| This scene is rated Everybody |
| Warning: | Bright flashes may cause seizures. |
| 2015-05-21 |
| Players: | Jubilation, Marie, Drake, Killian |
| GMed by | Who GMed? |
| Title: | Displays of Jubilation |
The trip to California took about as long as Drake expected. It's the second time he's making the journey - albeit, the first time he's going astride a motorcycle. It took a couple hotel stays, but they managed to breach the city limits in good time. Drake insisted on beach-front lodging. He wouldn't allow anything else. It's a bit more expensive, but they're here on /vacation/.
Splurge, dammit!
The first order of business, however, is obtaining appropriate summer attire! Drake brought some clothes and amenities from the mansion, but nothing worthy of staying out under the sun. So this afternoon, he's voted to hit one of the best places to shop in the area: Beverly Center mall.
At this point, Drake is making his way through the busy establishment, weaving between some people with a single bag dangling from his fingers indicating he's already hit one store. The others may be in tow, or they may have dipped off to explore on their own. He's keeping it loose. The only thing that matters right now is soaking in the sights and sounds of his native habitat.
That teen has the most cheerful, perkiest of smiles~
Marie had happily driven her car the entire way and it drove flawlessly… of course the drive did TAKE FOREVER… and she could've flown it in like three house… but yeah, she still had fun seeing the sights of the US along their chosen route. However, getting close to her origin state felt a little too uncomfortable for her to deal with, thankfully it went by pretty fast. And here they are now, setup and enjoying a wonderful… mall.
"You know, its shocking how wherever you go in this country, mall's all look the same. And generally got the exactly same folk walkin around inside of'em." She says, glancing around from one store to the next. She wasn't doing any shopping herself, most likely, as she was pretty content with the clothing and items she had already. She smiled at seeing how happy Drake was though.
Jubilation has had a great day so far, and a barbershop quartet-style hat at her feet stands a solitary witness to that fact. The shallow straw hat sits brimming with a tousled pile of dollar bills, some weighted with quarters and various other coins, haphazardly thrown in on top.
A small crowd is gathered around her, consisting of mostly children. They seem transfixed as they watch small, colourful flashes and explosions of sparks fly up a foot or two above the teen's hands. She smiles, even more brightly than before, and squats down to the children's level, speaking in a loud whisper. "Ready for the grand finale?"
Her ruse of building their anticipation is not one without purpose, as her keen, brown-eyed gaze catches the flash of a mall cop badge about twenty yards away. The wall of children as they crowd in may well keep her display hidden from the cop's watchful eye.
Jubilation grins impishly and closes her eyes tight in mock-concentration as the fireworks explode furious and low, just above her hands, in an array of colours and vibrant balls of light. The children "oooh" and "ahhh," awed by her amazing magic trick. Little hands toss bills begged from the kids' mothers and grubby, sweaty coins into the already overflowing hat at her feet.
Yep…it's a good day.
"Psh, does not!," retorts Drake to Marie's assertion. "This is /Beverly Center/!" He turns his head forward again, eyes shutting and noise faux-haughtily pointing upwards. He adds, "'Sides, only Beverly Center has me."
After a beat, he peeks back over to Marie with a renewed, chipper grin. "It's great to be back, but it's so weird. I've been gone less than a year, but it sort'a feels like another planet." Despite this, he doesn't seem at all daunted, nor his mood dampened.
A few flashes of color catch his gaze - subtle, but distinct. A gaggle of children are crowding around… something. He can't see anything more than a few tufts of dark hair towards the center. "Lookit," he asides to Marie, "A bohemian." His path adjusts to begin a nosy approach.
Marie walked along with Drake. "I'll concede to that… This place is pretty fancy and I can see it being one of the nicer malls I ever been in, but still. Its a mall." She nodded to the doll store that shells five hundred dollar dolls to wealthy little girls. "Shit like that just never sits right with me."
Her eyes then went to the indicated entertainer and she smiled, this was more her kinda show, instantly reminding her of her own neck of the woods. She had her leather trench coat on, even though they were in steamy LA… she just didn't want to walk around in such a busy public place risking to expose anymore skin than absolutely needed… and she just watched the show. "Give'er some money, ya tight wad." She gave Drake's side a soft nudge with her elbow and grinned at him. "Make it a big bill, show her who's daddy."
The performer opens almond-shaped eyes, glancing sidelong, left and right. No cops. She straightens up quickly, and lifts her hands, open as though setting free a butterfly. A snaking golden dragon reminiscent of the parades in Chinatown jumps free from her outstretched hands and slithers through the air high above the heads of unsuspecting mallrats and shoppers.
The dragon catches a few gazes as the children chase it down the midway of the mall. At the pinnacle of the glass dome of an arboretum, it hovers a moment, undulating, before exploding into a shower of sparks with a quiet "paff!"
Jubilation laughs, scooting her haul in closer between combat-boot-clad feet, as she leans back against the wall, arms crossed, looking self-satisfied.
Drake halts just behind the perimeter of children. "Shh, hang on, I'm tryin' to see! Besides, daddy's mostly just got cards." Courtesy of Scott wanting to ensure he didn't go hungry. Since graduation, Scott seems to've really embraced the whole 'legal guardian' angle - ironically after the arrangement had legally expired! But Drake's not about to complain. It's nice having some semblance of family who cares.
And then there's a dragon.
Drake shifts back onto his right foot, vibrant gaze widened in astonishment. The kids take off after it, the display bursts, and Drake slooowwwly draws his gaze to the performer in question.
Oh. Look at that. She's cute.
"Wh-… uh.." Loading. "..that…" One more time. "…how'd ya do that? Fireworks?"
Marie's eyes rose up at the sight of the firey display. She opens her mouth but words do not come out, dumbstruck like the rest of the audience the young woman watches the show and then looks back over at Drake. "Gandalf?" She asks him, her eyes then sweep over to look at Jubilation.
The girl grins mischievously at the stranger's question and makes wigglefingers, giving a toss to her shaggy, punky black hair. "Magic."
She stifles a laugh as mall cops come flooding past, half-waddling, half-running, toward the arboretum several dozen yards down the midway of the mall toward the commotion. They seem completely oblivious to her presence as they stream past.
Drake maintains his gaze on the girl, but asides thoughtfully to Marie, "No beard," as if sussing out clues.
Frankly, Drake is concerned this was an open display of mutant power. But given the insanity he's experienced in New York, he's willing to believe pretty much anything. He'd even buy that she's an alien. Still, he feels the need to probe into things a little. Scott brought up Sentinels a time or two, and he's trained against them. If they should happen to crop back up and this chick be flashing mutations all over town, there could be a serious problem.
A significant glance is cast to Marie, then back again to Jubilation and her hat-o'-money. "Been doing magic long?"
Marie smirked at the beard comment and then looked at Jubilation when she wiggled her fingers and claimed to be a magic user. She glanced back at the mall security as they ran toward where all the people were, but it all looked to be mostly in order there.
"You related to Houdini then? Cause I ain't never seen magic quite so convincin' in my days. All twenty four years of'em." She looked the young Jubilation over and then looked at Drake. She knew if this girl was a mutant, she either had no idea she was… or wasn't going to talk about it openly here.
"Call it a gift." Jubilation winked at Drake as she positioned a pair of hot pink, turn-of-the-century goggles higher on her head, holding back the wild black hair. "I'm here all week."
She shook her head, that mischievous grin still affixed to her expression. Their interest made her a bit uncomfortable, but the show must go on.
Drake studies Jubilation a little more closely. The girl's a cagey one, not too verbose or giving on the information. He can understand, but at the same time, it makes it very difficult to make heads or tails of anything. Or should he even be trying to? She could have everything well in hand.
Except he doesn't believe that, per se. Mutants just aren't well-received. …Well, unless they've been well-established. Then somehow they get to skate by. Here's looking at you, Captain America, Spider-Man, and so on!
"Well… a'ight," concedes Drake. He eases back a step from her and fishes out his wallet. Folding money is a bit on the scarce side, favoring bank and credit cards this trip. But he produces a bill - a $10 - to wag at Jubilation between his index and middle finger. "Heck of a gift."
Marie immediately rolls her eyes at seeing the ten-spot. She shakes her head and looks at Jubilation. "That was a fancy trick ya did there, miss." She tells her. "Where's someone go to learn stuff like that around here? That… whats it called, the Magic Castle where whats-his-face is in charge? Doogie Houser, yeah?" She the grinned and looked at Drake. "Or was that in Vegas?" Her shoulders shrugged then and she looked back at Jubes. "I'm Marie, this one here is Drake… I ain't from around here and he's being kind enough to show me about. I can see why he likes it here though if there's crazy ass shows like yours." She grinned then and exhaled a bit, looking back toward where the mall cops had run.
Killian had been pretty quiet on the trip out of New York up to California, he's never been anywhere but the city, the school or home in Boston so was pretty much just taking in the sights, hence he got distracted one the way here and has only just caught up with the other two which he does at a very fast pace and slips into their group to blend in, "Don't draw attent…" and he spots Jubilation and the 'show', "Nevermind".
Jubilation gives a deep, sweeping curtsy and plucks the $10 bill from Drake's hand on the way back up. "Thanks Handsome. It serves me well enough." She pauses, looking at the $10, her eyes suddenly wide. Thoughts of food - real food - flood her brain.
Then, with a glance to Marie, "You can't learn stuff like this. This here's home-grown. Welcome to the Hills. Crazy's my middle name. First is Jubilation."
Yeah, that cat's well out of the bag, Killian. Hence Drake's trepidation. And he might have swatted at Marie, had he seen the roll of her eyes! Alas, the belle will go unswatted this afternoon. Besides, $10 is a lot, given he came just in time to see what had to be a finale! Way more than those kids dropped, he'd bet!
Hmph.
A glance is cast to the others in the party, then back to the newly-introduced Jubilation. "Creative parents," he muses. He'd give his name, but Marie already did! "Is this what you do? Or are you just kickin' around today?"
Marie turned to see Killian appear beside her and she laughed sofftly. "Ah, there he is!" She says with a grin, putting her left arm around his shoulders, her leather coat sleeve keeping him safe from her bodily wrath. "I thought we lost ya back there at that lingerie store." She grinned at him and motioned forward toward the pretty girl with the punky clothing and fancy black hair. "This here is Jubilation… and she just learned that Drake doesn't tip very well." She grins at Killian and then over to Drake. "I'm kidding. Don't… zap me, k?"
Jubilation's eyes darken almost imperceptibly at the mention of her parents. "They said I was a blythe spirit." She pockets the bill and bends down to pick up her hat-o-money, almost relieved to break the intensity of Drake's gaze. She fidgets with the bills, needlessly straightening them as an excuse not to stand up again too quickly, and considers his inquiry. "We all do what we gotta, right? A girl's gotta eat."
Brad Pitt makes his way by.
Drake glances after Marie as she traipses off after him. She can't make physical contact, but she's still pretty typical a female. Alas. And good thing, too! She may have gotten zapped just then!
"Doesn't tip well," mutters Drake under his breath, glowering after her. He can't be dropping Franklins all willy-nilly! What is he, P-Diddy?!
That emerald gaze slides back to the Asian girl's browns. He studies her a moment, unable to really breach the notion that what she's doing is truly metaphysical. She could be a younger chick version of Criss Angel. And coming right out and asking is a huge security risk for himself, as well as the school. So this two-step has to continue.
"I used to," he replies. "Then I got picked up by this bunch. You're not the only one with talents." He puts on a thin smile and lifts a hand. "Sec." He darts away to a kiosk to borrow a pen and pamphlet, upon the latter he scribbles. The pen is replaced, the pamphlet held out to Jubilation. "If you decide you wanna talk about that, call me."
The girl takes the pamphlet, looking genuinely confused as she reads the scribbles. Or tries to. Cause they're scribbles.
Jubilation looks back up, finally returning Drake's gaze. A heartbeat later, a voice from one side shouts one word. "THERE!!"
"Gotta run. Been nice meeting you!" The words tumble over one another as Jubilation scoops up her hat-o-money and couples it with the pamphlet in her hands, dashing off just as two mall cops arrive on the scene.