002 - In which there is shopping!

[tinywife]

Who: Pinoko, Tron, Anzu, Tsumugi, and The Great Thief Yatagarasu Kay
Where: Sky Park to start with. And then the market for Shopping
When: After the second wave of new arrivals. Daytime.
Warnings: Pinoko is weaponized cute. More to be added as needed.

Pinoko had made calls to all of the people that she had made friends with the first few days at the fleet. She had promised everyone curry or shopping or both. And, well, in Mr. Tron's case, she had promised him food. She desperately needed new clothes, and the fabricator had yet to give her anything she liked. Or anything that fit properly for that matter. It was so frustrating!

So, she had asked all of her friends to meet her at the Sky Park. Partially because she wanted to look at it, and partially for practicality's sake. Tsumugi was really big after all.

For the moment, Pinoko was looking around, and avoiding the temptation to go on any of the slides. She would wait for her friends. She had already done a small circuit to see if there was any street vendors selling parfaits. (Or Swiss Rolls. She had mentioned there would be Swiss Rolls to Kay.) So far she hadn't had any luck. Hopefully they'd have more luck with sweets and clothes by the end of the day.

Comments

[ja307020]

"Greetings, Anzu," Tron said, twitching only a little as Kay chirped at him. He turned to her, frowning. "This does not sound like that at all."

He was going to regret the decision to come, wasn't he? Well.. all right, at least it sounded like these Users understood how the requisition system worked better than he did. Maybe he'd at least learn something...

No. He still didn't like it much. Tron sighed long-sufferingly, but the betas and Anzu were in the lead here. He was bound to follow.

[knowdeathknowglory]

Anzu smiles at Pinoko and then shook his head.

"No, darling, I only know you and ... well, ah." He gestures towards Tron. "Mr Program and I met, briefly." He looks at the others, smiling as warmly as he can manage. He does look a little nervous, however. His hands are shaking, very minutely.

He turns to Kay and adds, "really, punctuality can be difficult and sometimes I just don't leave myself enough time to prepare and ... end up being late. My sincerest apologies, everyone."

[littlecrowgirl]

She smiles back at Anzu, nodding in agreement. "No worries, Mr. Anzu was it? Time waits for no one, but we sure do!"

Her glance turns back to Pinoko and the others, hands moving to her hips. With all of them here, and now psyched up (With the exception of Tron. Boy, you need tos mile more), she's all psyched up.

"SHOPPING SQUADRON MISSION 1 STARTS NOW!"

...

"Let's get Mr. Tron some real pants."

[tinywife]

"Well... clearly introductions are in order. Anzu, this lady with the ponytail and the neat fashion sense is the Great Thief Yatagarasu! Also known as Kay," Pinoko said with a smile.

Then she gestured to Tsumugi. "And this lovely tall lady with the tentacles is Miss Shiraui Tsumugi. We need to find her stuff for her cat. She's also never been shopping before, so this is a big deal."

She smiled. "You know me and Mr. Tron. He's the Shopping Commander for this mission!" (No Tron, you were never going to live that down. Ever.)

At Tsumugi's declaration that she would try really hard, and Kay declaring that Shopping Squadron's Mission was Go, Pinoko started sparkling.

"All right! Let's go get Mr. Tron some real pants! That's a great idea Kay! Mr. Tron, you're Shopping Commander! That means you have to come!"

Tron, you had said you wanted to supervise. So you were going to get to supervise.

"Everyone! Let's go!"

[pinkspaceprincess]

W-well, she supposed pants wouldn't hurt. They'd certainly be roomier than what Mr. Tron was wearing now.

"Then shall we head to the pants store first?" You know. Assuming there was such a thing as a pants store. Tsumugi would float alongside the rest of the shopping squadron for as long as she was able, then continue using one of her tentacles as proxy.

[ja307020]

"What is wrong with my template loadout?" Tron asked plaintively, though he was pretty easily swept up in the tide of excited betas.

He was doomed. Definitely doomed. And starting to really regret being lured out by the promise of dessert...

[knowdeathknowglory]

Anzu sighs, deeply, and pats Tron on the back, shaking his head.

"Darling," he says, like he's delivering practically grave news. "It's dreadfully dull. And they're called clothes, not a 'template loadout'."

[littlecrowgirl]

"Thanks, Pinoko! When you're accessorizing, I always start with pants. Or, if I'm not feeling very pantsy, I throw a skirt on and move to step two!"

But there's a quick survey of Tron before turning her head to Tsumugi and Anzu.

"Definitely not a skirt guy, am I right?"

But since Tsumugi was wondering, she's just going to hop on a bench to get a good look around. A clothing store couldn't be very far. "How about we try....over there?"

And she picks where she was currently turned towards. It's like navigating a giant mall--just wander til you find something.

[tinywife]

Pinoko smiled. She reached up to take Tron's hand. So he didn't get lost or anything.

"Come on, Mr. Tron! This way! You can help us figure out what kind of colors you like. Black isn't really an option, just so you know!"

Pinoko is still sparkling Tron. You're doomed.

She looked back at Tsumugi a little. "There aren't really pants stores, Tsumugi. Generally stores sell all sorts of stuff. Or they sell clothes in general!"

[pinkspaceprincess]

Tsumugi meandered her way into the entrance of the store, looking at all the clothes on display. There were a number of flowery-looking dresses in the front, but she wasn't so sure Mr. Tron would be interested in them if he wasn't a skirt fan.

"Wow, so many..." So this was what a clothing store was like! Of course, there were clothes designed for aliens, too.

[ja307020]

Caught between Anzu and Pinoko, Tron sighed aggravatedly. There wasn't anything wrong with his template, even if it wasn't quite what he'd wanted when he tried to coax the fabricator into making him a gridsuit.

"A skirt is not practical for my function. There is nothing wrong with black. There is also nothing wrong with dull if it works."

That and colors were a little confusing... even glancing around, he felt equally pulled to reds and blues, like his alignment coding was stuck in some weird halfway place. Best to stick to colorless neutrals lest he send the wrong message... no need to risk it even if Users seemed cheerfully oblivious to the layers of meaning that colors normally held.

[knowdeathknowglory]

Anzu shrugged at Tron -- if he wanted to look like a barbarian, he could, Anzu reasoned. It's a free station, after all. But he did feel a little put out that Tron headed straight for the neutrals. He followed Tron right up to the racks and tutted as loudly as possible in his ear

"Darling, you'll blend in with the background. What are you, a stage hand?"

[littlecrowgirl]

As they look at the clothes that Tsumugi has her eyes on, Kay's arms fold, huffing a little.

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it if you like being boring. You're a computer program! I'm pretty sure you've gotta be flashy or something like that!"

Allow her to dig into the clothes a moment, past the floral dresses and pulling out a pair of jeans.

"Say it with me now. Blue jeans."

[tinywife]

"Jeans are practical Mr. Tron! And blue is a color! Compromise can be a good thing!" Pinoko said, smiling at the jeans that Kay had found. "At least Kay isn't trying to put you into neon plaid or anything. Like this gross shirt I found."

Pinoko held up said shirt. It looked like three different clashing shades of neon (purple, green, and orange to be precise) had gotten into a bar brawl and then thrown up afterwards. It was hideous. Pinoko put it back on the rack, because who would want a shirt like that anyway?

"Tsumugi, have you found anything you like?"

How did you dress tentacles up in pretty clothes anyway?

Pinoko started looking around at all the clothes. She did need new clothes as well. A new dress or two might be nice, as well as some new practical clothes.

[pinkspaceprincess]

"Oh... I don't really need clothes for myself. I'm sure I'd only lose them. It's, um. A little hard keeping the right shape for it." Actually, that wasn't quite true; Tsumugi could do some pretty remarkable impressions of human girls, only the last time she'd tried, well. It hadn't gone so great, and she'd gotten scolded by Tanikaze-san.

She pulled out a Hawaiian shirt with literally all the colors of the rainbow on it. "Mr. Tron, I really think you should consider some brighter colors for casual wear. Something that says, 'Boy, it sure is great to be here! How relaxing and wonderful!'

[ja307020]

Blue jeans, huh? Sam wore those. Maybe they were a sort of generic User-template? Maybe they came in black, though.. he didn't like the way a corner of his processes hissed at the idea of so much blue.

"Nothing has circuits here," he said distractedly, looking through the display to find something that at least wasn't entirely offensive to the eyes. Like that shirt Pinoko found. Or the even more hideous shirt Tsumugi found. Really, he was going to end up with a pile of template-clothes in self-defense.

Of course, the indigo denim almost required a rust-red shirt to counter-balance it, long-sleeved because it was just plain uncomfortable to have too much of his shell exposed at once, both vulnerability and invitation for too much sensory feedback. He was careful of texture, too, avoiding anything that felt too rough... but that led to its own small sensory overload where the colors didn't.

Really, how did Users put up with all this?