fandomtownies | The Perk, Tuesday Afternoon

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The Perk, Tuesday Afternoon

Marzipan was a much more substantial treat than powdered sugar, which was excellent from a snacking perspective, but less so for walking around and getting pelted, as Liliana had discovered on her trek from MHA to the Perk. Still, necessity was the mother of invention and before she was halfway to the coffeeshop, she'd already been sending instructions to her steward about what she needed.

She'd just settled in with a cup of hot caramel apple cider when her steward arrived and handed over her requested items: one of her umbrellas, a sturdy needle, and some thick thread, almost twine. The third item she needed, disposable cups, were not something she had at the mansion, but was also something the coffeeshop had in spades. With a smile and some soft words of appreciation, she accepted the elements of her craft project and immediately set to work, sipping on her cider and humming snatches of the song she'd woken up singing on Saturday.

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Annie had had the idea of taking the twins out on a little adventure -- read, to get Mommy's allowed dose of coffee and maybe visiting a friend or two -- well before she had looked out her window and seen that it was fruit bullshit day.

But, like. These were Fandom babies. Marzipan fruit was nothing. And besides, they had the coolest stroller money could buy-slash-inventively modify.

So while Annie took a moment to shake a marzipan pear off the stroller's protective shade after ordering her (frustratingly small) mocha, a peek inside the stroller told her that any instances of falling fruit hadn't disturbed either of the twins.

And once she'd checked in with all things baby, she could give her attention to who else was in here, and while she normally wouldn't interrupt someone who looked like she was working on something -- well, that was a thought from the days when she had a lot more daily conversations with adults. Besides, she only sort of vaguely recognized her, and a relatively new person was always interesting. "How's it going?"

Annie definitely had the look of 'someone I have seen out and about probably' about her, though no name was springing to Liliana's mind. "Oh, hello," she said, offering a smile. "I'm preparing for the rest of my day outside." She held up the umbrella she was in the process of modifying. "As delicious as marzipan is, I have no interest in getting hit with it all day. Nor it getting caught in my hair and melting."

The powdered sugar had been enough of a deterrent for that, thank you.

She set down her accoutrements and held out a hand. "Liliana Vess, darling, a pleasure. Care to sit?"

Probably helped that if Liliana had seen Annie over the summer, she had looked different at the time. You know, in a pregnant way.

And for Annie's part, Liliana's name tickled at...something. An association with someone else she knew? She'd get it in a minute; right now, Mom Brain and lack of sleep was kind of interfering, and instead Annie was just all too happy to close the gap with her own hand and an eager smile. "Annie Hargreeves, nice to meet you. Anyone warn you about the pipes yet?"

Like, if she was already doing something-or-other to an umbrella for the fruit, Annie felt like it was a duty to warn Liliana (who seemed Fancy with a capital F) about the pipes.

"Oh, and this is Ben, and Maggie," she added, gesturing to each of the docile babies in the stroller in turn as she took the offered seat, not even bothering to hide how grateful she was to be sitting again. "If either of them does anything unsuitable for company, we'll be out of here pronto, promise."

"The...pipes?" Liliana (who was quite capital-F Fancy and appreciated the acknowledgement) asked, with a slight frown. "Nothing yet."

Oddly enough, if Annie looked more closely at the umbrella, she'd notice that Liliana appeared to be attaching cups to the outside edge.

She glanced down at the infants and shook her head, dismissing the very idea. "They're babies," she said. "Most of what they do is unsuitable for company, so forcing you to withdraw as soon as they act like a baby seems designed to turn you into a social pariah. Gaia knows I've dealt with worse." She offered Annie a crooked grin. "I've been in taverns after closing, at least when your babies throw up, they won't be trying to get under my skirts at the same time."

Aha, so she was also old-timey or something. Or at least from somewhere where you referred to taverns and playful comments about skirts, rather than bars and drunken douchebags, like a poetic Annie story.

"They're not quite mobile enough for that just yet," Annie agreed, though Liliana earned an even wider, less-tired smile there. "But, yeah, so -- the pipes? At some point this month, you're probably going to have a situation where something super-not-water is going to come out of the faucets all day. And as someone who's gotten eggnog in her hair more than once, just like...word to the wise. You might want to stock up on emergency water for that day."

And with a glance to the cups, and their presumed use, she added, "Last year it happened to fall on a day when Summer and I were throwing a party, so we just gathered up the nog and served it to guests, too. Like, it doesn't taste bad, it's just not great for a shower."

Wow, okay. We preferred the term 'from a high fantasy franchise' around these parts. Liliana strongly disliked use of the o-word. There was this whole thing with demons and souls and regained immortality...

Ahem. Never mind. Don't even worry about it.

Liliana frowned at that. "Well, fortunately, odds are good that Ignis will fall prey to an eggnog shower long before I even wake up." Unless it was one of those rare days when they'd slept at their respective homes, in which case she trusted her steward to stop her before crisis happened. ~~Except for how it will be hilarious otherwise, so, sorry in advance, Lili~~ "Which will leave me both eggnog-free and with yet another argument why rising with the sun is to be avoided at all costs."

Look, look, in Annie's Fandom experience, there were old-timeys from a long time ago, and there were space people. It had been a long time since there'd been a high fantasy-type here! But never fear -- soon enough, she would be more than happy to correct her assumption, and instead ask Liliana intrusive and weird questions about whether her cloaks had personalities and if she did magic by swirling her hands in funny ways.

"Oh my god, that's where I know your name from." Annie actually snapped her fingers in recognition, probably making more of a deal of this than she would have if she hadn't only had her husband and two weeks-old babies for company for the better part of a month. Thank you, Liliana, that was enough to jog Annie's memory. "You're dating Shoe Guy! Which, honestly, the idea of him getting stuck with an eggnog shower is hilarious -- sometimes it's wine, eff-why-eye, but the eggnog is way grosser and I always warn people about it. Also, totally feel you, that's a great argument for sleeping in."

Definitely don't explain why you call this woman's boyfriend a nickname no one else uses, Annie. That's not, like, weird or anything.

Whoa! Hey! Nobody in this conversation was using the b-word here, either, Annie! (Though, admittedly, once Liliana had introduced him using the c-word, that is consort, but surely that had just been for vampire reasons and couldn't possibly be indicative of anything else.)

"...Shoe Guy?" Liliana asked, confused enough by that to let the verb 'dating' pass by unchallenged.

Honestly, for how 21st century-uncultured she was -- consort was a much, much more serious-sounding term to Annie than boyfriend, just saying. Like, that was probably just a step under 'fiancé', right? Or was it a level above 'husband'?

"Oh, right, there's a story there," Annie hastened to add, looking a little sheepish about the whole, like, bad storytelling thing going on here. "Sorry. So, we had a weird weekend a few years back where everyone here thought they were in like...children's stories? Fairytales?"

This was one part trying to take her time better, in light of her lack of sleep and rustiness at conversation, and one part being unsure if Miss Don't Call It Old-Timey would have the concept of fairytales where she was from.

Annie probably needn't have worried.

"And there's a story here where a peasant girl gets to go to a real fancy prince's ball, but she has to leave by midnight -- and when she does, she's in such a rush that leaves behind a shoe, which forces the prince to go all throughout the land trying it on different girls' feet until he finds his special ball girl." Probably a better term for ol' Cinderella than special ball girl, but whatever. "Anyway, Ignis thought he was that guy all weekend. He had me try on a shoe for him, in the hopes I was his princess-to-be, and if you believe the radio, made every woman he came across try it on, too." She shrugged conclusively, taking a sip of her mocha. "The name stuck, ever since. Though if I'm honest, I mostly do it because I think it annoys him."

And it cracked Gladio up, which did not help insofar as a deterrent.

Edited 2023-12-05 16:08 (UTC)

Vampire reasons! Important vampire reasons! Important reasons that basically boiled down to 'Mine,' in vampire talk, but you had to get territorial with vampires or they'd get nippy the moment you turned your back!

Important vampire reasons.

"Oh dear," Liliana said, very obviously trying not to smile and just as obviously sporting dimples about it. "I may have to make sure he's very familiar with all of the shoes in my wardrobe just in case."

He'd love that.

"I'll be sure to point out that my way is far more efficient than attempting to make every woman on the island try on a random shoe. He adores efficiency."

Oh, sure, sure. 'Consort' was probably a better approach than the old, 'Ignis is mahn,' line. Not everyone was into that, you know?

"See, the best part is this little anecdote is a good decade and change in the past for him, so I'm sure he's gonna love that I told you," Annie replied with a completely unrepentant grin.

You know what was also like, super not boyfriendy? This whole shoe idea, yeah.

"I don't have a leg to stand on, frankly, because I was letting a chipmunk do my hair all weekend at the time," she pointed out. "But Gladio's one of my bar regulars when I'm working and sometimes he brings Ignis with him, and it just, like, tickles me, you know?"

Edited 2023-12-05 16:26 (UTC)

Plus, she would have had to yell Iggeh! at random times and it would have just been weird all the way around.

Clearly, Annie had been talking to Gladio with these unreasonable accusations of boyfriendy behavior. They were simply lovers engaged in an enjoyable dalliance! Nothing couple-y at all going on! Ignore how Ignis had practically moved in with her for the last two weeks. Liliana sure was!

"My poor darling," she said with evident amusement. "How his life is an unending series of trials." Of which she was absolutely adding to. "I'm sure I shall only use this knowledge for good."

She said. Like a liar.

"Which bar do you work at?"

Liliana could probably make that deep drawl work, though, just saying.

"The Devil's Nest," Annie offered, gesturing vaguely in the correct direction of the bar. "Thursdays, normally, but I'm on maternity leave until the new year thanks to these two. And where do you work?"

She had a vague, vaaaague idea that Liliana might be associated with the magic stuff store that was not the Magic Box, but she was also so out of the loop these days that she didn't want to risk guessing and have it turn out that, like, actually this was their new mayor or her new Tuesday coworker or something.

Edited 2023-12-05 17:03 (UTC)

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