(open mingle) it's not the mall without a spencer's!

[metafictions]

WHO: Kamui (metafictions), Wrench (wrenchedup), and you!
WHAT: A very silly mingle for hunkering down in the Spencer's.
WHERE: the city mall
WHEN: sometime during the August event
WARNINGS: Suggestively shaped bachelorette party items, will update for anything else.




After some hours of confusion in the dark, it becomes clear that they're all going to be stuck in the mall for a while. Naturally, the need for a safe home base arises next.

Enter: the Spencer's Gifts on the mall's second floor. It's near enough to emergency lighting to almost be visible, but more importantly, it's full of enough food and supplies to… sort of make it work, when it comes to hunkering down for a bit. Far preferable to sleeping on one of the mall benches, anyway.

The shop is stocked like pretty much any other Spencer's in the mall in 00's North America:

Cases and rows of alternative fashion, from spiked wristbands and chokers to body jewelry and gauges, line the shop. If you're especially enterprising they could be repurposed as a makeshift weapon. Orrrr you can just keep your cash in that chain wallet

Pop culture merch is also highly represented at the Spencer's. There's stacks and stacks of anime t-shirts, funny graphic tees, and novelty bobbleheads and other figures.

Careful going to the back of the shop, though: that's where all the adult items are kept though a whole lot of it might be already raided by Wrench, ask about that later.

Most importantly is the construction of what has been lovingly (oocly) dubbed as… ~ The Naruto Fort ~ or The Nort for short:

Welcome to The Nort.
Whether you’re helping construct it, stock it full of goodies, protect it from things that aren’t actually there, or just paying a visit or coming to sleep for the night The Nort can be found occupying one of the aisles close to the entrance.

The tent walls are crafted by strung together nondescript anime t-shirts and weird goth costumes and probably at least one tie dye pot leaf flag. There are tons of novelty pillows in all sorts of odd shapes (yes, there’s probably one that looks like a butt) for you to rest your weary head. There might even be a few throw blankets of everyone’s fav emo band, My Chemical Bromance.

Comments

[matermali]

[ A natural enough reaction, and far from the worst that Vanessa’s attempts at ‘comfort’ have incited. ]

It means that what I think is of no importance. In that respect, all that matters is what you know, and if that is worthy of judgment then it isn’t mine to make.

[ Everyone who has ever had a soul has also had sin. Now Vanessa only possesses one.

So released, she slowly stands. ]

Do you believe yourself to still carry a soul?

[keepgodwaiting]

[ That question is both strange enough and specific enough to make Constantine pause. In the echoing darkness of the mall, it makes her wonder, wildly, if this woman knows something she doesn't. ]

Why do you ask?

[ She hauls herself to her feet, as well, rubbing a hand harshly over her eyes. Her gaze keeps flicking over to the mannequin, as if she can't quite believe it won't come back to life. ]

[matermali]

[ Her gaze follows the other's to the mannequin. Vanessa has yet to see them act up twice in a row, but one can’t call oneself an expert in so short a time. It would be terrible to experience such a thing again, but she would be reluctant to allow Constantine to go through it alone.

Then, her gaze travels back, and though there’s something soft in her rasp of a voice, there’s nothing gentle in her words. ]

Are you a murderess?

[ Despite its framing, she doesn’t want or need a response. It’s a question and answer for the other woman alone. ]

Have you been able to carry on as nothing but yourself, to persist without the sanctity of a soul? Would you be able to? If you know the answer, then no matter which truth you live, you have nothing to fear from the judgment of others.

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Vanessa may not need a response, but she's getting one. ]

What a fucking question. Jesus. You got one thing right, mate, it's what I know that matters. And I didn't--

[ Johanna stops, swallowing a lump in her throat. What does she know? ]

That isn't how it happened.

[ Cool, very definitive, not at all self-damning. ]

"Do I have a soul." Fuck, do you?

[matermali]

[ It's inspiring to see such vitality in someone who just experienced an iteration of their own death. Vanessa doesn't speak of the girl any longer, though she knows that's where the focus will remain for one so recently strangled by their past. No, not how it happened, of course not, just as Mina hadn't actually drained Vanessa of life.

But there was enough truth to the threat that it could so easily could have been a memory, had things only gone a little differently. And would Vanessa have fought her?

The returning question garners only silence with her stare. Cool, very definitive, and openly self-damning. Only, one could almost see grief furrow her brow if they look for long enough, but she gives no time before moving toward the mannequin to pull it upright. ]