2019-08-09 - New Customer

Look, a customer! Well, it's a person. Abby walks into the shop and pauses briefly once inside so her eyes can take in the layout and decoration. It's warm outside, it's been very warm these last few days, so she's in an ever so slightly damp t-shirt, which is dark blue and sports a lone wolf howling at the moon. There's also jeans and comfortable sandals. She spots the woman behind the counter and raises a hand in a quick wave, accompanied by a bright friendly smile. "Hi!"

Abitha blinks blankly, maybe even a little comically, the thought that the heat might have spawned a mirage briefly crossing her mind. She snaps out of it after a moment, raising her own hand to return a short, "Welcome," as she looks Abby over. Mac's eyes narrow a bit, giving herself an internal chiding at almost sounding like an NPC shopkeeper. She decides to straighten and walk around the counter, more into view. Sporting a black tshirt with a simple line and circle power symbol and a pair of Jean shorts, she moves a little more into the shop to greet Abby, "What brings you in?" She almost winces again, still unable to avoid bad NPC speak.

"Thank you!" Abby replies cheerfully to the welcome, and walks forward, moving a little further into the store. She continues to look around, but her gaze doesn't stray from Abitha for very long, returning as soon as she's asked a question. "Oh! Well. I saw it was open. I live just down the street." She gestures outside, then gives the neck of her t-shirt a light tug as if to fan herself before continuing. "I was walking by and I thought I'd peek in." She leans forward and squints as if to mimic peeking in. It's subtle. Then she plants her hands on her hips. "I really like the decoration."

"Thanks!" Mac returns, a smile finally lifting her lips, a muted reaction, seeming almost nervous at the compliment, or maybe just tired? It was hard to tell with Mac. "I just opened a couple days ago." She can't help but leave a couple pauses of open air. She wasn't quite used to this hospitality thing, yet. "Uh... Feel free to look around, or ask about stuff... " She tries to keep the smile on, but it may seem a tad forced. God, why did she think she could open a business?

Abby smiles, and none of her reactions seem muted, no, she's just overflowing with earnest positivity. "I wondered. I saw the shop was closed before, or - well, not open yet. It's looking great!" She nods, and pivots slightly in place to take another long look around. "Are you the owner? That must be exciting. How's everything? Oh, I'll look around a bit, for sure. I didn't really - well, I didn't really have anything in mind to buy, to be honest," she admits after a small pause, and offers Abitha a small apologetic smile after saying so.

Eyes widening at the absolute barrage of questions, Mac stands still and starting, a deer in the headlights for a moment. The contrast in their two energies was made abundantly clear to her. Slowly, she tries to recover, still smirking a little, while raising a hand, as if to wave away the concern. "No, no. Trust me, I know, there's a literal ton of stuff to take in. I'm just like saying hi, I guess. No pressure. This ain't no mall GameStop." Mac shifts on her feet, now trying to work backwards, actually counting each answer on her fingers as her eyes dart off to the side in thought, "I am the owner. Terrifying, less exciting. Not too busy, so that." She looks down at the three fingers, then back at Abby, brow furrowed, a question on her face, wondering if she got them all.

Abby nods slowly as she listens, then a little faster when faced with that final questioning look, as if to reassure Mac. "Well then, hopefully it'll get busier! Not in a... 'Oh no, a dangerous mob!' kind of way, just in a sales way." She clarifies after a small pause and her smile brightens up. She looks around again, and just takes a few steps to stare at... PC gaming accessories, apparently. She tilts her head left, then right, squints slightly, and generally looks baffled by some of the items on display. "I play a bit! But, well, I'm not 'a gamer' or anything, really."

Offering a little shrug, Mac wanders back to the counter, leaning her backside against it while propping herself on her hands as she watches Abby, smirking at the title, "For some reason, whether you are or aren't is some like... definition people need or something. I dunno, it doesn't really matter to me. If you find something you like, it's something you like." she offers. She nods towards the consoles, "Nintendo does a lot of fun light hearted stuff, but sometimes I see people getting Xboxes just to use as an entertainment system for like Netflix and stuff." Another shrug, the reminder of gamer culture stigma a hurdle she'd probably have to overcome in a town like this...

"Oh, I used to have a Wii but mostly I just play on my laptop lately, when I have the time for it," Abby says as she takes a couple of small steps, still inspecting the accessories with a smile. "It's kind of terrible," she adds, lowering her voice as if confiding something. "I should probably get a better one some day. Or, I don't know, a Playstation or something if I had the money. I wish they just made games for all the different things, you know? I don't think it would be financially responsible to buy a whole thing just to play one game, right?" She looks over and smiles, pushing her shoulders up in a shrug. "Oh, I'm Abby, by the way!"

This gives Mac pause, green eyes widening just a hair again before a little snort is made, realizing the woman's name was what people usually tried to shorten her own to. "Call me Mac." She returns, no explanation forthcoming, it seemed. Another little shrug from Mac, "I mean, they're making consoles to be little PC's at this point. Yeah, I wish they'd cross-platform more stuff, but you get a lot to use, no matter which direction you go. If it's worth it to you, you give it value. What do you normally play?"

"Nice to meet you, Mac!" Abby looks curious about the initial reaction to her name, but doesn't press. Once she finishes her tour of the accessories, she moves on, pacing around and curiously inspecting things, from games on display to decorative pieces. The question gives her pause. "Oh. Well. Besides random little phone games, I like... story games?" There's a hint of uncertainty there, and she brings a hand to touch her jaw as she thinks. "All kinds of... I mean, they can be shooty or not, I just play them all on easy anyway! Hmmm. Oh and... well, the other ones are mostly for PC and I can run them on my little one."

"Well in that case... um..." Mac reaches behind herself, then had to turn to findthe little holder, grabbing one of the business cards inside of it. It displays the shop name, contact info and lists her as Abitha 'Mac' Machinae. She picks up get pencil and scribbles a couple gaming handles for Steam and other platforms for Abby to find her on, most of them 'MacTheKnife'. She steps over and holds the card out to Abby, figuring trying to make local contacts is probably what a business owner would do. "Add me if you want."

Abby finds herself in front of a TV, staring at new releases, before turning to accept the card held out in her direction. "Oh. Thank you!" She says after looking the card over, and flashes Mac a bright smile. Though she does, then add, "Though I guess I don't play online much at all, really. Well, sometimes you have to! Ugh. But in general. There's enough people yelling at me at work, thank you!" Though she says even this with a cheerful smile.

"Sounds like a shitty workplace," Mac ventures after handing the card off, moving back behind her counter now. She reaches to tap on her keyboard there, using her mouse to check on something, reading, then looking back. She leans down again, resting on crossed arms, one knee bent while watching Abby. What else did she have to do? She reaches to take a drink from a dark glass bottle set nearby. "What do you do?"

"Oh, no, it's just the nature of the job. It's not bad yelling. It's not... noob b-word, show us your..." Abby trails off then, then goes quiet, scrunching her forehead above an ambivalent little smile, glancing between the TVs and Mac. "Well, sometimes some patients do say that sort of thing! Drugs are a heck of a drug." She smiles. "Right! I'm a nurse at Addington Memorial.

This prompts the knowing face of disgust and another snort as Mac knows the exact sort of persecution Abby was describing. "I've sworn off a lot of voicechatting for that reason exactly." Mac cocks her head in interest. "Is nursing tough?"

"I just tend to play games that aren't really multiplayer at all, anyhow," Abby says with a small shrug. The other question, though, that takes her a couple of seconds to answer, mouth tugged aside as she looks thoughtful. "It can be, a little. It kind of depends a lot on where you work and... well, I'm sure all specialties have their own challenges. I don't know if I'd call it tough. Some days, maybe! But I think it's worth it, anyway." The answer sounds rather genuine in spite of all the pep in her voice. That's a lot of pep.

Mac squints in Abby's direction at this. Pep or not, there was enough hedging there to make her curious. "I mean, I like single player and co op games when they're engaging... But..." She curls her fingers like talons grabbing the air, "I also love crushing my enemies." She snorts good naturedly again before recrossing her arms. "Hours are tough for nurses though, right? Like they're always going in for doubles or triples or stuff on TV." Mac stares at Abby, raising one hand to rest her cheek in it, able to keep a straight face through the self-deprecating joke about how little she knew.

Abby quickly shakes her head, "Oh, no, no, I couln't possibly crush any enemies. I'm terrible. It would just be sad to watch." She sighs and lets her shoulders slump, perking up a moment later to think over the question. "It depends on your specialty, but I wouldn't worry. We just sit around all the time and play cards anyway, it's not like we're busy with anything important," she puts on a sunny smile. That's probably sarcasm. Cheery sarcasm. Then she adds. "Long hours are pretty common, but things should be getting better. There's a new law that's coming into effect in 2020 that will help regulate breaks for nurses in Washington state, so that's something!"

Mac continues to squint skeptically at Abby for a long moment after the comment about how she spends her time, the smirk falling away as she tries to read into that sarcasm, unable to determine if that could actually be the case or what Abby might believe. "You probably just need a good team to play with. Or practice. Over nine thousand hours or whatever it is?" Mac's eyes track aside and up, trying to recall the Gladwell rule and failing horribly. Back to the subject, she asks, "What -is- your specialty?"

Abby gives Mac a good-natured but skeptical look of her own, "I'm really not sure I have I have nine thousand hours to get better at shooting people in the face, or zapping them with a sword or something," she gestures as if chopping someone with an imaginary sword, then sheathes it at her side, and just rests her hands there on her hips. "Oh. I work in the ER, but there's a lot of certifications and training I need still to qualify fully as a trauma nurse. If that's what I'm doing. Probably!" She wrinkles her nose slightly, suggesting some uncertainty there.

"I mean, it's only like... maybe uh..." Abby can see the gears turn as Mac's eyes wander off and she starts to do math quickly in her head, "An hour a day, uhhh... 27 yeeears?" She draws the last syllable out, now understanding how impossible that actually sounded. Mac straightens, hip leaned against back of the counter, hands rested there, still doing the math in her head, having distracted herself with the tangent. "But if it's like a job, that's forty a week... so... 5 years?" She finally looks back to Abby, as if confused at how absurd her own words had made her, "That's a really stupid saying, now that I think about it." She adds a shake of her head. "Wait, do you not wanna be a trauma nurse?" she asks, as the rest of the information had sunk in and processed in her brain.

"I don't think I could hold two jobs, one as a nurse and the other getting better at video games. I know some people make money playing video games, but I think that's if they're already good at it, right? No one wants to watch me fumble around." She breaks her smile to grimace, then smiles again, looking like she's about to laugh at the image alone. "Well, maybe it just applies to some things and not others so much?" The question makes her blink, "Hmm. Well. I don't know. There's specialties that have better hours and pay better. It's exciting, but the thing is, you don't actually get to follow up with patients and see them through. Patients are just in and out as quickly as possible." She makes a quick swiping motion with one finger, then gives Mac a curious look. "Why did you open this shop here? Are you from Gray Harbor?"

"I mean, I've had pretty of high viewer streams where I was playing a new game drunk." Mac reaches to take up her bottle again, raises it in a faux toast, and sips, the perks of being your own boss. "And I dunno, I didn't like where I was at, had a random idea, the cash to do it, and found a town not too far off the beaten path that didn't have a gaming shop." She shrugs, not realizing how common a story it was around these parts, "Everything seemed to fall into place." She takes a final lift of her bottle before tossing it easily into a trash can not far away with a little clunk. "So you're thinking you like the whole thing of helping people and seeing them off healthy instead of just getting them out of the woods and moving on to the next car wreck?"

Abby lifts an eyebrow, then adds in a lower voice. "I'm not sure that would work for me. I don't even really drink, so I'd need another excuse to be terrible." She shrugs. "Everyone needs a change now and then. And it's a very nice shop. I wish I had something to buy! But when I do I'll be sure to come here." She looks around again, then gives Mac a big encouraging smile. The actual question on her career makes her sigh. "Something like that. Maybe. Well, there's also the money and the hours and the stress. But maybe I make more of a difference doing this. I don't know, I was pushed into it a little."

"I mean, then give whoever pushed you a big middle finger." Mac's lip tugs into a bit of a frustrated line, clearly not a fan of seeing people being pressured like that, "Do what makes you happy." She lifts her hand to wave it toward the wall, as if demonstrating she had done just that. "Life's too short to be stressed out by someone else's drama..." Mac blinks a moment, then shakes her head and puts her palm to her temple, "Sorry, now I'm getting all bossy too, and I literally just met you." Another snort and a smirk accompany an apologetic look.

Abby shakes her head and reaches up to graze her fingers through her hair. "It wasn't really that kind of pushing. It was just very strongly worded advice! And it was totally well-meaning. And they had a point, don't get me wrong." She quickly clarifies all this with a wave of her hand and a smile. "But just because I'd do well at something doesn't mean that's what I want to do, right? Probably do well at something, you can't really predict it. But, well, it takes different kinds of people to do different jobs. And it's fine! I appreciate the sentiment."

Mac makes a point to repeat that very skeptical squinting look at Abby the entire time she tries to seem to defend whatever this advice was. Her hand lifts and moves over to her keyboard, gently hitting the 'X' key... to Doubt... She continues to hold the expression... Then realizes how silly she must look trying to create a meme in real life to a person that claims they aren't a gamer. She snorts at herself and sighs, "Sorry, just being weird. um..." She looks at a loss, shrugging, "I'm not trying to get all up in your business... You seem... nice." Mac, ever the eloquent wordsmith, realizes quickly how that sounds then touches her forehead again, "I mean uh... Look, I'm bad at this. 'Don't let your memes be dreams' and whatnot. I dunno. I'll be honest, when I heard about small town people getting into other people's business, I didn't think I'd jump right in as soon as I got comfortable." She offers a small laugh at herself, the hand at her temple moving to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear self-consciously.

Abby stares at the key hitting, stares at Mac, and looks completely blank at the reference. "Oh, don't worry about being weird. You'll fit right in!" She comments in a light-hearted, reassuring tone, waving off the apology, then gives Mac a longer look. "Thank you. Oh, see, there's all kinds of nursing specialty memes, that's the thing. Very different kinds of people, and a lot of mutual ribbing," she comments with a playful smile. She does roll her eyes at what Mac says last, but it's wholly good natured. "Oh, you don't even know. The town I'm from is, gosh, I don't know, a tenth of this? This is totally a big town as far as I'm concerned! I don't even know everyone on this street. But I'm glad to hear you're settling in."

Mac shrugs, choosing to squint again, her thoughtful look not far off from the same skeptical one. She shifts her weight on her feet and leans down onto the counter again, "I'm imagining something like clever wordplay about blood type... Or whatever codes you use for patients. Or scrubs... Do you like 'Scrubs'?"

"What?" Abby looks confused at Mac for a moment before her face lights up in understanding. "Oh, the memes! No. Well, some are, but it's mostly, like, ICU nurses are like this, ER nurses are like this. Really basic and light on pop culture references." She holds her hands up one next to the other, fingers wiggling a lot more when she mentions the ER nurses, then lets them drop with a laugh. "I could show you some, I bet." And she gets out her phone. "Ohh, I liked Scrubs. I never really saw the whole thing, though. That was before I was a nurse, though, I haven't actually watched it in a while."

Mac turns an arm and crooks her finger in a clear indication for Abby to come over. She issues a dramaticly faux sigh, smirking, "Ok, I'm game, let's see if memes really are a universal language." Meanwhile, she steps to reach under the wooden part of the counter and Abby can hear her open a door, another brown bottle retrieved. Mac looks up, furrowing her brow as she asks, "You want something to drink? Water, soda, juice?"

Abby looks up to Mac and lifts an eyebrow, hesitating a second before walking over. "They're not that good." She issues the warning with a hand held up in apology already, then stops once she's over by the counter, leaning an elbow against it. The tip of her tongue peeks out for a second while she stares at her phone screen. "There. Water would be nice! This weather doesn't help with keeping hydrated," she says with a look outside. "Except when it rains. But that just hydrates your outside, which really doesn't count." And then she flips the phone over to show... apparently, there are important differences between ER and ICU nurses.

Mac keeps her eyes on the phone Abby was showing her as she reaches blindly to open the little mini fridge she had hidden under the counter and gropes around, eventually rising again with a bottle of water, setting it down as she finishes reading the first meme. She snorts amusedly at the first one, then openly laughs at the second, "Ok, no, those are actually pretty good, even with knowing literally just what I've seen on TV." Mac, apparently, wasn't that worried about hydration, and Abby was close enough to observe the bottle was actually a cider of some sort that Mac was popping open with a quick move behind the counter. Yes, she had mounted a bottle opener there.

Abby grins and reaches for the water bottle, glancing down at her phone again. "I'm sure it's worse in a really big hospital. I almost took a job in Seattle instead of here, but everything is just too big. I don't know if I could handle that. Maybe I could, but I would probably hate it." The nurse lifts the bottle and has a sip, then taps a finger against her phone, "I picked the good ones. A lot just... heck, I'm a nurse and they don't even make sense to me."

Mac takes a sip of her cider and sets it on the counter, thumb and forefinger slowly turning it on the flat surface. She nods knowingly, "I used to live in the 'burbs of Portland... Yeah. Lots of people. Like, I like things to do, but generally lots of people suck to be around... Kinda feels suffocating, right? Loud?" Mac's face is squeezed a bit, a slight wince at the memory of it.

Abby nods, elbows on the counter, the bottle held in both hands. "I guess it's different if you move here from a smaller place or from a big city. There's tons of things to do!" She smiles, but winces slightly in sympathy with Mac. "And my ex lives in Seattle. And I visited the hospital, and well, I don't mind a bit of excitement, but that was just crazy. It's crazy here too, but it's a different sort of crazy. Though I wasn't expecting all these shootings and everything. That's a bit unusual." She grimaces. "You may have picked the wrong time to move here! I'm kidding, I'm sure it'll be fine!"

Having been glancing at the pc screen briefly while listening to the nurse, making a brief, sympathetic noise at the mention of an ex, Mac's eyes immediately snap back to Abby at the mention of shootings. It was like a slow realization, Mac's eyes just continuing to widen more and more as Abby cheeily assures her 'It'll be fine.'. Mac did not look -at all- comforted by that assertion, staring across the counter at Abby, maybe at a loss for words.

Oh no. Abby blinks when she notices Mac's reaction, and quickly leans in, waving a hand to dismiss the matter and provide reassurance. "I mean, the only reason I said anything is because it's unusual, you know? I'm sure there's lots more in Portland. I'm not worried at all, everything's pretty safe. You just arrived at a... statistically unusual time, that's it!" She's relentlessly optimistic, whether that works or not.

A long moment after Abby's second round of assurances, Mac finally reacts by lifting her empty hand to place the heel of palm to her forehead, then makes a small shake, eyes shutting briefly. "Ok, I'll just take your word for it, I guess. Just poor timing, heh." The last bit a nervous chuckle of a sound. As if worrying about a business getting off the ground wasnt enough...

"That's all it is, poor timing!" Abby concurs enthusiastically and flashes Mac a bright smile across the counter, sipping on her water. Her eyes wander across the displays and TVs again. "Accidents happen, but we have amazing doctors anyway. Things have just been a tiny bit hectic these last few weeks. I think it's just the heat, really. People go a little crazy and show up at the hospital shirtless and bleeding." She does a loopy gesture with a finger over by the side of her head, probably her technical medical assessment. "And! And if people are scared to go out, guess what they'll do? Play more video games." She winks.

Eyes still just a bit wide at the worries Abby had managed to plant, Mac offers another nervous sound resembling a chuckle, then finally seems to loosen up a little, Abby's relentless energy spent on dispelling her fear at least putting her at ease that someone cares. "Ok, that's a little messed up way to look at it, but I can't really fault your logic there." She offers a small grin to Abby, "Two things that never get old. Unvaccinated kids and dark humor."

"God! That's terrible!" Abby gasps and gives the shop-owner a disapproving look, tongue going tsk-tsk between her lips. But she's probably not taken any serious offense to the joke, just enough to let out a big loud sigh while hiding her faint grin behind the water bottle. "I think dark humor is one of those side effects of the job. I feel like that's probably pretty natural. I do try not to let it slip out, though. Strictly light humor around the patients!" Then she plants her hands on the counter and pushes herself straighter. "You'll do great. And when I have to buy my next console, I know where to come!"

Mac grins just a hint evilly, enjoying the slight duality of Abby's response, then nods confidently at Abby's assertion, "Thanks. Hey, no high pressure tactics here. When you feel like its time, just ask for advice. I'd rather people are happy with their buy than just pushing stuff on you." She lifts the cider bottle in a mock toast to it, then tips it toward Abby, "And hit me up online if you ever need a teammate. Or just want to watch me swear at bonobos for an hour or two." To this she adds her own cheeky wink as she takes another sip of her drink.

Abby flinches a little, laughs, groans, "I know, I know, it's just I'm taking up so much of your time! And the water!" The fact that there's no other customer in the store right now doesn't seem to be a factor in her feeling bad about it. "I think what I want is a PS4 but I'll have to make sure first," she adds in a whisper, then stretches slightly, shoulders pushed back once she's standing straight. "Sure! Though I don't think I have any games where you play with teammates..." she says, then stands there for a second, wracking her brain. "I don't have a lot of new games. Oh! No, that doesn't have... hmmm."

Mac uses the neck of her cider bottle as a demonstrative pointer, indicating the rest of the shop, adding a dismissive wave toward the water bottle, "As you can see, I have so many pressing responsibilities. And that was like five cents. Wholesale perks and whatnot." she comments wryly, punctuating the statement with another sip of her drink. Another slight narrowing of her eyes at the seeming waffling Abby was doing, still holding a slight smirk, "Just because I'm a member of the PC master race, doesn't mean I'm judgey. It's like that Marie Kondo lady. Keep what brings you joy, yaknow? That's what gaming is all about."

"The PC...? Oh! Right. Well, I play games on my laptop, so that's technically a PC," Abby points out with an indignant little huff, but smiles, adding in a quieter voice. "It's just not a very good one, so I can't really play the latest stuff. It's mostly single-player anyway. Well, I think Dragon Age and Mass Effect have some multiplayer but not really? It's just kind of sitting there, though, I don't play it." She holds her hands up in a small apologetic shrug, then takes a longer sip of water and finally sets the bottle down with a sigh. "Anyway, I'll stop taking up your time! If I think of something, I'll let you know. Or I'll come by! Thank you for talking to me and for the water too."

Mac nods with a grin, again using her bottle in a little tip outward from her temple, miming a salute, "Those are both really great games. And Mass Effect... 3? Had some fun multiplayer? And yeah, of course. It was nice meeting you, Abby." She offers her hand across the counter to shake. "And don't be a stranger, you can come by and try out whatever you want to."

Abby reaches out to shake Mac's hand. "Oh, I know. But I just tried it a couple of times, I'm really not very good at the actual shooting," she admits with a sheepish smile, then raises her hand for a wave. "It was nice to meet you! And sure, I'll do that. And if anyone needs a game or a gift or something like that, I'll know where to send them, too." And with that offer she heads out and nears the door, drawing it open. It's hot enough outside that she groans and fans herself before stepping onto the street. She glances left, right, like she's not sure which direction she was headed in the first place, then sets off.

Mac watches her go, finishing off her 4th cider of the day, her congenial face she had held fading down to a more neutral, wry look as she processes what just happened. New customer, new gossip about the town. Good lord, what had she gotten herself into... Still, at least it was quieter here than in the city. A hand lifts, the heel of her palm rubbing at her eye. Had that lady seemed... brighter? Like some sort of Instagram filter that only affected her. Mac didn't know, but it was all just weird after weird around here. Her eyes turn to her screen as she moves onto a short stool in front of her computer, bringing up Reddit, and intending to waste the rest of the time until another customer came in or she closed for the day...