i'll improvise

Eric smiled at the other man. “It’s alright. No harm done. No use crying over spilt milk, or well, coffee in this case.” He lets out a soft but awkward laugh. “Oh,” he said a bit disappointed. He should have texted her beforehand to see if she was working. He wasn’t going to let his excursion that day be a waste though! “I do like ocean-y stuff. I’ll definitely look around.” He glances in the direction that the sandwich seemed to be pointing to. “Oh, yeah? Does it still work and have all the parts?”

“Still...” If he had more money, he’d offer to replace them, but he didn’t have enough money for his own lunch today, so he let himself trail off. At least he hadn’t run into anyone awful. Either way, he saw the guy’s expression at ‘no Ariel’, and he couldn’t help but grin. “Don’t worry, she’s on shift. Her lunch break just doesn’t involve running.” Now fiddling with the paper his sandwich had been wrapped in, Aladdin tried to remember anything about the RC boat. “It should, if we paid as much as we did for it. Controller might need batteries or something, though. I can double check it for you, if you want.”

“I would certainly hope not. That would just be rude.” She added with a small laugh. It was something Belle could easily shake off, her curiosity was struck and that’s why she was here. Looking around she nodded softly as she took in what he was saying. “Well, aren’t you a rebel. You’re also wrong. This is… really interesting. I haven’t been in a pawn show in ages. My father used to bring me to them all the time. The things he would find to try and rebuild , make new of it..” She smiled of the memory of it all. “Must be kinda cool to be in a place like this and see all you see, right?” 

Aladdin felt like his brain was whirring away like a windup toy at her words. The only job he could get? Interesting? Alright. She was a smart lady. Those were fun. “Uh, it depends on the day, to be honest. Most of the time it’s just...jewelry.” For emphasis, he pointed down to the case in front of him, full of watches and rings and all other kinds of basics. He could remember most of the people that came in to pawn jewelry, and he sort of wished he couldn’t. “And most of the time...the people are desperate. But yeah, we get some fun stuff. My favorites are the old game stuff. I’ve been catching up as it all comes in.”

Belle hadn’t expected someone to be in such a rush as they wizzed past her. Though it did catch her curiosity. The never to write about it was itching at her. As if it could strike some sort of inspiration for a new character or story. Someone in that much of a rush, had to have a story to follow. So she did, watching his movements till she found herself at a pawn shop. With a light smile she walked in and laughed. “I promise I’m not here to yell at you for almost making me kiss the sidewalk. I just.. wanted to know what all the hurry was about as if I was missing something.” 

“Sorry,” Aladdin started with a genuine sheepish grin on his face. “I don’t usually go around smacking into people.” He was usually better at dodging, to be honest, but the sidewalk had been weirdly packed today, and he hadn’t been able to easily get up the side of a building to go above like he might have. “And I’m extra sorry because the hurry wasn’t anything interesting. I was just grabbing lunch, and I’m not technically supposed to leave the shop by itself.” The struggle of not having anything to bring with him, he guessed. Breaking more rules.

     “It’s quite all right,” Prilla replied to his apology, having already forgiven him for the mistake. She understood better than anyone that break time could fly by if you didn’t make the most of it—especially when it came to getting something to eat, and lunch was one of the most important meals of the day (along with breakfast, brunch, tea time, dinner, desert, and midnight snack.) That seemed a little lost on the store employee though, who claimed not to be a lunch person, despite sounding pretty hungry to her if his growling stomach was any indication.

     She reached into her bag and found a prettily-wrapped package of cookies, pulling them out with a grin. “You’re lucky I’m always prepared with a snack!” she said, making her way over with a bounce in her step to place the treat on the counter. “My friend baked these. She’s a magician in the kitchen. Just save me one, will you, please?”

Aladdin felt himself freeze up. On one hand, he didn’t like to be completely rude. On the other, he also really didn’t like taking handouts. It just felt sort of wrong, since he could take care of himself. So, he came up with a plan and just took the cookie that was closest to him. One would be like...a tip if he was a waiter. Right? Yeah.

“Thanks, but I’ll just take this one. Trying to watch my figure.” What figure he had to watch, that was. “And it’s cheat night tonight.” Cheat as in he’d probably have to cheat a store out of it’s stock, but that still counted. “What kind are they?” he asked, taking another bite of his sort of sad sandwich.

Elsa’s journey to find out more about her magic continued. She had gone through each book store and library in town to get some answers, but what she found was very minimal. Her next step was to look at thrift stores and pawn shops, to maybe see if they had a hidden gem somewhere that could help her. Elsa entered the pawn shop unsure of what to expect, and she gave a friendly smile to the other. “Hi,” she said simply, pausing as she thought of what to say. She wanted to be vague and not be suspicious about what exactly she was looking for. “I just wanted to see what books you might have? Some more rare ones, perhaps?”

Taking a moment to make sure he didn’t have crumbs on him, Aladdin nodded before pointing to the general area where they kept books. “Most of it’s over there, but you might wanna do a full walk around, I know people move things. No idea if anything’s really rare, though.” He knew they had some books bound in leather, with yellow pages, but most book titles didn’t really mean anything to him. “If you need help, I’ll be...here.” And with that, he let himself open up his bag of chips. One customer didn’t end lunch time, especially when lunch was evidence.

Eric had been on his way to the pawn shop purely to see Ariel. He wasn’t positive she was working, but showed up with two coffees nonetheless. Well, at least that was his plan. Someone had been running down the street and knocked into him which caused Eric to drop both drinks onto the ground. He felt a little defeated after that, thinking maybe he should just turn around and go home, but just tossed the now empty cups in a nearby bin. Entering the pawn shop he was greeted by none other than the man that had run into him. Eric wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it though. “Is Ariel here?” he asked in response. “If not, I’ll just browse around and see if you have any cool ships in bottles or something.”

Aladdin scratched the back of his neck, feeling supremely awkward. He didn’t really keep up with other people’s business, but he felt bad that he’d apparently cost a coworker a free coffee. “I ran into you, didn’t I? Sorry,” he apologized, ducking his head and checking the register. He wasn’t supposed to have left it, but... “And uh, no, she’s not here right now, but she’ll probably be back soon. There’s a bunch of ocean-y stuff over there.” He gestured with his sandwich half, towards a mirror set into a ship’s wheel. “I think we’ve still got an RC boat, if you like those.”

     It was funny that the man who had almost bowled her over on the sidewalk happened to go right into the very same shop that was her destination. Luckily, Prilla had a cheerful disposition and took the incident with a grain of salt—she couldn’t be upset over an accident, after all. Smiling at his offer of help, she realized that he was an employee of the pawn shop, standing behind the counter. She noticed, as well, that he was eating.

     “Oh, are you supposed to be on your lunch break? That must be why you were running! Well, thank you, sir. I won’t be bothering you too much; I’ll just be browsing…” It seemed she couldn’t leave it at that, though, looking up from the antiques she had been inspecting for a moment. Her own stomach began to complain at the sight of the man’s meal. “I’m sorry. Is that all you’re eating?”

 He gave her a sheepish grin. “Uh, lunch breaks are kinda tight here, honestly. Sorry I ran into you.” Aladdin really did feel bad about it. He usually did his best to not run into women, children, or old people when he was making a break for it. At least this woman was seemingly pretty nice.

When she said that she was planning on browsing, Aladdin gave an encouraging nod and gestured to the store as a sort of ‘good luck’ to her. You didn’t always find what you wanted, but it was always fun to look. “Hm? Oh, yeah, just this. I...I’m not always a lunch person, you know?” He shot her another smile and hoped that his stomach didn’t growl. And of course, it immediately did. “I mean, I guess I am today, but I don’t need much.”

Jasmine was not there to see Aladdin, even though she was sure it looked that way. Yes, she enjoyed seeing him, and yes she did have a habit of getting lost in the moment with him a lot, but she was not there for him. She was trying to find a new necklace, yeah that was it. A new necklace. Seeing the look on his face she just chuckled. “Can you? You look like you’ve done something you shouldn’t have. And I don’t think it’s eating on the counter there.”

Aladdin straightened up when he fully realized it was Jasmine. She was cool enough that he wanted to make himself look decent. “Uh, nope, nothing I shouldn’t do,” he answered, keeping the ‘especially if you ask anarchists’ comment to himself. He wasn’t about to start in. “I mean...maybe I shouldn’t eat this flavor of chips? They’re not super good.” He grinned and shrugged, trying to stay casual. “I can be super helpful, though. Unless you’re wanting to buy the old walkman over there, because I’m getting that with my next paycheck.”

“Hello I want to ask if you want to try these tea cakes and scones?” Dee lifts the little basket up for him, “It is all free samples and if you have good or even bad feedback please text it to the number on the card.” They smile, “There is homemade teabags for you also, the flavor I made for fall is apple cinnamon harvest.”

Aladdin felt any tension leave his body. Free samples? He could definitely work with that, as long as he didn’t go too far and embarrass himself. “Oh, sure! Happy to try some!” he answered with a grin, leaning forward and picking up one of the little cakes. Out of habit, he inspected it, and took a bite. “Wow, those are really good. You made those?”

Aladdin Ababwa || 29 || Non-Magical || Pawnshop Worker