Midnight Exchange [c]

[San Anes]

Midnight, in a few simple ways, is the hour in which she liked to call magic hour. She decided to dub the late hour such a thing only because the streets were clear, the suspicions low and the likely hood of getting caught by something unfriendly always appeared very slim. While everyone was tucked away in bed—or getting close to the fact—San was working. She had always been a typical ‘night owl,’ preferring to use most of her time to focus when the sun had long already settled behind the horizon.

This particular night, San was in for a bit of a change of pace. Tonight would not be her usual routine. Instead, a meeting was arranged with a colleague—or acquaintance, whatever the situation called for—a young man she hadn’t seen for quite some time, but had heard plenty of whispers about. After all, being in a gang that is known to cause just as much trouble as herself is not something she tends to look over. San has been keeping track, but not until recently had she had any contact with them.

Shouldering her heavy tech back on one shoulder, San peered at her wrist watch once, then glanced around for any approaching persons. So far, she stood alone, in a dark alley, by herself, with nothing but a black hoodie against even blacker jeans to keep her concealed. Meetings like this were usually pretty sketchy, but San was sure she could take care of herself. And a certain black digital creature hiding out in the very bag she shouldered wasn’t about to let anyone harm her anyway. Botamon was never far from her.

“Ten minutes,” she mumbled allowed. “And then you’re S.O.L, Justin.”

tagging Justin at 289 words
Random thread go! I figured he could be reaching out to her from anything as far as business, or just wanting to see how she's going, which would irk her to no end, mind you. ;D Might be funny. And just so you know S.O.L means "so out of luck." x3b

[Justin Sanderson]

Justin knew he was running late, but there had been an unexpected.... obstacles. A light groan from behind him let Justin know that there was still some life there, but it would be a while before any one of the thugs was up to following him. If Sheska let them, that was. He gave a small nod to her before trotting down the street in the darkness, his black jacket helping him blend into the darkness where his jeans and grey sneakers failed to do so.

He turned down the appointed alley and let his eyes adjust for a moment to the different light. There - against the black shadows, was a figure almost as dark. He broke into a grin and stepped forward confidently. "Evening there, San. Sorry about the wait, it was unavoidable, but I'll do my best to be on time in the future." Justin tried to stay on good terms with the computer expert. She'd done a number of favors for him in the past, and he fully expected that she would continue to do so in the future.

He suspected she enjoyed it a bit.

"So, now that we're here, how about we step over a block or two? There's an AMAZING burger place that I've heard a lot about and have been wanting to try! I mean, burgers. And we can talk there. I've been worried about how you've been doing, out there in the cyber world. I mean, seriously, you lock yourself up in a room all day and all night, and that's just not healthy!" Justin was lightly teasing her, but at the same time he did mean it. He took care of those who took care of him.

He started off in that direction, waving his hand for her to follow.

[San Anes]

Just as she was beginning to think this was all a waste of her precious time, Justin appeared on scene with a smile glowing on his lips. San arched a brow at the very nonchalant way he approached. By his tone, things sounded to be going rather well. Which usually wasn’t what she was used to hearing when things required her attention. Where was the urgency? The hushed words for illegal help?

San gave a small nod in affirmation to Justin’s apology about being a few minutes late. She shifted to face him, adjusting the weight of her bag higher on her shoulder. She could feel Botamon shuffling inside against her leg, trying no doubt to get a better view of what was going on. And, as much as she had worked with Justin in the past, she did not trust the man enough to reveal her digimon to him. Well, no one knew she was a digidestined as far as she knew. So, like many times before, she angled herself to make sure that her bag was not an object of attention.

Luckily, Justin’s track of thought was not on her personal belongings, but on food. And San almost growled under the exasperated sigh that escaped her. “Are you serious?” What was wrong with this man? Didn’t he know by now that she was not a social person and only interacted with humans for business only? But as she watched Justin start to edge away, waving for her to follow, it was obvious that yes, he was serious. “You called me out here to go have cheeseburgers? You know I hate fast food.” Damn, she could kill him!

Reluctantly, she followed, crossing her arms over her chest and giving the gang leader a glare. “You’re paying.” She grouched, clearly not pleased in the slightest.

tagging Justin at 289 words

[Justin Sanderson]

Justin was more than a little amused at San's irritation with him. "Hey, cheeseburgers are only fast food if someone decides to sling them around like cards! There's no such thing when time and effort is put into making it edible." He nodded in self-satisfaction. "Besides, I do have business with you, but it's nothing that ~really~ needs to be said in a dark alley. And this place is quiet. And private. Promise. I wouldn't do this there otherwise."

He thought for a moment as they approached the place, called the 'Cow's Rest' (perhaps a play on 'crow's nest'?). "Oh, and Sheska says hi. Sorta. You know how she is." His second in command had given her begrudging regards... of a sort. She was her usual prickly angry self and had told him to screw off and get out of her way while she dealt with the other gangsters. He gave a light snort at the memory. He was pretty sure that San had met her before because of these things and knew exactly what greetings from Shes usually meant.

He glanced over at her. "So, seriously, how are you doing? Is your website still running? Found a boyfriend? Have any interesting information on Pandora that might have crossed your keyboard? Because I've got a new target in mind at the moment. Something to shake things up a bit." He opened the door to the place. It was a mishmash of styles and colors, almost eye-smarting and most definitely ugly. The one thing that he could say for certain about the place was that it had wonderful booths with lots of privacy and everything that came out of the kitchen smelled absolutely delicious.

He got them a booth for the two of them, knowing that if Shes came in after them she'd want a place by herself, far away from her unruly leader. It also afforded him the chance to see how San really looked in the light, whether she appeared ill or anything. A general check-up sort of deal.

[San Anes]

All San managed in response to Justin’s defense over cheeseburgers was a roll of her eyes. It appeared she overestimated the urgency of this meeting greatly. Though this wouldn’t be the first time Justin had managed to drag her out of her apartment on partial false reasons.

The mention of Sheska had her brows meeting in a deep frown. Other than the few times they have crossed paths before—through Justin himself—San didn’t really know the other woman well, aside the small blaring fact that the two of them did not mix well. They are almost complete opposites and not in a good way. Their minds worked on very different levels from each other. San did not understand how one person can be so violent all the time. And she didn’t know how to take the comment of the woman attempting a “hello” on her behalf other than silence.

The two of them crossed the street and San got a good idea of which restaurant they were heading to based on their trajectory. She sighed, adjusting her grip on the strap of her computer bag out of an unconscious habit to display her unease. More questions began falling out of Justin before they were even inside. Most of the questions asked received nothing but a stare with no sign of expression. Some didn’t even need to be answered out loud: I’m fine, of course my website is still running, no I don’t have a boyfriend. She deemed those answers as trivial and not worth her energy to converse on.

Sliding herself into one side of the booth, she gently placed her bag on the floor between her feet, securing it, then laced her fingers together over the table and stared Justin in the eye. “Pandora’s activity seems to be focused on the digiworld right now. Though what they have planned is still sketchy at best and I do not wish to give false facts until I have them squared.” She closed her eyes, breathing the tension out of her shoulders. San did not like to be out at night like this with Botamon for very long. The little digimon always did well with keeping hidden in her computer bag, but she knew even his patience could wear thin. “What do you need, Justin?”

tagging Justin at 384 words
Sorry for the wait!

[Justin Sanderson]

Justin closed his eyes and considered her response as the wheels in his mind turned. He needed her help, that was for sure, but he had to take Pandora's focus into account. He considered his options carefully. "I need your help blacking out the power to lower-level employees. Ones that the corporation won't take much notice of. And while you're at it a list of lower-levels would be appreciated. I think I've got a number of them tracked but I want to get them all. I'm not going to kill anyone or anything like that. Just... scare them a bit."

He lifted a finger to motion the waitress over, at which point he'd ordered a soda and a curry burger for himself, and water and a veggie burger for his guest. "Though whatever you'd like is fine." He was feeling a tad masochistic and was wanting to dig into something that would sting. As it was, his plans were gnawing at his mind. He was going to step things up a bit around here, shake up the scene a bit. After all, what fun was it when things were going all right? Daily life was so boring~!

And sending this message to Pandora was perfect. He was going to start a war. Not in so many words, of course, and with no formal declaration. But he wanted to startle and unsettle them, make the people up top take notice that not everything was okay. This wasn't going to be the only thing that he had planned, of course. "While you're at it, could you turn off emergency services for an hour or so? I don't want to do too much at once, but it would be very, very inconvenient for them to come around when I was at work."

He tilted his head at San. Would she guess why he was stepping it up? Why he was ready to move to the next level? What the next level even was? Honestly, Justin had nothing against Pandora. But if he could loosen Pandora's control, then it would upset people. And when people were upset.... the world could burn. And Justin was just waiting for it to happen.