[OPEN] BABES IN TOYLAND

[speakveryclearly]

Date & Time: December 20th, 2013
Location: New York City!!!
Characters: HOLIDAY SHOPPERS. Please note that with mod approval, any character is allowed to have joined the mob in front of the transporter, regardless of whether they responded to the network post advertising this event.
Summary: In a bid to conserve energy, over a dozen transports do all of their Christmas shopping at once. I hope you brought money!
Warnings: None for now!

All the transports are dropped into New York at 6:00, simultaneously but scattered. Coding the drop points for this mission was hell.

It turns out that the weather is actually fairly mild on this date; there is snow neither in the air nor in the ground. That isn't to say there's nothing of visual interest: All the lights of the city are on at this hour.



The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was lit back on December 4th.



Shop until you drop, Transports.

Comments

Kanaya...

[speakveryclearly]

6:05 - closed to Stephanie Brown

Here Kanaya is in the past; as common in Exsilium, she's holographically disguised as a hornless, fangless, non-glowing girl, with winter wear. A street vendor's scarf catches her eye first; she pulls out her wallet and approaches him. An argument breaks out, however. Apparently her yen are not the dollars specified on the sign of price.

7:30

The time has come to shop and Kanaya is right in the thick of it. She has a list which she sometimes pulls out her tablet to check. For the most part her navigation of the aisle's is mechanical, her gifts having been decided far in advance.

Sometimes, however, she stops and stares for several minutes at a time before making her selection, most notably in winterwear.

10:30

She's done it. She has shopped and now she has dropped. Here she is beside her bounty with an almost post-coital expression, letting snow accumulate in her hair with holographically inexplicable holes where her horns are and not even caring. A dozen boxes of various sizes (though only two are larger than a sheet of paper) lie on the concrete besides her along with half again as many bags.

7:30

[snowghoul]

Abbey's just content to look around and window shop, for the most part. This is her first time in New York City (or "New Volt," as monsters call it), and she's determined to make the most of it.

Unfortunately, she's very uncomfortable by all the stares and comments she's been receiving. After all, it isn't every day that humans see a tall, blue-skinned girl going through store aisles. She's growing a little bit weary of people asking if she needs medical help. She probably won't be staying in this store for much longer.

At present, she is holding up a purple pashmina to her neck and examining herself in front of a mirror. Hmm, not bad at all!

[speakveryclearly]

Though still holographically human, Kanaya is drawn to people she's pretty sure are members of her party, and she's got to find a scarf after antagonizing the street vendor with anachronistic money. Her reflection does not show up in the mirror, when she stands near Abbey.

"I think that works really well as an accent color on you."

[snowghoul]

Abbey isn't caught off guard when she sees clothes without a body showing up beside her in the mirror. She turns to face Kanaya and gives the vampire a small smile.

"Thank you, Kanaya." She puts the scarf off on and admires how it looks against her skin. "Is nice seeing monsters for once."

[speakveryclearly]

"Same." She might not identify as strongly with the label as Heath and Abbey do - there's a tiny flinch in her face at the term so often used by normies as an insult. Still her feeling of solidarity is pretty strong. She points at the top of her head, where her horns would be. "I have to do a lot of custom tailoring when it comes to headwear. Let me know if you ever get any friends who need that."

[snowghoul]

Abbey will take a second to consider the offer. Which one of her friends might be in need of such headwear? She gives a very short laugh. "Ha. Maybe Deuce, if you are designing for boy monsters."

[speakveryclearly]

She makes mulling-it-over motions with her closed mouth, trying to imagine the meaning the name might have. Maybe he has double the appendages, like Sollux? After a moment, amenably, "Yeah, I'm an equal opportunity seamstress."

shows up ten minutes late with starbucks

[controlledvariable]

It's the argument that draws her attention; she's got an ingrained sort of instinct for that type of thing these days, and she's heading over to check it out before she realizes who's involved.

She quickens her pace when she realizes it's Kanaya, catching snippets of the conversation and noting the money in Kanaya's hand by the time she's standing beside both the girl and the vendor.

"Kanaya, hey, hold on a sec," Without even pausing, she fishes her wallet from her pocket and hands over enough bills to cover the cost of the scarf, addressing the vendor with the most charming smile she can muster, "Sorry about that, she's from out of town, hasn't had a chance to have her money exchanged yet."

[speakveryclearly]

Exchanged - suddenly she looks down at what she's holding and realizes where she's gone wrong here. The variety of this planet will never cease to confound her. Different languages, different money... what's next, different-- Wait, yes, they have different everything. God she hates Earth sometimes.

"I still can't believe you wouldn't provide a service like that," she says to the vendor, trying to retain a small measure of malice for the sake of appearances. "I'll be taking my business elsewhere."

[controlledvariable]

The vendor looks more than a little confused, but Steph having the right kind of money has done a lot of placate him.

"It's not his fault," She's looking at Kanaya now, voice dropped just above a whisper, "It's not really economical to offer a currency exchange."

Not that there aren't stores that'll accept more than one currency, but they're not small stalls in New York city.

[speakveryclearly]

With Stephanie's money offered, Kanaya feels safe in the termination of the interaction and begins to walk away.

"I know I shouldn't have been so harsh. To be honest the whole notion of separate countries has been a difficult adjustment to make for me, culturally... I'm sorry you had to see that."

[controlledvariable]

And Steph follows, taking the scarf - since she paid for it - and offering it for Kanaya to take, if she still wants it.

"S'okay, I'm sure there's plenty of things that'd throw me for a loop if I went to your world," Culture shock is a thing even moving between countries, she's sure it's even trickier between worlds, "How about we find a bank and get you some US dollars?"

[speakveryclearly]

Kanaya does stuff it into a bag, though still a little sour.

"Those will probably help. -- That's short for United States, right?" She just has to make sure.

[controlledvariable]

The best thing about being back in a civilized time period? Google, including google maps, since it means that Steph can pull out the cellphone she got herself and look up where the nearest bank is.

"Yup, what you've got now are yen, I'm guessing you got those in Japan?" It seems like the logical conclusion to make.

[speakveryclearly]

"Uhuh. I'm just glad they're usable in both Tokyo and Osaka." She pronounces these place names without the missteps that accompany some less familiar elements of her vocabulary. Languages with five pure vowels, that's what makes sense to her. "I have to concede the appeal of linguistic and financial hegemony..."

[controlledvariable]

"Having everyone using the same currency wouldn't be too bad, but language is really important for a lot of cultures," And English already has a habit of steamrolling over a lot of languages; she wouldn't encourage it any more.

[speakveryclearly]

She shrugs, a little more force than entirely necessary going into the surly motion. Back in Exsilium, she'd gotten used to having to disturb a gradual pile of snow forming on her shoulders. "Huh. I didn't know that." Maybe she's trying to shrug the chip off her shoulder against English language policing too. Steph wouldn't understand that, though, Kanaya thinks.

[controlledvariable]

"Earth can be kind of complicated, but it's one of my favourite things about it," She can't really imagine living somewhere completely homogenous; she gets bored easily enough as it.