Characters: Hotline (A.G.), Paige (Cuftbert ), Open Setting: Jump City Supermall, 1:00 PM, early December Previous Threads: Plot Summary: You can find anything in a mall, from you favorite snacks to missing people! Just ask Hotline Ellie Cullington; She's an expert on at least one of these.
There wasn't much better than a bag full of Haribo's infamous gummy snails and a small-- err, excuse her, 'tall'-- cup of Starbucks' salted caramel mocha to get the warmth of the Christmas spirit going in someone like Ellie Cullington, who decided upon taking a completely unplanned and most certainly unpurposed trip to Jump City's Supermall, home of just about everything that ever existed in the history of ever. For a teenager. So, about 18 or so years. The floor was crowded as expected, but the sheer size of the mall was not unlike a small town itself, so there was still room enough to breathe, despite the current craze of adults-- and some smitten teens-- rushing around to price and shop for gifts for the upcoming holiday.
This was apparently what normal people with normal families did. Ellie wouldn't know; She grew up with a family of supers, and a truckload of an allowance. Monetary things weren't really... 'gifts', for them. Then again, for someone who had powers-- something you couldn't simply 'give' another person-- what gift could even count as being worthy? Sure, they still bought things for each other, just for the heck of it, but the 'gift giving' holiday was, for the Cullingtons, usually just an excuse to go on a family outing.
...Which wasn't bad! It just wasn't... normal. And that's what Ellie was. Normal. In a house full of heroes, she was... normal.
She took another sip of the piping hot blend of salt and sugar, swallowing the disconcerting thoughts she felt before leaning back in the chair she'd chosen. It and it's table carefully overlooked the third of four floors of the mall (excluding the roof, of course), and gave her a perfect view of the amazing amount of activity going on. It also placed her amazingly close enough to a security camera (located on a column behind her) overlooking the entire floor. There was one above and below that very same camera, and one on the ground floor as well; The worked perfectly for Ellie, who made a pastime out of tapping into the cameras wirelessly with her phone.
Why? Because malls were a cesspool, so to speak, for suspicious activity. And as it turned out, many of the cases she'd been on top of in the past, she picked up good leads on from the Jump City Supermall. It was a lot of information to sift through, but a suspicious character here, a bit of audio from a bug she'd placed there, and eventually, she'd find herself on top of a brand new case.
...Plus, hacking into cameras was just plain fun. Getting to do so while having a cup of Starbucks and gummy snails? Priceless.
Paige knew she was taking an enormous risk coming to the mall, but she was sure enough of her ability to blend in that she decided to risk a trip anyway. After all, she'd never been in the mall before, even before her house arrest. The shopping center was abuzz with activity, so much so that Paige was worried someone would recognize the only daughter of the Turner family, who'd been the center of anti-cape activism for days after their child ran away from home to become a costumed vigilante. Nobody stopped her, however; nobody pulled her aside and demanded to take her to the cops. The mall's denizens were so caught up with their own devices that the little blonde girl might as well have been invisible.
Which suited Paige just fine. After all, she was here to enjoy herself after her hectic life following her escape. From the ground floor, Paige had walked in and out of a wide array of shops. Clothing shops, toy shops, candy shops; they all shared one thing in common: stuff she couldn't afford. It was nice to take a look, however, and the heroine's mind was abuzz with all the things she wanted to buy once she'd saved up enough pocket change.
Of course, there was a sinking feeling growing in the girl's stomach. Something felt...off. It seemed too good to be true that nobody would notice a wanted person like herself was strolling around in public. There had to be something brewing in the shadows... Paige quickly realized how silly that sounded, fortunately, and so she strode towards the nearest clothing store, where fashionable winter coats were on display.
Ellie kicked back in her chair, feet propped up on the table she had chosen, rather pleased with herself as she watched over the contents of her phone. A particular app she'd designed some time ago allowed her to switch between camera feeds with a swipe of one finger, and a simple zoom with the use of two. There was nothing more fun than catching people completely off their guard, doing all sorts of fun things. Shoplifting, for instance. In a mall so packed to the brim with members, security was stretched pretty thin by default. Sure, they would catch a few people here and there, but the massive amount of crime, from petty pocketing of penny items to the chance situation of a shooting, there just wasn't enough manpower to stop anyone from doing anything too frivolous.
This is why she packed The Headlights in her backpack.
However, for the moment at least, nothing too terrible seemed to be going on. Which was good, because in the place of tracking down a criminal, Ellie's eyes had settled on another prize. Quickly, her legs slipped down from the table and she righted herself, eyes fixated on what one camera had captured near a clothing store. A wide grin spread upon the junior reporter's face as she pocketed her phone and, after taking a quick look around to make sure no one else was nearby to see, Ellie left the table, and took a quick left turn into a door labeled 'staff only', before disappearing out of sight.
She'd reappear only a few feet away from the clothing store from moments earlier, taking a quick peek around to be safe, before exiting yet another 'closed off' door. She knew this place like the back of her hand; No area was particularly 'off limits' to her. She slipped silently into the store, hidden between two random shoppers (one of them was a rather portly lady who barely made it through the doors), before slowly creeping up on her prey, with pale white skin and golden hair... Slowly, from behind, she reached out, eyes gleaming with a strange desire, and then...
...She tripped. And stumbled right over on the blonde girl in question. "Oh geez! Sorry 'bout that! Are you okay?" Ellie managed to stammer out, a slight blush of embarrassment on her face.
She really did stumble "on" to Paige; the poor girl was floored by the collision, to the shock of everyone in the store. To her embarrassment, the portly woman gave a throaty "tsk" and muttered something about rowdy children as she left. "H-Hey, watch where you're going!" Paige sniped, and she looked over her shoulder at the mystery klutz. She looked like a mousy-sort of girl, the bookish type she'd seen a bunch in movies and tv shows.
"I'm... I'm fine, you hurt my pride more than anything." Paige squirmed, wriggled, crawled her way out from under the stranger's not-so-heavy body. She stood up, brushed herself off, and...stared at the girl. "Are you okay?" As annoyed as she was, it was still a little rude to not worry about the well-being of others.
"I, um, will be great as soon as I find my glasses..."
Bookish type, indeed; Ellie couldn't see much more than a foot or two in front of her without her glasses on. During the collision, her glasses had taken an accidental tumble across the floor, sliding some 7 feet away from her, and leaving her virtually blind. And so, like a helpless little mouse, Ellie crawled about on the floor near her, trying to find them while simultaneously avoiding nearby feet... And hoping her glasses could (and would) do the same. "I really can't see a thing without them... Do you see them anywhere?" She asked sheepishly, not so confident without her ability to see. Eventually, she gave up her search, standing-- slowly-- and looking at who she thought was her 'victim' from earlier.
It wasn't, by the way. It was some teenage stoner who was completely confused (and maybe a slight bit interested) in the situation. "I hate to ask, seeing as I just knocked you over and such, but could you help me find them? My dad will freak out if I lose this pair-- I lost my last ones at the zoo downtown, and I thought I saw them by these little cats-- which, err, turned out to be big lions-- and, long story short, I should probably find them before I make another crazy mistake like that!" A riveting tale, really. However, the teenage stoner, who was probably stoned at that particular moment, didn't have the slightest clue what she was talking about.
"...Uh... gnarly, dudette." He replied, scratching his head, which caused Ellie to frown. She couldn't see, but she could sure here.
"...Did you... suddenly become a guy?"
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Alviss: Darn doesn't show the pic
Apr 18, 2019 7:10:17 GMT -6
force: miss this place. if anyone comes back and sees this, i'm force, i was kid flash here once. you can find me on discord at rook#9485
Jan 12, 2023 13:11:35 GMT -6
The roleplay takes place after the series end of the original Teen Titans animated show, but does not include the movie Trouble in Tokyo. Since then Robin has been on something of a recruiting spree, and many new young heroes have found themselves a home in Jump City as well as Titan Tower.
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