fandomtownies | The C.I.C.

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The C.I.C. - Thursday

The shop was back to a single raven today. Kaidan breathed a small sigh of relief. The birds hadn't been problematic, but keeping the door open for them had kept the shop a little warm for comfort, even with the AC on. One bird meant he could keep the door closed and have the temperature inside the C.I.C. be something in the range of 'arctic'.

For someone who liked the cold, he sure had a big mug of steaming hot tea in his hand. The raven quoked and tapped the glass of the counter with his beak. "You want some tea?" Kaidan asked, amused. The bird made a derisive noise. Kaidan offered him a tea bag. The raven threw it across the room. He tried offering one of the disposable hot beverage cups, and it appeared that was what the raven wanted. It promptly started tearing it to bits, making a mess but also making adorable chirring noises.

With a shake of his head, Kaidan collected the tea bag and tossed it in the trash.

Description of shop is here.

[OOC: Open, no OCD.]

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Sparkle had stuck around on the island since yesterday, at least in part because he didn't feel like navigating Portalocity after his shift, but also mostly because he'd had to take the time to gather up his spite-purchase, and by the time he'd done that... well.

Too much tea. Sparkle had too much tea.

At least sticking around meant he got to listen to radio this morning, which meant he had some idea of where to find Alenko today. And so here he came, his backpack over his shoulder, stepping through the door and--

This time when he stopped short, it was because he was staring at the raven.

"Ohmygod."

His mission had to be briefly derailed because of really big bird.

The raven responded by tilting his head to the side and regarding Sparkle for a minute before cheerfully resuming the cup destruction. Kaidan looked up and assured Sparkle, "Hey Sparkle. He's friendly. He helps out around the shop."

How had this become his life? Why was it that he didn't even really wonder that anymore?

Giving the backpack a look, Kaidan asked, "You bring something that needs fixed?"

"Huh." Satisfied with that answer, Sparkle made his way over to the counter. "Sort of? I mean, not really. Hey, do you have a favourite kind of tea?"

No reason.

"Not really?" Kaidan said, "I prefer a decent loose leaf, but if I need the caffeine I'm ok with crappy bagged tea." Example: the cup in front of him. "Generally blacks over greens, sometimes a nice, earthy oolong.."

Stopping himself before he could drivel on further about tea, he gave Sparkle an inquiring look, "Why do you ask?"

Sparkle did not break eye contact with Kaidan as he set his bag on the counter, mindful of the raven, and then opened it to reveal...

... an ungodly amount of tea.

So much tea.

Basically all the tea.

"Please for the love of god take some? I'm gonna give some to the Jedi back on Coruscant and the rest I'm gonna do horrible things to, I want to make sure people who I know like the stuff have a chance at it before I ruin this much tea."

Kaidan's eyes widened as the hoard of tea was displayed. He listened to Sparkle's announcement, did some mental math of 'tea' and 'ruin' and then asked, "What in the name of everything did she do this time?"

And then he answered, "Yes, I will absolutely take some tea, thank you. Would you like pointers on which are the swanky kinds you should give your friends?"

"She existed," Sparkle supplied helpfully, and then up-ended the bag onto the counter. All that packaged tea came tumbling out, along with a few random odds and ends, which Sparkle paused a moment to gather up to put back in.

You know, like the stuffed toy cat, about three mismatched forks, a lighter, a package of sparklers, a really ornate dagger...

"Hardly matters. I was probably just being oversensitive anyway." And petty. Also petty. "But any pointers you have, I'll happily take."

The raven tried to steal one of the forks. It was shiny, therefore true and rightful property of corvids.

"She used that word again, didn't she?" Kaidan sighed and answered himself, "Of course she did."

He began looking at the packages and sorting them into three piles. Three fairly large piles. With an amused look, he asked, "Is there any tea left on the island?"

"I mean, I haven't gone to the Perk to buy out all their loose stuff yet," Sparkle offered. "But I'm not gonna say I wasn't tempted to."

Because he really had been.

He let the raven take the fork, giving it a nod of approval. It wasn't like he was invested in it. He'd stolen it first, after all.

The tool-using corvid promptly used the fork to pick up pieces of the cup and move them around the counter.

Kaidan arched an eyebrow at the 'yet'. "Maybe I should ask how you're going to ruin the tea before I finish sorting." That seemed prudent.

"I dunno," Sparkle mused. "What do you think? Just sticking my bare hands in it and having a sexy bare-handed matcha-fondling photoshoot? Pouring glue in it? Dumping it off the Causeway? Ooo, I could just pour it on the floor outside her apartment..."

No, really. So much petty.

Kaidan wasn't able to restrain the laugh at 'sexy bare-handed matcha-fondling photoshoot'. The raven startled a little, made what sounded like a raspberry noise, then went back to studiously stabbing pieces of cup with the tines of the fork.

"The photos would probably disturb her the most," he noted, once he was able to get words out around the laughter, "but you'd run the risk that she'd enjoy them. Dumping it off the Causeway might get you fined, and wouldn't be all that effective unless she saw you do it. Glue, maybe, if you made like, art deco with it. I wouldn't do the apartment thing - Peter also lives there and he'd probably be the guy having to deal with it."

He paused, letting his brain get past the image of Seivarden and what would be, to her, pornography.

Regarding the piles, he pulled a few from one of them and set them aside. "One kind of crappy matcha dust, one kind of crappy tea from a bad year but it has fruit bits and spices in and would probably look good in photos."

Helpful, was Kaidan.

Sparkle pictured that, too. And made a ... a very unreadable face. It wasn't fair that somebody that awful could be that hot.

"I think Peter would understand," he offered. "I mean, he lives with her. If anyone's gonna understand..."

Then again, Peter was the walking embodiment of patience...

"I could always head out to the old campgrounds and just take pictures of me burning the shitty ones, too."

"I do not understand that roommate situation," Kaidan admitted, "but I admire Peter's patience and chill. He might understand."

Sorting one of the piles further, Kaidan added helpfully, "She'll probably be at movie night tonight, at the community ed center. I usually go. I'd been making an effort to be polite and not, y'know, eat things with my naked hands, but I'm done going out of my way for that."

Tapping one of the boxes, he said, "This is a really good year for the province it came from. The tea is exceptional. Give this to a friend who likes good tea."

Sparkle considered that suggestion, and then shoved and nudged it Kaidan's way.

"It's yours," he replied. "And I'm kind of impressed you know what's a good year for tea from... what, a century and a half before your time? That's commitment."

Which was why Kaidan got to have the tea.

"I fall down Wiki rabbit holes alot," Kaidan said dryly, "and I generally remember most things I read." He shrugged, "Training. Also, people who like tea enough that they can taste the different years are kind of scary in a fanatic sort of way. The last decade has had a lot of drought years, so the 'good' years are few and easy to remember."

He was oddly touched that Sparkle had given him the tea.

He tapped some of the other boxes, "These are the kind of good that make even non-tea drinkers do little 'yum' noises. The second pile is decent basic tea. These last few..well, one of them reads like medicine rather than tea, and the others are not something most tea drinkers would spend money on."

Sparkle looked the whole selection over, and then nodded.

"Yeah, makes sense the shitty ones were from Iris' shame wall. All the quality stuff, she makes herself. But then people bitch that she doesn't have brand names, and... well..."

He waved at the shame tea.

"Brand..names..of tea?" Kaidan's face was a picture of..something. "Like, Lipton, Teavana, Tazo..?"

The tag on the bag steeping itself to death in his mug read 'Taylors'.

"I guess?" Sparkle shrugged. "... I'm the guy who kinda likes Tazo. Don't judge me too hard for that. I'm not really a tea person."

A beat.

"Until now. I'm pretty sure until I'm done with all this, I'm exclusively interested in men and matcha."

"Tazo's not bad, if you like flavored tea," Kaidan allowed, "It just makes me eyeroll a bit at the cost for something that's just like every other grade of tea except soaked in juices."

Kaidan was not expecting that last comment, and it surprised another laugh out of him. "Have you even had matcha before? It's very bitter. You might be better off with men and Sencha."

"Matcha will show up better in a photo," Sparkle said brightly. "And that's what really matters, here."

What, did Kaidan think Sparkle was going to drink it?

He had, in fact, thought there'd be some matcha drinking involved. "Oh, that it will. It's very, very green." A beat, "You could probably find some lime edible glitter to mix in and make it sparkle."

"... Ohmygod."

Sparkle's eyes had gone wide.

"Ohmygod I'm going shopping at Dite's, like, as soon as it's open next."

You'd created a monster, Alenko.

"Is that a cake shop in town?" Kaidan asked, interested. He hadn't gone looking for one yet.

See Sparkle. See Sparkle's face go through all kinds of interesting contortions.

See Sparkle just break down snickering like he was twelve.

"Not exactly..."

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