ss_noanga | Mall Trip [OTA]

Mall Trip [OTA]

Who: Anyone who wants to go shopping, whether with Day or on their own
What: Visiting current space mall
When: Day 65 (?)
Where: Space mall, standard american style. Don’t think too much about how perfect it is.

1, Do you want to…? (closed to Donnie)

He has remembered Donnies offer to… well. Do stuff together. Find him some hobbies. And honestly he needs some, everyone keeps saying so. It’s not even that he disagrees, it’s just… not been a priority nor easy to focus on when he had no clue where to start. Given how bad the past week went though, he could really use the distraction.

So now he was at Donnies room, knocking and waiting for the other to open. “Hey. We’ve stopped at another one of those malls. Do you… still want to go and get books?” That was the only thing he could think of and did genuinely miss. The gas station had been full of books and Jack happy to give recommendations. It’d be a start.

2, Mulling choices (OTA)

Later, Day will wander around the mall on his own, see about doing some shopping on his own. You might spot him testing mp3-players in the tech store, trying to find the one closest to what he had at home. “Do you know if these come with music on them?” The one Jerry gave him did, but he doesn’t know if that’s the standard.

Or you see him staring into a stores window, displaying multiple dresses. One is a soft pastel blue, wide flowing skirt, with silver beaded embroidery on the bodice and chiffon sleeves. It’s beautiful. It’s entirely impractical. It reminds him of home.
And he knows his sewing skills aren’t good enough to adjust this around his wings, so he isn’t even looking at the price or daring to step into the store for alternatives. But… he will be here for some minutes.

3, Take a break (OTA)

Eventually it’s all a bit much. Too many strange people, too many choices, too much noise. Normally he could handle such things easily or at least good enough that no one would notice. But he wasn’t in the best mental state overall, so here he was, sitting at a table in the food court, resting his head in his hands. Focus on breathing, on not having another bad reaction.
He could use some food, especially food that doesn’t come from a replicator, but right now even that choice seems overwhelming.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With his brother now aboard, Donnie's been more oriented towards helping with Leo's room furnishings while trying to learn what all this version of him needs. His own room remains woefully spartan, but that will hardly stop him from getting books.

"Yeah?" He perks at the news. There's quite a list of things he needs to look for, and he's all too eager to start doing so. There might not be a place that has medicines at a mall, but he can still look. If not, it's time for some alchemic experimentation.

"Cool, yeah, let's do it. Ah... I need to tell Leo. I said I'd bring him next time we came across one."

Yeah, he notices that bare room, will remember it for another time. It’s a state he knows rather well from his earlier time at the gas station. Took him months to acquire things that weren’t just necessities and now he is… somewhat back to it.

“Sure thing. How’s he settling in?” Day was glad Donnie had another close person here, though there was a short pang of sadness at it too. He’d never stop missing his own brothers.

"Oh, he's taking it a lot better than I have, but then this is his first time outside of our world so I can hardly blame him. I was like that when I first found out I was finally in space," Donnie says, and he can't help but smile fondly as he remembers hearing Leo's ecstatic reaction. At least someone had been excited to be here, and he'd hated to give him the rundown that might potentially spoil it. Thankfully it hasn't, and maybe that's made it a little easier to stomach the situation. They'd...work on it.

That gets Day smiling too. "Yeah. I was the same when I first went into the forest." Just... happy and bewildered at every little detail, unwilling to hear of the dangers in it. "I might've told him you need reminders to eat. Sorry about that."

It helps that Leo hadn't come with all the baggage that Donnie had, especially when it came to the fae.

The purple one makes a face but ultimately shrugs. "Eh, nothing new there," he says. Skipping meals because he's too caught up in things is hardly anything new for any Donnie, it seems.

"Aen'kaes not much better. He'd live off those ration bars if necessary." While to Day it's important to have full meals, at regular times, just so he remembers there's no starvation waiting. "Text him, perhaps? There's more than one shuttle, we can meet up down there." Would give Leo the chance to get there at his own pace.

For a moment it looks like he'd hesitate, because the very idea of going anywhere far without his newly arrived brother is almost unthinkable. But he knows the last thing Leo would want is to be babied. Day's right, it's not like they can't catch separate rides.

"Yeah, okay," Donnie says, nodding as he fiddles with the bangle, still seeming a little reluctant about it. Oh come on Donnie, it's just the mall, it'll be fine, no one knows you or Leo here...

He can relate to that, really. If there were any hope of his brothers surviving, he'd not have let them out of his sight again.

But the hesitation has him flick the tip of his wing against Donnies side. "C'mon. It took me half an hour just to ask and if I go alone I'll only bring back practical things." Day could admit to that much.

That makes him scowl briefly before the words sink in. "What, really? Guess we probably would've all ended up over there eventually either way..."

Donnie taps up as quick a message as he can manage on the clunky display, still lamenting over the fact that he can't interface with it through his Gauntlets. What a pain.

"Okay, done."

"But not for fun things. And I could use the distraction, I... I miss home." It's also the only activity that gets them off this ship, if only for a short while. The worse he feels the more his anxiety likes to remind him that they are in a giant broken ship that they have no control over, surrounded by deadly nothingness. And so, so far from any real nature and stable ground. "I'm starting to understand Bartimaeus complaints about being surrounded by too much of the wrong element..."

If Donnie got all the things he needs, they can head over to the mall. Bigger one this time, not rundown and filled with shops that seem more familiar.

Wisely, Donnie chooses to say nothing. Because distracting himself from the things he misses is what he's been doing for years now, and that's kind of depressing to think about.

He goes to grab his bag, tucking his tablet into it and collecting Illex, who morphs into a matching bracer around his right arm. Tugging his sleeve over the mimic, Donnie lastly slips his Space Chucks on before heading back to the door.

"All right, let's get going."

So has Day, it just hurts as much the second time around. Or third. Especially since he can't see any of them, has no pictures to remember them by, only small trinkets to hold on.

Illex gets a small smile, the kid always a bit more at ease around animals than people. He got all he needs - weather is agreeable, so no coat needed and he can just about wear a backpack over the wings if he extends the straps all the way. Not all that comfortable though. "Will have to check for some more clothes too. That weather is bound to turn again."

One of the first things Donnie did care to put up were several digital picture frames by his bed, loaded with some of the many images from his phone. Not something easily seen from the doorway though.

"Ugh, don't remind me. Weather should not even be a concern on a ship, just whether the climate control's on too cool or something!" he sighs. "Otherwise extra clothes is a good idea in general. If it's a thing then I'm not about to wait for every time new victims get dropped aboard and we get issued something even more hideous to wear."

Thankfully he can recycle those and has had plenty of practice, but still!

"Gods yes, I had to cut myself out of that batch. They gave me those wings, you'd think they could at least adjust for them." With the shirt he's wearing now he simply cut a slit in the back, hemmed the seam and added a button to fasten it around the wings. Not the most elegant solution, but it works and it's as far as his sewing skills go.

"Did you ever got around to the skateboards?" he asks, while the shuttle takes them off-ship.

Donnie actually winces then. "Crap, I knew I forgot something," he admits. "Well, with luck we can find some if not just something to make them out of." Maybe some gear too.

"It's fine. Not like we need them." Well, it's been pointed out that he needs hobbies and that would be one. But he lived all his life without them, so how bad could it really be?

"Well clearly we still need some form of entertainment." Donnie shakes his head. "If it's a bust, I have a room full of glitter I can pull stuff from so either way, we'll have those skateboards."

"I'll trust you on that." he replies with a small smile. "Do I want to know how you got a room full of glitter? I wasn't careful once and and it took me hours to wash that stuff out of the feathers."

"Previously it was out in the hall so I figured it'd be better if it were somewhere more contained. And before that.... I have no idea, I think the person I enlisted in assistance to gather some took the task too seriously, in any case."

Donnie shudders just thinking about how long it had taken to get glitter off of things.

"That stuff is the worst."

"If this continues we'll end up with rooms full of random things." But look, they've arrived! And the sheer size of it has Day hesitate. "Oh, that's so much bigger than I thought..."

"Please don't give them any more ideas."

Donnie can still appreciate a good space mall, so he doesn't need to feign amazement once it comes into view.

"Oh, this is loads better than the last one! It's like going from one extreme to the other!"

"Never been in a shop so big. Where do you even start?" To him it's overwhelming. And he might be a little afraid of well, strangers. People that could hurt him.

It's weird how much of a difference having some company is. Donnie would have been a lot more apprehensive about going alone, but he (and Illex) know to be more alert about going places now. And if there's any bounty hunters with mimic companions, Donnie hopes Illex will let him know this time!

"There should be a directory. We can start by looking for a bookstore, and see if anything else grabs our attention while we peruse the map. I should make sure we know where we came in on so we can meet Leo once he gets here though..."

And send his brother a message to give him a head's up about how huge this place is. It's a shame this Leo doesn't have a tracker on him but he supposes his older self had only decided upon doing that later on. Well, maybe he can track Shelldon...

Company sure makes a difference. If he were alone, he'd push all this down and just focus on getting the necessities as quick as possible before leaving. But with someone he trusts around he can allow to... be more himself. The one that is a bit insecure about normal life.

"Alright. I'll remember the path, don't worry about that." That at least is something he is good at.

"We can see what entrance we came in closest to once we find the directory. Ah! I think that looks like one."

Donnie starts on towards a giant tri-sided display. "Sweet, touchscreen too," he says, tapping at the overall map view.

"Okay, so we're here. Where are the....listings, here we go." Another tap pulls up the shops grouped by types. "So hitting this should show us all the bookstore locations- and voilà!"

He'd never have pinged that display as a map, let alone tried to touch it. Republic had similar giant screens, but they were for announcements, showing news, wanted ads, quarantined sectors... nothing nice or useful.

"Let's try the nearest one then." The route he can quickly figure out, guide them there. Easier to focus when it's just one store, not the whole mall.

The only ads flashing on the other screen appear to be for the stores and restaurants within the mall.

"Sounds good to me," Donnie says, nodding even as he brings up his computer. "I'm going to see if I can download a copy- oh, they have some plant shops!"

His smile seems to freeze for a moment as he recalls his last experience in one, but he shakes his head, resuming his hacking. "Should be fine," he mutters to himself, but he feels Illex rumble comfortingly, so he pauses in his key-tapping to set his hand over his right sleeve.

"-there's one a floor below the bookstore, but it's probably better we hit as many things on the same floor first."

"No worries, I got it memorized." That short bit of looking at the plan had been enough to do so - at least to him. Which isn't really matching up with Republic failing him out of school, but Donnie knows how hard of a topic that is.

"One at a time. We can always split up later." But first books, real ones.

"Yeah, well if we end up splitting up, I'd rather have a map on hand since we don't all have photographic memory," Donnie says dryly, finally finding the file and wasting no further time in grabbing it once he's run it through his virus checks.

"All right, let's get going."

"That's what you call it?" Not like anyone ever told him. Took him long enough to figure out that other children just couldn't do that or at least not with the same ease.

The bookstore has him relax a bit - not that he ever was in one, but it looks like home. Stacks of books of all genres everywhere. "What sort of books are you looking for?"

"Yeah, unless it's more some superhuman trait you haven't mentioned," Donnie shrugs.

Oh but it feels good to be walking around somewhere with people around instead of on a sad, abandoned ship. He hasn't even wondered whether he should disguise himself or not, not that he ever really cared to in the other universe. After all, he wasn't a giant robot that seemed to be on everyone's blacklistings. At worst, they always pegged him as a baby Turtlekin, which while annoying, at least didn't get him as much attention as it would have if he walked around without a hoodie back home.

"Now this is more like it!" he says, eyes practically lighting up as he eagerly steps further into the store.

"Anything interesting, really. Books that might pertain to the local universe would be useful. I suppose sci-fi would just be considered 'fiction' given the circumstances."

"Not to my knowledge, I always could do this." Before getting magic for sure. Though the magic-brought changes now mean he doesn't need a disguise, antlers, wings and the green tattoos enough to convince anyone.

"I'd still like to have some about crafting, to use that yarn. Perhaps some about gardening." He might need to be pushed a bit to look for anything fun, though he glances over at the childrens section.

"Ooh, maybe there's a comic section! I doubt bookstores will be on the top of Leo's list so maybe I'll just preemptively keep an eye out for any interesting looking graphic novels," Donnie says, already drifting towards one of the sections.

History isn't much fun but if he can find something that goes over the current political climates, that might be good to know. He wonders if there's anything decent on the fae, knowing how well his search had gone for such before. Most of it was general knowledge, but he doubts the fae want anyone knowing too much about them.

Well, he'll try the nonfiction first. That is safe and learning to knit would at least give him something to do on the ship. "Don't think we had many comics around at the gas station. Jack preferred real books." And Day is just embarrassed to admit that what he likes to read is mostly likely to be in the section for children 12 and under.

"Well I can't exactly say that real books aren't great- I love books. Still upset that the library on the ship is trash."

Donnie pauses in front of one of the shelves, running a finger along the spines as he reads the titles for anything that might strike him as interesting.

"Oh, me too. There's not enough things to do for such big a ship." Even if one were to voluntarily live there. And he just doesn't want to fix things beyond what they themselves need, just on principle.

Day is a bit quicker to scan the shelves, having no issues reading text sidewards and quickly spots some generic crafting book that looks promising as well as one for starting a food garden. Just what they need.

He can read the text just fine, but he knows you can't tell everything from just the titles. After pulling a few out to read the backs and skim a few pages, he returns all but one before continuing his perusal.

"We may as well determine how much of the ship is functional and where the most necessary places we need access are, and then just shut off the parts that won't be used so we can save power. I highly doubt it's infinite."

"Aen'kae seems to think so. Or at least that it runs on some generator breaking physics, like the one in his home do." And magic wasn't something he really thought of as being 'finite'. "Or maybe it's just like the gas station. It's not like anyone ever needed to refill the gas. Or order the deliveries." Things just appeared at their doorstep and they had to deal with them.

The non-fiction at least got more descriptive titles, but he is having a lot more trouble in the Young Adult section. He wants to try, but all the books meant for his age sound terrible.

Donnie doesn't spend too much time in the historical section, satisfied with two books before he's moved on. He glances at Day when he passes the YA section, vanishing down an aisle of graphic novels.

"It'd be a waste of infinite energy when most of the ship is ruined. I'd rather not take my chances."

"Don't take on too much. There's no need for you to take responsibility for the whole ship." Especially not if the fae couldn't even manage to put their needs into words.

Nothing here really looks appealing to him - it's all full of conflicts or love stories, too many lost families, too many trials to pass. All the wrong themes. Day will look that Donnie is well down that other aisle and then try and quietly sneak over to the childrens section.

"Scoff! That is exactly why I think we should cut down access on the ship. It'd also prevent any accidents if people start wandering too far into deteriorated territory."

Donnie's too caught up in looking at the comics. He's already pulled a few promising looking ones. These seem far easier to decide on than the other books, anyway.

Good. He still tries to be quick, to find the books he had at home - Moomins and Howls Moving Castle and other such simple ones. Ones where nothing bad happens, as he once put it.

He'll still be terrible embarrassed if Donnie sees him here.

It'd probably be a bad idea to get too many right off the back. Books aren't light when they start to multiply, after all, and they've only hit one store!

"Okay, I think I'm going to call it for this one," Donnie says, gathering the ones he's decided upon as he starts looking down the other aisles for where he'd last heard Day.

He'd rather have only a bunch of books than make decisions on unknown fun things, but well, that is why he asked for company. Though he is quick to hide his handful of kid books behind the others, pretend to only be passing through this aisle.

"I'm good too." The way he is blushing and avoiding direct eye contact says otherwise.

Donnie arches a brow at him, but he's not sure what the blushing is for. Unless Day stumbled across something embarrassing. Or the adult section.

"Okay, cool. Let's go pay for these and continue our mall tour."

He sure isn't going to offer that information, is glad to not have to explain his choices. And it's easy enough to go to a second check-out while Donnie pays for his, pack them away right after.

"Aight, where else do you want to go?"

Zero Two has managed to disguise itself with cat ears, a hat and a tail. The tiny thing with the blue flower riding on its shoulder may or may not be helping. It recognizes Day from the ship and pauses near him.

"Are you in need of assistance?"

He startles at being spoken to, quick to right himself up. "Not too badly. Just... a bit overwhelmed." There's a lot of choices here, they only have a day, they'll likely never return to this specific one - little things accumulating.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mall Trip [OTA]

1

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

3

no subject