"Goodness.." Damalis barely had time to gasp out the word before Flannigan toppled. She tried to catch him, but he was falling rather rapidly and she only managed to grab the back of his shirt. This seemed like a triumph for about 2 seconds before Damalis realized this young fellow out weighed her by quite a bit and was now a very nice lump of dead weight. Over she went as well, her heels giving her no traction at all, and she landed with a thud! Sitting now squarely in the middle of the young man's back, Damalis rather belatedly let go of his shirt.

Certain she'd just done him serious damage, the tall young woman squirmed around till she'd re-arranged her legs and person into a position where she wasn't crushing the air out of this fellow. "Sir?" Giving him a poke, Damalis, crouching next to him now, peered at him from a tangle of long golden hair and trying to decide if she should call for some assistance. He was breathing, that was good, but his color looked awful and he was making the most distressing sound. Or at least, Damalis thought he was until she realized it was her service droid whining at her, as Flannigan had toppled it over.

"Hush, we'll set you right in a minute." She promised the little machine, which whined a little more before becoming quiet. "Sir? Mister, you really should wake up. I don't think you'll like the public med units on a station like this." Damalis pointed out reasonably, before resorting to smacking his cheek just a little. She could only get to one, as the other was flat on the floor. The automated teller droid she hated using had a medical file for emergencies, and Damalis wondered if she should run and reactivate it.

However, it really looked like he'd just faint. She wasn't getting any bad vibes from him that would have told her he was sick, but then, Damalis tended to not listen to anything her senses told her. Or at least, most of the time she didn't. Her training was sketchy so relying on it wasn't always a good plan. Still, Damalis hoped he really wasn't badly ill, so she was willing to listen at this time.

"Come on, wakey wakey... don't make me go get some water or something.. that's what people do you know, throw it in your face when you gerplunk out on the floor." Pointing this out, Damalis kept smacking on the cheek that was available to her. She really wasn't hitting that hard, Damalis never liked to hurt anything, but it was certainly an annoying thing. It was really a bad looking scene, a scruffy young man passed out on the floor with a woman, who looked to be nothing but legs and hair at the moment, kneeling next to him with the poor droid crashed over on the floor in front of them. It really wasn't a normal scene for a fashionable boutique but if they'd known Damalis any at all, they'd realize she did attract the oddest things.

Typhoid 7



Scratch had watched the human ever since he'd gotten off the transport and stepped onto the Astoria. He and his fellow Ugnaught companions were the feared Typhoid 7 gang though everyone around them hid their fear well.


But it didn't fool him.


He took a quick glance around for the Constable and saw nothing. Of course, being 3-4 feet limited the sphere of his vision considerably. However, the human looked ripe and so Typhoid had shadowed him from a distance.

They stopped when he walked into some shop to cover themselves with synthetic animal pelts. He cringed. The damned human female was all over him, her bubbly personality and accessories threatening to bounce out.

Scratch thought it ironic how many different states of undress the female might find herself in though not quite all the way... and in a clothing store no less.

He never could see what human males saw in the rather tall female. She was definitely too tall to scratch under your foot and too long to stretch and play with your whiskers. Humans didn't know beauty if it bit them with tusks.


Give me a stout ham with a strong jaw and sharp tusks.


"Shameful are the wicked!" droned someone behind him.

He turned to a fellow Ugnaught dressed in black. He spouted nonsense he claimed were actual holy writings from some backwater planet. Everyone called him Preacher. Scratch just thought he was dropped as a baby.

And so, they all shimmied up to the window to wait for the human male to leave the establishment. Unfortunately, the human fell taking the woman and the droid with him.

Seven little snouts pressed up against the window to witness the outcome of the drame playing out inside.




Boutique


What is wrong with me? Flannigan wondered dazed as consciousness crept back into being.

"Come on, wakey wakey... don't make me go get some water or something.. that's what people do you know, throw it in your face when you gerplunk out on the floor."

The light patter on his cheek felt like a hammer blow as he came around. He had a splitting headache and could not think straight.

Why did his head hurt?

Why did he faint?


Why was the droid...?


And the panic rushed back in as he sat up so quickly he felt a wave of nausea hit.


"I .. I don't know what happened to it! I didn't take it!" he manged to get out pointing to the droid.


Somewhere an Ugnaught's ears perked up.


The woman's eyes were not accusing and so he began to slowly settle down when the plain truth simply hit him.

You haven't eaten since you boarded the transport!

A hand slid back into his pack and the dread returned.

My wallet is missing!


Frack!


Frack, Frack, Frack!

"Didn't take what?" Damalis wanted to know, but she was more worried about the young man's health than anything else, so she asked the first thing she thought of. "Would you like something to eat? I have snack foods."

Snapping her fingers twice, she commanded a droid to appear, bearing with it a tray of snackies that Damalis had thought appropriate for shoppers. Nothing sticky or greasy, as some people were inconsiderate enough to browse her merchandise after eating but not washing up. But all the food was flavorful and delicious. "Here." Offering Flannigan some of the food, Damalis smiled encouragingly, before standing up. She wanted to help him, but thought he looked a little too prideful to care for a woman helping him up after falling flat on his face. "Why don't you eat a couple of those, then take a seat there on the bench and then we can talk about what upset you so much that you overloaded your system."

Then to give the young man the privacy to gather himself, Damalis turned to a nearby mirror and proceeded to straighten her person. She was slightly embarrassed that her perfectly respectable business woman suit was not designed to stay respectable after such a fall, so she quickly adjusted skirt and top, hoping no one had really paid that much attention to it. Damalis certainly wasn't one afraid to show some skin, especially when she went clubbing, but she wanted to maintain a professional visage here in her shop. And that wasn't quite possible when your cleavage was hanging out and your skirt road up so high it showed you were wearing stockings and not hose. Not professional at all, in Damalis' opinion, so she straightened everything quickly, then ran her hands through her hair to sort it out. There was masses of it, all gold and shimmery, but she was lucky enough to have hair that behaved, so that was taken care of rather easily.

'Now, if I can just help this fellow out...' Damalis thought to herself, before turning back to check on Flannigan.

"You know, you never told me your name."

If a man dying of thirst could grab water, they would come close to the manner in which Flannigan Flanders grabbed the 'snackies'. In the end, despite all of man's technological achievements and evolutionary progress, it was hunger that won the day.

He had not eaten since Kalla, trying to save what little credit he could for his trip to the Astoria.

Of course, at the time he thought the gesture noble for he would not eat another morsel until he held his love in his arms.

Now, he just thought himself stupid. Especially since it looked like his wallet was missing.


So, between bits of snacks and gasps of air he managed to run a hand through his hair before mumbling out, "Flan" munch munch "nigan" munch "Flan" munch crunch "ders."


Somewhere, an Ugnaught's lips drooled.


The woman looked lost and he repeated. "Flannigan Flanders".

He smiled nervously at the woman in the business suit. "This is very good by the way." and a worried expression took over.

"I mean't to say that I did not take your fabric. Honest. There was.. was nothing in the box." He wanted to sound sincere but he felt his underlying nervousness put an air of guilt in his voice.

"I'll pay for any damages!" he cried out hoping to compensate for his lack of posture only to dig himself in deeper. For his expression turned sorrowful as his hand patted his pack.

"I... " he stammered, "I seem to have misplaced my wallet.."


And the Ugnaughts were gone, the evidence of their existence only visible by the fog their snouts created on the glass as they were pressed up against it.


Flannigan felt a despair come over him for nothing seemed to be going well for him. He knew that the police would probably be called and he was their prime suspect in a garment fabric that he was interested in.

But I didn't know she was going to pick that one!

Truly his small town roots could not cope with the bustle of the Astral Astoria.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Flanders." Damalis intoned politely, smiling at the young man, hoping to make him less nervous. But even Damalis couldn't miss the statement about her fabric this time. "Take my fabric?" Eyebrows raised, Damalis stepped over and opened the door on the over turned droid. "Huh... it is empty." She frowned a moment, wondering how that happened, then she stood again, smiling. "Well, no trouble. I probably just put in the wrong code really. I have only been opened a week and haven't learned them quite yet. Here, you keep eatting those and I'll check it."

Heading over to the counter, Damalis busied herself with double checking some things, all the while still chatting with Flannigan. "Honestly, you were probably pick pocketed somewhere between here and where ever you landed. Do you have a job your heading to here? Lots of work here on the Astoria, especially if you have experience in anything."

Flannigan munched the treat as he answered. "Nope. Don't have a job here. I don't even know what it's like here or what companies are located here. I heard of the Astoria over the holonet and I heard my girl travelled here a while ago."

After a bit of thought, he turned to Damalis.

"What brought you here? Space Station on the edge of nowhere?" Flannigan asked curiosity suddenly taking hold.

He knew he'd have to go to the police soon regarding his wallet but wanted to put that off until later.

"A space station on the edge of no where that's cracking with people eager to spend money." Damalis pointed out, laughing lightly as she shrugged. "I already had a business going but I wanted to step into another area of that field and this was it." Punching a few more buttons, the perky blond was trying to remember how to work this program while still trying to think about the problems of this young man. "Tell me Mr Flannigan, do you have any clerking experience?"

Ok, so she wasn't being very subtle, Damalis didn't care about that. It wasn't that she felt sorry for Flannigan and was going to offer him a pity job only. If he had reasonable clerking experience, she'd offer work, but if not, she'd make sure he found a reputable employment agency here on the Astoria. She was sure a place this big had to have those kind of companies, even if the thought had never crossed her mind before.

Hmmm.... Another weird thing. Her computer said she had all her cloth in their assigned bins, but her supply system that measured the bolts by weight and ounces, then calculated how many feet were left of each fabric, had quite a few of the bins labeled as 0 on the weight scale.

It was one of those rare days for me, one of those days where I really had nothing much to do. I would call it a day off, but that would have meant logging it at The Department as such, thus removing a day from my count, and thusly requiring that I actually do something 'vacationy'. No, today I was on the job, except, I was on the job in a ritzier and more suburban part of the Astoria than the down and dirty living quarters where I usually spent my time. I liked it. It meant I could buy an ice cream cone, stroll the streets, admire the shops and some of the more attractive shoppers, and in general, relax a bit. While actually working, that is. Mussn't forget that.

As I browsed around -- supposedly looking for some stray gang of Ugnaught muggers who had inadvertently mugged someone of slightly higher stature, influence, and stronger constitution than the typical clueless rich pappy (thus explaining why I was on a mugging job) -- I noticed, through the glass of one of the newer shops, that a particularly striking blond was seemingly having trouble with her service droid, her cash register, and a young customer. All at once. I took a double-take, mostly at the blond.

There was the blond, who was quite blond, and had lots of blond, the customer, the service droid, the cash register, the store, the store front, the window, the merchandise (rather nice cloth too) and... something just wasn't right.

I had learned long ago to trust my gut on feelings such as this. My eyes roamed the scene again, just taking it in. I took another lick of my ice cream cone, and continued to stand there. Then, it clicked. I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it before. That blond...

There was quite the display of breath fog, drool, and nose mucus on the lower half of the store front window. Ugnaught's. Normally an Ugnaught didn't exactly express enough interest in rare and imported fabrics that he would press his face against the window and drool all over. So, I reasoned, he must have had another interest in this store, beyond fabrics or tasting the glass. I decided to take a look myself, and strolled into the store wiliest licking my cone.

"Hello! Welcome to SkyGold Boutique. I'm Damalis and if you'd care to wait, I'll be with you in one momento!" Smiling brightly at the man who'd entered her store, Damalis didn't look the least worried that he was eating something a little stickier than your average cookie. Ice cream was pretty messy to bring into a clothing store, but since the fellow eating it looked pretty clean himself, she wasn't that worried.

Not much any ways.

OOC hehe I thought it was Omnae's turn....

Flannigan nearly choken on his treat when the woman before him offered him a job.

Is it really this easy?

Surprised at his turn of luck he smiled, somewhat shyly. "I have some experience as a clerk but not in for a clothiing store. My parents owned an antique shop on Kalla that I clerked at."

His nerves finally began to settle when a man licking an icecream cone entered the store wearing a funny looking hat. But what Flannigan noticed most about the man was his eyes. They were seemed to take in everything at once and he swallowed.

The woman named Damalis turned and offered a bubbly greeting giving Flannigan much needed time to collect his wits.

For some reason they had leaked out his shoes and scattered across the floor.

And, in the back of his mind, the missing fabric and his missing wallet shined brightly, though, honestly, not in that order.