The Photo Hut; Monday [11/15].

[hashtag_chocobro]

There were a few of Fandom's little quirky weekends that weren't exactly great, and, for Prompto, one of the worst ones, hands down, was the one where they turned into the younger versions of themselves like this last weekend. Usually, at least, he could be saved by his younger self's absolute utter dedication to being anti-social to save him from any awkwardness when the weekend was over, but this year? Not so much. Because now Gladio, Seivarden, and, worst of all!, Liz would know that he was just this big, sad, chubby loser...

He almost wondered if it would be better to skip out on work today, but honestly? All that would do would draw attention to it and make it all the more obvious that he was embarrassed and kind of hated everything about last weekend right now. And who knows? Maybe Liz wouldn't even bother coming down today, maybe she would be busy, it's not like she didn't have a life outside the shop! Besides, technically speaking, he never did give her his name. Maybe she wouldn't have realized it was even him?

Yeah, right. Even if it weren't for radio...painfully awkward shy nerdy blonde kid with an obsession with photography and chocobos? No amount of weight was going to shield you from that one, bucko!

So Prompto came into the shop for his shift that day ready to painfully suffer with the agony of his entire existence, hoping that focusing on making a pyramid display of some disposable cameras that came in that day would suck up enough time to just get him through it.

Ugh. There weren't enough disposable cameras in the world...!

The Photo Hut is open!

Furnado Animal Shelter; Monday [11/15].

[kawaii_complex]

The strangeness of being a kid again over the weekend had Sakaki feeling a little wistful and wishing she'd have thought to come to the animal shelter then; would the cats still be mean to her, if she was just a little kid, rather than the looming, awkward teenager she was today? Or maybe it wouldn't have mattered, because the cats would dislike her whether she was six, sixteen, or sixty, and that thought set her lower lip trembling a little and tears filling her eyes, because just imagine! Sixty years of life and never once getting to pet a cat!

Well, she supposed, at least she'd always have that one time, when a cat just merely ignored her instead of causing her physical harm and damage...

So it was a mostly useless, very daydreamy, somewhat mauldin Sakaki at the counter today, sighing often and thinking wistfully at what could have been but just may never be...

And at least she'd gotten a good tea party out of it, and with another girl, too!

It was too bad that tea parties like that weren't really acceptable for older girls to have. That had been so much fun! But the thought of her hunching over a little toy tea set with her stuffed animals now was just absurd....

Furnado is open!

Turtle & Canary; Monday [11/15].

[white_oleander]

Having been a student at this school for as long as she had, Astrid had been no stranger to spending some time as her younger self or having people being surprised that her younger self was so capable ot taking care of herself as well as she did. And that was kind of interesting, wasn't it? That morning, waking up again into that newly-legally-emancipated young woman she usually was, it put things into some perspective.

So much of her life, she'd been clinging to Ingrid, convinced that she would be nothing without her mother. That she needed her to survive. But that had never been the case, had it? She'd pretty much been on her own for the past four years, and before that...? She'd always taken care of herself, Ingrid had even abandoned her to some neighbor for a whole year. The only reason Astrid thought she needed Ingrid was because that was what Ingrid had told her, over and over and over again. The thought of being by herself had terrified her, but now? She could see that she'd been by herself the whole time.

It was odd, heavy thoughts for a Monday morning after being five again, but she'd been struggling with the fact that, though she was eighteen now, no longer a ward of the state, no longer legally bound to her mother, she didn't feel any different. But that was it, wasn't it? It didn't feel any different because nothing, really, had changed. It was like discovering that the rope you thought kept you tied to the fence wasn't actually tied to anything at all this whole time...

So it was a deeply introspective Astrid who went through the motions of filling in her orders for the week and doing the inventory counts.

Which meant that she definitely kept tripping over little red wagons everywhere. After about the fifth one, she almost wanted to ask why there were even little red wagons just hanging out everywhere in the aisles, but she was pretty sure she already knew. Which was why she took a break to make a sign.

Welcome to Turtle & Canary
Skip the cart and use a little red wagon
to get 20% off your entire purchase!
Wagon included!

Today's Squishy Flavors
Raisin Bran
Spicy Hermit Cookie**
Red

**Not made from actual spicy hermits. We think?

Turtle & Canary is open!

The Magic Box, Monday

[existencemisspent]

Last week's lead had not panned out. So Eliot was -- theoretically -- doing more research this morning at the Magic Box.

What he was actually doing was sitting with a number of books spread in front of him while he stared vaguely into space and thought about arguing about what girls were like with tiny Margo across the teaset from him yesterday.

. . . Oh shit. Did he maybe someday want kids??

[open!]

Monday: Covent Garden Flowers

[mylandmyrules]

If Nell seemed a bit quieter than usual it was because she was thinking about the past weekend and how easy it had been being a child again. She hoped it didn't make her seem childish or ungrateful to think that she would'nt have minded being a child longer - or that being a child here at Fandom had been so much easier and more pleasant than being a child at home.

The plants seemed to understand her mood and hummed quietly at her while she worked.


Open!

The Perk, Monday morning

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

So, as promised, Jon was here for tea. And paying for yesterday's, too, with a thankful nod to the barista and ignoring their smug smile. He was not adorable.

He was just glad that at least he hadn't gone back to immediately after Mr. Spider; nobody wanted that. Well, and also it had been lovely to have a weekend of being properly fed. For small-child-living-alone values of "properly"; his eggs might have had a bit more crunch to them than preferred.

Anyway, he was having tea. And enjoying the day.


[Open Perk!]

Trooper Station, Monday, November 15, 2021

[grenadesandohana]

Steve's weekend had been extremely busy: Danny had turned into a short, loud, blond kid obsessed with following the rules (and looking more than a little like Rachel's son Charlie, but Steve was Not Going There).

Naturally Steve had deflected Danny's attention (after being handcuffed to the kitchen drawer, the hell, Daniel, for not providing a nutritionally complete Saturday breakfast as per the front of the cereal box) through playground trips, walks on the beach, and action flicks complete with ham and pineapple pizza.

He'd woken up in the blanket fort they'd made in the living room and fled before Danny woke up.

He had a feeling there were going to be opinions about the pizza.

The Trooper Station was open!

Pick Your Poison, Monday

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Margo's head was in a weird place today.

She tried not to think about her dad much. He didn't deserve it. Not after everything he'd put her through. Sometimes it was hard to remember there'd been a time when dad had been her world, the absolute arbiter of what was right and what wasn't.

She'd never admit it, but she mourned that girl as she drifted between the shelves. Had there ever been a kid section in this store? Should there be?

Fuck.

Caritas, Monday

[1000yearstoolate]

Of course Seivarden was happy that her roommates were back to their normal, adult selves, but still she felt a little wistful after the weekend. She and Ignis had done quite a good job of looking after little Gladio and little Prompto, hadn't they? They had been properly fed (by Ignis), spoiled with cookies (by Seivarden), they had had a cat to play with (Issa had been surprisingly helpful). Seivarden had the impression that even Prompto, who had surprisingly turned out to be a bit of a loner as a child, had been content, at least when playing with Issa.

That was in the past though, she reminded herself. Now she had to come up with a special. First she wrote "Beer", then changed her mind, erased it and wrote:

Tonight's Special
Gin & Tonic

[Open! And yes, I am aware that half of the post is domestic fluff about Seivarden, Ignis, their two kids and the cat that never made it into actual play.]

The Perk - Monday Morning

[notagoose]

Thanks to consuming an incredible amount of sugar and caffeine over the weekend Goose was now wide awake, at least the hyper active part of the sugar rush seemed to have gone after he turned back to normal and after running around the island twice to get rid of the excessive excess energy that he now found himself with, he decided to return to the Perk for just one coffee this time instead of the several dozen he seemed to have had the other day.

He had given the barista a sheepish grin as he paid for the one coffee this time round but he did leave a bigger tip after the events of the weekend.

He found a seat by the table with his coffee and contemplated what to do about the fact that his younger self had basically told everyone he was a genetically engineered soldier and he didn’t know how people were going to react to that.

How had he gone four years without telling anyone he was a Supertrooper to letting what felt like the entire island know in a couple of days. He wondered if he should let Commander Walsh know he may have to return sooner rather than later in case he had to leave Fandom in a hurry. Commander Walsh was going to love that report … he’d been back at Fandom for two months and he’d already screwed it up.

He sighed, sipping his coffee and checking his communicator for messages, at least he hadn’t tried contacting anyone at home over the last couple of days, that was something at least.

[open!]