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 Posted: Thu May 25, 2023 1:16 am
Quote: Prompt 1: The weatherman said it was going to be a nice day today. Perfect time to go get some of those errands taken care of. Unfortunately, while you were shopping, heavy clouds rolled in and it began pouring outside. Do you chance it and run for your car or duck inside the nearest shop until the weather clears up? Prompt 1.5: If you chose to go inside the shop, your character is greeted by a friendly cashier with a kind smile. While perusing the shop you notice that they have what looks like kids umbrella's shaped like various animals. Cute but is it worth the chance of being seen by a friend or co-worker with one of these above your head? Lian Ming really had hoped the day would go differently. He'd checked the weather obsessively, as he always did, and in addition to all the weather apps, websites, and TV guys, his own materials had indicated nothing crazy would happen today. Which was great, because he wanted to enjoy the sunny day and hang out with his cousin-in-law and run some errands for his beautiful wife who'd gotten a cold from the last bad storm that had come through Destiny City a few days ago. But no. Nothing was perfect, of course, and even a very weather conscious person like himself who didn't want his clothes to get ruined or for himself to get sick would wind up mistaken. As the day surely proved by the rapid onset of a storm that gave him a pressure headache in addition to the soaking wet. Of course he'd thought it would be nice to walk around. Ugh! "Come on, let's pop into a shop," he shouted to Lianli, nudging him towards a friendly-looking one. Warm and sheltered was really all that mattered at the moment. And open. If there weren't any places open, then the entire point was totally moot, and they'd just have to suck it up and get soaked. At least the clothes he'd bought were in plastic bags he'd tied off so they would stay safe until they got home and put in the wash. Who knew what was in the rain, after all? Better to make sure that his clothes could not get ruined by any chance before he could wear them even once! amorremanet sorry for inserting the quote late lol
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 11:13 pm
Líanlí did not normally think of spending errand-running time with, like, other people. Even during the periods when he and Hayden had lived together, Líanlí had largely preferred to handle errands on his own, without the pressure of feeling like he had to explain himself and his choices to whoever he was with.
(One of the precious few things he’d gotten out of therapy besides a continuing sign-off on his Adderall prescription every month: he realized, on some level, that most people didn’t intend to make him feel this way, and the impulse to do that only really came from Líanlí himself. All the more reason why he should keep his errands to himself, then. No sense in taking that out on anybody else when it had nothing to do with them.)
Still, the errands today were Qi-jie and Ming-er’s errands, not Líanlí’s own. And if Ming-er wanted company while chasing after things all over town, then who was Líanlí to judge? The rain coming out of nowhere didn’t make for a very nice time—but at least the store they’d ducked into seemed pretty interesting, as Líanlí glanced around. “Who do you think buys this kind of stuff,” he said, genuinely curious and without any judgment for the people who shopped here. Because from the wide array of weird knick-knacks and assorted objects of unidentifiable purposes, Líanlí couldn’t even begin to guess for himself.
“Seriously, who even thinks to make something like that,” he asked, pointing over at the wall, where somebody had hung up something that looked like a homemade ouija board, decorated with glittery shards of broken glass. A little white card hanging next to the thing said that the shop wanted $105 for it. “What is this even for?”
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Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 10:55 pm
Ming hummed, puttering around the shop and grinning some of the various odds-and-ends that laid scattered across every available surface in this weird antique and pawn fusion shop. "Hey, some of the best stuff can be in shops like this! You never know when you need, uh, a hand crocheted peanut butter jar warmer," he said, pulling the flap of woven fabric up from a pile of similar items. He peered at the object Lianli pointed out and grimaced, shaking his head. "That... I'll give you that one, that's weird," he said. "Hm. Maybe we'll find some suncatchers in here; I've been meaning to get one or two. Qiye would love to put some in our front windows. Suppose it depends on the size, how many we would get."
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 12:32 am
“I mean, personally, I would never need a hand-crocheted peanut butter jar warmer because I keep it in the fridge and I don’t generally want it warm,” Líanlí pointed out, more or less good-naturedly, no matter what kind of face he made at the strange assemblage of fabric in Ming-er’s hands.
Not that he could see his own reflection right now, but Líanlí could feel his face, and he thought it was contorting itself into some location about halfway between ‘sucked on a lemon’ and ‘trying to talk to someone who would not be swayed from their opinion that the drama with the subtitles that kept translating jiejie as any given lady character’s name was Good, Actually (Hayden).’
Humming softly, Líanlí looked around them. “Suncatchers would look really good at your guys’ place.… Gotta wonder why they wouldn’t hang such things in the windows, though? Y’know, show off how they work in practice? Granted, sure, the weather isn’t right for it today, but it can’t rain all the time and you’d honestly think—”
“Can I help you two find anything?”
Líanlí startled somewhat at the intrusion of a new voice. But he still put on a smile as he turned to face the clerk who’d come over to them. She seemed about their age, pink-faced like maybe she’d been sunburnt recently, with brown hair and somewhat oversized glasses. “Maybe you can, actually,” he said. “My cousin over here is looking for some suncatchers? Might there be any in stock?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 6:52 pm
"You like your peanut butter cold?" Ming asked, horrified. "I mean, I certainly don't want mine warm but room temperature is just fine, why do you want it cold?" He shuddered at the thought, imagination catching on all too quickly what cold peanut butter would be like, all thick and stickier than normal and ugh probably catch in his throat and make it so he couldn't breathe— Ugh.He wanted to agree with Lianli, once he finished speaking, but his cousin-in-law was interrupted by the shopkeep, which he thought was incredibly rude. Still, Lianli didn't comment on it, so he bit his tongue, even if it burned at him inside, and turned to speak to her. "Yes, please, if you might have some? My spouse would just adore some," he added, glancing over her shoulder. ... Were those umbrellas? Shaped like animals? It was exactly the kind of kitschy thing his parents would hate with every fiber of their being, so naturally the desire to have one seized him by the throat. "No, I'm sorry," the shopkeep said apologetically. Upon having his answer, Ming-er promptly ignored anything else she might have been saying to beeline it for the umbrella stand, plucking an orange, fox-shaped umbrella from it and waving it at Lianli. "Hey, look at these! We could each get one, there's a lot of animals here."
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 8:30 pm
Well, that answer from the shopkeep disappointed, to be certain. Qi-jie and Ming-er’s place really would have looked extra nice with some suncatchers in the windows. But if the shop didn’t have any in stock, they didn’t have any in stock. “Thanks so much,” Líanlí told the girl to be polite. Following Ming-er to the cute umbrellas, he grabbed up a purple one with a pattern of butterflies on it. “Here, Ming-er, my treat. Which one do you want for yourself?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 8:33 pm
Ming grinned. "The one you're holding seems good," he said. "We can swap, give you the fox one. Thank you." The day hadn't turned out so bad after all.
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