HankCo. Super World, Wednesday

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank had originally been wandering the town looking for a comic book shop, but when he discovered Turtle & Canary, he fell in love. With profit!

It only took Apu being in the back room for a few minutes before Hank had thrown on a cap and apron, put up a new sign out front overtop of the old one, and taken charge of the register.

Apu was less than pleased when he came back out and Hank greeted him warmly.

"Aaahhhhh, our first customer! Welcome to HankCo.! How may I help you?"

The argument that ensued was long and heated, but it ended when Hank pulled out his trump card: "Well, you must be a customer, because if you're an employee, I don't see you working!"

Grumbling, Apu went to mop the floors.



Today's Squishy flavors: A Crazy Person Fizz, Has Taken Over The Store Swirl, Red

[T&C is open and OCD-free]

Comments

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

Something was....different. Shunsui, late as usual, could certainly feel it, even though, at first, he didn't quite pick up on the fact that something had changed with the shop. Let's see. Apu-san? Check. Squishy-Bot? Check. Random blonde kid behind the counter? Che--

--wait a second!

"Uhhhh....?" came the inspired response.

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

"Hello, and welcome to HankCo.," Hank greeted him cheerfully. "How may I be of service?"

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

"Hank...Co?" Shunsui repeated, feeling a little too sober to deal with this right now.

"You must be Hank," he guessed.

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

"That is what it says on my nametag," Hank replied. "Do you need any assistance selecting from among the various and sundry products in this establishment? At HankCo., the customer comes first!"

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

"So ka?" asked Shunsui, arching an eyebrow. "And, tell me, where does the owner of the building in which it inhabits fall into place on the scale at...."

He couldn't even say it without putting a slight tone to the word as if it was a curse. "HankCo."

So help him if Nanao-chan was to blame for this.

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

"No, not 'Sokka'," Hank replied. "Hank. Completely different."

Although Bob-chan seemed to disagree with that.

"Thank you for your inquiry, but unfortunately, the building's owner is not available at the moment. If you'd like to leave a message, he or she will respond as soon as possible." Hank pulled a pen and a pad of pink "While You Were Out" forms from under the counter and set them in front of Shunsui.

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

Shunsui took a moment to draw in a deep, calming breath. Not much tested his patience, but this...

...would be entirely different, it was true, if Hank was a beautiful woman or a cute girl. Since he was most certainly not, though, he was not having any of it.

"I am actually the building's owner, and, might I say, he is not particularly pleased with these recent changes to his shop."

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh. Busted.

Not that Hank would let that stop him.

"I'm sorry, if you have a complaint, you'll need to take it up with our customer service department." He gestured toward the (empty) other end of the counter.


Then he set up a "Back in 5 Minutes" sign by the register, put on a suit coat, and headed down there himself. He set up a sign that read "Customer Service" on that part of the counter, and straightened his neckerchief.

"Thank you for contacting HankCo. Customer Service," he told Shunsui. "How may I help you?"

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

Well, there was at least one benefit to the whole charade. It gave Shunsui a chance to crack open his jug of sake and take a very, very, very long swig before sweeping over to the Customer Service Department and stating, "You're fired."

Forget the fact that he was never technically hired to begin with.

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank kept up the cheesy grin. "I'm sorry, is that a complaint or a request?"

He pulled a clipboard with a complaint form on it, and another one with a request form on it, out from underneath the counter. (When did he have time to set them there? Don't ask.)

"I'll need you to fill out and submit the appropriate form, and a representative will get back to you within seven to ten business days."

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

Shunsui was not even going to grace those clipboards with a glance. In fact, he wasn't going to take his warning, steady glance away from Hank.

"Apu-san," he said, with a slight jut of his chin. "Get the panda and take down that sign outside. And then go find this Hank fellow, let him know we're happy to have him on board, and, in fact, his very first official duty will be putting a brand new coat of paint on the actual sign. And since we care so much at Turtle & Canary, I hear Shunsui Kyōraku himself might show up to supervise him. And if he isn't there in, oh, fifteen minutes, then I might have to take a trip down to the station and have a little...chat with the Sergeant."

The last part was, honestly, an empty threat. Because if he went to chat with the Sergeant, he knew he wouldn't be talking to her about Hank...

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

That sounded an awful lot like acceptance -- with the possibility of approval -- from an authority figure, which was really the one thing Hank craved more than any other.

He stripped off the suit coat and apron and practically leapt across the counter in order to try to shake Shunsui's hand. "REALLY?!?!? For serious? Oh my GOLLY!!! Thank you, Mr. Kojak! You won't regret it!!!"

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

...Shunsui was not even going to bother trying to restrain his grunting sigh of resignation, the sort that made it sound like he regretted ever getting out of his drunken stupor that morning. He let Hank shake his hand if only because if he did, he'd stop sooner rather than later.

He just shook his head and decided not to grace it with a response. "I need more sake," he murmured, moving toward the alcohol section before even thinking about making sure that sign got changed.

Whatever; one less day he'd have to work, he supposed.

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank rushed past him to the alcohol section and plucked two bottles of sake off the shelf, one mid-priced and the other expensive, for Shunsui to examine. "Han... I mean, Turtle & Canary offers a wide variety of alcoholic beverages from around the world, even foreign countries like Japan!!! Our selection is second to none! Whatever your poison, you can find it here!"

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

Well, the boy certainly was...eager, wasn't he?

"I'll take both," Shunsui informed him. "Put it on my tab..."

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

"Certainly!" Hank told him. "Now... do you actually have a tab, or is that just a figure of speech? You really should be keeping records of that, for tax purposes."

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

"...of course I have a tab," Shunsui informed him, with a scoff.

Of course, he didn't. But it sounded way too complicated and he didn't want to bother getting into it, because this kid was nuts.

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"Did we- I mean, you, changed the name of the store? Because she would need to ask just who was this Hank guy and why his name was so inspiring.

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

"No," said Shunsui, narrowing his eyes slightly in the direction of the changed sign. "We didn't."

As if he would change a poetic name like Turtle & Canary to something like Hank Co.! The idea of such a terrible name was just offensive to Shunsui's delicate sensibilities.

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"Okay, then we have a problem here." If he was being inclusive, so be it.

"...We can kick him out, can we?"

[sake-shinigami.livejournal.com]

"I think he's here to stay," Shunsui admitted with a shake of his head. He sighed a little, and then could only shake his head a little more. "The sign's changing back, though, don't worry, Zatanna-chan ♥."

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

There was something odd going on with the store. Zatanna had taken some time to walk around the town, and when she got closer to T&C, well... it didn't seem to be T&C anymore.

"Hmm..." Out of two names she didn't understand, she preferred the one her working place had had before.

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank gave her a wide, fake-ish grin. "Hello and welcome to HankCo. We have all sorts of items for sale -- everything the distinguished customer might wish to procure. How may I help you?"

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"Can you tell me what the heck happened to Turtle & Canary? And super size that."

She wasn't even trying to be funny here.