It was the middle of another graveyard shift at a small convenience store in Crantel. A brown-haired young man had just finished unloading the last of the boxes from a new shipment. He stretched his aching back and winced, trying not to think of the work that lay ahead. Hard labor wasn't exactly his forte, as anyone would have been able to tell from his uncalloused hands and slender frame. Just a few minuted of moving boxes had already caused him to break a sweat as if he'd never before worked a day in his life.

His two other co-workers were off-duty tonight and the jerk-of-a-manager in charge during his shift had gone out for a drink, leaving the Tasean on his own. He sighed heavily, reaching up to tug on his bangs as had been his former habit in times of frustration. Then he recalled that his recent haircut had rid him of said bangs, so he tugged at a studded earlobe instead. It was going to be a long night.

The plain-looking young man, whose name tag read 'Akira', had a rounded face and sleek, feminine eyes. These features were common for Taseans of either gender, but they made him look almost androgynous in contrast to the average Crantian male. His defined nose and shortened haircut made a difference, but not by much. It didn't help at all that he had a higher voice than most Crantian men his age, nor that the manners he'd grown up learning in Tasea made him seem submissive. Whenever he was mistaken for a female by the locals it always irritated him, but as a lowly foreign worker in a convenience stoe, there wasn't much he could do other than smile and act amused. At least that was a skill he had practiced rather well during his life in Tasea.

Still, off-duty he had no such obligation, which was nice, because he could overreact almost however much he wished. And yet Akira continued to wonder if he would ever get used to the vast difference in treatment he had recieved from Cratians and his fellow Taseans. Not that he was much better - the lack of traditional politeness and courtesy in this city as opposed to his former culture seemed to grant him, too, permission to be as freely rude and condescending as he chose. That was one reason he had moved away from his home continent - to get away from the suffocating society of his past. It was time to start fresh in a more modern enviornment.

Akira's 'Crantian' was somewhat broken, but it was enough to get his message across when he needed to. He had come to find that body language went a long way and he often didn't need to use words at all - at least when it came to customers and his co-workers. His boss was a different matter. The man didn't seem to care if Akira even had an opinion; only that the worker understood and followed orders.

So when Akira tried to tell the manager that he wasn't comfortable with running the cash register alone, his attempt to voice this fact fell on deaf ears. His boss simply announced that Akira had to take more responsibility or he was never going to 'move up in the world' before letting himself out the front door. The single employee remaining highly doubted that the fellow planned on returning any time that night, but he couldn't just leave his position. There was always the possibility that he would be wrong and his boss might come back to an empty store, for which he would certainly be fired. Besides, Akira was not the sort who could abandon a duty given to him without a large amount of guilt - often disproportional to the amount of responsibility he had shirked.

Therefore, the young Tasean man continued about his work while waiting for his shift to end, hoping no one would come in and want to buy something so he wouldn't have to try to ring them up and risk getting something wrong. He re-shelved items and re-stocked the shelves, keeping note of inventory until the door's bell rung, causing him to look up. Akira hurried to the end of the aisle he was in, ready to greet the potential customer while secretly wincing inside. "Ah...welcome," he said, bowing his head politely - yet another old habit of his. "Can I help you...?"

((This is Kitomyx on Puck's account, by the way, in case anyone was wondering. As far as the person who just came in ICly, anyone could choose to be that person or just pretend it's an NPC. You can have your own character come in separately if you wish. Heck, someone can come in and hold Akira at gunpoint for all I care; maybe try to rob him. That might be fun~ <3))