Luke's Diner, September 27 (Monday)

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

Lacey's planters had held up nicely, she was glad to see, and the spinach and broccoli were flourishing. She'd brought in a few of those hanging tomato planters to add to the display today, and was humming to herself as she perched precariously on a ladder, suspending them from the ceiling.

The staff kept yelling "Come on, fall! Fall!" from the kitchen, but to no avail; the dishwasher sadly noted to the busboy that it didn't work as well as it did when they snuck up behind her and yelled "BOOM!" while she was playing Minesweeper.

Today's Specials
Brisket Braised in Porter
Noodles with Stir-FriendFried Tofu and Broccoli
Sesame Spinach and Broccoli

NOW HIRING - SEE MANAGER FOR DETAILS

Luke's is open, and it's not a game, kitchen staff, God.

[OOC: The OCD -- and most of my post-writing brain -- melted in this ridiculous heat wave, mmmkay.]

Comments

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

"I was going to comment on how you should really have a spotter when you do something like that," said Angua as she came in, looking up at Lacey's work. "But then I remembered that your staff is all basically delinquents. Need a hand?"

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

"Aw, man," came a faint voice from the kitchen, followed immediately by the muffled thwap of an oven mitt impacting an arm.

"Angua, is that you? If you did," Lacey said from her precarious perch, not quite teetering yet, although if she did she'd be in danger of undoing her hard work by trying to cling to the hanging planter for balance, "you just might earn yourself free lunches for a month."

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

"That's about four free meals," said Angua, "so I'll take it."

Lacey would then find the ladder under her feeling probably much sturdier as Angua took to steadying it, tilting her head up at her work. "Need a break? I can climb up and get a few. Don't know if my thumb's as green as yours, though."

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you'll do fine," Lacey assured her with irrepressible optimism. Before she stepped down, she leaned in to coo at the tiny tomato vine: "Who's gonna grow up to be a big strong tomato plant, huh? Yeeeeeeeeeeees."

She gingerly climbed down the ladder and hopped to the floor, gesturing Vanna White-style for Angua to go ahead before she reached to grab a new set of hardware and planter. "You'd be amazed how a little plant flattery goes a long way."

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

"I would just start worrying," Angua noted with a snort, before looking up once more and taking to the ladder easily enough, "if they started flattering you back. You'll know they're only doing it so you don't want to eat them."

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

"Oh, they are not," Lacey began to object, but an abrupt and dawning horror spread over her face (and possibly permeated the diner to those who could sniff such things out) a split second later.

". . . are they? They wouldn't . . . you think . . . no."

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

"No," Angua said, trying not to grin as she got situated on the ladder and reached a hand down for a planter. "I don't. I can't. If we start worrying about that, then what's going to be left for me to eat?"

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

"Oh, is that where your priorities lie?" asked Lacey, teasing winning out over actual surprise but only by a razor-thin margin. She passed the planter up and rapped the knuckles of her other hand against the side of the ladder. "Well, I guess that's practical enough. Not starving."

. . . look, it was a very valid concern in Fandom! Especially for someone whose income depended on feeding people!

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I generally like not starving," Angua agreed with a smirk and took to the task of planter. "I mean, I like to think I'm pretty easygoing, but that's one thing I can't do without."

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

"You can't do without starving?" asked Lacey, in one of her ditzier moments. "Oh. That's . . . okay!"

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

"Glad you approve." Angua realized that she really couldn't be annoyed today, which was...interesting. She got the planter secured, gave it a little test, and asked down at Lacey, "How many more of these were you thinking of putting up?"

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

Flash-cut to two days ago, and Lacey shoving the last of two dozen boxes of planters into the storage room.

LACEY: I think that ought to be good enough to start. Yeah.

Pan left, to an open catalog of gardening supplies with four or five other varieties of hanging planter marked neatly with Post-It flags.

There isn't an ominous musical sting here, but there should be. THERE SHOULD BE.


***

"Oh," Lacey said, shrugging, "just a couple for now, anyway. This is just a test run to see how well they grow."

[OOC: Wooooooooooow, self. I thought I hit post on this three freakin' hours ago. *facepalm*]

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

Angua nodded a little, looking around at the greenery. "Where's the next one going? And I do think this is a great idea, Lacey. Bring some more colour into the whole thing."

[laceycantlie.livejournal.com]

"I could get the whole rainbow in here somehow!" Lacey enthused. Why do you encourage her, Angua?!? "That's the red and green, and let's see . . . little potted lemons and limes? Blue would be tricky, but for purple I could get some container gardens for eggplant . . ."

Yeah. Eggplant. That wouldn't go over well with some people at all.

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

Because it was fun to encourage her?

"How do you think branching out into berries might work?"