elegantias - Tumblr blog

[elegantias]

ftmadi:

madi sat on the floor, her legs crossed with a bucket of records in front of her. she was organizing the bucket alphabetically as she listened to him rant. she stopped working as she looked up at him, “i mean. you have a great point.” she smiled, “a store cat named empire. we could tell customers that the cat knows the greatest hits and will choose their next purchase for them.” she said, giggling. “but joe would kill us if we ever brought in a cat. he doesn’t think any of us could even take care of ourselves…let alone a cat.” 

‘ exactly ! you totally get the idea. ’ his grin only gets impossibly brighter at the tacit approval from the blonde girl, and although she has a great point as well about joe probably getting mad if they ever got a cat, he remains undeterred. if anything, there is now a glint of mischief in his eyes, and he lowers his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘ you know what they say—it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. ’ the statement is accompanied by an overly dramatic wink to indicate that he’s only joking; while he may be unpredictable enough to go through with it, he doesn’t want to get madi into trouble. ‘ do you think i could convince him it’s a good idea if i start bringing yunyun to work with me ? get him used to the idea of having a cat around here first. ’

[elegantias]

implavsibles:

𝐚𝐭  𝐭𝐡𝐞  𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞  𝐨𝐟  𝐣𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 ,   sebastian  stopped  what  he  was  doing  which  wasn’t  really  anything  that  magnificent  &  started  listening .    when  mentioned  getting  a  cat ,   his  eyebrows     rose  up     in  suspicion .    getting  a  cat  for  the  store  would  be  a     great  way     to  bring  in  customers  plus  just  think  of  the  hours  he  could  spend  petting  the  store  cat !                    ❝     a  cat  sounds  interesting .    although ,   we’d  have  to  run  it  by  joe  &  i  don’t  think  that  he’d  like  that  very  much .    so    …    we  just   HIDE   the  cat .    that’s  it ,   james ,   put  down  those  records  we’re  going  cat  shopping .    &  of  course ,   if  we  don’t  get  the  cat  from  the  shelter  then  we’re  doing  it  wrong .     ❞

‘ you— ’ he emphasises the start of his statement by pointing his index finger at sebastian, a wide grin slowly stretching over his lips. ‘ —are a complete genuis. ’ were they going to get into trouble for this ? absolutely. did he care ? absolutely not. besides, joe kind of has a bad habit of collecting strays—as evidenced by the eclectic group of people he’s hired—and james is maybe about 85% sure that he wouldn’t actually have the heart to force them to return the cat when he eventually finds out what they’ve done. putting the record he’d unknowingly picked up back into the bucket, james grabs the OUT FOR LUNCH sign from under the counter before heading for the door, glancing over his shoulder to make sure sebastian is following. ‘ we can share custody of the little one after work hours, maybe switch every fortnight ? d’you think frankie will be okay with getting a new sibling though ? ’

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fmbillie:

     separating  the  shania  twain  records  from  the  taylor  swift,  billie  thought  maybe  she  misheard  the  other.  brow  raised,  she  lets  out  a  small  chuckle.  “ what –?  you  seriously  think  joe’s  gonna  let  a  cat  roam  around  here.”  though,  upon  further  thought  he  allows  kids  like  them  around ,  a  cat  isn’t  too  much  more  chaos.  “ yeah,  but  i  think  we’d  loose  our  non cat  loving  and  cat  allergy  demographic.”  she  raises  a  finger,  some  brilliant  idea  striking.  “why  don’t  you  just  get  your  own  cat?” 

‘ well, he set me loose on empire, didn’t he ? i think a cat might actually do less damage around here. ’ he’s only mostly joking; sure, the number of customers they get from northview university may have increased slightly in the past year he’s been working at empire, but most of his duties as a store employee include staying out of his coworkers’ ways and trying not to misplace any more records. ‘ i’m fine with losing the non cat loving demographic, but i suppose you make a good point about allergies... ’ he lights up at the mention of getting his own cat, reaching into his back pocket to retrieve his phone, tapping on the icon for his photo gallery—where he has an entire album of photos of his cat. ‘ i have one, actually ! her name is yunyun. ’ moving closer, he holds his phone out to billie, unconsciously bouncing in place as he scrolls through the photos. ‘ isn’t she the cutest ? ’

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vstrophiles:

     * - “hey, can i show you somethin’?” her voice is hushed, nervous eyes scanning the space around them. she pulls a record from behind the counter , her scarlet nails tapping against the cover. marisol hid it hours ago and she had been reluctant to leave the counter ever since. “i think i fucked up.” she shakes the record upside down and several pieces of a shattered vinyl record fall on the counter.  “a customer returned this today and i LET them. i just -….i thought i heard it rattling when they handed it to me but i wasn’t SURE, y’know? so i let them do it because i didn’t want to call them out and be WRONG. so then i checked it when they left and they returned a broken record…” marisol’s words get quicker as she explains herself, a nervous energy building. “what should i do? what would YOU do?” 

any assurance that her self-proclaimed fuck up can’t be as bad as she thinks it is immediately dies at the sight of the shattered record. ‘ oh. oh. that’s bad—sorry, that’s not helpful at all, i’m just... wow. ’ he picks up a piece of the vinyl, moving it between his fingers as he thinks. there isn’t any point in telling her that she should have checked before going through with the refund when it’s clear that she feels bad enough about it already; plus, james isn’t exactly employee-of-the-month material, either. ‘ okay, before we do anything else, you need to breathe, mari. ’ reaching across the counter, he takes the record sleeve from her, putting the broken pieces away once more. ‘ did they give you the original receipt ? if they paid by card then maybe we can track them down. and if they paid by cash... ’ he trails off for a moment, thinking, before offering the girl what he hopes is his most reassuring smile. ‘ we can split the cost of the record and dispose of this— ’ he holds the record up. ‘ —and never speak of this ever again. joe will never know. ’

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addisonfyi:

‘ crap ! ‘ the exclamation rang out of her lips before she could even process what was going on. not a second after the sharp sound of metal clashing on the floor shot another spike of adrenaline through her veins. looking down she realized that her shoes and jeans were basically ruined, but even worse the floor of the supply closet was covered in a pool of paint. a stream of curses flew out under her breath as she frantically searched around the room for a mop or a towel or anything that could help clean the mess to no avail. biting her lip she accepted defeat and snuck out onto the shop floor looking for the closest co worker she could find ‘ um, ‘ she cleared her throat a nervous smile on her lips ‘ you wouldn’t happen to know where the mop is ? ‘

he did, in fact, know where the mop was—even if only because he’s probably used it to clean up spills more often than anyone else—but for a moment he’s too stunned by her appearance to respond. ‘ uh, ’ he starts eloquently, his gaze flickering from her face to the trail of footsteps she’d left behind her. he tilts his head slightly, considering her paint-splattered jeans before reaching under the register for his backpack, pulling out a pair of sweatpants. ‘ here, you can put these on while i go grab the mop for you; they should fit. can’t help with your shoes though, sorry... ’ he scrunches his nose slightly before his expression evens out into a smile once more as he places the sweatpants on the counter between them. ‘ they’re clean, i promise. ’

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‘ i think we should get a cat, ’  he says, apropos of nothing, fingers brushing absentmindedly over the top of the bucket of records they’re sorting through. ‘ for the store, i mean, ’ he adds to clarify, ‘ don’t give me that look, just hear me out for a sec— ’ all pretence of helping to sort through the records is dropped—although to be fair, joe has soft-banned him from handling any of the merchandise ever since he managed to misplace an entire box of 80s classics—as he turns towards the other, eyes shining. ‘ did you know that petting a cat can reduce stress and anxiety ? and people love cats. we could totally increase foot traffic if we had a cat. ’ 

[elegantias]

⋆ * ✰ — ( dong sicheng. twenty-two. he/him. cis male. ). i hope that liu yiqiang (james) isn’t late for their shift again. i swear to god they can be so lackadaisical & disorganised sometimes. then again i know joe hired them one year ago because they’re genuine & sweet, whatever. every time they’re working they always want to play tieduprightnow by parcels, it kinda drives me up the wall. when they aren’t at empire they’re studying contemporary dance at northview university. i think they ended up working at empire because they fell in love with the atmosphere after chancing upon it by accident. they remind me so much of long & slender fingers adorned with rings, motion-blur silhouettes in photos, strawberry-scented lipgloss.

hello ! i’m HONEY and i’m from the gmt +8 timezone, although my sleep schedule is kind of fucked so i might be on the dash at odd hours of the day. anywho, james is an entirely new muse that i pulled out of thin air specifically for this group. the sparknotes summary for him is under the cut, but i’m also still figuring him out, so i guess it’s going to be a learning journey for all of us, huh. he’s babey and i love him though !!

BACKGROUND

born liu yi qiang ( 刘毅强 ) on 11/16/1997 in beijing, china, where he spent the early years of his childhood.

when he was ten years old, his parents divorced and his mum decided to move to the US to live with her sister, bringing him with her. his mother never remarried, so he was pretty much raised by his mum, his aunt, and his aunt’s girlfriend.

before getting married and settling down to start a family, his mother was a semi-famous dancer, with a background in traditional chinese dance. james inherited his love of the art from her, and has been taking dance classes since he was a young boy in beijing. because he couldn’t keep up with traditional chinese dance once they moved to the states, he started exploring other forms of dance, and is trained in ballet and jazz as well, although he ultimately decided to pursue contemporary dance.

his long-term dream is to open his own dance studio someday—after he’s done touring with a professional dance company, of course.

he’s also doing a minor in chinese language and literature, mostly because he can, but also as a way of maintaining a connection to his culture.

he chanced upon empire records entirely by accident, but he’s lowkey a pretentious hipster at heart and he fell in love with the place immediately, applying for a job there the moment he found out they were hiring.

PERSONALITY

two words: Disaster Child™

no, really, dude is talented as fuck but has maybe half a braincell and it’s honestly a small miracle he’s managed to get this far in life without any major incidents.

extremely graceful while dancing, but surprisingly clumsy otherwise. please do not leave any sharp objects lying around when he’s in the vicinity.

misplaces things all the time and finds them in the most random places after he’s given up looking for them.

very sweet! he tends to get doted on a lot and inspires protective instincts in the people around him, but he definitely has a snarky side that comes out when he’s around friends he’s comfortable with.

transforms into an entirely different person when he’s performing though. he looks very cool on stage but once he’s off the stage he turns into a whole cutie.

he’s a terrible texter who either responds immediately or an entire week later, there’s really no in-between.

while he can be excitable at times, he’s generally a pretty low energy person who would rather spend an entire weekend watching movies in bed than have an active social life, although he does go out occasionally.

speaks mandarin when he’s angry or very drunk.

has a cat named yunyun ( 云云, lit. cloud cloud ) and is in the running for the world’s most obnoxious cat dad, because he will take any opportunity to gush about her and show off photos of yunyun and all the toys he’s bought / made for her.

CONNECTIONS

bad influence ( 0 / 1 ) — not necessarily a bad person, just someone who has maybe made it a personal mission to get him to leave his comfort zone once in a while and let loose, i.e. the biggest reason why he’s not entirely a recluse.

musical soulmate ( 0 / 1 ) — someone with a background in music that he frequently works with for his dance projects; either they compose music for him to dance to, or he choreographs dances for their songs.

those are the only circumstantial connections i can think of atm, but i’m always happy to have general connections as well ! so please feel free to hmu with headcanons about their friendship ( would really love for the boy to have friends he can be a crackhead with, tbh ) or any other connections—neighbours, maybe ?

any possible romantic connections will be based on chemistry, though !

[elegantias]

i am an idiot sometimes but sometimes i am an idiot to be funny you know? for the joke. and i want people to know the difference. sometimes my actions are purposeful. sometimes i think. i want you to know that. even when i am just being a regular idiot i choose to say things knowing i am an idiot. i am the chooser of my own fate. i am the god of my own reality.

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i love to daydream and be called baby

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oh to lie down in the sun and watch the clouds

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jesus, get the guy an acting gig already

[elegantias]

☆  pirouettes ☆