[Manehattan] More Than Filling Time [Open]

[WillfulWanderer]

"Well, time to get on this...." The small pony mused to herself, setting out from the hotel. Her mass of green mane and tail seemed almost to outdo her for size, completely obscuring one side of her face, even, as she looked up, then down the street. For all that she'd been raised in Canterlot, Amethyst Pine was a fairly frugal pony, and didn't look forwards to staying in the hotel all too long. If nothing else, she'd get tempted to abuse the existence of Room Service, and being a stocky pony was plenty- she didn't need to be a downright chubby pony.

Amethyst reached her head around, straightening out her saddlebags a little bit by muzzle. Had her parents observed, they'd have frowned upon it- fortunately, while the indigo pony's ways were a bit eccentric by Canterlot standards, they weren't likely to garner many stares around here- especially with the way she was barely taller than a schoolfilly.

However it was, the not-quite-a-mare was heading out, her usual boots on her rear hooves as she went in search of something she had expected to have settled ages ago in a far more permanent fashion...

...a job.

Surely such a thing would be easy to find in a commerceful city like Manehattan. The real question was, could she find something that at least appealed (and preferably would grant her, at long last, her cutie mark) which she could get hired for? She had experience in a variety of things, but just how useful those bits and pieces of experience would prove, she wasn't sure. At least, despite the job history on her resume being blank, she had attained a high grade in Magic School. She was no PCSGU graduate, but then, those ponies were special for their magic- and usually had more bits than they knew what to do with.

She, on the other hand, had a steadily dwindling supply. She knew her parents would send her more if she needed them, but to her that felt too much like leeching.

Hence her current quest. Hopefully this would turn out fruitful. If her bits ran too thin- and they would quickly if she had to keep staying in a hotel- she might have to head to somewhere more smalltown than the Large Apple, and she didn't want to leave town without being sure she had no good opportunities here.

The broad-hooved filly stopped at a corner, glancing up at the signs on the lamppost before carefully levitating out a map and unfolding it in front of her. "Let's see.... I'm on Courser Street and Haulton...."

[Kilojoules]

Pumpkin Bright was just exiting his bakery, locking the door for good measure when he noticed what he thought was a unicorn mare on the slightly shorter side checking a map. Being a introvert, his normal reaction would be to ignore her and continue on about his business, but his recent need to branch out emotionally and make friends told him otherwise.

He was still wearing and apron and bakers hat, covered in flour which he had not bothered taking off nor cleaning before he left, and his hair was matted down slightly by sweat, the heat in his kitchen rather high from the almost constantly running oven, yet it still managed to spike upwards in places. The said upward spikes were most likely from his hair getting messed up whilst cooking, and were also damp.

He approached the shorter mare with a timid smile, and noticed that she had no cutie mark! By Celestia! That's a filly! What's she doing here by herself? he asked himself mentally, caught off guard by his wrong assumption. He continued walking over to her, his hooves and legs trembling slightly. He stopped a small distance (likely around 2 feet) away from her, chewing on his lower lip.

"H-Hello, are you, um, lost?" he asked her, his wings glued down to his sides.

(( I hope you don't mind that I sort of just jumped in like that, and this is my first attempt at Forum-Style roleplay. ))

[WillfulWanderer]

"Ah?" The visible gray eye on the filly blinked, and she was forced to twist her neck around in a rather extreme fashion at first to get a look at him- the strange pegasus had approached her from her 'hairward' side, as it were. She blinked (or so he could presume, not being able to see the indigo pony's right eye) and then turned her whole self to face him, leaving the map to float just behind her.

The way she turned was a bit odd- her hooves beat out a quiet drumroll on the cobbles as she didn't so much spin as dance in place to change facing. "Er... hi. No, I'm not lost, really." Even with that little speech, her Canterlot accent became evident. She didn't bear the thickly-posh tones of the nobility (or those upwardly-mobile middle-classers with aspiration, like her parents) but it was clear in the roundness of her vowels.

Amethyst turned her head to the left to glance at her map a moment, then looked back to the stallion with a faint gleam of amusement in her gray eye. "Not in the lit'ral sense, anyways. I'm fairly sure I can't be lost if I'm not sure where I'm going, yes?" This not-a-question was accompanied with a slightly nervous smile that briefly showed a flash of grinning teeth. "I do know my way back to the hotel, though. So I probably should have just said 'no' and been done with it. Er."

The silence she slipped into was distinctly awkwards.

((Not at all! There's a reason I marked this 'Open'.))

[Kilojoules]

The orange stallion turned her words over in his head, thinking for a bit, "Er, I suppose not, I guess." The Awkwardness in the air was quite palpable, making him dawdle about. His hair drooped down a bit in front of his eyes as he thought yet again. Trying to think of a better response than his previous, he decided to bring up her travelling.

"Your accent is from Canterlot...."

Oh, brilliant one, genius! He thought to himself, almost slapping himself in the face with his hoof. He tripped over his words for a minute, wishing he were simply filling out an order for a customer; That was always so much easier, and usually less awkward.

(( Oh, of course. I'm an awkward muffin in real life too, forgive me. ))

[WillfulWanderer]

The stout pony blinked a few times at that. "Well... I'd hope so, the rest of me is from Canterlot. Usually you mispace your bags when you travel, not your voice." She laughed a little, slightly nervous and not really finding her joke funny, but feeling a bit obliged to anyhow.

She went silent again after a moment, and scuffed her hoof on the cobble shortly after.

"Well. Ah. I'm not lost, no, but... perhaps you could help me. I.... suppose you're a local?" The visible, gray eye scanned up and down, pointedly looking longer at the pegasus pony's apron and hat- obviously just used. "I need to find a job... or an apprenticeship... or something. Something to learn to do, so I can find out if I can do that for a living." A bit uncertainly, she looked over her shoulder to the map, then her horn glowed a faint indigo- matching her coat and contrasting well with the immense mass of forest-green mane that covered one side of her face in a shaggy fall of darkness.

"You, ah... wouldn't happen to know of anyone looking to hire, or where I'd best be looking, would you?"

[Kilojoules]

He genuinely chuckled at the filly's travelling joke, a bit of the awkwardness disappearing from the air. Pumpkin's smile grew a bit as well, feeling more comfortable with the situation, having need of a little help around the bakery and such. "Well, I'm sort-of local. I've been here for a few months, came from Cloudsdale after I got some money from my parents."

He smiled a bit, thinking back to his parents and his journey here.

"If it's okay with your parents or whatever, I can give you baking lessons and a place to stay in exchange for some help around the bakery." He offered out, hoping it was satisfactory, and not too creepy-sounding. He straightened out his apron, some flour puffing from it as he held out a hoof, obviously less bothered by the entire conversation. "Sorry for not introducing myself earlier; I'm Pumpkin Bright." He offered out a hoof (which was covered in flour, of course..) to the filly, a kind smile on his face.

[WillfulWanderer]

"Don't we all wish it were simple as it sounds..." The filly had muttered after the explanation the pumpkin-orange stallion gave- probably not loud enough for him to hear, certainly not enough for him to hear clearly. Clearly there was something there- but what was anypony's guess.

Indigo ears perked forwards at the mention of a possible job. She briefly tilted her head (to her left, disappointing any curiosity there may be about what was different on the right side of her face, that her mane covered). "...well. I'm able to speak for my own time, Mister Bright. That's quite a kind offer, and I do think I'll take it. I've cooked a bit before, but no out-and-out bakiing."

With a pleased smile, the stocky filly raised a hoof to place in (on?) Pumpkin's, leaving it in the winged pony's grasp (sort of). "My name's Amethyst Pine, sir. Shorten it how you like, I'll not be offended."

[Kilojoules]

Pumpkin smiled widely, shaking her hand a bit furiously. With a few simple moves he spun around and unlocked his bakery again, stepping back in. "Well, Amethyst will do just fine. And please, call me Pumpkin." He walked in, expecting Amethyst Pine to follow close behind. The seating portion of the bakery wasn't anything grand, but big enough to encompass a sizable number of ponies, a brief gap in the counter led to a backroom which was most likely the kitchen. Inside the hollow counters laid all sorts of tasty treats, from Caramel Apples to cakes. Though, the largest amount of food-type were muffins.

"This is obviously where I give customers their food and what-not, and most likely where I'll have you be some of the time, if you don't mind, of course. The slender stallion held one hoof off to the side, as if ushering Amethyst to the back room to continue the tour. "Back here is the Kitchen, and those stairs just back there lead to the apartment."

[WillfulWanderer]

"Pumpkin it is, then." Amethyst confirmed, pausing to fold the map carefully and snag it from her own magical field, depositing it into her left saddlebag while he went about opening up his bakery- which was apparently the building right behind her. It was an odd spot of luck to her thinking, but the short pony figured she was due a little luck now and then, so she didn't think much of it.

Once the door was opened, she followed the pegasus into the bakery. The unicorn considered the dining area as they passed through it towards the counter and the door into the kitchen. It was spacious, and not nearly as ostentatious as anything that one could find in Canterlot- excepting possibly Donut Joe's, which had always had a much plainer (if very pleasingly colored and arranged) nature than virtually everything else in the capital city.

This was probably why she stopped to stare at the display counter- having expected a large array of pastries and donuts with the occasional apple fritter or muffin, the inversion of the muffin-centric display caught Amethyst off-guard. It wasn't until Pumpkin spoke that she stopped staring at the confections, blinking a couple of times (at least she could be assumed to, with her mane covering half her face) as she regained her focus.

"Ah- oh. No, no I don't mind working counter. It's nice, I think, to do some of that work. Helps keep in mind the ponies on the other end of it." She replied as she headed through the door into the kitchen. Though her other eye remained invisible behind its sheet of darkest green mane, the visible one cast about on the way into the back room, curious what such a kitchen would look like- and how it was arranged. Even if she somehow got herself fired, she'd be working here at least a little while, and knowing your way around the workplace was just good horse sense.

[Kilojoules]

With a smile on his face, he pushed on into the kitchen, flicking his head to the side for a moment to get the hair out of his eyes. The kitchen was quite normal, having a dining table off to the side and a normal oven and fridge, though there was a secondary oven mounted into the wall for pies and such, meaning the smaller one was probably for personal use.

The walls of the kitchen were a mint-green, with the ceiling a soft eggshell white. The ovens and fridge were a matching cherry red, obviously being from a set. The table was of a light wood, while the cabinets and cupboards were a darker wood, probably a burgandy of some sort. There was a small picture of him and his family in cloudsdale, their estate in the background.

He stopped for a moment as he reached the side of the staircase, turning to Amethyst with thought. "Any questions, Amethyst?" He asked, leaning against the railing. The wood of the railing was the same dark wood used on the cabinets and such, small cracks occasionally being found as it rose.

[WillfulWanderer]

"....no, I don't think so." The darkly-colored pony replied, turning her head to glance about the kitchen. It looked surprisingly cozy for a bakery, but then, Pumpkin's shop was clearly not a place intended for high volume. She'd been expecting something more spacious, with more racks and sets of pans involved. Of course, this implied-

"Would I be your first employee?" The question wasn't asked with alarm or eagerness- rather tossed out as a matter of curiosity. Working with only 'the boss' would make things interesting, Amethyst thought, and would quickly either turn out well or for the worse, depending. On the other hand, that meant only having one person to listen to in order to learn the job- always a boon to have no chance of conflicting instructions.

[Kilojoules]

Pumpkin smiled lightly, a vague smile that really didn't draw much attention "Yes, yes you are my first employee. I honestly didn't plan to hire any at all, not thinking that I'd ever really need any help." He ceased his leaning and pointed up with his hoof, "There's one bedroom and a living room with a couch upstairs, I'll just clean up the room a bit so's you can use it." he said rather calmly. Assuming that was all for questions, he proceeded up the stairs, expecting her to follow.

Reaching the top of the stairs the living comes into view, being slightly smaller than the kitchen, with only two doors leading to the bathroom and bedroom. More pictures of family and friends--mostly family--lined the gold ochre walls. Stepping off from the hardwood stairs one would be greeted by beige ultra-plush carpet. The furniture in the room consisted of the couch which was set up against the wall with a simple rug in front of it, while a simple bookshelf filled with various recipe books and what seemed to be drama and romance novels, and a simplistic-styled cream coloured chair, emphasizing on the rooms simplicity.

"Bathroom is through that door over there," he pointed at the closer door, "and where you'll be staying is through that one." Instead of pointing to the other one, he simply nodded at it. "You wouldn't mind if I went and picked up a bit before I showcased it, would you?" he asked, intending for it to be a slight joke, though he was indeed serious.

[Indie]

Indie Tune gingerly opened the door, stepping into the bakery. He wasn't sure they were open, and he wasn't aware of their hours, as he had only been a few times. Seeing nopony, he started to leave, but heard voices from above and called out with an unsure, "Hello?" Hopefully it was loud enough for the baker to hear.

[Kilojoules]

Hearing a voice from below, Pumpkin put up his hoof, listening one more time. "I think I heard someone, I'll be right back..." he said to Amethyst, nodding once more in assurance. "Just a moment." he repeated, leaving the filly to her own devices. He walks with a hasty cool, moving down the stairs and out of sight.

Pumpkin Bright moved with a slight haste out the kitchen door into the actual bakery, smiling warmly at the pony he only glanced at for a moment. "Hi, I'm Pumpkin, what can I get ya?" he said kindly, moving over to the cash register. After grapping a pencil with his teeth, and a notepad on the counter, he brought his eyes up to meet the pony. He took note of the pony's person and smiled once again, nodding for them to proceed.

[Indie]

Seeing somepony in the shop put Indie at ease. He hoped he hadn't bothered the baker pony, but then, the shop door was open.

Glancing about the display of treats and otherwise appetizing creations, a craving sprung from the depths of his memory.

He trotted closer to the counter. "Do you have anything peach flavored?" he asked. a curiosity and want glimpsed in his eyes,

"Oh, or maybe grapefruit? I know it's an odd request, but i have odd tastes." He gave a chuckle, realizing how strange he

must sound, asking for a grapefruit muffin. Who's ever heard of a grapefruit muffin, he thought.

[Kilojoules]

Pumpkin pursed his lips at the customer's strange request, not really sure what to say. "Well, I don't have anything made like that right now, but if you'd like I can see what I can whip up. It'll take a bit, though." he said, hoping it was satisfactory. "Oh, and before you ask, no, it's no trouble. It'll be interesting, making a peach-grapefuit pastry. Is there any specific kind of baked good you'd like?" he asked the red-haired pony, pushing his own hair from his eyes.

[Indie]

Indie brought a hoof to his chin, pondering what he might try for his lunch. "How about a tart?" he asked the baker, " and, how long might that take to cook?" Not that he had anywhere to be. he was just curious.

He reached for his coin purse he had tied around his neck. "oh, and how much do i owe you?" he started to feel like a bother, asking so many questions.

[Kilojoules]

"A tart it is!" he announced happily, pencil still in mouth. He scribbled that down and went back into the kitchen. A few moments later he returned with some newspapers. "It should only take maybe fourty-five minutes or so. Not long." he said muffeledly, dropping them on the counter. "Dunno if you've got somewhere to be, but feel free to read through these while you wait." He went back into the kitchen, obviously going to prepare the tarts.

He had taken a few steps into the kitchen before spinning back around. "How many did you want?"

[Indie]

"Alright," He chuckled, as the stallion trotted to the back of the store.

Indie took a closer look at the pile of papers now strewn about the counter. He had never been one to read these things, but he'd give it a try. "thanks," he said behind the newspaper, looking for something interesting besides the comics. "Oh, um, just one i guess. Jones doesn't like cooked things." He joked to himself and trotted to one of the nearby seats and relaxed, losing himself in thought. he started to hum a tune look about the store. He never was any good at small talk, so he kept his mouth shut until someone spoke to him.

[FermataTheBasse]

((http://www.canterlot.com/topic/11268-wordplay-final/))

If there were any pony in the world who could be said to have mastered the art of trotting into a store like he or she owned it, the filly magicking the doors open was certainly a contender for the position. She trotted in, an easy strut that was in it's own painfully childish way sultry. Her sunglasses were levitated from their shielding position over her eyes to rest easily instead upon the crown of her mane. Her smile was slight, cocky, and her fang-like tooth glinted in the light streaming in from outside. Her eyes swept over the room once and gathered everything she needed to know with that simple movement.

Wordplay had heard of this bakery from a friend of a friend that the muffins at this place were supposed to be worth the money. Wordplay had a couple of extra bits lying around from a gig she had performed down in some club with an overly pretentious name, so she figured she had the time to act on the recommendation. She wasn't even two steps in before she said, loud and proud as if she wanted everyone in the store to listen to her:

"Yo? Ya'll got a customer!"

[Kilojoules]

Pumpkin nodded to this Stallion, going about his baker-y business. He walked back into the kitchen for a bit, preparing the batch of tarts. Even though the customer had said only one, he decided to bake up an entire batch, incase anyone else wanted to try this odd combination. He hummed happily as he worked, often going back and forth from counter to kitchen, always checking and rechecking things. He stopped when he had heard the door open, and somepony trot in.

"Yo? Ya'll got a customer!"

This rather rudely loud voice startled him, sending some flour he was working with into the air about him. "Y-Yes, one minute!" he shouted back in his slight startle. He quickly shook his body about, trying to get the flour off of him. He went back out to the counter, taking in this new sight. The dirty grey mare--or was it filly?--obviously seemed to be some sort of musician or singer. He payed no attention to the small details, and instead pulled over the pad and pencil. "Hi! Welcome to the Manehatten Corner Bakery, my name is Pumpkin Bright, what can I get ya?" he asked with pencil in mouth rather enthusiastically.

[Indie]

Indie had seen the mare coming, and noticed when she started into the bakery, otherwise he would've jumped at her abrupt appearance. He grimaced when she shouted her question. He had never enjoyed ponies who could so easily break a pleasant silence, such as the one she had just shattered. He felt himself already growing annoyed of this pony. He shifted in his seat, positioning himself further towards the window.

[FermataTheBasse]

Wordplay nodded when she was acknowledged. "You have muffins here, right? I heard talk that they were good, any recommendations?" Wordplay kept her tone easy, her stance relaxed. In the corner of her eye, she noted that there was a stallion slowly edging away from her in one corner of the store. Now that simply wouldn't do. She'd have to go annoy him after she got her order filled out. Either she made a friend or she made an enemy, and she was perfectly fine with either.

[Kilojoules]

With a slightly confused expression, Pumpkin blinked a few times. "Somepony recommended my shop to you?" he asked more of himself than the pony in front of him. After processing the question, Pumpkin acknowledged it a bit awkwardly with, "Well, my Pumpkin-Cinnamon muffins were a real hit back in Cloudsdale, and the ponies around here like'em too, so I suppose that'd be something to try?" He gave a labored smile and waited for her response.

A suddden Ding! from the back startled him, sending him racing back into the kitchen. "I'll be a moment! I have to go grab that batch!" he shouted simultaneously with his movements. Moments later he walked back out with a tray in his mouth, thick cloth protecting his teeth from the hot metal. He placed the tray on a sweets rack, the tray spinning slowly as it sat upon it. He carefully scooped one tart into a small brown paper bag with the bakery's logo upon it. Picking the bag up, he trotted cheerily over to the seated Indie Tune and placed the bag gently in front of him. "That'll be six bits. Sorry if it's a bit much.." he said admittedly.

[FermataTheBasse]

[colour=#40e0d0]"Yuuup..." [/colour][colour=#000000]Wordplay cocked her head a bit as she considered Pumpkin. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"What, do you think ponies would recommend you if you weren't a good cook? I'll take two Pumpkin-Cinnamon muffins, if you will." [/colour][colour=#000000]Wordplay watched with an amused smile as he scrambled around. Poor guy wasn't even confident enough to be able to charge his customers fairly. [/colour]