At first glance, you would be forgiven for mistaking this ineki for a living, breathing one, but the moment she turns her face to Wells it becomes quite clear that she is not living or breathing. She does speak, however, in a low, silky drawl: “What’s this? Some sort of game?” Her screen display shows an image of a question mark, then a smiling face, emoji-style. “I’ll play.”

So saying, she plucks up one of the eyeballs, her screen flashing a closeup of someone’s eyes blinking. “Charming.” She plucks a pen from her jacket pocket and carelessly scrawls 19 on the white of the plastic eye. The eyes on her display give a playful wink as she drops the ball into the gilded raffle cage.

Ash wanders over to the table, drawn in by the stall and the interesting-looking mycenians already milling about. He walks upright, holding himself up as if he were entering a particularly fancy formal gathering, despite his tattered cloak and floral wreath around his neck. He nods his head politely at the others as he passes by, picking out one of the plastic eyes and inspecting it before marking a one onto the back of it. As he puts it into the container he looks at the ineki behind the counter. “Well, hello. I like your bow.” With that he takes a step back, going to find somewhere to sit and wait to see if his number got called.

The young girl known as Kitty Bear crept over to the stall, mouth full of stolen bread from nearby. She chewed, the eyeballs having caught her attention but on closer look she realised they weren’t edible. Looking silently to the teddy gripped in her hand, she shook her head in disappointment, but her hand shook the bears head in disagreement.

Looking back to the table, she swallowed the bread and watched a stranger pluck a ball and write a number on it. Grabbing a marker, she took a ball after propping the teddy up on the table and looked around. She wasn’t entirely sure how to write, but made her best impression of a figure 8 onto the ball, before copying what the stranger had done and dropping it back. Sniffing the rest of the balls to confirm they weren’t edible, she snatched up her bear again before ducking back under the stalls and disappearing into the crowd.

“Hey everyone! Lyric here.” The dog Ineki’s chipper voice before she and her hamsters came into view. Most Mycenians in this section of the plaza could hear her, but she seemed unbothered, chattering into her phone.
“Today I’m walking around the plaza. Now, it’s usually pretty busy here from the few times I’ve been, but it seems like different Mycenians show up every time. Sometimes there are calls for adventures, sometimes there are just friends chattering over tea, and sometimes there are temporary stalls. Oh, like this one!” Lyric’s attention landed on Wells and the raffle turner.
“I haven’t seen this one before, but it looks pretty cool. A raffle? Oooh, a raffle… with eyeballs!” Lyric picked up one of the balls and tossed it a couple times in her paw, holding it in front of her phone camera to make sure it was in focus. “This looks really cool. And whoa, it’s free? I should check out this plaza more often.”
Lyric picked up one of the pens and considered the ball for a moment, then started writing as she spoke. “Any number from one to twenty… well, usually I would pick three, my lucky number, but it looks like someone’s already got that. Fifteen it is, then!” As she finished, she held out the ball to Wells.
“But where are my manners! Who are you? Why do you have this raffle set up? I’m new to town, and I’m always up for making friends. My name’s Lyric!” she said, extending the paw that wasn’t holding the fifteen-ball forward as well, then realizing she had her phone in that paw, then setting the phone on the table so her paw was free to shake.