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 Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 3:27 pm
Star Festival, Eles learned, meant limited-edition items throughout the Destiny City limits. Be it food, charms, limited-run clothing, rugs, decor, cat collars, boba teas, telescopes — the entrepreneurs in the town found ways to manufacture artificial scarcity and take its magically oppressed citizens for everything they were worth.
Or so Eles liked to tell himself while he shopped shrewdly in the art store for their Star Festival sales. He had a project to do, and he wouldn't tolerate mediocrity because he skipped out on buying some critical supplies. The intended recipient would likely feel the same way. And while the majority of the project would be open sourced from one reliable delivery boy, the rest had to be of his own making.
He had the fishing line and the power drill, having bought them at a hardware store earlier in the day. In his handbasket sat a load of cheap black picture frames, probably more Xacto knives than he would need, a couple wood blocks, a collection of inks, a mirror, some brackets, and a set of bolts, washers, and screws. Distantly, he thought he might look like a serial killer with such a collection of stuff, but this was an art store. Everyone would understand the eclectic needs of inspiration, or whatever.
Eles joined the line with a soft huff. Seemed like they just hired a new cashier for how backed up the line was; he'd never had to stand on the stairs to the second ******** floor before. And as he peered down at the lone cashiering station from his vantage point, he saw the manager looking quite harried while trying to teach this fresh youth how to brave the horrors of retail.
Eles smiled faintly. At least someone was suffering for his inconvenience.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 11:13 pm
It had been too long since Rowan had indulged her artistic side. Well, her visually artistic side anyway, her fingers ached from the hours of practice she’d put in the previous evening. Even if she wasn’t frantically trying to master some of the more difficult songs she could find to show that she deserved her spot in the graduate program, she wasn’t about to make her debut as a music teacher caked in rust. Still, some charcoal on her fingers and some new pastels would do her good. Self-care. Right. Laurel and Willow were still making a point to call every night to make sure she’d hadn’t gotten eaten, or stabbed, or something worse they hadn’t considered. They were also calling to make sure that she was home at least some of the time. The absurdity of expecting their highly strung younger sister to regularly forego her patrols in favor of remaining within the relative bubble wrap of her apartment wasn’t lost on them, but that didn’t stop them from trying. Joining the lengthening line she felt a great deal of sympathy for the sole cashier. Staring down a crowd of impatient customers from under the watchful eye of an apparently very attentive manager was not a position she found enviable. Turning her attention to the line ahead of her she recognized the young man she’d helped rescue that cat. She hadn’t gotten his name, but she was glad to see he was still in one piece and hadn’t encountered who or whatever left the cat’s human in the state he was. Why he chose to take off when she called 911 was another matter, maybe he had warrants out, maybe he was just nervous about the situation in general. She couldn’t exactly blame him. It would be nice if she’d been able to catch his name at least. Leaning forward slightly, hopefully enough to get his attention without startling him, she gave him a slight wave. Verbal conversation was out of the question, at least on his end from what she could tell, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t say hi.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2025 3:41 pm
Eles had continued staring at the cashier with increased expectation until he began to zone out. It didn't seem to matter any; the cashier wasn't moving any faster and was starting to lock up as they cracked under the pressure.
A shift in his periphery broke the spell and Eles turned his head, then sighted Rowan among the line. He flashed her a pleasant half-smile, then gestured for the person behind him to swap spots so he could join her in their shared queue from hell. Anything was more interesting than listening to a few Beleaguered Boomers near the front of the line yell at the cashier, followed by the cashier's voice becoming increasingly tight while asking for their patience.
Setting his basket down, Eles fished his notebook and pen out of a pocket. On the first clean page he could find, he began to write.
Been a minute since I last saw you. Did that guy with the cat live? Though I guess that's not a very cheery story to talk about while we share the longest line in the world. Eles handed her the notebook.
Glancing up, he noted that the line now covered the entire staircase and began wrapping around the guard rail. Customers ran well into the tempera paints and other, cheaper craft supplies. And they were already beginning to passive-aggressively gripe up there, too.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2025 9:05 pm
Rowan smiled as he turned around and was more than a little bit happy when the young man produced a notebook and pen, at least this way they’d be able to communicate more effectively. “He did, last I heard they discharged him so I think we found him just in time. The cat was safe and happy from what I heard.” She remembered the intense relief she’d felt at hearing the news. Stranger or not, no one deserved to die like that and no innocent kitties deserved the trauma that poor fuzzball experienced. The suddenness of his departure had severed the possibility of any further attempts at conversation so this second encounter was serendipitous, she had to imagine that he’s been concerned for the man they’d found, not to mention the cat he’d seemed so fond of. “I didn’t actually get your name last time.”
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2025 4:20 pm
Pity that he couldn't walk home with that cat, but there was no telling how it would react to three dogs and a Malory. The traumatized little puff lucked out by being able to go home with its owner. And, he supposed, the man was lucky enough to survive.
Good for him, Eles wrote. Then he quirked a brow when Rowan insisted on getting his name. He must have finger spelled it for her, which would have meant nothing at all.
Eles oi Ekthrónismenoi.
He looked it up once before. A clumsy combination of two languages, amounting to an impromptu translation that should have meant nothing. A statement of fact that pretended at a past. Unverified self-importance. A well-earned interregnum.
But I answer to almost anything. Did you come here for something you can buy anywhere else? Because I have a feeling we'll be sitting in this line until the store closes.
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2025 10:46 pm
If he had told her his name Rowan had somehow lost it in the whirlwind of activity during their last meeting. Though if he’d signed it to her she wouldn’t have understood it. At least this time they had a means of written communication, though she suspected that writing a name that long would probably get tiresome after a while. At least he was probably used to it, inconvenience and all. She smiled slightly with every intention to call him by the name he’d given her. Given that the line didn’t seem to have shifted in the time she’d been standing there, she couldn’t entirely dismiss the young man’s hyperbolic speculations. “You’re probably right,” she shot another sympathetic glance toward the overwhelmed cashier. “I could get these at Burke’s. It’s a bit further, but it beats this traffic jam.” She turned back to Eles, “Did you have something else in mind?” She was profoundly curious about what he was making with all of the supplies in his basket, “I can help you run your stuff back if you’d like, I’ve only got a few things. What’s your project if you don’t mind me asking?”
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2025 9:07 am
It would've been so much easier to ditch the basket for the clerks to put away after closing. They got paid to put things away. Eles didn't. And Eles was already getting punished by having to stand in a line of titanic proportions, just for the privilege of paying for all these assorted odds and ends.
It hadn't surprised him, though, that the girl who would call an ambulance for a stranger lying in the street would likewise want to put all that s**t away where it belonged. Spare the beleaguered workers their busywork. Like as not, she was probably always thinking of ways to inject good back into the world.
Eles decided, then and there, that he disliked people like that on principle. They tried to shake his steadfast faith that humanity earned its every bad end, and he always felt so silly for having second-guessed myself once they faded into the background again.
Sighing, Eles supposed he'd follow her example. Put the s**t back where it belonged.
Not sure where else to go to get all of this, Eles wrote honestly. He was still learning the shops in the city. Strangely, the streets themselves felt familiar; he always knew how to get to a place, but never what hte place carried. Would Burke's have this stuff?
I'm not sure what to call it. Mixed media sculpture? Art installation? It's going to be a birthday present. He can buy whatever he wants, so making something was easier.
For the moment, he handed her his pen and notepad. Then he gathered up handfuls of the basket contents and nudged the remainder back over to her with his foot. Once he'd balanced the handful appropriately, he held a hand out for his notebook again.
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2025 9:02 pm
Rowan glanced into the basket Eles carried as she put her own items back. She didn’t remember seeing anything along the lines of the bolts and screws he’d chosen stocked at Burke’s but she’d definitely seen the other things. Shouldn’t be too difficult to track them down. There might even be a hardware store nearby. “I know they usually have everything but the hardware, but I think there’s a hardware store maybe a block from there.”She smiled at his intentions with the materials, trite as it sounded, she firmly believed that the love that went into something handmade was a gift in itself. “That’s really sweet of you, I’m sure he’ll love whatever it is.” Passing his writing materials back to him she asked, “Did you drive here? I could give you a ride over there if you need one.”
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