fandomtownies | The Perk; Thursday Afternoon [09/25].

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The Perk; Thursday Afternoon [09/25].

Sometimes, it was the little things you missed. Like sitting in a coffee shop with your laptop working on some business stuff, because, yes, there were coffee shops on Ravnica, but did you think Summer wanted to deal with having to explain to people about laptops? Especially with the Izzet League around? That was a can of worms she was only going to open in the case of a dire dead battery situation (and, yes, she had a contingency plan in place for exactly that occurrence).

But while she was in Fandom for her class, she didn't have to worry about that at all! And she did still have a business here to keep an eye on, too, although, let's be honest, T&C definitely always managed to take care of itself even without anyone to manage it. But it was good to keep Apu and Prompto and the cheese panda on their toes and to remind them that she was still signing their checks.

Also? PSL. Come on.

Which also....she might not be ready to deal with poisoning the well with laptop technology, but pumpkin spice, on the other hand...She could put in a few orders through the shop today, and, if she did decide to stick around for Parents' Weekend, it could get here by Monday and she wouldn't even have to deal with any extra portals!

Ugh! Why was she just so good at this???

[[ I'm likely going to be SLOW due to work, but post is absolutely open for all your perkly needs! ]]

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Rey came by here after training some days, and when you saw the bestie in there...

"You look nice and busy," Rey greeted her.

"I am nice and busy!" Summee said, proudly. And she might actually argue that that wasn't really true, but she realized her bar for that kind of thing was pretty skewed.

"But not so busy, ohmygod, to take a break. Assuming you're not too busy? I'll buy you a cooof~feeee~."

Not that she felt Rey needed the bride, but she was in Successful Businessperson Mode and therefore feeling ~generous~.

"You do not have to buy my coffee," Rey told her with a smile, pulling out a chair to sit on. "But I will definitely keep you company."

"I know I don't have to," Summer snorted, "but I want to. Or maybe a tea, or something. I mean, it's PSL season, you've gotta take advantage, right?"

"I was actually originally going to come here for a pumpkin spice latte," she admitted.

"Seeeee?" Sure, Rey, just give her another reason to be smug. "Okay, then, hold tight, let me get you one. I could use another one, too, actually."

So she hopped up and a few moments later, returned with two drinks, setting on in front of Rey like even off the clock she couldn't quite shake that serving habit, and then settled back in her chair.

"So, you got anyone coming over the weekend that you know of?"

"Not this time, I think," she said, taking her coffee gratefully, which also hopefully hid her disappointment at her own answer. "Everyone's pretty scattered, but hopefully I can get out there next week, maybe. Do you have people coming or do you skip that when you're ...off-realm?"

"Oh god," said Summer, scoffing st the idea and rolling her eyes as she picked up her drink, took a sip, and shook her head. "I hope not! I am sticking around just to find off if anyone does show up to see me..."

Did she even tell her family she was currently mostly living in an entirely different dimension at the moment? Ahahahaha. And give them the chance to find her there? Yeah, right. Her being here this weekend was insurance. And if anyone asked, she'd sent her cat to space camp.

"...and because it's always interesting having new people around. Or return visitors. If I stuck around Ravnica this weekend, i think I would just end up dying of FOMO, especially if anything really juicy or dramatic happens."

Edited 2025-09-25 18:53 (UTC)

"And if it ends up very boring?" Rey asked.

Summer shrugged, with another sip of her drink. "Then I just head back early, after being very, very disappointed in everyone."

Her head tilted with a thought.

"Has a Parents Weekend here ever been boring? That seems almost impossible, really."

"I've had mostly normal ones, which means I didn't get to see most of the drama," Rey admitted. "How are things going there, anyway? Did you need a weekend break?"

"Need?" Summer echoed. "No. But I figured it was a good time for one, especially since I heard Parents Weekend was coming up. And it's a good opportunity to see how my new manager does without me there for a few days. If I come back and the place is, like, burned down or whatever, I am going to be pissed."

But you can bet her new manager was going to have much worse problems.

"How about you? Anything thrilling and exciting happen in the, oh, two weeks since we last saw each other?"

It was Rey, after all, so Summer pretty much just expected something about training, like some new novel thing the woodchucks were trying to incorporate.

How dare you, Summer.

And she might catch that something was up pretty quick by that little pause on Rey's part.

"Uh. So you know how you asked at the dates if I was hoping to get anyone?"

Well!

The pause definitely had Summer lifting her brows in intrigue. Ans the answer had her chin soon following suit.

"Yeeaaaaahhh..." she said, "like, obviously..."

So help her, Rey, if you make her drag this out of you kicking and screaming with a lead-in like that...

She did not do that!

"I'm dating Adrian now."

So there.

There was a twitch of a grin on Summer's face, somewhat smug, mostly just pleased, and she seemed to take a moment to just picture how they went together before nodding in approval.

"Nice," she decided. "He's super cute. And seems really sweet."

Which, for Rey? Yes. Absolutely. Fucking co-signed.

"Get it, girl. Although ypu better have a damn good reason why I wasn't texted with this news immediately after it happened, unless by 'now', you mean 'as of literally two seconds before walking through this coffee shop door,' ohmygooooood."

Edited 2025-09-25 21:22 (UTC)

"It was pretty public. And when it didn't make radio ~~because SP~~ and no one said anything ~~also because SP~~... I think I wanted to just... stay in it for a little while."

If that made sense.

Edited 2025-09-25 22:00 (UTC)

"That's fair," said Summer, because it did make sense, and her smile softened warmly. "Congrats, then. I'm really happy for you guys. I hope it goes really, really well. Any big new date plans ahead, or just kind of just riding that new hook-up glow for a bit?"

Rey looked pretty happy for them too.

"No plans. Though we should get to the actual date part at some point," she said. "We agreed to keep things pretty casual, so we'll see what that ends up looking like."

Summer nodded. "Casual's good," she said. "I guess just keep me updated, then! And if you ever want to really get out there for a date idea, I know of a pretty cool off-planar place I could recommend."

"Thanks," Rey smiled. "What about you? Have you met anyone lately?"

"Well, I mean..."

That grin definitely answered Rey's question well before her words did.

"Yeah. Been meeting a lot of someones lately."

And even knew some of their names!

"But, also, like, I've been keeping pretty busy with the shop, too, but I think I hit a good stride with that work/life balance."

Honestly, Rey'd been hoping that was her answer. Get it, girl, you deserved it.

"I'm impressed you could find that balance that quickly. I might have to get tips."!

And absolutely none of those someones had or will be super awkward and weird, ever, especially not maybe this weekend, doo doo doo...

"Rey." Summer snorted and leveled a very serious look at her. "Almost the entire time I've known you, I've been trying to give you those tips. If this new development doesn't end up helping, then you might just be hopeless when it comes to WLB."

"There is one me for an entire galaxy," Rey pointed out. "It's a very big reason for keeping things casual."

She might be hopeless. She didn't want to be. But she allowed for the possibility.

Summer was giving her a very skeptical look, especially since that answer sounded a lot like excuses to her.

"You have gotten better," she allowed. Especially since she had a pretty wide breadth of experience to compare it to. "But I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Wait, hold on, refresh my memory. When was your last vacation, again?"

That question mark at the end came on a teasing smirk.

"I went on the last trip, and I'm sure the next one is coming up soon."

So there again.

Also she was pretty sure she couldn't get away with skipping those anymore without getting Looks about it.

"Thank you for proving my thought that I should have added a 'school trips don't count' disclaimer correct," Summer snorted again. Fondly. "Good job on the bare minimum."

"I consider it a compromise," Rey said lightly.

"A compromise," Summer allowed with an approving, sage-like nod, "is an excellent little tiny kitty bitty baby step forward."

Stark had left his silly leather pants in Germany (the good ones were still here in Fandom, of course).

And while he'd had plenty of German food sometimes you just needed that frozen PSL concoction on top of everything else.

"Hi." Just that, and a grin.

"No," Summer snorted, "not yet. I'm working."

As if to prove it, she turned her laptop a little to show off all of her pretty color-coded spreadsheets, ans then turned it back into place.

"But I could probably take a break. How's it going, Stark?"

"Breaks are important," Stark said. "Or later?"

It wasn't like he was indulging on his own so it had been a bit.

"What are you working on? And I'm doing all right."

Nothing major to complain about. Mostly.

"Maybe later this weekend?" Summer offered. "Do you know if we're getting a Chiana visit for PW this year?

"And I'm working on some data analysis," she added, waggling her eyebrows a little, because she knew you were very impressed, Stark. She moved the laptop to show off her work again. "Based on how certain shots are going over with customers. The different colors are for Guild affiliations so I can see if there's any particular trends for those demographics, so then I can focus my marketing with those shots in those Precincts. It'll also help me work out where might be the best spot for a second location if I decide to expand."

As she spoke, there seemed to be a happy little glow about her. It was total nerd shit, sure, but it was her nerd shit and it was making her money.

It wasn't like it took much for Summer to impress Stark, really.

"Have you found anything out yet? About trends? But it sounds like it's going well. If you're thinking of expanding..."

He let his voice trail off then flashed a quick grin. "And yes. Chiana said she'd here, again. She'd hate to miss you if you're not staying for the weekend."

"I mean," said Summer, "I kind of went into it hoping to expand. I couldn't really do that back on Coruscant, had to keep it pretty focused and restrained due to all the spy shit I was doing on the side. But I don't really have those restrictions now, so, watch the fuck out, Ravnica....

"And I've found that woth the Simic is where I can get really weird with it, Selesnya's great for fresh ingredients, but, god, I hate dealing with them. I'm really excited to try some new stuff in the Golgari market, but that's probably to be pretty exclusive to them, and obviously Rakdos and Izzet are the easiest market. Orzhov likes the fancier stuff and pretending they actually don't, and I don't know if Azorius like anything...

"And awesome," she turned the computer back, "I was hoping she might, and not only do ai plan on sticking around, but I've got some pretty cool new stuff she can try."

Stark, too, obviously, but she felt Chiana would be particularly interested.

"It sounds like it's all going well then. That's good. It's very good for you. I'm glad."

For her. Not necessarily for what the results of all of this going well might be.

"I'd like to hear more about it. How it's all going, over there. I'm not sure I remember all of the factions..."

He shrugged. "I am certain Chiana will be happy to try anything you have to offer though"

"What about you, though?" Summer asked, with a small tilt of her head. Because, yes, she assumed Stark would be willing to also try anything she had to offer, but sometimes it just felt right to check.

"And don't worry if you can't keep all the Guilds straight. If I'm perfectly honest, I'm still not entiry sure exactly what the specific the distinction between Boros and Azorius is sometimes."

Which was entirely a Summer problem and not at all a reflection on the person writing this.

"It's easier when you're in the middle of it, too."

"I thought it might go without saying," Stark said.

Or maybe he hadn't wanted to assume he was invited? Maybe a little of both.

"But yes. I'm always happy to try anything you'd like me to." oops, the sincerity had slipped out again.

"And I'm sure you're doing fine, keeping it all clear enough there. And it would be easier if you were dealing with it day to day, wouldn't it?" A lot more experience in Ravnica than Stark had would be needed to keep track of it all.

Look, inviting his PW guest to do cool extraplanar synthetic drugs with her and not him, too, would be a pretty dick move on Summee's part, and she really sort of hit her dick move quota for Stark with the whole breaking up with him thing, sooo...

Look, she was allowed to overthink things too! And sometimes, those things included worrying about pressuring your ex into illicit activities because you knew you could probably pressure him into a lot of things just by breathing near him, okay? Especially when there was sincere emphasis like that involved.

But Summer still seemed a little relieved with that answer, and nodded.

"It is," she confirmed. "It's just so interesting sometimes, how the different Guilds sort of function in the city and dictates everything. Kind of nerve-wracking, sometimes, woth the politics of it all and being Guildless can bar you from a lot of things, but I feel the benefits of being unaffiliated far outweigh the cons--"

Wait. This was all starting to sound just a bit too metaphorical...

"So, anyway!" Summer shifted gears entitely with winning cheerfulness. "Been up to anything interesting here? How's Stabby? Made any good cupcakes lately?"

Everyone could pretend not to have noticed things getting dangerously metaphorical. It was fine. Really. Totally.

"There were animals this weekend," Stark said after a pause that might have meant nothing at all. "The ones that are...parts of us? Souls, sort of? She's a platypus and I'm not sure what that means."

A platypus was a weird animal. He knew that.

"I...haven't really baked anything lately. Maybe I ought to. For the weekend. For Chiana..."

"I think she'd like that," Summer said, witba soft smile that went into a laugh as she added, "And I would, too, let's be real.

"And I think I remember those once! The Soul-Animal things. Mine was a flying magical lamb unicorn fairy named Tinkles."

Just...yeah. So....

"Yours was a what?"

Look, a platypus was weird but that was just...

"That's...that's very you, isn't it?"

He wasn't sure a platypus was him but that's what the universe had offered twice now.

"Probably something chocolate. For baking, not for an animal. Do you have any suggestions?"

"A flying magical lamb unicorn fairy," Summer repeated helpfully, then sighed a little wistfully. "And it really is, isn't it?"

Right down to the fact that it definitely bent the rules juuuuust enough to probably earn some side-eyes.

"And can you do chocolate ones, definitely, but the ones with, like, some kind of raspberry filling? And some vanilla ones with little bits of strawberry in them with strawberry icing?"

It was very extra and very special and very Summer.

"I can do both of those things," Stark agreed readily. "I know you love strawberry."

He should have suggested that himself. Opportunity missed!

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The Perk; Thursday Afternoon [09/25].

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