2007-02-29: Alien Poetry With Tremors

Starring:

Cass_icon.gif Lachlan_icon.gif Elena_icon.gif Claudine_icon.gif DL_icon.gif

Summary:

Both Elena and Lachlan come into Enlightenment Books to talk to Cass. Lachlan asks Cass out in the Most Awkward Way Possible and Elena runs out before getting a chance to ask what she wanted. Claudine, terrified from being shot, comes into the store for Activating Evolution and makes everything shake. D.L. cameos to save the day.

Date It Happened: February 29th, 2007

Alien Poetry With Tremors


Enlightenment Books

It's stretching into the late afternoon and Enlightenment Books is having one of it's busy times. People are out of work and stop by the browse around and read before heading back home. Cass has made the small circuit of the store making sure that everyone is helped and doesn't need help finding anything. Once that's accomplished, the store owner heads back to the information counter. She perches on her seat, ready to jump up should anyone require assistance.

Of all the places in New York, a bookstore is probably one of the last in which one would expect to find Lachlan Deatley. He's not a big reader. In fact, he doesn't even read the newspaper (well … maybe the comics) if he can help it. So maybe his motives for returning to Enlightenment Books are a bit suspect, but he's got nothing better to do, really. He opens the door a bit tentatively and peeks inside, leash held in his bandaged hand. His face and head is still wrapped, and he wears his usual ragged ensemble. After peering around the store and seeing the late-afternoon crowd, he balks a bit, but then pushes on into the shop, Padfoot in tow. He doesn't move for a shelf but instead heads straight for the counter and Cass, smiling slightly. "Hey."

Cass certainly wasn't expecting the Scot to stop by her store any time soon. He didn't really seem like the reading type the few times they talked. And, of course, she might be right on that count since he doesn't seem to take any interest in the shelves. "Hey," she greets, smiling right back at him. "May I help you?" That's said with a little bit of a laugh in her voice, as she's mostly kidding. Of course, if he really /is/ here only for a book question, then she certainly will help him find that.

The door swings open, and Elena comes in, taking a breath and shaking out the flakes of snow from her cap and hair. The college student looks around, sighing appreciatively at the warm coziness as she adjusts her backpack and walks further in. She gives a small smile to Cass….and really hopes that she doesn't sound weird with what she's about to say. "Hi, Cass!" she says cheerfully, approaching the counter with a quick pace. As always, despite everything, she looks remarkably lighthearted. On the outside anyway. "Listen I was wondering if— oh, I'm sorry." There was a customer before her, she didn't want to be rude! But when she catches a glimpse of his profile, her eyes round into dinner plates, recognizing the Scot who tried to ask her out at the coffeehouse.

New York…is a very, very, very small town.

But this /is/ a bookstore, and to avoid looking and sounding like a /complete/ idiot, Lachlan has come up with A Plan. A Plan of Action. Which involves a book. He grins a bit sheepishly at the greeting he gets in response, and lifts his free hand to scratch at the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah, uh," he starts in a low and decidedly less-than-characteristic voice, "was wonderin' if ye had a book." In a bookstore? Unheard of! Before he can elaborate, however, another person enters the conversation, and the Scot turns to stare at Elena. It takes him a moment to place her, but once he does, he becomes less of a nervous schoolboy and more his usual self. "Oh, hey," he greets. "Bloody hell, 's a small world, eh?"

Someone cheerily calling her by name catches Cass' attention. She looks over Lachlan's shoulder and beams at Elena when she sees the young woman entering the store. "Hey Elena!" When she cuts herself off, she looks between Lachlan and Elena and shakes her head. "No, it's fine. I'll be right with you and you can wonder as much as you want." She misses her expression when the other woman catches sight of Lachlan, because she's already turned back to talk to him. When she does so, it's with an amused grin. Looking for a book. "A book, hm? I'm not sure I can help you with that one." Then, she looks curiously between Lachlan and Elena. "You two know each other?"

Her eyes are still O.O as Elena gapes at Lachlan, until finally she gives him a sheepish grin. "Ah…yeah," she says with a laugh, rubbing the back of her neck. "Small world. I've been getting that a lot lately. So….how are you?" God, this is awwwwwwwwwwwkwaaaard. She looks over at Cass and she shakes her head. "Just in passing. He comes in my Starbucks sometimes," she tells Cass. And no, she totally doesn't bring up that incident. No one needs to know. Especially Cass. Because Cass talks to her father, and Papa can read minds and drives a van and doesn't brake for small animals. "Ah…I'll ….just….check a few things out over here," she says, inching over to the side.

Awkward? Lachlan doesn't know the meaning of the word. Usually. Right now, however, he can sense a bit of unease and it throws off the masterful groove he had going on five seconds ago. "Uh, yeah. Starbucks." He latches onto Elena's explanation with a broad grin. The less said about that, the better. The Scot turns his attention back to Cass when she speaks to him about a book, and the jitteriness returns. He doesn't /usually/ do these sorts of things. Brazen hitting-on in bars (and Starbucks) is more his style. "Yeah, uh. Book. A book. 'S, uh … Burns. Robert Burns." He had to call Megan to get the name of an author of some sort, and the Scottish poet is the name she gave him. Obviously, he doesn't realize the difference between occult books and the sort you'd find in Borders.

Cass finally notices Elena's gaping at Lachlan and her confusion deepens. The glances between the two are slower as she studies both of their demeanors. Interesting. She takes the explanation given at face value, though she can tell that there's something more that's not being said here. Knowing how Lachlan is, or at least how he was when they met, she can make some assumptions of her own. Very interesting. She smiles at Elena kindly and nods, letting the girl out of the conversation as she so obviously wants to do. "Alright. I'll be right with you, really." She watches where she's heading and then waves Elena over quickly so she can murmur. "Watch out for the guy in the trenchcoat. He tries to read people's auras by putting his hands on their butts." The more you know. Lachlan's jitteriness is slightly endearing and she smiles at the question, trying to put him more at ease. It's what she does. "The Scottish poet?" she asks to confirm. It's a common name, but that's the one that pops up readily in her head. "I don't have anything by him. Actually, I don't really have any poetry unless it pertains to aliens abducting cows and humans. Which, surprisingly enough, there is some of. I found a great limerick about it the other day."

"….." Elena glances at the customer with the trenchcoat, furrowing her brows. "Thanks for the warning," she murmurs to Cass. She steps away, and flashes another sheepishawkward sort o grin at Lachlan, before she moves along. Though when the Scotsman names an author, and Cass tells him what sort of poetry her store carries, she can barely keep down a choke of laughter. How does one compose poetry about aliens abducting cows? She thinks about this for a bit.

And by the light of the saucer's prow
The carrier beam goes down and plucks a cow?

All I see is white
By an alien being
There were twenty cows?

There once was a man from Venus…

Okay she better stop.

Oh. Well. Huh. Lachlan didn't /have/ a Plan B to deal with the possibility of Cass not having anything by Robert Burns. Hmm. He probably should've thought this through a little more. /Now/ things are awkward. He stares at Cass for several silent moments as though she just told him that bananas are not yellow. Cows? Aliens? Abducting? Seeing as he doesn't know Robert Burns' body of work, he doesn't rightly /know/ if the man wrote about such things. The Scot finally manages to find his voice, though it starts out a bit hoarsely: "Oh. Uh. A'righ'. 'll have ta check somewhere else." Wow, that was incredibly lame. He turns as though ready to walk out, pauses, scowls, then turns around again to face Cass with a Very Determined expression. "Look. Ye wanna go out fer coffee sometime?" There. He said it.

Cass catches Elena's choke of laughter and tosses a grin in her direction. But, then it's back to helping Lachlan with his book dilemma. The look and silence he's giving her is one she's waiting for him to fill since she's not sure what exactly he's trying to get it. Especially since he looks so confused about what she just said. Finally, he speaks and she can respond as helpfully as she can. "I'm pretty sure the Barnes and Noble up a couple blocks would have it. It's pretty big." When he turns, she shrugs, ready to turn to Elena to see what the college girl came in to ask her about when he comes back with that Expression on his face. The question actually floors her and she stares blankly at him for a couple of minutes, blinking. Did he just ask her out? Seriously? She's answering before her brain has really caught up. "I, uh, okay. Sure. Coffee." Did she just agree? To go to coffee with a man who was arrested for drug charges? Oh man. Well, it's just coffee.

She flashes a grin back at Cass, but she lets this song and dance play out, and Elena can't help but look half amused, and yet feel somewhat envious. Ah….if only things were that simple. Papa doesn't brake for small animals, remember? That, and she usually didn't look for it. But seeing how easy (well, it -seemed- easy. Lachlan got it out, didn't he? Even if he does look a little constipated - but that's nothing some FiberSure in his coffee can't fix) it seemed for other people made her wish she had the time. Oh well, back to Science. She turns away to run her fingers through the books, pursing her lips. She had to roll her eyes at her father the other day when he brought back home Telepathy For Dummies. What the hell did the author know about Telepathy? Her dad was the -real- deal. The only way he's going to learn about his abilities is if someone examined him while he was using them.

She pauses, picking up a book. 'In Search of Dark Matter' by Ken Freeman. She stares at it for a while, inspiration slowly spiraling in her brain.

Well! That didn't go /entirely/ as expected, but Lachlan at least got the answer he was hoping for. One he /probably/ could have gotten over the phone, just to save himself the embarrassment and coming in here and acting like an utter moron. Robert Burns. Fuh. The Scotsman bobs his head, lips still contorted into a determined frown (because the more one frowns, the more stalwart and dignified they are, obviously). "Good. A'righ'. 'll … uh. Call ye. 'R mebbe we can do it t'morrow?" He has clearly never really done this sort of things before. Setting up dates is a foreign concept. Maybe Cass has a book on that? Dating is part of the mystical occult, right?

This is a whole new turn of events for Cass. He seems to be…actually serious about this being a date thing. He's…nervous and stuff. Or, maybe this is just one of his ploys? She's not sure. He's certainly acting very different from the man she tried to seduce and pick pocket. "Um, yeah. I'd be okay with that. Both." His nervousness is starting to feed into her own. "Er, the calling and the going tomorrow. There's a coffee place right around the corner."

Ah, good. Things are going his way! Lachlan is slowly becoming a little less nervous, though he really, /really/ would like to just dash out the door right now. This is an improvement, believe it or not; initially, he wanted to dash out the door and run into oncoming traffic. "A'righ', great. We can talk. 'Bout the necklace an' the knife." It sounds like a cover-up — the "This Is Not A Romantic Date" sort of cover-up — but it is quite transparent. "'ll pick ye up … uh. When d'ye close?" He probably should've checked the store hours before coming in.

"Right. The necklace and the knife." Cass finally finds herself on more solid ground when she can gently tease the man about his choice of words and of cover up. However, she looks amused again by the situation again, in a good way. And even if it is a cover up, it's definitely a subject that she's okay with discussing in further detail. "I close at 8. So, I'll see you then?"

Necklace? Knife? What about a necklace and knife? Elena looks up to glance over at Cass and Lachlan curiously, before setting the book down and moving down the store. She doesn't want to interrupt the crazy kids, so she tries to go around subtly to start stepping for the door. She doesn't think much of it - it sounds like a book, even if it did remind her of her mother's case. It could be anything, no need to leap on a Scotsman over it. >.>
For the first time since Lachlan spouted the words "ye wanna go out fer coffee sometime", he smiles. It's not a /big/ smile, but it's still a smile, and it's noticeable. "Yeah, a'righ', then. Eigh'. 'll see ye then!" And with that, he takes his dog and his fluttery stomach and heads out the door, thus ending one of the most awkward interactions in the history of Men.

Cass smiles back at Lachlan, watching him walk out of the store. "See you then." Awkward, yes. But, now it's over and she can marvel in what just happened. She kind of feels like she just watched a trainwreck. She takes a moment to collect her thoughts and while she does so, she notices Elena sneakily making her way for the door. "Hold it right here, chica," she points right at her. "You had a question for me. And I feel bad about totally getting distracted. So come back over here."

She looks over at Cass and she grins. Elena opens her mouth….but then her cellphone blasts a familiar ringer. She frowns, picking it up - the cherry red phone with the cartoon ninja on the LCD display - and answers it. "Hello?" She pauses….and her eyes widen. "Already??" She checks her watch, and blanches. "Alright I'll be there ASAP." She snaps her phone shut and looks at Cass. "I'll be back on the way home if you're still here, but I gotta run. I'm supposed to meet a friend, and Papa needs me home for dinner." She grins sheepishly. "I'll see you later Cass!"

Cass nods at Elena as she takes the phone call and then makes her hasty exit. She doesn't mind not finding out what it is she wanted to talk about because, well, she'll know when she knows. Elena will stop by to talk to her again and she's got other things to worry about now. Anyway, now that the two people that she was directly dealing with on this busy afternoon are gone, she settles back into her chair behind the information desk.

Where's that book? The book that she has heard about, and even ridiculed in her own studies back in hig school. Now, she needs that book, and she never thought she would. Having a wall of earth suddenly rise in front of you when you're freaking out is not an everyday occurrence, and her world has turned itself upside down. She needs that book!

As such, Claudine comes in through the door, huffing and puffing as if it looks like she's run from where she was. And in fact,she did. She's dressed in her grey sweatpants and Columbia hoodie as she makes her way trying to look for the proprietor of the shop. Once she sees Cass, she beelines for the information desk. "Activating Evolution by Suresh..do you have a copy?"

Cass smiles at Claudine when the door opens. It's her default expression for when people enter the store. However, she takes one look at Claudine and her breathless countenance and her eyebrows raise in a kind of unasked question. This girl cuts right to the chase. No need for small talk! "I…yes. I do. It's pretty popular." Slipping off her seat, she gestures for Claudine to follow her to the shelf. Snagging a copy by the spine, she hands it over to the college student. "Here it is." A pause. She can't help but ask, "Is everything okay?"

The girl looks frazzled and she bows her head as she starts flipping through the pages, satisfied that it's the real deal. "Y-yeah." Claudine says, though her body language, her tone, it all just says 'no'. Something's definitely happened to her. "It..it'sjust for a project..have to say why this book is a load of crap..ya know.." Again, another bold faced lie..

It's not at all hard to realize that Claudine is lying about how fine she is. Cass raises an eyebrow skeptically, but she doesn't say anything yet. So far it just seems like it's a book emergency and nothing mores serious. "Well, I'd be careful about what you'd call a load of crap. Especially considering your surroundings," she chides gently. "And Dr. Suresh's work is certainly not that. If nothing else, it's very well written. Not a bad read for a science book."

"I..I know.." she says nervously, chewing on her bottom lip a little as she seems to be a bit on edge. Quite paranoid even. "U-um..but this is all I want. And I didnt mean any disrespect. I believe what he has to say..at least what I've read so far.." which is just the bookcover. There's more to this girl it seems.

Interestingly enough, as Claudine starts to pull out her wallet from her hoodie, things in the bookstore start to shake, almost as if there's a miniearthquake in the vicinity. Things closer to Claudine shake more, and things further away shake less. Well, she's the cause, and she's in a frazzled state, so yeah..bad things happen.

Upon noticing the rattling of books and other items in the store, her eyes widen and she starts to go faster. "I..I really gotta go..can we make this fast..please?" she says rather nervously. And yes, things still continue to shake..

When the ground starts to shake, Cass instinctively reaches out to put a steadying hand onto the bookshelf. That's not really helping, though, as that's shaking just as much as the floor is. Books start to edge their way off the shelves. Some of them fall on unsuspecting customers. People start to look around in a worried manner, covering their heads and moving away from the walls. Most of them drop their books and flee outside. There are other, more pressing, matters than buying a book when there might be an earthquake going on. Reaching out, she tries to guide Claudine away from the shelves just in case more books tumble at them. She doesn't want the girl to get knocked on the head. "I…let's wait until this rumbling stops."

"P-please..I really need to go. Can we please make this quick. It'll stop.." Claudine says and then whispers softly to the point that it's almost inaudible, "when I leave.." and with that she just takes out her credit card, not really thinking it will make a big deal. "I just really have to go.." she says chewing on her bottom lip nervously. Meanwhile, the rumbling and the tremors in the store stays about the same..

Cass looks at Claudine and then slowly drags her gaze down to the book that she's clutching. Activating Evolution. When she leaves it will stop. This girl is another person with powers. She'd put money on it. The shelves are still shaking and books are still perching precariously on their edges (or tipping off). "Just…you can take it. I think you need it more than the store does." This is why she's still stocking it. So she can help these people. Plus, she's not sure she can ring her up when things are falling on her head and the floor is shaking.

Why is it that every time D.L. wants to go somewhere, something happens? No, really. Like, why he can't just be out and about and not have to deal with some ol' crazy stuff going down and messing up his day. It just doesn't work like that, it seems. Mr. Hawkins is in the midst of strolling, when he feels the tremors coming from the bookstore he's passing. Vibrations carry and they're certainly concentrated on that particular spot. Having had just dealt with some crazy shaking the other day, what with being on the roof and taking care of business in a heroic manner, he finds himself easily drawn into the world of heroics once again. To which he makes a pulling of the door open and slides inside, immediately trying to stabilize his footing and looking around to see what's what.

Claudine really isnt in a good place right now,which is why she's rocking everyone's world..literally. As the earth underneath them shifts continuously to match her own frazzled state of mind, she just nods and puts her credit card backinto her purse. "Th-thanks.." she just wants to get out of here. Cant risk possibly being shot again, right? With that, she grabs the book and just starting rushing towards the door, the tremors getting stronger towards the exit now as she nears it…

Cass isn't about to shoot Claudine. Really, she'd like to help her or calm her down if she knew how. As the tremors get stronger, the books near the exit all but leap off the shelves. Any customers left in the shop now flee without looking back, sometimes not even dropping the books they were browsing through. The pass D.L. without a second glance. Not known for her grace or sure-footing, Cass can't keep her balance when the floor does a dance of it's own. There's nothing she can hold onto, the bookshelves are too far away and dangerous with their falling hardcovers of death, so she goes pitching forward onto the floor.

"Something tells me that yelling 'stay calm' is not going to help here." D.L.'s muttering to himself as people pass him by, like a black man can't come into a bookstore for a reason other than finding a newly evolved chica and stopping her from causing the great quake of '07. Contrary to popular belief, D.L. /does/ read… comic books. He can see Cass, not that he knows her and the fact that she's getting tossed around seems to be not good. But then he has a Claudine headed in his direction and with the tremors following her, well, it's sort of obvious. "Gotcha'." is said, because 'Bingo' is too white. So what he does is reach out to grab her by the arm to try and stop her from getting out of dodge. "You? Stay." And he's got the Black Man Glare on, so she best to be listenin' yo'. Word.
GAME: Save complete.

"N-no!" she cries out when her arm is suddenly grabbed by someone who just came in. Was he the one who was trying to shoot her earlier? Oh dear God no! Claudine tries to pull away but he's too strong for her, since he's all big muscular chocolatey goodness and she's just..her. However, in her state of panic, the tremors get stronger as her instinct is to form a protective barrier around herself once more..and if that happens..there'll be a wall of earth that will shatter through the floor. That would be bad. For now..it's just rumbling a lot..cause it'll take a while for the earth to actually bust up through the foundation and tiling..

Everything is bouncing a lot. And that would include Cass. Struggling, she manages to get to her feet, using the shelves as handholds. They're mostly empty now. Many of the books have been tossed into inelegant heaps on the floor. She's careful to not step on any of them - or as careful as she can be. "Don't panic her!" she calls out to D.L. It's easy to see that the panic is only making the situation worse. Then, to Claudine, she adds, "Take deep breaths! Count to ten! Something! We're not going to hurt you!" Okay, well, she's actually not sure about D.L. He's new to the situation, but she gives him a /look/ that conveys that he definitely shouldn't try.

"What she said." is the quick version of D.L.'s answer. He even goes so far as to let Claudine's arm go. He's got no reason to hurt her. He's here to help, that's for sure. He holds his hands up to show that he's not packing anything even remotely considering close to being a piece or a weapon. He's just plain' ol D.L. Hawkins from Vegas. "Listen. You gotta' chill. If you don't, this place is gonna' be a wreck and you're gonna' have one hell of a bill on your hands." Maybe the attempts at humor will manage to break through her 'OMG FREAKING OUT' defenses and calm this girl down. If not, well, there's always Phase Two.

Her eyes widen, but as he doesnt have a gun, at least that she's not aware off anyway, she takes a deep breath and tries to calm down. One, two, three…and with each calming breath, the tremors eventually stop and she sighs, falling onto her knees. "God..please dont kill me.." Claudine begs and pleads..she has no idea what's going on. All she knows is that someone was shooting at her..

As the tremors slowly fade, Cass stands straighter and walks forward with lurching steps. Once the tremors stop, she moves toward the scared college student with surer steps and quickly drops down so that she's at Claudine's level. Cautiously, she puts a hand on her shoulder. When she speaks it's in a soothing tone and a little slower than her normal speech. "Woah, woah, woah. No one here is going to kill you. I'm certainly not." She tilts her head up to look at D.L. By now she assumes that he's here to help. "This nice man here isn't, either. Right?"

"Hell no." D.L.'s quite perturbed at the fact that everybody thinks he's going to kill them. Just because he's big and black and has a tendency to punch people in the brain doesn't mean he's some sort of killer. It just means that he's, well, protective of his family. "Well, it looks like everything's all good here again." He looks around the shop, shaking his head at the mess that he's so glad he doesn't have to clean up. So glad. "I'ma' keep on goin'." Yeah, let's not stick around for more craziness to happen, D.L.

She cries a little more, definitely having one hell of a bad day, taking deep breaths once more. "K-kay. Good.." Claudine says, still unsure of herself as well, she was shot at. Not just once, but twice even. "I..I have to go.." she says as she looks around the store and chews on her bottom lip, "But um..after I help you clean up your store..I..I'm so sorry.."

Cass nods at D.L.'s answer. "See? No killing." She looks up at the man and shrugs. She can't really think of a reason to make him stay. She's not about to ask him to help clean up the store and he's already done his part in calming the girl down. "A…alright. Um, thanks?" She's not sure what else to say to this man who randomly showed up right in the nick of time and now is about to disappear. It's a little lame, but it's all she can come up with right now. Rubbing Claudine's back in a calming manner, she nods her head. "Well, let's make sure you're alright first, okay? And don't worry about it today. This is going to take awhile to put back together. You can come back tomorrow to help me put everything back together again." She allows that to sink in and for the girl to catch her breath some more before asking the all important question, Why did you think we were going to kill you?"

"It's, apparently, what I do." D.L. says, not even believing that himself. He takes one last glance at both of the girls, before he decides it's time to get the heck out of there. He doesn't need to be anywhere that authority figures might show up at. In fact, he's going to get as far away from this place as possible. Because it looks like it's been ransacked and robbed and with his record? Yeah. Not happening. So he's moving right around to head back out of the door. Last chance for any and all cute white girls to try and stop him for some odd reason!

"I..I'll come back tomorrow..I'm sort of exhausted..mentally and physically.." Claudine admits ruefully as she starts to ease on up, not really going to mention why she wasthinking someone was trying to kill her, cause well, causing mini-earthquakes was enough wierdness for one day. "B-but, I'll be all right I think.." she says before looking over towards D.L., before bowing her head, "And um..thank you.." before turning her attention back to Cass. "The both of you actually.." she says, still sniffling a little..

Now that Claudine has calmed down some more and is no longer a crying girl on the floor, Cass affords a little more attention to D.L. in the doorway. "You're good at it," she replies, sounding serious. Thinking back on it, he seemed to know that the shaking was coming from Claudine and that warrants more pondering. Her main concern right now, though, is Claudine. "Yeah. Why don't you do that. Go rest up. I'll see you here tomorrow morning. Around 11." She smiles at her. "You're welcome." She decides to hold off the interrogation of why she was so terrified until then.

There. Now that the great D.L. has saved the day and been given a compliment, he's out of this place. A smirk is all that Cass gets from him and he's slinging open the door. He looks outside first, making sure ain't no five to the o out there and soon enough he's stepping back out into the streets of this crazy ass city and trying to remember which way he was going before he got sucked into Tremors: The Series for a guest spot!

Claudine hrmms for a few moments and nods, leaving about the same time with D.L, though she doesnt stalk him. She still doesnt trust him afterall. Cause underneath that nice boy exterior, he could still be a bad, bad man underneath, and she doesnt want to stick around to find out…

Cass pushes herself up from the ground and surveys the remains of her store. Books are scattered everywhere and spread out in lumps about the store. She sighs, trying not to envision all the cleaning she's going to have to do to get everything back in order. There's no way she can keep the store open for the remainder of the day, so she carefully picks her way across the littered books to go and lock the door and start damage control.

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