Do you have the time to listen to me whine?

[danskannabis]

Who: Kai and Heike, aka the Platonic Husband Duo
When: Late afternoon, July 15th
Where: The shops of Liberty
Why: Lady luck is clearly not siding for Team Denmark today

Comments

[klengebrudder]

"Scratch cards only?" Heike echoed the sales assistant with a frown. How could you call it a lottery if you didn't have the option of picking your numbers? After typing his blog, Heike wasn't sure it was the fact that the people of the city were clumsy. The landlord had came to see him, apparently there was one or two problems with light bulbs and a crack in one of the windows that had suppose to of been dealt with before his arrival but his contractors had failed to arrive.

When he had went to show the teen the problem, the light bulbs were working fine and there was no crack on the window (which, when Heike thought about it, did remember briefly seeing the day before). The man had then scratched his head only for his toupée to fall off.

Barely keeping a straight face, Heike promised not to tell anyone about the man's predicament in exchange for a couple of months of lower rent payments.

He had been hoping that he wouldn't have any problems in his first week but this...this went beyond not having any problems, especially when those that got too near him did. Luck? Well, in that case he needed something that was a game of chance and he did had the sudden urge to buy a lottery ticket. Something that had never happened before. Not even the recent EuroMillion jackpot of €183million had tempted him. His family was well off, as long as he pulled his weight he was covered until he got full time job.

He didn't feel so lucky last week either.

The queue had been long when Heike had arrived but as he closer things happened. Children needed the toilet, pages and phones rang and the woman at the front even had washing powder seemingly explode on her. Needless to say Heike quickly ended at the font and to trying to choose a scratch card. That was when the other guy arrived, demanding coffee.

When the staff member looked at him, he merely shrugged in response, "Its okay, I have to decide on a scratch card still." Of course, it was only after the woman nodded and turned to the other customer did Heike remember how things had gone with the people he had gotten too close to today. He couldn't exactly say 'Please wait, I'm causing bad luck right now' could he? "Rëndféi" He muttered at himself, covering his face in embarrassment

[danskannabis]

With his prize achieved Kai did a literal victory dance where he stood in front of God and everyone, pausing only to take that painful first sip of the scalding liquid, uncaring of how it scorched and burned his throat on it's merciless path down. "Oh God, this is beautiful. This is just.."

Then he noticed the teen beside him, the clerk staring at him, and he thought that perhaps he should stop his shenanigans.

... Then he remembered that he didn't give a damn and promptly carried on.

"Hey, thanks for letting me get my coffee first," Kai turned to Heike with a grin. "It's been a bit of a rough spot here today. You lookin' at doing the lottery? Do those actually even work? I've never managed to get anything when I've tried."

[klengebrudder]

Nothing was happening. Heike stared at Kai in disbelief. Surely something must happen by now, be it the coffee spilled or the drink itself was simply rank. Then again, if it was rank the guy's sheer desperation for a cup of coffee might of overrode that bit of 'luck'.

"Ah, no problem." Heike said, glancing at Kai then at the rows of scratch cards and back again. "Yes. I feel...lucky, very lucky." He explained, frowning. "Do you know which one is the best?" He asked, "I have never it done it this way way before." He gave a nervous glance the sales assistant who was starting to look rather exasperated at the pair of them.

[danskannabis]

He spared himself another sip before he made his reply, that dull ache in the back of his jaw a faint memory of the burning glory that was blessed caffeine. "Ah, I've never done it here in America, but.. I think most popular one is the one where you pick numbers," Kai explained, and pointed it out to his companion. "The Mega Million is a statewide contest that draws from a big jackpot. All the money collected from buying tickets is plugged right back into the public school system, so it's for a good cause!"

He paused and thought about what he had said for a moment. And realized that perhaps he was watching a bit too much television to know that much about the lottery.

No matter.

"You kind of just have to guess numbers for it, though. A lot of people use birthdates or lucky numbers."

[klengebrudder]

Heike nodded along to what was said before biting his lip. 23...11...what was his siblings birthdays again? And had he even had a number he would consider lucky?

"...Feck! Can you help me pick the numbers? I will pay for the ticket and split any winnings with you?" He asked, looking hopeful before realization hit him. "I'm Heike, Wéi heeschs du?" He asked, hand outstretched in offering while the staff scowled at them, wishing they would go already.

Which was when she decided to jam her fingers in the till.

[danskannabis]

"Hvå--" He turned back to him with a bit of surprise, the expression masquerading upon his face for a few seconds before he lightened up. "Ahhh I don't know if I'd be a good number picker but.. sure! Why the hell not?" He laughed. "Maybe we'll get lucky or something, yeah? Mm.. how about.. 9 26 6 5 17. Give those a shot."

He placed his coffee on the counter just as the clerk closed her fingers in the till, and he juggled for a moment to keep it upright lest he lose his precious cargo. "A-Ah, so sorry," He turned back to Heike with a sheepish grin and extended his hand. "I'm Kai. What language is that you were speakin'? Sounds familiar."

[klengebrudder]

The teen smiled, quickly making a note of the numbers and adding the two he had. "I already said I feel very lucky." He said with a laugh.

Heike gave a disinterested shrug as the woman went off to the store's first aider, quickly being replaced by a rather similar looking woman, he took Kai's hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you and, ah, Luxembourgish...not really spoken outside of there though." He confessed, pulling out the appropriate amount and paying for the ticket. "Next time we see it we will be getting our winnings." He proclaimed, placing the ticket in his wallet. Finally he noticed the wagon.

"...What is that?"

[danskannabis]

"Oh, are you from Luxembourg? Fancy that! We're kind of neighbors, then." Well, if you could call Denmark and Luxembourg 'neighbors'. "I'm actually from Denmark. I've only been over on this side of the ocean for about.. a year, now. Little bit less than a year. What brings you here? School?"

"And here's hoping our guess at numbers is as good as you have faith in. I haven't been having much of a good day, so I don't know." Kai started to smile, and then-- his burden. He glanced slowly back to the wagon, the oddly tucked away limbs beneath the sheet, the shit-eating grin of the doll that looked very similar to himself. "It's.. Oddly enough, I woke up the other day and the fucking thing was in my room. It's meant to look like my older brother, I guess."

[klengebrudder]

"I suppose we are." He replied, a small nod in agreement. "Jo, I start at the university in the new term, just arrived yesterday actually."

"Maybe my luck will cancel it out and more?" Heike suggested helpfully, hoping to raise the Dane's spirits a little. He looked at...thing. "Your brudder is insane?" He asked, a tad unnerved by the thing's grin, if Wilm gave him that look then he would of expected to be dead shortly afterwards. "Do you have to keep it? Burn it maybe or sell it?"

[danskannabis]

"What're you going to be studying?" Kai continued to rail after him in his favorite game: twenty questions. It was never quite intentional more that the Dane had an eye for wanting to know as much as he could about someone, to be a conversationalist. "I'm there.. well, right now I'm there to study English language. Hope maybe someday I can get into the art school, though."

"Åh, nej, Søren isn't quite insane." Just egotistical and overbearing on occasion, with an edge for telling him what fuck up he was. Though it was all done out of love which he more than realized. "And.. something about burning the damn thing makes me feel awful. I'd feel like I was burning him in a way. And selling it.. well.."

"It talks. From a place that no one needs know about."

[klengebrudder]

"Media studies and economics...I wanted to do business studies instead of economics but..." His parent were probably silently hoping he would change his mind about media studies. "I had to do that back in high school, too many languages to learn back then." But handy for the sort of business his parents ran.

Heike hummed, "I suppose it's not the best thing to think about. It talks from...oh." He frowned, looking over the thing again. "That is awkward...no way for you to turn it off? Short...short circuit the power to it?" It was definitely creeping Heike out so who knows how it was affect Kai, especially if what he said was true about where it spoke from.

[danskannabis]

"Is there nothing saying you can't change your major someday? It seems a bit of a waste to spend so much money if you can't take subjects you enjoy," Kai frowned. His mother and Aunt had honestly just wanted him to be educated period, let alone did they care the course matter he took. Although they might not be thrilled that he'd spend his life as a starving artist it would at least be an occupation he enjoyed. Not to mention, his employment with Gilbert was already earning him a considerable amount of revenue in comparison to any of his previous jobs. "So then, how many languages do you speak? Do you have any family here?"

As for the doll.. "I think I may just get a hotel room and leave it in the closet there until I figure something out. I don't want my roommates asking questions," He sighed, wrinkling his nose for a lack of any other idea of how to handle the situation. "It's weird. Other people, my boyfriend included, have been having strange things happen to them as well this week."

[klengebrudder]

Heike gave him a weak smile, "Unless I'm dropping media studies I don't think my parents will be happy." he confessed. Whenever university had came up it was always the same question about what he could really gain from a course in that sort of subject. His answers were generally not good enough for his dad much to his frustration. He blinked at the two rapid fire questions, twisting his hair round his fingers, "Six all together but, half of them we used in learning all our other subjects, two more I had to take and the sixth one I wanted to learn." Memories of his English and Dutch classes swapping through four languages including the intended one to learn flashed through his mind. "As for family, my brother and sister are already out here."

He listened Kai, tilting his head, "I've not had anything weird happen to me, I've just been lucky. Those around me though..." he trailed off and frowned, "Maybe I have been affected too?"