fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Monday [11/7]

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [11/7]

On the off chance someone had missed any of Graham's posters so far, while she was setting up today Vi had made sure that one was prominent near the front counter (right next to the highest stack of pinecones) as well as another one upstairs.

Then she'd started putting together sets of dice and miniatures that matched each of the characters on both posters, because she figured might as well go all in.

[Open!]

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Hopefully Steph wasn't trailing sand into the shop when she came in after her workshop, carrying iced coffees for both of them, but at least if she did Little Bot was very diligent about his duties. (And this was a duty that wouldn't involve pine cone stacking!)

"Nice," she said appreciatively as she noticed the poster display and what Vi was working on. "I love this so much."

Vi looked up from trying to arrange the dice in little stacks and grinned at Steph.

"I figured it doesn't hurt to be supportive," she said with a shrug.

Steph set Vi's drink down in front of her and leaned over to get a better look at the minis. Did this involve leaning against Vi in the process, possibly in an annoying way? Maybe.

"Totally in the spirit of the game," she said, clearly approving.

Oh, it was totally annoying, you could tell by the way Vi responded by leaning back against Steph as she reached for her drink.

"Plus he seems so enthusiastic about well, everything." Vi, why were you trying to justify this when Steph was the opposite of displeased?

Ah yes. A move that was calculated to annoy Steph right back. Look at all this aggressive posturing between the two of them.

"I know, right?" she asked. "It's like... you can't crush that. It would be mean."

Any moment it would all end in tears.

"Exactly," Vi replied. "So really the only thing you can do is..." she gestured at the dice and minis.

It could only end badly. Wasn't like they took any and every excuse to be touching each other or anything like that!

"This scene needs some dramatic tension," Steph decided. "Maybe a monster encounter."

They were both so protective of their personal space around each other.

"Yeah,?" Vi asked. "What kind are you thinking of?"

You could tell from the way they tended to try and drape themselves over each other on a fairly regular basis.

"Beholder," Steph decided. "Then we can make all the minis react to different eyes at the same time."

And how they were reluctant at move away from each other.

"Sound pretty cool," Vi said, making no move to go through the pile of minis to find a beholder.

Yep. This was them maintaining all kinds of personal space around each other. Steph trying to scoot in a little closer? Just a maneuver to gain herself some more personal space. Really.

"Hopefully he gets some good turnout for it," said Steph, who was going to go find that beholder mini any second now.

Any second.

Vi lifting her arm so Steph could do said scooting? Just respecting her quest for personal space.

"I mean it won't be for lack of trying on his part," Vi said, rearranging the minis so that when they did go get the beholder there'd be space for it. "And there were a lot of people interested in your class, so I figure some of them should turn up."

Steph taking the opportunity to just kind of snuggle in under Vi's arm? A show of respect for Vi's personal space, naturally, as was her reaching out to slide her own arm around Vi. Look, they could completely respect that their personal space Did Not Actually Exist in each other's presence.

"If I had a regular radio show, I'd totally help him plug it," Steph said thoughtfully. "Sometimes I think I miss it."

It was more of a shared personal space, really.

"Was that something you used to do?" Look, radio itself was still kind of a new concept for Vi. "You we pretty great last month."

Exactly!

"I think you mean totally badass," Steph said lightly. "Yeah, I used to run the radio station back in Haven Springs. That's actually what I applied for... hosting the radio station that got run out of the back room at the town record store. I didn't find out that managing the whole record store was part of the job until like two seconds before I got hired."

She still wasn't sure if Gabe had conveniently 'forgotten' to mention it when he talked her into applying, or if he genuinely hadn't known.

Edited 2022-07-12 03:17 (UTC)

Vi snorted. "Oh, my mistake, you were totally badass," she said with a completely straight face. "That's a hell of a surprise. Did you enjoy it?"

"Actually? Yeah. It took me a while to get used to it, and I kept thinking of quitting and leaving town at first, but yeah." Steph watched Saffron raise her head, yawn widely, and then proceed to glower at her for having the temerity to deprive her of attention by keeping Vi occupied. "I wasn't qualified to run the radio station or the record store, by the way -- I needed the job, and Gabe convinced me to bullshit my way through the interview. And then --"

She ducked her head sheepishly for a moment, then laughed.

"He called me at the end of my first shift to ask how I was doing. I told him the job he got me was more like four jobs, and I was maybe qualified for three-quarters of one. I just... didn't realize I'd hit the mic switch and that anyone who was listening to the radio right then could hear the whole thing."

Sorry, Steph, Vi would have something very sympathetic to say once she finished laughing.

Steph sighed and just let her get the laughter out of her system, grinning indulgently the whole time.

"I completely deserve this reaction. In retrospect, it's fucking hilarious."

Vi finally got her giggles under control. "I'm sure you ended up being great," she said, mostly sincerely.

Steph snorted. "I was, in fact, fucking awesome, but it was definitely a learning process."

"Like learning which buttons not to press." Not that anyone here was a born button pusher.

Nobody here at all!

"Bite me," Steph retorted, still grinning. "Do you have any idea how many buttons and switches are in a radio booth?"

At least with Steph, Vi could be reasonably sure none of her button-pressing would start a fist fight.

She mimed biting Steph's shoulder before resting her shin on it instead. "I didn't even know what a radio was before coming here, so no."

A fist fight was one of the least likely things it would start.

"Aw, I thought you were actually going to do it," she said; her tone was flippant, but she was... genuinely kind of disappointed? Not that she had spent a whole lot of time lately thinking about Vi's mouth or anything.

She got her phone out and found a picture of the KRCT booth control board to show Vi; it was tiny in comparison to most radio stations, and really she barely ever had to use about 90% of the knobs and sliders, but the point was --

"Honestly? I leaned back against the edge of the desk when I picked up the phone and didn't even notice I'd turned the mic on."

Vi probably would've actually bitten her if she wasn't worried about what she'd wanted to do after and how Steph would've reacted to that.

As it was she felt mildly guilty about the inevitable place her eyes ended up after that story. "Oh, yeah, I can see how that was a problem."

If she was worried about Steph reacting in a bad way, that wasn't a concern... because it definitely would've been a very good reaction, which was in turn what Steph was worried about.

"What can I say?" she deadpanned. "I apparently have a talented ass."

Okay... now I'm not even making an effort to not flirt, huh?

"You did say something about it being very bad." Maybe Vi's terrible puns would ruin the mood?

Not when Steph thought her terrible puns were cute.

"Also true," she said, turning her head to grin at Vi from very close range. "It's gotten me in trouble a few times."

Steph. Steph, no.

Vi automatically grinned back, fingers itching with the urge to trace the curve of Steph's mouth. Instead she pulled back, not much, just...enough.

"Oh, I can't believe that."

"Is it really that hard to believe?"

Steph thought, for the briefest moment, about pulling her closer again. But there was only one way that maneuver would have ended, and it wasn't with Vi's head resting innocently against her shoulder, so that wasn't happening.

Vi kept grinning, pushing that feeling if wanting back down where it belonged. "I think it's actually innocent and you're framing it."

Steph, to her credit, managed not to make a comment about Vi being awfully defensive about her ass despite the fact that she really wanted to. Her grin did take on an extra touch of smugness, though.

"To be fair, I may have hit it with my hand," she conceded.

And that sentence was just ambiguous enough that Vi's palms started itching too.

"The truth comes out," she declared, bumping her shoulder against Steph's.

Steph really, really wanted to say something about how it shouldn't be a surprise that she could do a lot of things with her hands, just because she'd given up pretending that she didn't think Vi was adorable when she got flustered. She knew damn well, though, that if she started deliberately flirting that overtly, then she wasn't going to stop.

"Oh, yeah. The big, crushing shocker of a secret that sometimes I'm a little bit clumsy, and not actually as cool as I seem to be," she said instead.

And honestly, Vi already had enough thoughts about things Steph's hands could be doing for one day.

"Well, it'd be hard to be as cool as you seem all the time," she said, far too earnestly.

Were they by any chance the same kinds of things that Steph had already been thinking about doing to Vi with her hands?

"That's too much fucking work," Steph said, not even bothering to disguise the fondness in her expression as she smiled at Vi. "It's not a huge letdown that I'm not actually that cool all the time, right?"

It was entirely possible.

"Nope," Vi said after pretending to think about it. "You're cool enough as is."

Good thing they weren't going to talk about it then!

"Coming from you," Steph told her, "I actually consider that a compliment."

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [11/7]

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