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Post by masquerade on Feb 3, 2010 23:39:12 GMT -5
It had been a normal day. Well, as normal as Toria could hope it to be. It was one of those rare days where Masquerade wasn't nagging at the back of her mind to go kill a cat or something obscene like that. She had been wearing the same cheerful grin ever since she entered the mall. She was ready to go shopping! Not just clothes shopping (though that was on the list too) but book shopping! Her library at home had dwindled to about two books she needed to read: Hamlet and Dante's Inferno, neither of which she was too psyched about reading. She'd heard Dante's Inferno was hard and Hamlet was boring. Since those were the only two she hadn't read, she concluded she needed some more books.
With a spring in her step, the girl with pink hair moved quickly toward the stairs that would take her to the book store that she so dearly craved. There was a specific book she wanted that she'd heard was really, really good and so she had to get it. She was somewhat of a sucker for books. She loved them for the longest time and took pride in her collection but this book, she had to buy. The only reason she had to buy it was because she loved the Septimus Heap series because it was so cute.
Toria walked up the stairs, feeling very cheerful as she came out on the landing directly in front of the tiny book store that book worms like her frequented. She brushed some of her hair back, for once not noticing the men that swooned around her. She wanted the book because that was Victoria Napier and there was no Masquerade telling her to forgo the book and kill a cat. She almost laughed, loving the way she was somewhat free. She smiled at the female clerk, ignoring the bitterness that arose at the sight of her. Instead, she sashayed toward the young readers' section to find the book she wanted.
And her day was ruined. "Freakin' A!" she snarled in annoyance, a scowl marring her pretty face. "Freakin'. A. Why isn't the book here? I came all this way and for what? Freakin' A."
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Post by terra on Feb 3, 2010 23:50:56 GMT -5
Terra wasn't having such a hot day. For starters, she was somewhat hungover. Her friends convinced her that it would be a super idea to go out and get trashed the day before they all had a ton of homework to do. Another thing that contributed to her crappy day was that Terra loathed reading. Absolutely loathed it. So when they were all assigned the first Harry Potter book for homework, it had taken all of her willpower to keep from causing the windows to burst and blaming it on "an omen that we shouldn't have to read the Harry Potter books."
She stalked into the mall and paused outside of Victoria's Secret to catch her reflection. Her messy blond hair was in a high ponytail. She was wearing thick, patterned Miss Sixty shorts, a grey t-shirt, and a fitted suit jacket, taken from her friend Anna's funeral wardrobe. A pair of shiny aviators completed the look and shielded her eyes from the world. Yeah, she'd worn them in the mall to keep the glare of the sun away from her. Wanna make something of it?
"I'm being a d-bag. I'm wearing sunglasses indoors. You know why? Because I'm Terra. Freaking. Markov." She said mentally, staring straight ahead and brushing coldly past the clerk at the bookstore.
The young reader section was deserted except for one other girl. Without a glance her way Terra walked to the shelf directly opposite of her and scanned the shelves. At the other girl's outburst Terra didn't say anything but raised her eyebrows as high as they would go, letting out a noticeably exasperated sigh. Most girls pissed her off anyway, but with a hangover and the other person's sickly-sweet appearance, this girl was asking for a beating.
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Post by masquerade on Feb 4, 2010 0:11:57 GMT -5
That was great. Just. Freaking. Great. Victoria lived on the other side of town from the mall for pity's sake! And they didn't. Have. Her. Book! What was up with that? Oh, she had a bone to pick with the clerk now. That just ruined her day. She found herself wishing violently for Masquerade to speak in the back of her head, to whisper mean nothings, to tell her to go hurt the clerk. On her own, she would only verbally abuse the woman but with Mask urging her, she would beat her senseless. Standing, Toria brushed some of her pink hair from her eyes. She turned and almost jumped, not having noticed the other girl enter the young reader's section. The other had her eye brows raised very high, most likely at her outburst.
Paying the blond no mind, Toria rounded on the clerk who had approached. Her expression was fixed in worry at Toria's yell and she smiled nervously. With a bitter grin, Victoria spoke in a true Rachael Dent worthy tone. "Excuse me, ma'am, you seem to be lacking a copy of the book I'm looking for. It's called Physik and I was told you'd have it in today." Oh would Rachael Dent nee Dawes be so proud of her daughter who was trying to hold her temper of being denied what she wanted back. Victoria was rarely denied what she wanted but here it was... Also known as life that faced her down in a way that came across as 'Hey Look I'm Life Here to Whoop Your Perky Ass!' Not waiting for a reply, Toria continued bitterly. "You listen well, lady," she snarled, "your boss, yeah, your boss. He told me my book would be in today. I. Don't. See. It." With a perky grin and a perky tone, she finished. "Fix it."
With that, the pinkette turned back to the young readers' books, looking over another random series she'd never really been interested in. She'd never liked the name 'Percy' and so the annoying series with that name in it was a definite no but at least it distracted her from the store clerk and gave her time to calm down. And Mask's voice hadn't come back which was really sort of bugging her. She grew on hearing 'kill the bitch' and 'beat the boy' in the back of her mind when she got angry. She could due to hear it now but, as Life was continuously showing her, she couldn't have everything. Not even with her blessed angel powers. She glanced at the blond to see what book series she was in front of. Wizards and magic... She didn't peg the blond as that kind of book reader but really, she never could tell these days.
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Post by terra on Feb 4, 2010 0:35:24 GMT -5
Terra tried to ignore the girl's ranting and raving but it was very difficult. Her pounding temples weren't responding well to the noise. Besides, she really didn't understand what the hell all the fuss was about anyway. They were in the Young Reader's Section for god's sake. Little kids shopped here. Unfortunately there wasn't an "awkward teenager" section that housed books between kid and adult tastes, so they shoved the Harry Potter novels in with the child's books. And this child who apparently had bipolar disorder was hell-bent on screaming at the salesclerk in order to get a kid's book. Divas irritated Terra to the core. She'd never been one for drama.
"I can't help you find your book," Terra said, in a pseudo-kind tone, "But there's a pharmacy next door and they can help you find some Valium."
She looked up and locked eyes with the other girl. Not that it mattered, since her silver shade glinted impassively in the light. Terra glanced behind her. The clerk was still at her station, busy not giving a crap about the two kids in her store. Had she not been hungover, Terra probably wouldn't have bothered bitching at the other customer in the store, but as it was she was extremely irritable.
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Post by masquerade on Feb 4, 2010 0:48:26 GMT -5
"I can't help you find your book but there's a pharmacy next door and they can help you find some Valium."
Toria sighed. Regrettably, she did have Valium in the cupboard at home. In fact, it was stocked intensely. Therefore, with that in mind, Toria was a little less offended. She smiled cheerfully at the blond, not worrying about how she should react or even act like she did with Wally. No, but she was concerned. Not for the blond girl. Hell no. She was concerned for Masquerade. She laughed the grating laughter reserved for Masquerade, shocking herself that it was still able to come out loudly and clearly without her alter ego whispering to her.
"Regrettably," she answered, "I have enough at home else I would go get some." She rolled her eyes upward, brushing her hair away again. She was considering getting it cut. Oh well. She turned away from the blond and stared at the books one the shelves once more. She could always just pray. She could pray to God that he would give her the book she wanted but she doubted he would waste his love on such a trivial thing and she would just have to wait for the restocking of the stupid series. She started liking it when she was 12 but had neglected to touch up on the series until the last year.
She closed her eyes, sighing. "Look," she said coolly, "you keep your mouth shut, little girl and I'll keep mine shut until I get out of here." Like she was going to keep that promise. She just wanted some good old fashioned bantering that wasn't fighting with the harebrained heroes and usually winning. Old fashioned banter was what she craved and she could only hope the blond would give her the banter (albeit it wasn't going to be friendly) that she wanted.
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Post by terra on Feb 4, 2010 1:20:29 GMT -5
Terra pursed her lips at the reply. It did take a bit of the wind out of her sails that the girl was actually on Valium, after all. Ah well. There were plenty of other things to insult, such as her outfit. It looked like a meth-addicted stripper had picked it out. Terra silently continued thumbing through the books for a moment as she contemplated if she wanted to engage the other person or not. What was there to lose? The girl obviously didn't recognize her. If she did she probably would have mentioned something. Terra's paranoia, while excessive, wasn't entirely unjustified. After all, the Titans had recognized her and so had a few other people, annoyingly enough. And she really didn't need that kind of attention.
"Little girl?" Terra asked, snorting derisively, "You're the one who looks like a twelve-year-old hooker, not me."
She raised her sunglasses to catch another look at the ridiculous outfit and raised her eyebrows again. There were some strange people with some strange clothes in the world. The current girl's attire brought to mind Starfire, who couldn't fathom why she was getting catcalls and obscene whistles everywhere she went due to her lack of clothing.
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Post by masquerade on Feb 4, 2010 21:06:32 GMT -5
A twelve year old hooker?! That definitely wasn't the look she was going for. Hell, she randomly picked clothes from her closet to wear. She only knew what she was wearing when someone wolf whistled at her and she was confused so she had to look down. She glanced down at herself, her brows furrowed in confusion. Oh. She was wearing that outfit. The 'Lala Candy Canes and Apples and Cheer and Happiness' outfit that revealed way too much skin. She laughed. There was nothing to retaliate that with.
"Me, twelve year old hooker, hon, we go hand in hand." She grinned her large grin and peered curiously at the blond. "But you... And your sunglasses indoors. Mercy's sake, girl, it's not making a fashion statement. It's practically announcing 'I have a hangover!' when you do that!" It was kind of obvious but since they were doing jabs at attire, the blond's sunglasses were first pick to the pinkette. Really, who wasn't hungover that didn't wear sunglasses? And the other girl was, what, ten? Ten year olds weren't supposed to go get smashed. Even Toria wasn't old enough to drink so she didn't.
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Post by terra on Feb 4, 2010 21:19:36 GMT -5
Terra rolled her eyes. Just like Starfire, the other girl was completely oblivious to the fact that she looked like a prostitute or a loli-con girl. Or both. At her next statement Terra had to sigh out of exasperation. Captain Obvious strikes again.
"Duh I have a hangover," she snapped, ripping off the sunglasses and pointing to her face, "It's a lot better than going around looking like this."
There were dark circles around her eyes she wasn't wearing any makeup. She had been last night of course, but that had been rubbed off. She was probably still wearing mascara though, since Terra had used a resilient waterproof variety yesterday evening. Her eyes were bloodshot and were currently watering from exposure to the sunlight filtering in through the windows.
"The only "fashion statement" I'm trying to make is that I'm hungover as hell, and I'm just trying to get in here and get out. But I can't do that because this store apparently decided that it would be a really hot idea to carry every Harry Potter book but the first one!"
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Post by masquerade on Feb 4, 2010 21:43:08 GMT -5
It was amusing to see the blond snap at her. And then it sunk in what she said. She was looking for Harry Potter. Victoria owned the whole series in pairs at home. She had to, of course, because when Masquerade was still in control and got home, she shredded Toria's book collection. Oops. She had been in yesterday and bought the last copies of all of the Harry Potter books. Best not mention that. She stared at the hungover girl, pondering.
"If that's all you wanted, you should have said something. I have a copy I can give you," the pinkette spoke, giving up on the blond entirely. She ended up just pretty much yelling. Besides, she was far to tired. It seemed like her alter ego was her energy source. She had to be on constant alert to be able to fend of Mask's taking over her mind but without the voice, Toria was really just very tired.
She yawned, covering her mouth as she waited for the blond's answer. She would probably yell more seeing as she was the yelling-and-bitchy type of person from what Toria had seen of her.
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Post by terra on Feb 5, 2010 23:49:23 GMT -5
"Whatever," Terra said with a sigh, shoving her glasses on the top of her head to scan the books better, "Hey, do you have the first Harry Potter?" She yelled over at the clerk.
This had to be the lamest bookstore ever. If not the lamest then the smallest and most random. They had a bunch of stuff no one had ever heard of but they didn't have the classics? Weird. Not that she was in a position to judge bookstores or anything. Terra probably wouldn't read at all if it wasn't required for school.
"Yeah, here," the clerk said finally, walking over to the girls and handing Terra a paperback copy of the book.
"Thanks."
"Hey, do I know you from somewhere?" The lady asked curiously, squinting at Terra's face, "You look really familiar."
"No," she said through gritted teeth, "You don't. We've never met. Can you please just ring up my book?"
Terra shoved the book and twenty dollars at the woman, who took it with a shrug and walked away. She snapped her sunglasses back down on her face and folded her arms. Going out in public was always a toss-up. It was less risky as the years went by, but there was always that oddball who'd watched the news when everyone else had been evacuating, and remembered her face somehow.
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