Catchall for bingo. (Open? Semi open?)

[browbeater]

WHO: Mako, and you?
WHERE: All over Recolle.
WHEN: July Catchall, plus overflow.
WHAT: Bingo! Cr! Things!
WARNINGS: None for now.


A.

[Hey, so there's this dude. You might recognize him as Ideal Cop for Cop Drama. (or as the guy with the shirtless selfie, who knows) Or you might not. Anyway, he's planning a comedy show in the park. You should come. At least, he's got the fliers with the time and date.

Without much prompting, he offers one to you.]

If you've got some free time later this week.

B.

[Well, now he's at the beach, looking so unperturbed by the heat. Maybe he's mildly hot, who knows. He's got a poker face of steel behind those glasses. But he is glancing at his phone.

And an enterprising person might recognize a certain bingo card.

Looks like he's got a lot he needs to fill in. Do you want to help?]

Comments

sosuke continued

[browbeater]

[now that he's got a bucket, this looks like it's going to be going swimmingly from here on out. All they need is some semi wet sand, and to not get crushed by the waves. But a sand castle as tall as they are is another problem entirely. He pauses and then considers.]

I'm 6'1. I've never built a sandcastle... let alone one as tall as me.

[he shrugs. Does it have to be a particular form? Are there rules? or can it be a sand hill? Maybe they should just go for a sand hill, draw some walkways, a door, and some windows in, and call it a day?

It just needs to be good enough, which is pretty at odds with the perfect Spot. But the Spot probably doesn't have any particular feelings about it.]

And yeah... I'm not a fan of sweets. But they're pretty insistent about it.

[flexer]

Oh, cool, we're the same height.

[ So that means they won't have to go an inch or two above that. Praise. ]

I hope you're ready for a wild ride [ said in the most least enthusiastic voice possible ] because building sandcastles requires skill, patience, and a hell of a lot of sand.

[ That's actually... not far from the truth. ]

I'll be your coach for today, the first step is getting a mix of sand and ocean water!

[browbeater]

[coach...? Should he be joking around? Honored? He'd figured this guy for a dry sense of humor, and it's easy to play the curmudgeon in that case, but.

Well. He holds up the bucket.]

Alright, coach. What's a good water to sand ratio here? A sand castle this tall requires some serious precision.

[flexer]

Just make sure the sand's damp, so think 1:3. If it's too dry then it just falls apart, but too wet and it won't even get out of the bucket.

[ He speaks with experience... listen, when you can't swim you gotta make trips to the beach fun in some way. ]

[browbeater]

[well, that's a solid enough answer to him. At least, it makes sense. Maybe it's a little heavy on the water side, but who is he to judge.]

Alright. Let's start grabbing the sand. We're going to need a lot of it, to make a castle as tall as us.

[6'1 never seemed tall until he needed to manipulate sand to be that tall.]

[flexer]

[ Listen he can't fucking do math.

But then Sousuke realizes how much work they're going to have to put into this and... sighs... a lot. For a very long time. Even when he picks up his own bucket he's sighing and when they're gathering sand and water he's sighing more.

He's a tired old man and I'm joking about all of that he only sighed like once. Maybe twice. ]

Do you think if we lied and said that we switched bodies with people who are just conveniently 6'1" and we're really just like... 3'4" they'll believe it?

[browbeater]

[it's ok, Mako won't judge.

He raises an eyebrow at the suggestion, which is really tempting.]

Well... I was just planning on making a large hill and... drawing things into it.

[what about bribing small children.]

You think the kids would move the sand if we gave them five bucks?

togusa continued

[browbeater]

He shouldn't have mentioned it, but he quickly covers with a plausible sounding response. "I was wanting to get moved to the detective side of things... Which means I've got to work on some sort of promotion document."

Then he realizes that, in and of itself, sounds pretty fishy. Nightshift isn't really conducive to promotions. There's, by nature, less happening. Less people around to see his good work isn't helping. And now he has to tack on a new excuse. "I just want to be bothered less to focus on it, and I'm tired of doing highway patrol."

That sounded reasonable enough in his head, and he settles on it.

Re: togusa continued

[standalonehuman]

"Can't blame you there," Togusa leans far back in his seat. "I know I wouldn't have the patience for the highway work." But he eyes Mako carefully for his next statement. "And, working nights gives you plenty of time to stake out a building in Tisse."

"You don't have to hide what you're up to around me. We all know we're burning our off-hours on looking into Retrospec, even though we're all pretending that we aren't."

His gaze drifts up towards the offices, the Chief, the full-time Detectives. "Except that nobody's noticed. I keep on top of my regular work, and it's like they can't even tell what I'm doing when Retrospec is involved."

[browbeater]

Well. He can't argue with that. It's a secondary concern to him, for the moment, but he can't deny that it's something he should probably do. He only wastes a beat before nodding in agreement. "Yeah. Not sure it's going to turn up anything else interesting, though, especially during the nightshift."

He follows his gaze for a moment, and then inhales. "Probably because it sounds crazy if you're not already in the know. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen the changes with my own eyes."

He smirks a little bit. "Got into an argument with some guy on the network, he's convinced this is a mass government conspiracy. I'm against it on principle, but it's hard to argue."

[standalonehuman]

Togusa tilts his head to the side as he thinks about that. "Okay, I've got proof their influence extends into certain government offices. But I'll still put Retrospec as the masterminds."

"They sent me a weapon, a handgun. So I tried to register it with the Department. As they should have, Public Safety confiscated it." Over and done with, right? Togusa frowns sharply. "I got it back in the mail in a Retrospec box two days later with a registration card."

"Don't know if that's helpful, though. But more places, more influence they have over things? It has to be leaving a trail?" Some hopefulness cuts through the bitter frustration in his tone. "What are you thinking of looking into?"

[browbeater]

He hadn't heard about the return, but at the same time, it still doesn't feel like a mass government conspiracy. That seemed to be begging too much of his belief to stretch that far. But it did raise suspicions. He places a hand to his chin. "Did any of those names turn up anything on other social media sites?"

He knew they were a bust on the background checks, which... didn't make a whole lot of sense.

But anything to hide the fact that he wanted to break into the cold case files for a particular case. One that was near and dear to his heart, and that he had waited too long to seriously start looking into again.

He needed to know more about the investigation into his parents' murders. And he wasn't about to let this weirdness distract him for that much longer.

[standalonehuman]

"Hunh. Didn't check something as simple as that," Togusa admits. "I was focused on arrest records. Says something about my tactics," Togusa shakes his head at himself. "It's definitely something to look into."

The look around Togusa's eyes softens. "Gonna miss having you around. Keep...checking in. With somebody, at least. Even if it's not somebody in the Department. Let them know what you're up to."

"People keep..." how does he want to put this? Togusa does not look happy about the idea he is trying to broach. "They keep getting knocked out of the loop. Forgetting everything. I've lost what looked like a few promising leads that way. Because the only person who knew the next step went back to being on the outside."

"Don't know if it's because they got close to something." Togusa's jaw sets and he looks at Mako with that concern. Watch your ass.

ann continued

[browbeater]

The chocobos freak you out? Why?

[admittedly, riding them was not his first thought when he saw them but they seemed otherwise harmless... basically just giant chickens. Maybe they were a little too weirdly cute for his tastes.

... Eh. knowing several horror movies, maybe that wasn't far fetched after all.]

They're basically giant chickens. I haven't even really seen them peck at people, so maybe they're less scary.

[ladytakamaki]

I don't know! It's just, their legs are so long and weird and...

[ giant chickens, yeah, but they just look so...odd. with their big eyes and legs and whatnot. or maybe ann just misses horses? who knows. ]

Anyway, blah blah blah, I gotta stop worrying, right? [ calm down, ann. ] Sorry. It's just...everything's just happening really fast and I'm still trying to take it all in. I promise I'm not usually like this.

[browbeater]

... You're right. Sorry.

[well, he does sound at least a little sincere in his apology, brief as it is. He's kind of inured to the changes at this point, but it didn't mean going back to square one wouldn't be disconcerting.]

I avoided them for a few weeks straight too, way back in February.

[ladytakamaki]

Time sure flies by, huh? Since February...still feels like yesterday.

[ at least she's calmed down some?? ]

I'm surprised you guys have lasted this long without going crazy yet...

[browbeater]

[well, that's the positives, and as he crosses this crosswalk, he notices that they're getting pretty close to the dorms. That wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be-- and he was less hot than he thought, with her on his back. So. More positives.]

Speaking of time flying by...

You'll get used to it. Just don't tell yourself you're crazy, and you probably won't go crazy.

[ladytakamaki]

Oh, hey! We made it!

[ it's probably one of the only times she's smiled since they've met in person, honestly. probably because she's been worrying so much, but at least there's that? ]

Okay, got it. I'm not crazy at all. Yeah!

[ there we go! ]

You made it all the way without stopping. I guess I wasn't too heavy, huh?

B

[openhanded]

[Sorey has been waiting for this moment. For someone with a little more... responsibility to come around. It's hot and the beach is a hopping place for just about everyone. In the absence of a professor or principal around, it's up to Sorey to do the honors.

He's very quiet as he makes his way toward Mako. He keeps his head down and moves slowly, casually, just staying out of the other man's peripheral. He gets within about five feet, which is as close as he can get without making Mako turn around.

And then he hits the air horn.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK]

[browbeater]

[well, he jumps, because the last thing he's expecting is a loud noise, directly behind him. He quickly spins around, and only barely keeps his phone in his hand. But his sunglasses are definitely askew, and his fists are up just in case.

But when he sees what happened, he gives Sorey the flattest of looks.]

Dude.

[openhanded]

[Sorey's holding his own hands up in a gesture of surrender, air horn dropping to the sand. He definitely thought he was gonna get punched.]

Dude! Please don't hit me! It was for the stupid bingo card!

[browbeater]

[he relaxes only after a moment, though he still looks mildly incredulous.]

I'm not going to, but you're lucky you were far enough away!

[he definitely would have tossed him if he could have grabbed him immediately.

His heart is slowly returning to its normal rate... slowly.]

This is the second prank that's been played on me...

[openhanded]

[Sorey would've deserved it, though, and he knows it.]

It's because you work with the police department. But, like-- I'm in the same boat. I'm sure I'll get pranked at some point because I'm a teacher.

[He sighs.]

Did you get a bingo card too? I can help with yours.

[browbeater]

I-- I did.

[he exhales.]

Geez...

Are you up for a duel, then?