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Post by hayden on Jun 28, 2011 3:28:53 GMT -6
 ,IT DIDN'T MATTER how often she stepped onto a plane, her stomach would always flip. she would be fine right up until the recycled air hit her. it was because airplanes would never change. no matter the class, the size, the destination...regardless, an airplane was still an airplane. they smelled the same, they looked the same. there were cranky old people in first class; overworked wanna-be politicians in executive; crying babies in economy. hayden valentica talbot - she was still getting used to that - had been on dozens of flights. she knew they would never change. everything she spoke of these days came from experience. and her experience with aircrafts was negative. she tried to talk herself into something different everytime she was at an airport. it was crappy a few times...so it doesn't have to be that way forever. she'd lived through that, too. she had changed everything. but the damn airline industry insisted on remaining. her stomach had flipped on the endless flight from beijing to new york. it somersaulted when she finally boarded the connector to chicago. it was clever by the time she landed in los angeles. once she reached the final ride to valkyrie, her stomach was performing a gold medal-worthy gymnastics routine. just in time for the olympics, too.
but it was not her gymnast abdominal. hayden talbot was not terrified of flying. quite the opposite, actually. once the middle of the flight rolled around, she was fine. was that your impression? sorry. flying was not the issue. the issue was what boarding an aircraft brought. the recycled, grumbled air conditioning invited skeletons to creep from the closet, boney fingers eager to knead at her flesh. the very first time she had been on a plane, with fresh wounds and a black eyes, they hadn't been skeletons. not yet. they had been memories, fresh with a thirst for hadley blood. they followed her for weeks. in her nightmares, when she had nothing to focus on. at first, they would loiter beside her, unconcerned. the hot california air had pushed them back, uncomfortable in the new heat. but they reminded her nightly, they were always going to be there. once they rot into skeletons, they won't go away. they had turn to bone soon enough, but her new jersey memories had remained true to their word - they never went away. they didn't come out to play often, but the groaning of an air conditioning system in need of replacement always brought them to life. the moment that air hit her, she could see the shadows twisting into ugly formations.
they usually subsided halfway through the flight, but it didn't matter. they were still there, taunting her with childish desires. sticky toys, ice cream, scrapping her knee. that was why her stomach always flipped, if you aren't following. it's okay. she tried not to follow, herself. but the flight from los angeles to valkyrie was a short one. driving was two hours, just over. either her shadows didn't have time to connect from one plane to the other, or her mind had reached delusional exhaustion. she could see the teeth forming, the shaded darkness twisting into cruel steel-colored talons. but the wheels touched on the valkyrie runway before they managed to schedule a playdate. it was nice. she had been on and off of airplanes for more than a day. it made perfect sense that her mind had managed to put them to rest, even for now. her nightmares had subsided when she refused to sleep before. maybe her shadows didn't like to play when she wouldn't pay much attention. whatever the reason, she was thankful.
all she had now was tired eyes. her stomach had finished its gymnastics routine and it was the medal ceremony now. that's a tame affair. exiting the airplane had never been the issue. especially now that she was beginning to realize she was going to find new wounds here. valkyrie, california had not been a kind town to hayden. the few years she'd lived here had been dark. a definite turn from her first sixteen years, but nothing worth noting. some demons from those days had chosen to stalk her, too, in case you're wondering. new jersey horrors were not the only scars that littered across her body. but this wasn't the time to dance with those shadows. they would bother her later, surely. but now was not appropriate. her tired eyes knew that. when her mind was sharpened, it would not let them gnaw on her toes. it played lion tamer until her task was completed. the task right now was remembering where the hell to go. it had been five years since she had been in valkyrie, after all. and she had done a lot of work to forget much of this broken city. her blue eyes, fogged with fatigue, searched the grey hallways. this place had been renovated since last time. it rivaled lax - all sharp angles and gleaming metals. it looked good. all her body wanted to do was stop and admire the renewed structure. it was an incredibly appealing thought. but, like she continued to tell herself, she was on a mission. it wasn't just to find the door.
she knew she had to remain occupied. the hayden she could easily become scared her a little. she didn't want to be that person again. and surrounding herself with nothing but pain and memories would push her back into her dark, unstable world. she had liked it there so much, it was always difficult to resist. but, again, this isn't the time to dwell on that. the very reason hayden talbot was anywhere close to valkyrie was because of the person she'd always despised the most - her brother, dallas james. he was still hadley, though. the infamous siblings had barely spoken over the last several years. it hadn't bothered her. they were both living their own lives now. and that was the way it needed to be. but he had put her - her - down as his emergency contact. that meant something. the hospital had called her some two days ago, reporting a dallas james was hospitalized. she had dropped her life in beijing to come here. every fibre of her being was demanding going to the hospital, refusing to go anywhere until they told her something. but she also knew it wasn't going to work. they were going to call him when they were finished trying to fix his body. sitting in the waiting room would only invite the shadows to come out and play.
her flawless ability to forget about it until the right time allowed her to smile, a genuine smile this town had never seen. she was honestly fine right now. don't attempt to question how she worked - it just did.
hayden's fingers were loosely curled around the handle of her little black suitcase. it was all she'd bothered to pack. the precious cargo of her companion was on its way over. she wasn't going to risk putting a bird on some rusted old airplane. but what was the point in worrying right now? when something happened, she would be notified. so that genuine smile remained on her face, tanned from the sun, tired from the flights. but she didn't want to be alone, that was dangerous. busy and occupied, remember? that's why she'd tweeted carly sutton from the airport in new york. who texted anymore? she knew one of her oldest friends was plauging this city, a welcomed surprise. she didn't know this city anymore, anyway. a tour guide would be appreciated.
finally managing to eye the exit, hayden pulled her bright sunglasses over her eyes and searched her surroundings. "uhm, excuse me, miss...hayden." it was a meek voice, hovering between preteen and the lovely college years. turning at the unexpected recognition, she stared down at three or four teenage girls, barely fifteen. dark eyeliner, a fedora, and customized converse sneakers. the spitting image of her while in high school. "i liked to think we all agreed i have a stupid name." she grinned as she spoke, watching the tension leak from her fans' eyes. the only people to ever know her name were underground enthusiasts. indie outcasts, professional hipsters and alien loyalists. the entire new york underground scene followed her on twitter. you could pick her people out in a crowd. her leaked idea of a holocaust idea caught more attention, but that was for another time. she took the notebook and sharpie from the girl closest before they spoke again. sitting on her suitcase, she doodled on the paper. "it's a talbo production, so that's what we're calling me. names, please." she grinned again as the girls blinked and attempted to speak. no longer starstruck (filmmaker kind of struck?), now more confused. she spent her remaining fifteen or twenty minutes continuing to doodle, writing silly notes and exchanging twitter information. the impatient parents kept sighing. "i definitely need more ideas other than this place sucks. send 'em over," she fitted the lid back onto the marker as she looked up again. "hey! sutton! i'm comfortable, so you're coming to me. i've been waiting." she mocked her old impatience, the same smile lighting up her features as she haphazardly waved as her new posse left.
[/size][/blockquote] ----------------------------------------------------------- TAGGED, harly talbutton xD
DATE, february, 2012. valkyrie international airport.
LENGTH, 1564 words.
ATTIRE, clicketh.
NOTES, yay <3
CREDITS, format and graphics to me.
lyrics to billy joel - "famous last words"
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Post by caroline isabelle sutton on Jul 8, 2011 21:02:37 GMT -6
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image:url(http://i51.tinypic.com/290r8gj.png); width: 457px; padding-top: 30; padding-bottom: 30; -moz-border-radius: 35 35 35 35; -webkit-border-radius: 35 35 35 35;]hi » EXISTENTIAL CRISIS.
female friends...well there weren't many on carly suttons short list of friends. carly would be the first to admit that she loved her boys, but not for the immediate reaction most people fall to. no she didn't just like her guy friends because she liked to bed them. on the contrary most of the guys who were her friends had either never slept with her or had only been with her once before carly changed up the relationship to better suit her needs. it was just the way she was. with guys friends there wasn't drama. guys tended to like you for you and they didn't try to pry into your lives the way other women did. for carly at least it was always sager to have guy friends around than anything else. for one, something always seemed to be threatening her. the last time she was in valkyrie that very threat had been her baby's father who had come to lay on a little more hurt after carly had disappeared from her old home town. cain had been a menace for sure and knew all of her weak spots. he knew just how to drive her crazy and just how to really get under her skin. he also knew how to best exploit her. what he hadn't expected was for her friends to rally around her after having found out about the daughter, the one fragment of her past that she'd never let slip. it had been a shock to people for sure, but they'd still stood behind her and made a point of quickly shutting cain down and supporting her. those people had consisted of the few guys friends she'd collected in her short stay in valkyrie and she so appreciated them. she'd pretty much never gone back to gal posses since.
but then again hayden talbot never did fall into normal categories. carly suspected that the valkyrie alum, similar to herself, had never really been one to fade into the crowd like others liked to do. she liked to stand out and make a name for herself. well she'd accomplished that for sure. carly had met who she lovingly referred to as 'talbo' back in valkyrie. but it wasn't really until they'd both gone their separate ways that they'd really connected. they'd met up in new york at one point after carly had successfully won american dance and had a little celebrity status there under her belt. hayden had been a struggling 'troublemaker' for a while but with a little help from carly she'd gotten a little more of a footing there in her own little realm and her follwing had increased from there. of course carly never attributed any of that to her interference. hayden was a talented individual and her success was all her doing. it was nice to see her doing so well. after that they'd then pretty much gone their separate ways again and carly had been forced to keep contact with her in one of the only methods that worked, skype and twitter. they were popular amongst twitter trends for sure whenever their conversations really got heated, which never failed in cracking carly up. she wasn't so used to her personal life being so entertaining but then again when you carried on a conversation with someone like talbo, it wasn't that hard to accomplish. they could talk about some of the weirdest things at times and if you didn't catch the conversation from the beginning you were pretty much screwed.
carly didn't know why talbo was so different, or different enough to make it as a friend in her books. probably because she disliked drama about as much as carly did. hayden hadn't lived with it like a festering wound that liked to follow her from town to town but she liked to avoid it as much as carly did. she didn't take carly's past and use it against her like other people would and she didn't see it as a way to make some kind of gain on carly's behalf. unlike some women that carly had met or known of who would use her story and her flaws to exploit and turn into something for their own gain, talbo pretty much just cared about herself. she liked being friends but she wasn't in it for the benefits. she liked people who liked her and she fought against people who disliked her or somehow wronged the world. that was fine for carly. she liked that she was so outspoken and that she was so accepting everything carly was or was not because carly was the same way only no as outspoken. carly didn't care who you were outside of when you were around her. she didn't care if you were a criminal or you did things with disasterous consequences as long as she and her daughter were safe around you and you showed a different side of herself. it was a flaw, having less judgment than she ought to, but at the same time that was how people like jamie ended up in her life. people who were starting to really mean a lot to her because despite what they were rumored to be capable of, showed her an entirely different side. it was easy to still fall when you didn't see the dark side.
still it was nice knowing that not everyone in her past was a criminal, and talbo was one of the few who weren't. carly sat at the airport, her fingers drumming on the steering wheel as she waiting for the familiar face to surface. oh for crying out loud where the hell was she? her flight had gotten in about forty minutes ago according to the sources carly had which was ample time to park, fetch your bags, and walk to your waiting ride and yet talbo was no where to be found. "mommy what are we waiting for?" a little voice piped up from a car seat in the back. "we're waiting for mommy's slow friend to show her face so we can feed her." |
[/b] carly said with a slight growl to her voice. "okay good. i hungry." carly nodded and with a grumble pulled away from the pick up curb inn order to park. she was going in there to find that damn woman and drag her out to the car. never had she thought it would be so difficult to feed someone. "come on baby girl."[/b] carly said as she opened the car door and waited for lily to unbuckle her seat belt before she took her four year old's hand and headed into the airport. once inside she could spot a gaggle of little girls huddled around that same familiar face with a bunch of parents whose faces were resembling carly's right about now. frustrated and impatient. "yo talbo. you gonna let me feed you or are you sleeping in the delta wing of the airport?"[/b] she called out as she got closer. once in the vicinity carly scooted past the parents and the teens to her friend. "'cuz i'd happily leave your ass here if you like."[/b] carly said with a smirk. "now wave goodbye to your new friends sweetheart. we gotta go."[/b] carly spoke as if she were talking to lily only this mocking tone was reserved for talbo. she bent down and grabbed the suitcase handle and tugged it out from underneath hayden's butt. "let's go before my patience wears to thin and you end up buying."[/b] she said over her shoulder as she headed out the front sliding doors to the parking lot. [/div] 1,274, outfit, TAG: HARLY TALBUTTON. [/center][/td][/tr][/td][/tr][/table] THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY WILMETTA OF CAUTION. [/center] |
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Post by hayden on Jul 20, 2011 14:48:37 GMT -6
,RETURNING TO ANYplace after so many years would be an odd experience. walking pathways once familiar, now dancing with mystery. new people look out of place in what was once your home. the air feels different, wistful and inquisitive. valkyrie, california was so exception. it felt different; as broken and defeated as it had once made hayden talbot feel. few landmarks looked familiar. were the people always like this? the air had never been this thick, soaked with blood and alcohol. i suppose that's what returning does to a person. over time, the mind fogs what was once a cold reality. it, too, turns wistful and inquisitive. even for hayden, who once held nothing but disdain for this town, she wanted to remember the bright spots. somewhere between beijing and berlin, she had come to appreciate valkyrie's underrated beauty. from the outside, it was a dazzling flicker of california richness. the awkward balance of class wars made it unique, almost cliche. you don't find that often. it was a large city with a small-town feel. soaked in diamonds and wrapped in barbed wire. she could appreciate that. and returning here, while unmistakably odd, was not an intimidating process. the familiar was now a mystery, but she would learn before long. the people looked curious, almost avant-garde, but this was their home now. and the air...well, she had long learned never to trust what vibes valkyrie has to offer. it would just take time.
that's what everything required, wasn't it? time. time heals wounds. time clears the mind. time time time. it had done all it could to bandage talbo here up. things blur off into a memory better off forgotten. just like how the mind numbs out the bad of a memory like what valkyrie was to her, it leaves a few dregs of contentment. that's what healing is, after all. accepting the bad, remembering the good. once she had acknowledge father time, she began to stitch herself back together. this place couldn't hurt her forever. she had things to do, a life to live. i guess it finally came to light that her life could not be defined by the three darkest years of her life, thus far. if she could move past new jersey, she could move past california. her final months here in valkyrie were quiet ones. hayden stepped back, watched for awhile, sat down when she felt tired. it was a process. new york was coming up in september and she finally realized that she didn't want to be this person when she went there. it was a phase. the time came to wrestle of demons. a little bit of sunlight after a very long, dark winter. that's all you have to do sometimes. take a breath, take a few steps away from the grain, and stop fighting. time heals wounds. time clears the mind. just in time for new york.
everything about that city agreed with her. it was complicated, impossible to tie a string to the beginning and expect to find your way back. new york city was illustrious, ecstatically alive. illuminated, loud. there was something for everyone here. all she had to do was do a little bit of homework, and she found her niche. manhattan, times square for satisfy her craving speed. the meatpacking district with its chrome-plated lofts and art galleries. and then brooklyn, williamsburg. all you have to do here is explore, close your eyes, spin and go in that direction. a map or compass is not going to help you here. you could get lost and find yourself. or you could find yourself and then get lost. the city that never sleeps has unlimited pathways. there is never a dead end. and that was exactly what she needed.
the past five odd years had been her best, no doubt. hayden talbot was happy for the first time...ever. she found herself smiling without effort. she would slip on her sunglasses and cruise out into the world. no rush, no stress. just her life. it was all hers and she was going to do just what she wanted with it. living in new york taught her that. her erratic mind decided it was strained, exhausted from three years of anarchy. i guess it was time to let the breezes blow, to stop building the brick wall against it. she stopped for five minutes, sat down until the storm clouds passed. and she got everything she wanted. her life was exactly where it should be. her days were spent behind the camera. she'd seen the globe from all angles. and now she was returning to her volcano, to cautiously observe what ashes remained. it was a bittersweet timing. the reason that brought hayden back at all was because her only family was gone...dead. dallas james hadley was not haunting her nightmares anymore. he wasn't haunting anywhere. but she was not going to focus on that. not now. the time would come and she would deal with it when appropriate. her mind was not creatively designing natural disasters to destroy the rest of valkyrie. it was neutral, a light smile. it was looking for her friend, then would concentrate on lunch. she was hungry. and not even for blood.
she hadn't really known caroline sutton. she knew of her, of course. but carly never walked her line in order to get a spotlight on her infamous blog. those were the only people hayden ever concentrated on. poisonous, i know. it was a faint recognition, when they met up in new york. when you befriend someone like the balanced dancer, it's difficult to rebel. she found she liked spending time with carly early on. she was the sort of person she wanted to become, at the time. calm, controlled, knowing exactly what she wanted. just shut up and go after it. talbo'd spent her three years in her dark place, letting her shadowy playmates have their raucous house parties. she let the timing come when it was ready, and then she grasped her life by the horns. it always helped. she let her ties to california go off alone. she stayed friends with carly and made new york her life. they were the idiosyncratic hollywood duo. valkyrie alumni famed in the oddest of ways. she was the only positive memory hayden really brought with her. it was nice, having a real friend. she never really had that before, save for alex and amber before that entire mess. things had been awkward after. she liked having someone wait around at the airport and not spit acid at her. she liked twitter whoring with someone. she liked texting and midnight phone calls from across the world. it was just...nice. normal.
hayden did not do normal very often. but a little was a toothy relief.
she was preoccupied, no longer looking at her blackberry. the obnoxious amount of bracelets decorating her wrists jingled merrily as she laughed. she kind of liked her laugh. the real one, not laced with a spiteful virus. the frustrated scoffs of the loitering parents made her smile more. take a pill, mom. if you had anywhere to actually go, you would've dragged your offspring away long ago. continuing to doodle on the pages of the notebook, a game of pictionary was beginning to develop. interacting with her eccentric fans was one of her favorite things. "c'mon now, carls. that wouldn't be nice. and i know you wouldn't leave me here to rot forever. your lockhart buddy is no where near as fun as me." she only looked up when she saw the dancer and her daughter weave through the crowd. rolling her eyes exuberantly, she capped the sharpie and handed the notebook and pen across to one of the amused girls. "dancers, right? full of impatien - hey!" caught off guard as carly pulled her suitcase, hayden stumbled back onto the floor. pulling herself onto her knees, she looked at lily with a smirk before glancing up at her mother. "i dunno, captain lily. i think your mom here might be evil. we shouldn't trust her."
casually waving to the dispersing crowd as she stood up, talbo pulled her sunglasses over her eyes and quickly followed. "you're paying for the chiropractic bills if i require any. but you can buy lunch as an apology for now." smiling in the sunlight, she took her first breath of valkyrie air in five years. it felt different. it definitely looked different. "so, expert, where are we going?"
[/size][/blockquote] ----------------------------------------------------------- TAGGED, harly talbutton xD
DATE, february, 2012. valkyrie international airport.
LENGTH, 1426 words.
ATTIRE, clicketh.
NOTES, - - -
CREDITS, format and graphics to me.
lyrics to billy joel - "famous last words"
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