2012, Jul 20 - The Anthem (Sally)

[Valkyri]

He took the days for pagents and became as mad as rabbits
With bushels of bad habits – who could ask for any more?

God damn if there was one thing this place could do was make good chocolate, oh god it was good, she wasn't even sure what was in it and the truth was she was sure she didn't want to know. Still it was good, beyond good, it was like a freaking drug that she couldn't enough of and the effect of it was pretty similar. Sugar didn't mix well with the short little red head who frankly had the attention span of a goldfish and the activity level of a squirrel high on cocaine and that was before the damn sugar. Never mind all of that it was a hot day and she felt like a God. It was one of those days where the world was turning in time with everything else. It felt perfect, when she walked through the streets everything looked beautiful but you didn't want to look twice.

A bounce in her step as she walked down the streets of London, the sun over head insistent on catching anyone who had pale skin like herself out, not that she would get sunburnt. She never got sunburnt god damnit. She couldn't even get a tan. It sucked more than she could explain but it wasn't as if you know she had anyone to impress with it. Eyes wide she watched the people go past, there were so many colours, so many people dressed weird by these peoples standards but she felt almost at home. What was this place, she racked her brains trying to remember what they called this place, ah Camden! The truth was here she didn't look so weird, walking through the streets bright yellow top, purple skinny jeans and black converse didn't look odd. In fact she pretty much looked as if she was normal which was something new to her.

Valkyri didn't know if she liked it or not.

She was meant to be different!

Never mind she had chocolate. How could you not love chocolate? Chocolate and a wonder by the canal. These humans did such weird things to their land, silly crazy creative mad humans! She loved them, part of her felt so at home with these people, she fit in and she almost liked it because they thought she was young. It felt as if she could be a kid again down here and she didn't get in to too much trouble for it! What more could you want from a world. Hell these people were so busy trying to salvage their screwed up economy the kids were left to do what ever the hell they wanted. It was a little slice of heaven in the black and white, maybe that was why she kept coming back here?

Bouncing along the street she found herself coming to a stop and parking herself on a bench. What to do to day? Everyone seemed to be with other people and the truth was she felt a little lonely, thought watching the skateboarder fall over on the other side of the canal brought a smile to her face. “Damn he didn't breath anything.”

[Sally Sparrow]

Sally had once more found herself in London, there was just something about this city that kept drawing her back, and it wasn't just that this was the town of her birth, it was the atmosphere. It was easy to avoid your hometown once grown up, she'd seen people leave and never return—although usually that was just rural villages, not big cities—but there was just a feeling that London exuded that could never be replicated anywhere.

And Sally would know, she'd traversed the globe in her free time, just collecting snapshots. Memories so that her terrible memory wouldn't forget all that she'd seen and done in that time.

But now she was back in her hometown, trying to see the sites as a foreigner would see them, to get a better feel. Oh, and see if her old video store was still in business.

I doubt Larry would even want to see me, nowadays, Sally though, her hands tucked into her faded jeans and her posture slouched, I did abandon him, technically, no word of what I was doing or where I was going. I wouldn't blame him. Reaching her hands up to adjust her violet hat and pull it a bit lower over her eyes as she walked down the street that the storefront was located on, she kept her eyes glued to the business names. Finally she saw it.

Sparrow and Nightingale's, said the faded letters on the top, obviously in slight disrepair—it had closed after all. A small, FOR RENT sign in the lower corner completed the look of abandonment. Feeling a bit of sadness in the pit of her stomach, Sally wasted no time in grabbing her camera for a quick snapshot—she didn't want to forget this memory.

As the photo clicked, she heard a faint commotion behind her...apparently some skateboarder had been behaving stupidly and had suffered for it with falling and some form of injury. Sally knew how that would feel, she was known for being ridiculously clumsy herself. Which was why she carried a first-aid kit handy, always.

Deciding to be of help, Sally rushed over, ”Gosh, are you okay? That looked a bit rough...” She said to him, grabbing a couple of band-aids out of her tattered backpack, she handed them to him.

ooc;; Sorry that took a bit to respond to, and that it rambles a bit. I just needed to figure out a reason she would be there. I'm hoping that there's something in there that can be useful for you! ^_^

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[Valkyri]

He took the days for pagents and became as mad as rabbits
With bushels of bad habits – who could ask for any more?

Seeing people fall over was funny, well at least it was to her immure brain. As far as she saw the whole thing was funny until someone got hurt and then it was hilarious, well with in reason. She drew the line when people ended up having to go to accident and emergency. Valkyri sat there watching the woman across the canal try to help the fallen youngster. She tiled her head to the side and smiled to herself as she watched her work. It was always nice to see acts of kindness as well as being an absolute dick sometimes. The truth was Valkyri could be a giant bitch when it came to it, it wasn't her trying to be it was just her being on her own too much, you kinda lost track of what was and what wasn't rude.

Getting up she started walking back, that way she could jump over the small bridge that connected the two sides of the canal. She wanted to talk to her, she didn't know why but Valkyri had learned to follow her gut with things. That and you know she was just lonely, she just wanted to talk to someone, she wanted to hang out with someone, go get lunch, bumb around the place and act like the teenagers here so. She had watched them playing around, joking, chilling out, getting thrown out of places, she wanted to experience it all...but she didn't really have anyone to hang out with. It was stupid wasn't it? Valkyri could feel herself getting excited, maybe this person wouldn't mind hanging out with her for a while, she just didn't know how to approach the whole thing.

She wondered over to the two of them, looked down at the dude on the floor before tilting her head to the side and just looking as if she hadn't see anyone hurt before. “You okay that looked sore?” Of course it did that was why she had laughed, after all she guessed that things hurting were funny right after all they were always laughing on those TV shows when people got hungry and they were on all the time. After all this world was a funny place every week on the TV they got all the fat and stupid people out and paraded them pretending to sing and trying to be talented and they laughed at them. It was a funny place this Earth.

“You want any help?” She asked looking a little confused and surprised. Valkyri didn't know if it was the right thing to do or not. How did you work that one out?

[Sally Sparrow]

Sally was just placing the third, and hopefully the last, bandage over the youth's arm before flashing a bright smile. Yeah, maybe she just wanted to be helpful--plus she had been in that position more than one time herself--but part of her was glad to have some available distraction from the thoughts weighing down her brain.

Namely the ones coming from the building directly behind her.

Just as she was thinking that her most recent distraction was completed, she was interrupted by another person appearing in the same vicinity. "Red!" Sally said, finding her eyes instantly drawn to the fire-engine red color, unconsciously touching her own hair in response. Then she realized what she had said and just how stupid she sounded. "Oh, um...I think it's mostly been taken care of, are you two friends or something?" She couldn't resist asking.

The boy whom she had so recently treated instantly began shaking his head, no, before drawing himself up and dusting himself off, "Never seen her before," he muttered before saying a quick thanks and grabbing his skateboard--looking for all the world like he was embarrassed. Odds are, he probably was.

Simply shaking her head, Sally turned back to the eye-catching young woman in front of her, and smiled in a somewhat awkward way, "Quite the charmer, eh?" And let out a small chuckle. Taking the brief moment to look over the girl and her vibrant clothes, Sally couldn't resist asking, "Are you from around here? You're quite the eye-catcher..."

"Oh wait, that came out wrong...and rude, I'm so very sorry!" She exclaimed, eyes wide before quickly covering her mouth, lest more inane words fall out of her mouth like vomit. "I just meant, you look more different than anyone else...I'm not a creeper, I promise!" Oh, things just aren't going my way today, Sally found herself thinking, resisting the urge to hold her head in her hands, I must be more distracted and unused to people than I originally thought.

"My name's Sally Sparrow," Sally finally said, extending a hand, as if to smooth over all her previously dumb remarks.

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[Valkyri]

He took the days for pagents and became as mad as rabbits
With bushels of bad habits – who could ask for any more?

A jump, she looked at the woman for a moment shocked, she had just yelled a colour at her, she looked at her as she touched her hair and Valkyri reached up and touched her own hair. “Red...yes?” She said a little unsure, almost scared...maybe red was a bad thing? Maybe it was a very bad thing! The conversation moved on, she looked down at the kid and shrugged her shoulder before he got up and declared that he had never seen her before. Rude. Very rude. He was being very rude! He got up and toddled off, she folded her arms and glared at him before she yelled after him. “Pass it forward dude, and smile it won't kill you!” Well if he was going to be rude to her, she was going to be even more rude back. No wonder people thought the youth were little shits.

Then the questions came around to her, Valkyri was a little surprised and comforted, this woman seemed kinda awkward just like she did, she liked that. It made her feel as if she wasn't a complete idiot all the time and it wasn't as if you know, she was stupid it was just she wasn't great at dealing with new people all the time. She wasn't even sure what the hell she meant by “eye catching” what was that meant to be. Looking down at herself, the clothes she was wearing she didn't know exactly how to reply to that statement, she liked being eye catching, she liked the bright clothes and what was wrong with that?

She wasn't taking that much notice of what the woman was saying, she understood how it felt and what went through your mind about the entire thing. Laughing a little she shook her head, waved a hand she brushed the whole things aside. “Its okay, I get nervous around people as well. I'm kinda....well passing through I'm not really from around anywhere near here.” She explained, the slight almost American sounding edge to her accent though it was a strange mix, she had been to so many peoples, met so many different people it all kinda merged. It was great when she went places thought it meant that everyone was confused about where she was from and Valkyri was quite happy with it being like that.

Taking her hand she shook it, smiled, Sally Sparrow such a pretty name! “I'm Valkyri...though everyone calls me Val so...yeah.” She said waving her hand again and smiling, she was a little eccentric and she had some strange habits but it seemed normal to her. Maybe it was a give away that she wasn't all she seemed. “Like the little bird? The one that goes tweet tweet Sparrow?” It seemed like such a dumb ass question but Valkyri didn't really know... “Wanna get some tea or something, that and I could murder a cake right now.” She had a sweet tooth, call it a vice...om nom nom cake!

[Sally Sparrow]

With an apologetic look crossing her face, Sally couldn't resist letting out another small apology, "I'm not usually so awkward. At least, I hope I'm not--cause otherwise I just wouldn't know how I'd managed to survive so long in this cruel world." The last part was supposed to be a joke, but for some reason, she just knew that it came out seriously. Maybe it was her tone or maybe it was the fact that she was so distracted and trying to regain her usual composure. Still, she was thankful that this girl was being so pleasant, instead of just walking away like anyone else.

"I think it's just been a while since I've been around any people for an extended period of time," Sally said by way of explanation, "So I guess I'm sort of in the same boat as you? Traveling around and all that, although this is my hometown..."

She had set to work repacking her worn backpack, getting everything back into it's proper places, but it didn't mean she hadn't been listening to what the girl was saying. "Valkyri? Like from Norse mythology?" She asked curiously, "I like it!! It's an old and unusual name--my favorite," Sally exclaimed, peering at Val, her interest growing. It wasn't like names necessarily mimicked the person they represented, but it still was interesting nevertheless.

It sort of felt like the conversation was jumping around, but then again, it took two to tango and at least two to have a conversation, so part of this was her fault.

Sally laughed Val's tweeting sounds, people always seemed to like her name. To her it just was, but if she was going to make a fuss about Val's name then surely turnabout was fine. "Oh yes, just like the bird. My mother had a thing for alliteration, at least it rolls off the tongue well."

Drawing herself to her feet and adjusting her green coat, her hands unconsciously went to her stomach at the mention of cake. It wasn't that she had a weakness, or even a fondness for sweets, but it had been a bit since she'd eaten, and the idea of food was very appealing. Even if she didn't know the person she was to eat with. "That sounds fantastic, actually...I'm famished. I know a couple of cafes around here, if that sounds nice to you?" Sparing a last glance towards her former store, Sally flashed a smile, "Let's go!"

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[Valkyri]

He took the days for pagents and became as mad as rabbits
With bushels of bad habits – who could ask for any more?

If anything...there was something that she loved it was other awkward people, she liked to be with other awkward people and then she just felt normal. Sure she might have been awkward but she was ballsy as hell – or was that just because she had no sense of danger what so ever. Shrugging her shoulders and smiled and looked up at the sky for a moment before looking at Sally “its alright, been a while since I've hung out with people too, travelling around on your own kinda sucks sometimes, I mean its great you can do whatever the hell you want and people don't drag you around boring places but meh...” She trailed off, Val didn't like travelling on her own, she really didn't like travelling on her own sometimes.

Lighting up a little bit as Sally mentioned she was from London there was a bounced in her step for a moment as she looked at the woman more closely. “oh wow well where should I go them I mean, not the normal places, you can look at them in a photo and you get the whole you know, deal about it but the cool places!” Valkyri wanted the rough guide to London. Gone were the tourist attractions and hello all the little places you only ever found if you were a local.

Mind you her name always got a few comments, she blushed lightly shaking her head as she looked down at the ground before she shrugged lightly. “My parents were weird they went through this whole mythology phase, I happened to come along in the middle of it.” It was true, only they technically weren't her parents by human standards, on her world yes they. This woman was pretty cool though, Val liked her, she liked the way she jumped around, the way her head jumped from one part of the conversation to others and it married up nicely with the way her own brain worked. Right now she had that funny feeling on the back of her neck, where it felt as if the sun was shining on it and that was a sure sign that she had found someone awesome.

Sweet.

Committing her name to memory her head turned to food, God she was hungry and cafe sounded like an epic idea and a half. “Lead the way Sally Sparrow.” She said jumping on the spot for a moment before she started walking. Oh she was excited, maybe she was making friends, was this how humans made friends? Okay she didn't realise that this wasn't exactly normal but still. She was learning how to deal with it all. It was great if you met someone at a party or something she was good at dealing with parties they had strict rules that she knew but this...wasn't the same. Valkyri was fast learning that the world was not one huge party and it sucked ass!

“Lets go lets go lets go!” She chanted before half walking half skipping down the side of the canal. “Om nom nom cakey cakey. Oh man I had the best cake ever a while ago, its bright blue and its really light and its from this place called Maradia and its like this touristy town on the banks of the Daysic Ocean. So pretty and they make cake.” The story slipped from her lips before she even realised that it wasn't even on earth let alone this century. Buggeration. She just hoped this woman didn't notice.