fandomtownies | Pick Your Poison, Monday Evening

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Pick Your Poison, Monday Evening

It was starting to get late out, but that really didn't bother Ino. She liked working nights—all Turks did, even those who bitched about them—and playing with formulae for perfumes in the backroom of her not-quite-open shop made her happy and comfortable.

It was a lot better than being… or well, better than dwelling on a lot of things that she hadn't really figured out how to work through.

Ino left the lights on in the front of the shop, the door unlocked, and with her long, long blonde hair braided up, she worked quietly, lavender and lilac and vanilla filling the air.

In the window was an illuminated sign that read:

Pick Your Poison
Opening Soon

The shop wasn't technically open yet, but… hey, she wasn't going to turn down anyone who was curious enough to pry now. So… sure, the shop was open.

For a certain definition of 'open'.

[And OCD free!]

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Peridot had been out walking, her robo-duck following along behind, carting a piece of bread so stale that you could probably bludgeon somebody to death with it, when she noticed the sign in the window of what had once been an empty building.

Naturally she was stepping inside.

"Are you here to exterminate the locals?"

Look, the sign. It said a thing. And Peridot had learned what 'poison' was all of a week or two ago. It seemed like a fair deduction.

It was... probably not super reassuring that Ino's reaction to that question was to burst out laughing. She carefully set down her vials and stood, coming to lean against the door way that led into the main store.

"I don't know," she said cheerfully, still amused. "Should I be?"

Peridot at least managed to not look too disgruntled at the idea that she had said something worth laughing at.

"I haven't observed too much from the local human population that would suggest they deserve to be eradicated," she said, making her way inside. Followed by the robo-duck and his rock-bread. "What is the poison for, then?"

Ino was... Ino was squinting at the robo-duck and the... wow, that bread was basically a fossil at this point.

And the green... person.

Thanks, Fandom.

"It's not literal poison," Ino said, though it could be. For a price. "It's a tongue in cheek way of telling someone to make a choice. This is a perfumery and bath and body shop. Or, well, it will be once it opens officially."

Unfortunately, robo-duck hadn't taken any interest in the fossil bread. Possibly because it was basically just a high-tech equivalent of a wind-up toy programmed to waddle around. Peridot had run out of time in her shift before she could program it to eat.

"Tongue... in cheek?"

And now Peridot was taking a moment to put her own tongue - it was blue! - into her cheek.

No, nothing interesting happened.

"Body shop?"

You had to know what the next question was going to be, here, Ino.

"You can sell those?"

Don't laugh, Ino. Don't laugh.

"Oh my gods," Ino said, wide-eyed with repressed glee. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"I'm a Peridot," Peridot replied, wrinkling her nose a little. "I'm always serious. Have I given you any reason to think I'm not?"

Besides the whole being strangely literal... thing?

"I'm Iris," she said easily, still way, way too amused. "And I'm usually not. Don't take me too seriously."

A beat.

"And no, I don't sell bodies." Though, damn, wouldn't that be a thing to do? "I sell lotions and washes and things to keep human bodies clean and smelling nice."

"Oooh." Peridot's expression lit up a little in understanding. "This is one of those things that has to do with the humans' think-chambers, isn't it?"

Bathroom. This was a bathroom thing.

...

"What do you consider to be a think-chamber?" she asked, already prepared to be amused again.

"You know," Peridot said with an expressive wave of her hand. "The one with the..."

And then she just continued waving her hand, one finger pointed outwards, in little circles as she moved her hand downwards.

You know. Like a flush.

Ino was back to giggling again.

"That's called a bathroom," she said. "Not a think-room. Humans use it to get clean and to maintain their bodies."

"Well, that's a stupid word for it," Peridot decided. "I had one for a room for a while, and trust me, humans do a lot of thinking in there."

And she had to turn her back when they did. Humans were weird. Or maybe that was just Steven.

"How much maintenance does the human body need?"

Hannibal had really only been out for a stroll after ordering flowers for tomorrow, but those scents were lovely and difficult to miss, particularly when you had a nose like his.

So, he tried the door and made his way in, breathing deeply.

"Good evening!" she called, not looking up from her mixing. It wasn't hard to hear him--between the presence of his mind in her vicinity and his physical existence--Ino was perfectly well aware of when people entered her shop.

There... there... just a drop more of lilac...

"Good evening," Hannibal called back as he made his way toward the back. "I hope you don't mind, but the smell was so lovely, I had to investigate."

He finally saw who he was talking to. "Ah, Ms Ino. Hello."

"Why thank you," she said, setting her droppers down, and swivelling around in her chair to smile at him. "It's Iris, though, please."

Not that 'Ino' was wrong, exactly, but she wanted to be called Iris these days.

"I'm going to take a wild guess that you're Jono's husband?" Otherwise she was going to have to do some snooping around because she wasn't that recognizable, was she?

"I am," Hannibal confessed. "And my apologies, Iris - I met another version of you some time ago who didn't go by that."

He held out his hand. "Doctor Hannibal Lecter. And it's a pleasure to meet you. Both times."

"I'm a woman of many names," she said, and reached out to shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Lecter."

Ino grinned at him.

"I'm pretty sure I've got a couple of friends who've never known my real name."

She didn't think Leda would even remember that 'Amy' wasn't her name.

Hannibal laughed. "It's good to keep a bit of mystery. And please, call me Hannibal. How are you settling in?"

She wriggled her hand back and forth.

"It's been an interesting adjustment, for the both of us," she admitted. "But it's been good, over all, I think."

If she ignored the way Zack's mind screamed whenever he wasn't distracted. And whenever she didn't think about most of her last five years having been a lie.

"Thanks for making all those meals for us and for keeping things simple," she added. "We really weren't in a good place to cook when we got here."

"It was my pleasure," Hannibal answered. "Cooking is a passion of mine, and I'm happy to help friends of Jono's. I hope once you've settled a bit, you'll allow me to have you both over for dinner."

See, he was behaving himself - he'd even forgone the pun!

Which Ino would deeply appreciate once she went snooping enough to realize what he was.

"We'd be delighted," she said, knowing she was going to have to run that one by Zack before it was entirely honest. "And I have to admit, our social calendar isn't that busy yet, so it wouldn't be hard for us to swing that."

"You may not be busy, but I'm given to understand you've both been through a bit of trauma lately," Hannibal said. "I was given no details," he assured her, "but regardless, I'll understand if it's a while until you're ready."

After class today, Ringo had actually been feeling better than she had in a week or two, so she'd sort of extended her afternoon AT run into the evening for the first time in a while.

She slowed, then stopped, as she realized there was a new sign up. How long had that been there? Ringo wondered. She hadn't missed it during her funk, had she.

After a moment to glance around, she rolled over to the window and pressed her face against it, trying to see what things looked like inside. Like, what sort of shop was it, anyway?

Ino caught sight of Ringo peering into the shop and, upon recognizing the cute little kohai she'd spoken to at the carnival, fingerwaved for her to come on in.

And smiled, of course.

Ringo squinted for a moment, trying to remember where she knew that face from. But having to think things through wasn't going to stop her from going inside. Her body was pretty good at moving while her brain was still getting into gear, after all.

"Hello?" she called as she stepped in and looked around, letting the door close behind her.

The shop wasn't much to look at quite yet. Empty shelves, mostly, but it was clean and it was clear things were meant to go on those shelves.

And the air smelled really good. Relaxing.

"Good evening," she said easily. "I'd say welcome to my shop, but we ain't quite open yet."

It took a second watching the way Ino moved to stir Ringo's memory, and then she recognized that voice.

Her eyes went wide, and a grin spread over her face! "Iris-senpai!" she exclaimed in surprise. "You're here!"

Which, yeah, obviously.

"I am!" she said, laughing. "Surprised you, right?"

Just a little!

"What're you doing out and about tonight?"

"You did!" Ringo agreed with a laugh.

"And, um," she balanced one one foot and lifted one of her ATs, "I was out for a little ride." Though if the way her hair was sort of plastered to her head despite the cold outside suggested it'd been a little more than a 'little' ride.

Yeah, Ino was noticing that.

"Let's get you cleaned up a bit," she said, keeping her voice easy. "Towel the sweat off, at least--you'll catch your death going back out there if you don't. Come on, I've got stuff in the back room."

"Oh!" Ringo blinked. She hadn't really planned to stop for that long, but how could she turn down an invite from a senpai?

So she nodded. "Okay."

Glance down at her ATs. "Should I, um, take them off?"

Ino considered the amount of damage those would do to her floors.

"Yes, please," she said. "While you do that, I'll get that towel for you."

And start tea, since Ino, too, was a member to the tea-drinker's club.

Ringo was good enough to keep damage to a minimum, but minimum wasn't undamaged, and with new floors? It'd be noticeable.

So she stood where she was, balancing on one foot at a time as she loosened and removed each of her ATs.

"I don't mean to cause you any trouble, senpai."

"Don't worry about it!" she said, laughing. "I like company, and you can tell me what you think of what I'm working on."

Besides, Ino liked looking after people. Ringo was just going to have to deal.

"Well," Ringo set both her ATs by the door, "what are you working on, anyway?" She looked around. "I'm not even sure what you sell here. Or, um, will sell. Whatever."

"Perfumes and bath stuff," Ino said, waving Ringo further into the shop. "Bubble baths, bath bombs, lotions. Some pain killers, too, stuff like that. I'm working on a few perfumes right now."

She laid out a towel over the back of one chair for Ringo's use and whisked the matcha tea as she spoke. "Grew up in a flower shop, so most of what I can do here is all flower-based."

Ringo reached up to take the ties out of her hair and let it down before she picked up the towel and rubbed vigorously at her wet locks.

"Oh, really?" That actually was interesting to her, to be fair. "Though, um, I don't know much about perfumes. And only a little bit about the others." Like, she enjoyed baths, but she was used to big communal sorts of baths back home.

She grinned. "Didn't want to run a flower shop of your own?"

"There's already a flower shop in town, silly," Ino said, flicking her fingers at Ringo. "Didn't want to cause trouble for them. And this is more relaxing, I think. Besides, I like being my own boss."

Between Verdot and Tseng she had enough bosses around anyway already.

"That sounds like a lot of responsibility," Ringo teased. "Though I guess I can understand not wanting anyone to tell you what to do."

That was definitely something Ringo could relate to.

Because Ino was a mature senpai she stuck her tongue out at Ringo, while bringing her over a cup of tea.

"It's hot," she warned.

"Perfect!" Ringo said, grinning unapologetically as she took the cup.

She inhaled the steam wafting off the top and sighed appreciatively. "That smells amazing," she decided with a grin.

"Are you sure I'm not making trouble for you?"

Well, other than being a brat, she meant.

"Seriously sure you're not," Ino said, taking her own seat comfortably and reaching for the cup of tea she'd prepared for herself. "Believe me, if someone's makin' trouble for me I don't let them think they aren't."

Ringo giggled. "I don't know, I sort of imagine you as a super-duper polite and demure young woman, never speaking her mind."

The whole sticking out her tongue thing had been a huge clue!

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Pick Your Poison, Monday Evening

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