In Passing (w/Katsura): (For Lance/SK)

Subject: In Passing (w/Katsura): (For Lance/SK) Fri Dec 30, 2016 8:11 pm

It wasn't every day that Katsura went outside, but today was a day to go shopping for new computer parts. He needed to update the quality of his materials, which, while somewhat costly, he could afford. It was worth it, in his opinion, to have a computer with the best possible parts he could get ahold of so that he could run the software he wanted to run at its highest quality.

Unfortunately, the store he needed to get the parts from wasn't in Backlight, it was in Little Tokyo, which is why he was now currently on the bus heading there. As he got on, he took the cleanest looking seat he could find that was close to the front, and sat down.

Once he did so, he proceeded to take out a Rubik's Cube from a suit pocket that he had brought to fiddle with. One of the kids that lived near his house had taken it apart to solve it after fruitless attempts to solve a scrambled version, and when he couldn't still do so, had brought it to him to fix, and then solve.

This was tricky, as to the untrained eye, this would be a long, tedious, trial-and-error process. This is because in order to be able to figure out what pieces needed to be swapped around to fix it, he had to solve it as much as possible first. Thankfully, Katsura knew how to solve these (as a matter of fact, one of his hobbies were solving Rubik's Cubes and their variants), so it wasn't nearly as hard for him to fix it.

He then began to focus with intent on it, beginning to quickly solve it, having memorized a particular method to doing so. So much so, was his focus, that a sudden stop for the first stop caused him to jerk forward, and drop the cube in the process, a stray foot kicking it to the person in the row of seats across of him, just out of his reach.

"Excuse me sir, could you get me that Rubiks Cube next to your left foot? It belongs to me, and it appears to have accidentally landed near you when I dropped it by accident." He said to the person in a somewhat apologetic tone. He was just glad no one had stepped on it, to be honest, because that would be bad. Very bad.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2016-10-06

Welp, he had to go home sometime.

The teenager leaned against the window of the afternoon bus to Little Tokyo didn't look thrilled to be there in the slightest. He stared with dead eyes out at the streets as they passed, his expression somewhere between vacancy and thoughtfulness. Tired; he was so tired, and yet he knew the second he walked through the door the bombardment of questions would begin. Where had he run off to? Didn't he have homework to do? Weren't there some chores that he was supposed to be doing? Couldn't he have made better use of his time studying? Why did he have to be such a delinquent?

With each block closer they drew to Little Tokyo, the dread writhing and biting at the pit of his stomach grew. God, he hated that place. If only he could pick up his room and plant it somewhere else, somewhere far away from anyone who would dare try to tell him what to do with his life.

The snowball of building irritation and wrathful thoughts would've continued, were it not for the jerk of the bus pulling to a halt and the clatter of an object hitting the floor. Steven looked over, blinking himself back to reality. He was primed to start looking for whatever it was that made the noise when he was approached by a rather frail-looking man, asking about a Rubik's Cube. He looked to where the man indicated, picking up the object and offering it back to him.

"Here." he responded simply, turning back to the window once the cube was back with its owner. "Pay more attention next time or someone might step on it."

Subject: Re: In Passing (w/Katsura): (For Lance/SK) Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:05 pm

"Thank you." Katsura replied. He was still grateful, even if, granted, the second comment afterwards was a bit unnecessarily rude. He knew that, although ironically, it was the fact that he was paying attention to it so much that had caused him to lose his grip on it.

As the bus started, he once again started to fiddle with it. It wasn't until they had passed through two of the four more stops to Little Tokyo that he finally managed to figure out which pieces were out of place. Now came the easy part: Swapping the pieces back into their proper places.

It was like a sort of mix-and-match game as he began to fiddle with the pieces, removing some before swapping them back to where they belonged. Albeit, a simple one.

As he began to remove the pieces, he once again was thrown forward at the next stop. Again, a piece of the cube landed near the same boy as a last time. Katsura mentally cursed. He really was going to have to mind his surroundings better.

"Excuse me young man, I hate to trouble you again, but a piece of the cube has ended up near your foot again. Could you get that please?" He asked sheepishly.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2016-10-06

Steven didn't pay any further attention to the man after their interaction. After all, he was an adult. Free. Minding his own business, bound only by his own chosen obligations. It was always a nice thought, not being under someone else's rule, being expected to bend to their will and whim. And having a job wasn't so bad; one only had to listen to one's so-called "superiors" for a few hours a day.

Once again his thoughts were interrupted by another, smaller clatter. He looked down to where the cube had fallen before, and while he wasn't entirely expecting the man's toy to be there again, he wasn't at all surprised to see the fragment at his feet. His features wrinkled with annoyance, and his eyes were on the man before the words even left his mouth.

"The thing comes apart, too? Man, you're really going to lose it if you keep playing with it like that," he warned, more than a little bit of an edge to his tone. "Don't you have anything else better to do?"

Subject: Re: In Passing (w/Katsura): (For Lance/SK) Sat Dec 31, 2016 4:33 am

"Er... no, it's not supposed to, it's a Rubik's Cube, but I get the point. Again, my apologies." Katsura sheepishly replied as he took the piece back. This wasn't good, he was starting to annoy the boy. He decided not to respond to the latter inquiry of the boy, though. The nonverbal cue, he hoped, would serve as sufficient answer in this case.
He went back to fiddling with the cube again, eventually managing to fix it.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2016-10-06

It wasn't supposed to come apart? So what, was he sitting there fiddling with a broken Rubik's Cube? Something about that seemed... wrong. If the thing came apart, didn't that mean he could just stick the pieces back together the right way and be done? Yet here he was solving it the hard way. He supposed that merited some credit of honor, although that did put a bit of suspicion in Steven's mind that this man was of the sort that spent a little too much time with pursuits of the mind.

"So what, do you do those competition things? The ones where they see who can solve them the fastest?" he questioned, "I heard you can make a lot of money doing those. Wonder if it's enough to live off of."

He was talking just to talk at this point, though it was a somewhat welcome distraction from his internal thoughts. It was best if he wasn't already primed and upset by the time he got home.

Subject: Re: In Passing (w/Katsura): (For Lance/SK) Mon Jan 02, 2017 3:49 am

"No. Solving them is just a sort of hobby of mine. The one i'm working with is a... friend's cube. He broke it by accident a while back, and now i'm fixing it for him." Katsura answered in response, not looking at the boy as he slotted another piece of the cube into place.

"Hm. Indeed, but i'm willing to bet not so. They probably have other jobs, like how most entry-level actors often work part-time jobs to pay the bills, at first." He responded absentmindedly to the bit about the money. He honestly wasn't fully into the conversation, trying his best to focus on the task at hand, the repair of the Rubik's cube.

He was almost done, as a matter of fact. Just two more pieces left to slot back in...
Which was when a sudden thought occurred to him.
"Say, what's your name, young man? I am Katsura Yukimura." He asked the boy, eyes not moving off the cube even once.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2016-10-06

Steven half-listened to the man's response, filtering through the details he didn't quite care about. Fixing a broken Rubik's Cube for a friend, probably not making enough money from competitions to merit not holding some other job... It was all small talk, not incredibly interesting.

But the phrase "entry-level actors" reverberated deep into his mind, and the sentence that the words were nestled in caused his brows to draw in slightly and a twitch to run across the bridge of his nose. It wasn't a glamorous thought, working like a slave because you weren't famous enough to be recognized for what you loved doing. You hadn't influenced enough people to be relevant. At the rate he was going, he'd start his acting career that way, and in a heartbeat the sizzling rage he'd felt building before returned, dropping his naturally sulky expression even further into disgust.

"Vaughn. Steven Vaughn. Hopefully I don't have to dredge like that for too long. I want to be an actor someday." he responded, a sort of pointed edge to his tone. He was offended by what the man had said, but he knew he didn't quite have a right to show his anger. This Katsura person couldn't have possibly known his aspirations.

Subject: Re: In Passing (w/Katsura): (For Lance/SK) Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:26 pm

"Steven. His name was Steven. Steven Vaughn, to be precise." He noted mentally. He noticed the sudden edge in the boy's tone, though, although he didn't have to wonder why for long. Steven wanted to be an actor, and nobody really likes having to dredge like that kind of menial labor. Even though Katsura knew that the boy shouldn't be angry, that he should know that he might have to do that for a while, he had to apologize for offending the boy.

"I... I'm sorry. I... didn't mean to offend you." He said to Steven, now feeling extremely awkward. The incident with the cube were genuine accidents in his head, but the one just now felt like he had downright insulted him. He mentally prayed that they would arrive at the stop soon, as his mind was beginning to push him towards a panic attack. If that happened...
Well, he really didn't want to think about it too much.

"Gah! I'm panicking again... deep breaths... deep breaths... take deep breaths..." he thought to himself as he began to breathe deeply.

Thankfully, at that moment, it stopped.
"Oh! They've arrived at Little Tokyo! I... suppose this is where we part ways. Goodbye, Steven." He said, trying to hide his relief that he had arrived at last. He wasn't sure how much longer he could have taken in there, which caused him to sigh in relief as he got off.

Still though, that boy was interesting. He hoped he would forgive him for insulting him the next time they met.
Hopefully.

Exit.
Soundtrack is not in use at this time.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2016-10-06

Steven gave a dismissive huff at Katsura's apology, accompanied by a wave of his hand.

"Eh, don't worry about it. You couldn't have known," he reasoned, standing as the bus drew closer to familiar territory. Damn, it looked like he was going to have to head back home with bitter thoughts still chewing at his mind. That was always a recipe for disaster. He glanced back down at the mild-mannered man out of sheer coincidence, although he couldn't help but raise a concerned brow at the man's expression. He looked... anxious. In a gnawing, overwhelmed sort of way.

The boy opened his mouth to say something, to offer some form of consolation, but the interruption of the bus pulling into his stop jerked his attention elsewhere. Here it was, the long trudge to hell.

"Bye, I guess," he responded to Katsura's hasty departure, dragging himself off the bus so that his footfall onto the sidewalk resounded with the scuff of his sole. A small stretch, a tuck of his hands into his pockets, and then Steven was off toward the more residential part of town against everything his better (or perhaps worse) judgement was telling him. What was it going to be when he walked through the door this time? Deadlines? Stock Market? Co-Worker Drama?

Disgusting.

[The King is out!]

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