GGaD » {@Specter} Another day, another outing

GalaxianExplosion · May 22, 2023 21:41:46

Something Rai would never say, of course. At least ordinarily that would be the case, but here he is, back from a trip that lasted half a week and immediately having to get ready for another.
He pushes the door leading to his latest residence open, peering inside with a funny amount of caution, as if he's expecting to see the place utterly trashed or something. Regardless of what he sees, he steps in and looks around, closing the door carefully behind him.
"Dion, you there?"

Two days before, Dion would have seen a new message appear on one of the computers Rai left behind for him and bade him to check daily:

"Good afternoon/evening (as I know you will likely not be checking messages in the morning),

Please get ready to go out for a few hours (half a day max) in two days, [Date listed here]. I prospect being able to return around [hour] in the morning (nearer to noon), but will need around 22 minutes to prepare myself. Advance preparation on your end is suggested, however.
And no, we won't be hiking, but we will be venturing to Great Unknown (the outdoors) in general. Wear long sleeves and pants please, in addition to comfortable footwear. The weather should be fine, but feel free to bring a jacket if you would like.
Do think about what you'd like to do. There is not much of an itinerary planned, and I cannot tell you the destination in advance, but general activity groupings should be able to be incorporated into our schedule.

Talk later."

The signature is creepy, some sort of glitched out, blotted shape. Typical of its sender to sign something like that. Perhaps it was intended to confirm his identity; after all, a true signature would instead be unbefitting.
What an exciting event, isn't it? Very vague also, but that's also to be expected.
How's Dion faring? Hopefully he hasn't run out of food. (:

SpecterTheGreat · May 29, 2023 22:09:47

What was Rai thinking, planning an outing before asking his opinion? Dion had thought after reading the message. Even with doubt and not-so-slight displeasure, he'd complied, setting a mental reminder to be ready for that day. If he was going to be ordered around, then he'd show he could complete those orders to perfection.
Of course he wasn't really being ordered around, and the whole thing was probably not a very big deal...but the morning of the indicated day, Dion woke up extra early to make sure he was dressed and combed according to the instructions (which he found out were rather general, not as strict as he had initially thought).
He went over his attire once, twice, and decided he had done a good job. If anything else was asked of him, he'd excuse himself by saying that nothing else was specified in the original instructions. Not his problem.
Then, to wait. He checked the clock on his arm and counted the minutes as they went by.
~
Thankfully, Rai isn't greeted with a disaster of any sort. Nothing major seems to have changed (in the entrance area). Unfortunately, he doesn't find the place spotless, either. If anything, the floor at least needs a little sweep, and the place could definitely use a bit of fresh air.
Also, it's dark.
Did Dion even bother to open the windows these last few days? Even though it's almost noon, barely any natural light filters in through the curtains. Not even the lightbulbs were being used. Talk about a gloomy environment.
The brief silence after Rai's question is broken by a bored-sounding voice from the bedroom.
"You're baaack? I'm here."

GalaxianExplosion · May 29, 2023 22:28:31

"Hey," Dion's answer with a succinct greeting in turn.
The other's footsteps turn silent as soon as he's spoken. Figures.
Rai himself appears in the doorway shortly enough. Or at least a portion of him does, since he steps back just before showing his face for whatever reason.
"Sorry, pardon me while I greet the dust mites on the floor as well," comes his voice, dryly. "There seem to be more of them than when I left. Did they make friends while I was gone?"
...too bad Dion doesn't get a extension to his break from Rai's humor. At least with the other, it's always a joke rather than a hidden reprimand.

SpecterTheGreat · May 29, 2023 22:36:49

That joke was greeted with an eyeroll, which Rai can't see but probably can guess happened based on Dion's usual behaviour. At last, though, the teenager turns his head back to the door--he's lying belly-down on the bed, with a pen behind each ear and several crumpled papers around--to try to establish eye contact with Rai. Even though the first attempt failed as Rai's face isn't visible, he didn't turn around again.
"They can't make friends. It was probably just the air."
What air?
Anyways, Dion is fully clothed as per the instructions left. He even has shoes on. By the way, the only light in the room comes from a nighttable lamp near the bed. The curtains in the room block out almost all the natural sunlight. Yay for Dion's eyesight.

GalaxianExplosion · May 29, 2023 22:49:21

"Too bad. I thought I could piggyback off of their networking connections for a second there."
Was that the most subtle version of the "I don't have friends" joke??
Rai enters the room and barely pauses upon seeing someone who wears shoes on the bed. Which is a feat in itself, at least in the narrator's view, especially seeing as he's technically East Asian. Anyhow, he proceeds to his own room, which is just next door, and sets down what sounds like a heavy bag just next to the doorway there.

SpecterTheGreat · May 29, 2023 22:58:03

"Welcome back," Dion finally says, accompanying his greeting with the sound of paper being ripped and crumpled at the same time. He set to pick up the rest of the other papers (or what remained of them, at least) around so he could throw them away- and the two pens slid off from under his hair. How silly, he'd thought they'd stay balanced on the covering things he has for ears?
He huffed at the plastic click against the floor and pocketed the pens as quickly as he could.
"So, the 22 minutes start now?"

GalaxianExplosion · May 29, 2023 23:08:16

"Yes sir, to the millisecond," Rai affirms with what must be the most flimsy salute of all time (partially because Dion's not watching and partially because he's, well, Rai). "I won't disappoint. Just allow me the time and your graciousness, if you would please."
If Dion were to look to the side again, he'd see Rai in full-on business attire. A suit, a tie, a topcoat, not to mention formal trousers and accompanying footwear. Plus parts of his hair are slicked back. It's shorter than usual too, at only mid-neck height.
"I bought some snacks just in case, if you want to pocket them," he adds before disappearing into his room. "I left them by the entrance. I'd advise against eating them now, though."
And now he's completely gone into his room. He somehow closed the door between this room and that one between the time his last word fell and the second following. Silently, at that.
In any case, 22 minutes is a long time to be prepping, especially for him. Wonder what he has to take care of. Anyways, now Dion gets to play the waiting game. Does he feel like getting up?

SpecterTheGreat · May 31, 2023 23:51:04

Yeah, he's sitting on the bedside right now.
Dion flicked his sight to the door for a moment before Rai left. With an "Okay" as a reply and a blink, he returned to his task of gathering the papers around. The only remaining one was next to the wall with no way to reach it without standing up from the bed, so that's what the teenager did.
Although somewhat lazily, he finally picked up his mess and put it in the trashcan. Task complete! And any questions for Rai would be saved for later. No use bothering him for now, so all that remained for Dion was to wait.
He returned to the bed, about to sit down once again when he remembered the mention of snacks. Those were for later. But... it couldn't hurt to check what kind they were, right? Rai did say he could get some right now. He just said not to eat them there and then.
Dion went straight to check the entrance for his target.

GalaxianExplosion · June 1, 2023 20:32:43

There's a duffel bag there, set against the front door. It looks nice, but surely it's not what Rai was talking about. Right?
The color's hard to see at this lighting. It's possibly some sort of grey-toned color, or just grey in itself. Rai does seem to like monochrome colors, after all.
It's also closed, by the way.

SpecterTheGreat · June 2, 2023 20:22:24

Might be, or might not be. Is it? Is there any other bag or related thing in the surroundings?
If there is, then Dion goes to check it out. But if there isn't then he checks the duffle bag to open it.

GalaxianExplosion · June 9, 2023 16:47:34

There's a plastic bag nearby. One can almost hear Rai's little sound of disapproval upon seeing it.
Anyways, since it doesn't look empty, that looks like the better bet...but then again, with Rai, who knows. He's pragmatic, not logical.

SpecterTheGreat · June 9, 2023 23:49:46

Well then, upon seeing that other bag, Dion reconsiders and heads towards it instead! He could always chechk the duffle bag again if this plastic bag turned out to be a disappointment.

GalaxianExplosion · June 10, 2023 01:24:51

Upon unknotting whatever tie the plastic bag had on top, Dion can see a plethora of different items in the plastic bag. Starting off with broccoli, which of course a traditional snack. Along with a few containers of salad. Also cheese crackers, trail mix, fruit, a small bag of avocados, some kind of chocolate treat, and an ample amount of yogurt raisins. Wow, what a selection.

SpecterTheGreat · June 14, 2023 23:54:33

Dion stared at the contents in the bag.
It wasn't disappointing at all. He wasn't disappointed, he really wasn't.
(He was disapppointed.)
In all honesty, he had been expecting something more along the side of potato chips and bubblegum and candy and chocolate. Well, there was chocolate, but he would've wanted to see MORE chocolate.
Frowning slightly, Dion sifted through the snacks in the bag. It wasn't that he disliked vegetables or other options. He just would have wanted something else, even if just for once. Maybe there was something else hidden underneath everything. He sure hoped so.

GalaxianExplosion · June 26, 2023 22:51:32

There doesn't seem to be enough empty room left for Rai to have constructed an empty dimension underneath the bag or something like that.
Well, actually, there's a faint ticking sound coming from somewhere that seemed to be muffled by his going through the bags earlier. If that's of any interest. Or concern.

SpecterTheGreat · July 23, 2023 10:13:08

The efforts of finding a hidden pocket inside the bag were fruitless, and Dion crumpled it close with a long sigh. It wasn't like like he cared much about snacks anyways.
He straightened back up, stretching his arms and neck to shake away some stiffness. Now what? He'd found the snacks, so he only had to wait for Rai a while longer. Though now that the only noise in the area was his own breathing, Dion noticed the ticking sound. How weird. He concentrated on it to try to figure out where it was coming from.

GalaxianExplosion · July 23, 2023 16:15:28

It doesn’t take long to find out that it’s coming somewhere near or in the duffel bag. Though logically, it should be in it, right?
It also doesn’t sound like a bomb, so surely he should be fine checking it out. Maybe.

SpecterTheGreat · July 23, 2023 17:36:23

The sound came from the bag, and Rai isn't ready yet, so it wouldn't hurt to investigate a bit. Of course he had not been told anything about that other duffle bag, but it's not like he had to tell Rai everything he did.
In that case, seeing what's inside the ticking back is exactly what Dion decided to do.

GalaxianExplosion · July 23, 2023 17:41:47

It's a bomb-shaped watch! :D
It looks like it's pretty good quality.
Hey, actually, it's two watches. The one on the bottom is just more discreet in how it looks and how loud it is.

SpecterTheGreat · August 30, 2023 07:48:08

Hey, at leat it's not a watch-shaped bomb, yeah?
Dion inmediately took a hand to his mouth and knelt down fully to take a closer look at the... thing. The most normal thing to do would probably have been to leave it there and get away or maybe wonder why Rai was carrying something like that but leave it safely tucked away for caution.
Instead, Dion picked up the one closer to the top, slightly disturbed but more interested in seeing how bomb-like it truly looked.

GalaxianExplosion · November 18, 2023 00:29:07

Real bombs tend to look surprisingly discreet, considering their purpose. These watches look more watch-shaped, but surprisingly, don't lean towards the usual cartoon depiction of explosives. And the unnerving ticking sound increases slightly as it's moved upwards, but there's no indication of heat surrounding it or anything.
Anyhow, the numbers indicating the time on the clock are all screwed up, perhaps an unpleasant reminder of a certain incident, but maybe the time just hasn't been adjusted to local time yet.
...or not. The number that would indicate the hour exceeds 24.

SpecterTheGreat · December 15, 2023 19:26:55

Yikes. Being unable to make heads or tails if a reason for the things being there, Dion grimaced slightly. It was truly very strange, but surely Rai had an idea for those weird devices...?
Wait, it's not like he could ask the other about them. It would reveal he'd been looking through the bags without being given permission. Then again, it's not like he was told to not search the second bag.
Whatever the case, he inspected the bomb-shaped watch from near and committed the number to memory. It could well be a countdown to something.
That done, the teen was quick to set everything back to how it was before. The bag was closed again. He glanced in Rai's direction to make sure the doors were still closed, and then returned to the room with slow step.
Minutes seemed to crawl by. How long had it really been since Rai started getting ready?

GalaxianExplosion · December 16, 2023 01:48:06

It's probably been eight minutes max, but honestly, it does feel longer.
"Done. How's that for a record?"
Rai opens the door and steps out just then, possibly jumpscare-esque. He doesn't seem to notice though. Instead he's combing a hand through his hair.
"I would've done better too, but I had to take a look at my hair gel." Regardless of whether Dion's looking at him, he lifts the hand he already has in his hair up a bit as a gesture of sorts. "The thing just wouldn't come out."
For some reason, it feels like he's talking about more than just his hair.

SpecterTheGreat · January 31, 2024 17:29:45

Dion's hands involuntarily jumped into his pockets.
"A record?" He asked, turning around fully to regard Rai. "You took a while, but gel can be very annoying, so I'll let that pass."
His eyes ran over the outfit, briefly checking to verify the change of clothes, and finally settled on Rai's hair to judge whether it had been taken care of or not.

GalaxianExplosion · January 31, 2024 21:29:01

"Yes, and...no, wait. I should be asking, and you know that because...?"
By now, Dion probably knows that Rai does a really good job of tidying himself up. His hair looks fine, if a bit wet still, and he's wearing a jacket that's quite a bit more casual than what he usually wears. It does make him look a bit younger, though. ...though what that entails in turn is anyone's guess.

SpecterTheGreat · February 2, 2024 18:28:35

He shrugged. "Sometimes you need your hair to stick a certain way. I mean, to stay the same. It's supposed to be presentable, or formal, or for similar situations."
Of course Dion wouldn't add that the time he was made to wear hair gel, he made a complete fuss out of the idea. The experience and memory of the texture remained, though.
"Why do you want to know? It's just one more thing, anyways."

GalaxianExplosion · February 3, 2024 03:06:55

"Well for one, it could be an indication that you found a date while I was gone, and that'd be exciting news," Rai hones his smirk on Dion, "wouldn't it?"

SpecterTheGreat · February 27, 2024 18:39:31

"A- a WHAT?"
Dion's feigned carefree attitude dissipated in a blink, instantly replaced by a mix of shock and horror. The other's smirk didn't help. It was as though he knew 'things' (which in this case, were absolutely not true, Dion reminded himself).
"WHY would I want that? I didn't even leave the place!" He gestured around wildly.

GalaxianExplosion · March 2, 2024 23:45:21

(I can't let any persona of Rai go too long without being annoying. Sorry Dion, it is what it is.)

"Oh?" The cyber agent does a lil head tilt, though the smirk (as usual) is here to stay. "So no virtual girlfriend either?"
He'll probably stop when Dion hits a certain number on a certain scale. The scale does not exist, by the way.