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Turtle & Canary; Monday [ 06/01 ].

As much as Turtle tried to convince herself it was still the alligators on Friday and Himura's comment that she was just getting in the way that left her in a funk all through the weekend, she knew she couldn't convince herself of that anymore. Mostly because she'd gotten past the point of pretending something was wrong and was just downright depressed. It was all Valentine Wiggin's fault, too, her and her stupid date and necklace making Turtle think about how much she missed Jeff and then having to go and spend time in their room, which wasn't their room anymore, because he wasn't there and she was thinking about how stupid she probably was with the whole break up, or maybe not, it wouldn't matter, he was in England now anyway, and stupid, stupid, stupid...

She went into the store today, hoping some paperwork would make her feel better, but it only improved her mood marginally. At least it gave her something to do, that wasn't in room 513. But it sucked that her mood was still so stuck in a rut.

Today's Squishy Flavors: Earl Grey, Red, Grape Judas

Turtle & Canary is open!

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Thank you, come again!

She's working very hard, both with store stuff and trying not to be all emo.

Karla recognized the other female from the multicultural fair. "Excuse me," she said, "But I was hoping to buy some equipment and I don't understand any of it. Can you help me?"

Turtle smiled faintly at the other girl. "You've come to the right place," she assured her. "What sort of equipment? And you're Karla, right?" Because she'd recognized her, too, turning to her ever helpful memory of faces and names to pick out the right one.

Karla nodded. "...Turtle?" she asked, only knowing because Joan was in a class or two with her. Well, and the name of the store helped.

"Anyway, I've been told that I need to understand computers, so I figured that I should get a laptop, since everyone says they're necessary for school. And a cellphone, too, I guess." She stood awkwardly, clearly unsure about either device. "Oh, and I should probably make sure I have enough funds for both."

She called in a wooden box, opened it, and began neatly stacking large gold coins on the counter. Large, heavy gold coins. "Do you think this will be sufficient?" No one had really talked to Karla about currency yet.

Second day for a laptop and cellphone combination. Turtle was feeling glad she came in today, and she nodded. "Ahhh, yes," she said. "I've actually worked with gold coins a lot of times before. You get that, what with all the different worlds and everything here. Let me just tell you here and now that gold coins? Are worth a lot here. One of those is probably going to be enough to not only get you a computer, but also set up a charge fund here to last you at least to the end of the year..."

"Really?" Karla looked at the coins. "Good to know. Back at home, I'd just but everything on credit and have it billed to the estate."

Not that she'd done a lot of shopping at home, either. There was no reason to do so when she'd been living with the coven, and the town had become too dangerous to go shopping alone, so she'd mostly just sent Morton out with a writ to purchase what she'd needed.

She handed two coins to Turtle. "Why don't you take these for my computer and phone, and also to set up a fund for me? I'll probably be here for a while anyway. On the off-chance I leave the island before my credit runs out, keep the difference."

Normally, Karla would have set up a provision that a portion of the funds be set aside every month for purchases for her household or for the poor, but she didn't have one and the island didn't seem to have the other.

That sounded like a pretty good deal to Turtle, so she took the coins with a nod and a smile. "No problem," she said. "We'll worry about the specific conversion later. Right now, let's bring you into the twenty-first century, Karla."

She bounced out from around the counter, and gestured toward one of the aisles before leading the other girl that way. "I just sold a computer and a phone to someone yesterday, actually. Jon didn't recommend you, by any chance, did he?"

"No, I haven't seen Jon in several weeks," she said with a slight frown. "I was half-convinced he'd gotten eaten by an alligator or something."

But while she was still slightly peeved at Jon, that was no reason to be grumpy at Turtle. "I will be guided by you in this. Which is a fancy way of saying, 'I have no idea what I'm doing, please be kind.'" She grinned.

Turtle grinned back a little. "Well, he didn't have any alligator bites that I could see on Saturday. And don't worry. I'll make sure you get what you need and for the best price available, Karla. What do you think you'll use it for the most?"

Karla's grin turned sheepish. "What are they used for might be a better question," she admitted.

"Hoo, boy; we're really starting from scratch here," Turtle said, though she wasn't really surprised if Karla was using gold coins and everything. "Even better question, then: what aren't they used for? Because they can be used for almost anything. Schoolwork, entertainment, business, etc, etc. We might want to just stick you with something that's good for beginners at first, and maybe throw in a book on computer use. That'll probably lead you into the valley of technology much better than I probably could."

She had said she had no idea what she was doing. She'd just meant it a little more literally than most people did. "That sounds good," Karla said, though she'd have said the same thing regardless of Turtle's suggestion. "I know people write on them, and watch movies, and go on the internettings, so mine should do those things, I guess." She examined one of the machines on the shelves. "Though I don't see where the pen would go. And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of room."

Turtle bit down a little bit of a grin. "Well, you don't really write," she explained. "You type. Unless you get one with a tablet, which is going to be more expensive, but those are pretty cool..."

"Oh." Karla winced. By the time she finished settling in, she wasn't going to have any dignity left. "Let's just stick with a basic device, then, huh?" she asked, plaintively.

[We can handwave the actual picking one out, or, if you'd rather I can keep having Karla ask silly questions. Though there's still the mysterious cell phone to pick out, too. And I wouldn't mind Turtle explainig how these work, if you don't.]

"Basic devise stuff is a good idea, yeah," Turtle said with a small, sympathetic smile. However, her sympathy did not seem to hold her back in starting up a very long speech going over the products and their capabilities and the benefits and the drawbacks, that nicely rounded out to her suggesting that Karla might like to go with this ~~handwavey~~ model at this ~~handwavey~~ price with this ~~handwavey~~ guidebook.

Karla followed along as best she could, falling back to the ages-old 'thoughtful nod and hmmm' every so often when the explanation got too esoteric. "Well, as interesting as that other ~~handwavey~~ model was," she said, referring to a slightly cheaper model, so Turtle wouldn't have any reason to try to convince her to go with that one, "I think you're right. This one does seem to be a better fit."

Novice? Who? Karla? No way! Please to be ignoring that bit about writing on the computer.

She gave Turtle a shy smile. "Shall we move on to cell phones now?" she asked, or has my ignorance outlasted your patience hanging unspoken in the air.

[A similar level of ineptitude prompted my suggestion. Or, really, it would have been the same as if Karla were there, a lot of blank looks and hesitant nods...]

Edited 2009-06-01 21:49 (UTC)

"Absolutely," Turtle said with a nod, shifting a little down the aisle toward the cell phones where there was (surprise, surprise) another little speech right out of the consumer's report about some of the models.

"I think this one might be really good in particular," she said. "Not only is it compatible with some downloads from the computer, once you're all into the technical and stuff, but it comes in lots of different colors, so you can make really fit you."

There was one in a deep, sparkly, metallic blue, nearly the same color as her Sapphire. "This one," she said, plucking it off the shelf. "So I can make phone calls, take pictures, send tax messeges--" Karla didn't really get that feature, but it had sounded important "--and listen to music?" That was an awful lot of stuff for one tiny little machine. If she hadn't seen various people doing the same activities from their phones--some of which were even smaller than the one she was holding--she might have assumed Turtle was trying to pull something.

Did she just hear tax message? Maybe it was just information overload. Either way, Turtle nodded, "That's right! Pretty neat, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty neat," Karla echoed weakly. Which wasn't exactly how she'd phrase it. That would be more 'Mother Night, talk about overwhelming!' But, you know, po-tay-to, po-tah-to. "I'll take it." In no small part to be done with it. "Er...it comes with its own manual, too, right?"

"Right," Turtle said, "but those things read like they're in Japanese all the time, so maybe a how-to book on that might not hurt, either."

"What's a Japanese?" Karla asked. "And a how-to would be lovely, thanks."

"It's a language," Turtle said with a smile, "of a country on the other side of this world. And consider it done. And if you still need help figuring any of this out, Karla, I'll try to help as best I can."

"Be careful," Karla warned. "I may take you up on it, and I'm certain you have other things to do than to have me follow you around asking 'What's a defrag and why do I want to?' or something," Karla replied, flipping open her computer manual at random. "But I thank you for the offer. It is most kind."

"Though..." she said slowly, wheels in her mind turning. "Did you agree, perhaps we could arrange lessons? Perhaps once a week? I would pay for them, of course," she said firmly. "So as not to be an imposition on your time." Which was why she hadn't asked any of her friends for more than just the odd clarification. "Or, if you are busy," she continued with a significant glance around the store, "perhaps the name of someone who could give such lessons?"

"It isn't that I'm busy," Turtle said, even though she was, but helping other people came first. "If we're going as far as lessons, I think I might be better off trying to locate someone who could probably teach you a lot better than I can. I'm a whiz at spreadsheets, but a lot of other technical stuff beyond accounting is a little out of my field."

"I would be quite appreciative," Karla assured her. "My Culture Shock class is helpful when discussing how we feel in this odd world of yours, but not necessarily how to navigate it."

La~

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Turtle & Canary; Monday [ 06/01 ].

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OOC -- 06/01.