[Day: Friday, October 24. Time: 2:00. Ish.] [We open this mini in World Harmony! What is World Harmony, you ask? World Harmony is a new age and tea shop in Greenwich Village. Presently two people are working there, and it's empty of customers. What does this have to do with Those Left Behind? Stay tuned, gentle viewer, and find out.] [The inside of World Harmony contains various shelves of heavier items such as mythical statues: Dragons, Buddhas, etc. The lighter items are held on leather hammocks which hang instead of shelves. They are all helpfully labled as items which may or may not be in the pile of random junk that has been deposited there. Several tables in the center of the shop contain bags and clothing and in the back of the shop is a large selection of jarred loose tea and a co a counter where one might order a cup of any of said teas.] [The counter continues along the right wall of the shop where an old-fashioned looking register is located, behind which is a bedraggled looking man with a cigarette in his mouth who is reading a book titled "The Modern Tarot for Dragon Worshippers."] [Mini Start!] * Edmund shakes his head in disbelief and says with an Irish accent, "Why does anybody believe this codswollip?" * Shani doesn't look up from trying to sort out the junk in the hammocks. She, for the record, a very pretty black young woman with has long, wavy hair. She's quite curvy, and she's wearing a flowy blouse and a vintage looking skirt. "Maybe they're dragon worshippers," she replies in what is definitely not an Irish accent. * Edmund is, for the record, wearing a pair of gray suit pants, a blue dress shirt, and a brown sports coat which all look like they've been worn non-stop for about a month. He looks over at Shani and shakes his head. "That's all nonsense. Everybody knows that any real dragon worshipper wouldn't care whether or not their dragon was going to be lucky in love this month." * Shani eyes Edmund critically, then comments, "Maybe if their dragon's lucky in bed, they'll be lucky in bed. Everyone could use a little more sex, right?" Pause. "You might wanna turn the book right side up, too." * Edmund shrugs and takes another drag off his cigarette. He then looks around for his ashtray, and then realizing that it's all the way on the other end of the counter, shrugs and puts it out in the book before placing it back on the shelf to his left. * Shani makes a disgusted noise, throwing the luck stone she's holding at Edmund. It bounces harmlessly off his head. "For fuck's sake, man." * Edmund twitches some as the stone hits him and then stands up indignently. "You know... You know you always do that! You ALWAYS throw rocks at me when I put out a cigarette in some rubbish dragon tarot book." [A tallish teenage boy with asian features and short, spiky hair pulls open the door and then stands in the doorway as he looks around at the mess with a mildly amused grin on his face. He's wearing a black t-shirt with a "No Pelicans" logo on it, baggy cargo shorts, and sneakers.] * Edmund moves over towards the tea section. "Like I have no dignity! Like I have no pride! Like I-Where is the pot of tea from yesterday... Did you THROW IT OUT!? You did, didn't you!?" Edmund, that tea was a fuckin' week old. If it sat out any longer, stuff might've started to grow in it, and I ain't talkin' new tea leaves. If you can't... * Shani looks over at the poor sucker who fought his way through the beads barring the door from the store proper. "Hi, welcome to World Harmony." * Edmund makes his way to the jars of tea and sticks his hand in one, seemingly at random, to pull out some leaves. "It was still good! I was just-" Then he notices the customer. "Oh christ!" [The boy's grin grows wider. "If this is World Harmony, we're all screwed, but at least I'll be entertained on the way out." ] Good attitude. You want a job? * Edmund moves closer to Shani, the leaves still in his hand as he points them at her. "No! No more bloody workers! They're nothing but trouble! In fact, I shouldn't even have hired you. You're fired!" * Shani takes this all in stride. "A'ight. You deal with the customer." She heads for the counter. [The boy says. "Only if you really make it worth my while. I was only planning on being in the city a few weeks. But there does seem to be an opening."] * Edmund nods. "Good! I will." He moves back towards the counter and looks for someplace to deposit the leaves in. Failing to find a cup he turns one of the statues upside down and tosses them in the hollow inside, and then moves towards a faucet to fill it with water. Upon returning he stares at the customer in disbelief. "You're still here?" * Shani has since disappeared into the back. She's fired! Time to rob this sucker blind! [The boy shrugs. "Yeah, I'm still here, even if the show's over. What kinda stuff you got anyway?"] * Edmund shrugs and drinks the uh leaf water out of the statue. "What!?... Got, stuff, show? What do you mean?" [He rolls his eyes. "I mean, if I wanted to say, give you large ammounts of other peoples money, or God forbid some of my own, what sort of stuff would I get in return?"] * Edmund shakes his head as if he didn't understand. "Oh Jesus! You're one of those people!" Only on alternate Tuesdays. * Edmund narrows his eyes at Tim. "It's a tea shop! Here! Take this and go away." He hands over the statue full of, at this point, cold brown water. * Tim takes the statue and eyes it. "Who am I to say no to free stuff? Got anything else you don't want?" * Edmund nods. "Yes as a matter of fact." He digs out another cigarette and lights it. "You. Now get out!" Whatever. * Tim takes one last look around the shop and then departs. * Shani returns from the back, now wearing a longish coat and carrying a purse. She sees that the customer has departed and doesn't comment on that, because there's no surprise. "Hey, Edmund." * Edmund wanders back around to the tea section. "Shani! Where did you put the thing... the thing that does the thing with the water?" The waterthingdoer! * Tim teleports one of the smaller dragons off of a high shelf after he's gone. * Shani doesn't notice the teleportation thing because 1. she's not paying attention and 2. she's not a superhero, so what'd she do about it anyway? She just looks at Edmund like he's crazy. "Why're you askin' me?" * Edmund digs out some leaves out of some other jar. "Because you keep moving my stuff." * Shani rolls her eyes. "Ain't like I work here. Don't gotta answer you." And she makes for the door. * Edmund blinks and looks somewhat confused as he starts digging through the dishes in the back. "What!? What do you mean you don't work here?" * Shani starts fighting her way through the five layers of beads. "You fired me like five minutes ago." * Edmund looks back at Shani with a dirty looking kettle in his hand and a cigarette hanging from his lips. "What!? When?" Doesn't matter. You're rehired. I accept your appology. * Shani , mostly obscured by beads, looks back at Edmund with a smirk. "It's in the cupboard in back, third shelf." * Edmund nods and drops the kettle on the floor. Then he heads off to get a larger looking electric kettle thing and returns to plug it in and fill it with water. * Cheryl finds herself fighting beads from the other side, which means she can't possibly see Shani coming. Or not coming, anymore. Either way, Shani feels someone female bump into her from behind and say, quietly, "Aah--sorry, I didn't see you..." * Shani oofs. "'s cool. Shouldna been standin' in the fuckin' doorway anyway." She gets out of the way so the girl can come in. * Shani sets her purse on the floor and starts taking off her jacket, as she has her job back! Paychecks are sweet. * Edmund pours the water into a pot with the leaves and heads back towards the register and then stops at the sight of the customer. "Another one! Shani, why do they keep coming here? Are they part of some cult?" * Cheryl waits for Shani to step free of the beads as she passes, running a hand over auburn loose hair before she adjusts a pair of red-rimmed glasses on her nose. She's 5'8" and pretty average looking, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a green sweater. She's actually got a bookbag slung over one shoulder as well, red and black. * Cheryl starts to say, to Shani, "I'm sorry, I--never actually--" and then she's interrupted by Edmund, brown eyes widening at him. I think they're comin' here 'cause you sell shit and they buy shit. It's a whole economical cycle thing. * Shani turns to Cheryl blinks. She looks horrified... Shani changes her tone and says, more comfortingly (and in her 'white girl voice'), "Sorry. He's crazy. Give me a sec and I'll help you out, okay?" * Edmund slumps down on a chair and puts his head in his hands. "But why? Why do they want this... horseshit? It's all nonsesnse!" * Cheryl licks her lips and nods slightly, stepping away from her and fiddling with her hair as she kinda idly looks at some of the stuff. * Shani walks off to the back and deposits her stuff there again while Edmund has his daily crisis of retailer faith. She returns with a cup of weak tea (as it hadn't finished brewing), which she puts in front of her boss, followed by an ashtray that she must have found lying somewhere. * Cheryl, as Shani walks off, looks after Shani a moment as she walks away, then looks back to the stuff in the front part of the shop and murmurs, to herself, "No..." * Edmund starts to drink the tea as if it was always there and then flicks some ashes off and looks around as if he lost something before picking up some other book. This one called "Dragon Astrology: What your guru isn't telling you," and begins reading it. * Shani returns to the shop proper, that done, and asks the customer, "So, can I help you with anything?" * Cheryl looks back to her and toys with her hair again a moment, before saying, "Ah, yes, I'm... my friend..." she trails off, takes a breath, then retries with, "I'm looking for a crystal point necklace." A moment, then, "With... quartz." * Shani gives Cheryl a long look before nodding. "Yeah, sure. I think we got some quartz pieces... uh..." She approaches the hammocks and starts fishing through one of them. "Sorry, this place is a mess." I keep trying to sort these out, but y'know. Stuff gets tangled pretty bad. * Cheryl nods a little and says, "It's... okay." She smiles a little at her, starting, "Can I..." and then trails off. "No, I probably should just let you handle it, mmm?" * Edmund stands up with his tea cup still in his hand and his cigarette hanging from his mouth and walks around the corner. "Shani! I'm going to lunch!" He heads towards the door. Whatever you feel comfortable with... * Shani turns and calls to Edmund, "You got back from lunch an hour ago!" * Edmund waves her off. "Yes but I had two breakfasts so I need to even it out. I'll be back at 7" [The store closes at 6] Oh for fuck's sake- don't come back. I'll just close shop for you." * Edmund pauses for a moment. "Why not just close up now?" * Cheryl looks down at the pile and tries to pick things out of it deliberately, before setting them aside. She glances at the exchange again and murmurs, "No wonder..." as she looks back down at the mess of stuff. * Shani stands there, hands in the hammock, and keeps talking to the crazy boss guy. "This customer's lookin' for a quartz necklace, that's why." * Edmund shakes his head as if this news pains him. "Oh no... You're going to do that thing. The thing where you sell things." He puts his free hand up in front of him as he backs out of the store. "I can't watch." And then he struggles with the beads and pulls one string down as he leaves. * Shani turns back to the hammock, boss gone now. "Sorry, you got him on a bad week. I'm not usually fired two days in a row." * Cheryl blinkes, then chuckles lightly before murmuring, "Ah, well, I guess some people are... just like that?" *That* people's just like that. Never met anyone else like him. And still functioning, I mean. * Shani ahs triumphantly and pulls out a mess of chains and crystals and gemstones. "Found it!" * Cheryl squints at it and then adds, "... almost?" * Shani starts clearing a space on a table nearby for the untangling. "Yeah, maybe. Sorry it's a mess, stuff gets really..." She looks out at the floor to see beads scattered everywhere. "Aw, shit." * Cheryl looks slightly embarassed and says, "I-uh... I can pick through this if you need to clean that up... before someone falls?" Yeah... thanks, sorry 'bout making you do any work. * Shani deposits the mess on the table and hurries off to get a broom and dustpan. * Cheryl shakes her head and smiles more brightly. "It's no problem... I enjoy helping...?" she trails off as Shani rushes off, and then puts her bookbag down next to the table, murmuring, "Well, yes, I do." * Shani returns, implements in hand, and starts the unenviable task of sweeping beads into a dustpan while wearing heels. This isn't going to be pretty. * Cheryl doesn't watch Shani sweep as she picks through necklaces, for a bit. She does look over at her a few moments, then back down at the necklaces as she quickly asks, "You, uh... the sign mentioned tea?" * Shani doesn't look up as she tries to get some pesky beads into the dustpan. "Yeah, we sell tea. Lotsa different kinds, actually." You interested? * Cheryl is silent for a second after the question, then looks up to Shani and nods slightly. "Yeah... a blend? A British blend?" * Shani glances up at Cheryl and grins. "Got tons of those." She goes back to sweeping - there's at least a path now. "You mean like a breakfast blend, or an afternoon sort..." * Cheryl replies, a bit quicker, a smile quirking across her lips, "Yeah, you got anything later than afternoon?" Naaaah, the day ends at afternoon. We've got some darjeeling, assam, and earl grey blends too, though. * Cheryl shakes her head and replies, "No, no... an afternoon blend would be perfect, thank you." Cool, hang on. * Cheryl nods and replies, with a warmer smile, "No rush... the beads, and all." Yeah, fuckin' beads. * Shani is having real trouble now, as her pan's fairly full of beads and so isn't very good at catching them. She picks up the pan, heading over to the counter area to dump them out. That done, she sets the pan down and takes a moment to look at the tins, then takes down three afternoon blends and lines them on the counter. "Come over here for a sec," she says, loosening the lids. * Cheryl looks up from the de-tangling with an 'Mmm?' before standing slowly and walking over. "Yes?" These're some of the blends. * Shani starts removing the lids one at a time so Cheryl can get a good look / whiff of each. "Which one do you like most, you think?" Oh, um... * Cheryl tilts her head as she looks at them a moment, then sniffs one of them before she nods slightly. "That... yeah, that one... seems nice." * Shani nods and pushes that tea to one side before screwing the lids securely on the other tins and putting them back in their places. * Shani then picks up the dirty pot and bustles into the back, where she can be heard dumping out Edmund's tea and washing out the pot. Oh dear. * Cheryl turns away, murmuring to herself as she slowly walks back to the table, "No, I don't... what's the difference?" * Shani calls out from the back, "You say something?" * Cheryl starts and says back, "Ah, no, sorry," as she walks back to the table and rubs her forehead and picks up another necklace. She murmurs again, "I draw the line at tarot cards." * Shani returns, now with a clean (!) pot and a teaspoon. She places the pot on the counter and measures out some of the afternoon blend Cheryl selected into the pot. This is shortly followed by her pouring hot water from the electric kettle in. * Shani then busies herself with going back to sweeping while it brews. She gives Cheryl-picking-the-necklaces a somewhat pained look. "I'm really sorry they're so tangled. Didja find one you like yet?" * Cheryl doesn't look up at the kettling. She actually looks to have laid out two or three necklaces that qualify, and is yet still picking through them. She glances up and says, not really convincingly, "Ah--not yet, no." * Shani nods, leaning on her broom and looking Cheryl over again. Almost critically. "What d'you need it for?" * Cheryl looks up at her and then her eyes flick down. "I... lost one. It was a... gift from a friend." She then looks back to Shani and smiles slightly. "I thought I could at least get a new one." * Shani ohs, then grins. "Yeah, no offense, but looked sorta like a duck out of water." Even taking into account Edmund's crazy. * Shani goes back to sweeping away. * Cheryl is clearly left-handed as she picks out another necklace. She glances at it, then looks to Shani. "Ah, yeah, I've... never been in a store like this before." Yeah, well, people running them usually have a little more faith in their own stuff than Edmund does. He seems to think this is just a tea shop - makes me wonder how he landed in this new age stuff anyway. * Cheryl tilts her head, then says, "Well, I don't mean to... but if he is the man from before, he doesn't seem to pay much mind to begin with to the tea, either." * Shani laughs as she guides more beads into the pan. "Yeah. Like I said, you got him on a super bad day." Catch him at the right time on a day like this and he'll just give you stuff, though. * Cheryl smiles slightly and says, "Ah, well, I'm sorry, then." She picks through a few more necklaces, then she lets out a quiet laugh. Eh, it ain't so bad. He at least pays me mostly on time, and I can pretty much make my own hours. * Shani nods to the beads actually hanging over the door. "Like you saw." * Cheryl looks up from a necklace she's holding in front of her, a simple leather band with a brown slightly asymmetrical slab hanging off it. She's still smiling slightly. "Well, those are good things, yes..." * Shani chuckles, clearly becoming more at ease. "Yeah. And the place is a mess, but there's lots of neat shit." She looks up to see the necklace Cheryl's holding up. "Like that - I didn't even know we had that." * Cheryl turns it around and shows off the other side, on which is etched a stylized egyptian eye that regular viewers are probably reasonably familiar with. She replies, "It's a little simple, but very nice, no?" A moment, then, "I think they call it a wedjat." * Shani blinks, then smiles and says, "Yeah, it's pretty." A wedjat, huh? I think I saw that on the Egyptian stuff when I went to the museum a while back. * Cheryl nods and looks at it, holding the slab in her hand a moment. "Yeah, I--" she nods and says, "Maybe I'll pick it up for a friend of mine. She's very into Egyptian. I don't... think she has a necklace, though." * Cheryl then looks to Shani, adding as she finishes her thought, "I may not have been here before, but I like necklaces. They feel personal." Yeah, there's lots you can do with jewelry, and not everyone's got their ears pierced. * Shani picks up the quarter full pan and goes over to the trash to dump it out. At this point, most of the beads are swept - some still lurk in dark corners and under racks to destroy. * Cheryl puts it over near the other ones she's picked out and continues de-tangling. She starts to hum to herself, pretty much perfectly in tune. * Shani puts the broom and pan away, apparently figuring she did a good enough job, and goes about pouring a couple of cups of now-brewed afternoon tea. "You want milk or sugar?" she calls as she roots around the back. * Cheryl replies, as she detangles, "Dash of milk. It's afternoon, yeah?" Yup. * Shani returns, now with milk and sugar cubes. She puts a splash into one cup, then drops a cube and splashes the other. Mixes them briefly - done! * Shani returns, putting the cup without sugar next to Cheryl. She clears off more table space for herself. and puts her own cup down, then starts fishing through another one of the hammocks. * Cheryl looks to her and smiles slightly, moving the cup nearer to her. "Thank you." Sure. * Shani pulls another tangle of chains and pendants out of the hammock. This one looks like it contains a few bracelets, too. She gets to picking at them. * Cheryl resumes humming to herself as she picks through things. * Shani picks! She's actually quite good at this, since she must do it a lot. Shani also listens to the humming for a few minutes as she separates necklaces, then says, "That's pretty. What is it?" * Shani also takes that moment to have a sip of tea, because it's probably not scalding anymore. * Cheryl blinks and goes, "Aah?" She pauses for a moment, then blushes slightly. "Ah, sorry, I hum a lot when I'm not thinking about it. It's 'How Can I Keep From Singing.'" 's cool. Where's it from? * Shani extracts a light purple quartz necklace from a topaz bracelet and lays them both down. * Cheryl looks back to the detangling. "It's... a hymn. Not a really common hymn. It has some popular music renditions." * Shani looks to Cheryl, still absently picking at her knot of stuff. "You in a choir?" * Cheryl nods a little. "Used to be..." What happened? * Cheryl looks up to her and says, "Oh, I, um, moved to New York." A beat, then, "School. I haven't... had much time to volunteer for my church here." She looks slightly away at that, then replies, "Busy... like everyone, I guess?" She looks back to Shani and smiles a little. * Shani laughs a touch, and it sounds kind of sad but not quite. "Yeah." * Cheryl nods a little and waits a moment before she asks, "So... well, do you go to school any?" N... no. * Shani sets the tangle down, distinctly uncomfortable, and picks up her cup. She has a sip. "Nobody in my family's ever got a degree. I mean, one from college." * Cheryl mms quietly and looks back to the necklaces, which she has picked apart fairly well. She looks over at her tea and takes a sip, mming. It takes her a second to find, "I... sorry." * Shani replies distantly, "Yeah." And her voice strengthens. "Anyway, I ain't stupid. I got in and went for like a year, but there was no money... or time, really." And I gotta help take care of my dad, so. * Cheryl looks back at her, eyes widening a moment, starting quickly, "I didn't--" and then she stops and replies quietly, "He got hurt or something? That's... hard." * Shani nods. "Yeah, he had a stroke, y'know? Fuckin' happens. Life sucks. Et cetera." She quickly gulps down the rest of her tea and goes to get some more. * Cheryl looks down and murmurs, "I'm sorry, I didn't..." and then trails off and adds, "I--should probably not talk." She picks apart two pieces of her pile and puts them down. * Shani doctors her tea and looks over at Cheryl from the counter. Her gaze softens. "It ain't like it's your fault. Don't worry about it." * Cheryl then takes another drink of her tea, then shakes her head. "I can't help it." She smiles weakly. "I don't even know your name, and all of a sudden things get really... heavy." Oh. * Shani laughs, and she picks up her new tea cup, raising it in a mock toast. "Shani." * Cheryl smiles more normally and raises her cup. "Ah--I'm Cheryl." And the tea is very nice. I've... never had anything quite like it before. * Shani approaches the tangled necklaces again, cup in hand. "Glad you like it. You can buy by the ounce if you want to take some home." * Shani looks at the necklaces critically. This is why she never finishes untangling all of the messes - it's a pain in the ass. "You find anything that matches your old necklace?" * Cheryl shakes her head and says, "Nothing that matches exactly... but there's some nice ones anyway." Yeah... * Shani trails for a moment, then continues with, "Y'know, as a last resort we could special order one." I'll just mostly have to hide that I'm doin' it for you from Edmund. He'd probably implode. * Cheryl protests quickly, "No, don't get yourself in trouble on my behalf!" * Shani grins. "Are you shittin' me? He fires me every week. Hang on." She puts her cup down and goes back to the counter, rooting around underneath/behind it. * Shani pulls out a stack of catalogs and places them on the counter with a thump. "There," she says, wiping dust off the top one. Take a look through these. I'm pretty sure we can find the one your friend got you in here. * Cheryl looks at the counter, then stands up and takes her tea with it. "Well, I don't know, but... I guess it could be old enough." She starts to flip through the catalogs with her right hand, since her left hand is busy with tea. * Shani gets her cup, too, and leans on the other side of the counter as Cheryl looks. * Cheryl flips through for a while. She has to put the tea down to manage the mass of books. * Cheryl also starts humming again. * Shani watches the book flipping and sips tea. See, working here isn't so bad! "Whatcha in school for?" she asks idly when Cheryl reaches a significant rest in her humming. * Cheryl looks to her and smiles faintly. "I, uh... singing." Music, really. They don't give degrees in singing. Wow. * Cheryl 's cheeks redden a bit as she looks down. "Yeah, it's... nice." * Shani looks suitably impressed. "I bet. You must be *really* good." How long've you been here? In the city, I mean. * Cheryl flips a page and replies, "Ah... a little over a year." * Cheryl looks back at her and smiles nervously, like she's gonna step on another landmine. "You?" * Shani smiles over her teacup. "My whole life." She doesn't *look* offended. * Cheryl lets out a slow breath and nods. "That's nice." She licks her lips and then flips through a few more pages. * Shani shrugs and sips tea. "Yeah, I guess it is." * Cheryl smooths her hand over a page and then nods slowly. "Yes." Beat. "Ah, that looks pretty close." * Shani looks over the counter to see a picture of this elusive necklace. * Cheryl is pointing out a rose quartz crystal point necklace with hematite for the neck part. She says, "It's something like that, anyway..." * Shani nods and dogears the page, then reaches over to near the register for a pad of paper and pen. "Forty-five ninety-nine. You want to get this one?" * Cheryl nods slightly, pauses, then says, "Yeah... also, um, a half-pound of the tea. And the wedjat necklace?" A moment, then, "And I need a strainer for the tea, I guess, right?" * Shani turns the catalog around so she can write down the ID numbers. "Yeah... d'you need a teapot, too?" She gets another look at the necklace. "It's pretty. I wouldn'tve thought hematite for the chain." * Cheryl blinks, then says, "I guess I do." She then smiles a little and says, more casually, "Yeah, when he gave it to me he said it'd help me be sociable. 'Cause god knows I need it." She takes a drink of the tea. * Cheryl actually downs the rest of the tea. Since they're wrapping things up. * Shani looks at Cheryl oddly for a moment. "I dunno, you seem all right." * Cheryl looks to Shani and blinks, then blushes and replies, "Ah, well... thank you." It's hard, bein' in a new place. I kinda get it. Even though I've never moved - city's not small. * Shani grins, then waves almost offhandedly to one of the walls. "There're some teapots over there, on the shelves. Some come with strainers. If you like one that doesn't, there are tea balls, too." I'll get all your other stuff over here. You want the tea in a tin or a bag? Tin keeps longer, but you gotta pay for it. * Cheryl leaves her cup on the counter to go towards the wall, hands behind her back as she looks. "I, um... a bag is fine." * Shani nods. "A'ight." She goes about gathering the necklace and tea and things! [Cheryl finds a decent selection of teapots of both Asian and European style. A few are metal. One of them is even glass so she can see the tea as it brews. The Asian ones (and the unidentifiable glass one) all seem to have strainers built in; the European selection does not as a general rule.] * Cheryl picks out the unidentifiable glass one, because why not take a mystery. * Cheryl holds it in both hands as she brings it back to Shani. * Shani looks up as Cheryl approaches with the transparent mystery. "Oh, one of those. I've always kinda liked 'em." A bag of tea is on the counter as well as the wedjat necklace. * Cheryl smiles a bit more. "Ah, good. Well, if you recommend it, I guess I can't go wrong, right?" * Shani laughs. "Yeah, guess you got a point." She taps at the pad of paper with her pen. "I'm gonna put an order in for your necklace. Figure three to seven days. You want me to take your number so I can call you when it comes in?" * Cheryl nods a little and replies, "Yeah... ah..." she trails off and pulls out her phone. "Sorry." She peers at it, then rattles it off. "Don't have it memorized." * Shani nods, writing down the number with Cheryl's name (well, just her first name) at the top of the sheet. "Got a phone just like that," she comments absently. She looks over the items on the counter and starts ringing them up. * Cheryl blinks, then smiles a bit nervously. "Yeah, it's nice." She stands there a moment on the ringing up, then blinks and turns towards the table, walking over to grab her bag and heft it up on her shoulder. That'll beeeee 56.70, an' you can pay for the other necklace when it comes in. * Shani chuckles. "Man, that's gotta be the biggest purchase we've had in ages." * Cheryl walks back over and smiles slightly. "Well... your pay's gotta come from somewhere, right?" * Shani snorts a little. "Sometimes I wonder why this shop ain't under. But gift horses, mouths... Edmund ain't smart enough to be a villain. Worst he does is smoke in public places." * Cheryl chuckles and murmurs, "Don't know that villain and smart go hand in hand." She pulls out a credit card for Shani to run. Hopefully. * Shani takes the card, checks that it's one they carry, and swipes in one of those little card readers where she has to punch in the last four digits and the three on the back. And then she waits for the receipt. "Sorry, this takes a while." * Cheryl nods a little and leans on the counter, shifting her bag as she waits and brushing her loose hair back again with her left hand. "It's fine. I don't mind." She looks to Shani and smiles again, licks her lips, then exhales upwards and looks up at the ceiling. * Shani laughs. "One 'a the few who don't." Finally, the receipt prints and she tears it off, putting it on the counter with a pen for Cheryl to sign. * Cheryl grabs the pen and signs. "Sometimes you have to take an afternoon and rest." Any afternoon the boss walks out on you, right? * Cheryl laughs and replies, with a wider smile, "I meant me, but if this is a break for you... well, good." Oh! Sorry, didn't get it. * Shani takes the white receipt, leaving the carbon copy for Cheryl, and puts it in the register drawer. There's an awkward pause while she looks around, and then she says, "Uh... fuck. What in the fuck? We don't have any bags." No fuckin' bags... Jesus fucking... * Cheryl blushes and replies, as she takes her receipt and card back, "Aah--it's okay, I--everything but the teapot will fit in my bag..." Did it come in a box? * Shani starts looking under the counter. "What, did the fuckin' bag moth eat them?" At Cheryl's words, she peeks over the counter. "Must've, hang on." * Shani heads into the back, muttering something foul about bags. Or lack thereof. * Cheryl, murmurs as she waits, "You're welcome. I wasn't lying, you know." * Shani returns after a few minutes, a battered but recognizable box in her hands. Recognizable because it has a picture of the teapot on all sides. Also duct tape across it. "Think this'll work. It was kinda busted, but the padding inside's still good." * Cheryl takes the teapot and tries to put it in there, with a slight smile. "Thanks again." [The teapot fits! It is snug in its broken box home.] * Shani grins. "Sure. Thanks for keepin' me company." I'll call you when that necklace comes in. * Cheryl smiles back a bit, then says, "Ah... sure." She puts the box under her arm and then twirls her hair again. "Maybe I can do it again sometime?" A regular? Think Edmund will fuckin' faint. * Shani certainly seems amused by the thought. "Drop by anytime." * Cheryl lets out a quiet laugh and replies, "It... certainly seemed to puzzle him." * Cheryl then nods slightly and replies, "Alright. Thanks again, Shani." She turns to walk away, shifting the backpack again as she brings up her only free hand to push beads aside. * Shani waves. "Take care." She stays where she is until Cheryl's well and gone, then looks around and lets out a small sigh before picking up the phone to place that order. * Cheryl finishes fording her way through the beads before letting out a soft sigh and looking up at the sky. She then bites her lip before she heads down the sidewalk, murmuring, "No, I guess it wasn't," as she goes [Mini the End!]