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Post by drake on Apr 4, 2008 0:36:36 GMT -5
Athos had heard this place might be nice to start looking at for a job. It certainly seemed... interesting, to say the least. Once again Athos was dressed up in a fine blue coat and everything, hoping to impress. He took a deep breath and stepped inside, looking around. "Wow, nice. Wonder where the owner is..."
He started wandering around the shop, looking at all the things he might have to take care of and/or sell soon. Well, if all went well anyways. Knowing how things usually went he'd get some sort of janitor position. Finally he wandered up to the front desk, smiling. "Hello? Anyone here? Um, I'm looking for the manager or owner?"
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Post by Adeline on Apr 4, 2008 0:45:40 GMT -5
At the snake's call, a white panther stepped out from behind a pile of old junk she'd been sorting into "sellable" and "crap". A 'helper' of hers had just raided a few apartments of all their old stuff, most of which they wouldn't miss anyways, but there was always a few jewels in the pile...literally.
She came up to the front desk, swishing some hair out of her face. It didn't really work though, because of the genuine 18th century tripoint pirate hat she had on. The feather she forced in it was desert griffin, too, an unheard of rarity in such cold climates. As she walked, she winced slightly and poked her temple. Too much alcohol in the last few days had given her a never ending hangover. It was her habit to drink when someone she knew was caught. She'd been drinking an awful lot. But no matter. Only the stupid ones got caught anyways.
"I'm the manager, at the moment. The real owner, Groves, never hardly comes in anyways. What do you want?" She said everything rather flatly, the last part not sounding rude, but only slightly interested mixed with a hell of a lot of tonelessness. Her sea frock coat billowed out behind her when she walked, and one wouldn't necessarily surprised to see her pull a sword out of it.
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Post by drake on Apr 4, 2008 0:52:30 GMT -5
Athos noticed the hat she was wearing and mentally slapped himself for forgetting his own cap. It would have been a nice addition to his outfit today. He coughed slightly, clearing his throat and his mind. "Well, I was informed that this place might be hiring, and that I could possibly find work here. I'm eligible for almost any position, just tell me what you need and I can probably do it."
Hopefully that would be straightforward enough to get him a job. He wasn't one to beg or plead but he was pretty much out of money. Without money, he'd be starving and soon out of a home too. DAMN! He forgot to start off simple by asking how much employees usually make. Now she could set whatever price she wanted. Stupid stupid mistake. Well, maybe he could correct it? Probably not, hopefully she'd just be nice and offer a decent salary.
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Post by Adeline on Apr 4, 2008 0:58:04 GMT -5
She eyed the snake up and down. He looked pretty decent, not too modern...wore a nice older fashioned coat...and they needed some more people anyways. Adeline had been working and simultaneously getting drunk too much for comfort. "We need a person or two. Just normal stuff. Take care of the store, keep things in their untidy place, work the register, keep the dust on the objects, not the floor, that sort of thing. I'll need some information though first. I don't need anything written, so here we go. First I'll need a name, previous jobs, capability, interest in antique objects, and affiliation status with the Angels. Then we'll move on from there. Don't worry about salary. Groves'll give you what you ask for. He's loaded. But we'll get to that later."
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Post by drake on Apr 4, 2008 1:15:10 GMT -5
"My name is Athos Teer. My interest in antique objects is very high, I just took a little tour of the shop here to better aquaint myself with what I could be working with, and recognized a fair few of them. I'm more than capable for any task around the store you need me to do, I've never actually been fired from a previous job, I've just been released due to relatives coming in and taking my place or having problems with working too few hours. From most recent to oldest, my previous jobs have been painter, carpenter, stripper, mechanic, and marksman. And the Angels? Well, I've met one or two of them. One directed me to this store in fact. Can't remember his name offhand, if he even gave it to me. Really, I don't have an opinion one way or the other. If they leave me alone, I leave them alone. They bother me, I bother them. Anything else you need to know?"
Great, the owner was loaded. That should hopefully leave him with enough payment to buy food and keep his home. Maybe he could start affording luxuries again, like fixing up some of his suits and buying other nice things.
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Post by Adeline on Apr 4, 2008 1:24:17 GMT -5
Adeline smiled. "That's an impressive list. Many of them don't even coincide with each other. I'm pretty sure you'd be able to get plenty enough hours here. We're almost always open. Or, if we're not and you'd like some extra money, we'd pay you regular rate to help out with some of the stuff that Groves needs done. Not anything too horrible or anything. All legal, all simple. Now, what would you like regular rate to be? And my name is Adeline by the way."
She laughed to herself. In the past two days she had given three different people three different names. To Rook she gave her name as Jade, to Christian Adie, and to Athos Adeline. Strange how often she changed names. But she did it for a good purpose...to not get caught. Even though it wouldn't be hard to remember a face with an antique hat, regardless of the name.
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Post by drake on Apr 4, 2008 1:46:29 GMT -5
"Heh, well, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't accept a hundred an hour as reasonable. How about twelve? I'm pretty open on what I can accept, as long as it's enough to be able to pay for food and housing, maybe a little more so I can buy nice things. So Adeline, what would you consider reasonable? Then we'll figure out which days and how long I should work."
Athos smirked, looking around the store. "I always try to do my best on whatever job I'm working. I'm surprised though, most people hear me say stripper as a prior job and they instantly have a bad opinion of me. When nobody else is hiring and you can't find any other job though, there's always an opening in that field. Got out of it as soon as I could."
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Post by Adeline on Apr 4, 2008 1:55:46 GMT -5
"The other jobs on your list are plenty enough to make up for that though. And, twelve is fine. If you ever feel you need more, put it in writing and as long as I tell Groves that you're doing a fine job, then he'll probably give you a raise. I'd like somebody to start working nights. I always get stuck with the damn nights, and I personally have better things to be doing...Nights normally aren't too busy either...to tell you the truth, there's no "busy" time. Not many people come into antique shops. Most of the work is stocking and deciding crap from value. Every week or so we'll get a shipment. You came on the right day, it all just came in. That's what I was doing when you arrived. If you don't have anywhere pressing to go, I could begin training you now."
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Post by drake on Apr 4, 2008 2:09:40 GMT -5
Athos glanced over at the pile and then at the nearest clock he could find. "Well, I really didn't have anything else planned for today, so sure. Nights don't bother me, it's not like I've got anyone to get home to. Sometimes I go out for little strolls in the evening anyway. Just tell me what you need done and I'll do it for the nights."
Athos gave a little nod and smiled, his way of thanking her for giving him the job. And since he could start training right away, there was only one thing he needed to know. "Oh, only one other thing comes to mind. Where's the nearest place I could grab a bite to eat and bring back here so when the place isn't busy I can actually have a dinner or lunch or whatever?" he asked as he came around to at least attempt to help with the pile.
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Post by Adeline on Apr 5, 2008 17:25:11 GMT -5
"Beautiful," the panther said as she too walked towards the formidable pile. "As to food, there's not too many 'restaurants' perse. The Wallside Cafe and Angelo's are on the Walk, but that is a bit of a...well...walk. The Summer Market's not too far away and there are always odd and end vendors and shops, maybe a fast food restaurant in there or two, but it's mainly for shopping to bring home food to cook. You'll get actual breaks and stuff though. If you ride a Skyboard you can probably get to the Wallside in ten minutes or so, but I'm more partial to keeping my feet on the ground."
She came around to the other side of the pile of junk and rebegan her sorting, explaining as she did. "Now, sorting all this stuff will take a while getting used to. You have to be able to have an eye for separating potential valuables from true junk. Some of it won't be that difficult to separate, but other objects, like this..." Adeline held up an ornate Oriental teacup, that was chipped on one side, "this is more difficult to decipher. If you ever find objects you don't know what to do with, put them in a middle pile and Groves and I will go through them later. Right now, I would put this to the side, and if I find any other objects that might potentially go in a set with this teacup, then I'd keep it, but because it's chipped, it can't be sold by itself, for it merits no value. Most of this tends to be junk, but there are some jewels in the pile. You understand?"
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Post by drake on Apr 12, 2008 23:18:21 GMT -5
"Alright, sounds simple enough. If I see anything that calls to me "Some sucker would pay money for me" I put it in the keep pile. I see something that even a blind housewife wouldn't pick up, it goes in the junk pile. Hey, if you find the piece that's been chipped out I'll be able to fix it up, make it pretty seamless. Still not good sale value, but it'd look better added to a set."
Athos shrugged when he heard about the food situation. "I'll probably get used to bringing packed lunches or something. I know only the most basic aspects of riding a skyboard, would probably fall off if I tried though."
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Post by Adeline on Apr 23, 2008 20:03:11 GMT -5
"Same," Adeline said conversationally, "My feet are best left on the ground, thankee sai. Well, everything seems fine, I suppose I should help you out with this and not leave you be. You can be as loud or quiet as you want. If you want conversation, I'll converse, but you'll probably be doing most of the talking. If there's an item you're unsure about, don't hesitate to ask."
With that, the tiger got down on her knees and joined Athos in the massive sorting, hopefully until everything lay in three piles, the "I dunno" pile probably the smallest of them all.
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Post by drake on Apr 25, 2008 10:12:37 GMT -5
It was far from the most difficult task in the world to perform. In fact, compared to painting and roofing and carpentry Athos found this to be quite enjoyable. Okay, so it still wasn't what he felt he was meant to do for the rest of his life, but it was decent work. Most things that had huge problems with them wound up in the junk pile. Then, in the midst of searching through everything, Athos noticed an item he hadn't expected to find. "Hey, this looks a LOT like a glove I lost about a year ago. Wondered what ever happened to it, thought I dropped it in the street or something. Hmm, well, it doesn't seem to have the fingers anymore, just little holes. More like a palm warmer than anything else, but it is in my favorite color and if it gets washed a few dozen times it should be clean. You think I can keep it?"
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Post by Adeline on Apr 28, 2008 19:56:09 GMT -5
With narrowed eyes, Adeline looked at the object. It was indeed what Athos claimed it to be, and knowing the "sources" of the piles, it might even be the exact one that the snake had owned. In a world of mostly sea, and no imports into St. Lucent, there was only really one way to get old stuff...people's attics...and the dump. Sometimes Adeline would see the same objects come back, once, twice, even three times, stolen from the people who bought them. As a result, Groves' wasn't the busiest of shops, and if the owner himself didn't have such a huge inheritance brought from ancestors who once resided in the Old Sea, he and Adeline would both be broke.
After eyeing the object, the tiger gave a little laugh. "Go ahead, I would have put it in the junk pile anyways, that's not even antique. There are modern gloves like that which you can buy that still have the fingers. Take it."
She kept rummaging through the pile, discarding an old, filled up diary into a separate pile, one which was very small. Adeline called it the "personal pile". She'd read through it later and see if it was old enough to mention anything about Dwight Lucent, or maybe even was an old diary of an Angel or Council Member itself. Odds were that it wasn't, but one never knew.
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Post by drake on Jun 5, 2008 0:47:56 GMT -5
Athos set aside the glove, and soon enough found its match... again without fingers though. Now he had the pair at least, and would still have to wash them like ten times before they could be worn. So many things in the pile were garbage, things nobody in their right mind would probably buy. Athos was losing hope in any more of this stuff being even remotely possible when he found a small tin, looked like it was originally for cookies from some shop. He gave it a little shake and heard something rattle around inside, attempting to open the container. "Hey... this thing's got something inside but it won't open. Somebody actually melted the lid in spots so it wouldn't come off. Got anything we can use to properly open this and see what it's holding or just put it aside for now into the maybe pile?"
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