~Nanner's POV~

        "He shouldn't be gone for long. He's never gone for long," Chilled explains very quickly while glancing around seeming panicked. I reach out to him, knocking my knuckles on his head making him blink suddenly and looks to my eyes for once. 

"What's up with you? Can't live without your Ze?" I tease making him glare and shakes his head immediately while he pulls away from me without a second thought. A dark feeling comes over me when I wonder if he really can't live long without Ze in sight. From the looks of him right now he looks like a lost puppy who just lost their mother and I absolutely despise it. 

"There's just something he needs to do every once in a while." I glance over to the small brown plushie still sitting in the same position as it had been yesterday. I poke at its belly before picking up the small plushie, getting Chilled's attention as he stares at it too. 

"Where'd you get this? Funny face," I comment, giggling at the overly happy face with the tongue sticking out, something the sack boy does when you make his expression happy. 

"Mrs. Pennington made it for us, we have two of them actually. One in the back," he gestures towards the back making me a bit curious but he turns down towards the cash register and begins flicking through the money seemingly bored and yet there is a slight twitch in his actions that prove he's still nervous.  "I was the one who made the mascot, just bored and I liked Little Big Planet so it sorta just happened. What're you guys planning on doing here? Getting jobs?" I sigh and leap over the counter, unexpected to him because he nearly jumps backwards and for a second it seems like he's going to run but allows me to drag a stool near me and plop down on the seat. 

"Gassy and the others are, yeah. I'm not sure what I want to do yet," I lie and lean on the counter, eyeing everything even remotely close to me, the only thing of value the cash register along. I am interested in the mascot, something just seems fishy about it. Especially with the way Ze had to take it out of my hands suddenly yesterday, although Chilled didn't seem to mind just now. Maybe I'm over thinking Ze's actions, he could just be a paranoid guy for all I know. Glancing over at Chilled I notice he's becoming pale, very pale compared to his usual olive. A part of me wishes to reach out and ask him what's the matter and yet I feel glued to my spot just watching him, watching him as he becomes more and more distant to me. 

"Chilled, sorry I'm late," Ze suddenly announces as he comes back in, shocking the customers with his arrival. Chilled nods and leaves my side to join Ze in a heartbeat. "You can go off now," Ze mutters making me glance to Chilled curiously as they both disappear in the back room. Ze is the only one who comes back out, glancing to me and nodding. 

"Nanners? Have you been getting along with Chilled?" He asks curiously, pinning on a name tag on his shirt, stabbing himself a couple of times in accident. I observe him for a good few moments, can he really not care if I'm getting along with Chilled?

"You can say that, I was just bored and had no where else to go," I explain and watch the man casually fix up everything on the counter which Chilled had played with and made disorganized just a moment ago. "Did Chilled have somewhere he needed to go?"

 "Yeah, he usually has somewhere to go. Shouldn't you be, I don't know, looking for a job?" I sigh and fall onto his counter.

"But I don't want to look for a job," I complain only making Ze laugh and shake his head.

"That's how I felt until Chilled forced me to help him run this store. Then we got into all sorts of trouble and things happened." Ze sighs and shakes his head, making me stare at him in curiosity. Trouble? What kind of trouble could these two innocent shop owners possibly go into besides maybe gambling? Chilled could be the type to gamble, I'm not sure about Ze though or if Ze would even let Chilled get into gambling in the first place. 

"Excuse us," the women listening intently before approach with small pink bears in their hands. Ze nods and takes the small soft plushies and punches numbers into the cash register before giving them their prices. I sigh and glance back to the door, wondering what I'm even doing here if the little cute guy isn't here to be teased. The women glance towards me, staring for a long time before I lean in forward and meet their bright eyes with my own. 

"Whatcha want?" I ask casually and while one flinches the other leans forward in return with darkening eyes. 

"What's your name?" She asks, a deep tone. Is she trying to seduce me? Neat. 

"Call me SeaNanners, newest resident," I explain leaning back and playing with my own fingers. The two girls tell me their names but I ignore them as they pay and leave, Ze glancing towards me with a strange expression I just smile at and wave off. "And I'm about to leave. See you ladies later," I announce as I slip out the shop before Ze notices. Once I'm outside the shop I sneak into an alley and pull out the loot I had obtained from hanging out in the shop where the people trusted me way too easily. In my handed is the shop's mascot, not that it's such a big deal if they had another in the back anyways although that may be the real one with the treasure. Considering how paranoid Ze seemed with it I didn't think I'd be able to get away with it. The flirty women seemed to prove to be a nice distraction as annoying as they are, well, at least Chilled wasn't there to see it. 

Without hesitation I rip the small doll only revealing fluff and nothing but fluff in the inside, nothing worth anything. I was sure that one of the dolls has something fishy off about it, I just guess this isn't the one. Feeling disappointment, I throw the carcass of the doll onto the floor before leaning on the wall of the shop. Of course I promised Gassy I wouldn't do anything but...well...I get a bit curious when people act in such a way. Ze seemed panicked about it, though Chilled didn't seem to mind at all I wonder what it is in there. Does only Ze know about it and Chilled is just clueless about whatever it is about the doll? Or maybe Ze just has a strong connection to the doll in some way. But Chilled was the one who had come up with the concept of the doll so why would Ze feel anything towards the doll, unless, of course, the rumors are right and he has a thing for Chilled. I wouldn't blame him either, his actions are adorable while he seems serious about certain things. There always is the possibility they switch out the mascots every once in a while but I wouldn't understand why they'd do such a thing if it only created more work for them and danger for the mascot. Ah well, I'll see about the other doll some other time. For now I guess I could look for a cover up job. And when I mean cover up job, I mean I really don't want to look for one and will end up procrastinating... A lot. 

~Chilled's POV~

"What the fuck Ze? How can you lose an entire doll?" I snap, moving my arms in disbelief but he ignores me and continues on his search through every shelf in the store, looking for the stupid looking brown one. Half the store is already torn apart from dolls being tossed down to the floor while others are just knocked over in the shelf. "That thing's like my lifeline man, without it we can't, I can't-" I groan in frustration looking away from Ze as another customer comes in, seeming confused with our position but they continue on to the shelves that we aren't completely destroying. I run my fingers through my hair frantically as I look up to the upper shelves, lower ones, every where but I can't find the same dark brown, white, or red. Usually Ze and I are really good about it, it's the only way I can actually see people and feel as if I was here, without it it'll be strange for it to sometimes be here and sometimes not be. People are suspicious enough about the doll both Ze and I are obsessed over. I guess we could ask Mrs. Pennington again but it'll be strange if we wanted another one.

The first time we managed to convince her we wanted a copy of the doll we treasure in order to gift one to a relative. In the end we told her the relative didn't like it so we kept it, another one to our collection of two and she understood. We can't randomly have her make another one out of no where. She probably already thinks it's strange for us to keep two in the first place. At this point I think she just thinks Ze and I are very strange people. The door opens again as the customer leaves just as a larger man walks in, immediately seeming confused with the mess Ze and I have made.

"Ze? Chilled? What's the matter?" Gassy asks with Diction behind him and papers in their hands. Diction takes a random seat at our counter while Gassy helps me as I was struggling to reach a doll on one of the top shelves.

"We lost the shop mascot. It was my childhood friend so I'm kinda freaking out," I admit and Gassy stares at me for a while, probably wondering if I had ever had a doll I was this insane about. Although he still seems suspicious he helps me clear a top shelf and re stocks them when I go through the many light brown bunnies we had.

"Why didn't you guys just put it in a better place then? You had it out here staring at everybody and people were always trying to buy it right?" Diction asks, placing the blame entirely on our shoulders. Ze and I both sigh and only return to our searching, completely ignoring Diction's valid point. They don't understand why it's essential to leave the doll out in the open, for me to actually be entertained while I'm stuck in such a stupid position. Who wants to be stuck in a dark room from two minutes to two days. Yes, there has been a single time I stayed as a doll for two days. 

"Why are you guys here anyways? I don't remember inviting you," I complain as I continually try to jump to clear off the top shelves. When I nearly stumble backwards and fall Gassy finally sighs and pushes me aside, doing the top shelves for me.

"Thought it'd be a nice place to hang out as we get these done, if you don't mind?" Gassy calls out to Ze as if he's the only owner of the shop while completely ignoring me. Ze shakes his head immediately but I'm the one who actually says it's okay for them to chill out here, much to Ze's disapproval. It's only when I'm the one who approves in which Gassy pays attention. Talk about selective attention. Gassy shows to me every little doll up there and the empty shelf before I thank him and let him put everything back. Sighing, Ze and I lose our hope and put everything back as Gassy and Diction take seats at a table we have in the middle of the shop for people who just want to hang out, which is surprisingly a lot. 

Eventually Ze and I have to give up on the doll and start actually doing work, although my mood is terrible the feeling is luckily not coming up often. Sparklez and Nanners come by later as well and the usually quiet shop becomes a lot more louder and funner with their added arrival. Sometimes I stare at Nanners and remember the technical time we first met, he had picked me up and just observed me. For a second I seriously thought that he knew that I was a person with the way he stared directly into my eyes. Most of the times he tries to talk to me he always seems like he's up to something or like he knows something about me and it really makes me uneasy yet I somehow enjoy my time with him, despite the way he always likes to tease me and makes fun of me. There's always this strange feeling around him, like he's about to discover my single most important secret at any second just by staring at me long enough. It unsettles me. 

Groaning, I hold the small trash bag we keep in the shop and leave the shop, entering the alleyway and toss the thing in the large dumpster, eager to leave and abandon the constant worried thoughts I had towards Nanners. Ze glanced back at me before I left, seeming a bit worried as well and I'm beginning to wonder if he believes Nanners knows something as well. No, this is Ze we're talking about. He'd be freaking out because he's a terrible liar/actor. Before I leave the alley I notice a small white out of the corner of my eye and turn to it out of pure curiosity. Turning to it was a huge mistake. Not to mention a huge let down for the rest of the day. I become pale at the sight and nearly want to vomit away from it, a lot stronger of a reaction than should be expected from witnessing a torn up plushie. It's the fact that it's a plushie that could have been me if I had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have been me dead right there. I cautiously pick up the dead plushie only to confirm and immediately throw it across the alleyway in more shock. As expected, its face and fabric was the complete same as our own shop mascot we kept. The same mascot which shares the exact resemblance with me half of my time and the same mascot who allows me to stay out in the shop.