The Organic Experiment

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add stared at the strange, strange building. She'd lived in Kalispell for some time now, having developed her mutant ability at a very young age. There had been years of living at the Academy, training and honing her ability until it was the impressive instrument that she possessed now. Add had then left for some very prestigious colleges, where she'd worked quite diligently on what interested her. However, her own decisions had led her back here, to Kalispell. And it was here that she saw the very strange building, standing there as if someone had plunked it down into the middle of the street as some kind of joke. Add seriously did not remember the building having been there a few moments ago. It was almost as if Fate had just decided that a building such as this needed to exist there.

Needing to confirm that she was not, in fact, crazy, Add snagged the first person to pass her by. She pointed at the building, with its kitschy name: Great Karma. It purported to sell various organic materials, ranging from healing crystals that hung in the window to oils and soaps (the latter of which were apparently specialties of the store). Surely such a building in all its ludicrous nature could not exist. So Add had tapped the other person and directly asked:

"Did you know this was here?" pointing at the building, "And have you seen it before today?" Because Add was wholly convinced that it had just popped up overnight, which meant that it bore exploring, but there was no way that Add would embark on such an experiment by herself...

[Alexis Bellefonte]

It was no secret that Alexis liked to shop. So seeing her around town was also a norm. If one was to keep up appearances one had to make sure to always have the best things. Besides shopping was fun, well most of the time. So here Alexis was, wandering down the street with a strawberry-banana-monster smoothie in hand, waiting for a store to just call to her. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a shimmery light. 

Intrigued she turned around completely and saw a window filled with uniquely wrapped packaging, and the source of the shimmering: some crystals that'd been hung from the top of the windows. With her interest peaked she walked towards the store, whistling random lines of music. Suddenly she was snagged and tapped by a brown-haired stranger and before she could really protest she was presented with an odd question. "Well no, I didn't know it was here. Well until a few seconds ago. The crystals in the windows caught my eye. And no, I haven't seen it before. Which is why I wanted to check it out." Alexis eyed the stranger carefully. She looked a little bit familiar. Maybe around the school. 

[Adelaide McLisk]

"Most intriguing," said Add, considering the answer and the shop at the same time. "I don't recall seeing it either, and I have been here several years," she paused, switching her footing, "however, I also do not do much in the way of shopping. You seem to be much more acclimated to activities of shopping. You also mentioned desiring to 'check it out.' Would you be willing to explore this strange establishment with me and determine its viability?"

And yes, this did strike Add as being a perfectly viable request to ask of a strange brunette she'd just met on the street. The other girl did look vaguely familiar to Add, like someone that she'd seen once or twice before. In fact, she seemed to recall some data about pretty brunettes in Kalispell, but there were quite a few of those, so it was hard to determine whether or not this one fulfilled a particular genotype.

"I believe I can provide monetary compensation if that is required," Add added, feeling that she should at least try. She did have some money; the school had to give her a fairly decent allowance to compensate for freezing her bank account. She even had some of it on her person, though she was mostly figuring that she could simply purchase something to make up for it, assuming the store was not simply stocked filled with useless items.

[Alexis Bellefonte]

'I think this is one of the strangest encounters I've had...and that's saying something considering where I go to school,' Alexis mused silently. "Yes, I am definitely acclimated to shopping, as you put it. Also, for the record, I grew up here." She looked at the shop in front of her, trying to remember specifically this area. She shook her head, not coming up with anything, which just intrigued her more. "I'd be more then willing to check it...err..determine its viability with you."

Alexis turned and approached the door. The womans idea of providing compensation bristled and stopped her. 'Charity, seriously?'  She whirled to face the girl. "I don't need handouts, especially from strangers." While the snappish response about handouts was an over-reaction, Alexis couldn't help herself. She was prideful. And that proud demeanor of hers doesn't look to kindly on 'hand-outs'. She briskly turned back to the door and pulled it open, stepping to the side to let the other girl go in first. "Since we'll be working, or something like that, together I might as well introduce myself. I'm Alexis." 

[Adelaide McLisk]

Grew up here? There weren't many people who could claim something like that, so Add immediately logged the information away. It did cause a few variables to pop up there, several of which battered at the edges of Add's mind, making themselves rather difficult to outright ignore. They approached the door, and Add thought for a moment that they'd simply just walk in. To her surprise, the girl whirled on her, looking rather perturbed. Add blinked, uncertain what had caused such a violent reaction.

"A handout?" she repeated, blinking a few more times. "I was offering to pay you for your assistance in determining this place's validity; this would be an exchange of goods for services rendered. Giving someone charity handouts is rather stupid and pointless as it solves nothing," Add let that sink in, feeling like her logic would win the day. The other girl had turned by this point, moving to open the door.

"You use working, which indicates that a payment would make sense," Add had to point out, wanting to further solidify her exact purpose. She headed toward the open door, pausing as a heavy smell collided with her, actually making her take a step back. That was... intense. "There appears to be a high amount of incense and what looks like soap in there," she said, peering into it. She finally took a deep breath of the much cleaner air before diving in, figuring she might as well get this over with.

[Alexis Bellefonte]

Alexis gave Add a half smile, "services rendered, huh. That makes sense I suppose. I just hadn't thought of it like that."  She had gotten a whiff of the jumble of scents when the door had opened but it was brief. At Add's comment Alexis turned her head to look into the store. She did indeed see a lot of soaps and she was able to get a whiff of those strong scents again. Finally she followed the other girl into the store. Once inside, Alexis paused, hearing the door shut behind her, letting her eyes rove around the store. The smells all assaulted her at once. There were so many. A few she recognized, but the rush of smell made her nose tickle, resulting in a small sneeze.

"My very first assessment. Smells are a bit overpowering, but otherwise its clean, neat and organized." Alexis said, her eyes stopping on some shelves that seemed to have hair products. "How do you want to do this? Walk around, take in the merchandise? Talk to the owner, or whoever's running the store right now?" 

[Adelaide McLisk]

"it's quite alright; I realize that I'm confusing from time to time," replied Add, keeping her voice flat. She just wanted to ensure that there hadn't been any misunderstandings, not to reprimand after all. They had a much greater mission at hand: determining the shop itself. The whole thing just sort of overwhelmed Add, making it difficult even for the diehard thinking to actually think. She had to stand still and sort of hear what Alexis said without really listening.

"That is my assessment as well, though I'm not as sure about the organization," she agreed. She already pulled her phone out to begin recording data, already punching in some stuff. "We need to examine the various merchandise and determine the layout of the store,' she agreed again, this time looking up and around at them. "Probably handle some of the stranger materials... and one of us should probably talk to the owner. You seem to have a better handle on communication, so I nominate you."

The nomination meaning that Add would, of course, do it herself if it came down to it, but she definitely didn't see a reason to. She had already taken a few steps forward, looking at a display of what appeared to be "wishing stones" with various Chinese characters written on them. which made her very quickly write down that the store clearly played on superstitions, which she pretty well had known from the start.