fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (4/20)

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The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (4/20)

Yes, there had been a package of gummies from Charlotte that arrived for Steph in this morning's mail (how those got through, she was assuming it had to do with just... the sheer weirdness that was Fandom), and it had been meticulously locked away in a desk drawer until after work.

As for Steph, when she wasn't putting out some cool new dice trays or rescuing plushie displacer beasts that had treed themselves atop the jigsaw puzzle shelves, she was... failing very badly at getting into arguments with people on the internet about the new Dimension 20 season trailer.

[OOC: Method RPing just a bit? Nooooooooo. Open though!]

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"Hello, Steph," Watts greeted as he entered the shop, his hat going to his usual spot as he made the also-usual beeline towards the dice.

"Hey, Llewellyn," Steph responded easily, shutting her laptop because she needed to step away from it. "How goes it today?"

"So far?" he said, picking out a few dice to roll in his palm. "Quiet. How about you?" he asked.

Edited 2023-04-20 19:40 (UTC)

"Definitely quiet," Steph agreed, perching on the counter with one knee tucked up to her chin and one leg swinging idly. "Weirdly quiet, after the weekend... which I'm guessing you've noticed too."

"Indeed," Watts said. "The weekend was- an abrupt change of pace, to say the least."

Steph huffed a little, raspy laugh.

"Right? It's such a head trip, even when you're sort of half expecting it."

She tilted her head slightly. "Bad change of pace, good one, or just weird one?"

"A mix of those last two, I suppose," Watts said. "Children are- not something I ever contemplated, for my future."

For reasons that were probably obvious.

"Yeah, same," Steph agreed. "For... well, multiple reasons."

Some of which happened to be pretty similar, she'd bet.

"It's nice," she said after a moment, "to have them here for a few days. But it's also kind of a relief afterward. Does that sound horrible?"

“I don’t think so,” Watts said. Yes, he’d felt more melancholy than he’d expected after saying goodbye to his two visitors, but at the same time…

“A visit for a few days is a- pleasant interruption,” he continued, rolling the dice in his hand. “But disruptive all the same. Children don’t factor into our everyday lives, after all.”

Steph nodded and picked up a rainbow striped d20-shaped scented candle about the size of an apple, sniffing at it idly -- jasmine and citrus of some kind -- before she straightened out the bent wick and set it back down.

"And it's weird, when -- did yours tell you a lot about what their version of you was like?"

“Yes and no,” Watts said. “They were- quite small. So of course anything they said about their home life had to be filtered through that lens, if it makes sense?” He gave her a curious look. “What about yours? Forthcoming or close-lipped?”

Steph nodded, because that did make sense, and said wryly, "Slightly more on the side of forthcoming, but in a very smartass, constantly giving me shit about my other self way."

She was kind of proud, to tell the truth.

"Amber was ten," she added. "How old were yours?"

“Francis was six and Evelyn was three-almost-four,” Watts recited, because that was apparently quite different from being just three.

Steph couldn't help a grin at that. "It's a very important distinction, you know. Yours and Steven's?"

Watts nodded. "Adopted from- my world, but we apparently all live together in his version of London, along with- Marc reconciles with his former love, a Ms. Layla El-Faouly."

Steph took a moment to piece that together in her head, her brow furrowed, and then she nodded.

"Major non-traditional family unit energy. I absolutely love it," she said. "Apparently, in Amber's world, future me gets back in touch with my old friend Chloe, which is... really nice, actually. I know I'd like that."

“Do you think you might?” Watts asked. “In this- ah, timeline?”

"What, have a -- oh, get in touch with Chloe again?" Steph smiled wistfully. "I hope so. I know we were both in Seattle at the same time, for a little while. Even had mutual friends, apparently, but our paths just never crossed. Last I heard, she and her girlfriend left town again, but she must've changed her number. I'm still trying, though."

“If I can assist in any way, I would be happy to,” Watts told her, scratching at his chin with the hand not holding on to the dice.

He was, after all, a detective.

"I would appreciate that," Steph said with a grateful look. "But I'm also trying to make sure that --"

She fiddled with a piece of tape stuck to the register.

"She's one of the few people who escaped the Arcadia Bay storm. If she wants to cut ties with that part of her life I can't really blame her. I tried to do that too."

Watts nodded. “A sentiment I can certainly understand,” he told her. “And would respect, naturally.”

"Had a feeling you would," Steph replied, her demeanor lightening somewhat. "But if she wanted to get back in touch it would be awesome. No point in throwing any of the good memories out with the bad ones."

“Precisely,” Watts nodded. “Especially now with some time and distance between what happened. It may be easier to look back on those good memories now that the bad ones are less- raw.”

Steph nodded and looked down at the register for a few moments, twisting that little piece of tape until it finally pulled free.

"You know, for me at least, I think they finally are." She gave him a small smile, deeply appreciative that he understood that sometimes these things never really went away. "I'd like to think Chloe got her shit figured out before I did, that way."

“If she’s anything like you, she’s got a good head on her shoulders,” Watts said.

Steph huffed, though she looked somewhat pleased at the compliment.

"More so than a lot of people were willing to give her credit for. Guess they were too busy calling her a troubled child to actually give a shit."

Watts made a face.

"For all the things that have changed, it is unfortunate to learn that some have stayed the same."

Of course, he'd just been strange rather than troubled. Nigel Baker, on the other hand... if the adults back then had been willing to see his behaviour for what it really was- Watts shook his head slightly, as if physically trying to shake off the thought. No sense dwelling on that now.

"People can be annoyingly consistent in the worst ways," Steph agreed, rolling her eyes. "I probably could have been a better friend, looking back on it, but there wasn't much I could do about how everybody else treated her. Arcadia was a small town. Wasn't like she could really hide."

"And you were a child yourself, with your own struggles," Watts pointed out.

Well, hopefully she was prepared for a customer with some very distracting arms. Because that's what she was getting today as Jane poked her head into the shop as though to make sure it actually had someone there.

And not just, you know, a panda or something.

"Oh, hi Steph!"

Look, Steph was always in need of distractions when she was in danger of getting into a full on flame war online.

Just... don't mind her dropping a tinned candle that somehow managed to smell exactly like fresh baked bread on her foot when she saw who came through the door.

"Whoa, hey, Jane! What's up?"

Oh no, online was where guys complained about how now Norse Gods were too woke for them.

"I was looking to buy a game, believe it or not."

Yeah, Steph might have stumbled into one or two of those threads before. Or maybe it had been an argument about fantasy pantheons? Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference around here.

"Why wouldn't I believe it?" she asked, and tossed the candle in her hand totally nonchalantly before reshelving it. "I have an official policy of never assuming anyone isn't the type to like games."

Especially not hot gods with amazing biceps. Ahem

"Anything I can help you find?"

It honestly could be both these days.

"I'm looking for a game to bring back to New Asgard that my friend there won't, well, try to stab it with a sword to get out of playing."

Val, she knew you'd try it. She knew.

Plus a secret third thing, even.

Steph snickered. "That's a very specific requirement. Not one I've heard before. Does your friend like... do that often to get out of playing?"

"She has definitely stabbed something to get out of meetings in the past," Jane replied with a little wince. "But she's very nice otherwise!"

She just needed help showing it, you see.

Steph was just... going to file that away for future NPC use, because --

"Amazing," she said gleefully. "I genuinely love it. So I'm guessing she's going to want something way more action-packed than, say, chess."

Valkyrie might actually enjoy that. So long as it made her cool.

"Yes," Jane said with an emphatic nod. "The Asgardians are more... punch first, ask questions later."

That was the kind of thing you saved for a favorite NPC!

"Some of my favorite people enjoy punching things," Steph said with a fond smile. "Well... I don't have any games that involve literal punching, but okay. I'm thinking nothing too rules-heavy, quick setup. How many people would be playing, roughly?"

"Well, as many as I can wrangle for some team building, but let's say the attentions span of a solid... four people." Did that make sense?

"Team building," Steph echoed, and nodded. "So PVP is probably out... more of a cooperative game, you think?"

"That's be perfect," Jane agreed. "And if it doesn't work... we can try again."

Yes, playtest with the godly.

That would be worth a Twitch stream of its very own.

"Hell yeah you can," said Steph. "There's a trillion games out there. Just because people don't vibe with some of them doesn't mean they'll never find a game they like."

"And it can be good advertising for this place," Jane suggested. Since Valkyrie did those now. "Or just a good brag."

Steph burst out laughing. "What, 'the Magpie Emporium: the game store of choice for the Norse gods?' That would be amazing."

"It might not work here, but online..."

Just include a picture of King Valkyrie.

Steph gave her a wry look.

"I feel like that might cause as many problems as it solves." Because online.

"...okay, that's fair. I really try not to look too much at the whole... comments section thing." That was for Darcy to fill her in on.

"An incredibly wise choice," Steph said, grimacing. "Because it's, uh. It's bad."

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The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (4/20)

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