[closed] we assure you our intentions are entirely honorable

[precludes]

Date & Time: This weekend! Morning-ish? Before the Dan starts setting up to recruit baby members, at any rate.
Location: On the streets of this fine city! Locations to possibly change?
Characters: Oriko Mikuni (precludes) and Shuuya Kano (user name=duplicitoussight>)
Summary: Oriko doesn't have time for this trolling business. Kano didn't get the memo.
Warnings: Rudeness and sniping.

In the wake of seeing what this month will bring her, Oriko is in a state of agitation and constantly, constantly revising her plans.

She intends on using the busyness to her advantage, relying on the anonymity that comes with a teeming city. Today, this consisted of leaving the (empty, to her benefit) apartment early, forgoing her usual red umbrella for something more subdued. She's wearing the shades of the city. It would make her look meek and unassuming if not for the purpose with which she walks through town.

Just hanging up her communicator as she leaves the Hold, she's not having any particular trouble weaving through the crowds, dodging loose rubble in the street and ducking under awnings to avoid the rain where possible.

It's in trying to reconcile her thoughts with the information of an upcoming roadblock that causes her, in great frustration, to end up helping someone else (and she would never turn down an Exile - to do so would be counterintuitive) clean up a spilled grocery bag.

There are cans rolling away further than she can reach, and, already pressed for time, Oirko lets out a frustrated sigh, a good grief under her breath.

"Excuse me?" she asks she nearest passerby. "Could I make a brief imposition? Before you end up kicking them, would you please pick those up?"

Comments

[duplicitoussight]

Kano, with his nondescript black hoodie and fake smile, fits into the city just fine as one of the more shady citizens at first glance. It doesn't bother him at all. With a spring in his step he roams the streets as he usually does in his spare time, stopping occasionally to chat with a storekeeper he recognizes. It's after he's ended one of these chats that he notices a girl talking to him and the cans rolling off.

Despite what she said, he sticks a foot out. Fortunately, he doesn't kick the can, but he does stop it with his boot. Bending down, he picks it up, tossing it over to her.

"Ah, you look like you've caused yourself a small mess."

[precludes]

Her reflexes are quick enough that Oriko has no problem catching the can, putting in the necessary displays of looking up at it - normal performances. There are a lot of appearances necessary for blending in.

"I'm only helping." It's rarely ever her mess; she's always more inclined to cleaning up existing problems.

That looks like the last of it. She comes out of her crouch, hands dusting across her knees to tidy them up.

"Thank you for your assistance. I'm sure we would have been in far more trouble if they'd gotten away from us.

"Then, there's always some trouble to be had around this time of month."

[duplicitoussight]

Kano tucks a hand into his pocket, grinning easily. He responds with a joking tone, shrugging his shoulders. "It's no problem, no problem at all. Helping a cute girl is what any guy'd do! It wouldn't be very chivalrous of me to refuse after being asked to help. I'd come off as the bad guy."

[precludes]

"Oh, my, even wearing this? I'm flattered."

His conversational compliments have little visible effect on her, for little reason other than that Oriko has perfected the neutral smile. She's no stranger to compliments, either.

"You've certainly done nothing to make me think you the bad guy." Little does she know. "Is that a common problem you've found?"

[duplicitoussight]

That question makes Kano laugh. He shouldn't, really, since that'll give the girl the wrong idea! But it's goodnaturedly--he's used to this routine by now and he plays innocent, shaking his head and sighing.

"Me? No way, no way. A gentleman like me treats everyone with utmost respect~ Otherwise I'd be a creepy jerk, wouldn't I?"

[precludes]

"A creepy jerk?" Her expression widens slightly, a well-practiced social surprise. "How pejorative. I couldn't make such accusations baselessly."

There's a certain amount of suspicion that denial often encourages, but that's not an accusation Oriko would level out loud either. Her hands still tucked halfway into the sleeves of her jacket, she folds her fingers together in front of her.

"I don't believe we've met before, so consider this impression part of a new page."

[duplicitoussight]

"Well, I hope I'm making the best impression right now." So saying, he claps his hands together. "After all, it wouldn't do well for me to mess up a great encounter like this!"

This girl with her way of speaking really seemed like the formal type. In that case, he should be just as formal, right? He gestures to himself, a flourishing move as if he's putting on some sort of show instead of just giving a casual introduction.

"In any case, would it be rude to ask for your name?"

[precludes]

"Certainly there have been worse meetings of chance." She's had her fair share, here.

There's a slip of privacy Oriko would rather retain by not giving her name first. It's a small sacrifice of vulnerability. She pauses for a moment, brief as it is, to weigh it out, using it to react to his flourish (it's too much, really; she chuckle softly).

"Not at all. I am Oriko Mikuni," she says, placing one hand to her chest with the fingers fanned out. "And you are...?"

[duplicitoussight]

"It's a pleasure, a real pleasure." He dips his head slightly, spreading out his hands. "You can call me Kano. Pretty easy to remember."

[precludes]

Familiar name...

"Kano-san, then. A pleasure, indeed. I won't forget it." He might have just stepped on a can and kept on walking, after all. Things like this, as little as they are, can be hard to forget. The woman she'd been helping probably would have looked at her with the same scorn before leaving; Oriko's used to these looks and doesn't seem to pay it any attention, as if she hasn't even noticed. "What is it that brought you out here?"

[duplicitoussight]

"It's a habit of mine to go wherever I feel like it." He says it with a shrug, glancing over at the woman as she leaves. Ah. So despite the help, the natives around here still treated them with suspicion. It stings a little, even if it isn't directed at him. But Kano doesn't let it show on his face.

"You know, if someone wants to be an excellent photographer, they've got to get up and look for great shots~!"

[precludes]

"Certainly, honor your freedom where you can." On this prison colony, whatever they can get should be worth it, shouldn't it?

It should and does cause some insult, in its way, being turned on. But Oriko understands how things come to this, how culpability spreads out from the center and radiates.

"Oh? Is that what you're interested in? photography?"

[duplicitoussight]

"Staying in all day is boring, super boring." Kano dismisses it with that casual statement, as if living in Exsilium's just as normal as living in any other city.

... in a way, though, hadn't it? The months spent here have made it feel almost like a second home. And with Ayano and the rest of the Dan here... it made him wonder if it'd really be that bad to stay.

"Yup, correct. You want to help me with some shots?"

[precludes]

She'd shut herself away for such a time before she'd made her contract, when the world had seemed to put its back to her. It's a hard inclination to fight even now.

Regardless, her life there is over, and if this city is not quite home then at least it's all she has to look forward to - home by convenience.

Oriko touches the first knuckle of her index finger to her lip, catching it slightly in thought. But she's sure to take her hand away before speaking.

"Help you? I suppose I'd need to know what's being asked of me before I agree to anything." As, her tone hints, a precaution. "It would be egotistical to assume you need a model."

[duplicitoussight]

"In that case, you should be flattered that I'm asking you! You have the cute looks for it." Kano doesn't mean it seriously, of course. But that's up for her to interpret however she likes. "Anyway, anyway, you wouldn't have to pose or anything. I usually just take pictures of whatever catches my eye~ Ah, what I'm trying to say, I guess, is that I'm inviting you to hang out with me."

[precludes]

Oriko chuckles. "So it should be."

This is, frankly, one of the first times she's gotten such a request, and one unrelated to her father's work. A shame it's come from him, this man surrounded by her eerie suspicion.

"You're very direct," she says with a smile. "I don't see why not, in that case. I can't turn down such a request." But not for long, she thinks. Too much and it's a waste of time.

[duplicitoussight]

He expects her to turn it down, laugh it off or any of those things. Her response is a small surprise but he takes it in stride, hiding it with his smile. It's just as fine this way--chattering with new people and getting to know them... not to mention something to mention to Kido later--Kano enjoys it. There is, after all, nothing but time to kill in Exsilium.

"Uwah, a day with Oriko-chan~! I feel like a lucky guy, a real lucky guy!"

[precludes]

Good lord that's enough to make her recoil. Oriko's eye twitches; she cloaks it with a brush of her finger along her temple.

He's gone too far, her expression implies, somewhere between unimpressed and scowling. This is not the first time he's made her feel so humorless

"Now. Let's not get carried away."

[duplicitoussight]

It's something he expected. With a grin, he dips his head.

"Sorry, sorry! I'm just a reeeal excitable person, y'know?"

[precludes]

Good grief...

Excitable natures aren't familiar to her, but often the things that make one person very endearing make others seem insufferable. Was this on purpose? Traps aren't worth falling into. Oriko chuckles, neutrally.

"You seem like a man who gets very attached to ideas once he has them. Are you very passionate?"

[duplicitoussight]

He understands that he must be getting on her nerves a bit. It's not something that bothers Kano--his act, after all, was meant to be grating and annoying--but he makes a note to dial it down just a tad.

Kano shrugs in response to her question. "I might be. Ah, out of my friends, I'm not the stubbornest. But you can say that I'm one of the loudest, for sure!"

[precludes]

Yes, she's no stranger to this kind of deception, either the way people perform, these little sorts of lies.

But then, it would make sense; if he's one kind of liar then

"Which do you find wins out, in the end? Being very loud or being very stubborn?" She brushes back the collar of her sweatshirt enough to disclose just a little more of her face.

[duplicitoussight]

Kano shrugs, his grin growing a bit. "I find that it's a mixture of both. It balances out for me quite well."

[precludes]

"I suppose that kind of moderation keeps things obfuscated. You don't have to commit to anything with any certainty, when things are so vague."

It's childish, though she'd never admit that, to so obliquely send out her jabs. She does try not to hold grudges, or to be spiteful.

[duplicitoussight]

That answer makes him laugh. While it's true of his attitude, hearing it so bluntly laid out bothers him a tad. "Life's easier that way, isn't it? Ah, I'm just a teenage boy with nothing in his head! It's easier not to commit~ But what about you? Judging by your demeanor, you're probably someone a looot more responsible."

[precludes]

Wouldn't it be insulting to think of all young men like that?

"I suppose I've had the opportunity to take on several responsibilities." The opportunity, she's sure to say, because that's what it's all built up to, every horrible thing and those not so horrible. "I suppose I've grown used to it, especially in a place like this."