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Not too far from Destiny City University in a well-traveled part of town was a building which had survived since the 1870s. The building housed three storefronts. The one on the left had the benefit of being on the street corner and was currently a French bakery and cafe. The one on the right was currently empty, but still displayed a sign for the film-development studio whose owner had finally accepted the fact that the age of digital photography had won.

The sign which hung above the store in the middle read "Johnny Zeitgeist" in gold lettering on garish purple and beneath that it read "Antiques & Collectibles". It's windows certainly displayed antiques, but the collectibles in question where still a mystery.

Inside, the store was currently devoid of customers and the only soul present was the part time help, Emry Farwood. Most of the bookkeeping had been taken care of earlier that day and the book he currently working in was his sketchbook for school.

Setting his sketchbook aside, the white-haired boy waved deeper into the store.

"Most of the dishware is back there, just past those two grandfather clocks, though some pieces are scattered about in the displays. Did you have anything specific in mind?"

Emry was quite aware that it was unlikely a teenager would anything more specific in mind than "teacup", but he wasn't sure how trustworthy Isha was and wanted to make sure the kid knew that he would be paying attention. Antique mirrors were strategically positioned around the store so that Emry could see everything anyway.

"There are busy days and there are slow days, but it's slow enough that I can typically handle my shifts alone and get some classwork done on the side."

Emry took note of the fact that Isha was not pawing at all the merchandise and relaxed slightly. Slightly. This store was his duty and he must remain vigilant!

At the request to see his drawing, Emry flipped the sketchbook around to display a roughly penciled cluster of flowers and a photo reference clipped to the top which showed that the blossoms were a light blue.

"I saw these flowers in a garden last week and took a photo. Photos aren't ideal, but I'm not going to lurk in some stranger's garden while I sketch their flowers. I'm planning to use this sketch for my next woodblock."

The mention of any of Destiny City's high schools was lost on Emry as he was not a native either. He only came here for the university.

An eyebrow did raise, however, at an odd phrase. The phrase itself wasn't odd, really, so much as the lack of context.

"Your...list?"

He would have left it at that, but he was genuinely curious about this florist.

"I sketch in nature preserves and parks on my days off, but knowing a good flower shop would be good for a rainy day. Could I get his name and address off you?"

Emry tapped his pencil on his sketchbook a couple times as Isha expressed his confusion.

"As in printing, though there is technically some carving involved. With wood block printing, you use a block of wood and carve what you want the white space to be out of the surface. The remaining surface gets the ink. if you want a picture with multiple colors, you need multiple blocks of wood and all the carvings need to be lined up perfectly."

He gestured to the picture.

'I'd like to get two blues, two greens and a sepia in this one."

Glancing over the list, Emry noticed one listing that seemed, perhaps, oddly translated.

"What is 'playing on music in water'?"

He finished scanning the list.

"And are you really going to prepare shrines to yourself or is that one of the one's you're skipping? Still, sixty-four is quite a list - and you've already learned how to mount jewels and basic mechanics? Some of these skills are pretty diverse. Er.....what sort of victory did you learn how to attain?"

He glanced down at his sketch. Emry was never really good at taking compliments, so he usually ignored them.

"It will be a lot of work. I can try to save some by using the same block for some layers by cutting away what I want to remain the first color before I print the second. But that will really limit how many prints I can make. It's really easy to make mistakes in the printing process, so I'd like to try making blocks for all of the colors."

"I haven't decided what to do with the print blocks when I'm done with them. Some printmakers break their print blocks to prevent people from printing more; sort of a way to keep the supply limited. Still, most printmakers have to make several prints of the same series just to make sure they have a good one. Sometimes many more, if they want to sell a bunch."

Emry frowned at the offer of flowers. It's not that he wasn't grateful for the offer, but the idea of a high school kid bringing him flowers at work was just...weird.

"No, that's alright. I should really check out the flower shop myself, anyway. You could help me, though, if you can identify this flower."

He indicated the photo which, to someone who knew flowers which were currently in season and popular among gardeners and landscapers in the area (and quite likely florists), was obviously a hydrangea. The fact that it was blue implied the soil it was growing in had a high amount of aluminum.

"I should probably know what it's called, if I'm going to title the print."

"Thanks."

Emry jotted down the spelling of the blue flower.

The Indian magnolia was not the color he was expecting...the color he had recently become familiar with. But he wasn't so unfamiliar with flowers that he was confused. He knew not all roses were red.

"It is unfortunate that it this flower doesn't grow around here, but we have to be careful when we bring foreign plants to ecosystems where they are not native. Plants like kudzu, honeysuckle and wild roses were brought to the Americas for their beauty and aroma, but now they are choking out native species. In some places, even food plants such as blackberries and raspberries have destroyed some of the ecosystems they invaded."

He continued to browse through the photos on the phone as he lectured and as the boy wandered off to check on the teacups.