FIRST REPLY One for the Money

[Lace]

"So it's five hundred for the fourth..."

"And four hundred for the third, yep," Lace finished, weighing the two amounts between her hands. The smaller bag held a small sour candy in the middle, her genius of an idea to keep them looking similar. They almost weighed the same, too, making her demonstration more sleight of hand than her fellow student should be able to guess. Then again, Marc Diggsy wasn't exactly known for being the sharpest protractor in math class either.

"Well, four is bigger than three..."

Lace just nodded, as if she was following Marc's train of thought. Her eyes were following the cook of the Noodle House instead, curling her palms around the bags before she set them flat on the counter in front of her. The cook was headed to the seats farther back from them with two steaming bowls, but the green-haired teen didn't want any wandering eyes on her transaction anyway.

"Five for four and four for...you just had to make it complicated. You know numbers aren't my thing, Lace."

"Oh, I know a lot more than that," she laughed. It hadn't been hard to put two and two together when Marc asked if she wanted to get some noodles after school, that much was easy math. He thought it was clever, never doing business on school grounds, and cleverer still for not sharing why he wanted so much from her. "Like how Rory told Yurika she was going to have her mind blown at your shindig tonight."

"Yurika's coming?!"

And there it was. Lace didn't mind not being invited really, she got some attention just for being on the cheerleading squad. It was girls like Yurika who could steal the show, and the hearts of half the schoolboys watching. When she jumped, they leaned in, and if she would ever say jump, there wouldn't be a single male sole left grounded. With her plain looks and small chest, the only way Lace could turn heads was in the short uniforms they wore for cheer in the summer and it was far too cold for that now. Sometimes she could manage it with the green dye in her hair, which she tossed in a nod to egg on Marc's beating heart. "And I bet you don't want to disappoint her. This could be your chance at braindance love, Marc."

She said the last part with a hefty dose of sarcasm, but Marc's sheepish grin registered none of it. Those mental cogs of his were turning, they were almost visible to anyone looking on. Which no one was, with passersby behind them and other customers around the noodle stand too focused on their food to watch a teenage boy glimpse his dream come true in real time. Even Lace found she wasn't as entertained as it could have been, keeping one eye on the cook who was supposed to be focused on making their food and not darting over their way.

So maybe Marc did have one cheerleader on his side, even if it wasn't her.

"So, what's it gonna be? Just enough for you and Rory, or..."

"No, I want the four. I mean the five. You know, the one with more."

Now she almost felt caught in the act, and if Lace hadn't been helping his little mental exercise, she might have questioned if he had cottoned onto her fractions scheme. Instead, she pushed the sour pill bag Marc's way, offering him a knowing smile. He seemed to take it as she'd hoped, reaching into one pocket to pull out a roll of old-fashioned bills. Real money!

It was Lace's turn to be so enthralled for a second, she didn't notice the cook approaching this time. When he set down their bowls, she covered the bag as quick as she could, keeping her head down to avoid whatever withering look the noodle chef might have had for her. At least he didn't mention anything out of the ordinary, and after leaving them alone Lace was sure to finish their business quickly.

The teenager ate slowly, savoring the deep flavor of the ramen broth. It was far better than the packaged stuff, and the noodles weren't limp or crunchy either. Lace could deal with the heat in her bowl, and the same under her collar clawing pointlessly at the back of her head. When Marc left his heart was lighter and her pockets were a little heavier, what was so wrong with that?

---

OOC: Open to anyone who might stop by the noodle shop in Japantown, or might be working at one.

 

[Xasha Callisto]

Active Location: Noodle bar
Physical Location: On site
Objective: Eat
Tags: @Lace

Xasha sat reading her pad as she played with the remaining noodles in the bottom of her bowl before placing another mouthful. She hated checking the bank, the number was never as high as she hoped.

Kore: So yeah, she stayed the night we got in on but then she freaked when she saw the whole collection in the morning!
Leda: rude ha! Walk of shame down your corridor? I'm stealing your mint Goku!
Kore: lmao
Leda: How's the noods Calli?
Callisto: eh..
Callisto: really fancied a good Kau Gui tonight
Callisto: this is not
Leda: condolences
Kore: Yeah sorry dude

She let out a little chuckle as a dumb-looking guy with a smug look on his face bundled past, shoving her arm and splashing her sauce. "Dū mạn pheụ̄̀xn" || "Watch it, buddy!" She almost surprised herself reflexively chastising him in Thai but she found herself doing that a lot in places like this once immersed in oriental languages. She looked over at his date, a green-haired girl at the end of the table. Xasha was socially anxious so was always very aware of the people in her surroundings, and had caught the eye of the pair before, there was definitely more going on than just a date, she wasn't sure what but was certain she had heard prices quoted over the hubbub. The teenager glanced over right at the moment that Xasha was looking and their eyes met for just long enough for them to realise they were looking at each other.

Xasha raised an accusatory eyebrow, she didn't know what the girl was doing, it might be completely legal, but it often wasn't and she liked to mess with people, maybe make her think she had been caught out and let the little seeds of guilt work their magic. She looked fairly young, Xasha would guess late teens and her date looked about the same. She waited a few seconds before giving a subtle kiss gesture pouting her lips and raising her eyebrows before breaking into another light chuckle and placing her spoon into her bowl. Xasha rested her elbows on the table, lacing her fingers together and putting her chin on them. "If that was a first date, I wouldn't offer him a second" she said casually. The girl was the prettier of the two, the guy gave her the impression of a dullard. He'd also left without picking up the tab it seemed, all things that would have Xasha going home on her own. If she ever risked the dating scene at all that was.

 

[Lace]

Tucked just inside Lace's sleeve as she ate, there was still the leftover baggie. The third that Marc had rejected, saving himself the discount that helped her most of all. Her glee had stayed hidden throughout, it wasn't exactly hard for someone like Lace. Some teenagers wore their heart on their sleeves, emotions screwing up their faces all day long. Hers, she bore on the metal latticework inside her bones. Some people called her rigid and unhappy for it, not that Lace always saw what there was to be happy about all the time.

Anyone who said it took more work to frown than smile had never had to really make themselves smile.

She pulled out the little packet of pills, stirring her broth thoughtfully otherwise. Almost every time she stayed at her dad's, he spent most of it in that drugged-out haze, so much that the blissful look had started to associate itself as a telltale sign of someone's high. Lace had vowed never to sample the drugs herself, despite the suggestions otherwise from her supplier. Still, curiosity picked at the corner of her thoughts, wondering how much one could really hurt her. It wouldn't take much to break open one of the pills, stir the powder into her food, and find out just what it was like on the other side of that too-happy smile.

"If that was a first date, I wouldn't offer him a second."

The uninvited commentary pulled the green-haired teenager from her reverie, still entirely sober. The woman who had interrupted her thoughts looked right at home in Japantown, far more than Lace did. Westbrook Prep had its share of Asian students from all over, enough that she didn't even blink at the woman's accent or the interruption. "It's not like that," she said, and then almost regretted dismissing the convenient explanation. "He's just a...friend from school."

A shrug of the shoulders made it all the more casual, or so it might appear. Someone else might have laughed, Yurika certainly would have. No matter how much she adored the attention, Yurika wouldn't be caught dead with the wrong type. And Marc, even by Lace's standards, wasn't exactly the type to raise her social status just by being around him. He was likeable enough, in small doses anyway, which was about all she'd spent with him between classes and passing time.

"I wouldn't say no if he asked me out, but I'm pretty sure he's got his eye on someone else."

 

[Xasha Callisto]

Active Location: Noodle bar
Physical Location: On site
Objective: Eat
Tags: @Lace

Xasha laughed at the response to her enquiry, the defensive response was fairly typical, and it also confirmed what the woman had suspected that the girl was considerably younger than her. She raised her hands in apology for interfering when Lace actually said she might be interested in a date with the boy.

The other thing that caught her eye was the small bag that the girl had withdrawn from her pocket and was toying with while she stirred her food. Xasha picked up the remnants of her bowl and walked across. "May I?" She sat without waiting for a response and placed her bowl down.

"Kruṇā h̄ı̂ c̄heāḱwy s̄xng xạn kæ̀ c̄hạn || Please give me two grass jelly" she called over to the man behind the counter who shouted back in affirmative. That would give them a few minutes at least before she arrived as good as it tasted if done right, it was a bit of a pain in the ass to prepare as most people weren't after deserts in these places. And it was also one of Xasha's favourites so if Lace didn't want in she could easily put a second one away.

"Holding anything good tonight?" she asked with mock innocence to the green-haired teenager. "And don't ask if I'm a cop because they always put that on TV shows and it's the dumbest question in the world." she teased. Her bravado was partially an act, Xasha could never not feel on edge in social situations, being much more familiar with the digitised world, but she had learned to overpower her by treating her mind as a computer and her conscious willpower as a series of daemons. Maybe there is a book in that? She mused to herself, allowing a little smirk of a private joke to slip from her lips.

 

[Lace]

One hazel eye tracked the woman as she approached and settled abruptly into Marc's vacant seat. It didn't bother her so much at a place like this, where patrons might be shoulder to shoulder anyway. In the halls of school or on the city's roads, with little to keep from being jostled and moved around by someone else's slightest whim, that's where Lace felt more exposed and vulnerable.

She only had to tuck the baggie away up her sleeve again to reclaim that here.

The teen went back to her food while the woman held a momentary court from her seat, ordering a pair of the eclectic dishes that passed for a worldly taste among the city's elite. She should know, it had taken Lace years to figure out that grass jelly wasn't much more than weird jello. The dark-haired woman didn't have any guests to put on airs for, so the green-haired teenager just slurped at the cooling remainder of her broth. Maybe this lady actually liked the stuff enough for two.

"Hmm?" Lace asked, genuinely surprised by the question when it came. Curiosity hummed in her throat until the woman delivered her threat. Or it seemed like a threat, delivered in one of those laughing voices that everyone was supposed to smile at. So Lace smiled, it seemed like the best thing to do right now. She could manage that for a minute or two, enough until her food was gone.

Until then, the threat seemed to demand an answer of her. It was one that came honestly to the prep school girl, though not as easily as from her peers. That didn't stop Lace from turning to look the woman straight in the eyes and say, "It's for my dad, he's an big executive up at Dynomar. Any real cop would want to check that, and check with her boss before making any big moves."

She figured any real cop would see her dad's title and not think much past it. And if the woman was just bluffing about that, then the question was down to which one of them would call the others' first. Lace was really hoping it wasn't her, her bravado wasn't backed by as much wealth as some of her classmates, which was why they could ride high on good grades while she was here slinging over noodles as her choice of pastime.

 

[Xasha Callisto]

Active Location: Noodle bar
Physical Location: On site
Objective: Eat
Tags: @Lace

Xasha smirked as the younger woman looked her squarely in the eyes and told her her truth, the tone was convincing sure, but the words only begged more questions. "There is a perfectly good pharmacy down the road, a noodle bar seems an odd place to be picking up his prescription. But then maybe corpo life isn't what it used to be." she laughed and shrugged as the vendor brought out the jelly. She gestured for one to be placed in front of lace. "ขอบคุณ" || "Thank you" she added before picking up her first one and flicking her eyes towards the bowl she had purchased for the other girl. There was nothing sinister too it, it was simply her eastern culture that if you were eating you shared.

Xasha waited for the gentleman to leave before placing a cube on her tongue eating it, it was a nice taste, possible the smallest amount more set than she would like but it wasn't bad. "So what does a corpo daddy like to take for fun these days? I'm quite partial to neurostims myself." she didn't take them often, but before she had her full chrome installed they gave her the edge over her contemporaries and once you had tried it that itch never left, not really. If the girl in front of her was a dealer she was keeping it close to her chest thus far. But maybe the guy was the dealer and she was genuinely picking up some snacks for her father.

"I'm Xash."