Post by krista on Dec 24, 2010 9:40:39 GMT -7
Asp buried her face further into the plush scarf wrapped around her neck, as the chilling breeze blew past her, down the streets of the International district. Hands shoved in pockets, she weaved in an out of groups of people, navigating the crowd.
Bunch of mindless holiday zombies… she sighed to herself. Though, she supposed, right now, she wasn’t better than the rest of them. For the first time in a few years, Alma was actually free on Christmas Eve and intended to take advantage of it, buy joining the mindless procrastinating masses and going shopping. For someone other than herself.
The only thing she could imagine that Garret would really want for Christmas would be some new experimental new piece of cyberware, or some fancy new pain killers…. Basically shit you couldn’t just waltz in off the street and request from Evo, even if you weren’t a wanted criminal for raiding their drug stores for the black market years earlier.
So she booted up one of her spare commlinks, and was now shopping as “Christina Beckett”.
Shaking her head, Asp gazed in yet another window. Chairman Mao watches? When would the god damn Chinese get over that guy. You think over 100 years passing and a giant red and gold dragon would be enough to diminish his importance, but this particular store seemed to have his visage plastered all over several types of crappy goods.
Just deciding to leave this area of town to find something half decent, Alma turned around to head back to her car (which was parked in a structure a few blocks away) when she slammed into what felt like a brick wall.
Stumbling a step backwards, she shook her head, and squinted upwards. Looking up, all she could see was the underside of a greyish pink chin, along with two large tusks rising up out of the lower lip.
“Uh… sorry?” Asp said absent mindedly, getting a better look at what, or who, she had run into.
Guai snorted in derision, as yet another human didn’t seem capable of navigating their way around her. She was 8 feet tall for godsakes, you’d almost think she’d be easily no notice.
The woman seemed dazed for half a moment, but running into a wall of muscle, bone, and dermal armour might have that affect on someone like her. The adept guessed she was probably a corp princess, or the wife of a high society guy. Maybe she was a fancy whore. Long dark brown hair, green eyes, even Mei-Hua had to admit this chick was a looker.
“You ok?” Guai asked quietly, or as quietly as she could while still being heard above the festive din of the surrounding city.
“Yeah, sorry about that.” The human said, with a sideways grin. “Not really paying attention like I should. I try to tune most junk out this time of year.”
Mei-Hua cracked a toothy grin. “Tell me about it, though I can be hard to miss sometimes I guess.” Paused, she tipped her large head slightly to the side, slanted eyes squinting as she though. “You look very familiar…. Do I know you from somewhere…?”
Asp raised a hand to her chin as she looked at the troll. The face was pretty sure she would remember an 8 foot tall, female Cantonese troll if she’d ever met one. They mostly got Orks and Humans in at the clinic, and the only Troll she’d ever ran with was Munchkin....
“You go out? Maybe at a club or something.” She remembered once that Badger had to reschedule a meet for a Johnson at Sally’s due to the back room being destroyed by an explosion. Rumor was a female troll had got pissed and had triggered a cranial bomb with a wayward swing.
“Not really.” The troll answered in a Cantonese accent, with a large shrug. “Whatever. Déjà vu, I suppose.”
She shrugged in kind. “I better be going then. Gotta celebrate Christmas cheer and good will and all that other bullshit.” Asp gave a troll a pat on the shoulder as she passed around, going in the direction she had originally intended. “Sorry to bother you.”
“No worries.” The troll headed off in the opposite direction, raising a single hand in a lazy wave without turning around to look back. “Have a good one, chummer.”
Asp paused, and turned around to glance at the troll again, just in time to watch a pair of strangely delicately curved horns disappear around the brick corner.
These damn holidays are driving me crazy. Alma thought to herself, pulling a package of cigarettes out her pocket. Lighting one, she took a quick puff before continuing back to her car.
“Fuck this shopping….” She muttered to herself. “I’ll just buy Garret a beer…”
Bunch of mindless holiday zombies… she sighed to herself. Though, she supposed, right now, she wasn’t better than the rest of them. For the first time in a few years, Alma was actually free on Christmas Eve and intended to take advantage of it, buy joining the mindless procrastinating masses and going shopping. For someone other than herself.
The only thing she could imagine that Garret would really want for Christmas would be some new experimental new piece of cyberware, or some fancy new pain killers…. Basically shit you couldn’t just waltz in off the street and request from Evo, even if you weren’t a wanted criminal for raiding their drug stores for the black market years earlier.
So she booted up one of her spare commlinks, and was now shopping as “Christina Beckett”.
Shaking her head, Asp gazed in yet another window. Chairman Mao watches? When would the god damn Chinese get over that guy. You think over 100 years passing and a giant red and gold dragon would be enough to diminish his importance, but this particular store seemed to have his visage plastered all over several types of crappy goods.
Just deciding to leave this area of town to find something half decent, Alma turned around to head back to her car (which was parked in a structure a few blocks away) when she slammed into what felt like a brick wall.
Stumbling a step backwards, she shook her head, and squinted upwards. Looking up, all she could see was the underside of a greyish pink chin, along with two large tusks rising up out of the lower lip.
“Uh… sorry?” Asp said absent mindedly, getting a better look at what, or who, she had run into.
~*~*~*~*~
Guai snorted in derision, as yet another human didn’t seem capable of navigating their way around her. She was 8 feet tall for godsakes, you’d almost think she’d be easily no notice.
The woman seemed dazed for half a moment, but running into a wall of muscle, bone, and dermal armour might have that affect on someone like her. The adept guessed she was probably a corp princess, or the wife of a high society guy. Maybe she was a fancy whore. Long dark brown hair, green eyes, even Mei-Hua had to admit this chick was a looker.
“You ok?” Guai asked quietly, or as quietly as she could while still being heard above the festive din of the surrounding city.
“Yeah, sorry about that.” The human said, with a sideways grin. “Not really paying attention like I should. I try to tune most junk out this time of year.”
Mei-Hua cracked a toothy grin. “Tell me about it, though I can be hard to miss sometimes I guess.” Paused, she tipped her large head slightly to the side, slanted eyes squinting as she though. “You look very familiar…. Do I know you from somewhere…?”
~*~*~*~*~
Asp raised a hand to her chin as she looked at the troll. The face was pretty sure she would remember an 8 foot tall, female Cantonese troll if she’d ever met one. They mostly got Orks and Humans in at the clinic, and the only Troll she’d ever ran with was Munchkin....
“You go out? Maybe at a club or something.” She remembered once that Badger had to reschedule a meet for a Johnson at Sally’s due to the back room being destroyed by an explosion. Rumor was a female troll had got pissed and had triggered a cranial bomb with a wayward swing.
“Not really.” The troll answered in a Cantonese accent, with a large shrug. “Whatever. Déjà vu, I suppose.”
She shrugged in kind. “I better be going then. Gotta celebrate Christmas cheer and good will and all that other bullshit.” Asp gave a troll a pat on the shoulder as she passed around, going in the direction she had originally intended. “Sorry to bother you.”
“No worries.” The troll headed off in the opposite direction, raising a single hand in a lazy wave without turning around to look back. “Have a good one, chummer.”
Asp paused, and turned around to glance at the troll again, just in time to watch a pair of strangely delicately curved horns disappear around the brick corner.
These damn holidays are driving me crazy. Alma thought to herself, pulling a package of cigarettes out her pocket. Lighting one, she took a quick puff before continuing back to her car.
“Fuck this shopping….” She muttered to herself. “I’ll just buy Garret a beer…”