2024-12-29 - Tarjay Rune Exchange

The holiday season at Tarjay is a minefield. Less so on the employee island, perhaps, yet still a flurry of activity that has left some of the shelves barren and many of the employees exasperated. In these days after, fewer customers roam the isles, and those who do often explore with a glassy, faraway look. Either they've been working too many extra shifts at the park or they've celebrated too hard the nights before.

One man is even ass up on one of the couches in the furniture section, his expensive cardigan bunched around his belly and a single loafer held aloft atop an extended foot. This man is Parker Somerset, and he's had better days.

Jett would rather avoid places like Tarjay and send his roommate to do it instead, and yet he is here with a list to hunt through the minefield for. It's not too long before Jett is one of those glassy eyed far away customers roaming. This whole experience is a little overwhelming for him, always. It could be the whole sterile feeling and the people wandering aisle like some programmed robots searching for curated items off the shelves that gives him the ick. But whatever, he had to come to get some accessories for his phone on top of other crap on the list for the apartment, and personal hygiene shit.

Somehow.. he ended up in the furniture second. "Shit..." he grumbles to himself because really, "this is why I don't go shopping..." He is getting lost and turned around in this giant place. It might be considered an easy layout for him but he's really just kinda lost, hence, at the couch section. He doesn't need a couch! Although, someone passed out or.. whatever on a display model has him smirking, inching over to see what state the guy is in.

An embarrassing state it what Jett finds, where Parker's hair is a mess and half his face is smooshed into the sofa, in addition to his being nearly inverted. A small saliva stain decorates the cushion near his face, and one hand is held in a rictus curl around some imaginary object.

But he's breathing.

"Tsk-tsk. You and your friend better stop fooling around." The sound comes from a Tarjay employee - Rosie, according to her name tag - who just turned the corner to see Jett checking on Parker. "Who do you think has to clean up that couch? It's me." She points at herself and leans forward to make her point. "Me and maybe Rodrigo, since he's taking over in five." Shaking her head, she mutters and walks away to stalk another aisle, which is when Parker lets out a low gurgle.

Okay well this is gold! Photogenic gold! Jett, in his new found glory of owning a phone, decides to take a few pictures of this guy and a short little video. It can't hurt much right? He is totally going to show his friends this totally embarrassing situation. That's the problem with phones; they end up capturing all the bad sides!

Rosie, however, nearly makes him drop the damn phone as he leaps back a step and glances over to her with his heart flung out of his throat. His hands start to wave back and forth to indicate that she has the wrong idea here! She totally does! But she doesn't leave him much of a chance to get a word in edge wise before she's off muttering to another aisle. "Shit..." he cracks a grin and then 'thwaps' the shoe that is jutting out in the open, "Yo buddy, your gunna get written up or something. This is a bad place for a hang over."

Rosie totally has the wrong idea, though the right idea isn't any better. This man needs help, not someone taking pictures of him!

"It's so beautiful, but what does it mean?" These words dribble out of Parker as he slowly slides down the couch. When his shoe gets thwaped, his leg kicks out hard and pushes the rest of his body over the edge, so that he flips over onto his back, slamming hard into the floor. "Ohgawd."

Parker's eyes jolt open and scan the unfamiliar space. "I...is this...?" Eventually, his gaze lifts upward to see Jett above him and upside down. He reaches for the man, pawing at his legs and, well, whatever he can reach. "Paper," he says, voice dry and hoarse. "I need to write something down."

Jett winces when the thwap to the guy's foot sends him spilling over the edge, "Oooouchhhh..." he smirks a little at the sight, "I mean buddy... not the best place to recover from a hang over. You should probably call in sick if uh, if this is where you work." He glances back toward where Rosie went then back to this dude, "She's not going to be too happy you left a drool stain in the couch."

Jett tilts his head, looking down at the fella. The pawing at his legs has him give an ick face and he tries to step back out of reach, "Bruh..." he squints, "Are you high? Trust me, whatever you write down is totally just going to be scribbles when you sober up. But.." he glances around the area and remembers, "Oh yeah..." he drags out his grocery list from a note pad and hands it down, "You can use the opposite side, but I'll need my shopping list back when you're done." As for ... what to write with, he pats his pocket, "All out of pens I'm afraid."

Much of what Jett says goes right over Parker's head. Or it gets muddled in a mind that's coming out of something that could be drugs, except...no, it just could be drugs.

"I'm not. What?" Park grunts and rolls onto his side, pushes himself up and immediately feels dizzy. "I'm gonna puke," he warns as he reaches for the shopping list that he's absolutely going to ruin. "Wait..." he gags and steadies himself. "No, I'm not." There's relief written across his face as he struggles to stand.

Nearby, there's a table that he slams the paper list onto. He pulls a pen out of his pocket and starts to scribble down some shapes that would definitely appear to be nonsense if you haven't seen them before. "Runes," he explains, in case Jett was wondering.

Jett jerks back when Parker says he's going to puke, "Yeeeeah no, not any where near me please!" He reaches forward and pushes Parker on the shoulder to hopefully spin him in some other more puke-able direction than himself, stuffing the grocery list in his hand and making a pained smirk as he sends Parker off with his drug high mission.

"Man.." he probably realizes with that slam of the paper down onto the table he wasn't going to get his list back! "Could I maybe take a picture of it? You know, so I can continue shopping and you... can keep your lovely draw---" but then he stills. He's seen Runes before. But that was a dream, surely, a dream. Then Parker explains the word. "Runes," he furrows his brows a bit, "Runes... really? Shit. Okay, great. For what exactly?"

Parker consents to the little shove only because he’s concentrating on not puking in his local Tarjay. Turned to the side at that time, he focuses on a fake potted plan, staring intently at one of the fern-like leaves.

When he’s up and going, though, there’s no stopping in. Stop and take a picture of what now? Jett’s taken enough pictures. “Uh-huh sure,” he mutters, though since he’s not giving the paper back, he probably wasn’t listening.

Eventually, he lifts his drawing up for them both to look at. “Runes. Symbols. I saw these on a big brass console just now.” He turns to Jett with a manic grin. “Stuck a rod in the side and they all lit up!”

Jett's shoulders slump as it looks like it's going to be ridiculously hard to get his shopping list back and he runs a hand through his hair in exasperation, "My roomie is going to kill me..." He mutters as he looks back and forth, to see if anyone else can help him with the crazy dude over here.

Until he doesn't sound crazy anymore. "Wait, what..." Jett steps forward a little, "A console.. like.. with buttons that have those symbols on it?" He squints a bit, "This seems kind of familiar man. I uh, just dreamt of a situation like that. The runes had to be pressed in a proper order to get the machine to work."

Parker tosses Jett a dubious glance and, for the first time since he awoke, gives the younger man a nice, long, and judgy once-over. "Why? What did you do?" He almost sneers as he considers the possibility that would lead to his murder.

This isn't the most important thing here, though. No, he would unfortunately sacrifice this stranger if it meant learning more about what he believes he just witnessed. "Exactly, so you're a dream walk, too." He starts to fix his hair as they speak. "It's powered by some kind of lightning rod. Must've been the thing I was trying to keep safe from...something. Someone?"

"I gave away the shopping list to your ass..." Jett says with a deadpan response to the sneer made at him, finger pointing at the piece of paper that Parker has in his hands. If he's aware of the nice, long, and judgy once-over he doesn't make any overt signs of it, other than a slight head tilt down in a very feisty 'can't touch me' kind of vibe.

"Uh, dream walk?" Jett scrubs the back of his head and shakes it, "No. No I don't think so. I just had this weird ass dream you know." He nods as he fills in some blanks for Parker, "There were four of us that had to piece things together. There were a bunch of others defending us. We fixed the machine, put a big plug in to it, lit it up. Oh shit, yeah, the whole place was suffused with blue light like a bomb went off or something. I don't know, but the runes, they were on the buttons and we had to figure out what sequence they had to be pressed in after the plug in was plugged in." Very descriptive.

Parker looks at Jett like he's an alien. Shopping list? He turns the paper over, realizes he drew the runes over the list on the other side, and sighs. "It's probably just toothpaste and...cat food?" Does Jett look like a cat person? Like someone who lives with a cat person? "I wouldn't worry about it."

He nods and sets the drawing down. "Yes, I met a man who walked into one of my dreams. Luckily, he knew Italian." He's quiet and attentive when Jett tells his story, though at the end he gestures for the young man to continue. "And? What was it?"

Jett absolutely looks like a person who would live with a CAT. But he doesn't have a cat, so there's that. "Yeah well if I forget something he's going to be annoyed at me," he extends his hand out and palms his fingers toward him, "Let me at least get a picture alright man? Then you can go back to your business and I can go back to mine..."

"What do you mean what was it? I don't know. It was like we set off a bomb or something. I woke up at the blue light... it was blinding and like encased us all..." He shrugs, "It was a dream. I don't think dreams are supposed to make sense."

"Well, that's a far cry from murder," Parker says, wagging a finger in the air as if Jett did something naughty by crying wolf. "What do you need a picture of? These symbols?" He looks suspicious and lifts his chin in the man's direction. "What's your name? Where do you work?"

He holds the paper in one arm, but doesn't make a run for it or anything. Some of that suspicion dissipates when he hears about the blue light. "Interesting...but I meant what was the sequence?" Here, he holds out the paper against, deciding it's worth the risk. "I think it's a language, you see. The park's language."

"Suure... but it's like a figure of speech or something," Jett watches the waggle of a finger and his brows furrow because damnit why did that actually work to put him in a funky mood. "The shopping list..." he repeats with a drawl tone, "Jett Onaway. I work at the Midway in the Games." Something about Parker made him answer that snippity snap and it's probably because of the waggled finger! Damnit. "Shit..." he realizes that far too late.

"Oh um... another guy worked it out but I kind of recall? It's fuzzy now you know because it was a dream and dreams don't last?" He points to the various runes that he recalls were part of the sequence, "Yeah those." He squints, "Um. Ari knows the sequence. Sorry man I can't remember correctly. It was a puzzle and I hate puzzles... but Ari, he figured it out." Then the last has him scoffing a little, "The park's language? Really? Like...." he squints one eye, "Umm. How is that possible?"

Parker makes a sound of distaste, but he listens to Jett carefully as he straights out his clothing and continues to put his hair back into place. “Onaway, hm. Onaway…sounds familiar but I can’t place it.” It’ll come to him, though, if the name does actually mean anything. If there were any safety infractions, for instance.

Soon, he has another name to consider, though: Ari. “Ari who? Where does he work?” He pats himself down and grimaces, then turns back to the couch to search the couch for his phone. “Aha!” He slides it out and unlocks it so he can take some notes. “Well, yes. The park has been trying to speak to me. A lot of us, apparently.”

He pauses when he says this to look around and squint at the strong fluorescent lighting. “Where are we? Can we not have this conversation in a…Tarjay?”

If Parker knows anything about Michigan there's a town east of Spellbound that's called Onaway - a little far flung place with barely a thousand residents in it. Otherwise there might be the odd report on Jett, nothing that warranted firing but he does not have the qualifications of other employees so that might mean he gets his station inspected more frequently and thus caught more 'tripping' up as it were; minor infractions.

"Uh..." Jett shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know. I met him trapped on an elevator. I haven't spoken to him since and I don't think seeing him in a dream counts. He's a nerdy looking guy, strung out, tall, glasses... Ummm.. shit he told me where he works... but I can't recall." He might be lying about that but then again, Parker hasn't necessarily earned full truths from Jett.

"Why would it want to speak to us...?" Jett says deadpan.

Jett folds his arms across his chest, "Are you going to give me my list back?" A beat, "And yes we're in a Tarjay." Then, "C'mon man I have to work tonight and I need to finish shopping..." He furrows his brows at Parker, "You're being kind of lame."

Parker doesn’t know anything about Michigan. Maybe someone talked to him about the town at some point, or maybe a compliance report with Jett’s name on it stood out. Whatever it was, the moment has passed.

“Mm. Right.” Parker has a feeling there’s more to something there, but he lets it go and takes a photo of his scribbling instead. “Because something here is lost, I think. I’m trying to work it out, but there’s obviously something special about this place. Something at work.”

He takes a breath and hands over the slip of paper with whatever can be deciphered of the shopping list. “Fine, I’ll leave you to it, then.” And with that, he walks right off, loafers clicking against the smooth, polished floor.

Jett lifts an eyebrow at Parker, "I mean... there's got to be a reason for the uh... magic and stuff right?" Jett looks toward the note and then back to Parker, "Could be aliens right?" That's the good old American excuse for things that don't make sense, right?

He takes back the shopping note, now with runes on the back of it, with a dip of his head. He looks down at the runes on the other side of his grocery list and knows exactly who he's going to talk to about it. "Later," he says toward Parker with a murmured, "Strange guy..." then gets a ding from his phone and hisses, "Shit..." and starts to hustle, "Where's the damn food at?!" Somehow he's still in the furniture section....