2012-09-10 Mall Meetings

New York City is known for a great many things. The variety of things it's know for are wide and various. Things like shopping, and art. Shopping, and food. Shopping, and music. Shopping, and fashion. Shopping, and tourist attractions. Shopping, and one of the nations greatest zoos. Oh, and did I mention /SHOPPING/?!?
*Cough*
Anyways.... What is shopping without a mall? And NYC has more than its fair share of shopping malls. They might range in size, quality, and shape, but they still are /malls/. And where there are shopping malls, you have people. people who aren't just shopping. But people who are eating, sipping over priced poorly made coffee, and of course hanging out.
Now in one paticular NYC Mall (which may or may not be in The Bronx), people are doing all of those usual activities. It's not the heaviest time of day. But there's still people around doing what they want to do. Heck, right now you even have a girl, one Kate Bishop (who's not in costume, and instead is wearing jeans, a plain blue T-shirt, and a /CUBS/ baseball cap) coming out of the coffee place in the mall sipping a cup of that over priced poorly made coffee, and of course is enjoying every sip of it.
And others are doing things not usually considered polite in malls, but which they enjoy quite a lot anyway. A lot of flat, smooth floor is perfect skating terrain, and Jubilation Lee is taking advantage of the chance to carve up some ground with her roller skates (rollerblades were tempting, but these are more stable and controllable in tight quarters). This early, the mall isn't so crowded as it will be after school and work, so it's the perfect time! Displaying the grace and coordination she's known for, she hurdles a short downward set of steps and lands perfectly, ducking beneath the joined hands of a couple that looks very suprised to see a dark-haired teener shooting between them. And she's easy to see in her hot pink tanktop, black and white breakaway sweatpants, and black wristbands, with fingerless gloves protecting her palms and her usual shades perched on top of her head.
Seeing a woman in a Cubs cap drinking coffee, Jubes angles to pass in front of her, since there's someone not too far behind her and /that/ gap is too narrow to shoot. She's just set her course when someone steps out from behind the coffee-drinker, moving quickly. The Chinese-American kid makes a startled little sound and quickly leans, aiming to pass between the newcomer and the Cubs lady, closer to the latter than she'd originally intended!
All right, so maybe Kate didn't give you the best opening there Jubes (in more ways than one), but as she feels someone trying to rush by her, Kate tries to move just enough so they can get by. But considering how close this all is, and how sudden her movement is, it doesn't take that much for the over full cup of coffee she has to splash up onto her shirt! That in turn startles her just enough so that she actually takes a reflexive step backwards...
Probably right into the mutant mall rat.
But if Jubilee isn't careful she might have to dodge coffee too, since Kate's cup of joe nearly comes out of her hand to boot!
It's quick, close, and desperate... just like Jubes's evasive action! With another yelp, the dark-haired waif leans and swerves like a pro. She might just pull this off...
No. There's just not enough room. She scrapes between the Coffee Lady and a decorative light pole, reflexively ducking under the crossbar holding a decorative mall banner but not under the banner itself. There's a muffled cry of protest, and for a moment she's blind, but she manages to avoid splashing coffee and a bad fall, emerging from the near-pileup and the banner with a sigh of relief.
And a sudden feeling of a draft. Wait a second... Jubilee looks down to find that her breakaway sweatpants have lived up to their name! They're back next to the Coffee Lady, hung on the lower flanges of the lamp post, while she rolls onward in her floral-print athletic briefs! She reflexively claps her hands over the seat of her undies, eyes and mouth going wide and round with horrified embarrassment. Of course, that's a useless gesture, since there are people on every side of her. She quickly skids to a stop and takes cover behind a standing sign, blushing almost bright enough to match her tanktop.
"..."
Yeah, after Kate stumbles and manages to catch her coffee before it can actually hit the floor, she slowly turns, realizing just how much of a close call that was. Especially as she gets bumped into by a random NPC. Of course as she turns its right in time to see err.... What happened to Jubilee.
Which in turn causes the woman in the cubs hat to let out a faint sigh as she shakes her head, before starting to move over towards the sign. That is after grabbing those sweat pants.
"I think you might want these back..." is said as she gets closer, before trying to offer them to the poor girl behind the sign.
Behind the sign, Jubes tries to ignore the smirks and snickers of people passing by. What in the world should she do now? She probably owes the Coffee Lady an apology. Maybe a new cup of coffee, too.
And then someone speaks to her. She glances out to find herself nearly face to face with the Coffee Lady! Who is holding her sweatpants. Jubilee blushes more deeply and accepts them. "Sorry... I thought I had room, 'til that guy walked out from behind you," she says softly, beginning to snap the legs back together. "Are you okay? I was trying not to bump you, I promise!" Well, those blue eyes certainly /look/ sincere.
There's actually a smile from Ms. Bishop at that. It's faint, but it's there.
"I believe you." is said in an understanding tone. "After all, we all do stuff that like that at one point or another. It just doesn't normally end so... Badly. So why don't you get those back on and come on out."
There's a slight pause before she adds a little more.
"That is unless you want to hide behind a sign all day."
"Well, it /is/ very comfortable back here," Jubilee ripostes playfully. "But I'd rather come out. The whole putting back on thing might take a little time, though," she adds, gesturing to the snaps she's working on. At least she can put her back to the sign and hold them in front of her, so maybe a quarter of the mall gets an eyeful rather than half. "Plus, I owe you another cup of coffee. I think I got half of it on your shirt."
There's a slightly amused chuckle from that, as Kate moves to block the 'opening' that Jubilee got through to get behind that sign, so she can stand there with her back to the other woman as she gets her pants back on. Hopefully that'll block some more people from getting a 'free show'.
"Don't worry about the coffee. Or the shirt. These things happen."
"You're sure? That's gotta be getting clammy by now," Jubilee says, finishing with one leg and starting on the next. She's working as fast as she can, but getting the right snaps into the right caps is tricky when you've got both hands full of material and can't quite tell which is up and which is down. "Um, I know this isn't the best time, but I'm Jubilee. What can I call you? Besides the Coffee Lady, I mean, since you won't be carrying coffee all the time. Or wearing it."
With a slight tilt of her head (but without glancing back, so Jubilee can have some privacy), 'Coffee Lady' says, "Call me Kate." before she shrugs.
"It might not be 'perfect', but there are always more uncomfortable things. So don't worry about it."
Of course then there's a pause before she smiles (not that the mutant mall rat can see it with Kates back to her).
"Jubilee... Interesting. I'm going to guess that either your parents were overjoyed with you when you were born, or that's a nickname."
Jubilee stifles giggles. "You don't have to look away. You're helping me, right? I'd do the same, but if you're sure about the shirt I'll leave it alone." She shakes her head at the remark. "Actually, it's a shortening of my names. But I do suspect my folks were pretty happy with my birth. My full name's Jubilation Lee. Nice to meet you, Kate! I'm sorry it wasn't under better circumstances."
"And I'm Katherine Bishop." is said as Kate gives out her own full name in response. "And considering that we're in a mall, it's not like there aren't a lot of options if I want a different shirt."
"But nice to meet you too Jubilee."
"Katherine Bishop... sounds very formal," Jubilee observes. Very prim and proper is more like it, as opposed to the independent-sounding Kate. "I hope I don't get points taken off for lack of pants around a /Katherine/." This time she's definitely teasing, and those blue eyes twinkle impishly. One final snap, and she reaches inside to untie the drawstring of the cumbersome things.
"Please, call me Kate." is said with an eye roll and a shake of her head. "And if you did 'loose points', look at it this way. At least you did it in a way that's memorable."
All though after that's said Kate finally takes a sip from the remains of her coffee.
"Or if you want to look at it another way, it could of always been worse."
"Memorable is one word for it," Jubilee replies, blushing a little again. She finally gets that drawstring untied, pulls open the velcro holding her skates firm, and balances on one foot to pull one of them off. Setting the skate down, she switches feet. Once she's skate-free, she steps into the pants and quickly pulls them up. "Thanks, Kate. For the record, I'm very glad it wasn't worse. That would've been messy."
There's a nod as Kate adds on, "Probably messy in more ways than one, yeah."
All though as she hears 'Thanks', she takes that as a cue that it's safe to turn around, and does so.
"All though to play it safe, you might want to consider buying another pair of pants, or a pair of shorts, or something while you're here. After all, having that possibly happening twice in one day..."
Jubilee blushes again. "I was going to wear shorts under these, but all of mine were in the laundry, with my other sweats. Getting all that done before I came her would've taken /hours/. So I figured I'd risk it. Dumb idea, huh?" she adds, shaking her head with a rueful smile. "I guess I should look for some shorts for under these. What about you, Kate? Looking for anything in particular?"
With a slight glance down at the slowly drying brown spot on her shirt, Kate manages to get out...
"I could probably use a shirt right now..."
Then there's a chuckle.
"And I wouldn't exactly call that dumb. You took a gamble. It didn't exactly pay off. And you can even say that you paid the price for what happened..."
Then there's a shrug.
"So why don't we go try to find a shirt for me, and a pair of shorts for you."
"Not gonna say it..." Jubilee replies with a knowing smirk. "But yes. A very bad gamble." She steps into a skate and straps it shut, then the other. "So, let's go shirt-hunting! And shorts-hunting!"
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