I'm reppin' for the girls who taking over the world (semi-closed)

[rathercommon]

WHO: Kitty Jones, Keladry of Mindelan, Tej Stuffgoeshere Vorpatril, Lucy Pevensie, Blue Sargent, maybe Aerith???? other women they would have invited along???? all participants are welcome to bring more people
WHERE: A Capitalist Hellscape a.k.a. the De Chima mall
WHEN: The evening of August 17th
WHAT: Girls' night out!!! Semi-ironically engaging in shopping and other similar activities like a bunch of hipsters/people who secretly enjoy this sort of thing
WARNINGS: Consumerism...?


[ RESOLVED: That men are sometimes irritating and the company of other women is very frequently much, much better.
RESOLVED: That the night of August 17th is therefore to be given over to women going out and having fun together not in the company of men.
THEREFORE: Kel and Kitty put together fun things to do for some women, no boys allowed. These fun things take place at the De Chima Mall, and they include:

Going shopping (or, possibly, criticizing the capitalism that drives the need for these shallow, worthless consumer goods, if you're Kitty or Blue).
Getting mani/pedis.
Stopping by the arcade and shooting things/dominating at Dance Dance Revolution (if you're Tej).
Sitting and drinking coffee drinks in the mall Coffee Hut.
Staring in horror at the price tags on the cookware in the Willem-Soneema.
Having a delicious/terrible dinner at the Oregon Pizza Kitchen.

Go forth. Enjoy the pleasures of this terrible place. ]

Comments

Kitty, open

[rathercommon]

A. Elizabeth's Secret
[ Kitty is standing, staring at the uncomfortable bras and underwear on display and the sexy pouting women in framed photographs on the walls and the leering footage of grotesque fashion shows that are just short of pornography. And then she turns and says, her voice considerably louder than a whisper - ]

Oh my God. More like - bloody - Male Gaze's Secret in here, isn't it. I swear, this is - this is the patriarchy in store form. This is disgusting!

B. At the store "Too Good For This World, Too Pure"
[ Kitty is eyeing one of those giant, hideous cinnamon buns. And she looks askance at someone, and grins a little guiltily. ]

Want to split one of those?

C. At the arcade
[ She is currently trying her hand at skee-ball. She sucks at skee-ball. ]

D. Other...?

a. bringin' down the man

[oceiteres]

[ Blue looks like she consumed something spoiled or else smelled something very foul. ] They airbrush those photos to death, too. [ She doesn't even bother pointing in any particular direction to indicate a set of images.

It's just.

All of them. Everything. All the time. ]

:>c

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty makes an angry noise deep in her throat. ]

Of course. Because what does a woman who's already been programmed to be body-conscious want to look at more than a false, unattainable image of beauty? Something that needs computer alterations to conform to men's ideas of what attractiveness are? God, I want to go and - and lodge a complaint.

[oceiteres]

They probably have comment cards or something. We could write scathing reviews of... [ she gestures loosely ] everything.

[ Blue has her arms crossed now and is glaring at something that is both shimmery and lacy simultaneously. ] That looks uncomfortable, too. But I guess that doesn't matter.

[rathercommon]

[ With vicious sarcasm: ]

Oh, of course it doesn't matter. Why would it matter? After all, why would your comfort be of any concern at all when you could be dressing to please your man?

c. this is not a competition

[protects_the_small]

[Kel flicks her wrist and with a satisfying THUNK, the ball lands in the top hole of her lane, followed by a siren and flashing lights. Picking up her third, she glances over to Kitty's lane]

Are you sure you want to keep rolling it?

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty scowls at the ball. And then she scowls at Kel. And then she rolls it again, and - yup, it ends up in the ten-point gutter. ]

Ugh, how are you so good at this? I ought to be good at this!

[protects_the_small]

[Kel ducks her head to hide her grin and tosses her next ball. It doesn't QUITE hit the topmost hole, instead rolling into the next down]

I've been practicing hitting a target since I was ten, to be fair.

[She glances down at the long roll of tickets spitting out]

And what do we do with these?

[rathercommon]

Well, I've been practicing since I was thirteen...

[ A cluck of annoyance. But - ]

You can use those for prizes.

Kel, opennnn

[protects_the_small]

[Despite an earlier attempt at learning the Ways Of Shopping, Kel is a bit.... New... At being surrounded by women determined to have a good time. Overall, she's quiet, even for her, and drifts near Lucy to take her hand when she thinks no one is looking. Engage her in conversation!

A.
As she stares in bewilderment around Elizabeth's Secret lingerie boutique. There's so much pink....]

Women wear this....? [-who don't make a living on their back she Does Not Say]

B.

[See Kel. See Kel discover skeeball. See Kel discover that those year of target practice have really paid off...]

C.

[At dinner, tired, with far too many bags at her feet, Kel will be less likely to chatter, but if you really want to.... Just mind she is sitting next to Lucy.

... If not those, than any point of the day!]

blue judges it all sargent, ota.

[oceiteres]

[ This isn't exactly a typical Blue Sargent outing, but that's a good thing. Right? Right.

Never mind that Blue lives in a house full of boys and her female company at home consists of parental figures and her vexing cousin, Orla. Girls night out? What? It's utterly strange.

It's also pretty fun. She has to admit, it's fun. At some point, she will actually sit down and, wait for it, have her nails painted. There are an array of colors (Blue Sargent doesn't believe in your rules about single-color manicures!), to match the multi-colored clips in her hair. It's artistic.

Later on, she's absolutely going to have some things to say about gourmet pizza kitchens, having worked for quite some time at a place where you have to special order a sausage and avocado pizza. There's like four things on this menu that have avocado as a standard ingredient! Talk pizza-shop with her.

At some other point, possibly after she's offered her criticisms of lingerie stores, she can be found in Always 17, holding up a nearly transparent t-shirt to the light. She's thinking about taking a straight razor to it, if the rest of her outfit (very shredded) is any indication.

You can also make up somewhere else for her to be. She'll follow the crowd, for once in her life. Girls night out. Whodathunkit. ]

[illuminescent]

[Lucy is late, because Lucy is the Ambassador and she had to squeeze this outing in at the last moment by politicking her way through a bad meeting with a guy who comes once a week to talk about how his cat is an imPort. So she's rounding the corner when she sits at the table at the end, and looks at Blue.]

Oh-

[She looks alarmed.]

But your nails are so colorful!

[The words would be passive aggressive out of any other mouth. Out of Lucy's, they're genuine. A furious thread of light is winding it's way around Blue's fingers.

If Blue looks closely, she'll notice that Lucy's earrings are not really earrings, but tiny beads of red light, pulsing there like tiny stars.]

[oceiteres]

[ Blue has just about decided she's comfortable in this group of girls. It's strange! It's weird.

But it's fun.

She's thinking about it a little when Lucy appears and it takes a second for her to react to the comment, spreading her fingers in front of her, which gives both of them a better view of the veritable rainbow of colors. ]

Oh. [ Use your words, Blue. ] Do you like them? [ Lame.

Blue Sargent doesn't know how to talk to girls who aren't related to her.

Lame. ]

[illuminescent]

Yes, I quite do.

[She reaches for Blue's hand, to take it, to admire more closely.]

I should think I would like such a thing, but my hands are so mistreated by me, it would last but a few moments before the colors chipped. But it is lovely on you.

[protects_the_small]

[Look, sometimes culture shock rears up and hits you in the face and you have to lean over and ask the person across from you-]

What is avocado, exactly?

[-Just so you don't order something utterly WEIRD.]

[oceiteres]

[ The question catches Blue a little off-guard. ]

A fruit? [ The question mark is sort of directed inward. ] It's not sweet though.

Actually, it's kind of hard to explain... some people like it on pizza.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel frowns at the menu and then tentatively adds it to her order]

I suppose if it isn't sweet, that might work well enough. Mind you, the pineapple worked fine when I tried it.

tej keysmash, ota.

[ghemnotgem]

( tej vorpatril, rounding out the sliding scale of height at a lovely six feet even, has never been on a 'girls night'. this is mostly the fault of having an incompatible personality with her two sisters and four female even-siblings, excluding rish. although tej hardly thinks of it that way -- she's the difficult one, of course. but she'e never had female friends to share a girl's night with, and while there's the distinct feeling of being the oldest and therefore the chaperone (as well as funding it all), tej is determined to enjoy herself. )

a. elizabeth's secret
( for a company that purports to cater to a very specific women's need, tej finds the size selection at this particular store lacking. it seems that a figure that wouldn't look out of place on a trashy romance novel might be covetous, but hardly catered to. so tej isn't partaking in shopping, but neither is she tearing it down out of a deep seated ideological conviction. no, tej is critiquing its longevity from an economic standpoint. )

But women have the primary purchasing power of the household in this time period; that obviously extends to luxury goods. By appealing to men they're hardly going after the group who would be willing and able to spend money here in the first place.

b. dance dance revolution.
( this is far more of tej's style. dancing as a career might not be available to her but she's still got the moves; and applying them to a video game results in some hilarious visuals. but also a 'AAA' ranking on a challenge setting for all of the hardest songs. the problem comes when asked for three letters of her name to be used as a marker.

tej has, at various points, entered 'ATV' and 'TAV' and, lastly, just 'TEJ'. )

c. dinnertime
( does pizza exist in the year 3000 and some? who knows. but it's certainly an enjoyable meal, and tej is relatively easy to draw into a conversation. ask about her jobs, what products she uses to make her hair do that ridiculous thing that makes the narrative describe it as 'clouds', how the hell she has the cash to cover everyone's expenses. anything goes with the lady vorpatril. well. most anything. )

d. anything else??

everybody DANCE

[protects_the_small]

[You could not get Kel onto that dance thingie for ten thousand gold nobles, but she will certainly watch with awe as Tej continues to destroy all the top scores with a style that she's never ever seen before. And she will applaud HARD when Tej climbs down]

I've never seen anything like that! It was wonderful.

[ghemnotgem]

( the praise, as odd as it might be, causes tej to flush slightly. no one's ever complemented her dancing -- especially not the sort of dancing that means scoring points and destroying the competition. being good at something is still an uncertain feeling for tej. she can't be, not when compared to her siblings.

it's with that in mind that tej does her best to deflect kel's praise, although she's genuinely touched by it. )

Thank you, although it's nothing special. You should see the Jewels back home.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel sees that deflection, jokes on Tej, Kel is a master of deflecting herself]

If they're half as good as you, that must be something TO see.

Lu; ota

[illuminescent]

[She's late.

Of course she's late. She shows up to pizza late, because she's been at work, and Lucy is nothing if not overworked. But she shows up and she's peppy and sunny when she hits the mall.]

I rather think this is more Susan's game than my own. I'm very poorly at fashion.

[She is dressed impeccably, but it is, well.

It's very modest. And very 50s. No one would call her a fashion mogul.]

[protects_the_small]

[Kel glances over from the dresses she's been comparing and smiles]

Lalasa always told me it was about making the clothes work for you, rather than the other way around. I always bowed to her far superior knowledge on that.

[illuminescent]

Susan always just chose clothing for me. And I would get it filthy, regardless.

[She wrinkles her nose.]

Once I ended up in my underthings in a tree at a tourney, for frustration over a corset.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel chokes and shoves a fist against her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. She's never quite sure of the Rules in these stores. Eyes dancing, she turns back to Lucy]

Well, corsets.. I don't blame you in the least.

[She wonders, but does not ask, if anyone won money off guessing when the young queen would come down]