Talon Harper

“So all we’re doing is arguing about how hard the news pushes their agenda? Because if we are then this really is ridiculous. I never said anything about false, just that they were bias. Don’t see how they can’t be, everyone and everything is bias in one way or another” and that one really was a matter of experience. “Ok that is borderline creepy… maybe not ever borderline”. He shook his head at her comment, “no I meant the past is boring”. 

      “I guess we are, it certainly is and we can agree to disagree but agree fully on that there’s a staunch effort in pushing period. Agreed?” she looked to the man again, question in her eyes as it was a moot point anyways. “How is that creepy? I’m not leaving deformed pottery or pen’s to jab in my aorta or bibles in honor of Sister Act.” she laughed at herself, she often times thought she was pretty funny. “Say that to some of most celebrated and studied authors today. What’s that they say? Everyone has a story.”

“Excuse me?” His brow raised immediately at the comment, teeth digging into his bottom lip sharply to prevent himself from spitting back anything out of hand in front of his son; his shoulders tensed sharply even as Gavin patted his slowly clenching fist and he exhaled sharply through his nose. “Funnily enough, I’m not a psychic, and it’s hardly my fault you happened to be walking by.” He clenched and unclenched his fingers lazily as he willed himself to relax, counting slowly to ten as he passed Gavin a baby wipe without another word. He wasn’t going to be rude. He was going to be the bigger person, it was an accident and that was that. “Accidents happen, you know, no one is immune to them. Anyway, I have more of those,” He gestured towards the wipes, “If you want one. Otherwise I guess I’ll apologize again. It was an accident.”

      “Psychic or not a saucer of syrup hardly beats the play toys places like this usually hand ou out to entertain and prevent you know, food fights. Crayons, coloring place mats....anyways, yes. I’d love another, please.” It probably rang out in a dolling passive aggressive kind of manner but in actuality it was a true to truth statement. There was no sense anymore in being flustered. She was late. Simple as that. “At least it smells good.” 

“The thing is you could rock crimping. You’re the girl who can do anything with her hair and make it look fabulous.” She allowed affection to take root in her chest, leaned forward and played with a strand of her sister’s blonde locks. “I remember how much you used to love having me braid your hair in the mornings. Your first day of first grade you were so fucking nervous, so I gave you a french braid and tied it with a brand new ribbon I bought you and told you I’d be with you all day.”

      Chloe’s touches always warm, a sense of security no matter where they stood. Talon smiled back, her own fingers meshing with the hair and a slight curl at her sister before turning her attention to task at hand. “A true test to sisterhood, traveling pants be damned. it was a scrunchy and it generated right here in Lanford, New York.” 

“If you want to stop, we’ll stop. It is actually a sight worth seeing. Have you been there before?” She asked, wondering if at one point she’d gotten north enough to see them at some point. “You know I’m all about being secretive.” It was something she told herself to work on but she wasn’t willing to put in the effort and she didn’t know how to begin. “I would never do that to you. Maybe to someone else but never to you. I’d have to, like, watch what I do and say if I did that and I could never handle being that self aware.”

      “Never have. It was always brought up as a quick road trip but then never actually executed. Too much actual family time. Someone probably would’ve ended up filling for emancipation.” she laughed, seeing the signs more and more as they got closer to. “On the way back, we’ll stop. The faster we get to wherever you have me going the better.” Once again, Edythe’s words rang literal truth to her being and it collided with their current endeavor. “You are, and that’s a good thing. Too much too soon is recipe for overkill and no one likes over kill.” She turned to Edythe in the drivers seat, “Oh please, they’re Canadians. Under those big Parliament desks they’ve probably rocking loafers and checking their phones for the Maple Leaf scores. They’d send you home with a care package.” 

“I never named any news channels, so really all you did was proved my point. Yeah they’re slightly better… slightly. That is possibly one of the strangest reasons I have ever heard, why on earth would you even want to weave that into a conversation?”. He shook his head slightly, “still boring”.

     “I have proven no point just that there’s clarity on either side but it’s up to the individual to pick and choose what’s considered ‘real news’. Influence can be masked with a particular headline, doesn’t necessarily mean the content is pushing and or false narratives. Just slightly aimed at certain audiences.” she shrugged at the sudden round-about way of points they were both trying to make and falling flat on one another’s opinions “Well why wouldn’t I want to? To show my appreciation that spawns through all her career choices. I think she’d be flattered. How is that boring? If anything it’s the exact opposite. You get to make up anything. Anything at all, make up something that to you is not boring.” 

“Simon’s Creek! Oh, I  think I know where that is. God, that’s so much closer. It’s perfect. Literally perfect. When do I start,” he said with a laugh.

       “That’s confidential. Because that’s between you and Doug. Or Jill or this tall, lanky guy with a pornstache that I have yet to meet. But I’ve seen him. I will be the messenger though, so you know the drill. Type it up and I’ll play paperboy.”

“If we stop at Niagara Falls there’s only two more hours till our destination but I wouldn’t protest. You wanna feel the freezing cold even more, I’m game.” She would have stopped anywhere Talon asked her to. Partly to please her and partly to get rest from the driving. “Wiggle room.” Edythe repeated, tone completely serious as if she were putting an end to a discussion they’d been having for a while and in a way she was. “Why would I introduce you to Trudeau? I thought we’d agreed that was a complete secret.” The grin returned to her face at the memory of the first conversation she’d shared with Talon upon her arrival from Vancouver. It stayed on her face at the memory of Trudeau. “Jealous? Please, I’d encourage you. Go off on my own, though, watching from the sidelines isn’t particularly my style.” 

      “No time like the present.” did she really want to stop? Maybe. One of those places you had to check off your list. Though her list was never very big to begin with the fact it was in her state of birth and she had yet to even consider the option. “Secrets and surfaces...” she rolled her eyes in jest, “Well, I guess we’re at a lose lose. If you ever left me to the Parliament, we’d have words. Very serious words.”

“You should try watching English news some time, then you’ll see what I mean by bias, if you don’t see it now. Mmm, it’s a necessary evil, but still an evil”. He rolled his eyes, “think I’d rather talk to the wallpaper then. Least then you’d get somewhere”. He clicked his jaw, really wanting some sort of out for this current topic, “because backstory is shit”.

      “I would, but like you’ve pointed out I’ve got the biased covered with CNN and Fox News. I choose to not watch either, my updates are purely article based. Though I do enjoy The View. But I also just really want to meet Whoopi one day. So to stay informed through her is just one talking point I’m one day bound to weave into conversation.” she added, drumming her fingers across the base of her glass. “Then make something up.”

“Yeah and opinions are formed by what we know. The media only tells certain things because it has an agenda. Being confronted is part of life, less you spend all your time being scared of upsetting others. How on earth would I know what you know or don’t know”. He shrugged at her question, thinking that it had been fairly obvious, “exactly what it is that people mean. No one says anything without good reason, even pleasantries. That’s my point, everyone is going through the motions, and for what?” far as he could tell, it just hid when someone actually needed help. “Why would I answer that?” 

       “And what we know is presented plenty by this force you seem so adamant to denounce. It’s up to the individual to decipher good versus the bad isn’t it? ” The whole media argument seemed a dulling point. Conspiracy theorists favorite past time. “To make sure they don’t go entirely mad and start talking to their wallpaper?” she shrugged, she hated pleasantries as much as the next person. But she used them. “Why not?”

Aspen shrugged, not sure how to answer her question. It wasn’t that she was self-centered, or at least she didn’t think so. She just had never had the attention span to closely watch other people. She’d much rather find someone to talk to and be entertained by. “Well, I did just get here, and I haven’t even finished my first drink. Let a girl warm up, yeah?”

    “Fair enough.” she responded, the edge of her own glass covering her brief stilted smile. For someone so brazen with their own wording and preferred reasons for at all being in this very bar a warm up seemed too cautionary. But what did she know? “So, easy enough. Do you like red or white. Wine of course.”

talon-harper:

     “You’re a very educated person, Peyton. The lax and most undoubtedly surfer lingo probably found it’s way off the California coast and into our vocabulary sometime around peace and love and the Manson murders. You know exactly what it means. Now, what’d you want to do?” 

“Flattering me and then going off on another mini ramble doesn’t exactly work for me, you know?” Peyton stopped themselves from rolling heir eyes at Talon, not at all genuinely upset. “I don’t know. Shouldn’t you be choosing? There’s a two for one at the miniature golf place but there’s also a one hundred percent chance only cocaine dealers are there right now.”

        “You did ask. And anyways, it’s hardly flattery when if’s more of an obvious statement.” she added in a huff, how dare Peyton know her ways. But then, like she said it was hardly flattery. “At Yara’s Hole in One? I mean, I’m aware of the particularly seedy location you once found me but...at mini golf? That just doesn’t scream drug dealers...speed. So to speak.”