Like Clockwork (Open To All)

[thepatriot]

Quillson watched as the filly ran through various thoughts in her head. It was apparent the wheels were spinning upstairs, so Quill figured it would be best to let her sort it out. When she responded, Quill grinned a bit at the Unicorn's courage and willingness to confront the situation herself.

He turned and followed as she walked past him, stopping a moment to quietly close the door to Aestella's closet bedroom before he left. She remained silent the entire walk back, focused probably on the task at hand. Which of course was fine with Quill, he understood that she needed to work through the problem in her own way.

Once they returned Quillson was surprised to find the mysterious zebra arrival, well, gone. Had he imagined him? Was it some sort of magical illusion? He looked around the room, unsure if Diamond or Nimble was capable of doing something like that. No, he figured. They'd been just as surprised as the him. While Aestella addressed the remaining Unicorns (Holy cannoli there were a lot of Unicorn's around this town.) Quillson stood slightly off Aestella's right side, trying to keep out of the picture and let the pony talk.

[watcher]

Nimble was about to speak, when he hears hoofsteps coming from the direction Aestella and Quillson had gone. He turns around as Aestella walks out of the hallway. After hearing her try to apologize, he just shook his head. "Please, Aestella, there is no need to apologize, I know that you don't like company, and if you really want to be less crowded, I would willingly leave, I just wanted to stop by this new store, I didn't know it was your's."

[diamondpoint]

Diamond turned at the sound of hoofsteps as well to see Aestella reenter the room. She was able to see she calmed down enough to come back and she listened quietly while the shyer Unicorn spoke. She then nodded in agreement with Nimble.

"You were hardly despicable, Aestella. You just freaked out a little bit, and that's completely understandable. I mean, that even weirded me out a little, and that doesn't happen often!" she said kindly, giving a small chuckle, and hoped it worked to help Aestella relax a bit more.

"Oh, and sorry for touching your shelf. The room just looked so bare, they were practically begging to have something placed on them."

[zasknu]

"Oh no, Nimble... it's not that." Aestella spoke with a frown, "Good job, Aestella, now he thinks you don't like ponies..." She shook her head and said, "It's just... I startle easily... I enjoy company I really do... I just ... get scared. If you need anything, feel free to ask. I can ... try... to help you." Aestella nodded mostly to herself, proud that she got that out of the way and relieved that she hadn't outright fainted in front of everypony. Turning to Diamond Point, at least, that's who she thought the stranger had identified herself as, she asked; "Are you sure? But I just... left... it was impolite... wasn't it?" She looked at Diamond with a sad frown, an expression that then shifted into one of puzzlement and confusion. What was it that she had just said? "The room looks... bare?" Looking around the room she tried to see what the unicorn before her meant.

With the exception of a puddle at the door (Which she planned on attending to as soon as she could), the ponies standing around the room, and her designs spread out over the table, the room was completely empty and clean. She could see why her guest thought the room was bare, because it was, but why did she make it sound like a bad thing? Why did she say that the shelves wanted something put on them? She turned back to the sky blue unicorn intent on finding out what she was talking about.

"What do you mean by the shelves wanting something put on them? Did I do something wrong when I put them up?" She tilted her head, genuinely confused as to what could have gone wrong. Glancing back at each of the shelves, she began to panic again. "Is the r-room upsetting you? I c-could do something to fix it, I suppose... Oh I'm sorry... I'm not used to having so much free space... What should I do with the shelves?" Surely this pony would know how to solve the problem, and hopefully give the room some semblance of normalcy. Aestella couldn't imagine leaving the room like this if it was really that bad.

[thepatriot]

Quillson watched from the corner of the room as Aestella addressed her guests. She seemed to be doing fine enough as it was, where Nimble and Diamond were perfectly fine with her actions. He knew they'd understand. (Or at least his hope was gratified) As the three spoke, he walked his way back towards the front of the room near the door. He glanced out a window catching site of the two zebra/pony hybrids making their way into the street.

Quill thought for a moment about going out towards Kuruka... he didn't know why. Something about the other one put him off, but he just wansn't sure why. And besides, maybe the two knew each other. And Quill certainly didn't want to interrupt their conversation.

He'd been listening to the ponies' conversation behind him the whole while he looked at the window, and just had to turn around at Diamond's remark about the barren room. He was startled at first, not sure just how Aestella would take the "news". But by the time she replied, she seemed... well, off put to say the least. But almost entirely compliant and... willing to fix it? Quill hadn't thought that the room was in need of "fixing", just that it was unusual. Unexpected.

Once again figuring it best not to interfere in the others' conversation, he returned to gazing out the window. He watched as the two Zebra Ponies disappeared beyond the falling clouds of snow, wondering just where they might be going. After a few more moments of thought, he turned back to the group. Silent as ever.

[watcher]

Nimble chuckles a bit at Aestella's awkwardness. Well, if this is a store, and you want to fill the shelves, try putting merchandise up there, like I do with my books over at my shop. It will make the place look more lived in, and possibly attract more customers."

[diamondpoint]

Diamond waved a hoof at Aestella, "It's hardly upsetting me, but it is a little confusing. And Nimble Mind is absolutely correct." she trotted over to one of the shelves, turning her back and gesturing to it, "You got to put some of your stock up on these things. Works in progress. Crowd favorites. Specialty items that are on sale. A picture of your pet goldfish from when you were a filly. Anything!"

She made her way back to the table and glanced over some of the papers spread out, "You can even put some these funny drawings up. I'm sure some pony somewhere would be interested in them. But you'll never know that they like them and they'll never know that you have it if you don't put up examples!"

Diamond moved away once more to stand in the middle of the room now, "If you're having trouble, I'll even offer to help you out! Just let me into your back room for five minutes, and I'm sure I'll find something that will have the ponies just climbing over each other to get inside this ...uh..."
She paused and tapped a hoof on her chin.

"Uh... what kind of shop is this anyway?"

[zasknu]

"It's a... umm... well..." Aestella began once Nimble and Diamond had finished. "I make watches... and clocks... and ... machines. So... that kind of store? And I don't exactly have... any... merchandise at the moment." She shrank back from the others, poking at the floor with a hoof in embarrassment. She knew she could hang up her designs, but she would prefer to have them on hand for reference, even though she knew how to make her simpler designs by heart. Though, she could always draw up copies of the designs, so Aestella guessed that the problem was solved.

"You'd h-help me? Are you sure? T-thanks, I suppose... My workshop is at the end of the room through that door." She gestures to the door that leads further into the house. "Just don't ... break anything... or rearrange anything... or ... well... please don't move what you don't need to." She turned and stumbled over to the table, trying to focus on how to make the room more appealing before she had a chance to regret letting Diamond have free range over her house. Moving with short, sporadic movements born from fear and nervousness, Aestella began to float some of her simpler clock designs over to the walls, using her magic to keep them pinned to the walls while she slowly tugged them into more even positions.

"D-does this look alright? Quillson? Nimble Mind?" She asked hesitantly, continuing to tug on the corners of each drawing as she did with the stubborn table cloth in an attempt to make each drawing perfectly arranged on the walls. However, try as she might she couldn't get over the pure terror of all the attention she had drawn on herself, and her twitchy movements never managed to get the drawings centered and evenly spaced.

[thepatriot]

Quillson watched as the others consoled Aestella over the new changed her storefornt would soon be going through. It was awfully nice of them all to help after all. He certainly agreed that the shop around him was a little... well, too empty to look much like a shop. Some sprucing up would do it some good.

Diamond's request to take a step into the back rooms of Aestella's caused Quill to raise an eyebrow. This pony seemed awfully forward and curious... adjectives Aestella probably wouldn't have wanted nosing around her supplies. At least, un-checked. wanting to help, Quillson stepped forward.

"I think it looks all right Aestella. Just right. And I agree with the other two! Maybe putting your works out here isn't such a bad idea." He stepped up beside Diamond, glancing quickly at her. "And if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to help Diamond Point here look through your works. I'm very curious myself, and the more the merrier!" He flashed a smile between the two fillies, hoping they wouldn't mind his involvement.

[watcher]

Nimble smiles broadly, nodding his head as Aestella places her designs onto the shelves. "Perfect, perfect, you will be drawing in customers soon enough!"

[diamondpoint]

A wide grin spread across the mare's snout as Aestella agreed to let her into the backroom. "Fantastic!" Diamond giggled and payed no mind as blue prints started flying about the room. She shot a glance at Quillson as he offered to go with her, "Alright! You can help me carry stuff!" she smiled at him and trotted off in the direction Aestella had pointed.

Once in the workshop, Diamond wasted no time in disregarding Aestella's warnings about touching stuff as she sat herself in front of a box and started digging through it.

"No. No. No. No. Junk. No. No. ...What is this even supposed to be? No. no." she listed off, tossing the rejected items over her shoulder to free her hoof to grab the next item.

[zasknu]

With a drawn out, tired sigh, Aestella set down her designs on the table again and stared at the walls, trying not to hear the racket that Diamond was making in her workshop. Yes, it sounds awful and she wanted to run in there and kick Diamond out of her house. Sure, she would probably have to spend hours cleaning up after Diamond. Of course, the thought of what kind of carnage the strange unicorn was causing was going to drive her mad. But she wasn't about to react, at least on purpose. it would never do to have the others think she was short tempered or crazy in any way.

"Of c-course, Quillson. Go ahead and help out D-diamond..." She replied to the earth pony's question with a quiet sigh. Hopefully he could handle the madmare in her workshop. With that settled, she looked around the room again, trying to imagine having various clocks around the room. Mantle clocks on the shelves, grandfather clocks in the corners, other clocks on the walls, music boxes on the table, maybe even some glass cases of watches near the window. Yeah, that might be nice... she would have to figure out how to make sure the mass in every section of the room was balanced, so the room doesn't seem too crowded in any particular spot, but that was time that would be well spent if customers would feel more welcome.

[thepatriot]

Quillson watched as Diamond Point giddily made her way into Aestella's back rooms. Following her quickly was the sound of items being moved about, worry showing across Aestella's face. As soon as she'd answered Quillson's request, he quickly marched after Diamond. as he stepped into the clean back room, his eyes grew as he spotted the mess Diamond was making of Aestella's various trinkets and items. Suddenly one of the items the Unicorn tossed over her shoulder narrowly missed Quill's head. He scooped it up and plopped it down closer to the pile.

Quill hurriedly stepped over beside the filly,reaching around her and placing a hoof to stop her wildly digging through Aestella's things. "Diamond Point, if you don't mind me saying, perhaps we should be a little more careful in dealing with Aestella's things. She's apparently very... touchy, about their placement." He slowly took whatever item Diamond had in her hoof, placing it softly down next to her.

With a smile he sat down next to her, maintaining his eye contact as he spoke. "Here, let's take this sorting a bit more carefully. I'll help put the pieces down once you've looked at them. How's that sound?" Hopefully she'd take his advice. Quillson wouldn't be able to stand upsetting Aestella anymore than had already happened. But he wanted to make a good impression on Diamond as well. Getting to know ponies was important, and Quill would hate it if he came across as intrusive or rude.

[diamondpoint]

Diamond gave Quillson a confused look as he sat down next to her. "Eeeeeh.... Naa. I'm done here anyway." she said in response to his idea and get back to her hooves and continued to explore the room. Reaching the work desk at the end of the room, she sat down at it testingly and seemed to examine it. Noticing more scrolled up pieces of paper, she pulled one out and placed it on the table to unroll it.

"Oh, just more funny drawings of clocks." she released the paper, letting it half reroll itself as she started away from the desk. "I'm going to go see what else I can find." she informed the Stallion as she walked by him and left the room, but didn't head back to the main room, instead she headed down a hallway that lead away and further into the house.

She walked down the hall casually, like she lived there for years, poking her head into rooms as she passed by. She found a kitchen, a large empty room, which she found a bit odd, and then at the end of the hall, what seemed to be a closet. And it wasn't like she was snooping, the door was already open. With a hop, she sat down in the closet on that seemed to be a...

"A bed? In a closet?" Diamond shrugged, "To each their own, I suppose. Now, let's see... ooh! Birds! Perfect!" Diamond picked up the two mechanical birds in her magic and started trotting back towards the main room.

[thepatriot]

[Beginning of Post to remove Nimble Mind from the thread, due to his absence.]

Nimble Mind looked around at Aestella's front room as the unicorn began posting her designs along the shelves and walls. He smiled, grateful to have helped the new shopkeeper. He walked over to Aestella to bid his farewell, as he remembered other things he had to do that day. "I'm sorry Aestella, but I do need to get going. I hope your new shop look works out for you! I'm just across town if you need anything, don't forget that."

With a quick grin Nimble waited for Aestella's response, and then made his way out of the shop. He left thinking that Aestella would be able to handle her knew approach at shop design, and that she'd have plenty of help with those other two there. Nimble Mind hurriedly made his way through the snow back towards his shop.