5/10/2003

03:47 PM

Logfile from Toshie.

 

Virgin Megastore

Three huge television screens dominate the opposite wall as you walk into the store. Flashing music videos or movies, the black rimmed screens are silent. The reason being that the speakers are blasting music from the in house radio station. Suspended above the rotunda shaped main floor, the glassed in studio is often occupied by an authentic DJ, spinning the latest CDs to the delight of the shoppers below. The main floor contains the popular CDs and top sellers, circlling about the main escalators.

Going down, you hit the first sub level, where Movie/TV theme music, Classical music, Anime music, and other styles are found. The second sublevel then contains a cafe, a small book store, a video store and a computer game store. And last, but certainly not least, there is an eight show movie theatre, descending deeper still into the bowels of Broadway.

Nakago is here.

Obvious exits:

Exit

 

The cafe setting seems to be finding itself adorned with a Toshie. The girl is perched upon a chair, one leg drawn up so that the heel of her boot is caught on the rim of the seat, and her cheek is laying aside her knee. Her gaze is drawn down towards a magazine upon the table, licking a finger before flipping the page, blindly groping for her glass while he attention remains riveted upon some article or another.

Having just purchased a couple classical cds from upstairs, Nicholas decided to stop for a quick mocha latte before heading back out into the city.  It's not often that he finds himself at loose ends on a Saturday, with no papers to grade and no seishi to deal with, so he might as well enjoy himself, no?  Surprisingly, the cafe is rather empty at the moment; most people are outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  This suits the man just fine, making it quite easy to find an empty table after ordering his drink.  An empty table /far/ away from the mother and two young children who are making quite a racket near the front of the cafe, leaving him seated near a slight young woman absorbed in a magazine.  Once settled, he removes one of the cds from the bag and proceeds to wrestle with the plastic wrapping, with little success.

Phenomenal cosmic powers... unable to open a wrapper? That would about figure. Meeting her own success in finding her glass, Tosh takes a sip, still rather engrossed in the love-life quiz, mentally ticking off her answers as she goes down the page. But glass is set down, page is turned, and in so doing the rattle of plastic wrapping causes her to glance up, and just peer at Nicholas with a singular arched eyebrow. She is just talented like that.

 

A frown is quickly developing on Nicholas' face as the stubborn wrapper refuses to give way.  All he wants to do is look at the liner notes -- it shouldn't be this tough.  Glancing around for any nearby utensils that might aid in his endeavor, he discovers that he's bereft of any weaponry capable of defeating the mighty cellophane foe.  Leaving him with but one alternative, something he would usually not so blantantly utilize in public, but his temper has been a bit frayed lately.  Besides, what are the chances that any of the handful of cafe patrons would look his way just as his forehead very briefly gleams azure and the wrapper shreds to pieces by itself.  Triumphant, he smiles slightly to himself and begins opening the case, looking up just in time to notice a pair of eyes directed towards him.  Just perfect.  Sigh.

 

And so Tosh's other eyebrow will meet the one already raised. Well now. Of course, who is she to really question. I mean, she has, on occasion, done a little glowing herself to get rid of a particularly annoying paper cut, but still... She takes a moment to clear her throat, quirk him a wry grin and rather comically in her subtlety reach her free hand up to rub at her own forehead. "You... you had a little smudge up there. I think it is gone though." Innocent peer.

 

"Thanks," Nicholas rather drolly replies.  "Medical condition.  Whenever I get stressed or annoyed, I develop a faint bruise on my forehead.  Weak blood vessels."  He's not even trying to make it sound convincing, more like the pleasant offer of an obvious fallacy to avoid discussing a bizarre event.  "At least I finally get this damned wrapper off," he adds with an amused smirk of his own.  "I'm not sure what the manufacturers are trying to protect the cds from.  Biological warfare, perhaps?"  Liner notes are removed from the case, but then set aside on favor of taking a sip of his latte.

 

"Yeah," Tosh eases slowly, her voice not at all sounding convinced nor does she even try to sound like she is taking his explanation for the truth. "Funny how that happens to some people. Some... different people." Hand drops down to the top of her own table, drumming her fingers once to provoke a clicking. "Fingernails are convenient some times. But I suppose other ways as well." And smaller fingers. She shoots him a sidling glance, smile knowing, before she is glancing back down to her magazine, only to scowl as all of her answers from before have managed to get forgotten.

 

Nicholas mutters under his breath, "Different people."  Time for another sigh.  Obviously he really should just remain in his apartment all the time, since whenever he ventures outside, nothing goes quite as it was planned.  Noticing the scowl on the young lady's face, he follows her gaze to the magazine, helpfully commenting, "Maybe you should actually fill out the answers in pen.  Easier to keep track of where you're at if you get distracted by any other 'different people'.  There seems to be a plague of such individuals in the city lately."

 

"That would mean I would have to buy this, and I do not want to," Tosh responds with something of a shrug of her shoulders. "Then next time you should not be so openly distracting. That really is poor form." Yes, she is going to scold him now. "See what happens. You do things like that... and to open a cd wrapper of all things, and you just get discovered. Kind of silly if you ask me. Don't they tell you anything? You will end up on the cover of the National Enquirer yet." She levels another glance at him, peering through her bangs at the man. "And as good looking as you are, I am sure your issue will be a very big seller. Do you really want that?"

The young lady's words draw a short laugh from the tall blonde man.  "Just as long as the cover doesn't show you and I together, with a title about 'Teenager Bears Alien's Love-Child' or some drivel along those lines.  Most of the public is quite dismissive of any occurrences that violate their accepted parameters of reality, however, so it is likely that I could be far more obvious than I just was, and still maintain my anonymity."  He inclines his head slightly, "I do acknowledge and accept the chastisement, however.  You are correct in suggesting that I should be more circumspect when it comes to such displays, and usually I am."

 

Toshie is fairly sure that English is one of her primary languages, but he just rattled off a whole lot that when put together, causes her to blink, and then blink again for good measure. "No offense, but you really are not my type. Far too... wordy. And old." She takes another drink from her glass, squinting at him for a moment, adding, "But you really did not want to be defeated by the wrapper off of a cd?" Okay, she is simply unable to hold back her grin now, dimpling as well. "That has got to be about the most ridiculous reason I have ever heard to do things like that out in public."

 

"No offense taken," Nicholas replies casually.  "You don't look old enough to even be legal, anyway, and I'm not exactly the sort to seek out jailbait."  Not in this lifetime, at least.  "As for the wrapper,"  he comments while gathering up the remaining bits of offensive cellophane in one hand, "I don't like to be defeated by anything /or/ anyone.  Although there were indeed many other methods available to me for circumventing the protective covering, I chose the one that guaranteed immediate success with little effort.  Perhaps I chose wrongly, but you must admit that I was indeed successful, and apparently no other harm was done unless you yourself plan to report my actions to the media."

 

Toshie watches while the wrapper is tidied up, really having nothing better to look at for the moment -that and staring at Nick might be a little rude. "Well, yes. But someone else could have... Okay, so that was sort of fun to watch too, but there is a thing called overkill. And excesses. And... and I am sounding like some kind of nattering hen." Which she certainly is not. "No, probably not. But I might tattle on you to my friends though."

 

Impressive... She just managed to elicit another small chuckle from the usually serious seishi.  "Overkill would have been reducing the entire cd case to molten globules of plastic while leaving the cd itself unharmed.  This was merely appropriate force.  And I'd be willingly gamble that your friends likely know about me already, if they're familiar with... medical conditions... such as mine.  I can't say I recognize you, however.  Care to share the names of one or two of your friends so that I might have a better idea as to whether or not they would be surprised by your information?

 

Toshie quirks him another glance, "Well, what would be the point of that? Then I suppose you wouldn't have gotten the liner -which you were after in the first place, right?" She'll finally roll her eyes now, taking a moment to drink from her glass while she considers how exactly to respond. "That is because I am fairly new around here. I do not get out so much in the circles that the rest of you socialize in either. You know... school, practice, playing arcade games." Sitting around reading magazines. "That tends to take up quite a bit of my time. And I do not think I am supposed to be name dropping either."

 

"I could have made certain that the liner survived as well, without any trouble.  Such paltry parlor tricks are effortless."  Nicholas isn't bragging, just stating a fact as far as he's concerned.  "Hmm, if you so rarely venture out, then I suppose I should consider myself blessed by fortuitousness to have encountered you here today.  If the gods have conspired together to arrange such a meeting, then surely name-dropping would not be inappropriate.  If it puts you at ease, I shall even begin with myself."  A pleasantly neutral smile settles into place as he identifies himself as, "Professor Nicholas Gordon, although I somehow have also acquired the pseudonym Nakago.  A pleasure to meet you, miss."  He doesn't offer his hand, however.

 

Toshie blinks owlishly across to him before chuckling, "Well, I am sure a talent like that has some uses... somewhere." Maybe. He could open child-proof containers for adults, or something. She doesn't so much blink at the name as actually perk a little. Her foot finally slides down, settling upon the floor as well. "Oh, you must be the one that Anana is living with. Did she ask you about the study dates that we have planned? I completely forgot to ask Kieran if that would be okay, but he is never around anymore." Gee, wonder why. "Toshie Ukiyo."

 

"I should have guessed you'd know Anana, Ms. Ukiyo.  Everyone else does."  The man shakes his head wryly.  "I can't say that I recognize the name Kieran, however.  And yes, I am Anana's guardian at the moment, while her parents are out of the country.  She hasn't mentioned any studay dates to me, though, and before I agree to such a thing, I'd certainly wish to know a bit more about you.  I take my role as Anana's guardian quite seriously, after all, and I'd like to be certain that she isn't unintentionally involving herself in any sort of trouble.  She has a tendency to do just that if not carefully monitored or chaperoned."

 

Toshie smiles faintly, "I suppose she is just really popular? She was the one that actually suggested it, our studying together. In a library. On neutral ground." She watches him in curiosity, brows lifting once again. "She is a couple of years below me in schooling, as I understand it, but it still wouldn't hurt things. And we get along awfully well." She sits back in her seat, still watching him, "About me? Everyone calls me Tosh, I'm a gymnast, have a tutor, and pretty much well end up playing video games when there is nothing else to do?" Karen's game consoles are just crack like that.

 

"Anana would get along awfully well with Satan himself, I have no doubt.  She is perhaps the kindest, friendliest soul I am aware of, which is both a blessing and a curse.  Hence my concern for how she spends her time and who she spends it with."  Nicholas' frosty blue gaze narrows.  "I thank you for the information, but it does seem quite likely that you are leaving something of minor importance out of your personal explication.  Care to add anything?"

 

Toshie squints across to him after getting his narrowed gaze. "What? That I am the Yin to her Yang or something like that? Really, if you want to know, just ask, although I am not sure that I can exactly tell you everything that you want to know. Unlike some people, I am not so showy about things."

 

The pleasantly neutral smile doesn't waver even in the face of the woman's mild sarcasm.  "If you truly wish to see 'showy', that could be arranged," he simply states.  "And yes, that is more along the lines of what I was hoping you would share, without requiring me to rudely inquire about such matters directly.  I was attempting to be politely circumspect, but if you prefer bluntness, then I shall do my best to accomodate you.  I am a Seiryuu seishi and former nemesis of the Suzaku seishi.  I serve the god of war, when I am not otherwise occupied with my academic duties at NYU.  And yourself?"

 

Toshie actually rolls her eyes at him and then glances away. "Nainokami," she answers simply. Doesn't take near as many breaths as the spiel that he gave up. "I know. I know. She has something of a bad rap, but she really is not as bad as everyone seems to think she is."

 

"From personal experience, I've found that one's god may influence one's actions, but definitely does not determine a person's personality or ultimate allegiance.  So whether or not your goddess deserves her 'bad rap' is perhaps less consequential than how you view your own role as one of her warriors."  Gathering up the cd and liner notes, he slips both back into his bag and rises, retrieving his barely-touched cup with the other hand.  "So long as you bear no ill will towards Anana and are not seeking to lead her into harm, I see no reason why the two of you would not be able to study together on neutral territory, although I must admit I do not wish her visiting you at your residence.  Just as I doubt your own... family... would wish you visiting hers."  Offering an elegant half-bow, despite both hands being occupied, he then states, "I believe I shall depart now and leave you to your magazine.  I am glad that we were able to meet one another, Ms. Ukiyo, and I will mention to Anana that she has my permission.  Just please make certain that nothing happens to her, or I might become slightly irate."

 

Toshie just barely refrains from that eye-crossing that was threatened earlier. Chin lifts as she follows the progress of the man, but she doesn't quite get up from her seat, "Anana is a good person. I can see that. And she is one of the few people around here that are relatively close to my own age and are still... different. Thank you for the talk." She bows her head to him in farewell, smile faint. "It was nice to meet you."

 

"I hope you have a good day, Ms. Ukiyo.  A good, uneventful day."  Nicholas' smile warms ever-so-slightly.  "Fare well, until we meet again.  Which we doubtlessly will."  And off he goes, long strides quickly carrying him out of the cafe where other shoppers soon obscure him from view.