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Tweak says, "what up chicken butt"

kondo kozue | 近藤梢 (anthesphoria) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2009-12-19 20:41:00

Entry tags:

kanaye, kozue, tom

well, america and britain, but shush
WHO: Kozue, Kanaye, and Tom
WHAT: Hanging out over hamburgers and other "western" things
WHERE: A place that sells those, in Iburi
WHEN: Before Renju's dungeon, after Tom's.
WHY: For great justice!

Kozue had sent text messages to Tom and Kanaye, setting this up—it seemed like a good chance to build camaraderie, something the team sorely lacked, and Tom and Kanaye could probably both use someone to vent to about being hafu, or about girl issues, or about whatever had made Satou so unmanageable in Tom's dungeon. (Kozue knew, but tried not to think about, the fact that having someone to talk to about this—now that she knew that something like the comment about cold, dead blue eyes had bothered Satou and Sagaki, too—would be really good for her too.)

She'd told them to meet at an America Town! chain restaurant downtown. It was the kind of place where all-Japanese waitresses dressed up in American-flag miniskirts and served burgers, fries, and milkshakes while skidding through the restaurant on roller skates and throwing poorly-pronounced English words haphazardly into their sentences, but it was a pleasant kind of kitzch. And the food was really good. The one in Azabu-Juuban in Tokyo was actually fifties themed, but this one seemed a bit less... put together. And much less historic. Kozue had arrived a little early and gotten a table (a booth!) and now she was waiting, sitting, and swinging her feet. They didn't quite reach the floor.

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zealousemperor
2009-12-20 02:00 am UTC (link)

Kanaye was busy doing nothing when he received the text. He had briefly etneretained the thought of starting on his summer homework when his phone started ringing (it was some English song. He didn't know the name but he liked it.) Flipping it open, he smiled and made a note to Toru.

Am meeting up with Kozue and Tom. Look after alcohol.

He decided to call up a driver (it was too far to walk and he didn't want to bother Seiko with something like this.) (The driver was just happy Kanaye was sober.) Upon being dropped off, Kanaye looked at the restaurant weirdly as he walked in. It seemed kind of...stereotypical.

Kanaye managed to ignore the waitresses (a feat which he was proud of!) and found Kozue. He walked over to her and waved, sitting down across from her. "Yo, Kozue-san! How's it hanging?" He asked happily. "Am I here before Tom-san or did he just go to the bathroom or something?"

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ofmanydevices
2009-12-20 02:04 am UTC (link)

Tom arrived at AMERICA-TOWN! In his suit, wit his hat pulled down to obscure his face. Had he gotten a text from anyone else, anyone at all, he would think they were making fun of him. Or they wanted to rub his issues in his face after seeing his dungeon.

But it was from Kozue. They had talked about this stuff, even before his time in Paradise. And... Tom trusted her. So he arrived. He didn't bother with the Hostess, slipping past her unnoticed. He didn't feel a need for supervision while he looked around.

When he finally found his two teammates, he gave them an odd look. He wondered if anyone else would be arriving, and what new critical piece of information needed to be revealed. He looked between the two of them, and opted to sit next to Kozue. He still didn't know Kanaye well enough to be comfortable sitting in a position where he couldn't see him. He nodded to them both.

"Okay, I'm here. What's up?"

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anthesphoria
2009-12-20 02:14 am UTC (link)

Kozue shook her head at Kanaye's question: "No, he hasn't shown. I'm good!" Which was true, mostly, and rapidly becoming more true as the prospect of a chocolate milkshake loomed closer and closer. "How are you?" She would have added something more, but Tom himself cut her off; she scooted aside to let him sit on the bench. And dangled her feet a bit more.

"Well, I'm doing well." She beamed. She'd neglected to mention that to Tom and somehow, she had the feeling that he might need some hand-holding to understand exactly what "hanging out" consisted of. "How are... how are things going for you?"

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zealousemperor
2009-12-20 02:20 am UTC (link)

"That's good!" Kanaye nodded happily. "I'm fine. It's interesting, but nothing bad has happened yet, so yay!" He nearly "whoot"ed.

Kanaye was interrupted by Tom out of nowhere. He smiled at Tom. "Nothing much. Aren't you hot in that? Seems kind of weird clothing. It's not like anyone's..." Kanaye decided to correct that statement. "No one's stalking you, Tom, though you look like someone who does that for a hobby. How are you doing? Anything you wanna talk about?" He asked happily.

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ofmanydevices
2009-12-20 02:26 am UTC (link)

Tom quirked a brow.

"Well I can't really take the coat off, otherwise they'd all see the weapons. It's not really a big deal. Well... I guess you guys know. No matter what I do they're only going to see an uncultured American with no manners. I might as well take advantage of it."

He slipped the hat off though. He didn't want his friends to feel like he was trying to hide his face from them.

"But then I guess given our location I think I might have just struck upon the most ironic statement ever. Other then that, things are fine. I'm getting through all of the... friend moments to make up for my past mistakes. And then back to the case."

Tom said it all in complete deadpan. He discussed his ironic observations with the same tone he used when suggesting how best to battle a shadow. It was in fact rather difficult to pick out if he was being serious or not

"And I have already had my friendship moments with both of you... so is something up with the team?"

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anthesphoria
2009-12-20 03:46 am UTC (link)

Kozue shook her head, simultaneously amused and a little horrified. "It's… no, we're going to spend time together, Sagaki-senpai. We're." A pause. "You don't just have one friend moment, anyway." Her voice dropped. "And please tell me you don't actually have weapons? That's… usually, illegal to bring them places."

She looked down at her menu to avoid the realization that Tom probably did have weapons on his somewhere. Had he thought they were going into Paradise or something?

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zealousemperor
2009-12-20 03:51 am UTC (link)

...What? Kanaye sighed "Tom, you don't need to carry weapons with you 24/7 unless you're a policeman or something, and even then..." He shook his head. "Nah, not everyone sees us like that. Just most of them."

"A bit, yeah. I don't know if my mom would love the outfits or think they're trashy. I can never tell..." He blinked and stared at Tom. "...You ARE bad at this, aren't you? You don't have just one friend moment. You have several. It's kind of part of being a friend. It's "hanging out" Kanaye did finger quotes.

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ofmanydevices
2009-12-20 05:28 am UTC (link)

Tom looked at Kozue, and then Kanaye.

"If we want to tell the police about the people trying to kill us, then maybe I won't concern myself..."

Tom thought for a moment.

"...No that's not true. But either way, I'm being careful. Both in a "just in case," and in a "don't get caught with them" way."

Tom's eyes went wide.

"Oh! This is hanging out. Okay then... umm... nifty..."

Tom straightened up, almost like he was getting ready for a fight.

"Alright... I'm ready. What do I do?"

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anthesphoria
2009-12-21 04:53 pm UTC (link)

With a slow sigh, Kozue pushed another copy of the menu down the table to Tom. Commence social hand-holding. Well, it wasn't actually as bad as dating Oubai as far as telling a boy what he had to do, at least. "First, pick a flavor of milkshake. This is a seriously important step." She flashed a grin, meant to reassure him that things were normal, he was doing okay—all that.

"Then we talk. And eat very tasty, extremely fattening food."

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	zealousemperor 2009-12-21 07:15 pm UTC (link)
	Kanaye held down a laugh. Tom was REALLY bad at this. Instead, he simply smirked at Tom. "Well, for one, relax. For two..." Kanaye nodded to Kozue. "Kozue-san's got it right, Tom-san. We must eat things high in calories and low in actual nutrition. It's quite good!" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ofmanydevices 2009-12-23 04:10 am UTC (link)
	Tom looked back and fourth between them. He was... unsure. "But we've already been warned that we might get attacked, what if our enemy slips some kind of drugs into the milkshakes? Then we'd be at their mercy." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2009-12-24 03:35 am UTC (link)

She giggled again. "Well, then, that's a risk that I'm willing to take! I'm having strawberry. It's reeeeally good." She flipped the menu open, ostensibly to force Tom to start thinking about his order.

"And. You know, Sagaki-senpai, if you ever feel like talking about…" she waved her free hand at the surroundings. The cheesily dressed waitresses and hamburgers and snippets of English that were flying back and forth. She looked at Kanaye briefly, as if to tell him that now was the time to back her up: "Well, we both know that it's hard being half." Even though she wasn't even half. Quarter wasn't really an identification. "And I'm sure it's been even worse for you. But we might understand, if you have anything you need to talk about. Any time."

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zealousemperor
2009-12-24 03:40 am UTC (link)

Kanaye laughed. "Wow, Tom. This is kind of sad, really. I prefer vanilla, myself." He nodded, grinning. "It's quite nice."

"Yeah, it is." Kanaye sighed. "So, like, if it ever gets harder then usual, you can tell us. That goes for you too, Kozue-san." He nodded to her. "I'd hate to see either of you hurt. So don't worry about seeming weak or anything. It's something we all have to deal with."

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ofmanydevices
2009-12-24 05:12 am UTC (link)

Tom shrugged, and looked away from them trying to hide his face.

"When I was little we used to go and get strawberry shakes... back... yeah."

He took a breath and looked back at them. He sat there for a long time regarding the two of them before he spoke, and it seemed to take a bit of effort to finally do so.

"You know... I sometimes wonder who's had it worse. You two have lived with it your whole lives. Is it worse for you because it's been longer, or worse for me because I actually got to know something different."

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anthesphoria
2009-12-27 12:31 am UTC (link)

Kozue shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I guess I have some inkling, but I think it's bad in different ways." It felt a bit uncomfortable to be attempting to rate Tom's unpleasant memories, and somehow quantify them against her own.

Distinctly uncomfortable, because that meant a specific investigation of those memories. Was it worse to have strangers point out that your eyes were the color of a dead fish, or to have your family tell you the same thing?

"I'm not sure it matters which was worse." She finally added. "It sucks either way, and it kind of sucks that we've all been there, but…" It was selfish to say that it was nice they shared the experience. Devastatingly selfish. Kozue bit her tongue and looked down at the menu.

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