The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (11/17)

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph had been absolutely eaten by God of War Ragnarok in a pensive sort of mood ever since waking up back as herself again on Tuesday morning; there was nothing quite like literally revisiting your childhood to realize exactly how far you'd come from being a little kid who was still tentative and uncertain thanks to being picked on so much, and now in an abstract way she was just kind of mad all over again about kids getting bullied in general.

... anyway, she was trying not to think too hard about it, and luckily she had a ton of new stock to set out to keep her mind off the subject.

[OOC: Yeah, look. *puts up missing person posters for my brain*]

Comments

[giveittoyoursister]

It wasn't that Vi had been avoiding Steph since they'd changed back, she'd just been avoiding talking to her about it, which was something completely different. If she'd been avoiding her would she have brought lunch then immediately attempted to press her face into Steph's neck in a very clingy hug?

[drumsticksandd20s]

It was definitely something different, which was good because Steph did not care to revisit how much that last bout of avoiding each other had sucked. She wasn't really ready to talk about it and had a pretty good sense of why Vi wouldn't be either, so she wasn't going to push. She figured they knew each other well enough to at least have a general idea of why it was fucking with them, anyway.

"Hey," she murmured, hugging Vi back, hard. "You're the best, you know?"

[giveittoyoursister]

Vi definitely didn't want a repeat of that, no matter how raw she was feeling.

"Pretty sure that's actually you," she mumbled, not letting go of Steph.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Shut up," Steph said softly, with no heat at all, and kissed the side of Vi's head. "Hi, babe. How're you doing today?"

There was the slightest emphasis on today that came with the implication that no, Vi didn't have to say a damn word about how she felt about the weekend if she didn't want to.

[giveittoyoursister]

Especially since Vi didn't know how she felt about that. She rested her chin on Steph's shoulder. "Better now I've seen you."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"A service I am happy to provide to a select few customers, by which I mean you exclusively," Steph said as she slid her arms into a more comfortable hold around Vi's waist. "Lunch with you is always a pretty good pick-me-up in my book, too."

[giveittoyoursister]

"Mine too," Vi agreed. "I got something different today." Because her player couldn't get rice paper rolls.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Woe!

"You know me, I'm always up for trying new and different things," Steph said with an attempt at a suggestive wink that was mostly successful but fell a bit flat at the end.

[giveittoyoursister]

"You are a very adventurous eater," Vi agreed, pulling the takeout containers out of the bag.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph smirked at her. "I'm taking that as a compliment, you know."

[giveittoyoursister]

Vi grinned back shamelessly. "You were meant to."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph snorted as she started clearing up some counter space so she could lay out the plasticware and napkins. "I love you so much, you dork."

[giveittoyoursister]

Even though Vi knew it was stupid to be worried, something in her unclenched a little at that. "I love you too," she said, leaning in to steal a kiss.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell stopped by in the morning. "Steph? I thought I'd come by and take a look at your store. Maybe get an idea of a tea or something as we talked about before."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Saffron was still asleep in her patch of sunlight by the window and -- predictably -- didn't move, but Little Bot beeped a greeting and waved a couple of his little robot arms as he rolled by on his vacuuming circuit. Steph looked up from the box of spell card decks she was busy sorting and counting out to add to inventory.

"Hey, Nell," she said, and she wasn't really wallowing in her thoughts so her smile still came easily. "Awesome idea. Welcome to my little nerd fortress."

She made a gesture with both hands, like she was showing the place off.

[mylandmyrules]

"I have to admit that I've never been in here before," Nell said. "You have such interesting things here."

She wandered a little looking at all the thngs on the shelves. "I don't know what half of these things are," she admitted.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Most people don't," Steph assured her. "As much as tabletop gaming has taken off in the last few years, it's still pretty niche in a lot of ways. But one of the reasons I started this place was to try and make it less intimidating for people to learn more about it. Hell, even to just ask questions without being laughed at for it. In other words, feel free to ask if you're curious. Guaranteed no judgment."

[mylandmyrules]

"I don't even know what tabletop gaming is," Nell admitted, "So I wouldn't even know what to ask, really. All the fancy dice are pretty, though."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Aren't they, though?" Steph asked with a smile, picking up a set of bright green glass dice and tilting the box so it caught the sunlight. "There are a ton of different systems with different rules and settings and whatever, but they all more or less boil down to making up a cool story with a few other people while having snacks. Usually with various degrees of pretending to fight things."

[mylandmyrules]

Oh," Nell said. "I'm not sure I'd be much good at the making up stories or the pretending to fight things, but I'd be good at the making snacks part."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"No, see, that's the cool thing," Steph said earnestly. "It doesn't always have to be about pretending to fight things, and everyone who's playing sort of bounces off each other to make up the story. Depending on what kind of game you're playing, one person might be in charge of making up most of it, and you're just figuring out how your character fits into things. I've run games that just turned out to be murder mysteries, and there's a bunch of professional players I like to watch who did a campaign that was basically like a fantasy version of a Jane Austen novel. Blew my mind, honestly. There's games that are way rules-light, or super-crunchy with a whole bunch of math for people who love that sort of thing... all over the spectrum. "

She pulled the ten-sided dice out of the box and rolled them, not really caring what numbers she got, then added more seriously:

"It's a way, way, wider and more flexible space than some old-school nerd dudes want people to believe. They love to make it seem like tabletop gaming is this super niche, super complicated thing so they can scare off anyone who isn't them, and for real? Fuck that. It's now my mission in life to make them cry because it's not just their little clubhouse any more."

[mylandmyrules]

Nell was smiling as Steph explained. "You make it sound very fun. And very accessible," she said.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Completely the goal," Steph said, almost fierce in her intensity about it. "I mean, at the absolute base level of it all, it's just spending time having fun with friends. Nobody has the right to make anybody else feel like they aren't allowed to do that."

[mylandmyrules]

"I agree," Nell said. "Anyone should be able to spend time with their friends doing whatever they choose - as long as it's not hurting anyone and I can't see how this would."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph huffed a dry laugh. "You'd think, and yet. Anyway, that's a huge part of why this place exists."