Welcome to Gaia! ::

When he had arrived in the City, Ashel had walked for a while on his own. He didn't venture up but out, curious the the food floating in baskets and carts of frest fruits moving along the earth. But quickly enough, Book Children had come and greeted him, taken him through the City and encouraged him to spend some time in rising layers of literature. Yet his eyes would wander back time and time again to the greens of the lowest layer, to where small parts of land speckled with flora and carts of food fresh from the earth came from. The place where the city's hustle and frantic erratic movement didn't really come and echo around him. A place of its own frantic lifestyle, but less...stuffy to his thoughts.

No, tending to the gardens and groves were where Ashel would find his place in the City. A meal of a few simple snap peas and some berries was all he had before he just fell asleep under the lights of stars and those of the distant upper districts. Waking up to a gaggle of farmers- a few rather curious to why a book child would be so candid of his desire to stay around them- was rather an uncommon sight. Ashel just told them he wanted to tend to the gardens, though it seemed an odd request when so many book children preferred to be around more people than plants, another set of hands was welcomed. Taken in by a simple man with a smile, gentle heart and the patience of a saint, Ashel had found his place in the city as a farm hand; earning a small modest wage tending to the plots and harvesting the fruits of their labors the book child was content.

That had been a few ago, and now Ashel was living the life of a farmer, his small plot yielding his own meals and some more which was easy enough to sell and use to buy other needed things for him and his home. Working in the larger fields kept him with a modest income. He had his small circle, his friends and acquaintances, but mostly he kept to himself. Today he had been asked to maintain the shop by the land owner, and it was a simple enough task, even if Ashel had his own odd quirks.

One of those being that he tended to try to hard to make customers happy. That and he wasn't the best salesman. Much to passive. But he did try, and standing behind the counter, smiling at those that passed by, Ashel hoped at the very least, to not screw anything up today.

Ashel had come to find that the best sounds came from the wind. Wind moved doors, banners, chimes, gave sound to instruments and lift to the delightful mechanical things that the occasional city person might have accompanying them playing a light tune as they walked by. But when the shop door creaked open, the bell rang, it was not cause by a gust of wind, but by a person. And not even a city person, rather a fellow book child. And judging by her posture, she was set in her course.

A customer, (or a potential one at least), and Ashel went into his best smile, sitting upright and hoping he hadn't accidentally been looking lazy. That reflected poorly on the shop owner he'd been told, and the young book child was too fond of the owner to want to hurt him indirectly or unintentionally. "Hello, and welcome to-" The carefully rehearsed and recited greeting he'd drilled into memorizing came to a grinding halt as the woman made her desires known.

Tomatoes? All of them? Well that certainly was an order! "Yes! We have a few boxes, our freshest are up front by the windows. Picked just this morning I think. I laid them out myself. " While he certainly answered her question he made no move to help her, or to showcase them. "Oh." Until he realized he probably should given that she said she wanted all of them. "One moment."

Pulling out a small cutting board and knife, Ashel went over to the display all pulled one of the red fruits from the case, the ice under it having only slightly melted. Smiling he returned to the cutting board and began to divide the cool fruit into two halves before offering one to her. "Shop policy! Always let the customer try before they buy!" He sounded proud to have memorized and executed this.

He was sure the shop owner would have been proud.

Ashel thought she'd be pleased with being able to sample the tomato, or at least knowing it was a good quality product. rather she seemed to more impatient with him. Or the tomatoes. One of the two, (personally he hoped it wasn't him). His thoughts shifted to brighter ones as the mask came off and her face was relieved. "Oh my, you're quite pretty under there. I thought you might have had some stange mutation. Like some of my neighbors. One has ah.. a snout. Very quirky fellow. I- Is something wrong with the tomato?"

While he'd gotten a bit off topic, her frown was setting of his warning bells. Something was off wasn't it. He did notice her reaching for the second half however, so it must have been something else. His lack of attentiveness? The way he'd greeted her? The selection of products? The- "Right." She wanted tomatos and from how forward she was being Ashel figured she must have wanted them soon.


"Let's see here-" Going back over to the store's front, he began to count each tomato by hand. "One, two, three, four..." His head tilted after a while. "This box has 18, but a few have been taken out. So..." Doing the math mentally, he shruged taking an educated guess. "Maybe 80? There are two more in cold storage in the back. You said you needed all of them yes?" Returning behind the counter he pulled up the account book and a pen. "We can deliver, or, I can. Usually within a day if it's not to far. Umm..."

He looked at the book's entries. Names, orders, prices, locations. He'd need it all. "Can I get your name please?"

All of them. Didn't matter the price? A business man might normal business man might have charged extra for that man, but the book child had about as much sales sense as he did tables manners. Still, Ashel was thinking 100 tomatoes was a bit much for just one person- until she explained the bit about her getting them for a restaurant. The book of names and locations set down, he looked over to the small clock on the wall.

"Seven? I can do that." Yes, with the help of a few favors called in. He didn't seem perturbed with having such little time to deliver them. "Well Verin I'm Ashel, and I will be more then happy to help you! But- I will need the location's name." That would be a tad important. "Unless you plan on coming with me of course. Which might be nice. I don't get to see the upper layer very often."

Ashel could, and thus, Ashel would. Simplicity was often the best route he thought. So he might owe someone a favor down the road but that wasn't so bad. He'd dealt with worse things than having to scrub bins filled with rotten fruits after all, (even if he really disliked it).
"Oh! Really?" He was a bit surprised at her willingness to join him. "Will you guide me then? That will make it go much faster! Just- um..." He tapped his fingers on the counter. He could ask his neighbor or the man down the street. Tugging a bit at his sleeves, the man down the street would be best. Unlike his neighbor, the man only used his cart for rare occasions. Plus he probably wouldn't charge much.

"All right wait one moment." Rushing out the door and down the road, Ashel was quick, getting back in just a few minutes, cart right behind him. "Back. Sorry for making you wait, I have the cart now and I can load up the tomatoes, just count out the price and I'll ring you up okay?" He smiles, picking up the box from this display first.