A Shark out of Water (Tier/Santa)

EARTH!
Santa bounced from foot to foot with that gleeful smile painted across her face as the air crawled away in slow peeling angles as that descorrer yawned itself open to the shopping center. After her last....MIShap. Santa had deemed it necessary to scour the planet for a place with shops and such, but that had little to no actual spiritual presence about. It was in this way that she found the little island. Santa smiled from ear to ear and glanced over toward the shorter woman she had dragged along on this excursion.

Tier Harribel. Of course it hadn't been something she thought would be easy, but as it turned out, the woman was actually quite open to suggestions when they weren't associated with things she hated. And lo and behold, it seemed that the woman was perfectly amicable to leaving Las Noches for short periods of time!

"This is soooo exciting! Where do you want to go first? We could find some food? Ooh, maybe a movie! Have you ever seen a movie? ,Hmm, maybe an electronics store first, It can be weird seeing moving pictures for the first time." She practically chattered away, rubbing her hands together excitedly as she turned and put on a bright grin as she addressed the woman, pausing to get Tier's input on the whole situation.

Santa smiled from ear to ear, glancing over her shoulder and putting on a soft, sly smirk as she took just a moment to admire Tier's outfit. They really were going to have to get gigais or something sometime. As much as she LOVED that mask, and as exciting as it was to have it just barely out of sight, it still did make Tier look a bit suspicious. But she ignored that for now. Sadly, no amount of accessories would hide Santa's antlers. But she DID have some alternate clothing on. Some ripped punk rock pants that stopped at the knees. (Were they even pants? They were too long to be shorts...), as well as a tight, form-fitting black deep-V tanktop along with a loose sweater with bared shoulders. That long golden hair of hers tied back into a ponytail as well. So admittedly only barely a bit more effort than Tier had, the two of them certainly would stand out a bit, but that was just how spirits were. There was some sort of ....festival going on as it were on the other side of the island. A....convention? She was only vaguely familiar, but thankfully they wouldn't be the only strange ones in the area.

"HmmmmFOOD! Let's get something to eat first!" She suddenly decided! Food was something incredibly rare back in hueco mundo, and in fact Aizen's reign had been the first time most hollows had had a cooked meal. Taking Tier's hand, she would promptly lead her over to a number of carts that seemed to be serving food, and she beelined for one that looked vaguely familiar. A Kebab stand! Nothing fancy, just grilled meat on a skewer! Santa would, quickly, lower her voice. "I'll handle this." She murmured under her breath before the vendor smiled and spoke up.

'Hello there! Welcome to the vendor! We have a special today thanks to the convention! Your first order is free!' He promptly announced, gesturing to the menu that had items which qualified for the first free order. And Santa paused, blinking owlishly as she had only just registered the man's words. Having been halfway to leaning forward to show a bit of her cleavage. Fully intending to finesse free food out of him. "Oh uh.....I uh....well.... me and .... my...." She seemed to stall mentally, having had a whole little act prepared, her dumb little brain took a moment to shove that all in the trash and figure out what to say. "Uhm.... can....we get two Pork skewers?" She finally asked, straightening up as the man chuckled, clearly amused.

'New around here huh? Tourists are always welcome, tell you what, I'll throw in some veggie skewers in as well. You ladies have a wonderful day'.

And before she knew it, Santa was holding four skewers, looking a little crestfallen that she hadn't gotten to weasel her way into some free food, but had simply been GIVEN it. But, when she saw Tier again, her face lit right back up. "Heheh, see? Told you I'd handle it. Let's find a bench!" She grinned, as if that had been her plan all along. Even trying to oversell it by giving Tier a playful little hip check. Ohthathurt. Before promptly guiding Tier to a place where they could sit and enjoy the food.

Santa paused, staring for a moment as Tier’s question clearly seemed to throw her for a bit of a loop. ”You…. Can’t? Doesn’t it open? I mean…. How did you eat when….” she became further confused. After all surely Tier had once been a hollow, how could she eat if her mask didn’t open?

She rubbed her chin and thought hard. Sweating. ”uhhhh we could…. You…… maybe if…” she furrowed her brows. Was there a way maybe if they went through Tierd nose? Maybe if she rubbed it on her neck if she had gills? She cleared her throat and promptly tilted her head back, plunging the skewers down her throat anf then SHWIP! She swallowed doen the meat, all in one go! She would bot be so cruel as to take her time infront of tier!

Once her neck closed back up from stabbing herself she swallowed the hunks of meat and smiled. ”Stuff! We can still get stuff! Shop! Do you like games?” she asked, hardly missing a beat as she pondered what else the woman might possibly enjoy. ”We should totally see a movie or something too! You’re gonna love it!”

Santa had been scoping out a destination for their adventure when Tier suddenly rose up and took her hand. Her brows raised, surprise clear on her face when the turned and looked the other woman in the eyes. Staring just a little as the woman spoke softly and calmly, that deeper voice somehow soothing that somewhat manic disposition that the woman had. That assurance that they had all the time in the world was...... admittedly very contrary to what she had known of Tier before. After all, Tier very frequently chastized others for wasting her time. She had, simply put, been in a rush in hopes of not wasting too much of the woman's time.

But....hearing Tier speak to her. Assuring her that there was no rush. That Tier was here for her. WITH her. The blonde deer's eyes went a little wide, and she felt her pulse rise just a little.

Wait a minute. Tier was no sort of woman to be a hypocrit. And she was VERY adamant that her time not be wasted. Why was it that in this moment she had no such concerns? And then, that stupid brain of hers did it's work. Any normal, sane person would have simply written it off as something odd and then waited to see what else was going on. But Santa was not a woman of patience and understanding. She was a woman of assumptions. And her brain did its best with the logic and information it had. If ....Tier was telling her not to rush then. She didn't consider this, even failing to get food, to be a waste of time. But ..... why? It seemed like a waste of Tier's time, giving her food that she couldn't eat! What else was there for her to be constructivt with?! Unliess...... The only other thing in this moment, was that well, Tier was here with Santa.

Did.....did Tier value her time with Santa? Did Tier....LIKE santa? Was Tier IN LOVE with santa?! It all made sense! All of a sudden the blonde arrancar was giving a sheepish smile and gently squeezed the ex tercera's hand back. "I think I understand. I uhhh, sorry fo sho. I'll relax." She assured the woman and leaned in. At first it seemed like she was bowing, but what wound up happening, was she lightly wound up bumping her forehead with Tier's, or well, the far more likely was she would whiff as the woman probably moved to the side or something. Causing Santa to blink a bit in confusion. Oh right..... Tier didn't have horns. She cleared her throat, and then promptly looked around, suddenly embarassed. Right no, she didn't like....just try to lock horns with Tier or anything.

"Uhhhh, right. Then lets......enjoy ourselves then." She smiled, maintaining her hold on the other woman's hand as she noticed a group of cosplayers near by. She also noticed a koi pond in the distance, as well as a line of vendors. And Santa had plenty of money. Courtesy of the lesson she'd learned from that Red haired buttface in the electronics store. Even if he had spooked the crap out of her, she had to admit, his advice had come in handy. "Let's just walk for now. And let me know if you see anything you find interesting." She offered. After all, Tier seemed like it would be hard to just try and brute force into figuring out what she liked. It would be probably a lot easier to just walk around until Tier saw something she liked! She smiled, a bit proud of her idea, along with some Residual euphoria that she had deduced Tier's infatuation. Santa you're a genius!

The awkwardness is gone as quickly as it came with Tier, blissfully, being unaware of Santa's inane line of thinking and of course the woman seemed to make it a point that she probably wouldn't be a great chooser of activities when it seemed that something DID catch the Shark's attention. That shift in expression perhaps being the closest thing to an expression on Tier's face. Santa was quick to follow her gaze before a sudden smile showed on her face. Wait.....wait...WATER! Of course! Immediately she is sorry she didn't suggest they go to the beach! But already she seems pleased with the way that Tier beelines for the game, eagerly following her alluring ally!

She watched as the game that had been going on just ended, the previous crowd moving on as the worker for the game turned his attention to the odd pair. Santa immediately smiled, taking a seat beside Tier happily and focusing. She of course, actually DID have experience with firearms, not exactly consistent but on the rare occasion it was something that came up with her powers, so she had at least a competent grip on the gun before sparing a glance toward Tier.

She seemed so...focused! She almost envied the balloons being hooked up to the recepticles that Tier seemed so dead set on. There was a pause, a silence quiet as a mouse far before finally the buzzer rang! She took her aim and promptly fired at her target, not even paying much mind to Tier as the pair of them competed! Until at long last... POP!

"We have our winner!" The worker announced as Santa promprlt turned to Tier, not even paying any mind which of them had won as she simply seemed intrigued to see how she had enjoyed the experience. Already Santa's mind was teeming with potential water or gun-related activities. "I didn't know you had a thing for games!" She noted cheerfully, intrigued to see just how ....competitive she would turn out to be.