Needful Things Building; Monday

[totalwildcard]

The Dream House was gone by morning, replaced again with the antique store and the apartment above it, both with all four walls intact, and the color scheme decidedly less pink.

And in said apartment, late in the morning, Harley woke up with a start. Like fully bolting upright and everything, with a gasp.

"... Barbie looks like me."

She couldn't believe it. She brought her hands up to her face, smooshing her cheeks.

"Like me."

This jaw! These cheekbones under her skin!

Something about it was making her eyes well up.

At least, until something else about the weekend came back to her. "Bruce!" Oh, God, he'd been eating something obviously plastic, all weekend long! Harley scrambled out of bed to find him - only to, yes, find him curled up in one of his usual spots, seemingly right as rain.

She still ended up taking him on a long walk around town. It took a while for her to be convinced that just as magically as he'd turned into a toy dog for the weekend, whatever the plastic stuff he'd been eating (and, to be fair, pooping out at what seemed like an alarming rate for a fully functioning gastric system) had just as magically turned into actually edible stuff in his guts when he'd turned back. He seemed fine! He was leaving behind dog shit that was the usual level of disgusting!

Still, between the long walk and then breakfast for both him and herself, the morning had already turned into the afternoon by the time something occurred to Harley, and sent her bolting down the stairs into the store.

There, she found the display of dolls of varying ages and kinds.

And there, tucked near the back, was a Barbie. Harley carefully pulled her out from between a Victorian-ish porcelain doll and a fairly creepy 1950s baby, and smiled down at her.

It was a little watery, but there was no one here to see it, was there?

"Oh, there you are."

Something in her chest ached a little.

(expecting one!)

Comments

[hasaknightjob]

Steven and Watts had needed the morning to recover from the weekend. Once afternoon came around, though, it was possible for Marc to take over the body and, yanno. Take a walk. See how the neighborhood was doing.

See if some giant pink house had gone away to be replaced by the store that was supposed to be there.

No reason.

When he saw the store was there Marc may have tried to see if the door was open for him to go inside and check on things.

Maybe see if someone was around.

Yanno. Also no reason.

[totalwildcard]

Harley wasn't always great about locking the door. Especially not when there was particularly a lot of things on her mind.

So, it opened when Marc tried it. And Harley heard that - and had to swallow before calling out, hastily, "Oh, we're not open! So sorry! Come back later!"

[hasaknightjob]

"You you again?" Marc asked. He'd leave if she wanted to be alone, but he did want to know if she was Harley.

[totalwildcard]

"... Marc?"

Did that answer the question?

God, she was really going to have to wipe her eyes with her free hand right now, wasn't she.

[hasaknightjob]

"Yeah, it's me," he said. He looked around to see if he could spot her. "Want me to go?"

[totalwildcard]

Silence followed, but only briefly.

"No."

Even that sounded a little choked up. Goddammit. Regardless, she was still standing in front of the dolls, Barbie clutched in one hand, and while she was around a corner from where Marc was standing, there was a very shiny cabinet at a convenient angle in relation to both of them.

The movement of her shifting her weight from one foot to the other showed in the reflection.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc followed the sound of her voice to find her among all the stuff. He came around the corner to look at her.

"You okay?"

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah?" Harley replied, with a very real wobble in her expression as she turned a little more towards him.

You know, odds were good she would've been better at pretending if he'd been anyone else.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc might've pointed out she didn't look okay. But there was something that, okay maybe a little selfishly, was standing out to him more.

"You look like you again."

[totalwildcard]

"But I looked like me this weekend, too," Harley replied, her voice going a little tighter with the effort of whatever this emotion was she was trying to keep at bay. "Because she looks like me."

[hasaknightjob]

"I guess?" Marc said. The not Harley aspect had really been the standout for him. But there were huge, empty spaces in his mind where memories of children's toys would normally go. "Is that... good?"

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah!" Harley said, as if that was supposed to be plainly obvious to him and everyone else, too. She brandished the Barbie doll in his general direction. "She's s'posed to be every girl's best friend and she looks like me!"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc leaned against a table, ignoring whether or not that meant he was now getting dust on his pants. He looked between Harley and the doll.

"I like you better."

[totalwildcard]

"That's not the point!"

Oops, that was loud.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc held his hands up in a gesture of apology. "Not saying I get the deciding vote."

[totalwildcard]

"You don't get a vote, it's not a vote!" Harley told him. Sort of. Loudly.

And was now clutching the doll to her chest and making a face.

[hasaknightjob]

"What's going on then?" Marc asked. Which was a big step for him to admit he couldn't guess.

Steven was so much better at this kind of thing. Not just that it involved a toy.

[totalwildcard]

"I don't know," Harley replied, in something of a whine. "It's just -- I just -- Barbie looks like me."

Maybe in a moment she would realize how fruitless it was to keep repeating that to Marc of all people. But right now...

"Barbie!"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc tried to guess how Steven might feel about this. There was, of course, the part where Marc already knew how Steven felt about his connection to a fictional character. But Marc knew that was a separate thing.

There was also the part of what the character represented.

"You look like someone a lot of people care about?" Marc said, asking more to see if that's what resonated, not disputing the resemblance.

[totalwildcard]

The way Harley immediately went "Are you kidding?!" like that wasn't even half of it suggested he was thinking along the right lines.

"First of all," she said, waving the Barbie around again, "I woulda killed for one of these things as a kid!" A pause. "I mean not literally, but ya know what I mean!"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc was going to slide right past the idea of killing anyone as a kid. Luckily he had plenty of practice sending anything related to that immediately behind mental walls.

"Could've been your own friend," Marc said. Which was a concept he could relate to. "With her."

[totalwildcard]

Harley gave a nod that turned into looking down at the doll again. "She was everybody's friend," she said. "And everybody wanted to be her friend, too."

Oh, God, was her voice getting all tight again? She was just going to soldier on.

"And sure, sure, there's the half a century of..." Her face scrunched up, searching for the words. "Giving little girls body image issues, and setting unattainable standards with itty-bitty body parts in some places and curves right next to 'em and that whole entire big ol' shit show that can't be ignored and shouldn’t be ignored - but still."

Her thumb brushed over the doll's arm.

"Still. Where ya gonna find so much love, huh?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc thought of the picture of Harley he'd seen last time he was there. That younger version who had missed out on a lot.

"Little too hard to come by, huh? Love?"

[totalwildcard]

Harley just nodded, keeping her gaze cast down. It wasn't obvious how hard she was biting on the inside of her bottom lip. Well, to no one but her, anyway, because she could feel the sting of it.

That was sorta the point.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc figured she'd just gone quiet. He silently held an arm out, offering to hold her if she wanted.