fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes; Tuesday [12/17].

After spending apparently two weeks in a pocket dimension that existed in one of the school lockers which had only felt like a day at most, Tisarwat was definitely feeling a little bit off, but she figured the best way to get herself on again was to just try to get back to things as normal. And since her return conveniently fell right before a Tuesday, that included going into the music shop today for her usual shift.

The lack of hot water to make her tea that morning was not helping things, though, nor was it being much help in convincing her that she'd even wound up back in the right dimension. She knew, of course, that these things happened here this time of year, but it all felt disjointed and she felt disconnected, but she was mostly figuring she didn't have much choice in the matter, so she might as well try to make what she could of it.

Which meant sipping on eggnog in the vain hopes that it could be even remotely as satisfying as tea, while trying her best not to whimper at the sound system in the store, which seemed to be insistent on slowly increasing the volume of the music she was trying to play softly because no tea plus two weeks in an alternate time-displaced dimension meant her headache from last night had not gone anywhere.

But at least it was usually dead in the store while she was there, right?

Groovy Tunes is open!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Sounds like the stereo is misbehaving again," Breq said, noting that Tisarwat hadn't resorted to swearing due to the lack of tea, something that she guessed the other Radchaai on the island had.

"Good to have you back."

She listened to the radio.

Tisarwat's ridiculous lilac eyes regarded Breq witheringly, even though she was relieved to see her. If she had wound up in the slightly wrong dimension, at least the people so far seemed consistent...and understanding.

"It's good to be back," she said, despite that expression, although it deepened a little as she looked toward the speakers, then toward her cup of eggnog, which managed to produce a distasteful curl of Tisarwat's lip.

"I think," she added.

"What happened?" Breq asked, prepared for anything.

"Oh, and I'm sorry I can't offer tea today."

"No, it's okay," Tisarwat said, her tone resigned. "I understand. But it's not really that bad."

Actually, Tisarwat thought the eggnog was awful. Not that it tasted bad, necessarily, but just that it wasn't tea, and it reminded her of things she herself had never had. But the only person she'd complain about it to would be Seivarden.

And possibly Okuyasu, who always managed to either be sympathetic to her plights in a strange way, or at the very least had some absurd story about some Stand of some kind, or something equally dumb, to distract her from them.

"And I got stuck in some sort of hidden pocket dimension in the school lockers. For two weeks, even if it only felt like a day."

"I think something like that happened to Seivarden once."

Breq definitely wasn't paying a lot of attention to what happened to Seivarden.

"You only missed two weeks of strange events."

Which, for Tisarwat, was still incredibly weird and ironic.

But Breq's comment made her smile, just a little. "So I've heard," she said. "Nina filled me in on some of it. I apparently got back just in time to catch a party she was throwing. It's funny, though." Her head tilted thoughtfully. "I've heard it gets like this every year, around this time, but people seem to have very different opinions about it."

She felt like Seivarden and Nina landed on exact opposite ends of the spectrum, too, which just made her all the more intrigued about where to place Breq. This Breq, anyway, who she was still trying to figure out.

"What do you think about it?"

"It's annoying, but I can't do much about it and it could be worse."

She had worse things to be upset about, after all.

Turning the focus back to Tisarwat, she continued: "And beware if the plants with white berries show up. They usually insist that people kiss each other."

Breq had cut the one who had tried to pieces. She just mentioned this in case Tisarwat preferred to avoid someone, or not. She was a seventeen years old baby lieutenant, she was bound to have a crush on someone.

Or a handful of someones, as the case may be, one of which was wholly inappropriate, but that was just par for the course, really.

"The plants insist?" Tisarwat's brows lifted, and she figured she'd probably best avoid the flower shop until she was sure that one had passed, but at least she was feeling enough of herself again to appreciate the warning.

It gave her the chance to put together an optimal strategy.

...how disappointed she'd be to discover that the number one target in that strategy wasn't even going to be there for it...specifically because of it, no less!

"Does anyone know why?"

It seemed an odd thing for plants to care about.

"Not that I know," Breq said. "You can also bring a knife and chop them up."

In case Tisarwat wondered what Breq had done last year.

"Are you planning to celebrate the holiday?"

Chop them up with a knife?

Tisarwat's head tilted slightly, masking the thrill that shot through her just then.

Because what better place to go and get herself a good knife, should she find herself beset with such plants, than from local blacksmith...

She shrugged her excitement away, though, at Breq's question. "I don't know much about it, really," she admitted. "Except that it involves gift giving and whatever else it throws at us during the month. But I'm sure there will be some parties and things like that, so I'll participate that way. And maybe get a few gifts for my friends here, of course."

Everyone was getting gloves.

She didn't feel she needed to really tell Breq that, since she figured Breq would know it would be gloves or tea, and any tea she could find here would be in line with a Radchaai insult. But the gloves were fine.

"Have you found a good place to buy gloves yet?" Breq said, as if reading her mind. "I understand you can find good tea on the mainland, even if it's not the quality you're used to."

She had been taking care of Radchaai officers for two millennia. She knew what counted as proper gifts.

"Well, I was going to start looking in earnest at the beginning of the month," said Tisarwat, with maybe a small snort, "but it seems that the school had a different plan for me instead."

Good thing she (somehow) knew about Amazon.

"There's still time," Breq said.

She might get some gifts for people she knew, in case they gave her something. The fact that they might was still strange.

Groovy Tunes; Tuesday [12/17].

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject