savetheearth | [Open] An Honest Living? Sure, okay.

Hajime has had enough of his cracked phone. It barely works, he's tired of listening to his father's lectures on taking proper care of one's property, and so he's decided to give up and find a phone repair place. He wondered if perhaps he could find the guy on the network that had offered to fix his phone in exchange for information...

So he's standing there, waiting for the guy working the booth to help him...only the guy's playing with his iPhone. Rude. Hajime will clear his throat, and if that doesn't work, he will rather loudly try speaking. "Excuse me."

"Yeah..." Takayuki holds a finger up, spends a moment or two more manipulating his phone's screen, and then flicks his eyes over to see who it was.

"...Can I help you?" His attitude is partially that of a man that doesn't really care to be of genuine help, but there's hesitation in there, too. Should he know this guy? He's pretty sure he should know this guy. But from where?

With the police force on high alert to look for suspicious activity and anyone who might look like they were participating in it, Shuji had continued to bury himself in work as he had been since arriving in the city. Everything was an attempt to ignore the problems in his life: leaving his family after the whole arrest incident, moving to a new country, starting a new job, the emotional pain in his chest, then the sharp pains that made him feel like he was going to die. Even though the doctor had told him nothing was wrong, Shuji wasn't sure he could believe it.

Shuji had opted to spend part of his day walking through the mall. It was an open area with a lot of people he could get a look at. Either no one would do anything because they didn't want to risk it being in public, or they would act suspicious thinking no one would notice. Rubbing at the middle of his chest with the bottom of his hand, he looked very much like a detective with the way he was dressed. Subtle had never been his strong point, even when he tried.

As he walked, he was giving everything a quick glance over. It was the first largely public place he'd been in aside from an airport since he'd arrived in the country. Everything was dramatically different from what he was used to.

Amidst the texts from friends and half-hearted arguing with people on the 'number network' came a message from his 'guy' with the gang he had been doing work for. They had more for him, a pick up and then a drop off. He grinned as he thumbed through it, but then he saw when it was for. Shit, it was ten minutes after he got off work. Not nearly enough time to get on his bike and get his ass on over to where it needed to be! Great, where the hell was he going to get someone to close up for him? These kinds of guys weren't the kinds of guys you said 'no' to...

Shuji, in all of his looking around for suspicious individuals, might take note of the young man making a variety of interesting faces at his phone. There's teeth clenching, there's some eye-rolling, there's the panicky looking-back-and-forth exhibited by people that would much rather be somewhere else... all sorts of good stuff.

Edited 2013-07-16 21:20 (UTC)

Hajime's also struck by an odd sense of recognition. He knows this guy from somewhere, doesn't he? But he doesn't look like a regular at the restaurant...maybe just a guy that came in a couple days ago? An annoying customer that vaguely stuck out just by virtue of being annoying? He seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't get off his phone to order his food. That would be more than enough to annoy Hajime, who was getting rather annoyed at that moment in time. He would have fired one of his employees at the restaurant for playing on the phone when a customer was standing there waiting to be helped.

Hajime set his phone down on the counter. "I need to see about getting this fixed." Really, it was a miracle the thing was still functional. He'd partially crushed it in one of his hands, and it didn't look like the usual drop damage cracked phones might have. There was a large crack running vertically down the middle of the screen, and the case itself appeared dented. The dents mapped to the shape of Hajime's hand rather well, and he hoped no one would notice that.

All 'I don't want to help you' leaves Takayuki's expression when he sees the state of the phone. Awed and faintly horrified, he stuffs his own phone in the back pocket of his pants and comes in for a closer look.

"So you're the guy with the... with..." He reaches in with both hands, but barely dares touch the thing. His fingers run over those odd dents, then skim the touch screen, then test the various buttons. It's the examination of someone that knows an awful lot about cellphones, and of a man that's putting mental pieces into place about just what this means.

"This isn't a drop, this looks like it was in a... a trash compactor. The hell did you do with this thing?"

Ah, at least he'd found the right cell phone booth guy. The one from the network. "Yeah, that's me." But that didn't explain why this guy looks so familiar. They'd only communicated via audio; Hajime had never seen him before.

He winces slightly at that question. What he'd done to the phone? That's complicated. There's really only one way to explain it, and since this is the guy he'd spoken with on the network...he picks it up, his fingers settling into the dents. "Squeezed too hard." He said it the same way a normal person might have said they'd knocked it off a table. With that, he quietly set it down again.

"...who are you, again?" All that time back and forth on the network, and they hadn't even bothered to exchange names. Just the location of the booth, and the knowledge that cellphone repair was badly needed. The itch at the back of Taka's mind that he was missing something wouldn't go away, but the state of the phone was sort of freaking him out. All this shit was real, man. People were turning into stuff. Maybe he was going to start turning into stuff, too. Holy fuck.

The phone is easy to pluck from his grasp. Takayuki blinks, stares for a moment, blinks again, and shakes his head. "You don't need a new screen. You need a new phone. That thing is shot. You've crushed the camera, I think we're gonna need to just... pry the memory card out... it's wrote. It's done."

He's so distracted by the phone, he almost forgets to answer that first question. Names are good. Names let him know who he's dealing with. "I'm Hajime. Hajime Aikawa." He had to add that last name; there was another Hajime on the network. Couldn't have people getting mixed up. "And you are?" Maybe he'd figure out why this guy is so maddeningly familiar if he has a name to go with the face.

But there's still the matter of the phone to distract him from proper introductions, and he winces upon being told it's a loss. "That's what I was afraid of." He'd probably have to invest in some industrial-strength phone case for whatever he was likely to replace this one with...but the fact he'd managed not to damage the thing worse had to mean something. He was getting things under control. He hoped, anyway. "Like I said earlier, I don't know if it's still under warranty or not."

Upon hearing Hajime's name, he tenses. Oh. Well. That explains the familiarity. It's the guy that beat the crap out of him back in elementary school. Now that he knew the name that went with the face, he could see it.

"...Takayuki Izumi." Might as well just get that out of the way. And... also... get out of the way. In general. He picks up the phone, scoots a few feet over to the booth's computer, and starts looking for Hajime in the system. "Warranty, yeah, warranty, uh... are you with Telco Mobile?" He glanced up at Hajime with a shifty sort of nervousness. Great, one person that might still possibly want to kick his ass even after all this time, and he's apparently got super-strength...

Hajime definitely recognizes that name. He remembered that day well. Mitsuko had run over to him on the playground, crying because some boy had taken her lunch money...and one horribly one-sided fight later, Hajime had been sitting in the principal's office regretting nothing. It had cemented the "do not cross this kid or mess with his sister or he will destroy you" reputation that had accompanied him all through his school days. Hadn't helped that Takayuki was a bit younger than he was. Not that it mattered to Hajime. No one made Mitsuko cry and got away with it.

"Long time no see." Hajime tries to keep his tone neutral, but there's no hiding the hint of distaste that creeps in there. He can tell that the sudden recognition is making Takayuki uncomfortable, and he is perfectly okay with that. Somewhat welcoming of it, even. "Yeah, I'm with Telco. On a family plan."

Even if he had to agree, in retrospect, that he probably deserved the thrashing that he had gotten, Takayuki still held some bitterness about the incident. He hadn't gotten any of the sympathy that he thought should have been his due for getting the crap kicked out of him by an older, stronger boy. It had put a definite end to his short-lived bullying career. But he, too, could keep his tone neutral and dance around the issue.

"Yeah. Been a while. How's...." ...your sister? No, no, wait, better not ask how his sister was, that wasn't a good question to ask. He coughed to cover up the question, then lifted his tone when he found Hajime's file. "Yeah! I see it, here. You're just barely in warranty. I think we've got your model in stock here, too. So... we still have a deal? I fix your phone, you... explain stuff?"

Business was business. He had done plenty of business with guys that would put him in the hospital. Or worse. He could handle this, sure.

He's procrastinated long enough, mostly because he's reluctant to upgrade, but his old phone is still in pieces somewhere in that awful mine, and he has very little desire to go back and see if its salvageable. So finally, Emmanuel heads out to look for a new model. Hopefully the salesperson won't try to convince him to get a smartphone; he's determined to be old-fashioned for as long as possible.

"Excuse me?" The person behind the booth looks a little distracted, so he clears his throat loudly after a moment.

Hajime nods. He can understand that need to know, and he can handle taking this as some sort of business transaction. He also trusts that Takayuki won't screw it up or try to rip him off on purpose; he doesn't think Takayuki has any interest in making him angry. Hajime's pretty sure the memory of that beating in elementary school and the crushed phone on the counter are working in his favor to a certain extent.

"There was a pink pulse in the sky at the beginning of April. That was the first time anyone was able to connect to the network. A lot of us noticed the weird changes and memories before then, but that pulse seems to be what really kicked things off." Hajime frowns thoughtfully and rubs at his arm at the mention of the changes. That was the first change he'd noticed, when his blood had started running green from a wound there. "You want to know anything in particular?"

"Hm?" Takayuki is quick to look up from his phone this time, even if it did take some throat-clearing to make him do it. Great. Customer. Probably ought to do something about that.... he makes himself smile, stuffs his phone into his back pocket, and turns towards Emmanuel.

"Hey there. Anything I can help you find? You looking for anything in particular?"

While Hajime spills the details, Takayuki is quick to start attempting to disassemble the battered phone. There's tools beneath the counter that he brings up top, and he works carefully to pry the bent layers of phone apart to get to the bits with useful information. Can he get the memory card out of it...? Yes, yes he can, with a little careful wiggling and flicking back the locking mechanism. And he grins, pleased with himself for managing it.

"At the end of April? Yeah. I saw that, too. And then this happened." He brings a hand up briefly to bat at his side-swept hair, and then rolls his eyes. No, he hasn't been styling it like this on purpose. "I didn't figure out the whole network thing for a while after that. Been reading up on things... but what's up with watching out for... monsters? Things? What should I be keeping an eye out for?"

Hajime's watching Takayuki take that phone apart. At least the guy seems to know what he's doing, moreso than Hajime himself would be.

"Your hair changed?" Hajime is trying very, very hard to suppress a laugh. "As far as this is going, you might want to consider yourself lucky if that's the worst that's happened."

His mood grows a little more somber. "You remember hearing about that family that got killed in that fire early April too, right? One of the kids was on the network. He tried going to the police. We saw him die on the network when he tried calling for help, but it was too late...then they decided to be really thorough and took out his whole family." There's a grimace. "There's other stuff to worry about, too. Amagi and I found an...I don't know what you'd call it." Hajime holds a hand up to indicate the approximate size of a Vermedi, not that he knew that was the name for it. "It was like a little person completely covered in black hair, and it was skulking around the alley behind the restaurant. I tried killing it, but it got away. And there have been weird animals with random human body parts hanging around, too. It's like they're infected by smaller hairy black things." He shakes his head, knowing full well how crazy this is making him sound.

It had been about two months since John had upgraded his phone, and for the most part, he was fine with ignoring all of the various insurance and protection plans that his mobile company had tried throwing at him. Purchasing a case, though, was another thing.

When he'd walked out of the store with his shiny new iPhone, he had thought nothing of it. After all, John had spent two years taking good care of his last phone, so why was that going to change all of the sudden? The only thing was, he'd never expected that he'd be using his phone so much.

(He blamed the network for that. There was always something new to read there.)

In any case, after one of his coworkers spent about thirty minutes telling him about how terrible it was cracking his phone, John was poking idly at the cases at this little booth in the middle of the mall. It took about thirty seconds to pick out a suitable case and... a bit longer to get the attention of the attendant.

"Excuse me," he finally ended up saying, waving the package in the air. "I'd like to purchase this."

And of course, this behavior that is far from subtle does manage to get Shuji's attention. At first, he doesn't think Takayuki is standing around actually trying to sell things, as the behavior is more befitting of someone who is wanting to make sure they aren't being watched before they run off with something. Slowing in his steps, Shuji stops and stands a few feet away, keeping his gaze on the young man for a bit longer before he speaks up. He stands still long enough that it's likely Takayuki might have noticed being stared at before any words are spoken.

"Is everything all right?" English is not his preferred language, but it's what he defaults to in the presence of everyone when he first meets them. Still, there's an edge to his words hinting that he's still not quite used to it.

"Yeah, just a...nothing fancy. I'm afraid I lost mine, but I'm fairly sure the warranty's up. Can you check if I'm due for an upgrade?"

He scratches the back of his neck a bit, looking sheepish. He's just realizing now he probably should have brought his warranty with him anyway, but...oh well. It probably doesn't cover "being smashed while getting attacked by aliens".

"Yeah, my hair changed." He looks annoyed. It's a big deal, okay? "It won't lie back down! And it wasn't blond, either. I look stupid."

A snort, and his eyes go back downwards so he can continue to fiddle with the phone. Out comes the SIM card, and then he's about to reach beneath the counter for a new phone of the same model... but then what Hajime has to say gets grim. "...shit, seriously? His whole family?" Immediately, his thoughts were spiraling off in all sorts of horrified directions. What if he got found out? What would happen to mom? Were the guys he 'worked' with in on this? He was glad to have other, smaller-seeming things to worry about. "The... Vermedi? I think I've seen stuff posted about those. Yeah. That's... pretty freaky."

The young man at the counter was, at the moment, apparently engaged in some kind of furious text message conversation. He had a really horrible frown on his face, as if the subject of his ire could actually see just how they were pissing him off. John's 'excuse me' came as a sudden shock, and he jolted and snapped his head towards him.

And just like that he was smiling a proper customer service smile, phone idly being slipped away. "Ah? A new case? Hmm... you sure this is the one you want? It's a good one, sure, but pretty basic... when're you usually using your phone?"

It was time for the upsell.

For once today, Takayuki did notice that some guy had noticed him. And he was pretty sure it was him, not the booth, not the merchandise, not some burning need to buy a phone or ask for directions or whatever. He eyes the man oddly, flicks his gaze back to his phone, thumbs through the address book trying to think of who he could call... and then just puts it down when the guy actually speaks to him.

"Everything's fine." There's the slightest quirk of his head, when he takes in the guy's voice. English not his first language? That was pretty common around here, though. Locke City was pretty cosmopolitan like that. How would his family have landed here, otherwise? "Can I help you?" Takayuki, for his part, speaks unaccented English. It's much easier to pick up languages when you're young, after all.

"Lost? Ooh, tough luck. I'll see what I can get you." And then he grins. This is the kind of stuff he likes, even if he might never admit it to anyone. Getting new stuff into people's hands, giving them what they want... Yeah. Good stuff.

He heads over to the booth's computer, unlocks the system, and starts a search. "What's your name? And phone number? ...and address, while we're at it?"

"Have you tried a hat?" Hajime leans over the counter, looking down at the phone. Easier to look at it than to make eye contact. "At least you can still go to a normal doctor. My blood changed." There's really no hiding that anymore after getting scraped up some during the incident at the mine. Anyone could have seen. And really, this is the worst case of oneupmanship he's ever been involved in.

"Whatever they are, they're unnatural. And bad news." He scowls a bit at that. "You better hope you don't run into any."

((Were the Vermidi ever mentioned by name ICly by anyone? I can't remember.))

He lifted his eyebrows slightly at the sudden and very obvious shift in demeanor but didn't bother to comment on it. After all, this would take all of a minute to just pay for the thing, right? There wasn't any need to put up a fuss when that'd just use up more of his time. John was actually reaching for his wallet when the booth attendant started to ask him questions, giving him pause.

His eyes dropped down to case he was still holding before flicking back up to meet the other's. "Does where I'm using it matter?" he asked, idly running a hand through his hair. After a moment, John shrugged his shoulders. "I use it everywhere."

Shuji didn't seem to react much at all until the younger man replies to him. Hearing the other's voice causes Shuji's breath to catch, feeling the familiar tightening of his chest and the pounding in his head that makes it hard to see and hard to breathe. The feeling isn't the ache that makes him feel like he's going to go crazy, but the one he felt when he first saw the hawk, days after arriving in the city. And there's a memory, the first one he's recalled despite everyone's talk on the Network of having them regularly.

Another time, another place, with this person turning to look at him. And the feeling of finally finding him, after so many years of looking. Without thinking, Shuji's hand slipped into his pocket and tightly grasped the broken medal he'd kept with him ever since it had returned to him. If it could be called that, but it felt like it was his and something so important that he couldn't let it out of his sight.

This person... This had to be who he'd been looking for. The memory mirrored his own feelings in this moment, the ecstatic feeling in his chest of having found what he was looking for -- but it was entirely foreign for Shuji to feel something so positive. He simply stood there, unable to speak for a few moments, and suddenly looking as flustered as someone might when approaching someone they're attracted to. It's completely out of character for him.

"I... I was just wondering. You looked like something was bothering you." He wanted to keep conversation going, but he'd never wanted to really talk to someone before. How was he supposed to do this?

"It's Hall--the last name. Emmanuel." He gives the rest of the information, glancing over the models on display. Maybe he should get something with a keyboard instead of just a number pad? It would definitely make using the network easier.

He is suddenly feeling somewhat less bad about having horrible hair. "Your what? Seriously?" He shakes his head in disbelief, huffs, and returns to retrieving the new phone. Okay, okay, maybe some people have it worse than him...

As he de-boxes the new phone, pops the back off, and otherwise gets things set up, the conversation continues. "I'm already hoping I don't run into any. This is way too much crap to handle." Stilted as the conversation may be. "So it's just you? I mean... not your family? Not anyone else you know?"

((I know Taka saw a video of something that sounded like what Hajime mentioned, even if there wasn't a name to go with it, so I guess that works?))

"Sure it does. You outside a lot? You might want something waterproof, or something with more padding. You tend to drop it a lot? Same thing. It's cheaper to get a good case than to have to take it in when the screen shatters." Or when you crush it with your super strength like this one guy he knows...

This was not the shift in mood that Takayuki had expected the conversation to take on. This man looked shocked to see him. Did he know him? He wasn't getting any sense of familiarity at all. Strange changes-and-memories thoughts weren't crossing his mind in the slightest. Worries about someone from a rival gang or some undercover cop were dancing in the forefront of his mind, instead.

"Tch. Nothing's bothering me." A lie. An obvious enough one. He tossed his head, pulled his phone back out, and shrugged. "...work schedules. That's all. It's nothing."

...yeah, either this guy was here to put out a hit on him or it was some kind of weird love at first sight thing, and neither one of those was something that he wanted to deal with right now.

John stopped to think about all the scenarios this guy was throwing at him, and thought about all the times that those things had... never happened. Sure, he'd dropped his old phone a handful of times and maybe gotten some rain on it before, but it was never anything too crazy--never anything that broke it, case or not.

"What sort of case would you recommend for normal use then?" he asked tentatively. A slight frown pulled at his features, like he didn't really trust the guy to not throw something that didn't cost a few grand at him.

Edited 2013-07-29 01:49 (UTC)

Shuji cleared his throat again, tightly grasping the medal as he fought to keep eye contact with the younger man. It was shocking how difficult it was to remain composed when he was used to having the upper hand in every situation. Hit bit lightly at his lower lip before speaking again, clearly detecting the lie the other was trying to brush him off with.

"Sorry..." How many times had he ever used that word? In his life? Not many. "A lot of stuff has been happening lately and we're supposed to be keeping an eye out. I just wanted to make sure." Well, if it wasn't obvious that he was a detective before, it was now.

Lowering his gaze, Shuji removed his hand from his pocket, reluctantly releasing his hold on the medal. It almost hurt to let go of it, even if it was still close to his body. Reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket, Shuji fumbled with his card for a moment before holding it out to the other. "Please let me know if you see anything suspicious."

As an afterthought, Shuji pressed his lips together and fought to keep his gaze up. "... I apologize for my behavior. You look like someone I used to know."

If the alarms weren't going off before, they certainly were now. Great, a cop. Something that his life didn't need in it right now. Despite his efforts to keep his expression uncaring and neutral, Takayuki's lip curled into the slightest sneer.

He took the card, though, and managed to have a nice, neutral expression when reading it over. "Hnn, sure. I'll be sure to." His tone was flat, devoid of both sincerity and sarcasm. A flick of his wrist and he began to tuck the card into his shirt pocket. But... he looked like someone that he used to know?

"Oh? I do?"

Maybe it was risky to turn the conversation this way. Especially if it was with a cop. But... things were strange, these days. Maybe this was that kind of strange. If it was, he had to know. Needed to know.

Not a suggestible kind of guy, was he? Oh well. Takayuki took it in stride, then leaned over to the rack with the iPhone cases and gave it a once-over. Then he plucked a different case from the rack and offered it to him. Same color, and only five dollars more than the one in his hand.

"I'd get this one. It's rubberized, not hard plastic like that one. Absorbs shocks a bit better. But nothing too fancy. Not nearly as expensive as an OtterBox would be. What do you think?"

Takayuki types it all in quickly, confirming the matching information with an "uh huh" here and a "yeah" there. And then a pleasantly pleased sound when he manages to find the right record.

"Looks like you qualify for a free upgrade! Lucky you. We've got some really nice phones on promotion right now. Fifty bucks straight across and a renewal of your contract, and I can set you up with a nice smartphone." Didn't everyone want a smartphone? Hey, just what kind of phones was this guy ogling? He craned his neck to see.

John took it, stared at it, and weighed it in his hands, while his eyes took in the price tag. Okay, so that... that wasn't all that bad. He could do five dollars--so long as it stayed at five dollars more; John didn't need to be upgraded to this Otterbox thing, whatever it was. He gave the attendant a half-hearted smile and nodded his head.

"All right, I'll take it," he finally said.

"Yeah." Hajime frowns slightly. "It turned green. About like that." He'll point at a particularly hideous neon green phone case sitting there under the glass.

He shook his head as he watched Takayuki set up the new phone. "None of my family, thankfully. One of the guys at the restaurant had it happen to him...when we found the little hairy thing in the back alley, it was crazy--like he could suddenly use a sword, even though all we had was a busted broomstick."

((Works, I just wasn't sure, heh.))

That shade of green? Takayuki's lip curls and he recoils slightly. He'd understand if like, maybe it was dark green... well, no, he wouldn't understand that, either, but bleeding neon seemed somewhat more terrible. "That is messed up."

But back to phone matters. And family matters. He snaps the back of the phone case on, powers it up, and sets it down on the countertop to wait for software to configure and connections to the network to be established. "Good thing he remembered, even if that was all you had. Damn, if I'm going to end up remembering something sooner or later, I hope it's useful like that."

Emmanuel actually laughs a little. "Uh--to be honest, touchscreens and I don't really get along. Is it the same for something with a keypad, or...?" He seems to be looking at the flip phones, mostly. "Anything without the screen on the inside makes me worry about scratches."

Come to think of it, maybe he should take it a step further and actually get a case this time, to prevent any repeat accidents.

"Yeah. Try realizing that's a thing that's happening before the stupid network even went active. I'm just lucky I didn't actually see a doctor about it." Mostly because he had no interest in becoming famous through a freak accident of medical science or poked and prodded at to name some new disease. Probably-Becoming-A-Monster-itis was not something he trusted your average scientist with.

Hajime watched the phone power on. "Seems like getting skills suddenly is a mixed bag. There's one guy on here, all he got back was talent with a kendama. Was about the most useless thing I've ever seen." Almost but not quite the most useless thing he'd ever seen. It could still amuse small children. "And I got back some language no one else speaks. There's not much use in that."

The open hostility Takayuki was resonating certainly didn't go unnoticed. At any other time, Shuji wouldn't have been bothered by it at all. People not liking his presence as a detective was something he'd grown used to and learned to ignore. However, Shuji had a feeling he should try to stay on good terms with this young man. As though he should help him, somehow, but openly offering help would not be easily accepted.

"Aah... I haven't seen him in a long time and don't remember very much about him, but..." He was important to me. ... could he get away with saying something like that? Shuji was starting to stumble over his attempts to keep himself uninvolved. Running into people they knew and gaining strange abilities and having memories about people they'd met but never met was something that only happened to other people on the Network. Not him. He didn't know how to handle it.

How could he explain knowing this man when he knew they'd never met before? Or maybe his memory was lying to him.

Shuji lowered his gaze, offering something of a sad, embarrassed smile. "I'm sorry for interrupting you. I'll let you get back to work." Even though the last thing he wanted to do was leave, talking about such things in a public venue probably wasn't appropriate.

[Open] An Honest Living? Sure, okay.

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