Welcome to Gaia! ::

At the antiques shop known as Johnny Zeitgeist, Emry was helping a customer carry a large, standing mirror wrapped in foam padding and plastic to their minivan.

The white-haired boy had been only slightly more encouraging than usual when the customer had originally expressed interest in the mirror. But that was natural now that mirrors had become a secretly more important part of his life.

They were just finishing up now, carefully sliding the mirror into the back of the minivan.

After seeing the customer off, Emry turned around and was surprised to see Isha waiting for him.

"Hello! I always have time for a customer and right now you're the only one here. I do have someone coming in about an hour to pick up a set of chairs, though introductions shouldn't take that long. I'm Emry. Emry Farwood."

He held the shop's door open for Isha to enter first.

"A vase big enough for sunflowers, hmm? That also means you'll need a vase that is meant to hold water."

He pointed to a large floor vase with several decorative holes making a latticework of the sides.

"So not that one."

He looked around, thinking. Not answering the question about having time for friends was intentional, but he did his best to just seem distracted. Emry didn't quite understand what friends were and, as far as he was aware, he didn't have any. Certainly friends weren't something that happened after just one, even two meetings, right? Besides, he was pretty sure he didn't have time for friends, anyway. Between work, school, environmental activism and being a senshi, friends just weren't in the picture.

"I think we have at least two that could work, though. One's a Tiffany."

He pulled out a large pyxis, about two feet high. It was bright blue at the base, giving way to a motif of peacock feathers at the top. It sat in a metal base shaped into a pair of golden peacocks.

Turning, Emry pointed to a twenty-inch straight vase painted with roses and hollyhocks sitting on a pedestal.

"And then there's that one, which looks Picard-style, but I'd have to check the books to be sure. I can look around for some others. I thought we had a French colonial one, but we might have sold it on one of my days off."

"Mirrors are all over the place. What size do you need?"

Emry wasn't quite sure why Isha needed a mirror next to some sunflowers, but it sounded like either a composition or an interior decoration issue.

The comparison to Alice in Wonderland managed to lure a small, amused smile from Emry.

He checked the tag on the Tiffany vase and walked over to the counter and opened the record book to the appropriate page, just to have it available.

"Let me know if you see any other vases you might like. There could be some others around. There should be a couple standing mirrors by the dresses and another by the doll shelf."

He pointed to both locations, neither of which were too far from where the two were standing.

"Er....are your parents okay with you inviting an adult over?"

Emry hadn't really associated with any high school-aged kids or younger between his high school graduation and meeting Isha. He hadn't even spoken with any of the younger members of the Dark Mirror Court.

Not that Isha's invitation didn't sound enticing. All that nature!

Emry looked doubtful, but he bit.

"How long will the garden be....peaking? The next few days are pretty busy for me. Would next week be too late?"

He grabbed a rag and some dust polish from behind the counter and began dusting a rocking chair.

"So sometime next week, then. If you give me your phone number also, I can call ahead."

As he ducked into the back room to grab some plastic and foam wrap, Emry made a mental note to check his schedules later to see when he would actually be free. He returned and set the wrapping supplies down so that he could first check the tag on the mirror. He ran his fingers over the flower motif. Ever since he had awoken as a Dark Mirror Senshi, he had taken time to familiarize himself with all of the mirrors that came through the shop. He found that draining a person's energy while in their own home reduced the chances of being interrupted.

"So this mirror and the Tiffany vase."

It was a statement which requested verification. The white-haired boy went back to the record book to find the entry for the mirror.

"Neither of these have a story to them, like the teacups."

He was pretty sure that wouldn't bother Isha. Emry just liked to see the stories the old things had to tell.

Emry rang up the cost of the items and returned to the duty of preparing them for travel.

"I agree, it's a nice mirror. You don't often find many of the surviving large ones with that sort of woodwork. Could you pass me that tape?"

He pointed to a spool of tape he had set on a table behind Isha.

"How would you say flowers have become important to you recently? Because of the flower arranging? Oh!"

He went to the counter again, checked the book, then opened up a filing cabinet and pulled out an envelope.

"This goes with the vase. Documentation to verify that it's a Tiffany. Make sure the stories you make are properly documented. It makes the research easier."

That last part may have been a joke. It was hard to tell with Emry. He handed off the envelope.

Emry slid the two now-bundled packages out of the way, just in case any new customers walked in. Many customers were often in a hurry, which is why he learned to wrap items as quickly as he had.

"Anyone else have hydrangeas or do I have a monopoly on that? Or were you just talking about flowers in general?"

He looked at the address that the younger boy had written for him and tried to remember if there were any bus routes in the area.

"The stories that are remembered are the one's that impact the world around you, for good or for bad."