Roleplaying
2004 Archive
2005 Archive
Seminars
| When: | 11 March 2005 |
| Who: | Buichi, Damien, Sandra |
| What: | Damien suspects Buichi of having odd powers of prediction, to which the other man denies. It's simply predicting an obvious outcome. |
360
The area known as simply '360' is probably the richest section of Austin, despite being outside its perimeter highway, with several multi-million dollar residential districts scattered throughout and most especially around Lake Austin. The incredibly fast-growing industries inside the 360 contribute to the affluency of the area. More then a few of Austin's many parks are in this area, providing some very nice views for the rich whose homes overlook them or any traveller who cares to visit.
Buichi is seated on one of the many park benches scattered throughout the area. He appears to be people-watching for the most part and his gaze is constantly scanning the area around him. He also seems to be particuarly interested in the group of young children running about in one area playing some form of dodgeball.
Damien comes out of the front door of one of the nearby high-rises that cater to the well-off and better. There's no doorman, but it's the sort of place where they courtesy-park your Lexus in their special underground parking lot. Instead of asking for his BMW to be brought up out of the garage, instead, he heads over across the street to a nearby park and sits on a bench rather near Buichi as it turns out. He blinks up at the sky for a moment, and then reaches into a jacket pocket and pulls out something small and brown and worn very smooth about the edges by the passage of years. He flips it open -- it's some kind of locket, and gazes at it for a little bit.
A pair of middle-aged women are walking down the pathway towards where Buichi and Damien sit, presumably on their way home if the shopping bags they are carrying are any indication. "This does not bode well," Buichi comments in accented English, though to no one in particular. The children's dodgeball game seems to be in high spirits with the ball flying around to strike other players 'out' in a rapid fashion.
Damien looks up from the locket and gazes at the pair of middle-aged women. He quietly sizes them up -- for what, who knows -- looks around, ponders their shopping bags for a long moment, and then goes back to gazing at the locket in his hand.
Either Buichi has a precognition ability or was simply waiting for the accident to happen, his words were right on the mark. With a trio of surprised childish shouts, the dodgeball goes shooting off the playing area and hits the closer woman dead on the shoulder. This causes her to stumble into her companion and their bags go *everywhere* -- in the air for a short flight, straight to the ground, or to the ground and spewing their contents onto the gravel path.
Damien looks back up at the noise and the mayhem of groceries going everywhere. He flashes Buichi a strange look before he slides the locket back into its pocket, stands, walks over, and with a great big friendly charming smile offers to help the women with their groceries and, gosh, anything else he could help with, it being such a nice day and all. He leans down and picks up a can of tuna and hands it to one of the women.
Buichi doesn't notice the odd look from Damien as he's already moving towards the mayhem himself. He also helps the ladies repack their belongs with a polite smile and a slightly embarrassed shake of his head from the thanks both of them are getting. He does, however, manage to snag the offending dodgeball and holds it between his hands, simply waiting.
Damien lets the ladies move along and smiles gamely enough. When they're gone, he looks over Buichi and raises an eyebrow. "Do you usually have some kind of children's ball game sixth sense or just happy coincidence?"
"Nothing of great interest," Buichi replies with a nod towards the trio of children slowly creeping their way closer to the two adult males. "It was simply... experience. The women were distracted. The children's game was getting to be faster paced, and it was inevitable that the ball would go out of bounds."
Damien stuffs his hands in his pockets and makes a non-committal noise. He doesn't seem terribly interested in the children or their game. "I suppose. You, ah..." He finds himself at an awkward point. "You live around here?"
"For the moment, at least," the long-haired young man replies with his accented English. His attention momentarily shifts to the children and he crouches down to meet them at eye-level. "You should all go and apologize to those ladies for the accident. In the future, try to remember that there are others outside of your game that may get hurt as a result, usually relating to an accident or unpredictable event." Just how much of that the kids might have understood is hard to say, but the little boy gladly takes the ball back before they run down the trail to catch up with the women.
Damien is still at an awkward point -- not really sure what to do but compelled by nature to make an effort. "You, um, well. That might have made an impression on those kids. But they'll forget it as soon as they go home and play video games for a while."
Sandra walks along not far away, a bright yellow lunchbox, clearly the kind usually used by children, tucked under one arm of her business suit. She looks up and over at the sound of pounding feet, and smiles as the children run by with the ball. She idily changes her course to walk in the direction they were running from.
Buichi shrugs a shoulder as he stands back up. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. Some of the most insignificant things can leave a mark that will only show many years down the road," he comments.
Damien gets kind of this half-assed cocky grin on his face and says brightly, "Almost as if they're willed by a greater force toward a destiny or a fate at the end of their roads!" And feeling brave, he adds, "If you believe in that sort of thing."
Sandra wanders up the path, casting a look back at the rapidly retreating children, and then over at the two men. One eyebrow rises curiously as she approaches. She offers each a smile, then pauses for a moment, before drawing near. "Ah. Excuse me, gentlemen?"
Damien looks over at Sandra at her approach and maintains the same half-grin on his face. "Good afternoon," he says aimably enough.
Buichi offers Sandra a slight bow in greeting. "Good day to you, madame," he says to the newly arrived woman. He doesn't seem to want to comment on Damien's last remark.
Sandra smiles back to both, eyeing the bow with a hint of amusement. "I apologize for interrupting your palaver, gentlemen, but I was wondering if you knew of a good place to sit and eat one's lunch?" She indicates her lunchbox with one hand. "All the suitible places I have found so far have been claimed by those quicker than I."
Damien looks around, to the left, to the right, up, down, and then behind him. Oh ho! Look! "Well," he says gamably enough, "There's benches all over the place here. No one seems to have claimed them, at least no one I see. Although you have to be careful around here. There's flying balls that come out of nowhere completely unannounced -- a bit rude of them, if you ask me. And next thing you know, you're lunch will be all over the front of your suit and you'll be looking at a dry cleaning bill. But if you sit next to THIS gentleman here..." Damien waves a hand theatrically at Buichi, "whose name I'm afraid I have not yet caught, he has this strange magic 2nd sense about these ball flying things. So if you sit here," he gestures at a bench, "with this gentleman here as your early warning ball device, you should be set to eat your lunch. Unless it rains."
"There was no forecast for precipitation today," Buichi says with a genuine tone to his voice. "I believe the earliest chance of rain was Monday, so today you should not have that situation arise. And it was simply experience that allowed me to predict that event. There was no magical second sense of any sort involved."
Sandra watches Damien during his dramatic recitation, then looks him over carefully. "You're crazy." She nods approvingly. "I like that in a person." To Buichi, she smiles. "Thank you, sir. Although rain can actually be quite pleasant. Did someone throw..." she thinks, "...ah, wait. The children?"
Damien looks up at the sky, peering at rain. Disappointed that it doesn't start dramatically raining for him right that second, he says, "There was a pack of wild children with a very dangerous ball-like-object. They were taking down little old ladies with it! And their groceries, oi. All over the ground. And now they've run off to plot their next bit of chaos and mayhem, presumably somewhere that they won't be rained on."
"Indeed," Buichi says in agreement. "The children's game got to be... overexuberant and their ball knocked two passing-by women into each other. But children are children, after all, at least for another few years. Ultimately the only harm was to pride."
Sandra shakes her head. "Well, it's good to see that no one was injured. I'm sure they'll be more careful next time." She grins. "I suppose it beats sitting inside watching cartoons all day, hmm?"
"Nothing beats sitting inside watching cartoons all day, except perhaps watching cartoons after eating an entire box of Super Sugar Crunch Bombs," Damien says. He gives Sandra a gracious smile -- nothing for Buichi -- and says, "I would love to sit and have lunch with you and enjoy the day, but I need to attend to clients. Perhaps our paths will cross out here one day again when you are in need of lunch and I am in need of saving a damsel from rogue rubber balls."
Sandra blinks at Damien. "I'd say the more interesting things would happen after the cartoons, when they're out running around and indulging their fantasies. Or, in the case of eating an entire box of sweet cereal, simply bouncing off of various objects." She can't help but grin at the mental image that evokes. "It was a pleasure to meet you both, albeit briefly. Enjoy your day, and remember to duck when appropriate." With a final nod, she heads off to one of the benches and settles down to eat.
Damien is about to respond to Sandra with some pleasantry or another when his coat pocket starts ringing. He pulls out his cellphone, and flips it open. "Damien Hirsh," he says in the receiver. He loses any sense of playfulness or good humour. He says into the phone, "Alright, I'll be there in about a half hour. Can you give me details?" he asks as he walks away from the two back to his apartment building presumably to pick up his BMW.
Buichi offers the departing woman another slight bow before heading off down the path to his own destination.
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