<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d9/Alexandervalentinepushe.png)</div><br/><hr/><strong>Name:</strong>Alexander Valentine<br/><strong>Faction:</strong>None<br/><strong>Date:</strong>May 3rd, 1876<br/><strong>Time of Day:</strong>Early Afternoon<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Outside of the New Pony Express<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Aislinn, Open<br/><hr/><br/><br/><br/>The frown that curved Alex's lips only seemed to deepen as the smile on the woman in front of him widened. First at the giggle and then again when she returned the card to him, taking it upon herself as she stored it into his breast pocket of her own accord and patted his chest. While he normally didn't like people within his personal bubble, the woman in  front of him had already breeched that space when she stopped directly in front of him to hand him the card. For some reason, her actions didn't really bother him that much. Why they didn't, on the other hand, had his mind turning again as her hand stayed there on his chest.<br/><br/><em>You keep it</em>, she said with a thick accent of which Alex wasn't familiar, but the funny thing was that he probably understood her better than half the people in town. The observation had brought the barest hint of a smile to his lips, yet it probably went unnoticed to those who had never seen him do it.<em>A present</em>, she added. While a playing card wasn't the weirdest thing he had ever received, it ranked up there with the random bits and bops his younger sisters would give him when he lived back East. It could have been worse, Alex supposed, like the dead bird Annetta's cat brought in once and left on his pillows for him to wake up to, but it wasn't. The felines smile was still clear in his mind even today, but perhaps it was the girl in front of him that brought back the flood of memories. Or, given the way she smiled at him, perhaps it was the cat that this girl reminded him of more than anything else.<br/><br/>The fluttering of movement had brought Alex out of his thoughts and back to the present, his eyes just barely catching the girl spinning on her feet with skirts a flourish to face him again. That was odd. Had she seen something? He cursed himself for openly losing himself in thought again, because he hadn't noticed her removing her hand from his chest, why she had turned and who knows what else. The deck she had been holding was gone as well, but the hand that was rarely inches from his person since he first encountered her had returned to him. This time for a handshake.<br/><br/><em>"I'm Aislinn. Who are you?"</em><br/><br/>Alex blinked twice. It wasn't a name he was familiar with, but he played it over in his head to try and remove the nuances of her accent in an attempt of understanding how to pronounce her name. Despite her saying it only moments ago, Alex was sure he'd trip over it if he tried to repeat it. So instead, the man sniffed slightly and adjusted the distance between them so that there was no hint of awkwardness as he returned the gesture and shook her hand slightly. It felt tiny in his hand, but that was only natural given her gender and size and his. Her hand was also smooth compared to his, because Alex's were slightly calloused from working both in his shop with tools and in the mines all the time.<br/><br/>"Alexander," he supplied the girl finally before remembering his slightly stained fingers, at which he let go of her hand and pulled his back to absently rub them together again. He sniffed and wrinkled his nose slightly in disdain as he considered them briefly, but soon returned his attention to the redhead.<em>Aislinn</em>. "You never answered my question," he said as his frown turned into a bit of a grimace. "I understand that it is a present,"<em>an odd one at that</em>, "but does it mean something? Or is it just... a card?" he finished. His curiosity knew no bounds, but the enigma of the card was starting to gnaw at him again when all the other distractions - namely the ones he had of her - had vanished or been answered. Some curiosities still lingered, but those of the card outweighed the rest and left them more pressing than the rest.