fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

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Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

So it was Rosa's first day of work literally anywhere other than her papi's diner in Roswell. It was a little bit nerve-wracking. But she was here. She was young(er than she was supposed to be), unsupervised, and given free rein by (the guy she assumed was) her boss to decorate the shit out of the place.

She put on some music, turning it up loud -- loud enough to be heard down the street, probably -- and surveyed her new not-quite-kingdom. Then pulled her stencils and spray paint out of her backpack.

That drumset display definitely needed a spaceship.

[open!]

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Barry's unexpected and triumphant return from being telepathic interdimensional ape-napped had put Summer waaaay behind schedule, but she was not even worried about it, literally no one was going to care if was late coming in to keep an eye on Groovy Tunes that day. No one would probably care if she hadn't even gone in at all.

But she did.

Only to find that someone was already there. And redecorating.

"Uhhhhh...?" she said, eloquently. "Hi?"

So guess who didn't bother informing the temp manager that he decided to be the new hiring person around here.

"Oh hey." Rosa smiled at the presumed customer. "I'll be right with you."

She put the finishing touches on the "not" and stepped back, peeling the stencil off as she went.

It wasn't the most inspired -- she could pretty much do this tag in her sleep by now, but it was a great start. She turned to Summer and assumed her best customer service voice.

"Welcome to Groovy Tunes. How can I help you today?"

Summer squinted at Rosa a little, because, she had to admit, 'Random Person You've Never Seen Before Employed at the Business You were Babysitting' had actually not been on her Fandom Weirdness Bingo Card that month.

Surprisingly!

"You...work here?" she asked, cautiously, just to make sure she was getting the right read on the room.

Rosa snorted. "No," she said dryly. "I'm the least subtle cat burglar on the planet."

"I mean," said Summer, with a glance toward the work-in-progress, "I've actually seen worse, but the last time anyone did rogue artwork on a business I was in charge of, they only did it on the outside of the building, so, hey, good work with that aspect of it. In broad daylight, too!"

"What, no kudos for the soundtrack?" Rosa asked, thinking Summer was joking. She gave her a once over as she turned to put her paint can back in her backpack. "So are you one of my coworkers or something? I'm Rosa, by the way."

"Summer," she offered back, somewhat distracted, as if names were hardly important at that particular moment as she tried to piece this together, "and...no, not really. I'm just the person keeping an eye on the place until the actual boss gets back from space."

Apparently not as good of an eye as she could have!

"Are you, like, that hipster guy's friend, or something?"

Rosa blinked at that.

". . . Troy went to space?"

Was she as an employee supposed to know that? She supposed it might explain why no one was around to, say, offer to train her or something.

There was a long, looooong pause at that.

And then Summer's palm met her face.

"Jesus Christ," she said. "Troy hired you. Of course he did. Because that makes sense."

The most stupid kind of sense ever, but sense all the same.

Ah. Troy lied. Right.

Rosa sighed. "I should have known that was too easy. You're not going to press charges for the art, are you? He said I could paint."

It wasn't her fault that the guy had been full of crap.

"Troy also says all dogs are boys and all cats are girls," said Summer, just so Rosa got a good read on exactly what sort of person had duped her into employment here, "so...."

But she shook her head.

"You're good, though. Last person I caught defacing store property I was in charge of wound up with a job and has been working with me for tears, so I honestly don't care. Granted, it's not my store, either. I honestly don't think Tisarwat would mind, though."

Rosa frowned at that. Thinking back, she had no doubt Troy absolutely thought that about cats and dogs, but the rest was just . . . kind of bizarre.

"This town is so weird," she muttered. "And . . . Tisarwat's in space?"

Summer nodded. "Mostly just to make sure her co-lieutenant doesn't make too much of an idiot of herself chasing after the spaceship she's in love with. We all keep telling her, dude, brah, she's just not that into you! But of course she doesn't listen.

"Anyway," Summer let out a sigh and a shake of her head, giving Rosa a sort of what can you do? look before she continued, "no idea how long it'll be, so she asked me to just sort of handle things here while she's gone..."

Her eyes now took Rosa in thoughtfully.

"I know I wouldn't mind the help, either," she pointed out, then snorted, "especially since you've clearly already made yourself comfortable."

Wow, that . . . sure was an infodump you just offered up there, Summer. Rosa was starting to get the feeling that "my corpse was stored in an alien pod for ten years and then revived" might actually be, like, low-key or normal around here.

"Okay," she said finally. "But it's still cool if I paint in here, right?"

And to think! That was the abridged version.

"I mean," Summer shrugged. "I guess so? Just as long as it doesn't look like crap, and, if it does, I can just sent Astrid in to fix it. And, well, if Tis has a problem with it when she gets back, maybe she won't dump her store on me the next time she leaves. Everybody wins."

"Wow, that was quite a vote of confidence," Rosa said under her breath, then continued at volume. "Right. Uh. So . . . anything else I can help you with?"

It was very odd going from 'woo, I'm working at a record store unsupervised!' to 'the guy who hired me was a lying liar and this white lady can't seem to make her mind up whether she cares or not'. But . . . hey. It was still more normal than going from 'dead former junkie' to 'alive but also with superhearing', so . . . whatever, right?

"I think," said Summer, after a moment of considering that maybe she shouldn't just leave her friend's store in the hands of some rando, as appealing as it was to just take the unexpected day off right when her boyfriend had literally just returned from being kidnapped by some weird telepathic ape dude for who even knows what reasons, "I should probably be asking you that. You're new here....right?"

"Been here about a week. Got the whole spiel about, you know, multiple worlds and squirrels and crap." Rosa had a whole lot of moxie for someone who barely actually understood what she'd been warned about. "I go to the art school in Baltimore."

People seemed to like to know that part, too.

Summer nodded a little, taking that all into consideration and thinking that, oof, Rosa might have other problems on her hand if her painting in Groovy Tunes ended up sucking...or her teachers, at least, would have their work cut out for thiem. "Mmhmmmm," she said, the sort of hum that went along with someone used to this sort of intitiation rigormorale and, in fact, frequently signed up specifically to go through it with new teachers like a crazy person. "And when-slash-where are you coming from?"

Right, there was a whole time travel thing happening here, too, wasn't there.

"Now-slash-Roswell, New Mexico. And yeah, I mean now, I got the date from Mr. Sunglasses Indoors my first day here."

"Mr. Sunglasses Indo--" Summer blinked. "Oh! Miguel! Right? Probably a good one to get that from, I'm, like, ninety-nine percent sure he's from the future or whatever. Did he mention his girlfriend's named Rosa, too? You're going to love her. She's one of the sweetest, nicest people I think I've ever met."

What?

Trolling newbies was hilarious.

Uh huh. Rosa was from a small town, Summer. She knew all about trolling tourists. Or newbies.

"He mentioned that, yeah," she said back, a slightly edge of too much sweetness in her tone, then dropped it with a roll of her eyes. "And that she'd be pissed to hear there's another Rosa around. Sounds super sweet."

Okay, that was fair, if Miguel had gotten to this Rosa first....

Summer had to snort. "I'm pretty sure," she said, "Rosa Diaz just exists in a constant state of being pissed. It's, like, her default setting."

Granted, Summer's experience was usually centered around doing things that would piss her off more, so you know. YMMV.

"Well, the world sometimes pisses people off," Rosa said easily. "So . . . time travel, multiple worlds, people getting crushes on ships. Anything else I need to know?"

"Hmmm." Summer's finger poised on her chin as she considered Rosa again. "Well, you mentioned the squirrels, that one's always a good one to know, and you've been here for a week, you said, so you probably noticed all the holly-jolly bullshit that comes with December. Avoid the gremlins if you can, get ready for whole-ass weekends where you're not yourself or you're five again or you're forty-five. Yes, that's actually the devil. Yes, that is a nine-foot-tall shark man. Half the town are superheroes or from space, and, most important of all..."

She paused for dramatic effect and an absolutely shameless grin.

"You have to come to Caritas on Wednesday for jello shots."

". . . That last one better not be an actual rule," Rosa said, not looking terribly impressed. "Unless they're virgin shots. I'm in recovery."

Summer's expression went a little bit sympathetic and genuinely apologetic before throwing in, "You're in luck, then. I do always make some virgin ones, because my boyfriend and some of my friends are practically teetotalers."

Rosa nodded, appreciating the way Summer rolled right along with that confession. "Well then. Guess I'll be there tomorrow night."

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Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

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