Groovy Tunes, Thursday

[bestatmystery]

Lottie had only just gotten back into town with Pepper this morning, her mother having insisted on keeping her home for most of the week. She wasn't coping well with her prematurely empty nest, as Lottie explained to her friends. But finally, Lottie's insistence that she had a job to get to, and her continuing wild tales about Fandom's strangeness, which were not so much unbelievable as just exhausting, had convinced her mum that it was time to send her on her way again.

Lottie decided to let Pepper choose the music for the day, in honor of it being his first day on the island. She roamed the stacks with him until he stopped, then scooped him up and held him over the albums to see which one he sniffed first. The result was some mid-90s German pop about teddybears.

"You have terrible taste, Pepper," Lottie said.

Pepper licked her nose.

[Open!]

Comments

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hey, that language was in her native tongue! Hanna was on her way out to her run, after checking in on Velcro in the dorms. It hadn't seemed fair to either the cat or her tent-mates to bring him into Kazakhstan.

She poked her head into the shop, and waved to the girl with the PUPPY. PUPPY PUPPY PUPPY!

[bestatmystery]

Pepper yipped and, with a glance back at Lottie for permission, scurried over to say hi to the person.

Lottie in the meantime took a breath to pull her Very Knowledgable Employee persona on and approached with great dignity.

"Welcome to Groovy Tunes. We sell loads more than disco."

She was trying out new mottos for the store. She felt that one was a real winner.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna was already on her knees, offering a palm to Pepper to sniff, her smile hopeful. Wait, would he reject her because she smelled of Velcro?

"Hello," she said shyly. "I like the music you are playing now. But I like most all music. Is the puppy yours?"

[bestatmystery]

"Really?" Lottie tried not to sound to astonished. "It's so . . . peppy." She bent down and scooped Pepper up, holding him to her chest. "This is Pepper. He's new to the island, so I didn't want to leave him alone."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"It's fast," Hanna said, smiling crookedly. "Which makes it good to run to." She nodded somberly at the puppy. "And that is a good plan. There are too many things he might stumble into by himself. I'm Hanna, by the way."

[bestatmystery]

"Lottie. I think you're in my yurt."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Yes. I haven't been there much, other than for sleeping." Seven people! Too many people! ... Also. "The yurt could use some fixing, perhaps."

Edward had tried, though. She didn't want to make him feel too bad by fixing bits of it all at once.

[bestatmystery]

"It looked . . ." Like kind of a mess. "Sturdy? I thought maybe it was meant that way. 'Cause we're meant to be 'roughing it'."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna winced a little. "We can rough it, and still be--" Less floppy? More symmetrical? "--more sophisticated." There, that worked. "Although I don't think we need to put diamonds on it." Or whatever Thorin had done to their tent. Because seriously?

[bestatmystery]

"Diamonds are properly used to adorn fingers and phones," Lottie said with great authority. "And sometimes tiaras."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Phones?" Hanna blinked in startled laughter. "I haven't seen that before."

The song playing changed to another German one, older, 99 Luft Balloons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tage0GdEK3I), and Hanna started singing along once she got the hang of the words. "What kind of music do you like? If not peppy German music?"

[bestatmystery]

"Black metal!" Lottie held one hand up in little devil horns, allowing Pepper to wriggle free back down to the floor. "The louder and screamier the better!"

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna blinked, sitting down cross-legged to offer her fingers to Pepper again, if he wanted to nibble. "What is that?" And was it it different from gold metal, or silver metal? Or copper metal? Brass metal (did it have something to do with the instruments played?)

[bestatmystery]

Pfft. Nibbling was for cats. Pepper went right over to climb into Hanna's lap and cuddle.

"It's like heavy metal only creepier," Lottie explained. "Here, lemme see." She found a reasonably melodic number to play for her. The shrieking in this one was practically subdued! "See? Well spooky."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Spooky, definitely, yes," Hanna said, listening intently, and gathering Pepper into her lap to hug and pet and call him George. She liked it, and it made her remember running over storage containers at night for some reason. "What is the name of the singer, please?"

[bestatmystery]

"Turdus Merula. If you liked her I could find you so much more good stuff!"

Some of it might even be German.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Very much, yes." Hanna gave Lottie a bemused smile and nodded hard. "I am trying to get caught up on all the music ever."

Seriously. All of it. Ever. Completely. What had her Papa been thinking, in not taking at least a radio with them into the Arctic Circle?

[bestatmystery]

Lottie turned in place looking around the store. "You have found a good place to start."