Maya's danger appraisal module was in high alert at seeing the weapons pulled out. She took a step back from the man, and stood between him and Shou, staring unblinking at Elias. "Goshujin-sama isn't a pervert. Can you please put those down?" Maya pleaded with large eyes. Her facial expressions were designed to be rather lifelike, though there was still something uncanny about them. This was something lost on her, however. She just stood with this expression frozen on her face, blinking at predermined intervals. "Please help resolve this! We are rather disturbed by this many intruders at home. Can you do that for me?" Maya asked, still carrying the pleading expression she showed Elias.
Elias ignored the doll and focused on the well dressed man. He lowerd his blade but did not put it away. This was another man from Middle City he carried a different feel about him than the slums. Elias spoke tersely while looking at Leon with hard violet eyes. "I'm Elias. I'm not involved with this guy, so if you don't want to answer I can leave, but is this your goon?"
"Pu-Puhahahahaha! what is that face! you look like a real life cartoon character! Ahahahaha!" I burst out laughing, then regained my calm as I grinned when I heard "I'm not related to him either, Such a poorly planned base invasion would make me cringe!" I was still grinning, That girl's face looked funny.
"Moh! I'm not a cartoon character! Maya is a 120% pure ideal girl! Will you be taking that dinner?" Maya protested heavily against the intruders. Internally she started to correct her behavioral patterns to adapt to the situation. Shou might get angry at her for changing, but this was an emergency. The one on her artificial mind meanwhile was sweating heavily, but gathered his courage and asked. "W-what are you doing in my home! This is private property, you know!?" Shou tried shouting, but his voice was weak, and his words probably carried no weight behind them, anyway.
I looked at the nervous young man and decided, why not talk to him? "You do know you might have ended up in the graveyard if not for this fellow?" I pointed toward Elias and shrugged "What's for dinner?"
Elias put the knife away, finally turning to the AI with a tired expression. "You're not my ideal girl sweetheart, and don't worry, I will be leaving." "is that alright with you Mr Leon? I've already had my dinner."
"It was a great victory against an unknown assailant, so Katsudon, perhaps?~" Maya tried hard to accomodate the obviously rather dangerous people. Shou wasn't taking the hint, though. He kept looking nervously between the knives, the large man, and the man with the suit. "Maya!" "I'm sorry I'm not to your satisfaction. Please take care~" Maya said, with an exaggerated sad expression. She quickly returned to a stand by one, and turned to Shou with a sweet smile. "Goshujin-sama, we need to entertain our guests. Please remove yourself from the bed, so I can open the kitchen module!" said the AI, waving her index finger at her creator.
"It's fine, In fact, I think I've met a real life samaritan, I don't meet many like you so how about I give you my phone number and we hang out some time? I know a great Hibachi grill place." I tipped my hat, I've heard the stories about this place. and a man like this is told to be rare. "Mister Leon, It's a bit unwise to eat at a random person's place, especially after you just walked in on them without knocking!" I turned around to see Hugh "Hugh, What've you been up to?" "Nothing much, I just took care of a bunch of local brats, then a bunch of older local brats showed up and I resolved it." I sighed, He took care of a local gang, though I guess the silver lining was that he hid any evidence of what he did. I thought, of course, It was a bit impolite, since the people here might not be able to afford a random person just barging in "I'll give you credits for the meal, See, I'm interested in eccentric things."
Without leaving yet Elias informed the man behind the AI "That guy will wake in about an hour or so you know. So you might want to take care of the cleanup." He tried to exit out the door since Mr. Leon didn't object to his departure. He had had enough interacting with the madmen from the middle city today, " I was just passing by. I'm sure you wouldn't want the number of a lowly slum-dweller like myself. Now if you will excuse me..." He tried to move past Leon's bodyguard who was blocking the door.
"Now hold on a minute, I know of a few men who climbed the ladder into the silver district and a man who went beyond that, So I don't believe you should call yourself a lowly slum-dweller, unless of course, your favorite past time is what those people, out there, that are passing the time wasting their life complaining all the time. and you already proved to me your one or more steps above that." I signed for Hugh to move out of the way, "I'm also looking for reliable independent contractors, if you see any artists I have a gaming company that wants someone to draw Idea concepts." I waved at him then looked back at the girl waiting for her response.
Elias stopped at the mention of another opening for a job. "I don't have those kinds of hobbies, and I know a little about art, so I guess I could stay for a bit to hear you out. But can you get rid of this guy before he wakes up? It's not the most comfortble of meeting places to begin with..." @BB_Tensei
Hugh nodded, picking him up he left while I continued to talk with Elias, while raising an eyebrow "Are you sure? The man's looking for an artist that can draw concept art so that he can use it as a basis for a new VRMMO and he's only paying for silver-district prices for gold-level work." It was impulse on my part, to ask this man if he knew any artists, and I was starting to doubt he would be interested in such an endeavor.
Elias smiled. "Silver district prices are better than prices here in Paradise. Have a look." Elias took out his sketchbook he never went without and flipped through a few pages of the drawings he had made today. Including the one he made outside of the bank. The level of detail was impeccable.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise when the surroundings of one of the banks my family managed was seen on one of the drawings, and I thought to myself 'It's a small world' "It seems I'm Familiar with that bank, do you..." I looked around realizing where we were "Mind recommending a place to talk? It would be....Strange to say the least of it to have a business meeting right here." I turned to maya and handed her a card "Let's meet in the future" and looked back at Elias "Since I have a bit of free time, would you like the meeting at your choice of location today or tomorrow with a fresh head?"
"Tomorrow would be fine." Elias said. He needed to sleep off today's events and he was exhausted, despite just devouring the energy of a home invader. "Let's just exchange contact information and set up a meeting." Elias gave the man his number. He even gave his number to the man with the AI telling him "In case you want to purchase visual aids or designs for your... projects." There was no harm in widening his client base. After he was finished exchanging information, he turned back to Leon. "You can contact me tomorrow. Now if you don't mind, I want to go home." With that everyone left to go their own separate ways. @BB_Tensei
@leegood @Viator Shou saved the contact number purely out of habit. His hands were shaking, while typing on his old PDA/Phone. Maya meanwhile stared at the card, scanning it inside as a holographic memory, and quickly did a search on the public web for the owner. "Thank you mr. Leon Rothchild. The Katsudon is ready, Please have a bite, before you go~" "Wait! What do I do about the door?" Shou shouted out at nobody in particular, as they were already leaving. "Damn it's cold..." He noticed, as the adrenaline was leaving his system. "Maya will work hard to get a new door!" The artificial girl tried to cheer, not minding the temperature one bit. Shou just covered himself in the blanket, shivering.
[Paradise] - [Shortcut] "What again ?" Using his phone once again, Sunao replied and seemed as irritated as ever, his face, but not his voice, his voice seemed emotionless. "Sunao... uhm... the worksh-" "Later." Hearing the word workshop, Sunao immediately cut off the connection as he thought that his personal stuff was really more important, he didn't want to go back to Diamond District since he knew that he will be stuck for days if he goes right now. The company didn't have any problems anyway, on the contrary, and since it wasn't his father who called him, it is unimportant. After sighing, Sunao looked around and sighed again as his voice coldly echoed, without any hesitation, he took out a gun. "Oi, trashes, stop stalking me or lose your live, alright ?" Immediately, the eyes that were lurking disappeared, Sunao couldn't help but sigh again as he put back the gun in his coat. "At least, this is a shortcut... hmm... I will go see Shou later." As he passed near to where one of his only friends were living, maybe his only friend. He thought that he should pay him a visit later, after picking up the materials. "Ha, how anno-" Once again his phone ringed, after noticing who it was, his attitude drastically changed as he continued to walk toward the Industrial Districts. "Father." "Son, what are you doing ?" "I am on my way to buy some materials at the Industrial District." Saying this on a respectful tone, Sunao seemed to be quite amiable when talking this way. "Alright, I give you one day off." Hearing that, internally, this young man was overjoyed, it was perfectly more than needed, for sure, tomorrow, he would be at work even before dawn. That was what he thought as he was on his way toward the Industrial Districts. Afterwards, he will go visit Shou.
[Chinatown] - [Jiaohong's bar] Victor took a long time to finish his drink. But that's normal when you don't like what you're drinking that much and aren't trying to down it in one go. With the drink drunken, Victor looks at his gas mask, once again. One of the good things about this bar and shop is that it is far enough from the industrial districts and has the necessary ventilation and air condition. With how close Victor's home is to the industrial districts, he even has to wear his gas mask inside, as the air pollution there isn't something he can withstand an increased amount of time. Suddenly, the door opens and someone Victor has never seen before enters. Rather curious, although that isn't really visible on his face, Victor keeps staring at him. After all, he doesn't look like someone that usually would be in this area.
[Chinatown]-[Jiahong's bar] A waitress walks over to Rex's table and asks, "Is there something that you would like to drink mister or do you want to see the menu of drinks that we sell?" "I guess I will have a Balkan mixed with pina juice if you are still selling that. Ohh yes by the way who owns this establishment now?" The waitress turns whilst he was still talking and says, "I'll be right on it then."
[Chinatown] - [Jiahong's bar] After picking up his gas mask, Victor goes over to the person that just entered. Having coincidentally heard his question, he answers it. "The current owner is Jiaohong's son, Bao. Jiaohong apparently got killed in a mugging some years ago, so Bao took over. He's part of a gang though. so you could say that it indirectly is owned by the gang, too." While explaining all of this with a rather tired expression, he sits down on an empty chair at the table before realizing something. "You don't mind me sitting here, right?"