Emma Carstairs (alsoflexible) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2019-02-12 19:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !completed gdoc, !log, !match-up, ~2019 february, ~50 points, ~~emma carstairs (alsoflexible), ~~jake peralta (jake_peralta) |
Who: Jake Peralta and Emma Carstairs
Where: Wizard Wheezes
When: Feb 2
What: Checking out the joke shop
Status: Complete - Matchup
Being stuck in a small town without any kind of Downworldly excitement was bad enough, but Emma also had to deal a world without any kind of Downworldly excitement without Julian. Sure, he had arrived with her, but ever since then he’d avoided her - which was quite a feat, given that they lived in the same apartment.
She supposed she couldn’t blame him; she probably should even thank him. It was easier to stay away from temptation when temptation stayed clear away from her.
But it left her to explore the town by herself, trying to find ways to entertain herself. She wasn’t having much luck, until she passed a particularly interesting storefront. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t thought much of it at first. And then she stopped. And doubled back.
Her eyes hadn’t been deceiving her. There was an actual Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes here. Here, in little hick town. She couldn’t get in there fast enough.
The interior didn’t disappoint her. It looked exactly like the movies. “Whoa,” she said, eyes wide.
***
One of the downsides of working retail was that he had to work on weekends. But he was definitely still way too excited about working with the Weasleys to worry about that.
He saw someone new step through the door and almost immediately was by her side, putting on his best customer service voice. It was a bit overdone, actually. “Welcome to Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes! Can I help you find anything?” He hoped there wasn’t anything specific she was looking for, since he was still getting to know his way around the shop - there seemed to be new things every time he looked. But he was getting better at it. Jake was a fast learner when he put his mind to it.
***
“Um...anything.” Emma was still a bit overwhelmed at the sheer volume of stuff here. There were whozits flying around the ceiling, and whatzits scampering around the shelves, and she totally hadn’t watched the Harry Potter movies enough to remember what was what. It was all just so cool.
Only after she’d had a chance to take in the store as a whole did she turn her attention to the young man who’d approached. “You’re not a Weasley,” she remarked. No red hair and all. She remembered that much.
***
“Nope,” Jake agreed. “Just a regular old Muggle. The Weasleys are usually around somewhere, but they’ve recently taken on us regular employees too.” Well, he wasn’t sure Loki counted as a “regular” employee but Jake certainly was. He wished he was as cool and famous as the Weasleys, but he wasn’t - not yet, anyway.
“I’m Jake Peralta,” he said. “Formerly an amazing detective, now working here with all the magical thingies.”
***
“That’s a big change in career,” Emma remarked, a little disturbed. If amazing detectives ended up having to work retail here, what became of amazing Shadowhunters? She tried to imagine herself serving up burgers at Hinkle’s and cringed. She liked the place well enough, but to eat at, not to work.
“Anyway.” She tried to focus on the positive. Like maybe a demon portal would open up and there would be a great need for Shadowhunters to prevent people from being slaughtered. That’d be nice. “What’s your favorite thing here?”
***
Jake shrugged, trying not to look too upset. “Well, you know, they don’t let us foreigners on the police force here, so I’ve got to take what I can get.” The truth was, he really did miss his old job, but he wasn’t one to show his negative feelings to others, especially not strangers he’d just met.
“Here in the joke shop or here in Madison Valley?” Jake asked.
***
“Nice to know bigotry is alive and well anywhere you go,” Emma muttered, not bothering to keep quiet about it. Because bigotry had to be called out.
She looked around again, still a little overwhelmed by everything in the shop. “I meant the joke ship, but if there’s some amazing thing in Madison Valley, I’d like to know about it too.”
***
“Well, here in the joke shop, I like the transforming things section,” Jake said, showing her a selection that included candies that transformed you into things when you ate them, and things that transformed into other things when you looked at them, or sat on them, or touched them. “It’s the most clearly magical, which I’m not used to,” he added.
“Madison Valley?” he shrugged. “I haven’t found a favourite place here yet. Haven’t been here long enough. Besides, it’s more the things that happen here that are weird and neat and exciting, not the place itself.”
***
Transforming things? That was really cool, and definitely the kind of Downworld magic that would raise eyebrows. She must have one.
She went over to examine the selection - a little gingerly, in case she accidentally touched something that would turn her into a rat.
“How long have you been here?” She glanced over her shoulder to look at him curiously. She’d heard of people being here for over 5 years, but from what this ex-detective said, it seemed like he wasn’t one of them.
***
It looked like she was pleased with his recommendation, which made Jake happy. Customer service wasn’t his ideal job, but he did like to make people happy.
“Just a few months,” Jake answered. “Just got the job here… a week or two ago? So all in all, I’m pretty new. What about you?”
***
“Even newer,” Emma admitted, turning back to the options at hand. “Just got here Christmas Eve.”
At least that was easy to remember - not that she wanted to be here long enough to want to remember. Even if time was supposed to have stopped at home, she missed her family. And she really didn’t want to end up flipping burgers at Hinkle’s.
“It feels so long ago though.”
***
It felt long to Jake too, but that felt too close to complaining, and complaining wasn’t something he did - at least, not about things that really mattered. He wasn’t about to go spilling his troubles to someone he was supposed to be helping find things in a joke shop.
“You’ll get used to it,” he said instead. Then he shrugged. “Or you won’t; I hear people disappear all the time. Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones.” Jake did think the people who went back home were the lucky ones, generally speaking. Madison Valley was fine and all, but home was definitely better. Back home he was happily married to Amy, he had a job as a police chief, he had his squad who were all basically his best friends. He didn’t have any of that here.
***
“Maybe,” Emma said, but her tone of voice suggested she didn’t have a lot of hope for that. Then again, it didn’t completely suck to be in a place where Thor and Legolas existed, and she could get cool magical transformation stuff right out of Harry Potter.
She finally settled on something that promised to turn her into a bird. She’d always wondered what it would be like to fly.
“Are there any side effects of this?”
***
“Uh,” said Jake. “Not as far as I know? You should turn back after a few minutes.” He was pretty sure that none of the Weasley’s items had passed any sort of governmental safety inspection, but at the same time he knew the Weasleys extensively tested everything before putting them on the shelves. “Just make sure you’re not in the air when you turn back.”
***
Yeah, that would be bad. Emma nodded her understanding and picked up the box to check its price tag. It wasn’t cheap, but for the chance to be a bird - and to have gotten something from Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes - she was willing to put in a bit of money.
“Okay, I’ll take this one.”
***
“Righteo, we’ll just ring you up at the cash register,” Jake said, bringing her up to the front of the store. “Aaaaand we’ll take that…” Jake rung her up, telling her how much the item was and taking her money as required.
“Thanks for shopping with us!” he said cheerfully as he gave her the item back.
***
“If I die I’ll definitely come back to haunt you,” Emma said, just as cheerfully as she took the box. She was only half-kidding. This was risky, but it was going to be fun.