Starring:
Date: October 16, 2009
Summary:
Aaron meets Kitty and has yet another new acquaintance run out on him unexpectedly.
"Hello, Kitty"
The Boutique of Irony
It's only been a few days since coming here the first time and yet Aaron found himself needing to return for many reasons. First and foremost, the place is still technically the site of his life's great tragedy, even if the buildings have changed, and second, there was that really cute girl who disappeared on him. When he stops out front the boutique, he can't help but notice that a crew is busy replacing the window that cracked the last time he was there, so the mannequin that matched his attire and its mate, which matched the mystery lady's attire, are nowhere to be seen from the outside. And so Aaron wanders in.
After the events of meeting a real shaman the night before, Kitty decided to go out, just before returning home for the rest of the day. Her hand goes to massage the little bump at the back of her head. Dressed in a dark blue dress and black boots, cellphone in hand and sunglasses on top of her head, she browses around and tilts her head as she looks through the racks of clothing.
Aaron almost immediately wanders to the scarves in his attempt to make sense of things— not like that's ever worked particularly well for him. Here he is, the person most strongly affected by the tragic fire that rent a music hall unto dust, standing in the boutique that stands where the stage used to be, the stage where he used to play, and he's looking at scarves. He already has a scarf.
As Kitty's hand go through the racks of clothing, she isn't too far from Aaron actually. It's when her hand brushes over the dark walls, that her eyes turn the milk white color and her head is thrown back. Wide and unblinking stare up towards the ceiling as she hears the sounds of a fire.. wood collapsing and right before all of that, a song is being played.
It's then that Kitty gasps from the whirlpool of emotions descending upon her. Legs shaking and eyes still wide and milk-white.
And frankly, when a person gasps behind him and he turns to see a woman with milk-white eyes, Aaron can't help but think 'what the f-'. He passes the scarves and goes straight for the women's clothing area not too far off to take hold of this girl who's having a fit of some kind. If it weren't for the unusual eyes, he'd just think it were that. He'd seen it plenty during his stay at Manhattan Psychiatric. He reaches out to hold Kitty and support her, since she looks about ready to fall over. "Are you all right?" he asks, not in a particularly loud voice right now, not wanting to attract any unwanted spectators.
When the experience has ended, Kitty's head drops and she looks up at Aaron, blinking a few times. Her eyes their normal doe brown now. "Oh, yeah I'm fine." She says in a hurry and backs away from Aaron, what is up with her ability lately. Her ears are ringing and she holds a hand to her temple as she looks around the shop. So this place had some pretty tragic things happen.. the emotions still bearing down on Kitty, she is just able to contain them, for how long who knows.
Aaron retracts his hands, holding them palms out for a moment before letting his arms rest again, his elbow propped against the side of a shelf. "You sure, you're OK? I could see you to a cab or something. You look like you could use some rest." Or a trip downtown to his ten-month residence. "Maybe you should call it a day?"
"Kitty, get a hold of yourself." She says softly and shakes her head. Then her gaze returns back to Aaron. "No, no I'm fine really." She says and runs a hand through her hair. Then the young woman's mouth splits open into a smile. "I'm Kitty." She says with a polite nod, light twinkling off her eyes.
"Hello, Kitty, I'm Aaron." His own mouth splits into a bit of a lopsided grin, "Oh my God, did I actually just say 'Hello, Kitty?'" He rubs his eyes and gives his head a shake as he chuckles for a moment. Then he raises a hand and gives a polite wave, "Hi. I'm Aaron. Nice to meet you, Kitty." He lowers the hand and goes back to leaning against the shelf, which he probably shouldn't do, but as far as he's concerned, the place owes him. Big time. "God, where are my manners," he says as he offers his hand to shake.
"I've gotten worse, believe me." She says with a light chuckle and then she leans against one of the shelves as well. Her head tilted at the man and then when he reaches out to shake her hand, she obliges and gives him her hand. With a smile, "Nice scarf Aaron."
"You come in here often?" she asks as she looks over by the other clothes and in the process checking if anyone else had noticed her ability at work, nope doesn't seem like it.
"Nope, but it's where I got this scarf," Aaron says, giving Kitty's hand a gentlemanly squeeze that's nowhere near the grip he'd give a businessperson or the like. "Been in here twice. They used to have a mannequin up dressed just like me. Was really … strange when I saw it, let me tell you." But at least he has a face. Unlike the mannequin and its mate. "Very strange…. You come in here much?"
"Well that is a little.. strange hm?" Kit says and chuckles. "Maybe the store owner was spying on you." She winks and looks around the store. "Nah, I've been here a few times but today I just decided to stop in, haven't been here in a while." She says and looks back at Aaron.
"Shopping sometimes takes the stress away. At least that is what my grandmother believes." She smiles softly at the thought of her insane grandmother.
Aaron gives a short chuckle. Yeah, no way the store owner was spying on him, given where he'd been up until little more than a week ago. "Nice little place, I must say." There's another bit of a laugh at the comment about her grandmother. "In my experience, shopping adds more stress. Diminishes a person's bank account."
"I guess it's only stress relieving for the people that don't have to worry about money. My grandmother being one of them." Kitty says with a laugh and then she is looking at a couple of shirts on the rack. "I don't really need to find anything.. just looking." She says softly and then looks at Aaron, "What do you do?"
"Must've been nice," Aaron remarks. He'd certainly like to not worry about money. Granted, technically he doesn't have to for a year, but if he doesn't worry about it and that year ends…. Well, he could scrimp and save and get a bit more out of it, but still. "Currently unemployed. Formerly, technically self-employed."
"Job crisis, got you?" Kitty asks and she leans against the wall, careful not to touch them with her bare skin less she get another vision of the past of the place. The young woman looks at Aaron, "I was self-employed about a year ago.. working on cars. Freelance writing, that sort of thing."
"Not really, no. I just, had to take some time off for my health and now I have to get back into the swing of things," Aaron says. It's all technically the truth, but he's not about to share the fact that he, once sorta-famous musician, was roasted in the catastrophe that was his band's reunion concert, went more or less insane after having his entire life wiped out in the blaze, and is only now trying to reintegrate into society. It's not a short story for strangers, no, unless of course they recognize him and know what happened. Then he can't exactly dodge it. "Writing's a useful talent. Bit easier to market than music, too."
"Always take care of yourself." Kitty smiles and then looks down at her phone. "Yeah, writing is a true art. Well as much as art is true art." She chuckles and then puts her phone away into her bag. The young woman looks in the mirror and then back at Aaron. "I need to run, errands to run before I head home." She says and then gives Aaron a soft smile. "Musician huh? Come by Hanner Enterprises someday, I'm throwing a Halloween party, need some people to perform." She says, whipping out a card for Aaron to take before she begins to walk away. "Nice meeting."
"We'll see." He's not entirely convinced he can go back to his old life just like that. Not that he hasn't hoped for it, but he hasn't even touched an instrument in public in a year. Tentatively, he reaches out and takes the card. "Thank you," Aaron says as he finally grabs the whole card, touching part of Kitty's hand as he draws it away and turns to go back to looking around the place. "Nice meeting you, too."
Kitty's eyes close and when reopened they are white again. This time she actually sees something. With her hands held tighten against her side, she watches a stage on fire, people running around trying to get away, Aaron can be seen in the fire. But before Kitty can say anything or shout, the vision is over.
The force of two visions back to back that are so filled with emotion, makes Kitty stumble and she doesn't wait for Aaron or anyone else to say anything to her before she is hurrying out the door. Moments later, a Mustang can be seen being driven away, quite fast.
Which confuses Aaron. Here they had a fine conversation and then she's suddenly running out of the place, just like Gillian did. And so he stands there for a moment, completely flummoxed. Did everyone go completely nutty while I was away, or something?