Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

[okteiviakom]

So that had definitely been a week between shifts that had seemed to stretch on for approximately a month, but here Octavia was again. And the store seemed to be trying to help get her mind off of things by... having turned every flower in the store yellow.

Octavia supposed she should be grateful it had only been the actual flowers, this time, instead of all the stems and leaves and everything else, too. Last time something similar had happened, she'd felt like it had been days before she'd been able to close her eyes and not just see blue on the backs of her eyelids.

She put a sign in the window (and no one would know why she was very faintly amused as she wrote it):

TODAY'S SPECIAL OFFER
sun-themed bouquets 30% off

This week, she also actually prodded at the tea set some, with mild curiosity. But still didn't brew any.

[ooc: Open! With SP until my early evening.]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

So... remember those apology cookies the narrative had mentioned on Monday?

Here they were, being carried in by Liam after his class up at the school was finished.

"Hey," he greeted as he made his way over to the counter.

[okteiviakom]

"Hey," Octavia replied with a tiny nod as she looked up at him - and then glanced him up and down for any particular visible injuries. Force of habit, almost, and/or the lingering effects of the day before yesterday. You decide!

Then her gaze fixed on what he was carrying, and she nodded towards it. "What's that?"

[firstofitskind]

Given that Liam was dressed in his typical jeans and long-sleeved turtleneck, all covered by a floor-length leather duster, all in black, there wasn't much to see in the way of visible injuries. A small scrape on his cheek, from handwavily fighting evil Christmas toys, but that was it.

(Really, there wasn't much injury-wise under what someone had jokingly called his 'everyday armor' aside from a few more scratches and some bruises, which was all to be expected given the circumstances.)

"Peanut butter cookies," he said, offering her the plate.

[okteiviakom]

"Why?" Octavia asked, frowning just a little.

... While taking the plate, yes. Refusing food was not her thing today.

[firstofitskind]

Wasn’t her thing most days, really.

“For- making you worry. The other day.”

[okteiviakom]

Fair, but she hadn't done so well with food during the beginning of the week. Bad habits, and all.

Octavia sighed, but also shook her head. "You didn't need to bring me anything for that." Just checking in would've sufficed: at least like this she could see he was fine. And also talking again.

[firstofitskind]

Yes, but baking this morning- much like cooking last night- had let him feel like he was actually accomplishing something useful.

“Wanted to, though,” he replied.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shrugged, picking up one of the cookies.

"Okay," she said, because she couldn't really argue with that. Didn't want to, either. "How's Verity?"

[firstofitskind]

"Recovering," Liam said, with a sigh. That this particular kidnapping hadn't been the worst one she'd experienced didn't actually help, because it meant it had happened enough times that they could be rated.

[okteiviakom]

At least that experience was about par for the course when it came to Fandom.

"Good," Octavia replied, just as succinctly as he had. "And you?"

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, except not all of Verity's kidnappings could be blamed on Fandom. Which was, again, part of the problem.

"I-" A deep breath. "I'm fine."

[okteiviakom]

"Well, you're talking again, at least," Octavia replied, only a little dryly.

But it wasn't as if she could just not bring that up.

[firstofitskind]

Hey, Liam would've been perfectly fine with her not bringing it up at all! For the record.

"Yeah," he agreed, a somewhat resigned expression on his face because apparently they were talking about the not-talking.

[okteiviakom]

"Barely," Octavia amended without missing a beat. "This is feeling like a lot of one-word answers."

Pot, kettle, whatever: she wasn't the one who'd gone completely mute during a crisis. She rested one hand against the edge of the counter, half a cookie still in the other. "What was up with that, Liam?"

[firstofitskind]

Hey, their conversation had at least one full sentence on his part. Okay, maybe sentence was being generous. Sentence fragment.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Sometimes, it's just- everything is too much. Trying to focus on what to say is just... one more thing."

[okteiviakom]

"It also freaks people out," Octavia replied, mildly. So mildly. "Just so you know."

She knew he already knew: she was currently enjoying a cookie that said as much. That was why she followed that up with a quiet little sigh and a shake of her head. "I know what it feels like when everything's too much. I'm sorry that's a side effect you get."

[firstofitskind]

It didn’t help that since the Repository Ship, since getting drugged by the bromeliads, he was having an even harder time than usual pretending he was alone in his head.

“Happened more when I was- new.” This last week had been the first time in a while.

[okteiviakom]

"Guess that makes sense," Octavia allowed, her tone mild but not without empathy. "I'm sure just... everything's a lot all the time when you're new."

When she put it like that, it applied to her, too. In the days after she'd been found out, and then again when she'd come to the ground.

[firstofitskind]

"Yeah." A beat, and then: "How's Duke?"

[okteiviakom]

"Recovering," Octavia replied, borrowing his word for Verity on purpose. She didn't leave it at that, though. She sighed, and pushed a braid back over her shoulder. "This was his first time really... having to deal with Fandom. You know, on this level?"

It hadn't been pretty.

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded. He knew just enough about Duke to know the other man's life had never been easy, but there was that, and then there was Fandom.

"Well. He's still here." More than he could say about the students and teachers who would have been settling in to life in Fandom this week, had everything gone as normal.

[okteiviakom]

"He is."

But he was also a handful of other things, some of which worried Octavia in ways she didn't really want to talk about.

So. "Think he's at the diner today," she added, a little more lightly. "I'm probably going over there for lunch."

[firstofitskind]

“Say hi for me?” Liam said. “Hopefully the staff are going easy on him, for once.” He didn’t go to Luke’s terribly often, but he listened to radio enough to know the staff were utter trolls.

[okteiviakom]

They would not be easy on him. In fact, it was going to be a whole thing that somehow led to a party-type situation on Saturday.

But Octavia did not know that yet. "Hopefully. If not, I might have to have a word with them."

[firstofitskind]

“Would this ‘word’ involve knives?” Liam asked with an amused snort.

[okteiviakom]

"Not necessarily."

Something about her expression suggested she had plenty of sharp edges to do damage with even without physical blades.

... And also, between the lines, that she'd maybe developed something of a huge protective streak towards Duke.

[firstofitskind]

Ah yes, that 'protective streak' thing was... shocking, truly.

"Good to see you're branching out." Did he mean the use of something other than a literal pointy object, or that implied protective streak?

Maybe both.