JULY CATCH-ALL

[aceslow]

Who ⬤ Kim Kitsuragi & YOU
What ⬤ Various July activities! I'll be writing up custom starters throughout the month -- I'd be happy to whip them up for anyone who's interested, so feel free to hmu on plurk or on the CR meme HERE.
When ⬤ Throughout July
Where ⬤ Throughout Jigoku-cho
Content Warnings ⬤ Adult language and subject matter, likely some discussion of the blood rain's traumafest.

Comments

[horrifictie]

[ EMPATHY - "Harry"? Well, look whose in good spirits today. ]

Hello 'bestie'. As the kids say. [ The kids being the yokai teens he has overheard while shopping in Sutoku. It's clearly a term of endearment for your best friend. Harry's ready to waltz in, but he stills his feet only out of a fear of assumption on Kim's mood. ] I have a proposition for you: have you ever built a model?

[ Of course he has, the question is rhetorical, so Harry continues by lifting the bag a little. ]

Because I have two new kits right here in dire need of construction. And it recommends *two people* work on them.

[aceslow]

You're about thirty years too late to be talking like the kids.

[ He will never be forced to talk like the kids again. This is a thought that brings him great joy. What surprises him - though it shouldn't - is the fact that Harry has managed to hone in on something else that brings him great joy, and something he hasn't touched for nearly six months now. Far away are the shameful little collections of model aerostatics and sports vehicles and multirotor planes that clutter the upper shelves of his cheap bookshelves, the special light and magnifying glasses he had gotten specifically to nurture his silly little hobby, replaced with the asceticism of someone trying to save money in a new city.

He can't quite keep the look of surprise from passing across his face, nor his pleasure (which is something that he keeps locked down even more tightly than shock), though he does make a damn fine showing of it. ]

Models...?

[ How did you know? He almost asks, but then thinking back to his nigh religious affection for his vehicle, has to begrudgingly accept that this is not an unfounded hypothesis. ]

Khm. I may have built one or two in my time, yes, [ he says, stepping aside and gesturing for Harry to come inside. ] And the two-person models are expensive.

[ He would have to appear less pleased for it to come across as a proper scolding, but still. Kits like these are pleasures that Kim only rarely allows himself. ]

[horrifictie]

[ VISUAL CALCULUS - Oh, they very much were expensive considering your finances.
VOLITION - It was probably a little too extravagant, even considering the good cause it goes toward.
SAVOIR FAIRE - Yeah, it's no *investment* but that's fine. You can make this model with Kim and smile through the pain of not having any savings. Not that you ever had savings, because savings are for middle class university graduates.
LOGIC - Not even for them. ]

I'm not hearing a 'no'. [ He lets himself in as Kim steps aside, pushing the flat of his foot up to carefully slip out of his loafers. The freed up foot makes the second loafer easier to remove handless. ] We might not have time for both today, but we could probably finish one.

Whaddya say? Order some delivery, build a model, good ol' *non-competitive* bonding time between friends.

[ Non-competitive meaning no one (i.e. Harry) leaves feeling riled up. ]

[aceslow]

All right, all right.

[ As though Harry's forcing him into this, and this isn't exactly the way Kim loves to spend an evening. He's actually never made a two-person model before - he's never had the opportunity of having who wanted to make one with him around and, perhaps more importantly, he never had the patience to walk someone else through it - but the prospect of a model complicated enough to require four hands is a tantalizing prospect. ]

Since you covered the models, I'll cover delivery. Just tell me what you want. [ He debates, in the spirit of honesty, in telling Harry that he's actually doing quite well for himself these days, then immediately decides against it lest the man decides to use that information to try to wheedle him into an investment. He'll pay him back for the models, yes, but he'll choose where and how to spend that money. He walks over to a small plastic container he's hung on the wall by where a phone ought to be hanging where he stores a variety of delivery menus, and spreads them out on the table, right beside where the flowers Harry had bought for him are sitting in the biggest coffee mug Kim owns. He had liberated it from the convenience store one day, and it has a gaudy looking cat mascot on it proclaiming COOL DUDE!

He could read into Harry providing him flowers and models, but chooses not to. Instead, he slides the menus towards Harry and slides the models towards himself, grabbing one of the boxes and sighing with pleasure at the sound of his pocket knife breaking into taut cellophane. One of life's little joys. ]

Think you've ever made one of these before?

[horrifictie]

I don't *think* so - nothing is coming to mind anyway.

[ Sometimes his jumbled up broken brain tells him things and sometimes it doesn't. He's still working out his mother's name for example. The other day he scrolled through a list of common women's names, hoping one would stir a memory. Then *her* name appeared under D and he quickly turned off the screen, a vain hope that he could erase the sudden shock that overcame him. He had two drinks that night.

He begins to quickly flip through the takeout menus, waiting for spontaneity to strike and dictate his decision, and makes the call: ] Let's get Chinese. The noodle dishes are a banger.

[ More slang from the youth. He looks down the menu, his eyes flitting between it and the mug vase of the flowers he bartered with Aerith for, then offers it to Kim once his decision is made. ]

We might want to order extra. This could take a while.

[aceslow]

[ Kim utters a quiet groan. ] You've been spending time with juveniles again, haven't you? They think everything is a 'banger'.

[ You can hear the apostrophe marks. He also, very specifically, does not look at the flowers. They have brightened up his apartment in a big way and he has appreciated sitting in their company more than he'll let on, but for the time being, he is pretending that they do not exist. ]

I'll order enough for us to have plenty of leftovers.

[ He's come in some money recently. He's gotten to loosen his pursestrings. Food always seems like a worthy sacrifice for his hard earned dollars. He slides a pair of scissors (sharp, well taken care of) towards Harry to open up one of the kits while he punches the number into the phone and does the dubious job of ordering take-out specifically to his tastes, which by and large means the most inauthentic options available to them. It's for the most part food covered in massive amounts of sodium and sticky-sweet thick coatings, but in a nod to their collective health and their shared attribute of not-getting-any-younger, makes sure to order a fair share of vegetables to bully both himself and Harry into eating as well.

With that task done, he approaches the models with more enthusiasm than he truly means to let on, picking up the box and revolving it slowly in his hands to read the fine print, all of the wonderful details and doodads that the kit has inside, and whistles lowly as he looks over the intimidating list of components. ]

They weren't kidding about this being a two-person kit. You chose quite the model to be your first. [ Lucky for Harry -- he has an extremely experienced guide. ] If I had some supplies from home...

[ His magnifying glass, the table he has set aside specifically for his hobbies, the tiny brush set and the model paints, the tweezers, the nice scissors, the steel wool he uses to make things look weathered. He doesn't even mean to mention it, and will not again; he's rightfully embarrassed by how much he's invested in this hobby over the years. He clears his throat. ]

Let's get started on this one, shall we? [ With a quirk of his mouth: ] I'll even let you punch out the pieces. If you do it carefully.

[horrifictie]

[ INTERFACING - As magnanimous an offer that is, you don't really trust your *bulky* fingers to give this the care it needs.
SUGGESTION - Also, he'd really like to do it himself. You know this about him. ]

Your trust in me is appreciated, but you can have the honor.

[ He quirks his mouth back with the chirp, by no means possessive of these kits. The final product won't matter to him as much as spending time with Kim. He plans to let his buddy have them for display, knowing they will be better cared for here than in his constant post-tornado destruction dwelling.

The first kit is a very large boat and that's the only way Harry can think to describe it. When he saw it his mind leapt to Joyce, her richer-than-thou jetty absolutely puny in comparison. In his minds eye there are a group of two dozen sailors setting out to sea, the harbor growing smaller and smaller as they venture into the blue yonder, working tirelessly on all their preparations even when they are in the middle of the ocean. Then, in the distance, they see it: the colorless thin smog that cuts off their world from the next. Together they kneel down and perform their Volta ritual. It's their only hope of coming out the other side with their minds intact. Even if not, they take comfort knowing the Crown will compensate their families handsomely for their service.

Harry finds the radio and turns it on before settling at the dining table, stretching out his back once seated. The little machine hums to life with the sound of soft lute music. ]

[aceslow]

If you say so.

[ The radio, already set to the frequency that Kim had it set to last - nothing too exciting; just some tame station that he'd had playing last night while he finished his crossword puzzles - fills what silence remained beyond the natural hum and buzz of the apartment building. Good thing, too. As Kim opens up the box, he seems to forget his manners entirely. In lieu of entertaining his guest who had kindly spent a great deal of money on this gift, he becomes quickly absorbed in the instruction manual, brows rising steadily as he flips through its many, many pages. This is a project that will take more than a single sitting. Even for projects at home, he tends to put aside at least an hour a week, pecking away at them over a course of months until he has a product to show for it.

He usually doesn't build ships, more interested in the automobile side of affairs, but he looks at the model with a familiar sort of fondness. This ship is far more beautiful than the ones he's used to, but even at his big age, he sometimes walks down the harbour in the morning and marvels at the massive machines, Paleriders heading into the city for some well-deserved rest, the rest of the crew taking over to haul the resources off the ship. The Harbour isn't what anyone would call pleasant, stinking of fish and burning coal, filled with rough-and-tumble workers discontent with their way of life, loud and busy and nothing like the tourist attractions further up the shore, but Kim has always loved watching them. When he had been transferred to the GRIH within his first few years of his career with the RCM, he had managed to shake off his disappointment at not being placed at somewhere more central to the city with the rationale that he would get to move to the Harbour where he could watch them as much as he liked. He understands them less than ground-dwelling machines, but they're spectacular nonetheless. He has always had more of an affinity with things than he ever has with people.

He realizes belatedly that he hasn't spoken for some time, and he jerks his head up with a small smile. ] This is really cool, [ he says earnestly. ] You have to tie your own rigging and everything. Thank you, Harry. This was very thoughtful of you.

[ He knows this was largely for his own benefit. If Harry just wanted to spend time with him, they could have easily done any number of things. ]