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Asbolus:
The evening was young as Asbolus crossed the threshold into the freehold hollow, the swirl of Winter's touch about him countered by the infusion of Spring's power as the season was at its zenith. The Darkling was dressed well, coming from his work at the theater as he was, and those too-sharp eyes scanned the grounds to see whom else might be present.
Joy Hamidi:
Joy appears from one of the houses, juggling with some kind of balls or rocks that she found on the way here, a Sundress with some pretty shoes cover the tree-like make of her mien. She waves at Asbolus, letting every bit of her juggling instrument fall on the ground without a care.
Asbolus:
Asbolus couldn't help but chuckle as he saw the assortment plummet, giving back a brief wave in return. As he moved to join the Torrent she could see him visibly relax, his movements becoming much more fluid and preternaturally graceful. "Evening. You were doing rather well, if I may say so."
Joy Hamidi:
"I had too many things to wave and juggle at the same time." A soft chuckles, her own mantle blasting cold around her against the warmth of spring, despite her rather spring-like attire. "And thanks, I've been practicing!"
Asbolus:
"Fair enough. Only so many hands, after all." He crouched down to help scoop up the objects, holding them out for her to take. "I did a spot of juggling for a play I was in while at university but haven't touched it in years."
Joy Hamidi:
"Heh, I didn't have any free time for plays and fun times when I was at the University." Joy stretches a little bit and helps picking up the stuff and set the balls, stones and some wooden figurine. "What kind of play has juggling?"
Asbolus:
"It was a background role in a larger scene, street performer sort of thing. Didn't have any lines to keep track of so I could focus on the juggling itself, which made it easier at the time." He said with a smirk, idly rolling two of the stones in one hand with surprising ease as he put the rest with their brethren that Joy had collected. "I was there for the theater program, so I was involved in most of the productions going on in some form or fashion."
Joy Hamidi:
"Oh nice! I always wondered what happened on that side of the campus. I'm not a super artsy girl usually." She set the juggling tool down and set them into her messenger bag in the same pocket. "Is it super difficult to get into the theater-related programs?"
Asbolus:
"Can't say here for at UPenn, but at Oxford it was rather competitive." He replied as he handed her the two remaining stones, claiming a seat for himself as he continued. "Was able to wrangle my way in with a good audition, though, and I enjoyed it thoroughly."
Joy Hamidi:
"Yeah I imagine there's a lot of people dreaming about a place like this, so, it makes sense." She stretches her wrist and arms in precise little twist of her joints and short exercise. "Full-On Academia is tough to get into too, but it's kind of different, occulted reasons based on weird, arbitrary criterias and some grading."
Asbolus:
"So I've heard. My, ah, brother is a professor at UPenn and I've given a sympathetic ear to his plight of dealing with the bureaucracy and whatnot involved."
Joy Hamidi:
"Do you think there's an Hedge in Space? Or access to it on the moon?" Joy wonders aloud, looking upward to the sky above the hollow.
Asbolus:
"That...is an excellent question." He turned his own gaze skyward, quietly mulling over the possibility. "Perhaps, although it would take some rather unique methods to confirm it."
Joy Hamidi:
"Questions for an Autumn courtier no doubt." A beat. "At least I imagine some of them have that one figured out, or have a working hypothesis on it." She grabs a little rock from her bag and fiddles with it, passing it between her fingers.
Asbolus:
"I imagine so. I can inquire within, perhaps." He nodded, glancing towards Joy as she began fiddling with the stone. "How have you been doing overall?"
Joy Hamidi:
"Same old same old, perfecting my crafts." A shrug. "Need to find a way to better my living condition in some way, but I don't have a ton of option for that."
Asbolus:
"What sort of improvements are you wanting to make on that front?"
Joy Hamidi:
"I live in a motel for free in exchange for my cleaning services." Joy explains. "Like, anything would be better than that, I just don't really know how to proceed and remain relatively safe. I got some good ID at least,."
Asbolus:
"I see...the ID will certainly help there." He nodded quietly. "And that concern for safety is the trick; that kept me in the Hedge for about a year after my own return. Finding that fine line between too safe and safe enough can take some doing."
Joy Hamidi:
"Also, I need to find some kind of mundane work, other than cleaning bedrooms, but I honestly don't know what to do there. It drives me completely off my mind everytime I try to decide on some career path." a sigh, a blast of cold air from her Mantle. "It's been stopping me for too long and I need steps forward."
Asbolus:
"What sort of skillset do you have at hand?"
Joy Hamidi:
"Athletics, I can throw stuff. I used to be decent enough in science for NASA to ask me to go to space." Joy says. "I kind of got rusty on those though, it's hard to focus on that again." a beat. "I'm decent on weird stuff knowledge, I can be pretty persuasive."
Asbolus:
"I can imagine. Know I had a few things that were pushed to the side while I was there that had to be relearned once I was back." He nodded, mulling over the options given. "Persuasive could be funneled towards a number of things, honestly. How inclined are you to working directly with people on a daily basis?"
Joy Hamidi:
"Not my favorite option, but I could do it. I'm willing to put up with a few things in regard to mundane work, I need to get a better living situation." She insist and nods.
Asbolus:
"Indeed. Any port in a storm and all that. I can certainly check at the theater and see if we can take you in there as well in some form or fashion. Mister Fabri is a generous sort and willing to pay well to keep things running smoothly."
Joy Hamidi:
"Oh that would be a nice change of pace." A smile breaks on Joy's expression, happy to hear the suggestion. She begins to fiddle with the hem of her dress a bit. "I'd appreciate that."
Asbolus:
"Quite welcome. It's the least I can do."
Joy Hamidi:
"Let me know if I can do anything to repay." She nods.
Asbolus:
He waved off the offer with a small smile. "We take care of our own, my dear. Nothing you need to repay."
Joy Hamidi:
"Appreciated but you'll get muffins at some point." A soft chuckle "And you will never seem them coming." A soft chuckle follows.
Asbolus:
"I'll keep an eye out, then." He nodded with a chuckle of his own. "I am partial to a good berry-based muffin, I will admit."
Joy Hamidi:
"Understood! I'll test my ninja skills." She dabs and pretend karate chops.
Asbolus:
"It'll be quite the test indeed, I have a rather good eye." He said with a smile. "I am glad to see you in high spirits, at any rate."
Joy Hamidi:
"Spring does help with that, against my best judgement." A soft, self deperecating chuckle. She switch back to fiddle with the rock instead of her rock.
Asbolus:
"True enough. While Winter may be ours spring does have a certain...persuasiveness that can't be denied."
Joy Hamidi:
"We need to do a snowball fight next winter." She make a throwing motion.
Asbolus:
"That could be entertaining." He nodded with a chuckle. "I know I'd be a bit of a ringer on that front, admittedly, unless I make a point of holding back."
Joy Hamidi:
"I'm not bad either, I'd probably win by accident." She chuckles a little bit.
Asbolus:
"Perhaps we should referee, then, or have a separate match for those of us with preternatural levels of skill. Would make it a bit more fair, if anything."
Joy Hamidi:
"Oh yeah, Zebra shirts" She grin lightly. "I'll count out people faster than you and show myself super biased. Like a french judge at the olympics."
Asbolus:
"Now that would be something." He chuckled quietly, shaking his head. "Bit of good cop bad cop can be entertaining at times."
Joy Hamidi:
"We'll have a moment at the end of the fight like at the end of Dodgeball with Chuck Norris."
"But like, with someone less terrible."
Asbolus:
"Don't believe I've seen that one."
Joy Hamidi:
She chuckles slightly "It's kind of an old movie with a few known actress and actors."
Asbolus:
"Ah hah...will look into it once I'm back home."
Joy Hamidi:
"Good. It's not high level cinema or anything, it's more like silly popcorn things and clichés." She says, trying to manage the expectations that might come with her recommendation. "Hopefully you like it."
Asbolus:
"Right. Those can be entertaining in their own way." He offered a nod, his gaze idly turning to the hollow around them. "Still need to pin down getting a laptop for myself, now that I think about it. Just have a phone for the most part."
Joy Hamidi:
"I have a few old handheld consoles that aren't being serviced anymore, nothing else." A roll of her shoulder, a tap of her foot. "I do have a phone too, for Pokemon go mostly."
Asbolus:
"Nothing quite that exciting on mine, I'll admit. Crosswords, sudoku, that sort of thing." He said with a small smirk. "Then again I don't use it all that often in general unless someone needs to get a hold of me. Living sans electronics for a time hasn't had me as plugged in as others."
Joy Hamidi:
"Yeah and it can be helpful to avoid some attention to do it, but it's also massively impractical, so it's kind of a 'finding the balance' thing."
Asbolus:
"Indeed. Also means having to catch up on some of the more recent media items to be back in the loop, which has been interesting in its own right."
The mention of balance made the Darkling pause for a moment, quietly mulling something before continuing. "On the mention of balance, have you found yourself reaching that tipping point towards the fae rather than the mundane?"
Joy Hamidi:
"Yes." Joy says with a certain grim cheerfulness. "I'm not having a grand time of it, to be honest. It's part of why I need to not be living the way I do now." She stretches.
Asbolus:
"Understandable." He nodded quietly. "I crossed that threshold recently as well, and the need to hold back certain facets of myself among the general populace has been a curious experience."
Joy Hamidi:
"Mine aren't quite that terrible for public-facing work, but they would get some quirked eyebrow. But if you do look at my private stuff, there's some... er... weird stuff to say the least."
Asbolus:
"Mine has taken the form of a heightened fluidity of movement that most would find unusual, I imagine. It's taken some getting used to, but it's a shift I'm not wholly against."
Joy Hamidi:
"Oh I hate you." Joy says with a playful pout. "I'm a fucking potted plant that hates tapwater., metaphorically." A roll of her eyes. "I imagine it can be annoying to get all the stares tho."
Asbolus:
"Oh, that sort of thing." He let out a chuckle. "That's been an interesting shift as well, yes."
Joy Hamidi:
"I could push further beyond like you too, but I haven't done it yet." She points to the things she was juggling earlier. "I don't have enough focus or drive to do it these days, but I would like to do it."
Asbolus:
"It was more of a natural progression on my end, admittedly, rather than something I was working towards. The fear of losing too much of the man had been holding me back for some time, but the realization that I held the reins this time helped to ease that."
Joy Hamidi:
"Yeah, I can relate to that." Joy nods, boucing from feet to feet. "Hey, I'm getting a bit restless, think we could take a walk around or something?"
Asbolus:
"Certainly." With that he moved to stand, that effortless grace clear to see, offering her a hand up.
Joy Hamidi:
She grabs it firmly, showing how wimpy of a grip she has, yet manages to jump on her feet almost too easily in comparison. She smol. "Any place you gotta be"?
Asbolus:
"Not particularly. Should probably get something to eat, admittedly, but that can wait until I get home if you're not in the mood for such."
Joy Hamidi:
"I'm not particularly inclined for food right this moment, but if you're needing to eat, stopping by some kind of truck or sneaking into a kitchen isn't exactly beyond my ability I don't think. No garantees on the trouble though." Joy says, deadpanning a little bit.
Asbolus:
"No need for trespass on this particular evening, I'd say." He said with a chuckle, offering his arm all gentlemanly-like. "Shall we see what the city has to offer?"
Joy Hamidi:
"Yes, that would be fun." Joy takes the arm, grabs a purse and then adjust her dress for a brief moment. Joy taking the arm is a ridiculous sight, she is small compared to his 6'2". Small, like 4'6". "I'm getting platform heels to go with this dress." she grumbles.
Asbolus:
Asbolus simply chuckled at that, waiting until she was ready before leading the way, keeping his pace even with hers despite the difference in height. "It is a lovely dress, I will say."
Joy Hamidi:
"Thank you, I had to spring for it a little bit, but I'm glad I got it in my head to get it." A beat as she follows him around. "Next step is getting the shoes, they'll just be useful to grab stuff off of my shelves too."
Asbolus:
"A small extravagance can go quite far in bettering one's mood, I've come to find." He nodded, smiling a touch as she continued. "I can imagine so."
Joy Hamidi:
"I do listen the joyeux when I can." Joy looks around as they move. "Do you have a vehicle? I'm still good with the walking, just a random curiosity that just manifested"
Asbolus:
"I live with one - well, someone who previously held the title, at least - so I get you there." He said with a smirk, shaking his head at the question that followed. "I do not. Never got the hang of driving here in the States."
Joy Hamidi:
"Never did either, but that could come in handy I suppose!"
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