[01 | voice, Japanese]
Dec. 29th, 2009 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceiling_cat...Well, now, that's funny.
I could've sworn I was back in Shibuya for a couple seconds there. Guess my mind was playin' tricks on me. That lovely lakeshore sure isn't anything I'd expect in Tokyo.
Sure isn't anything I'd expect in my apartment, either, and I recognize this little note they left me.
Hey there, Discedo.
Lemme guess - it's been a while?
I'd appreciate somebody fillin' me in while I make my way back to less soggy ground. Just how long has it been? Seems a bit colder than the last time I was here.
By the way, if anyone listenin' to this thing has a hand on the controls of whatever you use to drag us here, leave me a bit longer next time, won't ya? I could've grabbed a bag of beans.
I could've sworn I was back in Shibuya for a couple seconds there. Guess my mind was playin' tricks on me. That lovely lakeshore sure isn't anything I'd expect in Tokyo.
Sure isn't anything I'd expect in my apartment, either, and I recognize this little note they left me.
Hey there, Discedo.
Lemme guess - it's been a while?
I'd appreciate somebody fillin' me in while I make my way back to less soggy ground. Just how long has it been? Seems a bit colder than the last time I was here.
By the way, if anyone listenin' to this thing has a hand on the controls of whatever you use to drag us here, leave me a bit longer next time, won't ya? I could've grabbed a bag of beans.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 09:39 am (UTC)[Hanekoma turned a cool look on the kid. Lean or no lean, Neku looked tense.]
Sounds like he told you quite a lot, Phones. Why don't you pick up where you left off?
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 09:43 am (UTC)You helped make the Taboo Noise, you tried to get the Grim Heaper to kill him, and you're an Angel. That's all he told me.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 09:50 am (UTC)[He swept a glance around the room. Almost the same as the last time he'd seen it. Joshua was conspicuously absent. He wasn't going to take ten years to show up, though. Hanekoma would drag him out of his rathole by the collar if he tried.]
[Gaze sweeping back over Neku and away, Hanekoma crossed to the couch. Sat down, ankles crossed, arms akimbo. It wasn't Phones's fault, after all. And if it became an issue back in Shibuya... well, erasing a few memories wasn't hard.]
Tell me why you're telling me this.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 09:52 am (UTC)[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 09:56 am (UTC)[He leaned back, watching Neku through half-slitted eyes. How strange not to know what the response would be. He had a few educated guesses, and yet....]
[Made it more exciting.]
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 10:03 am (UTC)[That's what Neku had thought, yet he still hadn't no idea how to respond. If it came to Josh and Shibuya... okay, no, he hadn't been able to put Shibuya before Josh. But that was only because--and shouldn't--ugh. That was the worst part of Mr. H's statement: he couldn't argue with it. Someone had to look out for Shibuya's interests. Someone besides Joshua, whose whims seemed pretty volatile at the best of times. But... still. Yeah. Still.]
[Neku stayed silent, just staring.]
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 10:13 am (UTC)Sound too cold for you?
[Neku hadn't been able to fire, after all, despite all of Joshua's provocation. And it didn't look like he knew how to come to terms with the idea that Hanekoma'd pulled a metaphorical trigger.]
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 10:22 am (UTC)...I don't think what you did was wrong. [He paused. Swallowed again. Still didn't meet Mr. H's eye.] ...But I don't know if it was right, either. Josh... doesn't seem to mind. [And he didn't understand that, but whatever.] I think I do. More than he does.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 10:36 am (UTC)[Not what Neku had meant, of course. He kept watching the boy. A bit of prodding might reignite that anger he'd felt earlier; or it might just put him lower.]
There a reason why you mind so much, Phones?
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 10:40 am (UTC)[He dropped his voice to a mutter, realizing Mr. H probably didn't have a clue what had happened while he'd been gone. Hell, it had been weeks, and it was still pretty damn surreal to Neku.]
You missed a lot, okay?
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 10:58 am (UTC)[Eyebrows soared. "A lot," huh. Maybe it hadn't been just the bits about Angels and Taboo Noise that Joshua had been telling the kid. A moment of very thoughtful silence indeed, and the corners of his mouth curled up with amusement.]
Isn't that interestin'.
[He uncrossed his ankles, getting more comfortable. He wasn't going to be getting anything useful out of Joshua, which meant he'd have to tread lightly here. A little honesty couldn't hurt.]
...You know, Neku, arranging for the best Composer comes with my job. I've never done it that way before, but I've also never known a Composer strong and stubborn enough to take the whole district with him when he stagnated in the position.
Setting Minamimoto up to go after Joshua.... It was a long shot, but I thought it was the only chance for Shibuya to stay in one piece.
Not my best call.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:07 am (UTC)[Not that that made any more sense to Neku than it had a few weeks ago. He was trying to wrap his mind around it, when he wasn't avoiding thinking about it altogether.]
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:17 am (UTC)It wasn't. That's where I screwed up, Phones; I didn't expect Josh to change.
[He waved a hand at the other end of the couch.] Quit lurkin' over there, you're going to give me a cramp in the neck.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:19 am (UTC)[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:21 am (UTC)If he hadn't changed, you wouldn't be sitting there.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:24 am (UTC)Guess not.
[He leaned back, crossing his arms, and considered asking what had really been bothering him for a while.]
...Do you think it's going to happen again?
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:37 am (UTC)[If he were putting money down on it, though, he'd know which side to bet on. Especially given whatever it was that had been going on in the last three months. Looking back at Neku, he smiled.]
Ya know, Neku, the district reflects the Composer. Shibuya was goin' downhill a month ago back home - stagnating, bad enough that Josh thought destroying it would be better than letting it fall apart.
After the Game, it was the best possible Shibuya that could be.
Can't say if it'll happen again. But the odds are pretty low.
[And he would be alert to it if things threatened to deteriorate again.]
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:41 am (UTC)[Muttering.] If you say so. [It was still hard to believe that Joshua could have changed that much. Especially because of...]
Josh didn't seem as confident. It came up a while back. He didn't seem convinced that anything had changed.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:44 am (UTC)[Joshua had said that? The trade secrets were sounding less and less important by comparison. Who would've thought?]
[Well, he'd had a hunch, but he hadn't had faith in it.]
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:48 am (UTC)[If it happened again, would he know? Could he stop it? Probably not, and that was the scary part. And if Mr. H had to stop it, Joshua would probably end up dead.]
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:50 am (UTC)[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:53 am (UTC)...You have a place to stay?
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:55 am (UTC)[He glanced thoughtfully at the door.] Anyplace empty on this hall? Not that I mind walkin', but it'd be convenient.
[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 11:58 am (UTC)[commentlog]
Date: 2009-12-29 12:01 pm (UTC)[He paused, glancing over at the boy again. Neku looked calmer; but....]
Anythin' else you wanted to ask me?
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