You're Not Real, Are You?

Nel huddled under her blanket, cursing her long legs for not fitting under it too. Maybe she should save up and get herself a new one, but that wasn't the problem at hand. Wincing at the caw of crows lined up on her ceiling fan, she tried to make herself invisible. If they didn't leave her alone soon, she'd be late for work. Her heart fluttered at the ring of her phone on her nightstand, half expecting the birds to swoop down and peck at her just like that. Reaching over blindly, she snatched it up and answered, holding the device to her ear. 

'Now is not a good time, Kyle, this better be important.'

'Why are you whispering?'

'There are bloody crows in my bedroom!'

'Calm down. Have you been taking your meds?'

'.... Maybe.'

'Nellie, they're not real. Now get up and get ready for work, I'll talk to you later.'

With a beep, the call was ended. Nel cautiously pulled her covers off her head and chanced a glance up at the ceiling fan. With a groan of annoyance, she rushed herself into the bathroom to get ready and hopefully get to the shop before she was late. Again.

---

'Alright, hands up!' 

Nel put her arms in the air and looked down at the children who eagerly copied, dropping their paintbrushes and paints down instantly. Grinning, she put her hands down and looked around at the projects they made today. 'You know, I think these are the best looking birdhouses I've seen in a long while. Come on, let's get cleaned up.' 

Five minutes later, the children were heading off to their parents, projects in hand, leaving Nel a sink full of brightly colored paints to wash out before she could return to her shift. Smiling to herself, she scrubbed at the metal with a sponge, humming quietly as she took her time. The Birdhouses weren't the most creative workshop, but if was a fun one to run. Much more fun with the little kids doing it instead of the older ones who get annoyed at her company-ensured enthusiasm.

Gareth strolled in, tapping her on the shoulder as she finished. 'Boss is gonna get mad if you don't get back to your shift. It's my break, let me deal with the rest.' Nel flashed him a smile and uttered a thanks before rushing off to restock the shelves. Last time she checked, they were running low on pre-made wood projects, so that's where she'd start. Drying her hands on her apron, she hurried into the storage to snatch a box and haul it out.

Gareth, in the mean time, was busy with his own work. Once he was sure no one was going to be coming in any time soon, he started opening up the paints and pulling a small packet out of his pocket...

Dakota walked into the craft shop, hoping to find something to cure her boredom. Kota had nothing else to do today, and she had decided to take a walk and browse the stores. The bright craft shop caught her eye, and she realized she hadn't done aything mildly creative in awhile. Or mildly fun for that matter. 
She saw a bunch of kids come streaming out of a room, holding birdhouses for their parents to see. Smiling, Kota said "Nice job," to one kid as he passed. He didn't even spare her a thank you as he hurried on his way. Oh well, Dakota thought, going to the back of the store to check out some pre-made birdhouses. Kota, as a kid, used to always come to the craft store with her mom and check out all of the birdhouses. But the visits became less and less as her mom kept drinking. Kota hadn't been to a craft store since she was nine. 
Dakota sighed quietly as she pawed through the shelves. It looked like the store needed to stock up a bit, but who was Kota to tell someone that? Who was she kidding, she wasn't really going to paint a birdhouse, so why was she here in the first place?
Memories, her mind said. Memories.

Nel rolled a couple boxes filled with other premade wooden boxes into the aisle and froze. Ugh, she hated these situations. Could never tell if the customers were real people or not. One trick she HAD learned was that if things interact with other things she knew for SURE were real, they had to be real. But right now, she hadn't a clue. Instead, she simply murmured 'Excuse me, ma'am' and started unpacking the boxes. What if she was a real person? She felt awfully rude, then. But she didn't want to look ridiculous talking to thin air. Again. Honestly, she was about to call her brother in here and have him help her decipher what was there and what wasn't.

'Anything I can help you with, miss?' She called over her shoulder, feeling she should at least give it a shot. If nothing else, someone would come along and look at her funny and she'd know. 'Are you looking for anything in particular? I know the fake flowers are popular this week.' Glancing over her shoulder, she flashed a grin to the woman, treating her just like she did every other customer - real or not.

Dakota was snapped out of her memories by a worker who came to unload some boxes. "Excuse me ma'am," she murmered. Dakota hurriedly jumped out of her way and picked up a wooden treasure box sitting on a shelf. 

"Oh, no, I don't think I need any help, thanks. What's your name, by the way?" Kota questioned. The woman looked shy and lonely, from Dakota's perspective. Then again, maybe she was reading her wrong. "I'm Dakota. My friends call me Kota."
Kota smiled back at the girl and marvelled at her politeness. Not many people were respectful or nice these days. Hm. Everything seemed weird lately. Dakota glanced at the birdhouses and noticed the pricetag was missing.
"How much for these, then?"

Candalynne landed her TARDIS down on Earth. She sighed softly as she walked out of her TARDIS, locking the doors behind her, and she walked down the alleyway and across the street to a craft shop, trying to find something to buy.

"Hmm... what stuff is needed for..." She mumbled slightly as her voice slowly trailed off into nothingness as she wandered the shopping, passing two women and she looked towards Nel, narrowing her eyes slightly before she shook her feeling off and knelt down to look at the cute things at the bottom shelves. She looked back to Nel. "E-erm, is it okay if you could help me find something?" She asked quietly and somewhat shyly, feeling like she had interrupted something important.

Nel was about to reply to this Dakota girl, but another woman had a more pressing question than her name. At least that could be answered with a quick look at her name tag. 'It's 2 pounds - 3 for the big ones,' She rushed out, setting another box on the shelf before turning to the other customer. 'Sure, what're you looking for? We're a bit low on a few items right now but we just got a new shipment so there are a few things that might only be in the back.' Her response was like clockwork at this point. Instead of forcing herself not to question if things were real or not, she just... didn't. It got in the way of the job. 'We're fresh out of a couple purple fabrics, though. There's probably some left, just not a very wide selection.'

"Two pounds. Okay, thanks," Dakota said to the employee of the craft store. Kota realised the woman had kind of evaded the question about her name, but she quickly realised that the woman's name was on her nametag. Nel, it said. "Oh, hey, one more question," Dakota said. "Do you have art classes here?" she asked. Dakota really didn't have much else to do nowadays, and maybe art classes were for her. 
And Kota would really like to get her creative juices flowing again. Not every experience had to involve the Doctor.

Strolling into a crafts shop, The Doctor's eyes widened in delight. "Hello! I'm looking to some fake flowers, industrial strength glue, yellow paper...aaand..." He strolls around the store. "Yarn! Yes! Bring me knitting!" He exclaims. A little craft project for a cyberknat he made as a pet. "You, I like you." Pointing at a store clerk. Walking up to her, The Doctor stares at the clerk's name tag. "Nel. Your name is Nel. I like you Nel! Ya got moxy kid. I'm The Doctor! Nice to meet you!" He says excitedly, still only a few inches away from her.

Victoria was having an awful day. She was having an awful day because she was confused and sticky. Victoria was confused because she didn't know where she was. (unless you counted being a kilometer north of her ship's landing point as knowing where one was) Victoria was sticky because she was covered in sunscreen to keep from turning an unpleasant shade of red. She resisted the urge to rub her eyes, still tired, and tipped the brim of her hat up to have a less obstructed view of her surroundings. Blinking rapidly as her pupils became mere slits in defiance of the light, she quickly made for the nearest building in order to get directions. Well, try to get directions. She quickly pulled the brim of her hat back down and shouldered the door into the shop open. Unfortunately, her train of thought was abruptly brought to a halt as a spider dangled down from the brim of the hat she had pulled from some man's attic sent her into a rather loud frenzy of cursing. Fortunately, it was in her native language, so none had to hear the colorful stream of borderline nonsense. It was vaguely reminiscent of Mandarin, but not enough to actually recognize any words from the alien language.

Nel watched wearily as the odd man bounced into the room. He hadn't even said a word yet and she was sure it was a hallucination. Of course, his request was no more odd than any other, but the person himself... She was trying to force herself not to react when he barged into her personal space. She was almost bothered to turn and ask the other women if he was real. A chime of the shop bell behind him made her lean over to see around him. Now she knew she had to be seeing things, because there was a strangely dressed Chinese woman covered in some... substance... shouting things like there was no tomorrow.

Of course, any of these thinks could have been real. Of course they could. But just this one time, she'd break her own personal policy. Leaning over towards Dakota, she tapped her on the shoulder. 'They're real, aren't they? You see him? And that lady, too?' She really didn't want to come off as some weird freak and have people judge her for her illness - again - but it would look even stranger if she was trying to deal with someone who wasn't there - especially these two.

Candalynne looked to Nel and she smiled. "I was just looking for pretty and soft fabrics." She said before looking over to the man who had come in, her eyes widened in surprise. "D-doctor?" She looked to him and smiled at The Doctor before hugging him tightly. She then looked to Nel. "Of course we are real." She said with a happy grin, she was so happy her old friend was here. She looked over to The Doctor. "It is nice to see you again, Doctor." She said with a very happy tone. "I missed your handsome face." She smirked at him before she looked over to a strange woman shouting weird words, it almost sounded Mandarin but it was covered by another language.

"Now that's very rude to say. Of course I'm re-" The Doctor started before he was cut off with a hug from his old friend. "Hi Candy! Nice to see you again!" He said before turning back to Nel. "You know I have half a mind to...well not half of one. More like 13 minds. That's besides the point really. You can't just be rude and not ginger. I was once, had some vanity issues and was going through a grunge phase. Didn't work out the best. Anyway, if I'm not real, could I do this?" He asks, flicking her in the forehead.

Nel watched with a furrowed brow, fidgeting uncomfortably. This situation was getting out of hand. She was about to go call Gareth in here to help her deal with it. Even if he did prove to her that they were all real people, this was a lot of business and she needed help taking care of it.

'No, of course you're real. What else would you be?' She mumbled pathetically, rubbing her forehead where he'd flicked it. 'Anyway, you were saying? Fabrics for you-' She gestured to the Time Lady, '-and... what was it you wanted again? Something about yarn?' She wasn't one to judge - there were certainly some other strange purchases made here - but a man like this buying knitting? Actually... she wasn't really surprised by it. He could buy a bulk pack of rubber ducks and it wouldn't surprise her, considering how surprising he was himself. 

'Here, I can show you where the fabrics are, follow me. The yarn is just two aisles down that way, you won't miss it.' She pointed as she started making her way towards the back wall. When was Gareth's break over? This was starting to become uncomfortable and she was questioning if any of this was actually happening or not. She just needed someone she trusted right now - where was everybody else today?

Victoria finally rids herself of the spider and returns her attention to her surroundings. One of the people before her was being called Doctor. Her limited grasp of English did allow this much, as it was wise to know the title of those who practiced medicine. The titles of the other two had yet to be discovered, but titles weren't terribly important. She wasn't here for socializing. Victoria crossed her arms and studied the three, thinking carefully about which one to address. The girl decided to give more attention to her surroundings until it became apparent exactly what this place was for, and who was in charge. She lifted a hand up to make sure the combination of her hair and hat still hid her ears, then went a-walking through the aisles with no clear destination.