[PRP] Spend Yo Money Like Money Ain't s**t (Sascha + Cerpin)

[Yamashii]

Ooo, so playa!

 

[Yamashii]

When he'd gotten Sascha's application for the sponsorships, Cerpin had stamped it for approval immediately. Any troll that had the guts to steal his show and the talent to go head to head with him was bound to go far on the big screen. Rocking out on stage together had been a blast and the purpleblood was excited for the chance to hang out again. With Tevini gone, he was a lot lonelier these nights. It was odd to think about considering she'd stayed in her room most of the time but the lack of background noise from her workshop was driving him crazy.

So the obvious solution was to go out and find new friends that weren't going to run off and abandon him. He'd invited Sascha to go shopping with him for the talent competition for that express purpose! Cerpin had opted to go sans jacket tonight in an effort to make it easier to try on a lot of clothes at a lot of stores. The cape could be a real pain sometimes.

"Good to see you again, dude." He waved at the yellowblood once Sascha was in sight at the meeting point. "Ready to get some swag? I was thinking maybe you'd look good in shutter shades." He grabbed a pair off a rack and slipped them on the other boy's nose.

seekingCylem

 

[seekingCylem]

Sascha had been to Underworld before. Probably. Well, Sascha liked to habitually explore the Chittentown club scene. Chittentown was a huge city so statistically... Maybe? Sascha hoped he wouldn't get quizzed on the drinks menu. Truthfully he only noticed the club part as an afterthought when applying for sponsorship. Granted, it was a positive thought. Sascha was a dancer, Chittentown native, and general wild child. It was a perfect fit. What actually drew him to the sponsor was the name under the title.

Cerpin Sugall. Sascha would have been more skeptical of the coincidence if he hadn't recognized the symbol and color listed in the information packet. He knew exactly what kind of person Cerpin was, and that was the kind of person Sascha wanted backing him in his quest for fame. Perhaps if he was being a touch more rational Sascha would have paid more attention to the fact he'd only met Cerpin all of one time. It was in an impromptu duet-slash-performance-battle, though, which meant the two of them were practically kismesis. He could hit up the actual Underworld establishment later, preferably as an VIP.

In the meantime, Cerpin had invited Sascha out on the town to do some shopping for the latter's new professional image. Considering what he'd seen of Cerpin's tastes, Sascha couldn't help but be excited. Aandes had a wonderful sense of style, but his dress code for Sascha tended towards the professional and unassuming. Sascha looked damn good in a tailored suit, but if he could dress in something with glitter, he wanted the glitter.

Sascha met Cerpin at the center plaza of one of Chittentown's higher end shopping centers. "Higher end" of course was relative to the city, whose baseline was dusty and crowded. However, the fewer class-based restrictions allowed for some eclectic finds to slip onto the shelves. Sascha was interested to see if Cerpin knew of any hidden gems in the area.

"Yo," Sascha waved to Cerpin. His greeting was bypassed entirely in favor of dropping a pair of yellow shutter shades on his face. Sascha blinked and looked around owlishly. "How are people expected to see anything with- Oh s**t, do these glow in the dark!? Hell yeah." Sascha grinned and flicked the shades up so they were sitting on top of his forehead.

"So do you got a game plan, or are we just heading where the desert wind takes us, or whatever?"

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

"The plan is to take this and throw it as hard as you can in any direction. We'll hit that place first." Cerpin said in a serious tone, dropping a gumball into one of Sascha's palms. He couldn't hold the straight face together for more than three seconds though and cracked a giant smile.

"Just messing with you. I figure we can check out Overloaded first and then Abecro&Flinch." They weren't exactly high end compared to the boutiques in the other cities but Cerpin felt they should stick to Chittentown. After all, part of the competition seemed to be centered around town loyalty. Fine, they could make this work. There were diamonds among the sand every so often.

"Hey, so what's up with the NOVA thing? You into stars or some s**t?" Cerpin tossed the question out casually. He'd noticed the nickname on the application and wondered if Sascha was one of those astrology types or if he had an actual interest in space. Or maybe he was one of those trolls that just picked something because it sounded cool, who knew. On the off chance that he was interested in space though, Cerpin needed to know. He was still on the lookout for trolls like that, even if Tevini had to be a b***h and run off. She'd be back eventually.

He snagged the other boy by the front of his shirt and lightly tugged on it to get him moving towards the first store. Cerpin was used to yanking others along to his pace, especially since he often got away with it due to his blood hue. Time with the Initiative had softened this habit but he slipped up around people he felt comfortable with sometimes.

seekingCylem

 

[seekingCylem]

Sascha glanced down at the gumball in his hand with a look of blatant confusion. However, he'd already pulled back his shoulder to toss it by the time Cerpin broke character. "You sure? Bet I could nail that mannequin in front of Swordstorm from here." Sascha cast another thoughtful glance--though perhaps facetiously so--in the store's direction. If he missed he could potentially chip a window, or worse, knock over a perfume display. Sascha shrugged and ended up tossing the gumball into his mouth.

He chewed the candy thoughtfully while he and Cerpin meandered to their first stop. Cerpin's grip on the front of his shirt was startling, but after the gumball, Sascha took it in stride. He trotted to keep up the pace. "NOVA?" He reiterated around a mouthful of sugar. He seemed more surprised by the question than the hand on his shirt.

"Well you know what a nova, is right? A star appears in a big flash of light." Sascha struck a mock pose with his arms while walking. Ta-da! "More specifically, I'm a helmsman. In-training, mind you, but that's about as close as you can get to the job title in this day and age without an actual spaceship to fly. I've always been telekinetic, but I got my big break stumbling across some secret unregulated helmsman research as a kid. Legit--this stuff was booby-trapped with explosives and everything." Sascha laughed as though he wasn't recounting a childhood story in which he nearly exploded. "I brought that s**t to the Chittentown Technical Center and was like 'I want in.' They were pretty much like, 'with this sweet stash and brain powers to boot? Hell yeah you're in.' So I was in the official helmsman training program for a while; helping parse all that illegal research."

Sascha made a broad, rotating gesture with one arm to signify the passage of time. "That all culminated in a formal test with an actual helmsman station. Putting it all together. Unfortunately everyone did a little too good of a job because the systems overloaded and I sealed myself in a flaming room." Sascha lifted a handful of hair off of his neck, exposing a patch of scarring. "Anyway, I'm super glad to have full use of my limbs and most of my hair back. I'm putting it to use with a stage career. Not taking that s**t for granted. A star is born and all that."

Sascha glanced up at the signage for Overloaded. He'd almost forgotten where they'd been walking to. Belatedly, he realized he'd accidentally swallowed his gum at some point while he'd been talking.

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

"Course I know what a nova is. I'm-" Cerpin interjected before falling quiet as Sascha mentioned his helmsman training. The yellowblood was telekinetic? He had formal training in how to fly a ship. He'd found illegal research? Dammit, if only he'd found this guy sooner! He wanted to dig in and take the boy for himself but untangling someone from the government was obnoxiously troublesome work. The highblood nodded along as he listened, watching Sascha very intently as he recounted his explosive experience at the helmsman station. It sounded both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

His eyes stared at the scarring on Sascha's neck with a look of awe and respect. If they weren't careful, that would be them. Maybe she had been right to take things a little more seriously than he had been doing.

"Geez, Sasch, save a little badassery for the rest of us." Cerpin chuckled and shook his head at the coolness of Sascha's chaotic life story. He was liking the guy more and more with each new odd or crazy fact he learned about him. It was strange to meet someone interested in so many of the same things as him: stars, dancing, music, peacocking, danger. It threw him off balance a bit in a way that he didn't mind. They passed through the entrance to Overloaded and started poking at the racks. There were some decent options for normal people to wear. But the two of them were hardly normal.

"Pilot, survivor, superstar. You're my new favorite person." He held up a bedazzled motorcycle jacket covered in sequins and wiggled a few fingers in the air to catch Sascha's attention before throwing it at him to try on. He also threw over a pair of pants with googly eyes and zippers sprinkled all over them as a joke. Cerpin was half taking this seriously, half just having a good time. Chittentown fashion was bonkers compared to the higher class cities in his opinion. Cerpin was kind of bonkers too though.

"So when you win, are you gonna change it to SUPERNOVA? Or I guess you could go out as a hypergiant." Go big or go home, in Cerpin's world. He was not incredibly educated on chemistry or mathematics but he did know about stars after all that time with Tevini, Polair and Deimos.

seekingCylem

 

[seekingCylem]

"It's a curse," Sascha sighed dreamily as he pushed into Overloaded. As much as he enjoyed the title of badass, Sascha couldn't help but feel a little weird each time he recounted his history. For one, it sounded totally fake. Also, Sascha had a hard time disentangling his incredibly specific viewpoint from the whole affair. He said the words "survived the flaming wreckage of an overloaded helmsman testing station," but all Sascha heard played back was, "I was really scared and it hurt a lot." Spending weeks lying immobile in a shallow pool of medbay sopor slime was hardly badass. Thankfully not many people were interesting in asking him to recount that part of the story, and Cerpin wasn't about to be the first.

Sascha looked up from the clothing rack he'd been pillaging. "...And that's my new favorite jacket," Sascha said, awestruck. He made grabby hands and Cerpin tossed him the garment. The additional pants flopped over his shoulder as he admired the sparkly jacket. He looked down at them, visibly perturbed to find them looking back. He was about to cast Cerpin a disbelieving look, only to get distracted by the conversation.

Sascha folded the pants over his arm along with the jacket. He was absolutely taking them both back to the dressing block. "'S not a bad idea. I might save that for my retirement tour, though."

Sascha idly considered whether or not it was tacky to hemotype leopard print. He eventually decided it wasn't tacky enough to stop him and added a couple shirts to the growing pile stacked on his forearm.

"What about you? How are you planning on capitalizing on my inevitable and massive fame?"

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

"Isn't it obvious?" Cerpin snorted, putting a hand on Sascha's back to steer him towards the dressing block. The pile in the yellowblood's arms was going to topple over soon. He sort of wished he had thought to bring a camera for the amazing fashion show that was about to happen. Hindsight was 20/20 and all that crap. Cerpin opened the door and pointed for Sascha to get his butt inside one of the rooms already.

"As soon as you're up there in front of the cameras, all sparkling and bright eyed looking at the judges-" Before the other boy could actually step inside, Cerpin slammed the door shut as a prank, "I'm gonna run up there and steal your show! HA!" The idea of pulling this off was hilarious to the purpleblood although it was definitely joking. He stepped aside to actually let Sascha try on some of the stuff they'd found.

"Honestly though, you're basically a big billboard for me. I figure maybe thirty percent of your fans will check out Underworld after you win and that's good for my business." It would be great if the numbers were higher but Cerpin was trying to think realistically. Any amount of boosted business was good though. He needed some way to explain his surplus of beetles from the illegal farm he was running below Underworld. Cerpin grabbed a nearby chair and sat on it while he waited. He probably could've tried a few things on as well but he was feeling more like spoiling someone rather than being spoiled.

"Besides, I mostly just wanted to see you again." Cerpin admitted unashamedly. After the fiasco with his roommate running off, maybe it was better to be upfront about these sorts of things. He mused on the topic as he sat.

seekingCylem

 

[seekingCylem]

Sascha allowed Cerpin to pilot him into the nearest dressingblock. It wasn't like Sascha could see much over the pile he'd been accumulating. Just as he was about to enter the block, Cerpin cut him off with a flourish and a slammed door. Sascha yelped, muffled somewhat by the fabric that threatened to spill over in the fumble.

The yellowblood glowered comically over the stack of clothing. It had turned into a nasty snarl in Sascha's attempt to keep it all from ending up on the floor. He awkwardly hefted it all onto the bench in the dressingblock as soon as Cerpin was out of the way. Sascha rolled his eyes at the prank, but mustered a small, if wry, smile. "Only thirty? And here I figured you for an optimist. Either way, we should host a party when this is all over."

Sascha closed the door behind himself. Articles of Sascha's present outfit were tossed skyward. They draped over the top edge of the door carelessly. Sascha could be heard wrestling with the various buckles, studs, and unforgiving fabrics the pair had picked out of the racks.

The rustling stopped, almost ominously so, before Sascha reopened the door. Just his head and horns left the frame to give Cerpin a skeptical look. "Well I can hardly blame you for that. I am a fantastic investment, both monetarily and socially." Sascha nodded sagely, as though he'd solved some kind of riddle. Without alluding to whether or not he was joking, Sascha segued to the reveal of his complete outfit.

"Don't get me wrong, I absolutely will be trying on the eyeball pants. Just wanted to get this pair out of the way before I forgot how the belts on these were supposed to be done up." Sascha was wearing a couple shirts, artfully torn to shreds. The pants he'd picked out looked to be made of equal parts belt and buckle, with perhaps ten percent of the design reserved for something resembling actual trousers. It was any wonder he'd managed to put them on in the amount of time he'd spent in the dressingblock. "I didn't write myself a blueprint when I was putting them on, so getting them back on the hanger's gonna be the staff's problem." Sascha craned his neck to see what he looked like from the mirror behind him.

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

For a brief moment, Cerpin wondered if Sascha had gone to town on the belt section and added more into the pant's existing design. But no, it looked like it was honestly all the designer's credit. Everything clinked as Sascha moved to look at himself in the three way mirrors. Those were sure to get everyone's attention even if they couldn't see the man.

"The punk vibe suits you. Looks heavy to dance in but whatever, you're tough." He twirled a finger in the air as if to tell Sascha to do a full turn. He nodded in approval after the yellowblood completed it. The outfit was pretty extreme which was exactly what Cerpin liked to see. It was 120% or nothing in his world.

"Go put on the eyeball pants. And that shirt with the crazy bone collar." Truthfully, he was mostly curious if Sascha could get in and out of all these clothes without either damaging the room, damaging the clothes or damaging himself. They'd grabbed a lot of bizarre stuff that needed an engineering degree to get inside of.

"What kind of stuff d'you want at your party?" Cerpin waited for Sascha to saunter back into the dressingblock before stealthily snagging the pants draped over the edge of the door. Nothing like a good prank between friends, right?

"We got food, lights, a stage. But that's not gonna cut it for a victory celebration. We've gotta go bigger." He folded the pants messily and stuffed them in a pile of abandoned clothes near the chair he was lounging on.

"Maybe we can get Tincan's in on this. Motorcycle stunt riders sound like a show. I wish I could take mine out for a spin. You ever wanted to ride one?" Cerpin had itched to use the ******** amazing deal Etsali had found for him in that hellishly crowded holiday shopping spree. There just never seemed to be a good time these nights.

seekingCylem

 

[seekingCylem]

Sascha hummed thoughtfully as he mulled over Cerpin's input. "Dancing'll be a pain, yeah, but if you think about it, it's kinda like chain mail." Sascha did a lazy spin that was more preoccupied with understanding the anatomy of the pants than showing off. "On second thought if these aren't up to combat standards, the buckles will totally shatter. This is a shrapnel tornado waiting to happen."

Sascha unceremoniously disappeared back into the dressing block. It was any wonder he could hear Cerpin's words among the ensuing commotion. One almost expected to hear stock hammer and saw sound effects from the other side of the door.

"Think there are such a thing as indoor fireworks?" Sascha asked, sounding a little out of breath. A pause. "Wait, you've got a motorcycle?"

Sascha opened the door again to eye Cerpin appraisingly. The effect was magnified by the several dozen googly eyes bedazzling his pants. Sascha adjusted the collar of the shirt in a vain attempt to get the bones to stop poking him in the chin.

Sascha supposed it wasn't so surprising for Cerpin to have a motorcycle. He certainly had the funds for one. And the impulsive streak, Sascha noted. He smirked. "As if this sponsorship didn't come with enough perks! You don't take that thing around Chittentown proper, do you? You can hardly get above a brisk walking speed on these narrow-a** streets without running down at least five pedestrians and a grubdog vendor."

Sascha perched his hands on his hips and all the eyeballs rattled.

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

"Haven't had much of a chance with all the crap to do before the competition." Cerpin looked startled when all eyes in the room centered on him but recovered quickly. The yellowblood's interest was not surprising, if Sascha had the chance he would probably get one himself to try and ride while floating in the air just for the daredevil dramatics of it. Cerpin could totally get behind that imagery, it sounded badass.

"If you wanted to try one out, I guess I could let you after the show." He leaned back, folding his arms behind his head in a lazy and content pose. "If you're good, that is." It wasn't clear if Cerpin meant placing high in the competition, being talented or sucking up to the highblood. Or maybe all three.

"Anything you want to buy so far?" Right, they were supposed to be picking out clothes for the show. Cerpin sort of half heartedly tried to keep them on track, honestly more interested in showing off and impressing Sascha. He had an ego the size of his skyscraper.

seekingCylem

 

[seekingCylem]

"Heeeeey now, as if I wasn't motivated already!" Sascha grinned dangerously, perhaps too dangerously, at the chance to ride a motorcycle. "I'll hold you to that, Sugall. My goodness is a given." As if it served as a demonstration, Sascha strutted back into the dressing room.

The eyeball pants flopped over the door. They stared down Cerpin as if in response to the question. "I'm kinda digging the eye pants, but I don't know if that's exactly the kind of intimidation factor we're going for with my image." It was also unclear from Sascha's tone whether or not he was joking. The bone carapace joined the pants in a rather macabre tangle.
"The sparkle jacket is a must, though. Especially if I'm actually going to be riding a motorcycle. That thing is going to go crazy under the stage lights. Ha! I'm also taking all of this leopard print."

The rummaging noises continued for an odd moment before Sascha spoke again.

"Wait a second. Where the hell are my pants." It wasn't a question.

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

There was a loud snort as if Cerpin had tried to muffle it but failed.

"Since you like em so much, eye insist you wear em out!" There was the sound of something rustling outside before a bag of expensive jeweled beetles got randomly tossed over the door towards Sascha's head. More laughter followed as Cerpin tucked his prize under his arm and called behind himself.

"See ya at Swordstorm, idiot!" Footsteps hit the ground running as Cerpin booked it out of the store. He wondered if Sascha had his wallet or anything funny in the pockets of these!

seekingCylem

fin!