Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
Post by Jonathon Montoya on Feb 1, 2014 10:45:41 GMT -5
"Huh?" Jonathon said, surprised when Luka came back to him. "Wait...what?" He said, his brain processing the request from her. Go shopping with them to look at jewelry? It didn't sound too appealing and he was getting comfortable sitting on the fountain. Then Holly came over though. Seeing as before then he just assumed Luka would try and make conversation and Holly was just going to ignore him. Now though, she was there too. "Uh, sure, I guess. I need to get my steps in for today." He said, chuckling a little as he stood up. "So, um, lead the way." He said, putting his hands into his pockets.
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Feb 1, 2014 12:20:58 GMT -5
Luka smiled and nodded at the boy. Then turning back to Holly, she returned close to her side and looked at her. Well, I'm ready now. Let's go. She would follow Holly to wherever she led her after that. So. . . What kind of jewelry are we looking at today? Hopefully her question wasn't too odd. There was plenty of different types, she believed. But did Holly have anything particular in mind? Come to think of it, what would she look at? In her mind, Luka didn't really believe anything like that would look good on her. She was a girl who had always kept things simple. She took care of herself, sure. But "extra" stuff that went towards her appearance was something she had never touched in her life. If anything, she was worried she might look odd wearing jewelry.
Last Edit: Feb 1, 2014 12:29:07 GMT -5 by Luka Kurokawa
They didn't need to tell her twice to lead the way. Hell, they didn't need to tell her at all. The moment she realized that there was going to be a third member to this little outing, she immediately started to move. By the time they had said something she had already taken a few steps. People were much too slow sometimes. Rather than stop she just waved her arm to motion to them to follow her. Holly should have known better than to doubt the universe's surprises. Now she was just doing stuff with two persona users instead of one.
"I was more interested in the kind of gem they're using rather than any specific kind of jewelry," she shrugged. "I've always been partial to bracelets and necklaces myself. Earrings tend to just get caught in my hair."
The mall was a little more crowded than she would have liked today, but as always she dealt with crowds in the easiest way possible: by pretending they weren't there at all. As long as her follows stuck close they shouldn't get lost in the crowd. Holly payed a degree of attention to where the two were. She figured Luka was used to this by now, but the other guy had this weird tendency to just walk away at the weirdest times. All of their interactions in the past had just left her confused. Fortunately, with her method of getting through crowds it didn't take long at all to get to the store.
The jewelry store itself was still fairly crowded, but less crowded than the mall itself not that it really mattered to Holly. As expected, the new line was still being featured there, but there were likely considerably less people here than there was when it was first released. Perfect. She quickly made her way over to the stones. They were interesting, and very pretty in a lot of ways, but they weren't quite her style. They did appear to be made of several colors, some had more colors than others and some would change depending on how the light hit the gem. The problem was that the colors themselves were fairly dim, similar to how putting a lot of white paint into a bright color would make it very light but would take much of the intensity of the hue with it. She preferred those bright, intense colors. While she didn't see anything for herself, she did find something interesting. There were a pair of silver stud earrings with a light yellow gem and kind of a blue center. The center was either blue or purple depending on where she stood. Holly grabbed them and moved them in front of Luka's face.
"Do you have your ears pierced? You might look nice in something like this. They match your eyes."
Holly had never made any comments about Luka's eyes before. They were a little unusual, but there was no reason to make a scene over them in her opinion. Everyone had a couple of odd features after all. Even this gesture wasn't a comment on her strange eyes, her words were entirely honest.
"As for you..." she made her way over to Jonathan and started circling around him for a moment, carefully studying all his features and clearly not caring if it made him uncomfortable. "I don't think you're the type of guy that can pull off most jewelry. If you have any female friends you might be able to find something nice for them though."
Post by Jonathon Montoya on Feb 4, 2014 19:19:41 GMT -5
Jonathon was sort of struggling his way through the crowd. While he found them interesting to watch, they were not nearly as fun to be stuck in the middle of. He struggled through, trying to keep Luka with him. He was tall enough to see over most of the people, she wasn't quite as tall though. When they finally made it to the store he managed to breath a sigh of relief. Out of the crowd, into a place he felt equally awkward. Jewelry was't really his thing. When Holly talked to him about it, he just shrugged. He had friends, and some of them were female, but none of them were close enough for him to buy jewelry for. He also figured that if he tried to pick something out for Holly to try and appeal to her, it wouldn't go over all to well. He then began to amble about the store, just looking around till something caught his eye. A simple necklace with a yellow(Or perhaps green, I am colorblind) stone on it(much like the one in his appearance picture on his profile). Picking it up he admired the stone. "What do you think about this?" He said, showing it to the girls.
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Feb 5, 2014 17:32:09 GMT -5
As Holly did not hesitate to begin moving, Luka did not hesitate to begin trailing after her like a young girl to her mother. She listened as Holly explained the particular type of "gem" that she was looking to find. It sounded interesting enough to her. Luka was actually quite curious about their destination now.
It wasn't long until they reached their apparent destination. There was a considerable amount of people inside, for a jewelry store anyway. Sticking closely to Holly who didn't seem to have much trouble getting past everyone in the mall, the group was very quickly brought inside the store. Not really knowing what she was supposed to be looking at, Luka simply traced Holly's eyes to the new lines of merchandise. The gems seemed to display many colors at once, if that made any sense. Perhaps it was dependent on the light hitting it? This is what Luka figured as she gazed around at all the different items.
Turning to face Holly, Luka blinked as the earrings were brought to her face. T-They match my eyes? She wasn't expecting Holly to bring the earrings to her like that, so Luka was a bit surprised when she heard that. Luka was rather sensitive about her eyes as well, them being rather odd. Of course, that hadn't really crossed her mind when Holly spoke. The way her eyes were brought up didn't really elicit any negative feelings, after all. But Luka also realized the other thing that Holly mentioned. Ah, but no. I don't have my ears pierced. I'm not even sure how one goes about that. If Holly said that she might look good in them, she wasn't too adverse to trying them on. Basically, the girl was stuck in limbo on what to do now.
When Jonathan called over to them, Luka took a look at the necklace he had found. It looks nice. Luka wasn't really sure, to be honest. She couldn't even tell if the things in front of her were things that she liked or not. The only reason she even seemed to care about the earrings a bit was because Holly said they looked good. Perhaps this was one of the things she was supposed to be working on? She pondered for a moment, but ultimately decided to save the thoughts for later.
Post by Holly Mason on Feb 7, 2014 18:32:29 GMT -5
"I think I'm a bad judge for that one," she shrugged at Jonathan. "I don't care for green personally. Objectively though, the cut is high quality and the shape and patterns on the pendant are nice. I'm sure anyone that likes that color would like it." She nodded to herself and turned back to Luka. "There's a place you can get it done in the mall. They just take a tool that looks kind of like a gun and they shoot the earring into your ear. All you really feel is a quick pinch, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds don't worry."
Post by Jonathon Montoya on Feb 8, 2014 12:33:56 GMT -5
Jonathon sighed a little. He was hoping for at least a bit of input from the two, but he wasn't expecting to just get nothing. He still planned to buy it though, he thought it was interesting. When Holly explained ear piercing to Luka he leaned over and whispered. "Yeah, it's just poking a hole in your ear. From what I've heard, it doesn't even bleed, as long as they don't miss." He said, then realizing that may damage Luka's psyche a little. "Don't worry, the people who do it are trained how to do it...I think." He said, having never been to a place where ears were pierced at all. "Don't worry kid, you'll be fine."
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Feb 8, 2014 13:28:19 GMT -5
Luka listened at Holly explained that she could easily get her ears pierced here in the mall. That was certainly convenient. It actually sounded like something she could go do right then and there. . . until the mention of "shooting into" followed by mention of somewhere on her body. While she heard Holly's words of reassurance, Luka was still slightly trembling. S-Shoot through my ear? This was the girl who made excuses to not see the doctor when she was due for vaccinations. She was deathly afraid of needles. Suddenly, she felt like this wasn't such a good idea.
Blinking, the girl turned to Jonathan as he whispered to her. He seemed to be trying to reassure her. It would have worked too. . . had he not mentioned missing. M-Missing? Of course, he tried to justify that statement so that she wouldn't worry over it. Again, it would have worked had he not made a secondary comment. From what she had gathered, someone who may or may not be trained in piercings would be shooting a needle through her ear with the possibility of it missing.
Suddenly, the girl wasn't feeling so good. Luka was actually a little interested in those earrings now, but after enough doubt was pushed into her head, the girl wasn't exactly sure anymore. Auu. . .
Post by Holly Mason on Feb 8, 2014 17:32:33 GMT -5
Holly tilted her head. "Don't you use an evoker? I would have thought that you'd be used to having gun-shaped objects pointed at your head by now. They'd be hard pressed to miss considering they put the tool right up against your ear before using it. It's not like they stand back and shoot from a distance."
There were plenty of reasons to be nervous about getting any kind of piercing, but she didn't quite expect Luka's reaction or Jonathan's really bad attempts at trying to make her feel better. It seemed like she wanted to get it done, so it'd be a shame to let fear get in the way of that. Holly didn't intend to force her to do anything, but in the end she wanted the refusal to be because Luka didn't want to have it done rather than simply being afraid of having it done.
Post by Jonathon Montoya on Feb 8, 2014 23:30:19 GMT -5
"I'll just shut up now..." Jonathon said, walking away from the the two. He went up to the counter. Purchasing the pendant he put it around his neck and walked back to them. "If you two want me to leave...I guess I can." He said, realizing the two of them would probably rather go off and do more things that girls do without him. "So...yeah." He started to make his way towards the door of the shop. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and began to whistle a tune. The door opened and he started into the crowd.
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Feb 10, 2014 21:37:29 GMT -5
Luka gave a look of contemplation as she thought over Holly's words. Mmm. . . That is true. . . Holly's argument was pretty reassuring. Before she could say anything beyond that though, it seemed that Jonathan decided to leave them. Ah. . j-just. . . She wanted to stop him, but in the end, lacked the nerve to stop him. She was getting bolder, sure. But just what could she say to him? She didn't even understand why he wanted to walk out like that. She pondered for a moment, trying to think of something they might have said. Nothing in particular came to mind. Thinking back to her social lesson with Akira, Luka recalled the lesson about a certain character archetype. Could this boy have been a "tsundere?" He seemed interested in talking to them at first, yet now he was acting quite coldly. Coldly enough that he wanted to walk out for no apparent reason.
Confusedly turning back to Holly, Luka tried to turn the situation around a bit. Umm. . . This was a bit awkward now. But Luka believed she could fix it. I. . . I think I wouldn't mind trying to get my ears pierced! She blurted her idea out to Holly, hoping that this suddenly awkward situation could turn into something interesting. Words of wisdom that the girl heard not too long ago came back to memory. Words, that emphasized how important it was to enjoy oneself when one could.
Post by Holly Mason on Feb 14, 2014 3:22:51 GMT -5
"Huh?" she raised her eyebrows at Jonathan. "If I wanted you to leave I would have told you to already. It's not like I'm just going to let people be around me when their presence irritates me to protect their precious feelings." She scratched her head as he moved towards the door. "Well, bye then."
She wasn't about to ask him to stay if he didn't want to be here. He wasn't some important person or anything even if he was a persona user, so if dealing with girly things and girl talk was too much then he probably should go. Well, it just meant that everything would continue as planned. Luka was still here and they could still have a nice outing.
"Sure, I think there's a place a couple of stores down that does it."
Holly put the earrings back and motioned for Luka to follow her. She didn't care that there was a reasonable amount of people around the exit to the store, she would just push through them and the people in the crowd outside the store out of the way as always. Whether Jonathan followed them wasn't her concern at this point, though she wouldn't stop him. Once they arrived at the ear piercing place she motioned for Luka to approach the counter herself. She should probably at least know what she's getting into and decide exactly how she wants it done herself.
"I can cover the cost. My family's filthy rich, this amount isn't even noticeable."
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Feb 15, 2014 0:13:56 GMT -5
It seems that Holly had felt the same way as her regarding the boy leaving. Had the honestly done something wrong? Luka didn't believe so. But going back to Holly, it seemed that the girl agreed to the idea. In fact, there seemed to be a place that did piercings not that far from here. Ah. Really? She blinked, realizing that she could conveniently get this all done rather quickly. When Holly gave the motion to follow her, Luka quickly trotted behind her. She didn't mean it in a rude way, but Luka found Holly to be quite a convenient "people-plow."
When they got to the actual place, Luka was motioned over to it. It would seem this was something she would be doing on her own. Holly graciously offered to cover the costs though. Ah. . . if it's no trouble, I suppose. The girl didn't really mind paying, but she wasn't one to argue, especially not to Holly. Now that she thought about it, every time she went somewhere someone was usually covering costs for her. Was this something common in social settings? Taking that off of her mind, the girl began to talk to the woman doing the piercings.
Getting a basic overview of what she could get, the girl decided to go with standard piercings in her ear lobes. After deciding, she was told to take a seat in a nearby chair. Nervously, the girl sat in the chair. She looked over at Holly for a moment, then took a deep breath. It would all be over in an instant, right? So, the girl waited. The attendant seemed to be setting up something around her. Rather than ask, the girl simply sat still and waited for a signal. However that signal never came. So, when does- Before Luka could finish, the girl felt a painful stinging sensation in her right ear. A-Au. . .
She just froze there, feeling the strange pain in her ear. The attendant made quick work of cleaning the blood and moving on to the next ear. After a moment, the girl was beginning to recover from the shock. This was just in time for her to receive a second jolt of pain in the opposite ear. A-Auuu. . . Again, the attendant quickly cleaned up and told her that the procedure was complete with a smile. Getting out of the seat, Luka stiffly walked over by Holly once more. I think I did it. A small pouting noise could be heard from the girl as she desperately tried touching the wound.
Post by Holly Mason on Feb 20, 2014 7:25:45 GMT -5
"It's no trouble at all," she waved her hand dismissively.
Looks like Luka went ahead with minimal hesitation, and a little bit of hesitation was to be expected with something like this. Holly just looked bored while Luka was getting the procedure done. She wasn't sure if her apathy about the situation would make Luka feel more or less worried about it all, but it really wasn't anything to worry about and Holly really hated waiting. Fortunately, it was a quick procedure and the girl returned to her soon enough.
"See, not bad at all right? Just don't forget to turn your earrings regularly for awhile so that your ears don't try to heal over them. By this time next month you should be able to wear any earrings you want. Did you want to go back to the jewelry store and look around?"
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Mar 2, 2014 22:08:54 GMT -5
Stilling grabbing at her ears a bit, the girl nodded at Holly a bit hesitantly. She would definitely follow her directions after having gone through all of that pain. The procedure was a huge success it seemed. And despite her uneasy expression, Luka was quite pleased with herself. She had managed to get her ears pierced successfully. This was a step in the direction of becoming sociable, wasn't it?
Sure. I wouldn't mind taking another look at those earrings that you picked out. Luka herself wasn't exactly sure what she should be looking for herself. But Holly had presented her with something that seemed to look good on her. So, why not?
Realizing that they would be heading back into the crowd, the girl got directly behind Holly, assuming that they would be plowing through people again. In all honesty, Luka felt almost like the conductor for some train about to plow through a herd of cows. Was she really that sadistic? Certainly not. She thought of it in a rather childish way as opposed to some bloody slaughter. Did that make it any less ridiculous though? Again, certainly not.