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 Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 6:19 am
Bzzz! Bzzz! Weeeee-woooo-weeee-wooo!! Wowowowowow!! Wooooooooooooo~ Woooooooooooooo~
Cerulean eyes marveled at the noisy little contraption - what was it, a wannabe fire engine from another galaxy? - as one Dominic Styles held it up to the light like it was something holy and deserving of one's admiration. A little boy and a baby were staring at him, young eyes bulging with as much curiosity as the 18-year-old's, only their parents were trying to get their attention and focus so they could the hell out of the obnoxiously loud little store. Dominic, being all my his lonesome, didn't really have the luxury of getting someone to refocus his attention so he could get on home to Hillworth and get cracking on his homework.
Though that hardly ever happened in any other normal situation for the boy.
"Excuse me sir," a nasally-voiced employee finally came to him after the fifth push of the "PUSH ME FOR REAL-LIFE SOUND EFFECTS" button.
"What?" he asked, though his attention was still completely on the toy "truck."
"Are you planning on purchasing that?"
"No, but I'd like to know what it is..." Dominic replied slowly, his eyes going narrow. "It's like.. a truck, but it's not like any truck I've ever seen before. It looks similar to the car from the movie Back to the Future, but it's a truck with all those funky contraptions instead of the cool car of whatever model it was. Could you maybe expand on the idea the toymaker had for this neat little truck?"
It all came out in one big breath, almost like a computer spouting out code or an auctioneer spouting prices and current bids, leaving the employee blinking a bit curiously at the raven-haired boy. Dominic blinked back expectantly.
"Uh... come again?"
Eye twitch. "This," he start, shoving the now silent toy in the employee's face. "What do you suppose this is? Why was it made? What is it's purpose on whatever planet it supposedly hailed from? I've never seen or heard another toy like it - and I've seen a lot of toys - considering it's a truck with funny contraptions and sounds like an ambulance or fire engine or police car with the sirens blaring. I've not seen it in movies, and I've never read it in any comic book I've scanned. So!" and he paused to catch his breath. "What. Is. This?"
The employee's mouth was slightly open at this point and, although it might have been obvious to just about anyone that the employee didn't have any kind of answer, Dominic was still waiting patiently for his answer.
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:49 am
At her current age, Hafwen was already way past the prime time that most of the toys in the store she was currently in catered to. That didn't mean that some of them didn't appeal to the inner child that still resided in her heart though. Dolls with hair and clothes that changed colours when subjected to warm or cold water, furry animals that were capable of responding intelligently to interactions, robots that could transform into cars and aircrafts. Kids these days really had it way better compared to what she had access to when she was a child.
The blue-haired teen might stand out like a sore thumb among the toy store's usual patrons, but not even that would stop her from defaulting to it whenever she needed to pick up something neat for her bestie Mercy or simply feast her sights on whatever looked new and unfamiliar to her since the last time she was there. On her own of course for there were a couple of girls at Crystal who would never let her live it down if they knew of her keen interest in such things.
It wasn't often that Hafwen saw someone her age at the store much lest one creating a din, intentional or not, before one of the employees decided to do something about the less than desirable behaviour. Tailing the young employee out of sheer curiosity, she almost laughed out loud when she heard the barrage of questions the dark-haired youth in question started to bombard him with the moment he was asked of his intention in purchasing the toy. Was this guy serious? A toy was just a toy. Did it really matter if the truck didn't carry any other purpose with its design other than to draw the undivided attention of its intended clientele such that parents would be compelled to get it in the end?
"It obviously is a truck no matter how I see it." She started with a step forward such that she was now beside the momentarily speechless employee before reaching for the toy. "As for its intended purpose, it could be a generic all-purpose vehicle that could function as any of those that you have mentioned. What do you personally make of it?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 7:53 pm
His eyes had likely started boring whole into the poor employee's skull when someone - and someone that looked about his age to boot - stepped up to save him, wearing what looked liked a slightly amused expression. Almost as soon as Dominic's focus shifted from the employee to the new company, the employee rushed off on some made-up assignment or task that was somehow given to him in the time it'd taken Dominic to shut him up with his flood of almost pointless (at least to a normal-er person) questions. At her reply though, his eyes twitched again. He fought the urge to just bombard her with questions right off the bat considering she'd asked a question of her own.
"Obviously it's a truck," he retorted, not really annoyed but more as though defending his plethora of inquiries that, in the end, didn't really matter so much since he really wasn't planning on buying the damn thing anyway. "I'm not blind nor stupid, I can see that it's a truck. I'm asking for why someone thought it'd be useful or amusing or both to make a truck with all of this," and he made a funky hand gesture, something like those old-time commercials where a lady in a shmancy dress presented the item meant to be sold, to emphasize his point, "crap on it. It doesn't make any sense to me, is all. That's why I asked."
Dominic finally took a pause, long enough to realize that he was making something of a scene inside the store, and set the toy down, a dissatisfied look sprawled across his features. "Toy makers should just stick to the original things, like ball-in-a-cup. Damn thing made more sense - get the freakin' ball in the cup - than trucks with extra doodads and whistles on 'em. No wonder kids these days lose interest in toys so soon..." and he trailed off from there, a few mumbles and grumbles going unheard unless you listened really carefully.
It took a bit for him to let it go (likely for now...), but after one last exasperated sigh his attention once again returned to the girl who rescued the employee, narrowing only slightly since it was almost - almost - her fault that the guy couldn't give him a satisfactory reply. "So who are you supposed to be? The manager's daughter or something?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:27 am
It really wasn't part of Hafwen's agenda to save the employee's a**, much lest come forward and in doing so, make her presence in the shop all the more prominent when she was already trying to keep a low profile all in all. "You're right. It's not useful. Neither is it amusing." She agreed with a few nods of her head. So what drove her to do what she did in the end? Perhaps it was her inability to tolerate the noise had Dominic been allowed to resume what he was doing earlier. After all, such situations were always amusing initially until they eventually lost their novelty and were then looked upon as nothing more than a hindrance and disruption to the shop operations.
"But it attracted your attention and that of a couple of other kids when you were fiddling with it awhile ago. And that's exactly what the toy makers want so that they can stand a chance at getting parents to part with their hard earned money among all the choices that children today have among all these." She reasoned as she gestured towards the shelves and the toys arranged along them. It could also be that the questions he had posed to the employee presented an amusing situation that she couldn't simply pass up like that.
"As if. I'm just a potential customer perusing the goods that this shop has to offer. Name's Hafwen by the way. You?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 6:49 am
His irritation slowly ebbed away as Hafwen began an explanation to perhaps pacify him, or maybe to just shut him up or wipe the pissy look from his face. She succeeded somewhat, and when she was finished explaining why the truck was made the way it was he offered her a genuine smile. It was a good enough reason, and it certainly made enough sense, so the dark haired teen took it and tucked it in the recesses of his brain for reference should he come across yet another toy that he finds stupid or pointless.
"Dominic," he replied after her introduction. "And I don't usually get attracted to these kinds of toys, in case you were wondering." Well, puzzles weren't technically toys, but since for the most part he could only find them in a toy store he had to concede to categorizing them under the large umbrella term. "I'm usually uh.. well, not in this aisle. Or even this store now that I take a better look around..."
With that thought he turned his attention to his actual surroundings and sort of quirked a brow. Really, it wasn't out of the ordinary for him to somehow manage to get sucked into a random store, it just wasn't as normal for him to get sucked into a store that was clearly for those much younger than him. Soon enough his eyes found their way back to the other teen, a rather amused look on his face. "Yeah, I have no idea which store this is. Something caught my eye so I just walked in. Haha....."baby_gwing Really sorry for the late reply. Things got busy on my end 'cause of my brother's graduation. Just an FYI, I'll be gone for 3 days starting tomorrow, so definitely take your time with replying. XD;
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:41 am
With the potential disaster averted, the small crowd that had gathered around Hafwen and Dominic to watch started to disperse and resume whatever they were doing prior to the unintentionally created commotion, leaving them both to have their conversation with as much privacy as one could reasonably expect to have in a public area such as this. "Pleased to make your acquaintance Dominic." Hafwen returned the other's smile with her own, not at all the type to draw her own conclusions with regards to the kind of person the youth was based on this sole encounter that she had so far.
"You don't look like that sort of person to be honest although I suspect that the shop keep was about to call Security on you had the situation been allowed to escalate any further than that." She elaborated with a slight shrug of her shoulders, the smile she wore still on her face before that eventually shifted to one of curiosity at his explanation of how he had landed himself up in that situation in the first place. "So... does this kind of thing happen to you often? Do you need help getting back to what you were doing before all this happened?" She started making her way slowly towards the shop exit as she spoke, her head tilted to the side a little at Dominic almost as if she was expecting him to follow her lead. Well, he did say that he had no business with this particular store in the first place so they might as well adjourn to another spot lest they ran into other problems.
_ p a o cx Sorry for taking so long to tag back. orz
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Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:18 pm
She spoke pretty formally, he thought while nodding a bit to acknowledge the fact that he felt the same way. Perhaps from a family concerned with formality and politeness? Really he could only speculate, but he neither voiced his thoughts or made any indication that he was having them at that very moment. Not that it mattered all that much, but he was curious about it since not many teenagers spoke that way. He certainly didn't, despite his father's efforts.
"Uh, thanks?" came his reply, and with a little laugh, too. "Yeah, I've been tossed out of my fair share of stores 'cause of this habit of mine," he continued, shrugging. Her next question got his mind turning a bit, and he tried remember what exactly he'd been doing before he found his way inside the store.
"I don't think I was doing anything important," the teen said slowly, "but I don't remember what it was exactly." Dominic started absentmindedly following her as she moved toward the exit, eyes narrowing in concentration as he tried to remember. When he couldn't squint anymore, he simply shrugged and decided to take her up on her offer. "I guess I could use the help, and the company wouldn't be so bad." He took a few steps to catch up to her, but stopped when he was beside her and gave her a thoughtful look.
"You said you were looking at the stuff here though, didn't you? I can wait for you if you want."
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Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:53 am
Hafwen? Polite and formal? Hah! Close friends of hers, including her bestie Mercy, would know that she was far from that and that this was merely a temporary front on her part as a result of how she was taught to carry herself all courtesy of her education at Crystal Academy to make her a prim and proper young lady. Not that she herself was all for the idea, but she didn't see herself as having a choice in the matter if she wanted to remain a model student and keep her scholarship.
She stepped out of the shop, making sure that they were properly out of earshot of its workers before stopping to wink and give him a toothy grin. "Always good to think out of the box though you might want to try a different way of going about it, lest you find your name and picture plastered on the walls of all the toy shops in Destiny City like a wanted man." Smiling wider, she laughed good-naturedly at the image that came to her mind if what she just described really came to pass. Potential toy shop poster boy of the year. Dominic looked like he could handle something like that, especially with that small goatee patch of his.
"Seems that way to me. We could walk around the area for a bit. See if anything familiar jogs your memory or until you grow sick of having me around." Gesturing towards the other shops, she took a brief moment to look around them for a bit, trying to see if there was anything specific that they could use to start with before shaking her head at his next question. "Nah I'm good. I was just browsing really."
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:52 pm
"That actually sounds pretty cool," the youth said with a grin, though in actuality it'd probably be something of a nightmare. If he were banned from all the toy shops, where in the heck would he go to buy more Rubik's cubes!? Granted, it was a pretty funny mental picture, so he laughed alongside Hafwen and quickly freed his bicycle before starting to following his newly found company. Pushing his form of transportation along did help remind him that he'd come from school, but then.. well, his uniform would have told him just as much.
They were passing down Main Street, he noted, what with all the familiar shops lining the street. Now that didn't help narrow down the search for what he was actually planning on doing that day. Main Street usually had a bunch of shops on it that he went to on a semi-regular basis, but he kept on trying to remember while at the same time maintaining conversation so as to avoid having awkward silences and things of that nature settle in.
"So," he started as they went. "Do you normally swoop down and rescue employees from pesky potential customers like me?" Dominic was smiling, rather amused at the memory of the employee's face before Hafwen came and let him get away. "Or was he just lucky this time around?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 5:05 am
Not really in any real hurry to go anywhere for once, Hafwen allowed Dominic to take the lead in deciding which way they should go, a wistful look crossing her face when she realized which school he was from the moment her gaze took in the uniform he was wearing. Hillworth had quite a reputation in the city. In fact, so much so that some of the girls from Crystal and the boys from Azure Valley had taken to referring to it as the school of hard knocks.
Not that that mattered or bothered the blue-haired teen the slightest though, having had her fair share of name calling and stereotyping from some of the students at Meadowview at some of the citywide sports events just because she donned a Crystal uniform. Such silly and petty behaviour that she would never allow herself to lapse into really.
Walking alongside the dark-haired youth, she gave him all the time he needed to concentrate on the task at hand, not at all bothered by the silence falling between them since she figured that some people would require that in order to help focus their thoughts at times like this. She returned his smile with one of her own, amusement written all over her face at the question he posed as she shook her head. "Not really. Then again, I guess it's pretty hard to tell until I come across another similar incident." She gave him a wink at that, laughing softly for a bit before tentatively pointing to his uniform. "I see that you're from Hillworth. How's it like? Is it a rough kind of place like what most people said?"
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Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 5:33 am
Nothing really helped to jog his memory of recalling what exactly he was up to before he'd found his way into that toy shop and scrutinizing that particular toy. It kind of bothered him, though he was almost used to it by now. Honestly, he considered his scatter-brained nature kind of charming, albeit inconvenient. A friend once told him that it gave him a "lost, puppy dog" vibe, and then ever so vaguely hinted at how this sort of things really works with girls; Dominic didn't really buy it and, although this time around it seemed to catch Hafwen's attention, his opinion on the matter didn't really change. What self-respecting guy would want to naturally look like a lost puppy anyway?
Her response kept the smile on his face. "Ten bucks says it'll still be me you're rescuing that second employee from," the boy said with a bit of a laugh. True enough, he'd harassed more than his fair share of employees. At her following comment, he kind of glanced down and his clothes. "Yeah, I guess I am," Dominic replied with a shrug, his expression suddenly dropping to a frustrated sort of grimace. By now he was used to being asked about what his school was like since he wore his uniform practically everywhere on school days. "Uh, it's.. well, they're harder on us in a way? Not really sure how to explain it. Not a place for 'fun' though, I'll say that much."
Considering the topic, he glanced over at Hafwen and noted that, like most normal people, she wasn't wearing a uniform, so he thought to bounce the question back just to keep the conversation going. He was interested, mind you, but while they were talking his mind was also still trying to figure out what his actual destination was earlier. "How 'bout you?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 2:47 pm
"We'll see if lightning strikes twice in your case." Hafwen couldn't really help laughing if Dominic chose to put things that way though that almost immediately died down the moment she saw the shift of expression on his face next. It seemed like a harmless enough question to her. One that was bound to surface given the uniform that he wore plus she had always been curious as to the kind of people that ended up there.
"I see. Has it always been like that to you, or is it just the school in question that's making you feel this way?" It wasn't her intention at all to make him uncomfortable or self conscious with the direction the conversation was going so she froze for an entirety of two seconds when he bounced the question back to her, a small smile crossing her face as she lifted a hand to lightly scratch her cheek before giving him her answer.
"Crystal Academy. That's where I'm from though not by birthright or silver spoon right since I'm one of those who got lucky enough to land up there with a scholarship. Supposed to make me a prim and proper lady but can't say that I'm terribly interested in that if it involves making sure that my nails are shiny and buffed at all times."
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Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:26 am
It was a harmless question, sure, but the topic of Hillworth was still something rather sore for the dark-haired teen. It brought along with it memories of his father, after all, which usually left his mood rather sour. He hoped that wouldn't be the case this time around, especially since Hafwen had offered to help him with such a vague sort of task. "Just the school, I think. My last school was alright. I'm happy to be graduating soon, at least." The teen paused then, and amended the statement. "I uh, hope."
Brief and to the point, which was perfect. Dominic was glad for the shift in topic to her school this time. He was kind of surprised to learn that she was a Crystal girl, but after she finished speaking he couldn't help but be amused by her attitude toward the whole thing. Coming from a well-to-do family, he was familiar with the sorts of girls that possibly lived in that kind of society. At least, he used to be back at his old school.
"Nice," the boy replied, in the end still impressed that she'd gotten in on a scholarship. "Never mind the prim and proper crap," Dom went on, his smile back. "It's still a good school, right? I mean, they're good at something. All the school around here seem to have some kind of specialty." The conversation was slowly making him forget what it was he'd been doing before the toy store.baby_gwing Just hitting this tag how many months later. XD; In case you wanna finish it.
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Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:34 am
Hafwen pursed her lips together. "Hope? Which subjects are you having difficulty with clearing?" It was a natural progress of the conversation on her part really. If someone said that they were experiencing difficulties with something, it was natural that she would want to find out more about it and see if she could offer some assistance or advice on the matter. Even if it would be regarded as unwelcome unsolicited advice on Dominic's part.
"It is. The academic program is pretty solid I must say so it works out nicely for a Plan B if I don't manage to secure a sports scholarship for college which is what I'm aiming for." She shared, half expecting what she said to be met with surprise since sports scholarships were usually thought to be a last resort for kids who couldn't get into college on the merit of their academic grades alone. She knew very well where she stood in terms of her own academic scoresheet and if Dominic thought any less of her without bothering to clarify why she wanted to go for that, well that's just too bad then.
"So... where are you off to if you manage to graduate eventually?"
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 12:50 pm
He wasn't expecting her to be concerned about what subjects he was possibly failing. Possibly, only because he was lacking a few homework assignments and was simply far from a model student. Still, he wasn't doing so terrible that he was absolutely certain that there was no way he'd graduate by the end of the school year. "Yeah, hope. I'm a little behind on a few homework things, but I think I can manage to catch up if I'm given the chance..." he replied, though he knew it didn't really answer her question.
The conversation pressed on, and he nodded while wheeling his bike absently beside him, eyes on his new acquaintance. The Sports Scholarship things was a little surprising, but in truth Dom had a feeling there was simply more to it than that. It was a little hard to believe that any Crystal girl would just leave their academic performance to the slaughter in favor of sports.
"Seems like you've got a pretty good idea about where you wanna be going," he said, letting the pause after her question draw out a little bit before giving his reply. "Probably DCU for general classes until I can figure stuff out."
He paused again, his eyes catching on a passing car and the shiny bauble it had swinging in its rear window. "You're trying to get in on a sports scholarship, but do you have a major figured out already, too?"baby_gwing Apologies for the double quote. Fixed some coding. xP;
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