Turtle & Canary; Friday [10/07].

[hashtag_chocobro]

So, Prompto had a new job, and he was weirdly kind of excited for it? Like, sure, his reasons for picking up employment here was entirely practical, to get some more money rolling in as well as to take liberal advantage of that employee discount, but, like, the T&C was practically an institution. One of many cogs that helped the gears of this place to keep turning. And maybe he'd just been feeling pretty introspective about a lot of stuff lately, but it almost felt like another way to fully integrate himself back into the island, to make himself a part of it again, hopefully in a way that made it more difficult to just whisk him out of it again...

Most of his day, however, seemed to be Apu insisting that there was still more training to be done, although he'd already done training with Summer, and while he could have told Apu that, it just felt easier to just go along with it and rehash some of the stuff.

Except for the things Apu told him that seemed to be in direct contradiction to what Summer had told him.

So "that should be fun!

He was also going to get a few shots of the cheese panda in his downtime, too, because stock photos of a panda in a grocery store felt like a really niche market that he might try to tap into.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Frappe
Flambe
Red

Turtle & Canary is open!

Comments

[flamesburned]

Liz had promised that she would stop by with lunch and so she had ended up bringing bottles of water and making a few salad wraps for her and Prompto and had packed some fruit as well.

“Hi,” she smiled as she entered around lunchtime, “how’s your first shift going?”

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Ugh, terrible. It's the worst. Absolute torture. Pure misery."

Just ignore the very un-miserable grin on Prompto's face as he said it, although that did technically have less to do with the store and more to do with just seeing Liz.

"But," he added, leaning forward on his elbows on the counter as he grinned at her, "it's getting much better now. Hi."

[flamesburned]

“Oh no,” Liz said with a grin of her own as she came over to the counter, putting down the containers of food as she leaned in close, “I do have something that can help make it even better though,” her grin widened.

It did feel a bit strange being on the other side of the counter.

“Hi,” she smiled.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Mwa ha ha, oh, how the turntables had...turned!

"Hi," Prompto said back, again, his grin broadening as he shifted a little to lean forward just that much more. He'd have to really get a good feel for it, after all, leaning over this particular counter in ways that would probably be very uncomfortable to anyone else (and possibly a little more uncomfortable to Prompto now, too, in his old age). "What do you think could help make it better? That's a pretty tall order. It's pretty awful, you know..."

[flamesburned]

Liz’s smiled widened, “well ...I was thinking a reward might be in order, especially since you've been so hard at work and it being so awful and all...” and then she leaned in to give him a much deserved kiss because they clearly hadn’t been doing enough kissing lately.

[hashtag_chocobro]

There could never, ever be too much kissing, if you asked Prompto, and, besides! Think of all the lost time they had to make up for!

Pleased that his guess had been totally spot on (as if there had been any doubt), he happily took that kiss and returned it. Thoroughly. Couldn't let a nice kiss on an absolutely terrible day like this one go to waste, after all!

But, eventually, he did draw away a little, settling back in with a pleased, contented grin. "You're right," he informed her. "That definitely made my day instantly better."

[flamesburned]

They definitely had a lot of time to make up for and Liz savoured that kiss as much as she could.

Liz smiled shyly as she gazed happily up at him, “I’m glad that helped, I have plenty more rewards I can give you as well, if you think that will also help,” she added, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Well, it definitely wouldn't hurt," Prompto pointed out with a chuckle, and just taking a moment to appreciate that little blush on Liz's face, her shy smile, her...everything, really. "Especially when those rewards are so nice..."

[flamesburned]

“Of course, anything to help, I do have a few rewards ready to go,” Liz smiled, and happily leaned in closer to reward Prompto with another kiss.

[hashtag_chocobro]

You know, if this was a preview of what this whole second-job thing was going to be like, Prompto could definitely get used to this. He grinned as he gladly met Liz for that kiss, and held onto it for a good, long while.

He was still grinning when he eventually pulled away. "I might need to check the employee handbook," he teased, "on what the policy is on kissing beautiful women while on the clock..."

And, of course, if he knew that Shunsui was his boss and not actually Summer, he probably wouldn't even need to look to know the answer to that.

[flamesburned]

It was definitely a very good preview and Liz was very happy to keep the kiss going as long as possible.

When Prompto did pull away, Liz found her blush deepening, “maybe you should find out first?” She said with a shy grin, “I wouldn’t want you to get in any trouble, especially since it’s your first shift and all,” she added.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"If I'm going to wind up getting fired on my first day," Prompto said, grin going crooked as he lifted a hand in that once-again wonderfully familiar gesture to brush his thumb against her cheek, "I can think of a better way to do it."

And that kind of thinking (and the kissing, definitely the kissing, which there was absolutely going to be more of now) was what landed you in a position where you needed to pick up a second job in the first place, there, Prompto...

[flamesburned]

Liz’s blush was definitely bright red now as she smiled happily up at Prompto, enjoying the feel of his thumb against her cheek as she enjoyed this moment that she got to share with him, “really?” she said as she looked up at him, with a shy smile, “what way would that be?”

She just hoped he wasn’t going to get fired for real because she would feel bad, considering the reason that Prompto needed a second job and all but she wasn’t going to point that out just yet.

[two_idiots_one_body]

When Arthur had made his way downstairs today, he had tried to ask where to find any number of things - a haberdasher, a tailor, a barber - they had cut him off and said if he needed to find anything, he should go to Turtle and Canary. They had also pointed him in the way of the local equivalent of a taxi.

"It's a bit of an awkward way to travel, isn't it?" he noted after they climbed out.

"It beats the hell out of hobbling," John answered, and really, Arthur couldn't argue with that. He turned toward the building, which he was half expecting to be a tourism bureau or pawn shop. "It seems to be a general store, Arthur. There are signs in the window advertising various specials, as well as something called a 'Squishy'."

"I'm not sure I want to know what that is." He got his crutch under him and waited for John's grunt of readiness, then hobbled into the store.

[hashtag_chocobro]

At the sound of the door opening, Prompto looked up from his camera and squinted a little, as it was time for another round of is this a new face or just one I can't remember?. He was pretty sure it was the former, which meant the next thing he noticed was the crutch, which had him about to launch himself over the counter to lend a helping hand. But years of Ignis' withering looks at even the suggestion of assistance stayed him in that one. Which just left one last thing.

"Hey," he threw put the greeting with a faint smile. "Welcome to Turtle & Canary. Did you need help finding anything?"

[two_idiots_one_body]

"There's a young man behind the counter," John supplied. "He has blond hair in a rather bizarre style, and an odd almost-beard. He looks friendly enough, though. He's smiling at us."

"Yes, hello. The worker at the hotel said I might be able to find some things here, though honestly what I could use most are a newspaper and the yellow pages. Do you have those?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Oh, yeah," said Prompto, hitching a thumb toward a rack nearby, "we've got plenty of newspapers, from all over the place, probably, and we've definitely got some yellow paper in the stationary aisle. Were you looking for, like, one of those lined legal pad things, or more like construction paper for a project or something?"

[two_idiots_one_body]

"...What? No, I mean the yellow pages. A local business directory? And a paper from here."

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Oh! Yeah, we definitely have a directory."

And now Prompto was launching himself over the counter to get better access to one of the scattered information racks nearly, to pluck out a directory, and then start spinning through the one with the newspapers.

"Don't think we really have an island newspaper," he admitted, as he double-checked some of the ones they did have. "Closest you'll get is probably Baltimore..."

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur startled back a bit at the noise of that launch.

"He's going through the newspapers, Arthur," John let him know, and Arthur relaxed again.

"How close is Baltimore?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

"It's the nearest city," Prompto offered, "not too far once you hit the other side of the causeway...I mean. Unless we've moved while I was away, which...wouldn't surprise me."

There was a pause, a thoughtful tilt of his head as he considered the guy with the crutch. "New in town, I take it?" he guessed.

[two_idiots_one_body]

"Er...yes. Sorry, moved?" The more he learned about this place, the less he understood.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Yeaaaaaaaahhhhhh," Prompto said slowly, not really sure he was the best person to be hearing this kind of thing from, but he plucked out today's Baltimore papers and slapped them and the directory on the counter for now, and then pushed himself up to sit on the counter, figuring he might as well get comfortable for this one.

"This place is weird. There was one summer when I went to school here where the island just kept moving around go different dimensions, but I'm not sure it's really done anything like that since, but I was gone for....a little bit."

A while, while accurate, did not really feel...accurate.

[two_idiots_one_body]

"I've never heard of anything like that," John said without prompting. "I would say he sounds mad, but I've never heard of a lot of the things around here."

"Weird is certainly one word for it. Does anything here actually make sense?" Arthur asked plaintively.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"No," Prompto said, without hesitation and a snort of a laugh. "It really, really doesn't."

His smile softened, though, significantly, after that.

"But the good," he offered, "definitely outweighs the bad."