Fandom Island and Town

Two more letters were delivered to the shop, sliding in through the small slot in the door. The delivery man looked annoyed, but since he'd gotten extra pay to deliver them on a Sunday, he didn't feel as annoyed as he looked. Still, he was late because he'd almost forgotten about them, hence the running back to the rickshaw so he could return to the mainland. He had a date, which was enough reason to hurry, but he'd also been told weird things about this island and he didn't want to be here if it suddenly disappeared-- again.

The first letter was a little ragged, and while the envelope was blue, it still had pink hearts on it, and held a distinct hint of perfume. It read:

( Dear Karla and Raven )

The second letter was in a green envelope, and there were hearts of blue (because pink and green clashed, obviously). This letter was less tattered, but had obviously been handled more often than the other. There were smudges on the envelope flap that looked like fingerprints, and it was slightly wrinkled in places, almost as if someone had tried to open it, and failed.

( Dear Raven and Karla )

The second letter was posted from Alexandria, Egypt. If one looked closely they'd see some symbols at the bottom of the page -- a cartouche on the first line, then a second with a tiny bird, a leaf or feather, and a lion. The third line had what looked like an egg on its side, then another leaf, a lopsided and upside down 'u', and another bird that vaguely resembled a vulture.

If anyone was checking, there was also a heavy feeling of magic about the second letter. And maybe a hint of blood.

OOC: NFI, NFB. The goddess will return this week.

The goddess of love was not used to being nervous. Worried, she could handle -- she'd been worried ever since she started taking an interest in the lives of mortals. She figured she had to; they certainly didn't worry enough about their own world.

But this wasn't worry. This was a case of the nerves. Aphrodite didn't know what Karla was going to say, and that made her go from place to place in the store, frowning at any little misplaced item, rearranging books on shelves, growling at misaligned boxes. Really, there was nothing wrong with the place, and even the dusting she was doing was busy work. Hercules watched her in amusement.

'Dite frowned as she picked up a tiny grey mouse toy. ( Would you please not leave your disgusting and chewed up toys out where customers can see them? )

"You are the weirdest cat ever."

She really shouldn't have been surprised.

(Expecting a Kaeleeran witch at some point, but open before and after. There is one bad word behind the lj-cut, so maybe NWS. The cat in this post bears no resemblance to any cat i know in real life. Ho hum.)

It had been a decent week; after saying goodbye to the group Aphrodite had stayed to play in Disneyland for a day before returning home to Fandom.

Hercules kept shooting her baleful glares before pretending to ignore her, but when she sat down in a chair he was immediately on her lap. With a sigh, she spent some time petting him, knowing he was feeling neglected. She decided he would go to the suite with her tonight, then set about doing paperwork at the store so she could sleep in the next day.

She turned on the radio to add some noise, and since the store wasn't officially open, 'Dite switched the station around until she found a report about unrest in Egypt. Frowning, she settled down to listen. Things sounded bad, but since the army wasn't attacking, 'Dite had a feeling Cupid and Bliss had things well in hand.

After a handwavey text message to Karla to let her know she was back, 'Dite settled into the paperwork. Occasionally she glanced at the phone. She still owed Dinah a call, but since it was Friday she wasn't sure if her friend would be available or not. Just as she was reaching for the phone again, Hercules jumped up and knocked over 'Dite's drink onto several order sheets, and the idea of calling Dinah was put off. Besides, she had all weekend to catch up with people.

(OOC: Store is not officially open, but if anyone is out and about and sees the light, you're welcome to stop in or call or something.)

It had been a very quiet Sunday at the store.

For some reason the whole Island felt quiet, and 'Dite didn't like it. She'd put on some cheery music and lit the store as brightly as she could. Even Hercules was wearing bells, but he was looking sullen because she'd permanently locked the window he'd been using to roam at night, so he was no help.

Still, oppressive gloom or not, 'Dite was insisting that things be happy. To that end she'd created a display of books that she knew Karla and Raven liked to read and marked it as "Employee Recommendations!" with another sign that said they were all 15% off, and 25% off if you were a new student or just new to the island, period.

Hercules had an appointment to see a vet on the mainland on Wednesday. He was looking sullen and had torn open a box of rather racy calendars. 'Dite simply smiled at him and patted his head. Nothing was going to make her mad today.

Unless that horrible old woman came back in. "I'll get positively Warrior Princess on her butt."

As she waited for customers she perused a catalog, looking for new books. Decadent Delights is open!

(OOC: Open, but waiting for two, and after they arrive, the store will close.)

When she'd closed up on Wednesday, Hercules the cat had been decidedly reluctant to return to the hotel with her, so she'd left him overnight again in the store. To make up for it,'Dite brought a special treat of salmon and called for Herc as soon as she opened.

He didn't come. He didn't even meow in answer. 'Dite was just beginning to be concerned when she caught him sneaking in through a partially opened window.

"What -- Where have you been, you naughty cat, you?" Closing the window, she turned and frowned at him, only to have him give her his back and saunter - saunter - up the stairs toward the office.

Rolling her eyes at his antics, she settled in behind the counter to wait for someone to enter the store. She actually didn't have long to wait.

"Hi! Welcome to 'Dite's Dec--"

( Don't care. Don't want. Don't care )

'Dite stared after her. Just stared. For several long moments.

And kept staring.

Then she threw love bolt after love bolt at the place where the woman had exited. Finally she stuck her tongue out at the door.

"If she comes up pregnant and has orange tabby kittens I'll be a laughing stock. Hmph. You already are a laughing stock, lady." She stamped her foot, her voice turning to a whine. "Why doesn't anyone on this island know how to treat a goddess?"

Then her eyes narrowed and she raised her head to gaze at the furry orange bundle at the top of the stairs who looked entirely too pleased with himself.

"You're in so much trouble, Mister."

Hercules decided to spend the day hiding in the office while 'Dite looked for vets on the island.

Decadent Delights is open.

(OOC: Post open, SP is love.)

This was the day before the "Kissing Contest", or as Aphrodite had begun to think about it, the great Kiss my Mistletoe event. That meant the store was slow, and she had plenty of time to decorate. And time to go all out with the decorations. This was not necessarily a good thing.

There was a tree, call it a Solstice Tree or Christmas tree, it wasn't too tall, but it had silver ornaments that glowed from within and red, green, and white lights that burned brightly in their ever blinking way.

To cap things off, 'Dite had decided to string a wire from just above the doorway to the top of the Christmas tree. On that wire was a small animatronic Santa with sleigh and reindeer that would travel from the door to the tree, do a loop, and return to the door, while a happy animatronic voice called, "Ho,ho,ho, Merrrrrrry Christmas!" to whoever had opened the door.

It really was quite ingenious. Truly.

She just forgot there was a cat in the store. A cat who was, in some ways, still a kitten.

'Dite was just coming down from her office when she heard the first squeak of an opening door. Her eager look was focused on the wire, and the little Santa and sleigh, as the team started their journey. The customer looked up at the first 'Ho-ho-ho' and was just beginning to smile.

"Ho,ho,ho, Merrrrrrry Christmas! Ho,ho,ho, Merrrrr --"

There was an orange blur that leapt from the counter toward the tree top.

"Herc, NO!"

"-- Christma--" CRASH! Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.

"HO-ho-hoooooo."

"HERCULES!"

We shall draw the veil of charity over the rest of this scene and simply say the tree was once again blinking brightly for the next customer who came in, but the Santa Claus did not make his merry journey, and the cat that was still a kitten was banished to the office for the day.

'Dite, however, was consoling herself with chocolate mint kisses that she'd originally meant for the customers. Decadent Delights was open.

(OOC: Hope everyone is having a good holiday season. Post is open.)

After fuddling with her laptop during the first days of the week, by Wednesday Aphrodite finally had a flyer she deemed passable. She sent the image off to a large printing facility on the mainland and the flyers had arrived last night at the store.

Yet another thing to be angry at the Goblin King for; his little labyrinth trick had put 'Dite's preparations behind schedule. But now, the flyers were done, and armed with tape she was off to hang them.

Which wasn't working, really. "Would you stick already? Please!"

Anyone passing by would see the goddess of love with her tonge stuck firmly in the corner of her mouth while she struggled to attach a flyer to a lamp post. It didn't help that it was cold and her mittens were now covered in little bits of torn scotch tape. The rest of the flyers sat in a box at her feet. An uncovered box.

And then the wind started blowing. By the time 'Dite realized what was happening, a portion of the stack was flying off to stick themselves where ever the wind blew them.

"Fine!" Rolling up her proverbial sleeves, 'Dite focused on the remaining flyers. A moment later there was a *zap* and the flyers were flying through the streets of fandom, sticking themselves randomly to light posts and electrical poles, fence posts and the occasional store window. If a pedestrian got hit with one, she was sorry. The last one finally attached itself to the lamp post. It read:( Read more... )
'Dite brushed off her mittens and headed off to open the store.

(OOC: Post open. Kissing contest is next Thursday, anyone can show up. If there's participation, then a PC will be chosen, if not, it'll be an NPC. Comment here or drop me an email if you want to participate.)

For most of this week, Aphrodite had been going back and forth between town hall, her store, and now the library, where she knew the researchers were gathered. She never stayed long at anyplace; research wasn't her thing, there was no news at town hall, and the store seemed perfectly okay.

Until this morning. When it finally had completely disappeared. Only the walls of the labyrinth thingie remained.

This did not make for a happy goddess.

She'd put Herc back in his knapsack on her back, and traded her sling shot for a crossbow. Each arrow was small, but dipped into a love potion. If she couldn't zap these guys, maybe she could potion them into submission.

And now, it was time to put her plan into action. Putting on her best meta forDirty Harry expression, she cocked the crossbow.

"Come on, fellas. Make my day."

What was left of the island was probably giving a collective, 'oh, dear.'

(Expecting at least one, but more would be fun! There will be a Joxer imitation somewhere along the line . . .)

There was mistletoe. It wasn't a Greek thing, and 'Dite wasn't sure she understood why people were supposed to kiss under it, but hey, it was Christmas/Solstice/Whatever time, and she was big with tradition. So there was ( mistletoe )
With that, she moved back behind the counter and perched on her stool. "If you're here to buy something, you can stay. Otherwise, I'll see you in a few weeks. And practice your technique!"

Decadent Delights was open. Sadly, the mistletoe stayed hidden.

(OOC: I blame theotherpeter -- he suggested something with mistletoe and this is what happened. Rules and other info will follow in a day or so, since this happened kind of . . . spur of the moment. If you're interested, leave me a tag in the OOC.)

Anyone outside the store today would have seen the goddess of love walk down the street with a determined stride and disappear inside, which was a fairly normal sight. What they might have been surprised by was the reappearance of Aphrodite, carrying a small folding table, which she set up on the sidewalk outside the front door. Heading back inside, she soon came out the door once more, this time carrying a large bowl, which she then placed on said table. A floating sign soon appeared over the bowl:



For those who did enter, they would find a glowering goddess hunched over her laptop while eating strawberries. What she was reading would quickly become apparent.

"Oh, please, have you never heard of a dictionary? That word doesn't make sense!"

"Can you please just say blue for the damn color of her eyes??"

"Have you never had sex, you moron? That's anatomically impossible!" Then one eyebrow rose. "Unless I'm involved, of course."

The world of fanfic might never be the same.

(OOC: Store and post open.)

When Aphrodite arrived at the store on Thursday she found things mostly in order. The only hint that there might be a problem was a torn and empty candy wrapper on the counter.

"What's this? Oh, one of those new-" Swish! "-espresso-" Zoom! "-candies." Swoooooooosh!

'Dite pinched her nose. It was obviously the work of Hercules, who was now seriously hopped up on sugar and caffeine and therefore flying about the store with the appropriate sound effects.

She waited, following him around to prevent disasters, catching things he knocked off shelves and stopping entire displays from falling over due to his sudden jumps and leaps.

Finally, he seemed to settle -- for a moment, anyway, before jumping up and beginning again. He did this two or three times before finally passing out on the counter, on his back, his legs splayed out, looking innocent and yet somehow smug.

'Dite was just glad he'd finally crashed. She perched herself on a stool by the counter and cat, a book in her hands, and watched the door. First person to intentionally wake the cat would earn a quick trip to the duck pond.

Decadent Delights was open -- Please ignore the sleeping kitty.

(OOC: Store and post open! No, this was not inspired by a kitty stealing a piece of syrup laden pancake the other day, why do you ask?)

Because he'd been around the store for nearly a year, it was easy to forget that Hercules was, in many ways, still a kitten. He was bigger, had learned to arch an eyebrow when his owner was doing something questionable, and didn't get into crazy kitten fits nearly as often as he used to.

But there were still times he chose to act like the kitten he was, and today seemed to be that day.

He dumped over a display of vibrators so he could chew on their wires. Several tubes of lube showed bite marks and were leaking. One of the early customers had tried to pay with a credit card that was then swiped from his hand, leading him and 'Dite on a merry chase to get it back. This ended in temporary banishment to the office, but he yowled so loudly from there that 'Dite felt guilty and let him out.

"Settle down, Herc, or I'll lock you up in there again."

As for 'Dite she was currently trying to research hobbies again on the internet. Building models hadn't worked, and collecting things was boring. She'd even tried origami, but had decided not to do that when Herc shredded all the papers she'd been folding.

So, research it was, though that was becoming difficult since there was now a kitten sitting on her laptop, alternately batting at the keys and attacking the cursor on the screen.

"Herc, no!" Too late. "Thanks, cat, you just shut down my computer." 'Dite folded her arms and glared at him. "Don't you even think you're getting a treat for thi-- hey!"

The rest of the day would be spent rescuing whatever poor item Hercules got his paws on. 'Dite's Decadent Delights is open.

(OOC: Store and Post open. Inspired, of course, by the Tiny Terror ancientbschamp and I have acquired, who spent a good half hour chasing my cursor on the screen. Next thing I know she'll be applying for her own character.)

For once, being a goddess on Fandom was a good thing.

Aphrodite had spent an hour the previous night ridding her apartment of the strange and irritating bugs, but had finally succeeded in putting up blocks to keep them out. She'd had a peaceful night, which was immediately broken when she opened the door to walk to the store. 'Dite had gotten halfway out of the building and said screw it; she'd zapped herself to the store.

Again, she'd spent time bug proofing the store -- it wasn't easy, and if she missed a tiny hole there was always a bug that would slip through, but after two hours she finally had a quiet store, a cat that wasn't chasing the little critters, and a smile.

Grabbing her calendar, she sat down to figure out when the best time was to do all everything on her list.

1, dinner with Karla and Dinah before Dinah leaves.

Simple.

2, go to Olympus and close temple.

Not so simple, but she could do that probably this weekend.

3, teach Dinah to air board.

That was the one that was going to get her in trouble, 'Dite just knew it.

Decadent Delights is open, and bug free!


(OOC: Up early so I don't forget. Post is open, I'll be around the first half of the day, then on SP for a few hours.)

There had been exactly three NPC people who disappeared into black holes as 'Dite walked past them on her way to the store. Yes, she'd counted. This did not bode well for a quiet day.

What worried her, though, were the two giant roaches on the front porch of the store. They were both as long as her arm, and one of them seemed to be standing up to try to look through the window.

"Okay, this? Not a good way to start my day. You, near the window, get down before Herc sees you, or he'll want to come out and chase you all day, and that's just -- yech."

She concentrated and zapped them with a tiny blast of power. They exploded, leaving their innards and outards all over the door and porch.

Aphrodite threw her hands in the air. "Phooey. I hate cleaning things up, I'm not meant to be a chamber maid." But she sighed, waved her hands, and the mess removed itself. "Better." She entered the store happily, never noticing the black hole that had just opened up to the left side of the store.

'Dite's Decadent Delights would soon be open. As soon as 'Dite rescued Hercules from the other two roaches inside.


(ooc: Post and store open!)

It had taken Aphrodite a little while to feel normal again after her rage, but she was definitely feeling more like herself. Still, every once in a while she couldn't help feel that something was missing. As she stepped into the store on Sunday morning she knew at once what it was.

A display had been knocked down. Underneath it, peeking out from under a sign that advertised "20% off all Edible Body Paints!" was the nose of a cat. A cat who was chewing on a tube of said edible body paint. With a sigh, 'Dite stalked to the mess and pulled out Hercules, who had started to lick his now multi-colored paw.

"I should turn you into a midget and make you work behind the counter all day, you hairbrained monstrosity!"

The rainbow cat blinked at her in all innocence, and twitched his blue tail.

Yep. Things were finally back to normal.


(ooc: shop and post open!)

For the most part, things were the same. No reconstruction, no major inventory changes, no grand scheme to redo the store. Anyone who wasn't a regular probably wouldn't notice any difference between what had been and what was.

But the differences were there. A steady drop in the inventory of bondage gear, inventory that was never replaced or reordered. A small rise in things of a romantic notion; bath salts, body oils, perfumes, body paints. A slow expansion of the book section with more titles having to do with relationships and romance.

Even so, you could still get a set of wrist-cuffs if you really needed them, or a porn mag, or a sex toy, though the selection may be less than what it had been.

This morning Aphrodite was contemplating another catalog and half watching Hercules as he played with a catnip mouse. Without realizing it, she was also on the lookout for early visitors of a strange and deceased nature. She'd actually broken down in the last week and listened to the radio and the nightly news broadcast. Upon hearing that the dead were showing up in Fandom, she'd at first thought something had gone wrong in Hades, but since those who'd returned seemed to be from several other dimensions she'd dismissed that idea.

Still. There were people she wouldn't mind seeing again. Not that she expected them to show up, but she wouldn't mind if they did. As she flipped idly through the catalog, there was a hint of a smile on 'Dite's face as she let memories of long years past float through her mind. Anyone showing up would find an introspective goddess muttering to herself about stars, bards, warriors, and fate.

They'd be a welcome distraction.


(ooc: store and post open, and I should even be around for most of the day. 'Dite doesn't have anyone stopping by because her mun sucks, so come cheer her up.)

It had been almost a week since Aphrodite had actually been there to open the store. Having three employees, each taking a different day of the week, meant she should have been there on Wednesday and Friday, but instead she'd spent the whole week off island, first at her temple, and then at Cupid's home.

Which meant she came back to a stack of receipts, orders, and just plain work.

She wasn't worried, though. She'd finally made a decision. As the goddess of love, it was her duty to spread love, just like Drake had said. So this thing of being with only one person? So not her thing. And she'd call Max and tell him that.

As soon as she could make her hand reach for the phone.

Aaaaaany minute now. Yep.


(OOC: Open post. Forecast is good, with intermediate bouts of SP.)