simon_doctor | (no subject)

(no subject)

The weather's good this morning; the air's chilly but the sun's bright and warm, and the sky is a clear translucent blue with no hint of rain.

The major marketplace of Logan City is spread out ahead of them, a thousand bright colors and a cacophony of voices, swarming and busy and alive. It doesn't feel like starting over, because you can't start over, but it's good enough for now. And they have things to accomplish.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Absolutely."

As it happens, the stall across the way is selling skeins of yarn and embroidery thread, as well as various knitted and crocheted items. Simon gives it a speculative glance.

Kaylee grins at him.

"Don't have to put your money where your mouth is today."

"No, but look --"

Sure enough: hats. Warm woolly ones, some with earflaps.

There is one that is lime green.

Kaylee points to it. "I don't think it'd suit him at all."

"...definitely not."

There's one with a pattern woven into it that suggests a pair of enormous eyes directly above the wearer's. Simon looks at that one rather dubiously.

"That one." Kaylee looks enchanted. "About the only way it could get any better is if it had big ears on the top."

"You know, I tried that," the man behind the stall tells Kaylee, conversationally, "but I couldn't get the shape right. You like it?"

(Simon's trying not to laugh.)

Kaylee's grinning. "Shi a. It's kinda adorable. And there's this fella we know that I think might like it." She looks at Simon.

"I think he really might." Simon's starting to grin too.

The hat stares at them all, cheerfully.

"We'll take it," Kaylee says grandly.

Maybe she can find a way to put ears on it before they send it off.

This time Kaylee gets to haggle.

By the time she's done and coin has changed hands, Simon's already looking ahead at the next stall, which is piled with incredibly old-looking paper books.

Uh oh, Kaylee's expression says by the time she wanders over.

"You're carrying anything comes from here," she warns.

"I don't mind," he says, half-absently, looking over the titles.

"Just so long as we're on the same page."

While Simon is distracted, she pulls the hat out of the bag and dons it, and looks very pleased with herself.

One of the titles makes him blink, and he reaches to pick up the book. Very carefully.

The elderly man at the stall gives him a glance, then goes back to the book he's reading.

Even better: she turns the hat around.

That way when she looks at books at the front of the stall, to passersby, it looks like she has eyes in the back of her head.

There's got to be a subtitle, this is probably an academic treatise about the notorious banned satire --

No; there's the author's pseudonym on the cover, right under the words Rama Ascendant, and Simon starts to grin in disbelief.

Kaylee tilts her head back and forth so it looks like the eyes are dancing.

Too bad there's not a way to make them blink, she thinks.

Simon turns around, holding the book ... and looks at the head-tilting Kaylee, faintly bemused.

She makes a face at him.

"What?" he says, innocent.

She takes the hat off, a little sulkily, and puts it back in the bag. "You ready?"

"To buy something? I think so."

There's no sign of the amazed delight that was on his face a moment ago as he approaches the proprietor and asks for the price of the book.

Kaylee glances down at the hat in the bag, a little wistfully, but waits without saying anything.

Everything at this stall, unusually, is at a fixed price. This is possibly what motivates Simon to lean in and murmur a few words to the proprietor in an earnest undertone, gesturing at the book in his hand.

The old man smiles, shrugs, shakes his head.

Simon doesn't argue any further, but he does buy a woven plastic-lanyard bookmark he doesn't need, along with the book.