[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

[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.]

[controlledvariable]

I can definitely try. A lot of it's similar to meditation techniques, so it's not, you know, completely out of left field.

[Assuming he's done some meditating before.

Maybe she shouldn't assume that everyone has.]

[unmasking]

[The look on his face definitely says that he hasn't.]

Okay, step one: calm down long enough to meditate.

[controlledvariable]

Yeahhhh, I know how that is.

[Although it's more the "sitting still" that she has problems with.]

Having a way to focus it helps me, like going through a kata.

[unmasking]

I focus by not focusing. [There's a beat.] Gonna guess that isn't the trick here.

[controlledvariable]

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. But don't worry, if I could get it when I was a teenager, I'm sure you can figure it out.

[She was an easily distracted teenager.]

[unmasking]

You haven't seen inside of my head.

[Though it's hard to imagine her more distracted than he is. He's pretty easy to distract.]

[controlledvariable]

I was a teenage girl spending a lot of time around cute guys in skintight clothing. Trust me, you'll be fine.

[well.]

[unmasking]

I really wish that hormones was the height of my problems.

[controlledvariable]

You really don't.

[But it's playful, and if she can get away with it, she's going to ruffle his hair.

For reasons.]

[unmasking]

[Ruffling hair doesn't set off the spider sense, so he lets it happen.]

Really? Being a normal teenage boy? ... Yeah, you've got a point. No one wants to be Flash Thompson.

[controlledvariable]

I have absolutely no idea who that is.

[Famous person??? Friend???? Some random dude???

Alternate universes are frustrating sometimes.]

[unmasking]

And thank god for that. He's just this ... loser.

[Okay, maybe "loser" is harsh, but it feels accurate.]

[controlledvariable]

[Ah.]

Someone from school?

[unmasking]

Yeah. He also profited on the whole Spider-Man thing. ... In a Lifetime movie sort of way, so not as much as he wanted to.