Amara couldn't help but stare at the other three who'd gotten on the shuttle with her. An interesting bunch, not people one would ever expect to see in one place at one time unless there was some kind of costume party going on.
The old dude with that thing on his face... he was the one who unnerved her the most. He was too quiet, too still, sitting in the corner with his arms folded over his chest. She honestly thought he was asleep until he raised his head to stare right back at her.
"I don't appreciate being treated like a dessert in a display case," he said quietly from across the small space between them. His accent was unique, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Refined yet trashy at the same time.
"Trust me, you're not any kind of snack worth staring at," she replied with rolled eyes. She was going to have to keep an eye on that one, before he started keeping an eye on her first.
The big one looked like they were covered in too many coats and blankets, and a smell rose from them that reminded her of a pet store. They seemed the most fidgety, gloved thumbs twiddling at a frantic pace. What they had to be nervous about, she didn't know nor did she want to ask. There was no guarantee that their nervous nature meant they were friendly.
"Hey. Big guy. Stop twitching. You're making me nervous." The white-haired guy barked over at them with an ounce of annoyance written on his features. The most expressive Amara had seen his face be this entire trip.
The walking hill of coats stopped and looked down at their hands, discovered what they'd been doing, and shoved them into their pockets.
Where they continued to fiddle, out of sight.
The old man groaned and rolled his head. He obviously didn't miss anything.
The last was the armoured woman over in the corner, smacking loudly on a thick wad of gum she'd had for a few hours. Instead of spitting out the whole thing, she'd add another piece, making the pink gloop larger and more wet. She nodded her head in rhythm to the music blaring from her earbuds and blew a ginormous bubble before the thing popped against her face. It smeared some of that black stuff, whatever it was, on her cheeks, as she worked her mouth to regather the gum back in.
It was easy to tell she was Vladof; it was written all over everything she was wearing, especially that tattoo she had on her hip. So she was a military girl. Not bad, but that meant she had discipline, a sense of following orders. Amara, on the other hand, lived only for herself. Orders were something to be ignored and fists were meant for punching, not holding guns.
She was pretty sure she could take her on in a fight.
"Whatcha listening to?" Amara called out.
Of course she couldn't hear her.
She waved wildly enough for a few minutes before finally catching her attention. Thankfully, she popped one of the earbuds out.
"Whatcha listening to?" she repeated.
"Mammoth Jackass," she replied in a heavy accent. Also one Amara couldn't pinpoint.
What the hell kind of band name was that?
"... are they any good?"
The woman shrugged before putting her earbud back in, drowning herself once more in that noise and effectively ending the conversation.
Amara sighed and folded her hands behind her head, waiting for this dumb trip to be over. So much for trying to make friends like her mother wanted.
"They're pretty good."
Amara turned, surprised to hear the quiet man reply. What was even more surprising that he'd heard of the band at all. The area between his eyebrows had smoothed out and there was something to his lips that made him look more approachable. Calling it a smile, however, would be a stretch of the truth.
"I mean, if you like that kind of music." And just like that, the amiable nature of his face vanished.
The jacketed individual seemed to have given up on their fiddling aimlessly and tapped their fingers against their thighs to the beat of the music. Even the guy with the white hair joined in, and Amara was sure she saw him lip-synching to the lyrics, as well as she could make them out from across the shuttle, blaring from a set of tinny earbuds.
But she joined in just the same, tapping her boot against the seat in front of her. Maybe she should look up this Mammoth Jackass on the ECHOnet once they finally landed.