The kids stopped in the doorway, caught between wanting to leave back to what they know, or staying in this new and unfamiliar situation. There was what seemed to be an adult here, yet he didn't seem hostile.
Didn't seem anything like the monsters behind them.
Taking charge, Mono pulls Six into the strange shop, shutting the door behind him.
"Welcome." Alex greets, watching them flinch at the louder noise. They focus their attention onto him, preparing for the worst.
Thankfully, they had nothing to truly worry about. "Don't know what to say, so... you're good to relax here if you need to." Alex smiled gently at them, trying to show that he isn't going to try and murder them for merely existing.
The world they came from could do that itself.
Mono walked closer to the counter, Six following closely behind. "Hello?" He cautiously speaks up, voice sounding a bit rough, likely from not using it too much. "Where are we?"
"Oh," Alex realizes a bit of what's happening. "Can you feel that this place is different?" He curiously asks.
Mono gives a small and hesitant nod, Six simply staring.
"Huh, cool." He leans on the counter, both kids taking a step back out of instinct. "Ah, don't freak out. I'm not like the bastards in Nowhere, though I wasn't expecting to connect to it."
'Certainly brings up some questions about what other dangerous places I could connect to...'
Sure, connecting to Cyberpunk, Frieren, Dan da Dan? Weird and could be dangerous, but overall fine. At best a small town to small city level threat, not the worst that could happen.
Little Nightmares though? Literally a separate universe that drags kids into it to feed off of them and steal, I don't know, life force? Happiness?
The point is they specifically target and end kids, not exactly a place he wants his shop to be connected to!
'Imagine if I got connected to something like Warhammer...'
"You should be fine." He continues talking to Mono, waving his hand to the door and ignoring his thought process. "To the best of my knowledge, nothing can get in that can't see this place, unless someone who can see it lets them in-"
'Looking at you Weiss...'
"-and I doubt anything in Nowhere can see this shop."
The word 'shop' seems to resonate with Mono at least, as he glances to a nearby shelf, the product having shifted to different types of masks, some keys and flashlights, candy-
Honestly, a lot of candy, and food in general.
Six seems drawn to the other side of the shop, grabbing a wrapped piece of cooked steak, looking entranced.
Alex debates for a second whether he should charge them, only to shoot it down immediately. Even if they did have some currency, he wasn't going to charge kids so they could eat something.
That's just evil.
"Hey, be careful!" Alex calls out, watching Mono climbing the shelf, freezing for a second at the words, before continuing to climb once he realizes there's no actual danger.
Six seems to follow his example, tearing into her piece of steak, literally dangling out of her mouth as she climbs her side of the shelf, searching around for something.
'Oh god, they're little gremlins.' He realizes with no small amount of horror, dreading the chaos that may occur.
And Chaos came in abundance.
It started with the first breakable glass, knocked to the ground accidently by Six as she walked on one of the shelves, staring down at it for a second before watching for Alex's reaction. The instant she realized there were genuinely no repercussions?
Glass littered the floor as she tossed things off, seemingly for no reason other than the joy of watching things break
Which, fair enough, watching things break is pretty fun. It's why Alex didn't really mind watching it happen; it wasn't coming out of his paycheck after all.
'...wait, I don't get paid.'
Even better reason.
*Rip*
Turning his head, he watches as Mono tears the head off of a teddy bear, digging inside it as stuffing collects around him.
"I don't think you'll find any keys or items inside of that." Alex calmly tells him, Mono nodding at him and setting it to the side, moving onto a set of small robots.
'...I wonder if they have to go back to their world?'
It isn't the first time he's thought about it, he just didn't have anything to prove or justify it. What if Frieren walked in right now? Could she? Was that even possible, or is it only one universe at a time?
Honestly, he might never get another customer if that was true. How could he justify letting them back into that Hellhole of a world? Sure, he didn't exactly help Becca or anything with her future demise, but she did have a gun to his head, so it wasn't his first thought at the time!
He feels a tug on his shirt, looking down to see Mono staring up at him.
"What's up kid?" Alex casually greets with a (hopefully) kind smile.
"I can't feel it." He states, looking up at Alex.
...
Is-is that it? Right, kids, they don't exactly have great communication skills.
"Feel what?" Alex asks for clarification, kneeling down a bit to be eye level with him.
"The static, it's gone."
'Oh, that's potentially a problem.'
"What you felt in that place, right?" He makes sure, pointing to the closed door as Mono nods. "Well, does it... hurt? For it to be gone."
"No, it's just a little quiet now." He casually states, still looking at him.
"Do-do you want it to come back?"
He seems to think on it, even sitting down to go into some deep thought. Alex sighs, letting him think about it as he looks over to Six-
*Smack*
Only to get hit in the face with a stuffed animal, a cat it seemed. Six was silently giggling as Alex looks at her, bewildered but happy at the surprise. He wasn't expecting to get hit with anything for sure, but it's nice that she seemed like a, well, kid.
A lot of people seemed to think she was a heartless monster that Mono never realized but failed to see that she was nice before she was taken. She helped Mono, went back for him, checked up on him and even had fun with him.[1]
They got along just fine, until the Thin Man entered.
Alex always thought that when the Thin Man took her, the Shadow Six left behind was the real Six, her soul separated from her body. She was never hungry in the second game like she was in the first, and what greater hunger would there be except for trying to fill the spot of a soul?
"No." Mono spoke up, snapping Alex out of his thoughts. "I don't want it back." He decides with certainty, looking at the door. "...will it come back if I leave."
'Honestly, it might-'
Wait. Idea.
"Not if you don't want it too." Alex states, smiling and holding a hand out to the still sitting Mono. "Luckily for you, I have a special little gift myself~"
Mono doesn't grab his hand, but that doesn't matter as Alex scoops him up, setting him on the counter.
*Smack*
He looks down where Six punched his leg, likely to defend Mono from him.
She gets scooped up too.
"Calm down." He tells them, patting them on the head as they sit on the counter, tense and wary again. "I have an offer for you." He focuses on Mono.
"Wanna trade the Static for a way out?"
[1] I like explaining my view on different subjects and games, so sorry about that if you didn't want an info dump...