cityofcoba | (no subject)

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(no subject)

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: Mingle!
WHERE: Somewhere in the city
WHEN: Day 3, morning

[It's a beautiful morning in this part of Coba! The sun is shining, the birds are singing - or at least they were until a few seconds ago. Suddenly, the city is plunged into darkness again, and the streets start to fill with people dressed in outrageous costumes. There's music in the air and all traffic is stopped for the parade of revellers heading down the street. Anyone from New Orleans might find the spectacle rather familiar, but for anyone else it's still an excuse to party like the night never ended]

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"It's fine. Looks like you got caught right in the war zone."

That poor adorable hoodie.

Caught in the war zone was right. His poor hoodie! His poor, custom ordered, hand wash only hoodie! He was going to need to spend a night with some soap and gentle bleaching; what a way to spend a vacation.

"It was," a pause as he inhaled, "worth it! I got," another pause for another breath, "awesome prizes for winning!"

He shakes his head, causing the beads to rattle and jingle. With the hand that he's not using to brace himself against Kanji, he raises a glow stick and gives it a pathetic shake. Totally worth almost getting run over for. Totally.

Kanji can't help laughing a little at that. "Sounds like you're tryin' to convince yourself it was worth the trouble. You gonna need any help cleanin' up your shirt?"

He doesn't let himself visibly wince, but he's doing it on the inside.

"Nah, I'm used to stains. And what convincing? It WAS worth the trouble!"

With a final, exaggerated inhale and exhale, he stops leaning on Kanji and takes a step back. He's still breathing a bit heavily, but he's composed himself otherwise.

"Thanks for letting me use you as a wall, stranger!"

"No problem." Naoto's done worse.

"Name's Kanji."

"Nice to meet you, Kanji. I'm Hibiki." He lifts one of the necklaces around his neck a few inches up. "Want a sweet, 100% plastic necklace as thanks?"

Kanji snorts. "Sure, why not."

He lifts one of the beaded necklaces off his neck— Or, well, he attempts to. The problem with having so many of them and then running about with them on was that they got tangled and stuck together. He struggles with one for a bit, but when it doesn't want to separate itself from the rest, he shrugs and just pulls the entire collection off his neck before offering it to Kanji.

"If you can get one loose, it's all yours!"

"Oh, that won't be a problem. How many of 'em you want untangled?"

His yarn's ended up in worse states before. A handful of beads? No problem.

"As many as you want untangled. I don't need all of them free, so it's however many you want to do."

The rest he could do on the bus ride back to wherever the buses took him. Assuming that the buses were still running with the parade going on.

Buses, flying carpets, something.

It takes a while, but before too long Kanji's untangled six strings from the morass, as well as each other. "There ya go."

He'd prefer the flying carpet; it'd be a novel experience, and he'd love to see the reactions of people if it remained a flying carpet outside of Coba.

Hibiki takes back the main bulk of the necklaces, but leaves the six that Kanji's untangled with him. Kanji was the one who put in the hard work—as stated, he can keep them.

"Thanks a lot! You can keep those—you deserve them. You untangled those way faster than I would have. Have a lot of practice untangling knots?"

"If you're sure. Don't wanna take all your stuff." That's not how Kanji rolls.

"I've made worse knots outta my yarn before. This was nothing."

Six necklaces out of the whole tangled mess wasn't a lot to Hibiki. Besides, he didn't have any real plans for them anyway, so it's no loss at all.

"Yarn? Yeah, I bet that'd get tangled way worse than plastic beads. You have to handle that stuff often?"

Well, he can take 'em home. Give Nanako-chan one or something.

"It ain't have to. Dad taught me to knit when I was four."

"Do you still knit?"

Knitting was...not what Hibiki would have ever thought a guy like Kanji would take up. Then again, appearances were deceiving, and didn't amount to much in the end.

"Hell yeah."

He pulls his phone out of his pocket, the better to show off the adorable bunny phone charm. It's... very elaborate.

...Bunny charm. Bunny charm! The adorable bunny charm now has Hibiki's complete and undivided attention. He's a sucker for rabbits, what can he say. There is a reason why he wears that bunny hoodie around all the time, and a reason why his cell phone background is an image of rabbits, and why he still has a stuffed rabbit he's had since he was a tiny little thing sitting on a shelf in his room...

Point is: Bunnies. He leans forward to get a better look, mouth open from shock, admiration, and the utter cute.

"You made that?! It's cute!"

Kanji grins. "I sure did."

HELLO KINDRED SPIRIT HOW ARE YOU TODAY.

KINDRED SPIRIT INDEED. He's trying to contain himself, though, because he really, really wants to ask Kanji to make one for him, but it's rude to just ask someone out of the blue if they're willing to take a commission. Especially since Kanji's already done some favors for Hibiki this evening, and this is only their first meeting. No, no. Hibiki has self-control. He doesn't need a phone charm. He can wait.

"I will pay you actual money to make me one of those as well."

...He tried. But maybe he can make himself sound a little less rude?

"Only if you're taking commissions and have the time."

"Not a problem. You want one for a phone, or somethin' bigger?"

(Spoilers: He may not end up taking Hibiki's money.)

At this moment, at this place, Kanji was Hibiki's favorite person in the world.

"One for a phone would be great! My phone's been feeling bland lately. If you don't mind specifics, I'd like a white bunny with a blue bow tie."

If he doesn't end up taking Hibiki's money, then Hibiki will find someway to pay Kanji back. Either by buying him something, giving him money anyway, or even resorting to crumpling the money into a ball and throwing it at his face.

"Don't mind at all. Gimme a couple days and - you been by our shopping district yet?"

"Do you mean the Inaba Shopping District? Yeah, I've looked around the place and stopped in at the detective agency. You're from there too?"

Kanji grins. "Yep. Detective agency's a new one by me, but Naoto'll be a way better neighbor than an empty barber shop."

Not... that that's much of a competition...