2011-04-23: Yabbering In The Mall

Players:

Kieran_icon.jpg kevinp_icon.jpg Hunter_icon.jpg

Summary: It's just a typical weekend trip to the mall for Kieran, Kevin and Hunter.

Date: April 23, 2011

Log Title: Yabbering in the Mall

Rating: PG


Westchester, Salem Center Mall

On the far end of the Food Court lays the long, wide hallway of the Mall. Oversized skylights let the sunlight pour in during the day, while the florescent bulbs light the Mall at night. This hall has a number of kiosks, selling anything from cheap jewelry to car stickers to on-the-spot portraits, along with them come a number of benches and let's not forget the store fronts calling out to the consumers with their bright lights and attention-drawing displays.


The end of Kevin's first week of school finds the boy wandering around the mall. He's had a fairly good week, meeting a lot of new people and learning new things. Now, Saturday evening, the young mutant is braving the mall to buy a new journal as a treat for not totally freaking out with the new situation. He's dressed in a pair of light blue skinny jeans and a green t-shirt, a bag from the book store in one hand and a pretzel in the other. He makes his way over to a bench and lowers himself to sit on the edge as he nibbles on the starchy treat and just settles in to people watch for a while.

Adjusting the flatcap that's perched on his head, Kieran's braved the mall in a very unfamiliar city for him. Rolling his shoulders slightly to get the tension from out behind his shoulders as he begins wandering around the mall with his hands tucked into the pockets of his sweater jacket and looking pretty calm all things considered for someone in totally unfamiliar territory, if anything the young teen has a confidence about him.

It's the weekend which means a lot of people flood the mall in search of this or that. In the case of the Aussie wandering out of the nearest music store he was out to pick up some music, maybe a few new books, and have a bite to eat. Hunter doesn't stick out in a crowd with his shorn head, Metallica t-shirt and jeans, with a motorcycle backpack hanging off a shoulder. Wanting to read up on a dvd insert the man cuts through the crowd of shoppers to stand in front of the bench where Kevin sits. "G'day. Mind if I sit 'ere a bit?"

Spying the blond boy he met at school, Kevin offers Kieran a little wave and a bright smile. The taller boy's hand quickly slaps down on the bag in his lap as it starts to slide to the floor, wincing when a small child shrieks down the hall a ways and rubbing one ear against his shoulder for a moment. Loud sound: Man that hurt! He's distracted by discomfort, so doesn't notice Hunter's approach until he's already standing in front of him, looking up sharply, "What?" He blushes faintly, "Oh, yeah. Sure." He flashes a bright smile, sliding farther over towards the end of the bench so that there's plenty of room for the man to sit as well, "Help yourself."

"Hey Kev!" Kieran calls out as the approaches the taller boy that he's only recently actually met. Hands are kept in the pocket of the jacket. "What's up dude?" He asks curiously, before glancing to Hunter for a second. He nods slightly in greeting towards the man but doesn't say anything to him before he says,"Thought I'd see if they had any sheet music stores. Wanted to get some blanks and some stuff to look at."

"Thanks mate," Hunter clips then seats himself at the end of the bench. The dangling backpack is slipped off his shoulder to be placed between booted feet. With insert in hand he thumbs it open to read the first page. Glancing up to see the approach of another teen Hunter rubs the tip of his tongue across his bottom lip then nods in the direction of the young man. Not meaning to intrude on the conversation he interrupts politely then offers up, "Store cross the way there 'as a bit of that. In the back up against a wall near the posters."

Kevin shakes his head, grinning at Kieran, "Nothing much, really. Just hanging out and buying some books." He nods to Hunter, "Sure. It's a free country, after all, right?" Something he's learned recently, that. He starts to respond to the other teen's question, having spent quite a bit of time in this mall in the last year, but falls silent when the man answers instead and nods in agreement, "The book store has some blank sheet music, too. I saw some in the section with their journals." He glances over at Hunter for a moment, "Do you mind if I ask where you're from, sir?" With that accent, he sure isn't from around here!

"Cool. Get any good books then?" Kieran asks Kevin curiously before glancing towards Hunter and nodding,"Yeah. I was going to head there in a little bit. Right now just wandering about trying to get used to this place." He says laughing a little bit. Using the back of his right hand to knock his hat up a little bit and shake a few strands of hair out from under it. "Cool. I may check the book store as well and see who has a better price tag on them."

Hunter flourishes the dvd insert in front of himself, "Naww, s'alrigt. I came to this city by way of Australia." Turns on the bench to face the teens. "Whereabouts the two of you from? Can n'er tell in New York if people are from round town or from some place far off."

The taller teen nods, grinning as he takes a bite of the pretzel. Kevin pulls out a couple of older (and probably lame by most standards) young adult fantasy novels and a simple, leather bound unlined journal, "I just went in for a new journal, but these sounded interesting." He looks over at Hunter, his attention grabbed by the movement of the insert, interest lighting in his eyes at the revelation about where the adult is from, "Cool!" He grimaces a little at the question about where he's from and shrugs one shoulder, "I lived in Miami up until last year. Then I moved here."

"Ohio, land of the dullness." Kieran says shrugging a little bit,"If you've never been to Ohio then you should count yourself lucky." He says laughing softly as he slides hands back into the pockets of his jacket,"Cool. I don't know if I've read those actually, but everyone has different things that they like to read." He says casually, before glancing more towards Hunter,"And most New Yorkers have specific ways they talk…"

Thumbing through the glossy pages of the insert Hunter slips a finger between two pages as he learns where the teens are from. "Ahh, so one's from a party city an'the other is from some place better left to its own devices. I've not been out of New York since I came over to the States." No real need to go visiting the contiguous states as he's not the wandering tourist type. To Kieran, "Dunno bout that. Can definitely tell someone from Jersey though. Maybe I'll pick up on it a bit more if I 'ang around 'eh?"

Kevin gives an uncomfortable little shrug at the mention of a party city and shakes his head, "I pretty much stayed on the church compound… I never actually went into Miami…" He looks over at Kieran and offers a wry smile, "I think I'd rather have grown up in Ohio, personally." Then there might not have been as many people around when he went insane. His smile turns into a real grin as he slips the books back into the bag, "If you want, I'll let you borrow them when I'm finished reading them." Hunter gets a nod, "Yeah. I really haven't left town since I got here, myself."

“You'd be surprised by how irritating Ohio is." Kieran says laughing a little bit. "If you'd grown up in ohio you'd probably have wanted to be in anywhere else. Well not anywhere but if you'd been in Miami for real, you'd probably have preferred it." He says smiling at Kevin,"Your church compound was probably about as much fun as a lot of people in Ohio have." He says casually, before looking at Hunter,"Well depending on the accent you hear they may be from Bronx, or Brooklyn, or anywhere else. All of the US has different accents."

Hunter listens to the boys talk about where they're from while tucking the dvd insert back into the plastic shell of a case. "Bit of a mess if you ask me. With e'eryone sportin different accents it gets a bit confusin." The dvd case is snapped shut before the bag between his feet is lifted up and opened so that he can tuck that away in order to continue shopping about the various mall stores. "Maybe I ought to visit Ohio. I could do witha bit-a borin."

"Well it might be a bit of boring but it's also rather crazy. They're superconservative and pretty much most things that are cool other places haven't even reach there yet." Kieran says shrugging a little bit,"Least down in Cincinnati. Heck. There's a joke that if the world ended tomorrow, it'd end a century later in Cincinnati." He adds smirking a little bit,"And yes. The accents and the things people say vary a lot."

"Hmm," the Australian thinks aloud. "Doesn't sound all that different from a place I stayed fer a bit back 'ome. Was a remote place though nothin like where you're from so ahh never mind not the same thing at all turns out." Nervous laughter has Hunter closing up his pack, shouldering it again and rising up from the bench. "I'm just glad I've got jobs where I'm the strong silent type an'most people don't e'en know I'm there for the most part." Peering about the area he finds that he's no recollection of where the nearest bookstore is. "Either of you know where the bookstore is from 'ere?"

"Well Ohio's not exactly remote, it's just sort of insular." Kieran says shrugging a little bit,"They tend more to the microcosm there." He says seriously,"I mean a lot of areas haven't changed in decades just because people didn't want things to be any different than they originally were." He says stretching slightly, "I'm Kieran." He says absently towards Hunter, offering a hand in greeting now.

Hunter hesitates then slowly shakes the young mans hand. Kieran will feel a faint sort of tingling pressure then as the older mans hand is removed the sensation goes away. "Hunter, pleasure t'meet you Kieran. I'm from Melbie, Melbourne. Some of the city remains old an'beat up but most of it is has kept up with the times. Fraid I'm gonna 'ave t'cut out on you an'yer friend 'ere. Was nice yabberin with ya."

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