4448/Life Goes On

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Life Goes On
Date of Scene: 21 August 2016
Location: Tomoeda-865
Synopsis: Ren and Tomoyo catch up, months after the fire.
Cast of Characters: Tomoyo Daidouji, 165


Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    It's been a while since the mysterious destruction of Tomoyo's Boutique, but the plot of land in the Shopping DIstrict is starting to bounce back. Every day, it's a hive of activity as a construction crew works to bring the store back to life. It's immediately apparant that the new store will be different, owing to the basement that has been dug out. The wooden frame for the new store has been fully erected, the walls starting to go up and windows finally going in.

    Tomoyo is on site today, with the hard hat and high-visibility vest that implies. Safety first! She stands within the enclosure designated by the 'WARNING - SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION' tape set up around the area. Her guards are beyond it, but within the distance they need to be at her side in an instant. he converses with the site foreman, poking at a set of blueprints placed on a portable table between them, discussing what will be where for the sake of optimal wall power outlet placement.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Ren has had a hobby he got into a few months ago and took him through most of the summer. Since his weeks have been pretty quiet since the business with the robot monks and with the hawaiian island wrapped up, he's been able to devote a lot more attention to it.

    Unfortunately, in the last week or so things came to an end. And so he's back in Tomoeda- a place he's barely been to in the last four months. This means that when he arrives, it's a pleasant surprise to see what he does.

    "Ah. Tomoyo, hello!" he calls from across the street, picking up the pace to walk briskly across to her. He seems to have come prepared for something, as he's got a backpack on, but what?

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    The sudden voice causes the four guards to snap to attention, looking in Ren's direction with quiet stares. Recognizing him, they settle down and et him approach. Tomoyo looks up from her blueprints with a smile. "Oh, hello Ren~ It's been a while... oh, here." As he crosses the tape, she snags a hard hat from a box and tosses it to hiim. "Safety first!"

    Striding away from the table, she walks up to him, looking entirely back to her old self. "How have you been?"

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Ren gives the guards a disarming wave. Surely one or two of them should recognize him by now- or possibly not, it has been a few months.

    "Thank you," Ren replies to Tomoyo, taking a helmet. "I was just about to ask for one."

    Now he has a hat. When equipped it provides +4 to your defence, like a shinki or a tanuki. "I've not been bad. I was kind of sick about a week ago? But I got over it, Ainsley helped me out."

    He looks briefly over at the redevelopment work. It's going along well. Soon you might not even be able to tell that anything had happened.

"Are you going to be busy today?" he asks, adjusting the strap on his backpack. "Only I had something to show you. Actually it's a few months old, but things have been keeping me back- well, I can explain."

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    The very fact that the guard go back into a full 'at ease' state shows they clearly recognize Ren as 'Not a Threat.' Did Tomoyo tell them... things? No, she wouldn't do that. The construction workers though are sure to keep a close eye on Ren. It always pays to be aware of unknowns in the area, the last thing they need is someone getting bonked on the head by a girder, Three Stooges-style.

    "Oh, well I'm glad to hear you're better!" Tomoyo says pleasantly. "Busy? No, not really, I just stopped by to see how it was going," she states, looking a bit concerned now. "Oh, it's okay. I know that your feet take you to out-of-the-way places sometimes~" She lifts the tape to exit the construction area and walks over to her guards. Without a word exchanged, they form a blockade around Ren and Tomoyo, shielding them from prying eyes or ears.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Ren Tanaka has a threat rating of 'mostly harmless'.

"I do have a good reason, for my absence!" Ren insists, removing his backpack and leaning up against one of the walls, possibly also crooking a leg up so he's got something to rest the bag on as he goes through it.

    What's inside are an assortment of papers, all of them on Union stationary from labs in Njorun. All of them have headers on the top that mark them out as forensics reports.

"I hope you wouldn't mind," he says, beginning to hand some of them to her. "But back at the end of April," when the Boutique burned down, "I did a little bit of investigation the morning after the fire."

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    "Oh, I'm sure~" Tomoyo says. She sounds sincere, at least, but it can be hard to tell with her. She sounds sincere about everything. The tailor kneels down to peer at the bundles of paper in the backpack, tensing up a little when Ren mentions what they're on.

    "Is that so?" she asks, voice even but with a very slight tremble to them. "What did you find out? The police couldn't turn anything up."

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
A thought runs through Ren's head, and that thought basically is 'yeah, they couldn't turn anything up because you got to all of the evidence before them and took it, idiot'!

    Acknowledging internally that this is actually probably true, but if he blags it he can probably get away with it, Ren replies "Well, y'know...", traces his caste mark with a finger on the place it would usually show up on his forehead, gestures appropriately.

    "The problem is," he continues. "We managed to find some things, but the manhunt's gone on for months. Big universe, et cetera. And unfortunately the trail completely dried up only a few days ago, so we don't know where the suspect is any more."

    Among the paperwork there is a small, locked perspex container containing one of the only most solid pieces of evidence: a hand-rolled cigarette.

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Tomoyo nods, slowly. From the complicated look on her face, it seems like she's always known this, but hearing someone else say it. "Well... I suppose they have more urgent concerns," she says softly, before breathing in and out. "Anyway, the store will be better than ever when it's done. So I suppose it all worked out in the end.'

    Her eye catches the case, gently plucking it from the backpack and examining it. She turns it over, the same way her mind does the evidence... has she figured it out?

    Ultimately though, she just puts it back and stands back up, a refreshing smile on her face. "The past belongs in the past. It's up to us to choose what parts of it affect us~"

    Did she figure it out? She may never say if so.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Ren Tanaka waggles his hand. "The only reason we stopped looking is because we ran out of ways to keep looking."

    The two of them should probably find something to sit down on; Ren's certainly going to sit on some bricks or something.

"In any case, this is what we were looking at. I collected as much evidence as I could... we had to do DNA tests and cross-reference things... character witnesses..." Does that dog-end have '-ws best' written on one side of it? Maybe!

    "The suspect got away from us more than once..."

But yeah. He's not saying it was Mamimi, but it was Mamimi. *hands open gesture*

"Anyway. Who knows what'll happen? Maybe they'll turn up again in the future."

He begins to put things back in the backpack. "But you're right, the important thing is where you go from here now."

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    Tomoyo certainly catches the apparent writing! Amazing that it survived the smoke and soot. And yet... she had been around the store more than once. It could just be from one of those times. Yes, Mamimi is a pyromaniac. Yes, she seemed unhinged. But it's not enough for Tomoyo, not enough to start pointing fingers at someone she considers a friend.

    "Maybe. And if they do, we can do something about them." She zips up the backpack, as if to finally put it all away, and hands it back to Ren.

    "Well, my store should reopen soon~ I've also put together a little collaorative for creative types. Keep an eye on the news, we'll be making waves eventually!"

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    It is a little sad, for Ren. He knew that Tomoyo would be the kind of person who wouldn't accept what had happened unless he actually had the culprit right in front of her confessing, whether that was on one side of a glass screen or not.

    But he doesn't let it show, nor does he comment on it any further. He feels that he's done everything he can do, so it's best to just move on from the situation. Which Tomoyo is, so he will too.

    "You've been busy, huh?" he asks. "I haven't heard about this at all. Who's part of the collaboration?"

Tomoyo Daidouji has posed:
    "It's fairly recent, but we're calling ourselves 'Inspiration Trust." Tomoyo says, happy for the change in subject. "Thus far, we have Alice, Empreror Nero, Kazusa, Nozomi, Kotone, Rarity, Yuna... we even have Yari and Sanary from the Confederacy, and that blacksmith Yukihana~ But once we start getting our name out there, we'll hopefully see some more people interested~"

    She gives Ren a long look. "If you ever decide to try your hand at that kind of thing, do let me know~" she says, eyes drifing upwards to where the mark on his forehead might be.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Ren listens curiously.

    "Huh. That really is quite a group. You really know how to bring people together, huh? Let me think... I think I know most of those, or I've heard from them anyway. Actually, now that I think about it, I need to speak to Alice about something... just make sure Nero doesn't convince you to give her top billing on everything, you know?" He laughs a bit. "That girl does love the spotlight."

    "Now that you mention it, I have been thinking about picking an instrument back up. I've always been able to perform other peoples' music, but I'm not so good at doing anything off the cuff. What about..."

    And the chatter surely goes on.