Making Friends In Capital Crocus

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 13, Post Number 317

-Capital Crocus Mall, 10:30 A.M.-

Dressed in her casual outfit and carrying her black shoulder bag with spending money and iLac inside, Lucia walked through the sliding glass doors of Capital Crocus Mall to find that the mall was surprisingly busy for 10:30 A.M. There were a lot of people in the mall and a good many of them were shoppers looking to get into stores, make their purchases, and get out before the shopping day really started.

Lucia walked out of the entrance hall and took her shoulder bag off of her shoulder, then fished out the job notice. She kept walking until she reached the mall directory and stopped just to its right to find somewhere to go where she could read the notice without holding up traffic. After looking between the food court and the mall she saw an unoccupied bench at the far end of the first floor near a store called The Fashionable Lady. After a brisk walk past a bookstore named The Scholar's Resource and a sports bar named All-Star Grill she reached the bench. She sat on it and began to read the job notice to remind herself why she was here.

Lucia learned that she was to meet up with a friend of Angela Helton's named Jennifer Courtenay. According to Angela, Jennifer was a recent arrival from Oak Town who had moved to Capital Crocus to attend Crocus Magicka University. While Jennifer was friends with Angela because the two had several classes together, the former knew almost no one else in the city and wanted another friend. That was why Angela had hired Lucia to meet her friend at the mall and spend some time with her.

Lucia had no problem with that request. After her recent adventure in Silent Cemetery she was eager for some easy work. She was also looking for a pair of pants that she could wear while adventuring in places like Silent Cemetery or Haunted Castle, but that objective was secondary to spending some time with Jennifer Courtenay.

Lucia read the job notice a bit further and learned that Jennifer would be waiting for Lucia outside of The Music Vault. Lucia remembered the name of that store from a job months ago when Angela had hired the blonde to be a placeholder in line and recalled that the store was on the third floor. Lucia quickly put the job notice back inside her shoulder bag and stood up, then began walking towards the side of the mall she had entered from in order to get to the stairwell she would need to take to reach the third floor.

-The third floor, seven minutes later-

Lucia reached the third floor as part of a sizable crowd of shoppers who had went up the stairs and carefully walked among them until she reached The Music Vault. There she separated from the crowd and began looking for Jennifer Courtenay. However, there was one slight problem.

Angela had forgotten to describe what Jennifer looked like in the job notice!

All Lucia had to go on was instructions to look for a young woman standing outside The Music Vault. Lucia did not have anything to help positively identify her like a description of what Jennifer was wearing, what color hair she had, whether she wore glasses or not, nothing. She did not think that Jennifer had any information to identify Lucia by other than name, so the search for the person she was supposed to find might take awhile.

Lucia saw a red-haired young woman wearing a pink long-sleeved t-shirt with Crocus Magicka University printed in black letters with a white skirt and white tennis shoes. She stood out in the sea of people with brown, black, and blonde hair, but the mage was not sure if she was looking at Jennifer Courtenay or not. There was only one way to find out. Lucia would just have to approach the young woman and ask her.

Lucia carefully made her way through a crowd of shoppers emerging from The Music Vault. She carefully navigated the crowd to reach the redhead and the redhead took notice of her.

"Are you-" Lucia started to asked the young woman before being interrupted.

"Are you-" She started to ask Lucia in return before realizing she was interrupting and trailed off. The redhead then blushed.

"Sorry. You first." She prompted Lucia to finish her statement first. Lucia took the prompt and ran with it.

"Are you Jennifer Courtenay?" Lucia finished asking the question she had tried to ask before they had reached the brief verbal impasse.

"Yes, I'm Jennifer Courtenay. And you are...?" Jennifer identified herself before asking her own question.

"I'm Lucia Winchester." Lucia identified herself.

"Oh, so you're the mage Angela sent to accompany me around the mall?" Jennifer asked Lucia. The blonde nodded.

"I'm the one." Lucia replied. Jennifer smiled.

"I'm Jennifer, but you can call me Jen for short." Jennifer gave Lucia permission to use a shortened form of her name.

"OK, Jen. Where in the mall did you want to go first?" Lucia asked Jennifer. Jennifer crossed her arms and her blue eyes met Lucia's eyes.

"I really don't know where I want to go first, Lucia. This is my first visit." Jennifer confessed. The two young women had just reached another impasse, but unlike the verbal impasse on who would ask their question first this one might take a bit longer to solve. Lucia did not frequently patronize Capital Crocus Mall, so she had no idea what stores were in here other than The Music Vault, The Modern Woman, and The Athlete's Edge. The Scholar's Resource was a bookstore and All-Star Grill was a sports bar, but she did not know what The Fashionable Lady offered.

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"So this is your first visit to Capital Crocus Mall, huh?" Lucia asked Jennifer in an effort to keep the conversation going and possibly end the impasse.

"Yeah. I don't know any of the stores here." Jennifer replied. Lucia looked at the store they were standing in front of and pointed towards it.

"Do you like music, Jen?" Lucia asked the redhead. Jennifer nodded.

"I really like death metal music, especially Plague Doctor and The Coven. It's a guilty pleasure of mine." Jennifer answered before blushing again. Lucia did not see what was so embarrassing about liking death metal. She was not a fan of it, but death metal was hardly embarrassing to listen to.

"What's so bad about liking death metal?" Lucia asked the redhead in order to both make conversation and to learn a little more about her.

"My parents say that it's not proper for me to like death metal. They say it's proper for me to like classical music instead." Jennifer explained. That reason resonated with Lucia. Her mother and father forbade any music other than classical music in the Winchester household. The only musical instruments the Winchester children were allowed to play were the piano, the violin, the piccolo, the flute, and a few other instruments. Guitars and drums were strictly forbidden.

"My parents were the same way." Lucia admitted to Jennifer.

"Really?" Jennifer asked. Lucia nodded.

"Yeah. All I was allowed to like was classical music." Lucia replied.

"My older brother likes death metal and my parents don't say a single word to him about it being proper." Jennifer said with a slight frown that soon turned into a guilty smile.

"But I can't complain too much because he lets me listen to his music Lacrimas when they're not paying attention. He's the reason I got into the music to start with." Jennifer admitted how she found out about death metal to start with. Lucia looked behind them at the entrance to The Music Vault.

"Would you like to go into The Music Vault and see if you can find a music Lacrima that you like?" Lucia asked Jennifer. The redhead turned towards the store entrance and looked at it, then turned back towards Lucia.

"Eh, why not? I might be able to find a few good music Lacrimas to buy one day!" Jennifer agreed to the idea. She turned and walked into the store and Lucia followed.

-Inside The Music Vault-

Jennifer and Lucia entered The Music Vault to find that the store had only a few shoppers in it. There were only five other people browsing the wares, which included music Lacrimas, band t-shirts, band posters, and other merchandise. At the back of the store was a wooden counter styled after a bank counter complete with places for individual clerks. The employees were all dressed like bank employees and were neatly groomed.

"Man, I like this place already!" Jennifer said approvingly before walking off to look at the band t-shirts hanging on racks lining half of the left wall. Lucia followed quietly behind her and let the redhead browse at the band shirts at her pace, standing just off to the side of the rack.

The redhead browsed the band t-shirts while Lucia listened to the music playing overhead. It was a fast tune that was heavy on guitars and had rapid drumming plus what sounded like the frantic squeaking of rodents. Lucia could hear the sound of scurrying little feet over the drums and it sounded like the feet were scrabbling against wood. Was that music a track from one of the death metal groups that Jennifer was a fan of?

"Oh hey, that's Wave Of Vermin from Plague Doctor's album The Doctor Makes House Calls!" Jennifer said to herself as she continued to search through the t-shirts. Lucia smiled a little and listened to the track named Wave Of Vermin as it played overhead. She did not care much for death metal, but it was a decent track... or at least Lucia thought it was. There might be better work by Plague Doctor, but she would not know until she asked Jennifer about the band.

Lucia, opting to leave Jennifer to browse in peace, decided to walk off to do a little browsing of her own. She walked to the middle of the shop where the music lacrimas were stored in protective glass cases to prevent theft and began browsing at the lacrimas. She made her way over to the Death Metal albums that were neatly organized by artist in alphabetical order and saw a dizzying array of names.

Casus Belli, The Coven, Destroyer Of Worlds, Mechanized Mayhem, Plague Doctor, Power Overwhelming, Swords Of Damocles, War Unending, and many more death metal bands were represented in the Death Metal section. Once she had browsed that section to her satisfaction Lucia moved on and looked for the Classical Music section to find something that was more her speed. Maybe The Music Vault had some decent classical music lacrimas that she could buy one day when she had a place of her own and a music lacrima player to play them on.

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-Outside The Music Vault, forty-five minutes later-

Both young women had left The Music Vault without purchasing anything, but both of them had left with wish lists of things they wanted to buy. Jennifer had found quite a few band t-shirts and music lacrimas that she wanted to buy once she had a good source of income and could conceal the t-shirts and lacrimas from her parents. Lucia had found a few classical music lacrimas that had caught her interest, but since she did not have a music lacrima player to play them on, buying them now would be a waste of Jewels that she needed to save for rent. Both young women were walking for the stairwell at a leisurely pace since there was no crowd behind them to force them to hurry.

"So, Jen, where did you want to go next?" Lucia asked Jennifer. The redhead crossed her arms as they walked.

"Hmmm... I'm not really hungry just yet, so I think I'll pass on getting a meal from the food court." Jennifer said to Lucia. Lucia was not hungry either, so she did not object to that course of action.

"Do you need any kind of clothing like athletic apparel?" Lucia asked Jennifer. Jennifer shook her head.

"Nah, I don't need any athletic apparel. My parents wouldn't let me play sports. They said that proper ladies don't play sports." Jennifer replied. Lucia let the subject drop and tried to think of somewhere else in the mall that they could go. Maybe they could go to The Scholar's Resource.

"Do you like to read books in your spare time?" Lucia asked Jennifer. Again Jennifer shook her head.

"Not really, Lucia. I only read books for class." Jennifer answered in the negative. Lucia was starting to wonder what Jennifer did in her spare time besides listen to death metal music lacrimas. Now would be a good time to ask that very question.

"Well, is there anything you like to do in your spare time besides listen to music?" Lucia asked the redhead. Again the redhead had to think about her response. Meanwhile the pair continued to walk towards the stairwell at a leisurely pace.

"Well, I like to watch television." Jennifer answered. Lucia was somewhat encouraged by that admission and tried to find a way to keep the conversation going. Fortunately the blonde did not have to try particularly hard because the redhead soon volunteered more information about her interest.

"I like to watch talent shows for some reason, especially Earthland's Got Talent. Talent shows are as much a guilty pleasure for me as death metal." Jennifer started listing the kinds of television shows that she liked to watch. Lucia listened quietly as the redhead spoke.

"I also like singing competitions. I don't know why, though. For every really good singer there's a bunch of people who shouldn't even touch a microphone. I guess getting to hear the really good singers makes it worth listening to all the bad ones." Jennifer continued while Lucia listened patiently.

"I really like to watch nature documentaries. I really like those. I can sit in front of the television and watch a documentary I've seen ten times already and watch it all the way through like I've never seen it before. I especially like nature documentaries on sea life." Jennifer told Lucia.

"Nature documentaries?" Lucia asked Jennifer. The redhead nodded.

"Yeah. My mother's a veterinarian. I like animals and want to work with them some day, but I don't know whether I want to be a vet like her and work with household pets or want to work in a zoo with exotic wildlife. It's a tough choice." Jennifer admitted to Lucia.

"My father's an accountant. He's so good with numbers that he doesn't need a calculator because he can do math problems in his head, but unfortunately he didn't pass any of that math talent to me. I'm lucky if I can make a B on my math tests!" Jennifer told Lucia a little about her father.

"My older brother's studying to be an accountant like my father. He's almost as good with numbers as my father, but he hasn't quite reached the point where he can do math problems without a calculator. Still, he's really handy to have in a store when you need to know the exact change you'll get from your purchases." Jennifer followed up with information about her older brother.

Lucia remembered what it was like to have siblings and smiled a little before that smile quickly faded.

That was a lifetime ago, back when she still had a family.

Now the only Winchesters left were herself and her younger sister Diana. Diana was out there somewhere and Lucia had no clue where the former could be. Diana had not returned any of her text messages yet and that was a little worrying.

Maybe Diana was just busy.

Diana undoubtedly had her own life now and that life did not involve waiting around for Lucia to finally show up again.

Even if that were so, it would be nice if Diana tried to contact her soon.

Lucia was sure that over the past four years Diana had become an independent young woman who no longer needed an older sister to look after her. Still, they were sisters and the last two members of the Winchester family, so they had to stick together... if they ever managed to meet up again. From the way things had been going so far that reunion did not seem like it was going to happen any time soon.

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After a few moments of thinking about how the Winchester sisters had to stick together Lucia wondered if Diana even wanted to find her. She was fairly certain that Diana was interested in finding her older sister, but that was likely where her interest ended. Once she confirmed that Lucia Winchester walked the earth once again Diana would likely want to go her own way.

Maybe Diana was happier living on her own.

Maybe Diana just wanted to be left alone to live as she wanted instead of having her older sister follow her around like an unwelcome reminder of the past.

Lucia recalled that their mother was especially harsh on the youngest Winchester daughter for some reason. While she did not have any proof, Lucia hypothesized that Elizabeth had wanted a third son but had gotten Diana instead, so their mother was taking her frustration out on her ninth and last daughter. Elizabeth's attitude was held by Melody and George while the other Winchester sisters were indifferent to Diana... Lucia was the only one who had really cared about Diana.

Lucia spent more time than she had anticipated hypothesizing what her younger sister thought about her and their family situation before Jennifer brought the blonde back to reality.

"Uh, Lucia, are you OK?" Jennifer asked Lucia, waving a hand in front of the blonde's face. Lucia came back to reality.

"Oh, oh yeah! I'm fine, Jen. Sorry about that." Lucia apologized for spacing out for a moment, but she did not really space out. It was more remembering what it was like to have an intact but dysfunctional family. Now was the time to set the past aside and return to the present.

"Are you sure about that, Lucia?" Jennifer asked Lucia in a skeptical tone of voice.

"I'm sure, Jen." Lucia assured the redhead that everything was OK. Well, about as OK as a person who had been dead for slightly over four years was going to get. She had been out of the loop for four years and was adapting to modernity fairly well, but there were some things that she had missed that she could not get back. There was nothing she could do about that but keep moving forward and use her unexpected second chance at life to its fullest.

Just when they were about to enter the stairwell Jennifer suddenly walked to the left of the stairwell and paused about a meter away, well out of the way of other shoppers. Lucia followed her over to the side of the stairwell to avoid blocking traffic and faced the redhead.

"I'll take your word for it., Anyway, is there anywhere in the mall you want to go, Lucia?" Jennifer turned Lucia's most frequently asked question on the blonde. It was Lucia's turn to cross her arms and think. She really wanted to go to The Modern Woman and look for a pair of decent pants, but that was a low priority for her. She needed to save money for rent, not look for things to spend it on.

"Not really, Jen. I've got a budget that I need to stick to and there's too much stuff here that I want to buy." Lucia replied. She needed to save rent money for her current place because her search for a new place was not going very well. It was fairly expensive, but living in the hotel beat living on the streets of Talonia by a long shot.

"I hear that." Jennifer commiserated with the blonde about budgetary woes. Moments later Jennifer got an idea.

"Hey, do you know about a coffee shop just a short distance away named Capital Coffee?" Jennifer asked the blonde. Lucia smiled when she heard that name.

"Yeah, Jen. Want to go there?" Lucia asked.

"You bet!" Jennifer answered enthusiastically.

"I'm ready to go to Capital Coffee whenever you are." Lucia informed Jennifer.

"OK then, let's go!" Jennifer said and led the way down the stairs. Lucia followed close behind the excited redhead, being careful not to fall down the stairs in the hurry to keep up with Jennifer.

-On the first floor-

The two young women finally reached the first floor and headed for the entrance hall at a brisk walking pace. Both of them had coffee on their minds and very little could delay them from getting to Capital Coffee and partaking of their preferred beverages. Lucia was in the mood for a double espresso or two, but she needed to be careful and not drink more than three of the potent coffees or she would end up on a caffeine rush that would end in a nasty crash later down the line.

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-Inside Capital Coffee, ten minutes later-

It was not even lunchtime when the two young women entered Capital Coffee, but food was the last thing on their minds. They wanted coffee and they were here to get some. Jennifer got in line behind an older man with short brown hair, a blue sweater, and khaki dress pants with brown dress shoes and Lucia fell in line behind the redhead to wait for their turn to order coffee. Six other people just like the older man were ahead of them, but they were not in too big a hurry because they had plenty of time in which to get coffee.

"Hey Lucia, what do you like to order from here?" Jennifer asked Lucia.

"A double espresso. Or two. Sometimes even three." Lucia answered calmly. Jennifer blinked.

"A double espresso? I can only handle a single espresso before I get jittery from the caffeine." Jennifer said to Lucia. Lucia laughed a little.

"I've been drinking coffee ever since I was eight years old, Jen. It's safe to say that I've built quite a tolerance towards it." Lucia confessed to the redhead. At that moment she remembered her father George giving her a cup of his coffee because she had asked for some every morning for a week straight. He gave it to her in anticipation of taking one sip of the strong coffee and setting it aside in disgust, but his plan backfired because Lucia took a liking to it. Ever since that day she liked coffee more than any other drink.

"No wonder you can down two double espressos without flinching." Jennifer said in amazement. The pair faced forward and saw the line move up a little, so they moved up and resumed waiting.

-Forty minutes later-

Having finally ordered their coffee after a lengthy wait, Jennifer and Lucia took a seat at a square wooden table near the window facing the mall and looked out at the passing people. Before long the two faced each other again and they began to talk.

"How do you know Angela Helton, Lucia?" Jennifer asked the blonde.

"I met her several months ago. The first time we met she hired me to hold her place in line for a Marina Renault album that The Music Vault had just got in. She wanted to get one but she had to go to class, so she hired me to hold her place in line until she could get out of class." Lucia explained how she had met their mutual friend Angela Helton. Jennifer gave a small smile.

"You might already know this, but Angela and I are classmates in several different classes. We share five classes... Literature, Algebra, Biology, History, and Chemistry." Jennifer informed Lucia of how she and Angela knew each other.

"I read that you two were classmates on the job notice, but Angela didn't tell me what classes you two shared." Lucia told Jennifer that she already knew that the two were classmates from reading the job notice. When Jennifer heard the words "job notice" she looked like she had a question for the blonde.

"Are you a mage, Lucia?" Jennifer asked the blonde. Lucia nodded.

"Yes, Jen. I'm a Guildless mage, which means that I don't work for a guild. I'm a free agent." Lucia replied.

"I bet that's an exciting life, Lucia. You travel Earthland and look for adventure wherever you can find it. You also control your own destiny... up to a point." Jennifer talked about how exciting a Guildless mage's life was to Lucia.

"Yeah, I control my own destiny... up to a point." Lucia echoed Jennifer's remark about her being in control. While it was true that she did not have to answer to a Guild Master or Guild Aces, she also did not have the support of a guild should a job go terribly wrong. if Lucia got in trouble she would not be able to count on anyone to come to her rescue. If Lucia went missing she would not be able to count on anyone to come looking for her.

"Still, it's an exciting life full of adventure and opportunity... if you're willing to accept the risks that come with being a Guildless mage. The biggest one is that if something goes wrong on a job no one's going to be able to rescue you, but there are other pitfalls that come with the job. Right now I'm willing to take my chances, but one day I might look for a guild to join. I'm not sure which one I'll join, though." Lucia confirmed that the life could be as exciting as Jennifer thought it was if one was willing to accept the risks that a Guildless mage faced for not being part of a guild. She then added that one day she might tire of the perils of a freelance mage's life and when that day came she would look for a guild to join. However, Lucia did not know which guild she would join and had never given the matter any serious thought because right now she liked where she was in life.

Their coffee was delivered to their table by a female employee whom they thanked before suspending the conversation to take a sip of their respective drinks. Jennifer had ordered a single espresso and Lucia had ordered a double espresso. They waited in silence for their beverages to cool down to the point they were safe to drink. Once that time arrived three minutes later each young woman grabbed their coffee and took a sip from it.

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Jennifer calmly sipped from her single espresso while Lucia calmly sipped from her double espresso. An amiable silence filled the space between them as they drank their coffees and waited for the other person to speak. However, they were so focused on their drinks that they waited for the other to talk instead of making the first move.

Eventually Lucia set down her half-empty cup of double espresso and spoke to Jennifer.

"Jen, I know that this is too soon to ask, but do you want anything for lunch?" Lucia asked Jennifer just to try and get a conversation going again. Jennifer shook her head.

"No thanks, Lucia. Once I finish my coffee I'm going back to my dorm. I really need to study for my Biology test tomorrow." Jennifer turned down the offer of lunch. Lucia was not offended in the slightest because she respected the fact that the redhead had a test she really needed to study for. Besides, that was a blessing because Lucia had no idea where they would eat had the redhead accepted the offer.

Jennifer realized what she had just said and panicked. Her eyes met Lucia's.

"Oh man, I nearly forgot about the Biology test! I really need to get going!" Jennifer said in a panic and quickly chugged the rest of her coffee. She then set the empty cup down and stood up from her chair.

"OK then." Lucia replied calmly. If Jennifer did not want to each lunch the blonde would not press the matter. She was just trying to make friendly conversation.

"I'm sorry to cut our time short, but I really need to study! We'll meet again some day, Lucia!" Jennifer said as she grabbed her cup and began to walk away from the table, then seven steps away spun around and faced the blonde.

"It was nice to meet you, Lucia!" Jennifer told Lucia.

"It was nice to meet you too, Jen. See you later!" Lucia bade Jennifer farewell. Without further delay the redhead spun around and exited the coffee shop, leaving Lucia alone at the table. Lucia calmly finished her coffee, stood up from the table, took her empty cup into her right hand, and walked towards the counter. She was going to get a refill for the trip back to Talonia.

-Talonia, three hours later-

Lucia finally entered her room after a three-hour trip and shut her door behind her. She sat down on the edge of her bed and removed her boots, then took off her shoulder bag and set it to her right. She fished her iLac out of her bag and checked it to see if Diana had ever replied to her text message.

Diana had not replied to her message yet.

Lucia sighed and set the iLac back inside her shoulder bag for the time being. She doubted that she would get a response from Diana today, so there was no point in worrying about it. Diana would respond whenever she was good and ready.

She was too tired to really care about looking for another place to live, so she would just go to sleep for awhile, then resume the search when she woke up.

Having decided on that course of action, Lucia then set her shoulder bag on the floor in front of her nightstand, turned to recline on the bed, and faced the ceiling. Moments later she heard obnoxiously loud rock music start playing from the room to her right. It sounded like someone had just started the music and did not know how to turn their music down. It was also possible that they just did not care about how loud their music was.

Lucia did her best to ignore the screeching guitars and pounding drums of the "music" because she was not in the mood to deal with it and she was certainly not going to confront her neighbor. Maybe someone else would get management to deal with the rude person next door. If the noise went on long enough that someone would have to be her because she was not going to listen to that awful noise all day long.

Looking at the ceiling for several minutes until she was finally able to relax, the loud rock music stopped moments after Lucia closed her eyes. Either someone must have finally called management to deal with the nuisance or the person chose to stop the music on their own. Either way she was glad that the noise had stopped. A few minutes after Lucia's ears stopped ringing the blonde finally managed to go to sleep for awhile.

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