Ziggy's CD and Vinyl [open]

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Irazehl stepped out of the flourescent lighting of the mall and into the dimly lit store. The place had a feel to it like hot topic or spencers, two stores that he hated. CDs were lined up in the middle. To the left were old 4 and 8 track tapes, and to the right flush with the wall were files of vinyl records. Above the files were posters and in the back was band tees and other band merchandise.

"Yo Ziggy!" Irazehl yelled to the guy behind the counter, resting his feet on a few stacked cardboard box.
Gregory Mason, the owner and sometimes it seemed the only employee, took off his headphones. He had been nicknamed because in highschool he was short and fat, just like the cartoon character. Nowadays, he passed as average. His brown hair fell below his shoulders and his face was full of peircings.

"What? Oh, the new Radishes album came out! Its awesome!" was his reply.
"That came out a week ago, I was wondering if you picked that up. I'll go give it a listen." Irazehl walked to the back of the room, picking the CD out of the semi organized new arrival rack. He scanned the case under the sampler machine and, only covering one ear with the headpeice, he began filling his head with ear candy.

She wasn't normally in this store.

Heck, she probably had only been in once before.

However, the last time, she had mysteriously found a large pile of some teenage-esque indie music and had fallen in love. Granted, it was rare for most people to purchase vinyl in general, yet alone to have this stuff in a public shop instead of on-line. She had also gotten her tiny hands around a CD for not only The Cranberries, but The Wombats. Two foreign bands she adored. The Cranberries were a little more mainstream, she knew, but the effect was still the same. She had instantly emptied her pockets for the right amount of cash and purchased both, which were currently sitting in her room.

A crocheted cap sat on her hair, the dark waves still spilling over her shoulders. Even if this place did seem like one in which you'd find a bunch of angsty Hot Topic shoppers, she certainly didn't fit the look. She was practically skipping down one aisle way as her eyes scanned over the labels. Her nails were painted a black color, but that was only one hint at the emo-mainstream influence upon her image. Not even that could dwarf the extremely upbeat attitude she practically radiated as her eyes flicked from one plastic cover to the next.

She was so absorbed in her enthusiastic search that she wasn't really paying attention to anybody else inside. Nessa turned around the edge of the rack, unaware of another Titan right around the bend. She bumped into him, her eyes widening, and quickly backed up. "Ohmygosh, I'm so sorry-!" She quickly stuttered out an apology, her cheeks blazing crimson.

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"Its all good" Irazehl said nonchalantly as he took off the headphones, not really noticing who the girl was at first. "figures, a compilation album, here I was thinking they got the band back together. Leave it to Ziggy to not-" he murmured but as he turned right to reshelf, his thoughts were shattered by recognition of the blushing Titan. The influence of the modern emo culture din't phase him much, he didn't really count following fads as a blow to individuallity; for fear of hypocrisy. His unkempt hair and grungey attire showed the influence the media had on him.
"Vanessa, I didn't know you shopped here!" Irazehl allowed a smile to play on his lips. He didn't really ever talk to the girl, she was a bit 'invisible' to him, but he now found her interesting. Of course Ziggy's also served as an outpost and had a website, or else the guy wouldn't be making any money at all. People came there instead of going online or other stores as there were always more bands to discover in the depths of the store. It was a good place to expand ones musical tastes, and he wasn't the only one in the tower doing so. A glance at her basket told him she had struck gold. The mellow sound of the cranbarries clashed with the upbeat tempo and tone of the wombats, telling him she had diverse tastes.
"Try this," he said still smiling, pulling an R.E.M. album out for her. "It's closer to the style of the Cranberries than the Wombats, though the vocal style is closer to that of the Wombats." he realized how long it had been since he had listened to either band.

Vanessa's cheeks had been reduced to a semi-normal color momentarily, but she found herself slightly flustered about being caught. It wasn't her typical scene. "Only sometimes," she said, complete with holding two of her fingers close to demonstrate a small amount. In a way, she wasn't surprised he was here. After everything she had seen scattered on the shelves, there was enough to appeal to virtually anybody. Unless, of course, they were looking for some of that television-fueled pop.

"Awesome, thanks." Vanessa quickly scanned the songs. She knew of probably a couple of R.E.M. songs - but mostly what she had heard on the radio. If there was one thing that she had learned about any remotely alternative group, it was rare that the main stream songs were the best. "I've heard of them."

Nessa paused for a moment, crinkling her nose as she scanned around. Things seemed calm, but peaceful was a bad term. After all, it was hard to be peaceful in a mall. "So, stocking up or what?" she asked, almost jokingly. She knew that not all of the Titans chose to wander around in public all the time, and for those who were extremely active, the chance to do so was rare. Sometimes she envied the Titans who were decent fighters or had helpful powers for busting bad-guys.

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"Well not so much that I'm restocking but that I come here religiously." he chuckled, joking at himself. "Yeah, if you go through albums like candy, you will come everyweek looking for something new, and 'something new' can always be found at ziggys." he spoke fluidly as if it were practiced as he traced his fingers along cds in an isle. On the shelves were many 'the {insert noun}' names, which he had the tendency to avoid. If they didn't have the creativity to come up with a deep and meaningful name for themselves, they probably didn't have the creativity to write decent music. His hand stopped over an album marked 'Shooting at unarmed men' which he pulled off the shelf, he had been meaning to give the group a listen at some point.
As he pulled the cd off the shelf, he looked back up at her. "So, if you're no regular... whats brings you here today?" he asked, mocking suspicion as if she were stalking him.

"Are you suggesting I'm stalking you?" Nessa giggled softly, pushing a dark chunk of hair from her face. She waved a hand in a dismissive manner, rolling her eyes. "Psh, no way, man." The tone of voice was a comical mix of carelessness and paranoia as she joked her way through a reply. She laughed once more before shrugging. "Well, I was going to go window-shopping, but I actually had some money lying around and decided I mine as well put it into an adventure. I actually bought a couple cartons of apple juice earlier to stash in the kitchen."

She paused, frowning slightly. "I suppose a lot of what I listen to isn't the usual stuff you would pick up in a place like this. But a lot of the lesser-known stuff seems like it finds its way here eventually. And stuff that teenagers would actually listen to." She smiled faintly as the last line, her eyes averting to another row. Her fingers wandered over to a rack and pried a CD off of the shelf. The Summer Set. That was certainly a different feel than the ones she had already snatched up. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to be coming here more often," she added with a nod.

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Even though he already knew he was going to end up buying the album marked 'YES!!! TINNITUS!!!' he still gave it a listen. He had heard about Shooting At Unarmed Men from that it was the band the lead singer of Future of the Left, his favorite band, had grown his career in. All the same, he couldn't just trust that it wasn't crap.
"Apple juice? Can't we just make our own?" he asked after a sideways glance at 'Ziggy' to make sure he wasn't paying attention. He tossed a shiny red applesoftly in her direction, which he seemed to have pulled from nowhere.
"Oh, of course I would think you're stalking me... you know us ninjas..." he said with a roll of his eyes. He made fun of himself as if he were someone else. He scanned the CD but only put one of the hedphones over his ear so that he could still talk to Nessa.

"But that requires, y'know, like, the whole juicing process. And stuff like that. I don't know about you, but I don't want to have to hunt down one of those machines at Wal-Mart. Or take it to Tobi's when somebody breaks it. Besides, I like Juicy Juice." Nessa rolled her eyes, smiling. She somehow managed to catch the apple, sticking out her tongue. "Just because you can do that doesn't mean you have to show off." She wasn't going to point out that she could tell when apple juice was completely fake and filled with corn syrup and other gross contents, after all, that probably would have only made her point look worse.

She smiled again. "Well, at least if I'm stalking you, then you know me. It would be creepy if I were just some random stranger who just kept showing up everywhere. You'd have paparazzi!" Vanessa laughed slightly at that thought, pausing for a moment afterward. There probably were people who tried tracking down the Titans who weren't villains or police officers, but she hadn't encountered any yet. "You're completely on the ninja side of the ninjas versus pirates dispute, aren't you?" Her conversation seemed to be completely random, but for her, it felt good to be able to communicate with Titans and not have to constantly talk about the latest robbery that she would have no chance of helping with.

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"Well, you must realize that pirates are simply the nautical retard cousin of ninjas. They are simply naval guerrillas. An original is always better than a copy. So... yeah, Obviously." He loved debating the pirates vs ninjas. He didn't even care that the question came from out of nowhere, somewhat random. Justifiable, as he was indeed a ninja.

"Yeah, you've got a great point. You totally fail on the creepiness factor." Irazehl chuckled and added "Although people like Ziggy are creepy whether you know them or not." he tilted his head towards Ziggy when he spoke. The angsty shop owner lifted one of his heaphones off. "Are you guys talking about me?" his eyes half closed, he looked slightly stoned.

"I must admit, though. Pirate chicks have the whole stripes and frills look going for them. Even though that's completely the false, commercialized version. Elizabeth Swann ran around wearing dresses in the Disney version. Ninja girls would have to be as hidden and covered as everyone else remotely ninja-like. And long hair would get in the way of that, I'm guessing." Nessa paused and frowned slightly. She placed her small hands on her hips, looking like she was contemplating, before shrugging and grinning. "I'm pretty sure I just went on a random rant. Sorry."

She glanced over at Ziggy as he spoke and giggled softly. "I try to avoid people who freak me out. Which is probably bad." Vanessa smirked slightly at the shop-owner. He was a character, she would admit. Not like she'd never seen anybody stoned before. She lowered her voice. "I think the creepy thing is that he knew you were talking about him. Like he was watching us talk or something like that." She laughed and waved her fingers in a sort of mock-magic sense. Her arms fell to her side and she cast another glance at the man. Now that Green had pointed him out, it was starting to weird her out.