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 Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:14 am
"You girls have fun! Call me when you want to be picked up!"
With that, Nellie Cowden apparently floored it, leaving the two girls standing on the curb coughing in as much exhaust as you could kick up in a Toyota Prius. Tallulah turned to her cousin. "Sorry about Mom's driving. I haven't got my license yet."
It was shameful, really. She'd be eighteen in less than two months and had only had about two driving lessons. School and superheroing took a lot of time, but plenty of people she knew balanced senshidom with driver's ed. Well, some. Plenty of people she knew also took the subway. "It's a good thing public transportation is so good," she added hastily. "It's super-easy to figure out, and they're switching all the busses to biodiesel soon!"
She smiled uncertainly at Kat. Would she be impressed by that? Would she even care? Tallulah desperately wanted to make a good impression on her cousin - the last time they'd seen each other, they'd been about twelve and seated awkwardly next to each other at Grandma and Grandpa Cowden's 50th wedding anniversary.
"So," she continued, indicating the stretch of storefronts they'd been let off in front of. "This is downtown Destiny City."
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Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:07 am
Kat coughed a few times as she took a few steps back from the road that the car sped off along. She stared down the road for a brief moment, watching as the car drove into the distance. Her aunt Nellie was a strange little lady, she thought to herself; as a matter of fact, this whole city was rather strange.
Kat sort of half-smiled at her cousin as she mentioned not having her license yet. Kat had gotten hers when she turned 17 a few months ago, although now that she was stuck here in Destiny City, a vehicle was something she lacked.
“Nearly 18 and still not driving, huh?” she said, her words emphasized by her English accent. She laughed quietly to herself as she took in the sights of downtown Destiny City. She nodded as Tallulah blabbered on about the subway system and busses. She grew up outside of London, so she didn’t particularly use the subway system there very often- this would be a big change and she cringed at the thought.
“I don’t know which is worse... Aunt Nellie’s driving, or public transportation”, she snickered, not considering the fact that Tallulah may not find that very funny.
With that, she decided to wander down the street to the left of her, assuming Tallulah would follow and show her what was what as it had been years since she’d been here.
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Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:45 am
"Mom's driving," shuddered Tallulah in response. "Trust me." Public transportation was preferable to Nellie's driving any day of the week; Tallulah would rather ride with her dad, but car trips with Angus just lead to awkward conversations.
"Anyway," she declared, following closely behind her cousin. "I'll give you the grand tour. This is the Shufflepuck Cafe," she said, indicating the hippy-dippy love nest in front of them. There were a couple of tables on the sidewalk, but the weather had taken a chilly, autumnal turn and so no one sat there. "It's a restaurant that dresses like my mom."
They kept walking. "All the usual consumer chains," explained Tallulah as they passed a couple of different clothing stores. "The Fissure, Wet Dolphin, Hollystar - let me know if you want to stop anywhere. How are you on winter clothes?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 4:52 pm
Kat wrinkled her nose at the idea that her aunt’s driving actually trumped taking public transportation and snickered at Tallulah’s remark regarding the style of the café they passed by. She stopped in her tracks and thought for a few moments too long regarding her clothing situation. Her right index finger was tapping on her chin as if she was pondering the meaning of life. She then looked down at herself, clothed in shorts and a loose t-shirt, and frowned.
“I guess I do need some winter clothes, now that you mention it!” she laughed out loud and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. She had moved to Destiny City in the summer, and didn't have room for plenty of clothes when she packed. That, and she was more comfortable in fewer clothes- she never understood how girls could spend entire days in jeans so tight they were like a second layer of skin; she was as far from ‘high fashion’ as you could possibly get since most of her money went to the latest and greatest electronics instead.
Kat walked up to the first clothing store that the two of them approached and pressed her nose to the glass window to peer inside, not having the first clue where to begin.
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Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:43 am
Tallulah was actually dressed similarly to her cousin, although she'd tossed a light jacket over her slightly more fitted coat. It seemed they were two of a kind in their preference for shorts over other, more restricting forms of bottoms. "It gets pretty cold here," she nodded. "You'll want a coat, and some snow boots- we can't wear pants with our Meadowview uniforms, so you'll have to get some tights."
"For winter stuff, though," she added as she flipped through the sale rack outside a boutique, "We're better off ordering from Land's End or going to one of the farm outfitting places. Stuff you buy here will fall apart after a few wears."
Yes, she could definitely see why these skirts were 60% off - they were all missing buttons. It only served to prove her point. Growing up in the Cowden household, the mantra had always been that it was better to buy one well-made thing than a bunch of poorly-made things.
"So it doesn't get cold where you've been living?" she asked. "Or you just didn't bring your things?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:12 pm
With her nose still pressed to the window, her warm breath fogged up the glass she was looking through. She shivered as chills ran down her spine at the mention of it getting cold- couldn’t her parents have shipped her off to a tropical city? Not only would it get cold, but she had also had to buy a school uniform with a skirt when she arrived, how ridiculous!
“Alright well… Where can I buy these tights you speak of? I guess we can start with that.” She rubbed her breath-fog off the window with her hand, smearing finger prints all over it and joined Tallulah by her side, flipping through the rack opposite the one her cousin was looking through. She pulled a bright pink shirt off the rack and gave it an odd look before putting it back where she found it; pink was definitely not her color.
“Oh it definitely gets cold there”, she replied. “I was pretty limited to how much I could pack and bring over, so I figured I’d bring summer clothes, along with some necessities, since I’d moved when it was warm.” She stepped away from the sales racks they were looking at and looked up at the shop signs, trying to figure out which store to buy tights at.
“So… Besides shopping and hanging out at hippie cafes, what do you and your mates do around here for shits?”
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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 10:00 pm
Tallulah was torn between letting Kat find out about Destiny City's more supernatural inhabitants on her own, or telling her about them now while she worked out which direction the New Navy was in. Tights would last about the same amount of time regardless of where you bought them, so you'd might as well buy them cheaply.
She decided it was to the left and led them in that direction. She also decided it was in her best interest to give Kat a fair warning about the monsters and terrorists, without giving too much of an indication that she was personally involved.
"Oh, you know," she said, perhaps too casually. "Try not to get attacked by monsters. Try to avoid terrorists in mini-skirts. Fall into mysterious comas. The usual."
She gave Kat a look that said, Oh, you mean you come from somewhere that isn't actively in the middle of an alien invasion?
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:59 am
Kat followed at Tallulah’s heals as the two of them made their way towards New Navy to buy these oh-so necessary tights for the upcoming cold weather. When they arrived at the large store’s doors, she shoved them open quickly and pushed her way through them. She bee-lined through the aisles of the store, searching for a rack of tights; shopping definitely wasn’t her forte and she’d much rather be in and out quickly.
When Tallulah mentioned monsters and terrorists Kat was immediately distracted and tripped over her own feet. She stumbled forward a few feet, crashing into a clothing rack and landing awkwardly in a mess of various shirts. She sat there and stared up at her cousin, mouth open wide.
…
“Monsters? Terrorists?” She had the most ridiculous, confused expression on her face that anyone could possibly imagine. “Terrorists in mini-skirts?” Kat genuinely had no idea how to process this information. Was Tallulah being serious or was this some sort of ‘welcome to the city, new girl’ kind of joke?
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 10:16 am
Tallulah looked blankly at her cousin, then offered her a hand up. "You mean you hadn't heard?" she asked. Maybe there was a government coverup - surely the rest of the world knew what was going on in Destiny City! She knew for certain that other parts of the country did, but then Kat's parents probably wouldn't have let her move here if they'd know what was going on.
"I can show you videos and news articles when we get home," she sighed, sheepishly pulling the rack upright and straightening the hangers. It was only right to fix it - working in retail was bad enough without picking up after teenaged girls, she figured. "And you know how I was sick this summer? I was in a coma. Lots of people were."
"No kidding," she declared, and headed for a display at the end of the aisle. "Ah!" she exclaimed. "Tights! Our uniform is that horrible shade of orange... gray matches best, I've seen some people pull off rainbow stripes, though--"
No points for the rainbow striped tights having been worn by a boy. Tallulah held up a package for Kat's approval. "Argyle's always nice."
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 10:41 am
Kat took Tallulah’s hand and pushed herself up to her feet, dusting herself off. She blushed at her clumsiness and helped her cousin pick up the shirts that were scattered all over the floor. She rolled her eyes at Tallulah and shook her head- this was impossible! There’s no way that there were actually monsters running around in Destiny City, while the rest of the world was completely oblivious. …Right?
“Sure, Tallulah… Whatever you say!” she laughed at her cousin’s insistence upon showing her videos and articles to prove her point. “Comas I can believe- accidents happen! But monsters? Don’t you think that’s a little much?”
Kat wrinkled her nose at the argyle tights and grabbed 3 pairs off of the display: one black, one grey, and one white. Simple was best, she figured; all they had to do was keep her legs warm when she had to wear that ridiculous orange uniform.
“So what happened? Did you get hit in the head or something?” she looked her cousin over, trying to find some sort of sign of trauma from the summer that had just passed. “People don’t just fall into comas.” She laughed to herself and began walking up to the register, waiting for Tallulah to explain what on earth happened to her (and apparently several others).
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 11:20 am
Here Tallulah had to backtrack and play innocent civilian. While Europa had a fairly good idea of what had happened, Tallulah Cowden didn't know any more than the average citizen. "They think it might have been a chemical leak or a biological attack," she shrugged, grabbing two pairs of heather gray tights and a pair of navy striped ones and following her cousin to the register.
"I didn't get hit in the head," she added fiercely. "I can show you the news articles. It was a really big thing."
Had there been some kind of coverup? she wondered as they paid for their clothes. She knew that goings-on in Destiny City were strange, but she hadn't thought the entire outside world might weirdness censor the whole thing and - oh no, she'd written her Dartmouth essay about the weirdness!
"Okay," she conceded as they left the store. "Even if you don't believe me about the monsters, you still should be careful.There's something weird going on around here, and I'm not the only one who thinks so! Ask anyone in the street. They'll tell you the same thing."
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 1:31 pm
“A chemical leak? Biological attack?” Kathryn snerked and grinned at her cousin. “Are you sure you didn’t get hit on the head? If something that huge happened in a place as big and prominent as Destiny City, don’t you think the rest of the world would’ve heard about it?”
She paid the cashier, grabbed her bag of tights and turned to her cousin while she paid for her purchases of the day. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at her for a few moments too long- that icky length of time when the staring sort of borderlines on uncomfortable for the other person- while she was deep in thought. As Tallulah went on about news articles and Kat not believing her, it hit her!
The second Tallulah paid the cashier, Kat grabbed her by the wrist and practically dragged her out of the store. If there really were monsters and terrorists and attacks that the rest of the world had absolutely no clue about, Kat wanted to be in on it.
“Let’s go back to your place. I believe you … Sort of. If all of this is true then I wanna be involved. Isn’t there some sort of anti-terrorist group or something? Have you ever encountered a monster? How long were you in a coma for?”
Kat trailed off, rambling on and on about kicking some terrorist a** as she pulled Tallulah to the street side. She was absolutely determined to find out all about this supernatural weird s**t going on in Destiny City – little did she know she’d end up a lot more involved.
((Did you wanna end it with one more post from you, or continue?))
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 7:51 pm
"The whole summer!" snapped Tallulah while she dug around in her purse for her phone. "I missed finals, advanced placement exams - everything! I woke up three weeks before school started."
At least it seemed like Kat was finally taking this seriously, but now she was faced with disguising her own involvement. "I've seen a few monsters," she shrugged as she dialed her mother's number. "I was in a coffee shop once that got attacked. And Meadowview gets vandalized sometimes."
She paused and spoke briefly into her phone, then snapped it shut and turned to the other girl. "Mom says she'll meet us in front of the super market," she said. "It's this way."
Tallulah had lots of files on the attacks. Kat didn't have to see the board - no one besides the Basterds would ever see the board if she could help it, but there were plenty of clippings that hadn't made it. And it was anything short of her civic duty to educate her cousin - or else Kat might wind up as one of those girls lying in the morgue with their starseeds ripped out.
"The important thing is to just keep aware of your surroundings," she shrugged. "It's just like any other big city after a while."
((Sounds like a wrap to me. smile ))
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