revenance_rpg | Shop Straightening Shenanigans

Entry tags:

Shop Straightening Shenanigans

Characters: Ienzo, Namine, and open
Content: Cleaning up the spirit painting shop and tea shop. Also shenanigans. Possibly booze.
Location (including world): 4th District, Traverse Town
Time of Day: EVENING (really, morning as far as the "day" goes)
Warnings: Kia is trying to lull us into complacency with comedy elements. :3

Ienzo had set his coat aside and folded it up neatly. The furniture was in well-ordered heaps outside the shop, but everything needed to be cleaned and painted before actually bringing things inside. He didn't even want to consider what they'd have to do to make the upstairs comfortable and livable. He reminded himself that he'd have to mention the apartments on the upper levels; people might be pleased to find a place to live that wasn't the hotel.

The ground floor was large and mostly open, though the space could be conveniently divided so that each business would have its own area. It did have back room space, fortunately enough, so that they didn't have to think too much about creating their own back areas. One of the back areas currently had several crates, one of which Ienzo suspected that several of the adults would prefer to get into sometime soon, given the general stress levels. Still, that would be a question for when they were open for business.

Ienzo took up a broom and headed towards the back to begin sweeping things out.

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York startled and backed towards the door; Delta appeared next to him to stare around intently. He'd seen Carolina's trick with her armor, but nothing that would transform a room like this. It was cool, but it was definitely kind of unnerving, too. "Whoa. Uh, you want to warn someone before you do that? It's cool, but that's pretty jarring."

He glanced at Wash to see how he was doing; Wash probably wouldn't be too good with sudden changes either. Delta, on the other hand, was chugging away trying to figure out what was going on so hard that York could feel it.

The illusion threw Ziva for a moment, all of a sudden the room had changed with no one doing any work. An eyebrow raised as she looked at it, listening to the commentary on colors. This must be that 'magic' everyone was mentioning, something she still didn't believe much in. Keeping her wonder to herself, she shifted her gaze to the others in the room, trying to gauge their reactions.

She didn't change her posture, even as Fluffy flew back down to land on her shoulder. He seemed ruffled a bit by the sudden change, and she noted that. People around her were reacting differently, so she wasn't the only one who was startled by this development, including Wash. His reaction caught her attention, but she didn't make any commentary. If it came up later, she'd ask, but, as she could attest, things may be better buried and left alone.

For now, she watched and filed things away, waiting for more direction on what they needed or wanted her to do.

Even regarded the tan with distaste. "Haven't you had enough of neutral colors for, oh, ever?" Goodness knew he had. At least Ienzo hadn't suggested white.

The shift in the room was mildly startling, but seeing Namine react to it as if she expected it was enough to assume nothing was wrong. Then he realized what they were using the illusion for. It was actually a pretty neat use for illusions.

And then Even spoke up. It had been pretty obvious from the exchange on the post asking for help a few days before that he was likely going to spend the time picking everything apart. Sora just rolled his eyes. Frankly, the guy reminded him of a science teacher he'd had in school back home, but that was neither here nor there.

He agreed with Namine about the blue, personally, but it wasn't his call. He directed his comments elsewhere, "That's a neat way to use illusions."

Xion's eyes widened in surprise at the illusion, and she just barely avoided visibly startling. While she'd had a vague awareness of Zexion's ability to use illusions, it hadn't been at the front of her mind. Aside from that, she hadn't made the connection that Ienzo might have inherited Zexion's abilities. Once she thought about it, it made sense. She'd seen Even use ice magic.

It looked like she wasn't the only one to be surprised. Namine was the only who seemed to have been expecting the illusion. York was right, a little warning would have been good. Once she'd recovered, she decided she agreed with Even (and Sora, had he spoken that thought aloud); the blue was better than the tan.

This was a good way to use illusions, but then another question came to mind. "Are we just cleaning up this floor?"

It looked like there was more to the building than just the shop area.

Ienzo changed the color back to blue again. "I apologize for startling you," he said to everyone in general; it was easy to forget that not everyone was familiar with illusions. He smiled faintly. "Unfortunately this talent isn't incredibly useful when fighting nightmares, but it is my specialty. As to the color, I do like the blue and I think it should be Namine's choice, as she hasn't had the opportunity to decide such things before."

Ienzo let the illusion fade away. It would take quite a bit of work to get to that point, but at least they had a plan now.

"Namine and I have an apartment on the second floor, but we'll understand if you don't want to help with that as well; it's a large space."

His special talent was making people see things that weren't there. Great. If Wash had had any doubts before that Ienzo was one to keep an eye on, those had disappeared with this particular revelation.

And then, because one heart attack wasn't enough, he mentioned that he and Namine had an apartment. Presumably together.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

He closed his eyes and took a long, slow moment to get everything under control and calmed down. It was the same method he used while dealing with Caboose, and he figured it'd work pretty well in just about any situation. Right. "Let's take care of this one first," he suggested, voice even. "We'll worry about that when we've finished down here."

And hopefully, in that time, he could pull Namine aside and have a talk.

It actually took Even a moment to recall that not everyone was used to Ienzo's abilities, or possibly to illusion magic at all. (And yes, Sora, he saw that eyeroll. Brat.)

"You have the whole building, then?" He revised his estimation of Ienzo and Naminé's general competence to live on their own slightly upwards. Slightly.

So, this was apparently a normal thing. Ziva watched as the colors shifted and explanations were given. Heck, she even considered the fact that it was a great way to redecorate if painting was involved.

Shrugging, she listened to the conversation, mentally agreeing that the blue looked a bit better. Sounded like it was going to be an interesting and productive afternoon, as soon as everything was agreed on. And, if they still needed the help, she was willing to stay and help with the other floor too. It kept her busy.

To Namine, it was very normal, and, unfortunately, she'd forgotten how startling the illusions could be to anyone not used to them. Apologies seemed to be in order, so she added hers to Ienzo's. "I'm sorry, too."

For a moment she tensed at the mention of her lack of experience in choosing her preference, and the fact they were sharing an apartment. She hadn't been sure she wanted those known yet. Fortunately, none of the others mentioned those. "We have the whole building, yes, and there's space on the third floor if anyone needs it.

"We can start down here. Mostly we need to sweep and dust--and move the furniture."

Help with the upstairs would probably be needed, but she'd follow Ienzo's lead and not ask for that now.

"There's more brooms over there," Ienzo said, pointing at where they leaned against the wall. He crossed the room and returned to the group with a bucket full of rags. "We can use these for dusting. It's actually much cleaner than we'd thought it would be, but there's no excuse to leave it at all untidy."

He didn't have a particular preference as to how everyone broke into groups; cleaning, painting, and furniture arrangement wasn't exactly the most difficult task set.

How easy or difficult things would be probably depended on who paired up with whom and how well they got along. ~~It didn't seem likely that Even would get along with anyone at all.~~ Sora considered helping with the dusting but the last time he'd bothered to dust anything, it had been obvious that he kind of sucked at it even when genuinely trying to do it right. He opted for helping with the furniture instead, not that that wouldn't have its own set of problems. At least that didn't require too much attention to detail.

Another factor that seemed to have slipped everyone's minds was the Spirits. While some of them helped with the cleaning, the rest had to find something to keep them busy. Jelly Bean went and curled up for a nap in a corner somewhere, clearly not interested in doing any chores. The other Spirits... well...

Things got more than a little hairy when they decided they would play tag to keep themselves occupied. This wouldn't have been a problem except for the part where they decided they would do so indoors and therefore underfoot.

Not that this bunch needed the outside help to not get along in this endeavor. Ienzo and Even taking verbal shots at each other the whole time wasn't unexpected after seeing some of their interactions over the communicator. Nor was it helpful. Actually, it was rather distracting, though at least they weren't getting loud. Sora was starting to think Even simply liked hearing himself talk, especially when he thought he was being particularly witty. Other than that, everyone else had less notable bits to bicker about, such as where something should be put or whose Spirit was responsible for something getting dropped on someone's foot.

By some miracle, there was no violence.

York leaned against the counter; it was nice to see things come together, but this was a lot of work to do all at once. He couldn't say it wasn't looking good, though. Definitely a day well-spent. That didn't mean it wasn't exhausting, though.

"You know what would go great with a job like this? A drink. Beer, whiskey, anything." There wasn't much hope of that, though. The moogles probably had all the alcohol, and it was probably even more expensive than ammo. It would feel more like home, though, doing a cleanup like this and then following it up with an impromptu party.

Ienzo didn't look up from the table he was wiping down. "Check the storeroom; the large box with the red circle on it. There should be a crowbar near it." He wasn't even sure what was in the box yet, just that it was much larger than he'd expected; he really hadn't meant to get a box as tall as he was when he'd inquired about some alcohol. Still, apparently it would at least start to see use.

Even didn't run to the storeroom. If anyone asked, his strides were always that long. He had dust in his everything and the tables were definitely not making the most efficient use of the available space, no matter what Ienzo said.

Any other reasons for finding a drink appealing would only get worse if he thought of them. So he didn't. (This didn't work particularly.)

It did, however, motivate him to ignore the crowbar entirely and pry open the crate with the spikes of his shield. When he got a look at the contents, his eyebrows rose. "I was under the impression that this was a tea shop, not a bar," he called over his shoulder.

Wash had been about to lean against a table, but had thought better of it - it probably couldn't take the weight of his armor. Instead, he took up a spot at the counter next to York. "It's the middle of the day, York." He wasn't necessarily disagreeing with York; just pointing out a fact. To be honest, it certainly would take the edge off of a day filled with dusting and moving furniture (he'd gotten stuck with the fiddly little dusting jobs and the heavy lifting, thank you York).

He wasn't expecting there to be another answer to York's comment, let alone one in the positive. "What?" He pushed himself off the counter and followed Even into the storeroom, arriving in time to see him pop the lid off the crate, affording Wash a good look inside. "You have got to be kidding me," he muttered.

Xion had ended up helping paint, and having more fun than she thought she might. As much bickering as there had been, there had also been laughter, and she'd liked trying something she'd never done before. It was work, yes, but different from missions and therefore a little more interesting.

Once everything was finished, she sat at a table slightly apart from the others. Barkley flopped down beside her, silently asking her to pet him as if he hadn't almost made her trip and/or spill paint three times that day. Those big eyes were hard to resist, though, so by the time the conversation about drinks started up, he was happily enjoying ear scritches.

Curious, Xion left off petting him and went to follow the others, arriving not long after Wash. Peering over the edge of the crate, she tried to read the labels on the bottles inside. "What kind is this?"

She was speaking mostly to Even, but if Wash heard, too, then that couldn't be helped.

Lea had apparently been using himself as a dust rag, and Ienzo was distracted from wiping down the table when the meow wow bumped into his leg and sneezed. That was probably going to involve a very tedious period of bathing. Or a water spell, if he could work one out.

He frowned to himself when Xion headed after Even and Wash, though he couldn't hear what she'd asked; that was something he hadn't thought of previously. He'll need to check with Namine as well, it seems, and Sora. He raised his voice a bit to make sure that Xion could hear him as well. "That reminds me; Namine, Xion, Sora, have you ever had alcohol before?"

"It's the kind that someone your age almost certainly doesn't know enough about to drink without supervision," Even replied, lifting a bottle out and examining it critically. Not that he could tell 'good' alcohol from 'bad', nor did he care much.

Sora was actually kind of amused (and not really surprised) at the adults' immediate response upon discovering that there was alcohol available. He may have been naive about some things, but this wasn't one of them.

"I have had it before," he said in response to Ienzo's question. As to Even's remark, "Is anyone here responsible enough to be left unsupervised with alcohol?"

"Some of us know what we're doing, thank you very much. It comes with growing up." And having already made most of the likely drinking errors, including but not limited to Don't Drink and Distill.

Edited 2012-11-09 02:10 (UTC)

Sora raised an eyebrow to that remark. Growing up had crap all to do with it. Not that Sora had ever gotten drunk himself. He had, however, caught his father making out with the coat rack after a night of drinking. Twice.

"Yeah, before you get drunk. What about after?"

"After getting drunk," said Even with a grim smile, "I hope to no longer care."

"Now, everyone, let's cool down. I'm sure that there's at least one person here responsible enough to be left alone with alcohol." York headed into the room to check out what was in the box. It looked like a surprisingly decent selection. Moogles knew their booze, he guessed. "That person might not be me, but there's gotta be someone here."

Xion frowned in thought. So it was like what was in those bottles Xigbar had always said "weren't for little poppets." Before she could ask what age would be old enough, Sora had answered and the conversation had gone on from there, so she chose to simply answer Ienzo's question--after moving back into the other room so she wouldn't have to speak loudly. "Alcohol? I don't think so..."

At least, she'd never heard anything called that.

Shop Straightening Shenanigans

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