Fixer-Uppers (formerly Stark Industries), Thursday!!!

[the_merriest]

Today was awesome!! Today was her first regular day working at the store!! She'd been here Sunday, sure, but that was just to have the grand re-opening (even though it wasn't ever closed) and Thursdays, those were going to be her days.

So Rikku bounced into the store, still admiring the sign -- because the sign was awesome, that was why!!! -- and stopped short, because there were ... horse-things? In her store?

"NEIGH! You wear such bright colors!"

Oh! They were nice horse-things? "... Thank you?" she said.

"NEIGH! You're a supportive friend."

Awww! These were the best horse-things ever! That's why she was hugging one of them.

Fixer-Uppers was open. And could possibly give you sugar shock.

Comments

[endsthegame]

Ender had spent a good chunk of his free time in Stark's before - even before Tony took off - and it hadn't changed any now. Though, he had to admit he had a second goal in mind where it came to walking into the store today...

"So I hear you're my new boss."

...greeting his new employer. If he looked a little thrown, the unicorns were definitely getting to him.

[[ ... and with that, my presence is requested downstairs. SP okay? ]]

[puppy_fair]

After class, Zack had gone on a merry little walk around town, ignoring the weather, enjoying the fresh air, and... Well, making friends with the newest temporary addition to Fandom's local wildlife.

"Neigh! It's amazing how your hair stays styled, even in the rain!"

It was nice when somebody could find something pleasant to say about his hair, okay?

It was the new sign for what he could have sworn was Stark's that threw him, and he spent what was probably a full ten minutes just standing outside, trying to make heads-or-tails of what it said before he finally shrugged, gave in, and decided to go and ask about it.

"Hiya!" Oh, hey! He'd met this girl before! "Rikku, right? I couldn't help but notice your sign!"

It was really, really colorful.

[the_merriest]

"I am!" Rikku said, waving excitedly at the boy. "You're ... are you Ender?"

He looked familiar, and she was pretty sure that there was an Ender at school here when she was, too.

"Pleased to meetcha! I'm Rikku. I bought the place. Isn't that cool?? Don't worry, everyone still has their jobs!!"

If they could withstand exclamation-mark poisoning!

(totally fine zomg! I have to flee shortly for an appointment, so we will rock the SP like we get paid to do it. <3 )

[the_merriest]

That was certainly one way of putting it! Dead people probably could notice the sign. (And probably hated it. As was only right.)

"Hi!" she grinned, waving at him. "Zack! Welcome to my store! Oooh, you have a horse-thing, too?"

It may not be his horse-thing, but it had followed him in, so maybe it was his new best friend.

Maybe they could have a party!!!

[puppy_fair]

"I do! It's been following me around! He's pretty friendly, too! You have a store in town, now?"

"Neigh!! It is a nice store!"

The unicorn was withholding judgment on the sign, mind.

"I... uh... Kinda feel silly," Zack admitted, taking a step back out the door and looking at the sign kind of confusedly before stepping back in. "I'm not actually sure what the sign says."

[endsthegame]

"I'm glad," he said, smiling a little. "I think my roommate's been relying on this place to keep me out of the room."

Though Ben was working here now, too. Details. "You were at school here during my first year."

[the_merriest]

"I thought you looked familiar," she grinned. "Although with the way everyone kind of doubles around here, you can never tell. You might be talking to someone's alternate-timeline cloned evil twin."

Well, they could.

"Neeeeigh! You are creative!"

"Awww, thank you!" Rikku said, reaching over to hug the unicorn again. "Isn't he great?"

[the_merriest]

It made sense. Unicorns probably weren't color-blind, after all.

"Oh, that!" Rikku laughed, stepping around the counter to lead him outside. She gestured to the sign. "I used the Spiran alphabet up top because it kind of reads like this one, if you squint? Here, look. The curvy bit is a capital F, and the squiggle is an I. These are just X-E-R. And then the next big curve is a U, and those tall squiggles with the loops on them are Ps. E-R again, and S at the end! So that makes this ..."

She was looking at him expectantly.

[puppy_fair]

And here was where Zack demonstrated his inadequacy when it came to reading. Please pardon him for a moment while he stands about awkwardly and tries as best as he can to sound it all out in his head...

"Fixer... Uppers?"

"NEIGH! You did very good!"

[the_merriest]

"You did!" Rikku announced, clapping her hands. That was kind of adorable, okay? "And this bit at the bottom you can't read because it's in a different language and a different alphabet, so don't worry about it. It says vegan ibbanc which means Fixer-Uppers, too. That's what I changed the store name to!"

[puppy_fair]

"Hey, I like that!" Zack gave a good little bounce on his toes, encouraged by the clapping and the happy unicorn and all. "Fixer uppers! It has a good ring to it!" And then, all smiles, he couldn't help but ask, "So, what sort of stuff do you do here, now?"

Because, you know, the sign said plenty, but that involved actually reading the legible words, too. And for some reason, all of the pretty colors kinda gave him a headache.

[the_merriest]

"We fix things!" Rikku announced. Because -- that part was obvious, right? "It's a repair shop, but we also do R&D -- which is just a fancy way to say that I tinker in the back and try to make things that work -- and ooh, I'm doing weapon and armor upgrades, too, if people want those. No one's asked yet, but it is my first day. Sort of."

[puppy_fair]

"Upgrades?" See the kid with the massive sword on his back in the armor? Yeah. He was interested. The Buster Sword... well, he wouldn't tinker around with that if his life depended on it. But he was SOLDIER 1st. All uniform alterations were totally fair game, now. "You mean, if I were to hand you a piece of armor, you could..."

He pursed his lips a little, waiting for the blanks to be filled in. Because, wow, he was interested.

[the_merriest]

"Put attributes on it?" Rikku said, rummaging around behind the desk for some of her own armor. "For a price. You can put Haste on here, or element eaters. Stoneproof comes in handy if you're somewhere with a lot of Anacondaurs. Or you just up your defenses, percentage wise. What kind of protection are you looking for?"

[puppy_fair]

"Oh, man," Zack mused, pursing his lips a little as he mulled that over. "That's a good question. I mean, I have a little bit of everything, but not much in the way of accessories that do a whole lot of anything, either."

ShinRa was cheap. Zack's armor was whatever Zack could scrounge in old chests, or pick off of icky dead things.

"And I can only wear so much at the same time, you know?"

[the_merriest]

"Exactly," Rikku said, nodding emphatically. "That's the problem. You can only fit so many things on any given armor. It's good to stack them. I mean, there's nothing like realizing you needed protection against Poison, but you're wearing protection against magic attacks, instead."

She lifted her shoulders. "Whenever you get knocked down, what's it that's usually doing it? Everyone's defense has its blinds spots."

[puppy_fair]

Oh wow, here she was, asking tough questions.

"Silence sucks," Zack informed her, "but I have armor for that. So then I put on my Diamond Gloves, and I have to take off my Safety Bit, and... I should never, ever take off my Safety Bit. Death spells are the worst."

He was rambling. Enjoy that, Rikku!

[the_merriest]

Rikku frowned, following along as best she could despite the unfamiliar names.

"It sounds like what you need," she said, "just to start, would be to either put Deathproof on your Diamond Gloves, or Silenceproof on your Safety Bit."

Death spells were totally the worst. They were just cheating.

[puppy_fair]

Zack considered that for a moment, and had even taken up pacing a little while he did so.

"Which do you suppose would be easier? I mean... My Diamond Gloves bring up my Magic and Strength stat a bit, you know? The Safety Bit just kind of keeps me from keeling over right out of nowhere."

Which, again, sucked. He only had one Phoenix Down on him, with the exception of the one that liked to show up and hover overhead whenever his DMW kicked into gear.

[the_merriest]

Rikku drummed her fingers on the counter, considering that.

"Deathproof is way harder," she admitted. "The items are rare. I'd have to go hunting for them, and probably end up shelling out some serious money to get my hands on enough. Silenceproof, I mean, I have those just lying around. I could have that done in a few hours. Boosting stats ... is going to depend on what percentages we're talking. 3, 5 percent, those are a lot more doable than 10 or 20."

[puppy_fair]

It took him all of four seconds between the moment he'd made his decision, and the time it took for him to pull out his Safety Bit... Thing.

... To this day, the universe might never know what that thing was supposed to be. A really scary hat-pin, maybe.

"Silenceproof makes more sense, then. I mean, if I already have something that can prevent Death, then there's not really much of a point in making you go out of your way for it, right? And I can get my stats up besides, by fusing my Materia. I don't need to worry about that too much, so long as I have potions and stuff that I can toss in, too."

"NEIIIGH! You're both so very crafty!"

[heromaniac]

Momoko bounced into the store backwards!

"Rikku's awesome, but I totally don't want you to get into trouble if there's a rule against animals being inside, so wait here, okay?"

"*NEIGH* You're so considerate!"

Momoko squeezed the unicorn's neck and then shut the door, turning to look for her big sib.

[the_merriest]

"When would you need this by?" she asked. "I mean, I could put Silenceproof on it now, to have it back to you in a couple of days, but I don't know if you're going off to kill fiends tonight, in which case you don't want it right now. And the rest can wait."

[puppy_fair]

"Actually, Ino and I are heading off to Midgar tomorrow," Zack replied, tilting his head thoughtfully. "I'm hoping that there are at least a couple of missions back home for me to take, but even if there aren't, we're going to at least try to clear out some monsters or something."

He made a little 'hmm' sound, and then smiled and shrugged. "But most of the monsters in Midgar's city limits don't have anything even remotely resembling Death spells," he added. "Most of those things live down in caves, way underground. So I shouldn't miss it, just for the weekend."

And then, the scary question.

"About how much is it going to cost, do you think?"

Because that totally wouldn't have made sense to ask up-front.

[the_merriest]

"Momo!" There were totally unicorns already inside -- in fact, one of them was trying to nonchalantly chew on a stack of papers near the counter. "Hey! Guess what! I bought a store!"

Stating the Obvious 101.