DOWNTOWN: Highland Mall(#885RJ) The center of the mall, the heart of all its being, the mall's center foyer provides ample space and is, perhaps, a sight to behold. The ceiling of the center of the mall is a high, cathedral arched ceiling, each section filled with plate glass to provide massive amounts of sunlight to enter through and light the mall below. The center is decorated by a numerous amount of plant life and a few palm trees, nestled carefully into four, sectioned off areas surrounding the very heart of the foyer. From the center of the mall branch out three separate pathways, each leading to their designated halves of the mall. Often during special occasions or mall weekends the foyer is a draw for many shoppers, being that many are drawn to performances by bands perform here, or the annual visit of Santa and the Easter Bunny. To the far, southern end of the mall's center foyer is the information booth, often occupied by helpful mall assistants or a less than imposing security officer swathed in white and black. Contents: Train Nina Obvious exits: East Wing Food Court West Wing EXIT The malls in the Espera suburbs are okay, but honestly, if you really want a great mall, you have to come into Midgard proper. There's just something about the place--maybe the great glass ceilings, except that many malls have that. Maybe it's the decor. Whatever it is, Ask isn't quite sure, but she does like being here--and after being let off work early, it seemed the perfect idea to come here and shop. Except, after getting here, she'd realized that a) she doesn't really have anything to shop for, b) she doesn't have much money on her, and c) after being on her feet for five hours, it's much nicer to just sit down on one of the benches in the middle of the foyer, and sprawl out. So she's doing precisely that, hat tugged down low on her forehead, and occasionally sipping her iced chai latte, lazily watching the flow of shoppers beneath lowered lids. Brushing past the bustle of the evening shoppers and towards the inviting resting point of the benches of the foyer, Nina takes a sigh as she sits down. She sets a black leatherbound portfolio on her lap, then rests her elbows on it lazily and her chin in the palm of a hand. The mall was probably a bad place to think of looking for work, considering her pickiness in remaining out of the service industry. Directly dealing with customers... she looks around at all the people brushing past, her brow furrowing on it's own. She sighs, pushing off the annoyment, and leans back in her seat as she crosses her legs and relaxes a bit, thinking of where else she can look around. It's another exciting day at the mall, apparently! What, with all these different stores filled with various sorts of things for sale that have absolutely no practical use other than for show. ... Come to think of it, the mall isn't that interesting at all. Unless, say, there's a dinosaur raging through it. And since there is an apparent lack of dinosaurs, Train Heartnet is bored. The young ex-assassin ambles lazily along the second floor, his arms stretched behind his thick brown hair and... a partial hamburger dangling from his mouth. It looks like the man barely has the time to sit down or even -hold- what he eats, but a second glance would reveal that he's... tired. Not tired, really. Just... -incredibly- bored. He scans the area, wishing he was somewhere more interesting, and his path slowly begins to direct him towards the young Askiana's location... Nina Standing of mid-stature for a young woman in her early twenties, her long, reddish-blonde hair deceivingly makes her look a smidge shorter from a distance. The hair from the back of her head is cut short and is an bit unkept and wild, while the rest flows from the back her neck smoothly down her back to about her waistline. Her bangs are either brushed in any which direction, as long as they're out of her eyes, and two long locks of her hair frame either side of her face and stop at her shoulders. On her ears are a pair of small, simple, brass looped earrings. She has small aquamarine eyes that shine of intelligence and fervor, and her small face is often an expression of uncertainty or slight perturbment. An empathetic person might pick up on her tendancy to be annoyed easily, and she's quite aware of this side of herself. Obviously she doesn't do much to hide it away, wielding it as an effective interpersonal barrier. On this day she wears a rich, deep blue, knitted fleece shirt with wide shoulders, and long sleeves. Around her left wrist are a pair of simple silver loops. The back of the shirt is low-cut, but the ends of a short white scarf wrapped once loosely around her neck are thrown towards her back to cover up some of the exposure to the cool fall air. The shirt loosely hugs her well- endowed hourglass figure, extending slightly past the waist of her white cotton skirt. The skirt falls to just above her knees, and the seam is cut about halfway down the left side, allowing further exposure to her long legs. She wears a pair of black, ankle boots with clasps over the throat (where the tongue of a shoe is) and around the ankle. Only the clasp over the throat has been done up, the ankle of the boots left casually open. The approach of the pretty woman carrying with the black leather portfolio is observed with bright green eyes, and Ask blinks a bit, wondering what she's carrying that for. Resumes, maybe? Or maybe an actual art or photography portfolio of some sort? Whatever it is, she looks tired, and seems to have much the same idea as Ask in regards to sitting and taking a break. Taking another sip of her chai, Ask... slurps on empty air. Oops. Trying vainly to catch the last drops, she finally gives up and glances around for a trash can. There's one maybe twenty feet away, and her eyes narrow at it. Hmm... wonder if she could make it? No better way than to try! Just then, the woman seats herself on the other end of the bench Ask sits on, and she offers a bright smile and a "Hi!", apropos of nothing, before cocking her arm back to let fly. The cup arcs through the air--but unfortunately, her aim was thrown off by the momentary distraction of greeting, and the ambling Train is in the same area as the trash can... The invasive noise of the bottom of the empty cup takes Nina out of her wonderings and she looks lazily over to it's source. She isn't given a moment to show her perturbment as she's greeted cheerfully. Thrown slightly off, she gives a quirky half-smile in return, "Er..Hi." Nina replies as the woman beside her attempts to make the throw to the garbage. Her eyes follow the cup's long arc, but only part way as she notices where the cup's going to end up. Her gaze fixates on Train - particularily the arm holstered on him, tensing up in apprehension. Train What stands before you is... apparently a harmless man of around twenty years of age. He's about average height, with about average build, the only particularly strange thing about his is his truly odd resemblence to a cat. A large mane of shaggy dark brown hair rests atop this young man's head, left completely unkempt and the bangs and tips lie strewn about in all directions in no particularly visible order. Under the hair is a youthful and handsome face, with a pair of bright yellow-brown eyes peer out with the energy of a man completely unbound by the responsibilities of life. It's a face that is capable a wide arrange of expressions, both serious and whimsical should they need to be. And around his thin neck is a red choker and collar, with a small golden bell attached to it, only adding to his 'catlike appearence.' Not only that, but the roman numeral 'XIII appears just a bit below his neck and above his chest. For the uneducated person, the 'XIII' looks simply like a tattoo... Train's choice of garments is likewise not that unusual. He wears a large white full-sleeved, split apart at the bottom with the cuffs folded backwards at the end of each sleeve. Over this shirt is a small blue jacket with what strangely appears to be four large brown buttons on the frontal chest area, lined up vertically with two to each side. the sleeves of the jacket are just short enough to cut off before the cuff of his white shirt folds backwards. As for his lower wear, he is clad in a simple pair of black khaki pants, kept up by an equally simple and nondescript black leather belt at the waste, with a silver circular belt buckle. On his right thigh, however, a holster at the outer side of his leg, tied by two buckles around his thigh. This holster obviously isn't just for show, and this young man obviously carries some sort of strange ornate revolver-type firearm within it. In fact, he might be breaking a few city laws carrying it around so openly. His pants are fastened snugly, but aren't too tight, and stretch down to his feet quite easily. His choice of footwear is a simple pair of black leather shoes, which seem uncharacteristically light in weight and match the black pants perfectly. And at about this moment, Train's killer instinct fails completely. He's walking around, watching the flux of people buying things with a bored expression on his face until suddenly he walks straight into the cup's trajectory, taking it square between the eyes and dropping his jaw in surprise, spitting it out of his mouth and down onto the floor below. He just stands there a moment, looking at the girl who apparently just threw something. She might be scared, sure. But soon it is evident that she has no reason to be. "... Hey there, missy. You gotta work on your jump shot." he chides, with a grin on his face. His old partner taught him to be polite to women and not do weird things like pull guns on them, after all. But the moment is abruptly ended, as from the floor below an angry yell shoots up towards the three. "SOMEONE THREW A BURGER AT ME!" the yell echoes through the mall, and Train gulps air as he looks down to see... a rent- a-cop with a burger stuck on his forehead, looking -straight back at him.- "... Uh oh." Ask would talk more, but, uh, little bit of disaster going on over there, direct cause: her. At least in her mind. Watching the cup arc through the air, her eyes widen and her mouth forms a little 'o' of horror as it ends up smacking into someone's face and bouncing off to hit the barrier and then fall to the first floor. "Oh no!" she exclaims involuntarily, her voice coming out as a squeak as her hands fly up to her mouth. "I'm so so so so sorry! I totally didn't mean it! You aren't hurt or anything, are you?" By a paper cup? Well, she gets a little carried away sometimes. Bounding to her feet, she rushes over, the easier to fuss and fluster-- Except that then the outraged yell comes, and Ask screeches to a halt, catching herself on the barrier and looking down at the mall cop. Uh. She looks back at Train. Looks down at the cop again. "... you'd better hide quick!" is her sage advice. "Come on!" Grabbing at his hand, she rushes back to the bench she was sitting on, which is backed up against one of the large square planters filled with shrubbery. "Hey miss! Help me hide him, will you?" she directs at Nina with wide eyes. "Just need to shove him in there and then sit in front so nothing shows..." Well, the young man seems easy going enough, easing her tension. He's certainly not as exciteable as the girl beside her, and Nina's expression changes to a bit of non-plussed surprise as she goes over the top in worry. On the other hand, she's a bit more worried about where the items going over the bannister are going to land, and her worries are realized as she hears the yells coming from the floor below. Well, it's got nothing to do with her; she looks away from the scene, until the excitable young woman is suddenly asking for her assistance. Those wide eyes make it almost impossible for her to just say 'no'. It had nothing to do with her in the first place... nothing but a misunderstanding. Regardless, she goes along with it anyways, moving down the bench to sit in front of the shrub, all the while an unimpressed expression adorning her face. "Hey, hey. Calm down!" the young bounty hunter tries to assure, but finds himself failing miserably. He finds it hard to reassure girls after all, all of them so worried about their figures and so forth. "It's okay, I'm fine, se--..." he gasps. It was like trying to tell someone that the garden won't be damaged during doomsday, and Train doesn't get far until he's yanked over. "--... wait!" he practically sqeauks, before he is dumped effortlessly into a planter. The plant itself shakes violently, being somewhat of a loner and not particularly used to company, especially young bounty hunters. And... of course, it lets out its only form of self-defense. "Hey--... OW OW OW! There are thorns in here, you know!" protests Train, but after a few mutterings he quiets down, hoping that the somewhat improvisational solution works as well as, say, just remaining calm and apologizing. Young man successfully shoved into the planter, Ask spends a few moments arranging the leaves and making sure nothing shows too much. "Shhh!" is all she says to his protests. Arranging done--there's still some bits that show through, but it probably can't be helped, and they're mostly the parts clad in black anyway--Ask hops up to sit on the edge of the planter to provide the final touch of concealment, feet resting on the seat of the bench. Shoving her cap back and taking a deep breath after that flurry of activity, she attempts to look as though she'd been sitting there all the while and turns toward Nina with a bright smile, slightly forced. "So, uh, hi! What's your name?" This situation is totally blown out of proportion. Nina's certainly not too impressed, and the young man planted behind the planter doesn't seem to be either. She rearranges herself, pressing out any folds in her skirt, trying to look as inconspicuous and uninvolved as possible, though she forgets to check the expression shown on her face, ranging from slightly annoyed to exasperated. The young woman's sigh from beside her brings her back to attention, a queue to the oncoming question. Finally she puts on a feigned smile, "Uh...Nina...and yours?" she stammers out. And it's at that moment the Rent-a-Cop comes rushing up to the two women. "Have you seen a punk around hear with a silly haircut wearing a bell?" he inquires, panting. Of course, Train can do very little but stay as quiet as he can and hope for the best. He doesn't particularly like dealing with security, particularly that of malls. But he almost gets the urge to leap out and yell at the guard for calling his hair 'silly'. But then of course he realizes he's not exactly in a comfortable position, nor is he in one in which he can do any sort of jumping out. He just breathes in, slowly, muttering and cursing in a whispered voice. And those two have the nerve to start a simple conversation while he sits in there, thorns penetrating his every side! He knows it's part of the act, but that doesn't make Train any more happy. But that's Ask's specialty! Blowing situations up^H^Hout of proportion. Er. "I'm Askiana," she repsonds happily, warming up to the pretense. "Actually, I was noticing your portfolio earlier, and I was wondering if you were an artist or something? My younger brother--well, one of them--is, and he's always carrying around notebooks, sometimes in portfolios like that..." And just about then, the Rent-a-Cop huffs up to them. Ask freezes for a moment, then turns toward him with an extremely large, extremely bright, and extremely vacant smile plastered over her face. "I saw a guy wearing a bell, but he ran over that way!" she directs, pointing down toward the western end of the mall. "And really fast too! Maybe if you hurry you can catch up?" Nina Nina takes a glance behind her to see how the armed man is doing. Even if it was a big misunderstanding, caught by even a hired security goon while carrying a weapon around like that would probably raise just as much trouble. She only half-heartedly listens to Askiana's inquiry, turning toward the rent-a- cop as he rushes up. She just sits there, looking between him and the girl beside her, and letting her do all the talking. It's her situation anyways, she's not getting any more involved than she really wants to. The cop's arrival also changes the attention from the conversation at hand, so Nina doesn't really have to make a reply, which does her just fine. The rent-a-cop... seems a bit suspicious of just how jovial the young girl looks, but nevertheless he nods in thanks and then runs off. As for Train, well, he's not exactly comfortable in this situation. But at the very least he's getting used to it. He's gonna have to get the soil out of his jacket later. But apparently, he has greater concerns than actually -getting out-. So instead, he just sits inside his planter, staying silent for a few moments to make sure the underpaid arm of the law is gone, before he finally pipes up from his hiding place. "... You're not very talkative, are you? You said you were Nina, right? That's a pretty name!" the young man says in a pleasantly conversational tone. Of course, a few passing people begin to question their sanity when they hear a voice coming from what looks like a normal plant, but they just shake it off and walk along. She might have to work on that faking act a bit. But then again, she's almost as cheerful when not faking it, so really, who can tell? Holding her breath (and her smile) until the overfed cop is well out of sight, Ask expels the breath in a whoosh of air and sags back, catching herself with her hands on the edge of the planter. "Whoo. At least he accepted it pretty easily," she murmurs, before twisting in her seat and offering a hand back. "I think you can come out now, if you want--that doesn't look comfortable at all. Though if you're still worried, you can take off the bell, and I'll lend you a hat." After all, it seemed the guy had only identified him by his hair and bell. Although really... who was the worried one? She'd been the one who'd stuffed him into that shrubbery, after all. Turning toward Nina, Ask offers an apologetic smile and a little, sheepish duck of her head. "Sorry 'bout dragging you into it like that! I just didn't know if it'd be convincing enough by myself. But thank you for helping." Why are the hired goons always so gullible, Nina wonders to herself as the cop runs off in the direction Ask is pointing. "Think of just saying, 'sorry'?" She says in an undertone, before she looks a little surprised as the planted man starts making conversation from his hiding spot. Too much attention coming her way, and she instinctively starts giving passerby's an annoyed 'what're you looking at?' face, to which they quickly turn back to their own business and hasten their retreats. "...Yeah," she replies, like she's heard it all before, "and you are?" is the cordial addition as she gets up and turns toward the planter, in case he needs a hand getting back out. To Askiana she just shakes her head slightly, "It's fine, I didn't do much." she states, passing off the apology and gratitude. And with that, the young man somehow gets himself to struggle to his feet and emerge from the planter like a giant robot exploding out of the factory it was built in. Leaves and foliage fall everywhere, and the dirty Train Heartnet makes a very futile attempt to make himself look less than silly as he steps out. "Ngh. That was rough." the young man mutters, but lacking spite in doing so. He sighs to himself, and then gets his first good look at Nina and Ask. He scans them for a moment, as if trying to assess every aspect about them, before his face bursts into a wide grin. "Well, I guess I should probably be thankful AND upset. Though I'm not particularly sure how that works." he chuckles, before he finally turns to Ask. "... that's alright. If he comes back, I'll find another painful hiding place. Oh, and my name is Train, by the way. Train Heartnet." The last statement is more directed at Nina, but he figures they both might want to know his name, if they should decide to report him to the mall security or something. ... yeah. Nina's suggestion is met with a blank look. "What do you mean?" Apparently she didn't consider her reaction all that excessive--or, for that matter, uncalled-for, considering it was her cup that made him spit out the burger that hit the cop that Jack built--er, that is, that created the mini-crisis. "Well, you still did something. So there," she adds, grinning to take any sting of sarcasm out of her words, slight though it might be. Eeping softly as dirt and leaves explode everywhere, Ask reaches around herself to sweep the worst of it back into the planter--at least, what hasn't fallen to the floor. Cleaning services is probably going to have to take care of that bit. Then she turns her attention toward Train and reaches out with the intent of brushing him off as well and picking out the stray leaves, futile though it might be--goodness knows how ground in that dirt might be. "I'm sorry," she adds again, unnecessary though it might be, before finally stopping her apologies and taking her seat again. She can't help but giggle a little at the name offered, though. "Train? Really?" "I'm sure we could have got by with just an apology." is her opinion, but then again. She looks Train over in turn, as he starts grinning widely. He seems like a cat, is her general take on him. She never really liked cats. And he's a bit wirey... and the eyes and the bell and... what kind of a name is Train? All through her musings her expression is easily read, ending in minor awestruck. She can't help but grin with Askiana, meeting her amusement. She continues to stand though as Askiana takes her seat, and she picks up her leatherbound portfolio. She doesn't make any signs that she's taking her leave though. The fact that Nina is a bit suspicious makes Train's grin shorten a bit. Could she be able to see through his happy-go-lucky facade and see within him? Is she able to sense something? The man almost frowns a moment, before suddenly he thinks better of it and brightens his expression once again. Of course, he's not exactly too happy with people finding his name amusing, either. "Hey, what's so funny? You've never met anybody named Train before? It could be short for Coltrain or... ah, who am I kidding. It is a pretty damn silly name, isn't it?" So it's a we now? Ask doesn't entirely miss that, but she doesn't point it out either, her grin just widening for a moment in amusement. "So are you waiting for someone, Nina?" she asks guilelessly. Seems like the woman's not here for general leisure, since she's not wandering around, but it doesn't seem like she's selling anything either. At least, not obviously. The issue of Train's name makes her grni flower again, and while she doesn't want to directly state it outright, she has to admit... "Well... yeah. It kind of is. But hey! At least your last name's normal enough?" Well, aurally, it sounds like Hartnett, which is in existence. The spelling is a little odder, though, but she can't comment on that, since she hasn't exactly seen it in writing. "But hey, it's no worse than Ask." The young man's demeanor certainly lightens up her mood a bit, and Nina realizes she's being a little more negative than usual. She nods a slight in response to Train, "Can't say I have..." Uncommon a name, certainly, though she wouldn't go out of her way to say it's a silly one. As per the suspicion, well, it's not really a suspicion, just ... a feeling. That doesn't mean she necessarily dislikes the planter boy, either. "Waiting? No...looking for work." she asserts, "But I've come to the wrong place." she sighs, which was the cause of her heightened irritability in the first place. And realizing that Ask would indeed be short for Askiana, she can't help but rebut under her breath, "It's probably better..."