Feathers and Nicotine, Alcohol and Animal Print | Fenna + Abel | The Station Car

Fenna Van Daalen

Abel Lazarus “Well, my aunt is a police officer last I checked, so even if I wasn’t a rich man in LA I’m sure they’d still be listening about this.”

“Fair enough, I guess?”

Rich kid from L.A. tracks. Far as she’s concerned there’s never a reason to talk to cops, but folks are different in different places, she guesses.

She lets him talk for a bit. It certainly wasn’t escaping her that he was trying to deflect, flipping the questions back around on her, but… Well, maybe she had been too pushy. There was obviously something else going on with him that she wasn’t keyed into just yet. She’ll back off a little and offer some information of her own.

Abel Lazarus “You aren’t my mother. That’s correct.”

“…Nah, I’m not. My son’s a lot further away. Got on the train hopin’ ta see him… But who knows, now.”

She could use another smoke. One per day, though. Gotta ration them out.

“Don’t remember any travelin’, though? Train showed up at 4am, barrelin’ down the street right outside the Lounge, den I woke up with yous guys. Weird as hell.”

Abel Lazarus

We will, again, be glad he doesn’t necessarily associate lounge with bar. Lounges in his head are just fancy people meeting places. Similar to restaurants or something. Sure Marius complains about not liking meeting up with people at them, but he’s lame enough to miss out on fine details About what happens at lounges.

“It was similar for me. Just before 3 AM right outside The Estate. I thought the neighbours might have had a strange project they didn’t clear with us, and then suddenly I was on the ice.” It. Bothers him that things are Missing from his memories there. Or, at least he had to Assume things were missing. It could be that he was just out Cold the whole time, but he Also doesn’t appreciate that thought.

He’s starting to reorganize things he’s already organized, trying to find the most ideal way to line everything up. It’s soothing the frustration that’s definitely building in his little bottle.

“Where does your son live?” Maybe the question is a bit personal. He certainly won’t mind if she refuses to answer- but as a gossip, he is curious about little details. “It’s hard to live away from family members you’d rather live with.” Buddy. You only ever lived 30 minutes tops away from your uncle. This is Not the same. Either way, he’s having an easier time pretending this is just a conversation between coworkers now. It’s. Close enough?

Fenna Van Daalen

Abel Lazarus “Where does your son live?”

“Hm? Ah… Melbourne, Australia. Last I heard, anyway…”

Fenna doesn’t seem particularly forthcoming with the details there, and his last comment only gets a sigh. In fact, the speed with which she pivots the conversation is a little jarring.

“Big old ghost train shows up right outside my door and tells me it’s goin’ ta the other side a the world? Obviously I shouldn’t have gotten on, but… How could I naht? Ha!”

She pokes her head outside to look around before returning to idly going through a cabinet. Turns out a ticket booth contains… a lot of blank tickets.

“Ya find anything weird over there yet? Naht sure what we’re supposed ta be lookin’ for, exactly.”

Abel Lazarus

Australia? God if he lived that far from someone-

“I suppose all of us should have thought better about getting on the train…” The opening of the cabinet does irritate him, but mostly because now that she’s touching things she might mess up his organizing. Not that it’ll be hard to fix things since there isn’t really… Much to do in here.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything too strange.” But he hasn’t really been looking that hard yet. As he found things he wanted to go through he stopped to organize that before opening any other cabinets. “You’re free to look through them if you like, I haven’t gone through all of them yet.” He doesn’t Actually want her going through things so close to him but he will. Deal. He can Manage.

“Let me know if you find a notebook or a pen.”

Fenna Van Daalen

“Mmm…” What else was she supposed to say to that? Obviously they should have thought better, but they didn’t, and Fenna suspects the train wouldn’t have showed up if she’d been in a state of mind to turn it down. She knows what that says about her, and wonders what it says about him…

Anyway, he’s talking about the cabinets now.

“Dese ones over here? Sure.”

Glad to have something to take her mind off things, she moves to the opposite side of the booth and starts going through the shelves, trying put things back where she found them after taking them out and fidgeting with them incessantly. Still nothing too strange yet…

Abel Lazarus

It definitely says nothing positive about him in particular, but surely Fenna can figure as much out from how easily he can kill honest attempts at conversations. The silence is like a reward for the first chunk of it. It’s like he feels he won something that was never a competition.

Because clearly this interaction was… something he needed to… win? Is that what he’s feeling? Not quite. Okay yeah he’s realizing he’s definitely not being very good company- but in his defense, he’s not sure Why she seemed to think he Would be good company. Did she need something? There’s no way she simply- thought he might just be pleasant company.

Not someone like her. Someone like her couldn’t think anything nice about him.

… Yet there’s enough of an urge to. Semi attempt to fix how unpleasant he’s been so far. She Has. Been Nice. And if they’re there for a while- he probably will fare better if someone can at least tolerate him. Networking is important. Marius says so.

Even if he can’t find himself Trusting her niceness at face value, he can’t deny that she has been useful thus far. People seem to like her well enough. If they like her and she will tolerate him… then they’ll tolerate him too. Probably. Selfish self preservation is enough of a reason to try.

He clears his throat and attempts to. Bridge a bit. “So. You’re a business owner? You called it your lounge so.” Awkward pause. “My uncle is a business owner too.” Because really. That’s his idea of Connecting.

Fenna Van Daalen

Fenna’s a little surprised that he tries to resume the conversation, but she’s not gonna complain. Maybe they’ll part on good terms after all?

Abel Lazarus “So. You’re a business owner? You called it your lounge so.”

“Hm? Well yes, I do, but– somehow, I don’t think it’s yer type a establishment, dear! Maybe if ya came over in the afternoon, afore the DJ shows up, it’s a lovely old building and ya could look at the archy-tecture… Still gatta be 21 or older, though. I’m sure yer uncle’s got a much more ritzy gig–”

She opens one more cabinet and sees a glimmer of metal– something weird! Finally! She hasn’t quite worked up the nerve to touch it just yet, though.

“Now what the hell is dis…? Look!”

Narrator

On a lower shelf is an odd gleam of black-and-white metal—a roughly hemispherical lump, with two… cat limbs? branching out from it. It’s a bit difficult to recognize exactly what it’s supposed to be as-is, but it sure doesn’t seem useful. Or that decorative.

Abel Lazarus

“Maybe not. I don’t really go many places-“

At first he assumes she thinks he’s a kid or something- but then he sort of. Realizes what 21 being the age requirement means.

Many things go through his head at once. Frustration, Satisfaction he was Right- without even thinking he’s going to make a comment but he’s stopped by her exclamation.

“What-“ he comes over to look but stops and furrows his brow. “What… is that?” He pushes his glasses up and squints at it.

He sticks his hand out to touch it before realizing it might not be safe and stopping. Hm. Maybe he shouldn’t be the one to touch it. His hand goes back down. Maybe they should just leave it be- or better yet- she can deal with it.

Fenna Van Daalen

Fenna catches a bit of an odd look on Abel’s face and raises an eyebrow, but the weird avant garde sculpture is a more pressing matter. Curiosity wins out over caution, and she pulls the thing out from the shelf. It’s a little heavy…

“Wha… It’s gaht little arms! What on earth…”

She grabs it by said arms and tries to wiggle them with limited success. Apparently looking silly isn’t much of a concern for her.

“Looks sorta like a little kitty cat… Don’t cha think? The little paws?”

Abel Lazarus

“It does look catlike- yes.” He’s a bit stiffer now. He’s so totally contained and not going to override this clearly important conversation to go on about the degeneracy of drinking alcohol. Absolutely Not. “I wonder what it’s doing here.”

Yeah he’s sounding just a little bit robotic. Come on little guy. You can do it.

“It’s definitely out of place here- maybe it should be taken out.” Okay. He’s over correcting himself- bring it back. “It might be needed for something.”

He’s… shaking. Alright. Okay. Just. Deep breath. Very deep breath. He’s going to finish this interaction. He can Do That Much.

Without even thinking he clasps a hand around his cross and tries so hard to will his face to stop being bright red. He isn’t running yet but goodness knows he’s likely to make a quick exit if he thinks he’s going to fail to contain himself any longer. He knows he can make it without blowing up. Just a little longer.

Fenna Van Daalen

Abel Lazarus “It’s definitely out of place here- maybe it should be taken out.”

“I guess I’ll… look fer the others, then? Yeah.”

Fenna’s not sure what she said to upset him, but she can definitely read a room. Maybe he doesn’t like cats? Or… oh, there’s that cross again. Catholics, man. Who knows?

For now, she’ll just let him work through whatever’s going on in his head there in peace. She slings the weird cat-arm thing under her human arm and quietly heads for the door, glancing over her shoulder as she leaves.