Magpie Emporium, Thursday (12/16)

[drumsticksandd20s]

Listen.

Steph appreciated holiday music to a reasonable degree. The weirder the better, of course, but she could respect the classics, too.

Just not this classic, at least not to this degree.

She'd come in this morning, turned on her laptop and tried to cue up a playlist, and...

"No. Uh-uh. Nope. Nope."

It was going to be a very quiet day in the shop today which meant odds were extremely good that Steph, who'd spent the last year and a half of her life before coming here playing music all day for a living, was going to lose her mind by lunchtime. Rearranging the Wall o'Dice could only keep her so occupied.

[OOC: Open, SP disclaimer, etc.!]

Comments

[thedadalorian]

You know who liked dice? Small children. Mostly so they could either shove them into their mouths or immediately cause them to disappear forever in some other possibly magical way.

Alien kids? No different.

Which was why a very long suffering Mandalorian was tagging along after his the kid as this shop was apparently just where Grogu wanted to be today.

"No, let's not grab," Din said before Grogu could immediately cause things to topple through sheer force of childhood will.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Oh, hey," Steph exclaimed, and you know what, it might be almost pathetic how relieved she was for a distraction but the alternative was an endless loop of "ding-DONG ding-DONG" so she didn't care.

As things stood right this moment she might not even care if stuff did topple, so long as it kept her from thinking about the silence.

"Hey, little guy," she added, crouching down to give Grogu a wave. "What's up today?"

[thedadalorian]

Maybe if it had a western twang to it, Din would be down with the weird musical choices.

Maybe. But probably not.

"He likes shiny things," Din said, you know, being a bit of a shiny thing. Grogu waved a clawed little hand at her before his attention was completely stolen by something glittery and undoubtedly expensive.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph gave Din an amused glance. "That explains a lot, I think. And there are a lot of shiny things in here."

The glittery expensive thing, it seemed, was a solid metal oversized d20 with an iridescent silvery finish that was probably twice the size of Grogu's fist, one of a few on a shelf marked 'CHONKY BOIS.'

"Those are new," said Steph, taking the biggest of the folding dice trays that she had out for display and setting it out on the floor. "And I gotta be honest, I haven't really tested how balanced they are. Wanna give some of them a few test rolls for me, dude?"

Also she just thought the sound of rolling dice was a comforting one that, notably, did not involve coming out of a speaker and getting co-opted by Carol of the Bells.

[thedadalorian]

Grogu looked from those heckin' chonks of dice to Din as thought to confirm it was okay before receiving a nod and a little hand wave toward them in response.

"Is this for gambling or something?" Din asked. Because, weirdly enough, he wasn't versed in D&D stuff. Note how the potential for being gambling didn't stop him from bringing the kid or allowing Grogu to topple over as he hurled a dice into the box.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"It could be if casinos had the guts to get more creative," Steph said with an amused snort, reaching over to offer Grogu a hand back up. Then, remembering about that whole other-worlds-and-cultures thing, she amended, "Casinos around here, anyway. But nah. It's for gaming, mostly. Or bullshitting your way through pretending to be a psychic on a radio station."

Because so many people did that.

"But mainly the tabletop gaming, if you're familiar with that."

[thedadalorian]

Now he was going to just assume the squirrels played this game. Which was an amazing mental image.

"I got him a game," Din said like he totally knew all about them. "Candy Land?"

Exactly the same.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph might actually encourage that idea if she knew about it.

"... sure, that counts," she said after a brief but obvious moment of hesitation. "But this is more like... people getting together and making up a story, with an element of chance. There's all different kinds of systems with their own rules, but the general idea is, the dice tell you whether you succeed on things you want to do."

She glanced over at Grogu and the giant metal dice. "Might be a little complicated for the kid right now, but... I have way more options for when he gets bored of Candy Land."

[thedadalorian]

"Anything's better than him trying to eat all the things that keep showing up lately," Din replied, making an unseen face under the helmet as the dice ended up right on in that adorable muppet mouth over there.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph might've noticed where the dice ended up, if not for the helmet. Eh, she'd notice eventually.

"Dude," she blurted out instead. "They told me this place was weird, but I was not fucking expecting, like, festive holiday themed weird. And not with this much sugar."

[thedadalorian]

He'd... he'd just end up buying it with a resigned sigh. So much drool all over that dice.

"It's the first time either of us have experienced the holiday," Din admitted. "So, this isn't the norm, I take it."

SHOCKING.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Yes. Good. Get the kid started early with appreciation for gaming. Mwahahaha.

(She actually did think mwahahaha to herself.)

"Definitely not," Steph assured him. "All of this stuff is more or less standard winter holidays-type stuff, but not to this degree. Or this... aggressive."

She tilted her head.

"Things like... the eggnog was kind of cool? Until I needed a shower."

She was not speaking of the Yule Log and how it had utterly betrayed her.

[[Oh hi this never went through.]]

[thedadalorian]

Din had to nod in complete agreement with that. "Thankfully the fresher on my ship doesn't use water."

He'd just had to stomp across town to it, carrying a very sticky child.

"I suppose it's better than the Santa thing."

Had he gotten his explanation about Santa from Anakin? Yes. Was it squewed? Very much yes. But he would have also come to the same conclusion.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"It was the reindeer gremlins that got me," Steph admitted. "I mean, they didn't bite me, but getting tagged with little red noses was a little freaktastic."

[thedadalorian]

"Oh, those must have skipped us." The kid tried to eat them once it twice.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"I think you might be lucky there," Steph decided. "Hey kid, what do you think, do those roll okay?"

Don't think she wouldn't put a little sign on the shelf that said "Grogu Approved" or something.

[thedadalorian]

Grogu offered up the slightly drooly dice with quiet solemness. Mostly because he wasn't a talker yet.

"I think that's an affirmative," Din said, already reaching for credits like the whipped parental unit he was.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"I'll get those bagged for you," Steph said and reached for the dice with only a tiny bit of hesitation, so go her. "Thanks for being my official dice tester."

This was how the slippery slope toward dice hoarding began and she was going to enable it, dammit.

[thedadalorian]

Ah, but could she live with herself after the dice hoard destroyed along with his ship in the future?

"He'll expect more next time." Of course he would.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Just an excuse to start a new dice hoard, obviously. Obviously.

"I'm not sure if I should take that as a warning or a promise."