fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes; Tuesday [10/27].

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Groovy Tunes; Tuesday [10/27].

So. This was it. This was Tisarwat's first Tuesday not as a mere employee of the music shop, but as its owner. The position was potentially temporary, but, knowing full well how things were likely going to go out there, back home in the Radch, she wasn't expecting she'd see much of Breq or Seivarden again. Some other Tisarwat would. She'd talked it over with Summer a little, trying to figure out how it all worked, but it just ended up giving her a headache and it was probably best not to think about it too much, because if there really were infinite realities like Summer said, then literally anything could happen, and that idea made Tisarwat feel deeply uncomfortable.

So she was going to focus less on being the last Radchaai standing and more on the fact that there was a business to be run, and at least there wasn't a whole lot to it, but it was definitely going to feel pretty lonely both in the store and the apartment below so her first order of business, she felt, was to make sure there was a sign outside. It was sort of in the off-season, with no new people around looking for work, but maybe with all these holidays coming up, someone might be interested in earning a little extra cash for it. Either way, the sign simply read:

Now Hiring

And Tisarwat went to turn her attention to mostly how inefficient and needlessly complicated the whole process of using a computer was on this planet.

Groovy Tunes is open! And under new management!

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Lucille could probably come up with an excuse to stop by for new sheet music, but today she showed up with a bouquet of flowers instead, a few pale pink carnelias with three pink roses.

It being Tisarwat's first day at work as an owner was a good reason, after all.

Anything Tisarwat knew about business was borrowed from the Anaander Mianaai part of her brain, which wasn't very useful on a small scale, but even she could tell, looking over records, that it was boggling how this business managed to stay afloat in such a tiny economy, and yet...and it was with that distraction that she heard someone come into the shop and she turned her head, blinking her lilac eyes back into the world around her dully for a moment before people and places processed over numbers and figures.

And her face immediately lit up once it had.

"Lucille! What a pleasant surprise!"

Well, hardly a surprise. Lucille had probably accounted for ninety percent of the traffic into this store these days, but Tisarwat wasn't going to complain. The surprise part might not be true, but the pleasant part was.

"I wanted to congratulate you to being a shop owner, even if I understand that your friend leaving makes it complicated."

She held out the flowers.

"And to thank you for recommending me as the new owner to the flower shop."

Complicated didn't even begin to cover it...

...but that was hardly what Tisarwat wanted to focus on right now.

"They're beautiful." And they weren't the expected purple, either, which was nice, or maybe just a sign that she hung out with Summer too much. Tisarwat took the flowers to admire them closer and breathe in their sent, and then grin over at Lucille. "And it seemed like the most logical choice."

She rather did lean toward people with a way with plants, didn't she?

"Thank you," she added, with sincerity as her attention shifted back to Lucille. "Now I feel remiss for having not done the same for you and your own new business, but maybe I can make up for it with some tea."

Which was going to be offered and enjoyed anyway, but...

"I do have a lot of flowers to choose from, and your tea is always lovely."

Lucille added: "I admit I just wanted an excuse to visit."

"You hardly need an excuse," Tisarwat pointed out, and she might have actually had trouble to keep the faint grin off her face, but she wasn't going to bother trying, "but that's a good one.

"It's Radchaai tea, too," she added, pleased and proud of this fact as if she's actually done something to procure it, as she went to pour some for Lucille and hand the cup over before giving herself a refresh. "With all of her back and forth, Summer's done a good job to keep me supplied for a while. She also thinks she might be able to manage to keep a small supply chain open and keep the store stocked with some, too. She says if she can keep meiloorun stocked in the off-season from one galaxy, then she can definitely keep tea from another in supply, as well. I guess if either of us find ourselves struggling in our new positions as shop owners, we can just ask her for help."

She concluded with a warm smile, and a sip of her tea.

"I think we can manage, though."

"I think so too," Lucille said, taking a sip of tea. "Although now I'm curious what kind of plants I could get from other universes."

"Maybe," mused Tisarwat, amused, "you could start growing your own tea. And it would be interesting to see what unique kinds of plants you could start bringing in..."

"Growing tea? I suppose it would be better than the herbs I used to grow at home," Lucille said wistfully. "I added them to the tea sometimes. Bitter, like everything else there."

Also poisonous.

"A bitter tea can be nice on occasion," Tisarwat allowed, "but I admit I prefer a smoother cup."

Like this one right here, which made Tisarwat sigh a little wistfully herself.

It was so nice to have decent tea again!

"And I admit I do too," Lucille said. "Where is it grown? The tea, I mean?"

"Oh, almost anywhere," Tisarwat said. "We terraform entire planets specifically with tea cultivation in mind. It takes a lot of tea to support an empire as big as the Radch."

Then she laughed. "Maybe we can finally find a use for this moon of yours if it really is as useless and dumb as Summer says."

Terraforming the moon for tea cultivation would be a pretty good step toward making this galaxy a little more civilized, after all...

"That's a wonderful idea."

One that Lucille couldn't even imagine possible, despite what Tisarwat said.

Lucille. Don't encourage her!

"I don't think the technology out here is quite there yet," Tisarwat admitted, her tone actually starting to shift toward something more thoughtful and serious, "but perhaps now that we finally can contact at least one version of my homeworld, it might not be entirely impossible."

"It sounds completely impossible to someone from my time," Lucille said. "Like something out of a novel, although I don't think I've read any where they end up growing tea on the moon."

She paused.

"Should there be an opportunity to visit your universe... well, it would be quite exciting."

"I would actually like to read a book about that," Tisarwat realized, looking amused. "It's too bad I don't know anyone with writing skills. The best I could probably do would be a poem..."

And it would not be a very good poem, try as she might.

But her smile went a little distant after that. "I don't think I'll be visiting for a while now, though," she admitted. "I think if I were to try...I wouldn't want to come back..."

Which was, at the heart of it, the main reason why she hadn't. She knew she wouldn't come back.

"If you do write a poem I want to read it," Lucille said, smiling. Tisarwat's second comment made that smile fade, though.

"I... understand, perhaps. Of course."

There was a small smile for the encouragement should Tisarwat ever actually write a poem like that, but her attention had shifted far away from poetry at the moment, her eyes drifting away toward the flowers Lucille had brought her, sitting there on the counter.

"I've been thinking about it a lot," she admitted, as if it was anything surprising, like someone in her situation wouldn't, not really. "It's incredibly tempting, even if it isn't the right time for me, but it would also be...complicated. It's hard to explain. Breq and Seivarden have their own paths to take; I've already taken mine. Trying to walk it again would just mess things up. I think...I think I'm meant to be here, at the moment..."

Her gaze shifted back to Lucille, with another faint smile. "Besides, it wouldn't be right. They were stuck here for several years; I should have to do my time, too."

"I... yes, that makes sense."

Lucille tried not to make how she felt show, and took another sip of tea.

Tisarwat had watched that simple, restrained response over her cup with interest, before taking a sip of her own, a warm but almost pointed smile on her face when she lowered the cup again.

"Besides," she added, "I've found a few things worth staying for."

"You really should learn how to play the piano," Lucille said, now smiling. "But that's my opinion."

"A popular opinion, too," Tisarwat noted with a small laugh. "Breq said something similar before she left. I guess I have no choice. I wouldn't want to let either of you down."

Lucille laughed too. "She likes music, doesn't she?"

"She really does," Tisarwat agreed fondly. "I'm just glad she had a chance to learn some new ones that she could bring back with her. I think some of them will be appreciated."

Eventually.

"Perhaps you even get to see each other again," Lucille said. "If you are from the same time. Although I imagine your universe must be vast."

With more than one planet, even more than one solar system.

"But that reminds me, I was about to ask if you wanted to visit again, for another lesson, or just poetry and tea if you prefer."

"I would love to." Tisarwat's enthusiastic answer came without even a moment's hesitation. "Did you have any time in particular in mind? A moment we might both be able to spare in our new, busy, shopkeeper lives?"

"I work on Saturdays," Lucille said. "But it's usually quiet, and it's just during the day. Perhaps in the evening?"

"No plans to go to the Halloween party that night?" Tosarwat asked, tilting her head. "Though it would be easy to make time for both."

And that was an excellent excuse to show up to the party fashionably late...

"I forgot about the party. What about a light dinner before that, and whatever music we have time to play?"

Lucille was truly oblivious to any assumptions that might be made from that.

Which was almost impressive, really, while Tisarwat could only be very pleased by all this.

"I think that sounds perfect."

After a sip of her tea, she then asked, "Do they have this holiday where you're from, Lucille?"

"Yes, but it's not celebrated quite the same way, and I grew up in a very remote place, where it was hardly celebrated at all," Lucille said.

"It is a time where the dead and the living are supposed to be able to meet though, although I don't believe in that."

It would make life complicated.

"Are you going to wear a costume?"

"I was thinking about it," Tisarwat said, adding a small grin. "The posters did say it was encouraged. I'm just not sure what."

"I have a black dress," Lucille said. "I might just wear that one, and something in my hair."

It was gothic enough, at least.

"I am no expert on Halloween costumes, though. If there is anything I have that you want to borrow you are welcome to, of course."

"I can't imagine much of what you have fitting me well without some considerable adjustments," Tisarwat noted with a clear appreciation for the difference between Lucille's shape and Tisarwat's own much lankier one, "but I might have a look.

"So-called monsters seem to be very popular, though," she added. "Maybe we could take some inspiration from one of your books."

"Which monster would you prefer?" Lucille asked, curious.

"Vampires seem like they'd be easy enough," Tisarwat mised, though the choice had less to do with ease than it did...personal bias.

And theme.

For some reason that choice made Lucille pleased.

"Then maybe I shall be one too."

"Sounds like we have a plan," Tisarwat noted, pretty pleased about it herself. "This should be fun."

"I agree," Lucille said, trying to hold back her excitement. "It should."

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Groovy Tunes; Tuesday [10/27].

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