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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Thursday

The door at Wellspring Arms had been closed for several weeks.

This morning, it was open. The NOW HIRING sign was back on the door, as was Come In, We're Open!.

Where had Cable been these past few weeks? He wasn't saying.

He was, however, sitting behind the counter.

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He's behind the counter with a newspaper. Again.

Alluka had been practicing her jumps--though Fandom's stairs really weren't that difficult these days--when the sign caught her eye.

Had the store always been there? She didn't really remember, but it probably had, and she'd just never noticed before.

But now she was curious, when meant she wandered on in.

"Hi," she said, to the man at the counter, even while she checked out what was in the store.

"Hi," Cable answered, without looking away from his newspaper. "How can I help you?"

She peered at everything in the store eagerly, then focused on the man.

"Do you offer lessons?" she asked, since it seemed silly to try and see if she could buy anything when she didn't know how to use anything.

Slow blink.

"Lessons of what?" Cable asked. "Target shooting?"

"Knives?"

Like Octavia was going to bother with hellos. It was much more like her to just lead with that.

"I have some," Cable greeted her right back.

"Good." See, that was worth actually coming into the store proper for, instead of just skulking in the doorway. "What kind?"

"Combat knives," Cable said. "Bowie. We're not a knife shop, it's not a spread."

"Last time there weren't any, I wasn't expecting great variety now," Octavia replied with the dry drawl that passed for her usual tone. "Show me the combat knives."

Cable shrugged. "Then don't ask what kind," he said, "I still sell things to kill assholes with."

He rose from behind the counter and motioned for her to follow to a cabinet in the corner.

Which Octavia did.

Without saying anything. She wasn't in a quippy mood.

(Yes, occasionally she was.)

Cable opened up the cabinet and took a step back so she could see.

Pistols on top. Knives on the bottom.

"Take your pick."

Octavia gave the pistols a cursory glance, and only because she was thinking of Bellamy for a fleeting second.

Then she reached out and picked up one of the knives. Weighed it in her hand, felt for whether the handle was right for her hand.

She'd rarely had the option of actually deciding whether something was right for her. She'd learned to make due.

"How is it?" Cable asked.

He'd retreated to the counter, having no particular interest in hovering over her shoulder.

"Lighter than what I'm used to." Grounder weapons were, for the most part, a little bulky and a lot inelegant.

She held the knife up, turning it to examine the blade as it caught the light. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing."

"I'm not saying that you thought so," Cable said. "New things take a minute."

Octavia was a little surprised by that. She expected to be put down, for reasons that were a little hard to -- okay, no, they were wholly to do with how people like him had treated her before.

Suppose that meant they weren't actually people like him.

Of course, all she actually said was, "Hmmh." Then quieted back down into her appraisal of the knife. She flipped it in her hand. Fumbled a bit, though she didn't drop it, at least.

It was much less fumbly the second time she did it.

Edited 2018-09-03 18:36 (UTC)

Cable reached for his newspaper.

She could take her time. She didn't seem intent on bugging him when she didn't need to.

No, Octavia preferred to be left alone more often than not, so she was very good at leaving other people alone, too.

She spent a decent while getting to know the knife. Then, she brought it up to the counter.

"I'm taking this."

"That'll be," Cable said, glancing over, and gave her a completely arbitrary price that wasn't particularly high.

"Did you just make that up?"

That suited her just fine. Capitalism was a joke, anyway.

She set the knife down on the counter so she could go through her wallet for the money. Unsurprisingly, she didn't have a card.

"Yeah," Cable said, shrugging. "You have a problem with that or what?"

Edited 2018-09-08 07:09 (UTC)

"No," Octavia said, shrugging, as she handed the cash over. "Money doesn't make any sense to me, anyway."

She'd learned it was a necessity in this time, and therefore adapted to using it, but that was aboit it, really.

She didn't much sound like she cared to learn more, either.

"Agreed," Cable said. "And still all of these idiots kill each other over it while they screw everything else into the ground."

He tucked the cash into the register. He wasn't planning to do much with it. Maybe buy a few beers.

"Where I'm from, we don't have money." She picked the knife up again. "The screwing already happened."

"We still have money in my time," Cable said. "But otherwise, it's all fucked."

"Threat of the planet turning into a post-nuclear wasteland, or something else?"

She had no business sounding so conversational about that, and yet.

"Climate change," Cable said, "And superpowered criminals running rampant."

Beat.

"So close."

Octavia nodded. "Yeah, sounds like it'll end up a lot like where I'm from."

Cheery!

"On the plus side, though? No money after that point." Casual sarcasm was a friend. "Just violent power struggles."

"I was hoping to take things in the opposite direction," Cable said. "I'm just figuring out which skulls to crack."

"And you think that's possible?" Octavia asked. Not judging, just wondering. "That the skulls that need to be cracked can be pinpointed in order to save it from turning to shit?"

It would've worked in her world. She just didn't know that yet.

"If someone really puts their back into it, why not?" Cable said.

Octavia shrugged. "I'm under the impression that before the catastrophe wiped out almost everyone, there were a lot more people on the planet than there were after," she said. "That seems like a ton of people potentially deserving a skull-cracking."

"I've got a lot of time," Cable said. "There's still a few decades left to go."

"But you're here."

Seemed worth questioning.

"I am," Cable said. "What of it?"

He had oceans of free time.

"Can you actually do any of that from here?"

"I'm on an island full of superpowered hardasses, connected to every point in space and time," Cable said, settling back with his paper. "I could think of worse places."

"Fair enough," Octavia replied. Dryly, but also with something approaching wariness. "Guess it's different if the island actually lets you leave, too."

The small range out back is still there. You know, if Cable lets you in.

It's quite nice. The flowers are fresh.

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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Thursday

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Shooting Range

Meditation Room

OOC