fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Monday [8/8]

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [8/8]

Vi's mood had not improved since the last time she'd officially been in the shop. If anything she was in an even lower mood, to the point where she was tempted to follow Saffron's example and just lie on the floor, or rather the pine cones that blanketed the floor despite Little Bot's best efforts, and scream her frustration into them .

Of course when she did actually try that in a moment of not at all overblown teenage drama, a cheerfully bleating lamb bounced over and immediately started using her as a climbing frame.

Which really did wonders for her dignity.

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Steph was busy (hiding, she was totally hiding) in the office most of the day again, but that sudden burst of noise prompted her to stick her head out to see what was going on and if Vi needed any help.

Whether Vi wanted her help or not was a problem she told herself she'd deal with when it came up, but that turned out to be irrelevant anyway, because the second her head poked out of the office a barrage of the pine cones came flying at her until she was forced to retreat into the office with a yelp.

Okay, so the store had levels in either druid or ranger, if it could cast Summon Barrage, good to know. Or maybe it was just Fandom. Or both.

As far as Libby was concerned, everything close enough to the floor was fair game for a climbing frame, really.

And quite a few things that weren't all that close to the ground, either. As a matter of fact, the shop was absolutely great for potential things to climb on. After all, she could only balance herself on Little Bot and scoot around the store on him for so long before all those shelves and tables and chairs caught her attention.

Pure, unbridled summer fun!

Right up until the moment that it wasn't. And Libby leaped happily from a chair as a little lamb and landed, still on all fours, as a very confused human girl.

"....Oh."

Oh...no.

Vi, who'd gotten back up off the floor and been watching Libby jump around the store, blinked a moment or two before saying as casually as possible "Hey, Libs."

And yet, this was still less fraught than the last time she'd been around a naked girl.

Give her a moment; there was a lot for Libby to process right now, and it was more than a little jarring going from a carefree lamb testing the limits of climbing and jump-ability of the game store to realizing that she was very much herself again, without clothes, in the middle of said gaming store.

"Um."

Very good, Libby. Very succinct.

Face flushing with red, she did the only thing she could think of in that precise moment: plop down on her bottom immediately and be very grateful for the fact that she had a lot of hair, currently being oh-so-strategically arranged.

"Hi, Vi," she managed to squeak out. "I...um...s-sorry."

"It's all right, you've had a weird week," Vi said, still keeping her voice casual and doing a much better job of looking towards Libby without looking at Libby than she had with certain other people.

She hefted her bag onto the counter to search it for those spare clothes she'd been carrying around for just this situation.

And, despite being the one without the clothes in this situation, Libby found her eyes dutifully trained upwards, almost as if out of habit. Hands discretely folded in her lap. Feeling incredibly grateful that the store wasn't exactly busy right now.

Those eyes on the ceiling widened a little at the idea of this having happened on a Friday, while her face revealed even deeper shades of red to explore.

"You could definitely say that again," she murmured, as if it couldn't possibly be overstated, and wondered if saying anything more would help or hinder the situation.

Vi very carefully wasn't going to voice any of the other possibilities for Libby changing back either.

She retrieved the spare shirt (one of the less eye-searing options from Wednesdays) and trousers from her bag and gently tosses them towards Libby. "Here, Libs."

Vi looked up long enough to see the door open and close before pressing her face back into the pine cones and making another muffled yell.

Libby caught the movement of clothes heading her way in the corner of her eye, but she never was very quick with reflexes, and her eyes were very determined to stay upwards and she didn't exactly want to move her hands. But there was a last-second attempt to catch them as they neared, one that ultimately failed, and she quickly reached out to pull them closer without moving too much.

She'd always liked most of the Wednesday shirts, but never had she liked them as much as she did in that moment of pulling it over her head and firmly yanking it into place.

"Thanks," she said, now feeling confident enough to drop her eyes and give Vi an apologetic smile.

Orrrr, at least, she thought she was confident enough, but the moment she tried, she instantly regretted it and looked away immediately again and bit her lip while trying to figure out the best way to approach pants.

"Smart," she added. "Bringing extra clothes."

Vi smiled back, resolutely looking Libby in the eye. "Yeah, well, I didn't want you to get caught out."

That resolute eye contact would definitely help balance the scales for how much Libby was decidedly avoiding exactly that. Which worked out fine, so she could put more of her attention onto figuring out how to best finish clothing herself with minimal impropriety.

"And," she added, not as strongly as she could have liked, but at least now she'd wiggled into the pants enough that she could stand up now, "at least you won't have to hunt me down too much if I forget to return them to you..."

"Yeah, it kind of helps that I know where you sleep," Vi joked.

Though, shit, she had a lot of clothes that she should probably return to Steph now that...they weren't...shit.

"Yeah," Libby agreed, with an awkward laugh as she sort of marveled at the fact that the clothes only seemed to be helping with the embarrassment marginally. She pulled her hair out from underneath the collar of the shirt, smoothing it out nervously over one shoulder, then splitting it again over both like she had it before.

"Well, um, thanks," she said. Again. Wincing slightly and clearly hoping elaborating would help. "For keeping an eye on me. While I was...a sheep."

And back to marveling, that that was a sentence leaving her mouth in earnest right now.

This was a very weird island.

"No problem," Vi said with a shrug. "You did the same for me when I was a kitten."

Again, weird island.

"Guess that does make us pretty even, then," Libby grinned faintly, and her eyes were on the floor now, instead of the ceiling, so that was a sort of progress. "Still....I appreciate it, Vi. And, I, uh, guess I should let you get back to work then?"

Not that it seemed like Vi was getting a whole lot of work done as it was, but it sort of just seemed like the polite thing to do when turning back into a person after being a lamb at someone's place of employment...

Another shrug. "There's not really that much going on." Except for all the pine cones, and Saffron's on-ongoing existential crisis. "But it's a good day not to be wearing wool if you want to go enjoy it."

The next laugh was a little stronger, and it even came with her eyes doing something other than avoiding Vi, rolling a little with a shake of her head.

"Wool, in the summer," she joked. "What was I even thinking?"

And, with that, she finally did manage to chance a glance up toward Vi, her head tilted a little thoughtfully. The past week had been a little fuzzy (ha), sure, but not so much the week before it...or today, with all the lying on the ground and screaming into pinecones.

And she hesitated, knowing this wasn't exactly her strong suit, but after a week of not being able to, she felt compelled to ask, "Are you doing okay, though, Vi?"

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine." That might have been a touch more plausible if you weren't looking towards Steph's office with woeful puppy eyes right this moment, Vi. "I'm just giving Steph the space she wants."

Libby's eyes followed Vi's, with a furrowed brow of confusion and worry before they returned.

"Did something happen?" she asked.

"No, nothing happened." But only because Vi had managed to stop herself. "She just needs some space right now."

Which was working out great, really.

Libby glanced at the office door again. The whole concept of giving someone space was still a little new to her, in practice more than in theory, but when she looked back at Vi thoughtfully, she nodded a little.

"Do you at least need help cleaning up some of these pinecones?" she asked, looking around now for anything more she could offer, because she felt she should do something more for Vi after this last week. "There's so many of them!"

"Yeah, there's a lot of them," Vi agreed. Especially over the past two weeks, but surely that meant nothing. She shook her head. "There'll just be more in a few minutes anyway."

Again, it was a complete mystery why their appearance had suddenly ramped up.

"Just....never-ending pinecones?" Libby asked, in a way that seemed to want to comment on how strange that was, but also seemed to acknowledge that such a statement would be pretty rich, coming from someone who'd just spent the past week as a little lamb.

"It's been happening all summer," Vi said. Then kicked a foot through the cones. "We were joking about having a bonfire when it was a little cooler."

"Well, you definitely wouldn't have a lack for fuel," Libby noted, feeling like it would seem a little superfluous to point out that, if it kept happening, then even the bonfire wouldn't do much, unless it was just a seasonal sort of thing.

"But an end-of-summer bonfire sounds like it could be kind of fun, regardless of if it's pinecones or not."

Vi shrugged again. "Yeah, it could," she agreed. "I don't know, on the beach maybe."

The preserve was probably a bad idea for it.

"I think I've heard," said Libby helpfully, maybe a little hopefully, and perhaps honestly just glad to be having a conversation right now that wasn't all bleats and baas, "that beach bonfire parties are a thing that people do sometimes, but I wouldn't really know much about it. I've never even been to a beach before coming here."

"There weren't a lot of beaches back home either." At least not very nice ones. "I guess we'll have to figure out how to organise one then."

"Assuming one of us doesn't wind up turning into an animal again, anyway," Libby couldn't help pointing out a bit wryly, although she was really hoping that was just a one-off thing and not something that was likely to happen often enough to start interfering with potential plans and what have you.

But now that she was herself again, it almost was kind of funny.

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [8/8]

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