fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (8/18)

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The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (8/18)

In honor of the newly released D&D 5e campaign setting, Steph had a display of plushie giant space hamsters to set up... well away from the plushie mimic and plushie displacer beasts and plushie gelatinous cubes.

It seemed like a good time to give Little Bot's pirate costume a bit of an upgrade, too, not to mention a plushie space hamster for a passenger.

Man, I really hope the plushies don't suddenly turn sentient one day, because that could get nasty...

She cranked up a space-themed soundtrack in the store to go with the whole vibe, arranged a display of space-themed dice... yeah. This was the most fun she'd had on the job in a few weeks. Go figure.

[OOC: Open!]

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"Breakfast," Vi said as she came in brandishing a paper bag, because it was nice to get back into that little bit of routine after the last few weeks.

Steph was in the middle of squaring a displacer kitty up against a giant space hamster and the mimic, but when Vi came in she looked up with a bright, almost sappy smile.

"I've told you you're the best, right?" she asked, coming over to clear a spot on the counter for the food.

Vi looked pretty sappy and dopey herself. "Yeah, but I still like hearing it."

She deposited the bag on the counter, leaning against Steph as she surveyed the scene in front of her. "Setting up trouble for your players?"

"Aren't I always?" Steph stretched up to kiss her on the cheek before she started going through the bag and setting out food. "Okay, mostly I'm taking advantage of all the clear floor space to have some fun with the merchandise."

She grinned and wrapped an arm around Vi. "Since you like hearing it: you're the best."

Vi slung her arm over Steph's shoulders and returned the kiss to her cheek. "You're pretty great yourself."

She looked over the setup again. "Glad you're having fun either way," she said. "Gonna be a fight or are they getting changed into creatures?"

"I haven't decided yet," Steph admitted, unwrapping her breakfast sandwich, "but they'll be anticipating combat, so if I hit them with like a mass Polymorph, they'll be way more surprised. What do you think?"

"I think you like pulling the rug out from under people too much not to go for the second option," Vi said, with clear and obvious affection.

Edited 2022-08-19 03:28 (UTC)

"Damn," Steph said, laughing. "It's like you know me or something."

Not that it sounded even a little like a complaint. She actually sounded extremely pleased about it for some reason.

Vi grinned and rested her chin on her shoulder. "I may have figured out a thing or two."

Steph took a couple more bites of her sandwich before she turned her head to kiss the tip of Vi's nose, playfully.

"I trust you to not use this knowledge against me in a bad way," she said. "I also trust you to use it against me for my own good if you have to."

"Like making sure you remember to eat and sleep occasionally?" Vi asked, all innocence.

"Sure, that too, I guess," Steph said with a mock sigh that turned into a fond smile as she rested her head against Vi's. "Still can't believe you snuck in here just to leave me breakfast when we were both being dumbasses."

Vi hugged her a little tighter. "I was worried about you, dumbass."

"That was pretty obvious, dumbass," Steph retorted, snuggling into her. "You are the literal sweetest, ever."

Oh, look, you were making her blush, again. "I just don't like people I care about going hungry," she said softly. "Especially when I can do something about it."

"The literal sweetest," Steph repeated more seriously as she reached up to caress Vi's cheek, maybe brush her thumb over the tattoo. "I'm doing better, you know. I don't want you to have to stress out all the time about whether I'm skipping meals."

Vi leaned into the touch. "I know, it's just we weren't talking so it was harder to be sure about it."

"If I wasn't so convinced that you needed space and needed to not be around me, I might have tacklehugged you in band class and never let go again, after that," Steph said, running her thumb back and forth over the tattoo. "I didn't need to fall for you any harder than I already did, and then you did that, you jerk."

In case there was any doubt that she meant it affectionately, she leaned in for a kiss.

Was there a tiny bit of desperation to how Vi returned the kiss? Yep. "I would've let you if you did."

"And I would've let you kiss me that night. Clearly we're both dense as hell," Steph said with a laugh, and let her forehead rest against Vi's. "You okay, babe?"

Yes, she'd caught that hint of desperation.

"Yeah," Vi said, swallowing. "Just think about what might've happened if we'd kept being dumb."

Steph wrapped both arms around her and just held on tightly.

"I was so fucking miserable. It physically hurt, not having you around... for fuck's sake, as pathetic as this sounds, I was sleeping all curled up with the shirt you left here because it was the only way I could fall asleep," she admitted.

Vi clung back. "That is kind of pathetic," she said. "But I screamed into the pinecones."

"Is that what that noise was?" Steph asked, laughing. "I saw you lying face down on the floor. I was thinking of going to check on you, but the damn cones started throwing themselves into my face and kind of drove me back into the office."

Not that it accounted for all the rest of the time she'd spent avoiding Vi during her shifts.

"Turns out the shirt is a pretty poor substitute for falling asleep with you, anyway."

"Then Libby decided to frolic all over me." Vi wasn't going to hold it against her At least not until things were less raw.

She snorted. "It'd better be."

"You're just a magnet for people turning into animals," Steph teased her.

"It's a skill, apparently," Vi said, then bit her lip, grinning. "Libby was pretty adorable as a lamb."

"Maybe we just know we're gonna be safe with you looking after us," Steph said, more seriously this time. "A really cute lamb, for sure. I might have spent a lot of time watching you look after her in classes."

"Maybe," Vi said, non-committally, since boy did she have some feelings on her ability to protect people she cared about. "Not as cute as you were as a cat, though."

"I was an adorable cat, obviously," Steph replied cheerfully. "And getting to ride around on Little Bot was awesome. I feel like Saffron gave me an earful or five about occupying too much of your time that you should be using to pay attention to her instead, though."

She shrugged. "I could be getting that wrong. It's a little -- heh -- fuzzy."

Vi snickered and bumped her nose against Steph's. "I'm pretty sure Saffron didn't appreciate me bringing you to Graham's game instead of her." The worst betrayal of all, even though Vi had two hands.

"Oh my god, you monster," Steph said in a wildly exaggerated scandalized tone, and kissed the tip of Vi's nose. "She gets to go with you all the rest of the time anyway. Please tell me you have pictures of me trying to roll dice with my paws."

"I tried telling her that I had to keep you out of trouble, but I don't think she believed me," Vi said, grinning and nuzzling Steph's cheek. "And of course I did."

"Send them to me? I'm totally going to use one of those for an avatar on some of my gaming forums." Steph hugged her a little tighter. "It's gonna confuse people, it'll be great. And I get the feeling Saffron thinks any explanation you have for spending time with me and ignoring her is just an excuse, anyway."

"I'll do that," Vi promised. Just, y'know when her arms weren't busy hugging Steph. "You might be onto something there."

It wasn't like Steph seemed to be in any hurry about that. For some reason.

"Poor Saffron," she said, and since said cat just happened to be wandering by in search of a sunbeam to sleep in Steph dropped into her baby-talk voice to address her directly. "It's not your fault Vi gives the best hugs and you end up just wanting her to snuggle you all the time, is it? I totally get it, it --"

Saffron cut her off with a grumbling sort of meow, swished her tail in annoyance (because Food Human was usurping Vi's attention again, like a monster), and made a show of flopping down sulkily by the front window.

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The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (8/18)

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