Jingle bells, Walkers smell [open]

[smarterthanthem]

Who| Clementine and OTA
What| Out and about through the mall
Where| Various locations, the Walking Dead store, the escalators etc.
When| Start of week 2
Warnings/Notes| only that which you bring with you

Prompt A: Anywhere, reacting to Christmaaaas

When Clementine had briefly talked about Christmas with Dave at the Cornucopia she hadn't actually expected it to happen. At first she'd been childishly delighted by the fake snow, trees, snowmen and giant inflatable candy canes; then suspicious.

The suspicion turns out to be fruitful as that same stupid song plays over and over again, as if the Capitol had forgotten any other Christmas music existed -- except of course it's all obviously purposeful. "So this is how they drive us all crazy." Clem grumbles, kicking at a pile of fake presents.

Prompt B: The Walking Dead store

The Capitol has been surprisingly creative here. In addition to the expected Walker masks and t-shirts, there are hoodies, posters, dolls, slippers and even mock up survival kits (though all the weapons included in these are made of foam) amongst other things. There's a rather disturbing noisemaker that when tilted produces a realistic Walker groan.

Clementine puts that one down quickly.

She pauses at a table of action figures, full of people she'd known since the outbreak started (and herself, weird) as well as generic survivors and Walkers. Her fingers find one of Lee soon enough, staring at the well-done detail on his face and feels just as disconcerted as she did by the biography in the bookshop.

Prompt C: Bottom of the escalators, going to the food court?

Going down is so much more fun than going up in this place, at least for Clementine.

After squinting downwards for any potential hostile tributes she clambers up onto the bannister of the escalator, and gets a good grip on it as she edges backwards right up until the point gravity starts to take hold. It'd suck to lose her balance and fall into the crushing gears hidden under the innocent looking steps.

With a final inch backwards she starts to slide, grinning as she does and resisting the urge to let out a whoop of enjoyment. It only takes five seconds to get down to the ground floor like this, she almost wishes it was longer (and didn't have to think about the climb back up later).

Comments

A

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland hears the familiar voice around a corner and heads toward it slowly, making sure his steps are loud enough to be heard before he comes into view. "How do you mean?" he asks, looking around her to try and get an idea. "Something worse than their usual?"

Re: A

[smarterthanthem]

"Roland!" Clementine perks up at once when she hears his voice, her features lighting up as she turns to see him alive and looking well. "Er, I was talking about the music. They've been playing it all day, it was nice at first but now it's getting really annoying."

[ka_sera_sera]

His expression softens, fond, in response to hers. "So long as it doesn't have words it'll be bearable. If I never hear anyone singing about 'merry go rounds' again I'll be grateful."

A

[shenunigans]

Christmas themed. Seems a little early, doesn't it? Dave almost worries that his sense of time is so borked that he has no idea it's december, but that's ridiculous because he is the absolute spirit and authority of all time related shenanigans. They're just fucking with them, and it's working.

As soon as he sees the decorations, his irony gland begs him to find Clem simply due to their conversation earlier. Rifling through display magazines makes coupons an easy find, a pen is an easy find too and so is newspaper and tape to wrap it all up. Not without the addition of a little something extra, he's not too much of a dick. He writes CLEMINEM in bright red marker and pretty much skulks around looking for her.

It's pure coincidence that he finds her in the most christmassy part of the mall, but getting there makes him realise he's not sure how to deliver it. So. He's just going to throw her present at the back of her head.

Re: A

[smarterthanthem]

There Clementine is, just innocently looking at Santa's grotto when someone decides to throw something at her head.

It's not a heavy impact by any means, it is however a startling one, resulting in her whipping round and fumbling at her bow before she realises who the culprit is. No sign of Dave since the Cornucopia and he then he throws something at her head. "Dave!" the girl sounds suitably annoyed, "What did you do that for?"

She glances briefly at the package, not catching the writing on it just yet but considering picking it up and throwing it back at him in response.

Except wait, are those bruises?

[shenunigans]

Alright, well. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Maybe Dave should have been so kind as to address himself first, but he let himself get shy about it.

Inwardly, he berates himself for being an idiot, but outwardly he's just going to fold his arms over his chest and smirk. He's almost entirely forgotten the fact that he's bruised as hell and wearing a tooth necklace, it's been an interesting and overwhelming week.

"Merry Christmas." He nods down at the package with a raised brow, hoping she takes the hint and opens it.

C

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy had a break from watching Chibi Usa, and so she came out to this clusterfuck. Christmas. Christmas in the mall. What wouldn't these motherfuckers think of next?

She was just exacting some bored revenge on an annoying looking snowman when she saw the girl sliding down the banister without a care in the world. Of course it would be Clementine, being very much the kid that Mindy was lost with right at the moment due to the current state of affairs. Seeing this, though, she couldn't resist, and ran and tacked the girl on the way down.

[smarterthanthem]

The fun part was an added bonus of the very real and secure, safe way of getting down the treacherous escalators, that was what Clementine would say if questioned.

As it is she has a split moment of spotting Mindy coming for her just as she hopes off the bottom of the bannister (enough to not pull her knife) and bites back a shriek of surprise. "Mindy!" and back they both go into a pile of the fake snow.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy was laughing. She couldn't help it: it was the perfect time to actually tackle someone, and she was just happy that Clementine was still all right. It hadn't escaped her notice that people were now starting to die, and they certainly all weren't going to last forever.

"Hey, what's up?" Mindy asks, on top of Clementine and looking rather proud of herself.

[knifewithnoname]

"But it do be being supposed to be being cold for Christmas." Pruna is confused. She knows she has lost time with being back on her world but it is not as cold or the same time of year as the last time there was a Christmas.

Even the snow wasn't cold. It made no sense. Pruna saw a girl kicking the fake presents and dodged behind a snowman, gesturing at Sandy to be quiet hide as she readied her ice skate weapon. She didn't know if this girl had anything worth taking but a kill was a kill and the way she saw it it was all part of Sandy's training. The more people she killed the stronger she would become.

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine bounces one of the brightly coloured boxes into her hands, it's so light she doesn't need to look inside to know it's empty. She spins it for a moment, turning away from the pile with a frown.

Bright geen with little reindeer on it and a red bow, nice. It'd probably make a good place to hide stuff as no one would think the gifts held anything within them. Still, probably not worth the risk of losing anything.

She glances up, taking in her surroundings for a moment but seeing no one in sight.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy followed Pruna on instinct clutching her pole tightly, but her eyes widened when she saw who it was and she shook her head whispering "She's a friend."

At least she hoped so.

"Clementine." She called from the hiding place. "You OK?" Her own voice was raspy and trembled a bit as she couldn't help but sound anxious.

C!

[polyturtle]

Well, well. At least someone was having fun with the escalators. And the Christmas music. And Eponine's decaying body. Or...well, maybe not that last one, but hey, welcome to the food court. There was a turtle who was gathering food from the serving Avoxes.

With the amount of Tributes they now had, Don wasn't surprised that he hadn't really properly met Clementine. Nor was it difficult to recognize the girl who had been - at least until recently - the youngest of them.

"Hey. Hungry?"

[smarterthanthem]

It's pretty much the same for Clementine, she can't not know about Donatello, after all a humanoid turtle was kind of hard to miss. It was pretty odd they hadn't run into each other before.

"Hi." her experience with troll's and a giant tree person serves her well for not going too bug-eyed in his presence. "Yeah, a bit. We started running low from what we swiped before. Is there anything good?"

[polyturtle]

Yeah. It was pretty surprising, all things considered.

"Mostly just fast food," Don replied, holding up a bag. "Hamburgers and fries. No limit to what you can order at the moment, as long as you order right now during lunch."

C

[actually112]

Aang hears the whoop. He jumps on the banister overlooking the first floor. He grins as he sees a girl with springy black hair, sliding down the banister.

That looks like fun.

He kicks up the plastic glider he had found in the store of his world, walking to the escalator.

"You can go faster if you're standing up!" Aang jumps onto the escalator's banister. Without missing a beat, he drops the plastic glider down, balancing it on the banister in a moment before standing on it, balancing on it perfectly as he zooms down the banister, not at all concerned about the possibility of falling.

It would look very much like he's just showing off, if not for that fact that, the moment he jumps off at the bottom and kicks the glider into his hand, he offers the plastic staff to her with a grin. "Now you try!"

Most of the people Aang hangs out with have impeccable balance. He just assumes everyone is the same.

[smarterthanthem]

"Huh?"

Clementine hops off the end of the bannister only to look up at a boy, maybe her own age, standing at the top and declaring that-- "No don't!" she says as he hops up, her heart leaping up in her throat at the idea she's doing to see him topple and fall onto the escalator steps where he'll surely die.

She's seen the gears that lurk under the steps and tried very hard not to imagine what would happen to a human body that fell in them.

Well good job, Aang, because awe mixes with the shot of adrenaline now pumping through her system as he lands safely and gracefully at the bottom before her. Clem's eyes flick to the staff and then back to him, "I... I don't think I can do that. How did you?"

A

[silberfuchs]

Christmas.

Albert used to love Christmas. Even after he was remodeled, though it took him a few years to get over what had happened, he would spend the holiday with his new family and even fell back into his original habits of bad sweaters and overdone but traditional decorations. He had even restarted his collection of nutcrackers. He's not sure what it was about them he found so charming, but every Christmas at his apartment back in Germany he would bring out his small army and set them up on every available surface.

Of course, this isn't Christmas. It's hardly even past summer, and even if it were he wouldn't be in the spirit at all. Still, on his way back up to the third floor after a food run, he finds himself slowing and picking up one of the tree toppers from a display just inside a shop front. A gold star, covered in glitter with a small switch that turns on a twinkling light inside. Maybe it would cheer Jet up to have a star of his own...

He's so distracted by his own thoughts that he barely even registers Clementine putting her foot through a fake wrapped gift behind him. It makes him jump and whirl around, brandishing the star for a moment as if it's a bludgeon. He lowers his arm immediately upon seeing her. "Sorry, you startled me."

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine whips round and gasps at the arm lifted at her, not that the star makes a very threatening weapon in itself. Albert is however, a very big and threatening man, even if she knows him -- and takes a moment to recognise that.

"Ah... Albert?" she relaxes as he lowers his arm, letting go of the knife she had in her pocket. "Sorry. I didn't mean to... I didn't realise you were here."

Bad point for her, she had to be more careful than this.

A

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce is hidden among the fake snow, an entire strip of Christmas lights wrapped around his shoulder, when he hears a familiar little voice.

"I think they have a few ideas for how to do that." He readjusts the lights on his shoulder before walking towards the voice, catching sight of Clementine kicking the present. "Is all the Christmas stuff getting to you?"

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine jumps at the voice, then catches on to who it belongs to. "Bruce!" she's glad to see him again a couple weeks after they first met, looking relatively well and unharmed.

"Uh... well, I like the decorations and the music was okay too, the first dozen times at least... now it's getting annoying." Hence why she's kicking a poor innocent present around like that.

[carnagecarnival]

He's only vaguely familiar with the concept of christmas. He remembers it from the year prior, a short explanation done on by someone what he didn't see no more-- though he didn't dare let himself wondered what happened to Pasha.

There might be faint whimsy to it all, in its weird way, any other time. But all he knows now is two things; that song is boring into his skull like the worst of parasites.

And this girl is gone kicking displays and he, as an avox, must be on fixing it. So, just a few seconds after her kicking the display he appears silently, though not meaning to scare her, just reaching for them gifts.

[smarterthanthem]

Still, she gasps softly, her eyes widened a little at the sight of the troll when he appeared. She doesn't immediately run, it isn't the first time she's seen one of them, having met Signless before after she woke up from the last arena. This one however, she does not know.

"Uh... sorry, I didn't know you were there." he seems more focused on the gifts than her, still, she feels like she should apologise.

B

[oopsright]

Wearing one of the red flannel plaid shirts that Joel had taken down for her at the store that had been full of items and such from their own world, Tess is wandering through this store days later looking both curious and cautious. She keeps her right arm tucked close to her side, bandaging peeking out from under the sleeve rolled up past her elbow, dried blood flaking on her skin. Underneath the length of her bicep suffers a long and deep gash from the man who had gone in and tried to charge Joel, but she'd been there to catch him in time, suffering another cut along her left ribcage, more bandaging wrapped around her torso because of it.

Tess was weary and wary both, scouting around and separating herself from Joel despite what had happened during their brief separation. It showed in how sometimes her steps would shuffle, bags under her eyes.

The sound of something groaning, a familiar sound but not one as nerve-wrecking as the clicks and croaks of a Clicker, catches her attention and she's gripping her skate tighter, silently moving to where she'd heard the noise.

Shit...

[smarterthanthem]

"Urgh... why would anyone want that." Clementine says, repressing a shudder as she puts the noisemaker back down. The groan of a Walker was the last thing anybody should turn into a toy, if she hadn't been the one to pick the thing up she would have surely jumped out of her skin to hear it.

After three years of living in a Walker-infested world her mind had wired itself to register and respond to that sound with a sharp burst of adrenaline, even know she can tell her heart is beating faster just because of it. These people have obviously never had to deal with a real Walker or they'd never make that.

She turns to another table, eyes widening. That's Kenny's hat. she's plenty sure it is at least, as far as she can remember. Just like her he never took the thing off.

That's when she catches a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye and gasps, turning and trying to pull out a knife, her mind forgetting where she is for a moment and sure there really is a walker in here with her, not just rubber masks and cardboard cut-outs.