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shiro. ([info]timetogo) wrote in [info]x_emplary,
@ 2008-02-05 10:38:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:jubilation lee, shiro yoshida

fifty-six hours vs. forty-three years
For every scratch-y sound that the little handheld device hissed out, a corresponding bell-like sound would answer to it. This went on for more or less a minute and he ran through all the mathematical equations with a good ease -- back against the wall just beside the laundry room's door frame while inside the dimmer space was the constant clicking and whirring of the machine. Today was his day off after having spent 56 hours with nothing but caffeine and sandwiches in his systems and Shiro Yoshida was enjoying it by performing activities that had been waiting for him since the weekend.

And this game he was playing while he was waiting for his laundry to finish was one of them.

After a number of scratching and twinkling, a set of chimy sounds played and Shiro let out some air through his nostrils as he stretched his right once to that side then retrieved it to tap his stylus onto one of the two screens of his black Nintendo DS. Ant-like sounds now dripped out of the small stereos.

And now the moment of truth.

Your Brain Age is...

Shiro waited with the midi drums.

A big flat '43' came out to his screen.

Forty-thr--

"What?" no, Shiro could not accept this. How could that have happened when he went through the entire course with such ease? And who would have thought that seeing nothing but figures for almost three days hadn't done much good? Eyes squinted behind black-tinted glasses as a rather disappointing music played through the stereos, Dr. Kawashima telling him how his brain must be getting too old and tired but how constant practice would be sure to help it. (Shiro noted his digital optimism.)

Lips twitched as he turned his console off and then closed it, sliding the stylus somewhere by the spine of his play thing until it locked. With a small sigh through his nostrils, Shiro slid his DS into his jacket's pocket as he slid his shades off his face and began to wipe it off any print or dirt.

Maybe he should take Dr. Kawashima's advice and take another day off...

[ Open to: Xavier's ]

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 07:56 am UTC (link)
Jubilee had a lot of socks, of every conceivable colour and length, mainly because she liked to avoid washing them for as long as possible - the washing machine and dryer in her own apartment was exceptionally eco-friendly, almost impossible to operate, and completely unused. She felt a bit like a university student, taking all her laundry home to do, but taking everything to the dry-cleaners was so unnecessary.

She heard the familiar pings and beeps from Shiro's DS long before she got there, as well as his indignant exclamation. Speeding up to sort of a skip, Jubilee stopped beside him and nudged him with a shoulder, the inertia of her movements causing a couple of socks to fall out of a full basket.

"What's up, old man," she asked, kicking the grounded socks towards a free machine. "Your dulcet tones travel far."

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 08:10 am UTC (link)
"Hey yourself," said Shiro with a small grin on his face, opting to nudge her back but the mountain of rainbow-colored socks were in the danger of falling apart so he decided now was not the perfect time for that.

Slipping glasses back on (because even if he's inside the mansion? Daytime was still very bright for someone who hadn't even gone to bed yet. He'd tried! But he couldn't sleep. So sleep will have to come later in the evening), he eyed Mt. Rainbow Socks on Jubilee's arms and gesturing to it, he said, "What do you do with so much socks? Do you have to wear one different pair for every day of the month?"

And if that were so, what about February? Not that that mattered much.

A little groaning sound and the silence that followed it told Shiro that his second batch of laundry had finished and he glimpsed at it before gesturing for Jubilee to come along while he opened his machine and dumped all the wrung clothes to a waiting basket.

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 08:34 am UTC (link)
Ten little piggies wriggled in reply, comfortably warm in a pair of ankle-high toe socks. "Oh, sometimes I wear more than one pair a day," Jubilee answered brightly, carelessly tossing her basket onto a counter, not bothering to pick up the spills. She pointed to a pair of black silky tights, "those I wear outside, and those," now she referred to some fuzzy knee highs, "I change into when I get home."

A girl could never have enough socks, or shoes, or other items of stylish clothing. "If you were a woman, you'd understand." Jubilee had to hold herself back from stroking Shiro's hair every time a thought like what she just said arose. It wasn't a secret, she was jealous of his hair - she'd tried the same style years ago, but it never fell so casually like that without huge amounts of product.

Perhaps it was a gift from some higher power, given uniquely to Japanese men.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 08:54 am UTC (link)
The way Shiro's head sort of bounced back and the way that smile curled to an amused angle (as though he was silently asking, "Really?") told of his disbelief concerning this aspect of fashion. He, for one, only knew of and is an advocate of Black Socks. Well, there were those ones with funky lengths back in the days where he was still among the younger members of society and leaned almost to radical fashion. But the colors were still black.

Trousers fell to his basket, "Well frankly, Ms. Bee," Jubilee's affectionate name to him...sometimes it was 'Billy' but feh, he was lazy today, "I'm willing to bet that you're the only one with that number of socks in this household." So was it then a thing of Hong Kong (he remembered their conversation concerning Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong people and knew this quite well) women?

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 10:23 am UTC (link)
Jubilee sprang up to sit on the counter, alongside her laundry, crossing her legs and enjoying the view from above - it wasn't often she was able to observe things from this height, sadly, and even in heels her vantage point could never quite match this.

"And you, Mr Yoshi," she pointed, but not rudely, exaggeratedly stretching her arms out to estimate the size, "are definitely the only one with a wardrobe full of sunglasses. At least everything is easy to match."

Black was slimming, that was for certain, and went well with other blacks.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 10:34 am UTC (link)
"I wonder," played Shiro though what Jubilee said, he was willing to bet was undoubtedly true. Could he blame himself if he liked sunglasses a lot? The fun thing about them was that not only do they help him cope with Sudden Brightness after he steps out of his workplace like a zombie, they also help him cope with the intensity of his powers (though he has created those little sparkling things sans glasses -- he never liked the way they pop-explode in stark darkness, though).

And they were usually dark-tinted, which meant yes -- everything is easy to match. Most of his sunglasses matched well with his kevlar suit (which, by the way, has a special pocket for his sunglasses).

So perhaps he and Jubilee were also alike in that aspect of their fashion preferences, "Still, I don't have enough glasses that could match the number of your socks." Taking a break from his basket-filling, Shiro whirled to rest his weight on one of his leg as he crossed an arm over his chest and rested an elbow on his crossing fist, his other hand forming the Thinking Gesture on his face, "Though doesn't it start to stink in your room what with all those...unwashed socks?"

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 11:17 am UTC (link)
To test his theory, Jubilee picked up a sock and sniffed it. It smelled mostly clothy, but there was still a vague whiff of washing detergent from the laundry run last month; she mustn't have worn this more than once.

"It's a big room, and I would use air fresheners if it ever got that bad." She eyed Shiro, a glint in her eye. With a quick snap of her wrist, the not-so-smelly sock was sailing through the air towards Shiro's face.

No, she was never concerned with going too far.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 11:35 am UTC (link)
Whut the--

If it hadn't been for his experience with dodging Random Things being thrown at him, Shiro would have had that black-and-white sock right on his nose. But he was quick to dip and stumble away from the thing, nearing Jubilee's position and turning to look only as soon as he had regained some balance and watching it fall onto...his fresh laundry.

Hm.

Turning towards Jubilee, he gave a small glare (Jubilee was sure to know he wasn't really mad) and pointed to the sad sock, "I'm not touching that."

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 12:19 pm UTC (link)
Jubilee took the glare in her stride, being used to this sort of back and forth with... well, everyone. "Come off it," she said good-naturedly, hopping off the counter, thus losing her height and having to look up to meet Shiro's eye. Well, his sunglasses at any rate. "It's practically clean. I'd really hate to see how you'd react to underwear."

The way she said that, you just knew the wheels in her head were turning, connecting the words "Shiro" and "underwear", storing it away for future use.

"It definitely adds a touch of colour to your clothes," she admired, even though the white was monotonous compared to the other coloured socks she might've had. She was doing this on purpose, not picking up her sock.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 12:35 pm UTC (link)
Child's play or something like it.

Because Jubilee was almost a lot of inches shorter than he was, Shiro found it easy to lift a hand and rest it on her head, doing a little ruffling of her hair before he pulled it back to rest by his side. Well, if he waited for her to pick it up, he knew that would be tantamount to waiting for world peace.

So he turned around and started towards his laundry basket, sliding out his glasses and using one of its legs to pick the sock up and toss it back to Jubilee -- or rather, towards the floor closest to her. If it was habit, cleanliness, or disgust, Shiro sort of ran that leg through his jacket for a second before sliding it back on, anyway.

"That's really something I don't want to think about," answered Shiro as he finished his postponed basket-filling -- referring to the idea of underwear. "They're kind of intimate objects, don't you think?"

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 01:33 pm UTC (link)
Oh, that was cheating. Jubilee pushed some of the hair out of her face, but didn't bother with the back. She started to pick various items off the floor - it was starting to resemble her room - and throwing them into the machine.

"Only if they've been worn. New underwear have to sort of attach themselves to someone before they take on that stigma." She was pondering this question seriously, someone make her stop. "If you see underwear being masqueraded around by some model, it doesn't spark feelings of intimacy so much as, 'why can't I have those legs?'"

She punched a couple of buttons and watched the water fill up through the glass, idly cleaning up a soap smudge on the outside with a toe.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 01:43 pm UTC (link)
"Well, I guess that's different," pause as Shiro pushed his machine's lid down to shut the thing. Kicking his basket over to the drying machines (or more like sliding it there with one foot), he continued his little musing.

"I guess if you see them on a fashion show, they come out to you more as clothes, garments...things like that. And then if you see them displayed in a lingerie store of sorts, you see them as potential products for sale or future revenue. But anywhere outside that seems to provoke a..." shrug before he opened the dryer, "More private, intimate tone, I guess. More romantic and sexual, if you will. And those things should always remain indoors and away from unnecessary eyes, right? I mean," this was all Jubilee's fault, obviously.

Turning around, Shiro rested his weight against the dryer, one hand on its corner, "How would you feel if you suddenly see someone else's underwear hanging right in front of you? Maybe the moment you open your bathroom."

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 02:02 pm UTC (link)
Therein lies the difference between Jubilee and Shiro, because fundamentally, she was raised on Western sensibilities, and for another, she never minded being crass. "I'd probably look around for a naked man," she replied, shit-eating grin present, the previous thoughtfulness gone like the wind.

"Actually, I'd definitely look for a naked man, starting behind the shower curtains."

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 02:09 pm UTC (link)
No, this was not what Shiro expected because if he even saw his mother's bra hanging on his sink, he wouldn't even dare step inside 'cause it would be awkward peeing with that thing lounging around. It was almost like peeing with a cockroach watching by the tiles.

"I'll leave you to your own thoughts," throw of hands, roll of eyes as he 'gave up' on the discussion or the effort to try and get Jubilee to see things his way...which was almost never but well, their difference in upbringing (though being both from well-to-do families) never caused a problem in their friendship.

Especially in times of danger.

Leaning a bit, Shiro would start tossing his soaky clotehs into the dryer, "...what if that underwear you find's a bit too big for your taste, though? Width-wise."

Or maybe he just doesn't really give up.

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 02:29 pm UTC (link)
Either Jubilee's parents didn't do a particularly good job of refining their daughter, or maybe she just didn't pay a lot of attention when she was being educated. It was most likely the second. But at least she knew better than trying to get Shiro to see it her way - she would tease and she would provoke, but it was much more fun like this anyway; she hoped he never changed.

"Why, I'd never have taken you for one who judges by appearance, Yoshi-san. Pot bellies have feelings too." It was a lot easier to become accustomed to different body types if one was exposed to physical mutations on a daily basis. That was a great thing to have come out of Xavier's ideals.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 02:35 pm UTC (link)
Only Pot Bellies couldn't very well be classified as genetic mutations.

"Hey, I'm not saying anything like that," Shiro said with a little laugh as he glanced at Jubilee a bit over his shoulders, pyjama top held with one hand. "Well, would you still want to look at them, anyway? Your opinions on male physique are what we're talking about here currently, Bii-san." Not Bee-xiao jie or however else, he's had enough with trying her language and her accent.

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[info]laminar
2008-02-05 02:46 pm UTC (link)
They could be genetic defects. Or genetic, anyway.

"Really? And here I thought we were discussing the quite excellent issue of underwear." Jubilee was now trying to replace the detergent to its rightful place on the top shelf, only to discover she couldn't quite reach. Oh well, she shrugged, and slid it onto the bottom. "I certainly wouldn't mind looking any that body, though I can't promise that I would find it attractive."

If it was a... doughy physique, then it had a whole other set of merits besides attractiveness, such as pokeability.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-05 02:53 pm UTC (link)
"Before underwears, there were socks and sunglasses, I'm surprised you forgot the regular flow of conversations, Billy." said with tone of amusement of sorts as he pushed the circular glass lid down and started tapping the buttons heavily on the machine, often having to make sure he tapped the correct one either because his pounded mind was too dumb to read or he'd forgotten his natural sequence.

But soon the machine would be doing its work and his clothes would be tumbling one after another. Shiro watched for a while, before turning to slide hands into his pants pocket and rest his eyes on the smaller girl, "I didn't think you'd be quite a diplomat when it comes to the male species' bodies. I'd always thought you were very strict on what you'd like to see."

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[info]laminar
2008-02-06 02:29 am UTC (link)
"Didn't you know? I am a born diplomat," she boasted, puffing out her chest importantly, even though that was a lie. "And diplomats are rarely connoisseurs."

She sidled along the machines until she was close enough to Shiro to nudge his stomach with her elbow. "But even non-connoisseurs notice when you put on a few pounds."

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-06 02:48 am UTC (link)
"I find that unsurprisingly difficult to believe," teased Shiro about how Jubilee was a born diplomat but well, she was a good girl, he supposed she really was one.

From his position, he watched her inch closer to him and when that elbow poked his stomach, he sort of pulled himself back (however that was possible given the machine behind him) and held the jabbed part with his right hand. "Hey, have you ever experienced staying up all night for days? If you had, I'm sure you found that your diet hasn't exactly been at its best behavior."

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[info]laminar
2008-02-06 03:03 am UTC (link)
He caught her? Jubilee must be becoming predictable. "Staying up?" She peered at Shiro out of the corner of her eye. "What, or who has been keeping you up?"

There was a distinct "wink wink nudge nudge" subtext there.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-06 03:17 am UTC (link)
What.

Shiro eyed her incredulously, "No, not that." Inching away from Jubilee a bit so she'd have some space on his dryer, hand still in his pockets, he continued, "It was work. Or rather...procrastination." He was never away from that during work.

In fact, that was the exact reason Charles had found him and decided he was a mutant when his powers suddenly jumped for joy at the threat of him losing his job.

Shrugging a bit, Shiro said, "The end of month report someone filed had the wrong figures on it so we had to repair the damage before Brooke," their boss, "comes back from her trip in San Diego. Though I'm sure you haven't ever experienced that kind of pressure."

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[info]laminar
2008-02-06 03:33 am UTC (link)
"No, I pay my lackeys well to do all of my work for me," she commented dryly, though the current slump in the American housing market was not doing these lackeys, or her sleep, any favours. Thing were not exactly running smoothly, but Jubilee would never let financial pressures get to her.

"You know, they never tell you about the glamours of number-crunching, the crazy nights with your beloved..." pause here for maximum effect. "...calculator."

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-06 03:45 am UTC (link)
"I think I've resigned myself to that fate since I entered university," Shiro gave a small chuckle at that, crossing his arms as he kept his eyes on Jubilee. "But well, it's not all that bad -- you get used to it like you get used to cell phones or computers."

And as though he was a telepath (and while Shiro honestly never meant any offense whatsoever), he asked, "Well how's your business going, anyway? It's been some time since we last talked about it."

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[info]laminar
2008-02-06 04:33 am UTC (link)
"Mm, not without good reason." Jubilee leaned against the whirling washing machine, letting the vibrations massage her back. Her voice trembled a little from it as she spoke. "It doesn't quite work when there're no clients willing to invest in housing."

Her company was at that awkward stage where it wasn't too big, but still big enough. Only being at work three or four times a week but still collecting the largest salary was a point of guilt for Jubilee, when the rest of the firm worked their asses off in the present condition. She'd give them raises, but doubted she could afford it.

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-06 04:47 am UTC (link)
That was one reason Shiro had never wanted to get into the business of realties and whatnot. They looked nice and looked like they paid big, sure, but they were very seasonal and he was just not the man for that. He preferred the more...regular type of jobs. That ones that relatively have a constant inflow and outflow of cash and products to sell or phase out. Those were definitely easier jobs (if one didn't consider the macroeconomy concerned).

"Blaming it to the times or the season?" considering the economy wasn't doing very well currently, too. He shrugged his shoulders a bit.

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[info]laminar
2008-02-07 07:06 am UTC (link)
"The wrong season, the wrong economy, the wrong politicians in power." Jubilee mirrored Shiro's shrug. "A lot of things can be blamed, but you can't expect to be making money all the time."

A pause as she tilted her head and thought. "Well, unless you were the Ikea guy. Or Warren."

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[info]timetogo
2008-02-07 07:31 am UTC (link)
"Warren," Shiro gave a laugh at that and threw his head back, "Yeah, that's true. Well, at least there's something being done about politics." Or at least the president. Man, the campaigning had been the only thing he was very up to date with.

He opened his mouth to speak about that when three little slow beeps and then the hushing of a machine told Shiro that his tumbling machine was finished with his job. "Ah, finally," uttered he as he leaned and pulled the little circular door open and started tossing clothes into his basket.

"Speaking of politics, I think I need you to update me on more current events -- I don't think I'm ready to read the news just yet," Shiro grunted as he lifted his close-to-rim filled basket and started towards the door, eyes still on the woman. "I'll just put these in my room and come back, okay?"

Obviously, he expected a report.

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