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 Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 12:34 am
The tall older man leaned against the counter and grimaced not for the first time that day. When he'd decided to take a break from the skies and help out at a store that very clearly needed the help he had thought that at the very least it wouldn't be so...stuffy. The air in the shop was constantly polluted with the wafting fragrance of hundreds of flavors all at once, and while it was not truly terrible to the senses, it became overwhelming to a man who had grown used to the scent of the clouds and the coming rain and feathers on the breeze. And it was so slow!
But there was a reason he hadn't quit right away, and that reason was the same reason he'd even bothered to take this extremely strange job to begin with. Geoff had not given him a moments peace when he'd informed his right-hand man that he was taking a break. Something about old bones and new adventures or what-not like that. Surely Geoff didn't believe all the excuses Braedan had put forward, but the man would have had to sense the strangeness emanating from the shop. After so many years, the sky captain didn't even need to remove his eye-patch to feel the difference at the doorway.
Despite all this nonsense about the general off-putting nature of the shop and its ability to draw in all matters of people, Braedan simply could not get past the doldrums of the place. A sky pirate does not simply spill the wind from his sails and enjoy keeping both feet planted upon the ground of course! And that sweet lady Olivia had told him to take his pick of the candles and oils for her personal preferences. For hours between customers he had browsed the shelves and sniffed with his once-broken nose at all the oddities. Paint scented? Who wanted things like that.
Time was running down though. Geoff had promised after days of begging to check out the little shop, in case, as Braedan put it, there was some emergency that Geoff needed to be pre-familiarized with. Clearly there would be no time for sniffing around after the grump arrived. But there was nothing, nothing, nothing that appealed to him. Until at last he smelled something that was frankly...adventurous. It seemed wild and it made his heart beat just a little bit harder, as if he knew he was about to go out and do something wild and grand. And yet, it almost felt delicate - an adventure that wasn't reckless or forceful.
Babylon. He'd reached out one gloved hand to pluck it from the shelf when he suddenly heard the bell tinkling at the opening of the door. "GEOFF! My good man!" Braedan straightened and looked over the shelf he was at with one of his over-bright and slightly goofy smiles. Definitely the more energetic but not necessarily more eccentric of the two.
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 1:47 am
The fair-skinned man stared grimly at the storefront with dull grey eyes, his mouth twisted into a stubborn scowl. Geoffrey was determined to not like this place and all its secrets, no matter how wondrous they may have been; this shop, this...this front of gaudy smells and mundane decor had taken them out of the skies and he'd not soon forgive it. Standing with his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched and his head lowered to the point it looked like he was some sort of sulking turtle, he very much looked the part of the disgruntled, land-bound sky pirate.
But...it was Braedan's choice, and in the end, Geoff always followed Bradean's lead. He assumed his Captain knew what was best, even if it did mean keeping their feet on the earth and their ship grounded. "Better know what you're doin', bossman," he muttered under his breath as he shuffled out of the road and under the shaded awning of the store, using the heel of his hand to push open the door. A bell tinkled annoyingly in his ear, making the already grumpy pirate that much more irritable. Great. The place was quaint. What in the dickens were they doing here?
The greeting that reached his ears earned an interested lift of dim eyes and an upward tug of the corners of his mouth. Geoff stood a little more straight and idly brushed off his shoulder as if just walking into the store had been a burden on him. "Hey, hey, Capt'n," he greeted the older gentleman with a wry grin and a lift of ash-blonde brow. "Enjoying the sights? The smells?" Running a hand through the wavy hair that wasn't bound in the ponytail at the nape of his neck, he glanced around the display cases and made a soft 'tsk'ing sound. "Any of 'em smell like freedom and sky?"
Ah, he couldn't help but poke sullenly at Braedan, even if he was supposed to follow the decision made. He didn't have to follow it without question, right? Folding his arms over his chest and fixing the sky pirate with his lusterless eyes, Geoff grinned lop-sidedly and rolled his shoulders in good humor. "So I'm here!" A moment of silence, followed by: "Can I go yet?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 3:32 am
Braedan pulled his lower lip in under his top lip in a sort of petulant, thoughtful manner resulting in his far-from-bushy mustache looking rather silly and protruding under his angular nose. "No, I'm not quite enjoying the smells yet," he finally replied, mister truthful and all that.
Shoulders shrugged against the vest hanging upon them causing the stiff collar to brush against his stubble-scattered jawline and the hair at the nape of his neck. Even in the quaint little shop he seemed stubbornly adhesive to his usual style of clothing, rusting and old with the almost-ability to fall right to pieces if looked the right way. But Braedan knew every stitch was strong and even the most worn and dirty sections were testament to their durable duty to their captain instead of looking right out tattered. When assed, his clothes could certainly look more polished, more refined. Him and Geoff were no poorer from their last job, that was for certain. But those clothes were not ideal for a man always on the move, always ready for action.
"No you may not go!" he said with a grumpy stamp of his foot though his expression was not childishly upset, simply mocking. If Geoff was going to sound like a child then Braedan would help by acting like one. On paper it was true that the two of them were less than partners, Geoff in service to the sky-captain for a good amount of time and the sky-captain a rather reluctant boss, and that's why the two of them were more like partners than anything else.
Triumph glittered in Braedan's smokey silver-blue eyes as he lifted the Babylon scent from the racks. "I found you a gift. To make you hate it here less," he said, waggling the scented gel and candle before tossing it over to Geoff, positive the man would catch it before the thing dropped and shattered. "They got some cloud scents and wing scents, but none of them capture the reality. I think you'll like that girl though."
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 3:48 am
The sky captain's second curled his lip in distaste as he was told he was not allowed to go. Geoff might have been able to argue the finer points that the request had only included that he take a look at the place - something he'd finished from the outside, thank you very much - but he wasn't the type to poke at the nuances. Besides, despite the fact their state of living was slightly different, Geoff liked Braedan. He so very rarely liked anyone really and truly to suffer them a full day, let alone as a boss. His respect for the grumpy old man kept him in place despite the whimsical call of the clear blue sky outside.
"Found it, didja?" he replied automatically, his vacant eyes not leaving Braedan's face as he snatched the thrown cup out of the air, the contents barely jostled. When you throw things around in a moving ship in the sky with wind factor and velocity and all that jazz, it was child's play on solid ground. "Fancy that, at an oil--wait, you don't actually expect me to keep this thing?" Geoff finally tore his gaze from his boss to give the glass object nestled in the curve of his gloved palm a look of pure disdain and disgust. "Believe me boss, ain't ridding of one gonna ease the stench of this place."
Automatically, he lifted the thing to his face and took a polite sniff, lips still pursed in a line of discontent. He paused, however, his brows lifting in curiosity before he gave it a secondary sniff. "Well tie me up and lock me down, this--" ain't so bad, he was going to say, but Geoff didn't want to admit that he could suffer it. "--smells like everything else in the room. How 'bout that." The pirate scowled at the pinkish concoction accusingly, mostly certain Braedan would be able to pick up that he actually didn't mind the thing. Damn the working partnership actually letting someone close.
"The day these land-bound cretins can actually reproduce the smell of the sky is the day mine are over." Geoff grumbled, because it was what he did when he didn't get his way. He couldn't fly, was out during the day and had to take this frilly pink-- "Girl?" Those dead eyes flicked back up to Braedan, a narrow brow lifting quizzically. "Capt'n, with all due respect, this isn't the type of girl I want to take home. She can't have my bed." Lifting the cup, he gave it a little swirl. "See? She don't like me either. Already disagreeing."
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:54 am
One fingerless-gloved hand fluttered noncommittally in front of the man's aging face, still angular and rough and boyish but with the knowledge that life's journey was ever moving onwards away from youth. "It's too pink not to be a girl!" the captain said with his dismissive wave, as if Geoff's concerns were little matter to him. And indeed they were of little importance. Though he spent time cultivating a good relationship with his first hand, Geoff's over-all happiness was not on the chopping block (as evidenced by his continual presence in the scent shop). "So I expect you to keep it and take good care of her," Braedan said, pointing one ringed finger at his companion.
Babylon was also...different from the other scents. It wasn't simply a scent, it was a soul and a passion taken straight from the heart of adventure and worldlyness. Could Braedan tell that it was ethereal, special, or otherwise dangerous? Not particularly. It just felt different in his hand. The majority of the scents on the shelves were average, ordinary; possibly spiced with a bit of magic for the buyer's added enjoyment, but there were a scattered few that when looked upon with a certain eye-patched covered eye, they seemed to glow.
Was Babylon one of the few that seemed to vibrate with energy? He couldn't have looked at it specifically without letting Geoff in on the secret. But what that secret was, Braedon wasn't sure. The glowing gels were certainly the main reason he'd taken the job, but he wasn't going to foster poor Geoff with one specifically. He wasn't that hard of an employer. No, he was simply going to watch and wait. He'd given up flying for the time; rushing in and doing experiments upon his own friend just to get back in the skies was personally considered rather low.
Sharp brows furrowed as he watched Geoff, getting his own personal form of discomfort at the man's sulky demeanor from being stuck inside. "Fine fine, off with you then! If it's so much trouble to be keeping your captain company then by all means, take your new darling home and set her up right pretty." Braedan rubbed the side of his nose and shuffled back behind the counter, no doubt waiting for a scent buyer of actual potential and interest to take his mind off the job; unlike Geoff who only made him feel more trapped.
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 1:52 pm
Geoff gave his captain a rather incredulous look, followed by one that asked - without words, thanks to the whole respect thing - if the man had lost his mind. Calling a cup of musky smelling goo a girl? "Aye aye, Capt'n," the pale-haired man replied with an understated sigh. While he was all for giving Braedan a hard time, he didn't want to barb him; he knew the limits of being productive and pointed in his antagonizing from being a thorn in the sky pirate's side. Geoff would not refute a direct order, and as far as he was concerned, that was exactly what had just been issued to him. Braedan was his captain, on or off the ship.
He was startled by the sudden dismissal, twisting his lips into a perpetual pout and resuming his hunched turtle position. "I'm all for keeping my captain company, but..." There was no tender way to say that his captain had given up the mantle of the job for...whatever this was. Being a sales person inside a stuffy store with enough oil to burn the town. Geoff would never understand or appreciate the 'little things' in life, but he supposed this was one of those. "...sure, I'll go burn 'her' right away."
His lips twisted again, more of a discontent look as he approached counter, lightly tapping his fingers against its surface. "You better come by at some point to appreciate it," Geoff informed his captain gruffly. Either by virtue of his past life or by being what he was, he had a bit of a hard time wrapping his head around social niceties. Inviting people over, getting to know them...being friends? All unnecessary but something he craved from time to time. He hated to admit that it was one of the few times he felt alive...so to speak.
With another rap of his knuckles against the counter, he gave Braedan his normal s**t-eating smile and turned on heel, marching out of the store with the glass cup still snuggled in the curve of his gloved palm. It was time to hold up his 'friendly' duty and burn the gift given to him because it was what he was supposed to do. Geoff just hoped his place didn't stink like girls and that it aired out quickly...
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