strangetrip | [OTA] shopping or whatever

The 'boutique' was pretty much a nightmare of pink and glittery, at least in places, but the fact that the thing restocked itself was useful as fuck. Sure, you couldn't always rely on finding the same things you did before, but there was almost always something similar. And Rocket was used to repurposing and relying on junk, anyway. Junk was usually free. Nobody cared if you took their garbage, and they didn't care for long after they were blown up by what you'd turned the garbage into.

All of which was why Rocket spent a lot more time in the boutique/gift shop than most people would have expected, given that there was nothing pink and glittery about him. Except, now, a backpack which was still pink but no longer glittery, as the rhinestone-things had been pried off and store elsewhere.

As per usual, he climbed shelves and fixtures, evaluating items and occasionally shoving something into the backpack. There was a heavy emphasis on anything with clockwork or mechanisms, but also postcards, greeting cards, and clothes that had rhinestones, sequins, or beads.

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Vex was far more interested in clothes and accessories – a trait she shared with her brother – than souvenirs, toiletries, and other miscellany. That was why she'd taken over supervising the boutique while leaving the gift shop to fend for itself. She wasn't there all the time, but often enough to have a fairly good mental inventory of what was there at any given time, adjusting it as the inn added new and different items.

Just recently she'd noticed someone had an interest in some of the more bedazzled – Vex loved that word, although she couldn't remember now if it was Steph or Caroline she'd heard it from first, it was just perfect for the kinds of things it described – accessories and tops. But she hadn't seen anyone wearing the items that hadn't stayed in the shop for long.

When she came into the boutique today, she thought she would start with the swimsuits, seeing what, if anything, was new, and reorganizing the display for best effect. And also to see if there was anything that would make Percy's jaw drop, because the pool was calling with the weather warming up. What she hadn't expected was for someone else to be in the shop when she arrived, but she could hear them moving around before she could see them.

Oh. The raccoon. She had heard, of course, there was a talking raccoon in the inn. And she wouldn't have been as worried by a raccoon in general as some might. She did have a bear, after all, and Rocket wore clothes and talked and everything, although Vex hadn't met him exactly yet.

"Finding everything all right, darling?" she chimed, watching as he scampered from one shelf to another. Yes, she was standing by that word. Trinket lumbered, Rocket scampered.

"You think any'a this shit's hard to find?" Rocket dangled one of the things - a bracelet seemingly made of thin bright pink rope and oversized beads, tacky as shit - off the shelf before stashing it in the pack. "It practically fuckin' glows. But ya know, I'm also finding I'm not good with the cutesy. Name's Rocket, and I am not, never have been, an' never will be anyone's fuckin' darling."

"Nothing 'cutesy' intended, Rocket. Trinket is adorable, of course, but you're no Trinket. You are, however, making yourself at home in the boutique, so of course I would be interested in what you're doing. Especially when you seem to be helping yourself mostly to the cheaply sparkly and shiny accessories and clothing." Vex was also drawn to shiny and sparkly, but she preferred the kinds that were expensive. Also she had something known as taste.

"I'm afraid you won't find much in your size, unfortunately." It was a problem Pike and Scanlan were all too familiar with here. "But Corbie is a very good seamstress."

Oh, good, a bald body who got mildly snippy about somebody having issues with being called things. That was new.

"I wouldn't be caught dead in most'a this shit." Rocket bared his teeth, probably a grin albeit one that promised violence. "Other people might be sometime, though." He held up one of his recent finds, a slinky pair of skin-tight pant things with studs on. "See, this is decent fucking shrapnel. So I'm gonna take off the metal bits and pack'em into an explosive. Or hold onto'em until I need to pack'em."

"Sparkly explosives." Vex's head tilted as she considered it. "That's an idea. Do you often make exploding things? I only ask because my husband," one of these days she might get tired of the word, but she wasn't close to there yet, "makes the most delightful things. It was how he courted me, explosive arrows. Among others, of course."

Rocket rolled his eyes. Typical humie, thinkin' things were sweet or nice when they weren't. "It doesn't fuckin' matter how sparkly somethin' is when it's high-velocity. I'm not goin' for sparkle, I'm going for fuckin' shred your ass. Sparkly's usually rock, so high meltin' point with nice sharp facets." Which probably answered her question about whether he made exploding things often. "It won't blow up a moon, but it's the best I'm gonna do in this place."

Vex studied the raccoon, fairly sure either there was a miscommunication somewhere or he was simply a surly bastard with everyone. Then again, she'd never met a highly intelligent, talking raccoon before, and that made it harder to get a read on him.

"Then by all means, help yourself to the sequin and paste gem shrapnel. I wouldn't dream of keeping another tinkerer from his tinkering – if that's not the right word, I'm sorry, it's only that Percy usually calls himself a tinkerer, rather than inventor or engineer although he's both of those as well." She sounded matter-of-fact about it because she was. She was fond of tinkerers, mostly because of one tinkerer in particular, but clever was interesting.

"But I should probably warn you, if I have to pick sparkly shrapnel out of my bear friend, you will wind up with arrows in uncomfortable places." What? He was making explosives. She would treat that threat the same way she did anyone else here who might pose a threat to Trinket. Warn them ahead of time, and then follow through if it ever became necessary.

"I'd be way more likely to blow you up. No offense or whatever, 's just I actually like animals. They're way less trouble than you bald bodies." Rocket took her at her word, invitation-wise, and another pair of besparkled legging things went into his backpack.

Bald? Okay, if she thought about it, they probably did look bald compared to raccoons, or bears. Still, Vex couldn't help but neaten the drape of her braid over her shoulder. But then a teal swimsuit, one she'd heard called a 'bikini' caught her eye, and she took it over to a mirror, leaving him to his foraging.

"Trinket's very likable," she explained, holding the bikini in front of her trying to decide if she would like it. "I'll introduce you sometime, if you'd like. Most people tend to freak out about an armored bear wandering through the inn, so he mostly avoids public areas." While staying close to her, but Vex was hesitant to mention Raven's Slumber to Rocket in order to explain.

[OTA] shopping or whatever

Vex & Rocket

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