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 Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 9:48 pm
Walking into the doors of an small bookstore, "Welcome, Sir!" Rikhter was met with a polite greeting from the staff. Before the clerk could offer her assistance, Rikhter held up his hand, a gesture of dismissal, that the clerk understood right away. With a smile, she focused her attention back on her work.
Searching for nothing in particular, Rikhter curiously browsed the aisles for whatever may (or may not) have caught his interest.
Ten minutes later..
Eleven books in one hand, topics ranging from Shakespeare to manga, Rikhter was still on the prowl for more. Picking up a book called, "The Adventures of Kitty-Pon", he tossed it into his pile of books to-be-brought. It was obvious that Rikhter was not particular in her selection of reading, anything would do.
A catchy title caught his eye, "Twilight?" He read aloud, raising a skeptical brow as he scanned over the summary. A forbidden romance between human and vampire... What sort of nonsense was this?
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Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 10:24 pm
Today was to be a day of self improvement! Emily was determined that it would be so. She had been so focused on training her body recently, that she had neglected the keenest sword of all, her mind. Unfortunately, she had less to go on in that department than with the physical training. Before she had references like Rocky, and The Karate Kid...but now? Well, she did watch Dangerous Minds, as the title made it sound like exactly what she needed, but it had proved a bit disappointing.
Emily picked up a collection of Dylan Thomas poems, anyways. Just to be on the safe side. It rounded out the pile of books sitting below her, that included: Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Guitar Hero for Dummies, The Official DCWF All-Star Coloring Book, Chess for Beginners, and The Future of Robot Warfare.
Now if she could only reach this one last book, The 2010 Almanac of Curses Most Dire, she could bring it back as a small surprise for Miss Mindy. It was a shame that they had to place it so high, but as if Emily would let something like height deter her!
If an employee passed by, they might have been more than a little alarmed at seeing the maid climbing their shelves in such a willful manner. Especially once, having finally gotten a hold of her goal, she lost her balance for a moment and sent a number of books falling down on the other side of the shelves.
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Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 11:57 pm
About to place the book back on the shelf, he heard the peculiar sound of wood creaking. Indifferent to the sound, he paid no attention the the shelf before him. It was probably the sound of old floorboards, nothing more, he convinced himself.
A grave mistake on his part.
While Emily was attempting to scale the shelves for her book, Rikhter had been scanning the shelves for another novel to read. Before he was aware of what was happening, an avalanche of books descended upon him. His stack of books went flying up in the air, as Rikhter went crashing to the ground. When he managed to open his eyes, he found himself laying backflat on the ground with a pile of books and dust surrounding him.
"What in the hell..?' He groaned. With a scowl on his face, he directed a glare towards the now-empty-shelf. What was that, an accident?
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Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:13 am
A red ribbon popped up above him, "Are you alright, sir?" A girl peeked over the shelf to look down at him. Having regained her balance, Emily had climbed higher in order to investigate the damage.
He didn't look particularly happy with the situation. A more accurate description would be irritable. And dusty. Tsking, Emily dropped down off the shelf to remedy the situation as best she could. In a matter of moments the maid was taking a lint roller to her accidental victim, absently apologizing all the while.
"Very sorry, sir. If you could just give me your arm, sir?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:57 am
He was surprised to note a red ribbon bobbing above the shelf, along with the appearance of a small girl.
Children should know better then to climb shelves, he wanted to say, but her apologetic manner had slowly begun to melt his irritation away. "It's fine.." He mumbled, averting his eyes as he ran his hands over the ground for his sunglasses. A nearly impossible feat, considering the fact that it was hidden among the piles of books that surrounded them.
Though it seemed as if she was insistent upon apologizing. With a small pat, "It's nothing to apologize repeatedly about." He might have assured her he was all right, but he was unused to a girl hovering over him, distracting him from his thoughts.
"Very sorry, sir. If you could just give me your arm, sir?"
Though she requested for him to lift his arms, he found his hand travel to the top of her head. "The dust doesn't bother me." He tried to reassure her, as she ran a lint roller over his clothes. His clothes were always covered in dust anyways, a little more hardly mattered.
With a frown, "Though, for the next time, I would hardy advise climbing the shelves unless it is absolutely necessary. An escape attempt, for ex-"
His reply was cut short as the clerk managed to locate the sourse of the noise.
"Excuse me. Are you both all right?" The clerk said in a tone of concern, nervously glancing back and forth from Emily to Rikhter.
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Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:23 am
Well, at least he seemed to be in one piece, and nothing was broken, so it wasn't a terrible situation, as far as Emily was concerned. But really, did the young man take care of himself at all? These clothes were in terrible condition! Feeling all the more determined, the maid continued to dry and clean him off, working around the hand on her head. Really, when she asked him to give her his arm this was not at all what she meant.
And dust doesn't bother him? Didn't he know that they were full of tiny things that wanted to eat him? For a moment, she wondered if it was possible that he was perhaps a little stupid? But she was distracted by the mention of escape attempts, which were always quite interesting, and one her favorite parts in movies.
Feeling slightly annoyed at the interruption, Emily quickly assured the woman, "Don't worry, there probably won't be a lawsuit," before turning back to her new acquaintance. "You were saying, sir? About an escape?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:58 am
Judging from the frown on Rikhter's face, which the clerk mistakenly thought was directed towards her, she thought it might have been a good idea to leave about now. "If you say so, Miss. Call me, if you should need me. Sir." She muttered nervously before rushing off to her desk.
A smart move, as he was not in the mood to deal with them both right now.
Watching the girl before him, "It's not necessary, really." He muttered, though it seemed as if she paid his word no attention. The girl persisted in her efforts to dry and clean him off, which left him to wonder if she was always this neat. Apparently so, judging from her impeccable appearance; not a wrinkle in her clothes nor a hair out of place.
He glanced up at the ceiling with a touch of bafflement, as he wondered what he had done to deserve such retribution.
Giving up on trying to convince the girl to stop, he glanced down at the ground in search of his sunglasses. It was then eh caught sigh of her efforts; Dressed in a blue collared shirt, and black pants, he glanced down to find the clothes much cleaner then when he originally walked in. Impressive.
Before he could thank her, she jumped into the topic of escape.
Narrowing his eyes in her direction, "Escape? Well, I was referring to the fact that one must be in a dire situation, such an escape attempt.." He motioned to the pile of books, "to excuse the motion of climbing shelves. Such damage would be inexcusable otherwise."
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Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 12:05 am
It was with a certain sense of satisfaction that Emily looked the man up and down. He was now practically presentable. He still needed a bit of freshening (if only she hadn't left her travel steamer at home!) But it was a fair job if she did say so herself.
Somewhat less satisfying was his answer. She had been hoping for an exciting account of how he had escaped a Russian circus using only a paper clip and some shelving. Or at least something exciting that she could try for herself at a later date. And at the mention of damage, her shoulders slumped for a moment before she straightened her back to respond, "Indeed, next time I shall be much more careful, sir."
Finished with the gentleman's appearance, Emily dutifully moved to begin picking up the books. There were quite a few scattered about in addition to the ones that fell. One cover immediately caught her eye, and she picked it up for further inspection.
Twilight? Well the cover was appealing, as was the name. Emily took a small step back from the pile as she examined it.
Crack!
Oh? Sunglasses?
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Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:30 pm
Crack.
He had known immediately what that sound was. Clasping one hand over his eyes as if to shield the damage from his sight, he groaned softly.
What a troublesome girl.
Yet, despite what he thought of her, he treated her with unusual patience. He didn't yell at her nor demand that she reimburse him for the cost. "Perhaps, you should stand back." He said, lightly placing a hand on her shoulder to push her back slightly instead. Crouching down, he reached over to retrieve the broken pieces. He didn't want her hands cut, nor hurt by the shards.
Silent for a few minutes, saved for the sound of his breathing, he didn't know what to say. His conversations with girls never lasted for long; they usually ended storming out. Though he never quite understood why.
".. You must have some shopping to do?" Well, girls always did.. right? "Why don't you take your books up to the cashier?" He suggested, in what he hoped was a polite tone. Sadly, polite was not a tone he could easily hope to achieve. "I can handle this, by myself." It would only take a few minutes; nothing that couldn't be done himself. Though others would beg to disagree as his house was a completely and utter mess.
All one had do was stack some books, it couldn't have been that hard, really.
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:21 am
She had topped books onto him. She had broken his sunglasses. Emily found herself if perhaps this young man was a little bit cursed? Caught in that thought, she allowed him to move her away, and start cleaning up himself. Should she call Miss Mindy about a cleansing ritual? Or maybe take him straight to a priest?
Wait, he was talking...about handling this by himself? As if this poor cursed man could handle anything right now! "Absolutely not." The maid replied with stern finality. She briskly pulled a thick ziploc baggie out of a pocket and opened it up for him to deposit the remains of his sunglasses.
"I am so very sorry, sir! I will replace them. Immediately if there is a nearby shop you'd like to visit. It will only take a minute to deal with these books, and we can go," her voice trailed off for a moment, before adding with concern, "and perhaps take care of your other problem as well."
He seemed like a pleasant man, especially in such unfortunate circumstances! It would be terrible if he met a tragic end right after their meeting.
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:39 am
Cursed. Yes, he couldn't help but to wonder that too.
Not that a cleansing ritual nor priest would have helped, as Rikhter had no faith in the supernatural. "Just a bad day." He reassured himself, as he rake hand through his hair. He preferred to believe that it was a mere coincidence.
As he continued to pick up the pieces, he had hoped that she would leave, but apparently not. She wouldn't hear of it, or so said the stern finality within her tone. To his surprise, he wasn't particularly displeased about the idea. "Hm." In comparison to some other girls he had known, it was refreshing to see a young girl take responsibility for her actions.
"Thanks." He muttered, as he deposited the broken shards carefully within the thick Ziploc baggie. As she zipped it shut tight, he proceeded to gather his books into one huge sloppy stack. Keeping a tight grip on his books, he took a standing position. Making his way towards the counter, he deposited the large pile onto the desk. "I'd like to check this out, please." While the clerk was busy at the register, he turned around with an frown and crossed arms to refocus his attention upon the girl.
As a man, he did not take well to demands. Lips parted to reveal a stern reprimand, but he was knocked speechless by her next words.
"Other problems, Miss? I wasn't aware that I had any, to speak of."
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