savetheearth | (no subject)

Who: Anthony Sparado and Chinen Shou
Where: Wong's, Locke City
What: Gonna have a chat.
When: Right about now?
Warnings: Probably some language and discussion of things like violence and firearms.

The inconvenience of both not being able to drive much less owning a car meant that getting from one place to another, especially across town, took time. A lot more time than Anthony wanted to waste. After his conversation with Shou he was admittedly anxious. He knew he was getting in way over his head, but honestly it was too late for that.

He was neck deep without a shovel as it was.

Eventually he did find the place they'd agreed upon. It wasn't exactly classy, and looked a little shady from the outside, but honestly at this point Tony was fine with that. Somewhere he was less likely to be noticed the better. It was probably risky going out this far on his own, what with the recent increase in attacks and all, but hell with it. He wasn't going to run away and hide anymore. It wasn't going to get him anywhere, anyway.

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He wasn't driving his flashy sports car. While he could do so, Shou wasn't about to let his beloved car get hit on while he was sitting around a cheap dive doing things that he shouldn't be doing. His parents had actually tried to get him to stay in Japan, citing that he would be safer, even though this thing was spreading.

Flashy car or not, Shou himself still made a flashy appearance. Walking into the place like a regular, he nodded at a couple rough figures before throwing himself into a seat, keeping his back to the wall as much as he can. New habits, old habits, whatever they were, Shou was finding himself becoming less careless now.

At first Tony wasn't sure he had the right place, not having found Shou's car there. But the name and address fit, so he slipped inside to have a look around anyway. Good thing he did because it was still pretty easy to spot Shou and slink into his booth to join him.

Anthony already had the habits of someone ready to be jumped at any time, so slipping back into them had been no trouble for him. Not much difference between having to defend a meal and having to look out for someone out for your blood just for the hell of it, really.

He couldn't shake the ominous vibe this meeting held, however.

"So, I'm sure you've been seeing all the fun, yeah?"

"Yah," he said and then poured them both a drink. He didn't care that maybe one of them was under the legal age, he still wanted a drink. This was going to be hard enough as it was.

"I've told people before that I'm remembering yakuza stuff," he said, toying with his ecig. "I haven't told people that they also know it."

Oh thank god someone who doesn't treat him like a kid who is going to combust from a little bit of alcohol. Yes please, after these last couple weeks he needs a drink. Not like anyone in there was going to complain anyway.

Though he did pause mid sip at that. "Well, shit. So what's that mean for you? Are you in danger from them?" Admittedly he didn't know much about the yakuza, and just the basics of the Italian version. Who were currently really damn annoying.

Edited 2014-08-03 14:03 (UTC)

Why should he? Shou was already drinking as well as dating by the time he was in his teens so he doesn't see why he should limit another person's alcohol unless they ask. He has known people who were not drinkers after all.

"Danger?" He thought about it for a moment and then tossed back his shot. The alcohol Wong served was pure rotgut sake, heated the proper way and served in tiny glasses and usually burned the skin off of the tongue on the first sip.

"Why would they put me in danger? I have connections that any business worth its salt would not wanna endanger."

Tony was probably positively innocent by those standards, but he hadn't had a lot of opportunities to be more wild, either. Nope, not a non drinker at all, he just knew better than to ask Richard or someone because that wouldn't go over so well.

Oh, so that's how you drink it. Anthony had never had sake before, so he wasn't sure. Following Shou's lead he did the same, then winced a little at both the heat and flavor. However, surprisingly, no lingering aftertaste, now that was a nice touch.

"Really? Well I don't know how any of that works, but you're alright, then? I mean things are rough enough as it is without more dudes being out to kill us, you know?" At least it wasn't the police with those creepy dogs anymore. Probably.

No lingering aftertaste, but sake had a way of sneaking up and murdering you in your sleep, not that Shou was going to order that much booze here. There's no telling what might happen if he did that.

"I've got a parent that's heavy in finances. I've got cousins and uncles and aunts that are in politics, and some of them aren't clean. What they want, they think they can get from me by being nice, but I think the yakuza has first dibs."

He looked at Tony and then snorted, taking a puff off of his ecig.

"You're in more trouble than I am for listening to me."

Very drunk, very bad decisions, probably. Anthony was a lightweight anyway, so best to not be tempting his liver with a failure. As much as he was dreading his future at the moment he wasn't keen on dying from alcohol poisoning, either.

"Shit," So much for being the comic relief. Idly he watched the vapor rise. "Yeah? Well I'm probably dead as it is, so it's no skin off my back. You quittin' or something?"

It didn't bother him, he was just curious. Saw a lot of those things around these days.

"Aren't we all?"

He stopped for a moment to look at his ecig, blowing a little vapor as he does so and then shrugged, reaching down to pull out a heavy looking bag and slid it over.

"My other suddenly gave me this hate for most things that are drugs, so I'm finding it hard to smoke and drink like I use to."

"Some sooner than others,"

He grumbled, toying with his sake cup Now it was his turn to be moody and self-defeating. But worrying about if and when the mafia was going to come after you would do that to a person. Gingerly he took the bag, almost as if he didn't really know what to do with it. Honestly because he didn't, he had a feeling he knew what this was (he'd asked for it after all), but Tony had never touched a gun in his life. Didn't even like the things, honestly.

But times were changing.

"They've got a lot of influence on our lives, don't they? I still kinda worry about turning into someone else, I don't even know if I'd like the guy. You know? Thanks, for this, by the way."

"Yah, and some already becoming what they had been in whatever screw up life they had." He wasn't about to mention his ideas over what was going to happen to him. Shou was good at denying the evidence, though some of it was far too hard to deny.

It would come to him, especially if he had held a gun in his previous life. Shou pushed his knowledge until it sparked off the skill, but now he just needed one more push for the ruthlessness to appear. So far, he could pretend that the gun skills were just part of the crazy stuntman package that he woke up with. It was pretty neat but actually killing, well that was something he needed to get pushed into.

"They're us, only with a different life and mebbe different outlook on stuff. They're still us at the core. That's how I accept the kind of cards I've been revealing since I woke up with a song."

"Screwed up and straight out of several different kinds of weird as hell novels. Didn't anyone ever tell whoever's in charge of this operation you're not supposed to mix up genres?" Tony was steering clear of any specific examples, he didn't know who or what his preincarnation was other than insane, and he had already touched on what he thought Shou might be becoming. Shou didn't seem especially comfortable with the idea, so Tony wasn't going to press him on the subject.

Precisely, Anthony wasn't keen on seeing exactly how deep that rabbit hole of violence went, and was hoping the gun wouldn't even be necessary. Still, it was nice to have the small bit of insurance, should he be fortunate enough to figure out how to use it. Swords were one thing, they were a strange wild fantasy reserved for honorable knights and warriors, but guns were real. Guns didn't have honor. Never mind that swords technically didn't either, it was his imagination let him enjoy it.

"It's the outlook I'm worried about, I like who I am, you know? Don't wanna suddenly have a moral swap or something, what if the guy I was turns out to be an asshole?" Spoilers: He was. "A song?"