007 | Violet City; | Video / Action;

[nostabbing]

Being back in Violet after a successful thieving mission has left Parker...oddly restless. Sure, it was great to be back On The Job With A Team after a long dry spell of personal freelancing — albeit with A Team that surely would've driven Nate to drink even more than he usually did (which is saying something) — but working a job in the first place, and completing it, has put her in something of a Mood. Working (stealing) is something she understands. It's something she's good at. It's one of the few things in the world she could actually confidently say she likes.

The problem is, the long con has never been her game, and while professionally speaking she doesn't actually have a problem with stealing, thieves, or committing crimes in general, there's something that still puts her off about the thought that Team Rocket is the Bad Guys™. The capital letters are significant; even if you are something of a bad guy yourself in the strictest law-abiding sense, the Bad Guys™ are the ones who hurt people and deserve to be crushed into the dirt in flawless Nate Ford fashion, and helping out the Bad Guys™ in their aims — even if it's all part of a plan to situate yourself to be able to take them down in the long run — still doesn't quite sit well with her.

On the other hand, part of what they do (that is, she and her team of bad guys who are not Bad Guys™) is protecting the people who are Actually Good, and there's some of that to her promotion, too. It's always better to have the head of security's ID card than some average grunt's; just the other day, she successfully pulled rank on somebody and it got him to lay off. So this is a good thing, this promotion into the Bad Guys™'s fold. She just...doesn't...like it.

What she does like is stealing, and stealing suggests jewelry stores, and that's how she'd ended up at the little mom-and-pop jewelry store tucked away down a side street in Violet City, where her standard perusal of the modest wares was promptly derailed — the clerk, apparently whiling away a somewhat boring afternoon behind the counter, had been amusing himself with making simple bead sculptures to decorate the window display case, and Parker's creepy rapt fascination with his work had quickly led to the offer of a demonstration.

(Was that flirting? Maybe it was flirting. Giving her the benefit of his employee's discount on an assortment of beads and wire to take with her when she left was probably flirting. ...Maybe.)

Which left her with an armful of boxes, a head full of new information, and a slip of paper with a guy's phone number on it. Did it actually make her feel better? She's honestly not entirely sure. But hey, competently (?) navigating an everyday social interaction? She'll take her successes where she can get them.


~

[This afternoon, Parker "Alice" can be found at an outdoor table belonging to one of the cafes in Violet City, an iced tea condensing and forgotten on the tabletop near her as she concentrates on something that, given her level of fixation and focus, appears to be infinitely more interesting than her drink. Assembled in front of her are a set of tiny clippers, a spool of thin jewelry wire, and a few boxes of beads in bright and cheery colors; at the other end of this operation, a finished cell phone strap lies completed while a second, half-finished one takes shape beneath her careful fingers.

Every so often, she snaps a picture with her Gear, almost absently, like she's momentarily forgotten that it's set to upload those for public consumption to the Gear network when she does.

Bead art. It's serious business, apparently?]


[OOC: The reference picture used in this post was originally found here!]

Comments

[Action]

[ardent]

[...we're doing good with the socializing today, aren't we.

Thankfully, Ishimaru is without the headcrab by this point, having shoved her back in the ball for the time being; he's still got her on his person, just...not literally on his person, as Mitsuyo tends to be. He's honestly looking for someone to bounce his higher-leveled 'mons off of for training purposes when he notices Alice.

...she seems really invested in whatever it is she's doing. Hm.]

...Alice-san?

[Good lord, upon closer examination that sure is jewelry stuff everywhere, why...]

[Action]

[nostabbing]

[At the sound of her name, she glances up, hands still moving through the correct motions to string on another line of beads even though she's not actively looking at them — probably attributable to the fact that she's done it so many times by now that muscle memory can fill in where conscious attention is lacking.

Which is probably really creepy to observe, but hey.]

Oh, hi!

[Ishimaru seems so much perkier when he's not dosed to the gills on tranquilizers. c: ]

[Action]

[ardent]

[...Just a little, Alice.]

What are you making? I didn't know you did things like this.

[Action]

[nostabbing]

I don't! ...Didn't. A guy showed me how to today.

[A couple seconds later, being back to the point where she would need to add beads again, her hands falter a bit, which in turn prompts her to finally set the strap aside. A moment after that, she's fishing in her pocket to retrieve a little blob of green beads that, with some imagination, might resemble a frog.]

He was making ones like this, though. Little animals.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[When Blake sees pictures of something with the name Alice pop up on his screen, he tries ignoring it. But there's things you can only put off so long.]

[Before he can think about it too much, he hits the switch to turn on the video. He looks, for once, ashamed of himself.]

Hey.

[quickly] Wait, don't hang up. Just give me ten seconds.

[video]

[nostabbing]

[GOOD CATCH THERE, BLAKE because yes, she was totally about to hang up, ashamed-face asshole guy or not.]

What.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Good, she's still there.]

[Crap, Blake hasn't planned this far.]

[He spends most of that ten seconds trying to figure out what to say. He can feel Alice's patience running low and he still hasn't thought of anything good, so he blurts out something that hardly anybody alive has ever heard from him]

I'm sorry, all right?

[video]

[nostabbing]

[She just stares at him for the remainder of that ten seconds.

AND THEN HANGS UP.

...he's...gonna have to call her back, evidently...]

[video]

[likewatson]

[HEY PARKER WHAT'S UP IT'S THE GUY WHO GAVE YOU THE VAGUELY MURDEROUS NOT-TECHNICALLY-A-BUG THAT ONE TIME.

He looks curious.]

What's that you're making?

[video]

[nostabbing]

[OH HEY IT'S THIS GUY. Long time no see, this guy.]

Bead...things. I guess they go on a phone? And just hang off the side and look neat or something.

[video]

[likewatson]

[So.

1989. A small town that's a bit behind in the times.

Harry's having trouble picturing this.]

Hang off where?

[video]

[nostabbing]

[Suddenly, the age-old dilemma: demonstrating how something looks on a phone for someone you are talking to while on the phone.

Fortunately, Parker is thinking quickly to remedy this.]

HEY! YOU! YEAH, YOU, COME HERE! Give me your phone—

[THIS POOR BEWILDERED WAITER, MAN. But now someone else appears to be holding the Gear, and Parker is holding up the waiter's Gear with the charm alongside it for emphasis.]

Like this. The little loop up there.

[Action]

[aquatically]

[Oh hey, a familiar face! Asahina has been spending her days running around Violet getting the lay of the land, running her pokemon ragged trying to keep her from getting lost or wandering out past city limits.

But now something literally shiny has caught her attention.

She actually makes it most of the way to where Alice is sitting before speaking up.] Alice-chan? [Right? In person?]

Those are really pretty! Do you make things like that a lot?

[Action]

[nostabbing]

[Oh, hey! It's Ishimaru's drag-resistant not-girlfriend. Wow, she's even perkier in person than she was over the phone.

By this point, Parker's just beginning a new strap; there's a black one with red accent lying completed nearby, and she's in the process of stringing red beads onto the wires to get this new one kicked off.]

Oh. Hi!

[She glances up, fingers still working absently — she's done it enough by now that muscle memory is filling in when she's not paying it full attention herself.]

No, I just learned today. From a guy. I guess it's not that hard.

[Action]

[aquatically]

[A little wave, and Asahina looks over to get a closer look at the beadwork.]

Eh? Just today? That's extra impressive then. I was never really that good at crafts or artsy things, so it's always really interesting to see what people who are good at it can make.

[Action]

[nostabbing]

It's not that hard. It's just the same thing over and over again.

[Which is arguably why she's picked it up so fast; repetitive movements and predictable patterns have always been easy for her, particularly when they involve her fingers.

Who knew safecracking and lockpicking would contribute to independent artistic progress (as opposed to the kind of progress that involves depositing paintings into the trunk of her car), huh?

Either way, she kind of stares at Asahina a moment, feeling like this is the point where she's supposed to say something, and after a few moments of focused contemplation, she takes a tentative stab at it.]

...If...you want to...try a row I can show you.

[IS SHE DOIN IT RITE]

[Action]

[rocketralph]

<sub>[Look who's finally dragged himself into town! Almost literally. His knuckles brush the dirt as he stumps across the town threshold and starts scanning the streets to get his bearings. So this was Violet. It was so...small. You couldn't be anonymous in Violet.]

[Needless to say, Ralph's camping trip didn't quite turn out as planned. It isn't long before he spots a familiar face and gravitates towards Parker like a gloomy planet.]</sub>

[Action]

[nostabbing]

[RALPH. Already the day is looking up! She waves rapidly, not quite catching his gloom until after she's already hailed him.]

Ralph! Hey! Hi, hey! You made it!

[...And you look really sad...]

[Action]

[rocketralph]

_{[Ralph doesn't respond until he's finally reached the little table. He invites himself to sit down on one of the comically small chairs and shrugs his travel bag off his shoulder.]}

Yeah...whacha got there?

_{[He sounds SUPER mondo interested in phone charms. Like totally.]}

action;

[superordinary]

[ Oh, hey, it's the girl who made him picture Ishimaru with his abdomen sliced open and organs spilling out like a cracked egg onto the streets of Goldenrod. And who said she liked his hoodie. With a first impression and excellent taste in hoodies like that, Naegi definitely hasn't forgotten her face. So when he spots her and the jewelry stuff, he immediately decides to approach.

Maybe the conversation will go better this time around. ]

Alice-san?

action;

[nostabbing]

[Oh, hey, it's that guy she probably traumatized by talking about people committing ritual suicide back before she'd received the heads-up that ahahaha, the "incident" at school that Ishimaru had mentioned once a long time ago also extended toward traumatizing the rest of his classmates, too. Granted, she's still operating under some mistaken assumptions here (largely because no one really expects murderschool, even someone as off-kilter as Parker), but at least by now it's sunk in that Death = Really Bad as far as Ishimaru's family friends are concerned, and quite frankly she'll be damned if she hears tell of anybody making trouble in these kids' neighborhood ever again.

And by "she'll be damned", she means something more along the lines of "she'll beat people with chairs if she has to".

...Non-fatally.]

Hi!

[If her response is slightly on the side of too chipper, that's probably just because her inner monologue is currently blaring something to the effect of DON'T SCREW THIS UP, PARKER sixty times a minute.]

Makoto, hi. Uh...what's up? Your hair looks nice.

[SHE'S GONNA GET THIS RIGHT. SHE KNOWS IT.]

action;

[superordinary]

Huh? [ The sudden compliment catches him off-guard and he's momentarily too stunned to string words together and form an actual sentence. Give him a second or two. ]

Ah, uh...Thank you. [ He says, maintaining his polite tone though the surprise hasn't quite left him yet. ] Your hair...looks really nice, too.

[ #SMOOTHEST PROTAGONIST #you tried ]

What are you doing?

[ACTION]

[diamondo]

[Parker isn't the only one feeling a bit confused after their little raid. Mondo has been attempting to take it in stride, but he can't really say he's pleased with how things turned out. Sure, they managed to impress the Executives (who the hell are they anyway, they never show their faces!) but what's the point? They don't know for sure that they can take this organization down from within, do they? Maybe he was wrong about all this, and he was stupid to get Ishimaru involved.

But anyway, those thoughts aren't on his mind as he takes a break from training to grab a bite to eat. His back is still one horrible bruised mess from training with Ryder, his Scrafty (who doesn't seem to understand that you should take it easy on your ridiculously weak trainer). He pauses when he notices Parker, and approaches her immediately.]

Hey, Alice! What are you doing?

[It looks like she's doing some sort of... beading craft. Mondo parks himself across from her, crossing one leg on his knee and leaning as far back in the chair as it'll go without dumping him out of it. Parker's a good distraction from his pained back, after all.]

[ACTION]

[nostabbing]

[If Parker didn't already highly approve of Mondo for his exemplary conduct during their previous mission (and also helping her contend with Ishimaru in the aftermath), the way he dumps himself into the opposite chair like he owns it would've endeared him to her instantly. She'd have her own feet up on the tabletop herself if it wouldn't get in the way of her beading. Plus, he's just a cool guy. Even if his gang leader high school name thing is pretty ridiculous.]

Makin' stuff. They're bead...things. A guy showed me how to this morning.

[ACTION]

[diamondo]

[Hey, he does what he can! Acting like he owns the place is totally nothing new. You should have seen him at that school! If his feet weren't on the table it was a shocker.]

Oh yeah? They look pretty cool. Must be pretty difficult to work with shit that tiny, huh?