[Instability Portal] Anything you can sell I can sell better

[Dragain]

Ariane was at Jude's door, and instead of strutting in like she usually would, she actually decided to knock; it had been a while since the whole 'I VOLUNTEER' thing, and she wondered if Jude was worried... Especially after Caelius ordered for that bracelet to be fixed on the volunteers' wrists. Then again, knowing him, the person he took the punishment for - Deryk - must be the one feeling worked up about this whole situation.

"Judy~" She called out, "Nude Jude~"  

[Pales]

Seated at his desk he was idly writing something on a piece of paper. Ignoring the thing that rested upon his wrist simply because it did nothing, thus far.

...

...

"That's not Ariane, she doesn't knock first," he retorted back. "Come in, the door is unlocked. Not that it stops the real Ariane."

Did he sound grumpy? Nah.  

[Dragain]

Oh ho. An invitation?

Ariane grinned, flinging the door open before strutting in, slamming the door shut behind her. Making her way straight for Jude, she rested her arm on his head, and peered down at whatever he was writing, "I'll never let the door stop me ever again."  

[Pales]

"I am surprised it stopped you in the first place," he replied with a grunt as her arm rested on his head. The papers had nothing special on them, just boring report-style things.

He set the pen down, "What do you need?" Jude quietly took off his reading glasses that he happened to be wearing when she wandered in.  

[Dragain]

"Just felt like disturbing you, as per usual," Ariane replied, and was about to say something else when a portal opened up in Jude's room, sucking her and him in.

DISTORTED WORLD OF TRANCE: Human World

Prompt: You wake up. There are bright lights surrounding you, the bustle of people nearby, consumed in holiday shopping. You have somehow made it to the Human World. It is UP TO YOU the location, but it has to be a populated area (ie: city area) at a shopping district (mall) areal.

All players: You will need to navigate through the Shopping District.
- All players may notice something odd: You look perfectly Human (if you are Human, then you just look civilian). You can't summon your weapon, you can't use Fear attacks, and you are wearing odd colourful clothing that kind of hurts your eyes.
- Someone is yelling at you, all of you, a man that seems very angry. He calls himself Your Boss. He says if you do not complete these tasks, you will be ejected from the store immediately. While he does seem intimidating, it is more questionable as to why you are here in the first place: now is a good time to stay to explore the area
- If you GET FIRED you immediately are ejected from the Distorted Portal but suffer side effects of hallucinations for 24 hours where you continuously see everything in red and green. You also feel slightly Joyful...
- It is recommended that players go through the shifts at the same pace (ie: I am player 1, in shift1, I roll 3 times and wait for the others before ICly proceeding to shift 2 together, though they can skip players that become inactive after 24 hours).
- Even if you finish this exercise, you will continue to feel lingering effects of Joy. It will last up to 24 IC hours.

gaia_crown Step 1: Shift 1

The Boss is telling you to do something strange: talk to these Humans and ask them how their day was. Offer them something about a Promotional Sales Item, the discount mascot of Sappy the Sad Reindeer for only twenty dollars. You are given a stuffed sad reindeer to promote.

- Roll 1d10. You must do this three times.
- If in ANY of your dice rolls you roll 1, the customer becomes very angry and you and complains to Your Boss. You are ejected from the store- YOU ARE FIRED
- For each time you roll even you gain +20% Joy (you get a little happier, feel more in the holiday spirit, feel that everything is awesome and Christmas is the best thing ever...)
- If you pass, proceed to STEP 2.

gaia_crown STEP 2: Shift 2

You now need to Man the Cashier. You don't really know what that means but there is a small machine in front of you with a lot of numbers. Humans carrying items are looking expectantly at you.

- Roll 1d6. You must do this three times.
- For each time you roll even you gain +20% Joy
-If any of your dice rolls to a 1 The Human waiting in line is getting very angry at you. They keep on saying things like how they're going to use their Visa Card, and that you're Pricing the Wrong Item. You have no clue what that means, but your Boss is very upset at you and yells at you. YOU ARE FIRED.
- If you manage to make it through, you are on Step 3.

gaia_crown Step 3: Shift 3. Mass chaos everywhere, there are Humans running around everywhere, all at once, it is crazy. They keep on asking you where things are.

Roll 1d6. You need to do this four times. Whenever you roll even, a Human comes over to ask you the location of *insert item of your choice*. You have no clue where that is.
- If you roll three evens, your boss comes over to you and looks Super Angry. YOU ARE FIRED.
- If you manage to pass through this phase you are at the end.

gaia_crown Step 4: THE END.
- Finally the crowd seems to be over and you manage to survive to the end. The Boss tells you to go home, and you are given... nothing? All you feel is a little bit of sadness. Is this what being a Human is really all about....

- You WAKE UP FROM TRANCE

 

[Pales]

He was about to respond to Ariane but it seemed things decided to happen right then. Sucked into a portal and ...

Jude boredly sat there as the Boss pretty much berated him and threatened him. He'd apparently been subpar since he was hired and the boss wasn't sure if he was 'cut out' to be working there. Jude will get one more chance to not screw up.

This seemed eerily familiar somehow.

Strange.

He took the selection of the stupid promotional item and slunk off to talk to the first person he saw.

"Hey. How are you doing? Would you like a... thing...?" Jude muttered softly.

The large biker stared at him and then stomped off after grabbing the toy figuring it made the twerp leave him alone.  

[Dragain]

... Ariane recognized this place. Or rather, she remembered being stuck in a similar situation with Bix, although this was definitely not he same mall as before. It was still decorated with Christmas decorations though, and the toy she had to promote was the same.

She walked past Jude, giving his nice, perky butt a pat; she couldn't help it! He was wearing an elf costume! Tights! Perky butt! She had to wonder if she could find a mirror somewhere she that she could check out her own perky butt in this elf costume.

Then again, looking down, she could see that there was something perky going on at the front.

Approaching a nice looking elderly lady, she smiled, holding up the toy, "Care to get one, madam? It will surely bring you good fortune and happiness in the upcoming new year!" Even though the toy looked miserable, and she wasn't being very convincing, the elderly lady took the toy, and headed towards the cashier.

Ariane turned around to face Jude, and stuck out her tongue at him; she was going to sell way more toys than he was.  

[Pales]

Jude uttered a small grunt as he felt a pat to his rump and then glowered a bit at Ariane as she passed. Clearly she slept through the sexual harassment seminar last week. Someone somewhere started to tear his man card to pieces after that particular thought went through.

Misery.

He watched Ariane strike out and he raised an eyebrow as she stuck her tongue out at him. Wonderful attitude, that one.

"Losers who can't sell toys shouldn't stick out their tongue," he retorted and wandered off toward a nearby woman.

Jude cleared his throat, "Excuse me, you look very lovely today!"

The woman looked at him and seemed flattered. The lady gave a small uncertain smile. "Thank you..."

"Would you like to buy one of these new promotional stuffed toys? I hear they're collectables! Very valuable," Jude grinned and bold facedly lied. It got the job done.

"Oh! This is darling! Of course I'll take one," the woman claimed one and flounced off.

Maybe this job wasn't so bad after all.

Ariane: 0 | Jude: 1

Joy: 20%  

[Dragain]

"Oh, but I did sell a toy, remember?" Ariane felt the need to correct Jude, watching as he managed to make a sale too. She simply snorted, unimpressed with his sale, and pointed to herself in a 'look at me do it' manner.

Looking around, she spotted the perfect target - a male teenager who was gawking at some of the salesgirls - dressed in elf costumes similar to hers - who were standing around. Grabbing another toy, she approached the teen, fluttering her eyelashes, "Help a poor girl out during Christmas?" A few lies flattering words later, he agreed to take the toy off her hands.

There was no stopping her.

Phase 1
Turn: 2/3

JOY: 0%  

[Pales]

He was in a much better mood. Jude was actually smiling now. The young man gazed at his fellow sales associate and only shook his head, "Yeah, but it lacked finesse~."

At first he wasn't sure why he cared about this job but now he couldn't bare to just let it go, either. It made him happy. Maybe he could get some extra money together for presents and...

A small child bumped into him and he stared down at them. Jude offered the child a toy, "Go ask mommy to buy this for ya."

The little girl hugged the stuffed animal with wide eyes and then fled. Jude used dirty, dirty tactics.

Joy: 40%  

[Dragain]

Ohh, using the kids? What a dirty trick. In fact, Ariane decided to give Jude a dirty look, even though her own sales tactics weren't any more decent than his... After all, she was taking advantage of the fact that she had boobs. Sweet talking was easy, and so was acting as a poor girl who was just working for cash to spend over the holidays. She might also had given out some bogus cellphone number.

Hey, at least it got the job done.

"OI. YOU TWO! Go man the cashiers!" The man - presumably the boss, judging from his general bossiness - shooed herself and Jude away from where the toys were being promoted, and directed them towards the cashier; there was already a long, long line in front of each cash register, and some of the customers looked awfully pissed off about having to wait.

Phase 1
Turn: 3/3

JOY: 0% LOOKS LIKE ARIANE ISN'T VERY JOYFUL THIS SEASON  

[Pales]

Jude's response to Ariane's glare was a sickeningly sweet smile that seemed to ooze of sugar and happiness. He was suddenly very happy and looking forward to the holidays.

When told to man the registers he did so gladly. In fact as he settled in he went right to work, humming a happy little song and chatting up the customers. A couple of the more irate looking ones seemed to be cheering up!

Joy: 60%  

[Dragain]

Jude's smile caused Ariane great confusion; not only did he actually appear to be happy, but he also seemed to be enjoying his job... Something that she had never seen Jude do. Then again, she only knew him as a hunter. Maybe he was secretly in love with being a sales personnel. However, it also caused her much indignation, since he seemed to be doing a lot better than she was.

Getting behind the cashier, she tried to greet the frowning customer with a smile. However, the customer seemed to want nothing of it, yelling about how slow the queue was, and how bad the service was, and complaining about over nine thousand different things as she emptied her basket of toys onto the counter. As Ariane begun scanning each toy, the customer continued to complain. When she was finally done with scanning everything, the customer started yelling at her, saying that there was no way the total was so high, and that Ariane must had made a mistake.

A few minutes later, the boss person came over, and resolved the issue by firing her. Ariane just scowled, yelled 'BAH, HUMBUG!', and stomped away from the cashier, throwing her elf hat on the ground.

She then stood nearby, arms folded over her chest as she glared angrily at Jude.

Phase 2
Turn: 1/3

JOY: 0%  

[Pales]

He pretended to not notice the glaring of Ariane as he just happily rang up customers one by one. There seemed to be no amount of slowing him down. Questions flung his way were answered and service was timely.

The smile on his face? It got bigger.

Joy: 80%  

[Pales]

And then he we was done with that shift. The Boss stomped out and directed Jude to go do something else and he did so gladly, much to the confusion of the Boss.

Jude rang up the last handful of happy(er) customers and then went off to attend to the next shift's needs, humming gaily.

JOY: 80%