fandomtownies | Fandom Post Office, April 1 (Tuesday)

Éponine could have very easily spent all day lost in morose, self-recriminating thoughts relating to the last she didn't even know how many weeks. As ways to pass a work day went, it could have been worse.

Luckily, though, she didn't really get the chance to brood, because today was turning out to be a completely different kind of bizarre. It started while she was out on her delivery route, with the piece of paper that kept materializing on the back of her coat; every time she paused to pull it off, tipped off to its reappearance by the sound of it crumpling under the strap of her mail bag, it had a different picture of a fish on it.

Then, while sorting mail, actual fish kept flying out and hitting her in the face whenever she opened a post office box to deposit its owner's mail inside.

Really, what else was she supposed to do but laugh?

Well. Stow the fish in the post office refrigerator, much to her coworkers' chagrin, but why waste them? That was a couple of weeks' worth of dinner right there.

Was it strange that the fish bothered her more than the constant brief rainshowers that kept cropping up and dousing her all day? Not really. She was used to getting stuck out in the rain.

[OOC: No OCD due to omgsobusyaughhelp; SP due to same; post editing to include the random event I can't not play with, which I originally forgot to include due to same. Rawr. Thanks to

faithandscience for the idea.]

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Another person Kenzi hadn't seen in far too long, between not being herself and hiding from things.

"Hey, 'Ponine. How's it going?"

Éponine ducked the mackerel that came flying out of one of the mailboxes with a muttered curse, then turned to give Kenzi a long-suffering smile.

"Absolutely ridiculously, if you ask me," she said, and flicked several dripping wet strands of hair out of her face. "What the hell's gotten into this place now, I've no idea."

Kenzi squelched over to the counter, but refrained from jumping up on it, just this once. "April showers? But it should be flowers, for serious. Not smelly fish!"

"I won't even bother trying to make sense of it," said Éponine as she picked the fish up and deposited it in a bucket of ice near the shipping supplies. (Poisson d'avril was past her time.) "And d'you know, it's odd, but I can't find a single towel or napkin anywhere."

"Freakin' island. Bet it's hiding them." Kenzi suddenly grinned. "We should make a slip'n'slide in the park!"

Éponine blinked at her. "What's this, now? I've a feeling you don't mean we ought to trip all over the place on purpose, even if that's how it sounds to me."

Kenzi snickered. "You put down a sheet-- plastic's best-- and take a running start, and then sliiiiide---" That would be Kenzi sliding over the floor there, wheeee! "As far as you want. We could find a good hill for it. The water only helps."

Éponine feigned reluctance, but the hint of interest on her face gave her away. "Don't you think that such a thing is beneath people of our age, larking about --" she rolled her eyes briefly at her own choice of words there -- "in public like that?"

"'Ponine, we're not old yet. We might be adults, but aside from our jobs, do we have to be responsible about anything else?"

For instance, not a little daughter to take care of any more.

"We've pets to look after," Éponine pointed out, only half seriously. "Though I don't suppose anyone would begrudge us a little bit of fun after all the absurdity we've had to endure."

"And still endure," Kenzi pointed out, twisting water out of her braids. She grinned. "I say we do it and pretend we're ten and have no problems at all."

She'd been about ten when she started figuring out that her family had serious problems, Éponine recalled, and the thought prompted an inelegant snort.

"D'you think a roll of bubble wrap will do, if we put it bubble side down?" she asked. "There's still much more in the stock room than we know what to do with anyhow."

"Totally! Plus the fun bubble-popping sound of bubble-wrap!"

Ten was when her mom took up with Bogden. Anything before that was a lot better.

"As soon as you get off work," Kenzi bargained. "It's never too late to have a silly childhood."

Éponine burst out laughing. "That is an amusing sound, isn't it? Sometimes I think I ought to just take some and pop it all, and that way not only do we get rid of it, but then I've got the satisfaction of popping it. It's funny, isn't it, how something as silly and little as making all those bubbles go pop-pop-pop one after the other can make you feel better?"

"I knoooow. And I don't care if you can do it on the computer, it's way more fun in person." Kenzi gave her a hopeful look. "I don't 'spose I could test some right now?"

"Test it! For what, to see if it pops to your satisfaction? And then what'll you do if it doesn't, since by then it'll be popped already?" asked Éponine, laughing.

Then, mock-conspiratorially: "There's a nice long scrap of it just behind the counter over there. It's a funny shape, not much good for packaging, so you may as well make some use of it."

Kenzi cackled, and splished her way over to that portion of the counter, and said very sincerely, "If it doesn't pop properly, we need to know! So we can find some that does!"

Look, she can justify anything, give her three minutes and she'll even believe herself.

"Can't go selling it to customers if it's faulty, either, hmm?" added Éponine, nodding knowingly. "I'm sure we could find some way to convince them to buy it and take it off our hands, but that's stupid, really, hardly worth the effort. May as well make use of it."

Not helping, Éponine.

Fandom Post Office, April 1 (Tuesday)

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