Cora Hale (impulsivewolf) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-04-07 17:50:00 |
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Katniss was a bit overwhelmed by all the responses on the network. Eventually she just shut down and stopped responding. She wasn’t used to so many people wanting to talk to her and got overwhelmed. She felt bad but even with her family that was what happened. Put her in a room full of people and she just sort of turned off. Like all the lights went out in her brain and she couldn’t think of how to respond anymore. Intimate settings were better for Katniss. She did however make herself reach out to Cora again. She didn’t know anyone, not really. Having a friend in a new city might be nice. Assuming said friend wasn’t into loud and crowded scenes, they seemed to get along pretty well online. Katniss had found a little vegetarian place that sounded promising. She liked healthy spots, but if it sucked they could very easily go find someplace else. She wasn’t dedicated to it. She wore her hair back in a singular braid, and looked a bit unsure of her surroundings as she waited, awkwardly toying with the end of it. --- Even though Cora only had that short conversation with Katniss, the girl seemed pretty cool. And now that she was actually going to meet her face to face, she would really get to see if they meshed well or not. Once Cora knew where to meet Katniss, she grabbed her purse and left her place. It really didn’t take long to find the place. She had driven by it quite a few times but never actually went inside. When Cora walked up to Katniss, something about her seemed far too familiar. But how could it? She barely met this girl. She shook her head before her thoughts ran away from her and smiled. “Hey. “ * It was a trendy place, vegetarian and vegan stuff was these days. Katniss didn’t care about that part, but she also didn’t see anything wrong with a little trendy. It just meant they paid extra care to details and making it look good. She'd been stalking the Instagram of this place for a while and everything looked pretty. There was a saying that said feast with your eyes and they’d definitely lured her in that way. Cora’s arrival snapped her out of her daze and she managed to remember to smile. Emotions were sort of a conundrum to he sometimes, but happiness meant smiling. She was happy to see that Cora decided to come. “Hey, sorry this probably seems random. I don’t know anyone here yet..” She explained as she pointed behind them. “My treat?” Maybe that would make it less awkward. It was her idea. --- “Don’t worry about it,” Cora told her with a slight wave of her hand. “I’m all for meeting up with new people.” Especially if it meant she could gain a new friend in this place. “Well, I can’t say no to that. Shall we go inside?” She asked as she peeked inside the place. It didn’t seem too busy. But it had a good amount of people inside already. “Have you been here before or is this your first time here as well?” * “Well you could, but that’d be ridiculous. This place is supposed to be amazing. Literally only one bad review just because they had slow service for a holiday. So.” Nothing about the food sucking, or the staff being unkind etc. “First time. They make instagramable food if you do that. It’s their big thing.” They’d hopped on the trend wagon, but nothing wrong with a harmless trend. When they opened the door the place had a very unique hippy sort of vibe to it. It had several stations where the chefs would create something for you on demand. Even a fresh pastry section. “I’ve been looking at it since I flew in, everything looks pretty.” It was low lit, had various unique art pieces on the walls, that sort of place. -- “Oh, well, then we shouldn’t have anything to worry about if that’s the only bad review.” She let Katniss go in first before she went right on inside. She took another quick look around. It really did have that hippy type of vibe. “So, do we seat ourselves or…?” She was unsure since she didn’t see any signs or anything. But that didn't mean anything. As they stood, she couldn't help but check out what people were eating. Well, Katniss was right. It didn’t look good and she couldn’t wait to try it. * “I think they do it.” She pointed at the sign once she got in. It wasn’t too long though once they got the hosts attention. Even the host was pretty cute, Katniss had to admit. So far she had no regrets about the place she’d chosen. Hopefully the food was as good as it was cute. Even if it was only okay at this point she could accept that they were paying for ambiance. As they were seated, she browse a menu and ordered a drink-plus whatever Cora wanted. But then she paused. “Have you seen all that talk on the internet about dreams?” She asked once the server moved off to fetch said drinks. It had been on her mind, and Cora was on there too. Hopefully she wasn’t the only one seeing it and thinking it was crazy. --- Cora looked in the direction that Katniss had pointed in and she was right. There was a sign. How did Cora end up missing that? Oops. They didn’t have to stand around for long, which was good. And once they had been seated, she ordered her drink and then started to look over the menu, glancing up once in a while when Kat spoke. “Yeah, I have seen people talking about it.” It had been hard to miss. It seemed like the majority of users had weird dreams. Her brother included. “I know someone who started to have them. I think it’s all real.” * “Right? I’ve been kind of ignoring it...it sounds insane doesn't it? But I mean lots of them are writing about it. I thought they were just some writing community writing a book. My dad used to like round robin storytelling. So something like that….but…” Katniss chewed at the inside of her cheek. She didn’t know what to make of it. It was all crazy. “You haven’t had any personally then?” She looked over that menu after that, picking out a salad with chicken bits and avocados and all sorts of stuff that came in a wooden bowl. The place was a little hipster, but she didn’t see anything wrong with that. --- “It does sound insane, but after seeing it happen to someone...it’s not that crazy anymore.” She was just afraid of what might happen when she starts to have these insane dreams. Was she going to die? Or would she somehow survive what had happened in Derek’s dreams? She was too afraid to find out. “Plus, the weird stuff that goes on in this county is far stranger than the dreams.” Cora shook her head at Kat’s question. “No, not yet. I’m kind of hoping that I never get them.” She would be one happy girl if she never had any of those dreams. She glanced at her own menu again and when the waiter came back, she ordered one of their veggie noodle dishes and a small side salad. * “I heard about snow.” That just sounded fucking ridiculous. “It’s L.A. the elevation isn’t high enough.” But one of those people on the internet had mentioned...Katniss frowned at the idea. “I read back a bit and apparently there were zombies too. It sounds like a video game.” She toyed with her water glass distractedly. She didn’t know what to make of it. She hadn’t seen anything like that before, so how could she have an idea how to handle it? “Same honestly. It sounds like a bunch of bullshit.” She was blunt, some people didn’t like that. And when upset she often got cold and tended to shut the world out. Hopefully, Cora wouldn’t fault her if that time came. She was enjoying the other girl's company. --- “The snow was crazy especially the crazy snowmen it brought with it.” Cora had opted to stay inside during that madness. Just like she opted to stay inside when the zombies were roaming around the city. She was not dealing with any of that. “There were. I mostly stay inside when the crazy happens.” She knew it sounded crazy, but she also knew the longer Kat stayed in the OC the more she was going to see. “It does. But it’s all true. It doesn't happen all the time. But when it does, I suggest hiding out and staying as far away from it as possible.” Kat’s bluntness didn’t scare Cora off. She was used to her brother talking like that, so Kat was perfectly fine. “Oh, I think our food is coming,” she said when she saw the waiter coming their way. * “It sounds even more fucking stupid out loud.” She laughed, she believed it but she laughed all the same. It was an incredible thing to think about, and how her brain was going to cope apparently. She wasn’t trying to insult anyone, but how the hell could this be real life? “Yeah, no problem there. I don’t want to be involved anyway.” When the waiter came, she grinned. “If you upload your pictures to Instagram a few famous people stalk this place. You’ll get a few grand in likes easily.” And she could see why when it was placed down in front of them. Even the radishes in the salad were cut into roses. Everything was meticulous and cute. -- “Yeah, it does,” Cora admitted. If anyone outside of the OC heard them talking like this they would probably think they were nuts. “Then I won’t have to worry about you too much when things get weird.” She smiled. “What makes you think I need help getting likes? I have a lot of followers myself.” She grabbed her phone and took a picture of her food. Then she took a quick picture of Katniss. “Gotta share a picture of my new friend too,” he explained before setting the phone down and grabbing her fork. She was hungry and she wanted to dig in now. * “I didn’t say you did. Just that this place gets a ton of attention, so more can’t hurt.” She felt briefly like she’d insulted Cora, and that wasn’t the idea here. But then Cora seemed to quickly recover if she did, and Katniss looked at the camera and gave it a waving gesture with a smile. She was awkward at cameras but loosened up a bit more at that. “Maybe after we can go take some pictures over there.” She pointed at the nicely lit spot in front of colorful lamps and then turned back to her food. “Thanks for coming with me.” She had trouble making connections sometimes, but she was going to try with Cora. --- Cora hadn’t been insulted. It wasn’t like Katniss was wrong. She just brushed it off and continued on. “Yeah,” she said with a quick look at the area, “we can definitely do that.” After taking another bite of her food and swallowing it, she smiled at Kat. “Anytime and, hey, thanks for inviting me. If it weren’t for you, I probably would have kept missing this place.” Not only that, but she thought this was a good stepping stone to having another friend. |