This is a grocery store in Mill Road.  They invented both 'organic' food and 'imperfect' produced decades before their time.  They're not cheap but their customers are beginning to understand what it is they're selling.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:19, Thu 30 Dec 2021.

OOC this is duo thread for Ann and myself. Can you ask in PM or OOC if you want to join in?

It was a fine Saturday morning perhaps a month before our story starts. Some mornings the owner would drive to Spitalfields Market in London returning before the store opened. A long haul although the partially opened M11 was making it 'pracical' instead of 'possible' especially in the early predawn hours

Elissa had been about to go for run. Shorts and t shirt. Pink trainers and clothes which clashed in such a delicious way with her blue hair, when she saw the van arrive "Hey Mr Arjuna. Need a hand" Lifting and carrying things like this was better than the gym. It was a whole body workout. A good one There might be three tons or more of veg in the van. It all had to be handled carefully, and that made the workout even better. And sometimes the owner would throw in a box of veg as a reward. Made Mum happy. Bonus.

"Hi Ann" she gave a wave to the person who had taught her the difference between an Artichoke and an Asparagus. "How's it hanging?"

Ann looked up smiling as she heard her name called, leaving the Bramley apples only partially rearranged.

"Morning."

She glanced around to confirm that there were no customers around and Mr Ajuna was now out of earshot as she smoothed down her oh-so-fashionable dark green apron.

"It's about normal for the fast-paced and jet-set world of grocery today. And as a bonus, I've only caught myself in the till twice."

She held up her hand, showing fingers wrapped in plasters and chipped nails.

"Let me give you a hand with those," she added, bending to pick up a crate. After huffing and puffing for a moment, she let go, leaving it where it had been.

"On second thoughts, maybe you'd better shift these. Honestly, you must have muscles like Wonder Woman to lift them. Anyway, how are things with you? Have you checked out that Hurricane club you mentioned?"

"Hah. Wonder woman is cool. Did you see last night's episode? Even my mum likes her. Says she's a feminist icon. At least she knows how to throw a punch... If you see Bat Girl on the Adam West reruns she's just doing ballet kicks."

Elissa came over and looked at Ann's nails. "Another day another dollar. Ouch. I've got some polish and a dryer upstairs if you want to repair them. I'll just move these first. It's a bit crap to offer and then back out"

"I told you I was studing at cat right? Dance and drama. Got to be strong for that. Mostly you have to be able to hold your body weight" Elissa half cartwheeled into a one handed hand stand. Paused for a moment holding the posture "Like this" she did a one handed push vertical pushup before arching her back and stepping out of it in a graceful move that looked as though it should have been on a stage. "Lifting veg is like helping someone move house. You get to move awkward weights, at funny angle and you have to do it slowly. Great for your body. My dad taught me that. "

She gave a laugh at the Hurricane "It's all right. No it's awesome. Good music. Good company. Shockingly bad building but that just makes it better. It's so bad it's good and it's ours. No one gave us it, we took it." Elissa obviously felt a sense of ownership and commonality with the group "No one's going to shut us down either. They've got too much sense. "

"It's a mixed bunch. Some of them have their heads screwed on. Some of them have had too much glue." Elissa sighed. She obviously didn't hold with glue sniffing. "Worst part is that there's not one of them that I'd want as a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. Dad would have told me to get the hell away from them... and then gone and moshed himself. Bit of anarchist"

Edit: I did some research into the punk scene... wow... edited 'air guitar' to 'mosh'
This message was last edited by the player at 10:38, Fri 31 Dec 2021.

Ann watched Elissa's display.

"Look at you go, Lynda Carter. That's really impressive, like watching an East German gymnast at the Olympics. I wish I could do cool stuff like you. I can't even do a normal press up. And I'm so uncoordinated that if I stood on one leg, I'd probably end up face down in the rhubarb."

Ann returned to sorting out the Bramleys as she listened to Elissa speaking about the Hurricane. "I'm glad you liked the club. Though your dad might have a point," she add with a smirk, "Spend too long with punks and before you know it, you'll be dying your hair blue."

After speaking, Ann covered her mouth as she let out a big yawn. "Sorry about that. I've not been sleeping well of late."

"Mum wants me to be Lynda Carter But my Icon is Bruce Lee" Elissa said as she carried sacks of potatoes one at a time from the van "He kicked the establishment. Made his mark. Fought his way to the top...literally And his thing is that movies should have real martial arts. Not wires and ballet kicks. Not fakes that can't move like a warrior if their life depends on it. If he can do it for the Chinese, I can do it for women... Of course he had an advantage. He was a man" she shrugged and carried a crate of apples to the end "of course he was murdered at the end. So all in all it's not a safe route" she grinned her teeth showing. She was obviously looking forwards to the journey as much as the destination "But if I wanted safe I wouldn't have blue hair"

"Not sleeping well? Bad dreams or just insomnia?"

"That's too bad about Bruce Lee, but it's not an advantage to be a man. After all, if you were a man, you couldn't blaze trails for women. It's the 70s now. We need to just get out and do our thing. Even if our thing is rearranging apples." She straightened up, happy with how the display now looked. "It must have been exciting though, being all of those films. I wish something exciting would happen in my life. You know, other than helping Mrs Nicholson pick out the best sprouts. Every. Single. Saturday. Or if I could just be a bit special, like he was." She looked wistful for a moment, before beginning to sweep the floor. "You should definitely chase that dream. I'm afraid Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru need me here on the farm for one more season."

She stopped when Elissa mentioned the sleeping and rested her head on the top of the brush handle. "It's nightmares. It's strange, because I haven't had a nightmare since my dad made the mistake of taking us to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Odeon when I was eight. I didn't sleep for a month thanks to the Child Catcher. They must have been on acid the day they decided not to give that film an 'X' certificate. Anyway, I figured I was all nightmared out, but the last couple of weeks I've been getting worse and worse dreams. I don't remember too much about them, but I'm never me, and I always get killed by people with strange faces. It's bugging me out, and it's no fun waking up throughout the night. I hope I don't fall asleep at my desk once school restarts."

She resumed sweeping. "I imagine you're excited about finally starting your new course?"