Work Text:
An explosion followed by the sound of something relatively heavy tumbling down onto the floor. Then came the sounds of a very angry, squeaky voice shouting the vilest of Goblin curse words. The owner of the squeaky voice was sitting up from the floor upon which she had very ungracefully fallen. She finally stopped the tirade in Goblin just to realize that what she had heard was not an explosion, but rather an alarm she had set up just yesterday.
She blinked at the singed remains of the alarm. Okay, that was a bit of an overkill, she thought to herself.
Normally, one would think that sleepiness, once gone, wouldn’t return too quickly. Yet already she was feeling a strong desire to just return to bed.
"Stupid explodin' clocks… stupid shop… stupid early workin' hours."
After getting dressed, grumbling all the while, she made her way downstairs. She heard the sounds of someone working on setting the shop up---or, rather, something.
Dad's golem, Sparky, was wordlessly doing his best to replicate his creator's commands of tidying up the place before opening. She would’ve thanked her dad again for creating this thing, if he was still alive, but she could only glance back at the picture of him at the wall behind her and smile.
"Mornin' ya bucket of bolts," She grinned at the robot, not getting any response as usual.
Blue eyes glanced at the door, which was still locked, and would open when the shop did.
"Hey, Sparky, go make breakfast. I'll handle it here."
She was not quite sure why the commands had to start with a stupid phrase like ‘Hey Sparky,’ but her dad had always been a bit of a weirdo. At least, in her eyes, anyway.
The robot was always glad to obey the few commands he had been programmed to do, so the redhead was left to her business as the golem left to make breakfast. She then set about checking up on everything within the stock, making sure nothing was out of place.
"A'ight. The annoying chemical smell? Check. Some random mechanical bullshit I still need to make something with? Check. Whatever the frack that thing is? Check."
She walked alongside the isles, seeing the familiar glow of enchantments upon the weapons. She could hear the sounds of gears working from all across the shop. Living here for so long had turned the annoying cacophony into music for her soul, and the girl smiled to herself. Ulda enjoyed checking up on the shop every morning, as many of the weapons, and mechanical contraptions here were her dad's creations. He had left behind a large stock of things to make sure the shop would always function. She chuckled bitterly, knowing he wouldn’t be returning from his latest trip.’
"A'ight, looks like nothing's missin' and everything's in order," She mumbled to herself, glancing around the shop once more.
Now that the stock was done, she desperately wanted some goddamn coffee. Preferably with some alcohol in it. She already heard her dad's voice reading notations about how she was being inappropriate, and that she should be doing her best to present herself nicely, from somewhere in the back of her mind. The Gnoblin rolled her eyes, giving the air a sniff. As always, she couldn’t smell shit behind all the pungent chemicals in the air.
Oh well.
"Sparky! Don’t forget the damn bacon this time!"
That robot always forgot to add the bacon into her eggs in the morning, for some reason that she could not quite grasp. She ascended the stairs again, towards the living quarters, finding the bathroom in the same state she had left it in yesterday. She looked at her reflection in annoyance, staring at her sickly green-ish skin and very messy dark-red hair, before opening the pressure in the water tank. She quickly washed away the remainder of her sleepiness with cold, refreshing liquid and brushed her teeth just as quickly, making silly faces and showing fangs to herself all the way.
"...eh, whatever, that'll do!" She commented on the eternal chaos on her head, which she never bothered to correct. The last time she had tried, she broke one of her hairbrushes. It did not look half as bad as her dad always said it did, at least. She couldn’t help but catch the smell of breakfast wafting from downstairs as she walked out of her bathroom. She grinned, showing stubby fangs again.
"Sparky! Good job, you added the bacon!" She announced loudly as she walked into the kitchen, still grinning.
Ever since Dad died, she preferred to eat as much as possible during the morning, so there were many eggs and just as much bacon. A few toasts and a big mug of coffee, all making the girl’s mouth water as she sat down to start her breakfast. She did not bother to check the time, but she reckoned she had plenty of it until the first clients decided to appear at her doorstep.
As she ate, the girl glanced at the few scattered letters on the table; Sparky still collected all of them for her to read over during breakfast. Another morning ritual of reading all of the letters from the previous day while gorging herself.
"Ugh, how many times do I need to tell Gizmo that I don't need his stupid tarot card set? I know it'll prolly explode into my face either way!" She raised her voice in irritation, throwing one of the letters right into the trash bin, before continuing onto the next.
"Taxes…Taxes...Whateva’ the hell tha' is....and--oh, ew!"
Great. It was just the start of the day, but her mood was below the usual threshold that allowed her to not look like she regrets every second of her existence. She decided that she would have to send a bomb to that last one in return. Because… just… ew.
Well, not all was lost yet, as her amount of giving a damn was increased by the remainder of the breakfast, accompanied by pouring some of dad's rum into the big mug of coffee. She continued sipping her coffee, as she went and grabbed a stack of work papers to leaf through. It wasn’t very good. But she enjoyed it anyway. A force of habit, she supposed.
Somewhere in the background, she could hear Sparky clearing the table and making sure everything was neat and tidy. She probably shouldn’t have used Sparky's cleaning function to let her leave as much mess as possible without doing anything about it, but it was way too much fun to do so.
The last gulp of the coffee was followed by going and unlocking the door, presenting a chance for any and all to enter the shop. She practically slapped a friendly grin upon her face, taking a seat behind the counter once again.
She didn’t have to wait very long before the first customer arrived.
"Welcome to the Lightfoot's shop of curiosities, I am Ulda, How may I help ya?"