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Turtle & Canary; SATURDAY [ 01/26 ]

Sighing slightly over the increasing fall of the market, Turtle sat quietly for a moment thinking about, now that she had a pretty much full staff and only ran the counter on Saturdays, this was feeling a little alien. She tried not to dwell on it, though. First, she had homework to work on. She didn't feel bad for working on it, because she had so much time during the week that all her paperwork for the store was pretty much done. Secondly, she had a big book on how to learn Chinese that she was going to occasionally start cracking into (she was even, briefly, considering bugging Mister Hoo, but that idea, thankfully, went away as quickly as it came), and then there were these gauntlets should found, and was trying to figure out what the heck to do with them.

Today's Squishy Flavors: Bear, Red, Grape Judas

Turtle & Canary is open!

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You know you want to.

Sky was in his incognito outfit as he went to town, headed to Turtle & Canary. He figured a paper bag was even more attention-drawing than a banana suit, but he still didn't want to bring too much attention to himself. He, of course, did not realize that wearing a cowboy hat was probably not a good choice to accomplish that goal.

But at least there was sweet, sweet Grape Judas.

"Good afternoon, Turtle," he said, coming up to her, his cowboy hat pulled as low as he could manage. "I won't keep you too long... the usual, please." He then took a glance at today's flavors. "...Bear?!"

Edited 2008-01-26 19:52 (UTC)

Turtle, looking up from her Chinese language book to ring up a Squishy, frowned deeply and sadly nodded her head. "For the stock market," she said, by way of explanation. "It's down." Pause; she drew in a deep breath. "Waaaay down."

Also, because she had to, she added, "Nice hat."

Sky blinked a few times as he handed over his money. "...I'm not sure I'd want to know what a bear tastes like, but that's a good reason to have it as a flavor, I suppose." He then pushed his hat up, as he was having trouble seeing. "Er... thanks. I'm trying to be inconspicuous today, as I spent most of yesterday dressed in a banana suit."

"I think it's metaphorical?" Turtle offered with an uncertain glance toward the SquishyBot. "Like, it doesn't actually taste like Bear, it tastes more like...chaos and depression and the end of the world."

She took a moment, firmly pressing together her lips to keep them from trembling as tears welled up in her eyes. She, of course, was going to pretend they weren't there. "I'll have to ask Sokka," she continued, "if he comes in, or make Apu try it and see what he thinks...."

Lightly, she allowed a grin to sneak through. "Working for George Michael, huh? You should talk to Apu. We had a partnership going on for a while and Apu had to wear it. He'll be happy to know that George Michael has a new banana boy."

Sky couldn't fail to notice that Turtle seemed to be getting upset, so he said quickly, "I think I'll just let that mystery remain unsolved. Much like what biscuits and gravy in squishy form are like." He then nodded affirmatively to her question. "Yeah, Mr. Manager hired me on Monday. I have to wear the suit once a week. I'm just glad to know I'm not the only one to have worn that thing, though. Nobody laughed at me... too much. Got a lot of strange looks, though." He shook his head, then took a sip of his drink. Bliss. "Well, I'd better let you go... looks to me like you're busy studying."

Turtle gave a small nod. "Thanks for stopping in, Sky. Good luck with your, erm, banana."

He laughed, waving at her as he left. "Thanks, and good luck to you on your schoolwork."

He's never been in this store before, but he'd heard Teddy mention them. He did have an objective in coming here, though, and while it was a rather simple directive... he didn't have the first idea about how to go about it.

Hence the counter.

"Er, ma'am? Would you happen to carry soap?"

With the usual bright, business smile that always accompanied talking to new potential customers, Turtle nodded her head, sliding a marker into her book and setting it aside to show her attention was entirely focused. Helped her forget about the stock market, helping a customer, after all. "Sure do. We happen to carry most things at Turtle & Canary. Don't know if you're looking for a specific brand, but you'll see why have a wide variety and selection down Aisle ~~Handwavey~~."

"I'm just looking for something to wash my clothes," he explained. "I used to make the soap for us most of the time, but I don't have the supplies here."

He looked a little ashamed about that.

"Oh!" Turtle blinked a bit; of course, she'd been working here long enough to be well acquainted with the idea that people came from a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different levels of economic society, so she wasn't surprised. She was just perhaps a little shocked that she had assumed incorrectly with the direction in which she'd taken her suggestion. "Well, I'm sure we have the stuff to make it, too, if you wanted to do it that way, but we actually have soap specifically for washing clothes, too. Of course, you'd use the washing machines in the dorms for those; I'm pretty sure anyone wouldn't mind showing you how to use them if you're unfamiliar. I'd offered, but I'm stuck, y'know, here at work."

And she did sound sincerely apologetic for not being able to. She hated not being able to go the extra mile.

He blinked.

"A tick tock? For washing clothes?"

...that was vaguely disturbing. And he wasn't quite ready for it himself.

"That's all right. Just some soap for now. And a scrubber brush."

Head tilting for a second at the name he'd given the washing machine, Turtle turned it into a nod. "Fair enough," she said, in no way about to dissuade someone from wanting to do things their way as long as she got a sale. "They're in the same aisle..."

However, the question that always followed in discovering another student a little unfamiliar with the glories of retail that her store provided and the modern marvels of a Maytag. She took in a slight breath, biting her lip slightly as she leaned in over the counter, watching the customer carefully. "You...do have a way to pay for these things, right?"

He gave her a very arch look.

"I have a job, miss, and I'm aware of the simple economics involved with shopping."

Having been chased away from more than a few businesses while in the Emerald City due to his ratty looking clothes and his obvious lack of funds, the fact that he'd be asked such a thing when he was dressed respectfully and actually had money with him was somewhat cutting. It made him wonder if he would always look like a pathetic street rat in some way.

Turtle leaned back with her hands lifted defensively. "Hey, I didn't mean any offense, I promise. Working in a place like this, though, it's a very important question. Lots of different people coming from very different places, so it's important sometimes to just understand not only how a customer is accustomed to getting their goods, but also what kind of money they'll use. We occasionally will make a barter, and I do run a currency exchange program as well."

That caught his interest.

"A currency exchange? I don't suppose you have a list with currency exchange rates from various worlds, do you?"

"Some," Turtle said, giving her head a decisive nod while trying to manage the swell of relief that was welling up inside over the fact that the moment of potential offense for a new customer had passed. "Obviously, since, I swear, I hear about seventeen new worlds every single semester, you know? I could certainly add a new one; it'll just take maybe a day or two for me to do a little bit or research, run a few rates against each other to find one that best reflects the difference and market trends and things like that but....it's not a problem at all if you want me to look into something. Not many people want to bother because of the headhurty, but I know I've worked with Rikku a bit on it, and Pippi, she's gone now, but we did something with her to help convert her pirate gold, and all sorts of things like that."

"I could give you some approximates from Oz if'd like," he said, "not that they'd be good for Professor Ambrose's time, of course. But I'm planning on going to another world after I leave here and I'd rather not go there as I came here:

"Flat broke."

There was something very exciting growing deep inside Turtle, bubbling up with a delightfully warm fluttering in her chest. It was the excitement of money conversions, and, by the sounds of it, working with it enough to perhaps even get her mind off the poor state of the current market. To say her eyes were dancing didn't quite cover it; they were practically waltzing. "Professor Ambrose?" she repeated. "The teacher here, right? He's from your world, too, but a different time?"

Meaning she could potentially get the conversion rates from both of them, for the different times, compare them, work from the information to project a sort of assumed market trend to help her own conversions become more accurate....

...Oh, it was almost like freaking Christmas.

"Yes, the Inventiontronics teacher. He's from so far into my future that most of the things I know of are legend to him. But it is the same world."

He was many things, an innocent in many ways, but he couldn't mistake interest. Interest in something he had was so rare, he'd have been a fool to miss it.

"I could talk to him about it as well, if you liked. I was going to ask him anyway, since he offered to order some supplies for me for my project and I want to know how much they'd cost in relation to my current wages."

"Oh, I'd love to!" Turtle said, practically bouncing. "And then I'm sure I could figured out a really great, accurate rate for you, to be be sure! And, just out of curiosity and because I pretty much have to ask now, where are you working now to get current wages?"

"The Book Haven," he said, pointing in the vaguely right direction. When you had a habit of brooming places, directions got a little odd. "For Millie. I'm there Fridays."

There was a pause.

"Do you think you could show me?" he asked then. "How you'd figure those things out? We covered currency conversion in our practical maths class, but it'd be nice to know where those numbers came from."

"Oh, sure!" Turtle, quite clearly glad for a distraction from commiserating, especially for something like this, was quick to pull out not only a notebook to jot things down as she explained, but also a small folder (conveniently close at hand), filled with all sorts of charts and graphs (most of them colored) regarding the topic at hand. Market trends, current market runnings, a bit of research, consideration of the materials that the otherworldly currencies were made of and how that translated into usefulness for this current world (or worlds quite similar to it), so on, so forth, blah blah blah.

But, really. Liir had asked. So Turtle would deliver.

"It's really quite simple, you see," she said, in direct contrast of the little mini-lecture she'd just given.

"Not simple," he said in reply, glad now that Willow had shown him charts and graphs previously, "but it makes sense. Which is infinitely more helpful."

He liked things that made sense. Numbers always had for him, mostly because they were constant. A word could mean a half a dozen things, depending on how it was said or used or even the place it had in a sentence. But 4 was 4 and 5 was 5.

Turtle smirked a little at the contradictory statement. "Well, I think it's simple," she stated with a slight air of importance. It was simple because she was good at it. "But I'm glad it was helpful. And I'm really looking forward to being able to utilize this to help you, --" She trailed off as she realized she didn't yet have a name to address him by. "Err, I'm Turtle, by the way. I think we missed the introduction part. Got kind of carried away by soap and conversions..."

"Liir," he gave in reply. "And that's happened a few times here."

He gave her a quick bow of his head, a show of respect as well as greeting.

"And I'm looking forward to learning more about it as I help you help me."

"Oh! You're the guy who's name Jeff keeps saying wrong on radio. I keep telling him it's Liir and not Leer," and, yes, she was pronouncing them exactly the same, "but does he listen? Of course not." She shook her head with an exaggerated sigh, but maintaining a grin.

"There's also nothing improper about my broom," he pointed out dryly, "but no one else seems to understand that either."

Turtle's sigh turned a bit more genuine as she rolled her eyes, shaking her head again. "I told him that, too, but with Jeff, everything is improper."

"Then I won't bother noticing it anymore," he said with a faint smile. As long as it wasn't just him, he was fine with it, really. Singling him out for some sort of mocking was what could irritate. But people were who they were.

"I should probably get my soap and let you help other customers."

Yeah, because the store was just soooo busy today, but, with a rueful glance its way, Turtle was thinking that she had a lot of Chinese to learn still. "Yeah," she said, nodding. "If you need any help finding it, Apu's on the floor, but it's pretty easy to find."

"All right," he said in reply. "It shouldn't be too hard."

There was a brief smile.

"Thank you."

And Turtle returned it very brightly. "You're quite welcome, Liir! Anytime!"

"I'll give you that information when I see you next, all right?"

Even if he is in the wrong order.

Sky took a moment before he left to speak to Apu.

"Good afternoon, scowling sir in a cowboy hat!" he said, cheery as ever.

"Er... hi, Apu," said Sky. "Turtle tells me you've had to wear the banana suit for Mr. Manager before. I got hired by him, so I have to wear the thing once a week now."

"Oh, you must as well now? I am happy to be speaking to a fellow giant fruit!" said Apu, looking pleased. "I advise you to be watching out for Eddie. He can be so vicious when you look that delicious."

"Good to know," said Sky, mentally making a note to work on throwing shields up faster to deflect certain curious seagulls. "Thanks. See you later, Apu."

"Goodbye, scowling yellow sir in a cowboy hat!" Apu called, finishing of course with, "Thank you, come again!"

Breakfast and grocery shopping, then around!

Also: *can't wait until money to use new Jeff/Turtle manip that she was up way too late last night making, like a dork, la*

*looks at subject line of post*

I'm just glad that it's not me getting my days wrong today. :D

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

I AM APPARENTLY TALKING ABOUT N0THING, MUCH LIKE A CRAZY PERSON.

That is BEAUTIFUL.

Awww!

*does not confess to working on Mary/George Michael manips*

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Turtle & Canary; SATURDAY [ 01/26 ]

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