[IC] (Hector) Anything Can Happen in this City; Mage 101.
*****
Life ran at a faster pace within the streets of New York, it took a person some time to learn the rhythm of it, and even that wasn't without a few stumbles now and then; he had fallen on his own face more often than not in the past year as he had made an effort to settle his way into a life that had turned out to be better than the past but not as good as he had hoped for the future.
Because people with a lot of aspiration and places to go in the world didn't find themselves trying to stay awake sitting a the rickety metal stool behind the counter of a shop that had that lovely scent of rusty copper and old as dirt junk. Half the time he wondered if the net strong wind was bound to knock the entire little hole in the wall shop right over and improve the state of it; at the very least it would have cleared out some of the dust. But on the bright side there was enough weird that came through the door, both the objects people tried to sell and the people themselves, to keep him highly entertained most days.
But it was a slow night, and sadly that happened now and then.
He had to admit though, a steady job was a comfort; nothing made a guy feel like all was right with the world like being able to pay the rent on his closet of an apartment and keep himself alive on a steady diet of fast food.
Life wasn't so bad, the possibilities were appealing.
But not so much right then. At the time, which was faintly at the start of the evening since his shift hadn't started more than a few hours past and he was going to be stuck waiting out the dead hours when nobody in their right mind came to the dirty side of the city to go window shopping, because not a lot of people liked to get mugged. He expected the usual; the strung out guys coming into the dim-lit little pawn shop to barter a few dollars from a stolen stereo or the like, it was always comical to see the boss complain about the serial numbers being rubbed off the electronics.
Not that it kept the cheap old guy from buying the stuff, he just carried on about it until he could get away with paying half what it was worth because people got nervous when you asked too many questions.
Unfortunately the boss was out, off to go visit a friend of his that worked at the bar a few blocks down, translation; off to go get drunk and come back three sheets to the wind because he knew Ross was stuck there watching the place while he was gone.
What did it matter, it was the time when the drug dealers were busy collecting money and the normal types were at home eating around the table with the family, or whatever.
Yawning, he rested his chin on the counter and rolled his eyes upward toward the ceiling, counting the little cracks in the plaster and half hopeful somebody might stumble in and set the little bell on the door chiming before he got too restless and either fell asleep or started building little castles out of the change in the cash drawer again; last time he had gotten yelled at for that one.