this is a [test] of the emergency broadcast system

[titansno]

TEST DRIVE MEME

> The Park. Man, what a nice day out. Why not enjoy it? I'm sure -- shit, yep, there's some echo monsters.
> The Mall. Exactly what it says on the tin! Dodge the hordes of teenage mallrats or take part, whichever suits your tastes.
> Rainy Day. Agh, it's fucking awful out. And is it raining those vermilion things?? Now you've got an Echo to contend with on top of everything else. Find some shelter, quick!
> PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, HOW FUN
> The most horribly kitschy Arts and Crafts Fair you can imagine.
> Wild Card! Make up your own.

Comments

[somesayinfire]

"It's okay," Brooke said, laughing a little to herself. She had a feeling that this girl was a recent inductee to the numbers club (imagine that), but there was no way she'd call her out on it in public like this. "These doors are pretty old," she lied. But it was a lot more graceful and made way more sense than the alternative.

"I guess you don't need to hit the gym anytime soon, though, huh?"

[chernobolt]

"Yes, they must be! I have never been to this particular place before, so I suppose I was a little enthusiastic opening them."

Being a fairly poor liar herself on the best of days, Kara saw nothing wrong with the story offered by the other girl. Her entire demeanor brightened with a non-akward way out of this situation at hand; the sheepish smile morphed into a large grin as she gently nudge the door with her foot a few times to make certain it would stay (more or less) in place.

"Perhaps I should be a bit more careful when I am in training. I do not think this is the sort of door holding that people have in mind when they are being polite."

[somesayinfire]

"Training?" she asked, trying not to snicker at the delicate door kicks. "What, are you one of those Russian bodybuilders? Keep that up and you'll win gold in 2014 for sure." She didn't know if the winter Olympics had a bodybuilding category, but it was just a joke and the other girl seemed more than willing to roll with those kinds of punches. Also the door-related punches.

[chernobolt]

"Ukrainian," she interjected absently, the response more a reflexive correction than any offense being taken. It had surprised her at first how many people had simply assumed she was Russian in Locke, but at this point Kara was simply happy to have an opportunity to tell them otherwise.

"I only wish that I had such an opportunity! But unless they decide that wrestling is worth putting back into the competition, I think that my only competition will be bank vaults." Kara couldn't help but giggle a little at her own joke, hands spread out as she shrugged. It was funny to her, at least. "I believe they might fare a bit better anyway."

[somesayinfire]

"Sorry, I'm not great at accents," she apologized quickly. "Bank vaults, huh? You know, we have a shortage of supervillains around Locke. Some good old fashioned bank robberies might make some of us feel like we fit in a little better."

She gave this other girl a knowing look and lowered her voice. So much for not discussing the numbers club publicly. "You know, other people who can do weird things like pull doors off their hinges. For example."

[chernobolt]

If eyebrows could fly off people's faces, Kara's would be in orbit by now; as it is they did the best they could considering the circumstances and disappeared into her bangs. Of all the things she expected to run into on her outing today, a stranger obliquely confirming that her problems weren't an isolated incident certainly wasn't one of them.

She instinctively leaned in a little and dropped her voice as well, trying her best not to make this look conspicuous. It's a bit difficult considering her height, but no one could say Kara didn't try. "I should hope that there are not too many! I am not very used to such a thing yet, you see, and it would be very disheartening to disappoint them."

[somesayinfire]

"You'd be surprised. We're still the minority, sure, but... well." Brooke looked around and realized that hey, this was a terrible place to have a conversation. "You wanna head somewhere more private? I swear I'm not hitting on you. We just probably shouldn't be talking too much about this in public."

Ah, bless this enormous Ukranian's heart. Still totally unaware that being a member of the numbers club meant you were always being hunted by corporations bigger than you could imagine. It was almost adorable.

[chernobolt]

"Oh, certainly! I do not mind keeping this down on the low at all." It was second nature for Kara to assume the best of people, and even if she was wrong she was fairly certain she could keep herself safe in this situation. So her grin simply widened as she stuck her hand out, cheerfully waiting for a handshake to be initiated. "You may call me Kara! I hope that we may be friends."

She'd even remembered to give her 'American' name for this introduction. It was a small thing, but getting that right instead of slipping back into her given name still gave her a little twinge of pride. And people had said that acclimating to a new country was difficult.

[somesayinfire]

"I'm Brooke. It's nice to meet you, Kara," she said, smiling. Though the prospect of a super strength handshake was a little terrifying, well, her right hand was made of rock. The worst that could happen was she got a cool new diamond hand. So she extended her hand and initiated her best handshake, keeping that same look on her face all the way through. Like she was the sole keeper of the world's worst-kept secret.

[chernobolt]

To Kara's credit, she managed to keep the force of her handshake significantly below door-tearing level; unfortunately, the overly enthusiastic pumping up and down likely made up for it. Either way it's over fairly quickly and, judging by the continued existence of Kara's smile, a complete success on at least one end. She couldn't help but rock back on her heels slightly once introductions have finished, mind already racing towards the next leg of the journey.

"So, where shall we go?"

[somesayinfire]

Brooke drew her hand back and masked her surprise in not getting any reaction on her arm; the Ukraine was weird, man. "Hm. There's a pizza place nearby if you want to get some food. It's so busy this time of day that nobody'll overhear us."

Besides, something about getting pizza with Kara felt... right, for lack of a better term. The same way she felt hanging out with Tim or Rachel, or even talking to the guy with the hypothetical robot arm. It was almost like she belonged with them.

"Come on, I'll lead the way. The door will... probably be fine."

[chernobolt]

Rural Ukraine was weird and Kara's natural desire to be polite has been ratcheted up since coming to America for fear of smashing cultural toes. Any questions she had as to the unusual prosthetic were tucked away in favor of focusing on the present - it likely didn't matter anyway, and it wasn't as if this would be her only conversation with Brooke.

"I hope so. I would feel very bad if it fell and hurt someone," she replied, casting one last worried glance at the crooked door before putting that behind her as well. "In the meantime, though, pizza sounds excellent! I have been wanting to try some toppings which I have never seen offered at home."

[somesayinfire]

"Awesome. It's down this way," she said, not taking Kara's hand but trusting her to follow. "What don't they have at home? I didn't even know pizza toppings were different worldwide. I thought it was all the same!" Except for some places in Baltimore she'd heard about where you can put sushi and mozzarella sticks on pizza. But other than those, generally the toppings were pretty homogeneous, as far as she thought.

[chernobolt]

"It is called the Hawaiian? Which I suppose is why I have never had it, if it is from one of your states." Kara spoke as she followed along, more focused on the conversation than where she was stepping. Fortunately she stuck out enough that any other pedestrians in her way had time to escape. "But perhaps they did serve it somewhere at home! I had only been in a very large city for two years before coming here - pizza was not very frequent before then."

[somesayinfire]

"Wait, you've never had Hawaiian pizza before? You poor, unfortunate soul." She tried very hard not to sing it and her effort should be praised. "You're another country girl, though, right? One of my best friends around here is like you. I think you'd like her. She raises horses for a living." Brooke's pretty sure that's what Chloe does, at least.

"It doesn't exactly seem like a universal constant. Even around here, people can't agree on whether Hawaiian pizza is the food of the gods or horrible nasty crap." She grinned. "There's a right answer to the debate, by the way, and it's that Hawaiian pizza is delicious."

[chernobolt]

"I suppose that I will be the honest test of that, as I have no real opinion on it until now." Which made it pretty similar to the experiments that she was endlessly reporting on in class; somehow this made the venture more exciting rather than less.

The more important topic of the conversation, however, was the horses. Kara couldn't help but claps her hands together in excitement, ducking a little to meet Brooke's gaze better as if that would wring information out of her more quickly.

"But does your friend truly raise horses? That is amazing! We have animals at home, of course, but we are mainly raising grain and the like. Is her home very far from the city? Does she raise them for racing or to work?"

Ah, and she'd been doing so well at keeping her tendency to chatter in check. There had to be a breaking point eventually.