New Girl In Town

[Waddle]

Hatty browsed the store’s selection of country music artists. Her red hair was tangled and dirty-looking, her shirt was wrinkled and starting to fray on one sleeve, her jeans were just about the same, and her jacket was tied lopsidedly around her waist. She looked like she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a couple of nights. She knew this, and didn’t very much care.

Pulling an album out, she flipped it over on the back to read the songs. Her right hand slipped unconsciously into her right back pocket, under the jacket, and all her weight shifted to her right leg; a habit she’d fallen into years ago. Putting the album back in its original spot with her left hand, she flicked another one out and examined it. Nothing new there. She put that one back and pulled a random one out and gasped when she saw what was one the cover.

A mountain lion stared back at her. Straightening, she put the album back and quickly moved away. Why did she keep noticing all these reminders everywhere she went? She couldn’t even go into a music store without it showing up! That stupid dream! That stupid, stupid dream!

For the past two nights, she hadn’t slept a wink, for fear of that cougar coming into her dreams again. Why am I different? Why do I have to choose? Questions ran through her brain at a billion miles an hour. She hated that dream! It frightened her, and things that frightened her made her mad! Running a hand through her dirty red hair, she retreated down the rock isle and tried not to think about it. It was still there, though. It would be there, she knew. She couldn’t just wish it away. Just like she hadn’t been able to wish away her parent’s divorce. Hatty believed that the divorce was the whole reason the dream had come. They had no right to frighten her like this, to make her a nervous wreck!

Stop thinking about it, Hat! Think about where you’re gonna eat tonight, and sleep!

[Aras|Ofelia]

There was really only one possible reason why An-qi was in the music store today: her computer wasn't working. She would usually satiate her music needs with that wonderful thing called the Internet, but now that her computer had decided to continuously and insistently reboot itself every thirty seconds, YouTube wasn't really an option. She'd normally bug her roommate for some music--their tastes were surprisingly similar--but said roommate and her laptop were on out-of-town business. So An-qi had to resort to hauling her lazy arse to the mall when it normally would have been plopped on a couch or chair at home.

Unfortunately, Noatak offered very little in the way of entertainment. Except when her job was concerned, but activity in that department had slowed to a crawl in recent weeks. (She probably ought to learn a thing or two about computers. Using them was easy enough, but the moment anything went wrong, An-qi was reduced to a computer-illiterate simpleton. A computer-illiterate simpleton robbed of her main source of entertainment.)

The dearth of customers in Shake It Up wasn't too surprising. After all, she wouldn't be here if she had her computer, and it was probably safe to assume that most people nowadays shared that sentiment. An-qi held back a sigh. It looked like her day would be as slow as the store's business.

As she browsed the shelves, not really sure what she was looking for, she caught sight of what appeared to be the only other customer in the store. A new face. In a town as small as this--not to mention Noatak's rather peculiar situation--one noticed new faces. Per her training, her mind immediately took note of the girl's most prominent features. Red, wavy, messy hair. Shirt and jeans in bad need of ironing. Teenager. Average height. Looked as if she'd just pulled an all-nighter for an exam. An-qi took this in almost subconsciously, her scrutiny for the most part subtle.

She could hardly consider herself adept at reading body language, but the girl's stiff posture, as well as the jerky movement An-qi had glimpsed a moment ago, told her that the girl had been disturbed by something. Which meant... absolutely nothing, really. The girl could be antsy for any number of reasons, and it wasn't really any of An-qi's business. But it was always worth filing away a bit of information about a newcomer, if only because they were bound to cross paths again at some point. Might as well get acquainted now rather than later, she supposed.

"Good mornin'," she said, smiling, even thought it looked like the girl's morning was anything but.

[Waddle]

Hatty's eyes flicked from the poster to the person who spoke to her. She gouged the pros and cons of speaking to this person in her head. This chick seemed to be nice, but she had only spoken two words. Uncertainly, slowly, Hatty turned to face her. "Good... morning," she replied hesitantly. She figured that a little talk with her wouldn't be anything bad. Face it, she told herself, you need all the help you can get.

She realized that she was almost hoping for help, and her pride shot up. It didn't show in her face or body, only in her mind. She didn't need anyone's help. She just needed to make her own life. She had spent too long relying upon others, and look where that had gotten her. Out in the middle of nowhere, in a small town, with not much of anything to her name, and a mystery that scared the wits out of her.

The mystery. Could this person be have a Talisman, like herself? Was she a Hunter or an Innocent, or whatever the mountain lion had called them? An Undecided, like Hatty had decided that she, herself, was? It was all so confusing! Surely there couldn't be terribly many people with Talismans in the world, or else word would, or should, have leaked out about it. Hatty just didn't know. But what was here, right now, was this person and this town and the aching in her head that told her she was thinking too way hard.

[Aras|Ofelia]

Wow, the girl must be more out of it than An-qi had thought if she couldn’t even say two trite, everyday words without stumbling over them. An-qi knew what it was like to be sleep-deprived—after all, she’d gone through most of high school in a barely-lucid zombie-mode—but she’d at least managed to pretend she was awake for a good number of her classes. (But not all of them, much to her occasional embarrassment.) The redhead, on the other hand, looked ready to fall asleep on her feet at any moment.

As she did, subconsciously or otherwise, with any newcomer, An-qi wondered why the girl had come to Noatak. It was too easy to jump to the conspiracy-theorist conclusion, but she had absolutely no evidence to support it. Maybe the girl’s parents were curious biologists, like An-qi and her roommate supposedly were, who’d moved here to investigate claims of strange animal sightings. Or perhaps she was visiting relatives, or something. And really, why should An-qi bother speculating?

Because you have nothing better to do while you’re computer’s getting fixed. She could see her talisman in her mind’s eye, smirking as best as it could with a beak. It did have a point.

Her eyes roamed over to the titles again, and she waved a hand in the general direction of the shelves. “Any recommendations? I honestly don’t know much about music.” Leaning forward a fraction, she studied the girl’s face for another moment. “Hm. You all right? You look like you could do with a nap.”

[Waddle]

"Yes, I'm fine, just a little sleepy, 's all," Hatty said, almost hurriedly. She didn't know why she she was being so jumpy - no, take that back. She knew why, and she wasn't happy about it. Who was that animal to have the right to scare her so much? It was just some dumb dream she'd gotten from her mixed emotions. Normally, it might have calmed or even intrigued her. But who knew? Things weren't normal, and it would take time for the scars to heal. At least I'm outta high school. College isn't essential, not right now, anyways.

Remembering that she had asked about music, Hatty was instantly happy. Music was a huge part of her life, and she could sit and talk or argue about it to anyone at anytime for hours on end. "Well," she began, "what kind of music do you like? Pop, rap? I don't know anything about them." She laughed a bit, because she hated rap with a passion and most pop was annoying to her. "Country and rock is what I'm in to, but not everyone sees it that way. A lot of people hate country, say it's hick and redneck junk, but I grew up on it!" She stated the fact proudly. She had always been a country girl, no matter how many times she was ridiculed for it. Amazing thing was, some people actually judged a you in large part on what kind of music you liked, which was quite shallow and stupid to Hatty.

"If your in to rock, I'd suggest something like Three Days Grace. I didn't know until I went to one of their concerts that they are actually from Canada! Neat fun fact to me. Also, maybe like Breaking Benjamin. If you like pop, there's only one band I care for, and that's Simple Plan, and only for about a handful of songs. Country, my goodness, I could go on for days." Suddenly she realized she was rambling on and on, and she flushed slightly. "Sorry, I... like music," she apologized with a giggle.

[Aras|Ofelia]

The girl seemed to start slightly at the question, but she quickly and casually brushed the matter aside. 'Just tired.' An-qi had used that one countless times before, when she didn't feel up to explaining what was the matter. Completely understandable in this case, where the girl was talking to a stranger she'd known for all of two minutes. Ah, well. If the girl didn't feel like talking about it, it would be plain obnoxious to try and coax the information out of her.

When she began to talk about music, however, the girl immediately perked up. So she was a country fan and proud of it, huh? Well sure, An-qi would give it a go. Why not. She didn't have to pay to just listen to most of the music here, anyway.

"Heh, no need to apologize. I don't think I have a preference for any particular genre. Though I usually find myself listening to... oh, musical and video game soundtracks." An-qi grinned. So she was a dork. A dork and proud of it. Though, at the moment, she was a very bored dork missing the major electronic in her life. When was she getting it back again? Three days to a week--wasn't that what the technician had said? With her luck, it would be a week. Bugger.

"You know what? Find me an album you like," An-qi said, gesturing to the little niche in the back where customers could sample the music, "and I'll give it a try." She acted as if she were considering something for a couple of moments--though in reality, she'd made up her mind a couple of minutes ago--before coming to a decision. "Sorry if I'm being nosy, but I'm curious: where are you from? Noatak's really such a small place that if you take the time to familiarize yourself with it, it's not to hard to notice new faces."

[Waddle]

She nodded, warming to the stranger. Just a friendly face was enough to perk her up. And music, of course. Those two put together equaled a happy mood. She grinned and shook her head when the other person mentioned video games. Hatty had gone through a video game phase once, and she still played them every now and again, when she found the time. Though it was hard to find a good game nowadays it seemed. Those sure were the good days, that was for sure.

So it didn’t matter what genre? That was going to help. Her eyes glanced over the nice collection of available artists as she pondered what to offer the stranger. That reminded her, she would need to introduce herself. “I’m from Tennessee, down in the U.S.,” she answered without really thinking about it. She plucked an album out and examined it. Daughtry’s first album, ironically named Daughtry. Well, it is normal for newer bands to name their first album after the band name. It seemed like a good place to start.

Turning around, she offered her the album. “Duaghtry’s first album, Daughtry. Pretty good group, in my opinion that is. Oh, yeah, and my name’s Hatami War-land, just Hatty for short, though.” She offered her other hand for a handshake. It was a habit she’d fallen into a long time ago.