fandomtownies | Turtle & Canary; Monday [07/04].

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Turtle & Canary; Monday [07/04].

Summer was actually mostly at work today to get out of celebrating the Fourth, or, more specifically, celebrating back home, because apparently Jerry wasn't about to let Rick being sent to jail by the King of the Ocean stop him from a cookout and fireworks!

Which was exactly the kind of thinking that made Summer pretty sure she did not want to deal with whatever happened as a result of that cookout and fireworks.

Naturally, Apu had gone all out with the decorations and was even doing a little grilling himself--yes, in the store--which all seemed fine and almost expected, until Summer had a sudden, worrisome realization.

"Wait. You're not actually planning on setting off fireworks in the store, are you, Apu?"

The look on his face and the awkward silence that followed was not encouraging.

"Are you?" she tried again, and when it was met with the least innocent shrug she had ever seen in her entire life, she just rolled her eyes, threw up her hands, and said, "Let me at least check the insurance policy first. We might actually still be covered for something like that."

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"Also," Summer added, "I think it's kind of racist that you're doing this for America Day but not Canada Day."

Even though he did, it was just that that was on Friday, and so nobody saw!

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Liz was tired and a bit nervous about seeing Summer in person after being away for the last couple of weeks but she did want to come into the store to talk her, especially since she had managed to talk to Prompto and Dr. Lecter had said she could come and go from his house, she didn’t think he would mind if she stopped at the store to see Summer.

Talking to Prompto had helped and she was still wearing the communicator on her wrist in case he was able to contact her again.

“Hi,” she said quietly as she entered.

Summer looked up from where she was subtly trying to remove a particularly large bottle rocket from the pile of potential fireworks for later to hide it under the counter or possibly in the office.

"Heeeeey, Liz," she greeted. "Welcome back! How you feeling?"

“Thank you, I’m bit tired but I think I’m doing okay today,” Liz said softly, “I think it’s starting to actually settle in that I’m really pregnant, I think the first week I was just in shock,” she admitted.

She paused, “have I missed out on anything while I’ve been away?”

"I mean," said Summer,"fair. Nothing like a Whoops Surprise Baby to really throw you of your game."

She said this like she knew from persona experience, which she absolutely did not, but it didn't seem that difficult to just assume.

"You didn't miss much, though," she added. "Been pretty quiet around here, except apparently," she seemed to just now realize that, oh yeah, this might actually be pretty big, "our Insomnia boys finally came through on those communicators. Of course," she rolled her eyes, "while I was gone."

Like, rude, you guys. Seriously.

Edited 2022-07-04 10:37 (UTC)

“It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting,” Liz said softly, both to the fact that she was pregnant and that she had talked to Prompto for the first time in a month. “I know I’m not alone in this though and it’s helping me be not as scared as I was when I first found out,”

She smiled at that last bit and showed Summer the communicator she was now wearing, she was not taking that off anytime soon, “I got to talk to Prompto,”

Edited 2022-07-04 10:50 (UTC)

"And," said Summer, with a gesture of her hand because this felt like a point that really couldn't be emphasized enough, "we now know that the father's not dead, so that's nice!"

She...really had very low standards for these kinds of things.

Honestly, though, a breakthrough on that was great news, and Summer couldn't help grinning a little back at Liz, both happy for her and happy that she hadn't just been wasting her goddamn time on all of that after all.

"Sooooooo," she ventured, "how's the connection, then? Are you two going to be spending all your nights practically fawning over that thing and being gross like two teenagers from the '50s?"

Liz’s smile faltered at that, “I - I didn’t get a chance to tell him that he was going to be a father, the connection broke off before I could,”she admitted, “I - I could only confess about emotionally cheating on him instead,”

In hindsight she really should have led with the pregnancy first shouldn’t she?

Edited 2022-07-04 11:27 (UTC)

Yeah, Liz really seemed to have kind of a skewed perspective on priorities sometimes. Summer's brows lifted a little.

"Yeah?" she asked. "How'd that end up going?"

Although, to be fair, both of those conversations would have wound up being quite the doozies.

“I mean I would have preferred to tell him in person,” Liz admitted, “but I don’t think he hates me, even though he should - I know he was hurt, he said he was still going to try and come back, that getting back to me was what was getting him through,”

She definitely felt terrible as she recounted that and lowered her head slightly as she felt that familiar guilt and shame surge through her.

"I mean," said Summer, "hate seems a little strong, and that guy's so squishy, I'm not even sure he's capable of something like that, but..."

She trailed off slightly, considering Liz's reaction to that last part especially, and her own tendency to just lean hard into sarcastic quips and levity in situations like these.

"It is too bad you didn't get a chance to tell him about the baby," she decided to go with. "At least then he could have had a solid deadline to work with."

“I know I need to tell him, I guess I’m just nervous that I won’t be telling him in person,” Liz admitted quietly, “I don’t want to make him worry, especially if he can’t get back straight away,”

"Could be a good test of faith, though," Summer pointed out. "News like that's going to really show whether he'll really push forward to get through this quickly or scare him off so that even if he can get back, he just nopes out and is all....'nah, I'm good.'"

Which would be a Category 5 Dick Move, but the multiverse was filled with assholes.

Now Liz was worried, she bit her lip, “do you think Prompto would do that?” she wouldn’t blame him at all but now she was concerned that was a possibility.

Summer was just going to look at Liz for a moment at that.

"How the fuck should I know?" she asked. "He's your boyfriend, dude. Do you think he would?"

“No,” Liz didn’t even hesitate on that one, “even - even if he didn’t want to be with me, I …he wouldn’t abandon his daughter if he knew,” she said softly.

"There you go, then," said Summer, honestly feeling relief to get something that wasn't just some kind of wishy-washy, woe is me answer out of Liz finally, especially since, you know, it would probably be bad to try and shake some sense into a pregnant person. "See? That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

"No, it wasn't, it feels like it's been a while since I've been able to give an answer that wasn't all over the place," Liz said softly with a small but still rather tired smile, but at least she hadn't started crying yet so that was progress for her.

Not long after Liz had left, Goose also stopped by and wanted to tell Summer about talking to Ignis but he figured he should be patient and wait in case she was busy.

He was really not good at being patient but he was trying and he figured while he was there, he should probably look at stocking up on groceries as well since it has been a while since he had done that.

If you were waiting for Summer to not be busy, Goose, you'd be waiting for a very long time. Busy was (often intentionally and aggressively) her default mode these days.

Still, she was never so busy that she couldn't spare at least a greeting.

"Hey, Goose, how's it going?"

It was a little weird, though, to not just be automatically shoving jello shots at him right now.

Edited 2022-07-04 10:26 (UTC)

Goose also felt like he should be having jello shots right now, or maybe he was just wanting it to be Wednesday and it also felt a bit weird to be buying groceries as well but talking to Ignis had reminded him that he should actually stock up on proper food.

“Hi Summer,” he said with a grin and then not being able to wait any more added, “I was able to talk to Ignis, they got through on the communicator,”

Ignis would have felt very pleased to have known that his influence, even in passing, could be so effectively felt by at least someone.

"So I heard!" Summer said, matching Goose's grin with one of her own. "Barry told me, and Liz mentioned getting to talk to Prompto earlier, too. I'm a little irritated that they couldn't have at least waited until I got back, but, I mean, it is nice to know that you guys finally got through, that there's at least some connection there and they haven't completely just dropped off from this dimension."

“It was nice to be able to talk to him again, even if it was only for a few minutes,” Goose felt his cheeks start to redden and he rubbed the back of his neck, “I gave Liz one of the communicators, I felt she should have her own connection - if they can get through again,”

He paused, “how was your trip away?” he asked when she mentioned being away.

And here Summer was all ready to go into fawning mode at that blush, but then Goose had to throw that last bit at her and she snorted with a roll of her eyes. "Please," she said, "don't even ask me about my trip away, I swear to god, I can't even step one foot in that dimension without something supremely stupid happening more often than not. Let's just say, instead of a nice fun weekend of parties and visiting my favorite planets, I ended up fighting anthroporphic sea creatures at the bottom of the fucking ocean and my grampa's currently in jail, and whatever you're thinking to fill in those blanks with, trust me. The actual details are so much more ridiculous. Honestly, everything going on with this connection is way more interesting."

But she hedged a little on that word, as soon as she said it.

"Mmm, well, okay," she allowed, "maybe not more interesting, but more....important? Normal? I'm sorry you didn't get more time to talk to him, though..."

Goose blinked a bit at that as he tried to follow along what had happened, “that’s definitely different,” he remarked as he tried to work out how the two events could be linked. “it sounds like how some of my missions have gone,” he admitted,

He tilted his head slightly at the last part, “I would have liked to have talked longer, I mean I would like to be there with him and help him but at least I know they’re okay, I mean at least considering the circumstances,”

"Yeah," Summer sighed with the weight that came with the fact that this was her life and shook her head a little, "pretty much business as usual back home, really..."

And maybe, now that all the heavy lifting on someone(s)' plot was done for a little while, she could get back to eventually seeing about one of those missions of Goose's first hand....

And that dry sarcastic look definitely carried over to the other topic at hand. "That's good, though," she said. "That they seem to be doing alright."

And she figured she could get a clearer picture in that regard from Goose, anyway, since she wouldn't have to wade through a metric ton of ~drama~ to get there.

Edited 2022-07-04 12:28 (UTC)

In what was a rare case of when he occasionally remembered something, Goose hadn’t forgotten that he had invited Summer back to BETA, “you’re still welcome to come visit back home with me, if you still want a break from everything,” he offered, “even if my home’s not very normal,” he added with a grin.

He paused as he considered the last part.

“Hopefully we can get a stable connection and be able to talk more than a few minutes, I wish there was more I could do for them but it was better than not talking to them at all,” he admitted.

"I might take you up on that the next time I need a break," said Summer, "especially since I have been brutally reminded that, no matter how weird your universe is, Goose, there's no way it's going to be as weird as mine."

Although honestly? She'd be fucking thrilled to be proven wrong on that one.

"Any idea," she then asked, "when they might be done with all this?"

Edited 2022-07-04 18:45 (UTC)

Goose grinned, “that’s probably true, you just might be involved in a few shootouts,” he said, “or some of our more weirder missions,” odds were that would happen since the Galaxy Rangers didn’t really believe in planning for any kind of mission it seemed.

He paused, “I’m not sure, Prompto mentioned about going into Insomnia to try and get to the portals but they didn’t give any indication on how long that would take, it sounds like the city was badly destroyed,”

One good thing about living in a small place like Fandom was even during a major holiday shopping was not a total nightmare like it probably was for anyone trying to shop on the mainland today. So Billy walked into T&C and gave Summer a nod and a slight smile.

"How's it going, Summer?"

It was still, apparently, surprisingly busy for a T&C Monday!

"Hey, Billy," Summer all but sang back in greeting ~~while the mun sobbed in tears of retail reality~~. "I'm not fighting squidmen and tentacle monsters in the ocean right now, so that's definitely a step up from the weekend!"

Hey. He did ask.

"How have you been?"

OK yeah that was a bit out of left field there. Billy gave a slow nod as he tried to process all of that.

"I've been good. Actually stopped by to see if you could help me with a few special orders I need to make."

Don't worry, Billy. Eventually, you'll get to the point where you realize that asking a question like that to Summer Smith was about a 50/50 chance between getting a normal answer, and getting an answer...like that.

But she was more than happy to put aside her recent ridiculous aquatic adventures aside for special orders.

"Oh, yeah?" she asked, already sweeping up a pack of Post-Its so she could scribble down those key details. "What'chu need?"

Yeah, he was starting to get that impression already. It really did seem to be a a fairly island-wide occurrence ... But Summer Smith definitely seemed to be at the top that list!

"Got two special orders really I'm hoping you could help me with. One personal and one for the shop" Billy said. "Wanted to see if you could track down a couple more packs of my clove smokes. Been having trouble going through my regular sources. And second, I am trying to follow up with your idea about the Porgs at the shop. Think you could track down some mini kid or porg-sized surfboards for me?"

"The cloves should definitely be easy enough," Summer confirmed with a nod as she jotted that down. "If you want to just hook me up with one of your empty packs so I can get all the technical data, it shouldn't be hard at all to trace a supplier. And absolutely on the mini-surfboards! We've even got a butt-ton of those little foam kickboards in stock right now if you wanted to take a few of those to tide you over until the real deals show up."

"Got one of them here. Figured you might need the name if nothing else" Billy said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the pack. "And as far as the surfboard go that would actually be perfect. Probably better to use the cheap kickboards to start with anyways. No sense losing expensive boards to an overly aggressive or clumsy Porg after all."

"It'll be a good porg-gression," Summer agreed with a nod as she took the box and would appreciate it if no one acknowledged that such a thing had left her mouth ever, thank you.

"How desperate are you for your refills?" she then asked, already swinging her laptop closer and pulling up her databases to run the UPC through.

"Not terribly desperate" Billy said with a slight shrug. I mean It's been about two weeks since I finished the last pack. But I have regular cigarettes at the apartment. So, it's not like imminent nicotine withdrawal or anything" he added with a chuckle. "But sooner than later would be nice."

"I can probably start getting them in stock next Monday," Summer offered, especially as a few promising hits started springing up on her computer. "I'd say sooner, but the holiday will probably throw things off, unless one of these come from a universe where the British won or something."

"Sounds good, thanks." There was a pause as Billy considered that whole alternate realities/universes thing again. "Ya know... there might even be worlds out there where there's no Britain or America at all."

"Oh, definitely," Summer agreed, with emphasis, as she pulled up a few to do a little bit of cost analysis. "I mean, there's worlds out there where even Earth itself isn't even a thing. Infinite realities means that literally everything and anything is possible."

"That is... Both intriguing and terrifying to be honest" Billy said, giving Summer a side glance.

"It really helps," Summer offered, with the sort of shrug of someone who'd definitely managed to get the hang of it very quickly out of the sheer necessity of maintaining her sanity, "just not to think about it too much. It's when you start doing that that you realize how absolutely fucked everything is and that nothing you really do even matters in the grand scheme of things."

The way she said it, though, it was like she was mildly just talking about the weather.

"You're talking to someone whose had to restart his life and walk away from everything he had known previously... twice now, Billy said with a dry laugh. "I definitely know a thing or two about not trying to overthink things or dwell on things too much. Its amazing what a death row sentence and a zombie apocalypse and then Fandom Island mysteries can do to a person's perspective on his life's purpose and impact."

Aww, just a death row sentence, one zombie apocalypse, and then Fandom weirdness? Your existential crises were adorable, Billy, absolutely the cutest.

She grinned faintly. "Just wait until the moment you have to put your alternate universe version of yourself in a stunlock and lock her in a dressing room or your grampa, who, by the way, is not actually your grampa but an alternate universe version of him that took the place of your universe's grampa before you even knew he'd died, who is also buried in your backyard, replaces you with a robot for a whole month," she offered. "That'll add even more perspective!

"But," she added brightly, "if Gladio ever gets back, you guys could probably at least pretend on that first one."

She'd totally watch that.

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Turtle & Canary; Monday [07/04].

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