The Six Crows were stuck in a parking lot for 15 minutes.
It took 15 minutes for Kaz to find a parking spot.
Once he did find one, the entire car erupted in cheers. Kaz pulled into the spot in a dark parking garage, Jesper leaning into the trunk and yelling about whether or not the car was in line or not. By the time it was all sorted out, Wylan was glad to get out of the car. The entire gang tumbled out and stretched and walked in circles until somebody (Kaz) decided to corralle them to the entrance.
Wylan loped along with the rest until they cleared the entrance, marked in vibrant blue and yellow that stood out against the gray garage walls. The doors were automatic, and they opened into a lobby area filled with signs and arrows and displays. Kaz, Jesper, Inej, Nina, and Matthias were pacing around and pointing at stuff and trying to figure out which way to go.
"We need- beds? Kaz? what do we need?" Nina asked, slightly too loudly.
"IT DOESN'T SAY THAT ON HERE," said Matthias, more loudly, standing in front of some sign.
"GUYS! GUYS!" Kaz waved his arms. "we need to make a list!"
The other crows shuffled forward together around the sign, some studying it, Nina tapping away at her phone.
"Think about the apartment. What BASIC pieces of furniture do we need?"
"Beds," said Matthias.
"And mattresses," said Inej.
"That was implied," grumbled Matthias.
"Beds and bedframes are different things," added Jesper.
"We also could use desks," chimed in Wylan, thinking of his drawing table back at his father's house.
"Bookshelf," said Kaz.
"Dressers," said Nina, typing the list off as she spoke.
"errrr...nightstands?" Inej said.
"a table," said Matthias.
"a chair, like a living room chair," Kaz suggested.
"We also can't forget...a couch," Jesper said with a smirk.
Nobody laughed.
"OK!" Nina chirped, hitting send with formality on her phone. "you should all have the list."
Wylan's cell phone, at that moment, did, in fact, buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out, and, there was the list, sent to their group chat, named something spectacularly basic like "cracktivities" or "views from however tall/stupid Helvar is"
"that's a lot for us all to find...maybe we should split up," Inej suggested.
"teams of two, each team can take a few items," Kaz declared. "I'll be with Inej."
"I'll be with Jesper," Wylan said.
"I'll go with Nina," Matthias said.
"Ok," Kaz looked them over. "Inej and I will get..." he looked down at his phone.
"well, I can't really tell how this store is set up, but I'm assuming the stuff is stored by room, so we should do it like that." Wylan offered.
"Good idea," Kaz said. "Inej and I will get the chair, the couch, and the shelf."
"We could take the desk, table, and nightstands..." Nina said.
"That leaves you two, with bedframes, mattresses, and dressers," Kaz said, looking at Jesper and Wylan. "think you got that?"
"Yup," Jesper said, throwing an arm around Wylan's shoulder.
"Now we need to...find out...where to go," Inej said, looking at the sign in front of them.
"well, where? how is this place set up?" Matthias asked.
"err...it says something about a showroom and a warehouse, but nothing about any sections..." Nina looked over Inej's shoulder at the words on the sign.
"Should we split up?"
"no, where would we split up to?"
"what's the difference between the showroom and the warehouse?"
Wylan, while everybody else argued over the words and arrows on the sign, was studying a map of the store, a few feet over.
"guys!" Wylan looked over at the other five, "the showroom is where all the furniture is set out, it's divided by section. on display, like. You go and get the corresponding boxes with the furniture in the warehouse. You'll just have to remember the names of what you want."
"Oh," said Kaz.
"Yeah, that makes sense," Nina said, looking around, "now...er...which way is the showroom?"
brief intermission: 5 minutes of Crows Walk In Circles Show!
"are there employees here?" Matthias asked, looking around at the people near them in the busy lobby.
"yeah, I think that guy, in the yellow shirt, the color here is yellow, right?" Nina pointed at the back of a guy in a yellow shirt.
"I'll ask him where it is," Wylan walked over to the man.
"excuse me, sir?"
he turned around from the sign he was looking at. "yes?" he said, in a thick Russian accent.
"hi, uh," Wylan glanced at his name tag, "Greg, do you know where we could enter the showroom?"
"sure, boy, showroom is down that way and to right and up stair," Greg said, pointing. "however, practically I would not suggest going to right, filthy quadrants full of kulak pigs."
"uh," Wylan stuttered, "pardon?"
"would you like pamphlet?"
Wylan was not going to take a pamplet. He couldn't read. "no, thank you, Greg,"
"riddance, child, I hope you succeed in this crippling system we labor under, day in and out,"
Wylan hurried back to the group. "Greg told me to go that way and up the stairs."
So, the Six Crows set off. It was time to buy furniture.
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Vaguely Fjerdian Furniture Store
FanficIdea credit to @vintage.lego.set on TikTok. The Crows (Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse) Modern AU have to go to IKEA to furnish their apartment. The bizarre store poses a problem for the gang, who promptly get lost, abuse the displays, fail to make simp...