Wheels of Fate (Erika/Alicia) [Career]

Smiling, Alicia looked over to see the girl that was coming in with a scooter. Given that she seemed to be alone it was likely that the poor girl’s ride just broke down a few minutes ago at best. Well, how fortunate that it broke down where it did! The redhead hummed to herself, though she quirked an eyebrow upon hearing the same request twice in two different languages.

“Heh, Both Japanese and English work with me. Don’t worry about not being understood. Come on, let’s get that poor thing in and fixed right up.” Alicia chirped back in Japanese and smiled. Leading the young woman in, she took the scooter off her hands and knelt down to begin her opening inspection. And at a glance? The thing seemed pretty well used…

“Hand-me-down from a family member?” She asked as a conversation starter, pulling her toolkit closer as she started to open up the busted machine to figure out where the problems were. Hopefully this wouldn’t take too long, the girl probably had somewhere to go.

”… Kid? … She’s the source of that strange phenomenon. Something’s up with that girl and it seems like a very serious matter.” Sol suddenly spoke up, catching Alicia off guard. What the heck was he talking about!?

“Her? But she seems pretty normal at first glance.” Alicia whispered back.

”Now that she’s so close, I can sense it too. It’s definitely her. I have just as little idea of what’s going on myself though.” Kisara confirmed, and Alicia could feel the ice maiden frowning as she tried to puzzle it out.

“Hmm...” Alicia mused smiling. “Well, it’s still got some time left in it. It just needs a few parts replaced real quick and that would be enough to get it running again. And I make it a personal policy to keep at least a few fresh spare parts on hand for as many situations as I possibly can.” Thankfully it wasn’t anything that would require her to start really disassembling things. That tended to make customers grow concerned at least if they were watching her.

Then she got to thinking as she looked deeper. “I could give it a more thorough tune up if you want though. Older machinery like this probably has other issues waiting to crop up and cause a problem later down the line. It wouldn’t take me much effort and I could possibly nip a few more problems in the bud before they really ruin your day. You think on that for a bit while I go fetch the replacements.” And with that she got up and left Erika to herself for a bit, humming.

“Parents are at a meeting? Both of them?” she asked herself while she was out of Erika’s earshot. “Poor girl must be so lonely then.” Sighing, she picked the parts she needed and returned to the customer and smiled.

“So… What do you parents do that has them tied up in this meeting?” She asked as she handled the mandatory work to get the scooter up and running again.

Glancing over at the younger woman, she sighed softly to herself. “Poor girl...” she mused under her breath before delving deeper to tune the machine up completely. To her expectations, there were a small host of other troubles that she could knock out right away. Other parts that were wearing out, some cleaning of injectors and such that would help the scooter run run smoother. She handled them as swiftly as any professional of her caliber could, simple as that.

Listening to what Erika was able to divulge though… that wasn’t nearly as simple. What kind of family didn’t spend time with their daughter somehow, even if it was hard? It tugged on her heart in a way little else could. Family was everything for her, and to see someone else be ignored like this for the most part, even unintentionally… Closing the tuned-up machine up, she smiled and rolled it over to Erika for the young girl to take.

“There we go, all said and done. It’ll probably run a whole lot better then it was before. Who knows, maybe I even managed to put a few more years back into it.” Chuckling, she smiled and hummed to herself. “And yeah, debit card works fine.” Fortunately, the register was in plain sight so she wouldn’t have to leave her sight with the card once Erika fished it out.

Humming, she took a look over at Erika as she suddenly jumped to explain further. So it wasn’t quite as bad as she thought it was but still… That had to at least a bit of unnecessary tension. Well, if she could handle it, did she have a right to do more then wish for better times to come for her? Well… there was something she could do that nobody would really question.

As long as the business got the money it needed, services were rendered, and everything stayed legal, did it really matter if it didn’t exactly come out of the customer’s pocket? With that in mind, once she’d obviously allowed the girl to test her scooter out, the mechanic was at the computer and ringing up what she did. But she was a quick hand, cutting the costs down significantly as she worked. This made it take up a bit more time then it should’ve but she doubted Erika would notice the delay too much.

“Alright, just give that card a swipe, please.” Alicia chirped, smiling. Once that was done, she finished ringing everything up, handing the girl her receipt and a business card for the shop. “Hope you think of us the next time you need your scooter fixed.”

If Erika noticed how disproportionately cheap her bill was, only about ten percent of what it should be… well Alicia didn’t really care. She knew what it was like being young and probably strapped for cash, given the economy, so she had an excuse in mind already to wave that off. She was doing this for this poor girl whether she appreciated it or not, darn it!

Giggling softly, Alicia smiled as the girl seemed to be double checking for part prices. Ha, smart girl, this one. She couldn’t think of many young people who would have the forethought to check if they were being scammed. Made her feel all the better for taking the extra step for the girl. Since she was this sharp, Alicia started counting the seconds to when she realized she was being given the deal of a lifetime on repair work.

It took all of three seconds, she noted before the young girl reacted in understandable surprise. The follow up of pulling her wallet out and basically emptying it though, insisting the Steel Spirit User take it to make up for the disparity in what was owed and what was actually asked for.

“Are… Are you sure you want to do this?” Alicia asked in concern. As she expected, the young girl before her was indeed quite strapped for cash. She would’ve put Erika in debt if she hadn’t discounted the price so heavily… Honor was one thing, but this was putting that honor before sensible reasoning. With a sigh, she decided on her course of action, nudging the offered money back.

“If you are really going to insist regardless of what I say, I’ll take it. But at least make sure you’re absolutely certain you want to, okay? I know what it’s like to be young and having trouble making ends meet.” There. She gave the girl the opportunity to take back what she didn’t have to give. That’s all she could really do because in the end the customer was right and if she wanted to do this then that was how things would go down. Alicia wouldn’t question her anymore after that.

Alicia took a moment to blink as Erika cleared up some misconceptions. Then she blinked again more out of stunned silence then anything else. Seriously? The girl was fairly wealthy all things considered? How did she get that wrong of a bead on the girl? Not that it changed her opinion on what she was going to do. Plus everything was all rung up as is and it’s be too weird to cancel out and re-ring it up now.

“Well… that certainly caught me off guard… Usually when both parents are busy its because they both need to work to make the money that was needed...” Alicia quipped and shook her head. “I’ve already got everything set up for the discount, so we’ll still go with that. It’ll look a little too odd if I canceled it now.” she finished with a smile. And with that the mini debate was settled, at which point the mechanic pulled a business card and slid it over to Erika.

“Hope you think of this place again whenever you need a tune up or repairs.” she quipped cheerfully. That was pretty clearly more an advertisement then anything to do with the aforementioned insistence on the discount ring up. “In all seriousness, though? You take care. That scooter should’ve technically been well on its way to the junkyard with the trouble it’d been having.”

With that said and done, the exchange was completed and Alicia waved good bye to Erika. Everything was in order and the Steel Spirit Wielder sighed once she was alone once more.

“Wonder if we’ll see her again...” Alicia mused to herself, shaking her head. Time to move on with her work day regardless.

((OOC: Calling this career thread done at last. @_@ Sorry this took so long))