16320/A Quest for Cassie

A Quest for Cassie
Date of Scene:	13 November 2023
Location:	Entertainment Room - Themysciran Embassy
Synopsis:	Diana recruits Cassie to do some pre-Holidays cheer for local hospitals. No Santa Clause outfit necessary, yet.
Cast of Characters:	Diana Prince, Cassie Sandsmark

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Diana Prince has posed:
Diana had put out a message to Cassie to join her in the recreation room of the Embassy. She had said she had a job for her, but hadn't said what.

One could imagine how excited that would likely make the young Amazon...

Diana stands beside the bar countertop, a series of boxes lined up upon its polished granite countertop, with more stacked up at her feet. Dressed casually in black denim jeans, and a loose fit white blouse, Diana has her hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and is wearing those black framed style glasses upon her eyes. She has a pair of scissors in hand, and is cutting one of the boxes open carefully, rather than just tearing in to it with her brute strength, like some kind of uncultured heathen...

Beside her on the counter she has a bottle of tea, already open, and her phone rests beside it with the text conversation still open after she'd sent her last to the Wondrous Girl.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Excited?! Well, curious...

Cassie knows Diana, and knows that she's more mischievious than her perfected public persona lets on. So you never know what you're going to get! Especially when you're the junior Amazon. A job could be an exciting mission. It could be a boring, tedious chore. And a fake out from one to the other isn't anything to rule out either!

More practically, Thanksgiving break from classes is still a week and change away, and despite it being the weekend, a Sunday night means class in the morning. So she's here and not out wildly partying or anything. So Cassie is bored enough that any distraction is worth it!

"What's up?" she wonders, wandering into the rec room. She's even more dressed down than Di, wearing a tank top, sweatpants, and some fuzzy slippers, with her hair up in a loose, messy ponytail. Real around-the-house wear, showing how much she treats this place like home. Immediately, the boxes fall under her sight. "Hmmm. Little early for Christmas stuff, isn't it?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Just as Cassie is arriving to the rec room's double door entrance, Diana finishes cutting open that first box. She pauses, though, to glance back over her shoulder at Cassie, who gets a small smirk upon Diana's red painted lips. "You know that it is always Christmas in this house..." She counters in her naturally smoky toned voice. When she turns back to the box, she spreads the flaps open, and peers inside. A smile comes across her lips again, as she reaches inside the box, and pulls out a item of clothing. When she unfurls it, she spins around, holding it up to herself.

"How exciting!" She states, staring down at a navy blue tshirt with a WW logo on it, and a picture of herself.

What an ego on this one...

She looks up to Cassie, and tosses it to her. "I think it is your size..." She tells the other, as she turns back to the box and begins to root through it. She begins to pull out a stack of multi-colored shirts, followed by another stack of what looks like Wonder Woman hoodies, and winter hats, all of which are set aside on a table just beside the bar.

"All of this is for the Children's hospitals, and I need you to go through it... and familiarize yourself with it, and the list of children that we're going to be delivering all of this to." She explains.

Uh oh, that sounds like work. Maybe good natured work, but still work!

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Always? That's pretty weird for a bunch of pagans, but you do you..." Cassie quips, whilst making her way over closer to the bar.

The reveal of the shirt causes her to quirk her brows slightly. Well, the shirt, or Diana's much more enthusiastic reaction to it. "Uh... it is? Don't we sell, like, a ton of these? Did you get a new design made?" Cassie, in fact, is highly aware of their 'merch,' not only because she's always been a customer since even her pre-hero, fangirl days, but because now she uses her social media to promote it.

So a Diana t-shirt isn't unusual. But... Diana making a big deal of giving her one sort of is?

She reaches up a hand to catch the flung shirt, and then pauses to grasp it with the other and hold it out to get a better look at the design. "Uh, thanks? Mm. Well, the print quality is pretty good anyway. Little gaudy, but..."

It's only then that Diana finally lets on what is going on. "I should know most of it unless they're all new designs," she murmurs, going up to whatever box is nearest to take a look inside. "You didn't comission ALL new designs, did you?"

Diana Prince has posed:
The Pagan comment had gotten a little smirk from Diana. "Halloween went well, we might as well embrace the rest too, right?" She idly says with a mildly distracted tone before she moves toward another box. The scissors are picked up again, and she glides them between the box's folds to cut it open without any restraint.

"This is all new stufff." She admits. "I did not want the items that we are giving to children to be products we have in abundance already. I ffelt that would be... I don't know... Unsavory?" She ponders the proper wording before she pulls the box lid open, revealing a selection of pullover hoodies, these ones in more muted tones of blacks and greys, embosed with the logo on the chest, and stars surrounding it. "Pretty." Diana states, reaching a hand in to run her fingertips over the logo since it stands up from the material. "Soft too."

She is quick to gather one of the dark grey hoodies up, the logo in a charcoal hue darker than the material of the hoodie itselff. She pulls it to her face to take a deep whiff before she lowers it. "New clothing has the best smell." She states with a grin cast over to her sister beside her. "I think these are men's sizes..." She says then, before throwing one beside her at Cassie, possibly right over her head.

"Anyway, I thought you and some of your friends would enjoy doing this before the Holidays. It is a very ... rewarding experience, to see the children's smiles."

She reaches in to the second box and pulls out a smaller container that she pops open, it filled with branded coffee mugs, which gets Diana to make a little squeal noise of approval.

"I didn't know they were packing these too..." She idly says as she pops one out, and reaches for her bottle of tea. With the cap unscrewed she starts to pour it in to the new container, without even washing it first! What a heathen she is!

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"I think they'd like them either way... And we've got market research on which are the most popular items." Does it sound like Cassie is a little annoyed? Maybe! Though it's in the category of more minor irritants for sure, if anything, leaving her a little exasperated with the wealth of new merchandise as she looks from one box, and then on to the next, and so on. "How much did the new run cost... *sigh* nevermind."

Sometimes there's no arguing with Diana! This is also something she's learned.

"I mean if it's a limited run just for this, I kind of get it, yeah. Give them something special. Heck, kind of makes 'em collectors items." Although this causes Cassie to think of something and face Di down with the harsh realities of the modern world: "Don't be too disappointed when some of the lucky kids turn around and sell them on eBay."

Still, she smiles as Diana practically snuggles the sweatshirt. "Yeah we got a good manufacturer for them. Good quality, ethically sourced materials, not the cheap stuff." Because, naturally, all the Wonder merch is particularly conscious of the manufacturing process, given the vast amounts of child slave labor in the rest of that market. You really don't want child sweatshop workers making your Children's hospital gifts...

"You mean like from school? Mm, I could probably find some people, yeah." She DOES sigh at Diana using the cup without washing it, though, and when she grabs another after putting the shirt down on one of the bar stools, she immediately takes it to the sink!

Diana Prince has posed:
The talk of someone putting some of this on Ebay just gets an actual snort out of the Princess. "I mean, ifff that brings them happiness through selling the items, then so be it." She says in retort. When Cassie reaches for one of the cups, Diana raises hers up to sip from it. She's immune to germs anyway. "These are for the parents. It is good to give them a little something too." She states of the drinking vessels.

Hers is set aside though, and she moves to another of the boxes. It's cut open within seconds, and its lid is pulled apart to reveal a whole bunch of Christmas tree ornaments. Ornaments of mostly Wonder Woman, but one box catches her eyes, and she reaches toward it with a big grin. She plucks it up, and spins it around, smiling past it as she points at the plastic covering, clear and showcasing the contents.

It is a series of Wonder Girl ornaments, dressed in one of Cassie's more publicly iconic outfits.

"And here is the main reason I asked you to do this." She says with a happy expression as she turns the box around again to peer in at the plastic Cassie in a heroic fflying pose. She starts to laugh softly.

"The metal hook is right above your butt. Like a little metal bunny tail." She states, with far, FAR too much amusement lacing her voice. "These are going to be absolutely adorable on trees, or wherever people want to hang themk..." She adds as she offfers the box to Cassie, before she leans down to grab one off her own.

Peering through its plastic face, she stares at herself in little figurine form. Her figurine is holding her shield in one variant, sword up and a serious look on her face. another variant has her flying with her lasso coiled up and ready to twirl.

"Pretty paint work too... Galatea oversaw these. She sent back three different versions before they got it just right. She's going to be very pleased, I think."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"I don't know if it inherently brings them happiness. But it brings them cash, and despite what they tell you growing up, money CAN buy a whole lot of happiness... or at least stuff that you like!" Ah, Cassie, already cynical and bitter at her young age, like any good college student. Still, she's not the one made of stone, and so she's not THAT bleak about the whole thing. "I'm sure most of them will really love it, though."

GERMS aside, Cassie washes her cup thoroughly. Maybe she's not so long used to her powers to ignore things like that. Or maybe, like a crazy person, she also doesn't like random bits of cardboard and packing material and DUST in her drinks, thank you very much. After that, she can go and pour some tea. DUST FREE tea!

Sip, sip.

Diana continues with more package carnage as she does all this, which Cassie observes with somewhat distant interest. She is, again, very used to them selling all kinds of junk, so it's not really a revelation in and of itself, even if these items are new. Christmas tree stuff? Well, that just fits the season, too, so no huge shocker at first. "Oh, those look nice. Yeah I'm sure they'll have a big tree in the hospital lobby or something, they love doing that kind of stuff to keep things festive." Sipping still, she ambles nearer, presumably to inspect one of the Diana figures, only for her to in turn produce a second variety.

"Oh gawd...esses, you didn't- lemme see that! Wait, on my BUTT? Lemme see that!" Well, at least she's not being all blase about it now. Diana has captured her interest in proper, and Cassie sets down the cup to make grabby hands, first in the air before the box is handed over and she can go digging around in it, grabbing one of hers first to look at. She really gets in close, peeeeeeering at the little details.

"Well, hmm. It's not too bad. I mean, my butt looks pretty darn good, hook aside... not a bad pose..." It almost sounds as if she's being won over! And she doesn't just focus on hers, picking up a Diana one to inspect as well, until eventually, she's got one in each hand and is sort of playing around with them in the air, making them zoom around in flying patterns.

Who's the kid getting the presents, again? "Sounds like it should be a fun time. Alright. Well, I'll ask some of my friends about it. Haha, wait until they see my plastic butt..." Sounds like it's a plan!