Who are you and what have your planet's people done with the real Shen?

[nomen_est_numen]

[action]

[Anyone who's known Shen for more than, oh, say, thirty seconds, would never expect to see him doing what he's doing, now.

He's in a perfume store. That isn't the strange bit. The strange bit is that he's assembling shelves. He's been sweeping and assembling shelves and re-stocking merchandise all day. Y'see, someone spotted that that giant bird EVO was him--kind of hard not to, with that colour scheme--and called him out on it. And he agreed to fix whatever he could fix.

One might wonder if he's feeling well or got another blow to the head or if someone's holding his feather-conditioning powder hostage.

One could ask...]

Comments

[nomen_est_numen]

It is? [He blinks. He hadn't considered that. He smiles slightly.]

Oh. Yes. Sorry about that, the smell should clear out soon. I hope.

[stinglikeabat]

There's no need to apologize! I rather like it! Actually, that's why I'm here right now!

Do you know if it's one of these in particular, or is it more of a blend? [He gestures to the shelves around. Carefully. There's a time and place for breaking things, and this is not it.]

[nomen_est_numen]

Er, it was ah...

[He looks at the shelf holding more of the same kind of scent oils he'd dropped earlier--twelve different kinds of scents ranging from candy apple to fresh ocean to opium and musk.]

All of these, really. I'd... dropped a box of them. [His gaze flickered about the room.]

[stinglikeabat]

[Joachim starts going through the shelf.] Well. Maybe I'll just get one or two!

[Anything is an improvement over the smell of wet feathers and sweaty bat that's been wafting all over the apartment. Anything.]

Any thoughts? You're the expert here, after all!

[nomen_est_numen]

[Actually, he's not and he blinks cluelessly at the bottles for a moment. Then shrugs. He might as well go for something he likes... the smell of wet feathers and sweaty bat really has been getting overpowering.]

Here we are. [He plucks a couple bottles out of the display, which turn out to be the aforementioned 'fresh ocean' and ... 'lilac.' What. Lilac is totally not a girly scent....]

[stinglikeabat]

[This is a man who runs around dressed as a butterfly for a living, he's not judging one single bit re: the lilac. Although speaking of judgement!]

Those look good, whatever they are!

By the way, I heard you've been fighting with Gordon lately. What's all that about?

[Shen will never escape the soap opera gossip circle his life has become. Never.]

[nomen_est_numen]

[He really should be used to it--any royal court is just a live-action soap opera. Maybe he just doesn't remember it that well, yet....]

[He actually winces briefly.]

That... well, I wasn't in my right mind at the time. I was fevered and worked up and we ended up in a ridiculous brawl.

[He's probably heard tell of how Shen became a wild, flapping, incoherent ball of feathery rage....]

It's... more or less behind us, now.

[stinglikeabat]

Glad to hear it!

...I'm a little sorry I missed it, though. I've always wondered how you can fight with all those feathers in the way!