#bdrpopen

Mocha needed a break. It was PSL season and Hatter’s had been swamped day in and day out. Every hour was pumpkin this and pumpkin that and scones were pumpkin or gourd flavored. She would’ve thought someone would’ve made the actual autumn leaves edible in some type of strange French pastry by now, foliage spiced something or other.

Regardless, it was starting to slow down and they were getting towards closing time so she could finally breathe. Now was the time she felt more like a bartender than a barista with the later night customers. They always wanted to chat more when the sunset. 

She heard the door open and close and glanced up, “Night shift, late night study session or just craving caffeine at this hour for no particular reason?”

Snow had something to prove.

It was the first week of her new job, that hyper-important slice of time in which you established yourself as a certain kind of professional... like the overachieving, detail-oriented, eager-to-please, perfect-on-paper, better-in-reality professional Snow had been her entire life. It was a time to brainstorm, to go above and beyond. Just because she’d technically been unemployed for about three years didn’t mean she could take things easy. In fact, it meant the opposite. 

The project: redecorating the front of the Hauntley Inn. 

The progress: nearly 70%.

The problem: at this stage, she could use another set of eyes...and perhaps another set of hands. 

“Excuse me? Could I bother you for just a quick minute?” Snow called out to someone passing by. 

So, Bruce had done some research into Mundus holiday traditions.

His pod didn’t really have holidays. They had traditions, certain things they did every time they arrived at a certain stop on their annual migration, but they didn’t have the same kind of intensity that Mundus holiday traditions seemed to have. So after spending a weekend binge-watching Mundus holiday films, he was pretty sure he knew what he was supposed to do to really fit in and 

Bruce rang the doorbell of the shop/home and waited, then squinted at his phone and began singing. “Weeee wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry christmas, and a happy new year!” he sang, looking up hopefully. “Now bring us some figgy pudding...”

He really did want to try whatever figgy pudding was. It sounded delicious.

“Ah, I see you’re here to join the first ever Main Street clean-up!” Jun exclaimed.

 Yes, he’d gotten his little idea approved by the Small Business Owners Coalition, and so here he was, on a crisp fall Sunday morning, the Moon Market sponsoring the first one with trash bags and extra gloves and a good attitude!  He had been organizing small groups so people wouldn’t all clean one place at a time, but really, he imagined the whole thing should be rather casual. After all, working together to tidy Main Street with the community... what could be better? 

Chip had something to prove. 

It’d been over a month since Agent Gabor’s passing, which was not that long at all. There was still a lot that needed adjusting, including Chip’s own assignments and responsibilities. Great! Except Chip hated waiting. Except Chip figured if he showed some initiative, his team would give him more responsibility or at least let him help with the current load. 

Annnnd so Chip was looking for any way that he could be of service. 

“Oh! Hey! Need help with that?” he called out to a stranger and hustled on over. 

“Okay...but if you were a mysterious sexy gray cat in a dream...who would you be in reality?”

Amity had never seen reagents like this before. 

Oh, the Boiling Isles had carnivals. Plenty of carnivals, and festivals, and most importantly, coven-exclusive bacchanals. At all these events, pure magic festered in the air like steam and the reagents multiplied. Amity had seriously low expectations of Swynlake’s own fall carnival, but after her conversation with Pendragon... fine. She’d give it a chance. So Amity took with her her abomination Sugar-- a clear-coated ceramic mouse with a magically amplified sense of smell. She’d find the best reagents in this whole place. ...Except as Sugar sniffed the air, Amity had her doubts. She’d never seen this stuff, so how would Sugar know-- 

But then Sugar squeaked and leapt from her palm, darting through the stands toward an especially delicious reagent--

“Stop moving! You’ll step on her!” Amity cried out as Sugar danced around a stranger’s feet. She’d found her catch. 

Now that Anna wasn’t focusing 100% of her efforts on #FINDDIAN, she thought she ought to put more of that energy toward the Archimedes Owl campaign. Martin had said he thought she was doing a good job, but Anna was still desperate to prove herself, and she wanted to show everyone that just because she was a uni student didn’t mean she couldn’t pull off a successful campaign. So she was canvassing. 

Plus, she looked really cute in this outfit the Ashleys had bought her on her shopping day.

Anna had several locations on her list to hit for the day: the neighborhoods, Pride U, the park, Town Hall, and Hatter’s. This was her first stop, so she was still energetic and hopeful, not yet worn down by miles of walking or rejection. “Excuse me!” she piped up to someone who didn’t look too busy. “I’m Anna Sommers, here on behalf of the Archimedes Owl campaign. Do you have a moment to answer some questions?”