inigo

"Actually… tomorrow will be my first day on the job! I suppose you could say I’m a little anxious…"

alright, well, let’s get this out of the way (i’m reusing a prior intro because i’m lazy and i liked it!)

Now, what would be a good thing to say? ‘I’m sorry you had to kill people, or watch others die,’ sounded like it’d be a bit of a mood killer. There was also the dilemma of wars tending to be in moral gray areas, and getting into that impassioned discussion wouldn’t make for a necessary first impression. 

"That is interesting. I don’t think I’ve met many people who handle swords.”

Given living in modern day Tokyo.

"And… I’m sorry for the culture shock. It must be hard. I probably wouldn’t fare well in your world. I’m not built for fighting."

That was good, right? Not too, uh… awkward. Rui opened his wallet—not as impressive as it was before,  but he didn’t generate as much revenue here… but it was a livable wage, and that was good enough for him. A tiny bit begrudgingly; makeup was expensive, and so was his wardrobe, and could you really skimp on such things?

"Did you have anything in mind? That you’d like to eat."

Fueled with a momentarily new instance of pride, he shook his head. "Culture shock.." What was that again? Well, he figured it was something that Taguels or Manaketes had to go through, when they'd only been around each other most of their lives, right? Not that they ever had that chance anymore, but... still. He could at least understand it with that. "Nope! Well, I'm not even phased." He totally was, judging by how he observed every new thing closely whenever he saw it, but if he wanted to lie, he would lie-- even if it wasn't believable.

"Actually! There's quite a few people that don't, er-- well, you know, literally fight, but I guess it's still fighting, in a way." Anyone could fight in the world he came from, Inigo believed, mostly because everyone had to fight.. especially with the problem of the rising amounts of Risen and even people against them. "Like, mages and all that. I'm sure you'd do fine."

Okay, no, he wasn't sure, but oh well. Back to the food!

Ah, sadly enough. The idea of eating a pastry freshly-baked instead of pulling it out of a wrapper was appealing, but, again, who was he supposed to be shopping for? Being a sugar daddy must be hard. 

Rui stepped over to one of the store fronts and looked at the cakes in the window display with interest. They were more-or-less all wedding cakes three tiers or more, which was maybe… ironic, and a little off-putting. Maybe just a crepe would be fine…

The actual intent of the cakes displayed went straight over his head for a moment there, but once he noticed, he coughed. How awkward.. Well, in any case, a few, possibly over dramatic thoughts came to mind. "How long do you think they've been sitting there? Waiting, watching-- oh. Food doesn't watch, but..." Well, a point was still a point.

He'd be so preoccupied by the idea of the bakery that he forgot he still hadn't told much about himself.. Explaining his own situation, however, wasn't very easy, either.

"It's... hard to say," Inigo began, his attention falling to the tablet he was still holding, "you know, like this.. Wi-Fi is hard to explain for you." He was a bit proud he'd remembered what it was called-- or was it wrong? Oh well. "But! Well, soldiers fight, obviously.. in battle.. And people died and I helped.." 

The screen chirped a ‘hello, Rui, do you need something?' in response, unaware that its creator had handed it over to someone else. This usually would've caused some separation anxiety, but Rui doubted Inigo could do much harm.

"…if we’ll be living together, you’ll have lots of time to learn about things. You can hold on to X, but we should keep walking. I think there are some bakeries around here… and clothing stores… ohh."

But now that the question was asked, he realized that he didn't actually need anything, at least not now. Inigo settled that he would keep hold of the tablet for now anyway, though, simply because it was cool. Besides, he might think of something while they're walking.

Thinking about the clothing stores was a.. little.. Well. Maybe he should get something more suited to the times, but he was so used to the fashion trends back home (in fact, he liked to think he was on top of them, even though he didn't get much time to shop at all) that the idea of seeing what was in now wasn't very appealing.

The smell of good food, however, was. Stopping upon seeing the first of the before-mentioned bakeries, Inigo stared towards it eagerly.

Rui Ninomiya, trilingual and intelligent enough to teach, like, Calculus AP, maybe, was at a loss for how to explain a Microsoft Surface to Inigo without using terminology that would fly right over his head.

"It’s not magic. It’s electricity, mostly… and Wi-Fi."

Damn it.

"See, it’s a computer…"

"Listen… since we’re—" married? "—together…" Still sounded weird… "You can look at this." Trust-building exercises on the first date. Naturally. "Be nice to X."

He tapped the A.I. on the home screen gently.

Wi-Fi, okay. He made a mental note of finding out what that was later. If he didn't remember most of this, Inigo would at least remember to do that.

Although he still hadn't exactly processed how it was that you worked this thing, he opted to gently take the tablet since he was given permission to look at it, right? But instead of doing anything, he just ended up staring.

"I work with programming, mostly. I made GALAX from scratch… see, this application, and people communicate through it…"

Though the thought of its active userbase dropping nearly 95% since coming to this new city… ah, Rui didn’t want to wallow in the end of his baby.

"It’s… it’s meant to encourage people to help each other, is all. Just because it’s the right thing to do. Um… enough about that, though. I’d like to hear about you." 

Actually, the whole time he'd been here, Inigo had been amazed left and right at a bunch of different new technology. Coming from a place with.. well, none of that, his first instinct was to assume it was some sort of magic.

Looking over Rui's shoulder, Inigo pretended that he understood what he was saying and tried to hide his inner amazement for now. He was doing a pretty good job at it, too, if you asked him. "Help each other?" Right, he could pick up on that at least.

"It feels like that's hard to find nowadays, especially with these circumstances, but it's still a good thing to keep in mind." After all, he had a white knight side to himself. 

"You don’t have to feel bad. I’d like to get something for you. For now, though…"

"Ah, we can go wherever you’d like. I’m…"

Screen name, real name. Was there a point in keeping up a farce in this place?

He figured it was best to smile now, despite his somewhat shy feelings, and so he did so, laughing sheepishly to accompany his change in expression. He couldn't crawl back into the shell he abandoned just because of this, after all.

"Ah, well, only if you say so!" Who was he to deny gifts (multiple times), anyway? "I'm Inigo. It's nice to meet you too! I hope it stays nice, since it seems like we're going to be spending a lot of time together."

"I'm glad to be friends, since I don't really know many people here.. Actually, you're the only new person I know..." It was a little embarrassing.. "But okay, if you insist!"

Rui was supposed to be… married to this person, right? Well, he’d never had friends before, let alone a spouse… 

...It made him feel sort of jittery, actually.

{  ✿  }       ❝ You’re very welcome. ❞ Giving a kind word to someone on their special day was enough for her. ❝ Like me? You’re too kind, I’m flattered really. ❞ Compliments were nice, but she has a fiancé now and he..probably wouldn’t approve.