Apartment Above Luke's, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was sitting crosslegged in her living room, surrounded by a truly staggering number of anatomically-shaped lollipops, hard candies, and other confections. It turned out that the company that had supplied Dite's with chocolates and candy had gone out of business and multiple other companies had sent samples to the store in hopes of scoring the contract. Kathy...wasn't sure what it said about the store or the island that it was considered a lucrative enough market for a number of stores to go to this much trouble.

But, she was determined to be a good manager and if that meant spending the afternoon trying a ridiculous amount of sexy candy to decide which she liked best, well, she was up to the task. As long as she took breaks for real food every few hours, she should be okay, right? And she had a pen and paper to record her observations (and had come up with several criteria to judge them on), making this all legit and aboveboard and not just an excuse to gorge out on penis-shaped candy all day.

So far, she'd noticed that the sour gummy boobs made the cut on her lip burn and the mold for one of the companies tended to make their chocolates look more like melted candles than anything sexy. Oh, and another company used cheap chocolate that tended to flake off which was just NOT attractive in something meant to simulate body parts. It was this kind of attention to detail that separated the good managers from the mediocre, see?

[Open! But probably slow as I'm still in training, so who knows what my schedule will be when this finally posts. Link to Anders' thread.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante was just back out of Limbo City. Hadn't exactly been able to score any kind of fruit full of booze, but he did have a bottle of mid-range vodka, so it evened out.

At least, that was his story and he was sticking with it.

He made his way to the apartment above Luke's after a quick pit-stop at home, bottle under his arm. And knocked.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Come in!" Kathy called, lap full of candy necklaces. From far away, it was almost hard to tell that the candies were dirty, which amused her greatly. Now she had to taste the different varieties that they came in; she was both intrigued by and dubious of the "Exotic Fruit" one. "It's open!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"All right," Dante called, a verbal shrug, and opened up the door, shouldering his way in. "Vodka delivery."

[spin_kick_snap]

Welcome to Sexy Candy Hell, Dante. Or heaven. Really depended on which candy you tried.

"Hi!" Kathy said, glancing up to give him a smile. "My favorite kind of delivery!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I dunno, you look like you've had a few kinds of deliveries already," Dante said, walking towards her, bottle outstretched.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, everyone knows middling vodka and cheap candy pair beautifully," Kathy laughed, holding the hem of her shirt to keep the candy from falling out as she stood up. "So it's all good."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Cool," Dante started.

Only with the giant bottle of vodka gone could he get a good look at Kathy's face.

"Okay, the fuck happened to you?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy winced, brushing her hand over her cheek. "Fight," she admitted. "When I went out to Baltimore last week. Wasn't being a hero." Because that needed to be clarified and fast. "It just sorta happened." She sighed and was grateful for the vodka. "Ran into Jewels, too. It was all kinds of awkward."

[rebelseekspizza]

"... Yeaaah," Dante said.

He was just gonna... go walk to the kitchen and get some glasses. Yes.

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's the middle of the afternoon!" Kathy protested. "...So grab some juice from the fridge, too? There's some strawberry-kiwi."

It didn't count as daytime drinking if there were mixers involved.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I could just get ice cubes," Dante called, poking around the fridge. "That makes it like, a refreshment!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"What's wrong with juice?" Kathy asked. "I mean, besides the fact that it's healthy!"

Nothing with that much added sugar is healthy, Kathy.

"I'd rather change the flavor of my drink than water it down."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Then you might as well drink it straight," Dante called back. "Unless you've got something strawberry that doesn't have fuckin' kiwi in it."

[not_every_mage]

It was well into the evening before Anders' restless legs brought him to the diner -- and, once he'd acquired milkshakes, up the stairs to Kathy's apartment. He tapped lightly on the door.

[spin_kick_snap]

It wasn't particularly late, but still late enough that Kathy answered the door in person, rather than just yelling for whomever it was to come in. She likely made for an interesting sight, with a fading bruise on one cheek and a cherry lollipop shaped like a pair of breasts tucked behind her ear and clearly forgotten about.

"Oh!" she said, surprised, when she opened the door and saw Anders standing on the other side of it. "Anders, hi!" She stepped aside to make room for him to enter if he wished. "Come in, come in! Uh, forgive the mess in the living room. I was doing inventory. Sort of. Come in!"

[not_every_mage]

"Thanks," Anders said, giving her a slightly puzzled smile as he stepped inside. (Did the lollipop really look like breasts, or was his dirty mind getting him in trouble again?) "Inventory for what? It looks like a candy store exploded in here."

Give him a moment, and he'd notice the candy was slightly ... off.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Pretty close to what happened," Kathy said with a laugh, closing the door behind him and heading back to her pile of candy. "The main company that supplies candies to Dite's isn't doing that anymore. So I've got samples from a bunch of other companies to pick up the slack."

Because...oh right!

"I'm the manager for Dite's now," she added. "Maybe should have led with that."

[not_every_mage]

"It would have made things a little less confusing," Anders agreed, amiably. "Though it would've been funny if you just spent so much time there, they put you in charge of candy."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hey!" Kathy protested with a laugh. "I haven't been at the store anywhere near enough to be promoted to candy! I only randomly got made manager. It was all very..." she waved a hand. "Fandom. Between the rain of beads and everything else, it was all very Fandom."

[not_every_mage]

"Sounds like it," Anders nodded, also smiling. "So, you got to be manager because it was raining beads?"

He knew that wasn't what she meant, but it was nice to be silly.

[spin_kick_snap]

It really was.

"Don't be ridiculous," Kathy sniffed, nose quite literally in the air. "It had nothing to do with it raining beads. It was because of all the topless people in the store, I had the nicest chest. Making a hiring decision based on what was falling from the sky is preposterous."

[not_every_mage]

Anders took shameless opportunity of that prompt to ogle her. "At least they had good taste," he remarked. "I wonder what they would have done if they'd had to hire somebody when it wasn't topless day?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Tumblr would probably have something to say about how good Kathy felt about being ogled by Anders. Tumblr could go fuck itself right off a cliff. His admiration warmed her right down to her toes.

"I probably wouldn't even have been in the running," she said. "I wasn't really thinking of Dite's as an option until the manager came storming out, pissed because the island was playing games again. She tossed her keys, I grabbed them to lock up, and then it all kind of clicked, I guess. I wanted a job, Dite's clearly had an opening, it all worked out."

[not_every_mage]

"That does sound like fate," Anders agreed, and remembered the beverage carrier in his hand. "Oh -- I have milkshakes. Do you want one?"

Yes, he would drink two milkshakes if she said no.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Have you ever known me to turn down a milkshake?" Kathy asked, giving him a warm smile. "Thanks, Anders. Can I offer you inappropriate candy in trade?"