16805/She's a Mania(c), Mania(c) at the Store

She's a Mania(c), Mania(c) at the Store
Date of Scene:	06 January 2024
Location:	Harbor Road and North Street
Synopsis:	Damian shows up to buy a gift for his sister and may have sussed out someone's secret. Or at least, her tastes in nicknames!
Cast of Characters:	Andi Benton, Damian Wayne

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Andi Benton has posed:
It's a boring day.

For someone in Andi Benton's line of work, sometimes that's a good thing. /This/ job, staffing the register at Tune In, Happy Harbor's music store (used, new, 'vintage' which just means /really/ old, so on and so forth), is often quiet. Not in the literal sense, with something usually playing on the speakers, but in the way that nothing really happens.

It's a good escape from time spent as Mania, patrolling, busting the bad guys, all that jazz.

The other jazz would be a mix of stuff by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, and more. On the speakers.

Sipping from a warm drink, Andi adjusts the leather jacket she's got on, drumming a few fingers against the countertop in a rhythm with the beat.

Damian Wayne has posed:
The gentle clatter of the bell hanging over the entrance of the door announces the arrival of a potential customer. Making his way into the store, Damian Wayne is bundled against the winter's chill and the light snow that falls outside. A knee length overcoat is worn over a dark turtleneck sweater and jeans. A pair of leather loafers sit on his feet as he takes a look around the shop.

Andi may actually recognize him from the time they were both at Happy Harbor, but they had rarely crossed paths, so who knows. Closing his green eyes, he takes in the sounds of the shop and grins at the dulcet tones of the jazz that permeated the old bones of the shop and gave it character.

His attention swiveling, he steps aside to let the door close and keep the warmth trapped in the building, his hands moving to remove his gloves and tuck them in his pocket before pulling down the scarf that covers the lower part of his face.

Noticing Andi, he raises a hand in greetings. "Afternoon." he offers politely. "I like what you're playing at the moment." he offers. "I was hoping to find a birthday present for my older sister."

Andi Benton has posed:
Each time the door opens, it lets a bit of that outside chill in. Not for long, and there's a space heater behind the counter that's set to a comfortable level. Blue eyes shift upward at the sound of the bell. There's also a smartphone set on the countertop, in use. Just a random battle game of some kind.

If Andi recognizes Damian, it's slow in coming. Her time at Happy Harbor High School was brief, right around when her life changed and she spent the last month or two finishing her studies up at home. Special arrangement. Better for her, better for others.

She watches the way he moves, the way he acts, what draws his attention first. "Hey. Oh, I just have some stuff playing on random. It's not bad." She passes it off that way, as if she hadn't just been enjoying the music. Even that 'other' one was.

"For your sister? What are you looking for?" The nametag pinned to her jacket says 'Andi' on it, except it's been modified to read as 'Mania.' Something punk, to go with her personal style?

Damian Wayne has posed:
"She's my adopted sister, originally from Egypt." Damian explains, "But I think she likes progressive jazz, maybe something a little more up-tempo." comes the suggestion as he makes his way up to the counter. Easier to converse at a shorter distance and she can point him in the direction that he needs to go.

Glancing her over, his lips purse into a brief frown. "Did you go to school here..." he starts to ask, and trying to place a name with a face as he glances down towards her nametag.

MANXIA

"...Mania? Edgy." comes the dry comment, shaking his head. He'll come back around to that, because he recognizes the name and he remembers a female symbiote that went by a similar name. But, it's just vague enough to be edgy and he cannot really say anything on the matter at the moment.

"I'm more of a New Wave type, so I'm a bit out of my element." he admits, his tone still warm and polite as he glances around the shop. "Though I see plenty of that on the walls as well. May have to get something for myself."

Andi Benton has posed:
"That's pretty far away," Andi notes, good at stating the obvious. She's got the purple hair, multiple piercings. Wouldn't be hard to guess at her attitude. Punk. Goth. Something like that. At least she keeps it professional enough, as far as a job like this goes. "But..yeah. You could start over there." A thumb indicates the direction, where a relatively small section for jazz is set up amid the bins.

Then, a 'hmm?' before she frowns slightly. "Like, for a couple months or so. Moved from Philly." She wasn't a fan of P.E. Tended to keep to herself. Was often sarcastic. Then at the end of that senior year, word went around that she had some personal stuff going on. It probably didn't register very much, except perhaps among those who knew that the school had a number of students that were 'special.'

"Hah, you saw that. I got bored one day. Hard to believe in here, right? Mitch tries to make it sound like this is the best job ever because you get paid to listen to music all day. Maybe he has a point. And New Wave isn't bad. I'd go for the harder stuff first. Metal, you know?" Devil horns are offered up with the right hand.

Damian Wayne has posed:
"Yeah. My father has a habit for taking in strays from all over. But I was born in the Himalayans myself, so I can't really speak much on the topic." Damian admits with a mote of amusement as he watches where she's gesturing towards. "Your piercings are interesting. Like your expression of yourself." A little grin. "Pretty cool." With that, he's heading over to where she indicated.

"Yeah, did part of my seinor year there. Tested out of most things." he explains. "I thought I might have seen you once or twice. I'm Damian." he offers in way of greetings.

"Hey, getting paid for being bored beats not getting paid for being bored?" he suggests as he starts to thumb through the records thoughtfully. A pause on occassion as he looks one over, pulls the record from the sleeve and either files it back in or sets it to the side.

There's a grin when she makes the devil horns. "I could imagine that you would be fun bobbing around in a mosh pit as easily as you seem at home behind the counter." he suggests to her with a small smile. "What type of metal? Thrash? European? Japanese?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton's anti-social urges enter into a small battle with the concept of being...chatty. Perfectly content to keep to herself, the struggle arises when someone else wants to hold a conversation.

"Wouldn't have ever guessed that. All I know is some places sell that pink salt from there and mark it up." She attempts to sound disinterested, and there's a slow-to-come "Thanks" at the observation about her piercings. Some people have many more. Some have tattoos all over the place.

Glancing back down at her phone, she adds, "Maybe you did. Damian? That was the demonic little kid in The Omen. I remember the elevator scene in the second one. What a way to go." Damian vs. Damien. Close enough. "And you have a point," to the part about being paid or not.

Mentioning mosh pits leads her to hesitate, if briefly. "Can't go to places like that too much any more. The music's way too loud, even with earplugs. But, uh, early Metallica for one. That kind of stuff."

She's starting to watch him more than what's on her phone.

Damian Wayne has posed:
As he's chatting with Andi, Damian's phone chimes softly. Taking it out of his pocket, he glances down at it and his green eyes widen slightly. "Alright, change of plans." he manages, looking slightly flushed and embarassed. "I confused my siblings, apparently." There's a small chuckle. "I should be looking for phonk, EDM or cinematic space rock. ELO, I guess?" he hazards as as stab in the dark.

"Oh, so Injustice for All or the Black album?" that asked, he's looking around and then smirks. "Dam-ee-n was the characters in the Omen, I'm Dam-ian. But I get that joke a lot. But I have been told by a few that I am a demon in the right ways." A small smirk at that as he spies the racks and makes his way in that direction.

"So why Mania?" he asks curiously. "So far I haven't seen anything that would suggest that as a proper nomme de guerre."

Andi Benton has posed:
"You can't go wrong with Pink Floyd, especially pre-split," Andi suggests. After all, who hasn't heard of them? "Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets. Injustice is also great. Black album is good, but you can tell where they were getting more mainstream by then. Not as heavy as before."

She waves a hand at the naming correction, giving him the standard, "Tomato, tomahto. And I'm not sure I want to know what you mean by that, 'a demon in the right ways.'" This is said with a scrutinizing squint.

His last question receives one in return. "Why not?" Internally, something bubbles up.

<Mania> Why is he asking, Andi?
<Andi> I'm not sure yet.
<Mania> Get him to stop asking.

She wonders, "Do you remember anything about, uh, the Himalayas?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
"I was a pain in the rear when I was young." Damian explains as to what he means by 'Demon in the Right Ways'. Because he was a right proper demon. What he gets for being the son of the Demon's Daughter, after all. "There was a lot of home schooling. It was interesting at times. I miss the food." he admits, as he heads over to the proper section and starts to thumb through the records until he finds one that catches his eye. "Here we are." Pulling it out, he turns to head up to the counter.

"You just seem pretty laid back, I assumed it was one of those ironic names. Like Iron Man, when you know well that there probably isn't a single scrap of iron in the metals he uses now." comes the response as he sets Pink Floyd's 'Meddle' album on the counter and moves to take out his wallet. "Thanks for the suggestion." he adds as he pulls out an all black card embossed with his name 'Damian Wayne'.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton muses, "Doesn't that go for all kids, being little terrors? And good food at home? Did they use a lot of that salt?" Back to the Himalayan thing, whether the question was properly answered before or not. He could be acting evasively as well.

"I'd probably drive off customers if I acted differently, you know," she explains, a faint sniff following at the mention of Iron Man. "No, and a lot of that would probably be heavy, right? I don't remember what metals all weigh. Good choice, too." She taps the sleeve of the record before going to ring it up.

Then, she stops at the production of the card, a low whistle. "Someone's fancy. Wayne, huh? /The/ Waynes? Mitch is gonna be jealous, and probably glad I was so 'laid back.'"

Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian is being very evasive, ues, but he's working his way around it as he chuckles. "Yes, but there are so many more metals today that are more durable than iron and lighter as well." he points out as he waits for her to swipe the card for approval. Though her question draws an arch of a brow and an amused smile.

"Yes, one of those Waynes." he offers with a chuckle. "And if there is a survey on the reciept I will be sure to leave you glowing remarks in my review on line. Or does Mitch perfer written comment cards?" It's the least he can do for a fellow alum.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton waves the offer away. "He's easy to please. Just bring him his coffee the way he likes it." The jazz shifts over to 80s Rock in the background, probably some best-of playlist.

"And..yeah. Look, I'm probably not gonna be good company if you want to get into all the little details about metals and their compositions and all that. I just wanted to finish school so I could stop having to go to class." She doesn't come off as dumb, not by any stretch of the imagination, but given her demeanor there probably wasn't much of an interest in going on to anything beyond high school. She could be just the average nobody, wasting away in a low-end job.

The transaction is finished along with the receipt given as she puts on a faked, haughty accent. "I shall require your signature to complete the purchase arrangement you have initiated, sir."

Damian Wayne has posed:
"Sorry, I just... a bit of a science nerd." Damian admits with a small chuckle as he offers Andi a smile. "I didn't mean to lead you into the land of boredom there." But there are other things to tend to, such as signing off on the purchase that he made. Putting his card away, he takes out a pen in order to scribe his name to the reciept.

Once done, he slides it back over. "I thank you for your professionalism, promptness and knowledge. Make sure you let Mitch know that." Taking the record in the bag, he dips his head. "Nice to see you again, Mania." he offers to her, before he starts to head to the door.

Andi Benton has posed:
"No, it's not that. I mean..I've got other things that are more important to me," Andi explains, a little lamely. It's an awkward subject, as he may have figured out by now. She checks the signed copy of the receipt and tucks it away with the handful of others collected for the day so far, and she pauses as a smile - real, not forced - threatens to show itself for a couple moments. "Well, thanks. Whatever brought you here instead of any other place. Your musical tastes are safe with me."

It's what he says on the way out that gets her to freeze, staring.

<Andi> Well, shit.
<Mania> Did you hear what we heard?
<Andi> Yeah, he said again.

She doesn't dare bring it up aloud, though. Her pulse quickens. That other part of her, hidden within, savors that part of the reaction.

All she can manage is a delayed, "...later."