The Magpie Emporium; Friday [02/10].

[pun_king]

The counter that day was cluttered with a wide variety of sheets and papers, charts and graphs, maps, dice, books, and a calculator.

It would, of course, be a fair guess to assume he was deeply entrenched in cooking up something truly epic and amazing for his tabletop group, but.....nope. You'd be wrong.

He was, instead, trying to figure out exactly what on Earth (quite literally!) he was going to do for his and Charlie's Valentine's Day date.

At least up until the point where Saffron decided that right in the middle of all his plotting and planning was exactly the spot she needed to plop down on, stretch out, and take a good long nap.

Which was annoying, at first, but, in retrospect, Graham would come to realize that the cat may very well have been doing him a huge favor after all.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

Comments

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[wildgalegirl]

"Greetings, fine sir!" Charlie said with a dramatic bow. "How are you this fine day?"

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[pun_king]

"Charlie!" You know, in all his planning and plotting and thinking and tinkering, Graham never once realized that the problem with trying to figure out their Valentine's Day date during his shift at the shop was that there was a good chance Charlie would be stopping in at the shop. So he quickly made a scramble in a hopes to shove aside and hide all of the more incriminating details from her, in a way that was so flustered that he ended up just swiping it all right off the counter, and then laughed and tried to pretend like it never happened.

"Hi! How are you? How's it going? Oh, me? I'm good! Great, even, thanks for asking!"

And, with that, he very subtly leaned an elbow on the counter to cover up a Post-It note that remained there, cradling his chin in his hand and smiling oh-so-innocently and obliviously at her expectantly.

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[wildgalegirl]

This was why she adored Graham so! She pretended to be completely oblivious to the pushing and covering and knocking over and just beamed at him as if she hadn't noticed a thing!

"I am much better now that I've seen you," she said cheerfully, "my UNCAGED friend! And I'm glad you are also doing well! And how is your noble steed?"

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[pun_king]

And thus, Graham's big, dreamy grin was two-fold: in part for having clearly managed to avoid any suspicion of nefarious Valentine's Day plotting, and in part for Charlie saying that seeing him made her day better, and, you know what? He was just going to blush a little with pleasure over that fact, too, it was pretty happy-blush worthy.

"Triumph is amazing," he said, "as always. He's definitely looking forward to his weekly Friday evening vegetable extravaganza, and I'm pretty sure we hit a new record with our Trial of Speed practice the other day, too! You should definitely stop by and see him sometime, I know he'd love to see you!"

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[wildgalegirl]

"Now, see, these are things I should know!" Charlie said. "I didn't know about his Friday evening vegetable extravaganza or his Trial of Speed practice! Tell me about them!"

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[pun_king]

"Well," said Graham, "the Friday evening vegetable extravaganza is because Libby always brings a ton of veggies to game night, but no one really eats many of them, because there's so many other, usually more delicious snacks. Don't get me wrong! I love a good carrot stick or a little celery with some peanut butter, but the competition is fierce, Guillermo's always making the best pastries and empanadas, and Kurt...well, you never know what Kurt's going to bring, but it's always good, and Vi brings a lot of pretty tasty chips and Jo has got fancy chocolates from back home, so...Not a lot of room for vegetables there, but it's okay! Because I just take what's left over to the stables for Triumph, and he goes crazy for them!

"And then the Trial of Speed, well, that is one of the part of the Tournament of Knights that they hold every few years in Daventry." The word was spoken with a soft reverence and awe, his eyes absolutely sparkling as he said it. "Have I told you about the Tournament of Knights yet, Charlie? That's the whole reason I'm here, so I can train to be better, because all I want is to one day be a knight, just like my dad, and like his dad, and his dad before him! And the Trial of Speed is one of five different events to compete in. Well, Six, if you include the Parade, but then there's the Chivalry Test, the Trial of Speed, the Trail of Strength, the Trial of Wits, and, biggest of all, the Hunt for the Eye of a Hideous Beast!"

And, yes, he was making claws with his hands for dramatic effect, with a soft "Grrrr!"

"The participant who does the best in all the trials gets to become a Knight of the Realm! And next year, I'm finally going to be old enough to compete! Me and Triumph, we're going to take it all the way to the top!"

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie watched him fondly as he expounded on the vegetables and the Tournament of Knights, nodding at all the right places. He was even more adorable when he was so excited about things.

"I can totally understand the vegetable extravaganza because, yes, it sounds like your group brings in much more delicious stuff, so it's good that Triumph gets to benefit."

The Tournament of Knights was fascinating and she got carried away by his excitement enough that she actually jumped, then laughed at herself when he growled. "That sounds fantastic! How can I help?"

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[pun_king]

Graham couldn't possibly look more delighted at his apparently very effective turn as a Hideous Beast, beaming in a nice, happy little bubble for how attentative and appreciative Charlie was through all his rambling. So much so that he might have gotten caught just looking at her fondly and being glad she was there, before he blinked and shook his head and remembered, oh, right! They were talking about something.

"I could probably use more help with my Trail of Wits, to be honest," he admitted. And his Trial of Strength, really, looking for a moment at his wiry little limbs in a brief, forlorn moment, but that was something he definitely wasn't about to admit and/or work on with a girl he liked. "You're probably pretty good at stuff like that, right? Puzzle games, strategy games, things like that! I wonder if I can find a version of the game you actually play in the Trial Duel actually, whoops of Wits. I've never played it, but it sounds actually kind of fun. You have these little archer characters, and the goal is to hit the other player's archer, but you can only move in certain ways, and there are knight pieces on the board that you use their shields to try and deflect and aim your arrow. So you have to use them to your advantage, but you also have to watch out that the other guy isn't doing the same thing!"

Re: Shop with Graham - 02/10.

[wildgalegirl]

It was Charlie's turn to duck her head and blush a little. "I'm not really," she admitted. She was more used to making her way through life on charm. (And charms.) Which isn't to say she wasn't bright or couldn't strategize, but she was inherently a bit lazy - except for her music - and tended to slide her way through as much as possible.

"I'd be glad to try, though. And I could always animate pieces for you or whatever, but you're probably better already at that stuff." It didn't really bother her, but she certainly wished she could be more help to Graham.