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 Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 12:05 am
 It had been yet another grueling day at the bakery. The weather happened to be such that several characters had dropped by for either shelter from the cold or something to eat. But no matter the reason, every last one of them left the shop feel happily full. It was a guarantee of the shop, after all, that every customer would leave content.
What hardly anyone ever saw were the skilled bakers in the kitchen making the bread and assorted sweets the customers loved to consume. One baker in particular, who had worked the hardest during the busiest time, was now taking his break. Royce was never one to complain but as he took his sweet roll and hot chocolate in silence he could not help but roll his stiffening shoulders. His body was tired, but at least now it was time for him to pretend just to be a customer to listen in on what everyone was saying about the bakery.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 1:10 am
 "Dude. You smell like cupcakes."
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Abby had been in the bakery for at least an hour, sitting off to the side from the main stream of customers and trying to keep from being trampled. It wasn't really so bad a deal for her. She got to observe everything going on inside the store, look out the window to observe outside the store when the inside got a bit slow, and she got to stay warm and comfy while doing it.
Well, not that cold really bothered her all that much. Actually she enjoyed a brisk day, as it made warm and comfy places all that much more warm and comfortable.
Maybe the main part of the draw was in the smell. She was always reminded of Mygith, and his seemingly obsessive love of sushi. Oh, she'd laughed and dismissed it as a weird quirk to fluffy bears, then went on with her day. Then, the day she first set foot in the bakery, she felt like she kinda understood.
Nothing could entice Abby to sit in one spot, behaving and having relatively normal conversations, for over an hour a day over an indeterminate span of days. Nothing....except the smell of fresh-baked bread.
Gods, she was gonna turn into a housewife Noodle, wasn't she? How could the smell of baked goods make her, an adventurer, go all warm and gooey inside. Puh-lease!
And then this guy comes waltzing past her with a sweet roll and hot chocolate, practically mainstreaming the smell of breads, and sits right behind her! It would have driven her nuts to just sit there with that guy radiating the smell of baked goodness; she'd probably have broken down and licked him just to see if he tasted like how he smelled. Yea, that hadn't gone so well the last time...
_________________________________
Abby waited for the male's response, her head slightly cocked to one side, nose twitching. Gods, the smell was even stronger when she was facing him!
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:03 pm
It took all of Royce's strength not to jump out of his fur when he was suddenly addressed. He was not used to getting noticed and almost wasn't sure if he had been. Glancing around, however, he saw the female staring right at him. She even seemed to still be smelling him. Royce felt his skin crawl. It was almost as if she wanted to eat him.
It's just because I smell like... cupcakes, Royce reasoned with himself. He forced himself to smile as he replied to the customer. "I suppose I would after frosting most of the morning." Royce nodded to himself at the memory of the activity. He had spent at least five hours straight decorating a simple birthday cake that had been ordered earlier in the week. "I hope I'm not troubling you with my smell. I know that sometimes it can be invading and distracting..."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:23 pm
"Well that depends on your definition of trouble, and whether or not you think the words invading and distracting apply to that definition," Abby responded. "Sometimes a bit of distraction is a good time, and I think I would be perfectly happy with a cupcake invasion. Well, a good cupcake invasion. Cruddy ones that are burnt on the bottom or half raw wouldn't be a very tasty invasion."
Abby fell silent for a moment, painting herself a rather colorful mental picture of an invasion of evil cupcakes. Heck, they probably wouldn't even be cupcakes at all. More like evil muffins trying to take over the world. How did one go about combating an evil muffin? She'd ask the cupcake-scented man, but she really was trying to cut down on the number of people who thought she was bat-s**t crazy from only the first meeting.
.....And how the heck was poop from a bat insane? Okay, her thoughts were getting totally off topic now.
Abby turned back to the male, interest piqued by something he said. "Frosting cupcakes. So you work here?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 12:38 am
"Hmm" Royce said as he pondered her statement but found himself distracted by her continuing rant. Truth be told, he found it a bit off-putting at first, until he allowed his own mind to wander down that trail. A cupcake invasion? That would be a good day in most regards. An easy enough battle to win so long as there weren't too many guilt-ridden foxes that couldn't stand the thought of eating a conscious cupcake. It also would depend on if the cupcakes were even edible. "You have a point," Royce muttered under his breath.
Royce had to once again resist the urge to twitch when the girl asked him a question. His mouth was already open to respond before his brain could catch up with what he was saying. "Yes, for about half a year now." Royce visibly winced once he realized what he had said. Damn. He had given himself away so quickly. Why did she have to know just the right question to ask? There went his chance to get to know her objective opinion on the food.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 1:39 pm
"Really? I've never seen you before this. Have I?" Abby stopped to think about it. She'd was pretty sure she'd remember a white coat and arm patterns like gingerbread. "Nope, never seen you before. I've been in here before, haven't I?" More thinking. Usually she just hung around the shop to sniff the bread smells, which were fairly potent even outside. How many times had she actually come in the bakery? Five sounded about right, but it was too pointy. Six sounded better. "Yes, a few times before this."
Abby turned her attention back to the male. "You're pretty skinny for a dude who works in a bakery. If it were me I think I'd eat so much that I'd explode, or turn into a cake myself." She looked down at all her vibrant colors. "Huh. Bet I'd make an interesting cake. Maybe even a tasty one, but interesting and tasty don't always work together."
She quickly stored the thought away for later comtemplation, otherwise she'd start putting a ton of detail on the mental image of her cake self.
"So, you enjoy frosting cupcakes and doing whatever else it is you do? What all do you do? Oh," she added, as the thought suddenly occured to her, "my name's Abby. What's your name, mister cupcake-smell?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:19 am
Royce smiled, amused by the girl's chattering ways. "I normally stay in the back. I only come up front to have my break but I try not to sit in the same spot." He didn't bother to explain further as the other continued her thoughts.
"You would make a very pretty cake, with high chances of tasting good." Royce blushed, annoyed he wasn't unable to just go with a simple compliment. Turns out, it counted as a lie to not fully speak your mind. "I, however, tend to moderate my sweet in-take. I eat only what I make or get straight from a garden." Thankfully that sounded more like a conscious health choice rather than the paranoia it was.
"Hmm," Royce intoned again as he thought about his duties. "Well, I'm responsible for sweet rolls and banana bread most days. When we get orders for cakes, I am allowed to decorate them because I have a steady paw." He held out his paw as if to demonstrate. "Oh, and I'm Royce." The paw tilted and stretched farther, now being offered to shake paws since it was out there already.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:49 am
Abby frowned at the proferred paw. Shaking was just so....civilized and proper. Gave her the collywobbles. Normally she'd just ignore the paw since she didn't care if she seemed rude (actually she sometimes encouraged that particular impression), but it didn't seem right not to give Royce some kind of acknowledgement.
"Totally awesome to meet you, Royce," she said, smacking his paw like a low-five then doing a fist bump. That felt much better than a handshake.
"Many thanks for the compliment about my taste, though I give you the right to change your mind at any point of our association." She grinned cheekily at him, shaking back a lock of her bangs with a flick of her head.
"So you only eat what you make or grow? Way smart, you never know who might be sneaking around with a bottle or packet of something nasty. Not that that stops me from eating stuff I don't make myself, but that's the start of a rambling sentence that might usually makes people back away from me like they think I'll bite. Which I do, but not without a reason."
Actually when she stopped to think about it, she hadn't bitten anyone in quite a long time. Huh, maybe she should order herself a treat or something as a reward later.
"So if you eat what you make, you must make something besides sweet rolls and banana bread. That stuff can make you pretty fat if you eat it a lot."
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:15 pm
Royce had noticed Abby's hesitation to take his paw and started to regret the action. Perhaps she thought he would be sticky. It would make sense considering what he was eating. However, just as he was about to retract his paw, Abby smacked it and then bumped their fists together all to accompany her greeting. "Oh, uh, yes. It is nice to meet you (so far) as well." His paw stung, unused to such abuse, but he bit down on his tongue to keep from verbalizing a complaint. She hadn't asked him about it; he didn't need to tell her.
"I'm sure I won't retract it. You have a strong and happy personality, so you'd have a strong and happy flavor, I'm sure." Another blunt statement that probably gave too much credit to Abby's wandering thoughts. "I'd like think that is how flavors work." Her grin was infectious and caused Royce to smile back despite himself.
For some reason, hearing that Abby also thought the same paranoid thoughts as he did, Royce found himself relax. He hadn't realized he had been sitting so rigidly, but having released his muscles now, he felt better. Royce was even able to genuinely laugh as Abby mentioned her rambling being off-putting, "You are a bit hard to keep up with, but I'm more amused than afraid. I'm not worried you're going to bite me."
Turning back to the real topic, Royce nodded in agreement. "Yes, I would get fat only eating bakery stuff. This is why I cook other things at home. I usually make stew, though, as it is the easiest."
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:26 pm
"Well my thoughts have never been on a train track. Or maybe they are, but it's a train that can go backwards and forwards and the track has a ton of turn-offs and loops and such. That alone might not be so weird, but I guess I vocalize more of my thoughts than I should."
Abby shrugged, looking unconcerned. That was just who she was, and if it was a part about her that put people off, well then they probably wouldn't have gotten along in the end anyway.
Royce didn't seem to mind too much, and Abby was kind of curiousity to see if he stayed like that or eventually decided she was a nut and would start to avoid her. She'd probably have to come back to chat again to find out.
"Stew. You know, I don't think I've had that before. Don't think I've ever cooked before either, when it comes down to it. Usually I eat raw, whatever I can find or hunt up." She gestured a paw to the shop interior of the bakery. "This is still something of a new experience for me."
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:24 am
"I can tell," Royce said as he hoped his smile would keep Abby from feeling offended. "Your thoughts are interesting, though, and provide a different way of seeing the world. Is it difficult for you to keep track of your own thoughts?" Royce was surprised he had taken the chance to ask a question in return. He felt the urge to even the field and his only way of doing so was to ask some questions of his own.
Royce surprised to hear that Abby was not one for the urban life. "My brother and I were abandoned in another city, so I'm used to living with kitchens in which to cook." It was very easy to tell how aghast Royce was with himself once he was done talking. "Ah! But we were taken in by a mentor so we were just fine! I learned to cook-- andsteal-- to help pay for our boarding... I'm self taught and my stew isn't too good, but it is full of chicken and vegetables. It is hearty and good for you..." Royce's voice had steadily become a ramble as he tried to stop himself from saying to much but also wanting to explain things better.
"I'm so sorry." Royce covered his face with his paws, unwilling to show his humiliation to Abby. "Is it possible for you to pretend you didn't hear any of that?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:02 am
"That depends," Abby said, eyes rolled skyward with a thoughtful expression on her face, obviously going through something in her mind. "To answer your first question, I actually don't lose track of my thoughts. That implies a straight, forward motion in which branching off to a different though causes you to lose the track you were on. I understand what you were getting at, though."
She aborted her skyward stare to look at Royce, and smiled. "I have an excellent memory. Part of what gets me into so much trouble, I expect. As thoughts go through my head I either pursue them or make note of them, to explore at a more pertient time so I can pay better attention to what's going on around me. Some of my thoughts are silly little frivolities that don't need further exploration, and get stored away in my memory.
Which," Abby added, tapping her claws lightly on the table, "bring us to your second question. I could pretend I didn't hear anything you said, but since I did hear it chances are I'll bring it up at some point. And since we'll be pretending you didn't tell me any of that, well then I suppose I'll look like a right stalker, so I would."
Abby was silent for a moment, then, "Odd phrase isn't it, right stalker? Right as opposed to what? A wrong stalker, or a left stalker? Or not being a stalker at all, since I'm given to understand adding "right" in front of a word just gives it some extra emphasis."
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Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:16 am
Royce sighed before finally lowering his paws. His smile, though often seen as real, was clearly forced. "I guess it wouldn't be right of me to lay all that out there and then ask you to ignore it." Royce took a shuddering breath and attempted to collect himself. "It's fine that you remember and might mention it again, but I hate that I told you. I do not like relating my life's story to others. At least I did not tell you too much." He had to bite his tongue again to keep himself from continue down that trail.
Royce decided it would be best to quickly change the topic and switched to Abby's off-hand comment, "I don't think I've ever hear 'right stalker' before, to be honest." Royce shrugged, not sure if it would be weird that he hadn't. "But the phrase does sound odd to me. Perhaps it's an oxymoron?" Royce paused as he thought on it and then suddenly bonked his forehead.
"Wait, I have heard something like that before. A while back a customer called our busboy a 'right idiot'. I just hadn't thought of it at first." Royce's smile was now more genuine as he finally felt 'in-the-loop', so to speak. "Though it is a strange thing that adding 'right' would give an adjective more prominence."
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Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:24 am
Abby acknowledged the subject change with the tiniest of nods and a knowing look in her eyes. She couldn't rightly blame Royce for wanting to keep some things that happened in the past secret. She kept her own past fairly secret, when she wasn't making vague references.
Not that she wasn't going to try to ask more questions. She'd just have to do it later.
"My guess is it's cultural," she said, going back to their conversation. "Aliens, or maybe just a different country. Not as exciting as aliens-," she frowned a tad, "-but a bit more believable, I suppose.
You know-," Abby added, making yet another of her subject jumps, "-if you don't wanna eat that stuff, I will. It's gonna get cold soon." She gestured towards the hardly touched sweet roll and hot chocolate, still sitting on the table.
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:47 pm
Royce convulsed suddenly before emitting a chuckle that lasted awhile. Once he was calmed, he wiped the tears that had leaked from his cheeks and glanced at the food Abby was now indicating. "Oh, right!"
He snatched up a fork from the table and carefully divided the sweet roll in half. "Would you like half?" He pushed the plate toward Abby so that she could pick first if she so chose. "I normally can't eat the whole thing by myself and end up saving the rest for dessert later in the day." While waiting for her to chose, Royce licked the fork clean and returned to the other topic.
"Aliens would be far more interesting," he agreed, the twinkle of laughter still in his eyes. "But definitly not a sound hypothesis. The girl I heard it from had an accent similar to that of the (British), but obviously tainted by years of being here.... Do you recall where you first heard it?" Royce took a sip of his hot chocolate, not bothering to offer to share it as well since there was no logical way.
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