Players:
Summary: Obsidian stops Kalindi in the Salem Centre parking lot to talk to her, and they end up going shopping.
Date: March 1, 2009
A Day at the Mall
Rating: G
Westchester - Salem Center
The parking lot that serves Salem Center is expansive. The mall building being the largest in the area, most of the traffic is aimed for there. However, there are a number of independent buildings along the edges of the parking lot and across the street. Benches dot the sidewalks that line the buildings, along with trash cans, bushes, trees and lamps. There is a large archway that leads to the mall entrance.
Because her clothes have quickly become dirty, since she doesn't have access to her house and doesn't generally carry an extra pair, Kalindi is now covering up her less than clean appearance by way of shining gold. While this works to make her appearance more clean, it does not really keep the heat outside in the cold evening weather. Her teeth are chattering as she walks through the parking lot towards the mall, the strange picture of a homeless person covered completely in gold.
A dark being is standing around, by contrast quite clean and shiny but similarly odd, being covered - or made of - a shiny material. Obsidian notices Kalindi there and approaches her. "I recall seeing you at the Statue of Liberty," she states flatly, in her unearthly voice.
"Ah, yes, I saw you at the statue. I thought that maybe you were its guardian," says Kalindi through her chattering teeth. There is a short pause before the teen explains, "Because you look like a statue. I did not know what was happening there, but I do not want to lose like that again."
"I am not its guardian." She looks over herself briefly. "Yes, I suppose I do look like a statue. I did craft myself from rock." Obsidian shakes her head. The bladed hair remains rigid, not swaying at all with her movement. "I do not know what was happening there, either. I believe the red-cloaked one was attempting some villainy but I was unable to determine exactly what she was doing."
"You crafted yourself from rock? That is very strange. I am made of blood and flesh," says Kalindi, still shivering violently. "Oh, so you think you are some kind of hero? There are some here that think that of themselves, here."
Obsidian inclines her head and raises her eyebrows. "I am not certain that I can be killed - or if I am even alive. Therefore, it is little risk to me to try to help others in danger. However, my limited ability to apply non-lethal methods has resulted in some animosity from other 'heroic' groups."
Kalindi shrugs, quickly looking Victoria up and down, "You can be killed, I think. I think that there are many many people who can be killed. You can be turned to rubble, I think, and then there is risk." She tilts her head, though, and adds, "You kill your enemies? That seems like such a waste. I will only kill them if their death serves a purpose. An example or a bounty or things like that…"
"I have reconstituted from being shattered before." The dark woman looks at her bladed claws. "I mean, it is difficult to disable a foe without causing at minimum bleeding injuries. My methods are too violent and I am considered a threat by the X-Men, as far as I am aware. I have difficulty doing anything without making holes in things. Imagine how hard it is to type with these things." She lifts up her hands. Nodding, she continues, "And I do not wish to kill, either."
Kalindi gestures towards the mall entrance, "I am not made of stone. I think that I will freeze to death if I do not go somewhere warm…" She shrugs and then adds, "You always have claws? You always look so strange like that? It does not seem to be very useful."
Obsidian closes one hand into a partial fist. It doesn't work that well given the length of the claws. "They are not very useful for anything but cutting and stabbing. I can change myself into an organic form, but that leaves me truly naked. My clothes are in my apartment." She points at the barrier. Nodding, she moves with Kalindi toward the mall.
Looking Victoria over for a moment, Kalindi notes, "Ah, I see. You would not fit in my clothes. You are very tall. Too tall. It would look like you are not wearing clothes for your age." She moves towards the mall at a hurried pace. "I would offer a trade for my clothes, but I do not think it is something you want."
"All my money is in my apartment as well," states the animated statue, following Kalindi at a calm, unhasty pace. Her stone feet clonk against the hard ground. "No, your clothes would not fit me. You also seem to be quite cold. It would not be a good idea to shed any of your layers."
"No, it would not be a good idea. I do not have my money either, but I think that I have other things of value," says Kalindi, tapping on her gold armour. "It is just not something that you can go and buy new clothes or a hotel room with. But I have received some money as a gift." She pushes the door at the mall entrance and steps in. "Do you get cold? Or is there nothing in you to get cold?"
Obsidian follows along into the mall. She looks at Kalindi. "Is that gold? You appear to be wearing a large quantity of it." Looking at one of her own bladed fingers again, she says, "I attempted to sell obsidian sculptures before. However, I later discovered that anything I create vanishes a couple of hours after it has left me." She shakes her head, "Not really. I don't feel the temperature much like this and even when I'm mostly human, I still have difficulty sensing the temperature."
"Yes, I have a lot of gold. It is three hundred pounds that I carry, very heavy, very useful," says Kalindi, "but very expensive. I do not want to sell it." She seems to calm down a bit after getting into warmer air, but she still shivers. "You can still sell statues. It does not need to be permanent to be of value. It will just hurt your reputation if you do not tell people of what they do."
She shakes her head again. "I do not wish to scam people into buying things that will not last as long as they expect them to. I suppose if I got my hands on some natural obsidian I would be able to sculpt it and it would remain."
"Maybe. I am not saying that you should make it a scam. Reputation is very important to me, and I would not tarnish mine," says Kalindi, pulling the gold back from her arms and forming it into a cape. "It is like an ice sculpture, yes? I have seen one before. It melts. But people like it."
Obsidian takes a look around the mall. "Would you take a temporary sculpture in trade for what money might be required to buy me some clothes?" She holds up a hand and a small block of obsidian forms above the palm.
Smiling now, like she has just grown an interest in the conversation, Kalindi says, "No, not now. But I might require a temporary sculpture later. We will find you something to wear, and I will buy it for this promise. But we must agree on specifics before I buy. But we will speak while we shop, yes?"
"Alright. Let's go find some suitable clothes, then." Obsidian nods and looks out at the array of shops in the mall. "There." She leads the way to a generic womens clothes store. "Specifics? Do you wish me to dress in a particular fashion? I just want to get something decent so I can change back."
"Specifics, yes. How much will the clothes cost? I am not made of the money," says the girl in the five million dollar suit. "And what kind of sculptures would you like to make?" says Kalindi. She tilts her head and adds, "Something of my design, I hope, at a later time. But how big are you willing for it to be?"
Obsidian looks to the woman at the counter, who is likely looking rather petrified right now. "I could use coercion to obtain free clothing but that is illegal and not very nice. About one hundred dollars should be enough. I can make anything I imagine, up to a limit of size. At the moment maybe twenty kilograms or so would be the most I can put into one object."
To the woman at the counter, Kalindi notes, "I am not here to steal from you either or cause you any harm." She nods at Obsidian and says, "Twenty kilograms, I think that will be enough. And one hundred dollars? I will pay for that much, then." She starts looking at the clothes, herself, considering changing out of her own dirty garments into something nicer. With two outfits, she can at least clean one and wear the other in the meantime. "Then it is a deal? I will buy you clothes, and you will make any sculpture for me at a later time, up to twenty kilograms?"
Obsidian nods again. "Do remember that it will only last for about two hours. You could have a striking item to place on a mantlepiece while someone visits for a short while, to impress them. Yes, it is agreed."
Kalindi nods, "About two hours? Good, it is agreed." Kali tilts her head while looking at one of the tank-tops and then notes, "I cannot give you advice for what to be wearing. I do not know what you look like when you look normal."
The dark woman nods. "I'll pick out some clothes. You'll have to hold them for me because," She lifts up her hands. "It's hard to hold cloth when I'm all scissorhands and I don't want to end up wearing ribbons." She points at a few items in her size, including underwear.
Kalindi nods and grabs all of the items that Obsidian gestures to, reforming her cape into a bag that hangs off her arm and placing the articles of clothing inside, while simultaneously picking out things that she likes. "That is fine. It would not be any good for either of us if your clothes are ruined before you receive them."
"I think that is all I will need. Thank you." She looks at the gold bag. "That does not appear to be heavy at all for you. That is convenient. If you will pay for the items, please then place them in one of the changing rooms and I will get dressed."
Looking down at the bag, Kalindi shakes her head, "No, it is not very heavy at all. It is heavy as air. You are sure that these will fit you good when you have changed? I will pay for them, then. Go to the change room, and I will put it over the door." The girl brings the clothes that Obsidian wants up to the counter, "I will buy these now for my associate. I will try the rest on later, and then decide if I am buying." The woman there, still looking pretty petrified, agrees to this, and a purchase takes place.
Obsidian goes into the changing room and accepts the clothes over the door as they come in, white fingers rather than black blades peeking over the top to grab them. There is the sound of clothes being put on, and shortly later, a very different being emerges. She's stark white her straight hair is still as black albeit not made of rigid blades. As much as she looks more human, she is still strikingly unnatural. The woman smiles, seemingly much more animated than her former state. "Oh, thanks. You're quite generous." She looks over herself and tugs at her new clothing a bit to adjust. "This is great. Anyway, you can call me Victoria now. My alternate form and I are different enough in manner that I don't feel it's right to call my other self by this name as well."
"Oh, you look much better like this. And it was not generosity, you have made a payment," says Kali, smiling back at Victoria. "Your outfit looks good. You may call me Kalindi. I do not remember if I have given you my name. But that is it." She tilts her head and notes, "It is strange to me that you would act different, too. You have the same mind, yes?"
Victoria shakes her head. "It's not really that strange when you think about it." She points at her chest. "I've got a beating heart now, and glands and all of the stuff that helps stimulate emotion. When I'm in the other form I'm unable to reach any highs or lows of emotion and scarily, if I'm like that for long enough I sometimes forget that other people are alive. No empathy when I'm a rock, I guess."
Kalindi stares at Victoria for a moment as she makes her explanation. Kalindi doesn't really know much about anatomy, having only achieved about a second grade education. "Um, I will believe you, then, you seem to know about it better than I do. So you are like a dead person when you are like that?" She gestures as her bag and then gestures at the changing room, preferring these motions to actually stating her intention, and then steps inside.
The now-white woman raises and eyebrow and shrugs. "I guess I am kinda dead like that. It's not pleasant to think about but since I can change back whenever I want, limited by public decency of course, I can always be alive again when I want to." She steps aside and waits for Kalindi.
Kalindi's voice can be heard through the door, "Okay, then maybe you are not quite like the dead because you can choose how dead you are." The sound of her armor being placed in her backpack and that same backpack being dropped on the floor with a loud -THUD- also travels out. There is the sound of a jacket being removed, and then the shuffling of other clothes being taken off. "They do not have that fortune."
Victoria adjusts her clothes a little, tugging on them. "Ugh. I've been Obsidian for long enough that I almost forgot what it's like to be squishy. Oh, the dead don't have that fortune? No, they don't. Most people get to die once and that's it. Me, I've already died once and I'm still going. I wonder if I'm still aging. It hasn't been long enough to be able to tell. I don't need to eat or drink. Breathing still seems to be important. Am I rambling? I'll stop now."
"Speak when you wish to, it does not bother me," replies Kalindi through the door, "I have never died, and I do not think I would like to. I have many other things to be doing." There is the shuffling of more clothes as they are being put on, and Kalindi steps out and looks at Obsidian as if expecting an opinion. She's wearing a black denim skirt and a plain dark red tank-top. This outfit is clearly more wishful thinking on Kali's part, since it is not so good to be wearing in the cold weather.
Victoria smiles. "It looks good on you. Are you sure you won't be too cold? You might want to add a jacket to your ensemble." She nods. "Ah, it's a bit of a grim topic, talking about being dead and/or dying. My odd state confuses me enough. I don't know if I'll ever understand myself fully. So how about your gold? How does that work?"
"I have my coat in the changing room. You would just not be able to see what I have here if I was wearing it," says Kali, shrugging. She then nods and says, "Does it ever get warm here? I have not been here for long, and it has always been cold. Maybe I will buy this for when it is warm…" She puts up one finger as if gesturing to wait, and then steps back into the changing room, "And the gold, it works very well. If it is touching my body, very very well. If it is not, not so well."
"It's warmer during the Summer, yeah. We'll be getting on into the warmer months… eventually," says Victoria, pulling her hair back over an ear. "I suppose that's similar to my obsidian. Touching me, I can change it in any way I want. But once it leaves me it remains fixed in its shape. You know, I couldn't transform into obsidian before I died. It was being shot in the head that enabled that ability. I wonder if - wait, that's a bad idea. Don't go getting yourself shot just to see if it will let you turn into gold."
"I do not know if turning into gold is a thing that I want to do," says Kalindi from behind the door, while changing outfits again. "It seems like it is a strange thing to have no feelings…" She emerges after a few more moments, wearing a white sweater with some black twill pants, as well as a red fleece scarf that seems like it would actually serve to keep her warm, unlike the one she normally wears.
Victoria nods approvingly at the new outfit. "There you go. That will keep you warm." She nods again. "Yes, it is very strange. First time I had it happen, I didn't know how to change back. I spent months as Obsidian and eventually stopped caring about anyhing. It wasn't for a long time before I decided to try to change back. By that point, I'd lost track of my human form - I had spent a while as various abstract shapes - and decided to remake myself." She looks over herself. "I think I might have gone a bit overboard on shaping my figure, but I'm stuck like this now. No more changing."
"Well, you are very pretty. Very very strange, but pretty," says Kalindi, tilting her head. "I will change back and then buy these, one moment." She goes back into the changing room and starts putting on her clothes and armour, to cover up the dirty original clothes she was wearing. She emerges again and then brings her purchases to the till. "If I remade myself, I would maybe look better than I do. But it is not important. I look okay."
"Well, thanks. Most people assume I'm a goth but that's alright. Given that I have actually died, I guess I'd be better at it than most real goths." Victoria waits for Kalindi to change again and come out. "You do look nice. And the gold does suit your skin tone. Fairly lucky with your power there, I would say."
"I do not know what a goth is," admits Kalindi. "I have not been here for more than a month. I see people who are dressed like you sometimes, and I think that maybe it is a fashion." She smiles and says, "Well, yes, I think that my power is a very good one. Too expensive to use very often. But when I am using it, I am not trying to look very nice most of the time. There is this group of people who always say that I am a demon. I do not think that I look very much like a demon." And she knows what demons look like. She takes her bag from the woman at the front. "I am going to go get something to eat. Do you get hungry? I do. I usually like to cook for myself at home."
Victoria says, "It's a subculture that- Well, yeah. They wear a lot of black and talk about death a lot." She blinks. "A demon? You don't look like one to me. Gold powers and you're not anything bad to look at. Whatever it is, it's not apparent to me. I've been called a demon, but that's understandable. I'm all darkness and blades." She shakes her head. "No, but thanks for the offer. I still can eat but I never get hungry. The motion of magma beneath the Earth's crust keeps me going. Don't ask me how I know. I just feel it."
"That is weird. I need real food. I do not know what kinds of places here will sell good food," says Kalindi, looking towards the foodcourt. "Some of it smells good, but I have never seen it before. Oh, I am a vegetarian, too. So you will keep that in mind, if you give suggestions, yes?"
The strange woman nods. "I'll remember. Oh, and I can still taste and smell in my obsidian form, even without any need to eat or anything. I don't understand that, either. It's like some organs work and some done. Psychosomatic, maybe? Whatever the case, I don't know how to change how any of it works." She follows Kalindi toward the food court. "Are you new to this country?"
"Mmm, yes, very new, it has only been maybe less than a month," says Kalindi, looking around the foodcourt. "I can't read any of the signs very well. Can you help me? I am not very good at the English language. It is hard to learn, you see. Do you speak any other languages? I am better at others. And I do not know what 'psychosomatic' means. Please use easy words."
Victoria points out a few. "I'm sure you recognise McDonalds. And over there is Chinese food. Another Chinese food place." She turns around. "And there's, oh, Indian food." Looking back to Kalindi, she replies, "I know a bit of French, but that's all. And psychosomatic, um, means that it is caused by my mind, subconsicously."
"I do not know subconsciously either," says Kalindi, raising an eyebrow, "or French. I do recognize McDonalds, I have seen it when I was very young. I will maybe get the Chinese. Will you order for me? I do not know what is good."
"Oh, your subconscious is the part of your mind that you're not aware of. You have your conscious - the part that does all the manual thinking - and the subconscious is the automatic stuff you don't have to think about." Victoria looks up at the signs displaying the available foods.
"Ah, I see. Thank you for explaining. I think that I will go find a table. Here is ten dollars. I do not know how much it will cost. If you want something to eat, you may have it with the change, okay?" says Kalindi. The girl in golden armour seeks out a table, which isn't too difficult, considering most people get out of her way as she moves.
Victoria gets a noodle pot with vegetables with the money and brings it to Kalindi. she hands over the remainder of the cash. "There you go. It was nice meeting you properly, but I think I have to go now. Someone may be trying to contact me."
Nodding, Kalindi says, "Okay, I will see you, maybe when I get the carving." She looks down at the noddle pot and starts eating, hungry from all of that hard work shivering outside.
Victoria smiles and studies Kalindi quite intently for a minute. Then she places one hand on the table and lifts it up. Beneath the lifted hand a small sculpture appears. It's quite an accurate sculpture of Kalindi sitting at the table with the noodle pot, all in perfectly even black obsidian. A simple circular base forms beneath it. "There's a free preview. I hope you like it. I'll see you again soon, I expect. Thanks again for the clothes." The odd woman waves and starts to head off.
