Magic Box, Thursday, 12/10

[life_inshadow]

After Tara got to the shop, she took her usual quick walk around to make sure everything was where it should be and see if anything needed to be restocked.

Everything was in its place, but the ceremonial blades and daggers were all candy canes.

This barely registered on the scale of weird for this week, so Tara left the candy cane blades where they were and turned on a CD of new age Christmas music. She was grateful her employee discount would help with her holiday shopping.

The Magic Box was open.

[OOC: OCD stabbed itself with a candy cane. Oops.]

Comments

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy still had a giant candy cane gripped rather protectively in one hand when she headed into town in the afternoon and poked her head into the shop. "The wacky needs to stop happening already."

[life_inshadow]

"I know," Tara agreed. "I still think we need to complain to the island's customer service department."

Which would be nice if it existed.

[brat_inslayage]

"There a hotline for that?" Kennedy joked, pulling her phone out of her pocket. "I can make a few calls, or somebody owes me a new sword."

[life_inshadow]

"There should be one," Tara said wistfully. "If you find the number, let me know?"

[brat_inslayage]

"You'll be the first one I tell." Kennedy leaned against the inside of the doorframe. "This week's so not making the top ten list for you, huh?"

[life_inshadow]

"The 'I have a girlfriend now' thing is making up for a lot," Tara said, though Kennedy wasn't far off. "...but it's probably still not top five? Sorry."

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy's jaw dropped in mock horror. "You mean I'm not enough to bump it up a couple of notches?"

[life_inshadow]

"Well, sweetie," Tara said, very earnest -- she sometimes had a hard time telling when she was being kidded -- "you already got it into the top ten list all by yourself. That's good, right?"

[brat_inslayage]

"Hey, I was just teasing." Kennedy laughed, pushing away from the wall to head over to the counter. "I don't even know half of the craziness I missed out on, and yesterday was freaky enough. Frankly, making the top ten list is dangerous enough for my ego."

Sensitivity about touchy issues: not always her forte.

[life_inshadow]

"Oh!" Tara said, cheeks going faintly pink before she regained a teasing note in her tone. "Right. So ... do I need to worry about your ego now?"

She reached her palms across the counter, trying to hold hands.

[brat_inslayage]

Arguably, her ego was always a worry. Most days, but it was hard to tell yourself you looked badass with a candy cane.

Kennedy set the candy cane aside, looked at the red-stripey residue, and sighed, holding her hand up. "Today, I think the island's doing a good job of poking a pin in it," she replied, reaching for Tara's hand with her non-sticky one.

[life_inshadow]

Tara squeezed the hand and giggled. "Hard to practice fencing with a candy cane, huh?" she asked. "Are your stakes miniature candy canes, too?"

[brat_inslayage]

"Uh huh." Yes, that was Kennedy pouting. "I could maybe slay a powdered-sugar vampire, which I'm starting to not rule out around here."

...Kennedy, you can't slay anything yet. Be quiet.

[life_inshadow]

"Maybe that'll be the next thing," Tara said. "Candy vampires for you to, y'know, kind of practice on."

[brat_inslayage]

"Oh, great. That's what I get for saying anything. It's so going to happen now." She grinned at Tara. "Candy vampires sound way less lame when you mention them. How do you do that?"

[life_inshadow]

"I think you just think I'm a lot cooler than I am," Tara said, squeezing Kennedy's hand. "... or you're hungry."

[brat_inslayage]

"Growing Potential here. I'm always hungry," Kennedy told her. "And I think your sense of your own coolness needs some readjustment."

[life_inshadow]

"I think you make me cooler than I used to be," Tara said. "Like ... reflected coolness."

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy smirked faintly for a second, but shook her head. "Hey, don't put all that on me, babe. Give yourself a little more credit."

[life_inshadow]

"Kennedy, no one ever thought I was cool until I came here," Tara said. "I'm not ... trying to be down on myself? It's just sort of amazing."

[brat_inslayage]

"No, that would be you," Kennedy insisted. "So maybe nobody noticed before. Doesn't change that it's true. It's not really reflected coolness. More like-- cool that didn't know it was there."

[life_inshadow]

"Like, stealth cool that it took this weird island to unlock?" Tara still sounded dubious. "Y'know what? Sure. I'm stealth cool."

Someday, she'd even sound like she believed it.

"So what have you been up to?"

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy shook her head; having picked up on the doubt, she might've just decided she needed to work on that.

"Started off my morning finding unexpected candy in the weapons locker, watched a movie in class... all added up to a pretty slack-off kind of day. Oh, and there's some kind of holiday party this weekend, if you want to go." Non-sequiturs were fun. "How was class?"

[life_inshadow]

"Pretty normal for ethics," Tara said. "Master Skywalker told a story about a princess who had to choose whether her lover got eaten by a tiger or married someone else. It's ... kind of weird that's supposed to be a problem." She bit her lip. "Wait, party?"

[brat_inslayage]

"Oh, that story. I had to read that in seventh grade." Kennedy made a slightly distasteful face. "I don't think it makes much more sense to me now. I mean, how often is that going to come up?"

"And yeah, this Sunday in town," she added, pulling a crumpled invitation out of her jacket pocket. "Think you'd be up for it?"

[life_inshadow]

"And if it did come up, wouldn't you be too upset to make a choice?" Tara asked rhetorically. "It's weird. And -- yes. I think I would."

Parties made her nervous, but she loved doing stuff with Kennedy, so she figured that canceled out party nerves.

[brat_inslayage]

"You would? Cool." Kennedy had, to be honest, been a little worried she'd say no, so the look on her face was genuinely relieved.

"I don't even know what I'd do," she admitted. "And come on, if she's a princess, she's got to be able to pull some strings."

[life_inshadow]

"Maybe," Tara said. "Her dad in the story sounds pretty mean, right? Maybe she really couldn't pull strings."

[brat_inslayage]

"Then she never learned how to do it right," Kennedy replied casually. "... or her dad really is that much of a jerk."

[life_inshadow]

"I dunno," Tara said. "I mean, if your dad was cool with feeding people to tigers for guessing wrong, how do you know he wouldn't feed you to a tiger for arguing with him?"

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy chewed on her lower lip. "Good point. I know my dad's not that bad, but... hypothetical. Right. Got it. Can I just say I'm glad I'm not the one making that decision?"

[life_inshadow]

"Yeah," Tara said. "Seeing somebody you loved go off with someone else would suck. I'm glad it's just a story."

[brat_inslayage]

"Me too," Kennedy agreed, squeezing her hand. "Even if the other option's worse, I don't know if I could do that."

[life_inshadow]

"Good thing my dad's not a king," Tara decided, and sucked in her breath. "So... tell me more about the party?"

[brat_inslayage]

"Well, there's going to be dinner, and dancing," Kennedy replied, her smile warming now that the topic was less bothersome, although worried curiosity flashed through her eyes at that declaration. "And we're invited to bring an ornament to decorate the tree. Whatever holiday from home we want to celebrate."

[life_inshadow]

"I could probably find a Yule or solstice thing from around here," Tara mused, glancing about the shop. "Not the candy canes. Your family does Christmas, right?"

[brat_inslayage]

"No candy canes. I think we'll all be sick of them by then." Kennedy nodded. "Yeah, midnight mass and all of that... so I think I'll go for something non-religious."

[life_inshadow]

"Like a snowman?" Tara said. "That would be neat. I hope it snows here enough that we can make them for real someday."

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy grinned. "A snow person. Not so big on the whole snowman thing necessarily. I've never spent winter in this area before, so I have no idea if it snows enough, but if not? There's always Portalocity."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana had a cat and some muffins from J,GoB. "Did you always sell so many candy canes?" She checked as she came in, working to keep the cat and the muffins separate.

[life_inshadow]

Tara shook her head. "Usually those are daggers and knives," she said, reaching out her arms. "Here, give me Samuel before he chews through the bag."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana handed over Samuel who took that moment to remind the world that he was not a toy and was promptly ignored by Diana. "And now they're candy canes. The island has a good sense of humor."

[life_inshadow]

Tara squeezed the cat, ignoring how he wasn't a toy. "It does," she agreed. "It's like it decided to overdose on the weird this week. But as long as it's cookies and candy canes, I care a little less ... Merlin and Karla being in love at the reserves was kinda weird."

But not a sort of weird Tara was spending too much time focusing on.

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Samuel meowed and batted a paw at Tara's hand. "Oxygen good." He informed her.

Diana glared down at the cat and offered Tara one of the muffins. "So it wasn't just me. Maybe they had too much sugar?"

[life_inshadow]

"... I don't think sugar makes people want to hit on each other," Tara said. "Wait, does it?"

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"I hope not!" Diana said, taking a bite of her muffin and picking up a candy cane to twirl in her hand. "But uh, maybe it combined with the Fandom wackiness?"

[life_inshadow]

"... maybe?" Tara said, and set Samuel down to claim a muffin. "I hope it's not long-lasting or anything."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Samuel took that opportunity to also claim a muffin and Diana scowled down. "No. Well, maybe if they're still making googly eyes at each other on Monday we can dump cold water on them."