Blacksmiths and Vinyl

The group had fled outside the streets. Audra reminded Natalie through text that they will meet her back inside Eugene's apartment. She adds that they will be heading over to a vinyl shop. At this point in time, the streets are bound to be crowded with people, bumping shoulders on accident and sometimes dropping valuable items.

As Audra was about to ask Theo where they were going, she kept on squishing herself in tight spaces of occupied humans as they kept walking. Finally freeing herself, she was curious and said, "Hey, remind me why we are heading over to Lune's store?"

As he was in front of Audra and Eugene, he turned his head around and exclaimed, "I thought you knew? Obviously it's to check up on Lune!" He faces forward once again.

Eugene tells Audra, "It's been around nine weeks the last time we met her. After all... we are expecting a delivery within that turnaround time."

Audra groans just hearing the words 'nine weeks' in her ears and complains, "You know... to think Canada is some pioneer of tech of the world, you wouldn't think they can make vinyl records within a week, or... a few days?"

Eugene responds, "I don't think Canada would find that vinyl records are their priority. Why would they?"

"I wish."

"Bright side is that you're patient like us."

"Well now it feels like time wasted knowing we waited for that damn long! Better be good."

They were treading on the left side of the path. As there are less people passing by with every step further in, shortly, the location appears to occupy a corner of a building, where a red neon sign above the windowed door is a symbol of a disc, and a text that reads 'OPEN' next to it.

Theo tells the group, "With how things are going... we definitely need this."

Audra replied, "I know The Underworld would be pissed off."

Eugene added, "Yeah. Letting some criminal run loose."

As they were huddled in front of the entrance, Theo pulls his right hand out of his pocket to hold and turn the doorknob left, and firmly opens the presence of the vinyl shop. This scent rushing towards them of worn out wood feels as though they are reminiscing old memories. The bell that was high up where the door strikes it, it alerted the employee. As it rings, there were customers around, momentarily looking at them before they went back to examining these discs that were on wooden racks.

The employee who was on her seat greets them warmly, "Welcome to Vivian's Vinyl! Good to see you again, Theo."

Theo greets back with a happy expression, "Good to see that you are alive and well! How is the shop coming along, Lune?"

Lune is the employee that seems to be familiar with these particular people. With a grouching tone, she slumped on her desk and had her arms extended out to relax and complained, "Well... I guess it's been going well? But come on man.... no one in Toronto is gonna buy any shit here except you guys!"

Audra conveys fake compassion, "I mean... it's out of pity we decided to show up and at least buy something from you."

Lune smiles slightly and jokes around, "Still a dickhead after nine weeks?"

"As always!" She chuckles.

"I should make you wait for another nine because of you."

"Oh come on, don't make us wait for a disc that long!"

Lune stretches and proceeds with a new topic at hand. "Anyways." She quietly talks to them, "As business, I need to see identification. As much as I know you guys a lot, I will be in deep shit from The Underworld if I don't follow procedures."

"We know." Says Eugene.

Eugene, Theo, and Audra took out their licenses engraved in polycarbonate. The license contains an alias they assign themselves to prevent them from exposing their identity to the real world, a unique identifier that's encrypted with words and numbers where it can be seen at a certain angle through lenticular printing, and finally the barely visible letters 'U.W' inscribed on their cards.

"Interesting, you three." Says Lune. She looked around to make sure customers were at a distance before asking a question, "What vinyl were you expecting in this store today?"

Theo answers, "The Crows. I've heard this was the last one in stock from Vivian. I just want to make sure I get the last one before anyone else."

"Splendid."

Lune proceeds to get off her chair and walks to the room on her left. She examines every requested vinyl record and finally finds The Crows. Afterwards she comes back with the vinyl cover being entirely black, while the text in white 'The Blacksmiths' is the title.

Audra scrunched her face upon seeing it, "What even is that?"

Lune questioned it, "What's the matter?"

"That's the weirdest title for a..."

Cautious, Lune places her index finger on his lip before Audra says anything else, indicating her to stay quiet. "Anyways." He continues, "The Crows. I love them! They are still active to this day. That taste of hip-hop is amazing. Although I am not a fan of hip-hop myself, I am glad you decided to order their stuff. I heard rumors that they keep changing their members. I think that's what makes it all the more mysterious who is behind the scenes."

Eugene asks Lune, "So how much will it be?"

Lune checks, "So we cover the shipping costs... so this album from The Crows cost two hundred and eighty seven dollars. On card for today?"

Audra and Eugene had their eyes widened upon reacting to the price of the album. Meanwhile, Theo wasn't bothered by this, and instead mentions to Lune, "Cool. I will pay this by card."

Theo places his debit card on top of the card reader, makes a melodic beep before it approves the transaction. Lune was kind of stunned by this.

Lune gently places the vinyl record into a big paper bag and gently passes it over to Theo. He questions once more before they leave, "Anything else?"

Theo says, "We're just here for this. That's all, thanks for everything."

"Take care, and stay cautious." Lune gestures goodbye.

As they walk out to head over to a nearby train station, Audra begins to ask Eugene something about Lune. She spoke, "Why did Lune do that by the way?"

Eugene couldn't get this at first because he wasn't paying too much attention, until he realized what Audra meant. He responds, "Well you don't want to catch attention, would you?"

She reacts, "No?"

"Then you answered your own question."

"I see. This deal with these sorts of discs seems sacred."

"They are. They hold a lot of things the public doesn't know. Besides, The Underworld is watching. Careful what you do in Vivian's Vinyl."