The line for Santa is miles long and doesn’t seem to be moving. At the front, it appears there isn’t enough help to keep everything running smoothly. Suddenly you are tapped on the shoulder and turn around to find a woman dressed as an elf looking at you with panic in her eyes. “There you are! Where have you been? Why aren’t you dressed? Hurry up! We need more hands up there!” It appears she has mistaken you for one of the missing elves. Do you go along with it? Set her straight?
Lovi was convinced they set her up for failure. This was the last day she was volunteering for the Santa-and-his-elves schtick and one of the older guys decided to just ditch out during his lunch. Then the girls in charge sent her out to look for him when she barely knew the guy! How was she supposed to recognize him in this sea of bad decisions? It was the eve of Christmas Eve, and literally half of Destiny City was crammed into the mall and clutching their last-minute gift ideas.
Sighing, Lovina skirted and sidestepped and slipped past all the people she could, but the mall grew ever more crowded as the day progressed. They felt shoulder-to-shoulder in some areas, especially around Build-a-Bear, where they must've had a killer special to attract all that attention. And the food courts were no joke — some of the lines for the cheaper restaurants had to be cordoned off in those ugly airport zigzag patterns. That was where her search started. She dragged her gaze across everyone she could while clutching the missing elf's mug shot in hand, but found no one that looked the part. Frequently she'd get jostled this way and that while new crowds moved around, and at one point she tried to stand on a table (but her Santa skirt and faculty discouraged her of the idea). With no progress made, she moved onto the next area.
And the next and the next and the next. Lovi burned a solid hour searching parts of the mall with zero successes. The guy just up and vanished. He probably walked out of the mall and wasn't coming back until the Christmas season was over. Dejected, her shoulders dropped and her normally bouncy gait lost much of its spring.
Until she saw him — the long, red braid was the sole part of the guy's photo that she kept hunting for, and it taunted her a few rows ahead. The waves of people that kept rolling through the mall corridor fought to keep her in check, however, and Lovi had to deploy a few well-placed elbows to even get close enough to call out. "Hey!" She shouted over the crowd. Immediately she realized she forgot the guy's name. "Braid-boy! Where've you been! We've been looking for you! Get dressed and come help o—… Oh. Oh. Um, hi Mr. Bell…"
Crap. She tucked some of her unruly hair behind a plastic elven ear. Ugh, now my dance instructor's gonna know that I do this tacky volunteering thing.
xxamasis
lmk if this works!
Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 2:06 pm
"Hey! Braid boy!"
Reflexively, Richard turned around, responding automatically to that epithet as if it were his name. It wasn't the first time someone had used his hair to get his attention, admittedly. His eyes scanned the crowd, not seeing anyone immediately, brain already turning back to the list in his pocket he had to check off before the night was out. It was easy to find the young woman after a moment, however, being that she was in an elf costume and yelling in the mall. She stuck out. His eyebrows disappeared briefly into his hair as he realized who it was trying to get his--mistaken--attention. As he turned more fully towards her, he wondered idly who it was who also had a long braid of hair and matched his frame, but what he said aloud was a, "Oh, Lovina!" with a jovial smile. He had noticed the costume, of course. "Having fun?" Richard gestured to said costume. "Any customer issues?" Crying children? Of course. Pushy parents? Probably.
T'is the season, after all.
That being said, he was sure it hadn't been too bad. She didn't look like she'd had any questionable substances thrown on her, so there was that, at least?
Character’s name:Richard Bell Age: 24 Appearance: Eyes: Narrow, blue with bits of green. Hair: On the red side of auburn. When loose, it falls to his knees in the kind of thick waves that tell you it'd be a mass of tight curls if he kept it shorter. He normally keeps it braided to keep it out of his way. He doesn't have defined bangs--those are as long as everything else. Face: Medium-dark olive skin, an oval-shaped face with a bit of an aquiline nose. Clothes: Loose, comfortable clothing that won't snag on anything in a range of neutrals and cool colours with the occasional pop of a brighter or warmer colour for contrast. Personality Traits: Honest, Optimistic, Friendly // Gullible, Fickle, One-track Mind
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Amasis
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 10:19 am
His worm reception led her to burst out in a giggle. She was glad to learn her teacher was pretty easygoing about the mistaken idenetitty; it could've gone a lot worse then a simple greeting. "Oh, nothing super surprising. Just the usual! Most of the kids are prety good, they're just excited to see santa and pose on his lap. It's mostly the long lines that are getting to people, and sometimes the prices." Lovi grimaced exaggeratedly. "They raised the prices again this year, cuz there's this new charity that opened up, aaaaannnddddd…" She shrugged, pivoting on her heels.
"But my biggest problem right now is, there's this guy that was supposed to be volunteering with us. And he was gonna be my partner since we're supposed to help lift the kids into Santa's lap, and right now the line elves are doing that job while I go look for him, but I can't find him anywhere. And I've never really worked with him before, so all I've got to go by is this picture they handed me." She turned the digital photo in her hands and held it up for her teacher to examine. While the stranger's face looked wildly different, his ruddy brown hair was pulled back into a braid of loose similarity to Richard's. In the mall's colored lighting and churning crowds, Lovi thought the mistake was pretty understandable.
"He just, like, vanished. And um, content warning, I'm not gonna be all PC here, but…" She dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned in close. "There's a lot of fat kids out there and I'm not really the strongest girl in the world."
amasis
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:02 pm
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Richard quirked an eyebrow at the whisper, a small, amused snort following it. "Well, it could be worse, right? Could always bring a stepstool over to Santa, so you don't have to lift any kids." Honestly, it was a liability having a worker lift kids, heavy or no. What if she dropped one on accident? What if one of them kicked or bit her? Well, if she came into the studio in a brace, at least he knew why. Glancing back at the photo she'd held up, he got up on his toes and spun in place a bit, trying to see if he could spot this missing elf. The mistake was pretty understandable, certainly, now that he'd gotten a look at the guy. "Well... Alright, I... don't... think I see him here?" He turned to face her again. "What other places have you looked?
He could at least help her find the guy while he was here. He was far enough ahead in his shopping, and maybe it would give him some other ideas for his family and boyfriend as they looked.
His height would be a good advantage to her, too. Maybe she could get back to a more fun position than helping kids up to Santa's lap.
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:58 pm
Lovi pursed her lips as she mentally retraced her steps. "I tried the food court first, then the outdoor smoking area, then that weird little dead-end part of the mall where all the other kids like to loiter. But I haven't tried the area up front by Macy's where the kids' playground thinger is, and I haven't gone upstairs to Spencer's either. He's probably in Spencer's, gawking at all their gag gifts. Or he just left or something." With a huff, she fisted her hands against her hips.
She, too, tried another scan. Even when biting her lip and peering hard at the masses, she found nothing. "Nope, I don't see him anywhere.
"Hey, are you busy? You've probably got some more Christmas shopping to do, buuut… Maybe you can help me find him? It'd be really great if you could!" She didn't have much to leverage on her end — the most she ever got from volunteering were five dollar coupons to Dairy-Queen-turned-Orange-Julius stands or oddball dollar off coupons to whatever the local pretzel place was, and those made for crappy bartering anyway. So she put on her sunniest smile and hoped she could melt down any potential Grinch in Mr. Bell. She was an elf, after all, and an elf on a volunteering mission. Who would turn her down?
"I promise I know my way around this mall like my own house. And maybe I could give you some cute gift ideas along the way? Pleeeease?"
amasis
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:21 pm
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He chuckled again. "Alright, alright, you have yourself a deal." Richard didn't have any Grinch in him today, having had a pretty good day all things considered. Plus, he loved the holidays and almost everything to do with them. He didn't even mind the crowds, really, as long as they weren't too rowdy or crowding him too much. There was a certain energy to them that he could get carried up with, very invigorating. Shifting his bags and making sure he knew where his wallet, keys, et cetera were, he gave the area another sweep. It was going to be complicated, what with how many people there were. Then, something occurred to him. "Although... do they have an intercom system? Can you page for him?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 9:15 am
"An intercom? Um… I think so." She never saw any of the supers use an intercom, but maybe they had access to the system and just didn't bring any attention to it. "I think the help desk might know something about that? Usually the supers carry walkie-talkies and sometimes point out suspicious people to the mall cops, but I haven't heard them mention using an intercom before. That's actually a really good idea."
Lovi whipped her head back and forth, scanning both sides of the throng, until she settled on a direction. Then she moved like an action star, or she liked to think she moved like an action star, by expertly weaving through the waves. "The help desk isn't super far, anyways. I think I'll just tell them to page him and then go back. They'll probably put me on line anyways."
She checked her skirt pocket for her phone, then pulled it out to the glow of two text messages. Each asked where she was, and if she found the missing elf yet. "That answers that. I got his name here."
Shortly after, she thumped into a customer by mistake and apologized as sympathetically as she could. "So, who you shopping for?"
amasis
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 9:40 pm
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And intercom would make the whole thing much easier, honestly, and Richard was on board with making things easier. He spun around on one heel when she paused to look for her phone, and he bobbed his head around to try and catch a glance of her coworker over the heads of everyone around them. He had a rough idea of where the help desk was, but he'd never had to use it, so he was content to follow her lead on this. It wouldn't do to offer her his help and then for him to subsequently get lost. It would be very rude of him.
It took him a second to realize she'd asked him a question.
"Oh!" He rummaged around the bags he had with him, then patted at his pockets. It was there that he found his wallet, pulled it out, and flipped it open. There, inside, was a picture of a man with fair skin, bright red hair, and so many freckles that he was about covered in them. One big freckle, almost. "Him!" A broad smile. Then, he flipped through several more photographs, this time of people who looked closer to Richard--darker olive skin, hair in varying shades of auburn and light brown, and blue or green eyes. They were all men. "And them. One's my boyfriend, the others are my brothers. I already have something for my parents, my nephews, and my nieces." As he spoke, he flipped by other photos rather quickly--a pair of young boys that looked out from identical dark olive faces with chestnut eyes and a pair of younger girls that looked out with deep umber eyes from identical brown faces--before putting the wallet away.
"I even got an early start, but it's never quite early enough."
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 6:58 am
Lovi looked over attentively when the wallet came out and the pictures were debuted. "Oh!" She declared, her mouth an excited 'o'. She hadn't really decided much about her dance instructor, other than that he was good enough at dance to teach it, but she hadn't really considered that he might be gay — or even dating anyone. But he didn't wear a ring, so it kinda made sense, and it wasn't really any of her business in the first place, so she couldn't outright admit she was surprised.
But she could think it, right?
"So most of them are your family? Wow, that's a lot of people." Kinda like mine. "Bet it takes you a long time to go through them for holiday gifts and stuff. And that you're always thinking about some birthday or anniversary." At least, she was. There was always a brother or sister or cousin or parent or aunt or uncle to consider, always a wedding gift to get, always some shopping to do. Maybe that was why she enjoyed shopping so much — she was so used to it!
And Richard might enjoy shopping, too. She was pretty sure, though, that having shopping in common with her dance instructor wouldn't really get her out more. Those were the kinds of friendships that get talked about, and coated in rumor, and then someone ends up going to jail.
Caught up as she was looking at photos and thinking her own thoughts, Lovi nearly missed the help desk. "Oh, hold that thought! I'll be right back!" She left little time to reply before she scampered off, gone for some moments, as she chatted with the help staff. As a result of her efforts, the intercom soon blared to life with a page for one David O'Reily to report to the help desk. Her whole form bobbed in vigorous thanks before she ran back to Richard, slipping through the thick crowd where she could.
"Okay! That's over with. Now, if you tell me three things about the person you're shopping for, I bet I can tell you exactly where we should start. Come on, we got a whole mall ahead of us!"
amasis
we can ftb here with them wandering off to shop? this effectively clinches the prompt storyline!
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 6:41 pm
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That works for me! Thanks, and feel free to hit me up once I have Loren in play, plus whenever I get Richard haha
Had she voiced that thought, Richard probably would have laughed, if only because he, well, wasn't gay, really. But as it was, he laughed at her observation that he was shopping for quite the crowd. "Yeah, but I wouldn't change it for the world, honestly. One of my other brothers and his wife are going to probably have a kid soon, too, and we're all kind of excited. They won't tell us if she's having multiples or not." Twins did run in his family, after all. He paused, watching after her with amusement as she headed for the help desk. The call that came over the paging system was more than explanation as to what she was doing, and he waited patiently for her to return. At her offer, he blinked rapidly in pleasant surprise. "Oh... well, sure!"
As he turned to tell her about that redhead whose picture he'd shown her, he had the thought that it might be harder for her to get him to find only three things to say...
