Singing Heads

Where Marceline had gone, not even she knew herself. She had taken a turn on the mainstreet and was suddenly in a very different looking area. Sunlight seemed to fail to shine in this part of town, and every passerbyer bore an odd resemblance to bugs one would find in the dirt impression once a rock was lifted from the ground. The young girl was somewhat scared, but kept her head held high. People were less likely to mess with you if you looked like you had a purpose and the last thing she wanted to do was make it look like she was lost.

After some time of pointless wandering in attempt to find the way back to the main road, Marceline decided instead to explore some shops. One was called the Witch Doctor's Niche. She was somewhat familiar with the culture of voodoo, not in practice, but from reading, and was curious to see what exactly she'd find inside.

A wall of small heads met her gaze as she entered the shop with a ding from the bell above the door. She timidly took a few steps in, her eyes not straying from the leathery small heads. She jumped as she heard a caw-caw from a blackbird, roosting on a shelf of masks and having taken flight. Her heart pounded in her chest as she hummed herself a tune to calm her nerves. Suddenly, she heard the tune repeated to her. At first, just one voice, but then the wall of heads next to her sounded like a chorus, mimicking her song. "It's not nice to copy," She said, once she collected her thoughts again. The heads laughed like a crowd at a comedy mic. She rolled her eyes. "They're kind of rude, aren't they?"

For most of the day Mae and Bae had split up in the sake of time saving. Neither of them wanted to spend much time in the dirty, crowded alley so they decided to would be best if they split up and got two of everything at the shops they went to. The young girl had finished all of her shopping before the time that they agreed to meet back up, she decided to take this as an opportunity to look around on her own. There weren't many places she was interested in going that much, at least not enough to try fighting the crowd of stupidly eager kids. Why they were all so eager to get school stuff she had no idea, but she wasn't about to get in the middle of them and their precious supplies.

While trying to avoid a huge group of girls headed her way, with no intentions of stopping, Mae ducked to the side. Only instead of simply being the side of some building as she had originally thought, it was another alley. She hadn't seen it before when walking around, probably due to the lack of light in that area but now that she was there she couldn't help but look around. It was much less crowded in this alley, though the people she saw there looked a lot shadier than the ones on Amethyst Alley but she was sure she could handle herself.

She walked around as if she had been there before and had a purpose for being there, she was very good at giving the impression that she was much more confident than she was that was Bae and her's special. When she walked past a shop that looked particularly interesting she decided to step inside. A few feet inside the door she heard humming and someone who sounded a bit upset. She walked over to find a girl telling tiny shrunken heads off for being rude. "Did you ever think maybe they too just wanted to make music? Why do you just assume they are being rude, do you see everyone as rude right off the bat?" Mae asked coolly.

Marceline had thought she was the only one in the shop, besides the assortment of heads of course. She nearly jumped when a young girl suddenly spoke up. After a moment of fright, she returned to crossing her arms at her words. Yeah, like I was asking for your input on this. Thanks. She thought to herself. This girl was awfully proud, wasn't she?

"They're mocking me though!" Marceline explained. She was always sort of a horse of a different color and stuck out like a sore thumb at her previous boarding school. Between the kid's comments and the blatant fact that Agatha is not her biological mother made Marceline doubt that there was anywhere in which she really fit in. She had grown to assume the worst in people's intentions and this time her assumption was backed up by the laughter of a few heads upon her defensive reaction. "See? They're laughing!" She pointed out, annoyed. She huffed as the girl asked if she always thought people were being rude. Maybe that was true, but what sort of business was it of hers? "Do you always poke your nose in other people's business?" She replied indignantly, getting in the girl's face to show her she wasn't afraid of her.

It was quickly obvious that Mae had upset this girl, that had to be some sort of new record for her. The girl crossed her arms in front of her and just gave off the air of being very unhappy with Mae. Perhaps she had better just walk away now, she didn't want to upset people but when they started out in a bad mood it usually only got worse from there. The girl looked to be about her age though so she wondered how the girl was going to fair in this unsafe alley when she walked around in such a bad mood.

When the girl exclaimed that the shrunken heads were mocking her the nasty things quickly confirmed that by laughing in response. The girl continued to loudly complain about the heads before starting to get up in Mae's face asking if she always stuck her nose in other people's business. The tiny girl calmly backed up a few steps, "I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, I only saw them singing nothing mean. Obviously I was wrong, I'm sorry okay." She told the girl calmly, saying sorry was kind of a big deal for her. She wasn't sure if it was because of the very unfamiliar setting of the eerie shop or the fact that she was tired of everyone she had met today yelling at her, but instead of a typical answer she would give someone she gave this girl an honest one. "And no I don't always. In fact I prefer to stay quiet as everyone hates me the instant I say anything. So again I'm sorry I was wrong about the heads, and have a nice day." She finished before tuning on her heals and heading down an aisle a few feet away.

The intimidation Marcy saw in the other girl's eyes only inspired her further. As the girl took steps back, Marcy took steps forward, cornering her to a shelf. "Well then, maybe next time you ought to not be so quick to judge," She nearly snarled. She was sick of people judging her upon appearance. Whenever there was a quarrel, Marcy was blamed for instigating, even if she was the victim. She was blamed for things missing and broken things. So maybe she had a bad reputation, but it didn't mean everything was her fault.

She listened as the girl apologized again and rolled her eyes at the girl's self pity. "Sounds like a personal problem," She replied, her stance still rigid. She turned away as the girl walked away, muttering to herself "Don't tell me what to do." The heads laughed again like a crowd at a comedy mic. Marcy let her eyes roll in her head. How obnoxious. They were worse in larger groups, just like people.