Fandom Island and Town

So the previous week had been distracting. Kinda really distracting, actually, more than enough so that all thoughts of doing things like getting the store officially open again had flitted right out of Harley's little head.

But Monday morning had rolled around, and immediately upon taking her first step out the door to take Bruce out for walkies, Harley had noticed how nice it was out. And it had felt to her as if something had shifted. Or maybe that was just her brain.

Either way:

"Ooh fucking fantastic!"

Waitaminute.

"Fuck, shit, motherfucker - we're back!!"

So the energy of the day was excitement. Which, sure, Harley had also managed to feel a bunch of over the week, especially the day with all the glitter (and there was so much glitter still everywhere) but still. When she we assume returned from swim class, she left the store door wide open, and plastered a new hastily made sign in the window:

WE ARE RE-OPEN !!!

(open! for real, this time!)

The day before, Rey had given Harley the best idea. And on Saturday night, that great idea was a great reality: a great big bonfire, built out of all sorts of stuff that had been hanging out in the store for forever without finding a home, most for a good reason. Television cabinets that wouldn't house even half of any modern TV, chairs that had once been part of a dining room set but had lost their way and were now just singular curiosities, lace doilies that no one was going to have use for 'less they were hunting for set decoration for a period piece... All finding one last purpose in going up in a blaze in a dramatic and hopefully cathartic manner!

(Some of the makings of the bonfire - as much as you could see things like that through the flames - looked like parts of a bed? That, too, was absolutely something that had been tucked away in the store. Definitely not something from upstairs, hacked to bits in a fit of frustration.)

The particular stretch of beach Harley had picked for the fire was nowhere near Needful Things, not even in the same part of the island. Which had made the hauling of the small mountain of crap kind of an arduous task, but she'd had help! So it had gotten done, easy peasy! There were also a couple of boxes of assorted and moddable, if need be small junk to throw into the fire, here and there, either to make sure it kept going (unnecessary, because with the size of it, it was already going to burn for hours) or just for the hell of it (the much more likely reason).

And now all that there was left to do was for Harley to watch the flames dance, a bottle of tequila in hand, mesmerized. And of course, wait for the catharsis and the re-birth to hit.

Because that was how this worked, right?

Please say that was how this worked.

(open to all that might be drawn to a big bonfire for any reason! and up early because weekend)

The windows of Needful Things were plastered with handmade signs saying things like "BIG SALE" and "EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!!" Which was not at all influenced by recent events, except for entirely.

Harley had spent a good chunk of the previous day trying to overhaul her entire apartment upstairs. Now her place was even more of a chaotic mess than it already had been, but at least nothing that wasn't bolted down was where it had started out. A lot of it now also wasn't anywhere it made any sense, and her bed was currently kind of wedged in a doorway but whatever, she'd deal with it later. Because that day, it was the store's turn.

Hence the attractive signage on the windows. Trying to reorganize the entire store seemed like a lot of work, so Harley's thinking was she could just try and and sell off as much as she humanly could, and then just restock the entire place until it no longer reminded her of coming home from things that hadn't been dates, or that one time just barely away from the view of the windows she'd --

Anyway!

Change was good, right? So good.

You could tell just how good by how a record player was blaring, and Harley was belting "Iiiiiiii AIN'T got noBOOOODY --!" right along with it.

(open!)