innocent look she could muster. The monitor never had been the best at taking breaks, often trying to do as much as he could within a short period of time. But it always led to him crashing and not wanting to do anything important for at least a week. So it wasn’t that he was angry at Eggie, but more so at the fact that she was right about him needing to take a break.

The two stared at one another for a bit longer before Mark threw his head back, letting out a frustrated groan.

“Fine! Just let me get dressed.” He grumbled. Eggie clapped her hands excitedly.

“Yay!” She said, rushing towards the monitor’s dresser, “I’ll pick out your outfit!”

“You’re a real pain in my ports, ya know that Eggs?” Mark asked, an un-amused expression on his screen as he rolled his eyes. Eggie shot him a look.

“And you’re a real pain in my a-” She started. 

“Where are you two going?” 

The duo quickly snapped their attention to the doorway.  Reraik stood there, half peaking into the room with a curious expression on his face, his talon-like fingers twitching against the doorframe. 

Reraik was… Reraik. He was the oldest of the trio, and also the tallest standing at 6’0” with a lean build. He bore five emerald green eyes, with two placed where his cheek bones would be, two where his eyes would normally be, and one on his forehead. His mouth wasn’t immediately visible, as his face was covered in what was effectively a tar like substance, which tended to make his layered voice slightly muffled and gravely. The rest of his skin, minus his face and talon-like fingers that were covered in tar, was a rich bistro brown. The humanoid appeared to have just woken up, as evident by the fact he was dressed in one of his many sea slug patterned pajama sets, and that his wicks were safely tucked into its matching satin bonnet. 

“Eggie says I have to go with her to the the mini mart.” Mark sighed, motioning to the cat tossing various pants and shirts onto his bed, “You wanna come with?”

Reraik hesitated for a moment, seeing the way that Eggie was already tearing up Mark’s already cluttered bedroom, then slowly started to leave.

“I’ll meet you at the front door.” He said quietly.

       The trio left the house half an hour later, with both men dressed in casual attire and Eggie leading the group. Eggie, being rather impatient while the monitor worked on finishing what he had been writing and because she was already dressed, had picked Mark out a navy blue sweater, a pair of tan cargo pants, and a pair of white and black lace-less tennis shoes. Reraik on the other hand, before the cat had the chance to go into his room, was dressed in a green and slightly lighter green stripped sweater, a pair of dark grey overalls with a simple sea green fish on the chest pocket, and a pair of tall wading boots. Additionally, Reraik had also grabbed his brown canvas satchel bag with visible mending, mainly so the group wouldn’t have to carry everything back.

The group made their way through the winding food gardens that kept the denizen’s of Woeridge stocked with plenty of food for season after season. Eggie practically skipped down the path, with Mark and Reraik following behind in a single line.  The monitor was intensely searching for a cool new rock for his collection (which he was quite picky about, mind you). Reraik took up the rear of the group, commenting on the rocks the shorter male would point out to him as Eggie was a bit farther away.

“Hagstone!” Mark said, motioning to a rock slightly off of the worn path they were taking. Reraik raised an non-existent brow, glancing at the rock. 

“I suppose it is.” Reraik mumbled, pausing briefly to pick up and inspect the object, “… Do you plan on adding it to your collection?”

Mark hesitated, tilting his head as he seemingly weighed the pros and cons of taking the rock home, “I don’t know.”

“I see.” Reraik tossed the rock up in the air a few times, “How about you mull it over, and make your final decision when we head home?”

Mark perked up at that, and quickly nodded in agreement. Reraik set the rock down, and gently nudged the monitor forward.

“Hey! Hurry up you two!” Eggie called back to the two men, “The the mini mart is gonna close if you both keep moseying around!”

Mark rolled his eyes as he resumed walking, “Yeah yeah, we’re coming short-stack. Chill out.”

Reraik hummed, following the monitor and cat without a word.

Station road was the everything “district” of Woeridge, located south-west of the residential district and gardens. It was where one could find the shops, the singular restaurant and motel lodging, the clinic, and the post office. Additionally, directly in front of Station road sat its namesake, the Woeridge train station. Small, unmanned, and the fastest way to travel around v̴̧̨̛̹̥̗̜͚̟̳̦̰̺͔̼̤̜͂̉͗̓̎̄̒̊̃̍̕̚͝ȯ̴̡̨̱̙͓͕͚̓̍i̴̡̲̙͙͎͓̟̜̹̼͔̊̀̃d̷̢͔̱̱̥͔̗̭̝̲̀́̔̋͌̏̍͊. The train only ran through town twice a day, once in the morning to the coast, and once in the evening going to the mountains. 

The trio took a right onto the road, placing them directly in front of Woeridge’s convenience store, Station Mini Mart (Though it used to be called the “Woeridge Trading Post” before it went under massive renovations in the early 90s). It was a small building, its exterior walls made of wooden, light grey panels and a dark grey roof. The front of the building had colorful, stained glass window tiles, and its front door was a dark oak, clear three quarter view window taking up the majority of it with a little “open” sign hung on the inside. The group approached the door, Eggie still leading.

“Stupid fuckin’ hands…”  A monotone voice mumbled from the inside just as the Eggie opened the door, making the bell ring alongside the 70s department store music the clown almost always seemed to be playing.

“Beeboh! My clown!” Eggie shouted excitedly, running up to the counter.

Beeboh looked up, eyes narrowed in annoyance, “Whaddya want kitty cat?”

Beeboh was a small, wiry humanoid individual, only a few inches taller than Eggie at most. They had no mouth, a shaved round head, and a large black clown nose. Their eyes were completely white, with incredibly faint irises and pupils that were barely a shade darker. Their makeup was like a clown's, with black diamonds decorating their porcelain skin and their eyebrows done up for exaggeration purposes. Beeboh wore a stripped black and white clown hat with a purple pom-pom on the top, a black undershirt, a pair of black footed skinny jeans, and a much too large v-neck black and white jersey shirt with a yellow smiley face on the front. One of the clowns disembodied, giant hands was lazily resting the arm of their recliner, while the other was flexing and twitching in their lap. Their pointy, needle like legs were drawn partially up their chest.

“I need a refill for the usual, if you don’t mind.” Eggie asked while Mark and Reraik disappeared into the relatively normal isles of the shop.

“Geez, you ran out that fast?” Beeboh asked, raising an unimpressed brow as they snatched a giant #2 pencil from underneath the counter and a decently sized notepad. The clown tutted, “At this rate, I’m going to have to get Post to start delivering your shit in shipping containers.”

“Hardy har har, very funny Beebs.” Eggie said, rolling her eyes, “Anyways, what’s it going to run me?”

“For your Tower supplies- extra medications, first aid supplies, emergency foods- and nothing else?” The clown asked, looking up from their notepad.

“Uh- For this transaction, yes.” 

Beeboh sighed, scribbling something onto their notepad and letting it fall unceremoniously onto a smaller table next to them, “Same as it always is and has been since you took over the Tower. $76.23 including tax and the delivery fee to the tower from Post.” The clown dropped their hands into their lap, “Cash or card?”

“Card, let me just grab my… wallet…” Eggie began to dig through her scarf’s inner pockets, eyebrows knitted in concentration. She knew she had brought it with her, the cat had triple checked her scarf at least three times before leaving the house.

Just when she was about to give up, Reraik and Mark came up behind her. The latter was holding an armful of snacks, bouncing up and down excitedly, while the former simply pulled out a pink, strawberry patterned wallet from his satchel and held it out to the cat.

“You dropped it.” Reraik said bluntly, “I figured I would hold onto it until we got here.”

“Well look at that, inky saved your ass from having to make another trip.” The clown snickered.

Eggie grumbled, her ears pinning back in embarrassment as she snatched her wallet from the tall man, “Gimme that…”

Reraik glanced at Mark, gently setting a hand on the top of his head to get him to calm down while Eggie slid her card over to Beeboh. The clown sighed, hesitating for a moment as they shifted in their chair.

“Beebs? You good?” Reraik asked, a worried look appearing on his face. The clown grunted in response, reaching over briefly to grab a tablet with a card reader from under the counter, then clumsily grabbed the cat’s work bank card.

“Peachy.” The clown gritted out, tapping a few things on the screen before sliding the card, “Just my usual.”

Eggie knitted her brows, “You sure?”

Beeboh rolled their eyes, tossing the card back on the counter within Eggie’s reach, “Yeah, nothing I can’t handle.”

“Uh-Huh…” Eggie said, nodding slowly as Mark carefully set down the gathered snacks on the shop counter in front of the clown.

“So you got… one bag of dried orange slices, one bag of cinnamon apple puffs, three yogurt pouches, one bag of birthday cake animal cookies, one box of smoked salmon snack cubes, a can of chocolate milk, a can of sweet tea, and a can of water? That right?” Beeboh asked as they typed away on their tablet, narrowing their eyes at the array of food the boys had picked out, “No… actual groceries for you folks or…?”

“Just snacks!” Mark said, now once again bouncing up and down next to Reraik in an almost childish manner.

“We still have plenty of stuff from our last big trip. We can wait another week or so.” Reraik said, glancing at Mark who nodded excitedly.

Beeboh hummed in slight disapproval, then went back to typing on their tablet. It wasn’t ill-intended, they were just worried about the groups health (though they’d never admit that). “Alright, your total is… $10.75 for all that. I’m going to assume you’re also doing card, since neither of you tend to carry cash?”

The two men nodded, and Mark pulled out his dark blue and yellow star wallet to retrieve his card. Reraik gave the clown a hard look as the monitor next to him slipped out his card and pushed it across the counter. The clown paid him no mind, instead reaching to grab Mark’s bank card. The clown suddenly winced once they got their hand half way to the counter, visibly flinching.

“Beeboh. What happened.” Reraik asked, his voice firm, but gentle.

The clown sighed, slumping their shoulders in defeat as they retracted their hand, “I just, ran out of my meds yesterday and forgot them to get refilled before opening ‘cause I woke up late and-”

“Beeboh! You know how important your meds are!” Mark said, a worried look overtaking his features, “Do you want me to go see if Doc can give me your refill and-”

“No- I’m fine- really-” The clown insisted, shakily reaching back for the monitors bank card and dragging it off of the counter to insert into the card reader. 

“Beebs. You know damn well your health takes priority over tending the shop.” Reraik growled out, his eyes narrowed in annoyance, “You could have taken the day off, called the clinic and gotten your meds delivered to you, then reopened once you were feeling semi-better.”

“Reraik’s right. Or you could have asked one of us to look after the shop for you. You know we’re more than willing to do that.” Eggie added.

“Look, you three,” Beeboh started, reaching to put the card back on the counter, “I appreciate the concern. But I’m fi-” 

A wave of pain suddenly hit Beeboh like a truck, making the clowns eyes widen as they seized up in pain. The card slipped from Beeboh’s fingers, clattering to the floor as the clown’s head lolled back. The clown let out a groan of pain, swaying briefly, then began to fall head first toward the sharp edge of the checkout counter.

Mark quickly pushed things out of the way, sending objects clattering to the floor as Reraik hopped the counter to catch Beeboh just before they hit the edge. Eggie quickly ran to the other side of the counter, slipping through the small side door and catching their left hand before it could fall to the floor.

“”Fine” my ass. I’m taking you over to the clinic now.” Reraik snarled, his sharp, monstrous teeth making a rare appearance in the process.

Beeboh groaned, shivering something fierce, “O-kay…” The clown croaked.

Reraik lifted Beeboh up into his arms, wrapping his arms around them tightly and ensuring both of their hands were placed over them. The five-eyed man sighed as Beeboh started panting, and looked up at his two friends with a slightly less annoyed expression than he had towards the clown.

“Could you two close up while I take Beeboh to the clinic?” He asked, earning a nod from both the cat and monitor. Reraik sighed, “Thanks guys. I’ll meet you out front after I get them settled. You know where everything is.”

Once Reraik had left with Beeboh, taking a moment to grab the clown’s patched up backpack before hand, Eggie and Mark wasted no time in getting to work cleaning. Mark did the big things that the cat couldn’t. Such as sweeping, mopping, and disinfecting the taller shelves in the isles while tidying up the products. Eggie, on the other hand, focused on disinfecting the check-out counter, plugging in Beeboh’s tablet (after ensuring she had paid for the groups snacks with Mark’s card of course), tidying the bottom shelves, and so on. It didn’t take too long, as they had helped close up the shop in the past for similar reasons. 

Soon the duo were out the front door, each of them holding snacks right before Mark locked it from the inside and flipped the sign to closed. Eggie shifted the items in her arms, trying her best to keep them from falling to the flagstone road. Reraik approached them from the east side of the road, sighing.

“Beebs is settled.” The five-eyed man said, yawning as he knelt down for Eggie, allowing the cat to put the snacks she was holding in his bag, “But mam’s out of the ingredients for their meds and needs me to go grab them.”

“Which consists of…?” Mark asked, tilting his head slightly as he walked over.

“Not much. Just 45 eye daisies.” Reraik said, standing back up and holding his bag out to Mark to put his snacks into.

The monitor looked taken aback by the statement, raising a non-existent brow as he carefully placed the snacks he was holding into the taller male’s bag, “That’s it?” 

Reraik rolled his eyes, “It’s a bit harder than it sounds, but yes. That’s it.”

“Why don’t we join you? It’ll go faster with three people, right?” Eggie offered.

The five-eyed man seemed to hesitate as he slowly shut his satchel. It wasn’t like Eggie and Mark hadn’t helped him in the past when it came to other ingredient runs, but neither the cat nor the monitor had assisted in an eye daisy run. Reraik couldn’t help but be wary of allowing the two to join him, but given that there was only a couple hours until sunset, he didn’t really have a choice.

“I… suppose you are correct there.” He eventually said, half turning away from the group, “But we’ll have to leave now if we want to be done and back before sunset. So let’s go.”