.oo1

[okayeverybody]

a; anywhere and everywhere

There is a man with a camera around his neck sitting somewhere discreet and snapping photos. Whether those photos are of you or of someone else is entirely up to you! But he sure is snapping them. Every third photo or so he shifts and looks at the display screen to check the photos, deleting them if they didn't turn out like he liked or going right back to it. Apart from his camera, there is only him and a short can of black coffee, which he periodically raises to his lips and tips backward in a short gesture to take a swig.

Please, someone come tell him to stop being a creep.

b; a van, down some side street in the city

And down this particular side street, there is a van, the words "Pleasure Way" emblazoned across the front of it just above the passenger's side tire, and a man that keeps exiting and re-entering the van from its open side doors. From the sound of it, he is having some kind of conversation, though there doesn't appear to be anyone with him.

"Why don't you just look it up yourself?" There was a woman's voice from inside the van, quiet and consoling in tone. The man stepping out of the vehicle did not match the sound at all. As he stepped to the ground, his posture changed drastically and he tossed his head, snarling a touch.

"Isn't that what you do? Find things, learn? You're always tacking away at your computer." This voice was much deeper, harsher. He sounded angry, this time. His posture shifted again, then, his shoulders slumping and his right hand pushing his left from where it had been waving wildly.

"Have neither of you considered that I don't want to?"

Oh. It appeared this guy was having a conversation with himself. Do with that as you will, Venture City.

Comments

A

[gigigigigigi]

Amazon has taken notice of the strange man in the park with the strange little box around his neck. Amazon has never seen a camera before, and it's kind of freaking him out. He's attempting to watch from the bushes in order to figure out just what's going on here, but in his curiosity, he may not be as hidden as he thinks he is.

[okayeverybody]

Hello, Amazon, you strange funny man in the bushes. Rei has noticed the other, but for a while continues about his business and lets him watch. After a handful of minutes, though, he gets bored with his first subject and turns with a faint grin, holding the camera up to snap a photo of Amazon.

"You can come out," he offers mildly.

[gigigigigigi]

Amazon had not been expecting that strange black box to be turned on him, and there's a startled growl when the photo is snapped...but it didn't hurt, so there's that. He very uncertainly emerges from the bushes. His curiosity and suspicion are currently warring with each other.

[okayeverybody]

That loincloth-clad man sure did just growl at his camera. Rei wasn't actually too sure what to think about that. He sets the camera back against his chest, so as not to aggravate the man further with it, and just sort of chills there, watching him.

[gigigigigigi]

Amazon just stood there, watching Rei in turn. When Rei makes no further movements, Amazon curiously gestures at the camera. "What?" He does not know what it is, you see.

[okayeverybody]

Glancing from Amazon to the camera and back, Rei takes a moment to understand what he's asking.

"Oh, this? It's a camera," he offers. Well, it would make sense that the guy with hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed in... possibly forever wearing a loincloth would be unfamiliar with a good photography camera. He hefted it a little. "It takes pictures."

[gigigigigigi]

"Ca-me-ra." Amazon's sounding out the new word, looking a bit mystified. He's relaxed slightly; he doesn't think Rei is going to harm him. "Picture?" Guess what, Rei, he needs you to explain something else.

[okayeverybody]

There was something bizarrely endearing about this entire exchange. With a sideways grin, he hefted the camera and unlooped the strap from around his neck to turn it around, though he didn't hold it out for Amazon to take. He wasn't sure he trusted the guy to not break it.

"Pictures," he explained, tapping the display screen. "Digital drawings of things we see."

[gigigigigigi]

Wow that is cool. Fortunately, Amazon does not seem to think it is going to steal his soul. "Picture!" He thinks he's got that word down. He also seems to want to mess with the camera, which probably isn't the best idea.

[cardsflippedup]

"Don't want to what?" Chimes in a voice directly behind him.

Tomoki had conveniently walked up just before Rei and his entourage had exited Pleasure-Way. He was leaning against the van with his arms crossed and his head tilted. He probably could have introduced himself sooner, but Tomoki was a little curious about the conversation he'd stumbled upon.

Was eavesdropping polite? Not really. Did Tomoki care? Not usually. He was a reporter, he had a long list of bad habits. At least he meant well.

[okayeverybody]

Okay, Tomoki, not cool. Rei didn't so much care about the eavesdropping, but don't sneak up on a guy like that, seriously. He jolted, spinning with his arms raised to defend himself if needbe, and then sighed, relaxing when he saw it was just Tomoki.

"Oi, Tomoki!! Don't sneak up on me like that, I was about to punch your face in!!" Naturally, Jin was aiming for violence. He waved an arm like usual, and Rei promptly nudged it aside.

"You really should be more careful, you know he'd hit you." Artfully avoiding the question? Possibly.

[cardsflippedup]

Tomoki huffs a quiet laugh before pushing away from the van and approaching him. "If he would have hit me, I probably would have deserved it."

He slides his hands into his pockets. "Is everything okay? It sounded like you guys were having an argument."

[okayeverybody]

His smile got a little funny when Tomoki didn't drop the question, and he didn't quite meet the reporter's eyes. Of course he was going to keep asking, he was a reporter. Sometimes Rei's luck was damnable.

"It's fine," he said with a faint shrug. Sorry, Tomoki, he doesn't quite know how to explain to you that he doesn't really want to know what you're looking up on his behalf.

[cardsflippedup]

Ah, see. Now Tomoki was starting to get worried. And a little suspicious. He's pretty good at figuring out when people are bullshitting him. Rei was definitely bullshitting him right now.

"Obviously something isn't. What's going on?"

Yeah, he's not backing down. Sorry, Rei. Your friend is kind of an unyielding brick wall.

[okayeverybody]

Dammit Tomoki why can't you be a slightly-yielding wall of some other kind of building material. He closed his eyes and rolled his head on his neck for a moment, his posture straightening. It was Ken who spoke next.

"It seems he's afraid of learning what you may find about him in your searching, Chino Tomoki," he offered astutely, turning to step back into the van. Rei didn't reclaim control, then, letting Ken lead them back to the small room in the back of the van without a word. When he sat in the swiveling desk chair in front of the computers, Yuu spun the chair and turned to grin broadly at Tomoki.

"But I wanna know!! So you'll still tell me, right??"

[cardsflippedup]

Tomoki followed without hesitation. This wouldn't be the first time he's been inside the van, obviously. He takes his usually seat in the corner and frowns. He hadn't considered a thing like that. For someone to run from the truth, when he was always vehemently pursuing it, was a strange concept and it didn't even occur to him.

He sighs.

"Is that what it is, then. I had no idea. Sorry, Yuu, but I don't think that's my call to make."

Too bad, too. He was also mind-numbingly curious about Rei's past.

"Everyone? Could you ask if Rei minds speaking with me?"

[okayeverybody]

His posture changed again and he leaned back in the chair to stare at the roof of the van.

"I don't mind," he said. "And I'm not... scared." Yes, he was. He had been trying to find leads on who he was for upwards of three years now. When you spent so much time looking for something fruitlessly and coming up with nothing, suddenly being given a possible something was jarring and frightening. He wanted to know-- he desperately wanted to know. But the knowledge also scared him to the point of more sleeplessness than was already common for him.

B

[birdinthehand]

As a whole, Ankh was not enjoying this city. It was entirely too full of troublesome people, and didn't contain nearly enough answers. He was worn out, and miserable, and really ought to crawl back to Hina's apartment or Joji's workshop and call it a day. But as he hovered low to ground, passing by the van that the argument was coming from, he slowed. That snarling voice...

He turned, and darted closer to have a better look... and then darted back and splayed his fingers in shock. Was that the detective? Shingo? Wasn't he supposed to be... not here? But it looked right, as far as his fractured memories could tell.

"Hey!" He darted on in and rose to eye level, plainly wanting to get this guy's attention. He has yet to fully realize that he's having an argument with himself, given that he's a bit wrapped up in his own wants and needs right now.

[okayeverybody]

Halfway back into the van by the time Ankh was shouting at him, Rei nearly missed stepping properly into it when he turned toward the garbled voice. That was... most certainly a thing he was looking at right now, wasn't it. He blinked a few times.

"Um... yes?" How in the world do you respond to a floating arm shouting at you.

[birdinthehand]

It is definitely a thing. A red, floating thing, rushing in and stopping inches away from Rei's face. It's not easy to see things, as a Greeed. This had to be the detective. Who else could it be?

"You. I've been looking for you." The way Ankh is holding himself is rather menacing, in a 'this thing is probably going to grab you by the face if you blink' kind of way.

[okayeverybody]

He leaned away slightly and raised his eyebrows at Ankh's swooping toward his face like a bird of prey. Which... really, wasn't too far from the truth. At the arm's words, though...

"You-- me?" That was uncommon. Nobody knew him by his face, and he hadn't corresponded with any potential clients today. What in the world did this ...hand, want?

[birdinthehand]

If he had been any less excited at the prospect of getting a body, Ankh would have stopped, considered this confusion, and wondered if he had actually gotten the right man. But it was too late. There was too much invested in this. He was not turning back. With a sound that's something like a laugh, he lunges in for Rei's throat. And an instant later there's a flash of red light as he splits himself apart, attempting to latch onto the man and possess him.

[okayeverybody]

This had to be the strangest experience of Rei's life, and he had had several strange experiences in the three years of it he remembered. He was being called out by a strange floating arm that apparently knew him, and...

Well, and then something especially strange happened.

He shouted in alarm when Ankh lunged for him, raising his arms to protect himself from his aim for his throat, and in doing so he seemed to provide an easier means for Ankh to latch onto him and possess him. He couldn't say it was an entirely foreign sensation, being possessed, but when you had five different forms consciousness constantly kicking around in your head not much would surprise you in terms of another. Regardless, he staggered and fell backward to a seated position inside the van, his eyes temporarily rolling back in his head while Ankh seized control.

That sure happened.

[birdinthehand]

Everything was going just as Ankh had hoped. Better, even, since the man had raised his hand and given him something far more appropriate to latch onto. But as he settled himself into place and then reached out to try and push his mind to the forefront, he found much more resistance than he had believed was even possible. One strong mind, he might have handled. But there were... there were how many in here? That wasn't right. Couldn't be right.

'What's going on here?! Who ARE you?!'

He wasn't in control of Rei's body, not without a lot more effort put into it, but he was having an influence on his appearance. His hair should already be starting to go blond and all swept to one side.

[okayeverybody]

He stayed seated with a perplexed expression, leaning back on his hands in the van and stamping the heel of one foot against the sidewalk outside.

"My name is Rei," he explained lightly. "And I would have assumed given you addressed me with an accusatory you that you knew who I was?" Rei you're being a little shit to the King of Little Shits. This probably won't end well.