2024-12-18 - New Roomies Second-Hand Furniture Store Eleganzaaa!

When you are young, not too fussy and on theme park wages, Ruby's is the place to come for all of your home decor needs! Whether you are looking for a portrait of Elvis on black velvet, a lamp in the shape of a leaping bass with a lightbulb in its mouth or even a footstool covered in lurid shag carpet, you will find it at Ruby's! It is a mish-mash of every conceivable style, period and taste level, all mashed together into one glorious cornucopia. Auggie, as one very well might expect, absolutely loves the place and the kinds of bizarre trash you can find here, and is only too keen to bring his new roomies on a shopping field trip to get all of the stuff they are missing to kit out their new apartment.

Pulling up outside with one of the flatbed golf carts they arranged to borrow for the day, Auggie bounces out and onto the sidewalk outside, almost busting with enthusiasm for the trip. Today, he's wearing a sleeveless, bright coral-colored hoodie with the logo of some quirky surf brand on the back and a pair of knee-length, cut-off denim shorts with frayed edges, only adding to the mystery of whether Auggie actually owns any pants. There's a knitted, mustard color beanie on his head that manages to keep his golden curls under control while clashing with absolutely everything else he's wearing and a few woven hemp bracelets around his right wrist. The flip-flops on his feet seem ill-suited for moving anything heavy, but he'll make it work!

This is how we lose a toe, Auggie.

Lucien, on the other hand, is dressed in a pair of solid boots, some pale grey jeans, and a lightweight black sweater that is a little bit too big. He is a little bit more sedate than Auggie but still in good spirits as he climbs off of the back of the golf cart and wanders toward Ruby's, hands in his pockets until he gets to the door. Reaching out, he pulls it open and waits for Auggie and Rowan to step through into the shop.

"So we need something to sit on, or a couple of things to sit on, and like maybe a coffee table?" Lucien ponders. "Maybe a TV or something out in the living room? If either of you want to watch TV out there.." He glances between the two as he starts trying to determine what their target items are.

"We have the futon," Rowan will point out. "But we need another chair for the table," since he only had the two. "Bookshelves might be nice, and maybe another couple of sitting chairs. Maybe some more dishes and silverware," but those can also be ordered online fairly cheaply. He's been quiet during the trip over and nods his thanks as Lucien holds open the door to the shop.

Dressed in aesthetically torn black jeans, a deep wine-colored sweater with black lace applique, and a longer, flared-hem hoodie, he turns his black-lined eyes to Lucien, "I usually just watch things on my laptop." Do others not do that? He then looks to Auggie, "I'm impressed that you're not freezing right now."

"Look!" Auggie pauses in front of the plate glass window at the front of the store to point out a large selection of ceramic clown figurines in unsettlingly cheerful poses. "Those are pretty freaky, right? Do you wanna get some?" he asks, not seeming to anticipate the resounding and inevitable "No!" that will almost definitely be the answer. "Look! That one can be for Luc!" Auggie points out a clown in a big floppy hat "...and that one for Rowan..." a clown reading a book upside down.

He looks up from his speculation when Rowan mentions him not being cold, and he gives a little shake of his head. "No way man!" he beams, holding out a bare arm to show he doesn't even have goosebumps. "I got aqualad powers when I got my animal buddies, and now I never get cold anymore!" he explains, which certainly goes some way towards explaining Auggie's "endless summer" sartorial choices.

"Right," Lucien nods when Rowan mentions the futon. "I was thinking of maybe a couple of comfy chairs. And then a couple of chairs for the table in case we wanted to have someone over.. and because four seems more balanced than three.." He falters and then shrugs, "Not that we need four." But when Rowan doesn't seem interested in the television, he doesn't pursue it as a thing.

He does, however, widen his eyes in horror as Auggie points out the clowns. "No." Just a firm, solid, and decisive "No." Then he reaches out and grabs August bodily by the arm to try to pull him into the shop and away from the window and the CLOWNS.

"Well, now I know what to get you for Christmas," Rowan muses as Auggie points out the clowns. He isn't going to argue Lucien's firm 'No!' and he will follow the two into the shop. "Comfy chairs would be good," and they will likely be claimed by cats...or an otter. "Four chairs are find by me," he will also add.

Auggie gets another glance and a blink, "Do you get overheated in the summer? Or just feel comfortable at any temperature?"

Auggie is still peering through the window at the selection of clown figurines, trying to find one to assign to himself, when Luc grabs him firmly by the arm and starts to bodily pull him through the door and into the shop proper, out of sight of those (frankly hideous) ceramic circus-themed curiosities. "Yeesh!" he exclaims, though honestly, Auggie is too chill ever to be really annoyed by much, and as soon as he is through the door, his attention is captured by a bevy of even more strange and wonderful items.

Looking between Luc and Rowan, Auggies blinks once and then nods. "So, like, just chairs, basically? And maybe a bookcase and maybe a TV...Oh! And I need stuff!" Auggie points out. Indeed, Auggie's mom had kept all his furniture when he moved out since it was fancy solid wood stuff and instead gave him money to go to Ruby's with. Auggie is not displeased with this deal. The cash has already been dipped into for at least one pizza party.

Looking to Rowan, Auggie shakes his head. "Nah. Or I guess like...I didn't? Probably I could over heat if I like...sat in a hot car or something. But I don't overheat more than a normal person" he shakes his head.

Lucien shudders when Rowan suggests getting one of the awful clowns for Auggie for Christmas.

As they make their way inside, Lucien nods about needing some other things for their own rooms. "I could use a couple of things for my own room but I can get that later." He doesn't seem worried about that right now.

And so he starts heading toward the furniture department as he listens to Auggie and Rowan talk about Auggie's power. "That's cool, though, the whole.. water thing. Does that mean you can breathe underwater? Like a fish?"

"If we can't find something here, we might be able to get it online." Like, a television...unless someone's getting rid of one that's on the newer end of things. Rowan will follow the Lucien-led-Auggie into the shop and also look around at what might be there.

His attention gets pulled as Lucien asks about the water powers and he has to ask himself, "Did you get gills?"

"I mean, not quite like a fish..." Auggie explains, lifting up a hand and wobbling it from side to side as they make their way into the store and start heading toward the furniture section. On their way, they pass a gaudy, oversized mirror with an ornate, gilded frame resembling tangled vines, which Auggie takes a second to peer into, poking his tongue out and making a funny face before returning his attention to his two buddies.

"I think it's more like...magic than biology..." Auggie explains and then snorts a laugh when Rowan asks if he has gills. "Like that guy on the TV? Dude! No!" Auggie shakes his head, and indeed, Auggie spends enough time wandering around the apartment without a shirt on that everyone has more or less had the opportunity to visually confirm this. "I don't get freaky with sea creatures either!" he clarifies, and then adds, "And no webbed fingers or toes!" holding up his hands and spreading his fingers to demonstrate.

Lucien does in fact unhand Auggie once he's dragged him far enough away from the clowns as to feel safe. There's a thoughtful look at the mirror even with all its gaudy vines all over it and he says, "Maybe I'll get a mirror for my room," thoughtfully to himself, smirking a little at the face Auggie makes in it and sticking his own tongue out as he passes.

"I dunno, gills could be neat," Lucien ponders, "Though not always convenient." He's still musing over gills as they make their way over toward the furniture. Then there's a slight pause at Auggie's proclamation. "That.. admittedly had not even occurred to me, but good to know." Then he shakes his head with another perplexed grin before jogging ahead a little toward a great big though albeit extremely lime green chair and flops into it, sprawling everywhere. "This is amazing."

Rowan doesn't make a face as they pass the mirror, but he does look into it briefly before pulling the pointed hood of his hoodie up over his head. His hands go into the pockets even as he follows the other two.

"Do people actually ask if you have sex with sea creatures?" He goes right to the point on that one. "Interesting about the no-webbed fingers. There are people with wings and tails and such...why not webbed fingers or toes?" Dark eyes look over the furniture and then follow Lucien as he goes to flop into the armchair. "Does it smell?" That seems to be his only caveat.

"I dunno, I'm pretty into not looking like a fish boy," Auggie remarks when Luc and Rowan seem...maybe not disappointed, but incredulous...that he is not more visibly fishy. He moves along with the group and smiles brightly when Luc picks out the comfy-looking lime green chair. "That looks sick!" Auggie enthuses, giving Luc the big thumbs up. Of course, just a quick look at what Auggie is wearing will confirm that the colour wheel is not his friend.

With Luc dashing ahead slightly, Auggie looks back to Rowan as he pulls his hood further forward over his face. As they move down the aisle towards where Luc is sprawling in his newly found chair, Auggie will lean closer and try to give Rowan an encouraging bump with his shoulder, looking his way and offering a toothy smile if he seems agreeable. "Nobody actually asked me that before. I guess it'd be lake creatures here, huh?" Auggie points out, before clarifying. "But that guy on the TV did." Gods know what he might be referring to.

When Rowan asks if the chair smells, Luc turns his face to stick his nose in it and give it a sniff. "Nope. Smells like.. uh.. chair?" He then shrugs his shoulders. "The color's blinding but could cover it in something."

"Shape of Water," Lucien says when Auggie mentions the fish guy on TV again, and then says. "Oh, or The Deep from The Boys." Then he considers, "Or even the mermaid show. Sirens." There are several possibilities for fish people out there. He finally peels himself up out of the chair though and looks around, searching for another. He finds one that looks like a great big chocolate brown pillow on a kind of wooden frame and flops into that one. "These are like stupid expensive online," he observes.

Rowan's brows crease, "I haven't seen any of those. But if that's people's references, I guess I get why they'd ask," sort of. He'll step over to the green chair for a moment before noting as Lucien goes to the other, "I think that's a papazan chair? The cats will probably claim that one." Not that it's a problem to him.

"Too bad we can't hang one of those wicker, egg-shaped chairs from the ceiling." They're all probably too big to curl up in one, "You know, we could just get one of those human-sized pet beds too..."

Auggie wanders over and flops into the lime green chair once Luc seems done with it, bouncing a couple of times and wiggling around to give its comfiness a test ride. "It's a pretty good chair!" Auggie agrees before something on the shelf across the aisle catches his attention, and he springs back out of the chair to retrieve it! "Neaaat..." Auggie grins, picking up what seems to be a ceramic duck and turning it over in his hands once or twice.

Auggie turns back towards the others as Rowan catches up and starts making his own suggestions about the furniture they could get. "That'd be sweet!" he exclaims about the idea of one of the hanging egg-shaped chairs. Just as he does, the head comes away from the ceramic duck with a satisfying pop, revealing that it's actually a decanter. He lifts it towards his nose, which wrinkles briefly as he takes a sniff, before replacing the head and setting it to one side with a vaguely disgusted look.

"How much are the chairs?" Auggie asks, peering about for a sign or a tag, or something. "A big pet bed would be cool!" he grins at Rowan.

"Oh, those are cool," Lucien opines when Rowan mentions hanging an egg chair from the ceiling. "Don't they make them with stands you can hang them from too? So you don't have to mess up your ceiling?" From his position sprawled in the semi-papasan-type-chair, he pulls out his phone and begins looking up hanging egg chairs.

He pulls up an image of a hanging chair with stand and shares it. "Look! They even make like two-person ones. Then you don't have to hang it from the ceiling," he proclaims, holding out his phone so that both August and Rowan can take a look.

Reaching over he pulls out the tag for the one that he's sitting on which is a love sac pillow sac chair rather than an actual papasan and says, "$200 for this one," which considering they retail for over $1000 is a pretty good deal.

Rowan watches as Auggie flops into the lurid green chair and then looks at the image on the phone that Lucien pulls up. "Sure, but those are pricey. And do we really know each other well enough to snuggle in a two-person egg-chair?" He seems to be mostly serious, but there's a twinkle in his eye at that.

Those eyes then widen when Lucien says how much his chair is, "$200? I thought this was a Thrift Shop? You can buy a brand new sofa from Ikea for a little more than that!" And not some sort of beanbag chair.

"Whoa! Lemme see!" Auggie chirps excitedly, clambering up onto the arm of the green chair and leaning far, far, precariously far over to try and peer at Luc's screen over his shoulder. He just about makes it without eating shit or breaking anything, so that is a definite plus. "That looks sick! Moose would love it!" Auggie opines of the two-person swinging chair, nodding approvingly. He shoots a glance back at Rowan when he makes vas valid and sensible remarks about the idea, and Auggie blinks in horror.

"You don't wanna snuggle with us?" he asks, though he does have that same playful sparkle in his eye as Rowan does as he assures, "I'd snuggle with you, dude!" and flashes him a happy smile. When the subject of price comes up, Auggie points out, "I dunno man, buy cheap and pay twice, right?" with a sagely nod as he bounces back down into the seat of the green chair. "These seem pretty solid. Plus I bet Ikea charge a bomb to deliver here, he points out."

Lucien tilts his head to the side and looks over at Rowan amusedly. "I know. I was just saying they were a thing that was available without having to drill holes in the ceiling." Though his brows waggle a little and he quips back, "Bet we'd know each other better if we diii-iiiid," in a singsong at the end, clearly amused.

Though poor Rowan's sticker shock makes him shrug, "It's usually a thousand dollar chair. Two hundred bucks for like new isn't really that bad all things considered. But I bet the green one's cheaper." He then pulls himself up off the one he's sitting on and continues his quest to flop on more furniture unceremoniously.

"We've only just begun looking," he calls out as he continues onward, "No decisions need to be made yet! Our perfect chair may still be lying in wait!"

"I dunno," Rowan's lips quirk as he answers Auggie, "I bet you're the type to steal all the covers and take up the whole bed." Lucien gets a smirk as well, "A very expensive thing that will end up belonging to the cats and you know it." He gives another snort in response to snuggling to know each other better.

He falls quiet at the mention of spending more for better quality stuff; they're young, why do they need to invest in quality? At the mention of just beginning to look, he'll start to move among more of the furniture, looking to see what's available and what the prices seem to be.

Auggie snickers when Luc seems right there with him on snuggling being the best way to make friends, only to look positively hicked when Rowan accuses him of being the type to steal all the blankets! "That's so unfair, dude!" Auggie protests, leaping back up with a shocked expression that soon becomes a laugh. "I am a very considerate bed sharer! I don;t even get cold!" Auggie reiterates with a response to the claim, though it's pretty apparent that it's more playful back and forth than any serious offence being taken.

Now that he is up, however, the quest can continue! However, before Auggie can spot any more good chairs, something calls to him from a nearby shelf! What initially looks like a tangle of toot is soon identified as a "Bead curtain! for your door!" Auggie enthuses, rushing over and giving it a little shake to hear all the multi-coloured beads rattle. "Aww man! I'm totally getting this!" Auggie confirms joyously, showing it triumphantly to Luc and Rowan as he recovers it from its dusty resting place.

That's not exactly what Lucien said or implied. "Who said anything about sharing beds? We were talking about an egg!" But then he just shakes his head in amusement at Auggie's indignation over his blanket proclivities. Then to Rowan he says, "You just pick up the cats and put them on the ground. They'll get back up." He is not the sort of person who has a problem with relocating felines to use his own furniture.

He misses the bead curtain entirely as he's already headed off in search of more furniture. From further along the section he says, "Hey, this looks pretty good!" It's a large overstuffed chair with a big ottoman and it's relatively cheap -- cheaper than either the lime green monstrosity or the discount-expensive-chair. The color is a dark navy blue and it also seems to be in pretty good shape. "And there's dining chairs over here.. there's a couple that look like they'd go with the table."

Rowan glances over as Auggie finds the beaded curtain and he just gives a shake of his head at that. He's not going to argue Auggie's covers proclivities nor Lucien's willingness to move the cats. He continues to move among the furniture, looking at the items there, pausing to look back as Lucien finds an armchair with an ottoman. "Does it smell?" That seems to be his main concern over the used stuff.

The mention of the dining chairs has him moving in that direction to look at them. "I don't care if they're mismatched," is offered as he looks at them. "Paint can fix that."

The beaded curtain gets snagged, and Auggie stuffs it under one arm as he trundles off behind Luc and Rowan around the rest of the furniture section. Catching up with Rowan, Auggie laughs when Rowan once again asks if the latest chair that Luc's found is smelly and gives a shake of his head. "Even if it does dude, the smell of old is the smell of gold!" Auggie enthuses. "Besides, we can just Febreeze it or whatever right? I'd be looking out for any stains that make it look like someone died on it!" he teases, giving his fingers a spooky ghost wriggle as he does. When they make it to Luc's latest find, uggie bends down and test out the seat with a hand. "Seems pretty good!" he grins and then adds, "And look! It comes with a cat bed too!" indicating the ottoman.

Lucien laughs as Rowan once again asks if the chair smells, "Come stick your nose in it and find out." Though he does turn to give it a good sniff and shrugs his shoulders. Smells fine to him. Then he's drifting over to follow Rowan toward the dining chairs. He doesn't argue about paint, seeming agreeable enough to the idea of painting the chairs to match.

Then he glances back at Auggie and gives a little shudder. "Gross."

Though he does seem to appreciate Auggie's appraisal of his chair find. He drifts along toward the dining room chairs and lets Rowan do a search for those. He's already scouted out some options. He spots the beaded curtain tucked under Auggie's arm and grins. "The cats are going to love playing with that."

"Febreeze doesn't take out everything if it's deep in the cushions," Rowan will point out. "And smelling 'old' is different than smelling like piss or mildew or mouse poop." Or worse.

The beaded curtain gets a sigh, "Better anchor that well because, like Luc said, the cats will be all over that." He then moves from the chairs to look at a collection of bookshelves. "What did we say we needed? And what was our budget?"

"Oh right yeah, because I totally want the furniture that smells like mold and mouse poop, that'll be rad..." Auggie responds to Rowan with a crooked sort of smile, watching him for a moment before poking out his tongue towards the grumpier of the roomies. "Besides, I think they only take good stuff here. Not like...mattresses a guest died on or something." Auggie pulls the first thing he can think of out of his brain and does a spooky finger wiggle towards Rowan before himself, trundling over toward the dining chairs the others are inspecting. "Oh sweet, or we could paint them all different colours, like those!" he exclaims, pointing to a set of four bar stools that are clearly a set, but each is a different, fairly explosively neon colour.

"We just needed a couple of chairs to go with the table so that we could all sit at it at once," Lucien says as he pokes through the dining room chairs, examining them and testing for wobbly legs and the like. "And maybe another comfy chair to go along with the futon." He then says, "Don't think we had a budget so much as.. whoever wants to grab something can pick something they can afford. I'll get the chair." He nods back in that direction. "And help with the dining chairs. Whatever they end up being." He clearly has some money set aside for this specific purpose.

And so it is that Lucien ends up buying the big soft comfy green chair with ottoman that he will surely end up sharing with multiple cats, that absolutely does not smell of anything other than upholstery cleaner and has a couple of dings along the back from where it was originally moved. He goes over and claims its tag and then hovers around while the others decide on other things.

Checking for wobbles is a good idea! Rowan will help with the check and pull aside a few options. "We should have talked about a budget, maybe," he offers before looking back at the bookshelf options. A couple are touched, but eventually he will turn away and move towards the shelves with the kitchen supplies. "Do we need more cooking things? Plates?" He did bring some silverware and a couple of pots and dishes, but likely not enough for three at once.

Auggie follows along with the rest of the group to check out the variety of dining chairs. Unfortunately, the variety of trash he has picked up along the way has grown to include a macrame plant pot holder and an enormous, oversized bean bag chair decorated to look like a colossal doughnut with pink frosting and sprinkles. A glow-in-the-dark, fluorescent green crucifix complete with a very dead Jesus is briefly considered and then discarded. He can only collect so many treasures at once, after all! He's rather heavy-laden by this point, but not so heavy-laden that upon finding a pair of throw pillows with sequin mermaids on them, they cannot be added to his little collection. It's an eclectic little pile of purchases, but it is undoubtedly going to add some...character, to the place!

"Don't worry about it," Lucien tells Rowan as he helps survey the chairs for wobbles and selects some likely candidates. Once they've found what they need, he just grabs the tags for them and says, "I've got it." With the chairs all covered and Auggie's collection of.. treasures.. acquired, he considers the kitchen stuff. "Would be better than eating off paper plates yeah," he agrees with a smile. "Why don't you grab a couple of things that you like... and we can call it a successful trip. If there's more we need we can make a specific list and a budget for next time."

"More dishes to do but better for the environment." Or something. But Rowan will grab a set of four plates, bowls, and an unopened package of silverware to bring to the register. "I have some mugs," and surely they have some sort of collection of souvenir cups by now to use. He'll purchase those so that it isn't one person furnishing everything. "It's a good start, I think. The cats will like it. It might be nice to get a bigger cat tree for the living room...or other cat perches." One day.

Now they just have to figure out how to get everything back in one piece.