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Post by Ashlin Thomas on Dec 26, 2010 7:58:17 GMT -8
Who: Ashlin and OPEN
What: Chance for random meetings, and food shopping
When: Day 3, Late afternoon almost evening
Where: Milk Barn
She'd been here a few days already and she was starting to run low on food. So it only made sense to leave the comfort of her apartment and make the trek to the market. The first two markets she found were, strangely enough, closed. She was relieved when the third market she found was open, she really did need food. Making her way through the aisles she unconsiously reached into her bag to clutch onto Bo-bo, reassuring herself that he was there with her. This was really the first chance she'd had to explore any part of her new home, and she'd definitely have to do some more wandering soon. She was going to be living here from now on after all, she should get to know the area.
Lost in thought she hummed lightly as she flitted from place to place. Distracted by what she thought was a particular interesting packaging that got her thinking of perhaps painting one of her latest iron sculptures, and that got her thinking of turtles, which made her thinking of cupcakes and suffice to say she wasn't really paying attention to where she was going. She was brought back to reality when she literally ran into another person in the aisle.
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Post by Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith on Dec 26, 2010 15:28:34 GMT -8
Brad nearly tripped on the door as he entered the Milk Barn, making a small ruckus. "Sorry everybody, sorry." he said as he regained his balance. "Door seemed a little jammed." he added.
As usual, he began to mentally catalogue all he saw, including the customers. A rock n' roll theme started to play as the clerk turned on the radio. A middle aged woman with an apron paced around the store, occasionally straightening a disorganized shelf. Seeing what looked like packaged foods on one of the aisles, Brad proceeded. Rounding the corner though, he nearly barreled over a young blonde woman.
"Oh no, I'm terribly sorry! Pardon me! Are you okay?" he asked. Really need to be careful rounding these corners so fast. I hope I didn't hurt her. Purple hat, blonde hair and freckles. Brightly colored clothing. Looks artistic.
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Post by Ashlin Thomas on Dec 26, 2010 15:57:15 GMT -8
Blinking up at the rather exuberant man Ashlin assured him. "Oh its alright I wasn't really paying attention." Ash had managed to stay upright but her bag had not been as lucky. Most of her things had spilled out (including Bo-Bo, though she hadn't noticed that he'd ended up by the man's foot)and it was a rather interesting assortment of items. Ash's purse generally contained the standard pens, little notebook, cellphone, reading glasses ect but she also kept with her some more unique items. Pillars, lime green duck tape, emergency tea, a blank cassette tape, an empty perfume bottle, and a duck maraca were standard fare for Ashlin's purse but they'd been known to give others pause. Moving to pick up her things, she suddenly asked the man curiously "Do you know if they carry Rose oil here?"
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Post by Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith on Dec 26, 2010 16:12:23 GMT -8
"Please let me help yo..." Leaning forward quickly to start picking things up, Brad failed to notice the young woman make the same gesture. A soft thud rang through his head as it struck her purple hat and the bone on the other side of it. and he quickly recoiled back in pain and surprise.
"I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" Brad asked as his hand circled the tender spot on his head.
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Post by Ashlin Thomas on Dec 26, 2010 16:26:05 GMT -8
Crying out in surprise and pain, Ashlin lost her balance and fell backwards onto her butt. 'Ow, ow, owie' she thought clutching her forehead. "I'm fine" she told him automatically though she was still holding her forehead and her bum now hurt as well. Removing her hands she went slightly cross eyed trying to look at her forehead, tip of her tongue poking out in concentration. Digging in one of her purse's side pockets she pulled out a package of band aids. With great care she put one on her forehead, cross eyed look, and tongue sticking out. The band aids had pictures of monkey squirrels on them (it was a mystery where she could have bought them) and once she was satisfied with her work (signified by a little nod to herself) she turned to the man and asked with a bright smile "Would you like one?"
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Post by Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith on Dec 26, 2010 16:43:32 GMT -8
Brad started to chuckle to himself watching the young woman in front of him put the band aid on her forehead. Odd young woman. I'm impressed.
Removing his hand from the sore spot on his head, he extended it to help up the lady. "Sure, I'll take one. Let me help you up."
Mentally, he started to examine the contents of the purse strewn about the floor. Blank cassette. Records. Possibly thoughts. Forgot the tape player, or it's somewhere else on her. Perfume bottle and asking about rose oil? Makes fragrances. Judging by the look of this store, I doubt they have anything that high class or even of that nature. Must not shop here often. Not local, perhaps? And the duck maraca and stuffed animals. Enjoys a bit of childlike innocence in her life. Good-natured.
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Post by Ashlin Thomas on Dec 26, 2010 17:17:28 GMT -8
Taking the offered hand with a hint of surprise she told him "Thank you" before offering him a band aid. Beginning to pick up her things she checked to make sure the perfume bottle was alright. It was her grandma's, something her mother had found in an old box of things, and had wanted to throw away. Ash had found it just before she was going to leave and put it in her purse to save it. The idea of her grandma's perfume bottle (empty or not) being thrown away left a strange, uncomfortable knot in the pit of her stomach. She'd almost forgotten it was there in all the fuss of moving and unpacking and getting the shop set up. Satisfied that the bottle was unharmed she slipped it back into her purse, next to the bright purple thread, and a book in Turkish (that she could only half read when she tilted her head to the side and squinted) that hadn't fallen out.
"I'm Ashlin by the way." she told him trying to be polite. Polite was good, she'd made one friend already in Greenvale, perhaps she could shoot for two? He seemed nice enough, and she didn't think she'd done anything to make him think her strange yet.
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Post by Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith on Dec 26, 2010 17:30:46 GMT -8
"Brad. Brad Smith. Pleasure to meet you, Ashlin." he responded while returning the bright smile she had just given him.
"That's a beautiful perfume bottle. Antique? Oh, and I don't really know if they have rose oil. The place seems a bit low key for something like that. Unless you're using it as a food additive, but then that's a bit too exotic for this place. Wouldn't really know though, first day in town and all." he said, going at an extremely quick pace.
Undoing the band aid packaging, he followed Ashlin's example of putting it on his forehead, even though that's not quite where he was hurt. "Needs some color..." he stated while fishing through his jacket. A few seconds later he produced a set of 3-D glasses with red and blue lenses and put them on. "There we go. Just needed to color coordinate."
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Post by Ashlin Thomas on Dec 26, 2010 17:47:45 GMT -8
"It was my Grandmother's" she told him with a smile that was just a hint nostalgic. For all that her memories of her grandmother were fond, Ash could only really remember clearly that she always smelled like lilacs and chocolate chip cookies. "Oh" she said, with a little bit of pout. "Well its alright, I should still have enough. . . " trailing off as she did some mental calculations, and wondering just how much she could distill the oil. Snapping herself out of it before she could get too lost in thought she explained simply "It's not for food, I'm working on a project."
Nodding as if his reasoning about the 3-D glasses made perfect sense, Ashlin grabbed the tape and the cassette tape. "I'm rather new in town as well, and even then I haven't really left my shop much. Too much preparation and painting and unpacking to do and all that. Haven't even had anytime to get any welding done." She sounded rather disappointed on the last part. She hadn't been able to do much when she was traveling and she'd missed it. But she had a project to occupy her now, and better yet it was a project to help her friend. That thought still left her feeling warm, and fuzzy. It also made her feel all the more determined to succeed: she'd never had a reason to do what she did before, not one as important as this. She had unconsciously started spinning the roll of tape around on her left hand as she spoke.
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Post by Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith on Dec 26, 2010 23:14:22 GMT -8
"Sounds like a rather expensive project. Rose oil isn't really that cheap." Brad stated with a bit curiosity. If that bottle did come from her grandmother, it's definitely antique. 1940s, perhaps. Can understand why she'd want only the best perfume in it.
She didn't really bat an eyelash of dissuading him from wearing the glasses he noticed. Not that he would have cared either way. Deep down, he never felt shame or embarrassment over any of his actions really. He could mimic it pretty well though, if necessary. With that in mind, and noticing the spinning roll of tape the young woman was absently twirling on her wrist, Brad fished through his jacket and produced a toy pinwheel.
The blades were shiny and blue with a foil kaleidoscope finish, and although they were a little flattened, the test blow he gave had showed it could still spin well. He then presented the toy to Ashlin. "Consider this an apology for knocking you down. The blue kinda matches your eyes, but I don't think those would really spin as well." He looked upwards and to the side, as if contemplating how that might look if it had happened. "You mentioned you have a shop? What kind?" he asked, still holding out the spinning pinwheel.
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Post by Ashlin Thomas on Dec 26, 2010 23:46:36 GMT -8
"Oh well I only need a bit, I'll be using rose water as well, but I need oil for potency reasons and" Ashlin almost started babbling about the specifics of her modified formula, but managed to stop herself. It bored most people she knew (been told repeatedly by various people), and then he might ask why she was doing it, and nobody was suppose to know about Michael's scars. She certainly didn't want to betray Michael's trust in her by giving away his secret or even hinting at it. That certainly wasn't her place, and would make her quite a bad friend. "and its worth it." she finished instead, only a moment's hesitation hinting at it wasn't quite what she had been planning to say.
"It's fine really, I've had worse that I've done to myself. Why I almost fell off a bookcase today." Well she had fallen off a bookcase technically but Michael had caught her so it didn't really count. A very good thing since falling off bookcases hurt, or so she assumed if the experience was anything like falling out of trees.
Taking the pinwheel gingerly, Ash smiled at the toy, a small happy smile. She blew, making it spin a few times before scooping up Bo-Bo, and arranging it so that he seemed to be holding the pinwheel. Placing him so that he half stuck out of her bag, pinwheel in hand, she made a satisfied noise and nodded slightly. "Thank you" she told him sincerely, with a small shy smile. She liked Greenvale, she decided happily, the people here were so nice.
"Oh I'm opening a bookshop." she told him excitedly. "I'm almost ready to open too! The painting is just about dine and almost all my stock is in. I'd say another three days or so" a rough estimate given how much time she'd likely be distracted by her project. She couldn't help it she was sucked in by them. "before I can officially open!" She was smiling brightly by the end. She was quite excited about having her own business especially one so involved with books.
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Post by Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith on Dec 27, 2010 0:14:31 GMT -8
Brad returned Ashlin's smile about her bookshop. "A bookshop?!? Brilliant! I'll have to be your first customer." Rose water as well? Cooking something? Could that be considered a project?
Briefly breaking away from the conversation, Brad scanned the shelves for a meal. Nothing here seems to be ready made for consumption. Guess I'm forced to find a restaurant or diner. With that in mind, he turned back to the young lady, "Ashlin, it was a pleasure meeting you but I must be going now. If you need any help with your project though, feel free to look me up at the Deer Yard Hotel. I've dabbled in chemistry quite a bit."
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Post by Ashlin Thomas on Dec 27, 2010 0:38:42 GMT -8
Nodding, she smiled brightly as she told him "I'll look forward to seeing you there then."
She had all her thing together now she thought, and there was really nothing else she needed in this aisle and so she bid Brad farewell as well. "It was nice meeting you as well, and I'll keep that in mind" she promised, though she thought that on this project at least it'd be best to do things on her own. She didn't want to risk Michael's secret after all. But maybe Brad would help her with some future project, she decided brightly. It might help a good deal to have the help of someone who'd actually studied Chemistry in a more traditional manner, as opposed to her more, well, free form education.
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Post by Dr. Bradley Karrde Smith on Dec 27, 2010 0:42:11 GMT -8
Waving goodbye, Brad retreated back down the aisle and headed through the front door, making sure this time not to trip himself up.
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