Difference between revisions of "2023-10-22 - New Chapter, New Shoes"

New Market Mall

The New Market Mall immediately fulfills numerous checks on the list of what you expect from a mall. There is a distinct smell; a mixture of multiple perfumes, shiny retail items, and a miasma of various fast food scents. There are waxed floors, wide long walkways, and a neutral color scheme of beiges, whites, and faintly sickly greens.

The ceiling itself provides a large portion of light, wide panes of glass making up the majority of its structure. Set back about 20 feet from the main entrance sits a charming fountain, with raised marble and stone walls. The interior jets cycle through a few different colors and designs, and the water inside shows multiple coins representing flicked wishes.

There are potted plants and sofas placed strategically throughout the hallways, providing spots to rest on your spree. There's weaponry, clothing, a taxidermy store, candle shops, a pharmacy, photographer, a florist, a dollar store... more or less anything you can imagine your heart might desire!

Ranma has, at long last, found her way to the mall. It has involved much more effort than she expected it to take. She's new in town, but kind of used to the weirdness of NT. But this place is a different sort of weird, and she's out of sorts. She's wearing a uniform, but nothing local, though if someone would recognize NTPD's Tank Police, that's her. She obviously needs other stuff to wear, having arrived as she is. She's looking around cluelessly at the moment, hoping to find a directory of stores maybe.

Commercial center, indeed. The place is as busy as one would expect a shopping mall to be no matter the strange nature of the city or the Twisted place it sits within. That's not to say that everything one finds to buy in the mall is 'normal', but there's a certain familiarity with the varied contents that somebody with experience in a Nexus like Neo Tokyo would find comfortingly familiar. Conversations overlap, people wander, browse, and mingle, and the scents of bathroom tat mixes with the matching odor coming from the sounds of cooking fast food.

A few stalls are set up marketing spooky products and decorations. Plush pumpkins hand from elastic strings while a weighted rotor inside makes them bobble around with the sound of cartoonish manic laughter. A motorized skeleton seems to wave in slow motion. A hyper-advanced robotic telecube extrapolates logistical data from horrific scenarios to display off-the-cuff scary stories on a buzzing display screen. Also, there are carved turnips. Maybe even real ones.

A stuffed scarecrow sitting in a rocking chair seems to be calling out to those who pass by and the voice seems to be modulated by the obvious electronics hidden within. "Hey, hey you -- BOO! Ha ha ha ha ha ha," says the decoration as some curious kids wander by. When Ranma happens by, the scarecrow calls out again.

"Long way from home, officer," it remarks while it's burlap-styled jack-o-lantern face grins ominously. "Must be tired walking all this way from your precinct next town over."

Ranma is okay with pretty much any level of weirdness as long as no cats are involved, and Halloween season does bring out the weird in people, but she's making do. Most of what gets her alarm are fake cats, either cutouts or animatronic, as cats go with witches, and witches are in season. As are scarecrows. The one sitting in a rocking chair seems to know her, though, or at least recognize her uniform, so she pauses, looks at it critically, but replies, "I'm on permanent vacation, as it happens." With NT defunct, she's pretty much stuck here, and she's doing the best she can. As far as walking over, she says, "It -was- a bit of a hike, it's true, but I'm pretty tough." After swimming from Japan to China, a hike from NT to here is just a hop, a skip, and a jump. It only took her five years of wandering.

"You ran outta gas, didn't you? Ha ha ha ha. You can come sit on Uncle Scary's lap," says the voice from the voicebox somewhere inside the otherwise completely inanimate decoration. "Can't promise to keep you hidden from those former TASK agents making up a lot of the Mabase City PD, but it would make a good photo. Buy a copy, too. Real cheap. Extra spooky."

A little girl goes running by with a conical silk black hat on saying, "I'm a witch, I'm a witch, I'm a witch!" Nobody seems to be paying much mind to the conversation had with the scarecrow, though. It's all just background noise to the commercial atmosphere.

Ranma shakes her head about gas. "As a matter of fact, I did walk here." Because Rio didn't like letting her drive the tanks on the open road. She was only qualified as a loader, so far. Tenshin Amiguriken made for insane reloading speeds in the old WW2-era tanks used in high school tankery, but didn't much matter in modern tanks with autoloaders. That made her kind of useless, but Rio had had a soft spot for her, and let her hang out and try to qualify on the NTSDF tanks.

Ranma peers at the girl in the witch costume zooming by, then back to the scarecrow. "I think I'll skip the lap, though," she says dryly. "I'm just here to get some stuff and settle in to my apartment here. Maybe the local PD can give me a job?" As long as they don't require anything like qualifications.

"Depends on what kind of stuff you're looking for -- Er, ahem, I mean if you want protection or ordnance you don't have to go through the local law enforcement. You know what, don't talk to me about that. It's time for my break anyway. Talk to the guy behind you." There's an audible click as the internal voice box is turned off remotely.

Behind her? A few people walk by, but nobody seems to stand there in any notable way. There's an entryway to a shoe store, a comic book shop, and some scaffolding for the varied decorations that the mall uses off and on. A light-embedded board spells out a spooky greeting in purple and green and orange lights near which a lifelike animated raccoon plush wearing a yellow hoodie brushes his hands off and strikes a valiant pose.

The lightboard sign suddenly flickers and changes to pastel pinks and blues with some sort of egg-related greeting and a staffer runs over. "No, no, no, not again," they say before giving it a few good smacks until the purples and greens and orange colors turn back on. Not the most impressive backdrop for an appearance.

Ranma huhs about protection and ordnance, but shakes her head. "I don't need anything like that," she says. "I just want a couple changes of shorts and some shirts and stuff." But the scarecrow is off, and she turns to look for a guy behind her. And keeps looking, as no one obvious is there.

She eyes the malfunctioning light board, then will go looking for a basic department type store. "Isn't there a CAFAM around here or something?" she wonders to herself, finally deciding to give the shoe store a try. The Chinese slippers she's wearing are definitely high-mileage, so new shoes are also a need.

"Hey, you'uh just gonna walk away like vat, eh? Flark me, lady. Am I losing my touch?" protests the raccoon on the scaffolding next to the light sign as he watches the cop look right through him before heading to the shoe store. "Of all va krutacking luck..." mutters the ringtail as he climbs down the scaffolding to follow behind. "I swear, ih'vey try a'sell me more children's shoes I'm going'a bloody blast somebody...BLAM!"

The raccoon guy pauses as a couple with a child cuts him off. The kid reaches out toward Rocket to touch, but the mom tugs the child's other arm to keep them moving along. "No, sweety, we don't touch random badgers. They have germs." Making a face at the humans, the masked fuzzy then hurriedly runs in after the former NeoTokyo resident.

Ranma ohs as what she thought was an animatronic raccoon turns out to be the one talking to her. "Oh, I thought you were going on break?" she says, but will pause as he catches up. "By the way, I'm Ranma Saotome," she introduces herself. May as well be polite. But she eyes the woman advising her child not to touch the critter, badger, raccoon, squirrel, or whatever, and she leaves off offering a handshake. Well, strange badgers could have anything.

"What? No, it's the- Va flarking scarecrow needs a break, not me. You were clearly talking to a stuffed straw man, not a strapping specimen o'strength and intellec'ual genius like meself...Officer Saotome. I'm Rocket. One o'va Guardians. Spent some time where you'uh from; leastways, where you recently came from, unless you'uh an N.T. native."

The raccoon hops up onto one of the customer benches for trying on shoes and holds out a hand to shake. One of the staff behind the checkout counter issues a welcoming despite being busy ringing somebody up. Rocket is bigger than your average raccoon, though not by a huge amount, and looks just about as fragile as any trash panda might. "Best buckle up, because vis place is a real piece o'work."

Ranma ehs, "Rocket? Guardians?" She's clueless. But nods about NT, though she says, "I'm /from/ Japan, and I'm not entirely sure how I got to NT. And to be honest, I'm not super clear on how I got here. Some kind of disaster, and I dragged my backside here. Somehow." She shrugs. "And now I suppose I've got to start everything over again," she groans, not happy to hear this place is a piece of work. She will, after a pause, shake the offered hand, and hrms. "You're not Rocket J. Squirrel, are you? Some fellow in Neo Tokyo was looking for him. Or maybe it was Rocky Raccoon? Or is that a guy in a song?" She's getting her characters mixed up. And wrong, of course.

"I'm not-!" Rocket takes a breath and sighs. "Not a krutacking raccoon. Look..." Rocky, a name used by his closest friends, shakes with a sense of strength the belies his small size before turning to look around the store. "You don't need an exposition dump first fing. It's true vat fings are pretty complica'ed around 'ere. Heck, fings were plen'y complica'ed in NeoTokyo. But you've got a good sense of 'ow t'start. New clohves, some basic comforts. Get your 'ead on straight and allovat. You 'af some money from N.T., should work fine 'ere. Running low and need some free food and drink: vey've a Usual 'ere, too. Same wif places t'sleep."

The ringtail crosses his arms. "Not everybody 'ere fell in. Many are born and raised 'ere. But vat means vey've some familiari'y wif people like us."

Ranma peers critically at Rocket. "Only you look like a raccoon. A big one, sure, but ..." she falls silent. Maybe he doesn't like to talk about it? She nods about things being complicated, but nods about things being complicated in NeoTokyo. "Ain't that the truth," she sighs, though it wasn't as bad there as things were in Nerima. She seems to have left that gang well behind. Ryouga, she worries about turning up, because he could show up on the Sun and wonder how he got there, then wander off, but the rest seem limited by laws of physics. "Don't need too many clothes or comforts until I get a job," she says. "But I found a place to stay, so there's that. And yes, they accept the money here, I'm pleased to say. Police work didn't pay great, but it paid. And I worked part time in that DP club." Wait, where was that?

"Fine, fine," says the furry guy with a mildly exaggerated indignant edge and a glance away. "So you don't need my 'elp. Sure can't 'elp you wif va 'ole job fing. I tend a'stick t'defending va outskirts from incursions and monsters. Gives me free pass a'test me new 'omemade kit and scavenged slash restored fings I dig outtova junkyard. Might even 'ave some shoes'ere for free, but vere's somefing a'be said for sticking to routine and familiar practices like...shopping 'ere."

Rocky hops down from the bench and begins looking over the shoes on display on the racks that are far too large for his feet. Besides, his boots have rocket propulsion. "Try to limit me time wif vem -- va MCPD -- and I believe va current Acting Chief of the MCPD is a guy named Mike Cosgrove. Less'at changed 'ands wifout me knowing. I don't exac'ly keep up. I 'ave bigger issues t'andle."

Ranma hrms at defending the outskirts from monsters. "That does sound useful," she considers. "But I don't need gear and such," she explains. "My whole body is a weapon." And to think, she mastered Martial Arts Dining, too. And Martial Arts Tea Ceremony. Martial Arts Tankery seems almost out of place on that list.

She looks over the same shoes Rocky is looking over, pulling up a pair of plain black Chinese-style slippers. "This is what I need," she says. No need for rocket propulsion, even though there's no Air Akane here. Hopefully it stays that way. Is there an Akane here, she suddenly wonders. "Er, so where actually are we?" she asks. "Like, Earth? Asia? Japan? Somewhere else?"

Regarding the shoes, Rocket stares blankly. That's definitely a shoe matter for shoe professionals. He offers a bit of a shrug and thumbs in the direction of the store clerk as a suggestion. "I don't need me gadgets, eivuh, but it's what I'm good at and it's smart a'play t'your strengfs." Putting back one odd design of shoe before looking over another, the subject of location comes up.

The raccoon pauses in silence pensively for a moment before rotating the shoe in his hands. "I did figure it best a'not 'ave a big exposition drop first fing, so...in va spirit of keeping fings simple it's easiest t'say 'somewhere else'. Va most 'somewhere else' one can get wifout being Knowhere -- va's wif a 'K' -- which is also a 'somewhen else', also like 'ere. From what I can figure. So far." It's a somber subject and he's very clearly avoiding certain details. For now.

Ranma recognizes the act of talking without explaining. Her father was notorious for going on and on and not saying anything useful. "Fine, fine," she sighs. "I'm here, they take my money, that's all I really care about. Although I'll need more soon enough." As to the shoe professionals, she will hail one, and work out obtaining the style she's selected in her shoe size, which gets measured, and she pays for them, because she doesn't want to start trouble this soon after arriving.

Eying the raccoon, she says, "Well, I'm good for now, I think." She will put on her just-paid-for shoes and drop her old shoes in the garbage. They make it look like quite shabby garbage. They were in rough shape. She stands, and says, "And now, I will go home. Perhaps I will meet you again." And with that, she will head out.

Rocket tends to follow loosely behind. Once all is done and settled and the former NTPD officer is ready to head on her way, the raccoon speaks up. "One last fing, love. Take some time t'get settled in, stable on your feet, and ven we can talk more about vis place. Time 'ere, well, it don't work va same as uhvuh places. Vas a good fing for you. For now. If you still 'ave an interest in knowing more, I'll introduce you to a lady named Dani and we can try t'work you frough it all. Vat sound okay? Well...cheers. Guess va scarecrow 'ad a long enough break."