Artemis// Cadance Hennessy (twin_artemis) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2008-03-26 13:19:00 |
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Current location: | Miami, Florida |
Current mood: | chipper |
Entry tags: | artemis, cadance hennessy, eurydice, mallory harper |
Who: Cadance (Artemis) and Mallory
What: Meeting and becoming friends
Where: Bookstore, archery range, various shopping places in Miami
When: Backdated to one week ago
Warnings: Other than sarcasm, no.
Somebody once said that most of the books written on dream analyzing were complete crap, and so Mallory stood in the metaphysical section of the bookstore thumbing through every book they had on the topic - trying to discern good from crap. Not always the easiest thing considering half of them sounded just like the last book she looked through.
Fifteen minutes of searching later, the brunette was still in that section, and by now the employees had learned to just leave the girl be instead of asking if there was anything they could help her find. 'Something that isn't a load of bullshit' was, perhaps, not the answer they were seeking.
Cadance, needing to find some odds and ends for the new store, had decided today was as good a day as any to hit the bookstore. She wanted to sell New Age things, and so headed over to that section. She noticed the girl thumbing through the books, but really paid her no heed until she noticed the books the girl was holding. "Excuse me? Do you happen to know anything about dream interpretation?" she asked, moving to stand beside her, her platinum hair swinging over her shoulders gracefully.
"Not a damned thing." Mallory replied with a sigh, not even bothering to look up as she replaced that book on the shelf and grabbed another. Uh oh, she was running out of material. "That would be why I'm trying to find something that doesn't sound like material someone made up," then, she glanced up at the blonde, "I wouldn't suggest these... six books."
Cadance smiled then, nodding her head politely. "I'll keep that in mind. Do you mind if I ask... is there anything specific you are looking for?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. This girl seemed familiar... for some odd reason.
The brunette shook her head as she flipped through the pages of the new book in her hands. "Not really, I have the afternoon to waste and I thought I'd pop in here." Guh. This one was ridiculous too.
How fun! Cadance, needing female companionship now more than ever, extended her hand to the stranger. "I am Cadance Hennessy," she said, beaming happily. Introductions were always a nice start.
The enthusiasm of Cadance did manage to catch Mallory off guard for a second, but she made a swift recovery and took the other woman's hand in a firm handshake. "Mallory Harper. Nice to meet you," she said with a pleasant smile.
"Well, Mallory, I don't usually do this... but would you care to shop with me a bit? I get terribly lonely without my sister around," she said, hoping to coerce her into it.
Hm, meander around by herself or shop with a complete stranger. She pondered the option for a moment before replacing the book she held and nodded. "If you don't mind shopping with a complete stranger, then I guess I don't either," Mallory replied with a shrug. Hey, she needed to get to know some more people in town anyway.
"Wonderful!" Cadance said, clasping her hands together. "My sister and I are opening a bookstore... that is also sells novelties, so I need to find some interesting things to sell." Her eyes scanned the shelves as she picked up several books on crystals, vampires, and aliens.
"Well," Mallory scanned the shelves of the aisle they stood in, though she let the books be, for the moment. "Is it general, or are you guys more of a specialty store? Are you carrying a specific kind of books or novelty items?" Oh, she wondered if they would be interested in selling some photo prints...
Cadance shrugged. "I am kind of still trying to think of what exactly to sell. It's not even built yet," she said, tapping her chin as she thought about buying a book on herblore.
"Having an idea is the first step. So, what about novelty items? I know a person you could get some pretty good photo prints from to sell off..." Of course, she had to take the opportunity to pimp herself, as she grabbed another book and flipped through it. Not bad, but not something one could really carry unless metaphysical books were one of the specialties.
"Photo prints would be good. I was thinking some of everything and then see what is bought the most, you know?" she said, turning to face the girl. "I think this is enough books for now."
"Still have to do it wisely, else you end up with a bunch of stuff you can't get rid of. But once you know what sells and what doesn't, you can always go wholesale." Mallory said with a shrug and made her way out of the aisle since Cadance signaled she was done. She also waited for the blonde to lead the way - it was her shopping trip afterall.
Cadance led the way to the register and checked out, paying with cash. She then signaled for Mall to follow her from the store. "Know of any good places to get knick-knacks?" she asked as they left the store.
Mallory pointed to further down in the strip of shopping malls they were in. "There's a decent one down there, I think. I haven't been around this area much."
Cadance nodded as they headed in the direction of the stores. That's when her eye caught it - an archery range. Her entire face lit up with delight. "I'm sorry, but I really need to stop there. Do you mind?" she asked, pointing at the front of the building.
Huh. An archery range. She never even knew that a range, or even a dealer, was in this area. However, she nodded to the blonde and turned towards the building. Hey, they might have something interesting, right?
Cadance... no, Artemis... was bubbling with glee. Archery was her forte and to know there was a place to practice - she couldn't resist. When they entered, her eyes fell over the different bows, arrows, targets, and finally... the young man selling them. "Excuse me? May I practice?" she asked before he could even get out a 'hello'.
The man was a little stunned at the blunt enthusiasm of the woman, but gave her a pleasant smile and a nod. "We charge ten dollars an hour to use our range, and you are free to use any of the practice bows inside."
Ah, what the hell. Mallory pulled her wallet from the pocket of her coat and handed the man a twenty. Partially because this could be interesting (and hopefully not dangerous) and party because she didn't have anything other than a few tens and twenties available. "My treat," she muttered to the blonde, and waited for their complimentary target paper to be handed to them.
Cadance beamed. "Thank you, Mallory!" she said before taking the target sheets from the man. She handed one to Mall then followed Archery Store Man to the back. She was so bouncy she could hardly contain her enthusiasm. Yes, she had gone hunting a few weeks before, but practicing was always fun. "Have you ever used a bow?" she asked Mallory as she picked one up and began stretching it out.
"Nope. Never." She replied as she looked over the small selection of bows and frowned. There were only two traditional bows, and a variety of different compound bows. Something told her to take one of the traditional ones, but there was no way she could use one of those right. So, she waited for Cadance to pick one. Yea, let the girl who knew what she was doing pick first.
Cadance liked all bows, but liked the traditional the best. So she picked one and pulled on the string, testing its durability. "You should get one of these, see if you can handle it," she said, eyeing the far wall, picturing her prey there. This bow was pretty good.
Mallory frowned at the other woman slightly before plucking the other traditional bow from the wall, and moved to pick out a guard and glove. She was going to need all the protection she could get if she was going to be attempting to do this. Luckily, the bow was pullable when she tried it. "Well, pick a lane."
Cadance didn't need protection, and was still getting used to the modern ways of practice. She picked her lane and put her target paper on the reel. Once it was on the other side of the room, she picked an arrow from the bunch before her and pulled back on the bow, letting loose the arrow with remarkable speed and accuracy. Bullseye!
Aha. So that's how it was done, just like in the movies.
Once she was fairly sure she wasn't going to sustain any lasting injuries, Mallory readied herself at the lane beside Cadance and got a good grip on the bow. As weird as it was, it felt like an extension of her arm - not a big, bulky, bent thing with a string. With little need for instruction, she knocked an arrow, pulled the string back to the fullest, and let it fly.
And to her surprise, it was pretty damned close to a bullseye.
Cadance stepped back, looking at Mallory, her eyes wide. "Have you ever done that before?" she asked, letting her bow rest at her side.
"Uhm..." Mallory stared at the arrow protruding from the target with an amazed expression. Hey! She did it! Silently, she wondered if she could do it again... "I've never shot a bow before. At least, I never remember shooting a bow before."
Cadance frowned. Hmm, that was odd. "Is that why you were checking out the dream books?" she asked, curious now. The range forgotten.
"Well, not specifically," Mallory replied and plucked another arrow from the floor-quiver and nocked it again on the string. She had to see if she could do it again. And, she didn't, necessarily. The second arrow very nearly hit the first, just below it. Hrm.
Cadance shook her head, impressed. "Mallory, archery isn't something you can just learn by picking up a bow. It takes time and practice," she said, eyeing her suspiciously now.
"Never said it had to make sense," and with that statement flew the third arrow, landing on the bullseye, forming a nice, tight, triangle with the other two. Mallory finally let her arm down and stared at the grouping on the target with a frown. She was probably freaking this woman out as much as she was doing it to herself. "You know what, go ahead and finish the hour out. I should go."
"No... wait. You don't have to leave alone," Cadance said, placing her bow back on the wall. "I'll go with you."
The armguard and glove were tossed back where they were found rather carelessly. The bow was placed back on the hanger with a great amount of gentleness, though it almost made her feel sad to put it away so soon. But, Mallory shook her head and stepped away. "Your choice," she replied, "but I make no guarantees to refrain from getting more weird."
"Weird I can handle, honey," she said, putting her arm around Mallory's shoulders affectionately. She felt closer to her, for some odd reason. "You know, we all have strange histories..." she said, the understatement of the year.
Mallory let Cadance keep her arm there, though she wasn't exactly strolling casually out of the range. If she was going to end up freaking out, she didn't want it to be in the middle of a business. "But I don't," the brunette protested, "my history is plain, not strange." Really! It was!
"I think that not remembering certain aspects of your past qualifies as strange," she said as they exited the range. She stopped and turned to face the girl. "What do you remember?" she asked curiously. More and more, the woman was beginning to become familiar.
Mallory frowned again at Cadance, but still answered, albeit a little rushed. "I remember growing up in Vermont with my parents as an only child. We lived on a farm. I fed animals, rode horses, worked a small vegetable stand on the edge of our property beside a highway, never went to public school, went to college, and took a hell of a lot of pictures. There were complications with my birth, I have fears - but that's not something I could consider strange. Seeing green and blue eggs when you were never warned you were picking from Easter chickens, now that's strange."
Okay, so maybe she was just a tad defensive.
Cadance sighed. "No need to get defensive... I am only trying to help you. It's obvious there is some question in your past, and I don't know about you... but I feel like I already know you," she said, a bit hesitantly. She didn't want to scare a potential friend away.
Sigh.
"Yea, well, you're not the only one." Mallory said, and it really fit for both statements. "Look, there's nothing I remember happening that could cause dreams and nightmares, and I certainly have never picked up a bow before - I don't know how I could shoot other than pure luck." She paused, found a bench, and went to sit. "And the only reason I'm even admitting this in the first place is because I feel like I've met you before." Wasn't that the statement of the year...
Cadance followed and sat beside her, her eyes falling to the ground. Could it be possible that some of the Greeks were reincarnated in this lifetime? She had often wondered it, yet had always brushed the thought aside. Now, though, it seemed that it was more than a possibility. She felt she knew this girl. "I... may know someone who can help you," she said, thinking immediately of her father. Or Athena.
Once seated, Mallory looked over at the blonde. "Who? How the hell could they help?" Oh god, she hoped it wasn't a psychiatrist. She didn't need to go to those.
"Well, I have a really large family and I am sure one of them would be able to help you," she said with a small shrug.
Mallory quirked an eyebrow at the blonde, but shrugged it off and turned away to look at the area around them. Good distraction, at least. She couldn't help being a people watcher. "So long as they're not going to sign me into a nuthouse or tell me things I already know."
"Of course not," she said with a small smile. "I think that you will fit right in." She took a deep breath and also looked around. "Do you want to continue our shopping trip?"
"I guess," she muttered in reply and made herself ready to stand. She felt pretty safe that nothing else was going to go completely strange on her. She had already learned archery in .2 seconds - how could this day get any more weird? "Where to?"
"Knick-knacks, I suppose," Cadance said, taking a deep breath and standing in one fluid motion. "I honestly don't know what I am looking for, but imagine I will once I find it."
"Then lead the way," she said and waved her hand towards the shops, meaning more to follow than to lead. She didn't know the area well to know what sort of stuff they might find where, so tagging along seemed like a good option.
Cadance beamed as she began walking on again. She surely didn't know where to go either, but she imagined they would find a good enough store soon enough. In the meantime, small talk was in order. "How long have you been in Miami?" she asked casually.
"Couple of months." Mallory replied with a small shrug. "I came down just before the fall semester at the university, you?"
"About two months, I think," she said, looking up in thought. Was that right? She couldn't remember. "My sister lives here, and she invited me to stay with her," she explained.
"Ah," she said with a nod, "So you know even less about where we're going, then." It felt weird to not be a total newbie in a town, but it was good. Though she still didn't know half of where anything was. Dahlia's favourites stores, however, she could get to blindfolded.
"Yep. But I am sure we will come across something we find interesting," she said as she continued her trudge down the street. She wanted to ask all sorts of questions, but knew they had only just met and it wouldn't be proper...
And Mallory trudged along beside her, and only nodded in agreement. Her head was full of, well, stuff. Thoughts, worries, and complete confusion over the incident at the archery range. It'd probably be days before she stopped worrying about it.
"Mallory, I'm sorry," Cadance said, stopping suddenly, "I just can't help but be curious. What is your first memory as a child?" she asked, hoping she wasn't prying. She just wanted the truth. And hopefully to quell this suspicious feeling growing in her gut.
When Cadance stopped, Mallory stopped a step ahead of her and turned. "First memory, huh..." She repeated and looked down at the ground between them. She thought about it, hard. Hard enough to cause smoke to burst from her ears if she were a cartoon. The worst part was, she couldn't come up with anything. She came up with everything.
"I... don't know. I remember my parents and the farm, and then I remember these other two people somewhere that clearly isn't the farm, but I don't know which comes first." Must have been some distant relatives or something. Didn't her mom have family in Ohio?
Cadance pursed her lips as she thought about what Mallory was saying. Some people just didn't have good memories, but she doubted that was the case here. "How old would you say you are in this memory?" she asked, squinting with thought.
The brunette shrugged. "Pretty young, I think. It's kinda... fuzzy." She said, and wiggled her fingers a little bit for emphasis.
Cadance was getting more and more convinced that this girl was anything but ordinary. "I wonder... have you ever tried hypnosis or anything to try to get some of your memories back?" she asked, thinking of her many family members who could help them in this situation.
She shook her head. "Nope. No hypnotists, no psychiatrists, no psychics," which she added just for good measure, "Only time I've ever been anywhere near a hypnotist was when it was one of those comedy guys doing a show at a local theatre." And that was funny. Like when he made this one kid think he was Bon Jovi performing... classic!
"Would you consider it?" she asked, beginning to walk again, her head on the ground as she thought of ways to help her new friend.
"I'm certainly not going to a professional." Mallory said rather stubbornly and continued to walk. Not after this afternoon, anyway, after the archery incident. She didn't need to end up placed in some sort of mental hospital or put on medication.
"Of course not. But, I think there is someone in my family who could help you," she said, hoping she wasn't crossing any lines.
"Who?" She asked, and turned to look at the blonde. Oh yes, she wanted to know plenty about this person before she agreed to anything.
"He's my uncle. I think he is in town, though should check with my sister first," she said, thinking of Hades. "He's very smart." That was a good compliment, right?
"And what does he know of this stuff, what's his name?" Mallory asked. Those were the better questions, anyway. There were worse and more annoying she could certainly think of.
Crap. Cadance had to think about that one for a second. She barely knew Hades was in Miami, let alone his alias. Think, think THINK! Oh YES! "Dante. His name is Dante. He has studied the human psyche for many years," she said, leaving it at that.
Mallory blinked. Dante? Huh. Well, maybe there was more than one around - Miami wasn't exactly small. Maybe. "Does he do it for a living, or is it just an interest?"
"I do believe it is just an interest of his, though I can't be sure. We aren't as close as we used to be, to be honest," she said, frowning a bit. She really should get in contact with her dear uncle soon.
Mallory looked sideways at Cadance, watching the blonde. "And what do you think it is that's wrong with me, hm? What is it that Mr. Lot can help me with?"
Cadance shrugged. "Honestly, I don't think anything is wrong with you, hun. I just think you may be repressing some memories," she said casually, also watching the girl. She was curious about her, that much was true.
Huh. So she didn't catch the last name, oh well. "Don't see why I would. Howabout this... we keep shopping and stop worrying about this, and we'll trade phone numbers. As for Dante, I can talk to him myself."
Cadance beamed. Perfect! No wait... "You know him then?" she asked, running the conversation through in her head again. She hadn't mentioned Dante's last name. That was a bit disconcerting.
"Assuming we're talking about the same Dante, then yes," Mallory said with a small nod and briefly stopped in the window of one store before moving on. "I live with a Dante."
Cadance shook her head, blinking a few times, as if coming out of a daze. "Well, hell. This is a small world," she muttered. "Have you not told him about your memories?"
"Uhm, no," she said simply, "I work for his wife, Dahlia. He's not exactly the type you just... feel like opening up to."
Cadance smirked. No, he definitely wasn't that. "Perhaps I should come over sometime? Pay my dear old uncle and aunt a visit," she said, smirking. So... was Hades with Persephone still? Oh the intrigue! She continued her walk, though at a slower pace as her curiosity overwhelmed her.
Mallory stopped, shaking her own head as if trying to shake something off. "Wait, wait, wait. Aunt and Uncle?" There was no way in hell this woman was the niece to either of those two, she was too old. Or they were too young. Either way, the math just didn't add up.
"Well," she said, trying to stall. Shit! Why did they all have to look so damn young!? "He was a bit of an accident. Had many, many years after my father," she said in explanation. Hopefully that would work. Dammit to Hades! ~giggle.
Only Mallory was not convinced, and it showed in the look she shot Cadance before beginning to walk again. Although she wanted to push and perhaps get the real answer and maybe get some slight insight to the goings on around her, she didn't. Did she really know why Dahlia and Dante were upset awhile ago, why they were taking care of someone's child, why all this weird stuff was seeming to happen to her all at once?
Cadance bit her lip, wanting to tell Mallory of everything for some reason. But she knew that would spell disaster if she was wrong about the girl. "I am sure you will get the answers you seek soon," she said instead, walking beside the girl.
The brunette scoffed. "I'm not even sure I want to know." Ignorance was bliss, right?
Cadance laughed. "You may not want to, but I think you will find out anyway," she said, clapping Mal on the shoulder lightly.
Summary: Cadance and Mallory meet and shop together. Cadance is resolved to helping Mallory get back her memories.