[PRP] Beer and Burgers [Ro/Cass]

[demon_pachabel]

Roughly 30 minutes after Ro had left, Cass had received a blessed text; one of the other employees of 4th Wall was coming in for their usually scheduled shift. Having picked up the shop only part way through a shift, she hadn't actually had time to see if she'd be released into the wild again or, in a Cid-esque fashion, she'd be holding down the fort all day.

That had given her time to throw a customer-shaming picture up on Instagram (mixing the comics. Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame), as well as send off another text to the gentleman from the next shop over.

Ghouis

From: xxx-555-7987

Looks like I'm being relieved of duty here in about 30 minutes. I'll text you again when I'm off so you can spend some more time cleaning up if you want to.
[unicornemoji][unicornemoji][unicornemoji][unicornemoji][unicornemoji]

She definitely added more unicorns than anybody needed in a single text. Then again, she had been wearing a unicorn shirt as well. Maybe that said something about her.

Fortunately, the 30 minutes came and went without much of a hitch and once Cass had traded off with the next person, she went to linger outside of the front door of the Vinyl shop, leaning up against one of the windows and sending off another text.

Quote:

From: xxx-555-7987

I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee/DEEPBREATH/eeeeeeeeeee

 

[GhouIs]

He had just stepped out of the shower when his cellphone buzzed with its second message. Still dripping, he wrapped a towel around his waist and picked up the device- his brow perking at Cass' messages.

"s**t," he murmured. He grabbed a shirt he had already prepared for himself- just a plain brown one- and tugged it on over his lanky frame.

Minutes later, he had appeared at the front of his shop; teal-more-blue-than-green hair still wet and sticking out in odd places.

"Hey, hold on one sec." He unlocked the door and opened it wide to reveal the front half of his dark shop. "I've still gotta get dressed, you can come up while ya wait if ya want."

demon_pachabel

visual ref of Red Ranger Vinyl

 

[demon_pachabel]

Well, he looked like she'd interrupted. "You mean you don't want to head out pulling the drip-dry look?" Cass teased as she stepped inside, pausing to take a good look at the inside of the shop. "Man, this is quite the place," she grinned, walking past him and down one of the dark rows. Pausing at one of the boxes, she idly thumbed through it. Occasionally, she'd pull something up to take a better look at it, then slide it back down and continue on.

It was notably not a thorough look.

"You sure you want me to come up? I'm alright waiting down here too. Whichever you want," Cass flashed one of her smiles, but didn't immediately move from where she was.

Ghouis

 

[GhouIs]

"Uhh, yeah, I'd prefer you come up if that's alright." There was a lot of expensive and irreplaceable product within the lower half of his building and, though he was more or less sure Cass was trustworthy- and he knew where she worked- he felt more comfortable having her where he could still keep an eye on her.

"It's just through here and up." He locked up the shop once more and slipped by her, long legs closing the gap between him and the backroom easily. It was in this room that all the cassettes and VHS tapes could be found, as well as a small DIY stage in the corner that was empty besides his drum kit. He turned to make sure she was following then gestured towards the stairs.

"Ladies first. It's a little bit grungy up there so... don't judge me or anythin'... it actually looks a lot better than it did when I first bought this place."

dem0n_pachabel

visual ref of his studio apartment

 

[demon_pachabel]

At least she didn't take offense that Ro didn't want her to snoop around all of his rather expensive looking items, following along after him with a stride that said the shorter woman was definitely used to keeping pace with people who were blessed with long legs. It wasn't her fault she was so itty bitty (okay, 5'4" wasn't 'itty bitty' but she felt it sometimes).

She paused in the back room, peering at all the other goodies that had been stashed in the back. It was like a treasure trove of nerdery she couldn't use in any which way (after all, she didn't own a record player OR a VHS player. Heck, she barely owned the pre-loaded minute cellphone she kept when it came to technology).

"Me first, hmm?" she stepped past him, then eyed the staircase. With a hand on each rail, she made her way up, two steps at a time (and she probably would have tried three if she had longer legs, but....). This gave her the special honor of being tired by the time she'd gotten to the top. She immediately settled into one of his chairs.

"Honestly, I like it. It has a good aesthetic to it. Trust me, I've lived in really trashy places. My first few apartments were really bad. I've put my foot through hardwood before."

Ghouis

 

[GhouIs]

Ro followed the energetic young woman up the stairs. He, however, was content with taking them one at a time.

"Yeeaah," he said, emerging from the stairwell. "This place was about three days away from being condemned when my bandmates and I cashed in and bought it. They helped me fix it up. We used to all live up here and practice downstairs. Now it's just me on the lease while they're busy wreaking havoc in the U.K.."

He moved past Cass to the corner where his bed sat. It was messy and clothes were piled on it haphazardly. Carefully, he plucked through it before deciding on a pair of worn jeans and green boxers. He slipped away to the bathroom, which was seperated from his 'bedroom' by a dark green sheet where there should be a door.

"Where's your place at?" He asked from behind the curtain, while he busied himself with pulling on the selected garments.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

She tapped her fingers idly on the arm of the chair, 'Hmmm'ing attentively as he told the story of the studio flat. She...couldn't imagine more than one person living comfortably in it. At least she wouldn't have been sharing the space with anybody.

"Musta been really bad if they condemned it," well, were close to it, anyways, "did you put your foot through any floors or would you have seen that coming?" she asked, though the floors at least looked sturdy now and after having lived with some serious mold...well, the walls looked pretty OK too. Maybe it had been mostly 'someone hook a hammer to the place' bad.

She looked towards the curtain as he spoke from behind it. "Not gonna lie, my general descriptor would be 'near a Seven Eleven and a Grocery Store'. Haven't lived here long enough to really give it a better landmark than that. Close enough to the campus that lots of college students live there," and party, how many parties had she accidentally ended up at? " but not so close to be ideal student housing."

Ghouis

 

[GhouIs]

"There wasn't much of a floor to walk on, honestly. I laid down all this wood myself." Ro emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed and with hair that looked like it had been mussed pretty good with a towel.

"You're new in town?" He asked while depositing his wallet and cellphone into their respective back pockets. "How long has it been since ya got here?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass looked down at the wood floors and whistled. "Man, my parents paid someone to put down flooring once and it still took forever. You must be very handy," she nodded approvingly, popping up to her feet once Ro emerged from behind the curtain pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Hands on her hips, she shrugged. "Since like the end of February? I'm a little nomadic. I think this is like the tenth of eleventh city I've lived in?" Maybe tenth if that weird backwater middle-of-nowhere place she'd lived in when she was 17 didn't count. "Already feels like it's been longer than that with the uh..fun adventures this place gives."

Like punching missingno in the face and pulling a bird out of it.

Ghouis

 

[GhouIs]

"Uh, yeah, one of my dad's old friends flips houses for a living? So, I learned a lot from him and what I didn't know I sorta just... looked up tutorials for on the internet, millennial style."

Roman pulled a plain maroon-colored beanie on over his mess of hair and gave his house a quick survey, out of habit, while listening to Cass explain her nomad situation.

"Damn, man, that's a lot of moving. I've visited a lotta places in the states, but, I always come back to Ashdown. It's my home, as strange as it can be sometimes." He very pointedly didn't ask about the adventures the brunette mentioned. He knew most of Cid employees were magic and Ro did his best to stay ignorant to the goings-on of that particular circle.

"Ya ready to go?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"It's nice to have somewhere to go back to. I'm....." Cass trailed off as she sought out a good way to explain 'I can't go home because yeah', "I can't go home." Well, at least as far as she'd been told, 'ever'. It had been a little vague between being handed roughly 2 thousand in cash and being told 'Good luck, you live in the middle of nowhere now'. "But I don't mind the travel so much. I've seen a lot more places than I ever thought I would. Thought I'd be stuck in Ohio my whole life."

But she definitely agreed that Ashdown was a special sort of strange.

She adjusted her ponytail as she spoke, smoothing the hair back into it. "Yep, I'm good to go if you are."

Ghouis

 

[GhouIs]

Ro nodded. He understood the feeling of not belonging anywhere. He had felt that way for the majority of his 20s but had grown to accept the loneliness that came with having no family. And at least Ashdown always felt familiar, even if it sometimes didn't feel that much like home.

The thirty-one year old crossed his apartment and stood by the panel of switches that would cloak his home in darkness as soon as he flicked them off. He gestured towards the stairs. He didn't say ladies first again, but the intent was obvious.

demon_pach4bel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass definitely didn't want to get caught in the dark. She crossed the room as Ro lingered at the switches and began her descent after shooting him a smile. This time the steps were only one at a time, but she definitely took them quickly, landing at the bottom with both feet. She turned back to look up the stairs as she waited for him.

Ghouis

 

[GhouIs]

Ro flicked off the lights and descended the stairs, his long frame shrouded in the dark. When he reached the bottom of the steps, he flicked on a switch; illuminating the shop with the many strings of lights he had wrapped around its perimeter, where the ceiling met the wall. The effect was warm and comforting, the lights offering just enough visibility to easily navigate the clutter that was his store.

"It gets pretty dark in here." He said, though such a fact was already obvious, especially in the backroom where there were no windows. He strode forward, through to the front of the shop, then unlocked their exit. He held it open for Cass.

"I hope you don't mind walking 'cause I don't have a car." He usually hoofed it or, on the rare occasion that he needed to get somewhere a little too far for walking, he'd take the bus.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

She took a moment to admire the look of the shop now that it actually had lights on, nodding. People probably had to hold things up to their faces if it got too dark in there, but she liked the effect well enough. Once she'd had her moment, Cass trailed after Ro with a slight hop in her step.

"So my options are my Lamber-feeties or the Chevro-legs, hmm?" she laughed at her own joke as she stepped outside, turning as she did so she was still facing him as he locked up the front door of his shop. "I'm not great for long walks, but it's a nice day out." she glanced towards her own car in the parking lot thoughtfully, then shrugged. "I have a car, but I don't mind walking if that's what you had in mind," her poor, sad beat up car that was older than she was.

Though it was younger than Ro was.

It briefly occurred to her that maybe she should warn Ro that she...crossed over sometimes on long walks (especially when she was trying really hard not to), but she'd..leave that in it's own box. Just in case that'd weird him out.

Ghouis