T42 - Thursday 6am-6pm

[hernando_fuentes]

The sign was rattling impatiently when Hernando entered the store. He walked to it with a curious glance at the nautical themed decor and pictures. The sign read:

SPECIALS
Hot Buttered Rum Tea (no actual rum involved) 50%
Baked Goods - BOGO


"Hot buttered rum..tea?" Hernando asked the sign. The sign didn't answer. It simply shook itself a little impatiently. With a shake of his head he went to put it in the window.

Then he went to try the tea. It was a mild black tea that did indeed taste like buttered rum. Or perhaps like Buttered Rum Lifesavers. Hernando had not had any of those in ages but he remembered the taste from childhood when the children he sometimes played with would pretend it was indeed possible to become tipsy or even drunk from the candies. It was not possible to do that in fact; it was simply a silly children's game. An attempt to feel as though they were putting one over on the adults while being very grown up and enjoying adult privileges for themselves.

The pictures on the wall were all themes of the sea. The wall behind them was decorated with a net and some sisal or hemp rope wound around the pictures to draw attention to them. Blown glass floats of different colors decorated the tables.

From speakers.. Speakers? Yes, speakers that weren't there the day before.. came the softened strains of sea chanties. Music only, no words. This.. was probably a good thing, Hernando reflected once he remembered most of the words to those songs.

[Open!]

Comments

[mountaingorilla]

And so, in walked in a small red-haired Chinese-looking girl with big blue eyes, carrying a purple parasol she folded up after entering and stepping into whatever non-sunlit part of the shop was handy.

"...why does this shop look like an old sailor's fever dream?" she said, because really.

[hernando_fuentes]

Hernando looked at the little girl and simply said, "Because it wants to. Tomorrow perhaps it will look different. Welcome to T42. May I get you anything?"

[mountaingorilla]

Kagura pointed at the sign. "What kind of baked goods are they?" she asked, because unsurprisingly she was more interested in the food. "You didn't look like the old sailor type, but then again maybe there's a secret old sailor in the back, gnawing on his hook and sharpening his peg leg."

[hernando_fuentes]

Hernando pointed at the counter in case perhaps she was a little slow. It was hard to miss the counter. It was right in front of him. "Muffins, cupcakes, danishes, tea cakes, scones and," he glanced at a plate of .. well it must be.. "today we feature hardtack ship-biscuits."

He ignored her commentary.

[mountaingorilla]

Kagura made a face at the idea of eating hard tack.

"I'll take all the cupcakes, then," she said, digging out her money pouch. "Do you have an old sailor or are you just really into seamen?"

[hernando_fuentes]

Hernando counted the cupcakes and pulled out two white pastry boxes with cupcake inserts. If she wanted a double-dozen cupcakes then he would sell her a double-dozen cupcakes.

He briefly thought about sending Kanan a text. Whether to tell him the shop was out of cupcakes or to point him at the child who shared his appetite for them was still of a question.

"You would have to ask the store why it chose this theme. It was like this when I opened this morning. It is not a theme I would choose, no, but if it makes the store happy to decorate itself thusly, I shall not complain."

He did the math and divided it in half. "That will be $42 dollars for the cupcakes. Would you also like some tea?"

[mountaingorilla]

"So the store wanted to be filled with seamen?" Kagura said, handing over the money happily. Hey, she would probably eat six of those before leaving the shop.

She paused, and lowered her voice to a whisper, like she was being discreet. "Is there a boss watching you that you can't make fun of? Is that why you're talking like the store is alive?"

[hernando_fuentes]

"As you can see, the store is neither filled nor decorated with sailors," Hernando said calmly, "Whether or not it wished that, you would need to ask it. I have never heard it speak but perhaps you shall have better luck."

He smiled fondly at the wall of tea. "I am the only boss here though I prefer to think of myself as a caretaker and not an owner. The store is, as much as any store can be, alive. Certainly it is sentient."

Hernando took the money and repeated, "Did you want tea or no?" She really did seem just a little slow.

[mountaingorilla]

Not slow, just... single minded. She looked at the wall of tea and thought about that.

"I don't want any rum flavored," she said after a deep breath in. "I'll take some green tea, though. And... do you have any dog biscuits?"

She snickered to herself. He thought the store was alive.

[hernando_fuentes]

Hernando looked at her with the long-suffering patience of a man for whom someone asking for 'green tea' as if there were only one kind was a personal trial.

"I do not have dog biscuits. You could perhaps try the hardtack," he said doubtfully.

Hernando smiled up at the wall. "The little girl would like some green tea. She does not much look like she would enjoy matcha. Perhaps a sencha? What do you think?"

One of the cans rattled. He went to take it down and looked at the label. "Hojicha? Hm. Very good choice."

While his back was turned, a box rose up through the counter. It was a smaller white pastry box but on the cover was printed a picture of a multicolor-spotted dog.

Hernando's eyebrows rose when he turned back and saw it. "It appears I am wrong. We have dog biscuits in reserve for a.. friend's dog." Plating two of them for her, he turned and began preparing the tea. The box of biscuits sank back through the counter.

[mountaingorilla]

"What?!" Kagura sputtered, pointing at the counter.

"Your shop is haunted!"

Yes, that's how she was interpreting all this.

[hernando_fuentes]

"Then you do not want the dog biscuits?" Hernando asked politely and reached for the plate.

[mountaingorilla]

"...no I still will," Kagura said. "I hope you are a benevolent ghost and get all the seamen you want!" she declared to the air. "Just coming in and out all the time."

"...Arigato, Mister shopkeeper."

[hernando_fuentes]

Hernando glanced at the door purely to make sure Fjord was not about to walk through it.

He pushed the plate back toward her and then set about removing the tea bag from steepage and passing that over as well.

"You are welcome," he said solemnly.

[mountaingorilla]

Kagura pocketed the dog biscuits for Sadaharu (who would probably swallow them whole) and took the tea with shaky hands.

She gulped it down in one go, paid her bill, and took her boxes and rushed out the door.