2020-03-14 - Handyman for "Hire"

Adam was sleeping since he had been working nights. This left her to go shopping for things, even if she had no idea what those things actually were, what they looked like, or even what they were supposed to do. Hopefully, there would be someone around that she could just hand the post-it note too and they would be able to understand what her brother was asking for. The 5ft3 brunette was dressed in dark-colored jeans, winter boks and a hoodie that was a couple of sizes too big for her, her mass of curls pulled back away from her face into a low ponytail. Stepping inside she looked around for someone that looked like they knew what they were doing.

Jake had decided to stop in for a new chainsaw. He had left the job site in Colorado without replacing the chain and decided why not just get a new one and stop tinkering when he did not need to. He looked the part, as he often does in his hiking boots, faded jeans and flannel vest. Standing nearly six and a half feet tall certainly helped. Rounding the aisle he looked over to Atli and could not help himself. "Did you need a hand miss?"

Realizing she had been trying her darndest to defy physics, Atli lets her flats become even with the linoleum floor. She smiles, a tad embarrassed at being caught unable to do something. "Maybe just a step stool!" She jokes in a cheery tone. "I cannot for the life of me seem to find what they have done with the high grits for round sanders." A look of recognition shines through her sapphire eyes, "You're a Tremblay aren't you?"

She had yet to notice the women walking about with a post it, but would likely be inclined to help when she did. While intelligent Atli was not always the most perceptive, sometimes living in her own world for moments on end.

Seeing the 6ft5 man dressed like well, someone she would expect to be good with tools, as horrible as that sounded in her own head. She started to walk toward him, stopping near him and the pretty blonde while he asked the blonde if she needed some help. She was more than willing to wait her turn and just stood a few feet away from them, the fingers of one hand wrapped around the wrist of her other arm

"I am, Jake Tremblay to be precise." He offers his hand and a grin at nearly the same time. "The grit you are looking for should be right here." He takes down a high grit selection. "Either of these work, I've had no problems with them." He nods with a smile. Its eerie how this ends up happening in places like this. "I really need a wool coat or something " He laughs.
Looking back up the aisle almost like he was looking for an actually employee, he spots Jewellia. "Did you need a hand with something as well Miss?"

A glittering grin of gratitude spreads across her face as the towering man assists her. "Why thank you Jake!" She exclaims. The upturned grin is angled toward the newcomer she did not in fact recognize as a Gray Harbor original. "Hello!" is given warmly to the pretty women with curls. She wants to ask more about what he was using the sandpaper for, she loved hearing about new projects, but she knew 'lost in a hardware store' when she saw it. She slides a packet of paper towards her and eavesdrops shamelessly.

She smiled back at the pretty blonde woman giving her a friendly wave. She looked at Jake and blinked. " I am sorry, do you actually not work here? I don't want to bother you if you don't but my brother sent me after some plumbing stuff and I have no idea what I am eve looking for."

"Jake of all trades." He tries to keep a straight face. "Seriously, that's what my business card says. Handyman, plumber, carpenter, metalworkers. What seems to be the things he asked you to get, this way I know how likely I am to get a call about a broken pipe." He grinned clearly meaning it in humor not attacking skill.

Atli manages not to snort at the joke that had just been made. It really was quite clever! She was in stealth mode for the moment however, learning about those around her. Wallflower did not suit her however, a side eye turns to a full body quarter turn. Clean and clever humor was her absolute favorite, the overly formal blonde more than likely to spend any time forced to watch comedy central as a cringing moment. "If he doesn't work here, they should probably start paying him." Atli offers, looking about at the lack of customer service. "I'm Atli," she inserts. She would typically be the type to shake hands, but her bruises were healing rather slowly on her knuckles. The warm grin is upheld instead.

It had probably been a few months since Abitha needed any soldering wire, and really, when you buy a spool big enough, you don't really use a lot at a time when you do her kind of work. But she'd run out, so here she was, pushing into a shop, looking a little run down with no makeup, but her hair pulled back into a neat chopstick-crossed bun. She wears a puffy black jacket, a hilarious T-shirt visible through the unzipped front. Jeans and fur-topped boots complete the set. She starts to walk down the ends of the aisle, peering up for any sort of guide marker, quietly muttering the sections she sees before she finds what she was looking for, "Electrical! Here we go..."

People? People aren't heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit so they can be melted to repair broken switched... At least they weren't supposed to be. And thusly, they're mostly not noticed for the little game shop owner on a mission.

"It is nice to meet you, Jake. My name is Jewellia."She held the post-it out to him. "My brother is a cop, not a plumber, so it is entirely likely that you might get a call about a broken pipe anyway."She smiled at him looking up at him with an amused smile. "I am just a photographer, so nothing on that list makes sense to me." She looked at Atli and offered her a bright friendly smile. "Nice to meet you too Atli!"

"When the toilet flushes does water back up in the shower? I think he is confusing a clogged trap for a diverter. You will only need a snake to fix this maybe a new trap if it is too far gone." He looked over the post it and handed it back. He chuckled when he saw Atli. "Coming to meet more people that do not work here or are you looking for two more bears, Goldylocks?" His eyes spotted the size of the cart that Abitha was pushing, he counted to ten then yelled out "Just remember that Wires is the aisle next to Electrical!" He shook his head with a grin. "Right, so plumbing, that is this way."

A brow arches at the remark concerning her hair color. "Do you count as one?" She calls after teasingly. The fact that Jewellia is a photographer is mentally filed away. Those were always needed for events and promotions. Then she is standing and staring at sanding paper again. She decides to peruse around the shelves a bit for bits here or there that may be useful when she sees Abitha. "You were at the Christmas gathering right?" The woman certainly did not look as nice as she had on the day, apparently not a regular taker of self care. Additionally she had left cold and wet so the fiasco could hardly be called a 'party'.

Like a voice you hear in the background of a certain ranting anime-loving youtuber, a faint, "Oh, God dammit..." drifts from the end of the electrical aisle. There's the sound of scrounging. Why? Because in this narrative, Abitha is scavenging like the reticent techno-gremlin she is. There's another "Aha!" and the sound of something dropping in her cart... And the sound of something dropping on the floor, and some more swearing. It's fine. The place isn't on fire. Yet.

As Atli finds her picking up conduit boxes, Abitha glances over at the question, stacking them back where they belong, "Nope, I've conveniently had a traumatic memory loss of the evening." she lies through her teeth, Atli given a side eye as she goes to push her intended purchases (soldering tin and some other repair components) past the blonde.

"Yes?" It was clear that she understood the question that he had asked but most everything he said right after that went over her head. She blinked slowly taking the post-it note back from him when he offered it. "So.. a snake?" It was clear that she was thinking about the animal type, not the drain type. When he said plumbing was this way she nodded and made to follow him, turning to glance at the girl he had called out about wire to, and Atli had walked off to talk to.

Why had people suddenly developed some form of sickness that stripped them of all basic manners? It was an epidemic! She tried so hard to be warm towards the tree climbing, clumsy, stray cat. Atli had not been this irritated since the ruffian piano boy. Remembering what had transpired last time she takes a few deep inhalations of ceder bliss, counting backwards from ten. Abitha had not set anything on fire, but there was a chance that Atli well might. "Have a fabulous day Miss!" She calls out toward the mangy women with a sickening amount of carebear positivity dripping from her words. That's right, die of diabetes mangy lady.

Abitha stops a moment, looking back at Atli. Seriously, the energy coming off that one was like a piano wire ready to snap. She'd been a few aisle down, as if heading for a checkout, but, for some reason, she walks right back up to Atli. She wasn't trying to ignore other people in the store, honest, but yaknow, she was much better in her own element... Away from normies... It was nice to be able to just stare someone in the eye instead of up at them, though. With her face gone completely deadpan, her voice a flat monotone, Abitha resorts to the absolute, most juvenile provocation she can.

"Why?"

Hake had shown Jewellia where the plumber section was. "This device is a snake, look it up on line and you will see how to remove the tub's trap. Could be hair, could be gunk. If this does not work call my number." He handed over a card that did indeed say Jake of All Trades. Coming out of the aisle with Jewellia he heard the carebear call and remembered his comment to Atli. Following the voice, he stuck his head in the aisle. "Yes, I would be one of them, I am sure it has to do with my size." Spotting the cart then Abitha he waves. "Oh good, you knew where to find it, sorry I am sure you shop here all the time but I used to live here when i was younger. I wonder if they ever dug up the axe i buried out back." He shrugs with a grin.

She took the thing Jake offered and nodded her head listrening to him carefully. "Got it, it sounds completely gross and I am going to make my brother do it."She took the card from him glancing at it before tucking it into her back pocket wth a smile. " is it wrong of me to say that I am actually hoping that it is a reason I need to call you?" She was a flirt, she couldn't help it. She followed Jake out of the Isle and looked at the two women from one to the other as she tried to figure out what was going on. Abitha got a friendly wave if she looked in their direction.

Atli's eyes widen in a confused manner, which she does not let shake the upturn of her pale pink lips. "Why because you deserve it!" Is what she manages in response after a short pause. There was now a strong possibility in Atli's mind this person was a former asylum patient. Who questioned well wishes? How did she get invited to the Christmas gathering in the first place? There were many questions she did not have answers to at the moment, so she was glad for the return of the other patrons.

"Hello again!" She says with even more enthusiasm towards her social relief from the bog witch.

Abitha has to glance back to Jake as he addresses her, Atli saved from more belligerent trolling... for now..., "I mean, you weren't wrong about the wire, just a different thing I needed." she remarks, shrugging it off, "And nah, I actually don't shop here too often... Even though it's like two doors down from my shop..." she seems to realize that as she was speaking, her eyes darting back in forth. Stream of consciousness. She waves at Jewellia as she sees it, trying to remain... social? That's what normal humans did. "Hopefully not. Keep all the murders secret." She winks in an exaggerated manner. This was how humans joked, right?

"Almost right." He joked back with a smile. His attention moves to Atli and this time he looks her slowly up and down, not quite checking her out more like looking for something. "If we could bottle what keeps you going we likely could power the town, possibly the whole state." He lightly chuckles. "You are the single most energetic creature of have encounter since returning. I can't decide if you are an oversized fairy or some kind of joy emitting elf." He looked to Jewellia. "What do you think?"

Jewellia looked at Atli and then back and Jake. she had noticed the way he had looked the blonde over, and just after she had told him she was looking for another reason to use his number. She was not quite sure how to react to the not so subtle snubbing. "I think Elves are usually taller but aren't faeries supposed to have wings?" She looked at Atli again and then back at Abitha. "What sort of shop do you have?" She took a couple of steps away to Jake since apparently he had a preference for blondes.

The mention of murder from someone you have classified as mentally unstable is absolutely nightmare inducing. What were these wires for? Were her victims going to suffer? Was Atli in fact next? She attempts to push these thoughts aside in the interest of keeping herself sane. There was after all a possibility of contagion. Instead she focuses on what Jake was saying, deciding it was kind enough. A light ringing laughter following the assessment of her sunny personality. She did not in fact know what had transpired on the previous isle. "No, just lots of espresso. Addiction I picked up in Paris." It was unlikely that someone like Atli even knew the actual meaning of the word addiction. The word maybe added to her vocabulary in the same section as 'pumpkin spice' and 'spirit animal'. "It's very kind of you to help us ladies about the store Jake!"

Jewellia's comment is the first thing to get Abitha to smile, because... well it was just all too perfect to pass up. She takes a tiny step sideways toward the woman, though looking in Atli's direction, "See, you'd think that, but actually, did you know that Banshees, Bogies, and Trolls are all actually considered Fairies?" Yes, she was using mythology to throw shade at Atli. "And as for height, really, the elves are all just going to depend on what fictional universe." She shrugs. "Tall gangly elves always freaked me out anyways. Dragon Age was the worst with that... And the FF MMO's. Oh, I run a video gaming shop. Sorry, I'm a nerd." Yup, the run-ons were real with this one. She wasn't going to encourage either Jake or Atli's sickeningly sweet compliment-off.

"Game shops are awesome. I think I have played every final fantasy out there." He threw out there without missing a beat. If they stared he would kindly ignore the stares... maybe. "But no one was murdered, though I wonder if the amount of beans neccessary to keep you at this energy level was considered bean murder? And when you say I am kind it makes me think of the old lady I was helping for an hour in the grocery store. I am not kind, I am client hunting damnit" He grinned while thinking it then he smiled to Jewellia having given up on holding in a response. "If you find any leaks you can't contain by all means call for service, I'll be happy to check and clear your pipes."

"Actually I didn't know that. I am horrible when it comes to mythology and stuff like that. I have a friend though who does digital art for Magic the Gathering and Roleplaying books, which sadly I had never heard of until she mentioned both. I just know her artwork is pretty awesome. She is actually my upstairs neighbor which is really awesome." When Abitha mentioned that she ran a video game store Jewellia smiled looking excited, almost as excited as Atli. "That is so cool! No reason to be sorry. I think it is cool. I have played some video games." She was actually pretty clueless that Albitha had been using the banshee comment to throw shade at Alti. She might have said more about the video games but Jake's comment caught her off guard, after all, she thought he had snubbed her so his comment actually made her blush a bit. "Will do! Uh... Maybe, but probably... Uh..."

Atli was no longer entirely sure what was going on. She had read somewhere that videogames promoted violence, which seemed to fit the crazed women's profile. At least it answered the Christmas invitation bit. Addington's loved to support local business, no matter how niche. Jake as it turned out had gone from helping old ladies cross the street to offering a very different kind of trade service...so there was that. Atli shifts, refusing to look uncomfortable. "I am sure I strike fear into the hearts of coffee beans everywhere." She beams, trying to ignore parts of the conversation. "The pipes at the Addington house are A'okay, but if you feel like being a fellow accomplice to bean murder, I'm sure you know your way around town." What in the world was 'Magic: The Gathering?' she wonders to herself simultaneously.

Abitha was opening her mouth to compliment Jake's taste in video games when that little gem leaked out for Jewellia. And she seemed to enjoy it. Abitha gets a slightly lip peeling back look on her face, judgement intensifying. She'd put the thought out into the universe Atli was scared to voice, "Ya'll muhfuggas are gross." She was sure to also have the same opinion about Atli's grossly incorrect internal dialogue, but the blonde woman seemed polite enough to <s>not want to get smacked</s> keep it to herself. She could digress, there was more important things to pick up on. She looks to Jewellia, "Wait, really? Who? They live here in Gray Harbor?"

Jake looked at Abitha a bit confused and fished out his card. Jake of All Trades handyman and licenced contractor. Work listed includes carpentry, metalwork, and of course plumbing. "Her brother sent her on a scavenger hunt that would have destroyed their apartment's pipes." Yup he could rock a game face. He turned to Atli. "If you every want a second opinion on something feel free to reach out, consults are always free. It's when I work up a sweat that I charge for." He did not seem to get Magic, or anything about roleplaying games besides Final Fantasy.

Jewellia looked at Abith and held up the drain snake Jake had handed her. "No, he actually means what he said... Jake took over explaining for her and she nodded a couple of times managing to regain her composure and acting as if her mind had not fallen into the sewer for a moment. At Abitha's comment about the artist, she smiled "Her name is Surendra Kopeschke. You can find her stuff online , and yeah she lives in the same apartment complex I and my brother do."

There was not much to be done about the game shop owner. Maybe she could recommend a therapist to her so that she could have some practice talking to people in the real world. Polite society said you did not make people more uncomfortable unless there was good reason. The best course of action in this case was to pretend Abitha had not spoken at all, it was primarily gibberish anyway. "The things we do for family right?" Atli says in a chipper tone to Jewellia in an attempt to move on from an awkward impasse. Then to Jake she holds up the sandpaper in a way of topic. "Hyacinth is working on some remodeling of a close friends home, my specialty is restoration, so I am sure we could use a hand! Payed of course."

Jake, then Jewellia gets the flatest, most monotonous, "Uh-huh." they'd probably ever heard. Jake especially gets a finger gun for the prostitution joke. Game faces or not, believable stories or not, Abitha was a product of the internet, and knew innuendo when she heard it. Her eyes remain on Jewellia for a long moment as she's fishing in a pocket for her phone, popping open a google search and absolutely murdering the spelling of the name she'd just heard. But she, for one, welcomes the rise of their AI overlords, and life uh... finds a way.

"Oh, sick." She browses through some pictures, "Hope I meet her then. Or send her over to my shop sometime. The people over at One-Up would probably love to meet her too. That's the comic shop. I'm the Control Pad." She hooks a thumb... then has to correct her aim awkwardly as she realizes she was off by about 90 degrees. "Over there." Atli is equally as invisible to the gamer.

"Awesome, I look forward to working with you." He responds with a professional smile before watching Abitha's expression. "Oh come on, what plumber does not joke about their job a time or two. Besides you might call one day." He still grins while chuckling, clearly amused at the situation. "Oh Jewellia, what is the name of the complex, I will want to make sure I am not stepping on anyone's toes working there."

She smiled at Atli "My brother is my superman, he is also a cop, so I don't mind doing things for him. he just started so they have him on night shifts right now. I am totally making him be the one that cleans out the drains.' She held up the drain snake to show what she meant, because from what Jake said it sounds gross."

She looked back at Abitha. "I am Jewellia by the way."She smiled." One Up and Control Pad. God it. I will give her the name of both places."

She looked at Jake and smiled "Broadleaf apartments"

"Not for the same reason these two will." Yes, Abitha will absolutely call everyone else out on flirting. She knows how to navigate dialogue options. Duh. Either way, she holds a hand out, making a 'come on' motion for a card so she can pocket it. She was actually a business owner, and handymen were usually cheaper than dedicated specialists. She looks to Jewellia, smirking, "I'm Mac." To the rest of them, she sighs and rubs her hands together, "Ok, I'm gonna buy my stuff to go get all hot and-..." Her voice and manner had started to warm, all fakely flirty, until it falls flat again, "Nope, can't even fake it. I'm gonna go burn my fingers on molten metal now." She snorts with a grin, wiggling her fingers in some semblance of a wave.

And on that note, it was buy the darn sandpaper o'clock. "He must work with Alisha then! I will have to meet him at some point. I'm sure to be in contact at some point to see your portfolio as well. The website needs much better imaging done of the house." She has already pivoted in the direction to make her purchase, it seemed the unstable women was following her. "Good to see you Jake! I'll be in touch!" Maybe she could just have them put it on a tab so she didn't have to stand near Abitha.

"Hey if you are looking for a partner to get all hot and bothered with I would love to watch what you can do with your hands." He grins and mentally counts to five. "Hey I said I am a metalworker, Man at Arms was my inspiration. Even made a battle axe." He laughed and waved to Abitha. "Was my pleasure Atli, be sure to reach out if I can help." He tried that professional yet not smile once more then sighed and looked to Jewellia. "You should likely try and get home with that before your brother attempted a DIY disaster. Been a pleasure meeting you." He looks around and growls "Seriously, I did not even select my new chainsaw yet! I am done being helpful for today!"

If the count to five was to know when to dodge when a roll of electrical tape is scooped off an end cap and lobbed in his direction, Jake was a prophet. It wouldn't matter any way, since Abitha has the arm strength and athletic acuity of a grade schooler and it probably went way wide. Still, she at least smirks, the banter at least appreciated for its merits. Dammit, now Atli probably beat her to the register.