|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 5:31 pm
Funny, just a few weeks ago Destiny City was only somewhat infamously known for its murder rate, but had now hit national news with this mysterious epidemic that had now befallen the town. Sydney was scared, but at the same time she was not. On one hand, she may or may not ever see her friends and family ever again after they had fallen into a comatose state. On the other hand, the redhead was left to her own devices, her siblings and herself being placed in the mediocre care of a nearby aunt. While the old woman worriedly wrung the dish towel in her hands as she glued herself to the television set, she was left to do whatever she felt like. It was absolute freedom!
Freedom that was difficult to enjoy when most of her friends had landed themselves in the hospitals or were far too worried about this weirdo epidemic to remain normal.
The streets were gloomy and far emptier than Sydney preferred it to be. Soldiers and policemen occasionally marched through the streets, perhaps one or two civilians scurrying from one place to the other. Her helmet lopsidedly hanging from her head and carelessly unstrapped, she cruised through the town on her skateboard. Its wheels whirred against the concrete, creating a scratchy yet soothing rhythm that calmed her nerves. She gazed left and right, most of her favorite shops closed and empty for one reason or another.
Her face remained blank as she continued to propel herself forward. To where? Sydney had no idea.
She entered a residential area that she occasionally passed by. Just as Sydney was about to continue on without another glance, a flash of grey caught her eye. Tony . . . ? But the librarian was in the hospital, was he not?
“Hey, you!” she called out, screeching to a halt. She took off a foot and the skateboard tilted upwards like a seesaw. “. . . you come by here, often?” Sydney inquired after a while, picking up her board and strolling over towards the boy.
Mini Tony. Mini Tony. Mini Tony. Mini Tony?
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 7:27 pm
Nathan Darrow was not having fun. Which sucked, because when he wasn't having fun that meant he was bored, and when he was bored that left him with time to do terrible things like think and worry and this was just unacceptable. So he needed to find something new to do. Now.
Too bad everyone was in the hospital.
Yes, he had managed to meet a couple interesting people in the time he had been living, without his father's knowledge, in Tony's apartment, but they had mostly been people visiting his dad in the hospital. Young girls, to boot, which was weird enough. They weren't giving him enough to do, though, so he needed to find something else. Something away from the hospital, preferably, to occupy his time.
If worse came to worse, he would just have to go out and make his own fun. Which would probably include vandalism or something violent. Trouble was fun.
Walking down the sidewalk, he heard the approach of a skateboard and moved to the side. He squashed the impulse to stick his foot out, imagining it would hurt his foot more than it would anything else. Though, the rider would probably fall and then try to start a fight, which would be the most interesting thing to happen all day. Did he really want a black eye when Tony woke up, though? If Tony woke up.
He glanced at the girl when she spoke to him, surprised to find that it was a girl. At least he didn't have to worry about the black eye, then.
He looked at her, his sharp eyes not his dad's color, but his hair a very close brown, and his eyebrows, as well as expressions, echoing the man he barely knew. He squinted at her, an angry, younger version of the librarian she knew.
"What? To this random spot on the sidewalk? No, I don't come here very often. Do you? Is this your hang spot?" Clearly he thought the question was not a good one. He shook his head, "I'm not from around here. Why?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 5:18 pm
The closer Sydney approached the stranger the more slight differences she could identify between the boy and Tony. His eyes were a dark brown compared to Tony’s warm green and the lad was significantly lacking in the goatee department. Even so, the countless similarities were too much to simply pass the boy off as a coincidence.
She chuckled. How witty. “No, not really,” she answered. She slowly ambled toward him before finally growing close enough to reveal her tall stature and push out a hand for a friendly shake. “It’s just that with so many people in the hospital land everyone else in panic mode, I have to jump at every chance for human contact, you know?” Sydney joked.
Blinking at him, she murmured a soft “oh”. Biting back disappointment, she listlessly shrugged. “You look like someone I know.” Rolling her head to the side, she took another look at him. “A lot like someone I know.”
Sydney paused. Would it be alright to ask? Aw, to heck with it. “You happen to know Anthony Darrow? He’s a librarian. A pretty chill one.” She mumbled the last few words to herself, smiling innocently.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 12:29 pm
Nathan, like his father, was on the tall side, but he could still notice that she was taller than a lot of the girls he ran into. He didn't have an opinion on this discovery, just taking the mental note. A lot of the time he just took stock of people.
He didn't shake her hand, though, just eying her.
"I guess that makes sense. This place is really dead. There are a lot of unconscious people in this town, huh?" He sighed. It wasn't funny, a city being struck with such a strange plague, particularly because his father had fallen victim to it.
His eyes flickered in surprise when she asked him if he knew Anthony Darrow. Did she already guess that he was related? Or did she know somehow? Who was she to Tony? Another one of his young lady friends. Seriously, who was this guy and why did so many teenage girls like him?
"Yeah, I know him," he said vaguely, "of him, anyway. I never met the guy while he was conscious. Heard he was in the hospital. Why? You his girlfriend?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:15 pm
Unfazed when he never took her hand, she simply continued to grin and lowered her arm back at her sides.
Sydney awkwardly laughed. “Yeah, a lot of them are comatose. Some schools are actually closed due to the lack of available staff,” she added, but shrugged. “But that just means no homework and more time to do whatever I want. Although most of my friends and classmates are holed up in the hospital for one reason or another.”
Her smile turned bitter and she averted her gaze to stare at the ground. When would they wake up? Would they ever wake up? Sure, Sydney still had friends that were also conscious, but they were either too worried about their lives or spending every possible moment glued to the bedside of a loved one while Sydney was out here alone, attempting to be positive about the situation.
“Oh yeah. I remember passing by his room the last time I was in the hospital, though his state hadn’t really processed in my mind back then,” mumbled Sydney, but then she beamed and waved it off. Now was not the time to be so gloomy.
“Girlfriend?” She choked. Girlfriend? Tony’s? That was a real laugh. “Ha ha ha ha! When pig’s fly and I turn legal!” Sydney answered, eyes sincerely gleaming with amusement. “So no, I’m not. I’m not particularly interested in dating, actually. I just happen to hang by the library occasionally.” After her bouts of laughter had settled, she cocked an eyebrow at Nathan and half-nodded at him. “And? How do you know him?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:37 pm
"Weird," Nathan said. But it wasn't really weird. It made sense that schools got closed, if all their teachers and students were in the hospital, out cold. Who would want to go to school at a time like this, anyway? Not Nathan, but of course he hadn't been to school in a while.
He never wanted to go to school, even on the best of days for it.
Nathan knew this topic was difficult for a lot of people. He knew that he had made some people cry when talking about their unconscious friends and family. Mostly because he believed they wouldn't be waking up. It seemed to fit. Nathan goes all this time without his dad, finally finds him, but he's a victim of this plague. The next thing that would need to happen would be Tony just not waking up. It seemed they were destined never to really meet.
"I don't know, all the people that come and visit him seem to be underage girls," he said, though he didn't indicate how he knew what kind of people were visiting the librarian.
At her question he frowned and looked at the ground.
"I don't see how that's your business," he said blandly, even though he had only just asked her the same question. He never said he would answer it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:16 pm
“Really? That’s certainly news to me, but somehow I’m not surprised,” Sydney replied, eyes crinkling as she grinned brightly.
Tony was not like most of the other adults that the redhead was familiar with. For one thing, their first meeting involved him hotwiring her brother’s car. Sydney didn’t think that any of the other adults that she knew even had a clue on how to hotwire a car. He didn’t particularly mind her joking personality either, which some did (peers and adults alike). Add in the fact that his job exposed him to numerous minors, and the idea wasn’t that startling.
“I guess Tony’s a real ladies man, huh?” she chuckled, “Just you wait, he’s going to nab himself an actual girlfriend sooner or later, if he hasn’t already.”
Sydney threw a curious look at his aloof reply. “Not my business, you say?” she repeated and smirked, leaning forward. “Then I guess I’ll just have to make it my business, don’t you think?”
Leaning back before he could say anything else, she tilted her head and added, “Thus, the first order of business is to hang out with you for the day!” Shortly afterwards she murmured, “I’ve been feeling pretty lonely these past couple weeks too, you know.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 2:43 pm
"No, I don't think that at all," Nathan said, grumping. He looked away from her and sighed. It wasn't very fun, having some stranger poking at him. But it seemed she knew Tony well enough, and since he didn't it was always good to meet others who might let him in on who this guy was.
Besides a librarian.
"You want to hang out for the day? I'll give you an hour, maybe, but I'm not promising anything else. You might annoy me too much. Or you might not be able to keep up with me."
Why not? She was there. He was there. Might as well do something: the city was dead, there was nothing going on, and he didn't feel like going back to the hospital.
"Show me something you do for fun around here, then. And maybe I'll tell you something about myself, if you're so interested."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:34 pm
“Aw, you don’t think so? You’ve made me really sad, don’t cha know?” Sydney replied with the c**k of her head, bringing a fist up to her face to represent tears, teasing frown and all.
Her eyes lit up at his agreement. “You’ll hang out with me? Really? Really? Reallyyyy?” She threw arms up to the sky. “Yahooo~” Then her expression turned serious as she crossed her arms and cupped her chin, pouting and furrowing her eyebrows. “I don’t see why I won’t be able to keep up with you, so I guess I’ll have to restrain myself a bit. I’m pretty good at being annoying.”
Sydney threw her board down and stepped on the edge, the other side pointing to the sky. “Most of the food places I know are closed. I don’t think shopping for games and stuff would be that interesting at the moment, and I think the arcade is closed too?” She paused, leaning her head to the side, sifting through her brain for any possible ideas.
“. . . wanna hotwire cars?”
She really couldn’t stop thinking about how this guy looked similar to Tony.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:46 am
Nate watched her as she feigned sadness, though he didn't seem very impressed with the display. He just shook his head, heaving a sigh, and wondered how he might escape... but since he wasn't actually trying anything, it seemed as if he wasn't all that bent on running away regardless.
She was kind of interesting.
"Yeah, yeah, don't get too excited," he said, though he was grinning, "I'm not sure you understand what you're getting into, just trying to hang out with me. We're not going to do boring s**t, after all." He grinned, a vague idea forming in the back of his head.
Then she made her suggestion and he thought she was messing with him, though her guess seemed to be oddly close to his idea. Well, in the vein that it was not entirely legal, and would get them in a lot of trouble if caught.
"Why, do you want to hotwire cars?" he asked in return, just in case she was trying to trap him into something. Why should he trust her, just because she was appealing to his favorite pasttime: making trouble?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:14 pm
“Oh yeah?” Sydney inquired with a hand on her hips and grinning back at the boy, “Because I think I perfectly understand what I’m getting to. Don’t worry about little ol’ me, maybe you should worry about yourself since boring things are at the very bottom of my to-do list.”
Seeing the incredulous look he shot back at her, she listlessly shrugged at Nathan. To be honest, or act like some angsty and aloof teenager? Hmm, a tough decision to make on a split second, but being truthful was usually better, right? That’s what people often preach nowadays, at least. “You remind me of a guy I know,” explained Sydney, giving him another head-to-toe glance. “Appearance-wise, at least. He has a thing for hotwiring cars or something, even though he’s a darned librarian.” Mumbling the last part, she angled her head away to hide her muffled chuckling. Good times, good times.
Just as Sydney lost herself to the entertaining past, she turned back to throw Nathan a teasing smile. “What’s wrong? Too boring for you? Or maybe you’re a bit of a chicken,” she goaded with a laugh. “I’m not too good at hotwiring, but I’m sure that’ll make things more fun.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:54 pm
Nate watched her, unconvinced, but at least interested enough to want to do it. He would not go out of his way to do anything that seemed like a chore or a hassle, but since she was talking about things he liked to do, anyway, like cause trouble, then he was more inclined to go along with her.
Besides, maybe he could turn this into a game of sorts. She seemed interesting, and he was always one to watch people, analyze them, and try to figure them out without them really knowing it.
He heard her mumble something about a librarian and his ears perked a bit. He eyed her. Did she mean the librarian he was looking for? His father? It would make sense, of course, since they were family, and he knew they had to look alike.
"Chicken? Pfft! Alright then, lead the way. I'll even let you pick the car. See if you know anything about hot wiring, or if you're just trying to play pretend."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 7:59 pm
Sydney had yet to fully accept the possibility of a familial connection between Nathan and Tony. Sure she realized their uncanny appearance (really uncanny, it was sort of creepy), but somehow Tony didn’t strike her as the married type. Or the type to have a child and not be married. Or just have to have a child in general, really. How old was Tony, exactly? How old was Nate? She stopped herself from shuddering at the thought. Children at a young age. That’d so tear someone’s life upside down.
Moving the hand with her skateboard behind her back, she did a small bow as Sydney gracefully bowed her free arm. “Yes, your Highness! How awfully kind of you,” she teased.
The smile disappeared off her face as she curiously looked around, wondering just what kind of car to pick. Sydney had only actually attempted it twice, the first time being the same day she had met Tony. Both attempts had also been on her own car. Searching for a vehicle at least remotely resembling her own, her eyes lit up when she found a model similar to hers. Success! “That one!” she decided in a serious voice. Excited, she energetically bounced over to the silver car.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:46 pm
Nate grinned a bit, not disliking the addition of a title into this. Sure, she was just mocking him, but he could work with that. He walked with some pride in his step, as if playing up to the character he had just made for himself.
A royal pain in the butt, undoubtedly.
His eyes focused on the car she was pointing to, moving over to it. He didn't look around, pretending that they at least owned the car for now. He was good at keeping a look out without actually looking around, though it was a practiced skill that had taken a few trial by error lessons to learn.
"This one, huh?" he didn't look too impressed, but he figured it was worth a shot on their first attempt. He was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to hotwire it anyway, so what did it matter if she picked a lousy car? She had said she wasn't too good at it, which was probably an overstatement.
"So, peasant," he said, grinning at her, "why don't you show me these hotwiring skills of yours."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:23 pm
Role-play. Sydney liked to role-play, especially when it was painfully obvious that the acting was all for lighthearted amusement. Pretending to be another person was fun—she had tried that out for a couple patrols, but the idea had fizzled idea faster than the speed of light—and for once, allowed the redhead to be somewhat calm and less bouncy. But role-playing for school could be a real pain in the butt. How was pretending to be a dead smart guy supposed to be fun?
Hearing his unimpressed reply she threw him an innocently curious look. “Is it not to your liking, Your Highness?” she asked in a surprisingly polite voice. Not like peasant Sydney would switch to a more luxurious car if he demanded. She had more confidence in hotwiring this car rather than the other fancier ones nearby, but of course the skateboarder would never admit it to him.
Another fancy bow, her back startlingly straight and low. “Yes, Your Highness.” Her tone was calm, yet an entertained smile was glued onto her face. Holding in her extra energy she walked over to the care, relieved that she remembered the first step to hotwiring the car: open the dang hood and find the pretty red wire.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
