Not a special day. Just a day.

[ribbonbon]

Who: Pilouette and you
Where: District 3 and later, District 1
When: December 9th, Early afternoon through early evening
Summary: Pilouette runs into people during a typical day of selling sweets and post-work shopping.
Warnings: Possible bouts of silliness?



In the six months or so that Pilouette has been in Saeng Seong, she's managed to get used to being there. She's not necessarily happy about it, but she's gotten used to it. Over time, a neat little schedule eventually built itself up and today isn't much different. For most of the afternoon, Pilouette will be at her job, working in a small sweets shop in District 3. During her shift, she might be behind the counter or straightening. Just out of habit, she greets anyone who walks in with a smile and an automatic "Welcome! How can I help you today?"

After work, she heads over to the mall. She mostly window shops and, though she's not intending to actually buy anything, Pilouette spends an especially long amount of time of time looking at various small pieces of furniture. There wasn't much in her apartment that wasn't there when she arrived. After all, much of the furniture looked pretty pricey and she's not sure she really needs any of it, as nice as some of these things would be to have.

A bit later, on her way home, she makes her way to the grocery store to do her usual food shopping for the week. Along with the regular things like potatoes and milk, Pilouette looks over the various native foods, trying to decide what new thing she wants to try this week, carefully inspecting the various fruits and vegetables. Before long, she's on her way back to her apartment, groceries in hand. She's sort of come to enjoy the walk home.

...It's not home. It's just her apartment.

Comments

[4balls]

.. Oh.

[ Josuke blinks, almost as if he hadn't even expected anyone at all to be inside the sweets shop, even though anyone would normally realise there'd be an employee working there. So he bows somewhat belatedly and awkwardly in her direction before slowly standing up straight again. ]

I just wanted to look at the sweets first to decide what to get. If that is okay. [ He's not so sure anymore now if he's doing it right.. ]

[ribbonbon]

O-Oh...! Um, of course that's okay! Like, please, go ahead!

[She feels kind of embarrassed. Greeting customers that way has more or less become an automatic reflex for her, like a trained parakeet. ...Hey, wait a minute, she knows this guy, doesn't she? It's been a while since they talked but...]

You're...Josuke, right? Have you been, like, doing okay?

[4balls]

[ He's already busy looking at the sweets, having to bend down (after a moment he decides that just squatting down is easier than giving himself back problems and does so) to stare at them. When she speaks up, he at first has to look at her as if to confirm her identity, but once he looks back to the sweets he's got it figured out. ]

Yes, it's me. We met before. [ He remembers her, yup. ] And I have been fine. This place hasn't been all that dangerous as far as I can tell, despite all of us being kidnapped here.

[ribbonbon]

Yeah, same here. I guess it's kind of a relief, huh?

[Pilouette leans on her broom and nods.]

Except for that weird...spirit thing a few months ago, this place hasn't been all that bad, really. Plus, the people have been pretty nice so far. [Oh, that's right. She stands up straight, remembering something they had talked about before.] And I haven't seen anyone who seemed suspicious or anything! ...Not that I've been like, asking a lot of questions or whatever, but...

[4balls]

Me neither.

[ He shakes his head, apparently perfectly fine with keeping up the serious talk while he's just busy intensely studying the sweets on display.. ]

The only suspicious people seem to be the ones in charge of this place. After all, they are kidnappers. And one of the people here tried to contact them, but he blacked out the moment he arrived at the place where they are supposedly staying. .. That sounds very suspicious to me.

[ribbonbon]

W-Wait, like, for real?!

[Surprised, she stands up straight, nearly dropping her broom. She frowns a little, concerned. After all, someone blacking out while trying to see the higher ups? Not great. Pilouette lowers her voice just a bit when she next speaks.]

They've started telling us more stuff, so I was starting to feel a little better, but...geez, that's like, way shady! Maybe there's more to worry about than I thought...

[4balls]

I thought the same. [ At least he thinks she's a smart girl, catching onto it that quickly and even coming to the same conclusions as him! Even though they're.. pretty.. obvious conclusions.. but Josuke himself doesn't realise that, most likely. ] If they do that to people who just want to talk to them, then it does seem like they have something to hide from us, even if I'm not sure what it is yet.

[hellfire_gouka]

"You can start by telling me how you've been," comes the reply from the brown-haired teen who just came in through the door, adjusting his scarf. "Hey, Pilouette."

He decided it was about time he come to visit the sweets shop his friend worked at--for one, he's wanted to come in and say hi, and two, it's getting colder and chocolate always helps when it gets cold. It might be a good place to look for gifts, too... he's starting to think about what he wants to get for people, even if they don't celebrate anything in particular before the new year.

[ribbonbon]

"Shinju! Hi!" Pilouette's automatic smile turns genuine as she approaches him. She can't help but be a little excited to see a friend. Pilouette's sure that someone wouldn't come all the way to the store just to visit her, but she's glad to see him nonetheless.

"I've been okay! Like, how are you? What's up? Running errands or something?"

[hellfire_gouka]

"Sort of. I've been looking around for a new coat on and off," he replies, "but I haven't found much so far. I've been wanting to come check this place out, so I decided to come here first." He runs a hand through his somewhat damp hair--he'd gotten used to the weather, but his hair still fell flat even when it was only sprinkling.

"But I'm doing well, other than the cold and the wet. I can't wait until the spring, if this place has a spring."

[ribbonbon]

Pilouette giggles quietly. "Well, I guess this is probably the best season for coat hunting...and there's like, gotta a be a spring. There's a summer and winter at least," she replies. "I bet it'll be really nice, too..."

Or so she hopes. Aside from the rather...strange things that had occurred in this city, summer and autumn hadn't been all that bad. The festivals probably helped.

"Besides, winter isn't all that bad if you ask me. I think the cold weather is kinda nice. It's kinda nice to bundle up with a nice cup of cocoa sometimes, you know?"

[hellfire_gouka]

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see." He would look forward to whatever the next season was. As long as it wasn't like this all the time.

"Yeah, I'm fine with winter back home. I always liked to sit near the fireplace and watch movies when it got snowy, but all of this rain is killing me. I'm surprised everything hasn't flooded..."

He much preferred the snow. This much rain meant floods and getting sick and feeling sleepy all the time to him.

[ribbonbon]

"Yeah...Now that you mention it, it'd be a lot nicer if it wasn't wet and cold out," she says, looking toward the store front window. Cold weather and rain were fine on their own, but when the two are combined, Pilouette really wants no part of it.

She sighs, smiling a little. "Well, at least it's easy enough to get somewhere warm. ...It's probably easier to stay somewhere warm though. Business has been a little bit slow today. I mean, it's never really all that fast either, but..."

[wontdoanyless]

[Steve hasn't really been to a sweets shop too often, couldn't really afford to splurge on candy and treats back home. But now, he has money and even though he's still careful with it, even he couldn't resist paying this place a visit.]

Oh, good afternoon, miss. [He smiles politely at her.] Um, I was just looking around, haven't really decided on what to get.

[ribbonbon]

[Pilouette can't help but feel a bit of childish glee at being addressed as "miss." It makes her feel just the tiniest bit grown up. She grins as she answers him.]

Well, just let me know if you need help with anything! You really can't go wrong no matter what you choose, though. Like, it's all pretty good.

[She's sincere when she says that. Pilouette is sure she's tried nearly everything in the store at least once by this point.]

[wontdoanyless]

Thank you. [He looks around the shop for a moment, maybe he can get something for his friends too? Christmas is coming up...] Is there anything you recommend? I haven't tried most of these candies before.

[ribbonbon]

[Pilouette's expression brightens just a little more. A customer is asking for her opinion! Awesome! She thinks for just a second before answering.]

The candied fruit peels are all pretty good...and all the chocolates are pretty good. ...Oh! [She gestures toward a small box full of small leaf-shaped wafers covered in chocolate.] These are my favorite, though! This is the only place that makes them, you know. I guess they're kinda like...a signature item, maybe?

[wontdoanyless]

Lot of choices, aren't there? Hard to pick just one... or even two. [He looks over at the leaf-shaped wafers and wow, they do look good.] They definitely look good enough to be the signature item though. Haven't seen anything like it before.

[ribbonbon]

[Pilouette nods in agreement.]

Whenever I buy stuff to take home, I can never just choose one thing to try...but the leaf wafers are the one thing I always get. I'd never seen them either before I started working here. ...Oh!

[She gestures to a few open lidless boxes on a small table near the front counter] You can try a few if you'd like!

[wallcrawler]

Shopping for gifts on this scale was actually new territory for Pete. Usually the most he could manage was a small present for one or two people in his life, but with the allowance the city was giving him (and how little he'd been spending of it lately), he had more than he was used to. Not a small fortune by any means, but way more disposable income than he'd ever had before. And he figured lots of sweets was probably a good way to put together gifts for the people in the city he hadn't actually met yet, or knew much about. Better than hideous sweaters, anyway.

So it was probably for the best that Pilouette chimed in when she did.

"Uh...maybe? I hope so, anyway. I was hoping you could help me put together some gift baskets. Or at least find some good stuff to put in them."

Okay he really hoped she could help him because help he has never done this before, what does he do.

[ribbonbon]

Pilouette was almost ecstatic. Finally, a customer who actually wanted her help! She was practically beaming when she answered him, making sure to stand up straight.

"Of course I can help with that! Are you looking for just some general kind of stuff or like, things you can't find everywhere?" She asked, enthusiastically. "I guess if you're making gift baskets the prettier stuff might be nice...Or maybe a lot of simple stuff that will look good together? You don't have to worry too much about taste since it's all pretty good...Oh! Maybe a lot of different things? ...Or would stuff that tastes good together be better?"

She really didn't mean to ask so many questions, but Pilouette was so excited to actually be able to really help someone for once that she was determined to do a good job and help him figure out exactly what he needed. In fact, it was entirely possible that she was more excited than she actually should have been.

[wallcrawler]

"Uh...yes, I think?"

That was way too many questions to process all at once. And now he felt even more lost than he had when he stepped through the door. Everything about it just seemed complicated now.

"I mean, I'm kind of shopping for total strangers, so...I really have no idea where to start. I just want to get them something nice?"

[ribbonbon]

"Ohhhhh. Well, that's no problem!" she replies, skittering over to a nearby table and coming back with a few sweets on a small piece of tissue.

"Well, these are pretty popular. The little cute cat-shaped ones are pretty standard chocolates and these leaf-shaped things are kind of like, a shop specialty, I guess? You can only get them here," she says, holding them out towards him. "You can try them if you want!"

[not_really_charlie]

Charlie is in the sweet shop. She likes sweets. Or maybe she just wants to see what sort of things they have here. Either way, she doesn't expect to see a quasi-familiar face staring at her over the counter.

"Hey...."

[ribbonbon]

The gears in Pilouette's head start to turn as she does her best to keep up her smile. She kind of remembers speaking to this person once quite a while ago, but...How to greet her? She gave such a casual greeting, but since she was an adult that was probably okay, right? Should she give a casual greeting in return? Would not doing so be rude? But she's also at work...

After a moment of using her tryhard skills, Pilouette comes up with a course of action!

"Like, hi!! How are you?"