They're on a train ride to destiny [Cherry, Enigma, and Shouhei SL]

"Wait! Hold on, hold the train!!!" Cherry cried out as she pushed and slipped her way through the crowd. Her hypermobility proving to be extra useful today as it allowed her to push her way through the group of people and get near the train. Her heart racing, almost about to pump and bust out of her chest with how fast it was going. Putting her hand into the pocket of her pink hoodie, she would whip out the ticket hidden within it to hand over the conductor, letting out a wheeze that sounded vaguely like 'here's my ticket' but the man couldn't really tell. He would softly take it from her hand and punch it, before returning the slip of paper to her.

"Enjoy your trip miss." The older man said, letting her through into the train, in which the girl would thank him with another wheeze of thanks as she grasped her stomach.

This morning was rather rough on her. Although she could not fault anybody except for herself. She slept in, not terribly late mind you, but still late enough for her too panic. She wanted too spend as much time as she could in the central city, seeing it's sights and doing every single thing that it had to offer before she took on the audition. After all it has been quite a long time since she last lived there, but if she missed the train then she would have too wait soooooo long for another one! And then she would lose out on the chance to do all the cool stuff she wanted to do! So, she did what anybody would do. She ran. The whole way, all the way from the orphanage to the train station. It was as bad as it sounded. At times it felt like her legs were going too fall right off of her body, but she made it. She was at the train and now she could finally take the first few steps to her destiny!

With a sigh Cherry quickly plopped down in the middle of a row of leather seats with two open spaces right besides her. She was still breathing pretty heavy, but she was starting to relax now. Her hand moving up to check if her dark shades were still placed over her eyes, thankful that they were, seeing that other then her eyepatch, that was the only way she could cover her scar up. She would pull her legs up and cross them on the seat, almost curling up like a cat as she looked around the train. Trying to spot anything, or anybody, that would catch her eye and help pass the time on her way to the city.

“Oi, Shou-chan, wake me up when we get there,” Ichika Kurosawa said as she slumped into her seat in an effort to get comfortable.  With the aisle spot taken she spread her legs widely, took a sip of sake from her gourd decanter, and lowered the wide brimmed hat she wore over her sunglasses and lowered her head.  She let out a growl in her usual husky voice, “There better not be any fucking crying kids on this train.”

“...Shoulda taken my bike,” Shouhei Kagawa replied almost annoyedly with an raised eyebrow, peeking his head around his shamisen and their other belongings gathered in the middle seat.  “We gotta sidecar for this reason, yeah?”

“Nope.  Your bike’s too loud and it’s too windy- I want to get some shut eye.”  Ichika didn’t even bother to look back at Shouhei; instead her head and body dipped lower, her right leg now fully extended in the aisleway.

“...Didja even need to come in the first place?  I thought ya hated big social gatherin’s like this,” a genuinely curious Shouhei asked.  Ichika in general disliked most people- it was a miracle she even tolerated Shouhei’s company, let alone trained him straight for two years- so her willingly joining him to the festival was a shock to say the least.

There was no answer from Ichika.  Or rather, there was one, now an extremely loud and elongated snore.  She more than likely wanted to sleep away her hangover from last night.  With a shake of his head Shouhei plugged in his headphones in an effort to drown out the noise from his hypocritical teacher.  Unfortunately the droning snore managed to cut into his music.  Sighing, Shouhei carefully threaded his way over Ichika’s sprawled legs and into the aisle.

Maybe it was a good thing she snored so loud.  There was a bit of apprehension and anxiety approaching this festibal, and Shouhei’s upcoming audition.  He was going to pace and work off that bundle of nerves as he walked along the train.

Tommy entered the subway after that. The current reveals that he was supposed to have succeeded in getting through and he was not able to do the interview. The person herself was on vacation, so everything became something that had to be placed on the backs of Tommy's employees started searching for new content.  As for Tommy himself, he was still brooding, so his facial expression either had a look of a mild frustration or a general look of indifference as he took an open seat.  In fact, Tommy decided to use his phone to check what other music magazines were doing or who they were able to get exclusive access to.

"This must be fun...."

He would have liked something to drink, but that should have waited until he managed to get back to his place for the evening. He was impatient, but as the snoring he heard began to grow, it seemed to have become a personal attack on Tommy's peace and tranquility.

"Oi... Are you able to wake your partner up there?"

At the time, Tommy got up and was talking to Shouhuei, getting a little bit ahead of himself.

Spoiler:

"Before thinking that this is rude, here are some anecdotes. Snoring is directly associated with sleep apnea, which increases the risk of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular problems. But most of the time, so if you're treating 'em to prevent heart disease, maybe you should wake her up. "

Her single brown eye continued to scan the area. Coming across a pretty......... Let's call it unique scene playing out. A loud snoring noise had begin to ring out, even being able to be heard over were Cherry was resting. She also saw a man talking to another man about, something, she was not quite sure what about. Couldn't really eavesdrop on them from her, so like any self respecting, nosy and bored to death teen would do. Cherry got up and walked over to the discussion playing out. Quite the odd discussion too if the fact that one of the men were talking about heart disease for some reason, it wasn't easy trying to make sense of a chat that was so out of context. But she would try her best. "Oh no that's just what you don't wanna do." Cherry blurted out, trying to shove herself in the middle of this conversation. It may not have been the most elgenant way of going about it, maybe it was even a little rude, but she was bored and was probably never going to see these people again, so why not?

"Like, I dunno anything 'bout heart disease or that type of stuff. But trust me when I say waking people up from their sleep when they are snoring is a really bad idea. From what I've seen, if they're snoring that just means that they are in a deep sleep. People tend to get pretty grumpy if you wake them up from a deep sleep." Her mom did at the very least. She used to snore all the damn time and she would give the younger girl hell if she woke her up for any reason that wasn't a 'animal or a demon was about to kill her in her sleep.' Now she did not know if this woman that the brown haired heartthrob seemed to be traveling with was anything like her mom. But she did carry the lesson of never waking anybody up from their rest with her no matter the personality.

Cherry did not allow for any gaps of slience to form before she pushed foward. "I also think it is like super unhealthy. I couldn't go to sleep for a few days and I started seeing the weirdest stuff, it was crazy. Trust me, it's best to keep her asleep." The chances of her not being able to sleep after they woke her up and her having hallucinations because of the said lack of sleep. Were very low. Yet never zero. "By the way, I am Cherry. Pleasure to meet you two."

“...The name’s Shouhei.  Shouhei Kagawa.  Ya don’t say,” was all Shouhei could respond with when bombarded by the pair of good intentioned stranger’s suggestions.  He turned his head to look back at the snoring Ichika, roaring just as loudly as his motorcycle engine would.  Doubtful she had any heart problems considering her physical ability- if anything Shouhei worried about the constant abuse Ichika delivered daily to her liver.

“...I mean, if you’re that concerned ‘bout my Sensei’s health, feel free to wake her up yourself.” Shouhei turned his gaze back to the young man, flashing a fanged grin.  The idea of Ichika being roused early from her slumber and the reaction that ensued was entertaining, although he feared for the stranger’s safety.  “But I’m on the same page as Cherry here.”

"Tommy...."

This is what he would say regarding the both of them introducing themselves and saying their peace. The person named cherry simply didn't approve of Tommy'ssuggestion and probably didn't mind the snoring. As for Shouhei, this person pretty much seemed like a sensei to him and he did know her best. However, it could be that due to this fact, he rather refused to wake her as she was making up such a ruckus with her snoring antics.

"You do know this isn't real right? Snoring like that is uncommon and comes off as very uncouth. But I digress, I'll just change train carts at the next station. I'm not going to intrude upon someone's personal space to get what I want, not for this anyway."

After a small sigh, Tommy figured that he should be a little more cordial and offer each of them a business card.

"I run a magazine called the Animus, have you heard of it before?"

Cherry smiled upon hearing both of their names. Very glad that these men weren't just going to brush her off to the side. "Shouhei? Such a exotic name." She said warmly, not used to hearing names of a more eastern origin. When Shouhei took her side on the matter, she would beam with a frankly unreasonable amount of pride for somebody she just met agreeing with her. It felt pretty good for somebody to actually accept her option, instead of just treating her like some stupid kid who did not know what she was talking about. Although when Tommy started to speak, she would shift and look towards him, focusing on what he was saying.

Personally she was not bugged by the woman's loud snoring, but she could understand why he would be annoyed by it. "I mean, I guess it is a little rude but it isn't like she can choose if or when she snores." A argument could be made that the woman should not have been sleeping in a train in the first place, but many people do it and since Shouhei seemed to indeed be traveling with her, she would have somebody to shake her awake when they got to their stop. Whereever that maybe. So there was no real reason not to catch up with old mister sandman. Unless she knew about said snoring problem before hand, in which case knowing that and choosing to sleep anyways would be, as Tommy said, a very uncoth thing to do.

The one-eyed girl would take his card and give it a once over, once she saw that there was no pictures on it she would just shove it into her pockets. Hoping that Tommy or Shouhei would give her hints about what was on the card, which Tommy did almost immediately gave her. "Ah, sorry monsieur Tommy. I am not that much of a reader." She said with a slighty embarssed flush building on her cheeks that she tried her best to suppress.

“...Shouhei’s ‘bout as exotic as Cherry, but I guess it’s all a matter’a perspective, innit.” He wasn’t about to get into semantics with her, so he left that topic at that.  Next came Ichika, who much like Tommy pointed out, seemed to be the epitome of uncouth.  Hardly anything to argue about there; in fact he was a kinder soul who wanted to change trains instead of simply waking up the sleeping bear of a woman.  Shouhei thought it was better to not say anything at all since Tommy offered them his business card.

“Oh shit!  Yeah, I’ve read this magazine before, sick,” Shouhei said after recognizing the title- Mariko had been interviewed and had an article about her, when she landed a spot in the idol group NTK 27.  There were other articles he remembered, but none as important as that.  Pocketing the card the corner of his lips tugged up to smile at Tommy.

“...I take it ya got a lotta business with this upcomin’ festival, yeah?”

"Yeah, as long as it sticks with my bottom line of making sure there is equal coverage for some artists. Sometimes they need a little push, regardless of whether it's towards their talents or scandals that seem to never see the light of day. In this world that we live in where a lot is measured on musical talent, including entertaining those who consume your music, it's better for us to know what's going on with those people instead of being ignorant about them. "

That's how Tommy looked at it anyway, he thought that his job and current stance on things was essential. As for cherry is not much of a reader, Tommy would simply shrug.

"It's better than you saying that you don't read but you heard of me before than to say that you never heard of me in addition to not being much of a reader. The former gives me some hope against companies that can simply throw money at their products until it does something. The reason why it seems like I'm just as accessible is that I have to work just as hard as my cowo0rkers to make it work. "

"I guess so." While of course she found nothing strange about her name, she did know that it wasn't the most common name on the block. Hell, seeing as she wasn't really a native her name may have very well been exotic. Although that did raise the question, was her other name as exotic? Would he still have made the comment if she told him that her name was Kari? In the end it did not really matter, but it was something to think about. "Either way, I think all of our names fit us very well." She may have just met the men but from the very little she knew about them, it didn't seem like their names weren't all that fitting. Shouhei really did feel like a 'Shouhei.' While Tommy seemed to be a very 'Tommy' type of person.

The more the two men discussed, the more knowledge and context she gained about the magazine he ran. It sounded pretty neat, she would have to try and find some sort of audiobook version of it sometime. Hopefully if she became a pace keeper she would be able to buy a phone and actually listen to books. "Oh so your magazine is about music? That's great! I love music!" Of all different kinds. Of course she mainly listened to pop due to were she lived. When Tommy would talk more about his feelings about people knowing about his name and magazine she would slowly become a bit more confused. Not to sure what he was getting out, but in a effort not to look stupid she choose to wing it. "Well, hard work is always something to respect. And to be honest I am not the most up to date with what is popular or not these days, I tend to be into older stuff, heh." Sure the orphanage had a TV, but while she could hear the songs and popular idols that were out and about. She could never really look to deeply into it, rather she would often listen to some of the older music she would find on some of the workers phones anf such. Nothing to old, but still not what would be 'hot' these days.

"So like, how do you run a magazine? Do you write it? Print the stuff out? What do you do?" Depending on what his role was, maybe she could worm her way into being in a copy of the Animus. Sure she wasn't a clout chaser, but a little bit of fame didn't hurt anybody. After asking a question to Tommy, she would focus back on Shouhei. "What about you monsieur Shouhei? What brings you to the city? Do you have a job over there or are you just planning on enjoying the festival?"

“...I’m grateful that ya cover those stories y’know.  Somebody’s gotta,” Shouhei admitted.  Whether it be some infamous scandal or the simple recruitment of an idol, the spread of information was important.  Cherry then asked Tommy a question Shouhei was mildly curious about but wouldn’t bother to inquire.  Those type of business matters weren’t high on his list of priorities.

Until Cherry followed up with a much more personal question, which Shouhei wasn’t keen on hearing.  

“...Yeah, I gotta job to do.”  The fact that he kept his answer so succinct and with an empty expression directed towards her was probably enough to tell Cherry not to dig any further.  His business was his own and nobody needed to know every detail.

"The fair assumption here is that everyone likes music. As for your question in regards to run a magazine, the answer is all of the above. You have to do all of that and more, though we do have online issues and subscribers for easy access. We have to make that money back, you know? It isn't free. "

Tommy wasn't ashamed to say that, they needed to keep afloat. Though he would notice that Cherry may have struck a nerve with an almost innocent line of questioning.

"Take him out to dinner first. Not everyone shares their secrets on the first meet."

Making light of the situation, Tommy would check his watch.

"My stop is next. I'll be at the festival, hopefully, I'll see you guys there?"

strength

Spoiler:

She would let out a nervous, slightly embarssed giggle to Tommy's statement. Thinking back that was a pretfy goofy thing to say, this was semibreve after all. The whole damn city ran off music. She would look up at Tommy and nod. "Well, that all makes sense. I'll have go buy a copy or two some time, check it out!" Not like she'd be able to read it or anything of the sorts. But hey, just buying a few issue's would be money to support the magazine, plus she was pretty sure that those things always had pictures in them. So she can always just buy them to admire the pictures.

Sadly for Shouhei the way his answer only made the curious flame in her heart burn even brighter. His netural, flat way of answering may have been a red flag to some, but to her it only invited more questions. Questions she was about to ask, if Tommy hadn't made his comment. "Secrets huh? Your job is a secret? Is that it?" She asked before a glint appeared in her eye, not that either of them would be able to see it due to her shades. "Oh my gosh that sounds so cool! Are you on a mission, or like a undercover case, oh! Oh! Are you a pacekeeper!?!" She fired off more and more questions, letting the excitement and totally missing the signals the two were sending her way. Cherry was almost bouncing in place, but suddenly she stopped and held her hands out in the air, waving them in a way that almost look like she was batting away something. "Actually, no! No, no! Don't tell me, don't tell me. I don't wanna be locked up." She was pretty sure that was how it worked, if you found out about goverment secrets they'd lock you up to keep you from saying anything, Shouhei would probably get in trouble too, which she didn't want.

Besides. In the end this wasn't the best place to discuss these matters away. Maybe if they actually got close enough she could pry the secrets out of him. For now she would just have to let her mind go wild. "Of course! This is the first time I will be visiting so I am gonna try and see all the sights before I go to the aductition!"

Shouhei could feel his cheeks burn immediately upon Tommy’s suggestion that Cherry and he go out on a date.  “O-oi, she’s a minor.  And I ain’t even lookin’ for a date- so take that matchmaker shit somewhere else, wouldja?”

The truth was Shouhei wanted the opposite.  He didn’t feel the need to get particularly close to either Tommy or Cherry- making small talk was fine at the least, becoming acquaintances at the most.  So when the conversation came back around to him with Cherry’s imagination running amok, he simply placed a finger up his lips.



“...That’s why secrets are secrets.  Anyway, maybe I’ll catch ya ‘round.  Maybe.”  With that said Shouhei put on his headphones, kept walking down the aisle, and waved a noncommittal hand behind his back.

He still needed to walk off all the building stress for the upcoming audition.

As soon as the train stopped, Tommy would start to hop off.

"Well, that was interesting. Hope to see you two and your performances, it would definitely be something to document if you end up becoming rising stars in the future."

Then again, Tommy was going to do it anyway. He was even thinking of partaking himself in order to make it somewhat of a series of performances to evaluate, even himself.

-exit