The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (11/3)

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph, as usual, was extremely glad to have October behind her, a fact that was made even more palpably real by packing away the most Halloween-specific decorations around the store. About half the spiders stayed out, though, to menace the miniature adventuring parties arranged in various tableaus atop display shelves. Why waste perfectly good spiders?

She kept up enough stuff to maintain a general autumnal sort of vibe, but otherwise the decor around here was strictly holiday-free. She'd even put up a note scrawled in bold black marker beside the register: we are NOT decorating for winter holidays any sooner than December 1st!!!

But hey, Saffron's curse appeared to be lifted at least, so there was that.

[OOC: Open, with the usual start-of-month SP caveat.]

Comments

[hasaknightjob]

Llewellyn was right that the Magpie Emporium was not far from the Museum. It also was right next to places to grab lunch. So when his break came Steven went over to see if Steph might be about.

He tried Steph first. "Hello?"

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph was indeed about, swapping out the spooky games in the featured display for more agricultural ones, and that was a larger category than she'd honestly expected.

"Steven?" She looked up from the back of the Viticulture game box and grinned. "Hey, man, what's up?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Not much," Steven said. "Thought I might stop by if you're not too busy? Don't mean to bother you if you're on break."

Yes, Steph was arranging displays. Steven had worked retail. He knew being on break didn't necessarily mean you might not need to work still.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Not on break," Steph assured him, "and it's okay, I won't get in trouble with myself for stopping for a conversation. Advantages to being my own boss, and not in a MLM-scheme sales pitch kind of way. How's it going?"

[hasaknightjob]

"I didn't know you owned the place," Steven said. "That's brilliant! Good on you. And I came by to see how you were doing, actually."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"It's been a year, and I still can't quite believe I do either," Steph admitted, because it wouldn't have been possible literally anywhere else in the world for her of all people to end up owning a business on a whim, "so thanks. I'm doing okay... glad to hear you are, too, by the way."

[hasaknightjob]

Steven blinked in surprise. "Me? Why? I mean I am, if that's your concern. Cheers for asking. But why?"

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph shrugged one shoulder. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I know the squirrels aren't exactly a sober info source, but a couple of their weird notes made me wonder, I guess?"

Well, that and what Alex had told her, but given that neither of them was entirely sure what the implications there were, she wasn't quite sure how to bring that up yet.

[hasaknightjob]

"Actually that's why I came by to see you," Steven said. "Radio. Something you said - it sounded familiar to me. Thought I'd ask. Though if it's none of my business of course you can tell me to shove off. I understand wanting things to be private."

Boy did he.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph smiled slightly and indicated a row of tiny rum bottles behind the register.

"I am prepared to buy rodent silence if necessary," she said, "and if it's something I said on the air then it's fair game, at least in general. What're you wanting to know?"

[hasaknightjob]

"You mentioned something about time, you see," Steven said. "Being strange. I wondered - time's often strange for me as well. I lose minutes or even days. Is - is that what you meant?"

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph blinked a couple of times. "Oh -- the thing about time being a weird soup?" Her grin turned sheepish. "Would you believe me if I said I stole that from a tabletop game Twitch stream? I don't actually lose time myself, I just get so caught up in shit I'm doing sometimes that I lose track of it."

The sheepish grin turned up a notch. "Sorry if I made it sound like more than that."

[hasaknightjob]

"Oh, no, that's all right," Steven said. He tried to hide how silly he felt for thinking otherwise. "I mean good that it's no problem for you. Glad to hear it. Nothing wrong with getting lost in a book, is there?"

Unless you were Wanda, maybe.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"If we were maybe any place but here, I might wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment," Steph said wryly, with a smile meant to try and reassure him that there was no need to feel silly about it. "Here, though, I'm at about ninety-six percent agreement."

Which was still pretty good, she felt.

"Sometimes it's a book. Sometimes I'm jamming on my drums, or I'm researching something to prep for a game and Wikipedia swallows me whole for several hours, that sort of thing." She shrugged again. "My sense for how time passes isn't always great, but that's all it is, so unfortunately I can't relate more. But... well, that explains something I'd been wondering about. Does it happen often?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Time to time?" Steven said. For once the pun wasn't intended. He looked worried. "Why? Did I do something wrong? If there's something I need to apologize for you'd tell me, yeah?"

[drumsticksandd20s]

"What? No," Steph said quickly, then in a firmer tone, "You didn't do anything wrong. Believe me. You would definitely know if I thought you had. Just want a sense of how it works for you so I can help if I need to, you know?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Oh. All right." Steven relaxed. "Well, suppose that's a start then. Sometimes I do things wrong and don't know why. I don't show up when I'm meant to, or I say something to someone and don't know why it offended them because I can't remember what made it horrible to say. That one's the worst. People say oh just ask why they're angry, they'll tell you. But in my experience it doesn't always work like that. Usually they get more upset that you don't know."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph sighed. "Yeah. I can't say I haven't done that kind of shit before, myself. Going off on someone because I assumed they should know why I was pissed. But I'll try to remember, I can promise you that at least."

She watched Saffron pounce on some floating dust motes on the other side of the room.

"And hey," she added after a second, "if you need, I don't know, someone to do recon and find out why someone's mad, I can probably be persuaded to volunteer for the job."

[hasaknightjob]

"Oh. Cheers," Steven said, not having expected that offer. "I do know most people, now. Not sure how I can make it better - " especially after Marc's encounter with Steve yesterday " - but pretty sure the mystery is solved. There is one but I'm not even sure if she's cross. I'm told I should ask her."

Steven hadn't had the courage to try that yesterday, however. Or the time given that much of his evening was taken up by scolding Marc for the aforementioned encounter with Steve.

[drumsticksandd20s]

It wasn't an offer Steph would have even considered making to most people until fairly recently, to tell the truth.

"I guess," she mused, "it might be a little awkward for me to just show up and have that conversation with someone I don't really know too well. I'd still do it, unless that might make it worse?"

[hasaknightjob]

"I'm told she likes honesty," Steven said. "Imagine that means me asking her myself. Normally I'm pretty good at being honest."

You know, other than the ongoing lie of omission.

"Just have to buck up and do it I suppose."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Ugh," Steph said, putting a world of sympathetic tiredness into the sound. "Isn't that part the fucking worst sometimes, though? You try and talk yourself into doing something, and half the time you end up talking yourself out of it instead. Impulse control is a double-edged sword."

[hasaknightjob]

"That's it exactly!" Steven said, glad she understood it. "Especially when you've no idea when you might make it worse. That's when I really hate people expecting you to know things. If I knew I wouldn't have done it, would I?"