fandomtownies | Book Haven, Thursday

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Book Haven, Thursday

There were flowers in the store--potted ones that rested on the floor, on the counters, and in little nooks. There were even a few scattered amongst the aisles, to come across unexpectedly. A check through a few books told her they were sunflowers, which fit their appearance quite nicely, but did nothing to explain why they were even around.

Rosalind gingerly inspected the one on the counter, but it seemed like it was exactly what it appeared to be. Which left her wondering why, exactly, her store had wound up being bedecked in flowers.

It was probably best not to think too hard about it, especially when she actually enjoyed the potted plants being everywhere. That didn't stop Rosalind from giving them the side-eye now and then.

And if she smiled about them now and then too… well, that was her business.

The shop was open and there was a sign outside that said:

Now hiring! Apply inside!

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And hopefully you're not allergic to flowers.

Who likes the random flowers just fine.

The random flowers were a nice touch, Jonothon decided, as he stepped into the shop somewhere during what would have been anybody else's lunch break. He hadn't heard from her in just about forever. Checking up on Rosalind seemed like the thing to do.

//Secret admirer, decide to take up interior decorating, or just Fandom being Fandom?//

It seemed worth asking about.

"Fandom being Fandom," Rosalind said, setting one of the pots a little to the side. "Though I find it hard to complain about this, compared to other things it has done."

She flicked an imaginary speck of dust off her suit. "Hello, Jono."

//Afternoon, luv,// Jono replied, giving a little nod as he looked at the potted plants. //Really, compared to the other things it's done, this is quite the step up. Little early in the year for sunflowers, but that's about the strangest of it.//

He leaned forward to get a better look at one.

//How've you been, Rosalind?//

I like them, she thought, but didn't say. Rosalind shifted slightly, almost shrugging, as she leaned against the counter.

"Lately?" she asked, a bit wryly. "Or since we last talked?"

Edited 2014-04-03 18:37 (UTC)

//Both?//

He wasn't going to limit her options by picking one, naturally. Especially not with the way she shifted her weight like that.

It had been one hell of a month.

Because it was Jono, Rosalind let her expression slip slightly. She looked tired, for a moment, then it was gone, and she looked as cool and collected as ever.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I've been doing a lot of thinking, since everything went back to... normal. I haven't decided yet how to feel about any of it. You?"

//In... a pretty similar place, I think,// Jono replied, nodding slightly. //It was a very... revealing sort of month.//

He rolled his eyes.

//If one more person asks me if I'm in pain, though, I might thump them.//

Rosalind raised one eyebrow and asked, with a straight face, "Are you in any pain?" She even managed to shade concern into her tone.

He'd asked for that. Really.

Jono gave her one hell of a deadpan look at that.

//Yes. I'm hiding it well, the way I really want to be writhing around in agony right now.//

And then his expression twisted into an almost-smile, that little crinkle around the corners of his eyes, and he shook his head.

//More overwhelmed than hurt. It's been a very... dark month.//

Rosalind tilted her head slightly, almost amused.

"We could trade," she suggested. "Mine was... unsettling in retrospect, more than anything else." A slight grimace crossed her face. "I spent the better part of two months as a... child."

//A child?// Jono tilted his head right back at her, curiously. //I wouldn't have minded that so much, I don't think. But then, I suppose you and I likely had very different childhoods.//

He hitched his shoulders up a little, shrugging.

//Mine, I think, was more unsettling for the people around me than it was for me at the time. Now, looking back, I think I could've done without.//

"More unsettling for the people around you?" she echoed curiously, ignoring for now the question about her being a child. "What does that mean? What happened to you?"

Jono actually shuddered a little, at that. It was a subtle motion, but he didn't think for a second that Rosalind would miss it.

//Found out just how much of my body I can live a functional life without.//

And she didn't. Her eyes grew thoughtful.

"Well," she said, after a brief pause, "that would be disconcerting."

A beat.

"... Though possibly useful information, for the future."

//Mmm, fantastic,// Jono replied, furrowing his brow a bit. //I think living like this, scooped out from the navel up, is preferable to that. I had no bloody head.//

More than a touch disconcerting, yes.

//Wasn't even a clean change,// he added. //Some people just switched over. Took me a bloody week to go from one mind to th'next.//

Edited 2014-04-03 19:43 (UTC)

"That... would be worse," she agreed. "I switched over entirely."

Rosalind hesitated a moment, then asked, "You wouldn't happened to have been the headless man in the park one night...?"

Did she owe him an apology for shrieking and runnning away?

//... Probably. I don't think there were many other headless men running about,// Jono replied. //You...//

He closed his eyes, dredged up the events of that evening, and then nodded, just a little.

//I'm sorry I frightened you. It had been a... bad evening.//

"It wasn't exactly your fault," she pointed out mildly. "I'm sure there's things I could have done that weren't 'scream and flee', though that's a time-honoured escape plan if there ever was one."

//I got to see what I was wearing in place of a face, luv. I'm fairly certain that my escape plan would've involved a bit of that, too. And I'm not a small child.//

Some moments, screaming and running away was really the only appropriate answer. Even when it was him that people were running away from.

Or maybe he was just getting used to that.

Edited 2014-04-03 20:51 (UTC)

"True enough," she conceded, frowning slightly. "And I suppose we can both be glad I didn't try and shoot you."

Because that had totally been a possibility with Amelia.

"Though I'm not sure what bullets would have done, given your condition."

//Been shot before,// Jono offered. //Six times at once, point-blank, in the chest. Got caught up in the psifire and did no damage at all.//

A beat.

//I might not've noticed if you had, all things considered.//

That was actually a terrifying thought.

That really was.

"I'll... remember that," Rosalind said, since she would. "That's good to know."

In a pragmatic, planning for the worst, sort of way.

Wasn't that a cheerful thing?

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