[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

[unmasking]

[Fortunately, Peter is a scientist and a superhero who thrives on quick talking and banter. He manages to make it out of what Stephanie says with full comprehension.]

I'd have to make the belt important to me somehow. Some way to be a better Peter Parker. [He pauses, considering that.] So some kind of ... engineering device. For mechanical things, ready to still jump into a fight at a moment's notice. Probably way more effective than what I've been doing.

[controlledvariable]

More of a toolbelt, then?

[She grins, but she does mean that suggestion a little bit. Although after a second she gives him a look up and down.]

Spider-man's meant to be pretty streamlined, right? Would a belt break that up too much?

[There's a thoughtful look on her face that could either mean awesome or terrible things will happen.]

[unmasking]

... I haven't put that much thought into the suit. I just sorta ... haphazardly added webs. [That means: he added it to a previous suit.] I'm bad at the marketing bit. But yeah, a tool belt. A tool belt that also gives me a lot of money.

[Because that would be helpful. Not that he thinks he's entitled to money—it's the exact opposite—but he's not exactly working for anyone.

... Though he's been meaning to look into that.]

[controlledvariable]

Okay, well--

[She goes to get out her notebook, then realizes that she wouldn't be able to draw while juggling all the bags she's got.

So:]

Have you had dinner? I've got a couple ideas I could sketch up for you, but I'll need to sit down.

[And she hasn't eaten for a while, so they can kill two birds with one stone.]

[unmasking]

I was gonna hit a Whole Foods for their samples. [There are a lot of samples, and the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle isn't that hard to get to from their current location. He even made sure it's still there!] ... So that's a no.

[controlledvariable]

[Peter.....]

How about you pick a real restaurant and we'll grab something to eat?

[The I'll pay is implied.]

[unmasking]

What do you want? We can see if it's still there in this version of New York. [He hasn't exactly had a chance to check on everything, after all. Though given where they are, they could just walk and pick a place they like.]

[controlledvariable]

[You know what she wants? Peking duck. You know what she can never eat ever again? Any kind of duck.

Thanks, Ahiru.]

How about Thai?

[She wants to eat something a little different than what they can get in Exsilium.]

[unmasking]

[There's a moment where he considers where they are. The closest place that has great Asian is Koreatown, at least that's reliable, but he knows there are some awesome Thai restaurants in Chelsea. Given the number of them, the odds that all of them will be gone when Whole Foods is in the same position is slim.]

Let's get to Chelsea, then.

[Without hesitating, he starts walking with the intention of heading south. He assumes she'll follow.]

[controlledvariable]

[And follow she does, falling into step beside Peter. Though she does also pull a cellphone out of her pocket and starts typing up a text, just to let Saul know where she is.]

We wanna lay some ground rules about how to deal with any criminals we run across?

[It's said with a grin, but considering her luck, she wouldn't be surprised if dinner got interrupted by an armed robbery or something.]

[unmasking]

I've got a spider-sense. [It seems important to tell her that right now.] So, I'll give you a signal when it's going off. ... If we're about to get food poisoning, though, it won't work out in our favor. [He knows it's a joke, so he's gotta run with it. It's kind of what he does.]

[controlledvariable]

[That's all well and good, Peter, but:]

Does that mean you can tell when spiders are close by, or....?

[unmasking]

No. ... My life would be a major headache and I'd be loving the cold more back where we usually are. [Because the spiders are probably all dead.] I can sense danger.

[controlledvariable]

So like, an internal radar?

[sort of?

can spiders even do that?]

[unmasking]

Kiiiiind of. Yes. [Peter shrugs.] It helps in a fight. You know, unless I'm in danger constantly, and then it's just annoying.

[controlledvariable]

Yeah, that sounds like it'd be really helpful until it got annoying. I'm guessing it doesn't switch off?

[Also she shouldn't be tempted to test it.]

[unmasking]

No.

[It hasn't even occurred to him that she might be willing to test it.]

[controlledvariable]

[She's just curious.]

Seems like that'd get distracting in a fight.

[unmasking]

I did at least get used to it. [Did. Do. I did. He seems to pause over his phrasing.] You know, eventually.

[controlledvariable]

[She notices that pause, but she doesn't think much of it.]

There'd probably be some tricks that'd help you deal with it, but that's not really my area.

[She's thinking of Kara and her superhearing, about tuning out the background noise.]

[unmasking]

Like psychic stuff? I'd rather be attuned to it than not. [It had occurred to him when he was dating Kitty to see if he could ask Professor X about it, but he ultimately decided against it.]

[controlledvariable]

Nah, I just mean like mental tricks to help with your focus and tuning it out. [she shrugs] Sorta like how I'm trained to keep out telepaths, or how to block out really bad pain.

[unmasking]

—You know how to keep out telepaths?

[controlledvariable]

[Belated realization that she doesn't really want to talk about people in her head, but:]

Depends on the kind of telepath. I mean - it did jack shit against an empath, but I've been taught techniques to keep telepaths from reading my thoughts.

[Which is clearly a useful thing to know.]

I'm sure a really good one could get in anyway, but it's better than nothing.

[unmasking]

Can you maybe teach me? Is that a thing you can do? Because I'd be a good learner, and—well, having people in your head is kind of creepy. [Plus, he remembers too many embarrassing circumstances that went a different way. Thankfully, they were mostly just embarrassing.]