Pales stopped at the door of the shelter giving a small sigh. Such places usually made him sad but he liked to see if he could volunteer in any way. His hand dropped to the knob and he pushed open the door and sort of glanced around a bit. The racket going on was not unusual for a shelter, though this place was slightly more muffled when you first came in. The animals were generally kept in a seperate area than where the welcome area was. The young man adjusted his coat standing his full six foot height and squared his shoulders. He wouldn't sqawk or run away from the person behind the desk. He'd talk to them and get information. He won't blush or try to hide his face. Nope. At least that was the plan..
Tia looked up, and away from the Celtic cross tarot spread infront of her, at the joyful sound of the overhead bells ringing when the door brushed past them as it opened. Her retro-style, pink side pony-tail bobbed in the air as she pushed her pink shades up her nose to sit on the top of her head so she would be able to see in proper colour instead of her rose tinted world that she was quite accustomed to. "Hello!" Her childish voice rang above the din. A small glimmer behind her would be seen as the light streaming through the door reflected off the glitter and gauze wings sewn to the back of her sleeveless top, a faint sunburn glowing pink on the bridge of her nose - spreading out to her cheeks - and on her shoulders.
He blinked, momentarily distracted by the nice sparkly wings, "...Oh! Hi..Uhh...I was coming...In to see about volunteering.." He looked the girl over but nothing about his face reacted oddly to it. He just tilted his head and then he fidgeted a little, "I wasn't interrupting anything was I?" Pales he wiped off the palm of his hands on his pants. He had seem so cool and collected before approaching the desk, though now he felt like he was going to have a fit of some sort in a short moment or two.
"Great!" There was an obviously bubbly enthusiam about her, and she waved a hand absently in response to his second question - snagging one of the tarot cards not being used in the spread and holding it up to him. "Reading a spread, can't seem to put the meanings together though." A slightly saddened look passed over her features before it got blasted away by a ten-volt smile. "But, 'nough of that. Come with me, I'll show you around, get you some forms to fill out, and then we'll see what we can get you started on. Maggie, she runs the Shelter, is away on holidays with her neice so I'm in charge for now." Putting the card down, Tia made her way around the desk, holding out a hand to him. "I'm Tia Amlin.. most people here call me Tinkerbelle though."
He seemed almost blasted away by her enthusiasm but he made a boyish smile hiding his shyness and nervousness as best as he could. He watched her come around and hold her hand out to him, he put his hand in hers and gave her a good handshake. Most men would try to flirt with women even on the handshake, but he didn't seem the type, he treated her as equal. "I'm Pales D'Arcy." He introduced himself, "Ummm I don't have any nicknames." He chuckled nervously. "Good to meet you." He was going to comment on the cards but he felt like the conversation wasn't ready for that just yet. He would bring it up soon though, maybe he could help.
"Wonderful to meet you!" Clapping her hands as she looked around the small room, her attention seemed torn between two doors, from the large stickers plastered over each one it was easy to tell one led to the room where the cats and kittens were kept; the other - the dogs. There was an intirely different room for the rodents, rabbits and the like, but they'd get to that last. "What would you like to see first, Pales?" She always liked to use new peoples names a few times during the first meeting to make sure she remembered them.
He blinked and pondered that for a moment, tucking his hands behind his back after releasing the girl's hands as she released his to clap. "Uhhh...Cats." He nodded. He liked all animals, but he liked cats the best it seemed, "If that would be okay that is?" He added shyly, his left foot shuffling slightly before straightened his posture so he can follow the enthused girl to the room he chose. He didn't want seem bossy, that would be bad.
"Mmhmm. I prefer cats myself, they're cute and fuxxy. Especially the kittens." She seemed to ramble slightly before giggling and tapping the fingers of her left hand to her forhead. "Right, lets go!" Turning on heel and walking towards the door that was chosen, Tia's flip flop sandles would announce her movements to the caged animals inside the room who started to mewl disdainfully at their captivity. Given a view from behind her, the obvious stitching along the back of her shirt would clear any thoughts about the wings being her own, and amusingly enough, stuck through the back of her belt would be a childs faerie wand, full with sequined start sitting on top and drifting strips of ribbon in a rainbow of pastel colours. Twisting the doorknob, Tia opened the door and stepped into the room ahead of him.
He followed after blinking a bit, he wasn't checking her out persay, but he had noticed the back ... He chose to say nothing about it and dared to not say it was a nice costume or even that it was a costume at all. He decided to humor her, "Yeah kittens are sweet." He nodded softly responding to her rambling, "So you are a faerie, huh?" He said making a friendly conversation with her. His voice didn't hold any sort of sarcasm when he asked this. It seemed appropriately enough, though if she turned around and pounced on him he might get a little worried. He looked around the room where the cats were kept and felt his heart ache slightly, he suddenly wanted to take all of them home.
Tia looked over her shoulder at him, a sheepish smile on her face, "The wings aren't mine.. but, I could be." The smile grew into a broad grin as she turned to face the large cages - Tia had spent a good portion of La's inheritance making sure the cages and facilities of the shelter were suitable and up to her standards. Opening one of the cages, the tag hung on the bars read 'Mel', she removed a kitten who didn't look much older than a year. "This one's mine... but, I can't bring him home since my girlfriend is allergic to animal dander." She paused for a moment to press a kiss to the cat's head as she cuddled him, "Everyone who works here adopts a pet, whether or not they can take them home. You're free to do the same, but we've a rule.. if you do choose to adopt one, you can't give it any more affection than you give the others. They'll get jealous." She snuggled Mel against before lifting him gently back into his cage, standing on tippy toes to reach the bag of cat food so she could fill the dishes around the room. "Could you let the others out?"
He smiled lightly and nodded, "Indeed," he seemed to be warming up to the girl. "Let them all out?" He made sure the door was closed first, it wouldn't do to have them all run wild all over the place. "Girlfriend huh? Sorry to hear she's allergic." He asked as he started to do as asked, he figured she could help him keep them under control if anything broke out like a cat fight, "I reat tarot cards myself, a bit of a hobby." He nodded softly as he scritched a kitten behind the ear as he took it from the cage, it clampered up to his shoulder and promptly began to stick it's nose into his ear and starts sniffling, ""ey! That tickles." He laughed a bit, gingerly taking the kitten off of his shoulder to look at it eye to eye.
"Yes, please. It's feeding time." She got to her knees on the floor and rummaged around in a box for the large, but shallow, plastic bowls. Setting them out, Tia was amused to find most of the 'freed' cats and kittens swarming around her, they'd been around long enough to know that it was meal time. "I'm sorry about it too, but she takes pills so she doesn't become allergic to me." A soft giggle passed her lips as she started to pour the food into the dishes, "Mmm, you do - do you? How long have you done it for?"
He took the kitten into his arms and petted it a little and set it down, though it seemed intent on following him as he finished his task, "Since I was sixteen or so, I am twenty-three now." He shrugged, "They intrigued me," he smiled slightly, "so it seemed okay to pick up a deck and start reading y'know?" The kitten determinedly pounced on his boot and peered up at him and gave a firm mewl. "Oh my." He laughed a bit and stared down at the small one, "I think I have a fan."
"I only started recently.. I'm not very good -" She seemed like she was going to continue before she was caught by his words to describe the kitten's actions. "That's Holly. We named them all, but, it's really easy sometimes to get confused on whos who." Rubbing her nose with the back of her hand as she wrinkled it, she stood back up to put the bag of food back up on the shelf. "We leave them alone while they eat, so lets scoot and go see the D-O-G-S."
He chuckled and nods and set Holly to where she could see her food bowl and start to eat, "Alright, time to see those guys." He abstained from saying dogs figuring there was a reason why she spelt it out. He acknowledged that cats are smarter than what he let on, "Well maybe I can help you improve on your readings?" He offered, "I got help at first too," he nodded a bit, "no harm in it." Pales smiled, he seemed a lot less shy around her now.
Stepping carefully so not to squash any little limbs or tails if the cats moved, "Be good." She informed them in her best 'La voice', trying to sound stern. Opening the door, she headed out of the room and to the other door, making sure that Pales was out and had the door closed before she opened the door to the dog's room. "Mmm.. Sure!" She opted to answer after a moment, "Sounds like we're going to be spending a lot more time around each other now, neh? Although, when I work my normal hours I work morning shift so I can spend time with La when she gets off work."
Pales gingerly stepped out after her and let her close the door, "I can understand that." He nodded slightly to her comment about her girlfriend, "Gotta spend time with your loved ones." He smiled lightly, "Though I don't mind coming in early or whatever." He waited to be let into the dog room. "Are the dogs nice?" He asked almost uneasy, Pales had a few close encounters with doggie teeth, he'd rather not repeat that yet again here.
"Most of them, although, we don't have as many dogs as we have cats. So, they're easier to deal with when you're alone. We only have five right now, but we have one who was obviously abused as a pup - vicious thing he is.. but, I can't for the life of me bring myself to fill out the form to have him put down." There was a sniffle, and a quiet sigh as she led the way into the depths of the room, it was quite a large room, with small gates in the walls that the dogs could use to leave their built in kennels and go out on the runs in the back. "Three of the five dogs we have currently are puppies, so.. they shouldn't give you any trouble. Kibie is a huskey, and she's well.. quite used to affection and getting her way. An over sized lap dog."
He nodded sympathetically when she talked about one of them. Mean or not it was hard to put down an obviously abused animal that already had a bad life to start with, "No animal deserves to be abused." He added to her commentary and chuckled when she talked about the huskey, "Sounds like a lot of the big dogs I ever met." He smiled, "I not exactly scared of dogs, if you are wondering why you asked. I just rather keep my hand rather than unwittingly pet one that would bite it off." he was glad that there weren't that many dogs.
"Ahh, then stay away from the Rottie - he's the one that bites." She moved to lean against the wall across from the dog kennels, the three pups shared one of the rather large kennels, a four by eight foot corner kennel, while the other two dogs had their seperate kennels, which weren't really much smaller. "Like the cats, the dogs are on a regulated feeding schedule, but they eat four times a day while the cats eat three. Alan takes care of them.. he's probably out back setting up a tub to give Kebie and the pups a bath."
He nodded slightly, "Got ya." He put his hands into his pockets, "The pups are cute." He said while looking them over. For him the dog smell wasn't all that pleasant, but he seemed to manage without gagging or anything, "You also take in rodent-types? Wow. I mean I know some shelters do that, but none did where I lived." He nodded slightly, "It seemed a real shame. I had a hard time trying to help a friend to relocate his guinea pig."
"Oh! Yes, we do, I was going to show you that last since while you're looking I can pull up the proper forms for you to fill out. Would you like to go do that now?" Tia didn't seem to notice the smell, since this was her place of work and she was around it daily. Without giving him a chance to respond, she headed back towards the door from whence they came and behind her desk. Pointing to the door when he emerged from the dog room, she smiled. "In there. Fell free to have a look. I'll get you the forms now."
Pales nodded to the woman and went to look over the rodents. A lot of them were curious about him, as they ran to the bars and did a bit of sniffling in the air, though a lot of them remained backed up in their corners staring at him as if he were going to turn around and devour them whole. Pales would sometimes bend to see a little clearer what was kept in a few of the darker cages, he was waiting paitiently to be summed back for the paper work. That was always the boring part he figured. He was glad he met Tia though, she seemed pretty nice. He started to wonder what the girlfriend was like, was she exactly like that? As cute as that would be he highly doubted it. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and then went silent.
Tia spent her time sifting through a small metal file folder, Maggie wasn't exactly the best record keeper so it was taking her much longer than usual to find the forms. "Where did you put them, Mags?" She asked cheerfully, although Maggie wasn't around to answer. She peeked through a few more folders before a triumphant, "A-HAH!" Was heard throughout the office. Closing the filing cabinet door, she bounced over to the door to the rodent room, flip flops slapping as she made her way over. "I got the forms."
He looked over to her as she made the announcement and appeared at the door. Pales broke into a smile and nodded,"Excellent." He said and made his way over to take the paperwork so that he may look them over, "I have everything with me so none of this should be much problem, I can fill it all in here." He smiled, "I doubt that would be any problem?" Pales seemed to be almost as cheerful as the girl, the enthusiasm must have caught on, that or he felt a lot more comfortable.
"Not a problem. You can have a seat at my desk and fill out the forms while I get the kittens back in their cages and clean up after them." She moved over to her desk, straightening up a few piles of paper before picking up the tarot cards and putting them back in their case. A simple Rider deck for a beginner. Pulling out the chair for him she turned towards the door to the cat room, "If you have a question on anything - don't be afraid to ask."
He nodded to her and smiled thankfully, allowing her to get on with her duties as he took the papers to the desk and sat in the chair. It took a few moments to sit to where he wanted to, he tried not to get distracted by anything on the desk. A compuslive need to explore and look at everything seemed to be his downfall on most days, but today he seemed to have it in check. He went on down the sheet filling in answers that he knew off hand before he dug into his pockets for various IDs and other certificates that he had copied off. He was soon finished and leaning back in the chair ever so slightly.
Putting the cats in their cages wasn't as hard as it would have seemed, since all the cats got pretty good and lazy after they've had their dinner - the hardest part was remembering which cage belonged to white cat. Sweeping up came next, and then making sure the bowls were empty before putting them away to be cleaned later. "Good night, kittens." She murmured to the cats as she headed for the door to go back to the lobby, shutting off the bright overhead lights and turning on the dimmer lights of the wall mounted corner lamps. When she came out she grinned, "All the babes are put to bed, how're the forms going?"
He nodded to her and started to get up and stretched, "All done." He replied cheerfully, "I think I got them all right. I made doubly sure." He nodded as he moved from behind the desk area with a tilt of his head, "I am glad I decided to do this." He added, "I was almost afraid to." He laughed a little with a small shrug. Indeed, he was afraid a stern woman would be sitting behind the desk with a ruler at the ready to slap his hand with for even saying anything out of line.
Taking the papers from the desk, Tia's eyes glittered as she laughed. "We don't bite, although some of our charges might." Picking up a stapler, she attatched the papers together before filing them in the cluttered filing cabinet. "I can't have you starting today, because, well.. I'm the one who's going to be training you.. unless you want to work the majority of your time with the dogs and then you'll be working with Alan.. And, my shift ends in fifteen minutes." She thought about it for a moment, "But, if you want to come by tomorrow I can show you the ropes."
He thought about it for a moment, "Alright." Pales gave a short nod, "I can come tomorrow just as easily. Just let me know what time and stuff. Is there anything I ought to bring with me?" He blinked a bit, it seemed like a good enough question to him, though he felt silly while asking it, "I mean I can get my own equipment if I need any." Pales smiled slightly putting his hands into his pockets.
Tia shook her head, "This is pretty much a come as you are type thing. As long as you don't wear things that you won't mind getting dirty you should be fine. As for time, I normally show up around seven thirty to eight o'clock. It depends on if La is dropping me off or if I'm catching the city bus. Although, the shelter doesn't officially open until eight." There was a certain ability Tia seemed to have; she could be obsolutely serious, and be talking in her normal fashion, but she still seemed to be bouncing off the walls.
He nodded a bit, "Come as you are and then are you suggesting that I come at eight? That'd be great as then I can drop off my little ones at their respective schools." He said faintly as if it was an everyday thing, "As long as that wouldn't be a problem that is." He nodded a bit, "I can come earlier and have a friend drop them off. However, you think it is best for me to come in, it is no problem." Pales seemed pretty well at ease for the moment.
Tia laughed softly, "Nonono. It's important you do those little things for your kids before they grow up and don't want you to do them anymore. Come when you're done that, this is volunteer remember? I'm not going to dock you pay if you're late... although Holly might be miffled if you aren't around to play with her first thing in the mornings." She giggled and bent down to pick up a bright pink over-the-shoulder purse from underneath her desk, slinging it over her shoulder. "I'm heading out. If you want to continue to look around - please do, I've just got to head out back and tell Alan he has to take over desk duty. He should be done with the dogs by now."
Pales laughed a bit and nodded, "Agreed, thank you. I am sure Holly'll understand sooner or later." He smiled and let her wander off to do what she needed to do, he took a few moments to poke around the room before he headed for the door checking to see what time it was as well, "Hmm. Lee won't be out for another hour." He muttered as he got out and stood around outside, peering around, how was he going to kill another hour?
It was a short run to the back of the building to inform Alan that she was off, and it was barely five minutes later when she emerged out from the building - pulling her pink shades down over her eyes as she met the sun outside. Stretching out, she shook her shoulders which caused her wings to flutter. "Hanging around?" She asked Pales cheerfully when she noticed he was still present, and had only moved outside.
He chuckled, "I have an hour or so more before I need to pick up one of my kids. The other one is spending the night else where. So I have some time to kill before I need to do anything else." He blushed slightly and smirked, "I do not exactly have a full social calander." It wasn't that he wasn't popular but he was so damned shy, it took a lot for him to come up to someone and make friends right off the bat. There were a few exceptions to that rule.
Tia thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Come on, we'll go back to my place for some tea and you can work a card reading for me while I wait for La to get home from work.. Although, you'll probably have to go pick up your child before La gets home."
He shrugged then nodded, "Sure." He said cheerfully. "I'd do anything for a cup of tea." He laughed quietly and shrugged, "What kind you have?" He waited for her to lead the way. He figured he could find his way from anywhere no matter where it was.
"Mmm.. Apple spice, Cinnamon, Green, and Mint.. herbal stuff. Very relaxing with a bubble bath." Looking both ways much like a child would, Tia crossed the street with a slight bounce to her step, walking the streets of Durem with calm and ease. It didn't take long for the main parts of town to replace the more sceneic view of the outskirts, and for a fair sized building with the appearance of a victorian-manor to come into view.
He nods a bit, "My favorites are green or mint." He replied in a offhand manner as he followed along with her, kind of looking both ways but more of a glance of habit more than anything. He didn't like the idea of becoming windshield decoration anymore than he liked the idea of being bitten by a dog.
[tbc]
