fandomtownies | Turtle & Canary; Wednesday [03/10].

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Turtle & Canary; Wednesday [03/10].

It was a point of pride for Shunsui to be able to nap virtually anywhere; he'd napped during battles before, after all. But today...today was definitely proving to be a true test of his slumbering prowess, because today, apparently, was the day that Apu-san was celebrating International Bagpipe Day. By playing bagpipes for the customers. Poorly.

(Although, really, Shunsui felt it was hard to tell when bagpipes were being played well, for that matter).

After several attempts to try and convince the man that perhaps International Bagpipe Day was something that shouldn't be confined to the walls of their lovely little shop and should be spread out all over the island had failed, Shunsui finally decided that the only strategy that would work here was to slip the cheese panda a little bit extra (which did include having to take some cheese, too) to go and cause a ruckus and a mess in Aisle ~~Handwavey~~, thus forcing Apu-san to abandoned hte pipes to heed the call of clean-up summons.

Shunsui excused himself for a moment so he could then take those bagpipes, teleported himself out to the ocean so he could properly dispose of said bagpipes, and then returned to the store, where he could not only enjoy the quiet of the store, but also a little bit of cheese that turned out to compliment his sake very nicely, and then pretend he had no idea what Apu-san was talking about when he finished the clean-up and asked after the missing bagpipes.

And people claimed he never did anything around here. Tsk.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Blueberry Muffin
Poblano Pepper
Red

Turtle & Canary is open!

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Octavia had not come by in what felt like forever, but what had realistically speaking been something like a month. And even today, she was feeling a whole lot exhausted, but both Duke and Lucifer seemed to be striving to get back to normal, so...

Anyway.

She slipped in through the door, as quiet as always.

And, really, a month was hardly anything at all. Maybe not quite the blink of an eye that a week could be, but hardly even worth marking...

...and Shunsui could use a little quiet after all those bagpipes.

"Ahhh," he said, smiling lazily pit of his supposed nap when he cracked open an eye at that quiet entrance, lifting the brim of his hat. "Ohayō gozaimasu, Octavia-chan ♥."

"Hi, Shunsui," Octavia replied, as she was making her way to the counter. Her tone sounded a little softer than she herself had expected it to.

She found herself looking forward to the sake, too.

(Not that she usually didn't. But, look: she hadn't been looking forward to much at all, lately.)

"Don't see any particular weirdness happening here today."

"That's because," Shunsui said, the hat pushed back to match his sitting up fully, cups already in hand as he explained, "you've missed it. Apu-san was quite into his bagpipes earlier, but for the sake of everyone, I dutifully took care of it ♥."

He even used his powers and everything! This was next level self-sacrificing heroics over here, truly.

He offered out a cup. "Sake, Octavia-chan ♥?" he asked. "I even have a nice camembert to accompany it today as well ♥."

"That's a cheese, right?" Octavia checked. They all seemed more or less the same thing to her, but you did not spend as much time as she did getting fed by Lucifer Morningstar and not pick up at least a grudging understanding that they were not, in fact, all the same.

She reached out for the cup, carefully picking it up off his hand. Careful to do the unnecessary touch that went with it, too.

Shunsui's fingers lingered with the withdrawal of his own hand to pass the cup over to Octavia's possession, too, the same way his smile lingered with a new softness whenever she did take than unnecessary care.

"It is," he then confirmed. "From France, I believe ♥. I'm no connoisseur by any means, but I think the panda steered me well in this case ♥."

By insisting that he took it or else the destruction in the aisles would be far, far worse.

"Have some," he nudge the platter forward, "and tell me if you agree ♥."

"I don't have a lot of opinions on this kind of thing," Octavia said, like that was a warning that needed to be given.

But she reached for a piece of cheese as well, all the same.

Shunsui gave a thoughtful hum as he poured a cup for himself now.

"Some might say," not him, obviously, but some, "that not having a lot of something makes it more valuable ♥."

"And some might be wrong," Octavia rasped, perhaps predictably. She didn't care.

Still, there was care in the way she bit off half the piece of cheese into her mouth, the way she chewed and really seemed to pay almost a laughable amount of attention to the whole thing. Texture, taste.

Octavia and food were a special sort of case.

"In my experience," said Shunsui, lifting his up as if to toast to that, "they usually are ♥."

And it worked out well, enjoying a deliberately long and thoughtful slip of his sake, to give her the time to put more consideration into that bite of cheese than it probably deserved.

Octavia could ritualize eating pieces of bread and think they deserved it. Once she was done being overly thorough, she took a sip of her sake. Just to see if they -- paired well together? That was the term, right?

And with all of that done, all she came out with was a gentle, "It's nice."

And for all his accoutrements of excess, Shunsui certainly could appreciate the understated as well.

"Then I think that makes it a success ♥," he decided, with another lift of his cup, as he reached for some of the cheese for himself. "The panda will be pleased to hear it. And I would be pleased to know how your day has been, Octavia-chan. Hopefully as nice as camembert and sake ♥?"

Octavia lifted one shoulder. "There's not a lot to say." Considering she didn't want to share how all her mornings right now began with making sure Duke was still there. "We're just... getting back to normal. I guess that's nice."

It always seemed like there was an element of getting back to normal about Octavia when she did manage to make it into the shop these days. He considered that, and her answer, with a slow and thoughtful sip from his sake.

"Normal can be nice," he agreed lightly, "depending on what that normal might be, I suppose..."

It only seemed like that because that was entirely the case.

Octavia sighed quietly. "I don't have the energy for getting philosophical about semantics, Shunsui."

"Who truly ever does, Octavia-chan ♥?" Shunsui replied, with a soft, crooked smile and a wave of his hand, fully aware that that came with its own phiosophical sementics.

"Just...an idle observation." Meaningless. Conversational. Safe. "That's all."

"I guess," Octavia muttered. She took another sip.

Considered the tiny bit of cheese still in her hand.

"The normal here is that Duke was missing for thirteen days," she rasped, "and now he's not."

"Better not missing than the alternative," said Shunsui, with a tilt of his head, "I assume..."

He could absolutely consider a few instances where that might not be the case, though those were not typically situations he encountered anywhere around here.

"How is he?"

He would have preferred to ask how she was, but that question seemed slightly more likely to garner more than a shrug in response.

The fact that she was even here answered part of that, too, he felt.

[[ sorry for the mega-pause. I definitely had a whole brain eaten, it's still slowly recovering in a petri dish ]]

"He's hanging in."

Meaning he was putting up a facade as hard as he could, Octavia was pretty sure.

Much like she was.

"Adjusting, I guess. He was gone longer in his universe than he was from our perspective."

Edited 2021-03-12 15:18 (UTC)

Which she, clearly, wouldn't know anything about, or anything, neh?

His head was already tilted, so now Shunsui quirked a brow.

"How much of a difference?"

"Not as bad as it could've been."

Said the woman with the 'one month/seven years' time difference under her belt.

"Two weeks for us, two months for him."

"Mmmm." Shunsui hummed thoughtfully at her response, drinking down what remained in his cup so he could pour himself a little more.

"Better two months than two years, I suppose," he said lightly, with a smile to match, as he poured. "Or two hundred...

"You must be glad to have him back."

He finished the pour, held up the jug with an inquisitive tilt toward her, to see if she was interested in a top-off.

Octavia was, on both counts. She held her cup out for the latter.

Said, "I am," for the former. Then rasped, "And it's better than two thousand, either." Maybe sounded like an idle addition, just continuing the pattern. But it wasn't.

It was a specific reference. Joys of being close with the king of Hell.

"Any amount of time in Haven is too much, though."

Yes, the whole lot of them had quite the penchant for mucking up time and then getting stuck in it, didn't they?

Shunsui carefully poured more sake into Octavia's cup.

"Makes one think the person in charge of naming it has quite the questionable sense of humor," he noted wryly.

And this was all before the way it would happen to Octavia within-universe if she ever went back where she'd come from.

"They had reasons," she said, milder again. "Ones that made sense. Just, not for us."

Given everything with the Crockers' particular trouble.

"I'd say I'm making sure he's never going back again, but..."

"...promises made," said Shunsui, as if to finish the thought, to pick up where Octavia trailed off, "of things beyond our control are like eggs: easily broken."

A dip of his head, a sip of his sake, and a light, faint smile.

"Best stick to the ones we know we can keep ♥."

"Are there even ones anyone can make here, and one hundred percent expect to keep?"

The island could do whatever it wished at just about any moment.

The question was met with a faint breath of a laugh, the lightest of chuckles.

"I suppose you have me there," Shunsui allowed, acquiescing with a tip of his hat, "Octavia-chan ♥. I suppose all we can do, then, is the best we can."

But he seemed to quiet a little as he took another sip.

"I've always found promises to be...terribly overdramatic, anyway."

"You're the one who brought them up," Octavia pointed out, after a sip of her own. "Mine was just... intent."

Though still foolish.

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Turtle & Canary; Wednesday [03/10].

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