The Magpie Emporium, Monday [30/10]

[giveittoyoursister]

Despite the fact that the store decorations and displays had gone all in on the holiday aesthetic, it felt a lot less creepy than last week. A lot.

It helped that one of the games Vi was unpacking was more spooky kitty than capitalist hellscape.

[Open!]

Comments

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Aww, is that the game with the kitties on the bed? I love that one," Steph said with more enthusiasm (well, for things that weren't trying to figuratively give megacorporate hell a black eye) than she'd managed in the entirety of this month. "I also have lunch. Sorry it's not those hash browns, though."

She'd gone looking for the Waffle House and everything, but nope, so she ended up with tamales from a vendor down by the boardwalk.

[giveittoyoursister]

"Yeah, but with spookier cats," Vi said, arranging the meeple Kitty's on the counter before making grabby hands at lunch. "It smells pretty good. Even if it's not hash browns."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"They're still hot as hell, so be careful opening them," Steph warned, setting the tamales down on the counter as she sorted them into three separate piles. "These are beef, these are chicken, and these two are sweet corn and I have now made my player sad about not having tamales."

[giveittoyoursister]

Vi picked up a beef one, tossing it from hand to hand until it cooled enough to unwrap. "'t's good," she said after taking a bite.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"And absolutely zero fucking branding anywhere," Steph said a touch vehemently, reaching for a chicken tamale and gingerly picking at the corn husk. "The vendor sold them to me out of an insulated picnic cooler, as they were meant to be sold."

[giveittoyoursister]

Considering being able to see Jericho cooking hadn't ever been a deterrent, Vi could hardly judge. "Is that a thing?"

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph laughed. "Mostly in the sense that street vendor food is objectively more awesome than restaurant food most of the time. Plus that way I know my money's going directly to the people who did the work." She peeled the wrapping back from her tamale and took a careful bite. "Oh. God, yeah, that's good."

[giveittoyoursister]

Vi grinned and took another bite of her own tamale. "Careful, a girl might get jealous."

Like she'd never eaten anything in a vaguely obscene way.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph snickered. "Don't worry, these tamales have nothing on you, if that's what you're wondering."

Like she wasn't waggling her eyebrows at Vi while she ate and made happy noises about her food.

[giveittoyoursister]

"I mean, they are pretty hot," Vi said, winking. "Especially when you start peeling off their outfits."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Messy, too, when you really get into it," Steph added, blowing her a kiss between bites. "But in a way where you want to enjoy every last sloppy little bit."

[giveittoyoursister]

"And you're left licking your fingers afterwards," Vi said, doing exactly that.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Totally worth it," said Steph, and if she was watching what Vi was doing with a keen interest, she wasn't bringing attention to that fact.

[giveittoyoursister]

"So worth it." And if Vi was taking even longer than she needed to, well, she wasn't going to say anything either.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph was too busy grinning at her in the dorkiest, most smitten way possible to remember to, well, say anything. Instead she leaned over and just tried to rest her head against Vi's shoulder.

[giveittoyoursister]

Vi immediately shifted her tamale to her other hand so she could sling her arm around Steph's shoulders. "Thanks for lunch."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Any time," Steph replied, cuddling up against her. "So I was thinking of dressing Little Bot up like a shark, but I don't know if we could get Saffron to pretend to be a swimmer."

[giveittoyoursister]

"Probably not," Vi said after thinking about it. "We might have more luck making her another shark."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Holy shit, yes," Steph said delightedly. "Like a little tiger shark, get it?"

Saffron was glowering at her so hard. For the suggestion, the pun, or both? Probably both, plus a secret third thing.

[giveittoyoursister]

The third thing was probably the knowledge she was going to talk Vi into helping put the costume on.

"Exactly like a little tiger shark," she said. "No one's ankles will be safe."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Well, it wasn't like Steph was going to have any success at it herself.

"Yours will be fine," she argued. "Probably. But she's gonna be the cutest little bitey shark."

Ugh, Food Human, stop being embarrassing.

[giveittoyoursister]

"Chasing her bouncy dice prey all over the store," Vi said, making little biting motions with her hand.

Why was Snuggle Human encouraging her?

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph snickered. "Yessssssssssss. I can go get some construction paper and decorate her bed and Little Bot's charge dock like little shark dens, too."

It just got worse and worse.

[giveittoyoursister]

Worse and worse, or better and better?

"Do sharks even have dens?"

They did now!

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph waved a hand --- and her tamale -- at Little Bot as he passed by.

"Our sharks do!"

They lived on an island where squirrels could read and write, and the raccoons had a brewery. This was so not weird by comparison.

[giveittoyoursister]

Downright normal, even.

"And ride each other sometimes."

Ugh, Food Human was going to take pictures, wasn't she?

[drumsticksandd20s]

So many pictures.

"But in a different way than we do," Steph said, because she couldn't help herself, waggling her eyebrows.

[giveittoyoursister]

"Oh, definitely not the same way," Vi agreed, smirking.

Did they have to do that right in front of Saffron's kibble?

[drumsticksandd20s]

Yes. Yes, they did, and Saffron ought to be resigned to it by now but she wasn't.

"That way is not for our customers' amusement," Steph said, trying to hold Vi's gaze as she took a fairly suggestive bite of tamale.

[giveittoyoursister]

She was going to waste away if they kept putting her off her food like this.

"It's just for us," Vi managed, mouth suddenly dry.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Damn right." Steph didn't mean to dart the tip of her tongue out to lick away a stray bit of food at the corner of her mouth. It was just instinctive, really. Never mind the way she was looking intently at Vi the whole time. "But that's for later. Right now we have a kitty costume to figure out."

Why. Why were you like this, Saffron's humans.

[giveittoyoursister]

Your instincts were sending a lot of mixed signals Vi's way, Steph.

She reached across to wipe Steph's mouth with her thumb. "It needs a fin obviously."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph's instincts were just trying to multitask, that was all.

She didn't quite try to catch Vi's thumb in her mouth, but she did kiss it. "The fin might be as much as you --" there was absolutely no point in trying to pretend it made sense for her to contribute to this effort -- "can get her to deal with, honestly."

[giveittoyoursister]

Vi grinned at her. For more than one reason. "True, we probably don't want to push our luck."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"With both of us, it's a disadvantage roll," Steph said lightly, and offered Vi a bite of her tamale. Yes, she knew Vi had her own. That wasn't the point.

[giveittoyoursister]

The point was Vi leaning over to slowly take a bite out of Steph's tamale. Not technically dirty. "So we just need to get a fin and then get it on her."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"There's a sheet of dark gray foam in the leftover packing material pile," Steph said, grinning as she leaned forward to try and kiss Vi's forehead while she was taking a bite of the tamale. "That's the easy part."

The leftover packing material pile was about 50% her trying to reuse things for crafting purposes and 50% just not wanting to have to deal with it.

[giveittoyoursister]

It wasn't like it was an unmanageable pile. Yet.

Vi grinned at her and swallowed before replying. "The hard part is getting it on her."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Yet.

"I have faith in your skills," Steph replied, ruffling her hair. "And the power of some extra yummy nice fresh salmon treats."

[giveittoyoursister]

Curse Food Human's delicious betrayal!

"Yeah, that'll do it," Vi said, leaning into Steph's touch.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph turned the motion into running her fingers through Vi's hair.

"I know my job, and I'm damn good at it," she declared, and tried to swipe a bite of Vi's tamale.

[giveittoyoursister]

Eyes half-closed, Vi didn't even make a token effort to keep her tamale away from her.

"You are."

Saffron begged to differ.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"And you're damn good at yours," Steph went on through a mouthful of tamale, her fingers still moving back and forth through Vi's hair.

Saffron couldn't argue with that. The nerve of Food Human, putting her in a position of having to agree with her!

[giveittoyoursister]

Truly, there was no end to Food Human's treachery.

"We make a pretty good team like that," Vi said, turning her head to nuzzle Steph's shoulder.

[drumsticksandd20s]

And sometimes, it was worse when she wasn't even trying to betray Saffron.

"We're the best team," Steph said with feeling just as soon as she'd polished off the last of Vi's tamale.

The worst, Food Human. The actual worst.

[giveittoyoursister]

And Snuggle Human wasn't even upset that she'd stolen her food! It was unthinkable!

"Yeah, we do."

[drumsticksandd20s]

Food Human couldn't just get away with this. Saffron would see to it.

"Shall we get to crafting, best teammate a girl could ever ask for?"

[giveittoyoursister]

Saffron's dignity would be avenged.

Vi squeezed Steph's hand. "Let's."