[OTA]

[psych_outshawn]

On the sidewalk fronting the Psych detective agency, Shawn Spencer, fake psychic detective and very much real snack cake connoisseur, was busy. Uber-busy in a way which would have surprised his father, for Shawn had tools at his disposal. Real wrenches, nuts and bolts and those tiny things that look like nails except they were ribbed for...well...

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[baroness_of_bud]

"I thought you said you were fit." Nancy said as she noticed him while coming back from the coffee shop with her first fix of the day of frozen coffee. "Or have you just lost that since I saw you last; I know its been awhile." She teased.

[psych_outshawn]

"I have endurance," Shawn corrected with a waggle of his fingers, standing with a bounce of his knees in front of the metal object he'd been attempting to move for the past 45 20 10 5 minutes. "Brute strength isn't my forté. Go ask a bodybuilder to run a marathon. He can't do it," he said, pressing his hands together in a praying gesture and then angling them to one side. "Different applications of physical fitness."

[baroness_of_bud]

"You want me to try and help? I don't know how much help I'll be now, but I did carry a fifty pound kids on each arm once upon a time." She was in sneakers and a bit bulkier from some extra baby still on her, but she still had to have some of that strength left over, right?

[psych_outshawn]

He considered, eyes rolling upwards as he gazed at the sky. "Oooh, that cloud looks exactly like the Mama Rabbit from Runaway Bunny."

No, c'mon Shawn. Focus!

He shook his head and shuffled to one side of the part. "Sure. I'm just trying to get this spoiler on the back of that cart," he said, pointing vaguely at the blue thing which looked kind of like a hot dog cart, if it were redesigned by Chip Foose. "Can you take the other side? Lift on three. And I mean three. Not 'one-two-three' lift, but 'one-two' lift. I've been burned by 'one-two-three' lift before, so that's why I need to clarify." Or maybe Gus's meticulousness was rubbing off on him.

Ewwww. He reminded himself to go drink milk out of the carton later to get that Gussyness out.

[baroness_of_bud]

"Right." Nancy said with a little laugh as she dropped her bag down on the ground against the building and rolled up her sleeves a little. She was holding off her questions on what the blue thing was for until after the lift. "Ready when you are?" Heavy lifting was another thing that made her miss Andy and her boys; she never had to lift a finger.

[psych_outshawn]

"Okie-dokie," he said, fingers wiggling deftly before grasping at the spoiler again. This was really something a father and son would be doing, but as there wasn't a father to match up with the son, Shawn supposed that a mom (a really, really unconventional mom who sold weed to support her family) would do.

"One, two, three!" And up the spoiler went.

[baroness_of_bud]

Nancy was using all her strength to bring it up equally with him despite a slightly shaking legs and high heels. "Hurry up." She said roughly as a piece of her hair blew into her face and she worked to blow it back off to the side.

[psych_outshawn]

"Okayokayokayokay..." He hurried as fast as he could (which turned out more of an old person speed shuffle), but he somehow managed to get the part rested on the edge of the cart. With the cart taking on the weight of the spoiler, he was free to position it properly.

"Thanks for the help. You earned yourself an EZ Cake. Chocolate or Pineapple?"

[baroness_of_bud]

Letting go of the spoiler as it was on the cart, Nancy took a crossed step back to avoid falling back on her ass. Then she came to stand normally, a hand coming up to brush back her loose hair. "Chocolate, but first, what exactly an EZ Cake?"

[psych_outshawn]

"EZ cake," Shawn said in a 'duh' sorta way. "Snack cake from an Easy-Bake oven? That's what I'm gonna start selling in the cart. Food, magazines, and those little rings that whistle real high when you blow through 'em."

[baroness_of_bud]

"Oh." A beat. "The psychic business not prosperous enough?" Nancy asked before picking up her bag and her coffee, taking a sip of the latter.

[psych_outshawn]

"Never hurts to branch out, have more than one source of income. Gus had his pharma-something-or-other job back home to help support Psych during the lean times." Though Shawn would be hard pressed to figure out a time when he caught a glimpse of that money.

"Besides, the cart just popped up here on its own. And who am I to question..." He placed a hand on his chest, right above his heart. "...my destiny? I have a gift, Nancy. The gift of baking using only the heat from a 60 watt light bulb. That's the kinda gift that's gotta be shared. Or else I'm just gonna end up a fat, graceless slob with sticky choco-hands and no extra cash."

[baroness_of_bud]

"What makes your cake better than cake from the bakery? Or the cafe? I mean, they seem to have gifts for baked goods as well." Nancy asked curiously and perhaps a little teasingly once more. See, if anyone knew baked goods around town, it was Nancy. Chocolate was one of her two real vices, so it was necessary to know where the best baked goods were.

[psych_outshawn]

Shawn's eyes flicked from one side to the other, then he eased close to Nancy. "Carrot juice." He made a clicking noise with his tongue against his teeth and mimed a fired gun with his right hand. "Worked for Dad, works for me. That's how he snuck in beta-carotene into my food as a kid." Carrots. Great for eyesight, perfect for Shawn's burgeoning perception and observation skills, annoyed the heck out of Shawn.

"Aaaaaaaaaand, a freakishly disturbing obsession with the Cake Wrecks website. I like to use it as a quick reference on how not to bake." He paused. "Also none of the bakeries in the village bakes with a 60 watt light bulb. That makes my stuff unique."

[baroness_of_bud]

"Carrot Juice?" That cake suddenly sounded much less appetizing, but Nancy figured she'd still give it a try. She wasn't going to judge until she tried it. "Definitely sounds unique. I'll let you know if it measures up to the Nancy standard when I try it though."

"Anyway, how have you been?" Nancy asked casually.

[psych_outshawn]

"Not a lot, just a splash." Shawn mimed a bottle being poured. "I mean, it's not gonna turn anybody's skin the freakish brown-orange of a spray-on tan or anything." He lifted a door set in the top of the cart and reached inside, taking out a single pineapple upside-down mini-cake wrapped in plastic wrap. "Free sample," he said, offering the cake to Nancy. "Just don't tell Gus I did this cuz he's gonna lecture me about eating up our overhead or something equally innuendo-ish."

He leaned against the cart. "Oh, y'know, same-old same-old, day-in day-out, life in a freaky village with no exits. You?"