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Turtle & Canary; Monday [06/13].

Maybe Summer was just feeling a little bit cranky because all the efforts with the Chocobro Situation were turning up bust, despite all the progress it felt like they'd made over the last week, but she was really starting to get annoyed with Apu following her around the store while she was doing her inventory checks, just so he could tell her all about softball.

Finally, at some point, about halfway through the process, in the middle of the hardware aisle, something snapped and she turned on him.

"Apu!" she said. "I am a bisexual white girl from the suburbs. I know about softball, okay?"

He just sort of looked at her for a moment and then started to say something about how those kinds of stereotypes surrounding the sport--

"Ohmygod," Summer lifted her hands. In surrender? To strangle him? The world may never know. "Just...go make a display or something! Please!"

And that was how a giant pyramid of softballs came to all but block the Squishy machine. Proceed with caution. It looked....tentative as best.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Peanuts
Cracker Jack
Red

Turtle & Canary is open!

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After talking with Steven last week about the Eos Gods and spending the weekend going over the book just in case she had missed something, Liz figured she should return the Cosmogony book back to Summer and maybe see if there were any more developments, even though she was pretty sure Summer would have let her know if that was the case.

“Hi …” she started to greet Summer and then paused, noticing the display of softballs, she tilted her head, “that’s different…” she blinked.

Summer's hands just flew up in the air in a gesture of her endless futility and rolled her eyes. "It's always something different around here," she complained. "Happy World Softball Day, apparently."

With that, she sighed, and asked, "But how's it going, Liz? How're you feeling?"

It seemed to really be hills and valleys with her lately, which....you know, understandable, but Summer felt it would help to know how she might need to temper any news (or the absolute and utter lack thereof) if she asked.

“I didn’t realise that was an official day,” Liz blinked, “but then I don’t really follow sports, so I suppose that’s not really all that surprising,” she considered.

She paused as she thought about her answer to Summer’s question, “I’ve been feeling more tired than normal lately,” she admitted, “I thought last week it was because of Shenanigans but I don’t know …I seem to be a bit all over the place more so than usual,” she said, agreeing with Summer’s narrative, “but I think today feels like it’s one of the better days, been trying to keep busy, have a couple of new photography projects to work on,” she revealed.

"There's a day for fucking everything," Summer supplied, possibly just so she could squeeze in one more epic eyeroll. "Just ask Apu. Actually, no, don't." She could already feel him perk ip at the prospect, even half-way across the store. "You'll be here all week.

"But new projects are good!" she hastily added, because Apu's sweeping was definitely getting closer and she already regretted giving him even a sliver of hope of entrapping a new victim for his endless softball facts. "What're you working on?"

“Well I had photography lesson with Steven last week,” Liz revealed, “and I ended up offering to do some professional photos of him and Marc, they didn’t have any and I thought that way I could so brush up on my editing skills,” which she figured was a safe way of explaining the project without getting into too much detail about why she needed said editing skills, “I’m still learning my way around the more recent digital software side of things,” she added, “but I thought it would be nice to help them like this,"

Summer's head tilted a little as she listened, half wondering if all that photography stuff was going to wind up sneaking up on Liz, because, you know, that had definitely been a significant through-line between her and Prompto, but...it seemed pretty good for her now to have a focus (...ha...), so who knew? Summer was definitely still going to vaguely pencil in a potentially tearful breakdown in the middle of a photo editing session at some point, because you never really knew what that kind of thing would just come up and smack you in the face.

"So you get in some practice," Summer noted, "while also doing something for someone else. I can only respect that kind of multitasking, really."

Summer was probably going to have to clear her entire schedule, especially once a certain discovery was made …. there was going to be a lot of breakdowns in Liz’s near future.

Not that she knew any of that just yet.

Liz smiled, “it is nice to be able to have some projects to work on,” she said, “I mean I know I probably need some new hobbies but photography is really the only thing I’m good at, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with trying to find something new,” she admitted and there was a pause, “and I was actually thinking of maybe offering some photography lessons as well,” she revealed, “I don’t think I’d want to be in front of a classroom but Steven did suggest I could do them on a smaller scale, like when I was teaching him the other day, I was thinking about expanding what services the Photo Hut offered … private classes might be something to consider,"

Summer almost wanted to make a quip about Prompto being out of his own teaching gig when he got back, but...well...

"You could definitely always put it out there," she offered encouragingly instead. "See if anyone picks up on it. I mean, especially since it already sounds like you've got at least one prospective student in line."

A student she'd been spending quite a bit of time with lately, actually...

Summer's expression went a bit....curious, we'll go with that.

Liz bit her lip, “I was worried about maybe taking on teaching photography when that was … well …it was the last class Prompto taught before…well...” her voice trailed off uncertainly.

She noticed Summer’s expression and panicked just a little, “Steven’s a friend!” she blurted out very quickly but before she could stop herself she found herself beginning to go rather red as she said it.

Panicked a little?

Summer's eyebrows shot to the fucking roof at that.

"Well that," she noted, "was not at all a suspiciously quick response to something I didn't even say out loud, unless you've been holding out on me about some hot new mind reading skills there, Liz, wooooow.

"But good to know you were worried about Prompto's photography class, I guess."

Edited 2022-06-13 11:21 (UTC)

That blushing? If Liz was going to be any redder she was going to be on fire literally.

“Um…” Liz stared down at the floor and was desperately wishing the ground would swallow her up, when no such reprieve came she forced herself to look back up at Summer, “no…nope … um no new mind reading skills,” she rubbed the back of her neck.

This was so much worse than when she had inadvertently told Marc that she did really like Steven.

Just tapping into something barely below the surface of a well barely the depth of a thimble, apparently. Summer just sort of looked at Liz for a moment and that reaction and shook her head.

"I mean," she said, "like, I get it. Because that man is very cute and you are very lonely, but you jumped on that speculation faster than a drunk girl on a stripper pole. Something you need to talk about there, Liz?"

Edited 2022-06-13 11:40 (UTC)

“Um…” Liz was staring at Summer with very much a ‘deer stuck in the headlights’ expression, “I mean … I …. I do like him … like a lot,” she confessed, since that was now pretty obvious, there wasn’t much point in denying that, “but nothing’s happening, like between us I swear …” she wished she wasn’t so red as she tried to speak some kind of coherent sentence, “Steven’s just a very good friend, I … I like spending time with him,”

And Summer found herself balancing a little bit on an edge in that moment, watching Liz carefully, thoughtfully, that edge of deciding whether to push an issue or to just let it go...for now. But the last minute or so had definitely provided Summer with an awful lot of....interesting information, and maybe she just needed to sort of...run some analysis on it, or whatever, before anything else.

The worst part of her wanted to just sort of ask if she should cut the communicators now, and it wouldn't even have been a sarcastic dig.

So Summer's expression made it clear that she'd relent, for the most part, for now, and just offered out a mild, non-committal, "He does seem pretty nice."

Even if it did seem a little sus that he'd show up and so quickly attach himself to the one woman currently going through a textbook Boyfriend Stuck in Another Dimension crisis, buuuut, she supposed she'd give him a benefit of a doubt...

What? She'd met the guy once at the bar. She didn't know jack shit about him at this point.

Liz relaxed a bit when it seemed Summer wasn’t going to ask any more questions because she wasn’t really sure of the answers herself, especially since she had promised Marc that she would protect Steven and she had a feeling this conversation wasn't what he had in mind.

“He is,” despite herself, Liz gave a fond smile at that, “he’s so funny and sweet, he brought me ice cream at work last week,” she paused, “it wasn’t vanilla,” she added, “it was all chocolate,”

That was … really not helping matters Liz.

It really, really didn't, especially when Summer knew for a fact that that move had worked on her before, because when you came in one day to find out that someone had purchased literally all the ice cream in stock that wasn't vanilla or vanilla-adjacent, you checked the tapes.

"Uh-huh," said Summer. "Should I go get some mimosas so you can keep telling me how wonderful your new totally-just-a-friend is properly?"

Sorry, Liz, if you were going to meet all this with gushing about the guy, you kind of deserved that one.

Liz winced a little because yeah … okay she did deserve that, she knew how she sounded and really … hadn’t been able to stop herself, “sorry,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck as she did, “he just reminds me so much of Prompto and sometimes, he makes me forget how much I'm always missing him," she admitted.

"Deeeeefinitely not me you need to apologize to," Summer said.

But...since she really couldn't apologize to the person who probably needed it...

"I mean, you do what you feel like you need to," she added. "Just, you know....letting you know what it sounds like, dude."

And honestly? If Summer was doing all this work just for Liz to turn around and apparently glomping onto the next available Prompto-proxy, she was going to be just a wee bit miffed about it.

“It’s that bad?” Liz bit her lip, now definitely worrying that she was going to have to say something to Marc because … she had definitely not intended to let it get out of hand like that, “I mean I promised that nothing was going to happen … like, it hasn’t,” she added, just in case Summer still had her doubts, which she realised in all likelihood meant that she did and maybe other people did to, “it … I ...I was supposed to protect him, not make it worse..."

Protect who? Prompto? Steven? Summer was definitely feeling like she may have missed a small thread there.

"Let's just say," she hedged cautiously, "that you crying to me the other week about Prompto finding someone else is definitely hitting a little different right now."

The colour completely drained from Liz’s face as she stared in horror at Summer, which considering how red she had been not that long ago was rather impressive.

“Oh …” it came out in barely more than a whisper, Liz really wished she could have said more, offered up any kind of defence or protest that it wasn’t the same when …

“Oh…”

She really couldn't think of anything, only stand there ...realisation setting in that she had definitely screwed this up.

Welcome to having female friends, Liz! Especially one who will have literally no qualms on calling you out on your bullshit!

"Yeaaaaah," said Summer. Succinctly.

But she did take a moment to look at Liz thoughtfully, sympathetically, and sighed, leaning forward on the counter and feeling like maybe grabbing one of Shunsui's sake bottles under the counter.

"But, hey," she offered, not knowing if this would hurt or help, but knowing if Liz needed to do a little soul-searching , she should at least have a few perspectives to consider. "The thing with Miguel's multidimensional hub yesterday was a very handwavey bust and we haven't gotten a single new blip on the communicators, so maybe this is a sign to move on. I don't fucking know, but it does sound like something you might want to figure out."

“I …I don’t know,” Liz was finally able to form more than one syllable words , staring down at the book that she had forgotten she was holding.

It wasn’t what she had meant to say at all. She was tired and her emotions were all over the place and nothing was making any sense.

“I mean I love Prompto, I do with all my heart and I do wish he was here …”

Liz sighed, “I never intended…I mean I didn’t …Steven … oh god …how did I get to be in such a mess?“

....Justifying your feeling with a statement that felt like it was going to be followed by a big, fat but definitely didn't help much either, and Summer's next sigh was a much softer one.

"Because you're lonely and hurting and confused," she said, unable to help thinking about a certain glowy alien just then, just a little, "and when you wake up every day freefalling with uncertainty, it's nice when you finally feel some solid ground beneath your feet. Your situation right now suuucks, Liz. There's no beating around that bush. But that's also why you can't just go fumbling around in it blindly, because that's just going to do this and make it worse.

"You just really need to figure out what's important to you right now," she added, "and act accordingly. With, like, purpose and awareness and shit. Because you have enough uncertainty right now."

Liz bit her lip and could only nod, the shame and guilt gnawing at her, “I …” she hesitated, “I maybe I should head home for a bit ….I told Dr. Lecter I would go home if I didn’t hear from Prompto ….being home for a while might help me make sense of everything, before I screw it up even more,” she closed her eyes taking a few deep breaths, “before I hurt them even more,”

"I mean," said Summer, "you said nothing'a happened, so no damage done yet, but, yeah, maybe a little distance..."

From here. From...well, she had distance from Prompto, so maybe the memories of him anyway...and from Steven...

"...will help put things in perspective for you."

Liz nodded, “maybe I’ll take the photos for Steven and Marc and then go home, I can work on the photos there,” or at least until she was told about a certain discovery that would derail everything and would make working on anything extremely hard.

And Summer nodded, too. "Go home," she said, "get some space from all of...." Her hand waved in the air a little, " this, see how you feel when you get back. I mean, you said it yourself, it's literally doctor's orders, so consider this your very emphatic second opinion."

Summer almost wanted to throw in that, hey, maybe she'd even get a breaktrhough by the time Liz got back, too, but she really wasn't feeling confident about that after yesterday's trip to Miguel's whole thing, so...

Liz managed a very tired smile, “okay, I’ll try and sort my head out,” she said softly, somehow she didn’t burst into tears, “I never thought in a million years I’d be in this position …I …didn’t think…” her voice trailed off, “I just miss him so much,”

Liz.

Liz.

You were making it very hard for Summer to not be the bitchy snarky friend right now, but she was going to bite her tongue on that one, and she let out a breath.

"I know," she said, instead. "And it's hard and it sucks, but you're also a tough ass bitch, and you got this, okay?"

“I don’t feel particularly tough right now, I’m falling apart over two guys,” Liz tried to laugh but it came out in a sob instead, “one guy was hard enough and now I had to go and make it even more complicated,”

Then a couple of tears started to roll down her cheeks.

So much for not crying.

Well. Summer certainly wasn't going to argue with her on that last point.

"I mean," she said, "you could always just say fuck all guys entirely, that's seeming like a pretty good and unexplored solution that takes care of both of them."

She was kind of wishing they had some tissues handy, but she did find a napkin nearby, though, and handed that over to Liz.

Liz took the napkin gratefully and wiped at her eyes, “at this point I think it would be easier if I just became a nun,” she said, “enter a convent and just devote myself to God instead, I mean I have more than enough sin to make up for,”

That sentence was going to have a whole new meaning next week.

She was going to blame this on how tired she was, it was definitely not something she would have willingly shared.

Inventory was running low, both at his apartment and at the shop. One could be remedied with a simple supply order, the other however involved visit to the T&C. At least that meant he got to see Summer this time.

Billy had been by enough times to know things going be a bit odd at the store at times, so he gave a glance to the questionable softball display and then jsut had one thing to say.

"It's Apu isn't it?"

"It's almost always Apu," Summer confirmed with a sigh and a shake of her head. "And he's on a roll today, too, so I suggest avoiding him at all costs while you're here, unless you actually like having your ear talked off about softball, which, I mean, hey man," she held up her hands, "no judgement here."

Well. Some judgement.

"Not especially" Billy said with a dry laugh. "Always been a bit more into the contact sports honestly. Football and the like. Wrestling was actually my thing before I ended up enlisting."

"Really?" said Summer, the surprise in her voice absolutely nonexistent. "I would have never guessed."

But she was appreciating the visuals that went along with this shocking revelation, so thanks for that, Billy.

Hey what could he say? When you were gifted with muscles you put them to use. But you were welcome for the visual there Summer.

"Anyway, with the weather finally getting warmer I figured it was time to start really ramping things up at the shop. Got some classes lined up and all but realized I still needed a few things."

"Makes sense," Summer allowed. "You need some special order things? Or do you think they'll be stuff we might already have lying around the shelves somewhere?"

It was at times an absurdly large and resourceful store. The fact that it only took a few mere hours on a Monday to do the inventory checks was kind of shocking, really, from a technical standpoint.

But Summer was wont to just skip whole ass aisles out of the mere assumption that no one had been in the market for cheap new bedding sets for at least a few weeks or so.

"I just placed an order for most of the specialty stuff I think," Billy said with a slow thoughtful nod. "But figured I'd be better getting the general stuff here. Easier, cheaper, and ya know... gotta help support the local do-it-all entrepreneur on the island and all."

"I mean," said Summer, "I don't actually own this place, you know, I just make sure it doesn't crash and burn because the guy who does own it is a lazy, useless piece of shit, but....you know. I appreciate the sentiment."

And honestly, she wouldn't be surprised that most people thought she did own the place.

She had! At one point. But that was a while ago.

"Well, job security then," he said with a smirk. Because really, you had your hands in so many jobs around here Summer, it really was hard to keep track of them. "Though that sounds like you pretty much own the place by proxy."

"You're not wrong," Summer allowed, and at least her paycheck did, thankfully, reflect that fact. Shunsui may be lazy as shit, but he was undeniably generous.

And apparently kind of loaded.

"So did you need help narrowing down anything specific?" she wondered. "Or should I just set you off to go wander the aisle in pursuit of your all and sundries?"

"General direction should be fine. Don't want to keep you from your other duties."

There was a slight pause.

"I mean unless you want to help me find towels, beach chairs, coolers, and such."

There was a pause at that particular list.

"Goddammit, Apu," she murmured, "why do we not have a display out of all that stuff instead of goddamn softballs."

She sighed a long-suffering sigh, retracted her earlier narrative statement about her financial compensation, and said, "Check Aisle ~~Handwavey~~, Seasonal Goods, and if what you're looking for is not there, I have to go kick someone's ass about slacking on switching out the seasonal merch."

And that conversation would mostly involved Apu protesting that it wasn't even technically summer yet, as if the woman literally named for the season didn't already know that.

"Will do,"Billy said with a nod. "Thanks .. and let me know if you need any help with Apu'" he added with a smirk.

Edited 2022-06-13 13:44 (UTC)

Summer snorted. "You let me know if you need any help with Apu," she said.

Because you've been warned, Billy. Summer knew how that man could get while in one of these moods.

"Guy can't be all that bad can he?" Billy asked, quirking an eyebrow somewhat skeptically.

Summer opened her mouth to answer, thought better of it, and altered her track.

"I sincerely hope you never have to find out," she said.

And would be texting Apu as soon as Billy disappeared to let him know a customer needed help over in Aisle Wherever Billy Wound Up.

#sorrynotsorry Billy, but some things just had to be experienced to be believed.

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Turtle & Canary; Monday [06/13].

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