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 Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:35 pm
You could cut the tension in the car with a knife.
Even though the return trip to the little oil shop had been agreed upon unanimously, absolutely nothing could lessen the sheer amount of animosity contained within that vehicle. Mostly between Sophia, seated in the front passenger seat beside the driver, her thoroughly confused nephew, and the little houseguest, seated in the back with his self-appointed guardian.
Of course, it didn't help matters any when the scaly little beast, held protectively against Rylan's side and bundled in a soft wool blanket, would smile triumphantly every time he caught Sophia's eye in the rear view mirror.
Luckily, the hour-long drive to the city passed relatively quickly, and before any bloodshed could occur the sleek black vehicle was pulling up in front of its destination. Sophia was out of her seat almost before the car stopped rolling, and was left tapping her foot impatiently as Rylan fussed over her charge, pulling one edge of the blanket around his face like a hood and tucking the rest carefully around his tail before picking him up and climbing out of the car as the driver held the door open. "Thank you Stefan, you're a darling. This shouldn't take long I'd imagine, do just wait here and we'll be back shortly."
"Good." With an expression that could curdle milk, Sophia waited for Rylan to step towards the shop first, though in this case it seemed more likely that she refused to show her back to the dragon-thing, rather than respectfully letting her employer walk ahead. "Now we can finally be rid of the thing."
The young lady paused suddenly, a cheeky grin spreading across her face. "Sophia dear, you really must pay closer attention." She shifted slightly to free one of her hands, and pointed to a sign in the front window. "The sign rather clearly says no returns." Then she employed her standard defensive tactic: darting into the store in question before the maid could explode.
"Hello~" she called out into the familiar rows of shelves. "Young man with the charming hat? Are you here?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:42 am
Ment was indeed there, though it wasn't him who Rylan encountered first, but the teenage boy's mother, Olivia. Turning on her heel, Olivia faced Rylan with a smile, putting down what she had been working on to address the woman, "Welcome, is there anything I can help you with?"
Ment was in the back room taking inventory, checking their current shipment of oils for any cracks or leaks or damage of any kind. Lately a few of their shipments looked as if they had been vandalized, though Olivia didn't worry so much that someone was trying to hurt them as she did that someone was out to ruin their business. No business, no livelihood after all.
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Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:14 am
Rylan blinked twice in surprise, then shook her head slightly. Of course there would be other people working at the shop, it was silly to think that one teenager was all the staff the place had. "Oh dear, I'm sorry. I feel rather foolish, but I was expecting to see the adorable young man who helped me when I was here last."
She glanced back over her shoulder as the door opened again and Sophia slipped inside, but luckily she remained silent, standing beside the door with her arms crossed and scowling. Seeing that she wasn't going to make a scene, Rylan turned back to the storekeep, smiling. "She's with me, so please don't mind her. Anyways," Here she idly twirled a lock of her chestnut brown hair around a finger- it was unlikely she realized how ditzy it made her look. "Not two weeks ago I happened upon your charming little shop, and I just couldn't bring myself to leave without buying something. The young man who was working at the time, he was most helpful~." She had to pause for a second here to shift the bundle of dragon-thing, still concealed in the mass of blanket and making faces over her shoulder at the irate maid by the door. "But you see, when I ran out of oil, the strangest thing happened. Unfortunately I was out of the house at the time, but I was so hoping that someone here could shed some light on the whole affair."
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Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:16 pm
Olivia put down what she was working on and scratched at her neck a tad, a sigh coming over her. It had been awhile since she had to have this talk with anyone, mostly people who acquired these mysterious little children had managed to simply find each other and turn up at her shop and local functions. She definitely didn't feel like explaining this one out, so she made a glance towards the back room as Rylan finished her sentence.
"Mnn. Yes. I believe who you're looking for is Ment, my son. I'll get him for you. One moment please, "Olivia smiled, heading towards the back room where her white haired teenager presided.
Several words were exchanged hastily and Ment came sauntering out with a gigantic smile on his face fixing his hat which was practically falling off his head as if it had been knocked off.
"Hello there. 'Livia said something strange happened with your purchase?" He questioned politely.
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Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:42 pm
Rylan grinned herself upon seeing him- that hat really was too adorable for words. "Hello again!~" she chirped, "Your- mother? Really? She looks fantastic for a woman with a child your age- anyways," here she paused again to adjust her grip, "I suppose I'll cut right to the point. Is it terribly common for monster-children to appear from your wares?"
She still didn't bother to show her burden's appearance- after all, she had no way of knowing that they didn't all look like him. "It was really quite a shock, poor Sophia there nearly had a heart-attack when he appeared. There really should be a warning label or somesuch, wouldn't you say?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:51 pm
Ment scratched behind his ear at Rylan's words. Warning label, that's a good one, he thought to himself before speaking, "Well if we placed warning labels on our wares about magical children spouting out of them, we'd get no business. People would think we're nutters."
Ment gave a nervous chuckle before seriously answering Rylan's questions about the Scent child in question she had obtained through her purchase. He also wondered where the child was, as usually they were brought along by the guardian, thrusted into the shop, and questioned relentlessly about while they were sitting there disgruntled or confused.
"Well ma'am, truth of the matter is we don't exactly know. We've have had several people come back with fragrant children, such as myself, sprouting from the oils, but out of all the ones we've sold over the years it's been a rather small minority of them. That's kind of why we have the no refunds sticker on our window..." He chuckled.
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Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:33 pm
She rested her free hand on her chin in thought for a moment, before nodding slowly. "It is somewhat farfetched, I suppose. I'd hardly believe it myself, if there were any other explanation."
She remained in her thoughts a little too long, however, and only half-heard his short explanation. She came back to the present abruptly as he mentioned the no refunds sign, and actually laughed. "Oh dear no, I don't want to return him! He may be a curious little creature, but he's the most well-mannered little thing I've ever me-" She cut herself off abruptly as the rest of his words finally filtered into her mind.
"Wait. Did you say you? You came from an oil? Young man, I mean no offence, but you look rather-" she waved her free hand around somewhat frantically as she searched for the right word. "-Normal."
It also seemed that the conversation was finally more interesting than making faces at the maid, as the blanket-covered bundle turned his head towards Rylan slightly, though not enough for Ment to see his features. "Please," his voice was quiet, but not unsure. "Looks matter little, did you not say?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:35 pm
Ment couldn't help giggle at the prospect of looking normal. Maybe there were more teenage boys wandering the streets in witch hats, riding candy-cane brooms and wearing skirts than he thought there was, but him actually being normal? It sounded all like nonsense to him. I mean sure, he probably resembled normal people but no normal people resembled him that he was aware of.
"Us Scents are all unique in our own special way," Ment smiled, "I may look more closely to regular people, but I'm anything but. How many people do you know who constantly smell like peppermint?"
Ment gave off a chuckle, before noting the blanketed bundle talking before them. He was right, looks mattered very little.
"The oil children I've met come in all shapes and sizes. There's a teenage girl I know, Vanyel, she looks 'normal' like I do. Than there's another, Kaoru, who has trees sprouting from her shoulders and bark growing on her face. She's really pretty though..."
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