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?

[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]

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?"

[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."

[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.

[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."

[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]

"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."

[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.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph reached out to cup her hand around the back of Vi's neck and keep her close for a few moments longer as she kissed her back, gently and sweetly.

"Come over tonight?" she asked huskily -- not even in a sexy way, really, just a suddenly-overwhelmed-by-emotion way. "Cuddling for hours suddenly seems like the best idea."

[giveittoyoursister]

"Yeah," Vi said, leaning her forehead against Steph's. "That sounds pretty great."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Perfect," Steph said; as much as they didn't want to talk about it right now it was killing her to know how hard it had hit Vi when the little-kid versions of them had tried and failed to find Powder, and she just wanted to hug Vi until both of them felt a little bit better about it. "Want to meet me at closing time and walk me home like the badass, protective girlfriend you are?"

[giveittoyoursister]

It hadn't been the best awakening when Vi remembered why they hadn't been able to find her, no.

She grinned crookedly. "Need me to keep you safe from the squirrels and porgs?"

[drumsticksandd20s]

"It's a rough job, but someone has to do it," Steph told her, and winked. "And do it in an extremely attractive way."

[giveittoyoursister]

"I guess I'll have to then," Vi said with an exaggerated sigh. She passed one of the containers to Steph. "I got a couple of different flavours and dipping sauces."