215 Vol. 4 pt. 18 Patch 3.0: A Change of Pace (2/2)
Alice nods and then goes back to pouting.
”You're so silly. Anyways, I'm pretty sure you're going to have to stick to the internet to buy things like that. Especially with how fat he is. I doubt they'd have clothes in his size here even if they had ferret clothes.”
Alice pulls out her phone and starts ordering ferret clothes despite them not even technically owning any ferrets yet.
”This must be what it's like to have disposable income,” Ryouta says.
”I know, right?” Cassandra agrees. ”I feel guilty even just buying all of this. I keep thinking 'how am I going to afford food for the next month if I buy this?'”
”Yeah – wait, what are we missing?”
”Cage, food, toys… I don't know. Is there – where's Serra?”
While Alice continues ordering ferret clothes, Ryouta and Cassandra look around for Serra.
She's nowhere to be seen around them.
”I'll look around for her,” Ryouta says.
And so, Ryouta looks around for Serra.
He checks the fish aisles, stays away from the insect aisles but still peeks into them, checks on where the cats are, and finally checks on the worst section in the entire store: the bird area.
It's in a closed off area from the rest of the store because of just how noisy all the different birds are inside of it.
”I don't know how anybody could own birds,” Ryouta says to himself as he looks around.
He finds Serra.
She's standing in front of a cage looking a parrot face-to-face.
They're just standing there staring at each other.
Serra opens her mouth and makes a noise, and then the parrot copies the noise back at her.
Ryouta doubts that she can tell the parrot mimicked her, but she's smiling and looks happy nonetheless.
Serra looks over, sees Ryouta, and beckons him over. Then she signs to him to ask him if the parrot is copying the noises she makes.
Ryouta signs that the parrot is.
Serra smiles even brighter than before and tries making more noises for the parrot to copy.
Unfortunately, the parrot only copies the very first noise that she made.
Serra signs to Ryouta asking if it's still copying her.
Ryouta doesn't know whether to lie and tell her that the parrot is still copying her to make her happy, or to tell her the truth.
He'll just ignore the question instead and answer by teasing her. ”It says it wants a blowjob,” Ryouta says.
Serra reads his lips and snerks before lightly punching him in the abdomen. ”Didhint cawpy me?” Serra asks.
”Sorry, nope,” Ryouta tells her honestly.
Serra shrugs, waves bye to the parrot, and drags Ryouta back to where the ferrets are.
Back at the ferrets, the store employee has a few sturdy boxes ready to have ferrets placed in them.
”There you are!” Alice says. ”I told her that we wanted all of them. There are only four, and they need friends, and I would feel bad about taking them away from each other!”
Ryouta initially wants to ask if she's crazy for wanting to go from no ferrets to four ferrets, but then he remembers the whole ”disposable income” thing which calms him down.
Plus, it's not like they have jobs or anything, so they have the time to take care of the ferrets.
”Now we will each be able to name our own!” Alice says while excitedly watching Mr. Chubs get placed in one of the boxes.
Cassandra points at one particularly thick ferret with brown hair. ”Is this one a boy or girl?” she asks the employer and gets told that the ferret is a girl. ”Then I'll name her… Lily.”
Serra points at one of the ferrets which is pure white and signs that its new name is Shark.
That leaves Ryouta with the last ferret. ”What about this one?” he asks the employer, and after the employer checks, he gets told that the ferret is a boy. A boy ferret with all black hair. ”How about… Damian?”
”That's way too human,” Cassandra says.
”Lily is a human name, too.”
”But it's also a flower. Damian isn't a flower.”
”His name is Damian. So, we've got Damian, Lily, Mr. Chubs, and Shark.”
”Sounds like a wonderful group!” Alice says.
Serra signs to the others that she's going to train Shark to be a true shark, and that Shark will eat their ferrets.
None of them relay that information to the employee.