| Surprise day off! | ||
|---|---|---|
| |
This fairly quiet street is eerie even on the best of days. It is lined with trees, each breeze rustling the leaves endlessly. There are a few places to sit and relax, namely just around the entrance to the park, but otherwise, this street has the creepy feel of being watched by something unpleasant. Yoiko-chan walks down the street looking especialy bored with her trusty dog Checkers right beside her. Yoiko-chan focuses on the ground as she walks. Checkers leads Yoiko straight up to the door of the UR and stops. However, she's not paying any attention to what's going on and reaches for the door. Not finding a door she looks up and nearly blacks out. "W-w-what...?" Zel sighs from his place across the street on a bench just outside the park,"Didn't Cale call to tell you that the UR was closed for repairs?" Undestatment of the century there consideirng it's rubble. Yoiko-chan stares blankly trying to process this new information. Sure she was out sick for a week but... Was this the right place? Looking around she recognises a few landmarks and sweatdrops. Suddenly she hears Zel's voice call out to her. Spinning around towards him she frowns, "I've been sick... no phone... What the heck happened?" Zel raises a eyebrow,"Obviously never read the paper either. The UR was blown up in a fight between a wanted criminal and a couple others." Yoiko-chan turns around and stares into the ruined bar as her jaw drops. "Oh wow..." Silently staring into the room for awhile she begins to think clearly again and asks herself, "Well great, now what the hell am I gonna do...?" Turning back around and slowly walking up to Zel with her hands in her coat pockets she frowns, "So... do you know how long it'll be until they get it repaired?" Zel brushes abestly at the strands of hair hanging over his one eye, not making any real diffrnece,"About a week from when it was blown so...Wenbsday I believe." Yoiko-chan sighs, oO(...and I was actualy looking forward to something to do tonight...) The wind blows pushing her coat open slightly. Beneath it she's wearing her uniform. Clearly she's gotten more comfortable wearing it since the coat isn't buttoned all the way up like usual. "I've seen you before, haven't I? Your one of them Merc guys that Sammy always talks about, right?" Zel nods,"Yes. I've been by a few times and Sammy is one of the members of my team." He seems to take no notice of the uniform,"I am Zelgadis Greywards." Yoiko-chan smiles, "Nice to meethca. Yoiko Hibiki..." Even if she had met him before, she'd never know. Forgetfulness is as common as being lost in the Hibiki household... Zel nods by way of greeting and while they might have met as cusotmer and employee they never were introduced,"Likewise." He glances down at checkers,"Ah, and this is your dog?" Checkers happily offers her paw to be shook. "Awoo!" Yoiko-chan giggles, "Yeah... this is Checkers." Zel takes Checkers paw for a moment and smiles,"Smart one aren't you checkers?" He looks back up at Yoiko,"So, since work is closed for a while what are you going to do?" Yoiko-chan turns around and stares at the Usual Restaurant a moment longer as she tries to ponder the question. "I dunno... It's not the kind of thing I expected when I decided to work tonight...." Checkers happily wags her tail at the new found attention. The moment her paw is dropped however, she lazily lays down on the spot and waits for more... Zel chuckles and scritches Checker's ears. He looks back upa t Yoiko agian,"Well, with the Ur i had sort of expected it. This has been the longest it's gone without bieng trashed and in NEO there was things to help it be rebuilt quickly. Not here though." Yoiko-chan stares into Zel's face questioningly, "It was...? I was there all the time and I didn't remember anything like this happening..." Zel says, "It got better in time and there was much done to make sure any damage that did happen got repaired imidiatly so most didn't notice. There use to be at one timea counter that had how many times it was blown up." Yoiko-chan nods to make it look like she understands. In reality she's completly lost. "I see... so, um... If you don't mind me asking, what're you doing sitting out here alone? You waiting for someone?" Zel shakes his head,"No, more trying to unwind. Alot of things have been happening and..." He shkes head,"Just, things..." Yoiko-chan sighs and looks around the empty street at a loss for what to do. "Well... I don't know this place too well. Where can I go to just sit and get a soda around here?" Zel says, "Rose city diner would be a good place. The otner would need you bieng a bit older I think or a member of the merc guild." Yoiko-chan glances around thinking. Suddenly she smiles as an idea hits her. "Hey! If you can show me the way I'll buy you a drink!" Zel smile and stands,"Alright." Anytown USA! It's... any town in the United States! A small main-street cuts through the center of this small section of town, the buildings that line it being a mixture of small shops and quaint businesses. Branching off of the main road, the smaller streets lead into the various housing sections, all of which looks as if it were pulled off of an assembly line. Each home an exact replica of the one beside it. Although it seems as if this area has more space than the island would be able to manage, the lawns here are barely non existant, the space between homes being little more than an alley. Zel walks along the street with Yoiko and Checkers the dog. He nods downt eh street to where the Rose City Diner is,"there we are." Yoiko-chan glances around smiling. "I don't think I've ever been here before..." Zel says, "I don't ocme here often myself. It's a bit out of the way but I wound up here once by accident." he looks a little sheepish,"Took a wrong turn..." Nuku-Nuku walks out of the nearby arcade witha few plushies in her arms. Yoiko-chan giggles, "I do that alot. That's why I never go any farther than I have to... Luckily Checkers is good at leading me back home...." Nuku-Nuku says, "I Loove the UFO catcher! WAIIiIIIii!" Asuka follows right after with her school bag in tow and nothing else. "You are pretty good at it." Nuku-Nuku giggles and puts a littel kyoote stuffed Jiji (black cat) in Asuka's hand. "Nuku Nuku got this one just for you, since you like cats." ^_^ Zel blinks as he sees Nuku and Asuka come out of the arcade,"Neve saw the point to that..." Zel he shakes his head"Anyhow. Let's see aobut that drink.." Yoiko-chan glances over to where Zel is looking and recognises her friend, waving at her she turns to Zel and nods, "Huh? Oh... yeah! Right!" Nuku-Nuku wave waves to Yoiko. "HiHI!~" Asuka says, "Thank you Nuku-chan. What a cutey." she smiles at the cat then puts him in her bag for safe keeping and pulls up along side Nuku-Nuku. "So, where do you live?" Zel waves as well then heads for the diner. Rose City Diner A quiant, American diner, the kind you would expect to see in Happy Days or something equally 50s. A working Jukebox sits in the corner, playing actual vinyl records while the booths gleam with shiney plastic upholstry. The floors and walls are tiled in checkerboard black and white and the bus-boys and waitresses are dressed like the Good Humor Man complete with red bow ties or hair ribbons. A counter also offers seats to people, a skilled soda jerk waiting to take one's orders. Zel walks ina dn looks aorund, trying to get a feel for the place,"Hmmm...." Yoiko-chan follows behind him, holding the door open for Checkers as she looks around as well... "This place looks weird..." Zel shrugs,"Well, aparently this is americans for you." Zel says, "Then again I have trouble with Japanese still sometimes. the wonder's of culture shock." Zel notices one of the booths is empty and heads over to take a seat. Yoiko-chan nods, not realy having an opinion. Glancing around she squints. "I think I liked the UR better..." Follwing Zel she sits down accross from him. Checkers crawls under the table and lays down out of site from the waitstaff. Taking off her backpack and sitting it in the seat beside her she digs through it a moment and finds her wallet. After looking through it a moment she puts it away and smiles. "Well... it beats sitting at home, I guess..." Zel shrugs and looks aornd the place,"A few do. hence why it is so popular. this works however whehn he UR is in ruins I should think." He nods to the waitress that comes to take thier order and orders a sprite. Yoiko-chan smiles at the waitress and orders a cherry coke. As she waits for her drink she weakly attempts to start a conversation. "So what do Mercs do anyways?" Here's an example of her unique way of thinking. She hasn't figured out that the word Merc is short for anything... Zel blinks at Yoiko for a second as though not quite accepting that she ahs just asked him that,"Well, bascily mercs or mercenaries are fighters for hire. We do contract jobs for employers either as guards, extra troops or to runs specific missions. We sometimes do bounties as well wehn it i required." Yoiko-chan stares amased, in her sheltered life she had no idea stuff like that was real, "Wow... and Sammy does this sort of thing too?" Zel nods as he steeps his fingers in formt of him on the table,"Yes, she's a member of my teama nd has helped out when she could." he winces,"She keeps getting in over her ehad it seems...." Yoiko-chan thinks of the time she sparred with Samantha and kept being asked not to hold back - even if it ment cutting her. "Whoa... yeah I bet. She really gets a head of steam going sometimes, doesn't she?" Zel sighs and nods,"Unfortunatly." Yoiko-chan stares at the table blankly as she tries to think of something more to say. Finaly the drinks come and she happily grabs her glass and drinks half of it in her first gulp. With a frown she realises she'd gotten too used to making her own drinks... Zel sips his drink. the wonders of having simple tastes but where he's formthis is something completly diffrent fomr anyhting he normally would be able to get,"I take it you had no idea that was waht a merc did." Not a question, but a statment. Yoiko-chan shakes her head slowly, "Nope... Sammy talked about it off and on, but she never went into any detail. My fault, I guess... I don't get out much..." Zel nods,"Understnadable. If it weren't for the badlands i don't think you'd ever run into something like this quite so blatantly. Actaully if it wasn't for the badlands we'd probably all be in other lines of work. i could probably get my police training updated with little problem." Yoiko-chan blinkblinks, "Bad Lands? What's that?" Zel looks up at Yoikko like she must be crazy,"The badlands....the area just to the east and north of the city that is practicly crawling with mercenaries, military personel and all manner of weaponry. The area where most of the protals happen." Yoiko-chan sweatdrops nervously, "Really? Your joking... ...right?" It should be noted that since coming to MU she's made no effort to explore in fear of getting lost. Zel shakes his head, a slight frown on his features,"No, I'm not. There is probably the lasrgst militaary build up that isn't nuclear in nature on this island. It's all there just in case something very wrong happens." Yoiko-chan is speachless. Staring blankly at Zel, her brain completly shuts down. Taking a moment to remember how to think again, she glances down at the table again, "I really do need to start getting out more..." Zel sighs and turns his view down to the tabletop,"I thought you knew considering that that is just aobut the only reason for this city to be here and why there are so many parts of other cities here as well." Yoiko-chan shakes her head. "Nuh-uh.... I didn't even know when I ended up in Neo Tokyo the first time. All I knew was that Checkers couldn't find the house anymore. I just thought I'd gotten lost..." Zel says, "Some do feel that way. It was rather obvious for me but I imagine you came form a world like this one." Yoiko-chan ponders that thought for a moment. She doesn't even know what kinda world THIS is yet. "I guess so... I never left home growing up. I guess I've always been a bit of a hermit..." Yoiko-chan sips her drink and sighs, her attempts at conversation don't seem to be going so well... "Well... thanks for showing me where this place is. Checkers should be able to find it now, if she's not being lazy again... It's good to go somewhere new for a change..." Zel nods,"Alright. I think I best be going. Thanks for the drink by the way." he stands up formt eh table. Yoiko-chan smiles, "No problem. Nice meeting you!" Zel makes a slight bow and vanishes. Well, not so much as a dark hole seems to open at his feet then move up throught he air till he is gone form sight then closes. Yoiko-chan blinkblinks and looks down at Checkers. "Weird guy, huh?" Checkers continues to sleep... | |