Mallside VIII: OrksOrksOrks!

[Gullara]

Mystique Physique

A smile creeps up on Jim's face. A very evil smile. "Do I? Of course. Do my parents? Not by a long shot. I hate using the Emergency Credit Card, but I'm pretty sure that this counts as an emergency." he says.

[Mystique Physique]

Syela's eyebrows furrow is a brief moment of confusion. What was he getting at? Smart girl that she is, she comes up with the answer less than a moment alter. "Oh." Emergency credit card. The whole statement together is a concept she's only had a relatively brief time to familiarize herself with, but it's meaning is clear enough. "Good, I'll keep my hard earned money to myself then." An easy smile comes to her lips. Finally an easy answer, and one she doesn't have to trouble herself anymore to achieve.

[Rebonack]

[Clothing Store!]

To be fair, Geneva typically did everything in her power to avoid killing people. The fact that both she and her companion back in the Wasteland could fly allowed them to get out of some situations that would have been pretty nasty otherwise.

Buuuut...

When you're a Vault Dweller that just escaped from a doomed Vault out into the Wasteland it's almost as if the universe somehow conspires to turn you into some kind of hero. At least Geneva got booted into the Nexus by a malfunctioning teleportation array rather than a multitude of other awful fates. Because unlike the heroes that typically save the Wasteland, Geneva lacked a very important ability to help her in such a quest.

Quicksave.

It was probably fortunate that she got out.

"I know about those rules," Geneva retorts. "Humans don't have a tail to cover themselves up with, so everything would just flop around in front of them. Or at least that's what I'm assuming the problem is."

Silly, floppy humans.

"Umm... after the clothing issue has been taken care of, would you like to go do something? I think they have an indoor shooting range here at the mall."

Now wouldn't that be exciting?

[Deathkeeper]

Clothing Store

Nick scratches under his chin thoughtfully.
"I don't think a tail would be a help much. I mean, it'd have to be pretty thick to wrap around and actually cover a guy's- you know what, never mind. Yes, that sounds nice.
Oh, they gave me a new gun, Geneva!" says Nick excitedly, looking like a kid (cub?) talking about a new game system.
"She's a heavy Gauss anti-materiel rifle and she's got so much tech I'm not even allowed to bring her out in public! So I only brought my pistol. It's nice, too." he says, with decidedly less enthusiasm.

Mystique Physique

Jim smiles. "Of course, Syela. You wouldn't think that I'd possibly make you pay for my stupid little incident, would you?" he asks her with a smile.

[5a Violista]

[Clothing Store!

After much help from the sales associates, Kuriko successfully picks out all the clothes she needed -and, most importantly, of the right size.

She proceeds to checkout, so everything can be put in little bags.

In the meanwhile, she waves frantically at Geneva and shouts all across the store, “Hey! I got everything now!

[Rebonack]

[Clothes Store!]

"That's just because humans are bipeds, you big doof!" Geneva giggles. Silly floppy human bipeds. If they just went on all fours, had a tail, and a coat of fur like all the sane mammals things would be a whole lot simpler and Geneva wouldn't have to enter into mortal combat with furniture built for humans every time she wanted to go somewhere.

"That sounds really neat! I designed the rifle I built to be able to alter the muzzle velocity by altering the strength of the magnetic fields it produces to accelerate the round. Obviously super high velocity isn't as useful against lightly armored things. Saves on power, too."

Sometimes a lower velocity round is going to do more damage since it doesn't just punch clean through the target. Also helps with different ammo types. Because what's a custom Fallout weapon without neat custom ammo for it?

"What sort of pistol is it? The make of weapons here in the Nexus is pretty different from the ones back home," Geneva comments, glancing down at the side arm.

...and maybe also checking Nick out whilst looking at said side arm.

[Deathkeeper]

Clothing Store

Oh no, she got him started on guns.
"Well, this is a standard EvP-1 blaster pistol, taking a set of power cells which can fire 12 times in succession before needing to be swapped out. Not as strong as the Union's pulse tech but easier to produce and therefore more standard issue. Generally the pistols are all made of the same frame and materials, unlike the rifles which are more customization. The power cells will actually recharge if you leave them out long enough, which I've never quite understood. Apparently they can also be modified to use magical energies instead, and I've long considered seeing if I could get my hands on one and see if I could charge it with my griffin magic in a pinch..." he says, immediately going into a tangent as he carefully slides the pistol from its holster.
No finger shall get anywhere near its trigger, and its safety is locked into place in such a public area. Nick is not dumb, he just likes guns.

[happyturtle]

[Haemonomics]

"Yes, I have had a lemon," Harley interrupts, "I actually like them. Although, now that I think about it, I actually like the idea of a lemon more than the lemon itself."

There, that's a good way to take control of the conversation. She tells Rilayne, "So, species type first? I'm an Evil Shapeshifter, and no that's not an adjective, it's part of the name. Blood type is B+. Also, last time I was in the hospital," (which was in GLoG, obviously), "I was told my blood is very aligned with negative energy and is also full of chaotic energy." It's true, too. "In case that's important."

Rilayne says, "Oooh, Evil shapeshifter. That's wonderful! I haven't had any evil shapeshifter blood before. Shame about the chaotic energy. That gives it a fizzy taste that burns my tongue. But some vampires like that. And B+, that will be popular. Not as popular as AB+, but still a good type to have. Do you know what the most popular blood type is? O- human. Can you believe it? I find it so bland. But apparently it works well in recipes. O+ is more common, so less expensive, but the customers who are planning to make blood jelly donuts always want to pay extra for the O-..." While she continues to prattle on, a pale-skinned human woman in nursing scrubs comes in.

"I'm Heidi. I can take care of you from here." she says to Harley. She'll push past a curtain to a completely modern and sterile medical facility, with reclining chairs for the donors.

It's just as well. I certainly wouldn't trust Rilayne near me with a large gauge needle!

[Rebonack]

[Clothing Store!]

Everyone has things that they're enthusiastic about. For Geneva it's magic and weather engineering. Get her on that subject and she'll ramble forever if you don't stop her. And for Nick? It appears to be fire-arms. Fire-arms may not be her favorite subject (they do kill people, after all) but the technology behind them is still interesting.

The dracohippodicegriff listens intently.

And good trigger discipline is certainly a plus!

Also? Nick just brought up something that catches Geneva's attention.

"There are lots of different forces, physical and otherwise, in the Nexus that are called magic. I'm sure that's just an artifact of the Nexus' translation properties... But anyway! You might be able to charge the power packs with lightning magic, assuming you can get lightning magic to work. Historically the more esoteric forms of weather magic have been difficult for griffins to use. Even then, you would want to be really careful since you might overload the power reserve and make it explode."

Exploding power packs is never fun.

"It would probably be safest just to let them charge in their normal capacity," Geneva concludes. She glances over at Kuriko, who is apparently hunting for shoes. Hopefully she got a sales clerk to help her with that. "Hey Kuriko? How are you doing?"

[5a Violista]

[Clothing Store]

[Clothing Store!]

After much help from the sales associates, Kuriko successfully picks out all the clothes she needed -and, most importantly, of the right size.

She proceeds to checkout, so everything can be put in little bags.

In the meanwhile, she waves frantically at Geneva and shouts all across the store, “Hey! I got everything now!

Actually, Kuriko is already in the line with everything. In fact, she just paid for it all, too. Right now, she‘s in the process of putting everything in little bags.

“Hey! I‘m all done now, I got everything. Look! I got six pairs of shoes. I think these ones are really cute, I really like how soft they are. And look at these ones! ...“ She continues prattling on about the shoes she got for a while, and she even shows the belt she has. “What do you think of them? Do you like them? Oh! How did it go with him?“


[Haemonomics]

You know, that actually makes me wonder what vampires think of the really rare blood types, like Diego-a type or Bombay type (which is so rare that if a blood bank receives it, they don‘t throw it out even if it expires).

Anyway, the chaotic energy is actually a defining trait of this race that I made up for her. “Thanks, Heidi.“ Harley goes back to the reclining chair and sits on it.

(Also, sad news. I have to wait 9 or so months before the next time I can donate blood.)

[Deathkeeper]

Clothing Store

Nick reholsters the laspistol and lets Geneva work things out with her friend.
She used to be A what?

[Rebonack]

[Clothing Store!]

A goomba!

She used to be a goomba.

It didn't make much sense to Geneva, either. But lots of things in the Nexus don't make much sense to Geneva.

"They all look really nice, Kuriko. I'm glad you got what you needed," Geneva replies with a friendly smile. Clothing really isn't the sort of thing that she gets really enthusiastic about. Mostly because she still finds clothing kind of odd. Or at least clothing beyond a few functional things. "And my talk with Nick went well. Nick? This is Kuriko. Kuriko? This is Nick."

Now they're all introduced!

"I was thinking it might be fun to visit Ranger Rick's Range with Nick, though that might be a little noisy and unpleasant for you if you decided to come along," Geneva says. It's an open offer, but the has-been goomba is free to decline.

[Morty]

The woman nods.
Hello. I was hoping that someone here would be able to point me to a possible alchemy teacher.
Her voice has a slight german accent, with an air of dominance and command carried in it.

"My Creator Is An Accomplished Alchemist," the golem rumbles. "I Do Not Know If She Is Willing To Teach Another Student. But I Can Take Her Here So You Can Ask."

[happyturtle]

[Haemonomics]

You know, that actually makes me wonder what vampires think of the really rare blood types, like Diego-a type or Bombay type (which is so rare that if a blood bank receives it, they don‘t throw it out even if it expires).

Anyway, the chaotic energy is actually a defining trait of this race that I made up for her. “Thanks, Heidi.“ Harley goes back to the reclining chair and sits on it.

(Also, sad news. I have to wait 9 or so months before the next time I can donate blood.)

(I used to donate regularly, but then I got sick, and now I'm barred for life.

Oh weird, I just realized I'm wearing my Virginia Blood Bank t-shirt! I didn't even think when I grabbed it from the wardrobe!)

The blood donation goes pretty much like it does IRL, with a few changes. Since they cater to so many species, they run tests to work out how much blood they can safely take. And a sample gets taken to Rilayne to taste test to make sure it's properly priced and categorized. There's a television running The Vampire Food Channel, which is mostly a lot of fancy ways to serve blood. Then there's the cotton ball and bandaid over the injection site, and some juice and cookies. Yay cookies!

[UncleWolf]

Butts, Boobs, & Beyond- The Bikini Store

When they finally get to the Mall, Veronica and Jace end up here with her frowning at it, a wing on her hip and the other holding her purse over her shoulder. "What do you think? The first is covered by my tail and the second is non-existent, so I suppose I'm in the Beyond section."

[Deathkeeper]

B-Cubed

Jace looks from the sign to Veronica, back to the sign, back to Veronica.
"You are a complete monster and your evil knows no bounds." he says flatly.

[UncleWolf]

B,B & B

"Just wait until I hit the underwear store called A-Z Strings." Veronica says with a grin before walking in, giving a little wiggle as she does so.

Jace'll have to give her some credit though. When she begins browsing she doesn't seem to like the overly indecent ones. She frowns at the selection and her shoulders slump a bit. "Blech. See anything in particular?"

[Deathkeeper]

B^3

Jace rolls his eyes a bit. "Well, I think that I'm a bad person to ask right now since everything I see is tinted a little bit blue." he says. "and besides, I'm morally obligated to tell you that you'd look good in anything you tried anyway."

[5a Violista]

[Clothing Store!]

"Hi, Nick," Kuriko says when they're getting introduced. She holds out a hand to shake.

"I..." she starts, before she thinks about it. Maybe this is a thing that Geneva came up with to do something alone with Nick. If that's the case, then she probably is only inviting to be polite and doesn't want her to say 'yes'. Which means, "No, sorry, I can't. I have...stuff to do. Yes. I need to go already to go take care of my niece. She's really cute, you should meet her some other day." Kuriko nods.

She gets everything in the bags. "Have fun at the ranging gallery," she says as she tries to push them away. Geneva and Nick need to get alone again so they can talk and range at each other.


[Haemonomics]

(I try to donate regularly, but more often then not they turn me down for reasons.)

That was very smooth and well-done. Nobody poked into the wrong veins or anything, which is good. After it's all over, Harley hangs out with the juice and cookies (although, honestly, she prefers the juice to the cookies. It tastes better and juice is awesome).

dot dot dot

[Deathkeeper]

Clothing Store

Hopefully she's only pushing them metaphorically, because Griffin!Nick is heavier than she is, and Geneva is bigger than him. It's unlikely she'll push them anywhere.
Still, she successfully shakes his claw, at least. He's even figured out how to do that without accidentally slashing the other person's hands open. That's always a good thing, right?
"Wait, what do you mean 'went well?' Were you expecting me to react badly or something?"

[Rebonack]

[Clothing Store]

Shoving Geneva doesn't really move her very far. Though she does take a few steps forward and give Kuriko an odd look.

"Eerr... yeah... I was sort of worried that you would be too weirded about about... well..." Geneva waves a wing at her horns. Thankfully she manages to avoid knocking anything over this time.

She still isn't totally use to her new wingspan.

Mostly because she didn't acquire it more than half an hour ago.

"But you weren't! I'm really happy that you weren't. It would be awful if my friends felt awkward around me because of all this nonsense."

And there's a lot of nonsense, that's for sure.

"So how are you enjoying the whole being a griffin thing? Have you practiced flying on your own?"

[Deathkeeper]

Outside the Clothing Store

"Oh, yeah. I got all the way here from base without touching the ground or needing this helmet." he says, unconsciously puffing his chest out in pride. He straightens his helmet for a moment, the straps wiggling from the movement. "And I've mostly figured out how hovering works. Mostly."

[Rebonack]

[Concourse]

"Great!" Geneva beams back, honestly glad to hear the news. With any luck, Nick might decide that he likes his griffin body more than his human body. Geneva certainly likes his griffin body more, that goes without saying. "Hovering can be one of the hardest things to learn in terms of basic flight magic. But once you have it down it'll come naturally like any other muscle memory. If you like, I can try showing you a few flight magic combat tricks some time. Iron Wing was invented by the griffins, as far as I know. The pegasi just ended up adopting it. Knowing how to turn your wings into a steel-hard cutting edge for a few moments at a time can mean the difference between life and death if something nasty manages to get close."

Ponies with solid flight magic can harden their wings to the point that it's possible to sheer through dragon bone with enough speed.

Griffins can typically forge their feathers into an even sharper edge.

The magic from Geneva's world is pretty serious business!

"But for now, how about that shooting range?" Geneva says. "I'll let you give my rifle a try, if you like. It has a fair bit of kick, which really makes anything beyond burst fire really inaccurate. But it managed to keep me alive out in the Wasteland."

[5a Violista]

[=> to leave the Clothing Store!]

Kuriko watches them go off. It's really unfortunate that pushing didn't work, 'cause...well, no reason. If they were a lot lighter and smaller, she would've successfully pushed them away.

Anyway, with her arms full of bags once again, she finds her way out of the mall, back through everywhere. Today was a much better day than the other ones.

Actually, that's the one good thing about arms. You can carry lots of bags with them. Without arms, you can only carry one or two at a time.

[Deathkeeper]

Concourse

Turning soldiers into things with an ever-expanding list of things that make them deadly. It's like it's Christmas every week!
"That sounds fine. You could try my pistol, but I think you said at the Fox you're not too keen on energy weapons..." he says to her.

[Rebonack]

[Concourse]

It's a very specific list of things that make them deadly! Talons, beak, and magically reinforced wings. It would be pretty surprising if Nick could use anything beyond basic weather magic. Advanced weather magic is where things get really scary.

Geneva gives a slight nod at Nick's comment. "It's m-mostly just the smell when they dust someone... I had a pretty bad experience with that."

Like her whole Stable getting murdered by the Enclave.

It was really pretty awful all around.

"Do the weapons used by... umm... the people you work for? Do their energy weapons do that? Turn people to ash, I mean..."

The screams. The smell. Those horrible faceless suits like robotic insects. An image burned into her mind, her brother glowed bright as the sun, beak agape in pain, and then he was gone.

[Deathkeeper]

Concourse

Nick blinks. Aw, crap. "No, I'm pretty sure they just leave burns unless it can pass totally through someone hey how about we leave right now we can talk about guns and stuff when we get there okay where is this place anyway let's grab something to eat afterwards okay? he says, giving her a little push (this requires close proximity) in a desperate attempt to distract that memory of hers.

[Rebonack]

[Concourse]

They all died.

And she ran away.

They died and she did nothing.

The despondent funk, however, flees whens he feels Nick's weight against her. That results in a bit of sputtering and a few missed steps, but more important it gets her mind elsewhere.

"O-oh, that sounds nice. They have an all you can eat place here at the mall," Geneva replies. "I haven't been kicked out of there, yet, so we could go there."

She begins trotting a little faster toward Ranger Rick's.

"You'll find that you have to eat a lot to sustain magical metabolism," Geneva points out. "And normal restaurants serve tiny portions for tiny people. So the best bet is to go into an all you can eat place and take the name seriously."

[Deathkeeper]

Concourse

Wrong! She bravely ran away. *nod!*
"Well to be honest I'm not that much bigger than a normal person. You're the one who'd tower over anyone if they weren't bipedal. Still, point taken." he says, easily keeping up.

[Lost_Deep]

Mall Office

Kate walks to the mall office. In one hand, she has a folder. Inside this folder is her resume. She'll do... whatever is customary. Presumably there is a front desk to talk to?

[5a Violista]

Mask Parade

(Some time after the blood donation scene is over...)

Harley enters the Mask shop. She‘s excited; she loves masks. They help hide her face which is, in her opinion, better left hidden.

Maybe a rose mask, in honor of Stu. As much as she would like to buy all the masks here to replace her lost collection which she left in AMEN, she simply doesn‘t have enough money for it. In fact, she can probably only buy one - an average one not a good one - so she has to carefully decide on only one.