DOWNTOWN: Cartright Street A throbbing center for fast food restaurants, coffee houses and other small scale businesses, Cartright Street caters to those who haven't the time to sit in one place for long. Traffic is often quite thick during the prime business hours, making travel and the like a struggle for those trying to reach their particular destinations. And because of such the preferred method of travel tends to be the local taxi services. The streets are generally clean and kept free of most debris save for the occasional scrap or two that finds itself littering the sidewalks. Like usual the tall buildings of the surrounding city can be seen high above the one and two story businesses, the intimidating pillars of commerce most noticeable. The small businesses and other establishments get plenty of attention, but that which gets the most noticeable amount of attention is the Highland Mall, often crowded during all hours of the business day and a preferred hangout for the younger people. Contents: Vance Obvious exits: Mars Pkwy. Ranguuld Ave. Useif Blvd. Highland Mall Some days, she really wonders whether she should go into the medical profession--and she's not even really working in any professional sense at the hospital, being just lowly volunteer labor. Even so, some days are exhausting, with waves of people coming in sick or injured, or patients being fussy, or when reviews come and they have to rush to make certain everything is in shape. Today, for instance, was just such a day. Despite her exhaustion, though, she hadn't gone home immediately after work, because she'd agreed to meet Ember here later so she could give him a ride home. Instead, she'd installed herself in the outdoor seating of one of the coffee houses lining the road around here, gotten a drink, and pulled out her homework to work on it... Then proceeded to pass out. She is, currently, quite peacefully napping on the table, her head pillowed on her arms, which in turn are folded on top of her textbooks. Ignore the line of drool threatening to inch down onto the open pages. It's good to finally have money. It's good to finally be paid. It's good to know that there's a steady flow of checks for her to rely on. For the first time since she's come to Midgard, Vance has gone shopping at a store save the local retail chain on television-- and thank god for that. The usual choices for work clothes were getting a little aged from their rampant use, plus the harshness and quality of the washing machine. And ... perhaps some hair dye, on the way home. The salon job from the gala's run thin, her random streaks of gray showing through as defiantly as ever once again. So finally, on the way home! Blessed be the shopping malls in this town. And the fast food joints, and the plentiful amount of coffee houses and cafes. A travel cup of tea is her only purchase, setting her smaller shopping bags inside the larger and carrying the paper cup with her free hand. On her way out, however, Vance is greeted with an unusual sight-- someone sleeping, right there in broad daylight. Blinking, she stands closer and leans in a bit, setting her cup on the table and resting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "E-Excuse me? Excuse me? Are you okay?" Vance asks, shaking her a little. "... eew, she's drooling..." she murmurs. Midgard is a good city for getting those little yet essential things--like shopping and rampant consumerism--down. And, apparently, for getting naps in, despite the hustle and bustle of the street at this hour. At least, the noise and bright sun doesn't seem to bother Ask, though perhaps her hat helps a little with the sun. Nor, for that matter, does Vance's poking, or her faintly disgusted mutter as she notices Ask's drool. "... ssznh... munch the chipper wood kings...." the redhead murmurs, shifting slightly under prodding. "...waffle..." Then she exhales slightly and settles down again, hand sweeping out--right into the cup of cold coffee on her table, knocking it over. Vance looks a little worried. She noticed, is the thing-- she noticed the drool. And that paper-- it wouldn't be good if she did something like that, right? Bouncing on her knees a little, she looks around for napkins-- ah, yes, there. Snatching a few up, she reaches in and sets two down in a stack below Ask's cheek to at least temporarily shield the paperwork from her enroaching saliva. And then, the ShinRa secretary tries one more time, this time shaking a little more firmly. "Excuse me? Miss? You're sleeping in public!" A pause, mulling for a moment. "... A-And saying funny things!" she adds. Probably not, no! And if Ask knew of Vance's attempt to help her, she'd probably thank her. Except that the girl is still passed out. At least until the coffee spills and splatters all over the ShinRa secretary, and then Ask is shaken again more firmly. Snorting and mumbling again, she lifts her head slightly, blinking sleep-blurred eyes at Vance. "Burn?" she mumbles, then squints again. Oh. No, it's not Ember. ... wait, where is she? Bolting into alertness, she jerks upright and looks around quickly. "What? This---I--did I fall asleep?" She turns round eyes toward Vance--and just then notices a) spilled coffee cup on the ground and napkins strewn around, and b) coffee splatters on the womans' clothes. Her hands fly to her mouth. "Oh no! Did I do that? I'm so sorry!" Leaping up to her feet, she hastily grabs some of the spare napkins and starts to attack Vance's pants with them. What a time for Finnian to come wandering along. Well, actually--he's not out here to see Vance get spattered with coffee and Ask apparently embarass herself- -he's out on assignment! ...homework, actually. School project, y'see, with the pictures and the downtown and the group and the-- Yeah, anyway. Let's just say at this point in the walk he's quite ready for a distraction. "Man," he says to no one in particular. "What's with all of these pictures, anyway? I mean, this is pretty--" A familiar head of red hair, to say nothing of Ask's voice, interrupts our hero here. "--hey, is that Ask? Hey, Ask--!" He jogs over to where the two women are, and checks himself on noticing something wrong--before bursting into giggles and promptly whipping out his camera. This is a moment that must be captured. "Say cheese!" ...boys. Instead of 'cheese,' Ask sagely says, "Aaah!" as the flash goes off in her face. Blinking suddenly watery eyes, she falls back, catching herself with the palms of her hand just before her rear hits the ground yet again. Except that her hands land in a leftover puddle of coffee. Yuck. Better than sitting in it, though, one supposes. Leaping back up to her feet, she staggers back, teeters, recovers, and finally straightens, finally getting a good look at the perpetrator. "Finnian! Oooh, you--!" She hasn't been raised with a bunch of brothers for nothing--this calls for retaliation! Pouncing, she attempts to hook an arm around his neck and give him a darn good noogie. See, this is the problem with being an only child--instead of running like hell, Finn stands there and grins. And then gets caught in a coffee-flavored noogie for his troubles, before he can escape. "AHHH! AHHH! Mercy, have mercy on me, I'm just a boy!" he shrieks in mock-agony, squiggling in Ask's grip. "I'm too young to die!" Of course, despite the noogie of death, he's still giggling. Still clutching his camera, too, because this will make wonderful fodder for the rumor mill~. "No mercy for you!" It's hard to growl and giggle at the same time, but she somehow manages it, even as she hangs on for a few moments longer to continue noogying. Eventually, though, she has to stop--if only because her hands are getting sticky with dried coffee and because she's laughing too hard to really keep him under lock any more, especially with the way he's thrashing about. "Jeez! Your sense of timing is horrible!" she says with a giggle, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Then she looks down at her hands and wrinkles her nose. "Yuck. ... hey, where did that woman go?" Brows rising, she looks about... but there's no sign of her. Maybe she took the opportunity to sneak off, not wanting to deal with Ask any more. That only makes Ask feel bad, though. T_T She'll have to remember her face and apologize later if she sees her again. Pulling a clean napkin from the table, she reaches into her bag-- fortunately on the other side of the spilled coffee--and removes a water bottle. Wetting the napkin, she cleans her hands off as best as she can, then toes the soggy napkins that soak up the rest of the spill. THere's not really much to do there, as Vance had already cleaned much of it up. "What are you doing here anyway?" she asks while working. "Noooo~oooo!" Finn nearly yodels the negation, which is about the best he can manage for laughing. When he's let go, though, he immediately grins up at Ask-- and reaches up to put his hair back into the disarray that he prefers. "*I* like to think my sense of timing is great," he proclaims, cockily. Then, pausing, he too notes that the other woman has disappeared, and immediately replies-- perfectly deadpan: "She was delicious." Mmmm, cannibalism. "--what am I doing here? Oh, uh. School project...thing. I got stuck with taking the pictures for it. Don't worry, though--you're gonna be Roughly five-foot eight, Vance is the epitomy of ... average. Black hair to her shoulderblades, the length a little ragged at the tips and bangs in a manner that doesn't suggest it was done that way to be stylish, the curiosity of it is the roots-- visible, they stand out in contrast in a gray color, the snowy gray and white better seen on an old person's head. Her eyes are high at the outer corners and lower at the inner corners, eyes bright and blue, giving her a bit of an exotic appearance. With minimal makeup, she looks pretty enough. Her body however, suggests she hasn't had a full and decent meal in awhile. Her top is a black tanktop, straps narrow and the cut horizontal, revealing a little bit of her chest below the collarbone. A strange scar is partially exposed by the cut of the garment, looking like a rather gnarly old injury, skin knotted and crosshatched with ridges. The visible pattern is semi-circular. Jeans adorn her legs, close-fit on the legs and the length allowing the denim to bunch up on the tops of her sneakers, a faded black suede and bearing the emblem of some famous athletics company. The best maintained part of her wardrobe, however, is her bomber jacket-- the hemline cut a little high and the sleeves a little short, the heavy leathers and thicker lining suggest it's for more of a winter use. The collar is puffy, lined with whispy faux fur to keep her neck relatively protected from the winds. "..." For a moment, Ask just looks at Finnian, before she breaks into a grin and reaches out to poke him in the stomach. "You're more likely to fit in her stomach than the other way around, yo." Even if she was pretty skinny herself. They're all a bunch of scrawny ones, it seems--it's the California health-conscious lifestyle. Or something. At the revelation of what he was doing, though, she... well, squawks. That's the only way to describe it, really. "Whaaaat?!" Eek! She doesn't want her face plastered all over someone's classroom wall! Especially with her hands on some stranger's legs! "What kinda school project asks you to take blackmail pictures, 'Intro to Paparazzi Techniques?!'" She pounces again, this time to try and get a hold on the camera and wrestle it away from him. She's careful not to wrestle too roughly, though--she doesn't want to accidentally break it. >.>;