"Oh, it'll just be a moment. I know you were down on the locals and their superstitions, but come on. You might see something that interests you." There was something tough to shake - a slight tug at the back of Audra's mind that Mavis might be ever-so-slightly abnormal. The girl seemed attracted to two changelings, between Audra and Amity, which further fed into the darkling's confirmation bias. She didn't push the issue overtly, but this store might be a fun stick to poke and prod with. Audra slinks in with her companion in tow, already having enjoyed a cheaper dinner at some dingy diner. Her paperwork was still being processed, and Audra felt somewhat restricted by this. As a way to alleviate things, she had been prowling the city at night and had picked out a few locales to explore during the daytime. This was one of them.
"Fiine," goes Mavis as she sighs and feigns miserableness at being dragged along by Audra into the shop for weirdos and crazies. "I'm comin'- I'm comin'. Geez, you don't gotta browbeat me," opines Mavis, speeding up her trot to catch her with Audra's lanky strides.
Once inside, the human pretends to be disinterested in the store with its strange wares and... stranger smells. Mavis rubs her nose with the back of her hand-- bracelets flashing-- and falls in alongside Audra. Mavis tucks her hands into her hoodie pocket and tries to play along, wondering to the lawyer, "So's there anything you've got your eye on in here?" Despite herself, the human _was_ actually a little curious about that answer. "I wouldn't normally come here myself, y'know. The hell we looking for?"
There's a small grin that lingers on Audra's face. She winks at Mavis in a way of saying 'thank-you' without having to mouth the words. "A few things, actually. I didn't bring much with me when I made the move - only the essentials, left the rest at an old place of mine just in case I ever wanted it." She pauses, glancing about the store for a few moments before flitting over towards a display of oracular objects. "Which means I need to replace some things. Namely... A new tarot deck, some incense... And some herbs I like to keep on hand." There's an idle shrug as she plucks up an altar-cloth, unfolding it and examining the silver threading that creates the sigil in the center.
"I imagine you wouldn't, but it's fun to look, at least. I do the same thing with bookstores - I could browse for hours and I'll eventually talk myself into buying something just because.. Well.. I feel like I should."
Ohwow. Okay, so, Audra takes this more seriously than her human companion was anticipating. It takes Mavis a moment to change gears. She'd assumed that D'Villy was only teasing her, but the artist now thinks that the lawyer is quite serious. The hoodied mortal shuffles her boots over the floor, peers around like someone very much LOST, and nods her head as she looks back at Audra. "All right," she decides, still nodding as she tries to convince herself this was something of an adventure. "Sure, sure. Incense, herbs, some tarot cards," she repeats back, ticking the items off on her ring-laden fingers. Mavis winces, though, when Audra mentions her picking something up here to take home. "I dunno," she tells her. "This stuff is fun to look at, but it.. it's sort of like art that I wouldn't buy?" She grins, biting down on the tip of her tongue, then unbites it to say, "Which is sorta how everyone else feels about MY art. Seems fair." Enough about her though. "You do tarot readings?" Mavis wasn't sure she wanted to know what the herbs were for.
"I don't do them as a side hustle or anything, it's purely for my own curiosity. And you don't have to buy anything if you don't want to - that's just my rationale." Audra decides to hold onto the cloth as she walks over and begins to thumb through the various display cards that had been set out, peering at the options. "My habit of overspending on hobbies is a bad one, but it keeps me sane." She rolls her shoulders and saunters over to snag a pack of cards with an oddly-confident motion. She had glanced at the backs, but she seemed to know which one she wanted already. "I've never really felt the urge to spend on art, myself. It always felt very..." One hand gestures vaguely in the air. "Pretentious? The New York scene, anyways. I aint throwing ten grand at you for your cum-splatter-looking canvas, jackass. Toss off."
Mavis scoffs back at Audra, "A side hustle? I wouldn't think you'd need one, Ms. Fancy-Lawyer-Pants." Now and then Mavis glances around at the other customers and would-be customers (like herself) mulling around the shop. She felt out of place and the human sticks close to Audra when walks off to pluck up a pack of cards. The dusky-skinned artist bumps into her, colliding to a stop, because she had her head turned to peer at a display of crystals that'd caught her eye.
"Oof-" Mavis grunts on impact, more startled than anything. She blinks up at Audra, catching the tail-end of her profanity then takes a moment to rewind and retread through what the lawyer had actually said in full. Belatedly, Mavis laughs and excuses herself with, "Sorry, my bad.. I thought I saw a woman talking to a frog." Actually, she did think she saw that, /right/ after the crystal display and /right/ before running into Audra. When Mavis peers back again to make sure she saw what she thought she saw, the woman's still there and she is most certainly NOT talking to a frog. She's just carrying her purse, no frogs about whatsoever, unless the ones in jars counted. There were come of those on the shelves. Mavis gives herself a little shake and prompts Audra with, "And the herbs? What are THOSE for? I'm not sure I wanted to know, but-" She kinda did too.
That elicits a small laugh from the lawyer, who bobs her head. "Hey, some of us had to pay our way through law school." The first time through, father and mother did that. The second time, Audra had to scrape by with her own funds, illicit or otherwise. "And believe it or not, I'd say your average attorney is just as superstitious as sailor bred down in Maine." She presses back against Mavis as the woman bumps into her, still smiling. The impact does send her forward for a moment, but Audra recovers quickly.
"Herbs? Mostly for making my own oils, which can be useful for all sorts of things." Audra figured she would leave out the more esoteric uses, and the ritual concepts around such things, if only to keep from weirding Mavis out too much. "Frogs?" The darkling rolls the word about on her tongue, and makes a face as though she had tasted something bitter. Her eyes follow Mavis' and find nothing out of the ordinary, at which point she turns casually and holds out a box of various incense cones. "Here, have a whiff. What smells good to you?"
Mavis stares up at Audra in disbelief, mouth open but she's quick to close it then open it again to admit, "Seriously? I figured you guys were too.." She's going to say educated, but the high school dropout just decides to shrug instead of answering. Audra peers off in the direction of the woman holding a purse, which she wasn't talking to, by the way, Mavis double-checks just to make sure. "Yeah, I could have sword.. Musta been squinting at something she'd picked up and put it back," deduces Mavis in easy dismissal. She tucks her hair behind her ears then peers down into the box Audra holds out, picking up a purple cone to sniff it. Her nose scrunches and she puts it back. "That stinks," she tells the woman then picks up another one as she asks Audra, "How'd you get through law school? Reading fortunes?" Mavis' honey-brown eyes lift a glance back up to the lawyer's face and she tries to hide a grin behind sniffing the cone of incense she'd picked up with a little flare of nostrils. This one was green. "That one's okay," decides Mavis, indifferent. She hadn't found a scent she liked yet.
"Figured what - that everyone with money is smart?" That thought gets another guffaw from the dark-haired woman who, for a brief moment, looks deeply tired. "That's a good one. That said, I don't think being superstitious is a sign of stupidity either. So.. You know, the two aren't mutually inclusive." Audra smiles as she sets the incense down and plucks up a less offensive box full of sticks. They smell deeply of cedars and pines. "How about these? Less... Hippy. More naturist. Not naturalist, just.. You know what I mean." She returns to browsing the jars of herbs.
"Uhhh, a couple ways. Yeah, I maybe read fortunes and did some hedge magic, but that wasn't a reliable source of income. I had some odd jobs, and did some stuff with legal paperwork for a big firm. Wasn't an internship, but it was work experience and money, so.. Can't complain."
"Hey, I didn't say that," objects Mavis and she pulls her hand out of the incense box to lay her palm against her hip with elbow crooked. "OR that either." Her eyes go wide and she shoots Audra a look that wordlessly tells her to-- "Shh, quiet down, and stop loudly making assumptions about me!"-- without actually vocalizing those words, but she looks around to see if anyone had overheard them. She glares up at the lawyer, picking up the box of sticks to sniff it. Mavis sighs and admits, "These are better." Then also admits, "You aren't.. I mean." Does Mavis have to say it? "Audra, you're not the sort of person that I usually hit the town for greasy dinner and impulse shopping. Geez, howtoputit? I mean, look at me. I don't know what the hell you're supposed to be like."
The artist sets the box back where Audra had gotten it from and then seems to be squirmy and uncomfortable about something. And stalling. She peers at Audra and informs her, "I don't know what kind of scents Amity doesn't like." Mavis turns to face Audra and puts her hands in her pockets again, curling her fingers to form nervous fists. "Amity asked if I wanted to stay with her while I save up enough money to.." She puffs out a sigh and glances up at the ceiling. "Pft, you already know. House stuff." Her gaze slips back down to Audra's face. "But the hotel's killin' me." She darts a nervous glance to the left and feels her ears and cheeks grow hotter. "It's only for a couple of weeks, maybe."
"That's fair. Us not being the sort to even meet in the first place, let alone spend time together." This thought seems to leave a wistful look on Audra's face as she turns back, sizing Mavis up slowly. "I'll be straightforward about this - I'm a bit odd. I find a lot of people in my profession to be rather... Quirky. Some of them are work-obssessed. Or status-obssessed. Or money-obssessed. I.. I'm an attorney for a few reasons, but the main one is because I'm efficient and skilled at it, and I very much like the perks of my job."
Audra casually walks over and plucks up a few of the crystals that Mavis had been eyeing earlier. "Like the disposable money to pursue my hobbies. The ability to work from home when I don't want to go in and deal with people." Audra shrugs lazily, wiggling the stone. "Want one?" She pauses as Mavis begins to speak of her living situation.
"That's nice. I like Amity - she's a funny one. Sweet. You two seem like a cute couple." It was half-teasing, half-serious. There was a grin on Audra's face, but it was one of mischief and not pure mockery. "I don't mind the hotel. It's quiet. I've got a place or two lined up and here in a week I should be getting back to work, which will be much nicer insofar as spending money goes." She's been throwing money away since she arrived, which hints at a deeper issue in Audra's financial habits.
Mavis drifts along after Audra, hands still stuffed in her hoodie pockets, and one of her shoelaces has come untied again. She's not disappointed to follow the woman to the crystal display, picking up a smooth stone that was black with pockets of gray bursts interrupting the dark obsidian. Snowflake obsidian, actually. The artist peers over at the one in Audra's hand then dubiously up at her. "I think yer odd and.. Actually, all of what you just said?" Work-obsessed, status-obsessed, and money-obsessed. "Is pretty much what my assumption was about, y'know," she trails off, pulls a hand from her pocket to point up with an index finger and swirl it through the empty hair, "whole upper-crust and I figured they just didn't have time to car about black cats or cracked mirrors." She shakes her head when asked about wanting the rock and drops her stone back with the others. "Nah," she tells Audra with a sly wink. "I can leave it here and if I want to see it again, then I know where I left it." Her playfulness subsides, though, when Audra picks at her and the mortal's light-brown cheeks turn a ruddier shade. "Look now, it's- Amity offered and I'll be able to put away MOST of my paycheck," she explains and Mavis realizes she has gotten a little noisy. For just a second there, Mavis had been on the verge of sniding to Audra that she couldn't /possibly/ understand what it was like to be in her situation and short on funds, but that wasn't fair. The artist glances around and lowers her voice, "Sorry, I just.. It has been a weird couple of days and Amity's doing me a huge favor. Like, I've been in town as long as you, she barely knows me." The human could totally be a psycho or something, but Mavis doesn't look all that intimidating or unhinged. She goes on to say, "You seem pretty cozy at the hotel, though. Still slippin' out the window to sneak smokes?"
"A lot of them are. The further up you go, the weirder and weirder people get. Working as an attorney, I rub shoulders with some people.. You know. At the top of the local elite. Like.. Politicians and little nebbish men who run big companies. Half the time, I don't think they're human." That was entirely too true. Audra herself wasn't entirely human, and she had plenty of otherworldly contacts. She spoke with utter conviction.
"I'm not judging you for having a little sapphic fling with someone you haven't known for very long." It sounded very judgy, at face value. Audra's tone, however, was gentle. "And no - I've just been leaving my window open and summoning the ghosts up that way. I mean, if I need to I could just scuttle out and down, but I rather like my room now. It's all sorts of cozy." Audra's haul is complete. She picks up her belongings and carries them all to the counter to make her purchase. "And really - don't.. You don't have to feel awkward talking about finances with me. C'mon, haven't you ever seen, like, friends? The tv show?" As she plucks free a credit card and hands it to the cashier for her selection - eighty dollar tarot card deck. Twenty for the altar cloth. Fifteen for the incense and five for a holder. Forty-five in herbs. Another twenty for a lovely, polished piece of bloodstone she had picked out for herself. She didn't even look at the total sum. "There's nothing wrong with us hanging out."
Just when Mavis thinks that they've moved past the news of her moving in with amity, Audra brings it up again in the worst possible way. The human closes her eyes as she feels her face burning like it was not going to stop anytime soon. When she opens her eyes again, Mavis is resigned to the fact that Audra was going to goad her for as long as she kept fighting her about it. That in mind, Mavis can't resist telling the lawyer, "You know, it isn't like that. Amity is.. She's so.. I mean, yeah, she's- Look." Goddammit! Mavis stabs a glare at Audra and lowers her goddamn voice to a hiss, "I feel like a creep, all right?" The 23-year old then sighs to Audra that and says, at a normal volume, "And of course I've seen Friends. Well, reruns, but it's on any channel on any given night, sometimes twice." She goes quiet while the cashier rings up all of Audra's items, trying not to boggle too much at the sum total. Mavis ducks down real quick to tie her shoelace, feeling a little weird about the whole transaction. Basically, Audra had just spent over a week's worth of groceries and that was when Mavis was eating well, but frugal. She straightens back up when the process is all over.
Audra seemed to enjoy the effect that teasing had on Mavis. When her things are bundled up and she tucks them into her purse, the attorney leans in close. "Yeah? You feel like a creep for taking advantage of her, or what?" She casually slinks an arm around Mavis' shoulder as she escorts the woman out of the occult shoppe. "There's nothing wroooong with it. You're a bit high-strung about stuff like that, huh? You're nervous about taking advantage of people, or of.. What.. Letting people spend money on you?" She smirked impishly. "It's cute, but it makes me want to pamper you. Or tease you. Or both at once. Hard to say."
<Watch> Carter has disconnected.
Mavis glances up at Audra and she looks apprehensive about what the lawyer was saying. The arm around her shoulder isn't nearly as troubling as the Darkling's assumptions are and the artist frowns while she's led out of the occult shop. Back out on the street, she snags herself away from Audra and snaps, "Yeah, it's something like that. It's not that I'm uptight or anything." The mortal shakes her head, she really didn't think she was all that high-strung. Mavis supports her argument with, "I just don't want to, like, disappoint her. The puppy does eyes?" She winces, showing her teeth and the sliver-gap between her incisors for just a moment. "Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about, you jerk," huffs Mavis, growing frustrated with Audra and more so when the older woman teases her. "Yeah, yeah, look.. It's getting late." She doesn't want to say Amity would worry about her, but yeah, her friend would probably fret. "Do you want to head back? I'll let you pay for the lift, how's that?" She brattily sticks out her tongue.
Audra's smile is as wide as ever. "I'm teasing you. I don't think you need to worry about disappointing her. She's helping you out because she wants to, I'm sure, and not because you're like... Someone she has expectations of? If that makes sense? You're not like, her kid or something. What would you do to disappoint her?" The idea boggles Audra somewhat. "Besides, if you think she's getting upset with you or something, just.. I'unno.. Clearly she's got the hots for you if she's inviting you to live with her." It's a crude sort of thought process, but it makes a decent amount of sense. "And yeah, I'll call an uber. Need to borrow my phone to make a booty call before you show up?" And soon, a ride is hailed.
She was beginning to hate Audra just the teensiest-tiniest bit, but... for some reason, Mavis is hiding a grin as she turns away to cross her arms and look down the street. The mortal didn't entirely hate the attention Audra D'Villy was giving her either. She says to Audra over a shoulder, glancing back over it, in a crisp voice, "You don't have to be so crass about it, as if I didn't feel guilty enough about things. And then YOU involved the sanctity of /Friends/." Yeah, that's right. Audra had invoked sacred laws when she brought the iconic television show into this. "I thought that I could trust you," she says, feigning a quavering voice and a sniff, and peering back again to see if she was having any impact. If she were, though, it's all ruined now because Mavis is wearing a rueful smile.
"Booty call? C'mon, I thought that's why /you/ got /my/ number," she says to Audra, although hadn't Mavis been the one that brought up swapping digits in the first place? "Just tell me when the Uber's close."
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