2025-03-08 - I Promise I Didn't Moo at You

It's early enough in the morning that the chill's still in the air from overnight, and the shops are just starting to open up. Ruby's is one of them, and since thrift stores aren't usually the type of place you get crowds at opening for, so the density of people inside is at a minimum. Which is precisely why Ari is here, because he much prefers to do his shopping when there isn't a horde of shoppers to deal with.

Dressed in a t-shirt and joggers, he doesn't seem like he's prepared for the morning weather. Maybe that's why he has a multitoned windbreaker in shades of blue and green over one arm, the tag announcing it as being 50% off. He can't refuse a deal like that, and anyway he clearly needs it if he's going back out into the cold after he's done browsing.

But for now, he is indeed browsing. Up on the third floor where all the odds and ends are, he's currently contemplating the random kitchen tchotchke section. Does he need a butter dish that looks like a reclining cow? No, but it's pretty amusing, so he picks it up and lifts open the lid. And it moos, surprisingly loud. Ari hurries to close it and puts it back down on the shelf, looking around awkwardly afterwards.

Chase is thankfully at the end of her shift. After all, it's often easier to fix or perform maintenance on areas that are currently not in operation. On her way back to her apartment, she's made the choice to swing by Ruby's to see if she can find a replacement cake pan for the one that went missing while she was off-island for two months. Heading inside, she trudges up the stairs to the third floor while making a mental note to go back down to the second before leaving. Never can tell when you might manage to find the perfect outfit just waiting to be claimed.

Still dressed in her grease-stained coveralls with her ever-present Craftsman ball cap jammed on her head (brown-streaked blonde ponytail hanging out the back), she turns and starts scanning the shelves for her replacement cookware. The mooing draws her attention away from a fancy serving platter to Ari, one brow arching in curiosity while the corner of her mouth turns up in an amused grin.

"I've been cat-called, yelled at, and had explicit gestures sent my way. But this is the first time I can recall a guy mooing at me."

Immediately, Ari's hands come up in a defensive position, palms facing out. "I didn't moo at you, I promise!" he says, near-on frantic, but then he spots the grin Chase is sporting and some of the tension bleeds out of his shoulders. He still grimaces a bit, hissing in a breath through his teeth so he can let out a faint groan afterward, but then he corrects himself with, "Well. I mean, I did it. No, that's not right, uh." Pause here while he tries to find the correct words. "I... activated it? But I didn't know it was gonna do that."

He eyes the cow dish balefully, then reaches up to adjust his glasses. "I mean, can you imagine wanting to have some toast at 2am and your butter dish moos at you? Who would want that?"

Moving on to look at another shelf, Ari frowns thoughtfully at a cookie jar shaped like a chicken. He reaches out to open it, and as he does so, the damn thing starts clucking at him. "Are you kidding me right now?" he breathes, feeling a hot wash of embarrassment flow across him as he puts the lid back on. "I'm going to stop touching things."

Chase snickers and waves one hand. "Just messing with you, my guy. It seemed very funny in the moment."

The question about the weirdness of having a butter dish moo in the middle of the night gets a shrug as she walks over to where he's standing. "Depends on how much I've had to drink. Sober, it'd be funny. Intoxicated? I'd probably throw it across the room." When the chicken jar starts clucking, a burst of a snorting laugh comes out of Chase's mouth and she covers her face with both hands.

"Holy shit. You are batting zero this morning, huh?" Lowering her hands, she grins at him. "If you see anything that looks like a personal enjoyment device, for the love of all that is sane, do not touch it." Another round of chuckles follows her recommendation before she waves her hand in the air before her. "Not that I expect to find a personal enjoyment device at Ruby's. But you just never know."

"I'm Chase," she says bemusedly while extending a hand that is, surprisingly, not greasy or dirty.

It'll definitely be funny when Ari looks back on this moment (mooment?) but right now he's feeling a little bit mortified. Thank goodness there aren't a bunch of people around right now. And the one person who is seems chill about it.

"Reverse for me. Sober I find it terrifying, but drunk, I'd probably cackle about it for a solid ten minutes." He glances back over his shoulder at the cow dish as if he's rethinking not getting it, purely for that reason, but then the chicken jar gets him and he officially desires to wash his hands of all things animal-shaped. Then Chase says something that catches his attention, and he asks, "Personal enjoyment device?" only for understanding to dawn no less than a second after the words have left his mouth.

His eyes go wide behind his glasses and one hand comes up to cover his mouth. "Oh my god. No." He wheezes out some breathy laughter as he shakes his head, vigorously. "Right. No. No touching anything at all, just in case."

The introduction gets a swift shake of hands, and then he says, "Ari, nice to meet you." His name's pronounced like the word airy, for reference.

"Yeah, I'm weird that way. I think my shrink calls it an idiosyncrasy. That's just too close to the word 'idiot' for my liking."

Releasing his hand, she gives him a curious look. "Airy? Is it a family name? Not that it's not cool. I mean, I'm not one to talk." She points at herself. "Chastity But Chase sounds so much cooler, right?"

She turns and picks up a ceramic baking dish with a faded floral pattern on the side, looking it over before apparently deciding that it is coming home with her. Holding it in her hand, she glances back at Ari. "So, out this early and hunting around in Ruby's means that you're probably an employee. So, what do you do?" She gestures at herself again. "I'm in maintenance, but I'm pretty sure that was obvious."

"It's short for Arizona." The explanation comes after Chase shares her own name, maybe made easier by that too. Though Ari doesn't look all that bothered to have that information let out into the wild, so to speak. "I'm named after where I was born. Same goes for my brothers and sisters." After a beat, he adds, "Chase does sound pretty cool."

Taking her lead, Ari returns to his casual browsing, though wisely keeps his hands to himself. Arms folded over his chest, even, to avoid even accidentally touching something. But his eyes alight upon a gothic-looking Dutch oven with spiderweb detailing on the lid, and he asks, "Do you think it's going to shriek at me if I open that?" His fingers itch to find out.

When the topic turns to work, he turns too, to look at Chase. "Oh yeah? I do some maintenance work too, mostly filling in when people are out sick, but my main job is doing set design for the amphitheatre on Castle Island. And then helping to put things up and break things down in between performances."

Chase grins. "Arizona. Okay, A. That's pretty cool. If my parents had thought along those lines, I'd probably be Caroline or Carolina. Something like that." Then she holds up a finger. "B. Of these brothers and sisters, would one of them happen to be named Alabama?" His comment about her name being cool gets a nod. "Thanks, I picked it myself."

She glances at the spooky Dutch oven and nods her head eagerly. "God, I hope so. Touch it and let's find out. If it does, and you don't want it, I'm totally getting it."

"Ah, working in the entertainment division. Very nice. I'm sure that's a lot more fun than crawling around an access tunnel under a ride in the hunt for a broken pulley or misaligned cog."

Ari can't help but look pleased to hear that his name, too, is cool. And then Chase mentions Alabama, and his eyebrows shoot up. "Oh, so you know my brother?" he asks. "Bam?"

He smiles at Chase, and it's with her support that he musters up the courage to open the Dutch oven. Sadly, while it is a very nice cooking pot, enameled and everything, it does not make any spooky and-or haunted noises. Still, Ari picks it up. "Oof," he says, just to indicate that it is a heavy thing.

"I haven't needed to do much crawling around access tunnels. Just fixing broken lightbulbs and burned out wires, mostly. Small stuff." He tucks the Dutch oven against his midsection, briefly wishing he'd grabbed a basket or a cart, and then turns to Chase. "Mostly though, yeah, I support the performers however I can. Have you ever seen any of the productions at the amphitheatre? They do some fun stuff."

Chase nods. "He's dating my roommate Avery. Seems like a pretty cool guy."

There is a look of gleeful anticipation on Chase's face as Ari goes for the Dutch over. When the lid comes off with no spooky laugh or witchy cackle, she frowns. "Well, that was anticlimactic." Then she laughs. "Yeah, those things ain't light. I knew a guy who dropped one on his foot and ended up breaking three toes and his instep. He was just lucky it was empty, otherwise he'd had second degree burns to go with the broken bones."

"Really? You should crawl under some of the rides sometimes, you would be shocked at what you'd find." She shakes her head. "On second thought, don't do that. I wouldn't wish that knowledge on an enemy. Much less a pretty cool guy I just met." She shakes her head. "Afraid I haven't. I've been meaning to actually take in some of the shows and such. Since I'm here. Seems like if I'm not working, I'm drinking or reading or baking." A shrug. "I'm not the most exciting person around, Ari. No matter what Avery might say to the contrary."

Ari's whole face lights up at the mention of Avery. "Oh! I know her too! Small world, huh?" But then he pauses, and frowns thoughtfully. "Or, small island, I guess." He shrugs once at that, and then he hugs the Dutch oven a little closer to himself, wary of any potential accidents he might have with it now that Chase has relayed her story.

"Sounds kinda claustrophobic," is all he can say to the idea of crawling around under a ride. His shoulders hike up some, as if the tension has returned to them at the thought. And maybe he gives a little sympathetic shiver, too. "You're braver than me. That's cool, though."

Looking down at his new acquisition, Ari wonders aloud, "I wonder if I can bake bread in this." Possibly inspired by Chase's mention of baking, that. He glances back up and offers her a quick flash of a smile. "I've been learning how to cook. We do a big family dinner on Sunday that I'm in charge of, so I've been trying new recipes. Been trying to learn to bake, too, I met someone who's offered to teach me. So I guess I'm not the most exciting person around either."

Chase nods. "Yeah. Small island. I wasn't sure about Avery, or Flee, when we started rooming together. I mean, we didn't know each other. Now, they are like sisters to me." She shrugs and then smiles. "I don't know if it's really bravery. I mean, I like tight, confined places. I'm just not a fan of the critters that sometimes make them a home." A little shudder rolls through her. "But it comes with the job, right?"

She laughs. "Absolutely. There's a recipe I got from my aunt for baking dark chocolate cranberry walnut bread in a Dutch oven. I'll share it with you if you want." The mention of the big family dinners gets a smile. "Sounds crowded and delightful. I'm usually either eating alone or with the roomies if they're around. My schedule is a bit unusual. I mean, it's not like things break down according to a set schedule."

A head tilt as she examines him. "Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you have to enjoy the chill." Glancing over, she spies and old-fashioned hand mixer and picks it up, testing the crank to make sure it turns the twin blades smoothly. "This is nice." Then she looks his way again. "So, how long have you been on the island? Did all of you come at the same time or was it like one after the other?"

"I room with my brothers so it was kind of a known quantity, moving in here," Ari says, after Chase mentions her roommates have become like sisters to her. "I'm glad things worked out for you, though. I was worried about the housing situation for sure before they agreed to let me crash with them."

He nods along after, and at the offer of a recipe to add to his collection, he grins. Positively beams, he's so excited about the prospect. "Sure, that would be great! I'll promise to share some when I make it, too. Fair's fair and all." The drawing down of his brows is sympathetic when Chase talks about her unusual schedule, and Ari nods again to that.

The choice of hand mixer for Chase's next examination has Ari's head tilting. "Didn't think they'd make things like that any more. Or maybe it's just an antique in really good shape?" He's not sure either way. "Still, beats doing it by hand." At her question, he pauses to think back. "A few months now. I came a couple weeks after the Warner troupe arrived. Left the east coast and flew out one night kind of on a whim," he explains.

Chase laughs. "I love my sisters, my biological ones I mean, but I couldn't live with them. Not now. I think Avery, Flee and I get along because we're not related. But it's nice that you can live with family and not continuously want to pull your hair out. Not saying it's easy, but since available living space for staff isn't scarce, the fact that you're still living with them means it's working fairly well."

"You got it. I'll send it over later. It's on a piece of paper in my kitchen." She grins. "I'd be willing to accept that deal. Just let me know when you actually make it."

"I haven't seen one since I was at my grandma's years ago. She had one in the drawer that I used to play with and pretend I was making cakes. She thought it was hilarious." Setting the mixer down next to the platter, she nods. "A spur of the moment thing, huh? I started on about a year and a half ago. Was looking for work in Lansing and heard about this place. Parks always need people with mechanical experience. So, here I am."

"We grew up in really close quarters so I think we just kinda adjusted to having each other all up in our business," Ari answers, his tone shifting to something philosophical. Then his head cants to the side. "I tried the whole living alone thing in Baltimore after college, but... Uh, it didn't work out real well for me." Leaving that to hang in the air, he turns away to stare at a set of nesting mixing bowls in pastel colors, then passes them by to examine a pair of salt and pepper shakers that look like puppies.

No touching this time, though. Just in case they bark at him somehow.

"Sounds good," he says of the recipe transfer. Then, "Lansing's a city in Michigan, right? I'm terrible at geography. Only driven through it once and it was at night, so all the details were lost on me." Ari shuffles the Dutch oven into one arm so that he can pick up a small Pyrex dish, though it's sans lid so he ends up putting it back down.

"Yeah? I've never lived on my own. I moved up to Michigan to live with my aunt and uncle when I was fourteen and stayed with them even after graduation. Not sure I could handle more than a couple of days without someone around to annoy." Chase grins and shrugs. "I'm thoughtful like that."

She holds her breath when he stares at the shakers. The chances of them barking is small, but on a magical island, they're never zero. When he doesn't reach out, she grins. "Go on. You know you wanna."

"Yeah. East side of the state. It's a big city, but I was fortune enough to live in one of the suburbs. So I got to enjoy small town life with a mega-sized city close enough that I never got bored. I pondered moving back to North Carolina after graduation, but I honestly didn't consider it home anymore. My family is still there, and I visit when I can, but the place itself just doesn't appeal to me."

"Did you actually live in Arizona or was that just where you were born?"

Ari says, "I don't recommend it," of living alone, his nose scrunching up with distaste as he does so. "It was my first go at it and I did not like it. Guess I'm just too used to the chaos of a big family. Everything was too... quiet."

His fingers twitch at his side, free hand slowly lifting towards the doggy salt and pepper shakers. He's oh so careful as he picks one up, giving it a little shake as if he's seasoning an imaginary meal. Nothing happens, and with a semi-disappointed sigh, he sets it down.

Only for the thing to give the ghastliest groaning noise possible. Maybe it was once a barking dog sound, but with age and possibly a run-down battery, it sounds demonic. "Oh my god," Ari wheezes out, not even horrified... he's delighted. "That's amazing. Now that would get me every time I tried to use it!"

There's still a brightness to his eyes as he looks back at Chase, smiling at her mention of home and what isn't home, any more. "I get that. And yeah, for a little while after I was born, but my family moved around a lot. Spent a lot of time on the west coast, then moved along the border eastward, then along the Gulf of Mexico. So I've seen a big chunk of the country, excepting the midwest really." That explanation given, he lobbies it back to Chase with, "How about you? Done much traveling?"

"I think for me it's not the chaos, it's the fact that I can't always stand to be on my own for an extended period of time. I need someone to talk to, or be around, on a regular basis. The danger is not wearing out my welcome, you know?" She laughs. "According to my eldest sister, a little bit of Chase goes a long way."

Then she's watching with rapt attention as he finally gives in and reaches for the dog shakers. When the wheezing groan sounds, rather than an actual bark, she frowns. "Well, that's just creepy as all hell. Yeah, if you buy those, change the batteries asap." Then she shrugs one shoulder. "Or, you know, don't. But then let people find out for themselves that you bought Satan's shakers." She sticks out her tongue between her teeth, smiling.

"A little. I went to Germany about ten years ago. And a visit to Spain a few years after that. Otherwise, the only traveling I've done is between central North Carolina and upper Michigan."

Ari nods with an understanding look on his face, eyebrows drawn downwards. "Yeah. Knowing that there's usually someone at home is a good feeling. It was always weird, opening up the door and not having anyone there to greet me. Part of why I didn't like it, I guess."

As much as the dog shakers do seem to interest him, it is with (some) regret that he put the one he was holding down. "We don't need them," he admits, not sounding too put out about that fact. "Besides, can you imagine that going off at 2am? Now that's even worse than the mooing." He picks up the other one and it doesn't make any sound at all, which is honestly something of a relief.

When the topic changes, he turns around to look at Chase, abandoning his browsing of the shelves for the time being. "That's cool, I've always wanted to go to Europe. The food's supposed to be great over there, right? I've been to Mexico and Canada but that's as far as I've gone outside the States."

"I know, right?" She says in agreement with the prospect of coming home to the presence of another person. "I can deal with a couple of days, but any longer and I find excuses to not go home."

Chase looks at the rejected shakers. "No. I don't need them either. But I think they would be hilarious to give them to someone who's not expecting that horrible sound to come out." Her brows waggle at him. "It would be the ultimate prank, right?" However, she doesn't bother to reach for them either. Instead, she moves down the shelf until she comes to a box of random cooking utensils such as spatulas, spoons, and tongs.

"Yeah, the food was good. And what I managed to see on my abbreviated tours was fascinating. I'd definitely be down for a return trip. Never been to Canada or Mexico. Which is kind of crazy, considering one of them is just a stone's throw away." She picks up a pair of tongs with curved paddles. "Right now, I'm perfectly happy hanging out here. I got a job I like, friends I love, and magic powers. The only reason I was back in NC was to help take care of my mom for a while."

The idea of using them as a prank nearly has Ari doubling back to go get those salt and pepper shakers, but in the end he decides against it. But he does say, "That would be pretty funny," and casts a glance over his shoulder to where they've been left on the shelves. "Well, someone will get enjoyment out of them, I think."

While Chase looks at utensils, Ari turns around and finds himself looking at a shelf of little guys. Just figures of little animals and strange Victorian-esque doll people in poses. Decorative in purpose only. And probably not going to make a noise if he picks any of them up. Hopefully.

"Yeah, I feel that," he says of being happy at Spellbound. "This job is a million times better than the one I had before, and I actually get to be creative sometimes. Big difference. Don't think I'm made for being stuck in an office all day, every day." Ari blows out a breath at that, as if just the thought gives him anxiety.

"Yeah. Those won't stick around long." Chase gives the pair of tiny ceramic dogs another look before dropping the tongs back into the box with the rest of the utensils.

She nods. "I mean, some days the work is frustrating as hell. But the friends I've made and the satisfaction of fixing something that's broken is more than enough to offset that. Chances are I'll be here until they make me leave." She laughs. "Which might seem sad, but I stand by it."

Then, out of nowhere, her mouth opens into a gigantic yawn that seems to roll through her entire body. When it passes, she looks at Ari mortified. "God, I'm sorry. I promise that it's not you. I'm not bored, just exhausted." Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out her phone and hands it to him. "Drop your number in there and I'll send you that bread recipe when I get home. Or after I've crashed for eight hours. Either way, you'll get it today."

Ari can only shake his head, not disagreeing at all, but in mute wonder at the similarities. "I feel the same way," he says eventually, once he's found his words. "About here. As long as they'll have me, I'll stay."

He accepts the phone when it's handed over and puts in his number, along with his full name: Arizona Warner. Then he passes it back and adjusts his grip on the Dutch oven, which is getting progressively heavier the longer he holds onto it. "Thanks, I really appreciate it. I'll let you know when I plan on making it, too, so you can be prepared for bread delivery."

Then he smiles. "Hope you can get some rest, no rush on the recipe. I'm gonna take this downstairs to pay for it and head home, I think. It was really nice to meet you, though!"