8810/A Day Unlike Any Other

A Day Unlike Any Other
Date of Scene:	15 August 2019
Location:	Westfield Mall at the New World Trade site
Synopsis:	April takes Vanessa shopping for her birthday and then out to a famous bar.
Cast of Characters:	April O'Neil, Copycat

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April O'Neil has posed:
Since it was Vanessa birthday, April wanted to do something special for her. So she'd acquired a car from a work friend and was now taking her on a shopping spree, all expense-paid. Truth is, April has a bit of a nest-egg built up from her podcast and the donations that came in from her online followers and since April didn't lead an extravagant lifestyle she could spend some of that money on other things, like Vanessa.

So together, in a modern model Porsche, the two went into Manhattan and gone to the Westfield Mall at the New World Trade site. Its a pretty modern affair of a location with a lot of expensive stores and fine dining experiences.

"Whatever you want." April says to Vanessa at least 600 times from the start of their journey and throughout it. "Whatever you -need- too." She says. Even going so far as to buy them both a pair of designer sunglasses, she picked out a set for herself and demanded Van do the same for some of her own.

"At least I didn't assault you with a surprise party filled with a-holes you don't even like, right?" April asks as they stroll through the fancy mall's interior.

Copycat has posed:
The words blown away don't even begin to describe how Vanessa feels when she finds out where April is taking her. "April, this place is so expensive," she says. "I mean, really, you don't have to do this," she'd protested. And protested again. Those 600 times were necessary to get Vanessa to take just the sunglasses. Though April could tell how much Vanessa liked them.

"Oh god, those do look incredible," she says, trying them on and looking at them in the mirror. "But really, I could get something half as much-" Vanessa says, pulling off the price tag and her lovely eyes widening in sticker shock, "... a fifth as much," she corrects, "and still be really happy."

Vanessa looks at the glasses as April buys them for her. "I'm going to need these to hide the tears," she says, leaning against her friend and hugging her tight.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is right there beside Vanessa as they pay for the shades and then on their way out of the store the huggings are exchanged and April laughs. "Making you cry, thats my whole master plan here, Van." She tells her as she glances down at the set she'd bought herself. They both came with a leather carrying case that had the fancy brand name embossed upon the soft and supple leather. "Even if you lose these, or sit on them someday... I get it, its okay, these things happen." She takes her own pair of $9 sunglasses off of the top of her head and stuffs them into her hoodie which is tied around her waistline, a blue tank top on her upper body. She replaces the old pair with the bangin' new expensive ones and she grins to Vanessa.

"So what else?" She asks then. "My show's been doin' great ever since we had Bruce Wayne on, then Jessica Jones landed us that Thor interview... its really been a boom to finances, so lets spoil us both on your birthday, yeah? Its a gift, from me, to us, for... being awesome? But yeah, you gotta tell me what else ya want. New bag, yeah? We totally ruined your last one at the Vampire Subway."

This gets a grin from April. "Wish I'd been able to find that Agent again..." She mutters about the mysterious Winchester man from that night.

Copycat has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle hesitates and then finally admits, "Ok, Vampire Subway /was/ worth a new bag. But then just... we'll get dinner and no more buying stuff, ok? You'll give me a complex. And I already have enough of those." Vanessay laughs but smiles at her friend. She doesn't say it, but she thinks what a good word that is to be able to use. Friend.

Vanessa looks around at the shops and picks one that looks promising. "So I heard back from Josh. He's the guy who healed the woman in my building. He said he was fine with doing any interview. Turns out he works for the Avengers even," she says. "But if you get a date with him I'm going to be upset at you!" she says, laughing. "Ok, not really. I mean, if you do, go for it."

April O'Neil has posed:
April trails alongside Vanessa as they stride into the designer store to look for a new, non Vampired bit of carry-all for the birthday girl. A grin is shown at the last bit of what Vanessa says and she shakes her head. "I tried dating Wayne, it didn't go well. He was way too absent for me. It was about at that point that I decided I didn't want to deal with that stuff again for awhile... The Cop I'd been with, Casey before him... and then Wayne? I don't wanna do this anymore. Not until like... I don't know. I'm 30?" She says as she starts to browse everything in this store.

"Good god this is nice." She says about a leather case that looks like its for laptops, exactly the kind of thing April would want or like. "I can just imagine getting knocked off my bike into an alley puddle with this..." She glances at the price tag. "Three, thousand dollar... satchel.' 'Wow' is mouthed on her lips.

With a sharp exhale, she moves on. Her eyes flicker to Vanessa again. "Boyfriends lead to talk of marriage, marriage to talk of kids.... I'm just not ready for that. Things are going to well for me right now. So yeah, I'd love to interview him, have _no_ plans t'put the 'moves' on him." She grins lightly then as she glances over at two guys in the store who are checking both of them out.

Copycat has posed:
Vanessa smiles at the leather case and then when she hears the price tag she freezes up. April will find when she starts to move on that Vanessa is still standing there like a mannequin. Assuming she gets a questioning look, she says, "I'm just too afraid to move that I'll break something and be in debt the rest of my life," she jokes before starting to move again.

"Not that I won't already be in debt, but, you know what I mean," Vanessa jokes at her own expense. She stops to look at a bag, this one thankfully not leather. "This is kind of expensive," she says, shaking her head and moving on. She starts shopping as much by price as by style, looking for the cheapest bag they have. Going right past a purse that could rightfully be called Most Awesome Purse ever. At least in this store.

April O'Neil has posed:
April gives a little grin to the two men looking at them but otherwise ignores them as she focuses back onto Vanessa and what she may have found so far. "I've always just been more into backpacks than things I have to carry in my hands or on an elbow, myself. And totally get whatever one you want, I can't imagine they get much more pricey than the one I looked at." She laughs, nervously. Truth is she has the money for it, its pretty impressive how much people throw at you online once you get a sizable enough following and interact with them a lot.

April's hands go up to toss some of her dark hair back behind her ears and she makes sure not to bump her elbows into anything after how Vanessa had just described the debt thing... "Either way, we're going to Pete's after this." She says. Pete's Tavern, she'd told April a bit about it on the ride in to Manhattan in that posh Porche she'd borrowed. "I think you'll love it. Its a really famous bar, its been in a ton of movies and television shows. You might even recognize it once you're inside it, as much of a pop-culture buff as you are." She bumps shoulders with Vanessa then and spots a pretty bag.

"Ooh, I like this one." She says as she moves to take a closer look!

Copycat has posed:
Vanessa's glance travels over to the two men. The grin from April has them smiling as they meet eyes with the other woman. Vanessa has to push down her instinct, which is more business than personal. The comment from April draws her attention back. "It sounds great. I'll have to see if I can tell something it's been in. I could probably identify which hallway of the Death Star we're in, but not sure about bars," she says with a warm laugh.

Vanessa moves over to check the bag that April is looking at. Vanessa had spotted it too but there was an extra digit in the price compared to what she was trying to find, though at least that first digit was a 1 and not something higher.

"That... that is kind of gorgeous," she admits reluctantly. "I like purses but bigger ones, that you can fit a few things in," she says. Like the one that April is looking at. Vanessa peeks at it a little closer. "So do you have more interviews lined up for this week?"

April O'Neil has posed:
"I don't think I know of any Death Star themed bars..." April quietly quips with an amused smirk over to Vanessa then as they both continue to browse. "But now that you say it, I did hear something about a Star Wars thing here in town that maybe we should look into doing instead of a bar, if you'd rather." She's not sure if Bar's are more her thing than they are Vanessa's after all.

As she picks up a hat and places it on her head, she turns around to look at Vanessa, its a big poofy sun hat. She grins from underneath it shadow-providing brim. "There's a Star Wars themed Virtual Reality shooter we can go to." She says as she starts to remove the hat then to put it back. "I had a digital effects artist on the show yesterday, he told me about it. He said he helped set it up here in New York, said its been around for awhile now, five or so years, but they just refreshed it with state of the art stuff. Want me to call and find out if they can get us in? We can be Jedi..." April reaches out and picks up a designer umbrella of all things and makes lightsaber noises as she waves it back and forth. "They set us up with VR goggles, and then unleash us inside a warehouse that is designed to be over-layed with the game world. He said they had multiple settings, er, levels for it? including the Death Star."

She shrugs her bare shoulders then as she puts the umbrella back where she'd found it, glad she hadn't knocked anything over... "Could be fun."

Copycat has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle laughs softly and says, "Oh, that sounds like it would be a treat. Though why don't we do Pete's tonight and schedule that for another time. I have a friend, Gabriel, that if I went to something like that and didn't take him, he would absolutely kill me." Vanessa looks over the rack of bags. Her eyes go back to the one, but she'd put it back, and after a few more moments of looking, she picks a nice one which is also down in the lower end of prices. Only three numbers to the price tag, and the first is a 2.

"This one is perfect," she says, holding up and looking to April to see what she things. "Nice and room for me, soft strap and will look great with a few things I have," she decides.

Vanessa looks around the store and says, "Places like this, it really is like stepping into a different life kind of, isn't it?" Everything is new and shiny and taken care of. There is plenty of extra space so nothing feels cramped.

April O'Neil has posed:
"I would've totally set it up for tonight if I'd known about it prior to ya know... yesterday." April replies with a grin. "Who's Gabriel? I haven't gotten to meet any Gabriel's..." She shakes her head then and holds a big silly smile at the notion of Van having a guy friend she hasn't told her about.

As the two women make their way to the register to pay for the purse, April pulls out her wallet and glances around the store at the thought of this being some kind of special separate kind of life. "Yeah, I guess..." She quietly says. "But honestly, I wouldn't wanna live like this all the time. This place is nice as like a step outta reality, but I like reality... at least my version of it. My apartment, my job... it has the right level of clean and... familiar Brooklyn dirtiness."

April shows a sly grin to Vanessa then. She goes about paying for the accessory handbag and grabs a gold bow off of the counter beside the register. As she turns to offer it now to Van, she slaps the bow on its side. "Ta-da! Happy birthday!?" She says with a big dorky grin. "Ah.... I'm bad at this stuff." She then says in a more sour tone.

Copycat has posed:
Vanessa takes the birthday bowed handbag as it is offered and lets out a laugh. "Actually I was just thinking how wonderful you are at this," Vanessa tells April, slipping her arm around her friend and hugging from the side. "Thank you. This has really been a great day for me. My best birthday I can remember in a very long time," she says.

She smiles at the bag, and slips it over her shoulder, after carefully stowing the bow inside so it doesn't fall off. She wants to hang onto that too, apparently.

The brunette gives a little wave of her hand. "Oh, Gabriel is this sweet kid in my building. Lives down a floor. Just graduated high school. Stays out of trouble, but he gets picked on a lot. Which is too bad. He really could have a bright future if he could just get out of New Lots," she says, shaking her head.

April O'Neil has posed:
April returns the light hug to Vanessa as they walk out of the store together and the two men who'd been eying them watch them go, one of them makes a lewd gesture to his friend, apparently having come to a conclusion about these two women. What jerks!

"Oh I see." April replies to Van's comments about Gabriel then. "So he's getting out of that awkward teenage phase?" She asks. "What does he want to do with himself?" She then asks as she pulls her phone out of her back pocket and looks at the time, then at her messages, 7 new messages since she'd look at it last in the sunglasses store...

"I mean, like, career wise?" She then sees the messages are all from her show manager, Vernon Fenwick who's ranting and raving about his huge successful barbecue that he's inviting them to tonight, but April knows that he's just trying to get 'girls' to come to his apartment complex barbecue to fend off the fact that its generally just him and about six of his weirdo friends.

"I could maybe set him up with something, if he needs an 'in'. Its not what you know but who you know after all." She offers to Van with a grin.

Copycat has posed:
Vanessa gives a slow nod and says, "Yeah, he's not had it easy. He's maybe 5'1" and just the gentlest, nicest person. So in our neighborhood, that means he's weak and others try to build themselves up picking on him." Her tone is rather hard at the injustice of it, but then, she understands the reality of the streets too.

"Well, he's a pretty fair artists, though I really don't know if he's good enough to... not the kind who could get his own show. But maybe work as a graphic artist or something like that? He normally fixes my computer when I do something stupid to it," Vanessa says with a wave of her hand at the magic of those computers. Incomprehensible.

"He'd be great for greeting people like you had talked me about doing," Vanessa says, getting excited at the thought. "Or, well no pressure it'd have to be that. But if you could get his foot in the door anywhere, at the station or whatever? I think he'd really take off," she says excitedly.

April O'Neil has posed:
As they're headed for the doorways out of the mall again which will take them up an escalator to the street level where they can walk back to their chariot for the evening, April lowers her fancy new sunglasses down over her eyes and just smiles over to Vanessa. "I can look into all of those things for him. Set me up with a meeting with him, let him know that he could get out of his funk if he puts in the effort and well... hey, he can be seen hanging around you and me, that'll change the tune of those a-holes in your neighborhood with him, I'd bet." She states that with a little self satisfied grin.

April leans over to rest her head on the nearest shoulder of Vanessa. "I'm glad to get to help you have a fun birthday, it means a lot to me. So I hope it is fun." She says then in a friendly but endearing sort've way. She then raises her head up again. "You ready to go do some drinking? I already took tomorrow off... so we're good to get all kindsa..." She pauses. "Shit. I have to drive home." She huffs out a sigh then. "You're good to get all kinds of liquored up." She states then with a slight grin.

Copycat has posed:
Vanessa laughs and says, "Well, we could always leave the car and Uber it so you can drive too." She looks over to April to smile warmly. "I am having a fantastic birthday, yes. Thank you very much," she says.

Vanessa leans over to give April a little shoulder bump, but makes it just a firm enough of one to be a little goofy about it. "So I don't know about this whole swearing off men until you're 30, thing. Not unless you're hella lot older than you look," Vanessa chides with a grin. "Just need to pick them better. Not that I can help there. I'm the Queen of bad choices. Remind me to tell you about Eddie sometime. But, make it sometime when I'm drunk already," she says, the last part a little somber.

April O'Neil has posed:
"An Uber..." April says softly then. "Thats not a bad idea. Though I'd have to get back out here tomorrow to pick it up again some time, but I guess that'd be okay. It is a nice area we're going to after all." She glances over to Vanessa then and cracks a grin at the men talk. "Hey, I thought a Cop was a good choice. Way more than a street vigilante in a hockey mask with a cricket bat on his back. And after the Cop? A -billionaire- was who I tried next... Though sadly it went less far than the other two. Go any further back into my dating history and it just gets to college days and frat parties. Eeeehg." She makes a disgusted look and sound at that suggestion.

As they make their way outside into the summer humidity again she exhales softly. "So Eddie stories after you're drunk. Got it. Shouldn't be too long from now." She says with a big silly smile over to her friend then and there.