Jun. 14th, 2018 09:20 pm
Seeking the Surprise Emperor
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totallysaneTokyo V is a strange sort of place, named for nostalgia and whimsy but feeling strangely flimsy, unable to live up to any one piece of its supposed cultural heritage. The spaceport seems to mostly do business in short-range pleasure trips, opportunities to "see the stars" and pretend to be a "citizen of the galaxy" without ever having to actually go anywhere. A massive medical research facility sits opposite several tech compounds, and the apartments and shops built up between them seem almost an afterthought, riddled with strange pop culture references from a variety of cultures and time periods and planets, never forming any kind of cohesive whole.
This seems like a strange place to go looking for the leader of "The Dollars", a massive organization that seems to have spread out across the galaxy, boasting government officials, gangs, and corporate leaders as members. Crimes committed in the name of the group, rebellions led by them, the rise and fall of entire worlds attributed to them... and this is where the hunt for the person or persons responsible has led.
There are a number of specific suspects: a young woman who leads the company who owns the medical facility, a young man who is an infamous information broker, a variety of different creatures who may be aliens or faeries or monsters of one kind or another, a gang leader who shakes down every ship that comes into the station...
All of the suspects seem to have one thing in common, hanging out at one particular tiny dining spot dotted among the pleasure-ride businesses, in the area of the docks. "Russian Sushi." Such a silly name, and there's nothing special about the place itself; it serves sushi, sometimes with rather strange ingredients, but the large black man who walks the docks advertising the place does claim that it never contains human!
The suspected Dollars leaders all pass through this place, often meeting in various configurations, and several openly admit to being members of the organization. There's nothing, however, that pegs any one of them as the actual leader, and they often seem to be more interested in conversations happening on communications devices than the ones happening out loud in the room.
There's one boy, however, who is not and has never been a suspect.
He spends a lot of time here, in this little restaurant full of notable figures. He plays with what looks almost like an old-fashioned cell phone, wears plain old jeans and t-shirt, red sneakers. He gets teased quite a lot for being a bumpkin, and anyone paying enough attention to his conversations with people - though who would? - seems to know that he's from some farming backwater, that he came here to get out, that he's never quite gotten the hang of life around here.
Those things might be true, but what is also true is that... absolutely everyone speaks to him. Every single one of the suspected Dollars leaders or members, but also businessmen, gangsters, the hobbyists who go in and out between mini space cruises, the sexy hosts of the cruises, small children, old men, everyone in between.
Right now, though, he's sitting alone, and instead of playing with his cell phone or looking around for someone to talk to, he's looking at a stranger he's seen poking around a bit already.
There's a flush on his cheeks as he waves, and he looks very young and wide-eyed indeed as he says nervously, "Can I buy you a drink?"
This seems like a strange place to go looking for the leader of "The Dollars", a massive organization that seems to have spread out across the galaxy, boasting government officials, gangs, and corporate leaders as members. Crimes committed in the name of the group, rebellions led by them, the rise and fall of entire worlds attributed to them... and this is where the hunt for the person or persons responsible has led.
There are a number of specific suspects: a young woman who leads the company who owns the medical facility, a young man who is an infamous information broker, a variety of different creatures who may be aliens or faeries or monsters of one kind or another, a gang leader who shakes down every ship that comes into the station...
All of the suspects seem to have one thing in common, hanging out at one particular tiny dining spot dotted among the pleasure-ride businesses, in the area of the docks. "Russian Sushi." Such a silly name, and there's nothing special about the place itself; it serves sushi, sometimes with rather strange ingredients, but the large black man who walks the docks advertising the place does claim that it never contains human!
The suspected Dollars leaders all pass through this place, often meeting in various configurations, and several openly admit to being members of the organization. There's nothing, however, that pegs any one of them as the actual leader, and they often seem to be more interested in conversations happening on communications devices than the ones happening out loud in the room.
There's one boy, however, who is not and has never been a suspect.
He spends a lot of time here, in this little restaurant full of notable figures. He plays with what looks almost like an old-fashioned cell phone, wears plain old jeans and t-shirt, red sneakers. He gets teased quite a lot for being a bumpkin, and anyone paying enough attention to his conversations with people - though who would? - seems to know that he's from some farming backwater, that he came here to get out, that he's never quite gotten the hang of life around here.
Those things might be true, but what is also true is that... absolutely everyone speaks to him. Every single one of the suspected Dollars leaders or members, but also businessmen, gangsters, the hobbyists who go in and out between mini space cruises, the sexy hosts of the cruises, small children, old men, everyone in between.
Right now, though, he's sitting alone, and instead of playing with his cell phone or looking around for someone to talk to, he's looking at a stranger he's seen poking around a bit already.
There's a flush on his cheeks as he waves, and he looks very young and wide-eyed indeed as he says nervously, "Can I buy you a drink?"