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 Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2024 10:51 pm
Everything hurt and even with concealer and foundation, there was still a large area that looked as if it was in shadow on her face. The bruises were rough and stung but she'd kept her head down and focused on repairs. She had lost a filling, just as she'd figured but luckily she could get in tomorrow to get that fixed. It wouldn't be silver anymore, something about new materials used for things, but she didn't mind. As long as it stopped the throbbing of having that hole in her tooth that stung every time she breathed the cold air in. Her fingers moved sluggishly as she worked on the clock that Kinsley had been watching her dabble with last time. She'd gotten the gears replaced and all the internals fixed while they were there last time so today she was working on cleaning and applying a new stain to it before fixing the backing to accommodate a new hanging slot. Normally she wouldn't have any trouble with it but her head was still hazy from the hits she'd taken. It was a blessing that nobody had come in today so she could work without talking to customers. It just seemed to drag on and even with all the clocks in her shop, she swore they were lying about how time was passing.
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 1:55 pm
Kinsey had decided to visit Luciana, he appreciated the time she was willing to allow him in her shop and at her side watching things, so rather than go home once he could no longer stay in school he headed to her shop. Pushing the door open, slowly, he took a moment to peek around. He'd yet to see any customers, but he was certain she got them, they likely all came whilst he was in school. Though shouldn't they be at work? Unless they had that sort of time on their hands, or they were retired and not working, he wished he had more time on his hands...time on his hands and the freedom to do as he pleased with that time. Eventually, he had to remind himself of that, eventually he'd be on his own and away from those who disliked him so. He wouldn't need to creep about the house and be as silent as a mouse, so he didn't garner unwanted attention and ire.
For now though he shuffled into the shop fully and headed towards the counter where she tended to work. "Kveld." While she didn't know Norwegian he didn't mind using a word here or there, as she had with Russian, it was his way of sharing something with her as well. Taking a moment to look her over, while he let his school bag land gently on the floor, Kinsey took the time to look her over. Something looked...off..darker? Like a shadow of some sort. Was it a bruise?
"It looks almost done..." Trailing off, pale eyes watching her as he spoke, he was good at observing people and was watching to see any tells, anything which might tell him what had happened.
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 7:09 pm
The sound of the door opening brought a sigh from Luciana but after seeing it was Kinsley she settled back down into her chair. At first, she nodded to their greeting and question, her jaw set as she worked through another throb in her face. "Yes, should be ready to set and dry by the end of the day." There was a slowness to how she spoke as she was careful not to open her mouth too much to agitate things. Motioning for them to sit on the stool as usual, she pulled the work lamp over a bit to work on mixing the stain. The color had been picked out between her recommendation and the ideas from the owner. It would be a nice cherry color and she didn't need to do too much mixing to get the right shade. At least normally that was how it went. Making a test swatch on a small piece of wood, she wiped it away to see it was slightly off what she wanted. That twitch in her cheek as she felt another throb using even more annoyance at this all.
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 7:37 pm
Watching he understood painting things, or staining in this case, it wasn't something he'd had to do much of but he had in the past for various small things. He did take wood shop so he'd had to work with woods and staining in that class, something he was greatful for having a clue about.
That aside he was certain now that something was wrong and her face was infact bruised. "What happened? You're injured. You're watching your facial expressions...." He was certain of it after watching how she spoke and other little movements in her face, that combined with what he'd thought was shadowing on her face. Something had happened.
"Is there anything I can get you? Something for the pain?" Assuming she might be in pain, he certainly would be.
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 8:56 pm
This kid was observant and it was annoying but as she considered what to say, a devious idea came to mind. Looking around, almost as if she was seeing to make sure nobody might walk into her shop, she then leaned close.
"My ex... well we had a falling out at the altar." Keeping the fact she'd done the more drastic thing aside, for now, she rubbed her cheek softly. "Just last night."
It was a lie, just a small one, but they knew about Rene at least a bit as she'd asked them about where things were in the city. Now she could approach that as if she was trying to find out where they went so she could avoid them. Another sigh as she pulled a wipe from beneath the counter. Dabbing it at her face, the foundation came away to show the dark purple bruising. The psycho with long hair had gotten her good but at least she'd broken his nose and maybe a tooth as well in return.
"I came here to work, not to have him cause me trouble with that new partner of theirs." That blonde had to be the new one but she hadn't been able to confirm it just yet.
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 10:28 pm
"At the altar...isn't that a bit late for a falling out?" He questioned, surprised to hear that. He wasn't surprised to hear of a falling out, he understood that those things happened, but at the altar? That was a surprising to hear. "Last night? You ran into him." A certain dawning realization came over him as he watched her remove the make up, whether that was her intention or not didn't matter.
"You both are here...why. Why is he here?" It wasn't good, obviously, for them both to be in the same city. He didn't know who came here first but she was here to work, what about the other? They had someone new, they'd moved on quickly he was going to assume, but was it the new person that brought them here?
"You ran into them by accident, where?" If it was a common place to go than it was a place she should be avoiding, clearly, and really it could just be a local popular place as well...not a place she'd know was popular with people.
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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 10:48 pm
It had been devastating, to say the least, something she was still angry over but when it really came down to it she'd almost expected it to happen. The man who'd called her princess was allergic to responsibility and doing the right thing. Even now she was sure there was something else going on but it was hard to get close on her own.
"I... I don't know really. We parted in Versailles and my family recommended I move here to expand our business." Of course, it was a lie, at least partially. While that was what she was doing, she'd followed that a*****e here to drag him back and make him do the right thing.
"I was walking over by one of the parks near the university I think.... I really can't say for sure. I was following near by some of the places you've told me about in the city." They'd done good on that so far, allowing her to get around a bit better without having to pay extra from uber drivers.
With a sigh she shook her head and stirred a bit more red into the stain before testing it again, this time it was almost perfect. It was close enough that she didn't need to worry about it once it had a few coats. The clock still had a yellowish tint to the wood even after she'd stripped the stain so it would even out in the end.
"An awful man, I really did try to fix things you know?" Mumbling as she worked on the first layer of stain on the clock, they didn't need to know how her method of fixing thing shad gone.
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Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2024 7:27 pm
"Why here? Why not another country in Europe? Or has it already expanded in Europe?" Assuming it had started in Russia, and she'd been going to marry someone in France, he wans't sure how expanded thigns were there. Was it a matter of not wanting to over saturate the market in Europe, like a chain resteraunt did? So instead of that, and putting their own stores in competition with each other where one would inevitably fail to another, move to America where they had no stores? It made sense but that was only because some stores in this country, like Walgreens, where some stores would do wel land others failed because they were too close together. He'd seen on the news that the company was facing closures of a lot of stores, he assumed that was part of the reason, too many stores and so they took from each other and some thrived and others failed...to themselves.
"I"m glad I was able to help you find your way around here better. This city can be confusing." Especially if one wasn't trhe best with English. He was certain his grandparents, when they'd first moved here, had faced similar issues. "Those are popular places...but for students typically - and professors I'd think." He was certain professors would be around there always, taking walks between classes or even relaxing at the end of the day before going home. Those parks were often full of students, day and night, he kept away from them personally. He might like to people watch but he wasn't looking to get dragged into things involving uni age males...too rough and too dumb most of the time.
"Fixing things? So you were able to contact him after he left you? I'm not sure I would...but I can't say how you felt for him either. I think I'd cut my ties and be done with it." If they cared so little what was the point in trying anymore? Why try and fix a burnt and broken bridge when you were the one to burn it? He'd never try and repair things with his family - they had destroyed everything. But he supposed not everyone could be as apathetic as he could. But he also knew the sort of person his father was, not even caring about his dying wife, so why would his father ever care about him? Oh, thinking about his own family was not a good idea, it rarely ever was, he had long ago lost the ability to cry over the loss of his father. It had been replaced by anger and apathy in equal measure.
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Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2025 7:44 pm
"America seemed the best place outside of Europe to go next, I don't like the idea of South or Central America, and the Canadians are... well it benefits my family more to look at countries known to spend more money." It wasn't false, not really, and it was the reason she'd pushed for the move with her family after everything. There wasn't much pushback, to be honest, and she was doing well enough here already aside from the less-than-normal problems that seemed to plague this city.
"It's poorly designed in my opinion, everything loops back around and the streets aren't in a proper grid. The parks are nice though, they remind me a bit of home so I like to go there." Giving a reason that would sound sincere as she rubbed her face gingerly, it really did hurt and unlike when she'd fallen on ice while learning to skate, this wasn't as quick to blow over.
Hearing Kinsley's opinion on things, she found it... odd. Not something she would have expected from someone so young but there had been hints that not everything was normal or nice for this little puppy of hers. "It was by chance I found out about his shop while looking in another antique store for a few things for my room upstairs. As for how I feel... it's very complicated..." Looking down and slightly away as she spoke, trying to make it sound more like an emotional complication even if it was very far from that.
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Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2025 10:33 am
"That does make sense...but why not also Asia? Or do they not spend as much? I'd have thought the rich there would be like...new money." That was the term, right? They even had that movie - crazy rich asians, right? So wouldn't that make some sense as well? He wasn't thinking of countries like Thailand or Vietnam, the ones that didn't have the same reputation, if that was the right word for it, as Japan or South Korea. He'd have thought China too but that country seemed to have amassed a lot of issues in recent years, human rights violations and other things, but Japan and South Korea seemed to have a good enough economy that people would spend money on such luxaries. Was it just that they didn't have enough of those people? That might be the case, he didn't know enough about such things, but he figured it was a fair question to level the other with.
He would agree with her about poor design of the cities streets but only because he lacked anything to compare it to, unlike Luciana who had other places to compare it to, as it would be a rather odd thing to lie about so it made sense that she was in fact telling the truth - the design here was poor. Maybe one day, when he was a bit older, he'd use some of his mothers money to travel a bit. It would be frevalous but perhaps he could justify it. A vacation needed after everything he'd been t hrough, after being caged up for years? Something his mother would have wanted? Maybe if he went to Norway or England he could justify it more since his mothers parents had been from those countries? It would be a trip to see where his family had come from, even if he wasn't going to go looking for any family there. He supposed that idea might be justification enough. Though he really was just justifying it to himself...but he felt liek he needed to, to explain away the spending of money on something otherwise frivalous, since the money had been a gift from his mother and he didn't want to just blow through it like some idiot. He felt like anything he did with it he'd need to explain away, so he wouldn't feel guilt. And to think...he was only a teenager, who didn't even have acess to the money yet, and he was thinking like this. He was sure this was the wrong way to think about things, a sign of some sort of issue on his part, but he felt it made sense and was the best approach to things. It was mature.
He didn't understand these complicated feelings, he wasn't the best with feelings, but that really didn't matter now did it? She felt how she did and even if it made no sense to him, and seemed irrational to him, she still didn't deserve being assaulted by him. "At least you know what shop to avoid now..." Because she needed to avoid this man, that he did know, he just wondered how else to avoid him. This city was big, yes, but it was still a risk.
"Is there anything I can do to help you?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2025 3:18 pm
"Mostly cultural differences and new money means new items not older things or repairs." It wasn't a bad idea but with how fads came and went in a lot of those countries it didn't fit her shop's model. Everything moved too fast and while she could understand it and keep up in some ways, she preferred not to.
Nodding in response, she knew she needed to avoid going to the shop again with that blonde who was there alongside her ex, probably his newest fling which wouldn't last. It didn't bother her, she knew there wasn't any feeling in the arranged marriage but it still caused issues with her trying to fix things.
Looking up at Kinsley she nodded. "Maybe if you see him, let me know. I don't think bumping into him again would be a good idea." She couldn't just ask him to spy for her but the hint was there. Shaking her head, she focused back down on the clock again.
"It'll be okay, I'm just going to be a bit slower with my work and answering questions but don't feel like you need to take a break if you don't want to see me like this."
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