Needful Things; Friday

[totalwildcard]

After the previous night's ongoing efforts, and a little bit of bribe-induced carrying help from various rikshaw drivers much too early in the morning, Needful Things was no longer empty! It also had no sense of order, as of yet, but that was what Harley was working on throughout Friday, taking things from the big pile of an entire van's worth of stuff in the middle of the store and putting it in displays, one by one.

She had not yet gone to sleep since waking up at whatever time she'd woken up on Thursday morning. But she had had a couple of pots of coffee and an energy drink, so she was fine and also kind of vibrating right out of her skin! Which was fine!

There was also an insistent background hum of... instincts, in the back of her brain, that kept making her pick up her phone only to put it right back away again. Like an itch she almost kept scratching while flurries of thoughts, including some things Frenchie had said, bounced around in her skull. But she had a handle on it. So also fine!

Also, there was a hastily scrawled GRAND REOPENING NEXT WEEK!! sign on the window, because someone did not yet know what chaos the following week was going to be.

(open post, semi open store! all references to criminal activity NFB, of course)

Plant Parenthood; Friday [08/29].

[what_big_teeth]

Where there had been peaches (millions of peaches) in the common room last week, Eleanor had found a big basket of lemons, and, well, you know what they say...

Well, she wasn't about to make lemonade, she didn't have time for that, but she'd added lemon slices to her tea when she got into work, and she worked through some things she could use lemon for, and she also felt it just matched really well with the collection of short stories she'd coincidentally brought in with her to read that day.

The fact that they made everything smell so nice and bright didn't hurt, either!

Plant Parenthood is open!

Rey's warehouse- Friday

[thatwaslucky]

Rey's old assistant at Stark's, aka one of the Starbucks gremlins, was in the warehouse, chatting? with the woodchucks and a porg when she got there. He was very friendly, gave her an enthusiastic wave, it was very cute if gremlins don't worry you.

And then she could run some drills while being slightly distracted wondering how they all a) knew each other and b) could communicate.


[Open!]

The Park, Friday Morning

[thatsmysword]

The Neuhof investigation did not leave Henry with a great deal of time to waste, as pleasant as last night had been (and how horrid the hangover currently torturing Henry was). His best lead was Reeky from Ledetchko, a small hamlet not far from Rattay, so come morning, with his head aching like someone had hit him over the head repeatedly, Henry saddled Pebbles and rode out through Rattay's lower gate.

Down the path, past the bathhouse (was Hans still there? He had said he'd happily stay there for days) and across the river, past the grasslands, and...

The change wasn't instant enough for Henry to notice immediately. It was the noise that alerted him to the new reality: the oddest of bird noises, a sort of... honking. He brought Pebbles to an immediate stop, and glanced down, realizing that the path had been replaced by something rather more unnatural, and around him...

"Well," Henry muttered, as he stood there, head thrumming, still seated on his dappled grey mare, who seemed utterly unaffected by the change around her. "Can't say I saw that one coming..."

Kurva. Would God allow him to return home in time? And was he doomed to keep skipping like a stone between these two places?

[[ open ]]

The Holoscene, Friday Afternoon into the Evening

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden hadn't made a terribly big deal about it, but today was her twentieth birthday. Kind of a shock that she'd only been on the island and out from Callista's thumb - mostly - for only two years now.

Originally, she'd planned to have her party in Midnight, but after everything with Illyana the other day, it felt...rude, almost. To throw a party so close to where she was grieving. Maybe she was just being overcautious and weird? But since she could throw the same kind of party she'd been thinking about in town as easily as she could Midnight, she was going to just be overcautious and weird.

So, welcome to the Holoscene! It was currently configured to look like a cabana on a tropical beach, though the interior of the cabana was a karaoke setup. Again, things she could have had elsewhere, but this ocean wouldn't be whispering Come away, come away... in anybody's ears, and this karaoke setup didn't involve zombies, both of which seemed a perfectly valid reason to use a holodeck program to recreate them, okay?

There was, of course, a whole smorgasbord of (real) food off to one side, with real proper barbecue, along with party platters from Sushi Station, Taste of Thai, and El Burrito Loco, as well as a bunch of pizzas from Pizza Planet and a whole Build Your Own Waffle station, courtesy of Over Easy and there specifically because Gray would never have forgiven her if she hadn't included it. There were floats and kayaks and jetskis out by the water, but no sunscreen because who needed it with a fake sun?

And Arden was just chilling in a beach chair for now, in a bikini, enjoying the view of a glittering ocean in front of her, waiting for people to show up.

[Open! If you have ever, even one time, had a conversation with Arden, then you got an invite!]

Over Easy, Saturday

[carbsliftthespirit]

Well.

The island's weirdness had finally truly found its way to Over Easy, in the form of a delivery.

The staff had all gathered around to stare at it, in all its gelatinous, mayonnaise-y...glory?

"You don't have to eat it," one of them told Raiden. "You can just leave for the picnic."

"No," Raiden said, in case anyone had been wondering why Gluttony was a curse. "I'm gonna."

Specials
Shakshuka
Peach Cobbler French Toast Bake
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
Definitely Not A Giant Mayo Gummy Bear

Any questions anyone had about that last special could surely be answered by the lack of a giant mayo gummy bear on the premises. You could thank Raiden.