----------------------------------------------
EM AND JEN'S APARTMENT - MID AFTERNOON
----------------------------------------------
Emmeline sits in a window seat in the second-floor apartment as she quietly watches the rainstorm that drove most everyone from the market rage outside. She occasionally glances over at where Jen is seated tinkering with the latest piece but says nothing and just looks back out the window again after a few seconds.
Jennica also occasionally looks up from her tinkering at Emmeline, something clearly going on in her mind. Eventually she gets up, sighing: "...does the rain look any better?"
Emmeline shakes her head. "No... the clouds have barely moved since it started... the rest of the day is probably a wash beyond going back to make sure everything is shut properly."
Jennica frowns: "Aww, poop." She sighs, leaning on the wall next to the window as she looks at the rainstorm. "...I have met a lot of odd folks at the stall already. It's weird."
Emmeline looks over at her friend and smiles. "Some folks would call us weird. It's best not to judge. Besides, frontier town and all. Bound to attract all of society's loose threads, I guess?"
Jennica shrugs and smiles: "I guess we're sort of loose threads, Em." She is distracted by a memory of something or another for a moment, before shaking her head.
Emmeline looks out the window again, raising a hand to idly play with one of the curls of her hair. "Right, but at least here folks aren't always trying to make us get back on the spool, to strain the metaphor a bit..."
Jennica looks at Emmeline and smiles: "Y-yeah... I can spend most of my time honing my craft, now. Or, um... h-how are we doing, monetarily?"
Emmeline smiles. "Well enough, honestly. I mean, we sold enough last week to cover our costs, which is good for just starting out here. We have enough left in the nest egg to get us to profitability, as long as we don't lose too many days to rain like this..."
Jennica nods, pondering on this: "G-good... I was worried I wasn't productive enough. I uh... maybe I don't pay enough attention, but do we sell a lot?"
Emmeline smiles. "A few a day, and I've gotten enough comments on how I decorate the booth that a few other vendors have asked me to help spruce up their own booths too, so that's bringing in a few coins as well. Also, I've been thinking of working on making some dried bouquets. The weather would be just right to dry them quick. Better than in Vamas anyway..."
Jennica muses, shifting her shoulders against the wall: "It's definitely easier to keep the trinkets dry." She glances outside: "...present weather excluded."
Emmeline turns and sets her hooves on the ground, smiling up at her friend. "Yeah. Certainly nice to be able to plan for a relatively constant climate. I'm sure the trinkets appreciate it, the way you've complained about them acting up in the cold."
Jennica sighs, nodding: "It's hard to create when weather is different day to day, messing the ambient magic. If I make something here in the dry, I don't think I gotta fear snow the next or something."
Emmeline stands up and rests a hand on Jen's side as she does before moving past her into the small kitchen. "And now you know what kind of rain they get..." She proceeds to fill the kettle and set it on the stove before turning up the flame beneath it. "But trinkets aside, are you liking it here? You mentioned odd people?"
Jennica nods, frowning as she looks at Emmeline work: "Y-yeah... give and take. Someone's actually interested in our wares, but I guess there's just more eccentrics here."
Emmeline opens a cupboard and fetches the tin of tea as well as a pair of cups and saucers. "You mean Teis or is there someone else too?"
Jennica nods: "There was this... squid-lady. Or something, I'm not really sure. She was weird, though nice. Gave me a couple of things I don't know what to do with." She gets up towards a shelf where she keeps her things, lifting a couple of glass jars, one with an arrow with an x through it, the other with two small arrows. "Don't really know what these do."
Emmeline walks over from the kitchen to look at the jars. "They look empty?"
Jennica shrugs, lifting the jars in her hands: "Far as I can tell, they are."
Emmeline shrugs. "Huh. Well, you always did like puzzles. I'm sure you're figure it out." She walks back to the stove as the kettle begins to boil and then proceeds to make up the tea for the two. "Where would a squid person even live around here? I guess there's the waterfall outside of town?"
Jennica shrugs in mirror before setting the jars back on the shelf. "Don't know. Probably is?" She glances at the jars before shaking her head: "Weird, though."
Emmeline brings Jennica one of the cups of tea and sets it down on the a corner of her friend's workspace. "Anything else odd? I'm afraid that most of them other than Teis and a couple of the guards have been a bit of a blur with all the folks I've been meeting."
Jennica shakes her head: "Not really I think. Same for me I guess, just so many folks met in such a short time... it's a change and I think it's a good one, but..."
Emmeline rests a hand on Jen's shoulder. "But what?" She gives her friend's shoulder a soft squeeze a look of mild concern.
Jennica lowers her voice: "...w-well, you know me. I get all intimidated and stuff."
Emmeline ends up hugging Jen's head against her torso, giving her friend a soft squeeze. "Yes, but you're doing so much better here... I mean, no more worries about your family coming looking for you..."
Jennica hugs her friend, smiling: "...there is that. Least I can do my thing."
Emmeline leans down and kisses Jenn between the ears in a maternal way. "I told you I would take care of you out here, didn't I?"
Jennica blushes a bit but doesn't wave Emmeline away either: "W-well, yeah. You did. I just worry, you know that."
Emmeline gives Jenn another squeeze before letting her go. This seems to be in order to retreive her own tea, which is a thing done with her back to Jennica, not that there's anything to hide. "I know you do..."
Jennica looks at Emmeline for an absent moment, before picking up her own tea: "Yeah." She goes quiet as she thinks of nothing at all.
Emmeline sips at her tea for a few moments before turning around. "Jen, do you ever think about..." She trails off, her question anything but clear.
Jennica blinks and looks up: "...huh? Think about what?"
Emmeline shakes her head and takes her cup of tea back over to the window seat. "Oh, uh... nothing... just a silly thought that wasn't worth speaking of."
Jennica tilts her head, confused: "Most thoughts are worth airing. At least a bit."
Emmeline turns to look out the window. "Maybe another time. I think it needs some time to sort itself out in my head." She sips at her tea again. "At least this heavy rain is nicer than the day long drizzle we had back home, right?"
Jennica looks at Emmeline for a moment, before nodding and looking at the window: "Yeah, it is."
Emmeline turns and looks over at Jennica. "What is it you're working on today?" she asks, totally not trying to distract her friend from the earlier aborted question.
Jennica blinks and looks at the worktable absently: "I don't know yet. A bit of a thing to shield you or repel something, but that magic keeps refusing to settle down."
Emmeline cocks her head and looks out the window. "Huh. I wonder if you could make it into something like an umbrella?"
Jennica shrugs: "Maybe. But why not just get an umbrella?"
Emmeline laughs. "Umbrellas don't go with every outfit, or maybe you already have your hands full?"
Jennica lifts a hand to her chin for a moment, then shrugs again: "Maybe..."
Emmeline walks over to watch Jennica tinker with the doodad, offering occasional ideas.