Cheapskate

[Ambrose Wilder]

Amie had gotten injured recently. He didn’t even realize that day just how bad the injury was. He knew it hurt, and he knew it made walking hard, but then again, he’d also been nearly blinded with a blow to the head, and been getting help walking from a friend of his. Assessing the damage to his leg really hadn’t been a top priority. When they parted ways, as always seemed to happen, Amie made a trip. Except then he did trip, and scream, and punch through a tree. He wasn’t exactly proud of the last part, but at least it sort of looked cool, right?

Well, he realized from that point on that his leg was screwed up. He kept breaking open the wound when he tried to walk briskly, so now he as limping. It was bandaged up to well he felt like he was in a cast. Mobility was a high priority for Amie, and he felt like a sitting duck. He felt like he was walking into trouble at every turn. Amie wasn’t used to this level of paranoia. He hadn’t been this freaked out in over a decade, and he wasn’t willing to go back to that state. He decided the only course of action was a small vacation, er, sort of.

The girl he liked to pamper and treat like a princess, because she acted like one, really liked fancy and expensive things. Amie really liked hoarding his money away like a squirrel. Unlike one girl he knew, he wasn’t afraid of money. He liked it. He’d been raised to value money, to hoard money, to keep it, and that resulted in him being a very stingy individual. He could splurge, if he had to, or maybe to make someone really happy, but he didn’t often. He maintained a nice wardrobe, which needed to be fixed up, because of the last attack, and rented out the house he owned in Cerulean. Today wasn’t about saving money though, it was about spending it. Just… spending as little as he could get away with.

He found some woman in town once he reached Hargeon. She looked pretty weird, and he liked weird, so he approached her. The bandages on his leg were covered by his slacks, and he was wearing his white button up shirt and blazer. The shirt needed to be thrown out, due to tears in it, but the blazer covered that, and he hadn’t gotten home yet to replace the thing. “Excuse me, Miss. Do you know where I can find really expensive looking things… for really cheap?”

There. Perfectly reasonable request.

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

Tessa had just left Elrowan when Kayoko disappeared after whatever it was she went to get. She was still on a mission of her own at current and as such hadn't quite left Hargeon town. Now she was armed with a picture she could use to help her in step one of her currently plan. Now, as she was approached by a stranger asking her if she knew where to find some cheap clothing she looked at her own outfit and then back at him.
"Um... I don't know. I typically don't wear things from stores. All you need is a little cloth and some needle and thread. Besides I think you're a little overdressed." She answered honestly, being as direct as she tended to be. Truthfully anyone in full attire was overdressed to her, but to each their own. Still since he was here- wait he looked like he'd been ravaged by a pack of wolves.. and she needed to know.
"Were.. you attacked by wolves?" She asked, completely 100% serious.
"Also have you seen this guy?" She added, holding up a picture of Tatsuma to give the guy a visual. He didn't need to know why she was looking for him, only that she was. Also there was the matter of the guy in front of her. Whatever had happened, he might need help.. but the delays... still it wasn't like she could do anything anyway right?

[Ambrose Wilder]

So, maybe she didn’t look like she knew a lot about expensive things. What? It wasn’t an insult, she just… didn’t look like she cared. Still, Amie wasn’t one who judged people on appearances. Oddly enough she immediately assumed that he was talking about clothes. “Oh, I wasn’t thinking clothes. I doubt I could get anything proper for cheap with clothes. Maybe like… dolls or something,” he shrugged. No, she was still going. She… thought he was overdressed? He blinked and looked at his shirt. He’d gone to thread lengths to wash his clothes after the fight. Clean dark blazer, white button down shirt, slacks… all in proper order. “I like how I dress,” he said, simply, not sure what else to say to that, “Or should I be wearing tattered shorts? I mean, maybe I could pull off the look, but I’m pretty partial to my pre-existing wardrobe,” he told her, smiling again. Sure, it sounded pretty insulting, but he wasn’t going to let it get him down. She could think what she liked, and he wasn’t going to worry.

Was he…? He laughed, “No. I was not attacked by wolves. Just some bandits. I guess knives are a bit like fangs, but nope, it was definitely bandits,” he said, still chuckling. So she might be a bit crazy, but he liked her. Next came the picture. “Uh, nope. Never met him. But I think I might start putting up a missing person’s board. It seems like everybody’s got somebody they need to pin down,” he smirked after examining the picture. He didn’t know that two of his friends had actually met the guy. They didn’t exactly go into detailed descriptions of people they worked with. Still, he was batting a thousand for finding people looking for someone else. “I guess that means you don’t know much about the shops around here…?”

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

She shook her head, obviously he had mistaken her meaning of the term over dressed. Also his suggestion about a missing person's board had occurred to her, but as he had said it seemed like everyone wanted someone and she only had the one picture.
"No i mean you're wearing too many clothes, and I would use that board if you put it up minus the fact that I'm sure my picture would just get covered by someone's picture of who THEY were looking for and so on and so forth until you have pretty much wall papered that board into oblivion." She answered, over thinking the likelihood of her picture getting any real notice. Then there was his question about her knowledge of the shops in the area. Of course she didn't know anything about the shops, not only did she not buy things from them (because any amount of jewel for premade clothing was ridiculous), but she didn't visit them whenever she came to a new town.
"of course I don't know anything about the shops, they rip people off. What you need is a needle and thread and a bit of cloth. You could be dressed comfortably in no time." She said, assuming that he felt as uncomfortable in the clothes he was wearing as she imagined she would be if she were wearing the same amount. It was just one more reason for her to stay away from the mountains.
" Also... what the hell were you doing with bandits?!?" She asked incredulously.

[Ambrose Wilder]

Amie wasn’t sure anything thing was “obvious” either understood or misunderstood, with this girl. Then again it wasn’t like her being eccentric and confusing was that hard to follow. She apparently thought he misunderstood about the clothing thing. He grinned and laughed lightly again, “No, I got that.” The idea of him wearing tattered shorts had been a male comparison of what she had on. He didn’t exactly need a shirt, but she did. He wasn’t interested in women’s bodies in the ways most men were, but he still preferred they keep their shirts on. Yeah, he wasn’t going to dwell on that. Nope. Not happening. In fact, she was odd enough he didn’t even feel strange for her telling him he had too many clothes on. Seriously, he wasn’t sure how he should take that from anyone, least of all a woman he’d just met.

“Well, that is why you put up a duplicate,” he shrugged. He wasn’t about to preach to the appeal of his particular plan of attack. No, really, if she didn’t like it, that was fine. He hardly expected anyone to do anything about his random side comment.

She commented on being comfortable in no time with thread and needle. He glanced at his clothing. The guard between his scars and other people’s eyes. The thing that reminded him of the pride with which he was raised, but in a good way, unlike so many other things. He shrugged before smiling again, “I find these pretty comfortable actually. Besides, that’s kind of what shops do… right? Goods and services for jewels? Eh, I don’t shop much anyway,” he admitted. This was a special case, and clearly she was not the person to keep asking. Oh well.

She jumped back to the topic of bandits and he laughed, “Oh, getting mugged mostly. No big deal.”

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

The guy kept answering her questions in order and she found herself wondering, above all the other things she had brought up, why he was describing getting mugged such a nonchalant manner.
"Getting mugged is such a big deal! I mean if I got mugged I would be pretty shaken up about it. Still I think it's cool that you're not worried about the muggers even though you should probably be looking for a tailor more than a shop." She said, wondering what had become of the muggers. From the looks of it they had gotten their money, but this couldn't really be confirmed without saying anything and she had already taken up enough of his time. At the moment though, she didn't like the idea of traveling alone with the whole magic council thing going on.
"Well I'm completely free so if you're looking for something to do I can help, it's easier to find things to do with someone else than by yourself right?" She suggested, hoping to help in the event there was another mugger assault or something of the like. She had given up hope that she was going to find Tatsuma here anyway and she wasn't going to Galuna island.

[Ambrose Wilder]

Amie said things as they came to him. He also liked to be laid back. Getting worked up wasn’t fun, so why should he? He couldn’t help but laugh when she said getting mugged was a big deal. Well yeah, he knew that, but so what? He’d been pretty angry about it at the time… getting ambushed, hit in the head, tied up, and generally infuriated. The injury was still very bad too, but again… so what? He wasn’t there now or anything, even though he could get worked up. It was no use. “Eh, I think I’ll skip the tailor,” he said. She really wanted him to dress more like a ship wrecked sailor, didn’t she?

Was she asking to keep him company? And here he thought the interaction was going poorly! Well, fine by him. “If you want to tag along, by all means! You don’t have a really good eye for dolls, I guess… but the girl I’m shopping for has a collection of them. So I thought it would be a nice present. Or maybe a fan of some sort… lacy ones or something,” he mused. “I don’t really know a lot about buying things, but I know what she likes, so that’s a good start, hm?” He just jumped right back into acting like himself. And he didn’t really care if she found it odd.

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

She thought about it for a moment. Dolls often had on way too many clothes so she hadn't really ever been a big fan. The only doll she had in her possession on the island was a wooden doll she had carved on her own. Still, she supposed she could help look for a doll. She did rather like porcelain dolls, and she did see one here and there that caught her eye. That and the fact that she didn't really want to get caught alone drove her to go ahead and look with him.
"Actually I kind of like porcelain dolls from time to time. Other than that though I'm pretty bad at actually finding them on my own so if you're looking for dolls I'd love to maybe get something for myself. Plus you never know, I might surprise you with my savvy shopping." She said with a wink as she pretty much covered her assets in the proverbial sense. It would be a good distraction in her search for Tatsuma anyway.
"What kind of things does your friend normally like? I mean it's kind of hard for me to help shop if I have no idea what you're looking for isn't it?" She added.

[Ambrose Wilder]

The woman apparently really had a thing about clothes. Amie didn’t feel it necessary to discuss clothes with women. He had discussed clothes with women, namely Ava. It was easier talking to her. She was clearly from another planet as him, but she was exactly how his parents had wanted him to act. Rich and powerful, and classy. Talking about big puffy dresses and lace was easy. Talking about women simply not wearing almost anything… that got weird. He didn’t react “properly” to it, but he still found it odd.

“Oh? They’re pretty expensive, and fragile,” he said. That was most of what he thought about porcelain dolls. They sort of reminded him of Ava, so he nodded, “We can look for one of those, if that is your…. Area of expertise.” He smirked at her winking. She was a confusing woman, but it amused him. “Hmmm, she likes… pretty things, lace, colors, flowers… books, magic, jewelry? She wears some, I don’t know if she likes a lot of it though. She definitely likes dolls, she’s really particular about people touching them without permission,” he said with a nod. Hopefully this helped give the girl some insight. “She’s about fifteen right now, so sort of a child, but… I wouldn’t say that to her,” he knew she was independent, so he wasn’t going to disrespect that even when she wasn’t around. Besides, he’d been an adult at odd times growing up.

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

Tessa looked at Amie and wasn't really surprised to find that he was shopping for a girl. Although he didn't seem to be planning to do that when he first started talking, she wasn't exactly a mind reader and wasn't really inclined to even try something like that, she found it rather amusing that he was out shopping for dolls after having been accosted by marauders.
[#cc33ff]"Well then lead the way, it might help me find some people who can't help me find this guy, or at least help me find some work. I'm a little low on funds..."[/color] She said sheepishly. Still it was really hard for a girl to find work around towns without being in an official guild. Sure jobs existed but she hadn't the foggiest idea of where to go to find said jobs and had pretty much been stumbling her way through places that happened to have a problem she found she could solve.

[color:f81d=cc33ff]"So does this girl that you're shopping for happen to fancy any other sort of things or are dolls just pretty much what she collects?" She asked. She had half a mind to offer her wooden doll for this girl's collection, but from the sounds of it, the things would just get thrown out with the rest of the garbage.

[Ambrose Wilder]

It made perfect sense that Amie would be shopping for dolls after being captured and nearly taken away by bandits. It made sense when people remembered that Amie was extremely weird. Leaving out that detail could add to some confusion, no doubt, but Amie always remembered it. Or more so, he simply was that way, so he didn’t have to remind himself of anything. Amie knew he wasn’t normal, this woman… he wasn’t sure, but he shrugged and went with it. “No doubt. Maybe a shop keeper got rubbed recently. You can help track down the guy who did it,” he said, lacing his fingers and putting his hands behind his head casually. That would actually be rather unfortunate for the store owner. Unless they found the money too. Then they’d only be out the price of paying a mage to do the work. Win, win, right?

Amie knew about the plight of guildless wizards, but he tried not to react to it. He could get himself in more trouble going around asking questions. Not to say he didn’t step in where he felt it was necessary. He just didn’t go around inciting a riot. “Like I said, she likes fans. Although I don’t think she collects them. Also dresses. She likes books, and tea. She’s very fond of sitting, drinking tea, and reading a book. I don’t know of any tea shops around here though. But also someone in our guild has a garden, and he usually has things that can be cooked into a tea. Psh, silly guy, taking all my gift ideas,” he said, completely to himself. No doubt there was something to be said for having a dialogue, instead of a monologue, but he was mostly thinking out loud in that case.

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

Tessa looked at Amie in shock. Sitting around drinking tea and reading books? Who could possibly be that spoiled but royalty... Then again her family had been royalty at one point and she had never done most of those things, let alone together or for any period of time. It was even more incentive for her not to offer her wooden doll. Someone that well off had to be a snob. Still, she had already agreed to this and she shook her head mentally as she resolved to indeed go shopping for the... fans, books, tea, or dolls.
" Sure we can go ahead and look for any of those things, now is just the matter of finding out where to start... I don't know much of anything about this town but if it's a harbor town I'm sure they have touristy places for people to get stuff for their children or something." She suggested. It was for that very same reason that she hoped they might find someone that needed help after having been robbed, not because she wanted someone to be suffering for her benefit, but because it would kill time and allow her to do something constructive while simultaneously earning money.
"Lead the way!" She cheer, knowing full well that their meeting had started with him asking her where things were.

[Ambrose Wilder]

Amie might not have said that it was spoiled to enjoy drinking tea and reading books. The expectation that you had no responsibilities save allowing yourself the privilege of doing those things, that would be spoiled. But enjoying them? It was class, from what Amie had been told growing up. Still, he knew Ava, and he knew she was spoiled, but she handled herself alright in his opinion. He’d taken a long time to change from how his parents had raised him. She was changing faster than that, just in less noticeable ways. It was some of why he liked her, and he wouldn’t be getting her a present if he didn’t like her. He was a nice guy, but he preferred to keep his money if he could.

Amie found himself chuckling at the suggestion of a touristy area. Mostly it was the comment about buying things for people’s children. He was imagining Ava being his child. Well, they were both blond, so that helped. However his skin was littered in scars, and hers was still perfect. She didn’t have the constitution for a fight, like he did.

Suddenly Amie was in charge of directing. “Uh… sure!” he said with another laugh. He headed straight toward the harbor, as best he could guess. They passed some people, and he eventually stopped one. “Hey, do you know where there are shops?” he asked. The man referenced several blocks down that there would be a few shops. “Thanks,” Amie said with a nod. That sounded good. With this many people around it wasn’t so obvious how slow he was walking. He preferred that.

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

Tessa could have face palmed. They were back to asking for directions. At the very least this time they had managed to actually get told which way to go. It was fairly straight forward and they would probably have found it by simply wandering, but she wasn't exactly worried about where they ended up since she didn't really have to be home at any particular time. It was a good chance to distract herself from her search that, thus far, had yielded nothing even remotely resembling results. No, she needed to think about something else, it wasn't going to do any good to just break away and resume her quest. If it became an obsession she would be no better than her brother and that was simply not going to happen.
"I'm not sure what kind of... any of that stuff to get, but I'll be happy to help shop once we get to where we're going." She said somewhat cheerfully.

She warily entered the shop, uncertain of herself in such an environment since she rarely found herself stalking the premises of the best Fiore had to offer. She wondered if Tatsuma would appreciate a gift if she found him... But what did he like?

[Ambrose Wilder]

The weather today was pretty nice. No trees to block the view, but the buildings were certainly a bit in the way. They were much more spread out than the trees. It was nice. Amie looked up and saw the clouds rolling past. No sign of rain or bad weather today. He’d bet money on that. Except he liked to keep his money, and didn’t trust gamblers, usually. Also with the luck he’d shown recently, if he made a bet, he knew exactly how that would go. Some weather controlling magician would show up and cast some horrible downpour on them and he would lose all his money. Then how would he buy Ava a doll? No, not today. He was too clever for those sneaky weather controlling magicians.

They got directions to a store and Amie headed that way. Tessa told him that she had absolutely no idea what to buy, but she would be happy to help when they got there. Well that was the right attitude. Never let being inexperienced bring you down. “Alright, works for me,” he told her with a grin. Honestly he didn’t know whether he would ignore or listen to her advice. He had a good grasp on what Ava might like, it was just a matter of finding the store. Still. He was happy for the help. He walked along until they found a store with dolls in the window. “This looks good!” he told her with renewed energy. He stepped inside, opening the door for her, listening to the little bell jingle above them. The store certainly had a lot of dolls, in fancy little dresses with curly hair. It had a variety though, those were just the ones he saw first.

[Tesstarosa Tamiel]

Tessa walked in an looked around the shop at all the dolls. It wasn't exactly her cup of tea so to speak. She hadn't thought she would be much help but as she looked around she was even less sure. In her mind she knew that she needed to be doing other stuff, but she just couldn't manage to get herself around to doing it lately. She had been so busy searching for help and getting sidetracked by little things like this, that she hadn't actually managed to get anywhere with her current life goal. She needed to be tracking down her brother, but instead she was walking around searching for a guy and going doll shopping with another guy.

Each and every doll seemed to be fancy to the point of pointlessness. What was the purpose for these? Did little girls these days simply have these types of things as a common standard of having been born into society at this time? Her family had money when she was little, but they always functioned on making each other things and using their imaginations. The most disturbing part of the dolls was just that, they left very little to the imagination. In the end she simply regretted her decision.
"I'm sorry I have to go. Though if I was going to pick a doll I'd pick this one." She said as she grabbed one off the shelf, mostly at random, and turned to head out the door. She had too much to do and was running out of time to do it.

[exit Tessa]

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