fandomtownies | Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

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Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

Sparkle came in for his shift at Pick Your Poison to find the shelves empty.

... Empty and pushed off to the sides of the shop, out of the way of what clearly looked like some serious swirly-floral floor painting efforts. Which confused him and delighted him in about equal portions for all of a minute as he looked over the work, before frowning back at the shelves.

"Uh... are we closed today?"

He had no idea. He cracked open the door to try to air out the paint smell and then went to check the back room to make certain they still had stock before sitting his ass behind the counter, looking bemused at best.

...

He had no idea if they were closed today. But the door was open?

[Open? Probably!]

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[CW: Just going to throw this on here now, for a lot of closeted gay kid Feels.]

See, here's the thing. When you're a closeted gay kid in the South -- even when that "South" is close to a major city like Atlanta -- you do pretty much everything you can to avoid coming across as gay. Which means not trying out all of the really fun smelly bath things, because apparently straight guys don't want to smell nice, which, honestly, Simon has never really understood. Especially since body spray like Axe was such a thing. ... Although, he admitted, it's not like Axe actually smelled nice, at least in the quantities it was usually used.

But this all lead him to this: he was in Fandom now, no one here knew him before or had any expectations, and while he wasn't sure he was ready to be out, he was starting to think he didn't necessarily want to be in, either.

So: in googling "Fandom Island Lush", he'd eventually found his way to a listing for Pick Your Poison. Which... didn't seem to have much int he way of stock at the moment, but the floor looked really cool.

"Uh, sorry, are you closed today?"

[I am one with the SP! The SP is with me!]

"You know, I have noooooo idea," Sparkle drawled, looking up at the -- new? -- kid and grinning crookedly. "We've got all our stock in the back still, and I can turn the register on, so I guess I can sell you stuff. I just showed up for my shift and, like, boom, empty shelves. Paint smell. Great floors, though. What can I do for you?"

"Uh." Simon blinked and ducked his head a little. "I don't really know? It's my first time in a store like this. For me, anyway." Sure, he'd been 'dragged' in before with his mom, or Leah, but it was different this time.

He got to do something for him, because he wanted to, and that was actually kind of an intoxicating feeling.

Aw, little cutie. Sparkle gave him a quick grin at that.

"Well, we've actually got plenty, in spite of what the shelves look like. Shower gel, cologne, those fancy scented candles, soaps... bath salts and bombs and bubble bath, but I'm gonna guess you're living outta the dorms, right? So probably not that stuff so much unless you're one of the, like, four lucky students who got a bathroom in their room."

In which case, Sparkle would cheerfully call you an asshole.

"Hell, we even have some tea."

He glanced around.

"I swear."

Simon briefly considered using a public bathtub and shuddered. "Uh, yeah, no, maybe... some other time, for those," he said. "But... maybe the shower gel?" That was a nice, safe, totally straight thing to check out. Shower gel. Perfectly straight.

"Shower gel," Sparkle replied, grinning crookedly. "You want any particular kind of smell at all? Iris tries to keep it seasonal, so we're getting into, like, apple spice stuff. I like that. But there's this kinda musky one I like, too." He paused. "Not for me, like, on other guys. I'm not really a 'musky' person."

But he pictured Leto wearing that smell all the time.

... Wouldn't happen. Shower gel and all. But let a guy have his unlikely shower fantasies, here.

"... The apple spice sounds really nice," Simon said, maybe a little awkwardly. Sparkle was cute and liked guys. And, like, talked about it openly, which... wasn't surprising on Fandom, all things considered; being gay was probably less of a concern when normal included 'people of different species from other universes'. "I, uh, don't think I'm really a musky person either."

To be fair, Simon wasn't entirely sure what 'musky' smelled like.

"Here," Sparkle said, grinning a little, "I'll get a few kinds-- we have it in hand lotion too? Which is fucking awesome, I was using it last week and it just straight-up smelled like apple pie, you know? Not that I'm gonna lick my hands off or anything but oh my GOD I was tempted."

He ducked into the back room. If Simon spooked and bolted before he got back, hell, he'd be disappointed. And that was why he mostly just came back in short order with a random armload of shower gels for them to do sniff-tests on, bottle by bottle.

Simon... may have actually briefly considered bolting, but, no, he was there when Sparkle got back, although he goggled a bit at the armload of bottles. "... How many kinds of apple spice are there?" he asked.

He wasn't quite sure how he felt about the idea of hand lotion yet. On the one hand, apple was a nice scent! He liked the smell of apples! On the other hand...

Well, on the other hand, the lotion would probably feel just as nice. Maybe it was worth a try.

Sparkle gave an easy laugh and a shake of his head at the boy's confusion. Yeah, fair, he could see how maybe the kid would get a little bit tripped up.

"Not this many," he promised. "I just didn't want to spend too much time digging in the back room for something when I might just be going back for more anyway."

Oh, that made sense.

"So... what am I looking at, here?" Simon asked, a little overwhelmed by all of the options. "Like, this is all shower gels?"

Sparkle dumped the bottles down on the counter, and then started putting them to rights like some kind of roadside market vendor.

"Looks like I might have grabbed some shampoo too," he mused, picking one up and frowning at it thoughtfully before setting it and a few others to the side. See? Already narrowing things down. "I figure we can start with the apple, and if any other ones catch your eye, you can have a sniff at those, too. Just some casual shower gel huffing in the fancy soap store."

"Huh, okay," Simon said, stifling a laugh. "So... Just smell the stuff?" That seemed easy enough. "What should I start with?"

Sparkle picked up a bottle and nudged it Simon's way.

"The apple spice," he offered. "Since you seemed pretty interested in giving it a try anyway?"

Simon took it and flipped open the cap, taking a small, very cautious sniff before smiling and breathing it in a little more deeply. "... It smells like... Like autumn," he said, and then made a face at himself. "Which makes sense, I mean, you said that's what the owner's trying to do with them, right? But it's nice. I like it."

It felt... almost a little dangerous to admit that out loud. But good. It felt surprisingly good.

"They're all pretty great," Sparkle agreed easily. Shit, he wasn't supposed to feel like some kind of pusher just getting a kid to smell some shower gel, but here he was... "Showers are you time, you know? You might as well, like, have a shower that smells like you want it to. And the only person who has to live with you all day every day is you, sooo..."

He grinned and picked another bottle at random.

"Now I want to just work your way down the row." He paused. "No, like, allergies before I start shoving scents at you?"

Simon shook his head, although he couldn't help but flush a little bit at the thought of showers and, uh, 'you time'.

Phrasing.

"No allergies," he added. "Uh, not that I know about, anyway."

Oh, teenagers.

"Cool," Sparkle said, and shoved the next bottle Simon's way. "Huff thissssss. Orange blossom and cedarwood."

Simon sniffed it, frowned, sniffed again and wrinkled his nose. "It's... not bad," he said, "but I don't really think it's me." He handed it back. "Too... Fruity?"

He blanched for a second, scrambling to follow up with, "I mean, like. Actual fruit, not- Which is weird, because I liked the apple, which is also a fruit. But not this one. Which is, like, orange? Maybe? Is it orange? Maybe I just don't like orange."

Excuse Sparkle for a moment. He just totally needed to take this few seconds in order to not crack the fuck up.

"You're talking about body wash, kiddo," he pointed out. "'Fruity' is a word. You want something more spicy? Sounds like maybe your nose doesn't like that whole 'splash of citrus' thing, so we can work with that."

Edited 2018-09-13 02:13 (UTC)

"Uh, okay." Simon nodded. "That's, uh, okay. Cool. Uh, spicy sounds good. Let's go with spicy."

Not that he really knew what 'spicy' smelled like. Like... Indian food? Indian food-scented shower gel didn't really make sense to him.

Oh, kid.

"Vanilla, cinnamon, and clove," Sparkle said, nudging that particular combination Simon's way. "Tell me what you think."

Simon took a sniff and moaned, just a little. "Uh," he said, flushing madly. "... I like that one."

You don't say.

"Spicy," Sparkle replied, grinning crookedly. "I think we found a winner."

And how.

"So what you're looking for are fresh smells, not necessarily sweet smells, you don't do musk and I'm willing to bet the best part of that apple pie one for you were the spices, too."

He grinned a playful little grin as he straightened up, there.

"I know we have other products with that smell, too, if you want to make it your thing."

Simon was definitely a little embarrassed, but said, quietly, "... Yes, please."

He took another sniff of the bottle and just smiled and sighed.

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