[open] General Store

[flambeaux]

WHO: Louis de Pointe du Lac and YOU (new players welcome too)
WHAT: Opening the General Store!
WHEN: throughout February (at evening/night if you want Louis) + party on an Aurora night second half of the month
WHERE: General Store, Milton

Feel free to also use this setting as open starters or closed to characters other than Louis! Just indicate it if you do! His general store? No... Our general store...

A. Home Improvement

CONTENT WARNINGS: a little bit of vampire blood, talk of hunting animals for food

It started out of the practical need to store and barter goods. Louis's home is not a fit place to entertain anyone other than rats, and he doesn't want to disturb the people who live in the Community Hall.

Louis turns his attention to the thoroughly-looted husk of the General Store. Louis feels oddly shy about starting up anything, self deprecation rearing its ugly head. Lestat called his business back home a "human hobby."

He needs all the help he can get. There's the plumbing and leaks from the recent storm, trash to throw out, walls to paint, shelves to fix. He'd like to make arrangements for daytime hours when he can't be there. And finally, putting a new coat of paint on the GENERAL STORE sign with an addition:

Marché du Lac

How handy is he? Louis did small repairs at his club when a handyman wasn't available at night, he's fairly nimble... and he's never done construction in his life. But any fool can board up a broken window and repair shelves, he reasons.

"Fuck!" he hisses when he hits his thumb with the hammer. He automatically puts his thumb in his mouth, and the taste of that little bead of blood is shockingly good. He must be hungry. Time for a break.

He slips his hammer into the loop of some scavenged cargo pants. He might be terrible at construction, but at least he looks good doing it.

...Why is he working at night?

B. Having a Few People Over

To celebrate the reopening of Milton's only general store, Louis invites the town for food and drinks on the next Aurora night. At the risk of being accused of living in it, he wears his best 3-piece suit, the gray one from home. The place is well-lit, both due to the Aurora and every light source Louis could get his hands on. It's a myth that vampires don't like light. They just have a sun allergy.

Louis used to run a club, he knows how to plan a party. He doesn't know how to cook; he enlisted help for that. Among as much variety as Louis could get, the caterer Lalo Salamanca made a mushroom stew. Delicious--but watch out! A few special mushrooms may have found their way into the batch, possibly into a few bowls, and Louis has no idea...

He puts jazz records on and opens the doors. Empty shelves have been pushed out of the way for mingling or making music--he sorely misses live music. Louis would only request that it be good. (Louis reminds himself to explicitly instruct Lestat not to eat any musicians he deems bad.)

C. Open for Business

It's little more than a single counter and a few shelves worth of stock. Louis contemplates trying to bring in people to sell their own wares just so the rest of the shelves won't look so empty.

He arranges the odd collection of whatever he could scavenge and make presentable: dry goods, cans, candy, alcohol, cigarettes. The storeroom is depressingly half empty. The freezer, moved to an unheated room, is surprisingly full of meat.

In the window he puts up a passable copy of Tim's missing bunny poster. He sets up a little seating area where people can eat and drink if they wish. (It feels odd not to place the round little tables and woven chairs outside like at home, where the weather was mild enough.)

Louis emerges from the back room in an apron at the sound of the bell over the door. His suit and tie are so people won't mistake the owner/manager for a lowly clerk... as much as anyone can "own" anything in this scavenged town.

"Evenin', what can I get for you?"

D. Back in 15

Louis expects at least one teenager to take up loitering... Big mistake. If any hapless souls hang around too long and are trusted not to steal, Louis simply takes off his apron, dons his coat, and says without warning as he leaves,

"Mind the counter while I'm gone."

Congratulations, you now work here until he returns. He'll be back in a few minutes... right?

Do you:

1. Invite friends and avail yourselves of the candy, booze, and free aprons
2. Actually tend the store

Comments

[meadqueen]

Is it truly so unusual that someone might be happy to see you?

[Randvi doesn't think so. He's always been so nice to her.]

I feel fine. Do I seem different?

[bigbaddy]

[ With zero hesitation: ]

Very different.

[ He's ignoring the first question, yes. Thanks. Please don't notice. This is the far more important part, anyway! ]

Not that you seemed rude before or anything. It's just that you weren't so.. [ .. how to put it. ] .. touchy.

[ Nailed it. Do you not realise you're clinging to him like a kitten, Randvi? ]

[meadqueen]

[Randvi leans against his arm again, sighing heavily.]

I'm meant to keep to myself now, but it is not always easy. Don't you ever get lonely?

[bigbaddy]

[ .. oh.

That's definitely a more complicated question. Bigby doesn't always like being around people, but it's not like he can't say he never gets lonely either, especially with his sort of circumstances back home.

Maybe it's why the man opts to instead focus on her. Talking about his own feelings? Nnnnope, he's got a reputation to keep up. ]

What do you mean, you're meant to keep to yourself?

[meadqueen]

[She doesn't really want to talk about things that don't make her happy either in this state.]

Sigurd’s little caged bird. You can look but you can't touch.

[bigbaddy]

Wait.

[ Hold on, Randvi, he didn't know this? Sure, he doesn't know everything about her by a long shot, but this is definitely something that's concerning to the man, judging by how Bigby's facial features definitely are shifting to a frown over here as he fully looks at her. ]

What do you mean? Is someone being shitty you?

[ Does he need to put someone on his mental shitlist?? So he can make sure to get what's coming to them if they ever show up here?? He will, Randvi! ]

[meadqueen]

[It's kind of sweet. Bigby’s so nice.]

It isn't like that. I doubt he's even thinking about me.

[bigbaddy]

[ Forget all the touchiness. Bigby isn't even thinking about it anymore, even if Randvi may still be actively clinging to him. He's too busy being offended on her behalf. ]

It sure sounds like it's like that to me.

[ Big wolf man five seconds away from bristling.. Look at those bushy eyebrows knitting together into a frown. ]

Why else would anyone be restricting you?

[meadqueen]

That's what happens when you get married. I haven't left our village since it was founded.

[bigbaddy]

[ That first statement only makes him frown in confusion even more. ]

What, does your husband not want to travel?

[ Randvi didn't really seem to him like the kind of person who's content to just stay in one place. There's something about her that seems too tough for that to be true. ]

Do you not want to?

[meadqueen]

He's still away, so I have to take care of things at home. [It's not as if Sigurd would expect Eivor to remember to order salt for the horses.] Even then, until I have a son my behaviour needs to be above reproach.

[bigbaddy]

.. your behaviour is fine.

[ There's something in his tone that sounds almost a little offended on her behalf. Like Bigby is kind of annoyed at the idea of someone acting like Randvi's behaviour is bad, when she's seemed fine to him this entire time. ]

People can be so fucking judgy about stupid shit. [ ...

Yeah, you know, maybe Bigby is the one who doesn't have behaviour above reproach.. ]

[meadqueen]

[Randvi drops her head to Bigby’s shoulder, exhausted at the thought.]

If I'm not careful, even being here could ruin me. It's fortunate for you that you don't need to think about it.

[bigbaddy]

[ At least he allows the touch this time. If not just because Bigby is way too busy being concerned about this entire thing now to really think about the way she's leaning against his shoulder. ]

Well, my reputation is shit anyway.

[ It's not fun either, but this isn't about him! ]

And-- listen, if anyone you know appears here and you need me to knock some heads around, just let me know. [ Since that's.. the only thing Bigby really knows how to do.. The only offer of help he can give.. ]

[meadqueen]

Oh, you'd be my champion?

[She’s teasing a little but it's nice to hear.]

That's very kind. Thank you, Bigby.

[bigbaddy]

I'm the opposite of a champion.

[ Just!! Saying!! Bigby even realises she's kind of teasing here, but there's a part of him that just can't live with being called a champion.. That's not ever been his role in any story, not even now he's been trying to change his life around for a good while already now. ]

I'm the bad guy. [ That's what he was always meant to be. ] So the least I can do is put that to use.

[ By beating up people, clearly. ]

[meadqueen]

If you're representing me in a duel, that's the proper name.

[Deal with it, Bigby!]

[bigbaddy]

[ HE REFUSES TO DEAL.

Ever!! ]

I don't think any fight I'm involved in is proper. That's not my thing at all.

[meadqueen]

[Unfortunately in her current situation that just makes her giggle imagining it.]

I should like to see that, I think.

[bigbaddy]

Randvi, please.

[ Apparently her current state keeps pulling this out of him, huh.. The constant exasperation.. ]

You can't tell me that you're into watching dirty fights. [ Is this the way he has to learn this about you? Right here in Louis' store? ]

[meadqueen]

I'm Norse! We love fights. Call a holmgang and you can do what you like.

[bigbaddy]

Look, I don't know how mundy cultures work! [ .. not most of the time, anyway. A guy can spend literal centuries in a world and still not know all that much about how the locals function, apparently.. It's what happens when you stick to your own little fairytale community so much.. ]

The part of the mundy world I'm in now frowns on that sort of thing, you know. Gets you thrown in jail by those mundy cops and all.

[meadqueen]

What does that mean, mundy? Is this why you think Louis would throw you out?

[bigbaddy]

[ Well, it's part of it, technically.

But Bigby did promise himself that he'd be the bigger monster and not out Louis' secret, so he instead just sighs. ]

No, he just hates me for being a cop.

[ Not the full story, but. You know. Still also true at the same time? ]

'Mundy' has got nothing to do with that. It's what we call regular people where I come from. Mundane, you know?

[meadqueen]

He would hate you for that? It's akin to being a guardsman, isn't it?

[The intricacies of why Louis might hate cops who look like Bigby on sight are lost on Randvi, unfortunately.]

Ah, I see. Meaning without magic?