fandomtownies | Empire Records; Monday [03/26], noon to midnight.

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$groovy tunes

Empire Records; Monday [03/26], noon to midnight.

Today's task had nothing to do with music. It had nothing to with records or stereos or headphones. It had to do with shoes.

Boots, to be specific, expensive Spanish leather boots now ruined by Viper Juice vomit. And Chad was desperately trying to salvage them, all the while reminding himself that this was that karma thing he kept hearing about and he deserved it, he deserved it, he deserved it...

But did it have to be the boots?

And to make things worse, he still wasn't sure where he and Teddy stood. They were at least talking, that was good, but Ted was drunk last night, and so he couldn't really be sure if anything they'd talked about was true, or remembered, or what...

It was going to be a long shift...

Today's Mix: Breakup, Breakdown. Which probably wasn't helping things much, really....

[[empire's open]]

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Annette came in specifically to say hi to Chad. She just worked her way around that by saying instead, "I need a cd."

Chad was rubbing fiercely as the toes of his boots, muttering in Spanish. //"Out. Out, damn spot!"// He grunted. This was hopeless.

His grunt at Annette was a little harsher than he would have original intended if it weren't for his frustration with the boots and the fact that Crossbearer was playing and that was probably the angriest song on the damn mix. "What kind?" he grunted out, which was better than his initial response of telling her that they're every-freakin'-where, go get one.

His grunt didn't bother her. She spoke Spanish fluently and caught on real quick that his boots were giving him hell.

Without a whole lot of tact, she asked as she leaned towards him, looking at his boots with a icky face. "What the crap happened?" Yeah, she could totally adapt to his mood.

Chad sighed heavily. looking with dismay and abandon at the boot in his hand. "Ted puked on 'em."

"Ew. Gross. You'll never get that out." Probably not what he wanted to hear so she injected quickly, "Poor guy sick?"

At this point, Chad pretty much knew it was hopeless. He sighed again. "Nah. Drunk."

And then, several hours much too late, Chad had the idea that he should have stopped by at Ted's room earlier that morning to see how he was. Damn it. How the hell was he going to get Teddy back if he kept screwing up and missing perfectly good opprotunities like that?

He grunted again. He really was hopeless...

"You can get a new pair?" She asked hopefully. Then, "Geeze, he must have drank a lot, cause when I was with Dick the other night and he came back to my room and stuff-" Er.. "Well, there was no puking."

Right. Uh..

"He probably needs today to sleep it off. At least that is what I would think. I sort of got drunk on chocolates the other night. Was pretty dang sick let me tell you. Didn't puke though."

Chad quirked an eyebrow at Annette, because when one was harshing over his rapidly failing relationship, you do not talk about your latest hook-up and expect it to be recieved well. But Chad liked Dick, so far, so it was okay. He decided to focus on the boots, instead. A little further removed than the rest of the crap. "These aren't cheap boots, Annette. I couldn't afford another pair, unless I wanna kiss goin' back to Mexico or Japan goodbye for another year or five."

So, money was the issue?

"Not a problem Chad. I mean it won't be a problem if you let me help you out." Blink. "Japan? You've lived in Japan?"

"I don't want your charity, Annette," Chad said, trying his best not to be annoyed because he knew her intentions in offering were good. "An', yeah, I was born there. Mi Padre's Japanese."

She smirked and gave him a look, "Who said anything about charity, Chad? Geeze." Leave it to Chad to get disgruntled over something that could be so easily solved. "Where did they come from, those boots anyway?"

Funny, Chad looked totally Mexican to her. "Your father hmm?"

"You're not buying me new boots, Annette." And he was only going to get more disgruntled about it if she kept on the topic. "And, yeah, my dad. I take after mi madre more..."

She put her hands on her hips. "Don't tell me what to do, Chad." And she was leaving it at that. So there.

"I would think so since I can't see any papa-pan in you." She grinned. She made that up, papa-pan. Maybe it would humor him a little. Maybe.

Chad moved the curtain of hair in front of his eyes, pointing to them to show Annette their shape. "Totally Japanese eyes," he said.

Annette narrowed her eyes and peered closer, "Yep. Totally Japanese eyes." She snorted. "Who knew? Hard to tell where you are looking sometimes, Chad, you know?"

Just like you couldn't tell by looking at Teddy that he was an alien. Or by looking at Nadia that she was a complete bitch.

Chad's shoulders sunk. That was uncalled for, about Nadia. This was mostly his fault, not hers, and...well, Ted...he sighed.

"Yeah..."

The shoulder sinking was way obvious. "Sorry about the boots, Chad." She had no idea he was facing even worse inner turmoil. "Wish you'd let me help, but I won't bug you about it. Not really. Not like on and on and on sort of thing."

She looked around the store. "So, about that cd."

"Oh. Right. Yeah. ...Anything in particular?"

"Uh, something good. Slow maybe, moody, something that sounds good when you go to bed. I mean, if you want to listen to music before you go to bed." Umm... "Or just something that I can dance to when I'm in my room alone?"

"Well, dunno what you're into, but..." And maybe this was just because he'd been listening to it a lot lately, "the Postal Service? A couple years old, but they're good for fitting whatever mood you're in. Depressed, they work. Dancy? Ya can move to it. Sleeping? Definately will get ya there."

She nodded. "Ring it up for me, Chad. It sounds perfect."

"Cool." Chad did just that and gave Annette the ~~handwavey~~ price.

Parker came in after lunch, and wandered around for a bit, picking up a Plumb CD while she was doing so, then approached the counter. "Hey, Chad. How's it going?"

The response was a grunt. Parker could take that as she would, but it definately wasn't one of his good grunts.

"MMmmm." Yeah, about what she expected. Parker handed over the CD, then casually said, "I talked to Nadia, Saturday night." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you okay?"

Chad checked the price, grunted, entered it into the register and grunted again. That name was just about the last name he wanted to hear right now. "M'fine," he said, and gave her the ~~handwavey~~ total.

Parker handed him her Visa, then nodded. "I'm not prying for prying's sake, Chad. I have to ask because of the band. We don't have a gig this week, but we will next week. Is there going to be a problem?"

Chad swiped it and waited for it to go through. "Parker, all I think about when I'm up there is the music. So long as the nearest we are to each other is while we're on stage, there won't be a problem." He handed the card back as the reciepts printed. "I don't plan on getting into anything. I'm not the one with the habit of prying into things, either, so you really think I'm the one to talk to about this?"

Parker gave him a look, and said, "I'm glad to hear that. But is there someone else I should be talking to? I already heard Nadia's side, and know that she's okay with being onstage with you-- and that she was planning on avoiding you for the immediate future. Instead of assuming anything about what you'd want, I asked. As Manager. Should I have told Zero, and had her cut Nadia from the band without asking you?"

Chad frowned. "Why would you cut her from the bad for something like this? It's just as much my fault as it is hers."

"I wouldn't, although that's not the way she tells it. Nadia's had other things happen that might conceivably make this the last straw, is my point. But this would only be a deal-breaker if you had a problem with it. Since you don't, it isn't." She frowned. "She approached you, Chad. And we think it was a spell side-effect. From where I'm standing, both of you have extenuating circumstances here."

"...Spell side-effect?"

Parker was so not enjoying this. Why couldn't she have just left a voicemail for him? "You really need to talk to her, you know. Instead of me. Or maybe e-mail each other. But you guys have been friends, and, um. Dealing okay, for a while. There's a spell going on with Bel that you really need to ask Nadia about, to get the full story. Okay?"

...a spell? This is all because of a fucking spell?

Chad drew in a breath. Son of a...

"Yeah."

Parker let out a breath. "I'm sorry if this was embarassing. And--" Okay, Chad never needed to talk. Still. "I'm around. And we still have to practice driving in Dave, if you need a distraction." She took her bag, and put her sunglasses back on. "Okay?"

Yeah, putting him behind the wheel of a large vehicle that can hit things with ease? Not a good idea. Especially if those things were people.

"Yeah."

"Later, Chad." Parker headed out, shaking her head, and deciding that the next rock band she managed would be robots. Without personalities.

Rikku stepped into the store nervously, then waved to Chad. Okay! Someone she knew worked here, that'd help, right?

"I, uh, I kinda need your help." She looked up hopefully. "I mean, if that's okay?"

"What'cha need, Rikku?" Chad asked, not unkindly, but definately in a way that had him realizing he knew he had it bad if he couldn't appriciate even Rikku's bounciness. He set the boot aside for the moment.

Rikku bit her lip hesitantly. "Are you busy? I mean - oh! Your boot! Are you okay?"

She shook her head. "I just wanted - some help finding some music-stuff. But I don't really know much about the music you guys have here and so I don't know where to start or anything. But the stuff on the radio that one night was pretty. Kinda like the Hymn, you know? Oh. No, you wouldn't. Sorry."

"Nope, sorry. If ya want, we got listening booths," Chad nodded his head in their direction. "Take a look around, take some stuff in, sample it out..."

"Oooh, really?!" That got an enthusiastic bounce from her. She turned to look at the rows of CDs and gulped. "Any idea where I should start? Is there a heading for 'really hyper stuff that makes you bounce around a lot' or 'pretty stuff that kinda sounds like a funeral lullaby'?"

That was...quite a range. "Pop," Chad suggested, pointing down one aisle. "Celtic," he added, pointing down a very different aisle.

Rikku clapped her hands. "Awesome, thank you!!"

She stopped short and gave him another look. "Are you, uh. Are you okay?"

He'd be better if people just stopped asking that.

"Yeah. M'fine."

Rikku flushed. "Sorry. Anyway. Thanks." And headed off to the rows he'd pointed to, collecting a stack of CDs and dragging them into the listening booth. And trying not to sing or bounce or anything while listening, as that'd be kinda rude.

The squirrel hiding by the New Age crap that no one listened to was taking careful, if rather sarcastic notes.

Annette came by fer a CD, she wrote. Left w/ story about why Teddy puked on Chad's boots. Shame. Nice boots. Parker came in for a CD and to make sure the mess w/ Nadia and Chad wouldn't mess up the band. Sokku just came in for music. The emo is killing me here.

She raced off and listened to hyperactive bubblegum pop to cheer up.

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Empire Records; Monday [03/26], noon to midnight.

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