ArchivedLogs:Labyrinths

Labyrinths
Dramatis Personae Toru, Micah	18 July 2013 -1 Minotaur. +1 Toru. ^_~
Location <NYC> YKEA
A tremendous warehouse-style store, YKEA - which bears no resemblance to existing trademarks - offers a myriad of home decor solutions, from bathroom textiles and kitchen tools to lighting solutions and childrens' toys. The store has two sprawling levels; the upstairs contains a series of showrooms, showcasing various design possibilities using products purchased from the store. There is also a respectable food court, which prides itself on its authentic Swiss rosti, along with more typical American fare. The downstairs is where the majority of the shopping is done; separated according to which rooms the products are intended for, items are selected from the pallets they're shipped in; there are very few shelves, and what shelves there are are used only for display models. This part of the store tends to be quite crowded on weekends and holidays, but weekdays generally find it a bit more manageable. Thursday afternoon at YKEA during the off-season is probably one of the better times to come to the store; it's still a bit crowded but at least there's room to /move/. One of the many people moving about today is Toru!, who does not have one of the store's pristinely-designed shopping carts, but /is/ carrying one of the large purple shopping bags they provide their customers. He's shopping in the 'living room' area right now and, given that his bag is empty, is apparently having a difficult time deciding on what to buy. Right now he's considering /cushions/, but throw blankets get occasional consideration as well. Micah is wandering up and down aisles in that way that bespeaks being completely and utterly lost. He shows all signs of being on a stop-over trip from work, still clad in his standard work khakis and TARDIS-blue polo shirt. He is reading over what signs and labels there are to be read, but they prove astonishingly unhelpful. Though he does seem to be keeping up a rather lively conversation with himself! “Past the kitchenwares, then bedding...bedding. There is no bedding. I think. I need to bring a mapmaker with me on all future YKEA quests. At least some kind of rogue class. This is ridiculous. You shouldn't hide customer service counters. That's the /opposite/ of customer service. Maybe an HUD. Just for YKEA.” He sort of ambles along Toru's aisle, stopping only when he recognises that there is a body in the way of further progress. “Oh. Hello, beg pardon.” A few steps nearly carry him further on before he reconsiders, giving Toru a hopeful look. “I don't s'pose you happen t'know where they're hidin' bedding? Or, even better, the customer service desk?” It takes a minute for Toru to really process Micah's presence; he's /super/ focused on those cushions, apparently. After a just slightly too long delay, he finally blinks, shaking his head a few times, and grins a little sheepishly. "Oh, shit! Sorry, uh, I thought you-- were on the phone or somethin'. Uh." A bit of a frown, there. "I think beddin's like..." Standing up on his toes, he looks around to get his bearing, then gestures a gloved hand towards the direction Micah had been heading. "I think bathroom shit might be next, then bedroom stuff? I feel like it's at the end somewhere. I dunno about customer service, though, there's like... a returns desk next to after you buy your stuff, but other'n that..." As he continues talking, his expression is slowly getting more and more thoughtful, though from Micah's perspective this translates more to 'frowny', until finally he adds, "I know you from somewhere. You weren't a friend of K-- /no/." And that is said with near anger, though he's directing it at himself; he actually shivers a little as he shakes his head at that. No. "--Any chance you order a lotta Chinese?" “Oh, no, just talkin' to m'self. In an attempt to survive this /store/,” Micah explains with a friendly grin that doesn't quite match the content of his speech. “I'm pickin' up some stuff for a friend. Y'know how you can order things online, but there's this option to pick up at the store? That thing. They have the item held hostage at the customer service desk. Which I think is a myth. Every time I find an employee, they send me in a completely different direction. S'a trick to keep you here forever, just buying more an' more bizarrely named furniture.” It might be noted that he has picked up precisely nothing in his travels through the store thus far. He cants his head to regard Toru again when voices recognition. Micah has a knack for faces. “Gaming store,” he supplies, recognition clear in his own expression now. “Oh. You were...upset. With my friend. He wasn't tryin' to offend, though. Was just kinda out of his element there an' defaults to bein' snappy when...okay, a lot of the time actually,” he admits with a light chuckle. "Gaming...store." Toru repeats this slowly, trawling through his mind for something to connect it with, when eventually his eyebrows lift abruptly. "Oh! Right the-- yeah. Okay. Yeah." He frowns just a /touch/, then shakes his head again and mutters, "Well, way I remember it is you weren't a jerk so, whatever." Edging a bit into a /dour/ mood, he nonetheless proceeds to walk into the main aisle of the section, looking around a bit for...something. "They got little like, standy cardboard things. With foldy maps. Somewhere. When you need 'em they ain't there and when you don't need 'em you walk right past 'em without seein' em." He even goes so far, now, as to abandon his Cushion Quest and gestures towards Micah with two fingers in 'follow me' directive. "This place is always so goddamn like...people tear all this shit up and I guess they don't clean up 'til they're closed, I don't even know." “Well, that's reassuring, at least?” Micah replies, a single brow arched slightly at the pronouncement of non-jerkishness. “Maps. You'd think the people who work here would /mention/ maps. But that would derail their sinister plans, right,” he reminds himself with a quick snap of his fingers. “So, they can't be observed when you don't need them an' don't exist when you /do/ need them? More mythological creatures.” He rakes his fingers through his hair in a somewhat /exasperated/ gesture. So it is without hesitation that he follows Toru, who seems to have at least half a clue about the /wheres/ of this place. “I'd guess they just leave things where they end up. Start building new stock around the discarded items. It would explain the utter lack of organisational scheme.” He pauses a beat. “Thanks, by the way, for the rescue. I fear I would not have made it out alive... Or, well, at least not with the target item.” Toru does actually manage a bit of a chuckle at that. "Well it's sorta like, uhh. Costco? And shit? I guess they probably save money or whatever by not having folks restocking stuff and all that." He takes in a deep breath, raising his voice a bit to add, "And pass the savings on to YOU, the CUSTOMER!" in his very best TV announcer voice. With no small amount of sarcasm. Pausing, he rubs the back of his neck a little awkwardly after that pronouncement. "...er, sorry about that. Anyway I come here every so often and sorta look at stuff I'd get if I had a bigger place, y'know?" And, in a more wistful voice, "Then I remember that if I had a bigger place there'd be that much more stuff I'd have to buy, and I put it in my booze fund instead. Investing for the future, yeah?" Micah laughs outright at Toru's antics as he trails just behind him, grinning and shaking his head slightly. “Oh man. At least it's not /me/ the customer. More like me the delivery guy. In an' out. At least that was the /plan/.” He crinkles his nose at just how well the plan has been going thus far. “Hey, some folks like t'window shop. It's a thing. Prob'ly all the better you just look an' don't buy all the time. Saves you money for,” he pauses as Toru reveals his savings plan, “alcohol, sure.” He chuckles again. “I don't get why people keep buyin' bigger'n bigger places, fill 'em up with more'n more stuff. Seems like you'd end up with rooms you hardly visit'n stuff you hardly look at. An' that many more things t'keep dusted. No thanks. I'm actually fond of keepin' t'smallish places, as far as indoors are concerned. Gardenin' space is nice, though.” Toru's /inward/ response to 'gardening space' probably isn't that far off from Micah's impression regarding the /alcohol fund/, but he does manage a vaguely half-interested, "Gardenin', yeah, sure," along with a slow nod. Like... he doesn't quite understand why anyone would have that. As a /hobby/. "I got a studio right now, an' seein' as how I pretty much just use it for sleepin'..." Shrug. "I don't like gettin' caught up in the consumerist bullshit that people go all crazy for. It don't make you live any longer'n you're gonna anyway, and I don't really see how I'd be any happier with..." Frowning a little, he looks around the area for something to use as an example. Finding nothing, he just settles on, "...I dunno, takeout containers instead of fancy bowls. Don't improve my quality of life nothin', y'know? Saves me money for stuff I actually /give a crap/ about." Micah nods agreement right along with Toru's explanations. “Yeah, a studio will fill up /fast/ with stuff. You can get along with a lot less of it than people seem t'think. Get yourself somethin' t'sleep on, somethin' t'sit guests on, maybe an optional table of some sort? Golden. I mean, okay, I really missed havin' a kitchen an' runnin' water there for awhile? But not the /stuff/ so much as the ability t'cook an' t'shower without havin' t'run to the gym.” He shrugs, a faint rise and fall of his shoulders. “Besides, with tech in the state it is now? Just get everythin' on a laptop or tablet. Don't even need t'keep an' store papers or books or music or anythin'.” His eyes travel the nearby shelves now and then, trying hopelessly to get his bearings in the Swedish labyrinth. "Man." Toru actually stops in his tracks for a minute, thoughtfully. "If I didn't like havin', like, a heater, I'd pretty much be full-on off-the-grid, I think. There's just so much /shit/ society tries and sells you and it's just kinda..." He frowns. "...y'know, you didn't come here to listen to me goin' on about all that. Uh." He gestures again, vaguely. "Right so yeah. Bedding. If you like... looks like we found bathroom business, they've actually got some cheap bathroom shit if you ever do need to shop for yourself. But if you look down thattaways I think I see pillows." Pointing off /thattaways/, he squints a bit down the aisle. "There's gonna be some storage stuff there too, probably, but it should be sorta self-explanatory." There's another bit of laughter at that sentiment, "I'm pretty sure everybody gets that thought from time to time. Whether it would just be easier t'just ship off." Micah peers in the direction Toru indicates. "Oh /good/. Now, provided that the directions the last sales clerk gave me are correct, customer service should be around the next corner from bedding." He holds up his left hand, the index and middle fingers crossed. "Here's hopin'. An' thanks again." As his left hand drops, the right one raises instead, held out in more of a greeting fashion. "I'm Micah, by the way." The extended hand gets a bit of a confused look from Toru, who is. Entirely uncertain how to engage with it, for a moment! Then eventually remembers that. When people meet each other they do a /thing/. The hesitation is probably long enough for Micah to notice it, but Toru doesn't actually voice any of his confusion, instead holding out his (gloved!) hand to grip Micah's offered one. "Micah. Pretty much everyone calls me Bones. It's... kinda long story. Good luck with yer thing, if nothin' else there's arrows pointin' towards the exit sometimes. So you can escape. Yeah?" Micah doesn't seem to mind Toru's hesitation and certainly doesn't draw attention to it, just providing a solid handshake once the younger fellow catches on. “Most names are either a really long story or a really short one,” he assesses with a smile. “Arrows /sometimes/. That's about par for the course.” He shakes his head, assured that he's prooobably going to get lost again on the way out. “Thanks for the assist. You prob'ly cut a good half hour out of this trip, at least. Have a good night.” Micah offers a little wave before continuing off into the depths of the never-ending store.