Out and Exploring [Boom Goes Your Appetite] (Open)

(Lorelei's tracker thread: http://159.65.241.122/index.php?threads/6012&pid=86279#pid86279

OOC: Lorelei doesn't know that magic exists yet and thinks the island is a States government-run facility with highly advanced experimental technology. She isn't supposed to find out magic exists yet either, not for a couple threads yet. Should make for an "interesting" conversation or two.....)

Lorelei didn't really understand why, but after getting a full night's rest in the hospital, one of the doctors had brought her a change of clothes and allowed her escorted use of a shower stall. What she meant by "change of clothes" was really just a pair of sandals, a pair of sweatpants, and a sweater from the hospital's store. It wasn't what she would have preferred, but at least she felt clean and she knew her clothes were clean. After that, she'd been told what was going to happen that day.

She was going to be given a small allowance, three-hundred-dollar spending limit, and was going to be allowed to leave the hospital, provided she was escorted all day by a plainclothes officer. She was to use her fake name and identity, Miranda Jessica Baker, if anybody tried to talk to her, and she had eight hours to wander around the downtown area, going wherever she wanted within reason, before she and her escort for the day had to meet at a designated street corner with whoever it was that would take her to Niccolo Belmonte's house to meet him. Anything further would be decided there. She couldn't go any earlier because he would be unavailable until then.

The very first place she'd gone after getting out of the hospital was to go find a store that sold backpacks, and after that she went to find one that sold women's clothes. After getting a new clothes for herself, she went out to go find someplace to eat wearing the hospital sandals, a pair of jeans, a light green blouse, and a light blue windbreaker, her black backpack over her shoulder. The plainclothes officer was trailing behind her, being careful, dressed in blue jeans, a black t-shirt, sunglasses and a nondescript baseball hat with tennis shoes.

It took her a little bit, but she found a place that looked promising: some restaurant called "Boom Goes Your Appetite". It looked somewhat busy, so she guessed that people wouldn't pay too much attention to her. She walked in and almost walked back out: one look told her there were a lot of strange people here. She bit her lip, deciding real food was better than nothing, and if it was popular it must be good, so she went and found herself a nearly empty table away from most of the crowds, the second furthest back away from the major groups. The plainclothes officer sat right behind her, facing away from her, which made her feel a little safer, even though his job seemed to be to just to keep an eye on her, not to stop anybody from approaching her. Still, after what she'd been through in the last three days- wait, sorry, the last three weeks- one couldn't really blame her for being a little paranoid of people's intentions, although she did resolve to try and act normal.

(OOC: I'm placing the thread in the restaurant about 12:30 noon, 1 p.m., when it's busier.)

(OOC: Hmm... I'm gonna have Pierce make a cameo in the thread after the order's placed; sorry if I accidentally powergame a little, I'll change it if needed/requested.)

At first, with the crowd, Lorelei wasn't really sure she should be there, and although she wasn't waiting for an unreasonable amount of time, during the time she waited for a waiter or waitress, she looked around, feeling very out of place. Most of these people seemed to have some knowledge of each other, and from a glance at the window she caught sight of a person with a backpack and realized they were all high school students, with a few college students, because some of them looked just a year or two over high school age. From there, and from what she'd seen, she guessed there was probably only one school in town and she had to be close to it, or something like that.

As she was looking around, though, and listening, she heard a lot of different accents and saw a looot of strange-looking people. Definitely not "normal" high school students, not where she'd grown up. That's when a strong stench hit her, like somebody had dumped a bottle of alcohol on her and was a heavy user of marijuana or a heavy smoker, and she felt shocked she hadn't noticed it before. She looked around, and at the next table over, with a pretty decent gap, was an Asian-looking guy, built like a professional athlete, maybe in his late twenties? Early thirties? But he also looked like he wasn't fully Asian, so maybe he had a Caucasian parent? Either way, he was hunched over the table, reading a newspaper and drinking coffee, with his left side facing her, and he had so much body art on him, in the form of piercings and tattoos, and his hair was the whitest shade she'd ever seen on a person, her mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide and she was struck by shock. She didn't notice he was wearing a mudstained, particularly dirty pair of jeans and a sleeveless hoodie with a zipper, but no shirt under it, and it almost looked like he'd been rolling around in the dirt all day. That was because she was looking at the massive white scars on the left side of his face, underneath the arachnid tattoo he'd gotten on his left check, that went from hairline to jaw, where it looked like five straight claw marks, where maybe a very large tiger or a gigantic bear had once clawed the entire side of his face off, although it didn't seem to take out his eye.

She was sitting, staring at him open-mouthed and astonished, a look on her face suggesting the idea of 'how could anybody even survive something like that?', when the waitress came up and introduced herself.

Lorelei jumped, nearly half a foot, and then looked rather nervous, her voice on the meek side. "Oh! Um.. food... um... do you have some kind of soda, like Mountain Dew or Mello Yellow? And a hamburger and fries, or maybe onion rings? Something like that? Just... real food, kind of, junk food, not the stuff they give you in hospitals." She heard a cough from the agent behind her; obviously, she wasn't supposed to say she'd been in the hospital. "Umm.. just that, please? Thank you?"

It took a moment after she'd finished speaking before she'd realized the waitress didn't seem that comfortable either. It made her feel a little better.

After she'd placed her order, her gaze drifted back to the white-haired man, worried he'd caught sight of her staring. She couldn't really tell, though, when she looked at him, because he had stood up and left a twenty on the table, holding the bill and another twenty in his hand, which meant he was probably going to go and pay up front. Lorelei didn't notice it before, but poking out on his shoulders, beneath his sweater, there were fresh bandages with a hint of pink to them. She looked confused and was about to say something when he turned to face her, looking at her from his right side this time, and muttered, "Mind your own business." She barely heard that, though, because she'd caught sight of the tattoo on his right shoulder: the Crescent Scorpion, the same one she had because her family had it.

What made it worse was she recognized his voice. He was the third guy from the woods last night, the one who knew exactly who she was, and the one who'd essentially saved her life. And she'd just stared at him in shock.

She waited until the waitress came back with her drink before asking, "Umm... that guy who was here... are there a lot of people like him on this island? He seemed kind of..." she paused for a moment, trying to decide the right word- "strange, I guess." She bit her lip. "Sorry; I just came here recently." Last night, at least as far as I know, anyway. she thought to herself. "Sorry; I don't mean to bug you, it's just... there's a lot of strange-looking people here."

(OOC: sorry for the length; I'm trying to take a direction where Farren either goes on break or gets done with work and comes to talk to Lorelei about the island or about recent experiences; hope it helps)

Lorelei nodded, not quite sure what to feel or think when she heard there would be a lot of strange people on the island. She was pleased when she got her food, though, and even moreso when her waitress came and sat across from her. Her escort for the day didn't seem to be much for chatter.

She paused for a second, though, looking confused. Wait... didn't she say her name was Farris earlier? That's- well, I have to give a fake name right now as well, or at least that's what they told me. Maybe it's sort of like those books where names are power and you're not supposed to give your real name? But that wouldn't make sense because she just told me-, ah, never mind. I'll worry about it later. Lorelei's train of thought only took a couple of seconds, which she had bought for herself by taking a bite of burger. Swallowing, she covered her mouth with one hand out of modesty and replied, "Farren is a cute name. Call me Miranda? Like I said, I just came to town not very long ago."

She set her burger down and took a sip of water to clear her throat. "I suppose I'll have to get used to seeing strange things. But, honestly, it's incredible, you know? Not that long ago I was off working as a cashier at a gas station, and the next thing I know, I'm here and experiencing a world I've never even begun to think could be real, or even really ever thought of or imagined at all, you know? At least not that I can remember. I suppose it's a good example as any that one single thing can wind up turning your entire world upside down and completely change your life before you even know it's happening."

(OOC: XD If you read her words carefully, she doesn't lie even once. I'm personally a little proud of that pointless thing.)

Lorelei smiled when she heard she was taking the change well, but frowned when she was asked if she was enrolled in the academy. She took another look around and the students and thought a little. "Umm... definitely not enrolled in the Academy. I'm not in high school anymore, after all. Unless it's a college? I don't really know. Sorry; I've got a lot to learn yet."

She grinned, then sighed as she wiped her hands on her napkin and started casually munching on her fries. "Want some? I don't mind sharing." She smiled. "Although, to be honest, I don't really think it's more about me taking things well as it is that I haven't really had time to let things sink in. I mean, everything just seems to be moving so fast, I haven't even really had time to personalize my own room or even really had a chance to get a good rest in my own bed yet, you know? It's just 'go, go, go' right now. But I suppose what helps the most is that I haven't really had exposure to anything majorly 'jump-six-feet' strange or had time to think with about ten or eleven other things to worry about now. The whole 'occupied mind' thing from psychology, right?"

She smiled, then sighed, looking out the window wistfully. "I'm sure everything will hit me eventually, and I might have a small breakdown, or I might be so used to it all by then it won't seem so bad. It helps that I've been on the road for most of the last year, travelling, so for me right now I'm coping by just considering it another city, another social climate, another period of adjustment. Same thing I've always done, but just with a couple new rules changes to keep it interesting."

Lorelei turned to Farren. "So what about you? What's your story? How'd you wind up here?"

(OOC; sorry; I know I talk. A lot.)