1186/The People You Meet At Hot Topic

The People You Meet At Hot Topic
Date of Scene:	28 June 2017
Location:	Ellie runs into Senator Creed of all people in Hot Topic. Yeah, it's weird.
Synopsis:	As unlikely as it seems, Ellie happens by Graydon Creed at Hot Topic, and it's ridiculous.
Cast of Characters:	1075, Negasonic Teenage Warhead

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Graydon Creed (1075) has posed:
Hot Topic. Where bad ideas go to die and then return as mournful wraiths of capitalism. The store usually has at least one couple and a few loners in it but rarely do they stand out as much as Graydon Creed in his multi-thousand dollar custom italian suit and silver under shirt. Not one single part of him is actually black, pierced or tattooed, at least not the parts you can see in public. He looks like a Men's Warehouse model escaped the catalog and wandered into the Hot Topic in the confusion that comes with newly awakened sentience.

He carries with him a freshly washed Hoodie from Xavier's School for the Gifted comparing it to the clothing he's looking at on the rack to see if the sizes are close. The hoodie has several holes ripped in the side of it and though it is freshly washed, it is still stained. If you could sum up the look of the man shopping for young women's clothes, it would be lost. He is oh, so lost on how to go about buying clothing for young girls.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Ellie is a common sight in various Hot Topics about the greater New York area, often travelling about, price comparing, and checking out different stocks. Today she choose the correct store in Manhattan, because she gets to witness a true oddity. A man dressed like he belongs on a reality show's business boardroom, inside a Hot Topic, and he doesn't look like he's there to file a lawsuit. That garners enough interest to aim her phone up at the guy and snap a pic, just so she has proof for later.

What's that with the quick thumb work dancing at lightning speed across the phone's touch screen? Check your twitter feeds for #HotTopic. <Mr. Money got lost on the way to Capitalists R Us, wound up at HotTopic. Expect hilarity. #ExpectUnexpect #HotTopic #DorksInSuits>

Unlike the aforementioned Graydon Creed, or as per Ellie's affectionate Twitter feed, the dork in the suit, Ellie is quite fitting. Piercings? Check. Multitudes actually. Crazy hair? Buzzcut easily counts as standout for girls. Leather, straps and pyramid studs? Check, check, check. Oh, and bonus points for dark makeup and all.

It's only after she took a pic, had her laughs and updated her twitter followers, that Ellie actually takes note of the very familiar Xavier's School hoodie the man is carrying, brining her to move closer to him, "yo, Mr. Money, you know some loser at that lameo school?"

Graydon Creed (1075) has posed:
Mr. Money turns to look at the girl.. And raises an eyebrow... he's not that old but he seems to be stunned for a moment by her appearance. After a moment his brain catches up and he says, "School?" then he realizes what she is talking about, "Oh, no. Well, maybe. It's a long story." he says then he asks, "Do you work here? I couldn't find your buggies." he says annoyed at the nerve of the store to not have push-buggies to put his shopping in. Not that buggies would fit in the isles.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Well, when you're 15, 24 seems way old. So there's that, at least when it comes to Ellie's appraisal of Graydon's age. There's no doubt though, that seeing how some of her classmates are shocked by her appearance, it's to be expected more grown up people will certainly be taken back by it. Ellie isn't your typical 15 year old girl. You wouldn't catch her wearing pink, or frilly, or My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, any of that nonsense. "I bet it's not that long. Either you stole it, you attend the school, or you know a lameo student there...I bet on the know a lameo student there."

The question about buggies gets Graydon a derisive eyeroll out of Ellie, "like you need help carrying a few skimpy outfits, for real...use your hands, man. And no...I don't work here, but I'm something of an expert if you need help. Tip me, maybe I'll help..." heck, she called him Mr. Money because he looked loaded. Who knows, maybe she can hustle a few bucks.

Graydon Creed (1075) has posed:
The tall man kneels down and reaches into his jacket pocket. Taking out his wallet he pulls out a hundred dollar bill because that's all he carries. He gives her one, "This is is to help me, this one." he says giving her a second, "Is for you not to talk about what I'm about to tell you." he says quietly. #ExpectUnexpect that. "Swear to me you won't talk about this to anyone. If you do, bad things will happen." he still has at least 6 hundred more dollars in his wallet and some credit cards... "Deal?"

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Ellie is clearly taken by the huge bill, which to her is likely the first time she's seen a hundred dollar bill. "Damn, you're loaded, where do you work? A bank?" She asks flippantly, she's all ready to keep with the snark when she's given an offer she can't refuse. "Seriously? Like...tell, tell? With my voice?" She asks, maybe the poor sap doesn't know about the texty variety. After all, she did kinda tell Twitter all about him already. Even if in no great detail. "I'll help...no problem."

Graydon Creed (1075) has posed:
He's old but he isn't that old. "Tell anyone in any form. I could get into a lot of trouble. There are a lot of people who don't like mutants and the girl I'm trying to help is one." he says but then quickly clarifies, "I'm not. I just want to help her out. " and the fact he felt the need to explain all this just proves he's a lovely, caring racist.

"We found her living in the sewers, eating dogs, the police were going to shoot her. She's.. Um.. " he holds up the hoodie showing the 4 extra arm holes, "Not normal looking." he explains, "She's ok, we've got her a private hospital getting treatment. She was dehydrated and half starved. This was the only clothes she even owns."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
"So Mutant Pride silence benefits...?" Ellie asks and looks to be considering, before eventually inclining her head, "fine...you got it, full radio silence. Now what's your problem?" She asks, already looking impatient when she hadn't even began to help.

It's only when she heard the story, that Ellie opens her eyes wide, this actually seems serious. "What do you think could possibly help her in this store? I mean, get her a rad outfit, sexy lingerie, it won't matter...she'd still be facing death by cops, no?"

Graydon Creed (1075) has posed:
"I can handle the cops." says the man with a lot of money so buying the cops off maybe? "The problem is, I don't know what to buy for her. She's... um.." he stands back up and holds his hand up, "About this tall, " then he says more quietly, "With the body of a girl up top, multiple arms, and the body of a spider from the stomach down. The whole back end. It's not exactly a look you can shop for in the J-Crew." Meanwhile, unknown to either Creed or Nega, her Twitter feed just became a subject of national news because she caught the Senator for the state of New York in Hot Topic looking like a tool. Her feed should be EXPLODING with news reporters asking for more details and getting retweets out of the wazoo. "I was thinking maybe a blouse and a, I don't know, a cape for the back end?" he says really at a loss. "Something spider themed so I came here. I figured if you were going to find a spider web themed cape in the city, this would be the place."

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Too bad Ellie isn't checking her phone at the moment, she did promise to be quiet, but she'll be quite surprised later. It's no surprise she'd had no clue who the Senator of New York is, she likely doesn't give a damn. But hey, the more you know! Too bad she missed her chance, she could have petitioned him to lower the legal driving age or something. As it stands, she listens to the description, and takes Graydon by the hand, dragging him towards a different aisle, "come on....definitely want a skirt for that shit," sounds like Graydon's girl looks wicked awesome for a video. But to live like that everyday? Sounds messed up. She flips about a few rack, and eventually pushed a gothic school girl's top and skimpy dress at Graydon, "this will do nicely. Forget the spider theme, she already got too much of that. I'd get her skull earrings and black makeup set, but who knows if she's into that. I'd recommend hooking her up with some scene bands, they'd love to have her for music video affects, she could make bank with that kind of job."

But as the phone keeps buzzing and vibrating, Ellie steals a glance eventually, and then gasps, "wow! You're the freakin' goddamn Senator of New York? There's someone I never thought I'd ever meet..."

Graydon Creed (1075) has posed:
Graydon TSTS! "Not so loud!" then he looks at her phone and gives her a look she's probably all too familiar with. The 'What did you do?' face that all people older than her seem to be able to make. He says quietly, "Yes, I am, I am the Republican senator for New York and a lot of my colleagues are very anti-mutant. So I would rather them not have this to use against me." he says which is kinda sweet she might think for a moment. He's risking everything to help this poor mutant girl, "She hates being a mutant. She wants to be normal and if I can, I'm going to make that happen for her. There was research on a cure back in the 1990's but the government scrapped it. Claimed it was related to mad cow disease." he says as he walks with her over to the skull themed items.

"It was, pardon the pun, bullshit. You can't test mutant cures for humans on cows. Cows aren't even genetically close to humans, also there are no mutant cows and if the government was testing things on cows for some insane reason they wouldn't then sell those animals for hamburger meat. It was a cover up. I'm going to find out why. I'm going to find that cure for her." he says picking out both skulls and tacky bright butterflies and bangles for her many, many limbs so she can be goth or prissy depending on her tastes.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
"What...? It's a secret?" Ellie asks curiously, as if she hadn't the slightest clue that is precisely why he didn't want her to talk to anyone. "Republican, huh?" It's not that Ellie swings this way or that, she really is utterly clueless about politics. School is just mostly boring. She does put her phone back in the pocket of her jacket, as she explains, "when you got in, I kinda let twitter know that Mr. Money Bags made a wrong turn into Hot Topic, instead of Rich Guy Mansion. That's all." Mostly, anyway.

When she's heard more, not even realizing there ever was a cure worked on, she looks at Graydon suspiciously. She's in a sub culture that naturally distrusts, and she heard all about cures. A threapist to cure her behaviour, her taste in clothes, what have you...people who want to cure stuff tend to be suspect. Maybe not in the case of freaky spider legged girl...but still. She just might want to share something for once with her teacher, "listen, I promise I won't say anything...I wish you luck, Senator person guy," yup, didn't ask for the name, didn't remember the name, and didn't care either. She just kinda nods in acknowledgement at Graydon and starts to shuffle away. To her credit, she's keeping her phone in the pocket of her jacket. Maybe she'll even stay true to her promise.

Graydon Creed (1075) has posed:
Graydon sure hopes not. That would have been a waste of a great performance on his part. He goes to the register and rings up his stuff while she leaves. If the rumor of a cure circulates now it will be easier when he petitions the white house to release the information on the earlier experiments. Public pressure always helps grease the wheels of government.

When he trots this poor freak, half spider girl out in front of the cameras and pleads for the research to resume so that mutants like her can be made healthy and normal again, he wants the public ready and sympathetic.

No press release or public statement is as effective as an organic viral story. Hopefully the offers for money and fame will make the girl spill the carefully laid out beans and get the public on his side. The political predator smiles as he pays for the clothing. It's going to be a good few weeks. He can feel it already.