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Joy is not a usual client at a flower shop the reason might be rooted in something rather evident in her mien. A core of stone with wooden branches and trunk growing from around and within with the trimming and growth to form the shape of a woman of a diminutive size. Emerald set as her eyes. Her expression is grim when she walks in, pulling the hood over her head. The hoodie, ironically says Grass with in a green square, announcing her favorite pokemon type.
She mumbles something under her breath and begin looking around for the member of the personnel that she's seeking out here, a crispy cold draft following her around.
Despite the utter cluttered mess that is Doom and Bloom, Charlie isn't hard to find. She's sitting behind a glass counter full of seeds on a beaten up bar stool. Her outfit is pretty simple, a green apron over sweat pants and a jean jacket.
She doesn't see Joy over the shelves of plants, but the bell of the door alerts her to a new customer, so she says a quick, "Can I help you find anything?"
"I'm looking for someone named Charlie." The response comes rather seriously, she takes a step backward, some kind of precautionary reaction when one stand in front of someone a full feet taller than themselves.
"Oh! That's me!" says the stone statue of an angel behind the counter. "Is this, um, court business?" Because of course the former winter would use coded language inside of a shop with only changelings in it.
"Yeah. Saw something with your name on it. Thought I'd offer some help." her fingers fiddle with the string that tightens the hood of the hoodie, making it look slightly ridiculous as the thing nearly close around her face. She easily reopen it, not looking particularly embarassed about it.
"Oh! Is this about, um, the market?" Charlie asks, before noting the fiddling. Which is similar to her own way of dealing with stress. "Um, are you okay? Can I help you at all?"
"I'm good." A shrug, though the fiddling with the string does not subside at all. "And yeah, it's about the market." her mantle flare by just dropping to a lower temperature, cold enough so that her breath is visible in the air. "I'd like to offer my help and maybe get brought up to speed." a short pause. "Do you have a backstore?"
"My, um, secret base is attached." Because how else do you say Hollow? Charlie darts up to flick the door sign to "on break" and locks the door. "Right this way," Charlie says, tapping out a strange rhythmic knock on a side door.
She notes the rhythmic knock as best she can and follows Charlie into the Hollow without a word, still fiddling with the strings around her neck. "Thanks." she looks around curious, uncertain at the sight of the other side of existence. "Sorry for the inconvenience."
Charlie's Hollow is... frankly underwhelming. It looks like an apartment like you'd see in a sitcom, just with parts clearly being from the wrong time period as the rest of it.
"Oh! It's no problem! Feel free to have a seat wherever you like," Charlie says, taking the opportunity to put off talking about stressful things.
"I'd rather not sit." Joy paces around the nearest piece of furniture she could've sat on, finally stopping fiddling with the string of her hoodie. "So, what happened at the market? What do you know? How can I help?" a beat. "Er... just take your time to answer, I'm not here to badger you, I just really want to help."
"So, um, I didn't hear that much, sorry. I learned something kind of awful earlier that day and as I was leaving some people- um, I mean Hobgoblins were discussing selling people," Charlie explains. She doesn't sit either, tapping on her leg in an uneasy rhythm. "Are you good with Hobgoblins? If so, I think that we could head to the market and do some investigation. I'll see if I could get my girlfriend to come help us too. She's good at finding things."
"I'm not the best at dealing with people directly. I could probably convincingly lie to one of them, but not much else at the moment. My repertoire of skills is... a little more literal than that at the moment." a beat. "Who's your girlfriend?"
"Her name is Wren," Charlie says with a lovestruck look. "She's really good at finding information. But, um, she might be too busy with ironside obligations. Do you mind if I ask what you're best at?"
"Sneaking around, throwing things where people don't want them. I used to be top notch in Physics too, but I got rusty." A beat. "I can survive in the wild pretty handily too."
"Maybe I could find out where the kidnappers location is and you could sneak in to find out where they're keeping the people?" Charlie suggests.
"Can you give me what information you have in specifics? Do you know who's been kidnapped or if there are people looking for them?" Joy rubs at her nose insistently, as she stops pacing for a brief moment. "I could try to sneak around and find out where things are, but that might be like searching a needle in a haystack."
"I'm, um, really really sorry, but I don't have much information. I just know that there were hobgoblins talking about buying and selling humans. I'd have to do some information gathering to find out which stall they're operating out of, so you could sneak in. Does that work?"
"That works..." Joy takes a deep breath and her shoulders drop a little bit. "I could try to help the information gathering if you wanted, what part would Wren be able to help? Or is there anyone else you're looking for help in this?"
"Wren would help with the searching part and maybe the sneaking part. She's really versatile. And I'm, um, only an okay fighter, so we might want to loop Artie or Sigrun in for if negotiating with them doesn't work."
Another deep breath, Joy crosses her arms over her chest. "Sounds like a plan to me." she drums some erratic rhythm on her arms for a moment. "Is it the main market you heard that, or some other wandering spot?"
"The main market." Charlie pauses, tapping on her own leg. "Are you okay? You seem really tense."
"I'm okay, not a fan of the hedge in general." She responds quietly and nod. "Thank you for the concern."
"Would you be more comfortable in my regular ironside place?" Charlie asks and then pauses. "I don't think I ever got your name?"
"I'm Joy Hamidi, Page of the Long Midnight." she waves her hand at Charlie and extend it to shake. "Yes, I would be more comfortable there, but this kind of conversation is better away from potential mortal ears."
"Charlie Miller, but, um, you probably knew that already," Charlie says, shaking the proffered hand. "And we can stay here if you're sure. And sorry, I should have asked if you knew Artie or Sigrun."
"I think I've been in the same room as Artie once and I know who Sigrun is by reputation at least. I might even have met her?" She poke at her chin, trying to remember "That's what I get for staying out of things for so long." she resume the pacing, casually wandering about.
"They're both great people and, from what I heard, great fighters. So if we need someone to bust heads, they're probably our best bet. Do you know anyone who might be useful?"
"I sometime hang with Asbolus. I'm not even sure what he does to be honest, we just play dart at a bar sometimes." Joy scratch her chin, swaying her weight from foot to foot.
"Oh, I met him once! If you think he'd be useful, we could invite him along." Charlie looks over Joy. "It's probably safe enough in my apartment if you're really uncomfortable."
"Oh no, I just... can't sit still for super long without getting uncomfortable, don't mind me." Joy explains with a casual shrug. "I'll ask next time I throw dart in a bar with him, or like, before that if I come across."
"Oh! I know what you mean," Charlie says, gesturing to her trembling hand. "Standing still too long brings back all kinds of awful memories."
She stares at the trembling hand for just a moment and nod. "Of course, you'd know." a soft sigh. "It's a little more litteral for me to be honest."
"If you need someone to talk to about it, I'm here." Charlie says with a smile.
"Maybe after this market thing gets dealt with." She acquiesce and stretches a little bit. "Right now, I'm good though."
"Is there anything else we need to talk about?" Charlie asks, "Or is everything else logistics we can talk about when my shift is over?"
"I think the rest is logistics, yeah." She look toward the point of entry. "Do we leave the same way?" She asks, wondering aloud.
"Yep!" Charlie says, leading the way. "Let me give you my number too. Don't hesitate to text me."
"Alright" She gives her own phone number in return too. Joy follows behind Charlie on her way out.
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