trans_9 | Free ice cream! [open]

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Free ice cream! [open]

Alex sat beneath the shade of a large tree in a decent sized park. Those familiar with New York might recognize the sky scrapers in the distance, even if they didn't recognize the park itself. Parked on a small service road was an ice cream truck with a merry vendor, who claimed that it was customer appreciation day, and was thus giving ice cream away for free.

Alex was already enjoying a chocolate and strawberry cone covered in sprinkles and caramel syrup, wondering if anyone would bother showing up to spend time with him, or even be interested in sensorium ice cream in the first place.

Either way, Alice seemed thrilled, as she pulled what appeared to be pink chocolate chips from a jar labelled "Yogis". Reaching out to pet Alice, Alex laughed a bit, "Don't get used to eating s-so many." sensorium food might not mess with her health, but once they got home, it would be the real thing once again. He figured that she deserved the treat as much as he deserved the ice cream anyway.

[OOC: Post to Alex or to other people if you'd like.]

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Zouichi looked around at the buildings, curious; it looked just like the old pictures of New York he'd read about in books, a mass of tall buildings and sidewalks (no one had yet to yell at him to stop standing around blocking traffic, though). Alex was fairly easy to find, resting in the shade eating his ice cream.

As he approached, he didn't call out, but rather began tapping rapidly on his Omnicomm, presenting Alex with the screen after he was finished.

You must tell me how to beat the boss, it said. My units simply do not have the offensive power to destroy him and his minions.

He paused, then typed an additional, Nice park, by the way.

Ronnae was looking forward to hanging with her friend again. She took in the city with curiosity and wanderlust, taking a bit of time to just admire and take note of the architecture.

After a bit she spotted the man giving out the ice cream and she couldn't help but smile wide. Sure it wasn't the ice cream shop in Silvermoon but it might be just as good!

She fidgeted a bit before getting close, forgetting for a moment that it was a sensorium person. Walking up she offered a cheery smile, "Double scoop strawberry with white fudge dipped strawberries, strawberry syrup, mint chips and sprinkles please!" She blushed a bit doing the order herself, it was usually one of her siblings ordering it for her and she just realized how ridiculous she sounded saying it. Though to be fair, their own choices were even more outrageous.

After acquiring her icecream she looked around for Alex. After noticing him she gave a shy wave and approached timidly his way.

Billy had been pleased to find Alex's message---perfect! He was checking off the list one by one, and here was an opportunity to boost his friend's confidence. He could hardly wait.

"Alex!" Billy called happily, sitting beside him and Alice. Ice cream could wait. There were other matters to attend to. "How have you been?"

Anwei stepped into the Sensorium a little less gingerly than the last time - she was still going to have to ask Stacy about setting a telltale. She was wearing her usual denim shirt shrugged over her plantsuit, and there was a distinct bounce in her step as she moved. She had good news to share.

"Hello, Alex," she said, coming to stand beside him. "What do you recommend for ice cream? I don't think I've ever had it before."

Alex read it and laughed, "You t-tell me. I think the AI m-might be a b-bit too intuitive. It l-learns your m-methods a b-bit too well. T-try doing something t-totally unlike y-your normal methods."

He looked around at the park, "I-it's a f-few blocks from my h-home. It's n-not quite as nice as Central P-Park, but... Is there a r-reason you're ty-typing on your o-omnicomm?"

Totally unlike my normal methods? He thought for a minute, then typed, I always attempt to finish the levels in the most efficient manner possible. Are you saying that I must try to be less efficient?

What park is this? Bryant? It is still quite nice.

I seem to be under some sort of magical effect that randomly activates when I speak aloud. I am trying not to cause any more incidents until I can get this issue resolved.

Alex waved at Ronnae, "H-hey! How're you? T-that looks good!"

He was glad that other people were taking advantage of the park and the ice cream truck.

Alex had felt weird making that post openly, but he had realized the list of people he wouldn't mind seeing had extended beyond the number that it would make any sense locking the message to.

Seeing Billy he waved with a big smile on his face, "Good! H-how about you, B-Billy?"

"Same here," Billy answered, smiling down at Alice for a moment before turning back to her owner. "I'm finally making progress on some projects that have been waiting for a while: specifically, we're getting the department organized. We'll have infrastructure specialists, programmers, mechanics, and a number of other crews, but people can belong to more than one."

That was the first thing to get out of the way. "Your best area is programming, right?"

She grinned wide, having already learned to feel a bit more comfortable around Alex. "It's my all time favorite from back home!" She took a lick and settled besides him.

"Anwei! I-it's good ta see you! I'm a b-bit partial ta Birthday C-Cake, but I d-decided ta g-go with ch-choc-colate strawberry sprinkle c-caramel c-cone."

He offered his cone to her, "Y-you c-can try if you'd like!"

Alex nodded with a smile, suspecting nothing. "Y-yeah, I'm a-actually not th-that great with anything else, though it'd be interesting to learn other things t-too, e-especially building c-computer parts.

"Do ya n-need help w-with paper w-work, or databasing?"

Perfect. Trap laid! Billy stretched back, regarding Alex with pride. "Yes to both of those, but we're working on arranging that. Actually, you might be working on arranging that."

He pauses, waiting to see if this sinks in.

"Oh, may I?" With a squinch of mental effort she called up a spoon, neatly took a bit off the top of the cone, and tasted it.

"It amazes me what your cultures do with animal milk," she said, rolling the taste of the ice cream over in her tongue. "I think I like the chocolate best, out of this combination. Oh, I did look for chocolate on Gondepetil, but I couldn't find any. I did find some hard candy, would you or Alice like some?" She took a small metal box out of her pocket and rattled its contents invitingly.

"Marcus G-Garvey park, actually. M-maybe being less efficient would confuse the AI. Try being efficiently inefficient?" At least Alex didn't seem bothered by the communication method. It was a way that he wasn't totally unfamiliar with, since it hadn't been entirely uncommon for him to get nervous enough that he couldn't talk.

"I w-wish I lived near B-Bryant Park. There's s-some nice penthouses over th-there."

Kanaya was curious about the ice cream, but even more than that, she'd decided the company would help. She walked slowly towards the ice cream truck, still taking in the nature and the skyline behind it; it was all disarmingly human, or at least disarmingly highblood. That wasn't to say it was a bad thing, though.

Once she got closer to the ice cream truck and the gathering, she decided to approach Alex and the others first. "Hello, Alex. It was quite generous of you to extend the invitation." She tried for an authentically human smile, trying not to let her frayed nerves show as much as she was feeling them.

"S-sure! I'd be g-glad ta help with anything ya n-need. I c-can set s-something up s-so we have a b-better system t-ta know who's in wh-what section of the department."

He continued on, still not quite getting what Billy was getting at. "I c-can set up s-some sorta system so that you'll be a-able ta know who the s-specialists in each field are at a g-glance." He was just a little bit bad at getting these sort of hints.

"I u-usually g-go for the birthday c-cake flavoured ice c-cream, b-but I decided ta ch-change it up today!"

Efficiently unefficient? Zouichi looked mildly confused.

Isn't New York real estate supposed to be prohibitively expensive? he asked. At least, that's how it was in my time.

Billy made a mental note to be more obvious with Alex next time. This time, though, he was gearing up for a surprise.

"I'm glad to hear it, but what I'm actually looking for from you is a department head. I need someone to head the programmers, and you're the person I trust most. I think you'd become a good leader."

She smiled, "Birthday cake flavored ice cream sounds great! Maybe if I have space after this I'll try it out." She laughed lightly and took a few more licks of her ice cream, taking one of the strawberries and eating it happily.

Alex laughed a bit nervously, scratching at the back of his head. "Th-thanks, I'd l-love one! Wh-what's it made of? I-it's n-not good for Alice t-ta have too much s-sugar. T-those are j-just sensorium f-food, so she c-can enjoy as m-many as she'd l-like.

"Th-the vendor'll l-let you taste a-as many as you'd l-like, if you w-wanna t-try."

Albert seemed to acquire a habit of wandering into the sensoriums, if two times counted as a habit...but so far he only encountered pleasant things. He thought he recognized some buildings in the distant from the textbooks back in school, seems like he was in New York City. Albert saw someone eating ice cream as his eyes dragged down from the city skyline. "Hello! My name is Albert, it is nice to meet you..."

"I scanned in the ingredient label and had Stacy translate it, and it's 'Sugar and natural flavorings.' I'm pretty sure it's safe for her; believe me, Orongo must have the most amazing food preparation facilities. Multiple alien races all eating the same snacks, and not a single complaint." She opened the box and poured a tiny pile of blueish pellets into a twist of paper, which she handed him. "Just don't let her eat them all at once."

"Thanks, I will!" Anwei went and talked to the vendor, and returned with a cone that dripped long strings of dark brown down her knuckles.

"Burnt caramel," she said, licking the ice cream back into place with a surprisingly narrow tongue. Once she had the cone under control, she looked at Alex with a smile. "I have some good news for you."

It didn't hurt to explore the Sensoriums every so often, just to see what everyone else was thinking about. This looked interesting - quiet, peaceful, sunny - so he and Haro sauntered over to see what was going on.

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Free ice cream! [open]

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