2013.06.03 - Guess What I Saw At The Gap

While Hazelton Mall isn't Jubilee's favorite place on Earth, it's in the top five. Lots of shops, incredible selection, lots of people to watch if she's not feeling up to slipping through crowds, and plenty of sugary snacks and drinks available from vendors and food courts for when she needs a recharge.

Right now she's scoping out the selection at one of the big anchor stores. Not usually her first pick of shopping spots, but there's a clearance sale today. Bonus! Aside from her signature earrings and ruby-colored shades, her skinny jeans, high-top tennies partially hidden by hot pink legwarmers, and oversized hot pink, white-trimmed hoodie wouldn't really stand out a lot if she weren't flitting quickly from rack to rack, humming along with something annoyingly catchy that's being piped into her brain via her iPod's earbuds.

Shopping has always been a leisure activity Merle has enjoyed and today she has decided to give Hazelton Mall a try. She is wearing her raven haired illusion and her burgundy buttoned shirt as she walks through the mass of humanity milling about the mall. As she walks along she takes the last bite of the soft pretzel she picked up in the food court and keeps an eye out for any of the common pop-culture themed shops often found in malls like this.

Having taken a wrong turn on her way towards the back of the anchor store, Jubilee distractedly emerges from the store, coincidentally not far from Merle's wandering path. She doesn't notice her location before she notices the stylishly-dressed brunette. A decision is made, and Jubilee slips a hand beneath her hoodie to thumb off her iPod, then heads in the direction of Merle. She doesn't stop humming, though, unconsciously finishing the song she was in the middle of.

Merle is paying more attention to the shop signs then the people around her and so she doesn't see Jubilee approaching though the crowd. She stops in front of the Gap -- not exactly the store she was looking at but one of the manikins has an outfit on that catches her eye.

Jubilee only catches on to Merle's distraction once she's very close, nearly next to her. She casually steps up next to the other girl, still humming softly. "'Scuse me! I couldn't help but notice those way cool threads of yours," she says, reaching up to tap the taller mutant on the shoulder.

Merle turns to look at the younger girl, already smiling at the compliment only to have the smile split into a huge grin as an obvious sign of recognition washes across her features. She seems at a loss for words initially but then says, "Thank you," and seems about to say more -- Jubilee's name actually -- but stops herself before it is recognizable as anything intelligible. Instead she introduces herself, "Hi, my name's Merle."

Jubilee's friendly smile falters a touch, her eyes widening a little at the sudden sign of recognition. But she doesn't hesitate when the other girl introduces herself. "Call me Jubilee, and no thanks necessary. I just couldn't notice an outfit like yours and not say something!" She gestures to the entranceway to the Gap. "And that outfit I saw you scoping is pretty cool, too. Want to see if they've got the elements inside?"

The faltering smile registers on Merle's features as she realizes she may have made the other girl uncomfortable. Unsure how to make up for that she simply replies, "That's a brilliant idea, Jubilee." However there's the way she says the name as if it is something she's known for years. Even as she says it she realizes this and her cheeks flushes in embarrassment.

And Jubilee is observant enough to catch this: She's not so much uncomfortable as puzzled, and this familiar tone and sudden embarrassment only make her more curious about how this strange girl might know her. "Totally! Most of my ideas are," she replies mock-smugly, catching Merle's hand and all but dragging her into the store. "Let's hope somebody hasn't gotten all the stuff in our sizes!"

Merle grins and doesn't take much dragging to head into the store. Not only does the store have the top the mannequin was wearing -- a stripped, split-neck T with ragland style sleeves with a contrasting color and pattern of stripes -- in stock, but they are in a central display... and /on sale/ also!

It's a gift, really. When Jubilee doesn't smell a sale a mile away, one just pops up near where she is. She catches sight of the display and gives a little jubilant cry of discovery, veering that way. "Score! Ooh, this is /so/ wicked," she exults, lifting a pink-and-white tee with black-and-white sleeves and holding it up in front of herself. "Aw... a little big. Maybe they have it smaller."

She glances over at another rack, though, spotting a style of yoked, flared denims with interesting embroidery around the hems and the buttoned closures on both sides. "Now /that's/ different. But cool!" She quickly rifles through the rack, and finally lifts out a pair that's marked with the right size. "Should I grab one for you? I'm a good judge of sizes."

As she grabs a white T with dark navy double stripes on the body and thicker, salmon colored strips with wider separation on the sleeves Merle nods to Jubilee's question. "Sure, then we can go try them on," she says letting a hint of the presence of a 'hatching cunning plan' show in her expression and tone of voice. "Make sure to grab me a pair that's acid washed... the solid dark blue isn't going to work for me," she adds.

"You got it," Jubilee replies, flipping through the hangers again and drawing a pair that looks like it's Merle's size, and acid-washed. "Now for that top!" Fortunately, she does find one she likes in her size, though it's canary-and-white with similar black-and-white sleeves. "Uh-oh... I only see one fitting room. We'll have to take turns or share."

Merle shrugs noncommittally but also smiles. "I'm ok with sharing so I leave it up to you on taking turns or not," she says as she starts to head in the direction of the fitting room. On the way she stops saying, "Oh! That belt will look great with it!" as she grabs a salmon colored leather belt with a brass buckle.

"Let's share. That way we don't even have to come out to critique each other," Jubilee suggests, quickly jinking out of Merle's belt-seeking path and giggling. "That's not bad! I'm gonna take a little time to find my own belt, but I might just come back to one like that. It can wait." She pauses by the changing room to draw back the curtain, gesturing Merle inside. "After you, Spotter of Cool Outfits."

Merle laughs happily at the nickname Jubilee grants her and steps into the fitting room and removes her boots as soon as she gets inside, sitting on one of the two benches inside. Sounding like she is testing the waters for something, she asks, "Do you often strike up conversations with strangers like this, Jubilee? Or..." seems she had a follow up question to ask but she doesn't ask it, leaving this topic up to discussion.

Jubilee steps inside and pulls the curtain shut, quickly hanging her items within reach. She settles on the other bench and begins unlacing her tennies. "Do I? Not usually, unless they're really cool dressers, or they obviously need help with something," she admits, with a smile and an unassuming shrug. She doesn't point out the cut-off question, instead focusing on her shoes and legwarmers. She has them off and set aside shortly.

Merle doesn't seem uncomfortable changing in front of Jubilee and is wearing a set of matching canary yellow bra and knickers as well as cream colored ankle stockings on her feet. She turns to the clothes she is trying on and puts the shirt on first. As she is pulling it down she asks, "Do I seem to need help then, Jubilee?"

"Huh? Oh, not at all!" Jubilee replies, stifling giggles as she pulls off her hoodie and sets it on the bench, then wriggles out of her jeans. She's apparently the liver of an active lifestyle, as she's clad in a pink athletic bra and high-cut briefs. She slips the top off its hanger and begins pulling it on. "It was the outfit, totally. It seemed like a good reason to talk to you," she adds, her voice a bit muffled by the layers of material over her head.

Merle smiles as she fights off some giggles as well. As she pulls on the pants she says, "I'm really glad you approached me, Jubilee," again unintentionally giving hints that she knew of the other girl before they met. As she is testing the fit of the outfit in the mirror she asks a question which may be confusing in its vagueness: "Would you mind if I drop a couple of pretenses in order to explain exactly how much I appreciate it?"

Jubilee, finally slipping her arms into the sleeves of her top, pauses in reaching for those jeans she liked so much, looking thoughtfully over at Merle. "I /was/ wondering about that," she admits. "I mean, it seemed like you knew me, or something like that. I didn't want to push it, not when I'd only just met you." She does take the jeans down from their hanger and give them a shake to open them up.

Self-sustaining illusions, at least those that Merle uses, have to be actively brought down so she begins casting a spell. Her arms go up above her head and then wave downwards in a serpentine fashion until they are pushed outwards. She chants briefly and softly in Latin, "Aufer modo larva" (literally "Remove only mask"). She embelishes the spell casting with a side-to-side swaying of her hips, purely for the enjoyment of the movement as the magical energies flow through her.

Purple sparkles form in the air around Merle for a moment and her eyes flare solid yellow. Her coloration fades from the natural seeming pale skin and dark brown hair to her actual natural coloring of cornflower blue skin and midnight blue hair. Even her eyes change as the flare passes, becoming dark purple, which nearly drowns out her pupils, on bright yellow sclera.

Shake. Shake... and the jeans slip from Jubilee's hands and fall softly to the floor as the fitting room fills with purple sparkles! "Whoa!" she breathes, blinking as the other girl's skin and hair suddenly change color, becoming a rather familiar blue, with equally familiar yellow eyes. She takes an involuntary step back...

And there's a soft brushing sensation along her back and shoulders, and the California girl suddenly finds herself standing at the back of the store in a cute striped top, pink panties, and white socks. Oops! Blushing, she quickly steps back through the curtain, making sure it's pulled shut behind her. "Sorry..."

At least the embarrassing back step clears her head of amazement, so she can do more than stare at her blue fitting roommate. "Wow, Merle. How'd you do that? Was it magic or something?" The signs are familiar.

At first concerned, and then a little amused once it is clear that its amusement and not something more negative that Jubilee is experiencing, Merle smiles and nods. "Yes, I'm a witch as well as being a mutant like you are, Jubilee," Merle says assuming that the latter is true here -- honestly hoping intently that it is true here otherwise this could be really embarrassing.

"Mutant? So you do know me from somewhere!" Jubilee exclaims, quickly picking up those jeans and stepping into them. She does stumble once, a little more concerned with Merle's story than with putting on the pants. "And you remind me a lot of somebody I know. He has blue skin and yellow eyes, too. You're not related, are you?"

White teeth, fangless, show as Merle's face splits into a broad grin. "I assume you mean Kurt," she says. Continuing before Jubilee has a chance to acknowledge it, Merle says, "Yes and no. Your Kurt has accepted me but I am not from this world. However, I am Kurt's daughter... well, one of them here that is."

Jubilee blinks, but busies herself pulling up those jeans and fastening the side closures before she replies, just in case Merle has even more to add to that. "Wait... my Kurt? So you're Kurt's daughter, but... not this Kurt's daughter? 'Cuz I think I'd know if he'd had any children. He's kinda young to have a daughter your age." She's not only a good judge of sizes, but of ages, too!

Merle puts the belt she grabbed as Jubilee gets her mind around her previous answer. "That's right. A mishap occurred when I was trying to get to a safe distance to message the helicarrier and I ended up in this world instead," she explains and then adds, "When I tried to determine where I was I inadvertently summoned Amanda's astral form to me. We're pretty sure was due to the similarity of our magic."

"Oh, I see! So you're from another world, then. That'd explain the whole daughter thing," Jubilee replies, a light bulb obviously going on in her head. She smiles, offering her hand to the unfortunate otherworldly expatriate. "Well, it's a little late, but welcome to my world, Merle!"

"Thanks!" Merle exclaims and then, having finished with the belt, she turns around showing off the outfit. "How's it look?" she asks before also saying, "Glad I could clarify, feel free to ask questions... I'm absolutely certain that I can't change the future here since this is not my past."

"Sounds right. Different world, different timeline," Jubilee agrees. Hey, she does watch Trek and Doctor Who. It's not like there's a lot of research done about time travel and dimensional travel that's available to the public! "So I'm guessing you're safe as far as that goes." She steps up to the mirror, giving herself a good look-over and doing the same for the taller Merle over her shoulder. She's a good multitasker, too! "I like it. Very colorful! And acid washed definitely goes better with your skin than true blue." Her own are stonewashed, not quite so light. "Plus, it'd work with or without the disguise."

"Why do you think I asked for them?" Merle asks about the acid wash option with a friendly sparkle showing in her eyes. More seriously she says, "I think a lot about that when I am picking out clothes... for obvious reasons." She then quickly says, "Oh, and don't think the disguise was because I'm self-conscious about how I look. It’s just easier in many places to get along if I mask myself slightly." She grins and adds, "I think of it like wearing makeup."

Jubilee giggles. "Somehow I didn't think you were," she replies with a wink. Merle's confidence is pretty obvious. "Kurt's known to mask himself for similar reasons. He's not a bit ashamed of what he is, but looking like a blue-washed devil, complete with tail, does have its drawbacks. I figured you were doing the same thing." She turns away from the mirror, looking almost regretful. "But, we better change and give up this room to somebody who needs it, I think. Somebody will start wondering about why we've been in here so long." Especially after her accidental, um... 'lingerie modeling session'.

Merle nods and starts changing back into her regular clothes, carefully folding the items she intends to buy so the price tags are easily seen on top. She chuckles about the mention of the image inducer and says, "Yeah, he actually thought that I had one myself when I mentioned masking my appearance to him the other day. Even knowing mother as well as he did he didn't even think about the fact that I knew magic also until I clarified that for him."

Jubilee steps back to give Merle room, and begins wriggling out of her tried-on top and jeans. Following Merle's example, she pauses to fold each one neatly once she gets them off. "It's a cool device. I think it'd come in handy for more than just personal disguises, but they're not easy to make, so I doubt I'll get a chance to try that out." She stifles a giggle when she thinks of Kurt not believing Merle might be a magic-user. "He probably got a little stuck in his mind when he saw your mask. There's a lot of tech where he usually is, so he thinks in that way instead of thinking of magic. But having that kind of power must come in handy! I'd totally love to be able to change my appearance at will."

A mischievous grin again shows best with the white of Merle's teeth as she says, "He's actually not seen me masked. I wonder if he'd recognize me. Dad grew up with me masked and not masked from time to time..." She then asks, "What do you think, is it easy to tell I'm the same girl you met out in the ‘mallway’ weeing me this way?" as she finishes putting her clothes back on and starts to get back into her boots.

Jubilee stacks her own items on top of Merle's, to save space in the confines of the fitting room, and begins slipping back into her own jeans. "There's a definite resemblance," she replies after a thoughtful look at the blue girl. "But it's not so strong without your clothes. I'd know you now because of your outfit and the shape of your face."

Merle nods and then looks pensive for a moment and, still unable to decide, asks for advice. "Do you think I should put the illusion back up or leave it down?"

Jubilee looks thoughtfully at Merle, then nods. "I'd put it up," she replies, reaching for her hoodie. "New York's pretty tolerant of mutants as most places go, but I still wouldn't want to risk going out all bluey, if I were you. Blue Merle is pretty, but she stands out a lot."

"Thanks," she says regarding the compliment and then she begins casting a spell. She slowly chants the following words in Latin multiple times, three repetitions to be precise: "Quae videtur non est" (literally "Is seen is not" in English). She quickly sweeps her arms outward and pulls them inward and brings her hands up to the lowest point of her sternum, crossing her wrists as she does. She then lifts her arms upward, keeping them crossed, and wriggles her fingers and then throws her hands apart as they reach her face. Faint purple sparkles appear at her fingertips as she wriggles them and then there is a momentary burst of dull purple light as her arms part and then she is standing there again, wearing an illusion of normal coloring.

"S'nothing but the truth," Jubilee replies with a smile, and draws her hoodie down over her head. She gets it situated just as Merle begins the spell.

And then she realizes that the curtain doesn't reach the floor. And this time, nobody's standing in front of it, so somebody might see Merle's magic light show! The California girl quickly hops to her feet, putting herself between the magic-user and the curtain. After a moment's thought, she rolls up the hem of her hoodie and takes down her jeans, just so it looks like the room's being actually used rather than stood in.

After a moment, the lights die down and Blue Merle is replaced with raven-haired Merle. "Better. More subtle," Jubilee opines, stepping out of her jeans. Lifting them out of view, she then lowers them again and steps back in, so it looks like she's changing.

Merle has to fight laughing and interrupting her own spell at the way Jubilee helps out, but she manages to maintain her concentration long enough to execute the spell correctly. She then allows herself a chuckle and again says, "Thanks," this time for the assist.

Merle then picks up the folded clothing and says, "There were some guys in the store when we came in, bet you that they think we snogged while we were in here," with a wink as she waits for her new friend to finish getting dressed again.

"No problem. Thought a little camouflage might help," Jubilee replies, blushing a little as she starts to pull up her jeans again. And then she hears Merle's words. "Oh?" An impish look crosses her face, and she glances at the curtain. She claps a hand over her mouth to keep in giggles and gestures to Merle to step over in front of her.

Merle moves over, still holding all four items, to stand behind Jubilee at first, a questioning look on her face. "Are they still out there?" she asks as she tries to look out a gap in the curtain.

"Mm-hm!" Jubilee replies, nodding in the affirmative. She has a gap of her own. "Want to mess with their minds a bit? Or are they too cute to waste?" she asks, giving Merle a grin.

"I'm game," Merle says softly, still holding her grin, and then asks, "What are you thinking of doing?"

Jubilee peeks out again, then looks back to Merle. "Nothing too racy... from this side of the curtain, anyway!" She leans closer and lowers her voice even more. "We hug, which is the same posture as a kiss from the knees down, and then we open our jeans and let 'em fall and let their imaginations work overtime."

"I don't think any jeans dropping will be needed to get those two thinking scandalous thought," Merle says very softly as she peeks out her gap again. "But yeah, that and a well-timed 'foot pop'... then we hold hands as we walk out of the store after making our purchase," an eyebrow arches up as she suggests an unvoiced question mark at the end of her comments. And the singular 'purchase' was stressed as to have meaning behind it.

"Sounds like a plan," Jubilee whispers back, stifling giggles. "I'll follow your lead." One last peek out the gap, and she turns her attention fully to Merle, a wicked little smile trying to come out on her face.

Merle looks a little nervous but not so much that she doesn't guide Jubilee so that they are facing each other with her own right shoulder -- Jube's left -- touching the material of the fabric so that their outlines form against it as she puts her arms around the other girl. Once the hugging starts male voices trying -- and failing -- to be subtle can be heard making comments among themselves as the 'show' starts... their subtlety works only to make it unclear exactly what they are saying as they watch.

Merle leans down as if to kiss Jubilee but 'misses' allowing her to talk softly enough to keep up the make-believe. "Foot pop..." she turns them so that Jubilee's hip and leg, the one that would be natural to pop, are outside the curtain "... Now."

Showtime! Jubilee slips her arms around Merle slowly, almost hesitantly, as if she's nervous about doing what Merle is leading up to doing. But she plays her role perfectly, letting Merle outline them against the curtain, then gently guides her hip and leg outside the curtain, pressing her face against Merle's shoulder to hold in the giggles. And, right on cue... foot pop!

And outside in the shop the guys go wild. One is cheering happily while the other is jeering salaciously at what he presumes to be happening in the changing room.

Merle pulls Jubilee back and lets go of the younger girl. She's not truly embarrassed -- that's clear -- but she is blushing faintly still. She's also giggling softly as sounds can be heard of the employees closing down the boy's raucousness and, by all indications, walking them out of the store for disturbing the other customers.

The noise outside has barely started when Merle pulls her back! Jubilee loses control of her giggle box, and barely claps her hands over her mouth in time to stop herself. She looks up at Merle, her eyes alight with mischievous delight and damp with the kind of tears that only repressed laughter brings. And yes, her cheeks are pink with exhilaration.

Merle, still giggling softly, shares a smile with Jubilee and then says, "That was brilliant," softly but with enthusiasm. She picks up the clothes she had dropped in the instant she decided to engage in the prank -- the same moment she reached out actually. "I think we should get out of here," she says as she finally gets control of her giggles.

Jubilee quickly sits down and pulls on legwarmers and shoes. "I think you're right," she agrees, reaching down to help Merle pick up the dropped items. "But you're also right that it couldn't have gone any better!"

After a few seconds, she's on her feet and, nodding to Merle, pushing open the curtain. And she reaches back and clasps Merle's hand, leading her up to the counter. After all, they still have jeans to buy!

And, to Jubilee's amazement, Merle pays the bill for both of them. And, quite possibly to Merle's amazement, the disguised mutant gets another hug. And the Gap gets a new rumor about the fitting rooms. Well, everybody can't come out ahead!