Survival Of The Fittest

Cisco remembered Bounce a lot more though, especially since he found himself a regular in the same "official SotF" chatroom as she was. Of course, the attitude she'd held toward him in real life was quite similar to that in the chatroom. Not the cheeriest attitude in the world by far, but talk-to-able. That said though, he seemed to sympathize or otherwise relate to her primarily because it seemed their natural demeanor irked everyone else, although he had a different reaction to that than hers.

"I could imagine it'd fit you nicely," Cisco said, raising the pitch of his voice a bit, before being rudely interrupted by a reply from nearby.

"Oh, don't mind her, her ears are just so sensitive she'll bitch at anything that makes noise."

He turned his gaze to find some overweight redhead dashing to the counter, one he recognized as the voluptuously voluminous dancer Regina Straw running from her hit-and-run one-liner and ducking into a cash register aisle.

"Unlike some people who go through layers of these things every week..." he muttered briefly before returning his attention to Bounce, "I swear those assets of hers are probably filled with air too." Truth be told, Cisco didn't really mind all those people snickering behind his back. It was all part of the 'gag'. And speaking of gags, seeing as how he was in the SotF section. He suddenly held out the item he'd worn on his shoulder, pinching the garter at both ends and smiling like a Valley Girl.

"Do you think this'll make me look fabulous?" he added with a cheeky smile and tone that sharply contrasted with the serious expression on his face when he remarked about Regina. Not that he was actually considering wearing it any more than when he first picked it up, but heck, a laugh (to him) was a laugh. "Maybe the blood won't stain it too red...Oh...is that-" Cisco stopped as he took a closer look at Bounce's chosen shirt. The pictured combatant didn't seem too familiar to him, but as he'd confided on the chatroom, he'd stopped paying attention about halfway through.

The comment from Regina reached Bounce's ears, causing her to roll her eyes in exasperation. Noise she could understand, being simply obnoxious with the making of it, she could not. Maybe she just had a lower tolerance for stupidity than most people did... Cisco, though odd, at least wasn't overly irritating. Bounce could be at least cordial with him.

"Yes, I always encounter difficulty in finding appropriate clothes. As I am sure you are aware, I am a little smaller than most," Bounce wasn't particularly bothered about her height, although she was aware that she was small. She didn't really see anything to perturb her. Bounce was short, and? Was that likely to have any bearing on anything she wanted to do when she was older? As Cisco went on, Bounce decided to keep conversation to a minimum. She still, after all, had something to be getting on with.

"Indeed," honestly, who cared about the size of another girl's breasts? So Regina had a large chest - it didn't mean anything. Still... she supposed that breast size was something that a lot of people put quite a bit a stock in.

When Cisco held up the article of clothing, Bounce stared in disbelief for a few seconds, not quite sure if her eyes were deceiving her. At length, the suggestion of a smile quirked at the corners of her mouth. There were many, many things she could have said at that point, but she chose to keep quiet. She was fairly sure it was a joke. She hoped it was a joke.

"This? That quote is from Bryan Calvert. You know from the second version?" Bounce worded her question carefully, not wanting to spoil the ending for Cisco if he hadn't seen the series. Sure, most people would have seen version two by now, but you never knew - sometimes you intended to watch a series forever but hadn't quite got around to it. Bounce hated spoilers.

"Yeah...see you..." Although Sora hoped the opposite. The girl came off as so...God, what was the word...catty? Yeah, catty. Why women had to adopt the mannerisms of felines, he'd never know.

After casting one more look around the store, he slipped out, a little disappointed at not getting a single necklace, but hey, he'd rather be with a friend than in that den of lions. He walked over to Peter, slinging his bag of clothes over his shoulder.

"What's up, man?" He asked cooly, smiling a little.

"I just rescued you from the evil clutches of Hot Topic, and you ask me ‘what's up'?" Peter laughed. He looked over at the bag Sora was holding. He was surprised to see that it wasn't from some boring sports store, but was instead a bag from one of the trendier shops in the mall. "Well at least you've taken some of my advice about how to dress," Peter teased.
Because being gay and fabulous is the perfect way to act around a good looking guy.
"You said you were looking at necklaces? I can't believe you went to Hot Topic for that. There are some better stores upstairs if you actually looked. Guess has quite a few nice designs. There's that Green Earth store which has some nifty tribal pendant designs. And if you're looking for something a bit more earthy and in your price range, there's American Eagle. Or there's that other store…" Peter droned on as he headed off toward the escalator. I only know this because Tiff is always dragging me here.
Shutup. You know you love shopping. And even more so with guys.

((Peter Siu continued in Ice Trail))

"Eh, whatever. You really just saved me from a very...very...catty girl." When Peter commented on the bag, his own eyes flickered to it.

"I figured I might as well see what the fuss is about." Sora had been surprised that he'd actually liked what he'd seen in some of the stores. "And Hot topic doesn't have bad stuff..."

...Actually, it had been a rather god-awful selection, but he didn't want to admit that it'd been a stupid move on his part.

"Oh, God, you aren't going to take me to all these places, are you?" He asked as Peter started for the escalator. Sora went to catch up. "Come on, man! I can only take so much!"

((Sora Najikano Continued In Ice Trail))

Cisco was not exactly sure if he was joking, either. He just wanted to see what kind of reaction he could get out of her, and determine it from there. In the meantime, he tilted his upper body forward in a rather nosy fashion and squinted for exaggeration as he got a good look at the quote.

He had actually seen the game's second "version" (as the seasons were called) though not from the beginning. It wasn't as if he'd never gotten around to it, rather he wasn't the type to watch TV as of late save for the odd show or movie he was dying to see. Of course, it wasn't very likely that Survival of the Fittest would be more than a one-off, and even less likely that he would happen to catch it. So it happened that when he finally caught a certain movie, "V2" was playing right over it, and he was hooked once again.

Not that he could remember whether Survivor was his favorite show prior to SotF when he stumbled upon the chatroom (and, as it happened, Bounce) a year later, but then again he had taken quite a few falls in the interim.

"Oooooh yeah, Bryan," he replied with a tone of voice that suggested a girlish recollection, before furrowing his brow and switching his tone to his a gravelly movie announcer type for the sentence that followed. "An epic tale of a street hoodlum finding the most ironic redemption in his death of everyone he knows. A shame that the DVD containing his ultimate fate keeps getting delayed..." He stood up straight again and took a deep breath before resuming his Perez Vasquez impersonation and eying the item he held in his hand.

"But really...maybe this'll make my butt look like J-Lo or somethin..."

Feeling slightly intimidated by Cisco leaning right over her, Bounce shuffled back a couple of steps. This conversation was starting to become uncomfortable - Cisco was a little too zany for her tastes, especially as he insisted on standing a little too close to her for comfort.

"Indeed," was her reply to Cisco's comment on Bryan. "A veritably Oscar-worthy tale," Bounce turned way abruptly and went over to where the shirts in her size were. She grabbed two; one with the SOTF logo on it and the other being directly underneath (on inspection, it turned out to be a 'Bocelot' t-shirt, which naturally went entirely unworn).

"I wish you the best of luck in your cross-dressing endeavours, but I must go. I have to return home."

Hoping Cisco wouldn't continue to speak to her, Bounce left the SOTF section and went up to the check-out, where the cashier began ringing up her purchases. Bounce produced her purse and paid for the three shirts, hoping that they would be enough to satisfy her mother, clotheswise.

Ugh, it had better be. I have no wish to go through something like this again.

((Bounce --> Fix))

Clearly it seemed that Bounce was growing uncomfortable as Cisco let out his inner fashionista, but as always, it didn't bother him. Cisco didn't say anything else as the smaller girl grabbed a few other shirts, instead looking on with slight Puss-In-Boots eyes as Bounce left him at the SotF section. Once he was sure she was gone, he put on a straight face, slung the B-6 Limited Edition Skirt over his shoulder again, and headed to the register, a soft smile on his face.

((Cisco continued elsewhere))