The Magic Box, Wednesday

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa still wasn't completely certain how she'd gotten herself talked into this. Rinoa, her manager, was apparently some force of nature unto herself, and after a single conversation, suddenly Elsa had found herself agreeing to take a job. In a magic shop, of all places.

Granted, so much of her job at the moment still involved cleaning and sorting. She was hardly an expert on anything but the math it took to count change on a purchase. But she had stumbled across a few books in the back, written in runes, that were holding her attention, now.

One of them had actually appeared to be some manner of spellbook, and she closed it quickly and set it aside to give to Rinoa later, with a warning about what was within it. Another one was little more than a misplaced cookbook most likely shipped here by accident, and while Elsa was no cook, she was going to keep that one for herself. No sense marketing something here as something it was not, unless soups and salads held magical properties that she'd previously been unaware of.

Well, that, and she really just missed reading things in runes.

[Open, OCD-free!]

Stark Industries, Wednesday, 03/05

[ultron_junior]

Victor was still on his cell phone as he got to the shop, and he balanced it against his shoulder as he jiggled the lock open and adjusted the window
shades.

"No, no es demasiado frío ... te prometo que voy a usar mi sombrero," he said, and managed not to sigh into the phone. Even though it had been well over a year since he came east for boarding school, Marianella Mancha had maintained her certainty that he was perpetually on the brink of starving and/or freezing to death. "Si, y los guantes también."

He didn't know why she was so preoccupied with him staying warm. It wasn't like he got sick easily.

"Te quiero, mamá," he told her. "I have to work now. Hasta."

After he'd hung up, he dropped a Dazzler CD into the store stereo before going back to the repair bench and starting work on a laptop that needed a new CD drive. It was just another glamorous day in his life.

[OOC: Open repair shop, no OCD! Victor got hit by the BDE and now comes from an AU where the Runaways never found him, which among other things means he never learned he's a cyborg -- and also that his mom's still alive. Sniff.]

Groovy Tunes, Wednesday

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor liked to grab random CDs and put them into the player -- how better to find new and interesting artists she might otherwise have missed?

When the electronic-sounding bass started, she decided to give the song a minute or two to see where it was going. She changed her mind once the vocals announced Don't want no short dick man!

She stared at the CD in horror, but then -- as if the singer knew Eleanor wasn't trusting her own ears -- she repeated it, just as loudly.

The line was starting for a third time when Eleanor yanked the CD out. Apparently, today was not a good day for random exploration. She was going to find something else to listen to. Anything else. Anything else at all.

Groovy Tunes was open (and not playing anything related to short-dicked men).

(I browse wiki:random for Eleanor's shift sometimes. And this classic turned up. How could I resist? LINK IS VERY NWS obviously. OCD-free!)

Luke's, Wednesday

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Okay, so Kenzi was waiting to turn into her 40-year-old self, thanks to Cecil. Maybe it wouldn't happen, maybe it was just a Cecil thing or a Night Vale thing. Still. She felt this entitled her to avoid polar bears.

The staff did not agree.

"You'll be sorry if I get accepted into their clan and we come after you for being bossy!"

SPECIALS:
Pemmican
Pancakes
Possibly plums

A Quiet Part of the Park, Wednesday morning

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Angelo bounded ahead, barking excitedly, and stopped in front of part of the park that looked just like any other. Squall wasn't sure whether she'd just followed Jono's scent, or if she'd somehow smelled the rift itself -- but he wasn't about to question the dog's judgment. He knelt beside a burnt patch of grass, ran his fingers through the blades, and lifted his hand to smell the ash. Definitely Jono. So, this was it, then.

He waved an arm through the area Angelo was barking at, and then walked back and forth there. He widened his search, methodically covering an ever-expanding area, but eventually gave up and sat down on a bench. He'd been convinced that his near-perfect attunement with Quezacotl and his growing bond with Rinoa should have given him some sense of the portal through which Jono had been attacked -- maybe a tingling sensation, or something.

(That was stupid of me.)

Still, it was clear that whatever it had been, it was gone now -- closed, rather. Somehow, that made him more worried, not less.


[Open like a park.]

Caritas, Wednesday

[shagthis.livejournal.com]

Okay, so living in Fandom for so long had him used to any number of weird things unexpectedly happening, but Tino greeting him with his real name, and not the alias he'd been using for the past thirteen years (Alan Crowe, if anyone was curious) was by far the most disturbing.

He'd hurriedly shoved Tino into the stockroom and demanded an explanation. How had he found out? What, exactly, had he found out? Had he told anyone? Jake had built himself a nice little life here while he waited for the perfect time to confront that backstabbing ex-partner of his, he wasn't ready to see it all come crashing down because of some loudmouthed idiot.

Several minutes of frantic babbling later, and Jake had more or less pieced together that Tino hadn't figured anything out (which made sense, the guy could barely tell his arse from his head, most days), but that Fandom was being weird again, and he'd somehow ended up somewhere where that whole "being framed for murder" thing had clearly gone down very, very differently.

Jake figured the whole thing would sort itself out eventually, but in the meantime? He was just going to try and enjoy not having to use a psuedonym for as long as this lasted.

[ooc: yep, to the all, like, two of you who follow the show, Jake is now the Jake from a universe where he was framed instead of Crocker.]