Description: Naerose is selling mostly worthless crap, but Cammy can see the value of a 5 dollar off the next pizza from Pizza Hut voucher...
The best place to start is the mundane. It's a street. There is positively nothing remarkable about it. There are businesses along the side. People going about their day to day. Some people more eccentric than others and some, possibly more eccentric than they seem. Take for instance the individuals who want something, but do not have the long term foresight to work for it. How do they even possess cell phones. These and many questions will be answered. . probably never. Instead we are left with exhibit A. Certainly an unusual outfit. Well, somewhat. A red dress? Not so unusual, the hat, well, it is unusual with the pointy top and all, kind of draws a little attention and the happy face accessory. Lets move on. She's here today doing volunteer work, yes, passing out coupon books. Somewhere nearby a broomstick leans against a wall. She couldn't look more bored, probably not if she tried. Some people really take handing out coupon books seriously. She sort of just holds them out and expects people to take one. When she thinks of it, there is probably a more lazy way to do this.
Most of the people ignore her, occasionally someone takes a book, but it seems to be more out of habit than anything else. Are there coupon shoppers in the world? Yes, but they're not walking down this street at this time. It's to be expected. No one likes this job and you barely get anything for it. In her case? She's just getting store credit for the places in the coupon books. They're all food places. Go figure.
The street itself may not be remarkable, but the people in it are. In... varying ways.
The red witch, for example, has the power of flight, among other things. Thats pretty remarkable. Even if she tried to cover it up. And she has a unique fashion sense.
And the leotard wearing soldier forgot that the witch has the power of flight. Believe it or not her fashion sense is not unique, she has similarly dressed comrades somewhere. But she has remarkable hair at least.
And she has no idea what a coupon book even is. She pauses by the red witch, because if anything is curious here, it's her. And just peers at the books. "What's in the books?" she asks. "You are just giving them away?". What's the catch?
"Huh?" This is literally the first person to say anything to Naerose except 'no thank you'. So she has to take a moment to wipe that comatose look from her face and actually consider the question. She looks at the woman, she looks at the book. She adjusts her shades. Then. Big grin.
"Wow, I'm like totally glad you asked, these are magic books that let you go into place and get stuff cheaper than it is normally, see check this out. . " she flips through the books and presents a coupon at a sub shop, "See here if you buy a twelve inch sub you totally get a drink for free! All you need is this piece of paper and they like gave me books of this stuff to give away. " She's all the sale man despite not getting anything in return for her actual efforts.
"I dunno why they do this, I guess to be nice, but if I give these books away, like all of them, I get a special magic books of deal papers and it's supposed to be like totally worth doing this for a day every week for a month."
A distant expression crosses the witches face, "I always wanted a grimoire of food." Clearly she has one thing in mind and the group that set her out to do this has something else in mind.
"Oh, ok. Coupons. For pizza and things." Cammy says. She knows what these are. "I didn't know people gave them out like this, in the street, usually don't you just put them through letterboxes?". She shrugs, and peers at what is on offer. "I guess I'll have one, if you have a pizza one.". Pizza Hut sells cheesecake, after all.
"So why the witch schtick? and talk of grimoires? That your marketing angle or something?" she asks, amused. "There a cauldron on the front cover?". She takes a book, and peers at it, curious.
"Oh, um.". She realises she has nowhere to put it. Not even the smallest pocket to hide it away in. (Her beret is already full, keys, purse, mobile phone. It's not a huge beret.). "You got a bag or something?".
Wow these two have like so much in common! "Oh witch ..? " Naerose slowly catches on, looking herself over and says, with a big grin, "No like I'm totally a witch and I dunno how these magic papers are usually given out," she says while passing one of the coupon books to Cammy. Of course she memorized every page and already pocketed a couple dozen of them, "There is totally some pizza places in the middle, one near the end, I think like four pizza coupons and then the cheese bread and some cinnamon sticks." The catch that the red witch seems oblivious on is all of them require you buying something else first. But does she have a bag..
"I might have something here.." Naerose admits and then starts digging in her witches hat, coincidentally the place she keeps all of her stuff too! "Oh right, here you are." She has a paper bag apparently, slightly used, crumpled and ripped a little bit. She hands it over.
"You're not wearing very much are you." Naerose comments, fixing her shades.
Cammy only started stashing stuff in the beret when the sheer impracticality of her uniform was rammed home by several weeks of wearing almost nothing but it. Fine when in the field perhaps, when doing war things, but not so fine when going about your daily business.
She flicks over the pizza coupons, until she finds some discount ones rather than extra pizza vouchers. She doesn't want the pizza so much as the dessert. "Oh, thanks. Sort of.". A paper bag? Well, it's better than no bag. Sorta. The coupons go into it.
She sighs at the last comment, and fixes a weary sort of blue eyed gaze upon Naerose. "It's my uniform. Yes, there are a few things about it I might change if I was in charge of whoever it is picks the uniforms. Yes, I appreciate that they were probably trying to save on fabric or something when designing it. I guess spandex must be expensive.". It doesn't even cover her hips really!
Being as innocent as Naerose means you see things not for the possible nefarious intents. For instance, a uniform like that, probably not the outfit the male soldiers have to wear. So why just the women? Well, the presumption is probably something to do with how it looks and how the top brass likes how it looks, specifically on the women they put in it. Take for instance, the people who serve the lunches, typically larger people, some men, some women, not as fun to look at. Their uniform? One would assume pants. And a shirt. With long sleeves. An apron. You know, practical and covering. What would Cammy likely be put in if she had kitchen duty? A leotard with a stylish and too small to be useful apron, likely with lace. None of this occurs to Naerose at all.
"So.. that's a uniform..." she puzzles and looks at Cammy as if trying to determine just what it is a uniform for? "Do you work at a night club?" she asks. . . innocently.
The uniform the men wear actually looks nothing even remotely like it. It actually looks sort of like body armour, even. Clearly the women don't need to be nearly as bulletproof.
Maybe there is sense in this, the women have higher reflex scores. :p
Her face falls, though, regardless. She was called an air hostess before, but this is even worse than that! "No, I do not work in a nightclub." she says, coldly. "I'm a soldier as you ask.". She points to the beret. "See?".
It does even have a military looking capbadge on it after all. "And before you go on, it's really for martial artists. The military knows the value of martial arts as well as tanks after all.".
That actually makes sense, I mean, not in the real world, but in this world after all, spirit power, chi, all that jazz is more potent then soulless technology. So the witch actually nods a few times, "No that makes sense, " She states with a knowing smile, "I mean like if you totally know what you're doing then body armor is going to get in the way, unless you find a way to channel your energy through the armor, but then it really becomes an extension of yourself. " she explains then points to her broom, "Like that thing, it's like just an ordinary broom, I picked up a branch and thought, this would make a good broom. Not some mystical elder wood tree, and no crazy magic spells over it or soaking it in the tears of sheep, I mean, it's just a stick, then the bottom is just straw that I tied with a string. So I mean, a child could probably snap it in half if they tried, but when I hold it.." She lets a pause be all dramatic before whispering,
"I can totally like.. sweep the floor." She probably means literally, even though someone could presume she was being haughty and saying she could sweep the floor with people.
She laughs and says, "And it's all because of channeled spirit, without the spirit, well, it's just a branch. So.. I guess the uniform for I mean martial arts works fine."
Wow. Naerose understands! Cammy nods, much happier now! "Yes! Exactly. I was trying to tell my friend this but she didn't believe me. Our fighting style is all about speed and dodging, and also throws and holds and that sort of thing. You need to be able to twist around a lot, so the uniform is very good for that. It's hard to grab hold of too.".
Ibuki didn't understand.
"Oh. I see." she says, blinking at the broom. "You are a martial artist as well?" she wonders, peering at Naerose doubtfully, looking for signs of washboard abs or chicken drumstick legs. "Hmm.". Well, their absence means nothing, maybe she incinerates people with chi-fire.
"Me? No, I'm a witch." Naerose states plainly as if this was obvious. "See?" she says, gesturing to her broom, her hat and then her shades, which in her mind apparently fit together but to anyone else probably seems little more than random. "Anyway," She says looking at the outfit, "I mean like, I can see what you mean about.. " She pauses, "It's just, you could argue that wearing you know.. something that looks less like you're going to a swimming pool, which by the way sounds totally fun. " She gives a thumbs up. "If I designed a uniform it would look like this."
She hastily gets a red crayon from her hat and on the back of one of the coupon booklets begins to draw. The end result is a stick figure in a plain red dress, "Cause I think this looks totally neat." She states.
"Okay..." Cammy says, and edges away very slightly. And she seemed so nice, at first anyway. But she's seen too many psychotic hobos in this dump of a city already. Maybe Naerose is another one of them, just more snappily dressed.
But then, again, a quip! "A swimming pool?". Her face falls once more, and right after she had thought Naerose had understood why she wears her scanty getup, too. That said, it probably would make a pretty good swimsuit. "Well, special forces might have to swim rivers and things like that, you realise..." she says, a bit weakly now. "So I guess they thought of that too.". As for Naerose's version, she shrugs, and notes, "Well... you can wear whatever you want, so you don't have to worry.".
It had not escaped Cammy's attention that the red dress pretty much matches Naerose as it is to an extent. Cammy reaches out to borrow the crayon and add a witches hat. And shades. "You mean something like that?" she asks, innocent.
"That's totally neat!" Naerose exclaims looking at the finished piece, "I wouldn't of thought of adding such a neat hat, but don't you think it lends to mystery? I would totally join a group like that." She says, appearing oblivious to that they basically just drew her own outfit. Then placing her remaining booklets in a nearby box she decides to take a break from her extremely hard hard work. "But umm, are you on duty?" She asks, looking at Cammy quickly, "I mean, why are you in your uniform now?" She leans back against the wall and goes back to adjusting her shades, her favorite, I'm thinking, motion.
Cammy just shakes her head, somewhat exasperated, at the result of the picture. Somehow she knew Naerose would react that way. "I don't think there are many groups like that. Not in the army, anyway.". She lets out a tiny sigh. But she's a fairly patient sort, and Naerose hasn't pressed her on anything she doesn't like to talk about, so, whatever.
"I am on duty actually, sort of." Cammy tells Naerose. "My mission involves this city. It's completed now though I think; but I've not yet been shipped out, or given another mission. In fact I still have reports to write, my commander doesn't even know it's over right now. Well, maybe he does, he's got other sources than me.". A pause, and then adds, "But I'm on duty most of the time really, or at least on call, so I wear this a lot.".
"I bet if you were the commander the uniforms would be different. " She points to the booklet they were drawing on, "What would you make?" She asks, with her brows showing over top of the shades. She seems relaxed, really she's just passing time until she can dump the rest of the booklets someplace inconspicuous, or pocket them herself. After all, magic food booklets are good to bag. She list one leg to set her heel on the wall. Though she's clearly a hobo, at least a slightly cleaner one. A strange style. But she has a style. Perhaps she doesn't even prefer the hobo life style. Perhaps she prefers the freeloader. Wait perhaps? Of course she prefers freeloader.
Cammy hmms, and thinks about it for a moment. "Mmmm, I don't know, I'm not really very creative, like that... I kinda like it when other people do all that sort of thinking and just tell me what they want me to do.". She takes back the sheet of paper, and scrawls on it for a bit, anyway.
And the end result is rather like what she has on at the moment, though she's got much bigger boots on, knee length almost, and the leotard looks a lot thicker, and covers a lot more skin. As she's only got a red crayon, it's red, "...But not red, some sort of dark colour, black maybe, or dark blue." she says. All the better for sneaking around.
"Or failing that, something like Captain Guile might wear... if he was a girl. Camo pants, boots, and a sort of battle dress halter top thing maybe.".
"Guile sounds like a girls name," Naerose says while looking at the outfit. "Umm huh." she scratches her head under her hat and then states, "Well okay.. What about.. I dunno.. Like what surfers wear, it's the same sort of idea isn't it, just you know, more of it." She shrugs, seeming to lose interest in the uniform discussion before grinning, grinning big. "But if you know, blending in is the idea, then I don't know if color is going to help too much, that uniform kind of stands out." Though presently it might be harder to tell which one of the two of them is getting more looks.
Cammy frowns, Guile is one of her best friends! Maybe even her best friend period. "His first name is William, as you ask." she says, a little miffed. "Surfers? yeah, I guess. Some of my colleagues were clothes like that. My lieutenant, Lita, pretty much wears that.".
"Blending in? Maybe in a crowd you're right, but it's actually good for sneaking around dark alleys and that sort of thing.". She points to the camo paint on her legs.
"I guess," Naerose sounds unconvinced and then adds, "but then there are the colors of the ahh alleys?" This is really getting out of the red witches depth. She stretches her arms over her head and then lets out a biiiig yawn. "Man this is boring, have you ever handed out booklets before? You'd think it was easy because they're free but most people don't seem to want them." She looks at the booklets carefully as if there is something she is missing before asking the question on everyone's mind. Clearly the question that everyone is wondering, all along, the burning big question.
"What do they know that I don't know?" For a moment, could the witch become self aware? Like eve eating an apple?
"Orr, I bet it's something I know that they don't know!"
Nope, un-possible.
Cammy kinda assumed Naerose was not utterly clueless. So she just blinks, and looks around, before looking at the coupon books that she has, and shrugging. "I guess not many people here buy pizza that much." she muses. "Or have some already. There's only so many of these things you can use; most people don't buy takeaways every other day after all.".
Maybe Rufus does.
"And no, I've never handed out booklets before that I know of. I've been in the army for a long time. Years now." she says seriously. Which is kinda weird given she only looks like she's eighteen tops. But time is funny like that.
"Ah huh. Okay, well I've been a witch all my life." She exclaims and then laughs as if that is funny, but really it isn't. "My scooter is parked right over there," she gestures to a vespa which has been sort of time swapping between Shinobu and her, that or they're different scooters, though how Naerose could of managed to get her hands on a second scooter is beyond comprehension. "Do you want a ride somewhere?" She offers, pleasantly and starts stuffing booklets into her hat by the handful. You can fit a lot more in a witches hat than a berate apparently. "I've not really got anywhere I need to be like you know? I was thinking of going to this really killer bakery though that has all this bread they don't sell sometimes and they just throw it out, can you believe that?" She really sounds shocked that anyone would throw out perfectly good bread, even if it was hard as a rock.
"I guess I've been a soldier for most of it, I think you're not born a soldier though." Cammy smiles. "And no, I'm going home, but it's not far, and I don't mind walking.". Besides, that vespa looks like it'd be a bit cramped for two. And a bit fragile if Naerose proves to be a bad driver.
"Have fun at the bakery.". Naerose eating thrown out bread just confirms in Cammy's mind that she must be some sort of hobo, one of the MANY who can be found around Metro City.
But she's not nearly as offensive as the crazy one in the slums who yells abuse at his junk every morning. The one who Duke scared off. As far as hobos go Naerose is positively charming, in fact. So Cammy smiles and waves at the witch as she makes her exit.
Buy one and get 5 bucks off, thats a free cheesecake in Cammy's mind. She's not complaining about her new coupons, not at all.
Log created on 10:59:42 05/18/2012 by Cammy, and last modified on 14:47:04 05/18/2012.