JGOB; Monday Afternoon

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

From what he'd seen so far, this place was even smaller than Lobo's Nod and Jasper hadn't thought that was possible. Lobo's Nod was a tiny place, a one stop light town where the post office was in spitting distance of the doctor's office. This place seemed even smaller. The only good thing was that no one seemed to recognize him. Sure, he hadn't given his last name to anyone but still. In Lobo's Nod, he was a pseudo celebrity, sought after by bottom feeding reporters looking for a quick story. Here, he was...he didn't even know.

His bags were still packed up in his room and he didn't know when that would change. Back home, he'd plastered faces of Dear Old Dad's victims across his desk. He didn't know how he'd do that here. If he could do that here. He didn't really need to freak out a roommate who already seemed a little unsure around him.

His typical nightmare (—wakey, wakey, Jasper, my boy—) had driven him out of bed early enough so he'd walked around the town, checking places out. He paid particular attention to open spaces, exits that existed on each particular building and anything else that made certain buildings stand out. He'd grabbed some food on his way back and was now sitting outside some place called Jeff, God of Biscuits, missing the familiarity of Coff-E-Shop.

New place, new prospects, boy. Ain't it fun?

Jasper breathed in. Breathed out. Pushed the voice away and popped a piece of a muffin into his mouth. His father's too white smile lingered in his head. In his thoughts.

Like always.

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Comments

[justlurkinghere]

Unfortunately for Jasper, he was still going to draw attention looking like that. Wasn't this place fun?

Derek had to pause the next store front over to think for a moment before backing up and going into the bakery to confirm the scent was all wrong.

Which was pretty awkward.

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

Jasper was pretty damn observant (thanks, Dad) so when he saw someone nearby, dark and quiet, he took note even if he didn't make any outward sign that he'd noticed.

He took another bite of his muffin and stretched, eyes forward.

[justlurkinghere]

"You're new." Give him a prize!

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Quite the deduction," Jasper remarked dryly, glancing over. "What gave me away? I'm not still wearing my nametag, am I?"

[justlurkinghere]

That wasn't a prize at all!

"It's a small town." Freakishly small.

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I noticed." He'd come from a small town to a small town. How had that even been possible? "Guessing this is a place where everyone knows your name?"

[justlurkinghere]

Magic.

"Probably," Derek replied with a shrug. "The radio helps with that. And you look like someone who used to live here."

Also a werewolf. So. Don't go and turn into a werewolf?

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Named Isaac, by any chance?" he wondered, tilting his head. He recalled Kathy mistaking him for someone by that name before. "I had no idea I had a long lost twin running around out there."

Joke. Dry, dry joke.

[justlurkinghere]

"You get used to it." Or succumb to the lure of madness.

You know. Maybe.

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Apparently so." He'd been hearing that a lot since he'd gotten here. "I'm Jasper, by the way. No relation to anyone named Isaac. Not that I know of, anyway."

Was there some Isaac Dent in his family tree? Probably a sociopath just like most of his other family members.

[justlurkinghere]

...that was probably pretty accurate. "Not unless you have family in California."

In the worst town ever.

"I'm Derek."

He was fly paper for serial killers. Though a case could be made that at least one of them was actually a spree killer. But only hot chick ones, so...

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Never been that far west," he answered, shaking his head. He could just picture his father in California, wearing gaudy sunglasses and checking out girls on their boardwalk.

He suppressed a shiver.

"That where you're from?" he wondered, curious.

[justlurkinghere]

"Yeah." Another small town.

With a million abandoned buildings. And it's own mental institution. Don't question it.

"Beacon Hills."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo had decided to take another ride through town today. Except that, unlike yesterday, she was actually paying attention to the various shops she passed instead of just studying the terrain.

She still got the occasional surprised look for cruising along the streets wearing ATs, but she kept her speed down, and made sure to give people plenty of space, and no one had complained so far.

A grin blossomed on her face when she spotted Jasper, and she slowed down as she approached his table and let herself drift into a graceful spin a few feet away to bleed off the last of her speed.

"Hi!" she chirped. "How's it going?" She wasn't, quite, ready to ask if she could join him. Especially if he wanted some space. She'd noticed that he hadn't unpacked, really.

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"A little slower than you, it seems," he said, taking a look at what she had on her feet. "Roller blades are still a thing?"

That was the closest thing he had to what matched what she was wearing.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo laughed. "AirTrek," she corrected happily. "Way better." She balanced effortlessly on one foot so that she could lift one up for slightly closer inspection. "They've got motors in the wheels, which is why the wheels are bigger and there are only two. And it means you can go way faster."

Probably because said motors seemed to violate a number of the laws of physics.

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Fancy," he said casually, taking a closer look at the AirTrek on her feet. "Me, I prefer gas guzzling vehicles but I'm sure your way has advantages too. Probably cheaper."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"And you can go pretty much wherever you want," Ringo pointed out. "Well, not the highway, I guess, but pretty much anywhere else!"

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"That what you guys travel with back where you're from?" he asked, rubbing a thumb along the bottom of his lip. New kinds of tech wasn't really high on his priority list but he couldn't deny that there was a level of curiosity there.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, not everyone," Ringo admitted. "I mean, AT technology is starting to get used in more and more things, but riding ATs is still something that takes practice." She shrugged. "Most people are still happy doing things the way they've always known, I suppose."

A sudden grin sprung up. "Though I'm betting that'll change slowly. Everyone just recently got a little taste of what it can be like, and that's pretty motivating."

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"How'd you get your hands on something like that?" he wondered, nodding down at the AT's. "Just that special?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well," Ringo said, finally settling her foot back on the ground and swaying a bit, "you can just buy them, but they're kind of expensive? I got into ATs as a kid, though, so it always seemed worth the cost, you know?"

There had been a long while where Ringo's entire life had been ATs.

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Ah, money. The universal language." He nodded. "They run on gas?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Pigtails swung as Ringo shook her head. "Electricity. They're battery powered."

"And while there are some things money can't buy, ATs definitely aren't one of those things. Which is awesome because it'd be way too sad if people couldn't get them." Really sad!

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"So, you gotta plug 'em in?" he asked, glancing down again. "Like a lamp?"