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[indent][indent]Ambrose tugged a bit on his collar as the sun—seemingly always to be oppressive and bright—beamed down on him. A soft shiver ran through his spine as he felt the tiredness of his morning slough off of him. It wasn’t as peaceful as he made it seem, his face contorting into an uncomfortable scowl before he snapped back when a whistle commanded him.

He waved before he knew who had made the noise or required his attention. Much like a golden retriever ready to fetch a ball, he sprung to attention and jogged over to Freyja. He always thought that was a weird name, but there were many strange folk in New Hope. An amalgamation of peoples from everywhere thrown together like a haphazard pour of jellybeans. Ambrose wondered what the name meant, if anything, and why there was a useless ‘j’ in the middle of it.

When he approached, he noticed the disarray of her hair and the child atop her shoulders that had caused it. Ambrose tried not to make a face. Children were allowed to be messy and erratic, but he kept his distance from their antics. His belongings were too expensive to be soiled by tiny, grubby fingers.

“I said, almost single digit. Single digit implies dehydration on my part, and then your skin gets puckered and tired-looking. And I’m too young to be called ‘grandpa.’” He laughed, finding a complex, bougie problem to be hilarious. It would be noted that the townsfolk didn’t give two shakes of a stick.

He glanced over at all the exhausted, older workers and wondered where exactly they came from. Did the retirement center let out early today? Ambrose shrugged. “Sounds easy enough. Though fair warning, I’ve never been on a [i]raft[/i] before. Mostly just yachts and a few story party boats. But you point me in the direction of what a center beam is and where it goes, and I’ll hold it.”

Ambrose wasted no time as he followed her back to the cadre of withered workers, smiling all the while. A lot of people put up with him in New Hope, but he knew that the older the denizens got, the less they gave a shit about keeping their opinions to themselves.[/indent][/indent]
[right][sub][b]TAG(S):[/b] [@Fading Memory][/sub][/right]