Fandom Island and Town

Kaidan had spent the wee small hours of the morning teaching Hernando how to properly use a Yooper Scooper and standard snow shovel. Then there'd been an impromptu snowball fight. After, he hiked back to the CIC, clearing the sidewalks on both sides of the street between the two buildings as he went. Had shovels, was travelling.

Snow was cleared from the walk and from the back stairs. Then he went up and proactively shoveled and salted the roof, especially around the shuttle's docking legs and door. "You going to be ok up here alone EDI?" he asked.

"I am a shuttle, Kaidan," EDI responded, amused, "The weather doesn't bother me."

That wasn't what he'd meant. "Well, I'm only a comm call away," he assured her.

"Shuttle, Kaidan," she reminded him, still amused.

He patted the shuttle door anyway before heading inside to do battle with IKEA furniture.

Unfolding the directions, he frowned at them. "Good god, what even is this?"

It was going to be a day.

[Open]

Zack's predicament had brought something to mind, so Kaidan had taken himself to the hardware store early Wednesday morning.

The CIC was open, but the owner was busily replacing all of the round door handles with lever handles for every door in the building. The front door already had an automated opener, as did the game rooms, but the Employee Only door and subsequent doors to the apartment upstairs - as well as the back fire door on the ground floor - all needed replaced.

The dogs were helping. Zack was bringing him tools and Girl was occasionally just flopping on Zack to hold him still for a few minutes. Puppy zoomies were still totally a thing.

[Open!]

The CIC was open. The raven was strutting around on the counter, telling Kaidan some sort of epic tale in a language even his universal translator couldn't decipher. Some of the translations it was coming up with were pretty funny, though.

Buzzy was flying in lazy circuits around the room, occasionally giving a tiny pirouette in the air for no reason except to do a tiny pirouette in the air.

Kaidan had spent a solid five minutes wondering just what the hell Vette had done to the keyboard. Which now had a scroll wheel embedded in it. His fingers, larger than hers, kept hitting it by accident while he was doing the end of month invoices. Even though it was annoying him at the moment, it was still clever as hell and he was proud of her for it.

He was proud of all three of the kids. They worked hard, they learned fast, and they did their best.

[Open, smol OCD]

Kaidan opened the shop and let the raven in. "So," he asked it conversationally, "How'd the new girl's first day go?" The raven made a noise that was disturbingly mimic of a human laugh. "Oh no. Is she coming back?" The raven considered the question and then bobbed its head once before proudly strutting back and forth across the counter.

When he went behind the counter, he was amused to note that Vette had taken 'try to fix the phones' to heart. Even most of the ones meant to be parts were in the 'fixed' pile. Good hire.

He put a sign on the box, "If you're new and you don't have a phone yet, ask at the desk." It was set in the window.

When he returned to the counter, he spread out some small shiny treats for the raven.

[Open! No OCD.]

Wednesday hadn't started out great. Kaidan was still pushing away the agoraphobia by stubbornly refusing to stay in his apartment. After a quick shower, he opened the store and let the raven inside.

"Buzzy, up," he called. The Robonoid whirred to life and spun up out of its little countertop pet bed, beginning a slow circuit of the storefront. It would eventually settle and walk around the counter, or use Kaidan as some sort of bipedal jungle gym. The raven didn't seem to mind the company. The two even played some sort of strange game of 'tag' occasionally.

He dusted off the 'help wanted' sign and put it in the window. There were new students on the island. Maybe he'd find a local this time.

[OOC: Open, no OCD!]

Shop description badly in need of updating is here.

Kaidan opened the shop and let the raven inside. "Hey, buddy. How've you been? I missed you." The raven seemed happy to see him, too. Or maybe it wasn't. The cup of pens by the register was systematically emptied as the bird one by one threw them to the floor in an almost ritualistic manner.

Leaning on the counter, Kaidan pulled out a bastardized deck of cards and began playing his weird form of pazaak solitaire again. The raven helped, for a value of help that meant occasionally stealing a card and gliding across the room with it.

Business was steady. The in-between moments were spent playing with the cards, his face almost entirely blank of emotion.

[Open!]

Nate opened the store again. He was a little happy about the overtime. Kaidan paid well. He was a little worried about the text he'd received when his boss asked about him covering this week. An entire week? That was longer than Kaidan had ever been away.

The raven was also displeased, gliding in and landing on the countertop and parading back and forth with the most irritated of quoks. "I know," Nate said, digging out some small sparkly candies and dumping them on the glass. The raven ate one and then proceeded to angrily fling the rest around the store with angry little churbling noises.

At least the customers were nice today.

[OOC: Open, no OCD. Feel free to pump Nate for info about Kaidan's whereabouts if you need to.]

Nate took the morning shift at the C.I.C. The raven patrolled the counter, alert for any stray shiny bits of anything.

His first customers of the day were delightful. The second pair to come in, anything but. "Do you have the new Space Battle game?" one demanded. Nate shrugged, "Probably. Kaidan's pretty good about keeping things current." "But does it have the new Excellent Exiles expansion?" the second of the pair asked as if they'd just scored a point. Nate gave him the blandest of bland looks, "Like I said: Probably. Kaidan's pretty good about keeping things current." The pair signed up for the dual room.

Nate gave it about half an hour before he set the router to constantly disconnect and reconnect that room. Petty was not beyond him.

Kaidan came in late in the morning, attempting to peel white glue off his fingers. All of his fingers. How do you even get glue on all of your fingers?

Description is here.

[OOC: Open! OCD is smol.]

Nate had gotten a call from Kaidan that morning to open, and since he could use the hours, he'd agreed. The raven was waiting. It made Nate a little nervous. The raven hadn't ever been aggressive, but it seemed prudent to be wary of something with a knifelike beak and talons. It politely hopped up on the counter and started strutting back and forth.

Not too long after opening, a group of kids came in, bitching about the Lucifer May Weep game and how the Danny character had gotten a haircut and this was a betrayal of all of the fans and.. Nate tuned them right out, took their money, and sent them to one of the thankfully soundproofed rooms to get their game on.

Not too long later, he received a text from Kaidan: If a little green kid made of gemstone comes in, triangle-shaped hair, stone in their forehead, give them access to the box of parts under the counter.

Sure, that wasn't weird. Gemstone? Really?

This island, man.

The raven was waiting for him in the morning, which wasn't unusual. The somewhat gawky teen standing next to him, however, was. Kaidan opened the door and greeted them both. "I'm not quite set up yet, but come on in and we can get you logged in."

The teenager pushed his glasses up his nose and mumbled, "Um. I'm here about the sign? I'd like to fill out an application?"

Kaidan blinked for a moment, but nodded, "Sure. Let me print one off for you. Know much about computers?"

The boy gave a sheepish smile, "Yeah. They're kind of my hobby. I'm Nate, by the way." "Good to meet you, Nate," Kaidan replied, printing off the promised application and handing it, and a pen, over.

"What's up with the raven?" Nate asked. Kaidan shrugged, "He helps out if I need a break. There are shiny cake toppings under the counter, if you want to give him treats. Don't give him dimes." The raven quoked a protest. "No," Kaidan said firmly, "The last one got stuck in your crop and I had to help you get it out of there. No more. You have crunchies now. Eat those."

Nate took all this in calmly, and continued filling out his application. Kaidan thought that was a good sign.

Description of the shop is here: description yay

[OOC: CIC is Open, no OCD.]

The shop was back to a single raven today. Kaidan breathed a small sigh of relief. The birds hadn't been problematic, but keeping the door open for them had kept the shop a little warm for comfort, even with the AC on. One bird meant he could keep the door closed and have the temperature inside the C.I.C. be something in the range of 'arctic'.

For someone who liked the cold, he sure had a big mug of steaming hot tea in his hand. The raven quoked and tapped the glass of the counter with his beak. "You want some tea?" Kaidan asked, amused. The bird made a derisive noise. Kaidan offered him a tea bag. The raven threw it across the room. He tried offering one of the disposable hot beverage cups, and it appeared that was what the raven wanted. It promptly started tearing it to bits, making a mess but also making adorable chirring noises.

With a shake of his head, Kaidan collected the tea bag and tossed it in the trash.

Description of shop is here.

[OOC: Open, no OCD.]

Today was the day - doors opened for the first time. Kaidan did a third walkthrough, making sure the computers booted, the network was up and running, and speedtests had all clocked at a high prime. He harnessed his calm; after all, the worst that would happen would be an incredibly boring day sitting behind a counter.

Kaidan clearly hadn't been in Fandom very long.

Hitting a switch, the Open signed blinked into life, the blue glow of the neon reflecting nicely off the window. Door unlocked, he headed back to the counter - and didn't make it. Almost immediately, there was a raucous noise from the other side of the glass.

A rather large raven sat on the sidewalk, pecking imperiously at the door and cawing indignantly. Something shiny was clutched in one talon. Opening the door with a polite, "Can I help you?", Kaidan was buzzed as the bird launched itself at the counter, perching and cawing most insistently. "O..k.," Kaidan breathed, heading over to see what the problem was. A customer was a customer, even if they happened to be a bird at the moment. Holding out a hand, he asked, "Can I see it?" The raven clutched the shiny tighter, then reluctantly lifted it to drop into Kaidan's palm.

It was a wristwatch. Nothing fancy, just not working. Using microtools, he popped the back off and winced, "Looks like it got wet at some point. Battery's corroded. Let me see what I can do. Did you want to wait, or do you want to come back in about an hour?"

The raven cocked its head to one side, then the other, then just stared at him. Right. "Ok. Taking the old battery out now," Kaidan explained, "Then popping it into the ultrasonic cleaner. Once that's done running, probably in about half an hour, I can see if a new battery gets 'er ticking again, or if the solder corroded."

The raven didn't answer. That would be silly, a talking bird.

Shop is open from 9am-midnight. Shop description.

[OOC: CIC is open and OCDs are up.]