Magic Box, Thursday, 7/29

[life_inshadow]

Tara spent a lot of her time in the shop today on the phone with her suppliers, filing a complaint. She generally hated dealing with stuff like that, except their last shipment of newt eyes had been a little rancid. Nobody needed a magic shop that smelled like rancid newt eyes.

It was a good thing it was warm enough to leave the shop windows open.

[OOC: Open, stinky magic shop is open and stinky! OCD got a whiff of the newt eyes and fled.]

Comments

[brat_inslayage]

So, Kennedy hadn't been able to come by with food last week on account of being tiny, prickly, and at perpetual odds with Mr. Moxy; you'd think she'd overcompensate this week on some level equivalent to having a rickshaw's worth of food delivered. (Because that was so practical. Like they'd eat all that.)

Not so much, no. Granted, the pasta salad she'd brought instead was not small, but there was a distinct lack of both sugary things and excessive amounts of food.

There was also a distinct something else.

"Okay, wow," she said before she'd had a chance to notice whether Tara was on the phone or not. "Either that's an aromatherapy line gone seriously wrong, or I don't want to ask what it is."

[life_inshadow]

"Rotten newt eyes," Tara explained, looking harried. "I don't know why the supplier even keeps sending them to us, we pretty much never sell any, but they did. And they're way past their best-by date."

She eyed the pasta salad and decided, "Let's eat outside."

[brat_inslayage]

"...ew." Yet another reason Kennedy was okay with magic not being her thing, and in retrospect it was a good thing she hadn't opted for the salad with the fresh mozzarella balls, too. Rotten newt eyes were really not the most appealing fragrance, so as she started back toward the door she added, "And you look like today is not your best day ever."

[life_inshadow]

Tara shook her head. "Better now that you're here?" she said, with a tiny smile as they stepped onto the stoop. "Just ... yeah. I kind of hate calling people. I always fele like they'll yell at me."

[brat_inslayage]

"Poor baby." There was too much affection in the phrase for it to sound patronizing, luckily, and Kennedy sat down to unpack lunch (unsweetened green tea to go with the salad-- overcompensating for the sugar overdose much?), smiling up at her. "I can offer you a backrub as a substitute for dessert to make it better?"

She dug forks and napkins out of the bag, and propped the salad plate on her knees. "They're just on the other end of the line, babe. Not like they're here." She could have said something about how it wasn't like they could crawl through the phone line, but Constance had mentioned something in passing to her a couple of years ago about a thing with a demon in the Internet, so the possibility couldn't be ruled out. "They'd be stupid to yell at you anyway."

[life_inshadow]

"I like backrubs," Tara said, perking up. She didn't seem to mind the patronization.

Pouring herself a cup of tea, she added, "See, you can tell me that, but it's just ... it's not like the person who answers their customer service line is the one who packed the box, right? Probably. I hate making their days worse. So it's not just the yelling thing."

[brat_inslayage]

"Good point," she admitted, poking her fork at a piece of rotini. "I mean, it's probably part of their job to deal with that stuff anyway, but. I guess it isn't exactly a party for them either."

Note to self, actually take some time out to talk to the house staff next visit home.

"I seriously never thought about that until now."

[life_inshadow]

"Seriously?" Tara asked, a touch incredulous. "I can't stop thinking about it. I feel like if I complain, they think I'm complaining about them. 'swhy I mostly shop online."

She stabbed a cherry tomato out of the salad. "This is good. Where's it from?"

[brat_inslayage]

"It's always been making phone calls and having meetings and making things happen, the way I grew up," Kennedy said as delicately as possible (which for her wasn't very). Sometimes the contrast between them just snuck up and then loomed overhead.

"...would you believe Pizza Planet?"

[life_inshadow]

"Should I not believe Pizza Planet?" Tara asked, poking around to try to find some salami in the salad. "'Cause I'm pretty sure it wasn't raining pasta salad and you didn't figure out how to cook ... wait, did you?"

[brat_inslayage]

She'd asked for plenty of salami, so it had better be there or Kennedy might have to, um, call someone and complain? Or maybe not. Um.

"Me figure out how to cook?" That was the same inflection as she'd use if she asked Think I should take a page from Raven's book and go all pacifist, and Kennedy's eyebrows shot up. "So not even."

[life_inshadow]

Tara laughed at the surprised expression. "You say that like boiling water is going to, I dunno, spring up and attack you."

She speared a chunk of red pepper and started moving it toward Kenned, humming the meta Jaws. Her mood was infinitely better than it had been a few minutes ago.

[brat_inslayage]

"Hey. It totally could! Did you ever see the common room after me and Bobby tried to make brownies that one time?" Kennedy feigned indignation and brought her fork up to parry, eyes dancing with amusement (it blunted the indignation but she didn't care) as she grinned back at Tara. "I see you, pepper chunk. Maybe you're not as ninja as you thought you were."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley had been told a while ago that there was a magic shop open in town, but he had been too busy geeking out over things like the reserves and the library to go over there. But it did seem like the sort of thing he should see, since he'd been studying interdimensional everything ever since he'd stepped foot in Fandom, and magic was surely part of that. So he went there -

- and immediately his eyes stung and he barely kept himself from covering his nose. "Good lord, what is that?" he wondered.

[life_inshadow]

"Rotting newt eyeballs," Tara explained. "I already took out the trash, but the scent kinda ... sticks around."

She made a face. "Sorry."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Aware that he'd been rude, he blinked rapidly and tried to adjust to the smell and/or be less mean. "That's quite all right," he said, trying to use those manners of his. "I can - " he took a deep breath - "barely smell it."

[life_inshadow]

"You don't need to try to make me feel better," Tara reassured him. "I know it's pretty smelly. Th-the open windows help a bit, right?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

The windows were open? He turned to look. "Oh, yes," he lied. "They're very helpful."

"So," he said, trying to avoid having to lie any further since he knew he was crap at it. "I don't suppose you have any interdimensional traveling and that sort of thing?"

[life_inshadow]

"We probably have a couple of books about it," Tara said thoughtfully, as she went to turn the ceiling fan up and maybe light some incense while she was at it. "It's not really one of my areas, though. Most p-people just go through Portalocity."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

wow, sorry, i apparently can't write full sentences. should've been "books on interdimensional traveling." i fail.

"Yes, Portalocity," he mused. "I'm just - trying to figure out how things work. There are people from all these different dimensions, and they're all drawn here? I've been looking into it in my own personal texts, but I thought there might be some more here as well." Gosh, he was a geek.

[life_inshadow]

"Probably," Tara said. "They'd be over here if we have any. Follow me."

She lead him back towards a shelf of books. "Have you found anybody from your dimension here yet?" she checked. "M-most people don't."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

He followed her to the shelf. "Well, one of my teachers is someone who tried to kill me at home, actually, along with most of the town we were in. And I met another girl named - er, Reagan or something to that effect? - who comes from a dimension with similar mythology to mine."

[life_inshadow]

"Yikes, they're hiring people who tried to kill kids now?" Tara said, surprised enough to turn away from the books. "This school is ... weird. Really, really weird."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"She claims she's reformed," he mumbled irritably. Yeah, Faith still infuriated him daily. "But this is quite a strange school, I agree. I went to the Watchers' Academy, a school in England where we were learning how to train young girls to slay vampires and demons, and even I agree that this school is unconventional."

[life_inshadow]

"Oh my god!," Tara said, accidentally knocking a few books off the shelf in surprise. "You're a, a, Constance." No, Tara, that wasn't actually what they were called. "A watcher. The one my girlfriend works with is c-called Constance."

She'd always imagined Watchers a little more intimidating, was the truth.