The York Gallery; Tuesday [ 04/08 ]

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte was just as busy as a little bee today, her heels constantly clack-clack-clacking on the floor of the gallery as she moved between the main gallery chamber, to the reception area, to the back to help prop the door open for the pieces for the opening tomorrow to be moved in, to upstairs to her apartment because she still had some unpacking to do, and then down again, making an effort to settle at the front of the desk for some technical work at the computer, and then back up again, this time to the front of the gallery because the NPC movers for the exhibit had agreed to help put up the sign for the front which had just arrived and she had to help orchestrate that, and then back and forth a little more. Eventually she lost her shoes from all the running about, and she took every chance she got to take a few moments to breathe into a cup of coffee, grateful that the coffee machine behind the reception desk was one of the first things she'd seen to that day.

Busy, busy, busy!

[[ still not with the open for business thing, but curious head-popping-ins are welcome! ]]

Comments

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

After seeing the posters in the dorm, Teddy went to go check the new place out.

Was it open?

"Hello...?"

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte had just been making another round from the back of the gallery to the front when she spotted him coming in and she stopped, catching her breath before giving him a bright smile. "Teddy! Hi! How are you? Come to give the place an early peek? It's all chaos right now, you'll have to excuse me a bit if I seem a little..." Her head tottered back and forth a little on her neck, eyes rolled up to indicate the spacey buzz going on in her head, the busy rush before an event, which drove her crazy but was one of the best feelings in the world that she wouldn't give up for anything.

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

"I saw the posters up at the dorms and wanted to check it out," He said sheepishly, looking around the place. It was cleaner than his room, at least.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Actually, with the exception of the the exhibit movers and the occasional sound of their bringing in the large canvases under giant eggshell sheets, the place was mostly spotless, orderly, and streamlined according to the design and feel Charlotte had wanted to inspire with the design of the building's interior.

Charlotte's grin grew a little more, happy to find out that Naminé's assistance had attracted some attention. "Not much to look at now, of course, but everything will be pretty great, I hope, for the opening tomorrow. Lots of work to do until then, of course."

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

"Cool!" Oh yeah, Teddy called that cool. He was pretty sure that was the dorkiest thing ever. "Um, I hope I didn't weird you out too much about this place before..."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

"Well, actually," Charlotte said, both her eyes and mouth opening a little more as she talked, "I ran into that art teacher you mentioned to me yesterday. He...elaborated a bit, although I have to admit, nothing has...quite reached the level of, uh, of that...thing," she gave a general vague gesture in the wave of her hand, as if that could symbolize the shifting of all of Teddy's features, "that you did. From what I hear, though, it's good to, um, get some of those, err...shocks out of the way."

Especially since that was how Charlotte had decided to deal with them. By getting them quickly out of the way, and out of her mind.

And, although in that moment, Charlotte had an urge to ask about some of the spandex Steve had mentioned, she didn't quite feel that would be a prudent venture into conversation with the boy.

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

Teddy would have been able to tell her that he didn't wear any,

It would tear too easily.

"Yeah, I'm a little odd even for home."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte felt a small pang of regret for her word choices, although, really, she felt she was doing quite well with not seeming as weird about all of that as she was. "Oh, I'm sure," she said, quickly, with a tone of eager restitution, "it can't be that odd. It would be odd from where I come from, but, if I'm understanding all of this right, there are lots of places where lots of people come from around here, and there's probably lots of ones that could be considered even odder!"

Although she really didn't want to think about them, but she was being an optimist here, for Teddy's sake. Or trying, at any rate.

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

She was very... cheerful.

Teddy blinking, nodding dumbly in agreement. "Yeah. We had dinosaurs show up here once."

It made sense somehow. Really.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte drew in a tentative breath, as if Teddy had brought up a rather under-the-rug sort of taboo with the mention of dinosaurs. Which, for her, it sort of was. "Yeaaaah," she said slowly as her shoulders shifted in deflating, "those were mentioned a bit, too..."

"I guess it would sort of make sense that if this place were a sort of time, dimension, nexus type of thing," she continued on, the fact that the topic built up a little bit of distress inside of her but she was trying very hard not to show it quite clear and obvious, "it would be a given that it included all times, and that meant dinosaurs as well..."

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry! Most of us know what to do in case of things like that happening," Teddy assured her. "I have a cricket bat for it."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte blinked a few times.

"...for dinosaurs?"

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

"Well, the cricket bat is mostly just because my older brother gave it to me when I first arrived," Teddy admitted. "I'm just, uh, kinda stronger than most people."

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

Nathan hadn't talked to Charlotte since their dinner. One school of thought suggested he keep up with the avoidance so he wouldn't have to deal with talking about his powers. Another said man up and deal with it.

So Nathan passed by the in-progress gallery and looked to see if Charlotte was around. If not, well darn.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Timing would have it that Nathan so happened to come around while Charlotte was outside, looking up at the simple but aesthetic sign on the front of the building, frowning with concern at it while the movers seemed to wait for her judgement. It seemed to come out of her reluctantly, as she hated to do this after they'd tried so hard, but it just...it just still wasn't quite right. "Try shifting it a little over to the right a bit more, just a...just a bit!" She frowned a little sympathetically at their sighs as they went to the task of moving the sign again, and she turned away to help her pretend that she didn't see much of any agitation with her perfectionism that might be building, and that was when she noticed the man heading down the street.

Well, this could be a pleasant distraction! "Nathan!" she called out to him a little, as if it would have been a difficult thing to notice her at the center of the work going on in and out of the gallery, and she waved. "Hi!"

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

Okay. She didn't looked freaked. That was a good sign.

"Charlotte," Nathan said, acting like nothing was amiss. Nathan was very good at acting like nothing was amiss. "Am I interrupting?"

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

As far as Charlotte was concerned, nothing was amiss except for that...that...stupid sign. A brief glance over had her worriedly calling out another order. "No, no, now that's too far!" she told the movers with an exasperated sigh, and, just as smoothly as she'd gone to chide them, she turned back to Nathan with a shake her head, a dismissive wave of her hand. "Oh, no, not at all! I could use a little break; I've been on my feet, running around getting things ready all day. So much to do still, but not so much I can't stop for a little chat."

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

So far so good. Nathan decided to test his luck by continuing the conversation. "Looks like you've had a lot done since the last time I was here."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte beamed a little at the observation. "A bit, yes," she said. "And I'd hope so; we're opening tomorrow. I don't know if you've seen any of the posters put around, but it's hard to think that it's already time! These past few weeks have just," she made a gesture with her hand through the air, "flown right by."

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

Nathan noticed the choice of phrase.

"I know what that's like," he said, dryly.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte gave Nathan an oblivious, sympathetic smile before she asked, "But how have you been? Haven't had much of a chance to talk since...well...Been keeping yourself busy?"

She knew she'd been doing so. It was going to feel very nice come Thursday evening to just kick up her heels a little and relax. Hopefully.

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

"Fairly busy," Nathan said. "It's about finals time. And Peter always keeps me occupied. But maybe you heard about that."

There. Nice, general enough to provide deniability, specific enough to get her in the right area if she knew what he was talking about.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte's eyes widened a little at that last comment, hand to her chest, equal parts worried that she might have missed some important going on and concern that she'd simply missed some good gossip. She hadn't quite yet gotten into the habit of listening to that radio thing, and, besides, she was much more used to gossip coming from talking with people, and most of that had been about...well, that whole alternate timeline and shapeshifting and spandex thing, which, really, was quite a lot at once. "No, I haven't," she commented with a little bit of concern. "Should I have?"

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

Nathan relaxed. "Oh, the usual. Pete doing teenaged things. Some day he's going to run right into traffic just to make sure I catch him."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

"Nothing...bad, though?" Charlotte asked, her worry and occasional tendency to just jump right into the worst conclusion not quite yet convinced.