brighter than gold

hello! my names keegan, and i play lock, dash, and iris! long story short, i used to play miguel flores and this was his blog, but when i dropped him there was no way for me switch my primary blog to one of the others so now this is just one i use to follow/reply/ask questions - so if you get an ask or something from here, know i am actually a member of the group, but there’s no need to worry about following this! feel free to message me on any of my character’s blogs (or this one) if you want to plot, and have a good time in the group!

He’d turned his attention back towards the rack he’d been focused on by the time she actually got around to answering, but he simply gave her a small ‘ah well’ sort of shrug with a smile, putting his hands into his pockets as he allowed his eyes to continue scanning. When she mentioned her own work, however, he turned his head again in time to see where she was pointing, and with a slight grin he quickly made his way over to take a look, falling into silence for a few moments before he glanced back towards her. “These are amazing! How long’ve you been making them?”

Relieved to see that his attempt at an idea was apparently good enough to talk about, Miguel leaned forward onto his folded arms with a grin - as much as he trusted his own improvisation, he’d always been half terrified of where he was actually going to go with whatever he was saying, and for it to have actually made sense instead of spiralling into repetitive nonsense was something he was fairly sure they both would have been grateful for. “Never, exactly!” he grinned, “And… I don’t know, pawn it off, probably? I’m… actually not sure, really. I think I’d just want to find it, not really… keep it for anything.” he shrugged, though he felt his smile faltering slightly when she asked whether he’d actually share it - would she not? He quickly tried to fix his expression, giving her a slightly puzzled smile and furrowing his eyebrows. “Of course I would!” he laughed, as if she was insane, “I mean, he’d be coming with me, obviously, so… it would only be fair, wouldn’t it?” Would Tulio come with him if he asked? He would go if it was the other way around, surely he’d do the same for him, wouldn’t he? “And he doesn’t have to be with me all the time to be my friend - what, do yours?”

“Thank you so much, really,” Miguel grinned, relaxing his shoulders slightly as he made a mental note to throw in whatever extra money he could when he paid. He took a step back from the front desk as she went off to start, though instead of heading towards an apparently empty seat he finally allowed himself to get a proper look at everything around him, everything from the clothes to just the decorations of the shop itself. “Did you make all of this stuff?” he asked over his shoulder, despite being unsure whether or not she’d hear him.

For a moment, Miguel was caught off guard by her actually pointing out that he hadn’t done anything to warrant needing to apologise, but after a few seconds of trying to think of an actual response he simply shrugged, muttering ‘fair enough’ under his breath as he glanced away, turning back a few moments later to shrug in vague agreement with her doubt and giving her a casual smile - usually he would’ve been somewhat more careful, but she didn’t really seem the type to rat out someone she had suspicions could be doing something off. “Three?” he half-laughed, “And two snakes and a cat… six animals? That sounds great, honestly - you ever have to break up any fights or anything? Doesn’t really sound like the easiest lot to handle.”

“Sorry,” Miguel gave her an almost sheepishly apologetic smile, as if he was at all responsible for entertainment options in his part of the city. He sat up somewhat straighter when she started listing her usual passtimes, but when it came to his turn to respond he had to hesitate for a half-second - it wasn’t the first time someone had asked him what he spent his days doing, but still, after almost ten years, every time the question was poised he had no way to easily disguise what he and Tulio did. “Work,” he finally settled on, “guitar, spend time at the Clowder, spend time with friends. Nothing that exciting," he shrugged, "Did you say lizards? Like, lizards plural?”

After a moment of looking at his hands and uncertainly biting the corner of his lip as he considered her reassurance, Miguel finally made an attempt at neatly folding the bundle back together and put it back into his pocket, only looking back up towards her at her suggestion with a look of grateful surprise. “That would be - I mean, I don’t want to interrupt whatever you’re working on at the moment, of course, just -” he took a moment to breathe, his smile once again uncertain as he considered how much of an idiot he must be looking like, “- you sure?”

Miguel glanced up towards her as she spoke, but he had to look away for a moment as he tried to rack his brain for anything he might be able to offer up. “I mean, pretty much everything costs money,” he finally shrugged, giving her an apologetic smile. “Even the ‘illegal stuff’, most people are pretty much only into that for the money - not that I was the one to tell you that. I dunno, what sort of stuff do you usually do?”

“What?” Miguel asked, glancing up at her as she moved his hand, feeling a slight twinge of guilt as she explained. “Are you sure? Like, I’m happy to pay now, seriously,” He gave her a slightly reluctant smile, keeping his money out. He didn’t know all that much about running a proper business, and he wasn’t about to tell her how to run hers, god no, she knew much more about the whole thing than he did - but not making people pay straight up did seem like an easy way for people to just get free repairs.

[8:52pm] oh but btw ivw asked jack to listen for people so if you do come over and dont tell him then he will definitely think youre a burglar

Relieved, Miguel shut his eyes for a moment - it wasn’t like he’d been panicking over it, like he was on his last couple notes or anything, he had more than enough to get by - and, thankfully, enough to not worry about fifteen bucks to get a shirt fixed. “Yes, yes, fifteen is… great. Thank you. Sorry for… making a thing about it, that’s great,” he laughed under his breath, tucking some of his hair behind one ear. “Sorry, I’ve just never really done this before, and in like… movies and stuff, when someone gets something ripped and they complain about how much it’s gonna cost, y'know, so it just sort of… I don’t know. Thank you, though.” He reached into his jeans pocket, pulling out a small bundle of notes - he’d wanted to be safe - and started to pick through them. 

Miguel nodded slowly, crossing his arms and resting them in front of him as she explained. “Everything I’ve ever wanted?” he murmured, letting his gaze drift down the table as he took a moment to think - a moment in which he realised he had no clue what he wanted. Well, there were things, obviously, there had always been things he wanted, money, people to talk to, opportunities - but his ultimate destiny? When he was a kid, that had just been playing music - but that dream had long since come to a halt, and he was sure he was happy just channeling it through busking. So what was he meant to say, something to help him and Tulio, full police immunity forever? Where was the adventure then? Oh. Adventure. “Alright,” he started, looking back towards her, “The letter? For me, it’s something… vague. Coded, actually. And the map, it’s… super old, just so old, you’re hardly able to understand it’s a map kind of map - and then behind the door? It’s more maps, or something like that - more paths. It’s just this… never-ending journey. And some money. Obviously. Maybe gold, actually. My friend likes gold.” He gave her a quick smile. “How’s that?”

Miguel put up no protest when she took the shirt, but he was only able to let out a silent sigh of relief when she gave no obvious signs that it would be difficult to fix. Giving her a quick smile of gratitude, he hurried to follow her to the desk, trying to not let himself get distracted by his surroundings and instead doing his best to focus on the questions at hand - even if he had no clue what he was doing, he could at least try and act like he did. “Miguel Flores? And time isn’t really a big issue - seriously, just do it whenever. No rush.” He gave her another quick smile, finally letting his eyes wander - though after a moment’s pause, he looked back towards her, suddenly seeming hesitant. “Sorry, can I just - can I ask how much this’ll cost? Like it’s not a huge issue or anything, just… y’know.”

“A golden key?” Miguel repeated, suddenly distracted from the struggle he’d been having with the zip of his guitar case. Deciding to deal with the consequences later, he quickly forced it past the spot it was snagged on and hurried to pick the instrument up and move it out of the way, leaning it against his side of the bench’s seat as he properly sat across from her. “This key, it’s by itself? No map, no letter, no labels, nothing to show you what it’s for? Just a key?” He supposed he could’ve just said he’d pawn it off, or just have some vague adventure - but that would have been boring, and it had been way too long since he’d been presented with a decent hypothetical.

As soon as he stepped into the shop, he made sure to give the woman behind the desk a quick smile, though before he had the chance to explain himself she’d already started talking, leaving him stood in the doorway trying to find a good place to interrupt. “Hey, yes, sorry, it’s… a drop off, actually, yeah,” he clarified with a small laugh, lifting the arm he’d been using to drape the shirt over for his walk. “If you’re too busy though, I can…” he gestured vaguely over his shoulder back out the door with an apologetic smile.