Learning The Rubbish Ropes (Rui / Tomomi)

Between the days of the downpouring rainy season, today was a day of sunshine, a delightful respite for Tomomi the coatless. There, standing not far from one of Sunlake Palms bus stops, Tomomi waited. He was wearing a light blue shirt, with a black hoodie draped over his shoulder, hands and face covered with latex safety gloves and mask respectively. In one hand, a roll of black rubbish bags, while in the other was a mixture of things - namely two litter picking rods, and an extra pair of gloves with an additional mask.

Indeed, today was an odd one for the boy. Normally, this would be when he began working, getting on with his shift, and trying to get it done so he could go about the rest of his day. But instead, he had received a new message from his employer. Supposedly, some trouble maker was doing this job as a form of community service, and Tomomi had to show him the ropes. A light sigh escaped the boy's lips as he shook his head, facing the direction of the bus as he waited.

Yikes, he hoped today wouldn't be too stressful.

Rui had no opinion on the sunlight. He was unlikely to ever get skin cancer. More importantly, he was slightly hungover. He didn't even know he could get hungover, but apparently he could. It actually had died down by the time he had gotten to his destination. But as result, it meant he was showing up to the mandatory boring community service in the same clothes he was out last night (and he supposed most of the afternoon) with.

So it was flashy. Very flashy. His pink hair was frazzled. He was wearing some sort of sailor shirt, although one of the shoulders had been totally ripped off. He was wearing short denim shorts, which were almost completely covered by a pink sweater he had tied around his waist. And he had two loose socks, which most notably did not match in color. One was red and the other blue. He spent last day as a gyaru...and considering he almost overslept, he'd probably be spending at least part of this looking like one who had brushed their teeth with a bottle of jack.

Apparently, this time he was meeting with some sort of "volunteer", largely because he had spent the entire last community session asleep. And this was technically his last, so he needed to leave on at least an acceptable note.

Rui came bolting down the street on a motor scooter, screeching past a boy near the bus stop as he made an unreasonably sharp turn to stop next to a bike rack. He most notably was not wearing a helmet. He immediately slapped some kind of suspicious beeping device on the motor scooter before he jumped off and walked towards the boy, waving cheerfully with both of his hands. He was expecting some grim grandmother or some tough guy convict to be supervising him today. Instead, he got what seemed like a young teenage boy! This was probably the best possible outcome! And so, he was determined to hit it off with the boy.

"Heya! So like um..." Rui put his fingers to his lips like he was thinking of something, "Are you like...the in-charge-of-me-and-tell-me-what-to-do guy for today?" He gave a smile, "If so, great! I was soooooo scared I was going to get some old drill sergeant-type guy! Yay!"

As someone on a motor scooter sped past, Tomomi found himself leaning away, mildly startled by the sudden speeder. As he was about to lament to himself about how someone could risk hitting someone by going at that speed, Tomomi watched in a mixture of horror and surprise as the person riding the bike stopped not far away, got off, and began to walk towards him while waving. Quickly, Tomomi looked behind him to be sure there was nobody else that was being addressed. Left. Right. Nope, nobody else. Which left only one person to be the one this person was addressing.

So, Tomomi offered a meek wave back using the hand that held the bin bags, before listening as this... Really eccentric looking person spoke. Yep, this was the one. "Ah, um... Y-yeah, um, Rui, right? I'm uh... I'm Tomomi, and I'll be the one showing you how to, um, pick up litter I guess... Although, um, yeah, I'm uh... Not a drill sergeant so um, you don't need to worry about that? A-anyways..."

Shaking his head and trying to get his act together, Tomomi adjusted his grip on what was in his hands, before holding out in his right hand the extra gloves, mask, and a single litter picking stick. "Um, so, these are the tools of the trade for what we're about to do... Um, simply put, you put on the gloves and mask to avoid any germs or diseases that may be lingering on rubbish. The picker is to make sure you don't accidentally cut yourself through the gloves, like if there's something sharp hidden, since um... Sometimes people do just like to hide broken things inside this rubbish... Don't ask me why, I uh, I-I don't know why they just do... And then when you've done that, you um, pick it up using the picker, and put it in these black bags. We carry the bags until certain check point like location things where we drop the bags off and continue on the route... So um... A-any questions?"