2019-09-04 - What's For Dinner?

It's a few hours away from closing time and they're already four days into September. This means that Ruby is allowed to look at Halloween decorations! She's flipping through a catalogue at the front counter while Stormaggedon is perched on his bed behind the counter. For the moment there's no one else in the shop. Unless Raul is around somewhere. She gives a look up when she hears the thunder off in the distance, "Looks like we're going to have a slow closing." she murmurs.

The thunder is not only a sign of a slow closing but also Raul's arrival. He walks in through the front door with the telltale scent of rain on the air but no rain yet. He shuts the door behind hismelf with a ring of the bell that tingles every time someone enters. "There's a doozy brewing out there." he observes with a look over his shoulder through the panes of glass on the front of the store and a shake of his head. "I didn't bring a jacket or an umbrella, so don't think you can steal it to get to the car." he adds while turning to begin approaching the counter, a toothy grin on his face.

Ruby looks up a bit curious when the door opens and the smile she had on for a customer only warms when she sees Raul coming in. "Well hello there stranger." she grins as she straightens up. Then there's an amused shake of her head, "I'm glad I'm not one of those damsels that need someone elses umbrella, I brought my own." she winks at him. "Come on in before it gets all stormy. How're you doing?" she asks him.

"Good, I was just picking up some foam core and paintbrushes from home depot. The foam core is for you, the paintbrushes for the models." Raul explains as he reaches the counter and looks at Stormageddon with a wary squint of his eyes. "I figured with 'the holiday' coming you'd already be brainstorming a costume for this year."

Ruby gives a look to the bags and then to him, "What cha making?" she asks him. Probably something wonderful, but she still asked. When he sees the cat behind the counter there's a brilliant smile, "Ummm, this is Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All. He adopted us." she tells him. With as big as the cat is compared to Ruby's dainty feet she might have been mugged by the cat. She wiggles her fingers at Storm and he hops up on the counter, "Storm, this is Raul. He's not for eatting." she muses. "And I am thinking of costumes. Just not sure which to do. Or well, did you want to do a couple's costume?" she asks him.

Stormageddon looks displeased that no one is lavisihing him with attention. PEASANTS!

Raul seems to be doing his best to focus on Ruby while being aware of Stormageddon at the same time. He even puts a bag between himself and the dark cat filled with some foam core for the red-head. "I thought I would paint some cyberpunk mini's. That Cyberpunk 2077 is coming out and it has the sourcebook for the tabletop game. I thought we could do a joint release day event. Let people come play it here the day the game comes out." and notably he completely 'forgets' about the couples costume though he does subtly glance at the Winter Soldier life size cutout by the counter before re-focusing on the perky Ruby.

"Oooh. Cyberpunk. Yes. Keanu Reeves is playing Johnny Silverhand." Ruby fans herself a little with her cosplay magazine. Then she gives a soft nod to that, "Sure, we can do that. Makes sense with us getting the room finally done." she nods to the archway. Then she looks to Winter Soldier and back to him and there's an impish grin that curls her lips up. But she says nothing to that. "So the million dollar question, what do you want for dinner?" she asks him as she leans on the counter a bit.

"He is, I'm surprised it didn't leak before E3 that he was involved." Raul observes and then scowls at her impish grin, the lack of comment after the look at the cutout of the Winter Soldier just makes him go mmmm stubbornly before answering the million dollar question, "I was thinking of making some Pho when we got home. Rainy nights, warm delights and all. That and I like seeing you slurp up noodles when no one is around to judge you, but me."

"I was as well, they kept the lid on that pretty tight. But honestly he's like a saint so if it did get leaked he probably wouldn't have heard any negatives." Ruby tells him as she looks to him. There's a look back to the Winter Soldier stand up, then back to Raul and she just smiles at him. "Pho sounds like a nice dinner and less arguing about what to order. So that sounds wonderful." she admits. "And who gets judgy over noodle slurping?" she muses. "How was work? Anything new coming up?" she asks him.

There's something about being watched by a displeased dark cat and the passionless (but smoldering) cutout of the Winter Soldier while his animated girlfriend is chatting with him that leaves Raul minorly distracted with an uh followed up by, "Wizards of the Coast is releasing a new module for 2019, it's Baldur's Gate which is -probably- related to the new Baldur's Gate three game that is coming out. So I've been trying to look into that. I also need to swing by the local paper and put in an application to be a columnist maybe local interest pieces on geek media?"

"I'm not going to make you go as the Winter Soldier." Ruby tells him with a laugh. "Not unless you really wanted to." she adds. "But we've been together long enough you don't need to take dives to please me." she winks at him. Then she puts her chin in her hands and listens to him as he talks on modules and things like that. "Sounds like it's going to be fun." she admits. The talk of the application makes her nod her head, "Doesn't sound like a bad plan really. They could probably use some not murder related pieces." she states in a sober tone.

"Murder pieces?" Raul echoes in a clueless voice and a wrinkling on his nose. Meanwhile the Lord of All, Stormageddon has knocked over the home depot plastic bag with the foam core sending it to the floor with a bonk and some rustling noises. It seems enough to break up the look of concern and the mans face as he turns to crouch down and begin picking up the bits of foam. "I haven't been reading the paper, you know print media is dead it's all blogs and tweets these days. What has the local paper been writing about?"

"Storm, that's not what we do with bags." Ruby scowls when the bag goes 'bonk'. She picks the cat up and then places him down behind the counter. He looks up at her and twitches his ears, before padding off. "Sorry about that." she tells him. Then there's a bit of a snort, "I read the paper just fine." she shakes her head at him. "And there's just been a lot of people dying lately. A few Addingtons and things." she admits. "Might just be a coincidence, or bad luck." she adds.

Raul finishes cleaning up and uses a hand on the edge of the counter to help balance as he straightens. Evidently the dad-bod is real and someone might need to hit the gym a little more often if he needs stabilization while standing. "Probably just bad luck, small town like this it's not like it's murder." Raul says with a blithely unaware smile for Ruby. "Did we have any customers this week, Endgame should have everyone coming in to look at comics and then realize they aren't exactly the same and then get intimidated from buying them. Right?"

Ruby watches Raul as he straightens and there's a bit of a squint, "You want to go to the gym with me?" she asks him. "I love you either way. But, maybe before the wedding we could get into shape together." she grins. There's a bit of a frown when he says it's not murders, she knew better. /SOMETHING/ was up. But she drops it. The Endgame comment makes her nod, "Yeah, should be getting around the time it comes out on DVD and all that." she grins. "And I think anyone trying to follow the Infinity Saga could just buy the compilation and have it easier." she admits.

"Have we finally set a date?" Raul wonders in an intentionally airy manner, clearly trying to put off the gym until the commitment of a marriage and wedding date get sorted first. "You didn't say whether we've had any customers come through, in a town this size I assume mostly teenagers and middle-schoolers?"

"I mean, I figured we'd talk about dates and things sometime." Ruby laughs. "At least my mom thinks we're getting married in the next few years." she points out. "And yeah, we've had some people in. Steady business, which is nice. Set up to have a game night to celebrate the new game room opening." she tells him with a smile.

"That's good, I'll have to think of something easy and something hard to play." Raul says to himself before ticking his head towards the door, "Do you want to beat the rain out of here or see if we get one last straggler before the storm?" he wonders not having a clue whether it's actually closing time yet. The place is empty though.

Ruby gives a bit of a smile to that, "Sounds like a good plan." she tells him. Then there's a bit of a look to the door and the thunder makes her nod, "Yeah, we should get out of here before it lets loose. I'll get my umbrella and Storm's carrier just in case." she tells him. She's dressed in one of those sleek fifties style dresses. So she might look like a time traveller stole a cat and ran away. "We've got everything for Pho at home, right?" she asks him.

Raul makes an uuuuuuh sound with his gob open for a moment, eyes drifting up to the ceiling before nodding confidently. "Yes, do you want pork or beef?" he wonders while moving to start switching off the lights with the bags in one hand in preparation to depart. "And the cats coming home with us, it doesn't just live here?"

"Beef sounds good." Ruby chirps at him as her head is seen going past a shelf of comics and then she is opening the door to the stock room. She returns a few moments later with Storm's carrier. "He's goes home with us, yes. I don't think I want to leave him at the store by himself while it's raining. I mean, I wouldn't leave a kid here over night either." she points out as she moves to set the carrier on the counter. Storm hops on up, "Good boy." she grins. Then she's moving over to turn on the alarm, "Everyone out." she grins.