our mothers used to sing along, who'd blame them

[valdemar]

WOW WE'RE IN A SUPERMARKET you are in a supermarket. you need more cereal, or maybe you want a snack, or maybe you are racing around on a cart, or a cart just hit your car in the parking lot and you're going to kill that asshole, or your bag just broke and there are broken eggs everywhere oh my gosh who designed these bags was it communists??????? i bet it was!

Comments

[volcanic]

[ Iceland is at the supermarket for candy, because seriously, why else would he be there. ]

[danishes]

( it is a quiet day in the supermarket.

people talk and compare coupons quietly, a lone worker stocks a shelf. the faint hum of freezers and ventilation is barely audible under the bad soft pop playing on the radio. everything is normal. everything is fine. the candy looks delish.

and then denmark ZOOMS BY ON A CART 20 MPH wooooooooooooooooooosh )

[volcanic]

[ WHY ARE YOU SO EMBARRASSING.

Iceland just stands there, really intently staring at the licorice while trying really hard to play off Denmark's behavior. No one knows he's associated with him, right?? Yep just a teenager trying to get some candy nothing to see here don't look at him. Or come near him, in Denmark's case.

Maybe he should grab the licorice and make a break for the check stand. Casually. ]

[danishes]

( with the grace and precision associated with someone who clearly does this a lot, denmark very nearly crashes into a display of gourmet pastries, hops off the cart, and starts to wretch it around for another go.

he's maybe, oh, thirty, forty feet away, which is why he needs to shout very loudly: )

HEY ICE! DIDYA SEE THAT?

[volcanic]

[ To make this 100x more embarrassing, I am going to say they are in Copenhagen/Roskilde/Aarhus or some other Danish city so Iceland can break a sweat over what language to reply in. Danish is lame but oh my god they'll single him out if he speaks Icelandic?? So English maybe??? Denmark why did you have to speak to him oh my god Iceland is silently freaking out over his embarrassment. ]

Shut up, idiot, people are watching! [ ok Icelandic it is because it is Iceland's default setting.

These details are necessary. ]

[danishes]

( scoots over on his cart slowly and deliberately, wondering why iceland would want to speak a language as uncool as icelandic but basically resigned to the fact since iceland's weirdness is part of his charm.

absolutely unphased and unembarrassed (and speaking danish like he didn't even notice iceland's weird choice in languages): ) Because I was being so cool! Ya wanna try?

[volcanic]

[ Iceland is going to dodge down a relatively empty aisle. He's too traumatized to buy his licorice now. ]

No. Definitely not.

[danishes]

( scoots along with his cart in pace with iceland. )

It's really fun! The floors are so smooth, you can go really fast!

[volcanic]

You shouldn't be doing that at all!

[danishes]

Why not?

[volcanic]

That's something little kids do.

[danishes]

And also something I do! ( TO PROVE HIS POINT woosh he kicks ahead a few feet and turns his head back like TA DAH LOOK AT ME

and then hits a shelf whoops a couple boxes of pasta fall to the floor. )

[volcanic]

Stop, you're going to get us kicked out! [ His face is so red. ]

[danishes]

( casually picking up the boxes!! ) This supermarket is part of the kingdom of Denmark, so it probably belongs to me!

whoever

[unaccepted]

[ Is this modern or did he just randomly appear in a modern supermarket?? Luckily no one cares especially not Grantaire.

He is more interested in the shopping carts, and takes to pushing one toward the supermarket. Unfortunately, he becomes bored of that quickly, and decides it is much smarter to let it go the rest of the way by itself. With a push, he sends it flying...

into the back of a parked car. ]

[expect]

( not just any parked car though

the best and most beautiful car the universe has ever known, also rory's one true love. that car. like magic, rory appears seconds after the crash, a bag of groceries in one hand and shocked trauma on his face. HE RUNS OVER, you bet he does. )

What the hell did you do?

WHOEVER WORKS BEST

[importexport]

[What brings the Netherlands to the supermarket today is groceries, of course! He grows plenty of vegetables and fruit at home, so he doesn't have to worry aobut too much, but he's sure to come when the prices are best and see what he can do to haggle them even lower if he can.

So right now, he's looking at the bread or something. And by looking, it's more like deeply inspecting. Never before has shopping ever been so serious.]

[fles]

( it's been a very long time since judith has been to a place like this. having been taken from her home and forced to survive in the wilderness, and then in villages stuck a couple hundred years to the past, for five years total… well, maybe it's understandable that she's feeling somewhat awed.

she grew up her in rotterdam, it's not like she forgot, but… it's overwhelming. even leaving her flat was overwhelming. colours, lights, music, labels… it all seems so foreign to her, and it's all the more frightening that it shouldn't feel that way. she's scared. properly scared. she's always scared lately, but…

she walks slowly through the aisles, her posture clearly screaming i am tense and having trouble. the bread, strangely, seems most familiar to her. bread existed over there. it looks and smells almost the same. judith used to be gossipy, bubbly, and a little vain. she tries to be that now. would the old judith have spoken to a complete stranger fondling bread? …well, maybe not.

but she's so tense and anxious and doesn't want to be, that she bursts out with: ) Has it gone rotten? ( there's a slightly strange lilt to her accent. she hasn't really spoken much dutch in the last few years. )

[importexport]

No.

[It's a calm but stiff sounding reply from him before he takes the loaf he's inspecting and sets it in the basket hanging at his arm. He'll give the girl a proper lookover once he's finished with that, though. The question hadn't seemed too out of place. He had been checking for dates and all, too, after all...

But he didn't quite think that it meant he should explain what he was doing with it, either.

The accent he does note, but it doesn't stand out quite as strongly as the way she's holding herself. So anxious.]

Something wrong?

[fles]

( she told her parents she'd eloped with a man and it ended badly, and that was where she'd been the last five years. they'd been furious, but what else was she supposed to tell him? or strangers in the supermarket, for that matter?

she doesn't know how to lie in this situation. she regrets saying anything at all. with a stab towards wry: )

I don't get out much.

[importexport]

[...Huh. And that doesn't quite piece things together for him, though it does lean it in the right direction. Maybe she's got a phobia or something, who knows.

But rather than respect that or anything of the sort, he's just going to bluntly pry. Because. What.]

Why not? [You should at least be getting your proper exercise tbh... Are you a shut in, Judith. Eyeing suspiciously...]

[fles]

Nosy people in supermarkets. ( she says, raising her eyebrows in a yeah, wow kind of expression. in a strange way, she relaxes. she used to be good at this. maybe she still can be. )

[importexport]

S'not nosy. [A touch defensively. He'll shift a bit, though, standing taller to look at her.]

You said something first. [He almost wants to ask if she's lonely or something but even for him that's crossing a bold line.] Need some good bread?

[fles]

You don't see me, asking if anything is wrong with you. ( she replies, grabbing a loaf of bread at random and putting it in her otherwise-empty basket. her grab is clumsy. she's tense, her anxiety is going up. she shouldn't press on, but she does, stubbornly. her stubbornness is what kept her alive there. and now… she can do this. this is nothing. she can be normal and cope. easily! ) So? Is there anything wrong with you?

[importexport]

[Looking at her, looking at the bread, judging the bread, and then looking back at her. Right. His shopping trips are never so eventful.]

I'm not looking like you are, either. [Tense. Freaked out or something. It's not even that she's high at least he'd recognize the signs of that, this is just confusing!!] Nothing's wrong with me, but-- [Just, gesturing with a free arm at her basket.] You could probably get more time out'f a different loaf.

[He put that one back...]