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ofmanydevices (ofmanydevices) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2009-07-09 22:32:00

Entry tags:

tom, toshimi

Who: Toshimi and Tom
What: Tom searches for more information.
Where: A local eatery
When: After school
Why: Because Tom is still a stalker.

Thomas returned to the table and sat down across from the lithe athlete seated opposite. He set the cup of tea ont he table and moved it over to her.

"Thank you for agreeing to talk to me. I... uh... I'm trying to find out some information and I think you're the only person I can ask."

He felt weird. Pushing around liars and people who couldn't be bothered to have a sense of morality was one thing, but Nawanaka was an innocent girl who'd just had the misfortune of seeing something she shouldn't have. It was an experience they had in common, and Tom was moderately sympathetic to that. But he needed to know what the crime scene looked like. He needed to know how Sato Kei had died or else he had one big hole in the middle of his investigation.

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-12 08:08 am UTC (link)

"It is weird," Toshimi replied, stirring her tea absentmindedly. "But..." She wondered if she would be able to deny the connection without looking suspicious. Better not to risk it, she decided. She didn't really want to pursue the discussion further, and wondered if it would be easier to change the subject without making it obvious, or to gulp down the rest of her tea and excuse herself. She took another sip. It was still fairly hot, and there was enough left that swallowing it all in one go would probably be painful and draw too much attention. A subject change it was, then.

But too abrupt of a subject change would be out-of-place. She was quiet for a moment, then noted, "You sure know a lot about this stuff, huh, senpai?" Her usual smile returned to her face. Toshimi found herself vaguely wondering if all Americans knew that much about crime (what with all the guns being freely exchanged, and all the police movies), but figured that it must just have been Tom. "Do you want to be a detective when you're older, or something?"

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ofmanydevices
2009-07-12 11:20 pm UTC (link)

Tom's mouth squished up in a frown, and he leaned back.

"I... uh... I dunno. My father owns and runs a company that makes high end computer software, but he made it clear he doesn't intend for me to take over... he'd rather I not be involved in his business."

Tom put his chin on his hand. He wasn't really accustomed to people asking what he wanted, well they asked 'What do you want?" in that angry tone to find out how to get rid of him, but not usually in general conversation.

"I never really put much stock in the police."

Finally he shrugged, and gave up on trying to answer.

"I suppose not, but that doesn't leave too many job openings for my skill set. Maybe I'll just figure it out when I get older."

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-15 06:01 am UTC (link)

Tom may have been frowning, but Toshi met it back with her usually blithe smile. She made a mental note that he was involved with a software company--potentially someone she would have to deal with in the future. The way he made it sound, though, it didn't seem likely that Tom himself would be a factor there. "That just means it's all up to you...I guess." She was enjoying her tea too much to think about how much of it would really be up to him.

She sipped her tea again. She didn't much like talking about the future, either, but it was better than their previous subjects. Getting people to talk about themselves usually worked wonders in her experience. She nodded to herself; he may have been nosy, but he was still human.

"Is that so?" she responded politely. "Well, I'm sure it'll work out."

Of course, she realized a moment later, that letting the subject drop like that left it open for him to decide what to talk about. Not wanting to have to discuss corpses or the future, she went for her default topic. "You're pretty athletic, Sagaki-senpai. Do you like sports?"

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ofmanydevices
2009-07-15 06:24 am UTC (link)

Tom cocked his head to the side. The girl was very inquisitive. No one else had been so discuss things, or him for that matter. Perhaps she was trying to investigate the murder case as well. It did line up, he had acted friendly at first too.

He was so busy contemplating the notion that this girl may be a rival, or a potentially ally, or a serial killer that her question caught him off guard.

"Well... I... I've had training in a few martial arts disciplines."

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-15 08:33 am UTC (link)

"Martial arts, huh? That's interesting..." she replied. Toshimi's only real experience with martial arts was when she'd done kendo with her gym classes. She wondered if she could gain any helpful experience for the other world by studying them further, but dismissed the idea. Where would she get the time or money for that? "Self-defense is important in cities like this, isn't it?" She hadn't forgotten that incident with Reizo...although it wouldn't have made much of a difference if she'd been skilled in martial arts, anyway.

"And..." She'd hoped that he'd at least speak enough so that she didn't have to keep thinking of subjects. She took another sip of her tea. There had to be something other than murder that he would talk at length about. "You're from America, right? English class must be a breeze for you."

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ofmanydevices
2009-07-15 01:51 pm UTC (link)

Nawanaka was relentless. Thus far she'd managed to avoid tipping her hand at all, while still needling him about information. Rarely had Tom faced so formidable opponent. Somewhere deep down inside he felt a great sense of excitement over future meetings.

He lifted his cup of tea, and took a long sip to give him a second to answer. In truth all his classes were a breeze, and they rarely taught things he didn't already know. But he wasn't about to give away all his advantages.

"I do alright. It's easier then you would think, but I moved to Japan when I was pretty old, and I'd already studied the language here."

He'd also read up on three other current languages, and one dead language, never knew what latin would come in handy.

"What about you? Do you... umm.. like sports?"

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-16 10:27 am UTC (link)

"Mm-hmm." Toshimi nodded, listening. Of course people who spoke English always said it was easy. She always did well on her English exams (well, on all her exams, really), but she could never understand what was going on in American movies. "You're lucky," she remarked, not bothering to explain what she was thinking about.

She was gradually making her way to the bottom of her teacup in case the conversation turned in a different direction and she had to leave. But there! Tom asking about sports was like throwing out a life ring, if the conversation were being compared to, say, being thrown out of a boat in the middle of the ocean. Finally, a subject that she was comfortable with.

"I like sports a lot, actually," she said. "I've been playing baseball practically since I could walk. Iburi's team has always been our favorite, so I was really excited to move here. I haven't been to a pro game yet, though..." she trailed off for a second. "Do you watch them? The season so far has been really exciting." It was the largest amount of personal information she'd freely offered so far.

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ofmanydevices
2009-07-16 04:10 pm UTC (link)

'Well Baseball is America's past time. Mom always thought I should go to at least one game before we moved back to Japan, but we never managed."

That wasn't a complete lie. More an exaggeration. Tom figured in all of the arguments he'd heard his parents having, certainly whether or not they should attend a baseball game may have been in there some where. It was popular after all, he could remember kids playing it all the time in elementary school.

He quirked an eyebrow at Toshi. He'd trained himself to catch strange word choices in a conversation.

"Our favorite?"

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-17 04:08 am UTC (link)

"Hm, so you've never been either?" she said. "That's a shame...I wonder if it's much different from how it is in Japan." She'd never even seen an American game on television. "I should watch sometime..." She didn't know if they actually showed them, but she could always try to find them online.

"Oh," Toshimi said, "that's to say, my father's and mine." She'd thought that the context was obvious enough. Didn't everybody follow the same sports teams as their families? "Actually, most of my town, too," she continued. "It's the only team in Hokkaido, so it's very popular, although some people do prefer the Tokyo teams. Sendai's team also has a following because they were the closest team before there was one in Iburi. Pretty much everyone in town watched baseball..." Before she could stop herself, she found herself saying, "But you don't want to hear about that." Her face didn't show it, but in her head, Toshimi was kicking herself. She could only hope that he wouldn't start talking about murder in the opening she'd left.

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ofmanydevices
2009-07-20 05:23 am UTC (link)

Tom waved his hand and shrugged.

"It's okay, I don't mind hearing about you."

Oddly, Thomas did want to hear more about her. The girl had given him enough information to work the Sato case, and no doubt, just like Tom, Nawanaka had realized he was pumping her for information, and trying to steer the topic of conversation away from information about herself. He was going to make her work a lot harder to steer him off track.

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-20 10:47 am UTC (link)

Although Toshimi was glad that he didn't opt to turn the conversation back to his original inquiry, that was still not the reaction she expected. While it was true that it was easier to talk about herself, just why was it that he was interested in hearing it? Caught a little bit off guard, she let a moment pass before mumbling, "What a nice thing to say," and picking up her teacup to fill the time until she thought of a better response.

The drink was now cooled down enough that she could drink it in full mouthfuls. Toshimi didn't want to make it seem like she was trying to rush out, but she still felt like if she allowed the conversation to continue too much longer, it would turn against her. She drank as much as she could while still being subtle. "There's not much to hear," she shrugged, "Uh...I guess I spend most of my time either playing baseball or studying." Only one sip's worth of tea remained. Toshimi finished it off and set the cup back down.

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	ofmanydevices 2009-07-21 03:20 am UTC (link)
	Thomas nodded. Her story matched the information he'd gathered on her. But he figured it was because this girl was clearly a devious master mind. he lifted the cup of his tea and took a sip, then looked down swirling it about. He decided to play things cool, and not confirm anything. "I guess I.... I dunno.... you've probably heard about what I do." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thrown_to_winds
2009-07-22 07:29 am UTC (link)

"Um..." Most of the things Toshimi had heard about him were bizarre and sometimes conflicting. Something about beating people up? Well, he'd certainly be capable of it, she figured, but if it was true, she didn't want to bring it up. The information she'd learned from this conversation--he was from America, was linked to another software company, liked investigating, and knew martial arts--was both more reliable and made for more polite conversation. Easiest thing? Polite dismissal. "Yes, I've heard," she said simply, and that was the end of that.

Toshimi glanced into her empty teacup, regretting having finished. Even though she could now make an excuse to leave, she figured it would be rude not to wait until he finished as well. Rushing to finish had indeed been an ill-thought-out move. "It's rare for me to go out for tea," she said. "Is this place a favorite of yours? The atmosphere is quite nice." She mused to herself that it actually might have made for a pleasant afternoon, if the original intention had been to have a good time instead of a murder investigation.

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ofmanydevices
2009-07-22 11:46 pm UTC (link)

"I umm... I've actually never been here before. I do enjoy tea though. I have a small hot plate in my room that lets me boil water."

He took a sip from his own cup, and his eyes darted around the room. He scanned the decor, as well as the patrons, and food for anything suspicious. Nothing jumped out at him, so he returned to the girl sitting nearby.

In truth he had gotten the information he needed from her, and he doubted she owuld be providing any further thoughts, which meant he had no further need to talk to her. For some reason he began trying to come up with another topic of conversation to keep the discussion going longer, but that failed him.

Finally, realizing he didn't need to discuss further he downed the last of his tea and nodded to her.

"Well I think that this has been a very productive afternoon. Thank you for the conversation Nawanaka-san."

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-23 05:53 am UTC (link)

Toshimi smiled as usual. At least he had no excuse for prolonging this discussion. Other than that first part, she'd managed to keep the conversation mostly under control, so she counted that as a win in her column. As far as she could tell, she'd also gone without divulging anything secret or even having to think too hard about any of it. She didn't know about calling it "productive", but as long as she could head back to the dorm in peace it made no difference to her. "Thanks again for the tea, Sagaki-senpai."

She stood up and slung her schoolbag over her shoulder. "Well, I've got homework to do. If you'll excuse me..." She nodded politely to Tom and left the shop.

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