RP: First Meeting

[tooihi]

Date: December 2518
Characters: Ootori, Shishido
Summary: Ootori is clueless on Persephone, about to get his wallet nicked. Enter Shishido, his knight in beat up old leather.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[nekozame]

A couple of brawlers went ass-over-feet over Shishido's table, and he growled, kicking the extra chair at them and smiling in satisfaction when it hit one of 'em upside the head. The gou cao de bastard deserved it - this bar weren't the most refined place on the world, that was for sure, but Shishido was used to it having a smidge higher standards than this. He figured the usual bartender being out with the clap was having more effect than just sending the idiots dumb enough to order mixed drinks straight into the back alley. Which Shishido was going to be avoiding for awhile, thanks.

The yelling wasn't enough to damage Shishido's calm though - the war'd gotten that out of his system - so instead he focussed his attention out on the street. The friendly thing about Persephone was that the scenery changed all the time - new people to watch, sometimes new ladies to whistle at who you hadn't been slapped by before...and easy marks who ain't never been to an outworld before

[tooihi]

Choutarou was... surprised, was a good word for it. He hadn't noticed anything particularly unpleasant about the man, he was being relatively polite and friendly, but it was quite possible Choutarou had missed something important. He reminded himself that Persephone wasn't Core. He hadn't seem much, really, but he was beginning to realise that things were not necessarily what they seemed. The Core was that way, too, in its way, but it was a different sort of deceit. On Osiris he knew what to look for, on Persephone he had no idea.

Worldly in the Core means something completely different than worldly on the border worlds.

Now that he was faced with a situation in which one of the two men was definitely not trustworthy, he hesitated. His eyes flicked from one man to the other, weighing which one he was going to dare to trust, and he made a decision.

"Not particularly, but I think the conversation just ended." He took a step back. "Thank you for your concern."

[nekozame]

This was going to turn into a staring match. Well, a staring and a crushing match. Neither of them had let go of each other's hands yet, and while Johny had terrifyin' nails with God knows what under 'em, Shishido had leather gloves, and he weren't scared of a little handshake. In fact, when he felt Johny's bones start to creak under his fingers, that only made him squeeze harder, until he saw Johny's grin start to turn sour with pain.

'Kid,' Johny gritted through the pain, 'you'd best watch out for this ni hunqiu - he'll rob you faster'n you can say "pleased ter meetcha"--aah!'

Shishido grinned a bit wider, enjoying the satisfying crunch of bone, and shrugged, glancing back over his shoulder. 'Well, maybe,' he said pleasantly, 'but you already did.' And this said, he plucked the kid's wallet from the folds of Johny's jacket with his free hand, and tossed it back to the kid. 'Put that away somewhere safe,' he said, grin softening just a tad. 'If you want, you can check it first, make sure I haven't taken nothin', but I'd wait til

[tooihi]

Choutarou caught his wallet and sighed. He could hear his best friend's voice in his head, for a genius, you are pretty fucking thick sometimes. At that moment, Choutarou was inclined to agree with the oft-repeated assessment.

"Thank you," he said, tucking the wallet into an inner pocket of his jacket. "I'll keep that in mind." He was studying the man curiously, oddly fascinated by him. "Might I ask your name? I feel odd thanking a nameless rescuer, like a character in a ridiculous story."

[nekozame]

Shishido'd only made it a handful of paces before something, call it his browncoat sense, started to tinglin'. It was the sense of impending doom, and it had Shishido instantly on his guard, body tensing and spinning to drop into a half-crouch even though he was in the middle of the street and folk were lookin' at him weird.

Scanning the street showed nothing of particular dangerousness, but the glimmer of silver caught his eye again, and he looked, only to see that Ootori kid wanderin' around like some sumbich hadn't just tried to rob him only to be thwarted by some other pickpocket who happened to be feeling charitable. The jingcai kid really had no sense of self-preservation at all. Typical Core, really. Shishido was so disgusted by the mere association that he was almost tempted to leave the kid to it.

Only...something stayed his hand. Maybe it was that that'd been the first decent, sober conversation he'd had in months that made more'n a lick of sense. Maybe it was that Ootori'd talked to him like he was a person 'stead of some

[tooihi]

Choutarou blinked at Shishido for a moment. His first thought, stupidly, was You came back, which was so far into the realm of stating the obvious that it didn't even near his lips. But he smiled at the fact that Shishido had come back. Even if it did mean he'd been oblivious to the apparent dangers of Persephone again. He really needed to work on developing a sense for when he was getting himself in trouble, or it would get him killed at some point.

"I'm having difficulty deciding whether this is or is not a good day for me," he said mildly.

[nekozame]

'Don't see how it could be much good,' Shishido replied gruffly, because the kid was smiling, and it wasn't right that a smile like that should make a vet like Shishido go at all googly, even if it was only a bit. Every little bit, after all, was fatal to such things as pride and resolve and that little thing called sanity. 'Well, unless you're talkin' about the fact that you met me, which is a pretty good thing to have happen.'

He grinned toothily, cheerful (and safe) in his facetious cockiness, but something in the kid's eyes made his grin falter, and he cleared his throat, falling into step with Ootori as he tried to regain his footing. 'That is, I suppose Persephone's a nice-enough place, so that could be a good thing, dependin' on how long you've been off-world.'

[tooihi]

"Persephone's like any other place," Choutarou said. "Being here over any other world isn't the best part of my day." He smiled again. He knew he really shouldn't have liked Shishido so much, but he did and he wasn't going to waste time questioning it.

"I was going to be targeted again, wasn't I?" He laughed lightly. "I was heading back in the direction of the ship, too, to avoid that. But I get another conversation with you and I still have my wallet, so it's fine. Between us, there's not much in it, anyway."

[nekozame]

'Public relations,' Shishido repeated flatly, raising his brows. Was this kid for real?

Of course, what concerned him more was the fact that he was actually considering the offer, which was ridiculous, because the last half hour had put him off his game more times than he had been in the last two years, and Shishido was many things, but masochistic he was not. He didn't need work that bad. Granted, it'd be more honest than most of the jobs that were available on Persephone, but being cooped up on a ship again, and with a bunch of jingchang meiyong de Core boys, was just...

No. He wasn't considering this. He absolutely wasn't.

'What sorta stuff do y'all do anyway?'

[tooihi]

Choutarou shrugged one shoulder. "We do a little bit of everything. And everywhere. We're always moving, really. It's an interesting life, that's for sure."

It was hard to tell if Shishido was actually considering what Choutarou was saying, or just letting him talk. But it felt somewhat like progress was being made.

"But if you have an established life here, I certainly understand not wanting to just take off. We've all cut ties, so the constant movement doesn't really matter anymore. The ship's what we have. But it isn't for everyone. A little over a year ago, I would have sworn it wasn't for me."

[nekozame]

Now that...actually sounded promising. Shishido got awful tired of staying in one place, and watching the changing scenery on Persephone weren't the same as actually...changing scenes. Of course, he still didn't know that he liked the idea of seeing the same however many people all day every day, especially on the many-week-long journeys where there was nothing to do, and knowing these Core boys, they prolly played...bridge or something to pass the time, which made Shishido want to throw up in his mouth a bit. But then again...

''S no such thing as an established life on Persephone,' he said dismissively. Which was true, and also offhanded enough to not be any sort of solid answer. Shishido didn't like to commit to anything until he knew exactly what he was doing, and the longer he stalled, the more this kid would tell him.

[tooihi]

"Well, then maybe you'd enjoy coming along with us." Choutarou smiled. "But, as I said, you'd really have to talk to Atobe. I'm just the doctor, he has the ultimate say in just about everything." He folded his arms across his chest again. "But if you think you can handle an incredibly eccentric group of Core boys, and we're an odd lot, you'll probably be welcome."

He looked at the ship for a moment. "Life's strange sometimes isn't it? I never thought I'd end up out here like this."

[nekozame]

Shishido blinked in surprise. Ootori was wearing this shit-eatin' grin that looked friendly enough but also looked pretty damn sure, and Shishido could only think one thing as a result.

'You're awful used to gettin' your way, eh?'

[tooihi]

Choutarou shrugged, still beaming at him. "A product of my upbringing, I suppose. But really this is all in your favour. I could be acting like a lot of the people I knew back on Sihnon and Osiris and ignoring everything you say. But that's rude and obnoxious, not to mention elitist. And I like our conversation too much."

[nekozame]

'You keep sayin' that you like talkin' to me. What does that mean, exactly?'

Suspicion helped. Suspicion meant Shishido was on his guard, so he couldn't be thrown off it so easily. Suspicion kept him distant, analysing the situation, making a well thought out decision before he acted.

Not that he had any plans to act. Really.

[tooihi]

"It means you aren't boring," Choutarou said matter-of-factly. "You're interesting and you may not necessarily tell me very much, but you're genuine. I like people who are real."

He could tell that Shishido was suspicious, but that just made Choutarou that much more determined to convince him that he was trustworthy. There was no real reason why, it was just a challenge. He liked challenges.

[wanderlustrum]

They were only here to refuel, Atobe thought, keeping his back straight and his steps deliberate as he boarded the ship. There was no reason to demonstrate panic in this situation, even if there were shots being fired and a whole score of Alliance officials crawling all over the port. His worry, quite intelligently if you asked him, was that once the Alliance caught the idiots who were foolish enough to attempt to outrun them, there would be a number of Alliance officials wandering about, asking questions and poking their noses where they really should not be. And he had every desire to be gone long before that happened.

'Is everyone aboard?' he called out, looking around. He heard a few affirmatives and a grunt from Hiyoshi, but then someone mentioned Ootori and Atobe gritted his teeth, feeling his eye start to twitch.

'Ootori!' he called a bit louder, addressing the populace at large. 'Please be so kind as to return to your post before you get shot.'

By whom, he left up to Ootori's imagination.

[tooihi]

Choutarou was, as ever, impressed by Atobe's ability to get a single person's attention over any level of chaos.

"I think that's my cue to leave," he said, somewhat breathless from being thrown and partially crushed. He got to his feet with surprising grace and, in a moment of reckless inspiration, grabbed Shishido's arm.

"Come on, let's not get shot in this direction." And he pulled him in the direction of the ship.

[nekozame]

'Huh?' Shishido was a bit flustered, busy looking to see where the guns were and how many Alliance there were, but he went where Ootori tugged him, which was something he'd have to think about later - he only did that when he really trusted someone, and hadn't done it since the war. Right now though, he didn't have time to consider it - Ootori was tugging him quite determinedly, and he didn't have any particular desire to tug himself free, because the alternatives...

'Where are we going?' he hissed as he followed Ootori, still whipping his head around sharply.

[tooihi]

"To where we won't get shot," Choutarou replied, coming up to the ship as he spoke.

He looked up at Atobe and, without releasing Shishido, said, "Sorry to be a bit late. I was having an interesting conversation. This is Shishido." It was all in one breath and he smiled brightly at first Atobe and then Shishido.

"Now that I'm back, is everyone present and uninjured?"