Outside Needful Things, Friday

[needfully_yours]

Leland Gaunt's hold on Fandom might be weakening, as more and more people were delivered from his thrall, but you couldn't tell just by looking. The fog was more sinister. The boarded-up doors and windows of the storefront were more foreboding. And the sign out front remained, as creepy as ever:

YOU SAY HELLO
AND I SAY GOODBYE GOODBYE GOODBYE
I

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[hexentotchen]

Day... something, of Hanna's watch on the shop. Light-headed and tired now, she was sitting on the trunk that held her record-player and album, knife in hand. She was humming one of her mother's songs under her breath, eyes flicking around those gathered in front of Needful Things.

[doesnotkneel]

Edward'd been on the lookout for his assignment yesterday, but he hadn't found her before night fell and it got too dark for him to identify anyone. Now, though, he was here bright and early, studying the people out there.

Hoping quietly none of them had the capacity to set him on fire with their minds.

"Morning!" he called. That was Hanna, wasn't it?

[hexentotchen]

It was indeed. Hanna gave him a wary look, still clutching that knife. "Hello." She tilted her head, and asked hopefully, "Are you here to help Mr. Gaunt?"

[doesnotkneel]

"I'm here to get, ah, informed about Mr. Gaunt," Edward said, swaggering forward with as practiced a friendly expression as he had in his arsenal.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad? "You seem like a loyal sort. Thought I'd come ask."

[hexentotchen]

"I am," Hanna insisted. "He's a good person. He helped me get my mother back."

Not literally. But it felt like she remembered more and more of the woman who died when she was two, the more she had listened to the record.

She watched Edward approach warily, and held up the knife, even though her arm was shaking. "Don't come any closer." The fingers of her other hand tightened on the trunk she was sitting on.

[doesnotkneel]

Edward put his hands up immediately. "I'm not here to take anything," he promised. "Your mother, aye? That's no mean feat. What happened to her before?"

He was just interested, Hanna. Honest.

[hexentotchen]

Hanna relaxed a little, mostly because she was so tired. "She died. Marissa shot her three times. I was two, almost." She smiled a little. "But now I can remember her voice, and what she was like, and I can imagine... if she'd lived."

She swallowed, looking away, shaking her head hard. "You wouldn't understand."

[doesnotkneel]

"I still have both of my parents," Edward allowed easily. "But you sound like you're good with words. Perhaps you could shine a light on it for me? Just so I've some notion of just how good this Mr. Gaunt is."

[hexentotchen]

Hanna' face lit up at the opportunity to explain. "He gave me an album of her singing. She was a night-club singer, and she used to sing me to sleep." That was real! She'd remembered that before. "And he asked me to..." Oh. Right. Not telling about that. He'd said not to. And the Mayor would be mad.

"I helped him help a little girl who was sick." There, that was a good part to explain, wasn't it? "And he gave me a record player to listen to the record with, since I didn't have one. And he did the same thing for Professor Rinoa, I know, and Carmilla understands too, and Anders let me have this box for free to protect my things, because he knows how good Mr. Gaunt is too, and he wanted me to be able to protect my things." She took a breath. "You don't want to hurt him for that, do you?"

[doesnotkneel]

Edward shook his head.

What? It was true. He'd only recently found out just how bad things were, and he hadn't quite let it escalate to the point of 'fostering violent thoughts' just yet.

"I'm just here to talk to you," he said. And he had absolutely no idea where he was going with this, besides that he had to find some way to talk her into breaking this... album. He'd figure something out. He had the gift for it. "Tryin' to figure out why you're marching in front of this store, as well. Sounds like you were given a good gift, though a man's got to wonder how Mr. Gaunt found the album to begin with."

[hexentotchen]

"I..." How had that happened? Oh, yes. "He sent out a message. He needed help."

Although. It was a little funny that she hadn't seen him since then, wasn't it?

"And that woman. Officer Drew. She was going to arrest him. For... I don't remember." See? So it was good that Hanna had been there to help.

"I don't know how he got the album. Mr. Knepfler - he produced it - is dead. And Mr. Gaunt trades for so many things. I suppose he just found it. Somewhere."

Somewhere... it was a coincidence, wasn't it. A nice one?

[doesnotkneel]

"That's a lot of questions," Edward said, after a pause. "Wait, they're arresting your mr. Gaunt? And you don't know why?"

He knew exactly why. But he was a good actor when he needed to be.

[hexentotchen]

"Professor Rinoa said they were scared of his magic." Which... didn't entirely make sense. Because the professor had magic, and so did Anders, and no one was arresting them. "And something about the woods."

She sent an uneasy glance toward the park, and the dying trees. The blackened pond. "I hate when forests die. Live things shouldn't be polluted."

[doesnotkneel]

"Aye."

Edward followed her glance.

"They're trying to piece together why that's happening, last I heard," he said. "Wondering if Mr. Gaunt has anything to do with it."

[hexentotchen]

"He wouldn't. Besides, how could he? Or any person," Hanna said, shaking her head. "Do they know why it's like this? The deer were sick, too." She'd been so wrapped up in her memories and the songs on the record, she hadn't given it a lot of concentrated thought, but it had left Hanna uneasy and worried despite that.

[doesnotkneel]

"It just seems awfully convenient, doesn't it?" Edward asked. "Man shows up with anything you want in his shop, then things start dying. That's probably why they're looking into him. Hear some of the objects he's sold were poison, too, but that may be rumor."

He knew it wasn't.