Chapter Text
For Heddy, there is no better place to work than at Sixth Street’s best store Random Play. Of course, that’s not just her saying it’s the best store. Lately you can’t help but notice that everyone on Sixth Street is praising Random Play for its great quality, amazing customer service, plus it certainly helps that one of the managers of the video store is considered by pretty much everyone to be a Pillar of the Community. True, there are two managers at Random Play, both are siblings, a brother and a sister, but not much is known about the brother, named Wise.
Wise is what most would be considered, a lone wolf. He does indeed do things for the store, like always keeping the shelves stocked, keeping the building clean, and, if necessary, providing security for the store in case someone tries to do anything bad. Most of all, he always looks after his younger sister, and when it’s just the two of you and no guardians looking after you, then that’s pretty much a full-time job. Wise is important to Sixth Street, but not what one would consider a Pillar of the Community.
That honor goes to the sister of the group, Belle. Belle is pretty much the best neighbor Sixth Street has ever had. She’s even known throughout the Brand Street Construction Site, Lumina Square, and even Ballet Twins Road. Every morning and throughout the day, Belle always goes to the people of New Eridu, talks to them, and aids the people if they need it. Heddy knows about this one person in Lumina Square, a student, who needed help with a magazine shoot and needed some pictures of many different Bangboo. All the photos turned out to be amazing and the fact that Belle would go out of her way to travel to different parts of the city to get her those photos showed that she was committed to helping this student.
That was just one example out of many. Belle is also a very big hit in the Bangboo community. She always is on the lookout, thanks to a certain officer in a cat suit, for Bangboo that needs help. There was also this rumor going on that Belle helped a group of Bangboo on a mission to look for a mysterious Golden Bangboo, but Heddy thinks that was just a bunch of rumors, though she will be listening in on any news about that.
Now I know what you’re thinking, does knowing these things about Belle make Heddy some type of stalker? Well…Heddy won’t lie, she is smitten with Belle. Heddy can’t explain it, she has been interested in more hot guys than she had hot dinners, Wise himself is easy on the eyes as well. But there’s just something about Belle that just makes Heddy head over heels. It’s not just because Belle is without a doubt, the cutest girl Heddy’s ever seen, and she’s seen a small girl with twin tailed hair wearing a maid uniform. It’s also that Belle is the kindest person anyone could ever get to know. Heddy started working for Random Play as their promoter, free of charge, and Belle kept on insisting that she gets paid a fair salary, but so far Heddy turned it down.
In retrospect, that was probably not the best idea, and if Belle keeps asking Heddy if she would like to officially get paid for the work, she’s doing then one day Heddy might consider it.
Until then, Heddy is happy with what she is doing right now. Promoting the video store, recommending videos to the patrons, and just spending time at the video store in general. Although, at this time of day, business is slow, probably because it’s the afternoon and people need to eat their lunch. Heddy was business at the front of the counter with the magazine that had all the Bangboo photos that Belle collected. Belle is a great photographer.
Before Heddy could look at it some more, she heard the door opening and saw a man enter the store. Putting down the magazine, Heddy cleared her throat and greeted the patron. “Hello sir. Welcome to Random Play. Any recommendations I give you?”
The man looked like he was in his late 20’s or early 30’s, with short brown hair and facial hair. He didn’t wear glasses, but he did wear a business suit colored navy blue. Looked like your typical businessman. One thing that stood out was his eyes, the one on the right was blue, and the one on the left was yellow.
“Yes hello, I was hoping to speak to the manager.” The businessman said.
Heddy thought this was strange, whenever a businessman entered a store, it was usually because he wanted to either invest in the store or buy it out. Or worse, try to run the store out of business. Either way, Heddy needed to remain on her toes. “I’m sorry but both the managers are busy now. We needed to get more inventory and unfortunately, now was the only time they could collect more video tapes.” Truth be told, Heddy had no idea what Wise or Belle were doing, and only assumed that it was something important, so what she said about them being busy wasn’t a lie.
“Oh, shame.” The businessman said. “Though honestly, I thought you were the manager.”
Heddy giggled at that. “No, sorry. I’m just the promoter of the store.”
The businessman straightened himself up. “Well, that’s actually good to say.” Heddy was about to ask why, but he beat her to it. “Here’s my card.” He handed Heddy a card. “My name is Ethan Sprawl and today is your lucky day ma’am.”
Heddy looked at the card and saw, to her shock, that this was a card promoting another video store. The card was embossed as well, so either this guy is very wealthy, very desperate for business, or both. The name of this video store is called “Video Master”, Heddy thought the name was too on the nose. The location of the store is in Lumina Square.
“I’m the manager and founder of the new video store in New Eridu, named Video Master. Great name, I know, I have my team to thank for that.” Ethan said. Heddy honestly thought that he was taking the credit for the name, guess he is willing to give other staff credit, so far as she’s seen that is. “Our new store can use all the promoters we can receive, and now I offer you the chance to be part of our team.”
And there it was. The reason he was here was to run this store out of business. Heddy put the card down on the counter and looked at Ethan. “If you wanted another promoter, then why did you want to see the manager?”
“To buy your contract of course.” He wasn’t even trying to be subtle about this. “And don’t you worry, my staff always get a fair pay for all their work and so shall you. How much do you make here anyway?”
Heddy looks at Ethan and wonders if she should even keep talking to him. Might as well say something to get him on his way. “What I make is of no concern to anyone but myself.”
“Oh, right. My apologies. I forgot that you shouldn’t ask people how much they make. That’s my bad.” Heddy was surprised by his reaction right there, she thought he was going to pressure her to say that she wasn’t getting paid at all. “But still though, I should let you know that if you were to work for me, then you can see yourself getting 15000 dennies an hour. Sounds like a good deal don’t you think.”
Yeah, that did sound like a good deal. But Heddy wasn’t going to let him win this one. “I’m sorry sir, but I’m fine working here now. The offer does seem good, but I’m loyal to this place. So, unless you want to check out one of our videos than I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Heddy handed the card back to Ethan. She looked at Ethan and thought she saw a trace of anger in his eyes. But then his eyes returned to his serious business look, and he took the card back from Heddy. “That is a shame, though I do commend you for your loyalty. I do hope that you may reconsider in the future.” Heddy thought that there was no way that was going to happen. “And no, sorry, there’s nothing I’d like to watch now. Thank you for your time.” After saying that Ethan left the store.
Heddy was surprised once again. The anger in his eyes, however brief it was, told her that she was going to regret that decision. And he said that he was hoping that she would reconsider his proposal. Heddy figured that she should tell Belle and Wise about this.