RP or whatever the kids call it these days

[SkyVenger]

Before Raf finally decided to go to the bank, he dropped by a convenience store called the Dancing Caramel store, which was a few blocks away from the bank. The wind chimes were playing sweet music when Raf opened the door.

"Empty as usual, eh? Nothing's changed since I last went in here", Raf said.
"Well, excuse me... that was quite rude of you, you know", replied a voice that seemed to come from the basement.

The person from the basement went up to the cash register.
"Hey", she said.
"Cate..."

---

Cate was also one of Raf's few friends. They were classmates since Grade 6, but unlike Raf (and like the rest), she's still taking high school. She's the same age as Raf, and also works on the store. Her parents died when she was 2 and she had no family left aside from her grandmother. Her grandmother was managing the store until she reached 12 of age, but for some reason, she became blind and deaf, probably due to old age. Since then, Cate's been working full-time by managing the store while going to school. Raf helps her by sending her money and by teaching her computer stuff like web designs and photoshop art. In that way, she can find part-time jobs on the Net while waiting for a customer (that might not come)...

When they meet irl, they usually just do business and bye-bye, but when chatting thru the net, they chat about everything 24-7. Weird people. Though they say that most of us become more open when chatting online rather than talking directly so... it was quite natural, at least for them.

---

After buying some reagents, duct tape, and scissors, Raf paid $70 and told Cate to keep the change. Cate just said thank you since she knew that it was useless to insist.

So Raf held the doorknob for a while, and opened the door. At that moment, someone tapped Raf's shoulder. Raf looked back, but at that instant that 'someone' took his eyeglasses and...

...............

As Raf was outside the store, his PDA suddenly beeped; he probably received a message.
It just said '143'.
Raf just smiled and while looking at the store, he said "Same to you".
Memories keep flashing on his mind once again, but he slapped himself to make himself focus on the real world.
And so, Raf continued on his way to the Burr Bank.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Karasu opened his laptop, a message popped up on his screen:

"Boss, we're positioned and ready. ETA of the assault van is about 20 min. Requesting confirmation to execute plan."

The boss replied "Plan A. Be there on schedule."

Wearing a black cloak, black mask, black hat, black boots, and a black muffler that looks like stacked wings of crows, Karasu looked more evil than usual. He removed his mask only to show that evil grin and a deep scar on his face.

As he closed his laptop, he went out of his car to buy a smoke. The nearest store was... Dancing Caramel.

                                                                                                                                                    ã

[kirite]

Ren signed happily and took another bite of crabbie patty.

The device was safe...and all is well.

Well. not SAFE exactly but hey at least from the temporal distortions in the area they manage to figure out it was somewhere on this continent.  

Ren decided that this was a good time to celebrate with food as ever.

Plus his boss can't possibly kill him now...right?

A very annoyed server with a big nose came up to him and handed him a wireless phone.  "It's for you."

Ren thanked him with a sigh.  This is a reason why Ren doesn't carry a cellphone, it seems wherever he goes, people can manage to find him.  

"Ello there"

"Ello yourself!  What the hell are you doing enjoying a crabbie patty at a time like this?!?!?!"

Ren blinked.

"Ms. supervisor-sama what's the hurry?"

The voice at the other end paused.  Ren gulped as got the feeling that he just said the wrong thing...

"WHAT'S THE HURRY?  WHY YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF AND-"

Ren winced and took the reciever away from his ear.  His division supervisor Scarlet was known to scream at troublemakers for hours if she gets really angry.  He better cut her off quickly.

"DO YOU KNOW BECAUSE OF YOUR NEGLIGENCE PORTALS HAVE BEEN OPENING FROM OTHER WORLDS?  GOD KNOWS HOW MANY LOST ANOMALIES ARE WANDERING THE STREET BECAUSE OF-"

"Aww you worry too much Scarlet-sama.  People from alternate universes don't just appear in our world from portals-"

"JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN?? IT'S BECAUSE OF THIS ATTITUDE OF YOURS THAT-"

"Pzzzhhhh sorry I think I'm losing connection, pzzzhhttt bye!"  Said Ren and hanged up casually.  Though he better get out of there quickly before she sends the hounds on him.  Signalling a waiter he reached for his access/credit card.

And found it not there.

Oh.  Shit.

---- One attempt to escape from the restaurant without paying later ----

Ren laughed nervously at the very red faced restaurant owner as he checked all his pockets for the 5th time in a row.

"That's strange I would have sworn my card was with me hahah."

The restaurant owner was NOT amused.  

"Crap!  Where did my access card go?!"  Ren thought frantically.  Ever since his work place doubled the access card as credit cards Ren rarely any other kind of currency with him anymore.  Afterall he never thought he would lose it.  That stuff just doesn't happen, right?

"Umm well I don't have money with me ha..."  Ren shrank a bit as the restaurant owner loomed over him menacingly, or maybe it was Ren that was shrinking in size instead.  

"Well if I recall Burr Bank is a few minutes away from here, why don't me and one of your wonderful staff go over there and get some cash?"

[Akonyl]

Richard looked up at the giant letters looming above him. "Burr Bank," he thought, "must be the place."

He went inside, feeling a little silly considering how grimy he was. Wait... was that another worm in his beard? Well, protein is protein, and this gum couldn't hold off his hunger that well...

He approached a teller, who rolled her eyes as he approached. He coughed. "Um, excuse me, but could I talk to a manager, I n..."

"Ah!" a man shouted. "Hello! Yes! Yes, it's you, now come, right this way, my desk is over here."

He followed the man over to his desk. His name tag read 'Walter Joseph - Manager'. Well at least he found the man.

"Well," started Walter, "now we've got you here, what can I do for you?"
"Um," Richard started, "I don't know why, but I think..."
Walter snickered. "Yes yes, Mr. Gazrond, I'm aware of your rather, ah, unique situation. You've told me many times. Let's skip the mumbling, and get down to business?"
"Richard Gazrond, huh... oh! Um, can I see the safety deposit boxes? I need to see 4390."
Walter raised an eyebrow. "Again? Hmph, well alright, though I don't see why you'd need to, but alright..."

Walter led him into the room containing the safety deposit boxes. "4390, right here."

"Alright, thanks," said Richard. "Oh, by the way, you said 'again'... when was the last time I was in here?"
Walter laughed. "Ahahahaha! Oh my. You came here barely 30 minutes ago. Haha, you really are too much to handle, Mr. Gazrond."
"Oh, heh... thanks."

[kkslider5552000]

Mark was just standing there, waiting for her response. 

[ccppfan]

(but it's not the guard's house, I already explained that  )

Mark: Snakes? You have snake-
Mark immediately stopped after looking more closely at this girl. Her ears looked very realistic. They looked almost too realistic.
Mark: You know...that is a really good costume. Those ears almost look real.

"Uh. They ARE real. Duh." Karen replied bluntly. "And since you're asking, they just live near me."

[kkslider5552000]

Mark Tsuruta was wondering what was wrong with this girl. He thought for a second but just got annoyed at this nonsense. However, he then remembered something. Some girls in his school would love to say absurd things just to get people to notice them. Mark even remembers one girl who got in big trouble for saying she wanted to commit suicide just to get people's attention. Mark thought that considering she is wearing a costume and is looking for snakes that live near her, it's obvious she wants attention.

Mark: Well...ok.

Mark started to walk towards the front door while talking. He noticed the guard was still mostly staring at her.

Mark: Anyway, I'll help you find your snakes. But I think we should wait until the police are here. You see, there's this fire outs-

As Mark opened the door he was confused. The fire was already out. He looked to the left and the right but couldn't see a fire truck anywhere.

Mark: That's strange.

[ccppfan]

Karen spotted a slight movement in the bushes. She sprinted over and kneeled down.

"Ah! There you are~" she cried. She bent lower and scooped up... two snakes.

"Martha! Gregory! I was soo worried~!" Karen shook them about happily. "Mou, don't go running away again!"

Her tail flicked from side to side as she stood up. "See? They're Martha and Gregory!" she said to Mark.

[Akonyl]

Richard stuck the key into the box and carefully opened it.

"Hmm... well let's see here... there's a piece of paper, and... a weird blue skeleton key?"

Richard picked up both the items, and looked at the letter.

"Dear me," he muttered to himself as he read the paper, "this letter was written by you. I figure, if you've found this, you must know about your memory problem. That's why I'm writing this, because I can feel the memory loss setting in again. Read closely: do not trust the bald guy. He's been after me for quite some time, trying to steal this key from me. I don't know what the key is for, but put it on your finger, stick your finger through the hole in the handle... see that? It makes your whole hand cold. I can only guess that it doubles as a magical ice ring, which would make sense, because you are a wizard after all, thus you probably had a lot of magical things at one point! Oh, if you hadn't found that out, yes you're a wizard. But, it seems like you lack your wizardy powers now, maybe because of the whole memory loss thing. If only you could remember some spells, huh? I bet you could even conjure yourself a sandwich. Anyway, I must leave this key here so that if the bald guy finds me after I lose my memory, he won't get the key. I'll leave the key to this box with the hot dog vendor, I know you'll go there sometime. I was considering leaving it with the bank manager, Greg, but I wasn't sure if that was a safe enough place. Also, look at the back of this paper. It's a picture I found, but I don't know where the location in the picture is. It must be important though, so I'll copy it here."

Richard flipped the paper over to see a picture of an road intersection with some houses nearby, with one of the houses shaded in. "Well that sure was an eye-opener," he thought to himself as he locked the box again.

As he left the room, he passed the manager, sitting at his desk. "Come by any time, Mr. Gazrond!" he shouted at Richard.

"Alright," Richard replied, "thanks for the help, Mr. Joseph."

"Wait a minute," he thought to himself, " what was Mr. Joseph's first name again? ...Walter? But the paper said it was Greg..."

It was at that point when Richard realized that the man sitting at the manager's desk was exceedingly hairless... and the name tag wasn't very well-made either, at a second glance. The man's suit was also two sizes too large.

Richard had a bad feeling.

[SkyVenger]

Raf finally reached Burr Bank...
"Whew, sure got larger since I last went here."

He saw some black beeping things on the floor near the entrance. They were only millimeters large. But Raf thought they were some kind of new security devices he wasn't aware of. So he just took pictures of those w/his PDA and entered the bank.

Upon entering, he removed his microIPod from his ear, and looked around for awhile. There were only five or six people inside. But two of them looked suspicious: a utility personnel using a flashlight and a man wearing sunglasses. He looked at the personnel wearing gray overalls, and when he pointed the flashlight to a security camera, the camera just stopped.

"What's that light?" Raf wondered. So he removed his eyeglasses and pretended to swing it around when the guy in gray was using his flashlight. When the "light" was about to hit a hidden camera somewhere under the seats, Raf used his glasses to deflect the ray. The guy looked startled for a bit, and Raf started to feel suspicious.

Raf observed the man w/sunglasses next. He "walked around" while trying to block the man's line of sight, but the man seemed to be unhindered. It was like the man didn't even notice that Raf was there. So Raf tried to deflect the "light" from the flashlight once more to hit the sunglasses. When the light hit, the man suddenly acted like he was surprised and clueless of what was happening. He then removed his sunglasses and tried to scratch the glasses' frame for some reason.

"Hmm... EMP rays and Xray Vision Lenses, eh...". Raf knew that something was fishy, so he went to a corner to think about things. While thinking, he heard a pregnant woman inside talking to somebody else (probably her husband), telling him not to forget the list of things to buy for the baby.

"...list?" Raf then suddenly remembered a recent list...

---

Blood Diamond storage banks:
"... ..."Err BankTeller BankMarcus BankBurr BankKnab Bank"... ..."

---

"YIKES!!!"

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When Karasu opened his laptop, a message popped up on his screen:

"Boss, 60% of all security systems shut down. ETA of the assault van is about 10 min."

"Downmann's cigars are really the best", Karasu told himself after smoking his third.
He drove away with his brand new Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.

As for the Dancing Caramel, the store seems to be closed.

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[kkslider5552000]

Mark: AHHHH! What the hell?!

Mark couldn't believe it. The girl's tail was moving.

Mark: Th-th-that tail! It moved! What the hell? Wait, what the hell?! What the hell?! How is that...how...what!?

Mark realized that she was getting visibly annoyed and he tried to calm down despite the impossible thing he just saw.

[ccppfan]

Mark: AHHHH! What the hell?!

Mark couldn't believe it. The girl's tail was moving.

Mark: Th-th-that tail! It moved! What the hell? Wait, what the hell?! What the hell?! How is that...how...what!?

Mark realized that she was getting visibly annoyed and he tried to calm down despite the impossible thing he just saw.

Karen: And WHY are you staring at me like that?

[bluekaitou1412]

Someone's knocking again.
This time, Fuji can't help but open the door.

"Who the hell are you?''
Looking at a young boy with glasses and seemingly large head.
"And what's with the retro-formal look?"
He can't help but smirk.

The boy looked up at him.
"I'm Edogawa Conan, detective."
"And I'm here to investigate a murder case."

[kkslider5552000]

Mark Tsuruta was still shocked.

Mark: This isn't some video game. People...people don't have tails! That can't be a real tail, right?!

[ccppfan]

Karen rolled her eyes and jumped onto a lamp post. In two jumps.

Karen: WhatEVER. I'm not gonna waste time on this. Gtg.

She jumped from post to post until she disappeared from Mark's sight.

[kkslider5552000]

Mark just stood there. And he stood there.

He was still standing there. In his mind he was still trying to figure out what he just saw. This included a girl jumping to a lamp post. He decided to try to go to bed and of course, he failed to actually sleep. He eventually realized he couldn't sleep and played an RPG he was playing. It was Paper Mario. He decided to beat chapter 6 today to avoid thinking. But his mind kept going back to the what he had seen. He knew that a lot of what he "knew" about the world just become pointless. He also knew that those bee enemies were annoying in Paper Mario.

Anyway, he just played Paper Mario throughout the night but was only able to beat that chapter after six hours.  Mark, naturally, had a lot on his mind that distracted him from playing his video game. His room was downstairs and his parents' room was upstairs so he only had to put the volume completely down when they got home. He "woke up", ate breakfast, got dressed and ignored his parents. He wasn't ignoring his parents because he was a teenager but because, and it can't be stated enough, that Mark saw a girl with a real tail jump 10 or so feet onto a lamp post. During the night, he realized that she was most likely the one that started and put out that fire. There was still too many thoughts in his head so, he wanted to ride his bike around town. And he did.