FRONT END

[faerst]

Oh hell, ok maybe sticking around for the actual concert would be more dangerous if they did stuff like flood the place. Still, gotta one up these assholes.

"Yeah, like, weird costumes are just sort of the norm now, so nobody even bats an eye at it. The stuff getting recognition lately is anything blatantly calling out political or economical bullshit without actually doing anything about it. Like songs like, 'This situation is bad and we should do something about it!' but then not doing anything about it. People love that shit." Ohohohoh wait, wait, idea.

"Concert-wise, though, there's like. Three levels of hype. Depends on the concert." She took a more relaxed stance as she seemed to think, "there's stuff like orchestras and ballets and operas. Like the fancy stuff right? That's what I do. I perform in those. I do ballet for a living and do performances every few months or so, it's just elegant dancing and whatever." She judged them momentarily to see their response before continuing, "and then theres like normal concerts for like small bands and stuff, they'll either perform at like venues in shops or at places like this but people will be mostly chill and just sit down right?

But then for like big name bands and artists, or for like the super intense crowds, there'll be these pits at the front next to the stage where people can go to show their love and adoration for these artists by fucking raving and punching each other in the face. Really violent."

[Pai]

Jintii
Tenor would step up alongside a toolbox, in a glistening white, smooth design with seamless rounded corners. It was open, but it appeared that it closed with a button mechanism on the handle. Inside of the toolbox were a number of different devices, each seeming to have different purpose--one of them was some sort of multitool, with a button on the handle and a small wrench head jutting out that glimmered with an almost holographic quality; another, a sort of wedge tool with an unusually short shape, but the material changed toward the bottom into something that looked particularly sturdy; another was a drill, with a blaster shape and a round, flat head that looked more like a saw, than anything else.


faerst
"Violent?" the three Gru all sounded off together in horror. They murmured amongst themselves for a moment, listing other artist names that the idea reminded them of, but ultimately reconvened with some sort of consensus on what this all was.

"This is definitely more the first one you mentioned," the rock Gru offered with what seemed to be their equivalent of a nod. "Since it's, like, the representation of our society, it's gotta be, like, respectable, you know?"

The spherical Gru chimed in. "We have those other kinds, too, though, but Yrk's concerts are always the better ones."

[daekfire]

Amelia wasn't necessarily bad at maths but she really, really didn't have the skills to decipher anything like this. An equation to figure out what year to come to earth? She let out a small huff, she didn't trust herself not to ruin the information that was on it, so temporarily turned off her flashlight so she could take a picture of it too before she folded it away and tucked it in her bag. ...Why had it been that she had to put her hands on the stuff covered in ink?

She took a second. Still stood in the dark without her phones torch. She felt silly, but..."Lights On?" She was sure that it wouldn't work, and clapped her hands for good measure. Just to make sure she wasn't snooping around in the dark for no good reason. 

If they didn't, well that was too bad. She'd take another brief look around and if nothing else could catch her eye, well she'd have no reason to stick around. Plus she'd have to take the key back soon. 

[Jintii]

Tenor peeked into the toolbox to examine the tools, picking up the one that looked like a small wrench. He wasn't sure what to think of the other tools in the box, but the wrench felt relatively normal, so he thought he'd check that one out first. Out of curiousity, he pressed the button on the handle.

After examining the wrench, the mint haired man placed it back into the toolbox. The wedge tool clearly displayed its capability from its size, so Tenor wasn't interested in trying it out. The... blaster, however, did perk his interest. If anything, it looked more like a weapon one of those sci-fi films would feature (although on deeper thought, aliens are quite sci-fi), but it felt almost ironic for them to possess such a thing, given that they were so strict on the no weapon policy. He had no interest in harming himself, but the tool was very much something that he found intriguing. He quickly took a picture of it - he wasn't sure if his friendcru members would be interested in this sort of thing either, but if aliens had "tools" like this... god knows what they might have for actual weapons.

[Pai]

daekfire
The lights popped on with a gentle fade-in into a comfortable daylight hue of around 500k. Who needed light switches, anyway?

There wasn't anything much else left to see in here, but the Quingee(?) outside seemed to be waddling its way near the door.


Jintii
When the button was pressed, the tool's head quickly phased out from view, only to replaced by another head--from the wrench it was before, it was now comfortably a screwdriver. A symbol on the button glowed for about half a second, before fading out again, likely indicating the type of tool. A true all in one--no needing to carry around all those extra heads. Neat!

The drill was a sleek, shiny white with a bit of a bloated design, large on top, stout on the bottom, where the handle was. There was a button on the handle, rather than a trigger, that when pushed would make the drill bit on the front spin, in a somewhat regular variety. A small button on the side alluded to it having the same functionality as the multitool, with drill bits that could be swapped in and out hands-free.

[daekfire]

Amelia moved quickly after she noticed the quingee - she did not need to deal with that accent again. Not at all. It would probably see her, but oh well, she'd gotten permission to go inside hadn't she? Even so, she was nervous about being spotted with her hidden away spoils. So she quickly moved back to the...slimey guy, a bright smile on her face as she did so. "Thanks for that - ! It was super interesting, and that one poster is, really cute." 
She hoped that she didn't seem like she was panicking. Because she wasn't, not really, but being caught snooping really wasn't a great idea all the same was it? 

Amelia wanted to carry on looking around now, but she also really couldn't appear rude now that it had offered her the keys to his space. But heck if those other stalls and displays weren't starting to look interesting to her.

[Pai]

daekfire
The Gru manning the stand seemed highly entertained at her enjoyment, and appreciative of her returning the key. They would state that they had a lot of work to do--they were going to make a hundred of those little frogs, they said, and already had one done (though it was a little shoddy and clearly wrinkled and slightly half-melted).

The rest of the stalls were getting somewhat crowded as the time passed, between a number of humans as well as Gru beginning to populate the space. The food vendors, on the other hand, were understandably deserted.

[daekfire]

Amelia wished them luck as she moved away, complimenting the first frog despite it's flaws. The first ones always looked the worst after all.

Her eyes were drawn to one of the food vendors - Amelia really didn't think Gru food would exactly be edible for humans, but she also couldn't just immediately reject the idea of it all. So shrugging to herself she moved forwards and towards one of the two stalls. She could at least have a look. Something useful might appear there after all. 

[Paps]

He had to resist punching the guy. There was these Gru again being all high and might again but wait. There wasn't anything to punch anyway.

"How can you see without eyes...?" he asked. But the Gru - whatever he could see of the Gru, anyway - was looking at the thing at another angle, so he did too. The way that he described the communicator sounded like a basic cellphone.

[Pai]

daekfire
The booth had the regular lineup seen now in most supermarkets--Slime Beverage, Flavor Chips, Mysterious On Bun, all at increased prices from what was normally seen--but it still wasn't too much, since those items regularly were constantly on sale from trying to get the inventory to move at all. They were also featuring a special item, the sign of which simply showed a photograph--which was some kind of triangular bendy shape, fried, on a stick--and the words "ON A STICK!" It also included a humble, "LIMITED DEBUT PRICE $4.99" and in small font at the bottom "no money back guarantee buyer accepts full liability on purchase."


Paps
"How can you function without a sensoral array sophisticated enough to no longer require solid form?" the Gru offered back rather point-of-factly. "Who needs structures like eyes when you can exist as freedom itself, tied to none of the spacial tethers that bind most life forms to their planets. Wouldn't you rather be able to travel the galaxy freely and spread yourself to the far reaches?"

They were getting unexpectedly heavy.

[daekfire]

Amelia stared at the food, and continued to stare for a little while longer. She really didn't...couldn't understand what any of this stuff was. She'd been refusing to buy it at all where they could regularly get it from. Well, apart from that one...very obvious thing. She took another second, rolling her wrists and then moved a little closer.

Pointing to the picture, she turned to look at the vendor. "What, may I ask, is that?" It didn't look appealing in the slightest. She wasn't trying to be impolite either, but it really, really didn't look right or even slightly edible. She was really worried that if this was what the gru tried to get all of them to eat...well nobody would be eating at all would they?

[Paps]

Admittedly the Gru's words were flying over Ethan's head. He thought a smarter person...like his future doctor brother perhaps, would get it. He tried to piece their words in his head as much as he could though.

He had 'roamed' the country at one point, not too long ago. Traveling from place to place, performing in small but amiable venues, drinking and hanging out with fans and other bands alike. He ... missed it. He missed it a lot. Perhaps that was similar to the feeling that this Gru was talking about.

"I...I can understand that," he said. "Most people on Earth aren't able to do that kind of stuff. So is that what you guys...the Gru...are doing here? Traveling?"

Still, it didn't excuse the fact everyone in this part of the country were changing outside of their own free will.

[faerst]

Lacy nodded along as the gru explained. "Aight, aight, I gotcha. So this is the formal sorta presentation like the Olympics openings and stuff, cool." Jesus Christ, what the fuck.

"So what about you, you got any more on y'all's concert culture? Like, is it flooding every time or do you mix it up or what? Is there anything planned for this one?" Starting to run out of info, starting to get tired of talking to these gru. How to get out of this situation...

Glancing around absentmindedly, she noticed the doors on either side of the Yrk merch booth were closed. She still needed to buy that suit for Paige, too, but...maybe she could continue on down and see if there was anything (or anyone) in the hallways.

[Pai]

daekfire
The vendor behind the display (who appeared to have been in some kind of resting state, as upon being spoken to, its previously-stationary body had begun wiggling like mad) perked up, almost physically bouncing to life in front of Amelia.

"It's on a stick!" they announced enthusiastically. "Have you ever had It on a stick before? It's great. Free sample? I'm giving out free samples today. I love free samples! Humans love free, right?"


Paps
"Traveling? Somewhat, somewhat, we do enjoy expanding our cultural spread, although that was a concept that seemed to have been embraced more a few eras ago; things are a bit more forceful, now, even if the intention remains the same."

Their tone implied that if they had a head, they'd probably be nodding.

"And yourself? What are you doing here? Are you also traveling?"


faerst
"This one should be pretty standard, but we're hoping for some extras in there, too, since Earth is such a... yknow, yknow?" the spherical Gru piqued.

The rock Gru added on, "We're not too interested in other music culture outside of Yrk, since we aren't really around homeworld too often, it's hard to keep up with what's new and trendy, so we just stick to the classics."

Though the doors were closed, people and Gru were moving around in and out, the doors flapping shut again as they did so; despite appearing closed, they were clearly unlocked and accessible.

[daekfire]

Amelia found herself blinking. Hm. Hm. She could only imagine how distracting it would be to try and have an actual, long conversation with a gru like this. She would either be extremely annoyed, or wiggling herself after this talk. Or maybe even both.

"I mean we do." Humans certainly did like free stuff yes, but not like this. "But usually that only works with stuff we've like...had before y'know." At least she should hope so, had they even thought about if humans could eat this stuff? Like what about allergies? It didn't look great either. "I've never even seen this off of the stick before..."