paixaorpg | She Works Hard for the Money [Active/Open]

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She Works Hard for the Money [Active/Open]

Character(s): Lottie, open
Content: Miss LaBouff starts collecting "money" from around town.
Setting: Paixao Central Station...specifically, on the train heading east.
Time: Afternoon, Week 21
Warnings: None

Despite her earlier hysterics, Lottie adapted to her situation with surprising ease. It helped that Tiana was here, certainly...though the business with Prince Naveen plum forgetting about all that had happened and somehow being a frog again was pretty troubling. Still, the perky debutante was nothing if not optimistic and she'd taken to the strange circumstances with the excitement and curiosity of someone who clearly lived in the present.

She was presently settled into a train heading southeast through the city. Humming quietly to herself, she sifted through the worn cloth bag on her lap, picking up and inspecting various bits and bobs she'd collected during the morning hours. How strange that the people around here would just let anyone take off the fake flora and fancy decorations all around, but Lottie wasn't going to complain. Lottie had a plan.

She was going to spend the next few days going around the city, collecting currency of any kind she could find. Once she had a nice fat stockpile of them, she'd be able to rent a nice little place and get situated properly. It was a shame Tiana already moved into a nice little apartment with some new friends, though...for a moment, as she looked out the train window to the world outside, Lottie wondered if she might be lonely.

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From Grace's perspective, it was impossible to be entirely lonely in a place like this. One just never knew when they'd run into something completely out of the ordinary. In Grace's case, she was the something out of the ordinary and she actually enjoyed seeing how the locals reacted to having a blue Avatar that was over nine feet tall wandering around them. It definitely made things interesting.

The only problem was that she couldn't actually fit on the trains as a Na'vi. Too tall for the cab, too big for the seats. So she'd taken to wandering around on foot. And it wasn't so bad. Made things interesting just to see what she had to duck under and what she didn't.

Currently, she was waiting for one of the trains to pass by so she wouldn't risk tripping over it further down the line. That was another thing she'd learned: memorize the train route times or trip over them when they passed. She was somewhere east of central station, though she wasn't entirely sure where as she hadn't bothered to look at a map for a couple of minutes, when the train approached. Time to play the waiting game. With luck, this one wouldn't be too long, even with the next stop not very far away.

After so long in Paixao, Cid liked to think that he'd gotten used to pretty much anything that the place had to offer. And if that wasn't enough, the Planet wasn't entirely free of oddities either. Unfortunately, neither of them really prepared him for a Na'vi. It wasn't like the Planet usually had nine-foot-tall blue... whatever the hell that was wondering around.

(Okay, so maybe they had large blue things, if blue was allowed to shade into purple, but it wasn't really like behemoths stood upright. Or wore clothes.)

"...the hell?" he couldn't help but murmuring.

"Goodness gracious," Lottie whispered. As the train slowed into the next station, her attention was pulled back into focus by the oddity that was Grace. While she'd already come to the conclusion that Paixao was a very different place indeed, she'd never once considered there'd actually be giant blue creatures running around. Lottie stood up from her seat slowly, almost entranced as she watched Grace outside, and the train stopped entirely.

There was a moment's hesitation -- was the creature hostile? -- but Lottie was clutching her bag and bouncing off the train in a matter of seconds. She was so excited and curious that she dropped her bag, the jewels and metals scattering over the station's pavement. "Shoot!" she shouted, pouting as she knelt to gather her money.

"Excuse me? Lil' blue cat animal thing?" Lottie called out to Grace, hoping to deter her long enough that she'd be able to catch up.

Grace wasn't much of one normally to help anyone, but that was mostly due to her preference of keeping her human work separated from the pleasure she took being an Avatar. Without any of the real Na'vi here to work with, her actual work and desire to do anything wasn't nearly as pronounced. Nor was the problem with... well, everything to do with the RDA. Which was nice. But she still missed the Na'vi. And she had no idea how everything had turned out after she'd seen Eywa. She assumed she was supposed to die, but here she was, walking, talking, and breathing.

That wasn't a particularly pleasant thought and Grace was about to move around the train when she noticed someone semi-close by gathering up things from the pavement... and then calling out to her.

Certainly there were worse things to be called, but a blue cat thing was not on Grace's list of nice nicknames... Nevermind "little." Rolling her eyes inwardly, she turned around and placed a hand on her hip.

"Can I help you?" she asked, looking waaaaaaay far down at Lottie.

For all that Cid could have simply left things be and moved on, he had to admit that he might as well see what the hell was going on. Besides, if that woman was going he might as well go too. What if the thing turned out to be hostile? Not that he was particularly sure a spear would be the most effect thing, but hell, it would be a damned sight better than no one.

Still, he was less interested in new things than Lottie was, and if he made less of a hurry to get to the whatsit from the the train station that was only to be expected. It wasn't really going anywhere - or so he hoped.

Unfortunately, his late arrival meant that he missed both Lottie's comment as well as Grace's answer, but no problem. He could wait for a bit easily enough.

"Well, skin me alive and call me luggage, you are a tall one!" Lottie exclaimed. She continued to to talk as she gathered up her scattered funds, continually craning her neck back to stare with friendly curiosity. "'Course, anyone could see you're tall, there's no doubt about that, but to see you so up close like this, well, my goodness! I've never seen a giant blue cat thing before. It's a lil' like a fairy tale! You don't seem all that monstrous though, so I wanted to ask y'all a few questions? What are you? What's your name? Where you goin', anyway? Are y'all native to this city or a visitor like me?"

Before she even gave Grace a chance to answer her rapid-fire questions, Lottie bounced up from the pavement, her bag full again, and gasped. "Oh! Where are my manners! You must think I was raised by wild people or somethin'!" She curtsied elegantly, smiling sweetly. "My name is Charlotte LaBouff. You can call me Lottie, though!"

The blonde girl in front of her was the one garnering most of Grace's attention, but the man walking up nearby had a good bit of it, too. Unfortunately for all of them, Lottie was a talker and Grace had a little trouble keeping up, mostly because the Na'vi ears were just so different. At least she understood the language perfectly. Had it been a real Na'vi there might have been translation trouble.

As it was, Grace waited impatiently for the woman to finish her rambling. If this had been any of Grace's subordinates, she would have cut them off and told them to stop complaining. But, unfortunately, it wasn't. So she survived through it all and managed to remember everything she was asked.

"I'm one of the Na'vi race, and my name is Tirea. We're not monstrous, just big. It's part of what evolution gave us." She glanced at the man again and wondered who he was. "I was just exploring the area. I haven't been to this side of the city yet."

Maybe the man would chime in with his answers, too, to take the pressure off Grace.

Cid would have asked what a 'Na'vi' was, but he was pretty damn sure the answer would be roughly the equivalent of 'a big damn blue thing'. Big damn blue cat thing, if Lottie was right about that and hell, he supposed he could see some similarities. Mostly in the tail, but it wasn't like he was an expert on evolutionary developments.

He'd mostly left that to the science department.

"Pretty damn lucky evolution, if you ask me," he spoke. "An' pretty damn inconvenient for a place like this. Guess they never thought outside th' box enough to imagine anything bigger'n a person."

Lottie glanced between Grace and Cid, absently patting at her carefully coiffed hair. "I swear, I meet the most interestin' people," she muttered, mostly to herself. For a moment, it seemed like she might actually be silent for more than a minute, but she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh!"

She turned towards Cid, swinging the bag over her shoulder with surprising force (and barely missing Grace at that) and placed her hand on her hip. "I recognize you! You're the gentlemen that talked to me on the doohickey! You didn't believe me when I said I saw a woman flyin' all on her own." She gestured towards Grace meaningfully.

"A city full of oddities, I believe you said?"

It wasn't so much chiming in with answers, but the man sure had taken Lottie's attention away from Grace, so at least the desired effect had been achieved. Grace had to step back to avoid getting hit with the bag Lottie was carrying and called out to Cid once she was a couple steps back.

"When everything else is at the very least twice your size and wants to kill you, you better damn well hope evolution's given you everything you need to survive," she retorted with a smirk. People never did get over seeing a Na'vi.

"It actually works out nicely here, but I'll spare you the lecture."

"Never said I didn't believe you," Cid snapped back. "I was just tryin' to figure out how the hell she managed it."

Which was a far more important fact in a city where he could barely see the sky much less actually get something up there. If someone had managed what he couldn't he wanted to know about it, mostly so he could try and replicate it. Hell, he might even manage to improve on the damned thing.

"An' that ain't an oddity. It's a divergent evolutionary path," he added, before turning back to Grace herself.

"Hell, I've killed things twice my size an' I ain't even got whatever evolutionary advantages you've got in that thing. It ain't like killin' shit's hard."

Lottie smacked Cid's shoulder with a pink fan she'd apparently pulled out of her bag. "You watch your mouth around ladies, sir! Unless your vocabulary is so weak you simply must curse a blue streak every sentence you utter."

She flipped the fan open and fluttered it lazily over her face, a smile curving her bright pink lips once more. "Now, Tirea, Mister...uh...you there, why don't you both join me for a late breakfast where you both can thrill me with your talk of evolutionary divergences and what not." She jiggled the bag of currency and batted the long eyelashes framing her blue eyes.

Grace's eyebrows rose up at the way Lottie smacked the man with her fan. If she had that much of a problem with language, she was going to have a fit when Grace got going. Good thing she wasn't human at the moment. As an Avatar, she'd gotten used to being gentler with her words, but as a human, she'd never cared for it, particularly when Parker was involved.

"As long as the place can handle a big blue thing like me," Grace answered before glancing at the man with a smirk. "So, Hotshot, are you going to tell us your name or will you forever be the 'Mystery Man?'"

Cid snorted at Lottie's accusation. There wasn't a damned thing wrong with his vocabulary. He just had a habit of make the most of the language, and if that meant swearing, then swear he would. Besides, most people he knew had gotten used to his linguistic habits.

"Cid Highwind," he answered with a grin. "And I ain't gonna say no to a late breakfast."

"Wonderful!" Lottie exclaimed. If she was offended or perturbed by their reactions to her, she certainly didn't show it. On the contrary, she seemed quite pleased with herself and just as chipper as ever...and talked a steady stream as she lead them from the station to the nearest cafe.

"I cannot imagine they'd have a problem servin' you, Tirea. Why, just the other day, I saw a huge furry beast like creature with horns! And of course, I've hear rumors 'bout demons and gods and monsters and what have you, so a lovely blue cat thing like yerself shouldn't hardly be a problem. And if it is? Well, they won't take my hard-earned money, no, ma'am! Mr. Highwind'll just glower at 'em and I'm sure they'll seat us right away! You've got what Daddeh used to call the stink eye, Mr. Highwind, and if I do say so myself, it seems quite a useful tool in the right hands."

Grace almost wished she was human that day rather than in her Avatar. She could tell she and Cid would get along perfectly. "I'm a Na'vi, not a cat-thing," she corrected Lottie quickly. The scientist in her wouldn't let anyone get away with not being specific and scientifically correct.

"You'd have to stand in line for after I'm through with them," Grace informed them both as she walked towards the cafe and entered. It was difficult having to bend so far over just to get inside a place, but she managed. Good thing the Na'vi bodies were so flexible, but she was almost walking on her knees while hunched over and that just hurt. Once she was back up, she glanced around for a seat that would hold her weight. Lucky her. One was off in the corner and she made note of it.

"Do you talk this much at home, Lottie?" Not to be rude, though Grace usually was in general. She was curious.

Well, there was nothing saying that she couldn't find him later. Keeping an eye on his store tended to make hm rather easy to find, if someone particularly wanted to. Mind you, it wasn't any real sort of guarantee, but it made things a little bit easier in the long run.

"As long as they get paid, they don't seem to have much of a problem," he offered, with a vague shrug.

Not that he wouldn't do his best to defend the lady's honor if he was called upon to do so. He had his spear, and if nothing else he could damned well swear them into submission. After all, it had worked before - sometimes. And it wasn't like trying it would hurt anything.

"'Course, Navee! Why, that just sounds so exotic!" Lottie was quick to reply, a guttural growl of amusement underlying that last word, followed by a girlish giggle. "Can't say I've rightly heard of such a thing, but then again, I've never been whisked --" she gestured widely to illustrate whisking, smacking her bag square into Cid's chest -- "away to a far away domed city full o' fantasy creatures, so I'll be sure to keep an open mind!"

As they entered, Lottie happened to set her eyes on the same table Grace had. She lead them toward it, stopping short at the question. The idea that she talked anymore than usual perpetually took her by surprise, even if it'd been pointed out to her several times over the course of her life. "Oh! Am I talkin' a lot?" She glanced to Cid, fluttering her eyelashes with a sheepish smile. "Must be because you two are so quiet. Now don't you two let me jaw yer ears off! You chime in anytime you want!"

She stood to the side of her chair, unconsciously waiting for Cid to slide it out from under the table as she was accustomed to.

Oh this was going to be a long enough deal, Grace was sure, and Lottie's accent combined with her talking certainly wasn't doing much to help the scientist's annoyance. She was seriously starting to miss Pandora. Not that she hadn't missed it from the moment she'd stepped foot in this city. Of course that also brought up the question of if she'd even be alive if she got back and that thought made her sour considerably.

Ignoring Lottie completely for now, she stared at the chair before gingerly sitting down. It looked large and sturdy enough to hold her and so far it was. She'd have to make sure it didn't die on her halfway through the meal.

Noticing that Lottie was still standing, she looked up at the woman with a smirk on her face. "You can sit down. The chair's not going to bite, you know."

Regrettably, if Lottie was expecting Cid to pull out her chair, she'd be waiting quite a long time. While Cid could certainly manage to be somewhat less crude, being gentlemanly was pretty damned far out of his repertoire. And even if he had been inclined to, he wouldn't have out of spite any after she managed to (hopefully accidentally) hit him square in the chest with her bag.

Okay, so he'd had a hell of a lot worse as far as injuries went but dammit, couldn't she manage to keep an eye on where she was swinging that thing? It was like there was all that much room around the place.

"Course you haven't," he grumbled. "It's the goddammed first time for any of us and it ain't like the place advertises."

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She Works Hard for the Money [Active/Open]

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derp

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ffffff I thought I'd answered this, orz

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