London Calling

Pip cocked her brow as she left for the outside world. Apparently Alex was quite friendly. "Certainly are a friendly bloke."She said with a grin. She listened to the girl rattle off a vague list of this district's quirks and aa follow up question. "Oh, right!" She said, hopping towards Alex so that they could begin walking. "Not too long I'd say. Couple o months. But we're too busy to go on about the place like tourists." She said with a nod. Well, SHE was. Being Addyson Queensbury's personal assistant was a 25 hour job most of the time even if it was something she wouldn't trade for the world.

Pip's stomac interjected with a growl at the word food and she beamed. "Well, I'm starvin but everythin 'ere's so slimey or just plan groos! Nothin like faggots n' gravy or stargazie pie like they have back 'ome. Mmm! Or groat's puddin! Or even a big slice o scrapple!" Pip's mouth was watering at the thought.

"I don't know what any of that is." Jamie said as they strolled along. "But you like chicken, right? Directions are actually really tricky in Tokyo, but with yakitori you just have to get close enough and then follow your nose."

Jamie, or Alex, patted her belly. She had only a few yen in the wallet in her bag, and she wasn't sure if she had enough for her own food. She was hungry though... and some nice chicken-on-a-stick would really hit the spot, in addition to accomplishing the ever-important task of finding out where Pip kept her money, and how much she was carrying.

"It's kind of a walk to the shop, but it's so worth it. Just gives us more of a chance to enjoy this beautiful day, am I right?" She wasn't sure if she'd ever described a day as beautiful before. This saccharine facade was rather irritating to keep up, but she was used to having to act differently. She could keep it up all day if she had to.

"So you're in town on business? What kinda business do you do?"

"Well you see ... Scrapple is sorta..." she tried to explain what the horrible meat consisted of, something she didn't care to think about in great depth herself, when she was saved by Jamie's question. "Oh! Oh... Chicken... right! Yeah, I can eat some o that!" she chirped ceerfully. She then took a big whiff and grinned. "Oh yeah, that funny stuff on the skewer? That stuff's delish!" She dutifully followed Jamie as the girl kept her facade up. Pip nodded thoroughly.

"definitely a sight better thaan foggy ol' London!" She said, wrinkling her nose bit. "S'pose I've come to like it though. Dingy air feels comfortin, like gammer's shepherd's pie or... Or Christmas puddin!"

Pip was already feeling good. Though she was a chiper lass by nature, she still thought the spa had really opened er up. So much so that when Jamie asked er next question, Pip almost spilled the beans. "Oh, I'm a s- err what I mean is... I work for the government. Official business, hush hush stuff, really but ahhh..." she leaned in and whsipered to Alex. "The gist of it is I'm like a professional bobby, police officer that is!" She slapped Jamie on the shoulder jovially.

"So if ya go on bein a ruddy scabber then i'll have to lock ya up and throw away the key, got it?" She eyed Jamie coolly with a playful smirk on her face. "Nah... Wouldn't go an do all that. Ye look like yer pretty straight an narrow." She smiled brightly andadded, almost dryly. "But really... I could do it so no messin about." she hoped that this Alex girl would understand the finer points of British humor. Pip always had been a little too excitable to pin down the dryer bits, of which British humor almost exclusively was, but she tried her best!

Jamie stiffly stumbled a step forward under the weight of Pip's little slap on her shoulder. She was a step and a half in front of her, and she turned to look across the street so that Pip couldn't see her face. Her heart froze in her chest, and she for a moment she was filled with sickening dread, the sort that always accompanied her every encounter with the law.

They'd taken so much from her. Taken her things away, "confiscated" them, hauled her off to the police station and thrown her in a big cell with lots of other huge scary jerkfaces that she hated. They threatened her, tried to make her say things, but she never said a word to them that meant anything.

Did Pip know... something? Was she already onto her?

No, that couldn't be. No. She was dumb. She was a big fat dope with a stupid face, and she wasn't on to anything. Jamie drew a deep breath and smiled through clenched teeth. "That's me, straight and narrow all the way." She said. She wouldn't regret a thing.

She spotted a bus stop up ahead. "Ya know, now that I think of it we should take the bus. It's actually farther than I remembered. I don't go by the spa very often, it's a little out of the way, sort of tucked away in the corner and all. Let's take the bus, it stops right near food. First thing's first, right?"

"Huh... but..." Pip was feeling quite confused. Suddenly she wanted to take a bus and suddenly she didn't hang around the shop very much. Pip could certainly be called naive, but she WAS part of a secret intelligence organization. She was not stupid by any means, just... other enthusiastic. She took the mental note down in her head but otherwise nodded. It was funny, but that was all. She had no other reason to suspect Jamie of anything. And she certainly wasn't on an assignment that involved this girl.

"Right then..." Pip said and looked at Jamie queerly before shrugging. She followed the girl onto the bus and cheered up when Jamie mentioned food. "Yes! Food sounds delish!

Jamie hopped up on the bus and paid their fares and found a seat for them. She spent the duration of the short trip talking Pip's ear off about every little place they passed. Movie stars eat at that restaurant, she saw Ken Watanabe there once, whoever that is, and that street is where they hold the summer festival, which she completely made up but she described in great detail the wonderful festival food and the dances and games and the colorful costumes that performers wore. It sounded great, and the picture in her head that she built made her smile.

They stepped off the bus and on the corner adjacent the bus stop was a large cart with a small line of people waiting to buy whatever mostly unidentifiable Japanese food the man behind it was selling. "Here we are!" Jamie announced, and hopped over to the back of the line and inhaled deeply. "Mmm, I love the smell of... well, just about anything edible. Right?" She grinned at Pip.

Jamie began bouncing on her heels with her arms clutched against her chest, humming a jaunty little tune with her eyes glued to the sticks of skewered, marinated, charcoal-grilled chicken that came out of the cart. She leaned over and whispered to Pip. "Waiting in line is like, the best part, isn't it?"

A moment passed. She began tapping her foot impatiently and there were still two people in front of her in line, fumbling with their money and chit chatting. "Aahhh! Move it!" She cried out. The men in front of her turned around and gave her a look, and she took a step back. Her fight or flight response had a hair trigger.

Finally, they were up, and Jamie let Pip go first while she discretely checked to see if she even had enough money to buy anything.

Pip enjoyed the short bus ride, listening to the girl talk. She got a little star struck and awed over the idea that celebrities came and went this way and that. SHe was enamored quite easily by large personalities and larger than life people. At least, she liked ths stories and read all the scandal rags back at home in England. Addyson always reprimanded her for being a nosy gossip and buying into yellow journalism but se was always able to counter with saying that she was just keeping an eye on the state of the nation and popular culture was a part of that. Her half truth usually slaked Addyson enough.
"Bloody 'ell!" Pip shouted at Jamie and nodded to the gentlement. She wasn't scared, just contrite and was thankful there was no incident.
Pip stepped off the ride too. She took a deep breath in unison and nodded eagerly. She agreed with Jamie. Whatever fried gross fish thing they were selling at least smelled good. "I do love the smell o fresh grub!" Pip chirped. She was looking forward to it, really but the line seemed unusually long. Maybe that just meant it was the tops in food. Jamie made her comment about the wonders of standing in line and Pip gave her a confused look. "Right, standin in line and waitin, that's right up my alley...' She said dryly and went back to looking at the assortment of people in front of her.

Pip rummaged through her money and fished out what she thought was appropriate. She took her order and smiled at Jamie. "Go on,t hen. 'ave wat ya want! Fer showin me 'round and nabbin the bus fair, least I could do is spot ya lunch." She said with a generous smile. "Ya know, as long as ya don't order one o everythin or anything." Pip chuckled softly. But really, she could use a pay raise!

Jamie's eyes lit up and she frantically pointed to a skewer of marinated, grilled chicken and she snatched it out of the man's hand before he could even hand it to her. Jamie was halfway done with it, her cheeks full and chewing frantically, by the time Pip finished talking.

A few speechless moments passed before Jamie managed to swallow all of it. She grinned at Pip. "Thanks, gov'nah!" She looked at the little English girl and saw that she hadn't even started hers. "Eat! It's soooo good! There's even a special charcoal they use, and it smells different and you can taste it!"

The man behind the cart chuckled. He was acquainted with Jamie and her exuberance for his food well enough. With Jamie's small stomach temporarily filled, she patted her belly and looked around like she'd been suddenly plopped down in the middle of the city and had to get her bearings.

"Okay, copper, let's see about getting you some fancy new clothes. If you can afford the spa, you can afford this place, for sure!"

A few other customers began pointing at Jamie and speaking to each other in Japanese, which Jamie didn't understand. One of them called her Jamie. "It's a stage name." She explained to Pip. Jamie often set up by the cart to perform, so she didn't have to walk far to spend the money she earned on more yakitori. She obligingly pulled out a yo-yo from the bag on her hip and rattled off a few quick tricks, putting it through various impressive feats of yo-yo acrobatics, before she yanked it in quickly and used some slight of hand and misdirection to "disappear" it. Of course it was back in her bag, but none of the onlookers could follow.

"Oh no, I lost another yo-yo! Sorry." Jamie said like a true street-performing ham, showing her hands to the people. They laughed and applauded and Jamie excused herself from the cart before someone that knew her by name and spoke English showed up.

Pip herself was used to eating fast as well, despite constant scolding from Addyson. 'A proper woman doesn't gorge herself like a pig at a troph' she would say. "But any of that usually fell by the wayside when Pip was by herself. Still,` even though Pip gulped down her Yakitori, it was a sight to behold how fast Jamie ate. "bloody hell..." The ginger haired girl muttered in awe. She then lit up. "Oi! Maybe ya wanna taste it a lil?" She jibed. But really, the things Jamie said about them were true. It was really delicious!

Pip was fired up to get to the next stop but when she heard Jamie's words, she went a little pale. How could she explain to the girl that it was by the graciousness of her superior officer that she even got what she got. She wasn't really paying for much of anything either. She let out a little sigh. SHe'd deal with that when she came to it. Maybe they could just browse and if Pip did good, she could convince Addyson to let her get it as a treat.

Pip was all ready to go when it seemed like a crowd was gathering and pointing. Pip's Japanese wasn't the best, but she'd been studying hard on it. She'd have to learn it to speak it quite easily for her duties as Addyson's advisor. As well as Addyson expected herself to learn the language, she expected Pip to be just as good, if not better at it. Still, where she was currently at, she could only sketchily make out what they were saying. She wouldn't have thought anyhing of it really until Jamie said that the name they were calling her was a stage name. The fact that Jamie was pointing it out, made it doubly suspicious to the young policewoman and she filed it away. She was beginning to collect a nice little dossier on this girl in her mind. Though, she still had no idea what she might do with it.

Pip watched Jamie's ricks, impressed by the girl's sleight of hand and smiled when she was pulled along. "Oi, that was pretty good!" She said genuinely. While they continued down the street, Pip decided she needed to probe this girl. "Not to be a bullocks buster or anythiin, but you don't exactly seem like ya belong 'ere in apan. 'Ow'd ya end up 'ere?" She queried.

"Easy." Jamie said. "I flew!"

Jamie laughed, and used the few extra seconds to think of how to respond. She decided there was no hard in telling the truth. Was there? It made her think of in chess when you were going to make a move, and it looked safe, and you just sat there with your hand on the piece while the other person gave you that look. Maybe it's a good move, maybe, but then you let go of the piece and BAM! Dead. Or you take back the move and it turns out it was the right one all along. Jamie hated chess. Rather, more accurately, she hated people who played chess. Jerks.

"I'm a professional wrestler! I wrestle! In wrestling!" She announced proudly. "So, careful! I'm pretty good. Actually, I don't really know. I like it, and it beats doing card tricks and stuff. Sometimes. Um, I guess I met some wrestlers in America who were actually big jerks, but I wanted to try wrestling so I came here. Why do you wanna know?" Despite how sweetly she asked the question, it still struck her as a suspicious thing to ask. She was worried that her suspicion would be suspicious.

She grew more and more uncomfortable the more she talked, so she only picked up her pace a little. "Almost there!" She said to cover her new walking speed. She turned off the road and began to lead Pip through a maze of alleys and shortcuts that Jamie knew like a rat knew a maze, and she did so quickly enough that Pip would have a hard time remembering how to get back. She had nothing to worry about, though, as long as she had Jamie to help her.

Finally, she came to a door on the side of a building with a sign hung over it. Japanese writing and an Ukiyo-e painting of an elegant woman in a kimono. Jamie pushed open the door and led Pip into a deceptively large boutique, filled with highly fashionable clothes, ranging from conservative and traditional to more strikingly modern.

"Look at all the pretty stuff!" Jamie exclaimed, and rushed over to a rack. She reached in between a stunningly gorgeous black dress and an intricately embroidered kimono and pulled out a silver-sequined shirt. "Oooh."

"C'mon, let's find you some stuff to try on!" She grinned, and descended voraciously upon the racks.