(Day 6) [SD] Sundrops Grand Opening~!

[Ashlin Thomas]

Time: Anytime Between 9 and 5 on Day 6
Weather: Rain and Fog
Warnings: Memories of a less than good day
Characters: Ashlin and OPEN

Ashlin rubbed at her eyes as she groggily sat up in bed. For a moment her mind was blessedly blank of the events of the past few days but the sound of the rain quickly brought it all back to the surface. Curling in on herself Ashlin clutched Bo-Bo close and contemplated simply staying in bed until the rain stopped. Everything else seemed to close with the rain so why couldn't she? But no, she sighed, she couldn't simply stay closed on what was suppose to be her first day in business, rain or no. It would set a bad precedence. At last pulling herself out of bed she trudged wearily to the bathroom.

It hadn't been an easy night for Ashlin after she'd returned from the mansion and her first with Michael. Though she managed to hold herself together tolerably well then she had fallen apart once safety back in her own home. She had always been emotional creature and after everything she'd learned (from the fact that her attack at the hands mysterious Smoking Man had been real to the knowledge that the town was home to otherworldly monsters) it was simply all to much. Once home Ashlin had broken down, crying to the point of exhaustion and yet still unable to get to sleep until well into the night. Her mind was haunted by the fear of what was waiting outside in the rain and the knowledge that she was now one of the few people who could see these creatures. Now in the light of day she could see the result of her late night, eyes still puffy and red rimmed from her tears. Washing her face she did her best to hide the evidence of her crying. It wouldn't do to have people asking about it. Now that she'd had her cry she needed to be strong. After all she had promised Mr.Stewart that she would be there to support Michael, and be his eyes for him.

The thought brough a new wave of sadness to the girl though as she remembered the state Michael was in yesterday. Though she would be unable to make another trip today to check on him she resolved to call Mr.Stewart and see if he'd made any progress, or at the very least actually rested. Ashlin frowned and promised herself that if Michael hadn't rested she'd figure out someway to make him do just that. Unfortunately just slipping him some kind of sleep aid seemed out of the question since his sleep never seemed particularly restful and she would hate to trap him in one of his nightmares. Besides the idea of forcing something like that on him didn't sit well in her stomach, and reminded her uncomfortably about the medication she'd been forced to take as a child.

Quickly going through the rest of her morning routine Ashlin was down in the shop by eight-thirty organizing the last minute details of the shop. It was something of a relief to be able to focus on the shop and push other thoughts out of the way for now. Still any glance out the window to see the rain once again reminded her of what she now knew. The sound of the rain was no better, and she quickly turned on music to drown out the sound. It was regrettable, she'd always used to find the sound of the rain to be rather soothing. Now it had her almost flinching.

With everything lined up Ashlin unlocked the doors at nine on the dot, and flipped the sign to Open. With that Ashlin settled herself behind the counter with one of her journals to scribble away in and tried not to think about the day before. Sundrops was officially open for business.

[Milkbone]

With the fog and the pouring rain, Milkbone couldn't see a damn thing on his bike. After nearly swerving at an intersection, he figured that he should find somewhere to be at and wait for the rain to let up. Maybe he should've waited at the gas station... Whatever.
He found some place with an open sign. Relieved that he wasn't about to trudge through what seemed to be an abandoned town in the rain, he parked his bike nearby. He went for the door, opened it and went inside.
Once again, like how he missed the details riding his bike, he didn't see where exactly he had just ran into. It was a small book store, with music in its background.
He shook his jacket, and removed his helmet, holding it at his side. Besides the music, it was otherwise quiet. He figured to might as well look around.
He found a particular section, fictional of coarse, he didn't give a damn about biographies. He took down a particular book, hard cover and it was unabridged, thank god, with its original artwork. It was an Oz book, one of the original fourteen. His blank expression softened from its tired unemotional state, this title was the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He always considered this one and number fourteen as being the darkest that L.F. Baum had written, considering that there was death in this one and dark themes in the last.
He replaced the book back on its shelf, and wondered if he could smoke here.

[Ashlin Thomas]

Ashlin blinked as she heard someone actually enter the shop. After all that Mr.Stewart had told her she had half expected not to see anyone here until the rain stopped. Having a customer was a welcomed distraction though she decided as she brushed some invisible lint from another of her brightly colored outfits. Today it was a lime green sweater and electric blue leggings, one polka dotted sock peeking out from the top of her shoe.

"Welcome to Sundrops." she greeted with a somewhat forced smile. "Is there anything I can help you with today?" she asked, rocking on the back of her heels as she looked at her first potential customer. She hadn't meet him before, but then frankly speaking Ashlin hadn't met that many people since she'd moved to Greenvale only a week earlier. It seemed strange to think it had been such a short time really when so much had already happened to her.

[Milkbone]

Milkbone gave the lady a glance. And he was about to ask if it was allowed to smoke here, when he caught the scent of soap.
Back when he was young, back at the orphanage, sometimes he'd lie about and try to think about what his parents must've looked like or been like. No images or anything came, so he imagined things. He always imagined that his mother would've smelt like soap.
Ignoring the impulse for a smoke, he turned his head to the girl. The first thing that came to mind was "mask", a face with a grin or a frown meant to portray the emotion an actor wasn't truly feeling.

"Just looking," he said in his quiet voice.

[Ashlin Thomas]

Nodding she turned to leave him be. She might have been new at this but she knew enough to know that bothering your patrons wasn't going to do you any good. "Oh!" turning back she added "There are scones on the counter if you'd like any." She'd almost forgotten she'd brought the extras down, she really had made far too many of them. That newspaper girl had eaten quite a few and she still had almost a plate full of the darn things left. Hopefully her customers would enjoy them at least, day or old or not.

With that she made her way back to her seat behind the counter, notebook open to a mostly blank page. She chewed on her lip for a moment she picked up her pen and scribbled out the lone sentence of the page: 'Who is the smoking man?' It wouldn't do, she decided, to dwell on this that could only have her mind going in circles.

[Milkbone]

He watched the girl return to where she had come. Milkbone returned his attention to the fantasy books and novels. The smell of soap still in his mind, he found several old fashion particulars, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" with its sequel "Alice Through the Looking Glass and What she Found there", "Peter Pan", and even the rest of Baum's Oz books with includes from his lesser known works.
His mind however, kept drifting back to what Gina the Rose had said.
We've gotta Murder site too.
A murder. This town seemed to abandoned or quiet to be a place where a forced death had occurred. Then again, quiet was a popular thing in hack and slash movies.
With this strange town, Milkbone decided that it was in his business to know its darker side. He has traveled the other side of the tracks all his life, seeing and knowing people so low that to call them scum would be an insult to scum.
He followed down the row of shelves and to the counter of this quaint book store. The young woman was there, seated behind it and writing in a journal of sorts. She seemed distracted. He went up to the counter.

"What do you know about the murder in these parts?"

His voice was quiet, his question blunt, and an intent to know that could freeze fire.

[Ashlin Thomas]

Ashlin's head shot up at the sudden question. She'd been lost in thought and hadn't heard the man coming up to the counter. Blinking up at him it took her another moment to process his question. "Not much I'm afraid." she answered thoughtfully. "I've only moved here just over a week ago." she explained. Ashlin had of course heard about the murder, Emily had been quite cross with her for walking home alone for that very reason. It occurred to her that perhaps the smoking man had, had something to do with it, but then he'd only seemed interested in killing those monstrous eyeless things. Well that and--

Ashlin quickly pushed that particular thought from her mind as she fought down a flush. Instead she wracked her brain for anything she knew about the murder. "I know it was a young woman who was killed but that's really all I know I'm afraid." she told him with an apologetic shrug. Perhaps it would be better to be more aware, for her own safety if nothing else. She would have to ask Emily about it later.

[Milkbone]

A young woman huh? Typical.

Milkbone almost cursed under his breath about the lack of information. Well, what he got was better than nothing. He turned his head to the nearest window. The rain wasn't letting up, and neither was the fog. Would he have to stay there all day?
West had once told him to go out and meet people, like if he was a reclusive teenager, and he kinda was at the time.

"Call me Milkbone. What about you?"

[Ashlin Thomas]

Not so much as blinking at the rather strange name the woman replied. "I'm Ashlin." This time she managed to give him an unforced smile, tired though she was. "It's nice to meet you Milkbone."

Talking to people was good. Talking to people was distracting. And if she was distracted she wouldn't have to think about everything that happened. She wondered how much she could tell Emily about what had happened, or if she should even tell her anything at all. Could Emily see the monstrous things too? Suddenly Ash was reminded of the smoke Emily couldn't see and with a thinking feeling decided that no, Emily likely couldn't see them. She wasn't crazy, she reminded herself firmly, they were real. Mr.Stewart saw them too.

"Are you new in town too?" she blurted out. Distraction, she need a distraction. She wasn't crazy, she wasn't.

[Milkbone]

"Arrived last night."

Technically, it had been early morning that he had arrived in this small-large town. It had been raining, and it was still raining. Not to mention that the town had looked abandoned when he arrived, and still did despite other reasons. He hadn't been so tired that he didn't notice that there was something strange about this town. A northern town covered in fog and looking abandoned reminding him of a horror series he'd heard about once.
He wasn't about to mention that while he had intended to stay around only a little while, and that a stomach feeling says that he can't leave yet, though he still just puts that off as hunger from lack of a breakfast.
Speaking of which. He took a scone from the seemly pile on the counter. In all honesty they looked more like biscuits to him.
The lady, Ashlin, she was kind enough. Milkbone usually didn't see a lot of nice girls around where he travels. You don't pass nice girls in the darker parts of cities.
He took a bite out of the scone, and actually liked it.
He swallowed before continuing the conversation.

"Do you like James Dean?"

[Ashlin Thomas]

"Well welcome to Greenvale then." she said with a smile, though in the back of her mind she was starting to question her own choice to move here. For all the trouble that seemed to be starting up though Ashlin couldn't say she really regretted the move. After all this was the first place where she'd ever made friends. Supernatural monsters or no that was something precious to her.

"I don't really have much opinion about him one way or the other I suppose." she said thoughtfully after a moment. Ashlin had never been particularly fond of television, preferring to play outside or read or spend her time making things. Which reminded her, she really did need to find somewhere with the proper ventilation for her welding. She'd heard of the old star, that he had died young, but that was really all she knew about him. Unconsciously she played with the pen she was holding, twirling it between her fingers.

[Milkbone]

"Hmm."

He couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance. James Dean had been his role model ever since he saw "Rebel without a Cause" as a kid. It eventually moved up to other movies, "Grease" "West side Story" "The Outsiders", and eventually that one seventies show "Happy Days". His copying of the 50's greasers, with the duck-tail and his leather jacket had all ways stuck with him.
He moved a free hand over his greased blond hair, the only thing not gelled down was the curl on his forehead that might've been called his bangs.

"A bookstore huh?"