It at Least Starts in New York (Coraline)

A light breeze picked up outside of Mitsy's Boutique. The sidewalk traffic peddled along, with only a few people stopping in to shop or buy anything on the lonely Monday afternoon. Erica decided afternoons on low traffic days would be good to Coraline introduced to dealing with the needs of customers- along with whomever happened to be working that particular day.

The lights were turned on, the doors unlocked, the business sign turned to the ever pleasing 'open' side. But neither Summer nor Nancy appeared to be there in attendance. The money from the register still looked matched the sales from the early portion of the day, but the people who accounted for those sales seemed oddly absent at the present time.

It was during this lull in worker tangibility Instagram superheroine, Stanford President's list archaeologist student, and all round overachiever Danny Tamamoa stepped foot into the boutique. "Hello?" Danny walked through the recently reset door wearing a pair of jeans and a black Stanford Cheerleading jacket over with her hair down around her shoulders. "Nancy? Summer?"

No response came from the storefront, so Danny decided she would use her good will with the store owner to pop her head back behind closed doors. Nothing.

And by nothing, it stands to say, there was absolutely nothing in the backroom. Cleaned out completely of all material possessions and goods. Even the color of the tile stained to look like wood was turned white. The white captured the reflective glow of the purple and pink light illuminating from the ever present Portal at the back of the room. "Okay. Now just how bad is this?"

Coraline’s first day on the job was actually going pretty well. Sure there were some stressful moments, like that one time she almost forgot to charge a customer, or Summer being her usual bitchy self. But. Other than that though, things were going quite well. Hence, she left for lunch with a spring in her step, treating herself to some slightly overpriced poke at a place she had been eying nearby. In short, she came back to work in a really good mood. A mood that quickly dissipated when she saw that none of her coworkers were up front and a stranger was peeking into the back.

“Um excuse me ma’am. I’m going to have to ask you to... holy shit. ” She slowed to a stop, peering past Danny to the newly stripped back room. The portal seemed to glow brighter than ever, something that was most likely not a good thing. “What… what happened? ” She asked, only slightly rhetorically. Which brought her to another issue. The stranger that was in front of her. A stranger that was now looking at a portal that was supposed to be a secret.

“Uhhh… Wow. I guess they were messing around with the… new display! It looks great huh? The neon’s really gonna bring out the colors of the clothing. ”

That was stupid. No one was going to believe that. This was clearly a fucking portal and there was no way neon lights could recreate what was happening in this shop. Time to bring on the Authority. “Seriously though, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave the back room. This is an employee only area. ” She said, channeling every authority figure she’s ever had in her life. Hopefully that’ll work.
Word Count: 288

Knowing something of the protocol, Danny took out her phone. It actually became something of a release just to swipe through the constant stream of notifications, but this time, she actually needed a quick run down of just what Mitsuko made that would attract this degree of theft.

Nothing. New employee not smiling in picture and not fully aware she is being photographed. A new kind of tights with runes on them stitched in silver threading.

"Does that girl work her or is this like a 'have you seen this woman? She robbed us' type of-" Nothing should pull more attention than the portal in front of her, but the woman currently standing in front of her caused a sudden shift in importance of the room. Danny's eyes moved from the phone to the girl. Then, her hand lifted the phone to the girl. "I'm going with you work here."

The normal denial of existence for things that should not exist in a dress shop accompanied Coraline, but Danny was used to the song and dance accompanying the routine, so she merely nodded and waited for the charade to end. Except, Coraline is a little awkward, so it ended about twenty seconds shorter than Danny assumed, leaving an odd seven seconds of no one talking. Until Danny spoke. Then there was talking. "The portal is not a display. It's a portal to other dimensions, and something probably came in and grabbed everything. And, possibly everyone."

The screen on Danny's phone flipped from the picture of Coraline to the contacts listed on her Instagram feed. "I'm Danny Tamamoa. You may have heard of me; you may not have, but I've got quite the Instagram following, but I'm not just bragging. I'm telling you I will be leaving this backroom as soon as someone who follows me comes and picks me up, but I'll need to stay here, because he's coming through that portal. Hopefully, Bliss isn't around." The furious texting of Danny finished the drawn out DM in a matter of seconds before the phone flipped back to her palm. "And not just because of who I called, but more because of her- well, I don't have to tell you. I can only imagine all the terrible things she has said about you."

Blinking at the picture Coraline had no idea was ever taken, she waited for the awkward silence to end, not willing to be the one to break it. She’s talked enough. Time for this other person to contribute to the conversation thank you very much. Except she had the resolve of a starving dog finally being given food. Hence, she opened her mouth, only for Danny (finally) began speaking. She almost sighed in relief, except then, the actual content of the words registered in her brain. Oh god. She knew. How did she know??? Coraline felt anxiety bubble up, clogging her throat until she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

“I… it’s…” She stuttered, apparently unheard as Danny bulldoze through her stilted attempts at speech with the rest of her… Talk? Soliloquy? Whatever. The important thing was that apparently something was going to come through the portal, but on purpose this time, and it would be at the behest of this stranger (did social media span dimensions now? Was she really that out of touch???). Instead of questioning about anything of the above though, what came out of her mouth was: “Who’s this Bliss everyone keeps mentioning? ”

Because that’s what was important right now.

Well, one step at a time. At least words came out of her mouth.
Word Count: 217
Total WC: 505

"You haven't met Bliss yet?" Danny contorted her eyebrow with enough angle to launch an arrow thousands of yards. "Lucky you. She once called me fat so she could get the last donut and make me tell her 'thank you'. It was the perfect hat trick of Bliss."

Red smoke began to build from the portal. Danny started to tap on her bracelet, forming a turquoise blade around her elbow. While she had a probable estimation of whom would come from the portal, a portal to Hell still had quiet a floor on what could come out of there. "So if something weird comes out of there, just sit back, and I'll deal with it. Don't worry, I only have problems when I get a little too overconfident, but I can definitely dismantle any demon coming out of there."

A form began to take shape in the clouds. Not the figure standing just beneath six feet like she expected, but a much smaller frame. Danny formed a crossbow in her free hand and pointed it towards the cloud. "It's probably a lesser fiend from whomever stole everything here. I'll shoot an incapacitating shot then we can question it." The bolt took form, shaping up into a perfect cylindrical vortex of death. "Alright you little monster-"

"Why's everything white?" An eight year old girl stepped out of the cloud with her black hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a pair of knee length jean shorts with a white Dora shirt on along with a Sailor Moon backpack. "Did we get a new room?"

"Lil' Bliss!" Danny lowered her wrist crossbow. She looked over to Coraline, then back to the little version of Bliss stepping out of the portal. "It's Lil' Bliss. She's like Bliss, but however cute she is-" The smile faded from Danny's face. "Does not transfer over to Bliss. Bliss found her in a dimension or something, but every time I've asked her about it she just tells me archaeology is a stupid thing to major in and I just wait for Bliss to shut up."

"Hi Danny. Who's she?" Lil' Bliss began walking towards Tamamoa and Coraline. "Why is she pale? She needs to get some sun. You'll like it. It's fun."

"This is a new employee of Mitsy's." Danny pointed over to Coraline. "Why are you coming out of the portal to hell? And, is Okami with you?"

"Portal to heck. But, I go to school in Arcadia where Madeline is my teacher." Lil' Bliss dropped her back pack in the corner where her usual table should be, but for now, only the backpack made for furniture. "Okami picks me up some times. He said he needed to make an entrance to impress that one chick."

"Oh god. How much dynamite did he-"

A fiery silhouette began forming in the cloud. Square. Boxy. Not human at all. Moving fast. A door flew out of the cloud, narrowly missing Coraline and Danny as it flew between the two of them. Out stepped the hottest guy ever. Like, this is a guy who could easily win a gold medal in being hot even in Brazilian Olympics. If his hottness was a Thor movie, it would easily be Ragnarok. He is the Final Fantasy 6 of hotness in a stupid world of people thinking whatever that last final fantasy game with all the nerdy looking guys driving around in a car with spiky hair. Once his foot stepped out, the greatness of his {Error- 237 Physical Description not found}. "Tengo Okami!" A statement more of an introduction, because his introduction was a statement. "Pirate. From Space. Space Pirate!"

Danny's lip curled to the side as her brow stayed focused ahead. "Okami. Can you not?"

“Oh uh… that’s mean…” she said, slightly at a loss for words at that description of this Bliss character. Before she could say anything more though, red smoke began to emanate from the portal. She jumped in surprise, flinching at the sudden appearance of the turquoise blade. Ok so this person wasn’t normal either. Maybe that’s how she had access to interdimensional social media. As Danny stepped forward with her spiel about taking care of it, part of Coraline wanted to protest. She had powers too! But then… well. It would be better for her to fade into the background.

Despite that line of thought, when a figure stepped out of the portal, the shadows immediately around her danced slightly, reflecting her anxiety. Except it was a little girl??? This was getting so weird. Thank god Danny didn’t shoot first, otherwise they’d have the murder of a child to deal with. God. Fuck her life. Once again, another onslaught of information concerning this Bliss character that only served to increase her lack of desire to meet them. This kid was pretty cute though. She opened her mouth to say hi, only to be interrupted once again. Well. It’s fin—Oh Jesus fucking Christ!

Coraline ducked down, the shadows automatically forming a barrier around her that soon dropped when sounds of conversation filtered through once again. It revealed something that looked like a spaceship and possibly the hottest guy she had ever seen calling himself a space pirate, which was somehow the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Ok what the fuck is going on!” She shouted, clenching her fists as the shadows around her writhed.
Word Count: 275
Total WC: 780

"I'll let you in on a secret, Coraline." Danny looked over to her new partner while Okami tried to stand against the wall in a manner in which he could flex. "Okami is a moron, but he has a thing that goes from dimension to dimension and some other things that probably aren't hard to explain, but Okami refers to in a manner that makes me pretty sure he could possibly blow up the world."

"Anyways." Danny shifted back to Coraline. "He's my ride. I'll find your co-workers and what not. I guess you have a pretty easy day. It's always good when you're the one employee who doesn't get kidnapped, but I'm sure you've had days where that wasn't the case."

"Okami, I'm pretty sure she- also I- is not interested in you. Start up the engines." Danny walked towards the portal to head to Okami's 'ship'. "Just stay here and guard the shop with Lil' Bliss. Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Oh, and Lil' Bliss gets cranky when you fire cannons while you're super drunk, so try not to do that too much. I limit it to like three times a car trip." Okami arched his back for one last flex of his hips as he started making towards the portal. "Later, Summer!"