Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
The California Chronicles: L.A Confidential; [Shane]
Topic Started: Mar 30 2014, 02:35 PM (673 Views)
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
There was no denying it, California was nice.

This was more or less what Natsumi's thought could be summed up as as she strolled down one of the countless streets of the so-called City Of Angels (a dumb nickname for a city, but most cities had a dumb nickname anyway). She might have found the state a little more mundane had she not be there for a (well-deserved, in her own mind) vacation, but damn, she was there for a vacation - and that alone made the experience a thousand times nicer.

Having her boyfriend with her was a nice, plus, too. Especially after all that time of forced separation - it was an incredibly corny thought to have, but it was as if the sun shined broghter because of his simple presence.

Incredibly corny, indeed.

In any case, she'd asked him if he'd be up for a walk in the city earlier this morning, one that would - she hoped - include the ingestion of this "legit American burger" when noon would come. Having him at her side was only the second most important reason why she'd asked him to come, the first being that she wanted to be alone with him in a setting where teenage passion wouldn't take over.

Teenage passion was something she'd had her fair share of the previous night - and that was an excellent thing ! -, but it'd also gotten in the way of what she'd found herself wanting to say. Nothing that couldn't be solved during or after the trip, though...

She stopped before a somewhat fancy-looking tatoo parlor, and pulled down her sunglasses to take a look at the various pictures proudly shown in the window display. "Y'know, if that didn't make me run the risk of being banned from every single hot spring back home..." she started, looking to her boyfriend with a grin. "...I think I'd let myself be tempted. D'you think your HAG would look better with a small tatoo on her shoulder or her ankle ?" she asked.

HAG was a dumb acronym she'd found the day before - it stood for Hot Asian Girlfriend. Like all dumb acronyms, it was amusing in its own way - which was why she'd decided to use it at the moment.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Sunglasses that could be willed into existence on command are fucking convenient. Have I mentioned that? Shane was starting to really, really appreciate this, as even in wintertime Los Angeles seemed to be stupidly sunny and his Persona made that a bit of a problem. Still, a nice blue-tinted pair of shades helped mitigate the glare quite a bit. He still disliked actually trying to look at things through colored sunglass-lenses, though, especially, say... tattoo art, where being able to tell what color things were was kind of important.

So he lifted his shades up and squinted a bit at the parlor window as they passed. He snorted a bit at the HAG acronym but decided not to address it aloud... that was a no-win battle of wit waiting to happen, and he wanted no part of it.

"...Hm. Depends on what kind of tattoo and where," Shane said in a mock-thoughtful voice. "I have a few ideas in mind but I think I might end up sleeping in the hall tonight if I voice them. On that note... I keep forgetting how stupid Japan is about body art. I saw this one guy hanging around the backstreets with a Chinese dragon poking out of his shirt, once. Psh. Maybe I should pray for him--for his future employment, I mean."

Shane lowered his sunglasses and tilted his head back up.

"Hm... something on the back of your shoulder might be good..." he decided after a few seconds of actual serious contemplation (complete with coherent brain processes and everything!). "Although the ankle one's looking a bit nice in my head, too... I wouldn't worry about getting banned from a hot spring for a small one. I hear they're a lot more reluctant to actually enforce that then they are to put the sign up."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
"Hmmmm." Natsumi replied, sending a last glance in the parlor's direction before she shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I guess I still got a couple of days to think about it, I suppose. What kinda tatoo do you have in mind, though ? I think a small motif would be fine..." she continued, a slight frown coming to her mouth for a second. Tatoos weren't exactly something neutral in her family, not since a certain someone had gotten himself in quite a lot of trouble after getting one...

"Damn, I'm not sure my dad would be happy. Or the rest of my family, either. Ah, fuck that, It ain't no time to torture myself with this kinda thing." she said, walking past the parlor before she could start dwelling on these issues any longer. Hey, they were in California, this wasn't no place to worry herself with that !

"Moving on... What kinda place would you recommend for that legit burger I've been wanting ? Seems like there's a number of those there, but, well, I don't wanna pick something that ain't the best, you see." It was almost noon, and she felt somewhat hungry.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"Hm. Well, I'm not sure," Shane said, sounding vaguely perplexed as he considered the question. "I know the good chains for that sort of thing, kind of. But whenever you look up the 'best' burgers in America on the Internet, sites always point you independent places. And may I just say... there are a surprising number of unique spins on a beef patty between two slices of bun."

The boy seemed exasperated by this, as if the idea of overcomplicating a burger was one he couldn't process in his head beyond the simple fact of it exists. He took out his phone and started scrolling through the touch menus, bringing up the browser and running a web search. "Shouldn't take long to find a good independent place if I run a Google search on good Los Angeles burgers. And eh, there's no need to worry about getting a tattoo now. It's not impossible to find a good tattoo parlor back home, you just have to go more out of your way."

Shane wasn't keen to overuse his phone on this trip--he had signed up for an international plan specifically for this trip, but it was another large number that was going to lump on top of the trip's expenses at the end of the day, a number that he would have to at least partially pay his parents back for when all was said and done. There was a sharp quickness to his movements as he scrolled through the search screen. "...Hawkins House of Burgers sounds promising..." he said after a few minutes of searching. "Aaaand we can always go for a little In-N-Out. By which I mean a burger place. Technically a chain, but a good chain, or so I hear. Never tried it. It's a Southwestern thing. We come from a bit further north. My parents and me, I mean."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
Hawkins House Of Burger or In-N-Out... Well, she had no idea which one of these would serve the better burgers, though there was something about eating at a restaurant that was part of a chain that felt weirdly american to her - and it was apparently a good one, too. "In-N-Out it is." she replied, waiting for Shane to lead her to the aforementioned restaurant.

That part about it being a Southwestern thing - with Shane coming from "a bit further north" - tickled her interest quite a bit, however. "Where exactly would that be ? The place you come from, I mean. I'm sure you find it boring and stuff, though." she asked with a bit of irony in her voice, along with genuine interest.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"Wilsonville, Oregon," Shane said in a bored voice, still scrolling through his phone's browser. "It was a pretty okay place. I don't have many good memories of it, though."

Shane held up a hand to shade his eyes, looking up into the sky to get a good sense of what kind of cloud covering there was... just whisps and lines, nothing that would likely dim the glare anytime soon. Dammit. "...I hear Oregon's a pretty scenic place. Lots of stuff in Oregon. Desert, volcanoes, waterfalls, forests... never saw much of it myself. My parents weren't interested in going on vacations that weren't in Japan. We went on a few trips when I was younger, I picked up some basic Japanese, and then suddenly they got a job transfer when I was about to go into high school and the rest is history."

He shrugged.

"...I couldn't care less which country we lived in, but it would have been nice to have some fucking warning first," he added in a quiet grumble, but then h dropped his hand, slipped his phone into his pocket, and said, in a teasing tone, "GPS says we're all of ten minutes away from an In-N-Out, just have to hang a left a couple blocks from here and we should have no trouble finding it. Think your yearning for thick, juicy American meat can wait that long?"

With that, it seemed the subject had come and gone...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
"Alright." Natsumi replied in a tone that showed that she was perfectly content with Shane's answer - she hadn't exactly been expecting him to guffaw at the thought of his old home, and it still seemed he had a modicum of affection towards the place. Well, she'd heard that America was kind of huge, so Oregon was probably a couple hundred of kilometers away at the very least. No way they'd be able to pay the place a little visit...

His next question brought a slight grin to her lips, and she stepped behind her boyfriend to wrap her arms around his neck and cross her hands in front of him. "Of course it can. I got a nice piece of American meat last night, after all... Yep, the nicest piece I could have asked for." she said, rubbing the tip of her nose on the nape of Shane's neck to drive the point further home.

She went back to her boyfriend's side. "Is there like... anything you miss from when you were living here ? Yeah, I know I'm NAGging you. NAG stands for Nice Asian Girlfriend, by the way, because I'm a nice girlfriend who cares for what's happening in her boy's head."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The public show of affection necessitated a very short pause in their walk--would have even if there weren't a bit of a difference in height to surmount before any hugging-round-the-neck could be done. Shane didn't really pay attention to the looks they got (around here, he figured they were more likely to be either admiring, jealous, or some variant of d'aww, although there was always the chance one of the witnesses would be a complete prude), just enjoyed the sensation and the distraction from the annoying sunlight. Natsumi would be able to smell the sunscreen on him--it wasn't strong stuff, but it had been necessary, given his weakness to light.

The boy slipped a hand into Natsumi's when she took her place at his side again, though he frowned a bit when she decided to pursue the topic anyway. The sentiment about caring what was going on in his head was touching, of course. But it wasn't like he ever thought of those days much. Then again, she had no way of knowing that.

"...Not much. Saturdays off? I miss those. Don't really care about the year-round school year or anything and my hometown was really just... a city, not much to it," he said, scratching at his nose. "It's not like I had any Super Best Friends or tearful goodbyes when I left." He considered going on to mention why there weren't any of those, and hesitated. He didn't ever think of those days, because think of them was irritating and awkward. Because those days had been irritating and awkward in and of themselves, really.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GKG
Member Avatar
when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
No tearful goodyes when he'd left... She had the feeling that this might have hidden something deeper than Shane let on, but he seemed too detached from the entire thing for her to decide to press on right away. No reason to annoy her boyfriend while they were enjoying some time together, right ? Still, she had the intention to know how he felt about certain things before this vacation ended, though...

She enjoyed the sensation of Shane's hand in her own for a few moments, and gave a grin of contentment. She didn't mind just walking down the street like that, not saying anything and just enjoying the fact that he was there - damn, wasn't she a little too lovestruck, like... a smitten teenage girl ? Bah, she didn't care. Being in love was nice.

"Y'know, I think I enjoy sleeping with you better now that we've upgraded from having sex to making love. Guess my arcana's The Lovers for a reason, uh ? Also, I hoped you noticed I did my nails fuschia today. Just like you said you liked it." The first part of that could have seemed kind of abrupt from anyone else, but Shane had probably grown to expect that from her. The second part... well, it was a girly as hell thing to say, but she didn't mind playing up that aspect of her once in a while.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"Mm, there is something about it, isn't there?" Shane agreed with a small grin. "You know what's also great? We could go over the specifics of that right now at the top of our lungs and I think there's maybe a one-in-a-hundred chance that anyone around here would even be able to tell what the subject of our conversation was. You're not that likely to run into anyone who understands Japanese that well around here." Shane snickered and sent a mischievous look around at the passersby. "

Without looking, Shane ran his thumb lightly over Natsumi's own, gently brushing the nail. "And I noticed. Looks better in reality than in my head." Quite suddenly, Shane brought Natsumi's hand up, leaned his head a bit to the side, and planted a little kiss on it. "It's got that blend of hot and cute that just fits."

When he lowered their hands back to his side, oh, whoops, they were at a crosswalk... time to stop. And wait, amidst a crowd of people who looked like they were all college-age and very glad to have a break from it. Chatter and conversation in English assaulted Shane's ears... it was surprisingly distracting. Shane had been away from English-speaking society so long that this felt foreign to him. So foreign that he found his mind momentarily empty of ideas for what to say next. That girl was talking about some guy and that guy was talking about lacross--people actually followed that sport, who knew--and that one was talking about his aunt being a bit under the weather, and that other one was...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create your own social network with a free forum.
Learn More · Register Now
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Out of Town · Next Topic »
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4