Needful Things, Tuesday, All Day

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima had not been open recently, between her trips to Dune and acquiring new stock while the store was being cleaned and painted -- everything from the previous owner was being discarded and burned, just in case -- but today her personal staff was carrying in the recently acquired merchandise under her direction. Paintings, rugs, pottery... from all across time, space, and the multiverse. Why settle for antiques from one timeline, when you had Portalocity at your disposal?

Needful Things was open, and the Atreides was in.

[OOC freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

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[somethingwithturquoise]

Since she had no workshops today, Summer was out exploring the island a little, looking for things of note and trying to scope out the creepy radio spy squirrels that Mr. Stark had told her about. She wasn't doing a great job, distracted by her phone as she was, but her explorations had allowed her to notice one thing that could not be ignored, and that was the shop with the Needful Things sign over its door.

Summer stopped, stared, and then announced a very irritated, somewhat intrigued, but mostly incredulous, "Whaaaaaat the hell."

This definitely called for an entrance, which Summer thought herself pretty good at, so she opened the door and barged in, all guns metaphorically blazing. "Ah-ha!" she announced. "Nice freaking try! So you couldn't hack it without me, huh? This is what it comes to, some janky little shop in on this podunk island! Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Oh, isn't karma just a bitch! That's what you get, you Zuckerburging piece of cra---"

Summer had looked around. Summer paused, blinking at the woman she found instead of the tall, dark, and handsome mysterious stranger she had been expecting to be there.

"You're not Mr. Needful," she said.

Unless, of course, Mr. Needful had taken on a new guise, in which case she felt this was a significant improvement on the last one.

[atreideslioness]

"I'm afraid I don't know a 'Mr. Needful,'" Ghanima replied, amused at the...chaos of a teenage girl who had just burst into the shop. "The previous proprietor, Mr. Gaunt, was the only owner I've ever met."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer took a second to consider this new information, as well as to look around the shop, which, to be fair, looked very much like she'd expect the Needful Things she knew and loved to look like.

Mr. Gaunt did sound like a 'I'm not the Devil, really!' sort of name, too.

"Hm!" she hummed a little thoughtfully. "Are you the current proprietor?"

[atreideslioness]

"I am. It was abandoned after Mr. Gaunt was run off the island, and I decided to take over." Ghanima brushed her hands off on her skirts before offering one to Summer. "Lady Ghanima Atreides. Currently on sabbatical from teaching at the school."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Run off the island. Yeah, that seemed pretty par for the course. Summer smiled a little, reassured also in the fact that Mr. Needful should have been pretty nervous if she ran into him again, considering how badly she and her grandpa beat him up last time.

"Summer Smith," she said, taking the offered hand in a solid handshake. "Nice to meet you. But let me ask you something. If I were to, say, be interested in buying that clock, would you expect me to pay in money, or would I not be paying in money, but with my soul, as there would be an ironic curse tied to it that would pretty much cancel out my original intent with that clock?"

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima made a face. "That clock had better not have a curse on it, it just finally got through customs."

"Whatever credit-system your universe uses, and I also accept items in trade for those from a barter economy. Being from a timeline without magic, however, I do not consider souls as acceptable currency. Besides being impractical, it's tacky," she said dryly. "I shall take it that means you encountered Mr. Gaunt -- or Needful -- in your own reality, then."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Definitely not the devil.

At least not the one she knew.

"Yeah," Summer said. "He used to be my boss. Business partner, actually, but he Zuckerburged me real bad. Yeah, okay, I knew he was the devil, so jokes on me, but you hope there's at least a little bit of honesty among thieves, you know? Whatever, I'm over it, but I was kinda hoping this place meant that the online venture that I started and he stole sort of crashed and burned."

She gave the shop another glance around, and, man, it really did take her back to some pretty sweet times.

"Uh, you're not hiring or anything, by any chance, are you?"

[atreideslioness]

No, not a devil. A tyrant, perhaps, to the history books, but not a devil.

"I only understood about a fourth of what you just said," she replied, bemused, "Although if it's a job you want, I am hiring."

"So long as there is no making business deals with demonic entities, that is. I'd prefer not to have half the island lighting this place on fire because Gaunt or his ilk has come skulking around again."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Perhaps it was for the best that she understood only part of that. Summer smiled gratefully, holding up her hands. "No business deals with demonic entities," she said. "You have my word, Lady Atreides, ma'am. I should like to think that I learned my lesson there. Despite the whole boss-being-the-devil thing, I really liked working there and with all this neat old stuff. Working again might help me keep my mind off some things."

[atreideslioness]

"Excellent," she said. "You're currently my only employee, so you have your pick of days. Did you have a preference?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Well," said Summer after thinking about it for DAYS, apparently a little, "I don't have any workshops today, on Tuesdays. So that seems like a good fit."