fandomtownies | The Perk, Friday morning

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The Perk, Friday morning

Yesterday had been odd, with all the messages, but at least the radio broadcast today indicated it had indeed been an island-wide problem. Today Stark's phone had returned to its usual quiet state, though he was wondering if he ought to actually save some numbers in his phone so he would at least know who some of those very surprising texts were from. Or maybe it was better not to know.

This morning he'd gone out for a short walk before heading to the Perk. It seemed like a good day for sugary and caffeinated beverages.

"Irish cream flavored everything is discounted," the barista told him when he approached the counter. "Been 2 weeks since the holiday but the stuff just keeps showing up."

Discount sugary caffeinated beverages were even better so Stark had ordered a blended one, with extra whipped cream, and was now seated at an empty table.

[Work schedule is all weird this week so today is pretending to be Wednesday which means no kids and almost no adults. Very open! Please entertain me it's so quiet in here.]

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Summer had honestly planned to stay in bed literally all day today, but it seemed the universe had different plans for her. She was pretty sick of tea at the moment, too, and the coffee makers was too much to deal with, plus some fresh air would do her some good, and she had to catch a portal back home for the weekend eventually so might as well...

She was definitely wishing she had a little whiskey to tap into her drink as she took advantage of the Irish cream special, and when she had her drink, of course she was going to mosey over to Stark with a smile.

"Morning, Stark."

Summer looked about as rough as she felt, which was, you know, very, except for her smile. That just seemed rather...Zen.

It had definitely been her kind of week.

"You can talk again," Stark said. "Good. Recovering from all the spring breaking?"

Obviously not fully recovered, given her appearance, but Stark wasn't going to comment on that. That would be rude.

"I'll get there," Summer laughed lightly, taking a sip from her cup and definitely deciding to swing by T&C for that whiskey before hitting portalocity. "It's a slow process, but, yeah, I can talk now, so I'm already on the upswing. Even did karaoke last night! How're you doing?"

"I'm glad you can talk. And do karaoke." He was almost sorry he'd missed that, but crowded bars were definitely not his favorite thing.

"I'm fine. My phone is quiet today, at least. And there's coffee." And company, even!

"Ohmygoooooood." Summer's head tilted back with a small moan, clutching her cup a little closer. "This coffee is giving me life right now! Probably literally! I absolutely could not deal with my coffee maker this morning and I am so sick of tea."

Sorry 'bout it, Radchaai!!

She took another deep sip.

"Has your phone not been quiet lately?" she then asked, head tilted, and sipped again.

Look, yesterday was kind of a big old blur for Summer right now, she didn't remember a whole lot of details and was putting off looking at her phone because it usually was an absolute mess after a week like this one.

She did remember wanting to follow up on something about Rey and marriage? Somethung about some Evil Jello Council? But that was, like, pretty much it.

"It is good coffee. Usually the phone is quiet," Stark said. "Yesterday it wasn't. I think the island was just being itself. Again. I remember it happening before."

He took a sip of his own coffee before continuing. "Most of the messages were odd. I don't think any were actually for me. About releasing birds, and a council with Jello. And a few other things. Fire being bad. Someone offended about someone not dating them. And. An... invitation to join someone in a bath." That one really did stand out.

And he didn't know where any of them had come from. He really ought to put some numbers in his phone. But if he did he might know where the bath proposition came from and that would just be awkward for everyone.

"Oooooh," said Summer, with a little approving shift of her shoulders at that last one, "saucy. But now that you mention it, I got one about a jello council, too, but, you know, makes sense for me, right? Maybe a spam thing? And there was something about sexy space? And explosions? Some absolute gibberish from Lucifer...

"Low-key kind of terrified to check my phone now, not gonna lie."

Who was she kidding? She was already scrolling through it.

"I remember some of these calls now! Well, not the calls, but just being weirded out that people were actually calling me and not just texting."

Who used phones as phones these days, really, now?

"I did think of you when I saw the Jello message," Stark said. "Some of mine were calls. The one about the birds was. And the one about fire being bad. Not the one about the bath." Which was for the best, really.

"I just was surprised to be getting messages at all."

Had he ever even given anyone currently here his number? Maybe Anakin, years ago.

"Awwww, Seivarden!" gushed Summer, who'd just gotten to the text where Seivarden said she loved Summer's jello shots that she apparently completely missed.

And then she grinned at Stark.

"Clearly, I need to text you more than."

And she did totally already have his number.

She updated the entire faculty directory into her phone with every semester.

For party purposes.

"A real message from Seivarden? Or something from yesterday?"

"I wouldn't mind messages from you," Stark said, smiling into his coffee. "Or from others. As long as they're meant for me."

That was better than misdirected messages, even if those could be amusing.

"I might even send one back."

He definitely would.

"From yesterday," Summer explained, still beaming over it. "She was apparently telling someone that she loved my jello shot. I mean, duh, obviously, but it's always nice to hear it.

"And be ready for at least one rant about how bored I am this weekend, then. Unless Dad tried to make it another 'human holiday'" Summer definitely did the finger quotes, rolling her eyes, "by attempting to confiscate all electronics, but I think he learned that lesson. It's been a while, though, he could make another effort at literally any family gathering."

"Why would electronics make a holiday less human?" Every human Stark knew had phones and computers and various other devices. "But I will try to be entertaining if you get too bored."

He hadn't been to the bakery to be reminded by all the egg and bunny shaped treats that there was a holiday this weekend.

"He thinks it means we're missing real moments of human connection because we're too busy getting lost in our phones and devices," Summer explained. "Mostly because he's lame and no one wants to connect with him, usually."

"Oh." Stark wasn't one to get lost in his phone, probably because he'd managed to mostly avoid social media so far.

"Well. Hopefully it won't be too bad. With no confiscated devices."

Stark was obviously unfamiliar with Summer's family.

"Push comes to shove," said Summer, "I plan to introduce him to Bee TikTok as a distraction."

It would definitely be a desperate zero-hour Hail Mary play, though, for suuuuuuure.

That was a door you couldn't close once it was opened.

"I don't know what is," Stark admitted. "Should I know what that is?"

"TikTok in general?" Summer wondered. "Or Bee TikTok specifically? Although I guess if you know TikTok, it's pretty self-explanatory, there's a side of TikTok for everything, but basically TikTok is where people post a bunch of stupid videos and trends, and it's a total waste of time and totally Chinese spyware, and I love it.

"And Bee TikTok is all that, only all about Bees."

"So you'll distract your father with videos of bees? Are they all of bees or are there videos made by bees? Or videos made by bees that are about bees?"

Look, Stark lived in Fandom and he knew Summer went to places just as odd so these were reasonable questions.

Those were totally reasonable questions, all things considered.

"Just videos about bees made by people at the moment," said Summer, "until I can finally convince Grampa Rick to hook me up with Interdimensional TikTok."

"That exists?" Was Stark wondering if there were odd videos being made in the Uncharteds right now? Yes.

"And have you been to a bee planet where they might be making their own videos?"

Summer did go to a lot of strange planets.

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The Perk, Friday morning

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