Groovy Tunes; Thursday [11/17].

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

The stereo kept trying to play Christmas music.

The annoying vinyl hipster kept trying to switch it to literally anything else.

Tisarwat kept trying to just do her administrative work and enjoy her tea in peace.

No one was accomplishing their goals today.

Groovy Tunes is open!

[[ and inspired by real workplace events ]]

Comments

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie stopped by, full of remorse. "Hey, I totally flaked on Tuesday," she said. "The Aunties called me away to walk someone through the Wood and I totally forgot to even give you a heads up. I'm so sorry."

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

There was a brief moment where Tisarwat was slightly distracted by the first opening bars of "All I Want For Christmas is You" starting up, only to be very dramatically and succinctly cut off and replaced with some heavy metal before she could focus entirely on what Charlie was saying.

And then she just sort of blinked at her.

Briefly, she thought of just admitting that she hadn't even noticed that Charlie hadn't come in, but that didn't seem very boss-like and thought better of it.

She did, however, still just sort of shrug her shoulders. "Don't worry about it," she said. "It happens. I'm sure the weekend sort of threw everyone off a little, too, and it's not like I've been flooded with complaints about a lack of service on Tuesday."

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie nodded a little glumly. "It was hard to explain to the Aunties that I hadn't been ignoring them over the weekend, it's just that I was only four."

She looked at Tisarwat. "Does that happen regularly? Like every few months or something?"

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Tisarwat gave Charlie the sympathetic sort of look that went along with having to deal with people back home who apparently had no idea what they were getting their teenagers into by sending them here. Nothing she could particularly empathize with, of course, because she was here very intentionally from someone who knew all too well, but that was an entirely different thing all together.

"Not very regularly at all," she assured her. "Maybe once a year, give or take? It's definitely happened before, and often enough that it seems it at least tries to be an annual thing."

She then gestured toward her tea flask.

"Did you want any tea? Or were you just stopping in to check in about your shift this week?"

[wildgalegirl]

"I mostly stopped by to apologize," Charlie said, "But I wouldn't turn down an offer of tea."

Tea was a pretty common drink back home. They were Canadians after all.

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

And Tisarwat was Radchaai. It would have been the ultimate insult to Charlie if she hadn't offered, even if Charlie had no idea she'd been insulted.

So she nodded, and turned so that she could pour Charlie a cup.

"Maybe a good chance to touch base a little," she said, handing the tea over. "I know I haven't been exactly the best at stopping in and seeing how you're doing here. Any problems or issues I should know about?"

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie considered this as she watched Tisarwat pour the tea. "Not that I can think of. It's all pretty straightforward so far. It's a great gig, honestly. I listen to music and check out all the cool stuff. What more could you ask?"

She took the tea carefully with both hands. "Thank you. And is there anything else you want me to do while I'm here? Besides the usual?"

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Tisarwat shook her head, topping her own tea off before setting the flask aside again, and shrugged a shoulder. "You're doing great," she assured her. "Even with the missed shift."

You know, the one she barely even notice had been missed!

"Just keep doing what you're doing," she said, scrounging around for things that sounded slightly more leadership-y, which mostly just turned into her thinking of things she'd say to her Bo officers back on the Mercy of Kalr. She was a lieutenant, after all, and she'd shared a brain with the most powerful tyrant in all of Radchaai space. Being a boss should come almost naturally to her, you'd think. "And how about things otherwise? Everything going well? Except some trouble with your...Aunties, you said?"

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie grinned. "I can do that," she said and took a sip of her tea. "This is really good tea, by the way."

She made herself comfortable, though honestly, Charlie was pretty comfortable wherever she went. "I'm doing great," she said. "I love Fandom. You never know what's going to happen next. I mean we go on these great trips and I got to be four over the weekend and I can just be myself without people giving me a hard time about it."

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

"Thank you," Tisarwat said with a nod, not about to turn down a compliment on her tea, even though she personally thought the blend was passable at best. If they weren't where they were, she might have thought Charlie had complimented it as an underhanded insult. That, and the fact that Charlie really did seem to be a fairly genuine person.

"I have to admit," she added, a little wistfully, "I do miss the trips."

Except the ones on boats, where she spent the whole time being seasick.

"Although thanks to the portals, it's not that difficult to take other trips. They're not as elaborate as the school trips, but there's plenty of freedom. My roommate and I took a little bit of a long world tour not too long ago, actually."

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie wasn't much for fake compliments. And didn't have a good face for lying.

"I can get myself pretty much anywhere in the world without a problem, as long as I don't mind sleeping rough, but even I know I ought to wait on that till I'm a little older. But I don't have the money to do all the things we get to on the trip."

She grinned at Tisarwat. "That must have been amazing. A whole world tour."