Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

[okteiviakom]

There were so many Valentine's Day orders. Why were there so many Valentine's Day orders already? Sure, Octavia didn't have to be putting them together yet, but she was spending half her day on the phone taking down notes about the most extravagant arrangements possible. And occasionally arguing over what was actually feasible and even sensible, because Octavia was no particularly good at acting like the customer was always right.

Suppose she should just have been glad no one had placed an order for anything with lingerie roses yet.

Or sex toys.

[ooc: Open! Hiii I actually have a couple of days of relatively free time. Also, links go to Covent Garden posts from last year, so they're safe to click.]

Comments

[mages_suck]

Fenris had been confused by the orders on Sunday that he was totally at work for shhh. With nothing else to do on Thursday, he stopped by the shop to see if one of the other employees would know.

He.. hadn't met this one. He unabashedly listened in on one of her phonecalls. Fenris blinked and introduced himself. "Hello. I'm Fenris, I work here on Sundays. This isn't my world or my holiday. Do you have any better idea what in the name of Andraste's peachy tits all these orders are even about?"

Hi, Octavia.

[okteiviakom]

For a split second, Octavia looked like she was maybe considering asking what the hell anyone's tits had to do with anything. But, she'd been on the island long enough to let differences in slang slide. Wasn't as if she didn't spend most of her time completely baffled anyway.

And he'd asked about something she actually did know. "This time and place has a holiday specifically for caring about people." So someone had told her, anyway. Though in retrospect, Christmas also fit that particular bill. She made a face. He'd probably already seen her make several of them during the call. "I don't know why they want to do it with roses."

[mages_suck]

"I don't understand," Fenris admitted with a shake of his head, "Isn't that supposed to be the point of all of the holidays? Why roses? We are getting a very large number of orders for them and I admit the only ones that make any sense are the rainbow-hued ones. They're rare. I could see how that would make a fine gift."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia could only offer up a very expressive shrug. "I don't know," she said, because she really didn't. "I don't get how affection is supposed to be shown through giving people things that just look nice, to begin with."

That was... not entirely true. But at least she could tell herself it had been different with Lincoln and his flowers.

[mages_suck]

"I don't either. People here and now are very strange," Fenris said, baffled. "Why wouldn't the gift be something practical or useful? Or edible? Nothing quite says 'I care about you' as much as an entire elk carcass. 'I care about you and I want you to eat well for a month'."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia paused, for a second.

"I would say that's a little much for one person," she hazarded, "but they have freezers here. So it actually works." Her nose wrinkled up. "Better than flowers, anyway."

Guys. Guys. You both sell flowers for a living.

[mages_suck]

"Might be a little much for one person," Fenris mused, "Even two. You'd need a really big freezer."

He was now eyeing the walk-in flower cooler speculatively. Fenris, no!

"Flowers are pretty but they don't mean anything," he agreed. Then paused and asked hesitantly, "Do you know if they are supposed to? Has Peter said anything about that? He didn't to me."

Though leave it to Fenris to put together arrangements that had flowers meaning 'you're annoying', 'go away', 'I'd rather kiss a wet toad'.

[okteiviakom]

"The school apparently does a big Valentine's Day flower-sending thing every year," Octavia replied, foregoing the shrug physically but it was still vaguely there in her tone. "Some of them seem to be more in tune with what the supposed meanings are, so I've seen some lists."

But she doubted people really thought that deeply into it.

"A lot of them are just trying to say they want to sleep with whoever they're sending the flowers to, anyway."

[mages_suck]

Fenris made a face immediately. "So they're for cowards who can't just.. ask?"

Made a note to never send anyone flowers, ever, for any reason, just in case.

[okteiviakom]

"This time has a lot social conventions."

Spoken dryly, like someone who had a lot of trouble with those.

[mages_suck]

"I've come to expect a certain lack of sense about this place," Fenris answered dryly, "It rains candy sometime. Flowers that mean 'hey do you wanna bed me' aren't much of a surprise." A beat. "Little disappointing though."

[okteiviakom]

"Think the 'screw me' flowers aren't as island-specific as the weird rain," Octavia rasped, although it was really neither here nor there. "But yeah."

She sighed, although it was quiet and short.

"Everything here is weird."

[mages_suck]

Fenris made a face again. "Everything here is weird," he agreed and said morosely, "Even the currency. It's paper when it isn't a plastic card."

That had been an unfortunate discovery.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia couldn't help a snort. "As if money isn't weird by itself."

They did not have that where she came from, no.

[mages_suck]

"Money made of metal isn't weird," Fenris argued mildly, "If you don't like it as coins you can at least melt it into a new and pleasing thing. Paper money?" He shook his head. "Ridiculous. It tears."

[okteiviakom]

"No, all money is ridiculous."

Sorry, Fenris, you'd stumbled upon one of Octavia's main grievances with the present day world. But at least she wasn't in any way heated about it: she was just stating personal facts.

"The material doesn't matter if I'm still expected to just believe that it should be worth anything," she continued. "Because it's really just something that people decided, and now everything revolves around it."

[mages_suck]

Fenris blinked. "You think people who labor for things should just give them away without recompense? How would they purchase new materials?"

[okteiviakom]

"You think people should have to purchase anything?" Octavia retorted, raising her eyebrows a little. But only a little. "The whole system is garbage."