| Thursday Night Introspection | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary: Jack chooses a slow night to come into the UR to find someone worth chatting with.    |
The Usual is, well, fairly quiet. It's only a Thursday night, after all. The man who wanders in is only really notable for his lack of shoes. (Unless, of course, you have enhanced senses). His body language seems more relaxed than it has been. He takes a seat at the bar but, oddly, places no order. After a quiet moment or two the doors of the kitchen swing open and Yoiko Hibiki comes walking out. Today she's decided to put back on the awful UR Sailor fuku normally worn by the waitresses, but then again she doesn't have a lot of clothes at her disposal. Yoiko's pigtails bounce slightly as the young woman darts behind the bar and addresses the stranger directly, "Greetings!! Welcome to the Usual Restaurant! Can I get you with anything?" Jack Hawksmoor shakes his head. "I'm afraid not." There might be the hint of embarrassment to his tone. He wouldn't be here, but this *is* the primary meeting place for, as far as he can tell...all the weird folk in the city. As one of the weird folk in the city... Yoiko-chan blinks quietly. Well that's a new one. "Oh.... Um... Okay?" Nervously she looks around and decides it best to start wiping off the already immaculate bar. "Let me know if you change your mind." Her eyes keep shifting back to him as she tries to figure out what he's here for. From the kitchen the sounds of a TV turned up too loud quietly echo. Whatever show it is has a lot of people shooting. Jack Hawksmoor finally lets out a bit of a breath and explains. "This seems to be a gathering place, so I was looking for conversation. I'll gladly leave a tip, but I'm afraid you can't...help with my physiological needs." Oh. It's like *that*. The pigtailed girl just 'pfft's. "Sure. Right. Don't talk to the girl who's been living here so long she inherited the bar from the last owner. I don't have stories to tell or nothin'." She gives him a grin that slowly fades. "It's Thursday. I tend to give the skutters Thursday night off so they can marathon John Wayne movies because it's been slow lately. I don't know if the crowd just hasn't made it back to the city or if there's some new place opened up stealing everyone." She makes a mental note to look for that whenever she takes Emi up on her offer to lead her to that music store. Jack Hawksmoor grins a bit. "I wasn't saying you were chopped liver." Just that he can't get a drink. Which, to be honest, sucks. "I wasn't implying you where!" She waits a moment and adds, "Okay, maaaaybe a little bit." Well, the bar isn't going to get any cleaner so Yoiko grabs a glass and pours herself a soda. "You sure you don't want anything? A bite to eat? Change for the jukebox?" She quietly takes a sip, "Okay, so there is no jukebox but the Karaoke machine has a jukebox mode and it's free." "'Fraid not." It's hard for cyborgs to socialize. "Oh great. Karaoke." Sooner or later somebody is going to try and make Jack sing, he can just smell it. Yoiko instead shrugs and takes another sip, "Worth a shot. So where you from? You're clearly new around here." She's just trying to be sociable at this point. If nothing else it's better than another night of watching John Wayne movies. "I'm from Earth, although that's not specific enough. Jack Hawksmoor," he adds, offering his hand across the bar. The girl takes the offered hand and shakes, "Yoiko Hibiki, also from Earth. Japan to be more accurate." She smiles once they pull their hands away and adds, "Don't ask me how everyone is speaking an' understanding Japanese around here. Just one of the weird things about living in Twisted." "I hadn't noticed." Because, welp, if everyone speaks Japanese, Jack speaks Japanese. It's a perk. Although he *does* retain the slightest hint of an accent, just a bit of personality. "I'm from New York. Brooklyn, if we're being really precise." Yoiko-chan briefly has stars in her eyes (maybe literally, it's possible), "Ooooooh. I've seen movies of New York! I want to visit there someday." She frowns for a brief moment, "...I bet my brother has been there. I wish I trusted myself to walk places on my own." "It's..." Jack considers that, thoughtfully. "It's not like any other city. Although Tokyo has its charms too. Very bright." Yoiko ponders that a moment, "I guess so. I didn't really go out much." She pauses for just a moment, "...ever." Before anyone can question that she chirps back with, "I lived in Nerima myself. Furinkan to be specific! ...I kinda wasn't allowed to go anywhere. Someone had to be home in case the family got back." Jack Hawksmoor ahs. "Protective family? I don't know what's worse...protective or neglectful." The girl smiles sheepishly, "Protective? Sorta? Neglectful... maybe? We Hibikis are um... directionally challenged?" She smiles at her wording but also like it's the most normal thing in the world. She knows it isn't. "Months could go by before anyone in the family ever made it home. My brother forgot I existed for a while." She shrugs, "It's weird what you get used to." "Ah...so both at once." His lips quirk. "It is. But then, I am weird." Yoiko-chan lets out a laugh and puts her glass in the small sink in the rear counter. "Eh, we're all a little weird. I watched a guy come in here the other day and shoot himself in the head while singing karaoke. To be fair I put him up to it." It takes her a moment to remember how bad that sounds at which point she flails her hands as she elaborates, "No no no!! It's not anything bad. A little gross but, he was kinda dead already? Or arguing that he was dead already?" She pauses and looks down at the floor. "Wow, I really have gotten used to some weird stuff." "Or this place attracts weird people, hence why I'm here," Jack quips. Does he mean the Usual or Twisted itself? Jack Hawksmoor watches the playful robots for a moment. Then he turns back to her. "As for the Japanese thing, it's probably somehow Bishop's fault." How does he figure *that*? Walking over to the kitchen doors, Yoiko watches the skutters through the window and sighs before walking back to the bar. "Probably." She pauses a moment to think, "Wait, what's a Bishop?" There's no sarcasm in her voice. She literally has no idea who or what Bishop is. Oh, so she doesn't know. Maybe Bishop isn't as open a secret as he thought. "Guy who likes to think he owns the place." Of course, he has more claim to that than most who say it. Yoiko-chan ponders that a moment, "So... like... Senior Diablo?" He's at least come into the UR a few times. "I really don't get out enough and no one tells me what's going on outside." The girl gestures with a nod of her head towards the kitchen. "When you don't need to buy anything or pay bills and you get lost crossing the street, the need to go out into the world kinda diminishes." Jack Hawksmoor nods a bit. "I suppose so. The economy here seems to be almost a true gift economy." He's intrigued by it, not having seen that really work before. The pigtailed girl gives a shrug at that and crosses her arms. "Well, the 'Twisted Business Council' would have a lot to say about that, but luckily they don't have much say in what we do in the UR." Her lips go into a slight frown as she mutters under her breath, "...not that any of them would ever invite me..." There's a sigh and then she goes back to her normal happy demeanor. "Too many cultures sandwiched into one place can get a little crazy." Jack Hawksmoor nods. "I'd ask how it all started, but I already have a good idea." His lips quirk a little bit, although he seems thoughtful. "This place...I suppose something like it had to exist." Yoiko-chan nodnods, "If Gegoshi or Johnny where here, they could probably tell you more." After a moment's hesitation she expands the thought, "Okay, Gegoshi could tell you more. Johnny would act like he knows more, and probably does, but you can only trust about -so- much that comes out of his mouth not to be something insane." Pondering that a moment she walks forwards and leans on the bar instead of the counter behind her. "He's told me things like that he's part of some Hell Council? Which, there is one? I guess? People talk about it? I don't see how he would be on it though." She shakes her head at the thought, "I mean they call him a homicidal maniac. I don't know how he's free to walk the streets some days." "Maybe they don't have a jail that can hold him." Jack doesn't know anyone like that, nope, not at all, no sir. Yoiko-chan's head bobs to the side back and forth as she rolls her eyes and replies in a singsong voice, "Maybe they don't arrest the dead." She still doesn't believe that either, despite the evidence she's had to mop up. "Dead, eh?" He considers that. "I don't know. I'm starting to think the rules here aren't those of any other place." The girl shakes her head defiantly. "Nuh uh. I don't buy it. I've read his comics. There's no way Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is really dead. He's not lived for some stupid hundred million years. He's not on any magical council in Hell. I mean, there's people who can grow back limbs. Growing implies you're alive. Besides, I met him when I first got here and that was only like... two years ago?" She sighs again, "Something like that anyways. Maybe I got to Neo Tokyo two years ago? But I never left the UR? I dunno. It's all fuzzy and it makes my head hurt." Jack Hawksmoor studies her for a moment. His eyes flicker faintly red. "Probably means you aren't ready to think about whatever it is." Rubbing her temple absently, Yoiko nods, "Maybe. I dunno. I've been having some weird dreams lately. I think I've been cooped up here too long." She sighs and shakes her head once more, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just ramble on at you like this." The girl forces a laugh, "I've probably bored you to tears." "Nah, I've met people who ramble. You got nothing on some people I've met," the man admits. Yoiko nods silently, she's known a few like that herself. "Anyhew, you should probably come back in here on a different night. Usually there's at least a few people in here." She glances around at the strangely empty booths and shivers. "Wow, not even George has come in tonight. That's slightly worrying." George is that guy who's always here that everyone knows. There's always one. "There always is." At least Jack doesn't think... he jokes, anyway, "Maybe I scared them off." Clearly not serious. Giving a glance to the door a moment Yoiko tries to repress a giggle at the thought, "If you have, you clearly have one heck of a super power." She turns back, grinning fangedly. "Hopefully he's just at the park with the King of the Hobos. You'll meet him soon enough if you haven't already." She turns towards the kitchen doors and sighs, "Alright. I'm going to have to go back there and wrangle the skutters. If you leave them alone too long something always gets set on fire. You okay out here in the meanwhile?" "Sure am." He's fairly sure somebody will show up. Or he's going to go track down the King of the Hobos, because that sounds like a quite fascinating individual. With a nod and a smile, Yoiko heads into the back. At least one skutter comes out immediately, probably Stabb'em, while the rest get another stern talking to about why you don't put small animals in the oven. | |
Enable comment auto-refresher