Buy a Watch, Get a Tin Foil Hat for Free

[sully]

Open to everyone

[6:59 PM] Archie's eyes snap open and his hand reached for his alarm clock as it turned over to 7 and began to faintly beep. He switched it off as he threw his legs over the side of the bed and removed the tin foil cap from his head, respectfully placing it on the night stand beside the alarm clock. Archie lit a hand rolled cigarette, walked upstairs, and got to work.

A hour later Archie pulled a short metal chain and the small neon "OPEN" sign blared to life. He sat down behind the counter and began to tinker on a small silver wrist watch. The shop was cramped, nearing claustrophobic, with many short pedestals of dark, old wood dotted around the room at unpredictable and inopportune locations, basically begging for someone to come and knock them over. Each pedestal was adorned with a faintly opaque glass case and a worn, stained red pillow. On each pillow sat a different kind of watch. Some were wrist watches, others were large pocket watches. They came in silver, gold, copper, platinum, steel, nearly any kind of metal one could think of. All the pieces were beautiful and ornate with no sign of damage, even though an avid watch lover would know that most of the watches were at least fifty years old.

Standing out from the rest of the furniture was a small bookshelf next to the door. On it were pamphlets, magazines, and books that one would be unable to find in your average bookstore. These items told tales of the bat men of Madagascar, the lizard people running the Catholic church, and how Bigfoot was suing for custody of his 11 year old niece. A small sign above the shelf read "Here lies the truth of the world. Read at your own risk." Lying next to the bookshelf was a hat stand filled with a variety of hand made tin foil hats of all shapes and varieties. A sign next to it said "Buy a watch, get a tin foil hat for free!!"

[Maxpphire]

For getting a job at the Academy he actually wanted to get a watch to celebrate. He knew it would have to either be specially made for him to be able to see/hear what time it is, but he wanted something nice. He heard about this place at one of his many nights playing Piano at The White Rabbit through word of mouth. One of the patrons mentioned they really liked a watch they got from here, that it was well taken care of for being an old beauty, but the be wary of the shopkeep, that he was a little weird. Dreki kind of figured that is the watch was old, but was well taken care of, then maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask where to at least find a watch that could suit his lifestyle. Little did he know he was a walking conspiracy theory walking into a conspiracy theorist's den. He didn't really seem to look or browse around, but instead walked right up to the counter, and right up to Archie himself.

"Do you have anything thats blind friendly?" he asked "Or at least know where I can find a nice blind friendly watch?" there was an emphasis on nice. He didn't want one of those cheepo ones from a big box store where he could press a button and it would say the time. He wanted something nicer and more ornate than that. Things noticeable by everyone is that Dreki had a very direct stare, that was peircing at times, almost as if he was staring through your soul. A thing that vampires and possibly other supernatural beings would for sure notice, is that he was mortal, but also, something more. Depending on who it is they might easily guess that he for sure has Angel DNA within him, others, might just notice something weirdly otherworldly about the mortal in a very not mortal way. He also didn't walk with a cane and his uncanny ability to hold eye contact usually hid the fact that he was blind from others, but there were always some tells if you watched him long enough doing different tasks.

[sully]

As the bell above the door let out a soft chime, Archie breathed a quiet sigh. While customers were obviously an integral part of keeping his business alive, Archie was never fond of having to pause his work. He set aside the small silver watch and looked at the man standing before him. If Archie understood the man was blind, he made no mention of it. He did eye the stranger a bit suspiciously as he sensed the unknown inner nature of the man. His skin began to crawl and for a moment Archie considered kicking the man out, knowing that he was some otherworldly entity come to abduct him... But he quickly shook off these thoughts, frantically muttering to himself, "You can't do this with every new customer. You need the money. Man up!"

At the mention of a "blind friendly" watch, Archie's eyes sparkled with interest. He begins rummaging through the containers underneath the counter while saying "You know, I think I have exactly what you were looking for. Back in the 90's I was afraid Y2K would cause all computer screens to burn so brightly we'd all go blind so I wanted to be sure I had a way to stay in business. Thankfully the Illuminati prevented it. Only good thing those assholes have ever done." Archie continued to ramble about his theories until he finally found what he was looking for. He placed the object on the counter with a distinct thumb, as to alert the stranger of it's location, and gingerly guided the stranger's hand over to the piece. "You see, instead of the usual numbers, I replaced them with the braille characters for accessibility. I also replaced the minute and hour hands with thicker pieces that end directly where the braille characters start. Unfortunately this design only works for pocket watches, as a wrist watch would be too small to be easily read." Archie looked up at the stranger with a smile and asked "Is this what you were thinking of???"

[Maxpphire]

He understood what the other patron meant by weird now. He didn't make comment on any of the ramblings as the watch was looked for, as he didn't wish to be seen as rude. When it was brought out he carefully picked it up, he brought it close to his face to inspect the finer details of it. He felt the braille numbers with his thumb and felt the durability of the arms. It felt not exactly the strongest, he felt it would break after some use, or at least become out of sync as he could hold back the arms without issue. Other than that the build quality was nice, but he understood why glass would cover the clock face.

"Could I maybe commission a watch face from you that would be more productive for my brand of sight?" He asked having a few simple ideas to improve it to be more tailored to his eyesight.

[sully]

Archie let out an excited giggle. "That's the beauty of it though! Feel the surface. There's no glass. That's why I made sure the pieces were strong and would stand up to any fall damage." Archie nervously scratched the back of his head. "But if it's still not what you're looking for I'm happy to make something custom for you. Just let me know what you're thinking!"

[Maxpphire]

"Yeah, my biggest thing is I can prevent the arms from moving with my fingers, thus getting the time all messed up." He mentioned "But I also cannot see through glass or other solid objects. I can see the arms fine without glass but if something gets stuck in there between me opening and closing it I don't want the time to get thrown off and eventually break something inside the watch if the watch tries too hard to continue forward. Also since I can see outlines, would you be able to make the braille numbers as more of a hole punch design so I can either see or feel the holes if needed? Also maybe to have the arms thick but also have one pretty flat against the clock face and the other kind of high up so that way things can pass around them without getting stuck?"

He wondered if his requests were too outlandish or if getting a pocket watch even worth the effort. He wanted a nice way to tell time, he liked the way pocket watches felt in his hand, and he was mildly annoyed he can't really use most of them and wondered if this person would be able to pull a miracle and make one he could use, or if it was just a crazy man selling watches to those that could easily use them. He was worried that this might not even be worth the effort, be he really hoped it would be.