Difference of Opinion

Who: Hunt and Jovie
When: Early evening
Where: Kalos Jewellery

It had been a very productive day in Jovie's mind. She had been making quite a few significant sales, met Ash - who seemed to maybe be someone worth knowing - and after returning from the arts festival, finally had a few quiet hours to clean up the rest of her shop. Leaving her printer as it began to print off a copy of her inventory, Jovie walked to the front of the store and pushed the door open, nudging the door stop in place. It was a cooler day, weather wise, but she was more than willing to invite the breeze inside, despite already being a bit chilly. It was a nice kind of chill, and reminded her that while autumn was near, the holiday season wouldn't be too far behind. That's when Jovie would truly shine and make sure Marquette had a merry fucking Christmas while reaping most of the benefits. Financial and otherwise.

Hunt had been out and about all evening, putting up posters advertising the missing Mutt, since his various talks with Brian had left him with the unshakable feeling that he should be looking for the dog. Maybe she'd turn up - maybe she'd been taken in by some kindly stranger. He'd woken up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night though, the tatters of a nightmare full of blood and parts of a dismembered and formerly beloved dog fleeing from his waking mind. He'd not dared to go back to sleep, the nightmare haunting him the way they so often did. As a result he looked tired today, tired and out of sorts, but he had flyers to hand out and he headed towards the jewellery store with an eye to asking whether he could leave some of them there. He recognised the woman, remembered talking to her before and he prepared a smile as he walked up. "Evening," he said, politely.

Jovie glanced over her shoulder toward the voice and recognized Hunt, the man she'd given a ride home to awhile back. What did she remember about him? Teacher. Anything else? Jovie wracked her brain as she smiled in return. "Hey there." He with the big, wet mutt that had gotten her car dirty and smelly. "Enjoying your evening?"

"Depends on your definition of 'enjoying'," Hunt told her, holding up the flyers in a kind of small wave, drawing her attention to them. "Do you remember Mutt? My dog? Well, she went missing - I was wondering if I could leave some of these flyers in your store? Maybe on the counter - in case someone's seen her?" he asked.

Jovie glanced at the flyers before her gaze ticked up to Hunt's face. Missing dog. That probably didn't bode well for him, or the dog, given the last two weeks. "I do remember your dog, yes." Jovie motioned him inside of her store. "You can leave some on the counter next to the register if you'd like. When's the last time you saw her?"

Hunt walked past her, his face glazing over for a second as he contemplated her question. "A few days?" he asked as his expression cleared again, though he sounded a little unsure about that. "She ran off in the park - I called and called but she didn't come back," he added, sure that that's what had happened. They'd been in the park, it'd been dark - no, they'd been in the car and Mutt had seen a rabbit, or something - she'd jumped out of the window and gone after the rabbit. Yes, it must have been a rabbit. And then she didn't come back.

Watching Hunt closely, Jovie couldn't help her own curious expression as her brows drew together. He certainly wasn't sure what had happened at all it seemed like. "Are you sure about that?" she asked, walking behind the counter and reaching out for some flyers. "Have you called any shelters to see if she's been turned in?" An obvious question, she knew, but she wanted to hear his answer.

"Yes, yeah - I did that a while back," he told her. He knew he'd made a couple of calls. It felt like more than that. There had definitely been calling going on, but... He'd got halfway through a conversation with one shelter and he'd just known she wasn't there. Which had been the weirdest experience because Hunt had never been one who went with gut feeling. It wasn't rational to go with instinct, yet he'd still hung up the phone. "I don't think I'm going to find her, but I have to try," he added, giving Jovie a small smile.

"Why don't you think you'll find her?" she asked. "Is your gut telling you she's gone for good?" Marquette was a small town, and didn't most dogs have that keen sense to know how to find their way home? And if she'd been wandering around, surely someone would have found her and taken her to a shelter, or back to Hunt. The dog was probably dead if she had been out and on her own for more than a few days. It was a depressing though and one that most people wouldn't automatically assume, but in this town it seemed like you had to.

"I don't believe in gut feelings," Hunt told her, firmly as he put the flyers down and turned round to face her. "Guts are for digesting food - they don't have some mysterious ability to tell you things. That's what your brain's for - doing the thinking part," he added. He felt like he was on firmer ground here, his mind clearing. Stating what he did and didn't believe. This was easier than... whatever that had been. Less confusing.

"Okay, cut out the word gut," Jovie countered, reaching out to straighten the flyers neatly. It seemed like his brain was having an awfully hard time achieving that whole thinking thing as it was. "Instinct then. It means something and it exists. Whether you feel it in your gut... or in your mind. Same thing. Your first initial thought on something, that part of you that insists something is true, even if another part of you doubts it, is probably right. You said that you don't think you're going to find her, but you're still putting up flyers. So your instinct is telling you she's gone, but you're denying that instinct by still searching. Make sense?"

"There's no such thing as instinct either," Hunt retorted, shaking his head, sounding firmer by the minute. "Only a fool would trust something like that - it's little more than a guess, not backed up by any rational explanation or evidence. To just go with something because you 'feel' it is either giving in to false hope, or your worst fears. It's letting an emotional response cloud your judgement."

She straightened a bit, both eyebrows lifting in disbelief. "Then the world consists of fools, honey. We all have it. And it's not just a guess, it's something that's ingrained inside of everyone and helps make them who they are, helps drive their decisions. Honestly, tell me why you don't think your dog is coming back. What part of your brain is telling you that she's gone? Instinct isn't simply emotional."

"What is it then?" Hunt posed, ignoring the actual question. "If it's not simply an emotional response, what else could it be?" he asked her, tilting his head to one side, interested in her answer.

She rested her arms on the counter and leaned forward casually, perfectly comfortable with answering the question. She was finding it amusing that he was so dead set against believing something so simple. "It's natural impulse that we're all born with. Some have deeper instincts than others, like mothers? They have maternal instinct, don't they? Protect their children from harm. Animals, and some humans I suppose, have survival instinct that keeps them alive. Say a man is running up to you and you know he's going to attack. You do the first thing your instinct tells you - fight, or cower. Instinct pushes you toward the truth more often than not, it's just up to you whether or not to go with it." Jovie tilted her head to the side curiously. "And you still haven't answered my question about how you know your dog isn't coming back."

"No, adrenaline pushes you," Hunt countered. "A perfectly normal biological reaction - fight or flight. Your body secretes additional adrenaline to help you deal with high stress situations. It's not about truth or otherwise, if you see an attack, you have a biological and chemical reaction to that. It's got nothing to do with instinct," he argued.

"That is instinct," Jovie replied, tapping her fingernails on the counter. "And it's not all about high stress situations. It's much more than that." Her eyes locked onto his. "Why do you think Mutt is never coming back? What tells you that?" And here she was arguing definitions with this guy. But she wanted to know why he was so dead set against something so natural. She refused to believe Hunt didn't have instinctive feelings himself, and because she knew he did like everyone else, she wanted to know why he was resisting them so much.

"So, you're telling me that adrenaline is the reason I may or may not think that my dog's coming back?" Hunt asked her, sceptically, once again stepping round the question as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"No, sweetheart, you mentioned adrenaline. I just said it's much more than high stress and adrenaline. I mean, your students? Give them a test with multiple choice. More than likely, if they don't know the correct answer? They're going to chose the one their instinct tells them is right. And it's not a question of whether you may or may not think your dog is coming back. You clearly told me that you don't think she is, hence the subject we're debating right now. I said it was your instinct telling you she's gone for good, and you then told me you don't believe in instinct. And I've since been asking you what you think it is then, and you've been side stepping the question ever since." Jovie rested her chin in her palm and smiled at him. "You've got an interesting mind."

Hunt looked at her as if she was trying to purposefully confuse him. "No... You mentioned instinct, then introduced the fight or flight syndrome, I named that as adrenaline - which is what science tells us. You then told me that 'that is instinct'. Ergo, you said instinct is merely adrenaline. And now you're saying otherwise. As for my students and multiple choice quizzes, if they don't know the answer, they're going to guess - which has nothing to do with instinct. At best it may be an educated guess, which is down to rationalising out that which you know is incorrect. Or knowledge of general statistical probabilities in educational multiple choice papers - which says that, in a test paper with four choices per question, you have a 40% likelihood that it's going to be answer C. Whichever way, it's not instinct. What's telling me that Mutt isn't coming back is the length of time she's been gone and the fact she was microchipped - so if anyone had handed her in anywhere, I would have had a call by now," Hunt told her, happy with his perfectly rational explanation.

Jovie stared for a moment before she burst into laughter. "No, I never said instinct was merely adrenaline. I said the biological impulse to you have, say in regards to an attack, is instinct. You likened it up to adrenaline because I used being attacked as an example." She covered her face with her hand, still giggling, before she straightened away from the counter. She didn't feel it even necessary to ask him how many of his students he thought actually had knowledge of general statistical probabilities, how many sat there and worked out if answer C had a 40% likelihood of being correct. All she knew was when she was in school? Her first instinct on answering a question she wasn't sure about was usually right - it was when she doubted the answer and changed it that she got it wrong. Of course, it helped to be able to read the mind's of the honor students taking the same test. That wasn't necessary to mention either. "I'm sorry about your dog," Jovie told him, tapping her finger on the flyers that would probably go into the trash when he left. "I hope I haven't offended you by arguing over the definition of a word, and whether or not it existed. Just for the record, I don't think there's anything wrong with going with something because your emotions tell you to. Sometimes emotions are more spot on about something than your mind is."

"See, now you're contradicting yourself," Hunt told her, but he sounded vastly amused. "You're saying that you don't think adrenaline is instinct, but you say instinct is a biological reaction. Make your mind up, dear. Because, right now? You're not making any sense. Hell, by your reasoning, every kid should be aceing every test. You know - since you said that whatever your first 'instinct' is is probably right. By your rules nobody has to study for jack shit, they should just guess the answer and there you go - straight A's, that easy," he laughed.

"No, dear, I just think you hear the points of conversation that you can argue and ignore the parts you can't," Jovie countered, trying not to get annoyed. "Because I said that instinct wasn't merely adrenaline. You're focusing on one small area, one small word, of a much bigger thing. And hey, if a kid studies enough, looks at a test and isn't one hundred percent sure of an answer? Chances are if he goes with his first instinctive response of what he thinks the right answer is, he'll probably get it right." She paused and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Your mind works in absurd ways, that much I can already tell."

Hunt looked at her as though she was crazy, fairly sure that she was the one that was misremembering their conversation, but there was no point turning it into a fight. "Well, anyway," he said, moving the subject on. "How've you been?" His tone was polite, friendly, but with an air of 'lets just change the subject, should we? Wouldn't that be nice?' about it.

She couldn't hold back the slow smile that formed on her lips at his tone, despite it being friendly enough, she could sense the underlying desire to move on. Best to switch topics before she was throwing things at him for frustrating her, which she was very close to doing. "I've just been fantastic," she replied cheerfully. "And yourself? How's school coming along?"

"Glad to hear it - the store's doing well then?" he asked her, looking around. Not that he really knew what he was looking at - he wouldn't know the difference between a successful business and a failing one, after all. "And school's good - everything's settling back down again now. Things were so up in the air for such a while." Between the murders and the problems in town, it had been a challenge to keep classes running properly.

"It's doing better than I hoped," Jovie said, glancing around. "It's been broken into a couple times over the past couple of weeks, so a lot of my profit has been turned around and poured back into the store for new glass and such, but I suppose it could have been worse." Stupid, bloodsucking bastards. "When you're closing the school for anything other than a snow day, you know things aren't going so well. Seems to happen a lot here."

"Does the insurance not cover that?" Hunt asked, an eyebrow raised. He was a great believer in insurance - though anyone trying to break into his house would get a shock, as well protected as it was. Hunt was nothing if not safety-conscious. "And yeah, it does. So much more than it ever has before. But there's been some real tragedy this year. I moved here originally because it was such a quiet, safe place to life - I'm hoping we can get back to that," he admitted.

Insurance. Right. "It covers some," Jovie said with a shrug. "Not enough, to be honest with you. It certainly doesn't cover the inventory I had stolen. And I came here for some peace and quiet as well. I've always been drawn to small towns. I don't think there's been a week of quiet since I've arrived. I keep wondering if I should pack up and try another town or wait it out and see if Marquette is worth sticking it out."

Hunt looked massively surprised at that. "You're kidding me, right? What kind of insurance doesn't pay out for stolen property? You need to shop around, dear," he told her, aghast. That was insane - and, in his head, possibly illegal. If not, he thought he was either naive or stupid for agreeing to that kind of policy. If it didn't cover theft then what did it cover?

She smiled at him, thinking it was probably best not to get into just what she did and didn't do that was legal with her shop. "I guess I just skimped a bit on the insurance. My own fault," she said breezily, not caring if it made her sound irresponsible. And she was realizing she wasn't so much of a fan of being called dear either. It wasn't as if he was that much older than her. "I got what I could afford. Didn't really think I'd have to worry about it too much in this town."

Hunt was still on the 'crazy or stupid' option and couldn't decide which one was 'better'. He'd never skimp on something like that. But then again, not everyone was him. "Well, you'll know better next time, right?" he commented. "Anything can happen, even in sleepy little towns. There might not be much crime here, but we still get breakins."

"Not much crime?" She lifted both eyebrows. "Crime's all that's been happening here. Much worse than breakins. I can deal with the breakins. It's when I've got blood splattered on my sidewalk out front of my shop that I begin to have issue handling it. I wouldn't really define Marquette as sleepy anymore."

Hunt chuckled. "I meant before. When you took your insurance out," he told her. "Because, yes, there've been some hard times lately, gangs moving in and all sorts. Maybe you should ring your insurance company and up your cover," he advised.

"Maybe I should." Jovie pretended to consider this with a firm nod. "And maybe I should upgrade my security system, since it didn't seem to do the job before. Oh, maybe I should just buy a shotgun too and keep it under the counter. I think that would keep the gangs and unruly locals out of my shop, you know?" She shot him a smile. "I think I'll definitely be taking your advice on that." God, being responsible was boring. She reached out to straighten the flyers, even though they didn't need the tidying. "So tell me, Hunt, what do you do here? Other than teaching. What's your idea of a good time?" She had a feeling she was going to enjoy his answer.

Hunt chuckled, holding up his hands a little. "Hey, just trying to help out, but sure, upgrading your security system would probably be a good idea. Though the shotgun's probably taking it a little too far," he joked, but it was a joke that probably only he got, security-conscious as he was to an insane degree. "Me, well, I read a lot, go out with friends some. Unfortunately, lots of my free time is taken up grading papers - the lot of a teacher, I'm afraid," he admitted.

"Oh come on, how frightening a picture would I be? Little, unassuming me, pulling out a shotgun from the counter, aiming it at those thugs? Shoot them in the legs and they'd probably never come back." Not that a shotgun would do much damage against the kind of "thugs" that had come through Marquette. Jovie snickered a bit and shook her head. "Please, grading papers can't possibly be that time consuming. You do that on the weekends too? And during the summer? Holiday breaks?" Though she wasn't surprised. He seemed like the stay in and do nothing kind of guy. "No papers to grade then, are there?"

"Personally, I would think that anyone pointing a firearm at me would be scary," Hunt averred with a grin. "And you'd be surprised at how time consuming grading papers are. But no, that doesn't go on throughout the vacation, but you didn't specify that. And then I ahve the next semester's classes to plan and everything. But, okay - I walk a lot. There's some really pretty areas around here," he told her.

"Walking and reading," Jovie repeated, arching an eyebrow at him. Seriously? Grading papers. Planning classes. Walking. Reading. Boring! But this, coming from a guy who apparently doesn't believe in natural instinct. It was too bad he was so dull, given how good looking he was. "Sounds like you need a social life as badly as I need a better security system." She paused a beat. "No offense or anything. I mean, walking does sound... fascinating. And grading papers? An exciting way to spend a Friday night." Rounding the counter, Jovie walked over to grab her broom and put it away. "I bet you chaperon your school dances too, don't you?"

Hunt looked amused - he knew his way of life wasn't up to everyone's speed, but quiet and slow had always appealed to him. "Well, someone has to do it," he agreed. "So, how about you? What do you do for fun?" he asked her.

Jovie laughed and nodded. "Yes, I thought so." He probably stood in the corner and ignored, or remained oblivious, to all of the sighing, fluttering eye girls that no doubt found their teacher to be "hot". "As for me? I don't know. I go out. Have a drink, go dancing, take in a movie, chat up some strangers..." She shrugged and placed the broom just inside of her office before turning back to him. "It all depends on the day and who I'm with. I read and take walks too, but that's usually when I have no other options. I just think it gets lonely being home alone nearly every night. Human contact is important to me."

"Doesn't sound all that different from normal," Hunt observed. "Though I don't go out every night. Maybe a couple of times a week," he admitted. And only if he was meeting someone specific, like Brian. He didn't go to bars to meet strangers. You never knew who you'd pick up, after all - and Hunt's safety-consciousness extended well past a good alarm system.

"I think it's quite normal," Jovie said. "But I don't go out every night either. Again, it all depends on the day and situation. I enjoy meeting new people, being around a crowd and watching." She shrugged. "Where do you go in town when you do go out?" Not that there were many options and she wondered if he was much of a bar person.

"That depends on my mood," Hunt admitted. "Go tot he Wooden Nickel sometimes, but it's a bit of a dive. Found a new place last week - Babylon. Seemed nice enough," he summised. Of course, Hunt had been totally incapable of seeing what else was at Babylon. The vampire drinking at the bar, the demon across the floor - everything that wasn't 'normal' was ignored completely. "You?" he asked her.

[tbc]