#bansai01

To be honest, Cynthia wasn’t sure what to expect with this ball. She'd been to many of these types of parties back in her world, and she definitely did enjoy them. Still, what she knew about the city made her cautious. She wanted to hope for the best, but she wasn’t entirely comfortable.

And it was a shame, seeing as the venue was beautiful. The many activities also seemed fitting for the atmosphere. It was a job well done.

But she couldn’t help but worry, especially since she couldn’t call on Gible. Still, she wanted to emjoy herself, even if only for a moment. And what better way than to dance?

“...This is the Agency, huh?”

Totoko raises a finger to her cheek, perfectly manicured; she’s standing outside the Hoshikari Talent Agency, observing the building. It’s a modern facility, and seems sufficiently fashionable and busy — there’s people going in and out, trainers and producers, even a few sets of fans trying to act inconspicuous — but Totoko doesn’t move to enter just yet.

She’d actually visited, earlier in the week, but hadn’t signed anything yet. Once they’d seen her performances, they’d been wanting to work with her and get her to sign, but at the time, none of the producers they’d suggested had... ‘clicked’ with her, for lack of a better word.

Sure, an Idol’s the visible part of the equation, but if the Producer and the Idol aren’t working in tandem towards the same vision, then even the best won’t succeed. 

“I hope they’ve got some more suitable producers in this time.”

Woman sighs at the memory, runs tongue over her bottom lip in frustration. She’ll have to compromise, at least for a short period, if she wants to survive in Koi. Apartment is free, but food is not,  and neither are the high quality goods she likes. Sure, she can get it for free from some desperate men if she plays darling, but...

She can survive on her own, after all; relying on others was fine for a time, but in the end, she wanted them to know that she didn’t need them. She was her own person, smart and successful and ruthless who’s identity belonged to her.

Lost in thought, she doesn’t notice a crowd coming to walk past her, knocking her into a stranger... 

“Hey! Watch it--!” she barks at the group, who don’t seem to even notice what they’d done. A click of the tongue, a shake of her head and a bitter expression, she turns her attention to the other person who’d been affected. Her expression softens, somewhat when she’s taken a moment to breathe, worry for the stranger overtaking her annoyance at the perpetrators momentarily.

“Hear souls?” As skeptical he looked, this is no laughing matter during this time. “What else can you do?” Harry inquired and he has many things to ask him but he has to hold it in for now. “Actually, I’m more curious of what you carry,” He motioned to the katana that the man is holding. “What’s that..?”

   “Such a fascinating mode of dress...coulds’t thou be a wandering minstrel of some sort, perchance?”

In truth, the sight of a man bearing an instrument on his back brought a certain unexpected twinge of nostalgia deep in Venos’s bosom. How long ago was it now, that the knight had last sat to listen to music being performed? Certainly, it was well before had departed Irythill for the last time in his life, to be burned to ash upon the First Flame...after being awoken from the dead, he had heard nothing akin to the twang of a string that was not from a bow, nor the musical sound of pipes.

The armored man bowed his head.

headphonehitokiri

As much as Asha tried to maintain a lackadaisical attitude about suddenly being uprooted from everything she knew, there were aspects to this city that wore her very thin deep down. The most noticeable was the absence of her fathers, brothers, and friends. She could handle being by herself, and she could handle being in an unfamiliar city, but her family kept her sane and in check more than she realized up until recently.

That longing was in part what fueled Asha to go out and get as much information on this place as she could. Aside from her usual thirst for material on the stand-up comedy circuit, people-watching had the added bonus of giving her some hint about how this place worked.

One of the places where the habit was growing on her was Sector oo4 -- it was a cultural mishmash of just about every culture she’d ever heard about with a lot more she’d never even thought possible blended in. She was pretty sure some of the people she’d seen walking around were prostitutes, but they too were giving her stories to tell later as she watched face after face pass by her perch near the doorway to some furniture store. She felt like a delinquent, much to her own amusement.