Tandy Bowen doesn't have to pick between (cloakndagger) wrote in repose,
Re: tandy & holly; the music store
Tandy was all about not getting caught? Like, for real, getting caught with light-knives or any of the other dozen things she'd done - all in the name of survival, obv, even if 'survival' meant 'capable of thinking about the medium term as well as right NOW' - would be bad. Her mom was still out there, even in a trailer with 'company', and Tandy circled back forever, guiltily to the idea that ultimately? If Mom crapped out on paying the rent, she, Tandy would find a way to pay it. It had gone in the notebook, the one stuffed under the mattress that she replaced pretty much every day. 'Pay Mom's rent if she's too busted to do it', written in her tight scrawl, so getting caught for either tossing people's houses or the night she'd discovered the knife-trick - all bad, terrible, no good stuff.
She lifted her head to look at him straight. Tandy was short, so it took raising her eye-line, even if he was sat behind a counter. He was taking this way straight, which was surprising, but appreciated. There was a limit on the number of people for whom 'light knives' were kosher. Some were more or less weird about the gender thing, but she was getting used to that. "I'm not really the cop kinda girl? I'm not into Johnny Cash so it's not like they and I share a hot spot in town." Deadpan played straight back.
He was getting way too into this. She brought her elbows down onto the table and dropped her chin into her cupped hands, flannel scuffing over counter-top. "Yes, they were like that before I left. Once. It was a one-time thing," she iterated, "I don't know why do most people reach for weaponry by default? It's my unconscious, I can't make it conscious." But it was kind of disingenuous. Tandy's face caught the tail-end of the feeling, discomfort and a little fear co-mingled.
"I have no idea. Dad was a super-genius, but he definitely was not all about light-knives. More like, light-sabers. Your fairly typical geek. Mom? Is loaded. All the time. I'm pretty sure if she could do anything she'd probably be dead right now."