ArchivedLogs:Kaorporate Sponsorship

Kaorporate Sponsorship
Dramatis Personae Tess, Kaori	2013-12-04 Tess picks up some sponsorship
Location <NYC> Central Park North
Central Park North is slightly quieter than its southern counterpart, being further uptown and slightly out of the bustle of the City - insofar as one can escape the bustle of the City even here, in the acres of green and blue that make up Central Park. The reservoir is in the northern half, providing miles of jogging and biking trails along the clear water, as well as benches for people to sit and rest. It's a bright, cold Wednesday afternoon in Central Park. Crystal clear blue skies belie the actual cold temperatures. Sure, it's 50 degrees in the sun, but add a little shade, or breeze, or both and it can feel quite cool out. Speaking of 'cool', up at the north end of the park we find some high quality dance music, accompanying one famous DJ and X-Games athlete, Kaori Takahashi. It looks like some of her remixes are playing on a smartphone, plugged into some portable speakers, while the young woman in question busts out some old school break-dancing. She's wearing black tights, and layered, brightly colored shirts, with bright pink converse shoes. Nearby is a bright yellow BMX bike, and a purple parka draped over it. A few people are gathered around to watch, but it's not a huge crowd. Tess notices some kind of commotion, and heads closer only to notice Kaori. She takes a doubletake, then tries to climb into a tree to get a better look. She's kinda short, so she figures she can get a better look this way. Problem is, she makes a misstep at one point and falls out of the tree, "Ow..." Noticing the girl in the tree, Kaori grins and waves, but is hardly able to finish the gesture before the girl is tumbling out again. New Yorkers being the skittish things they are, as soon as Kaori bounces to her feet to check on the girl, the little crowd assumes it's off the hook for helping out, and disperses. "Oh hey, are you ok?" she asks, rushing to the tree. Kaori frowns over at the speakers for continuing to blare away, reaches into her pocket, and they go silent. "That looked like it hurt." Her english is accented enough to make it clear it's not her first language, but she's pretty fluent. Tess pushes herself up soon after, she's fine. Nothing broken, she caught her fall with her arms, and though there's some scrapes and bruises, it doesn't look major. Not for the fact she just fell out of a tree, anyway. She sees that Kaori came to help her and instead of brushing it off like she normally would, she stammers, "Th-thanks. I'm fine. You, you're Kaori Takahashi, right?" "Oh," Kaori says, dipping her head a little. She's not embarrassed exactly, but she does seem surprised to be recognized. "Yeah, that's me. Just 'Kaori', is fine." She extends her hand with a smile. "What's your name?" Tess doesn't shake Kaori's hand for some reason, "I'm, I'm Tess." No surnames being shared there, and the teenage girl is trying to calm herself down. "I kinda like your music." She stuffs her hands in her pockets, what's left of them anyway. Those jeans have clearly seen better days. "Thanks! It's nice to meet you Tess." Kaori says with a bright smile. She doesn't seem put off by the lack of handshake. And then she shivers a little. Dance practice has resulted in sweat, which is now cooling in the early winter air. She skips back a little, but motions Tess to come with her. When she gets to the bike, she picks up her bright purple parka (with faux gray fur lining the hood), and slips it on. Picking up the jacket also reveals a small backpack which was made to look like Yoda is riding on her back. She stuffs the speakers into the pack, and the phone into her pocket, and says, "You wanna get some food? I heard the MacDonalds up at the end of the park opened up again." Neither young woman needs to explain why it was closed. Months of zombie apocalypse is generally bad for any business. It seems Tess is conflicted about the idea, but eventually nods. "That'd be nice." She looks at the bike and starts walking alongside Kaori. She'll run to keep up if she has to, she's pretty fast and it's not too large a distance. Tess clearly has done running before, in some capacity at least. Kaori's reactions seem to have gotten that nervous shyness's edge of, and the stammering is gone. Kaori beams a bright smile when Tess agrees, and picks up her bike, but just walks it beside, opposite where Tess is so it's not between them. "Cool! I know it's not good for you, but it tastes /so good/." The only dark cloud over Kaori's sunny disposition is her learned habit of checking shadows and movement as they go. The city is nearly all cleaned up, of course, especially here in the heart of Central Park, but habits born of life and death tend to stick around. "So, what grade are you in," Kaori asks as they amble along. "American schools have 12 grades, right?" That question elicits a sigh from Tess, "I don't go to school." She answers, she doesn't sound happy about it, just kinda resigned. "But yeah, they do. And I'd be in tenth grade if I went to school." She seems a bit embarrased by that as well, and doesn't really seem to know what to say. Kaori looks immediately distressed that she's upset Tess. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm always asking the wrong things. Are the schools even open yet? Shit, I'm such a dummy sometimes." Then she grins slightly when she realizes she just cussed in front of a teenager, but apparently Kaori isn't too worried about that sort of thing. Tess is homeless, surely she's heard and used worse cusses than the word 'shit.' "They should be, dunno. Haven't checked." There's a kind of frown there, clearly she wouldn't go whether schools are open or not, she looks towards the MacDonalds, "You eat at MacDees a lot? I thought celebs had to work real hard to keep their figure, and what they serve at MacDees isn't exactly slimming, right?" When they get to the MacDonalds, Kaori doesn't stop to chain up her bike, she just walks it inside with them. "You're the first fan I've seen in months, so lunch is on me." She chuckles at the idea of maintaining her figure. "Well, I guess some do? But I don't come here all the time, plus, I work out like a beast. Not gonna lie. Pretty buff." She grins down at the shorter girl, and makes to flex her arm, which is pretty pointless with her puffy purple parka on. Unlike Kaori, Tess is wearing clothes that allow her to flex her arm muscles. She does so, and the absolute lack of any fat helps make it look even more impressive. "Most of it is in my legs, though. Used to play a lot of soccer. Once I thought I might go pro, but that's not gonna happen." She seems resigned at that bit, too, though it's clearly a disappointment to her. "Damn, that really sucks, I'm sorry." Kaori speaks softly, and is less bubbly now, taking Tess more seriously. It's clear she's wondering about how Tess wound up like this, but she isn't asking yet. When it's their turn at the register, Kaori orders a couple of cheeseburgers for herself, fries and a coke. Then she nods at Tess, "Seriously, get whatever you want. Maybe something for later, too." Kaori's smile is less flighty and more warm at this point. Tess orders a salad, some fries, a bacon burger and a large milkshake. In December. She's looking a little uncomfortable for some reason, looking around. "Mind if we go sit outside?" She asks Kaori while she waits for their order. "It's okay if you don't want to." The way she says that, it's really not okay, but she doesn't seem to want to demand anything. Kaori glances around when Tess asks about sitting outside, possibly checking for whatever might be making the girl uncomfortable, but then just shrugs and nods. "Sure, no problem." Once they have everything, she leads the way outside, sets her tray down on a table and leans her bike against the wall. It seems as if she likes to keep it close. After a moment of picking at her fries, Kaori finally looks across the table and asks softly, "So... if you don't mind me asking, how did you end up on your own? Was it the virus?" Tess shakes her head. "No, and I don't really want to talk about. Hope you don't mind." She sits down when she gets to the table, starting with her salad and the milkshake, occassionally glancing at the stil quite warm fries and burger. She looks back to Kaori, "I thought I'd have so many questions to ask you if I ever got the chance to meet you, but I'm just coming up blank." Kaori just nods that she understands, and then shakes her head that she doesn't mind. She grins and shrugs when Tess talks about coming up blank. "That's ok. We can just have lunch." Kaori munches a couple bites of cheese burger, and finally decides on a topic. "So, who's your favorite band right now?" Then she winks, and adds, "/Other/ than DJ Spinster, of course." Tess smiles at the wink, and then lists off a couple DJs and House/Techno/Electronic bands. Clearly she's into music, "What DJ do you look up to most? DJ Spinster is not a valid answer here either." She finishes her salad and milkshake, and starts on the fries and burger, strangely enough, it seems as though they've cooled down already. Kaori's haven't, though. Kaori laughs out loud at Tess's qualifies as well, and then runs a hand through her neon green hair with black roots showing at the bottom. Apparently it's been a while since she's been able to get her hair done. "That's cool, I like those bands too, but... my biggest influence was probably DJ Spinderella. She was big back in the 80's, but she was one of the first female DJs to make it big, you know? That's cool to me..." Kaori is distracted when she picks up her burger and it's still plenty warm, even though they're sitting in quite chilly air. "What the... Damn, this must have been the temperature of the /sun/ when I got it. Good thing I ate the other one first, huh?" She grins and takes a bite. Tess smiles as Kaori comments on her burger still being warm, and doesn't mention hers are already quite cool, she just takes a bite. "I don't really know much about music back then." She's sixteen, so it's to be expected, really. The girl takes another bite from her burger and chomps down on some fries. "And I guess it was." "Whoa, ok, whoa... hang on." Kaori nods, grinning, not /shocked/ that Tess doesn't know Spinderella, but devoted to solving the problem. She rummages in her yoda bag and comes up with a tiny, round mp3 player about the width of a fifty cent piece and as thick as an oreo. It has a little display on one side showing a song title at the moment, and on the back it says "Stark Mini". Likewise, when she gets her phone out, it looks like a Stark brand smartphone as well. She fiddles with the phone for a second, and then the player lights up. The whole process only takes a minute, and when she's done, she reaches out and sets the mini-player and her rolled up, bright pink earbud headphones on the table in front of Tess. "That's yours now. Downloaded my faves list to it. It's not fancy, but it plays music, and it recharges from moving around and stuff." She shrugs and goes back to eating. Tess takes the music player and earphones and stuffs them in her pocket, not yet sure what to do with it. "Thanks." She finishes her own burger and fries, waiting for Kaori to finish, too. She was clearly hungry, by the speed she was eating. "Lots of Stark branded stuff, huh? Do they sponsor you?" "Yeah, I've got a bunch of sponsors, but two big ones." Kaori doesn't seem to worry about waiting to finish a bite before talking. She just speaks around the food. "Rockstar signed us um... wow, years ago now. But Stark just came onboard last year, so I've been getting tons of free shit. It's pretty sweet stuff, actually." Tess has this kind of cheeky grin when she asks her next question, "Do you say that because they're paying you to say that, or because you honestly believe it?" She doesn't really seem to ask that seriously, just poking fun at the whole sponsor thing. Kaori laughs brightly. "I like you Tess, you're smart. It must be your taste in music." Kaori grins, wads up her burger wrappers and makes a long toss to the trash can, swishing it in without hardly looking. She sips at her coke as says quietly, leaning in, "Yeah, good question actually. So the Stark gear? It's /legit/. The Rockstar stuff... eh. It's not /terrible/, but I on TV I have to /love/ it, you know? But it's cool. Could be worse, and get sponsored by some Walmart shit or something, you know?" Tess shoves her wrappers into the milkshake's empty container and throws it behind her, like she doesn't care about littering. Then she catches it with her heel, kicking it into the same trash can. She's not looking much either. "I don't know what that's like, but faking liking something for money sounds like a good gig, honestly." "Wai-" Kaori is staring to say. Maybe she was worried about littering but then her eyes go wide at the kick-to-goal. "Holy shit, that was rad," she says, openly impressed. "Yeah, I mean, this gig is good, but really I get paid to skate and snowboard, you know? /That's/ pretty much the best. I'm so spoiled. But you should seriously be playing soccer. I'm pretty sure I can get you on a club team, if you want? You don't have to be in school for that, plus it's where all the competitive players come from in the States anyway." Kaori looks quite enthusiastic about this idea. "I can look into and get back to you. Are you in a shelter around here?" There are a lot of extra beds these days, with the homeless being the first under attack in the last month. Tess blushes a little when Kaori is impressed by that little stunt, "I guess that would be nice. I'd be in your debt if you could manage that." She seems a little worried about some things, but she's trying to hide those worries. Hope is beckoning, where she thought it was lost. "I tend to avoid shelters, I don't really like them." She's trying to think, then comes up with an idea. "I don't have a phone, but you do, maybe I should call you in a while?" Kaori smiles, her mind already racing with things she can do. "There's no debt, Tess. I had every advantage growing up. This is the least I can do. Just meet me here tomorrow at noon, ok? I'll have something for you by then, I'm sure." Tess smiles. "Thanks, Kaori." There are still at least a couple worries there, but the girl doesn't mention them. "I'll be there for sure." Sometimes, dreams do come true, apparently. Or at least become more likely than it seemed they were. "This means a lot to me, thanks." "It's totally cool, don't even worry about it," Kaori says, getting up, and slinging her backpack on. She fishes her helmet out of the pack, a plain white one which on second glance looks like a Totoro head sitting on top of her own head. It's covered in stickers as well, and looks well used and scraped up. "I hafta jet, but I'll see you tomorrow. Be safe, girl." Tess gets up, too. "I'll see you tomorrow then." She starts to jog off, back in the part of the park she came from. In what seems like a pretty good mood.