taxonomites | 003 ━ [ visual ] / [ location: the crashdown ].

"Little hot for a jacket, don't you think?"

Sometimes the natives made comments that were so coherent and like that of conversation she'd expect from a normal, living and breathing Human from Earth that it took Liz completely by surprise. She formulated a reply, but although it was sitting in her mind, she did not speak it. Talking to them was awkward, and she wasn't sure if she felt it was best to ignore them or if she was ashamed of herself for ignoring them. Liz was not the type of person who shunned others because they were different or strange, but there was something about the natives that rubbed her the wrong way. She couldn't quite put it into words...

As for the jacket, she was from New Mexico. The summer temperatures made the 'heat wave' Taxon had been experiencing these past months seem laughable. She found mornings to be too cool for her liking, and would often venture downstairs to get the Crashdown ready to open with a light jacket on over whatever she happened to be wearing. Today being the day she'd given herself off -- the natives could handle things, as much as they weirded her out, they were oddly reliable in their ability to keep this place up and running -- she was only hanging around long enough to get things ready before she headed out; maybe to the mall or the zoo, somewhere to get her mind off things that felt more like home and less some alien planet.

"Okay, I think that's it," she said to the native behind the counter in the pastel turquoise waitress uniform as she placed the last sugar dispenser on the table of one of the booths. "Should be ready to go."

The early morning hours fading and the temperature rising, Liz shrugged out of the jacket, revealing a tank top that, although it showed her mid-drift, was rather modest. Draping it over one arm, she made for the exit, but-- She froze.

In her reflection in the window, Max's silver hand print, almost unnaturally iridescent, could clearly be seen on her stomach.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, Jenna didn't believe her for a second, fixing the girl with a pointed look. "If it's something with the mirrors or whatever, you aren't the only one who's been seeing weird things. It's happening to all of us. And if it's not, forget I said anything."

She fiddled with a strand of her long blonde hair for a moment. "You stay here long enough, you kinda start trying to make it better for everyone else, too."

"I'm not?" Liz breathed an honest sigh of relief. She was starting to think that maybe there was something wrong with her that was making her see these things she didn't give much thought to for a reason. It wouldn't have surprised her if that had been the case. Who knew what being brought back to life did to a person. "Oh, thank God. I thought I was seeing things without a reason to see things and it was--"

She pressed a hand to her chest, laughing at herself for getting more worked up than she should've. "Guess I'm not so used to all the goings on here, yet."

Jenna shook her head in response. "It's weird." She flapped a hand at her surroundings as though to say the whole damn place was strange. "All of this city is weird, but at least we're not the only ones going crazy with it."

She'd been seeing vampire veins. And Alaric. And old boyfriends. It's not really what she's been wanting to see.

"Sometimes I think you have to be here for a year to really get used to it." She wasn't used to it at all. And that included all of the vampire stuff.

A year. Someone had told her there were people who'd been trapped in Taxon for longer than that, and Liz couldn't imagine being stuck here forever. They would get out eventually, right? She'd seen stickier situations before, but she supposed even the seriousness of breaking into secret FBI locations and getting out alive weren't exactly on level with this.

"Have you been here that long?"

Jenna shook her head at that. "Nah, just a couple of months. It's long enough, really. How about you?" Hopefully, this girl hadn't been here long, either. It was bad enough knowing it was possible without actually living it.