Pick Your Poison, Thursday

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Yeah, yeah, taking inventory, selling things, checking the webshop, whatever. Margo didn’t have time for shopkeeping bullshit today, Margo had a mace, and she was starting to get the hang of it.

So anyone coming into Pick Your Poison today was gonna find a one-eyed queen in fashionable exercise wear, jabbing the air with a nicely-sized mace. Was it going to help her handle her axe when she got it later? Probably not.

But fuck, it was fun.

Crash.

“I never liked that shelf anyway.”

[ open ]

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[not_a_goddamn_princess]

If you don’t want to risk getting brained by mace-wielding Fillorian royalty.

Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Get her attention from a distance, first.

Re: Talk to Margo

[begmetwice]

Irene had just been coming in to do a spot of shopping and flirting with her favorite misplaced queen, but when she ducked in the door, it was quite literal today. For all that Irene put on a brave, unflappable front, big crashy noises tended to make her just a touch nervy.

At least, until she got a sense of what was going on, anyway.

"Oh, you've got a mace," she noted admiringly, hands over her head as though something might hit her. "Amaya's work, I presume?"

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“It’s just temporary,” Margo said casually. She made no attempt to hide her smug delight as she gave the mace a firm spin and looked at Irene over her shoulder. “She’s making me an axe,” she smirked.

Re: Talk to Margo

[begmetwice]

"I have one, too," Irene noted, recovering some as she watched Margo. (The delight was cute; that helped.) "Took it home when I was a child for a weekend and it was inflated, and now it's displayed quite beautifully on my wall."

And she still owed the blacksmith herself a business date, in partial exchange, but that was neither here nor there.

"An axe sounds...easier to use?" she guessed.

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“I mean, I’m kinda digging the ‘blunt instrument’ vibe of this thing,” Margo said, turning towards Irene. The mace dangled comfortably between her fingers as she lowered her arm. “But something that goes choppy-choppy and I can actually throw around? Super fucking useful.”

Re: Talk to Margo

[begmetwice]

"I'm used to things with a bit more give. Bendiness," Irene admitted, stepping more into the shop now that she wasn't especially worried about being hit by anything. "Are you experienced with axes, then, Your Majesty? I don't know that I would have taken you for the axe-throwing sort."

Not because it didn't seem like it was in Margo's nature -- because of depth perception, but Irene was too discreet to say as much.

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“I’m not,” Margo said. “Right now. But I already got a gun for emergencies. Might as well expand my options, if we’re going to be stuck on this stupid island for a while.”

She shrugged one shoulder, still casual. “And whipping isn’t for everybody.”

That was what Irene was getting at, wasn’t she?

Re: Talk to Margo

[begmetwice]

Smart girl. Sometimes it was so nice talking to someone who just got what she was saying, without Irene deliberately shocking them.

"Whips rather lack in immediate deadliness, too," Irene noted with a slow smile. "A gun's not a bad idea, either, though I'll tell you -- I've used a riding crop against Fandom's ne'er-do-wells more than my pistol, oddly enough."

Just the once, which was more than the zero times she'd shot at anyone on this island.

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Hot.”

What? It bore pointing out.

“Sounds like a story. Dish.”

Re: Talk to Margo

[begmetwice]

Well, Irene did cut quite a figure with her crop, so it was also accurate.

"Creepy carnival rolled through town, possessed half the people," Irene shared, leaning against a shelf casually. "The answer was ultimately hugging them -- lame, I know -- but I had to get close enough to a friend of mine without actually hurting him first. Crop it was, followed by a bit of professional-grade slapping until he held still enough for my liking."

And, granted, she'd been coming off a bit of arsenic, so she hadn't really been at her best. It had taken more slaps than she would have preferred.

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Huh,” Margo said, pursing her lips and nodding. “I stand by my ‘hot’ and raise you a ‘fuck yeah’.”

Re: Talk to Margo

[begmetwice]

"Thank you much," Irene said, inclining her head in faux-humility. "And if I may, the mace thing? Also hot. Switching it up to an axe won't change much."

All it meant was that Irene now had several well-armed people she could call upon if she felt endangered, so that was nice. Self-reliance was always Plan A, but that didn't mean she didn't constantly mentally run through Plans B-Z, as well.

"'Specially," she added, "since we've gone far too long without anything violent happening around here. 'Tis the season to acquire a weapon before it's too late."

Re: Talk to Margo

[existencemisspent]

Eliot came in and watched her work with an amused eyebrow for a long moment, then waited for a natural pause in her action before clearing his throat.

"So. I need to ask a favor of you and I'd appreciate it if you weren't holding a deadly weapon when I do."

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Margo turned to face him. She lifted one perfectly-plucked eyebrow.

“Well, with an opening like that, I’m definitely not gonna put this down. Sorry, El.”

Re: Talk to Margo

[existencemisspent]

Eliot heaved a dramatic sigh but nodded.

"I need someone to check my metamath," he said. "And you're the only one around here who's even remotely qualified." He held up a hand. "And before you refuse, if you don't I'll just triple check it myself and then try it out, so you're less likely to get a dead or crazy Eliot if you agree."

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

The head of the mace landed in Margo’s palm in what was sure to be a reassuring image. “Are you fucking shitting me,” she said. “Eliot.”

Re: Talk to Margo

[existencemisspent]

"Margo," Eliot said back, coolly. "I don't like it any more than you do. But Jon is going to end up feeding somehow no matter what. Might as well make sure he can do it with minimal damage."

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Have you forgotten the last time we fucked around with Gods and God-like entities and shit and found out?” Margo hissed.

Re: Talk to Margo

[existencemisspent]

"Of course not, Margo, I was the one who was actually there when Quentin killed Ember. But I'm still glad he's dead and didn't actually destroy Fillory."

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Margo made a strangled noise.

“You’re going to get yourself killed, El,” she said. There was a frisson of fear within the anger now. “If not now, then next time.”

Re: Talk to Margo

[existencemisspent]

"No, I'm not," Eliot said simply. "Not if you check my metamath. I'm basically just . . . putting up a firewall. It'll let whatever that thing feeds on out, a trickle at a time, but won't let it in. And then snaps the flow shut. A minute or two of blindness for the both of us, and then he's basically taken a multivitamin and we both go on our merry way."

Re: Talk to Margo

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Margo pinched the bridge of her nose. She spat out a few more creative curses.

“Fine,” she snapped. “But only so you don’t blow yourself up.”

Re: Talk to Margo

[existencemisspent]

"Thank you," Eliot said, with tremendous dignity. "I know I'm not a genius like you, but I am a very good magician."

He was. His work only needed a little bit of adjusting to make sure the flow was consistently one way, and then it would do fine. Sure, it could probably work better as a cooperative spell, but it wasn't like Eliot was about to ask Margo to cast it with him. Then she really would knock him unconscious and lock him up for his own good.

He pulled a little notebook from his pocket -- battered and mostly full of erotic doodles and the occasional shopping list, but also a few of his other homemade spells, and flipped it open to the correct page. Then offered it to her.

OOC

[not_a_goddamn_princess]