Re: Axel: Rae & Fen
Rae didn't consider herself a surprise. That rather suggested performing a role in the margins of somebody else's story and she simply didn't believe in living for anyone else's story save her own. That the town was pockmarked with the unusual was something she'd observed well enough and if there weren't half a dozen people within the roller-rink who were either something else part of the month or simply something walking around looking far more human than they dreamed of being, that would be surprising.
She didn't prickle, that wasn't Rae's way. No tingling, no suggestion that there was someone in the crowd to pick from the masses, she didn't twitch for those she'd shared a history with even if it was only a small corner of history and proximity rather than anything of note. Go back further than the Hall and she refused suggestion, with the simplicity of being stubborn-headed.
No, what did it was what usually did for it: probability. It was as like as it wasn't, that she would know who he was eventually. She didn't know precisely how it was, as a girl she'd experimented with its limits. Now it was enough to know something and be certain without any prior knowledge to be certain about. It was an excellent trick for gambling, if you relied on chance to turn fortune in your favor.
Rae turned her head and met his face head-on. Hairy and plaid, but that didn't make him a local. She raised an eyebrow, and ate a kernel of popcorn entirely deliberately.