Turtle & Canary; Wednesday [10/16].

[sake_shinigami]

Having felt like he'd done more than enough work today with having gotten Octavia-chan's belated birthday present put together and sent out the door, Shunsui was ready to relax for most of the day, though he would still keep appareances by showing up at the shop on his usual 'work' day and maybe might even take care of a few things if Apu-san asked nicely.

He was, though, mostly just thinking about some things. There was nothing quite like the week of a school trip to make a man consider getting back into teaching, if only because that meant he, too, would be on that said free trip and be enjoying tropical vistas, exotic drinks, and beautiful women right now instead of sitting in a store hoping a very fussy man didn't start harping on him for not having ordered enough paper towels. It wasn't as if teaching here had been that difficult, either. Maybe he could reprise his class with Ghani-chan? Planning for those classes had always been a particular joy, but it would require just a touch more work than if he just threw it in and taught creative writing or something. That had been fun and required absolutely no preparation on his part, so that would certainly be ideal. And if he was teaching again, he'd have another anchor to hold him here the next time Nanao-chan attempted to drag him back to the Soul Society...

Really, the choice seemed incredibly obvious.

He...really wasn't feeling quite as sure about the Squishy flavors today, though.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Cuy
Librillo
Red

Turtle & Canary is open!

Comments

[okteiviakom]

The present had really been an impressive effort, if you asked Octavia. Also a lot of things, considering how unused to receiving gifts she was.

And she'd really appreciated all of it, and was probably going to read every last one of his terrible poems.

But there was one thing in particular that had left her curious. And that one thing - along with how unbearably quiet the island seemed this week - was what had her showing up at Turtle & Canary sometime in the afternoon.

"Konnichiwa, Shunsui."

Google was a friend.

[sake_shinigami]

And the funny thing was that it really hadn't been an effort at all; Shunsui didn't do effort. But he could get marvelously carried away with himself, all the same, assuming he never really had to break much of a sweat to do so. Being extra just came to him naturally...

"Ahhhhhhh, konnichiwa, Octavia-chan ♥♥♥!" Shunsui beamed at her greeting, because it would never not be a delight to have a beautiful woman speaking to him in his own language. "Ogenki desu ka, boku no kichōna hana ♥?"

Again. He did get so easily carried away...

[okteiviakom]

Indeed.

It got a wry look out of Octavia as she made her way towards the counter. "Daun don laik ething ai na tel yu op," she told him in a slight drawl. It sounded a little like English - but only if 'down done like e'thing I na tell you op' had been a meaningful set of words in it. "I know two phrases of Japanese now," she added, "but that's it."

[sake_shinigami]

"A hello and a goodbye," Shunsui noted, with a pleased sort of smile. "Now to work on everything in between ♥. And what was that you were speaking, my dear &hearts?" It was certainly a little bit like English, but definitely far enough removed to be only a passing resemblance to someone who only knew English for convenience. "I am certain I know zero phrases in that...

"Sake ♥?"

Shunsui, it was already poured and being handed over, why did you even bother asking at this point?

[okteiviakom]

"Trig," Octavia said, her tone on the light side, accepting the cup almost entirely out of force of habit by now. Then she amended her reply somewhat. "Trigedasleng. It's what I spoke --"

At home? With my people? She didn't really know how to end that sentence.

So, a little milder, she chose a different one altogether. "It's the language people speak where I came from. Down on the ground, I mean."

[sake_shinigami]

"Mmm," Shunsui hummed a little thoughtfully, leaning on the counter as he poured his own cup. "And what does it mean?"

[okteiviakom]

"What I just said?" Octavia checked, rhetorically, after a sip. "It just meant 'that was all I can say to you'."

It had made for a break from telling people she didn't understand them.

[sake_shinigami]

"Ah," said Shunsui, who was maybe a bit disappointed it wasn't something more interesting or at least even a little poetic, but he smiled all the same. "Well, hopefully that will only be the case for the time being ♥. What bring you in today, Octavia-chan? Groceries ♥? Beer run ♥? My incomprabable and radiant company ♥?"

[okteiviakom]

Neither Octavia nor her language were particularly inclined towards being poetic, unless you happened to think the poetry-in-motion metaphor and battlefields went together.

"Groceries," she said, even though the Blakes' kitchen was actually pretty fully stocked at the moment. It was just easier to lead with that. "But also... I wanted to come say thanks. For the presents."

[sake_shinigami]

"Ah, then perhaps you should say arigato, instead ♥," Shunsui offered, as his grin broadened a little and he nodded his head, beatifically, as if absolutely no thanks at all would be just as appreciated. "And you're welcome, or rather, ieie, tondemonai~~," he waved his hand dismissively, "don't mention it ♥ ♥ ♥ I told you I'd get you something, didn't I ♥?"

[okteiviakom]

"You did," Octavia replied with a wry sort of half-smile, because the whole gift thing was still a fundamentally weird thing for her. At least from anyone who wasn't family.

Which was... literally everyone but Bellamy, yes.

"But that's not everything," she continued, smile fading, her head tilting just a little. "I also wanted to ask you something."

[sake_shinigami]

Ahhh, those little half-smiles, retreating back into the stoic stillness of her lovely face before they even had a chance to form, likelittle little birds, dancing on the edge of a nest, too timid to chance that first leap into flight. He could write a whole new book of poems on just those smiles alone...and maybe he might. He certainly wasn't getting anywhere with that novel he was supposedly working on...he could call it Eight Treasures...something....it would definitely have to involve eight...

His own ever-present, lazy smile tilted a little with his head. "Anything, my dear ♥," he said, lifting his cup for a sip. "What's on your mind ♥?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia reached into one of her pockets, then held up her hand. "This," she said, nodding at the dove pendant, resting against her palm with its chain wrapped around her slim, calloused fingers. "What does it say?"

It was one thing to Google 'how do you say 'good afternoon' in Japanese' and quite another to look up entirely unfamiliar characters.

[sake_shinigami]

And Shunsui's smile grew until it reached a faint laugh, the beaming grin seeming counterintuitive to the casualness of his shrug.

"Kanashimi no hato, of course ♥," he offered, and he considered leaving it at just that, but, after a moment, decided to elaborate. "'Sorrow dove.' Much prettier than simply mo hato, mourning dove, and..." He felt it was far more fitting, anyway, "...the rest of it, who sings her song before the day begins, would hardly fit..."

[okteiviakom]

"Oh."

What a small, soft sound.

Octavia turned her hand so that she could poke at the pendant, turn it so that she could see the characters that were still unfamiliar in form if now not in meaning.

... Was she supposed to have said more than 'oh'? Terribly sorry.

[sake_shinigami]

But oh was fine. Oh was lovely. Oh was more than Shunsui would have expected.

Actually, no, that wasn't true. Oh was just about exactly what Shunsui had expected, and he smiled.

"You don't strike me as the jewelry type, Octavia-chan ♥," he admitted lightly, "but who doesn't enjoy a nice little trinket to remember someone by ♥?"

Said the man wearing a dead woman's haori, a dead woman's hairpins. He might be just a bit sentimental.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had plans of a tattoo drawn for her by a man who wasn't dead but might as well have been, for all that she thought she'd ever see him again. She had no room to judge anyone else being sentimental.

Her eyes didn't leave the pendant. "I like it." Somehow even more, now. Regardless of whatever that said about her. "Arigato."

[sake_shinigami]

"Ieie," said Shunsui, with a similar dismissive wave of his hand before he went to pour himself a little more sake, tilted the jug in a questioning way toward Octavia to see if she might like some more. "Tondemonai ♥ ♥ ♥."

What a funny language, Japanese. So much left unsaid, so much dependent on tone, on context. Don't mention it, he'd said, with a word that, expressed differently, could also mean outrage, could mean disbelief. Don't mention it, he'd said, when he was feeling so incredibly pleased that she had.

"And now," he noted, "you know four phrases. We've doubled your knowledge and the day is still young ♥." Yes, he knew it was afternoon. "I'd say that deserves a toast, toward our remarkable productivity, Octavia-chan ♥."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia held her cup out again for a refill, while the other hand slipped the necklace safely back into her pocket. "Your standards for what's productive are really low."

This was neither news nor an accusation. She sounded faintly amused.

[sake_shinigami]

"It's all about perspective ♥," said Shunsui, chuckling a little as he poured Octavia her next round of complimentary grocery-store booze. "And why not celebrate even life's smallest victories ♥?"

[okteiviakom]

If Octavia ever made it to grocery stores on the mainland, she was going to be sorely disappointed. Ish.

"I've never been great at spotting those," she noted, wryly. Though maybe that wasn't true? Maybe there just hadn't been that many of them, for a long time.