An actual job was something Teague could not remember ever having had before. He didn't consider sitting around while simultaneously singing and playing guitar to be a job, even if people paid him for it. It was too much fun to be work. His job at Alfons's shop? This was work.
Though not entirely devoid of fun.

Teague stood in front of a display of packs of tarot cards, separating the themed packs from the classic-style ones. He'd made himself presentable for work, but still (unintentionally) managed to maintain a hint of his usual lazy scruffiness. A black-and-white paisley bandana was tied over his hair, holding it neatly back from his face. He wore black jeans, sneakers, and a deep blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled messily up to his elbows. The collar of the shirt was half-turned up, and Teague had noticed it, but couldn't be bothered to fold it back.

He paused in organizing the cards to pick up a pack that had been opened. He frowned slightly at it, then pulled out the cards to check that they were in the right order. If he was going to organize these things, he was going to do it right.

"Maaa-riii, come on, you know half of this stuff is bunk anyway!"

"I still like looking."

"Why'd you have to drag me then?"

"Did you really want to stay at home where Mom'd yell at you?"

This conversation was apparently a variation on one that had been going since the girls had left their home, wherever that home might be. They were the same height, with the same greenish blue eyes and dark hair, and the same facial structure and build, but that was about the only thing that made it obvious that they were twins.

One wore a pair of black platform boots and a black pleated skirt--she'd have worn leather if she thought she could get away with it--and a black sleeveless blouse with ruffles in the front. And lots of silver jewellery, with short hair.

The other was wearing a plain green t-shirt, plain blue jeans, and plain green hi-tops that matched the shirt, and wore her hair long, in two french braids, one on either side of her head.

Both girls smiled and giggled upon spotting Teague and pretended be very interested in tarot cards all of a sudden.

Teague blinked upon hearing the little bell above the door announce the twins' entrance. He smiled to himself and turned to face them, stepping to one side of the tarot cards. He still had the opened pack of cards in his hands, and did that nifty little trick where you flip the cards in a stream from one hand to the other.
So they weren't that sort of cards - it was still a neat trick.

"Hullo, ladies. How may I help you?" he asked politely.

"We're just looking, thanks," said the one with long hair. (Mari, and the one who had initiated this little excursion.)

The other one looked Teague over brazenly--in the kind of manner that suggested she was trying to be brazen, and that it wasn't natural for her--and announced, "You're hot. Do you have a girlfriend?"

Her sister looked embarrassed. "Jess!"

"Why thanks, love."
He gave a soft chuckle.
"A perfectly reasonable question, if unexpected," Teague smirked at Mari, then returned his sleepy gaze and smile to Jess. "And the answer would be 'no'." Because Jetta doesn't really count - not that he'd consider going out with either of these girls. There was way too much of an age difference.
That won't stop him from flirting, though. He's a tease.

"Ahem. Anyway, if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask."
He began fitting the cards back into their box.

Considering that he's about twice their age, I should say so.

"Do that card thing again, please?" That one was Jess. Mostly because she wanted an excuse to keep talking to him. (What? He's a hot guy, she's a teenage girl, and she doesn't get a lot of chances to flirt. Mom thinks they're too young for boys.)

Mari rolled her eyes and examined a display of incense.

"Mm? Oh. Certainly." He pulled the cards back out. He'd only managed to get them halfway into the carton, anyway - once cards are taken out they never do fit right. He glanced briefly at Jess to be certain she was watching, then flipped the cards from hand to hand, several times.

He looked up.
"I know another interesting card trick. I can read the cards for you, if you wish," he held up the pack and smiled, with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "It won't take long. Interested?"

Jess shrugged.

"Sure, why not. 's not like it means anything."

... is Alfons's air conditioner up a bit high, or is there just a draft?

Mari frowns and selects a stick of incense.

He gave a Cheshire-cat smile and slipped behind the counter.
"We'll see." he said softly, and began shuffling the cards. With a few flourishes, just for show, he cut the deck, and laid out ten cards in a fairly uncomplicated pattern.

"One-" he flipped over the first card, in the center of the formation. "The Queen of swords. Hm.."
He's very good at this, as you might have guessed.

((Does Danie actually know how to do Tarot? Sammie's never seen this done, so she's very curious.))

"So what's it mean? Supposedly, anyway." Jess knows about magic. But she doesn't believe in anything except her family's powers, and that's just because she can't not believe.

Mari glances at the tarot cards with some interest herself and toys with a pretty little incense holder.

((Sort of - my sister taught me awhile back. I'm not going to go through the whole thing, though - it'd take quite a while to type, so I'm just going to skim it. After this post.))


"The Queen of Swords," he held up the card to show her, "To make this short: Honest, witty, forthright... and, being the first card, places it at the heart of the matter. Card two- four of Cups."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Apathy. A narrowed perspective."

Jess shrugged.

"Going on, I guess?"

She doesn't believe. Tarot's okay to play around with--several of her unnish friends do--but actually believe in it? No way.

Mari, on the other hand, does. And she's listening very hard to what Teague's saying, because he's got a feel to him that says he knows what he's doing.

... Teague might notice that the breezes really like Jess. They follow her around like puppy dogs.

Being sensitive to winds the way he is, it's unlikely that he wouldn't have noticed.

"Alright," he said agreeably. He went through the rest of the cards, explaning their individual meanings as he went through, stringing them to each other by the meaning of the card and the meaning of the position in which it was found. Once he'd gone through it all - and after a while of muttering and tapping at cards, he explained.

"Okay - heart of the matter being the queen of swords in conflict with the four of cups,... and this ... Right." he smiled. "Now,... you have an unsual number of Sword-suit cards,... funny, that. Swords are the Air-element suit. What you end up with is a misunderstanding through impatience,... " he tapped a ten of Swords "-.. and feeling rather hard-done-by, you're sending this situation spiralling downwards."
He prattled on about another half-dozen cards, and finally held up the last one. "Ace of Swords. To obtain a positive outcome, actions are - strength of mind. Being objective. Seeking clarity. Seeking truth."

He swept the cards back up, and began mutely stuffing them back into the carton.


((I haven't done any of this stuff in a while, so if it sounds rambly, forgive me.))

Jess started scowling when he mentioned the 'Air element suit' and decided to find something to occupy her across the store. She didn't even wait for him to finish explaining...

Mari glanced at her sister, and at Teague.

"Sorry 'bout her rudeness. I think you just hit some stuff really close to home, and stuff that she fights with Mom about all the time."

Y'think?

"No worries, love," he said easily, "Happens all the time."

He folded the top back on the slim cardboard container of cards, and shelved it. Then on a second thoght, he removed it from the shelf and set it on the counter. He may as well keep it out for demonstrations and he didn't think Alfons would mind.
"Sure you don't need a hand with anything?" he offered, leaning on the counter.

"I don't think so... We really just came in to look..."

Except of course Mari wants to buy things. She always does. She's flighty like that. (This isn't Jess's kind of store; she prefers to go places like Hot Topic and such. Partially because the kinds of things sold there annoy/upset her mother. Okay, more than partially.)

"How much is this, though?"

Incense stick thing.

"Each individual stick of incense is thirty-nine cents," he said. "If you're looking to use a lot at once, I'd recommend getting one of the smaller packages. They're quite strong, so it depends on what kind of atmosphere you're looking for..."

Mari nodded thoughtfully...

"Hey, Jess, which kind of incense d'you think Mom'd like?"

"How the fu--freak should I know?"

Mari shook her head and tilted her head at Teague. "Mom runs a florist shop, 'cause that's the kind of thing she's into. Me too. Any of these that you recommend particularly?"

Why yes, she is making excuses to keep interacting with the clerk... Jess has rescinded claim, you see?

Teagu would be amused to know he'd been claimed in the first place.

"Well, there are a few plant and flower ones..." he came back around to the other side of the counter to point them out, standing behind Mari. "Red rose, lavender, yellow rose.. beyond those, there's also sage,.. and lemongrass... Out of those, I'd suggest yellow rose... not as strong as the red, not anywhere as overwhelming as lavender. Delicate, in a way."

If incense can be delicate. It smells pretty strongly, regardless of the type.

I'm sure he would.

I'm sure he'd be somewhat annoyed to know that Jetta thinks of him as hers. Not necessarily one of her boy-toys, but hers all the same.

But that's a tangent.

"That sounds good; sounds like Mom."

Pause as she gives him an entirely innocent sort of look that's melded curiosity and adoration and... well, you know. Normal adolescent girl things.

"Hey, what's your name, anyway?"

Try 'mildly surprised'. It's not possible for him to put himself at a person's beck and call without feeling that they somehow own him.

"You can call me Teague," he said, in a sneaky tone of voice that implied that she was special, in that she could use that name for him. She didn't know that it was the one everyone else used, anyway.

"So," he nodded to the incense, seeming to forget that he'd been on a different topic, "Yellow Rose, then?"

Good point.

Mari gave a silly little giggle and nodded.

"Umhmm. Yellow Rose. I think Mom'll like to be surprised with it." Because at least one of her daughters likes her. (Jess loves her mother, but she gets really mad at her a lot. It makes the love hard to see.)

"I'm Mari, and that's Jess. Well, actually, Marigold and Jessamine, but those're awfully long and stuff."

"I know," he said offhandedly (referring to their names) - he liked to try and make this place a little more surreal, when he could. It would have helped if he'd called one of them by their full name before he was told. Oh well.

"Alright then - just the one?" he picked up a stick of incense, and twirled the fragile thing between his fingers. "Thirty-nine cents each, or three for a dollar."

"I'll go ahead and get three."

She's saving money. Really.

And the name thing? Totally over her sweet little head. And if it weren't, she'd probably assume he was some kind of mage or telepath or whatever.

There're advantages to being Innish.

"Right then." He nodded and plucked three sticks of incense out of the holder, then went behind the counter to wrap them up with a twist-tie, some tissue paper, and finally he dropped them in a small bag and passed it over the countertop to Mari. "There you go, love. One dollar."

"'kay."

And there was handing over of the dollar, and then Jess grabbed Mari by the arm and tugged her towards the door.

"Let's go, Mari, he's creepy."

I thought he was hot?

"Hang oooon."

Ah, the amount of italics that teenage girls can fit in a single conversation.

"I want him to read the cards for me." Glance at Teague. "Pretty please?"

"Well,... alright, I s'pose so," he smirked. "And I'll try to make it quick, seeing as your sister seems to be in something of a hurry."

He took out the demonstration cards (as he now mentally referred to them). Shuffle, shuffle.. then he split the deck, and laid the cards out in the same pattern he had made for Jess.
"Alright, let's see what we've got..."

Mari watched attentively, Jess sighed and looked at the ceiling and the stuff on the shelves... anywhere but Teague, really.

"I can't believe you buy this junk, Mari..."

"Hush."

He muttered for a moment, something about 'The Fool's positive qualities, and then...

"Either I'm not shuffling the cards right, or there's a particular reason you've got quite a few Pentacles - ground, or earth element, if you prefer." Teague said lightly, drawing his fingertips lightly over the cards. He pointed to the seventh, ninth, and tenth cards he turned over. Yes, he works with what he knows,.. he also likes to play it out a bit. A bit of prediction, just to add a little excitement.

"The seventh is Queen of Pentacles - seventh is meant to represent you. Caring,... down-to-earth. Stable." Then he pointed to the last two. "And here, you've got a pair of Aces - Ace of Pentacles, plus Ace of Wands. Those two together mean a new spirit is entering your life. It's going to take a lot ot of you, so be ready for it... And that's all I've got."

He smirked at her, and swept the cards away.

"Now can we go?"

Sigh. "All right, now we can go. Bye, Teague!"

And there was girly chattering of no interest to anyone but the girls as they left the shop.