<hr/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://24.media.tumblr.com/a16483c2858f862945634d46b9ad41b9/tumblr_mh480oybdg1r64urio1_500.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Jaelyn Scot-Jones<br/><br/><strong>Faction:</strong>()<br/><br/><strong>Date:</strong>May 11th, 1876<br/><br/><strong>Time of Day:</strong>afternoon<br/><br/><strong>Location:</strong>walking to her shop down Southeast Temptation, addressing a small crowd in front of Jones’ Mercantile & Trade<br/><br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>npc Albert (Whippersnapper), npc Deputy Flatbush, open<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>Sin and iniquity!</em>Jerking at ill fitting gloves, Jaelyn wondered how any mayor in his right mind expected good citizens to attend an event such as the frollicking feast in Babel’s Tower.  To her remembrance, Babel was a place where pride brought on the wrath of God.  Not that that puffed up mayor would know a thing about…<em>Stop!  Right now, just stop before your thoughts become words and you end up in Gomorra’s version of a prayer closet.</em>Harrumphing, she then slowed her pace, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out with as much of her bad humour as she could.<em>Gomorra’s prayer closet.  As if.</em>Her cheek dimpled slightly with the thought.<br/><br/>“Miss Jones!  Miss Jones!”   A cherub cheeked child, in short tattered pants and patched shirt skidded to a stop, his bare feet spewing up a low hanging cloud of dust.  She reached to push a flop of dirty blond curls off his face.  The boy made her smile, as he was her first friend made in Gomorra and had helped manage the door to the store just the day before.  Following the advice of Charlie Flatbush, she’d let in small groups of miners in desperate need of supplies just the day before.  It was terrifying and exhausting, as the men were mostly of the rough sort, and had been champing at the bit for days.  Not all of them had been unpleasant, though, and the activity had excited her more than she expected it might.<br/><br/>“I told you, Albert, it’s Miss Scot-Jones.  Now what is it that is so all fired important?”<br/><br/>“It’s them miners back again, spittin’ n’ sputterin’ about a store that aint never open.”   With his head tipped back, he stared into a face not yet a decade older than his own.  There was lots of talk among the fellers about her sellin’ out to go back where she come from.  Albert had his fingers crossed that this news didn’t push her over the edge to doin’ just that.<br/><br/>“Oh..  oh dear.”  Lifting her skirts, Jaelyn picked up the pace with the young Albert making the way before her.  Arriving slightly out of breath, Jaelyn was saved from having to shoulder her way through a growing crowd by the recent arrival of Charlie Flatbush.  Smiling gratefully at the deputy, she mounted the store porch and turned to speak to the unhappy crowd.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad351/roracloe/story%20images/RPG%20DOOMTOWN/---JonesStorewHOME_zpsce2f642c.jpeg)</div>“Tomorrow, Jones’ Mercantile & Trade will be once again open for regular business.”  This announcement was met with several hearty cheers, a few ‘about damn time’s and one very nasty ‘getcher ass back across the bridge, bitch’.  Deputy Flatbush scanned the crowd for where that last snarling remark might have come from.  The truth was, there were not many people who didn’t like Thommy Jones or at the very least respect him.  He was fair and honest in his business dealings, always had sound advice and a word of encouragement for miners and was courteous and charmingly flirtatious with the ladies whether they be prettiest ‘gel or ugly as a stump.  But Jaelyn was not her father and even just the few days delay to the fairest priced supplies was enough to turn the most jovial of men to a bad temper.  Even the women had begun wondering what would happen to the favored storefront.  “You all knew my father, I recall many of your faces at his funeral, grieving right along side of me."  She swallowed, a tight smile fighting back the sting of tears.  "But this is Gomorra and here there is no time for an extended period of mourning.  I only beg your patience.... for one more afternoon.”  Nerves cracked her voice just once, while her knees knocked, hidden beneath layers of black crepe, but she had said it out loud.  She was here to stay.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Charlie threw her a grin and a wink before stepping off the porch to disperse the crowd, telling them to keep calm or visit the new place giving away free food and booze and return in the morning ready to spend their hard earned money.  The young Albert beamed up at the young miss who was far different than what he might have expected.  From Thommy’s tales of his baby girl, Albert and his fellow whippersnappers were expecting a much younger girl, a more angelic version of themselves.  Jaelyn was instead a more angelic and feminine version of Thommy.  Well, mostly Thommy, Albert figured, but without that manly, sweet talkin' charm that had near every lady leaving Jones’ with a warm blush and girlish giggle.<br/><br/>Jae, still a bit shaky in the legs, sighed and closed her eyes for a few beats before drawing in a deep breath that went a long way to putting some starch back in her spine.  With a few steps she was able to peer into the side yard - a peculiar thing in Miner’s Peril, to be sure and in another time and place would include a kitchen garden, bright flowers, maybe a fruit tree and some grass.  But this wasn’t another time and place, this was Gomorra.<br/><br/>Taking the measure of Albert’s loitering comrades, she ventured, “I need a few bodies.  For some cleaning and errands and the like.”  She looked at them hopefully, then laughed when nearly enmass they made a move.  Choosing a handful of the larger kids for the heavy cleaning she had in mind, she then picked several more on the smaller side to run some errands.  While not taking an exact inventory, she had looked around the store enough to have a few ideas.  Grinning, she set her workers to their tasks before going to change into her old Lost Angels dress.  It wasn’t fit for public, but would do well enough for cleaning and counting stock.  Adrenaline was still surging in Jae’s veins, urging her on with a joyful energy.  One afternoon was hardly enough time for one tick mark on the to-do list, and she had countless things to do before the next sunrise.