Prompt Post No. 5
* * * Round 5 is now closed to new prompts. * * *
Welcome to Round 5 of the Inception Kink Meme. This post will be closed to new prompts once it reaches three thousand comments. Also, please check our updated rules.
( Rules... )
Welcome to Round 5 of the Inception Kink Meme. This post will be closed to new prompts once it reaches three thousand comments. Also, please check our updated rules.
( Rules... )
"This is it."
"This can't be it."
The white towncar slowed to a stop in front of a dim, water-stained storefront in a row where most of the other shops had been boarded up. The sign, to those able to read obscure kanji, proclaimed it to be The Institute for the Study of Cosmological Harmonics. Robert couldn't even see past the grime.
"Explain to me again," said Robert, "why we need your Psychic Phone Friend's permission to get married?"
"A concession to tradition." Saito gave him a tight-lipped smile. "And Mr. Wada is the most reputable man in his line of business. He even works for the government, on occasion. Do you remember when the Prime Minister refused an audience with the President of the United States?"
"I got tired of hearing talk show hosts make jokes about it, yes."
"He did so on Wada's advice."
Inside, The Institute was even less promising than it had looked from the outside. Its walls were lined with bookshelves, but the books themselves were anywhere but: spread open on collapsible card tables, flung over the arms of mismatched chairs, stacked in piles on the floor. The scent of mildew mingled with cheap air-fresheners and stale coffee. Behind a counter, an unshaven man in thick glasses sat, smoking and reading a gossip magazine. He didn't look up when they came in.
"Wada-sama," said Saito. He bowed, even if it was only slightly.
"Ah, Mamoru. You're late."
If that man was indeed Fumio Wada, he didn't look like a wielder of arcane power. He looked like a post office clerk. Robert crossed his arms and didn't step closer until Saito took his arm and gently tugged him.
"And this is your intended, I presume." Wada removed his glasses, wiped them on his shirt, and put them back on to take a closer look at Robert. He frowned. "You said he was born in November, Mamoru?"
"You saw his birth certificate."
"You showed him a copy of my birth certificate?" said Robert. " -- And good evening, Mr. Wada; it's a pleasure, I'm sure."
He didn't look fazed by Robert's sarcasm. "If I don't have the accurate date of birth, it's all pointless. Would have never thought you could be a Water sign just by looking at you, though." Wada shook his head. "Those eyes. All Air, if you ask me."
"Mr. Fischer has many dimensions to his personality. Most are not readily apparent," said Satio, patting Robert's shoulder. "I am sure you can appreciate that."
"Certainly. You might as well come in, then; we've got much to do."
Wada ushered them past the counter and into his office, if it could be called that. There was a unmade cot in one corner of the room, and a hot plate with a collection of canned food stacked beside it.
"If he's famous," Robert whispered, although he didn't particularly care if Wada overheard him or not, "then why is his office such a dump?"
Saito shrugged. "Mr. Wada has many clients besides myself who would be willing to provide him with a more comfortable working space, but he refuses -- "
"'Comfortable.' It's not the nature of the liminal spaces to be comfortable," he said. He tossed his cigarette butt into his empty glass of soda, and lit a new one. "I work here because I can't work anywhere else." He knocked an armload of books from the table, and spread out a large sheet of paper -- some sort of chart -- in their place. Besides being it being in Japanese, and besides it being written in minuscule handwriting, it bore a curious resemblance to an electrical circuit diagram; an maze of inductors and resistors. Still, Robert could recognize the kanji that formed Saito's name in a few places, as well as the katakana he had taught him that spelled his own.
"So." Wada took out a red pen and tapped it a few times against the paper "We are here to select a date."
"And to hear your advice regarding the marriage," said Saito.
"Wait," said Robert. "He gets to choose the date for us?"
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