fandomtownies | Chilly Boulder Ice Cream; Early Wednesday Evening.

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Chilly Boulder Ice Cream; Early Wednesday Evening.

After hanging around the store a little long to kill time after closing, Turtle, who really didn't know when cheerleading practice got over, went to Chilly Boulder, got her usual turtle sundae with way more caramel than fudge. She took it over to a table by the window, so she could watch people and make private comments to herself about their shoes as they passed by and she waited for Rikku. If she managed to finish it before she got here, oh, well. Will just have to get another one.

That thought made her dig into the sundae a little quicker. Mmmm, ice cream.

[[ as it says, Turtle's here to meet with

the_merriest, but certainly open for all your ice cream needs ]]

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Rikku bounced in to Chilly Boulder and waved excitedly to Turtle. "Hiya! Sorry, I had to talk to a couple people after practice, I so didn't mean to be keeping you waiting and all. Oooooh, what'd you get?"

"Hey, no problem," Turtle grinned a little. "I got to spend a good deal musing about some ~~NPC~~ pink sneakers. Not just, like, pink, but bright, I'm-so-totally-blind-now pink." She shook her head. "And this? Is a turtle sundae. Yeah, I know. So original."

Rikku bounced up to the counter quickly and came back with a confection of unknown origins and all kinds of interesting colors.

"Like, girly-girl pink or neon hey-you-can-see-me-in-the-dark pink?" she asked, scooping up some of her ice cream. "Cause I'm totally a fan of bright stuff, but pink's kinda hit-and-miss. Uh. There aren't really turtles in your sundae, right?"

"See-in-the-dark pink," Turtle said with a smile. "Pretty scary. And, right, no turtles. I don't actually know why they call it that, but it's got caramel and fudge and nuts."

After a second of observing Rikku's, she decided it best not to ask.

"I never really got pink," Rikku mused. "I mean, like, if you're going for bright, there are better colors, you know? Pink's just kinda ... bleh. But then I'm weird."

She eyed Turtle's sundae. "Ooooh. You know, that sounds pretty good. Maybe I get one of those next. So, uh, how's your week been, anyway?"

"Been good...." Turtle said, shifting in the way people do when they have some pretty big news but don't know how to go about mentioning it. "Slow day at work. How was practice?"

"Same as ever." Rikku shrugged. "Last class until next term, so I am free! But I'm gonna miss my classes, they rocked."

She gave Turtle a curious look. "How good is good?"

Turtle took in a deep breath, and then leaned forward, lowering her voice to a conspicuous whisper. "Rikku, something really, really weird happened and I don't know how to respond to it."

Rikku leaned in and dropped her voice as well. "Is it, uh, really weird? 'Cause this place does weird stuff a lot, but usually if you wait a couple days, whoever it is changes back to themselves."

Turtle considered that this could just be a strange anomaly of Fandom Weirdness, but...

"Some flowers showed up at the store today, a delivery from me. They were from Annette. Included an apology note and everything. And no bees..." Her eyes got wide, and her voice, although whispered, did a good show of how Dusk Area this was. She was even half-tempted to do the little 'do-do-do-do-, do-do-do-do' from the theme song.

"So ... she's sorry?" Rikku chewed her lip. "Maybe she just had a really bad day and didn't mean to take it out on you. But no, you said she's been like this for a while, right?"

"And she's apologized before, too," Turtle pointed out. "So even if she is sincere, I don't really know if it'll stick, you know? I don't know what to do. The note sounded pretty sincere, but...I mean....It's hard to just...forgive someone who keeps....you know..."

"No, totally." Rikku nodded quickly. "Is she usually sincere? 'Cause that seems kinda crappy, to be all 'oh, gosh, I'm really sorry' and then keep doing it. I mean, pick one, yeah? Either be sorry or not, but if you are, then stop it."

She shrugged. "And it's okay to ... I don't know. I try to forgive people, yeah? Not 'cause of them but 'cause ... it eats at you, if you don't. But ... there are people out there I just can't. I guess that makes me a bad person or something. I'm trying, you know?"

"Wait a sec," Turtle frowned at Rikku. "Go back. To the part where you said you were a bad person. Because that makes no sense. Just because there are some people you can't forgive? By the sounds of what we talked about in class yesterday, Rikku, it sounds like you got a lot of people who'll be pretty hard to forgive. Lot worse than just getting a braid cut off, at any rate..."

This made Turtle's shoulders sink, poking her spoon at her sundae. "Makes it seem really stupid that I'm getting in such a tiff about such a small thing..."

Still didn't feel small, though, no matter how she tried to get over it...

Rikku shook her head quickly. "It's ... see, that's the thing, though, right? I mean ..." She bit her lip. "I've seen what happens, when you don't let go of that hate. How holding grudges and all of that ... if I hate the Guado, for what they did to us, then I'm no better than anybody who hated the Al Bhed 'cause of what they thought we were. It's just death and hate and more death and my world's kinda been doing that for centuries and if we can't stop it then there's gonna be nothing left."

She looked over at Turtle oddly. "Don't ... don't say that. Someone cutting off your braid ... that is huge. It's not ... I'd be furious. It's personal and it sucks and ... it doesn't suck any less just 'cause people where I'm from liked to blow each other up."

Turtle was quiet for a moment as she thought about Rikku's words, sucking on the end of her spoon after the ice cream had gone and melted in her mouth.

"It just all seems...so petty. Annette mentioned that, in her note. How petty we're being." She snorted a little. "We, as if I was flinging potatoes, too, but,anyway, she's right. It is petty...And maybe she is really nice, like everyone else says, but I just...I don't want to forgive her, think everything's okay and then...get burned again, you know? I mean, it's not like I have another braid she can cut off, but, I mean....I don't know. I don't know if I can trust her, and I don't like that..."

"No, that's ... you can't just wave your hands and go 'gosh, that didn't happen.' 'Cause it did. And she's acting like you can just pretend it didn't and that's crap." Rikku took another wobbly spoonful of her whatever-it-was ice cream goodness. "And if she's doing this to you - if she cut your braid off - then she's not nice, even if she can act nice to other people. That's just horrible and mean and wrong, right there. Just because she's decided hey, she's sorry now, doesn't mean you have to jump and get over it and forgive her. It's ... it sounds so manipulative, you know!?"

Turtle shifted in her seat, frowning. "So you think maybe she didn't mean it?"

Rikku lifted a shoulder lightly. "I don't know. I mean. I have no idea whether she meant it or not, like, at all. I just meant that ... you saying you're not sure you wanna let go of it yet? That's okay, yeah?"

"Ugh." Turtle's head thunked lightly on the table. "This whole thing just has me exhausted. I should just...talk to her or something, I guess. And then we'll see, if talking to her reveals the...truth of her intent or something like that."

"It can't hurt," she said. "Just to go tell her all of this and be all, 'Hey, this isn't cool, what's up?' Maybe she'll tell you what's going on. Or maybe she'll lie and you'll be able to catch her in it. It'll be like an investigation, yeah?"

Turtle gave a nod. "Yeah. I just...I don't know. I wish she could have just been happy with us not associating, you know? I just tried to ignore her peacefully, and if she could have done the same, we wouldn't have to worry about any of this."

"Maybe she wanted to apologize first." Rikku shrugged. "It'd be nice to think so. I mean, maybe she's starting over, this time. I don't know. I don't think I know her well enough to say."

Adam was in the mood for some ice cream, especially with today's heat. Not that he wasn't used to it, what with being from California.

But still, it was an excuse to get ice cream. He was thinking vanilla with hot fudge.

Spotting Adam while she waited, Turtle jumped at the opprotunity to say a few words to him before anyone he might be here to have ice cream with got there, too. "Oh! Adam!" She waved her hand excitedly at him and gave him a smile. If he was too busy, then, it left it that he could just wave back and they'd go on their merry little ice cream ways.

Adam waved back, grinning. "Hey Turtle," He made his way over to her after getting his ice cream.

"I never got a chance to thank you for saving me from those meteorite things on Friday."

"Oh. No need, really," Adam smiled shyly. "If I hadn't come along, I'm sure someone else would have."

"I would have totally kicked it," Turtle gave a firm, confident nod. "You just, uhhhh, saved me the trouble, you know?"

Adam nodded. "Yeah, I know," He smiled, wondering what his friends' reactions would be when he wrote to them about those things. "Glad that the first session's almost over?"

"I dunno," Turtle admitted after a little bit of thought. "It was a good session; it went by too fast."

"I know, I feel like I just got here and it's just about over already," Adam admitted, sharing similar feelings.

Turtle frowned worriedly up at him. "Not...over over, is it? You're not leaving, are you?"

"Oh no, not really over," Adam corrected, smiling warmly. "I'm planning on staying for the year."

"Oh," Turtle's relief wasn't held back in the slightest. "Phew. Good."

"Don't worry, I won't be leaving for a while," Adam grinned.

Good. Plenty of time to work with. Turtle gave him a beaming smile back. "Good to hear that, Adam. Good to hear. Would hate to see you leave us so soon!"

"I'm not so sure Fandom could get rid of me that easily," Adam winked.

"Oh, I'd say," Turtle said with a little bit of a laugh, "that it's Fandom who wouldn't let you go so easily, not the other way around! Someone's gotta stick around to save me, right? And, uh...."

Well, jumping right too it wouldn't work. Had to be subtle. She gave him a beaming smile. "You doing anything tomorrow, Adam?"

Adam had to laugh at that. "You know, you're probably right about Fandom not letting go," He grinned.

"Nothing really, besides attending my last two workshops in the afternoon," Adam explained. "What's up?"

"Barbeque! At the beach!" Turtle informed him brightly. "Me and Charlie are holding it, so you should come. You know Charlie, right? Really cool, pretty? Awesome writer?"

"Oh, that sounds great," Adam beamed. "I'd love to come. I do know Charlie, yes," He nodded. "She's cool. Seriously, that sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for the invite."

"Hey, no problem!" Turtle kept that grin right on her face, bright and practiced, the little saleswoman she was. "The more, the merrier, right? It'll be really nice to have you there."

And now for the subtle sale... "I'm sure Charlie would really be happy to see you come, too."

"The more the merrier," Adam agreed. "I'll definitely be there."

He had something to look forward to now. Adam smiled, happy to have something to do. "I haven't seen her in a couple of days, it'll be nice to catch up with her."

Turtle nodded enthusiastically. "Definitely. Always good to catch up with friends, right?"

"You got it," Adam nodded, smiling.

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Chilly Boulder Ice Cream; Early Wednesday Evening.

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