barbie does tend to come before book in the standard english dictionary... [open]

[encourage]

There is a point, Sakura decided, Where directions are useless if there's no consistent measurement of distance. She felt she'd reached this point, stepping out of the main walkway and up onto a semi-clear platform lining this part of the road. By what she could figure, she should have arrived at this particular bookseller by now, but she still seemed to be stuck in some bizarre toyland.

Or at least what could pass as a section of it, with stores and merchants displaying all kinds of toys from and for all kinds of species. There were even people dressed in funny costumes wandering around and trying to sell her intestine animals they were tying up on the spot. (They were apparently very popular with Traflimadurian children.)

"You'd think people would want to be easy to find..." She trailed off, sighing in frustration. On a planet of merchants? Ones who probably do everything they can to catch a buyer's attention before their competition? Right. Stepping back off the platform into the crowd, Sakura steeled herself for good old fashioned trial by error exploration -- until either persistence or blind luck paid off.

Comments

[livestoannoy]

Marco hadn't been going anywhere in particular when he'd spotted Sakura - he'd just been strolling around, hands in pockets, scoping out the place - but when he did see that flash of pink he grinned, and tried to sneak up behind her.

[encourage]

After being run into several times (only a few unintentional), Sakura was operating on an all time high as far as spacial awareness as she moved through the crowd. Sensing someone coming up behind her faster than she was currently going had her angling first to the side, looking casually over her shoulder.

When she recognized who was behind her, she changed that into a half turn and small wave. "Hello!" She wondered what he was looking for in the area, if he even had that much of an agenda. It was hard to tell with people, sometimes. "Enjoying your time here on XaXing so far?"

[livestoannoy]

Marco didn't seem at all disappointed in being spotted, and he was about to make some incredibly witty remark when he stopped, and blinked.

"Is your hair shorter?" he asked. For some reason, he felt vaguely disappointed about this...

[encourage]

Sakura looked obviously surprised, one hand coming up to touch her hair as if needing to verify what he was talking about for herself. Two inches shorter... "You notice the difference?"

[livestoannoy]

"No, I just felt like randomly asking," Marco said, sarcastic. "Obviously this is a question I'd still be asking if I hadn't."

[encourage]

She frowned, bringiong her hand back down to her side. Whatever.

"You're a guy. Why would you even notice when a girl trims off two inches of hair?" Pending she wasn't suddenly sporting a bob from this two inch trim. Sakura most certainly wasn't. "It's not that big a difference."

[livestoannoy]

Marco looked at her oddly. "You know, usually girls tend to get all prissy when guys don't notice their hair cuts. I mean, come on. You complain if someone doesn't notice, and now you complain if they do?"

[encourage]

She started to respond, then stopped. He was technically right, though usually when she wanted to be noticed for something like this, it was from someone in specific, or for some similarly specific reason. Getting Naruto to admit she'd matured (which he'd done nothing even close to), or once upon a time, hoping for Sasuke to turn her way and say he liked how long her hair was.

Neither point especially stood right now. "I'm not complaining!" Maybe a little. "It's just not -- argh!" She turned away and started walking again, feeling herself blush out of frustrated embarrassment.

[livestoannoy]

Marco blinked, wondering why she was walking away...and then grinned. "You did want someone to notice," he teased, grinning and walking up beside her.

[encourage]

"Don't be an idiot," she shot back, crossing her arms over her chest and determinedly scanning the shop signs for the one she wanted. "Who would I want noticing something like this?"

[livestoannoy]

"Maybe you're hoping to impress me," Marco said, that irritating half-grin half-smirk still on his face.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

There were a few things that were true about Sasami, no matter what she was and one of those were that she was a kid. Despite the fact that she had been spending some of her hard earned money on making everyone better, she wanted to spend some of it on stuff for herself.

Finding herself in what appeared to be the toy section of this odd bazaar, Sasami couldn't help but notice a somewhat familiar girl with pink hair near by. "Hi, there!" she called out.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"No! I do not want to go to the bookstore! I DO NOT need a girlfriend! Not from THERE anyway!"

Apparently a local tout was attempting to shake down a book for a tour fee.

[encourage]

Sakura rolled her eyes, flicking her fingers at him. "Better get your head checked out. Sounds like you might have a little swelling."

[encourage]

Sakura didn't know if she was being addressed, among all the calls and shouts of greetings being tossed around over her head. It was something familiar about the voice (hadn't she heard this person before? not from home, either) that made her turn her head, a smile quirking her lips up as recognition registered. "Hey!" she called back, waving at the other girl and changing direction to move toward her.

Seeing more people from the ship around the market was turning out to largely be a pleasant series of surprises. "It's amazing how much stuff there is out here, isn't it?" she asked, once they were close enough to speak.

[encourage]

Sakura had a moment to ponder the viability of books dating before attempting to intercede on behalf of the book which preferred to be single.

At least literaturely.

"Is there a problem here?"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"Mmn, it is...!" Sasami said, nodding. To be honest, she never expected to see a place so huge and busy like this. It was nothing short of amazing! "What brought you to this end?"

[encourage]

"Bookstores, actually." Sakura shrugged, looking briefly toward an array of shops across the street. "They're supposed to be here, somewhere. So far all I've been finding are toy stores, if I'm not sure how many of these count as toys where I'm from."

She smiled, feeling a little sheepish as she realized what she's said. "Then again, we didn't have intergalactic markets where I'm from, either. What about you?"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"I've been looking around, mostly." Sasami admitted. "I've gotten plenty of what I need, but... it sounds silly, but I... kinda want something for myself."

Sasami's always been one to help out, not really being the kind of person to ask for something for selfish reasons. And this would be her one opportunity to do so. "I've seen a few of these where I came from, but, nothing this wild..."

[encourage]

"That doesn't sound silly to me," Sakura said, smiling more warmly at Sasami. "Being able to get something unnecessary for ourselves is nice, once in a while."

If Sakura liked to justify hers for her own sake. "Has anything in particular caught your attention?"

[livestoannoy]

"Suuuure, whatever you say Doctor Barbie. I won't tell anyone about how you really just want to get your stethoscope on me," Marco said, smirking.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"Mmn, I guess you're right." Sasami said. "I guess I'm so used to helping out everyone else, the thought of doing something for me seems... alien." She couldn't help but chuckle.

Her pink eyes began scanning across the area, hoping to find something that did catch her eye. "Not yet... you wanna help me?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"This guy seems to think I'd be willing to pay for directions to a bookstore!" Zetta said, loud enough to completely overwhelm the protestations of the would-be guide. "Just because I AM a book at the moment doesn't mean I want to go sit on a shelf and hit on other possibly sentient tomes!"

[encourage]

"Or wrapped around your neck," she muttered in a low voice, letting her hands fall back to her sides. Nixing defensive body posture made sense, in regards to being surrounded almost entirely by strangers. "You haven't seen any bookstores in this area, have you? On the off chance you might actually know something use...ful..."

Sakura trailed off, looking up ahead at one of the many large, sprawling signs in a storefront. Why had it drawn her attention? Was it just the color of the sign, shades of pink with lettered in gold and white?

[encourage]

I guess I'm so used to helping out everyone else, the thought of doing something for me seems... alien. So similar to a handful of people Sakura could name, though she'd never include herself in that number. She looked over what heads she could in the crowd, catching hints and flashes of merchants and windows with prominently displayed wares.

Bookstores weren't likely to up and move. She had days to find at least one decent one.

Smiling back at Sasami, she nodded. "Why not? It could be fun." There was no shortage of things to look at, at the very least.