The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (10/27)

[drumsticksandd20s]

You know, Steph had liked Tuesday's seasonal Fandom-style "weather," even though Saffron had been, predictably, very grumbly over the interloping kitties and even more grumbly about how they had the audacity to climb all over Steph despite the fact that Saffron herself had never once done so and never intended to. The fake blood stains yesterday had been... weird, but amusing.

Today's goofy, mostly-sugary, spooky-themed finger foods were kind of frustrating, though. Sure, the little banana ghosts with chocolate chip eyes were cute, and so were the mini pumpkins that were actually peeled clementines, but she had a major fried chicken craving today and it was doomed to go unfulfilled.

By way of venting some of her annoyance about this, she was laying out a Mysterium game for display along with a quick how-to-play cheat sheet, arranging the polyhedral dice jack o'lanterns around the display, and putting different colored LED pumpkin lights into each one of them.

In the spirit of Halloween scariness the d20 pumpkin had, of course, rolled a natural 1 and got the flashing red light to go with it.

[OOC: ... yeah, I don't know. Open, though!]

Comments

[pocketpretzels]

At some point in the afternoon, there was a Watts, tote bag slung over one shoulder.

Though after the strangeness of yet to be played out lunch, he'd kept checking the the contents of said tote bag on the walk over to ensure that they remained what they were supposed to be.

"Afternoon, Miss Gingrich," Watts greeted as he hung his hat up in the usual spot. He did visibly grimace at that flashing red light, though.

[drumsticksandd20s]

That was understandable. Critical failures were upsetting.

Oh wait. Yeah, no, that red light was a bit much, and so off it went.

"Mr. Watts," Steph replied, waving a hand at him. "Sheriff Watts? What do you want me to call you, anyway? How's this week been treating you, besides Halloween-themed weirdly?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Detective is fine," Watts said, heading over to the counter. Though in all honesty, he was this close to letting her knew she could use his given name if she wished. Give it a few more weeks. He'd get there. “Or just Watts, I suppose.”

"I could have done without today's nonsense," he grimaced. "Or yesterday's, for that matter." Though at least upon waking today he'd found all the unsightly red stains had vanished. "But other than that it's been- a good week."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Yeah," Steph said, rolling her eyes and shooting a glare at the tray of spider-decorated cookies. "I just really want a nice, substantial lunch and I keep getting weird candy things and goofy finger foods, which is the literal opposite of satisfying."

She leaned against the counter and smiled wryly. "The cats were great, though. Speaking of which, I have seen the evidence of your cat cafe adventure."

[pocketpretzels]

Oddly enough, Watts hadn't yet gone for his usual selection of dice just yet.

"You did?" he asked, a fond smile appearing on his face. "Ho- ah. Yesterday, in the superhero class."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Even the dice that were out on the counter had things like skulls and "BOO!" instead of the 1s, and that was not at all Steph's doing.

Steph grinned. "Yeah, Steven showed me some pictures. Congrats on mastering certain parts of the Internet, by the way. I'm pretty sure that has to be some kind of record."

[pocketpretzels]

He’d get there! First, though, he needed to unpack what he’d brought with him, namely two tupperware containers, each containing a slice of pumpkin pie.

“Yes, well, it’s incredibly convenient, isn’t it? Having all that information ready to be accessed?”

“As promised,” he said, gesturing to the pie. “I brought one for you to pass along to Miss Vi as well.” Or keep for herself. Wasn’t like he’d know.

At least they’d managed to stay pumpkin pie and not turn into something cutesy. Possibly because pie itself was already the sort of thing you might find at a Halloween party, not that Watts knew that was the logic behind today’s weirdness.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"For those of us who like knowing things and possibly falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes for hours on end, it's the best."

But as for that surprise, Steph's mouth actually fell open in surprise for a moment before she collected herself.

"Oh my god, thank you so much," she exclaimed. "The baking experiment was a success, huh?"

She would, of course, share the pie, though given Vi's strong feelings on the police it was still pretty up in the air as to how well it would go over. Not that she'd tell Watts if it didn't go over well.

[pocketpretzels]

Honestly, it wasn’t as if Watts didn’t have some pretty disdainful feelings towards the institution himself, so he could hardly blame Vi for her likely entirely justified opinion.

“It was,” he said, rather proud of himself. And now he was reaching for some dice, yes. “Though my aesthetic technique could use some work.” Indeed, the crust was… not quite even. Maybe a little thicker in places. But not enough to significantly impact the taste, at least.

[drumsticksandd20s]

It was, if you asked Steph, pretty damn justified.

"It's edible, that's the important part," she said, "which is honestly more than some fancy cooking shows can pull off half the time, no matter how good their food looks."

[pocketpretzels]

“Cooking shows?” Watts echoed, as he finally finished picking out some dice to fiddle with.

Look, he may know how to navigate the internet but he hadn’t yet gotten himself a television. He basically only knew the handful of films he’d watched (or tried to watch) with Steven.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Cooking shows," Steph repeated in a tone that might have implied they were a thing that should be approached with caution. "They're not really my thing but they tend to be pretty popular. You might actually like some of the ones that show you new recipes and maybe cooking techniques, but there's also these competitive ones and those can get pretty out there."

She paused.

"Which can also be fun, if horrifying. You know how Stark kept getting weird ingredients in his cupcake classes? People actually use those."

[pocketpretzels]

"Oh. Hm," Watts considered that. "I had a case that revolved around a cooking competition once," he shared. "It is- actually the reason I began ascribing to a vegetarian diet."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph managed to do a very credible impression of the grimacing emoji for several seconds.

"I'm afraid to ask how that happened, but I also really want to know."

Would she regret this? Probably!

[pocketpretzels]

"The prize for winning the competition was to be the new face of Madison's Fine Beef, one of their tinned goods products," Watts said as he rolled the dice in his hand. "One of the contestants- was extremely determined to win. Laced several cans of the meat in question with botulism in an effort to murder the judge so that he would be replaced with someone inclined to judge in her favour."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"I am somehow not surprised that it got that intense," noted Steph, who looked slightly green. Look, she'd gone to school with Victoria Chase. People would Go To Lengths in the name of competition. "But botulism? For real? Gross. I can totally see how that would ruin your ability to trust meat forever, though."

[pocketpretzels]

"Between that and the time I very nearly ate a hot dog laced with strychnine?" Watts said with a nod. "Cutting meat out of my diet was not a difficult choice to make."

And then of course a couple years later he'd started dating a butcher, and thus fell off that particular wagon for a little while there.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Luckily for everyone, Steph was not the type inclined to make meat jokes here.

"Yeah, I can definitely see that," Steph said with a sympathetic wince. "That... wasn't related to a case too, was it?"

She had clearly not properly met his canon.

[pocketpretzels]

"It was," he nodded. "A young lady was out for revenge upon those she felt were responsible for her father's imprisonment and eventual execution. If I hadn't myself been a target I would've found the whole thing rather clever, actually."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Holy shit," Steph blurted out. "This was all in Toronto?"

[pocketpretzels]

Within the same season year, even!

"As others before me have remarked, the moniker 'Toronto the Good' is- not at all accurate," Watts said with a nod. "This particular case involved obituaries being written the day before the death took place. Quite disconcerting to read about how you're supposedly meant to die."

Which hadn't been from a poisoned hotdog, originally. But things had gone south and the girl had been forced to improvise.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph might've given her props for quick thinking, if not for the whole, oh, murder aspect of it all that had her face set in a mildly incredulous but still horrified expression.

She huffed faintly. "Yeah... claims like that are rarely accurate, as much as people might like them to be. Still, damn, this place must be so weirdly quiet after all of that."

A beat.

"As far as I know, anyway. 'cause there was the whole thing with Stark and the raccoons..."

[pocketpretzels]

"I am all right with the fact that there is a lot less murder to go around," Watts told Steph. "Though sometimes I do wish for just a little excitement, it's true."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Okay, so no homicide, but maybe a little more intrigue?" Steph suggested. "Seems like a reasonable compromise."

[pocketpretzels]

"And not of the kind where you order one thing and open the bag to find out it's another thing entirely," Watts said grumpily. It was possible he was still a little hung up on that, Steven's reassurances on the matter notwithstanding.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Right?" asked Steph, immediately just as grumpy about it. "The hot dog mummies are cute, but today would be the day when I have very specific food cravings and they are not what I wanted at all."