Even Rats Have Needs

A few hours after the trio had accidentally destroyed Senshi's store and met up with the "luxurious" Rat (her own words), she took the four over to her current residence. Mycena Park, a lush and dense forest of luminescent mushrooms that glowed in the darkness of the Skulls naval cavity. 

Rat lead them to a snow globe, entering through a small door in the wood base of it, which lead into the small apartment sized main globe of her snow globe. "Welcome to Casa del Ratta!" She said with a smile as she motioned to the heaps and heaps of stuff stuffed into her globe.

"How do you live like this?" Avis asked as she sat down on a spare chair. Ven sighed, leaning against a white spire in the centre of the globe that reached to the top of it. He seemed impressed by the sight, noticing that it was actually a structure, not a decoration. "Rat... Did you steal a spire?" 

She glanced over from Avis and stared at the spire with a shrug. "I mean... No? I more... carved it and got your new friend to help me make it snow globe sized." She said with a laugh, motioning to Senshi, who seemed embarrassed by the compliment. "I mean... Y-You payed me s-so much to help... I couldn't say no." Senshi nervously laughed, putting her hands where a person would have thighs. 

Vinea, now distracted by the prospect of a shrink ray, looked over to Rat with a grin. "So... Do you still have a way to make this spire big?" To which Rat laughed, her tail swishing side to side as she accidentally knocked over a stack of books. "Look, Kid. I ain't got it on me, Senshi has... And even then, it would be useless against someone like a domain leader. Mist doesn't really affect the strong unless they let it." She said like she spoke from experience.

Tid-Bit took over from Ven, letting out a loud sigh as she raised the main reason why their even there. "So. What do we do about Eido!? We have no actual plan, we need to get into that concert. Rat, can you help?" She asked desperately, seeming slightly frustrated with how easily distracted everyone seems to be. 

Rat took a deep breath before smiling. "Well... You should know. I heard a rumour from a few bugs that Eido's big show is gonna be... Bigger then you expect." Senshi seems to freeze at the words, motioning for Rat to cut it out, only to her grin. "Ya see, Senshi here is sorta the reason why Eido is in power. And... You're gonna need her help. So, if you can do me a favour, I'll get some contacts in and get you backstage access."

Ven sighed as he took control once more. "And what is it you want from us?" he asked with a slight glare, slowly reaching for his gunblade. Rat turned around before a spotlight seemed to shine on to her from nowhere. "I need you to... Sell some stuff for me." She said flatly, sitting down as the spotlight faded. 

Avis looked confused, scratching her head as a nervous smile creeped on her beak. "So we just have to sell stuff right? How hard can that be? I mean, not to brag, but I have 4 months of sales experience." Rat shrugs, not seeming to care. "Just sell my crap, okay?"

A few hours later, the four find themselves outside the main district of Diminutive Domain, Firefly Junction. It was vibrant and more colourful, music blaring as different Advertisements of Eido selling useless merchandise was seen on billboards and electronic advertisements.

The four were sat behind a stall, a sign on top reading: "Ratsticks Sticks and stuff. Buy now!"

Avis and Vinea where even wearing shirts with a cartoonish version of Rat giving a thumbs up. "So... We just have to sell all of this?" Avis said with a smile as she stared at the hundreds of crates behind them. Vinea lit up a cigarette and said in a cool tone as he put on a pair of sunglasses: "Looks like we've got... A big sale to make." He said with a smirk before taking a drag and coughing loudly, having never smoked before. Senshi glanced over, lifting up the sunhat she was wearing. "Are those sunglasses from my store?"

Ven groaned as he passed some random sticks to Avis to set out. "The hell are these, anyway?" He grumbled to himself as Rat appeared in front of him with a grin. "They're Ratsticks. They can do anything and more." She grinned, motioning to one of the crates and grabbing one labelled Bird stick and hitting Avis with it, turning her into a gigantic white robin. Well, gigantic to relative size. "Oops... But you get the point." She remarked as she grabbed a stick called the rewind stick, undoing the effect and reverting Avis back to her usual self.

Avis passed out at a moments notice, seeming not to be able to take the stress of the transformation. Ven and Tid-Bit looked confused, both of their mouths agape. "Did... Does... WHAT?!" They yelled in unison. "You got one that'll bring me back to life?" He asked with a grin. "Nope. They're all kinda just cosmetic only... Well that and they don't work on undead. So you get em more as novelty gifts." She laughed as Vinea dragged Avis to the back.

As the day continued, the trio worked somewhat hard under Rat's supervision to sell the sticks. Though Avis had actually woken up ten minutes after she passed out, she made the conscious decision to stay in the back and browse the internet.

As Eido's concert loomed closer by the minute, Ven, Vinea and Senshi began to talk about their lives before they came here. Vinea revealing after his mother died, he didn't really know what to do with himself and came to Pandora's Tears for fun. 

Senshi on the other hand, revealed that she had been messing with the mist since a young age, having found out how to modify its properties like a mist technician, the ones who help make it so normal people can enter Diminutive. On a day like any other, she met a human who she fell in love with. A performer, an Idol. Senshi went on and on about how this woman made her feel loved despite their size difference, how she loved being held, hugged, cuddled. But she envied the woman.

Senshi explained: "I just wanted her to love me as much as she loved to preform... I wanted us to be the same. But she never liked bugs... She said they were scary for her, yet I was the exception. She... She was the only non bug to ever call me... Cute." She seemed fond of the memory before her expression darkened. She went on: "I realised one day If I just add a bit of a true born bug's blood to the mist, it could transform someone into a bug. So, in a moment of selfishness I-" 

Rat cut her off, despite having been listening in. "Alright, I got your backstage access. I even decided to form a little plan for ya. Senshi, you're gonna be playing the role of fashion designer. Ya know Eido can never say no to you. Ven, you'll be sneaking in through an access tunnel. Avis and Vinea... I decided to leave the most important job of all. Background Music." She grinned as she pulled out a guitar and drum kit from a spare crate.

They all looked confused as to why rat just decided to form a plan out of nowhere, and Senshi didn't even agree to join in the crew's hunt for the sub-minds, but Rat had a way about her that just made it hard not to want to listen to her. "Alright... Let's do this!" Ven said with a smirk. Senshi reluctantly nodded as Avis walked out from the back with a grin, grabbing the guitar. "Hey Vin, you know how to play the drums?" He took out and extra pair of shades and handed them to Avis with a smirk. "I may or may not have played a bit."

"Then let's kick ass!" Rat yelled in triumph as Senshi glared at the Harpy and vine kid. 

"Did you really rob me after destroying my store?"