The Pick 'n Pan

[A Caracal Yokai]

With the start of a new day and at least one building completed, Kim lifts up a wooden sign above the porch railing that clearly states:

Open for Business!

[A Caracal Yokai]

She bounces up and down, clapping her hands excitedly about the first day of business, and turns to take a good look around her. Kim sighs, brushing her bangs off of her forehead while she contemplates the drag dirt road before her. “Roy…? Are you around?” She mutters for a moment, before raising her voice to a sharp yell. “ROY! Can you come here, PLEASE!”

As she awaits his response, she straightens out her shirt and dusts a bit of dirt from her boots before combing her fingers through her short caramel hued hair again. Her hazel eyes darting about while she tries to figure out where Roy could possibly be, and might possibly pop up from.

[The Poppy King]

(( Since my Roi's appearance will change practically every day he's around, I will be using my avi as reference for his appearance. 3nodding ))

There was a crackle from the fireplace as a log shifted itself with a dull "clunk", then silence, then another shifting crackle before eventually an ash-coloured hand emerged from underneath with all the subtlety of a fireplace zombie. Eventually the hand was joined by another, then arms, a head, a torso and the rest of the Fae clambered out of the still burning fireplace - the grey and brown colour eventually inked to a red and black as he took on the characteristics of the place he'd been sleeping in; for now, the fire itself. Since Roiban was effectively one with the surrounding environment, he took his appearance from certain traits of it. As for the horns, well that was just for nostalgia's sake. At least Kim had stopped him wandering around as a practically naked Pan-like character.

"Yeah, I'm here." He answered somewhat grumpily, an Englishman's accent coating each word as he began flicking dust off a curve on his right horn, turning amber eyes towards the owner as he replied. The Fae had made an effort to appear well-dressed for Kim's opening, even though she was technically opening Roi up to the public, which had all sorts of connotations behind it that he was struggling to understand... but either way, he didn't want to appear unwelcoming, hence the outfit. "What can I do for you? Need a spider killed or something?" He teased, showing her a smile.

[A Caracal Yokai]

Hearing him come up from behind her, Kim turned to get a good look at him and smiled a bit. Crossing her arms she gave Roi an approving nod, though pierced her lips when he flicked a bit of ash off on the clean floor. She hurried over to prevent said ash from actually hitting the floor, catching it promptly in the palm of her hand just as he mentioned something about spiders.

“What! WHERE?!” She yelped as she hopped onto a nearby chair and took a good yet frantic look around. Not that she could really see any, especially if it was hiding beneath said chair, or even in the far corner of the room, but she then figured that Roi was probably teasing her, which earned him a sharp glare. “No…I wanted you to take a look at the road with me.” Plopping off the chair, she directed him out onto the porch and pointed out the dusty dirt road…wiping the bit of ash off of her hand. “As nice as a dirt road is for giving that rustic feeling to the town, I thought that it might nice to lay some brick out, to help keep the amount of dirt tracked indoors to a minimum. What do you think of some yellow bricks, to give the idea of ‘Roads paved with Gold’…?”

[The Poppy King]

As Kim lead him outside, Roiban idly shoved his hands into the pockets of his red pin-stripe waistcoat. The aesthetics of a road were lost on the Fae, but judging on that Human saying that Kim had taught him - it's not the destination that matters, it's the journey there that counts - then he could understand why they might want a more appealing road to take. "Gold would be difficult and wouldn't last very long, but... maybe I could come up with some yellowy cobbles or bricks with flecks of andalucite in them or something to give them that shimmer." The Fae mused aloud, frowning in thought slightly as his gaze passed over the road as if he were studying it and formulating a plan in his head.

"Yeah, that wouldn't take me too long. Four or five days if I started now." He offered with a slight sigh. The work was worth it, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. Plus, he had a vague notion that Kim might want him around to help staff the place; while he had every confidence in her ability, she was still one person, and she didn't seem experienced in the Tavern industry. Maybe he was just being pessimistic. Well, of course he was being pessimistic, it was in his nature.

[A Caracal Yokai]

Kim raised a brow when he started talking about actual gold bricks, and concluded with something not so expensive or realistic. “Well…yeah…hence why I suggested yellow bricks instead of actual bricks made of gold.” She murmured with a slight roll of her hazel eyes, a small smirk forming on her lips. “Besides, if it were made with real gold…then sure, it wouldn’t last very long because people would be pulling it off the street and running off with it to get it turned into cash!” Because…well…gold was still worth a lot.

Though…this begged the question, if he could make the bricks literally out of gold, did that mean that the mines didn’t dry up like she initially thought? Kim crossed her arms in thought, looking down the road towards the mountain side where the tunnel to the mine shafts had been sealed up. “Hey, Roy…you can’t seriously make them out of gold if there’s no more gold in the area, right?” She asked, just to make sure.

[The Poppy King]

"Who says there's no more gold? There's plenty still down there. I don't know how much exactly, but it's quite a bit. I'm more worried about the andalucite, to be honest." The Fae nodded, folded his arms as he continues to gaze down the road. A thoughtful pout before he nodded. "I can definitely work something out. I've never made a brick before but it can't be too hard once I get it right once." Another nod before he turns back and wanders inside, moving along the wall to reach the fireplace and throw another log on the crackling pile.

"I finally started on the mansion, by the way, though that's going to take a while." Roiban noted, taking a seat in a wooden armchair designed in the same rustic ideal like the rest of the building. "It might take a while since I've no plans to work from, so I'm pretty much making it up as I go along. It looks all right, but it's a lot of trial and error."

[A Caracal Yokai]

Kim’s shoulders sank as Roibon stated that there was plenty of gold in the mountain. But if that was the case…”Wait…!” She said as she turned to follow him indoors. “If there’s plenty of gold here, then how the hell did this place become a ghost town?!” But then he went on to change the subject about the mansion. She had a hard time believing whatever nursery rhyme the locals from the neighboring town explained it all.

“HOLD ON THERE! I didn’t tell you to work on the mansion! That’s like…the last thing I want you to work on! The row houses and cottages are a bit more important than the mansion! And the reason you don’t have plans for the mansion is because I haven’t had the time to go in and check the place out! I have ideas, and I was hoping the original structural blue prints would be somewhere inside of it! I just hadn’t taken the time to look for them!” She stated with a bit of agitation in her voice, accented by the glare she was giving him, complete with the crossing of her arms over her chest and annoyed tap of her foot. An obvious sign he surely learned of her disapproval.

[The Poppy King]

The glare she gave him was met with a raised eyebrow and a look of boredom. He rolled his eyes and waved a dismissive hand. "Alright, alright, I'll finish the other houses first. I'd wanted to get the biggest job done first so the rest would be a breeze, comparatively. I'll get started tomorrow." The Fae shook his head before stretching in his seat. Humans... they were bizarre when he'd first walked the woods, more bizarre when the miners were here and they appeared to be even more so all this time later. At least she was pleasant. Most of the time, anyways.

This was the first time he'd actually taken a physical form around a person, previously he'd just blended in with the stone and foliage in order to observe. In the very beginning, the tribes would leave gifts or offerings whenever they thought something mystic was nearby so that they'd be safe - an idea which confused Roiban slightly, since most of them even blamed the weather on a massive array of deities that kept changing every few weeks.. Later on, the miners tried to ignore his presence, but they conversed in hushed tones about ghosts and pacts with demons. Cute, but hilariously imaginative. Speaking of miners, he ignored the topic about the ghost town, neither wanting to talk about it or finding it important to their current situation, but it wasn't the first time she'd asked and he very much doubted it'd be the last.

[A Caracal Yokai]

“Good!” She stated with a huff, her foot paused tapping as she adjusted her shirt a bit. Stupid Fae. No…no…he wasn’t stupid, just irritating from time to time. Kim’s stature relaxed a bit as she went behind the bar to busy herself with…something. That was the one thing about her was the fact that she liked to keep busy. Force of habit really, probably from spending a ton of time working on one thing or another at some thankless job that used to employ her.

Which, keeping busy was a good thing, all in all…but it didn’t keep her mind from the more perplexing thoughts that lingered in there. Roibon often confused her. In truth, she had started to think the place was haunted because of him, yet…of course, after getting to know him just a tiny bit, those initial thoughts began to fade. But he perplexed her nonetheless. He was obviously willing to help, didn’t entirely complain about the work, yet…his attitude about it made it seem like he begrudged her of it! Though time and time again, she always stated that he didn’t have to help…that she could hire a contractor to get a crew to do some of the manual labor she wasn’t all too sure how to do herself. Yet…he still insisted on doing the work either way…and she stopped objecting after the last time she tried to hire a crew, only for Roi to go and completely run them off the property once they started veering off towards the mine.

She sighed, wiping down the counter with a rag before checking the glasses for any spots…making sure not to leave any fingerprints on them. “If you’re not sure how to make the bricks, I’m sure I can hire someone to make and ship them here. I don’t mind laying the bricks down myself, honestly. Did it once before…and it was a lot more fun than I expected.” Kim admitted, her tone having quieted a bit now that she had calmed down. “I also think it might not be a bad idea to seal the mine entrance off with some cement…just to keep any potential guests from attempting to go in them. I mean…people do tend to get curious about places that once contained some sort of treasure…”

[The Poppy King]

Though he visibly froze at the mention of the mines, he tried his best to roll it over and simply shook his head. "No need. Nobody can get into the mines without power tools and a good few days, or a lot of explosives. A cave-in sealed the entrances and a good portion of the tunnels underground, they couldn't even send in a rescue team for the miners that were trapped down there." He'd wandered the tunnels since he could phase himself through the stone and rock of the underground and explored the massive network. "Little sad, really. Their bodies are still down there." The Fae frowned, blinked, and was silent for a few moments as he folded his arms once again.

Oh yes, bricks. "Oh, and don't worry about laying the bricks, it's much faster if I do it. Once I manage to get one perfect, I can just copy the technique over and over again. I can use the mixture like clay with my hands the same way I fit the boards and walls in the houses." Roiban reassures her, shrugging once more. Being unable to leave the land had its advantages if you had power over it, he guessed. Still. Was a little irritating that he'd never be able to see the rest of the world unless someone carried him around in a stone or something.

[A Caracal Yokai]

That was another thing that bothered Kim; the fact that Roibon was being so helpful now…and yet wasn’t at all that helpful back when the town was started. “I know that the times have changed between then and now…but…why didn’t you help the miners dig their fallen companions out? I mean…while they might not be alive now, surely their loved ones would have appreciated giving their dearly departed a proper burial.” She then before he could point out that they were already buried…”In the sense of a funeral with a casket and such! Something like that gives people closure.”

Admittedly, she would have gone through heaven and hell to see that her parents got a proper funeral…and nearly had to if it weren’t for the sudden inheritance she attained from some distant uncle she never heard of. But that was nearly a year ago now, and a lot has changed since then.

“Alright…I’ll leave you to it.” She commented on the bricks. “And in case I haven’t said it enough already, thank you. I know we don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, but I really appreciate your help.” Kim then dared to ask as she poured herself a glass of water to sip from. “Out of curiosity…you don’t think I’m too bossy…do you? I mean…cuz I don’t want to be…try not to be…but it’s hard to tell when you’ve only got one employee…and…well, even then, you’re not really an employee…all things considered…” She referred to his being tied to the land and all. Of course, by now she was just rambling to fill the stillness that occasionally unnerved her. “Do you think we need music in here? I know back in the day some saloons used to have a piano player…but I don’t think this place even had a piano…from what I remember before we started to renovations. I could probably order a sound system to set up…just for some ambient music of sorts…”

[The Poppy King]

Another nose-wrinkle at the mention of helping the miners before Roiban shrugged. "I wasn't able to at the time, I think I was still sleeping to be honest. Either way, I couldn't have helped and it was a little too fast for me to do anything. Most of them perished in the fire when the ones in the Southern Tunnel called for help." He wondered, adopting a thoughtful expression. "I dunno about giving them all a proper burial, there's at least fourty people down there and any relations first or second generations after them are dead, too. There wouldn't be much of a point." Another shrug. "That and... technically they are already buried. Heh." Morbid humour, he couldn't help himself.

As she said she'd leave him to it, he gave her a thumbs up and returned to his slouched position in the armchair before letting a yawn escape him, which he politely covered with a hand. A blink at her questions as he tilted his head, moving his amber gaze to her once more. "Bossy? No, not really. Like you said, I'm not really an employee. No offence meant, but you'd be hard pressed to make me do anything I don't want to do. You can't exactly dock my pay, or even physically make me." Another shrug. If he really didn't want to be around, he could simply go back to sleeping underground or as one of the gargoyles on the roof of the church. The gargoyle was one of his favourites, he'd always loved being out in the rain, listening and feeling the water droplets.

Speaking of hearing things, what could they do for music? "Well, you could always install some kind of music system. I know how a grammar-phone works but I doubt I could replicate one. I'm sure you've got all sorts of new technologies for it though - when I was walking around, there wasn't one single year where someone wasn't revolutionising the way everybody did something." A small smirk. "You lot are an intuitive bunch."

[A Caracal Yokai]

So there was a fire…huh…? Kim pondered on this new bit of information, and wondered how he knew they were all shouting, and what exactly had happened if Roibon was sleeping through it. She gave him a suspicious glance, and but didn’t speak more on the topic. Inwardly, she hoped that there would be more information on the matter in the mansion…assuming the former tenants had left some kind of documentation behind in the rush to leave the place…and that they had lived in some of the finished portions of the old house. Assuming the Fae hadn’t gone and destroyed it during his the restorations he started earlier.

She then nodded idly at how she couldn’t force him to work, so on and so forth before taking a large gulp of her water as she straightened up. “Well, I’ll head into town tomorrow to see what kind of system I can install.” She declared before rinsing her glass out…leaving it in the sink to be washed later. “In the meantime…do you mind hanging out here a bit, just in case a traveler happens to come along? Now that you’ve brought it to my attention, I’d like to take a good look at the mansion…just so I can see if the original blue prints are in there...and to get a better idea of how I’d like to complete it.”

[The Poppy King]

"Sure thing, I'll play bartender. We're bound to get one or two visitors every now and again, people would wander by here all the time after the gold-rush. I'm sure there'l be more." The Fae nodded, standing up as he moved himself to stand behind the counter as he moved his gaze around, familiarising himself with where everything is; the certain types of alcohol, plates, bowls, glasses and etc. He assumed that any visitors would most likely stop in for a drink, a bite to eat and a rest before moving on so that's what he needed to focus on remembering for now. "Oh, but as for the mansion, I'm not sure if you'll find anything - I already gave it a good once over when I was looking for the blueprints. There's a couple boxes in the basement since they made that first to use for storage, but that's about it." A shrug as he takes down a glass, holding it up for emphasis as he turns his amber gaze back towards Kim. "Can I make myself a drink?" He asks politely.