saveyourbrain | THE BITTY MEME

[For a city as popular and supposedly big as New York City, it sure is pretty small. You'd think they'd make better goddamn maps, too, because, try as he might, Karl could not make heads or tails of this one!

Clad in a lovely 80s rock shirt, tight and torn jeans, leather boots with matching fingerless gloves and topped off with rocking shades, the kid almost looks like he fits in with the time period. Even his past mid-back length hair is just pulled up into a simple ponytail, no aquanet or nothing! One thing that kills that, though, is the very clearly 80s style bandanna mixed with the beige leather jacket with tassels and AURION rhinestoned on the back.

An annoyed groan escapes the teenager as he looks, or rather, glares up at the nearest street sign. Just gotta get the bearings straight, right? Then he can find the hotel and throw a proper fit about his bandmates leaving him in the middle of New York City alone.]

All right, this is... Clark St. Clark St... Clark St....

[Now, where the fuck is this on the map? Skimming the, though unknown to him, very outdated map proves useless. Is it even close to Michigan Avenue? Or near the Sears Tower? Maybe near that funky Arch thing? No, wait, that's in Louisiana. Ugh.]

Edited 2014-04-21 23:15 (UTC)

[How is Karl 15 when Danny is 29? Does Danny's old CR with the adult Karl still hold? Has he been pulled into the past to see this kid version? The answer to all these questions is SHUT UP AND ROLL WITH IT.

Which Danny does, walking down the street pretty casually. He raises his eyebrows when he passes by some kid dressed like he walked out of a time capsule from the 80s (or what he assumes the 80s were like) using an honest to god paper map. Danny hasn't seen one of those since he was maybe six or so. It takes all his energy not to laugh at everything about the kid, and he fully intends to hold it in until he's walked well past him.

It doesn't work, because just as he passes him, he notices the leather jacket. What really grabs him are the tassels and the rhinestones, and how eerily familiar they are.

He backtracks a few steps, standing in front of the kid.]

Hey, you need any help getting somewhere? It doesn't look like that [he points to the big, messy paper map in Karl's hands] is all that useful.

[ROLLING WITH IT LIKE A TRAIN. A SOUL TRAIN. Some guy coming over to help had to be a godsend. What is a teenage boy asking for help himself? Never happening, not in a million years. That last part makes it less godly and gets a nice groan in reply, though. Any more obvious comments you wanna make there, Einstein?]

Tell me about it.

[They need to invent like maps that actually show you where to go! Or tell you if you're going the right way!! Sigh, that probably won't happen any time soon. Or ever. Whatever, this old guy offered to help so maybe he'd know where that stupid hotel is all.]

Do you know where the... uh...

[A long, hard silence follows as Karl realizes getting the name of the hotel never really occurred to him. Whoops. He runs a hand through his hair out of pure annoyance.]

The hell was it called...

[Face gets buried in map once more to try to find the place. Okay, 5th Avenue is here so the hotel should be around there... It started with a V? No no, wait W! YEAH and it sounded like some sort of perfume. OH THERE IT IS!!]

Oh, yeah! The Waldorf Astoria is at?

Edited 2014-04-22 03:03 (UTC)

The Waldorf Astoria?

[Danny doesn't even have to pull out his phone and check what that is, because he already recognizes it as a hotel in New York from his year of college there before he decided to come back home.]

You're in the wrong city for that. You're in the wrong state--this isn't New York. You're in Locke City, New Jersey.

[...and just because he can't resist: ]

You'd probably have known that if you were using a GPS instead of that. [He points to the map again.]

[That catches Karl's attention. His head instantly snaps up to just stare at the guy as though he grew another head.]

Dude, for real? New Jersey? When the hell did I get to New Jersey?

[Insert ultimate teenager groan here. It isn't THAT far from New York but... did he really walk that far? Do people just walk differently when reading maps?? Great, problem of where he is down, problem of how to get back left. Maybe calling a cab? Or just walking since it didn't take that long?

Wait, what the hell is the guy talking about? GP... A jeep? Why did he say that so weird? Do all people in New Jersey talk like this? Seriously weird.]

And yeah, a Jeep would've been way more helpful than a map, but I don't carry around one of those in my pocket.

Edited 2014-04-22 03:43 (UTC)

A Jeep? No, no, that's not--[sigh] Okay, I have no idea how a kid misses New York by an entire state, but here's what. I'll help you get back to New York, alright? No charge, I'll even buy the ticket, if you don't have any cash on you.

[If it sounds like there's a catch, that's because there is.]

[...what the hell is that kid wearing.

Melissa sees him from the front at first, so the glaring obviousness of the jacket doesn't hit her yet. She just sees some kid in what is possibly the most 80s outfit she's ever seen. And using a map of all things.

Since it hasn't even occurred to her that Karl would have shrunk (again), she'll approach the kid, in uniform so it probably looks just like concern.] You lost? [and what kid has a paper map?]

[Any attention his clothes might be drawing gets completely lost on the poor kid. Finding the hotel takes up all his attention, so much so that he doesn't notice the police officer approach at all. Most importantly, Karl doesn't notice it's an officer when the stranger speaks up. A snort coupled with an eye roll comes at that question.]

No, I just think maps are totally the bomb and read 'em for fun.

[So much sarcasm drips off that because, really, why else would he be looking at a map? Still looking, too. Not worth looking up to deal with this lame-o adult right now.]

[Is it any wonder that she doesn't get on with kids? Especially one that seems... dated. Seriously, no one acted like this even when she was a kid. Is the 80s really coming back in such full force?

With a very flat expression, she reaches out to pull the map down away from the boy's face. She was expecting to make a remark about just pulling up mapquest or something until she gets a look at the kid's face. And holy shit does he look a lot like a certain friend of hers.

So... congrats, Karl. You are facing a very attractive ~~and with actually less of an age difference than normal~~ police officer who looks confused as shit.]

[Woah woah woah, did they just pull down his map? Oh hell no! A nice, colorful shouting is so so close to pouring forth like a little swear river but gets bitten back at the last second at the sight of the uniform. Pretty girl being in it helps, too. Teenage boy can't help but stare. And then promptly blush and quickly look away cause she's staring at him, too. Uh, saying something sounds good, yeah. Insert awkward head scratch.]

Ah, sorry about that, officer. Thought you were some kinda lame adult.

[The sort of apology actually sounds genuine! It's not the voice of a kid scared of cops, but rather a kid who respects them. His tone went from jerk to respectful in 2 seconds flat. Cops are good guys and definitely not being an ass to one. Their jobs are difficult enough without that!]

But yeah, I guess I am. Me and a couple friends came in from Boston. They bolted and left me at some burger joint expecting me to play Degas.

[And by Degas he means de Gama. Genius, isn't he?]

[Luckily, Meliss manages to compose herself while he's talking. This... was not ok. No. At least when Eugen shrunk he didn't start acting like a kid again. And Eugen wasn't a kid from before Melissa was born, either, which helps.]

Boston, huh? [Acting like she'd just been surprised to see him or something (and that she has any idea what he's talking about), Melissa glances down at the map.] Well, I think I see part of your problem. You're not in New York.

[maybe this is just... another of Karl's kids or something. one who looks exactly like him. and is really behind the times. yup. going with this so she doesn't panic.]

THE BITTY MEME

Karl Aurion | Tales of Symphonia | Age 15

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