fandomtownies | Luke's Diner, Wednesday Afternoon

Larceny came into a very confusing sight this afternoon. Cook was arguing with the boy who brought her food and cleaned her tables (he did nothing with buses and she refused to call him that, buses were vehicles) and the inside of the restaurant was covered in crate and crates of--

"Turnips!" Cook howled. "Why would you buy so many damn turnips?!"

"Not just turnips!" The busboy argued. "Turnip futures! I was talking to this girl, her gran raises turnips, and she was telling me how they're the next big commodity! We're gonna be rich! As soon as the stock price of turnips skyrockets, we sell!"

"Turnips are a root vegetable!" Cook pointed out - using a spatula to do all the pointing for him. "They're never going to skyrocket!"

"Wait, really?" the busboy asked. "But Daisy Mae said--"

"Her grandmother grows turnips!" Cook threw his hands up. "Her job is to sell turnips! Of course she's going to tell you they're the next hot commodity!" He stalking into the kitchen, leaving the busboy to stare at the crates stacked to the ceiling with turnips. A moment later, the dishwasher came out and patted the kid's shoulder. "Besides, everyone knows the real sellers are rutabegas," he said kindly.

Larceny just slipped into a booth and shook her head. People on land were so weird. "No," she said, when the boy came over to ask what she wanted with a hopeful look in his eyes. "No turnips. Pasta. And cake."

Today's Specials
Roasted Garlic, Parmesan, ~~and Turnip~~ Pasta
Southern-Style Turnip Greens
Kihen Fin Veisseriben Cake
WE ARE VERY SORRY!

[No OCD]

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Duke swung by the diner on his way back from class.

". . . Right, what's with the turnips?"

"Something about the future," Lucy said. "And a...stalk...market?"

She was very confused.

"Turnip stocks." Duke shook his head. "I don't know why I ask. How's it going, Luce?"

Larceny held up her cake. "This is not a very good cake," she informed him.

She was still gonna eat it, but like...

"Also, I know new things!"

"Yeah, I'm not sure I can get behind turnips in cake," Duke said. "What new things did you learn?"

"Charts," Larceny explained. "And a meter is one dolphin deep."

Maybe he'd think someone else had come up with that equivalence.

"One dolphin! That's good to know. I am so using that later. Did you figure out where your home is?"

"One dolphin high, not one dolphin long," Larceny said, making sure that it was clear. "No, not yet. It is closer to the type of water that I hit when I went away, rather than here. But it's not like that waters."

"Well, what kind of waters are you looking for?" Duke asked. "I've seen most of them on this planet."

Was she from another planet? That'd explain a lot. . . .

"Warm," Larceny said immediately. "Blue and green. The sand is soft and pale and the fish are bright."

"So the tropics," Duke said. "That narrows it down at least a little. Though if you're from the Pacific, that's still a lot of ground to cover. Are you from an island?"

"Umm." Larceny froze. How to answer that. "This is an island," she said cautiously.

"Yes," Duke said. "And there are a lot more of them out there."

"Yeeeeeees...." Larceny said slowly, thinking of the landmass that was closest to her pod's territory. "I am from an island."

"Alright," Duke said. "That helps narrow it down a little! I'll see if I can dig up some other charts and maps for you."

"Thank you!" Larceny said. Then frowned, suddenly concerned. "...If we find out where I am from, will I have to leave this island?"

Duke shook his head. "Not if you don't want to. Anyone tries to tell you different . . . I'll punch them."

Or, you know, be aggressively obnoxious at them until they backed off.

"You don't actually have to do anything you don't want to, you know that, right? Like, it's nice when you do things people ask you to, but it's not required."

"But I do not want to go to jail again," Larceny said, with complete solemnity.

"That's fair. I avoid going to jail whenever possible, myself." Duke shook his head and sighed. "Okay, so there are in fact some things you have to do whether you want to or not. But leaving isn't one of them." He tilted his head, wishing he'd found a better segue than this. "Speaking of not having to, I was wondering if I could get the boat to myself for a few hours on Friday? Octavia and I have been wanting to go out to sea for a bit."

Larceny looked at him with eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What in the sea did you want to look for?" she asked.

"Tranquility?" Duke said, shrugging. "We're just going to go out and drift for awhile. Relax, have some snacks, play some music. Kind of a really low-key date."

"Oh!" Larceny immediately brightened again. "You want the boat for spawning!" She waved a hand. "That is fine. Do you want to put me in the service room again?"

Duke coughed, eyes going a little wide. "Not -- not spawning, just -- you know what? Sure. Let's go with 'spawning'."

He really hoped there wouldn't actually be any spawning on this trip. Vanessa was nice and all, but he wasn't ready to be a dad yet.

"We're not going for that long? I can get you a room if you want, but you can also just, like, hang out somewhere. Octavia promised to get you some cupcakes either way."

"Cupcakes?" Larceny asked. "I get cupcakes?"

She would have been happy with the service room - though Duke admittedly might not have been - but cupcakes were a delicious bonus.

"I would like cupcakes, yes," she said with a decisive nod.

“We thought you might. So we have a deal?”

"Yes," Larceny said, sticking her hand out to shake. "I will go away while you spawn and then I will get cupcakes."

Duke sighed. “Yes. And then maybe we’ll talk about modern dating habits and the use of the term ‘spawn.’”

Sounded infinitely less interesting than cupcakes, but never let it be said that Larceny wasn't curious.

"Okay," she agreed. "But cupcakes first."

Luke's Diner, Wednesday Afternoon

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