Koreatown
This area, in the northwest section of the city, is characterized by a large number of Korean-owned businesses, serving a primarily Korean community, despite signs that simply label this as the "Asian Trade District". The streets are clean, the storefronts barely containing any English to them at all. Several of the more prominent businesses in the area do have English signs, but they are always below those that name the establishment in Korean. Restaurants, cafes, noraebang bars, grocery stores, and gift stores are among the shops found here.
Characters
Memorial day! A day off from work, everyone barbecueing and hanging out with friends and saluting the flag… That's all great if you have friends and family to hang out with. Todd, on the other hand, has no celebration to attend, and probably doesn't realize that there's anything out of the ordinary about this day. He walks down the sidewalk at a lazy pace, looking around at the sights with a curious, delighted little smile. He passes a woman hawking some kind of odd fruit on the street, and stops for a moment to look at it. After a short exchange, Todd procures one of the fruit in exchange for a handful of coins, and starts down the sidewalk again, this time looking at the strange fruit with a bemused expression.
—
Where she comes from, such a day is held on may 4th, and thinking about all the dead twice a year just doesn't sit well with Josephine, so she's treating it like any other ordinary day, except that she's not even attempting to get any work done. Day off! Foreign concept for a foreign gall. Currently she's walking the pavement with a box of noodles of some kind, eating as she goes. Until she spots Todd. The warmest little smile curves her lips, but for now, she watches. As well as taking up the watching out for him.
—
Oliver doesn't care about the dead, he'll hit the parties of the evening if there are any get some work done, but he's not going to be celebrating with friends, firstly because he's got few friends and secondly because they likely care no more than he. He also spots Todd, he's aware of the strange mind the man has, although he's far from intending in looking out for him, he also spots Jo, as his mind goes through its usual search for the interesting, and so he slowly strolls over with a faint grin. "Hey. Not at any of the celebrations?"
—
Okay, sure. Technically, it's a day off. But, days off never really sit well with Rachel. She's not much of a homebody — though she spends enough time visiting her mother to belie the point, to be sure. Still, there are no errands that can effectively be run on a day like today. So, the New Yorker's adopted her usual downtime pastime: she's strolling a new neighborhood of the Dallas, trying to get a better feel for the northern Texas city. Today, thus, brings her to Koreatown. She steps out onto the street from a small food shop, a brown paperback with a staple in the top nestled in the crook of her arm, and does an automatic sweep of the street. No doubt the folks that stand out most are those that, like her, don't particularly display much of an asian heritage. Thus, she notes them first, though she hardly homes in on any one of them. After all, they're all strangers.
—
Todd notes Josephine's smile and sends her a friendly little wave. Then he notices some other poor bystander who is giving him an odd look, and he waves to that person, too. Heck, waves for everyone! Oh, look, weird fruit… Todd goes back to admiring his acquisition, and finds a nice bench to settle onto as he starts trying to figure out how to eat the thing. It has some sort of strange spikes on it, which makes the job that much harder.
—
"Mmh? Oh, hey." Josephine blows Oliver a kiss before she fills her mouth with food. Little wave back at Todd, to whom she nods even if his interest has shifted again. "Nah, not really my thing. Heh, not really my celebration, neh," the woman says, stone cold sober. With a tilt of her head that tells Oliver to come with, she takes a few steps to the man with the fruit. "Hey Todd." Swallow, try again. "What you got there." And to her other companion, softer, "Is Todd. His memory is all messed up." « Really messed up. »
—
Oliver nods. "Yeah, seems strange to me; I think such things should personal." He follows her to the bench… it's rare of course that Oliver's seen Jo sober, at least for long. He watches Todd for a moment. He nods to Todd in greeting. "Hey." He then turns to Jo. "Yeah we met, though only briefly." « Yeah, seems to have serious memory issues. »
—
Rachel can't speak to what memory problems Todd may or may not have. As it is, however, she crosses the street towards the threesome more because it's simply on her way. Her pace is a measured stroll, designed to allow her to study the street without necessarily appearing to study the street, though the unconscious litany of details that flash through her mind is probably tip-off enough to a select few. Store signs, street signs, architecture, they're all noted and a few memory tricks are plied to fix them in place — even if she can't honestly recognize the Korean characters. She remembers shapes, though. Indeed, internally, her subconscious fizzles with a desire to better know the city around her… no matter how non-challant she is externally.
—
Todd glances up at Josephine as she arrives, and gives a friendly smile. "Hello." He glances between the two and then holds up the fruit for her to see. "Some kind of food. I think. It's definitely a puzzle…" He goes back to prying at it with his fingers, but as Josephine whispers to her companion, he gives a little laugh. "I can hear that, you know," he comments, apparently finding it quite funny. "And I know something must be wrong with my memory. I'm not /stupid/," he comments, matter-of-factly, then goes back to his fruit.
—
An guilty little grin from Josephine and she has the decency to blush, nodding to Todd, "I'll remember for next time, guess that wasn't all polite and such." She goes to sit down beside him, nudging his shoulder with a chuckle, "I know you're not stupid hon. Mmh, quite a puzzle indeed." She glances up at Oliver and past him at the woman walking. "Hey Oli, step aside will you, woman wants to pass, neh."
—
Stepping aside Oliver grins as he slips onto the bench next to Jo, he nods to the woman trying to get passed. "Sorry… should have been paying more attention." He then turns his attention to Todd. "Think you've got yourself a Durian… haven't had one since I was a kid, and only ever cooked. I don't think it's a good idea to eat it unless it's ripe." He shrugs. "We used to have a cook who liked to use them."
—
Rachel probably wasn't in great danger of bumping into anyone. Still, the courtesy is acknowledge. "Oh, hey, no problem," she says, blunted northern accent marking her very clearly as a transplant to the city. That, no doubt, explains the subconscious cataloguing in her head. "That's what you expect on a crowded street in the middle of a holiday weekend, right?" On some level, the question's rhetorical. She doesn't really expect an answer. Still, she gives an easy smile and lifts her free hand in something of a close wave. "Sorry to disturb you."
—
Todd smiles and continues poking at the fruit. "It's okay," he responds to Josephine, and just as easily dismisses the minor offense. Not the least because he'll probably forget it in a moment, anyhow. As Oliver explains the fruit, Todd brightens a little. "Oh? A Durian. How interesting. But surely it's ripe? I mean, who would give me an unripe fruit?" He tries to pry at it again, but just ends up hurting his finger on one of the spines. "…Ow. Those are sharp, be careful," he says to Josephine. He glances up to Rachel as she gives a wave, and in his usual friendly way, he waves back. "Hello! Would you like some of this fruit? It smells awful, but apparently it's food."
—
"Whoa…" Quick as lightning, Josephine rises from the bench and ends up standing next to Rachel, pointing a warning at the fruit, "Don't those things stink like there's no tomorrow? Todd honey, maybe that's not the brightest idea, right?" Her accent not only places her way up north bu east across an ocean as well. "Heh," she smirks at the newcomer, "Feel free to take my place, really, no disturbance. If you can brave possible stench of death - Todd, where did you get that?"
—
"You can use 'em in cooking before they're ripe." He looks at Rachel. "Didn't disturb me." He nods to Jo offering Todd a grin. "Yeah I'd leave it. They still, and we can't be sure it's ripe." His own accent's fairly local, although a hint of New York seems to have been picked up somewhere.
—
"None for me, thanks," Rachel says swiftly enough to the friendly young man, though she smiles. "Though, I gotta say, it looks like you might want paring knife to open that." Not, mind, that it's a fruit she's overly familiar with. But the spines look wicked. She notes the other woman's accent, ears rising faintly as she does, and turns her smile on her. "Oh, no, really—" Again, her hand flips lightly. "I didn't mean to intrude." She's actually about to move on, really, except she detects that hint of her hometown in Oliver's accent. It has her pause for a second, trying to place it. "I should probably…" She gestures down the street, though the question's pretty clear in her mind: wonder what brought him to New York? Still, that's not something she's prone to ask just out of the blue — especially of a guy she'll probably never run into again. More than that, on the off chance she did run into him again, it's the type of question that can be saved for later… when acquaintances are actually acquaintances. "'Scuse me."
—
Todd is the only local on the whole street, it seems, so maybe his slight Texas twang stands out a bit. Regardless, he seems slightly distressed as Josephine jumps from her seat. "It didn't hurt /that/ badly…" he protests, only to realize that she's calling him dumb again. "I'm not /stupid/," he repeats, and goes back to trying to break open the fruit. "Anyhow, I don't know where I got it. Why does it matter?" He tries carefully knocking the thing against the wooden bench next to himself, to see if that will break it open. "Oh! A knife! Good idea…" Rachel's suggestion seems to have stuck, as he glances around between the three gathered, and asks, "Does anyone have a knife? Like a pocket knife, maybe?"
—
"Nobody's claiming you are, Todd. But, ehm, sorry. Don't believe all that much in sharp objects." Cough. There's a lightly puzzled glance between Rachel and Oliver, the green eyes lingering on the first in the end. "Not from around here, are you," she asks casually. "What's that… New York?"
—
Oliver has to consider the question of if he has a knife… on the one hand he's sure he's got a knife, on the other he's not sure he's got a knife he can explain a purpose for, so he rummages in his pockets and with a grin produces a swiss army knife. "Bottle opener and cork screw… always try to have it on me." He grins a little. "Let's have that fruit." Yeah, he's not going to give many people a knife, certainly not a guy with obvious mental issues.
—
And, Rachel's really good with the idea that Oliver keeps control of his own pocket knife. She pauses, however, to observe Todd for a moment. Her head cants some. A quick glance shows her at least three different places on the street he could have picked up the fruit. And she's not quite so well acquainted with him to have determined more than the fact that Oliver and Josephine are both protective of him on some level — and that he keeps protesting his intelligence. The psychologist in her begins to pull some educated guesses together, but she's largely distracted, just then, by Josephine's question. "Hmm?" A smile, then. "Oh. Yeah. Manhattan. Only been here about six weeks." Long enough to have gotten unpacked.
—
Todd brightens as Oliver offers to open the fruit for him. "Oh, lovely. Thanks!" He offers the fruit over, and is only momentarily distracted by Josephine and Rachel. "New York sounds like fun," he offers, cheerfully. "Did you like it there?"
—
"Heh," Josephine grins at Rachel and with the touristy assumption that people always know people, she asks while digging cigarettes from a pocket -and starting to light one- "Don't happen to know my brother do you? Hugo van d— Hugo Bosch. He's this way famous painter. He's from New York, mostly." The last word perhaps mildly sour.
—
Oliver cuts the fruit open with little trouble handing it back to Todd before removing a piece of cloth from his pocket to wipe the blade and put it back. "Not a problem Todd." He smiles, "I spent some time in New York, always liked it." Oliver catches the comment about Hugo he's aware how touristy the question it's also the first time he's been told /who/ Hugo is, he's heard Jo mention him several times, but never actually mention who he is.
—
Rachel's smile becomes lopsided. City of 8-million people, but does she know this one guy? Right. She has to chuckle softly, even as she slowly shakes her head. "Sorry," she says after a moment, graciously declining to point out the absurdity of the question. "Can't say I've met him." Actually, she can't even really say she's heard of him. She's not all that up on the latest pop artists — unless it's music. And even then, she specializes, somewhat. A glance to Oliver, then, and to Todd. Her smile grows a little — certainly, it's less lopsided. "Hey, y'ask me, New York's the best city in the world. I was born and raised there." That last is addressed more directly to Todd.
—
Todd gives Raches a cheerful smile. "That's just lovely! Maybe someday I can go there. I mean…you never know, right?" About that time, Oliver offers the fruit, which Todd had completely forgotten. He gives the fruit a look of pleasant surprise, then looks up at Oliver with another friendly grin. "Why, thank you!" He takes the fruit, and smells it, and his smile dims slightly. He glances back at Oliver, uncertainly. "This is…food, right?"
—
Josephine shrugs, inhaling gladly but being careful with the exhale. "Ah, ohwell eh?" An elbow nudges the woman gently, "I loved that Law and Order thing. That was New York, wasn't it?"
—
Oliver nods to Todd. "Yeah, might not be too ripe though… we don't know who gave it to you." He looks to Rachel. "I found it perfect for the sort of lifestyle I was living at the time, there's always a party if you know where to look." Of course that's not different to the lifestyle he's living now, he just runs things more these days.
Long distance to Josephine: Rachel laughs. "Oh. Okay. Sorry. Rachel's visions would typically be from the point of view of either the person using the machette or the person being hurt by it. Once the point of view is established, that tends to be the one she always tunes into. So, for anything longer than a flash of a single image, having an emotional or physical reference in terms of whose eyes she's seeing through will help."
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"You never know," Rachel replies to Todd, noting, now, just how poor the man's short term memory seems to be. A half-dozen causes flit through her mind, most of them out of her immediate expertise, being more neurological than psychological. Still, given his fairly orderly appearance, she figures he's well-cared for somewhere. Or, at least, he's got good enough coping skills that it's all good. Besides, with both Oliver and Josephine hovering over him, he's bound to be fine for the time being. And Rachel's not the hovering kind. "Anything's possible."
She glances to Josephine to give her a smile just as the woman's elbow brushes hers. Inhaling sharply — not quite a gasp — she closes her eyes tightly for just a moment, pulling her arm instinctively away. Large as life, in the forefront of her mind is a simple, startling image of a machete propped up against a wall by a bed. It passes quickly, though the image does burn itself into her own memory. "Sorry," she says automatically, not even waiting for any questions about what might have just happened. She raises a hand to her forehead for a moment to mask her momentary confusion and the oddness of her flinch. "Headache spike. Happens occasionally." Her hand falls away and she gives a brief smile, flipping her hand in a lightly dismissive gesture. "Doctors don't have a clue what causes it."
No lie there. Not a single one. But, it does take her a moment to reorient in order to recall just what Josephine and Oliver were saying before it hit. "Law and Order. Yeah. New York. Good show, for what it was." To Oliver, she gives a bit of a smile, only a hint of tension around her eyes. "Never was much into the partying, myself. But, there's lots to be found, if that's what floats your boat."
—
Todd gives Oliver a puzzled smile. "We don't?" He looks down at it, considering, then comments, "But /you/ just gave it to me." Silly people. Todd stops trying to smell the fruit, and scoops out a bit of the pulp to try. He looks at it for a moment, dubiously, then takes a small bite. Judging by the look on his face, it's not going to be his new favorite.
—
And that makes two very shaken people, Josephine staring at Rachel openly before she can summon the self control to look away. No hiding the blood rushing from her face though. "What the…" She hides her mouth behind her hand bringing the cigarette up and visibly shivers. "Right. Look at the time." Even her alto is somewhat unsettled. "Gotta… Bye now." That would be goodbye, the woman's back already turning on them, the noodles she left behind on the bench completely forgotten.
—
Law and Order isn't a show Oliver's got much time for, in fact the concept's something he'd rather be avoiding altogether, so he lets that go without too much interest, he frowns as he catches an image, the image is something he knows, but it's not something he'd have expected to see from Rachel, he gets up, he looks at Jo for a moment and then to Todd, he's really not good with circular explanations. Instead he nods his own head. "Yeah, I should probably be going as well." He begins on his way, not following Jo, but heading in the same general direction. « She's something different. »
—
Rachel's brows dip subtly as Josephine turns away, as shaken as she. That is unexpected. Most times, when a vision hits, Rae's the only one that's affected. That the other woman reacts so strongly sets off a warning bell in Rae's head. Both Josephine and Oliver begin to retreat, leaving Rachel standing there with Todd. She looks between them and him, badly wanting to follow the woman, to catch her and demand answers, but not wanting to risk the man as part of the confrontation. So, she turns directly to Todd, thrusting out an arm to point towards Josephine's retreating back. "Tell me you know her name. Please." She doesn't actually hold much hope.
—
Todd blinks a few times, chewing with some distaste as he watches Oliver and Josephine depart. He hurriedly swallows, and then waves after them. "Bye! Take care now!" He blinks and looks back to Rachel as he suddenly confronts him. He stares at her for a moment, wide-eyed, and then drops the fruit in favor of reaching for the notebook he keeps in his front pocket. "Um. Maybe I do. Hold on a second, and I'll see if I can find it…" There are some polaroids glued in there with names written beside them. Unfortunately, none of them are Josephine. But Todd doesn't figure that out until after he has flipped through all of them. "Um. No. Apparently I don't."
—
Josephine isn't sticking around and explaining, out of sight from both Rachel and Todd before too long what with the crowd and all. Not so much away from Oliver though, even if she doesn't once glance back. Nothing of hers remaining. If you don't count the noodles.
—
Oliver continues to follow in Jos' general direction, he's not making it obvious, just staying close enough to see her as he too disappears into the crowd.
—
"Damn it!" Rachel swears, deflating with disappointment. She scans the crowd for the woman… but she's gone. A breath; Rachel's lips thin. She pulls herself together. "Sorry," she tells Todd then. "Not your fault, I know." She looks around. Her gaze falls on the abandoned noodle container… which was how she first identified the woman when she'd first stepped out of the food shop, herself: 'a caucasian woman with noodles'. "Do you mind?" she asks Todd, then, not that he should… not that she expects him to. She reaches for the container. It's a horribly long shot. Not like the discarded lunch was an intimate belonging. As her fingers close around the styrofoam, she hopes for another flash, anything to take back to the office to help her identify the woman… But, really? She's never been that lucky.
—
Todd shrinks back against the bench, watching Rachel with kind of wide eyes. "Sorry…" he murmurs, again. He only relaxes marginally as she apologizes for her outburst. He continues to watch her warily as she picks up the noodle container. "Um. Sure? Go ahead…" he says, and scoots just slightly away from the crazy woman.
—
Crazy woman indeed. Rachel stares at the unresponsive box. She gives a sardonic smile, then, and glances about. There's a bin, nearby. Two steps, and she tosses the carton. It lands atop the rest of the garbage, noodles spilling over the mess. "Sorry," she says again to Todd. "Hey. Nice meeting you. Hope you get to New York someday." Her hand flips to gesture to his fruit. "Good luck with that." She decides she'd better leave before the poor guy bolts like a justifiably scared rabbit. Besides… she's got some work to do, now.
—
Todd watches Rachel, and gives a polite smile. "Okay. Well. I hope you get to…um….California?" Since they seem to be naming random places that would be nice to visit, from Todd's point of view. He gives a wave, and stands up, still watching her warily. "Um. Have a nice day?" he offers, in parting.