So a U.R.T.V. walks into a burger joint

[sayonara_baby]

Date & Time: Jan 5 eveningish.
Location: One of the restaurants, Transport housing.
Characters: Jr. and OPEN
Summary: Jr. tries out Exsilium's burgers and its housing.
Warnings: None at this time.

[#1 Chowing down at a burger joint]
At this point, Jr. was getting kind of peckish, so he moseyed himself on down to one of the restaurants and took a seat. And after a brief look at an admittedly-kind-of-oddball menu, he chose the burger, figuring it was the hardest to screw up. What he got about fifteen minutes later was a beefy monstrosity slathered with mole and peppers, with what looked like bacon tenpura and peanut butter on the side. Jr. looked quizzically up at the the server, but there was no help to be found there -- apparently, this was normal.

So he took a bite instead, and was mildly surprised to find that the sauce tasted like chocolate. "Not too bad," he said through his mouthful of chocolate burger.

[#2 On his way to unit 708]
After the meal, he figured it was about time to go home. So he wandered on down to Transport housing, made his way to room 708, and stuck his head inside. It was definitely... white. Yeah, that seemed to be the predominant theme. But what was with all this goofy furniture? Clearly whoever decorated here had not shared his own tastes in interior decorating.

He rapped smartly on the wall, so as not to risk walking in on any awkward situations. "Hey, anyone in here?"

Did he have the place to himself or what?

Comments

#2

[marked_for_death]

Elza could be spotted on his way to the unit building. The crisp-white hood obscured her features as she stood silently out within the rain. While the gunner was aware of her surroundings, the two pistols stationed around her hip continued to be a persistent distraction.

She saw the movement of the child through the streets, but knew well that whoever the boy was, wasn't the focus of the disturbance. Mond and Stern, hidden within the folds of her white cloak, quietly sang out with their requiem within her mind. Slipping one hand to the butt of her pistols, she palmed her hand over the edge in an attempt to soothe their cries.

That didn't stop her from sighting the holster wrapped around the kid's waist, and with a slender brow raising, she regarded him with a curious smile. "Hey, kid," she called out. "Are you any good with those?"

Re: #2

[sayonara_baby]

Jr. turned, took in the way Elza was palming the butt of what had to be a sidearm (had to be!), and gave her a cheeky little smile. "Pretty good," he said. Not to toot his own horn or anything. No, certainly not.

He wondered where she'd gotten that scar. Not a typical gunshot wound, that was for sure; if she'd taken a bullet straight on, the scar would've been rounder. Also, she probably would've needed some reconstructive surgery. Or a casket, depending on where it hit. Nanosurgery could do wonders these days, but it definitely couldn't compensate for massive, sudden trauma to the central nervous system.

"What about you, miss? Looks like you're a fan of firearms yourself."

[marked_for_death]

The small cheeky smile had her huffing lightly in amusement. She'd seen many kids with a similar outlook back in her realm, even if it lacked within the Tower. The kid was either a fool or had some skill when it came to the guns at his side.

"I can hold my own," Elza murmured in return. Unlike the kid in front of her, she downplayed her own skill with the weapons. There was only one other in this world who knew who and what she was, and Nash wasn't about to leak such sensitive information. No, he wouldn't dare considering the amount of information she had on him in return.

Withdrawing her hand from the folds of her cloak, she lightly gestured towards the firearm at his side. "May I?"

[sayonara_baby]

Jr. had to think about that one for a second. On one hand, she didn't seem like she was going to start firing into the crowd (and even if she did, why wouldn't she use her own guns?). On the other hand, he was pretty attached to them, and he wasn't too crazy about being without one or the other.

"Tell you what," he said. "I'll let you look at mine if you let me see yours." That seemed like a fair enough deal to him.

[marked_for_death]

She was watching for his reactions from her question. Every subtle movement was noticed, along with the hesitation witnessed within the pause of his reply. His reaction told her far more than he probably realised, and she felt her lips quirk up into the beginnings of an amused smile in return.

The caution that he had meant that the kid was far from foolish. That was at least something within Elza's mind.

"Heh, you drive a hard bargain, kid," she muttered before reaching back push aside the folds of her cloak to reveal the single pistol resting in its holster against her hip. While Mond was on display, Stern remained hidden against the small of her back. She made no move to withdraw the weapon though.

[sayonara_baby]

"Learned from the best!" Jr. unholstered one of the Makarovs and held it out, butt first, toward Elza. No point in playing who-holds-the-gun-out-first chicken. Besides, he was curious.

Speaking of which, he hoped Gaignun wasn't freaking out right now. "Be careful with it, okay? It was a gift, and they kinda cost a lot of money where I'm from." Even if they were more common here. He'd even spotted one in the armory, but of course that one wouldn't have had the same sentimental value.

[marked_for_death]

His enthusiasm was somewhat refreshing, and she watched as one of the guns was withdrawn and offered out towards her. They were strange in appearance, and she couldn't help but take note of how plain it was. Although she supposed that she'd grown used to the matching designs on Mond and Stern.

Reaching out, she plucked the weapon from his hand with her left. Her right hand, however, slipped down to pull Mond from the holster against her hip before flipping it over to hold the pistol within her palm in an offer of exchange. She doubted he'd be foolish enough to try stealing it, and even with the knowledge that it would magically return to her, the gunner wouldn't hesitate in slipping poison into some food he consumed as retribution.

Just by the way she handled the weapon, it was obvious that she held skill, even if the weapon was far more advanced than her own. "You've nothing to worry about, kid," she muttered while testing the weight of it in her hand. The balance and distribution of weight was different than her own pistols, but as she turned to the side of him and aimed the gun down the street, she could easily feel herself adjusting and compensating to the feel of the weapon. "Anyone can buy them in your realm?"

The guns around her hip seemed to protest the fact that she was holding another in their place, but the gunner ignored their cries for now.

[sayonara_baby]

Jr. hefted the gun in his hand, checking its balance. "Not exactly. These are antiques, so you can't just find 'em lying around any more. Plus, most people these days use energy weapons." Not to mention the fact that Old Jerusalem was now completely MIA. "Anyway, a friend of mine picked them up at a special auction."

He spun the pistol about by the trigger guard with a little flourish, then snapped its grip back home against his folded palm. "What about you? This a custom job?"

[marked_for_death]

While her gaze was on the weapon of his in her hand, Elza's attention never once left Mond held within his own. His story was of little interest to her, except for the fact that it appeared as though guns were common place by the sounds of it. That was an interesting thought to consider. "What are energy weapons?"

There was no shame in asking questions. How was one to find out information if they didn't ask?

"One can say that," Elza murmured before bringing the gun back in towards her and offering it back. While there was some curiosity to fire it, the gunner knew that it wouldn't be the same. She had been with the twins for so long now that the draw of another weapon simply didn't pull at her. "I like mine better, kid."

2

[failtsuninari]

Tenjou was catching up on the news on his tablet when he heard someone at the door. Wait, was that a kid's voice? He got up from his seat and opened the door. He blinked at Rubedo un mild surprise. Huh, it was a kid or at least looked like one. From his work experience, he knew better than to take everything at face value.

"Yes? How can I help you? "

Re: 2

[sayonara_baby]

"I'm your new roommate!" said Jr., sticking out his hand for a shake. "Or that's what they told me, anyway. Gaignun Kukai, Jr. Nice to meet ya."

This guy didn't look too bad. At the very least, he wasn't being overtly hostile.

[failtsuninari]

He gave a polite smile and shook the outstretched hand. Kid does have manners and that seemed very promising. "Ah, I see. Nice to meet you and call me Tenjou. Welcome and make yourself at home," he moved out of the way for his new roommate to come inside. The place was rather clean save for some obvious patch up work on one of the walls.

"Our other roommate is out at the moment. Priad can....be a bit difficult at times. " He glanced at the work on the wall but changed the subject. "Right. Your bedroom is over there," he pointed to one of the rooms. "Today's my day off by the way so feel free to ask me anything."

[sayonara_baby]

"Tenjou. Got it. You can just call me Jr., if you want. My name's kind of a mouthful, anyway." He stepped in, taking a little look around. Then he followed Tenjou's gaze over to the patch job.

"Difficult. Right." Mental note: Ask about wall incident.

"Well, as long as you're offering... you've been here for longer than I have, right? What do you think about this whole Initiative? Are they telling the truth?" He paused. "Oh yeah, and how long have you been here? Weeks? Months?"

[failtsuninari]

"Jr., sure thing. And I've been here for a few months now actually but I heard there have been people staying here longer than I have. C'mon, have a seat," he motioned to the couch and the table where his tablet was.

"As for what I think..." Tenjou gave a sigh. "It's hard to say without being able see what's happening in our worlds but I give them the benefit of the doubt. That being said, the sooner we take care of what they want, the sooner we can go home if we chose to."

[sayonara_baby]

"I was kind of thinking the same thing," said Jr., making himself right at home on the couch. He propped his feet up on the table for good measure. "But you know, I'm not sure how I feel about changing the past just because someone else says it's gonna help. How do they know it's going to help instead of make things worse? Assuming they really are doing what they claim."

He sighed. "And I'm not really crazy about spending months here, either, obviously. Say, anyone around here working on securing some proof to back up the Initiative's story?"

[failtsuninari]

"I've only participated in one such mission, so you might want to ask any of the ones who've been here longer than I have about that. The idea of time-traveling sabotage doesn'tsit too well with me either. It's one of the bigger taboos anyone can commit in my world." He's seen gods of fate and destiny going on a rampage because someone wanted to mess with time. It was not a pretty sight to say the least.

Tenjou tapped his chin in thought. "Hmm...there might be but I'd have to scour through the older entries made in the network. Wonder if I can pull up anything with my new job."

[sayonara_baby]

"Nah, don't bother," Jr. said, waving his hand. "I don't even know how the encryption algorithms work here, so for all I know, they could've gone back and tampered with the records. I was kind of hoping for some firsthand accounts or something, but it's okay if you don't have any." He hadn't, after all, expected this to be easy.

"I wouldn't exactly call time travel a taboo where I come from. But you know what they say about good intentions. Guess I'm preaching to the choir, though, right?" He crossed one foot over the other. "You mind telling me about this mission you went on? What'd you have to do?"

[undroppedeaves]

Sam was getting a little more confident with the city, he still never went anywhere too far away from his house but with time the city seemed less muddled and confusing and the lure of trying out some of its food had brought him here.

Now Sam had tried some strange foods but this just looked strange and being rather suspicious of foreign things meant that he spent a while staring at it until the big person at the table next to him spoke.

"Is it really alright?"

[sayonara_baby]

"Whoa!" Jr. whipped around at the sound of Sam's voice; he hadn't been expecting anyone to be watching him eat. Jr. was pretty short -- he topped out at around 4'7" -- but this guy was even shorter. So apparently, Jr. was going to have to look down when he addressed Sam. For once.

"Yeah, I had my doubts, I gotta admit," he said, recovering quickly. "Never thought chocolate would go with beef. But it's not really that sweet or anything, so it's okay. Besides, I figure just about everything on the menu is going to be a little weird."

[undroppedeaves]

For a big person this one wasn't really that big, perhaps the size of a dwarf but without the beard. "What's chocolate? I've never come across that before." Some kind of vegetable perhaps? Something called different between languages, though they all seemed to speaking the common tongue.

"It does seem odd that's for sure, there are many things I don't recognise."

[sayonara_baby]

"Seriously?" Wow, clearly this guy didn't know what he was missing and Jr. had to fix that right now. "Take a seat and I'll order us both some ice cream!" He motioned toward the waitress to get her attention.

Dessert during a meal, dessert after a meal -- what was the difference?

[undroppedeaves]

"Ice cream?" Sam sounded a little suspicious, foreign food was still something strange to him. But he sat since the big person was ordering and it would be rude not to.

[sayonara_baby]

In short order, the waitress brought over two chocolate sundaes, covered with generous toppings and finished off by brightly-colored marachino cherries.

Jr. dug his spoon into the whipped cream of his sundae. "It's a cold dessert made from dairy. Trust me, you have totally been missing out."

[undroppedeaves]

Wow, that looked interesting. Sam thanked the waitress with a smile and followed the boys example putting some onto his spoon and from there into his mouth.

He winced, when he had been cold he hadn't expected this cold. But apart from the sudden numbness in his mouth it tasted good. Very good.

[sayonara_baby]

Jr. gave Sam a grin. "It's good, right?" He didn't always indulge himself in desserts like this, but hey, while he was here, he might as well.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. You can just call me Jr. I'm kinda new here -- guess you are, too?" He dug his spoon in for another bite. Mm. Chocolate.