harmonize_rpg | (no subject)

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Who: Haruka+Minoru
Where: Kitano
When: May 4, Golden Week
What: HEIL NIPPON meet LOLCHILL

A long walk through Kitano was quickly revealing that most Western specialty shops that used to be there were gone.

Haruka walked down the area, tapping away and listening with her GPS app. She'd heard from a friend back in Kyoto that Kitano was a great place to pick up imported goods but that must have been years ago. Most of the places she'd been referred to were closed down. So far, all she'd found a small rack in a convenience store and a place which seemed like it hadn't updated its stock in years. The titles were mostly pre-2015, many used with 'marked down' stickers.

Haruka stood just outside, going through a stack that the college student behind the counter helped her find in the outdoor browsing tables: 'Man of Chrome....Fix'it Good Felix...Doctor What...'

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At that very moment, a cruel god proved its existence by having it so that it just so happened that someone would be walking down the street and would take a peek inside the store.

Not just any someone, It was someone who could, in perfect silence, get behind your back.

And though Haruka wouldn't know it, for it would be a very poor consolation, the person behind her spend three seconds in perfect silence, not out of a desire to be exceedingly creepy, but because he was in a panic, trying to think of what to say. His sensei had told him to try to be more sociable.

He smiled.

"Hello. I see you are looking for movies. I do that, too, when I'm not occupied with approved books. I think we have things in common as classmates!"

A smile right out of a toothpaste commercial. Or a slasher flick.

It wasn't often that someone just snuck up on Haruka. However, when someone did, she reacted just as much as any sighted person would. Haruka jolted as she suddenly registered that bright voice on her mental map. Everything else came belatedly as she tilted her head and turned to face him, like a startled dog becoming curious,

"Huh....interesting." The word lingered. "So you're from Chitoku too? And what's 'approved' books?"

"Well, um, books that are... approved by the authorities," Minoru said.

He smiled.

"Um, but," stiffly as if someone had dipped him in starch, he made a sideways fist-pump, "Yeah, we don't... really like those, do we? We like all of the things. Because we're hip, right?"

There's a certain tone reserved for old and dead people when using the word 'hip' that immediately makesyou think of an injured hip instead of anything cool. Minoru did exactly that.

He looked desperate.

"I... so, what movies do we have here, ah... Uh," he picked up a couple... daintily, as one handles the discarded undergarment of an untidy roommate. "'Chilled' and... Oh, 'The Starving Games.'"

She tilted her head again. After a moment, she let out another long standing, ambiguous, "Huh." Beat. "So like, text books and instruction manuals?

"Oh. Starving Games is good. Ending's a downer though." She ruffled through her pile a bit more, revealing titles like 'Rabbit King' and the 'Moppets'. She nonchalantly asked, "What's your favorite movie?"

"Movie?" he said, barely restraining a hmm, umm, or some other mumbling. He'd trained himself to speak with the proper diction fitting a Japanese boy. After a while of thought, "The Last Canadian."

He smiled brightly.

That movie had been awful. It was almost corny and if it hadn't been a propaganda film, it would have been comically awful. It was the (entirely unironic) response to Hollywood's many films about how someone comes to live with another culture, and then becomes more of a standard of that culture than the very locals. In it, a Japanese soldier is stranded in Canada, here painted as an icy and unhappy place, but learns their customs... while simultaneously telling them about the glories of Japan. When America invades Canada, he and his canadian friends, in Japanese armor and bearing samurai swords, run straight on into the fray of battle, dying heroically.

"How about yours?"

"Interesting choice," Haruka replied. "Samurai flick fan? Like, Kurosawa and Seven Bushido?"

She turned her head skywards in thought. "Probably Kung-Fu Rabbit? Bunny that learns it's okay to be what you are and and to value yourself but still work to get better."

The premise of the movie got a look of disdain from Minoru as if he'd smelled dog shit. So much he ignored the first question.

Edited 2013-12-15 01:48 (UTC)

He forced that into a smile. "Oh... well, it's nice that they tell you to work harder. That's always good," he said. He turned back to the films. "Yes, it is good to improve. And maybe I should watch more movies. It is becoming of a proper Japanese to always learn new things... Do you have any suggestions for me?"

There was that head tilt again. "Proper huh? Maybe Wisney movies or Studio Nibli?"

After a beat.

"What do you like exactly?"

He smiled. "Well, typical things..."

An awkward laugh. "I-I suppose I've never seen much Wisney."

Mostly because of that cultural preservation act that made trading such movies illegal-- not that most people really listened to it, as it was hard to control, and there would always be a black market... Which honestly annoyed Minoru.

"What's typical?" Head tilt.

"Sucky. Sounds like some Wisney'd be a good fit for you."

"...Typical," he replied, showing off a smile that was more like a chimpanzee threatening to attack than a friendly gesture. "I, I suppose I could use some Wisney, if so you say."

"Nonspecific," Haruka said. "Typical as in what everyone in general likes? Typical industry stuff? Or typical approved stuff?

"Yeah, probably?" Definitely. "What's your name? Can send you links over school network."

"Typical non-specific, yes, That. And let's leave it at that." He said, seeming somewhat thankful to move along to another matter. "Suzuki Minoru... and yours?" he replied.

"Haruka Shikata, second year," she replied. After a moment's thought, she ruffled through the pile until she found the copy of 'Fix'it Good Felix'.

"This isn't a bad Wisney to start with? 200 yen too."

Too much money to pay for a piece of foreign garbage if Minoru were to be asked. He picked it up and smiled, "I'll pay, then. It's only proper," he said, bowing his head slightly. "Pleased to meet you. Please treat me kindly," he continued as he went off to pay-- hoping this would put a quick cap on the amount of movies he might have to watch.

"Same," Haruka replied. From the pile, she picked up 'Doctor What', 'The Moppets', and 'Rabbit King' and followed after Suzuki. She asked,

"Were you up to anything in particular?"

"Hm? Oh, I am not 'up to' anything in particular," Minoru replied, a bit blankly. After going over his words and the situation, he added, "In that I have no recreational preferences."

Noticing he was just stiffening the air, he tried to make things better with a smile.

"I just honestly don't care that much about fun," he said, and from the look on his face, he seemed a little proud of this fact.

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