Book Signing || Open

[Sara Kosaka]

The bookstore was crowded with teenagers wearing costumes in addition to its regular customers. Sara mentally rolled her eyes as she signed yet another one of her books for a pimply faced youth who had too much fake blood on his face and clothes. It disgusted her that people would go so far to imitate the characters she had spent so much time and energy creating. Sara thought that if they were going to go to the trouble than they should at least go all the way and not half-ass it. Mait save her, they weren’t even wearing the correct kinds of clothes. She wanted to hit every single one of them upside the head and yell at them until they either went home and changed clothes, or simply went home altogether so she wouldn’t have to see any of them again. The second option, though not as profitable, was getting more and more appealing by the minute. Her usual frown was in place so the newbies were probably thinking that they had done something to displease her. But the older ones, the ones who had obviously read her work before, weren’t so easy to fool. They had no doubt seen her before; she did recognize several of the customers who had come up to her. They weren’t stupid enough to be that naïve. Unfortunate, really. She half-wished that they were a bit more naïve so that she might be able to scare them away with just a look. Too bad.

Sara really hated book signings anyway, even without the annoying fans. She much preferred to just remain in her house with her computer and television. Pausing as she was writing her signature on a copy of her latest novel she wondered when the last time she had actually left her house was. Not recently, at least not that she could remember. Strange… surely it had to have been at least once this past week? But no, she couldn’t remember leaving no matter how hard she tried. She had been cooped up for who knew how long, working on her next book. It wasn’t like she needed to go to the store or anything like that after all. Not when there were delivery companies that would bring her groceries right to her door and leave them for her. Life had become so simple that she rarely even had to step a foot into the outside world. In the end that was fine with her. She loved her house, for the most part, and working on books was what made her happy. That and certain other things. Blinking her red eyes once she finished her signature and without looking up at whoever it was she thrust the book at them. ”Thank you very much for your purchase. Have a nice day,” she repeated the same, tired line she had used on all of the other customers. Only this time the person actually began to talk, something that she did not expect at all.

Tags! Open
Words! 502
Notes! Best opening I could think of right now. x.x

[takayama]

"Not even worth batting an eye at Ms Sara" Takayama said a very stern dry sort of way. He'd been walking down the street, and caught site of the mob that stood outside the bookstore. A large banner covered the store's usual sign, apparently some great novelist was signing her awarded works inside. "Humph" Ever since the events of last year Takayama had more than enough time on his hands, taking daily walks with and without riko helped ease his anxiousness from being abruptly forced to retire.

Not that he'd read any of this particular artist's writings, he was just amply curious and seeing how he had no prior obligations he decided to see what the big fuss was all about. A large line stretched far outside the bookstore, Takayama knew how to navigate this sort of obstruction. It helped that he was dressed in one of his best black business suits, he decided most of the groupies here would figure he was the artist's agent or something along those lines. It seemed to work, he shot anyone who dared to question his line skipping a very serious look, nobody dared to question him.

Once inside the bookstore Takayama stumbled upon some of the more serious groupies, these characters were painted up as what Takayama concluded were characters from the artist's book. Fake blood was splattered across on some of there faces. Takayama couldn't help but wear a look of annoyance, he instantly knew he made a mistaken fighting his way into the bookstore. He peered around past the people crammed in the store, in front of all of them was a large desk next to which was a large book shelf filled with the artist's books. And behind the large oak desk was a very irritated women, who seemed to bury her face in the very books she was signing, uttering the words "Thank you very much for your purchase. Have a nice day.” over and over again.

A grin appeared on Takayama's face, he hid it quickly and made his move up to the desk grabbing one of the shelfed books and placing it on the desk for the women to sign.

[Sara Kosaka]

Sara raised her head, slightly surprised that someone had called her ‘Ms Sara’. She hadn’t heard that one in quite some time. In fact, the last time she remembered being called that was when she was still in junior high living with her parents. Back when they were alive and their family was only moderately dysfunctional the maid would call her ‘Ms Sara’. Smirking faintly at the memory she examined the person. He was tall, especially for a Japanese man, and he was wearing a business suit. He definitely didn’t look like he belonged at an event like this. That in itself was almost enough to make her laugh. He was just so out of place that it was hilarious to her. The teens around him were shifting impatiently, waiting for their turn to come meet the famous ‘Sara Kosaka’, the creator of the top horror novels of the decade. At least, that’s what her publicist kept telling her. Really, she couldn’t see it. Compared to some of the works out there her pulp fiction wasn’t worthy of acknowledgement. After all, all she did was write down whatever gruesome plots that came to mind, add in a few additional characters and twists, and type it up all nice and pretty. It was the kind of career a monkey could have. Well, so long as that monkey could type and had a decent sense of plot. Mait, she had read many books that didn’t even have plots so even that wasn’t entirely necessary.

Tucking some hair behind her ear she continued to stare coolly up at the man. She was tempted to reply to what he said but she thought better of it in the end. It wasn’t worth her time to think of a comeback when she doubted she would see this oddly placed man again. Signing the book she glanced only briefly at the cover. Massacre Night, a novel by Sara Kosaka. Her first book and hardly her best work, but still surprisingly popular. Closing it she handed it up to him. ”Here you are, sir. May I suggest that next time you decide to go to an event like this you actually try to fit in?” She smirked, her red eyes narrowing slightly. ”Unless of course you are making it a point to be different? If that’s the case I wholeheartedly approve.” This she said in a half-mocking manner, making it completely unclear what she really thought. This was typical behavior for her, as she enjoyed making others squirm by making them uncomfortable. Sara brushed her hair back again as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in the uncomfortable plastic chair they had given her. When she had seen the thing she had outright refused to sit in it, telling the store manager it was unacceptable for someone like her to sit on such an uncomfortable thing. Unfortunately the woman had nothing else so the author was forced to put up with it.


Tags! Open
Words! 499
Notes! Book title comes from Case Closed/Detective Conan~. Thank you Gosho Aoyama. <3

[takayama]

Takayama's eyes slightly narrowed, he kept his face stone cold. This girl was starting to remind him of Wado back in his research days. They would duel not by physical prowess, but by intelligence and being clever enough to use it in any situation. Takayama couldn't help but grin a little he'd found himself a worthy opponent. He picked up the signed book holding it as if it were very dear to him, in the the same motion he placed it back on it's shelf to be forgotten with the rest of the copies. Takayama turned his attention back to the women. "I just wanted to see what was drawing all this attention, obviously I was mistaken in thinking it was anything worth my time." Takayama did his best impersonation of a sincere bow and replied "I apologize for taking up your time, Ms Sara." He'd gotten her name from peeking a look at one of the previously signed copies of her best selling books layed open in a adoring fan's arms. Again Takayama put on his stone face and slowly turned leaving the artist to boil in his polite insults. Hopefully this would get interesting, for the first time in his life Takayama was actually hoping things would become complicated, after all that had happened a year ago. Takayama liked to keep her personal life private and simple, but the outside world and the people in it, heh. They were free game as far as he was concerned.

[Sara Kosaka]

Sara wasn’t sure whether or not she should be insulted by his actions or amused; perhaps both. Yes, both seemed to be appropriate. Her eyes glittered with annoyance as she watched him turn to leave, but the annoyance quickly changed to something else when she saw one of the teenage boys make a mad leap for the book only to be stopped by several other boys who also seemed to want the copy. Rolling her eyes she stood. ”Not worth your time, is it?” she questioned loudly with a sneer on her pale face. It was a cruel expression, and not one that entirely seemed to fit with her otherwise pretty features. Well, maybe not pretty. She had decided long ago that she was anything but pretty, what with her pale skin and abnormally colored eyes. And even if she hadn’t decided it for herself, a certain someone in high school had taken it upon himself to inform her of her ‘ugliness’. Though upset at the time being called ugly was fine by her now. Because she was ugly, both inside and out. If she wasn’t she never would have been able to write such successful books. Nor would she have ever been able to summon the powers of Mait and Bergo that she did so frequently.

”Well, perhaps my books are a bit too complex for you to understand.” Tossing her hair back she smirked. ”Might I suggest something from that section over there? They might be better suited to your tastes.” She pointed at the children’s book section at the far corner of the bookstore. A couple of the teenagers made whistling sound or began to murmur under their breaths but were quickly silenced by a glare from her. Stepping out from behind the table she shot them another icy look. ”This signing is over.” The store owner took a few steps towards her as though to stop her from leaving but Sara only glared at her. ”I said, it’s over,” she repeated coldly. ”Have you gone deaf, woman?” The owner flinched and shook her head. Smirking again Sara turned her attention back to the out of place man.

Tags! Open
Words! 361
Notes! e.e Sara is....meaner than I would have liked.

[takayama]

Takayama took the brute of Sara's insults with his back turned towards her, he could see out the corner of his eye she had stepped away from her thrown to confront him. Barking out that her book signing was over, and glaring at her now nervous fans that seem to be pushing and shoving trying to see what the commotion inside the store was. Takayama turned his head giving the obviously furious women a quick smirk, a few scenarios ran through his mind. Takayama couldn't help but feel slightly bad about crashing the artist's signing, even though it appeared she was in hell sitting signing, it was really unnecessary for him to come in and stir things up for her. It only occurred to him now, that maybe Sara was just looking for something to get her out of this situation, and that him coming along fit right into her plan. In his calmest voice Takayama shot back "Now Ms Sara is that anyway to talk to your adoring fans? We wouldn't want to tarnish your impeccable record with this little incident." Takayama took the sly comment word for word from one of the many lawyers he'd dealt with during his time as CEO, he was sure it wouldn't have a good out come and decided it was best to make hast with his exit out of the bookstore. Again he turned his back towards her, shuffling past the now astounded fans that crowded in the bookstore soaking up all of what Takayama had said, many of them quickly removed themselves from his path.

[Sara Kosaka]

Adoring fans? Tarnish her impeccable record? Sara let out a giggle of disbelief. This man really had no idea who he was speaking to if that’s what he believed. Much to her surprise one of her “fans” burst out laughing at the guy’s words as well. She smirked, happy to know that at least one of the people who had turned out actually knew something about her. The others around the laughing man tried to shut him up, jostling him and hushing him. The writer’s eyes glinted dangerously, her lips pressing together into a thin line. If this man thought he could get away with saying something so untrue to her and then just leave he was sorely mistaken. Stepping after him she commented, ”Ignorance is bliss, isn’t it?” It was one of those comments that could be taken any way, depending on the tone of the person who was speaking. However she kept her tone carefully in check, making it neither good nor bad. It wasn’t even a practiced tone as it was more just her own way of speaking when she wasn’t particularly upset about something. Because in the end she wasn’t angry with the man. In fact she was quite the opposite; she was intrigued that he was able to rile her up so easily. Over the years she had thought she had built up a tolerance to that sort of thing, but was obviously mistaken. ”If that’s the case you must be ecstatic,” she purred this last word, delighting in the shivers that ran down her spine at her own cold voice.

Tags! Open
Words! 266
Notes! Nothing special!

[takayama]

Takayama made his way out of the bookstore. Just as he exited through the large open doors past the many fans that still crowded the outside of the store, wearing very puzzled looks on their faces. "Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?" He heard, from behind him. Sara had done as he feared, in that she wouldn't allow Takayama and her to simply trade insults and then for him to leave, seems she wanted to continue their 'heart to heart' as it were anywhere Takayama was going. In a way this situation wasn't as bad as it seemed, before meeting up with Sara Takayama was a bit lonely, however after reviewing his current companies laden insults he wasn't sure if his current companion was worth in his opinion his time. Takayama could see that some of the fans from inside the store decided it would be ideal to poor outside the once packed bookstore to watch their beloved artist trade insults with him. Sara followed her comment with "In thats case you must be ecstatic." She was very careful with the tone she used to deliver these lines, it was a clear smoke screen that Takayam saw right through. The women was clearly infuriated and a bit mystified by his appearance at her signing and he insults. Takayama had to fight to keep from rolling his eyes, instead his met his attacker's eyes with a glare that had sent many so called witty and clever people included Wado running for the hills. Takayama was not actually angry with the women, he'd dealt with situations like this thousands of times before and learned it wasn't worth his time to stress over a few rude comments exchanged.

Instead he decided it was the best face to use for the remarks we was going to make. "I could hardly be ecstatic with the current company", Takayama followed with "I know nothing about you or your situation, but even a simpleton could easily dissect you by the people that surround you. One look at your cover shows me that any prime ape could regurgitate the plain and linear stories that are in those so called works of art." It was only after Takayama delivered his last word that he softened his face and waited for Sara's reply, he wanted to see where this would actually go.

[Sara Kosaka]

It was strange, but the woman actually enjoyed conversing with this man, which for her was a total rarity. She had never been that fond of spending time around other people because one, they would either try to force her to do something she didn’t want to do, or two, they would annoy her until she got fed up with them. But this man… he was different. He kept her thinking, which was a very pleasant change of pace for her. As she waited for his response to her taunts she wondered how he would react. Would he be mad? Would he look hurt? He didn’t seem to be the type of person to start crying, which she liked about him. She hated people who cried needlessly. That’s why whenever she had a crybaby in one of her books she would always make sure that they were one of the first to get killed. But even though she disliked them she couldn’t help but make sure that they died poetic deaths that were suited to their characters, rather than just some commonplace scenario that was far too overdone. No, because she actually preferred to think of original crimes and killers who didn’t follow the same general paths that many others did in the same genre. This originality was what she strived for with each novel. She even went so far as to only have one recurring character from her books; a detective who somehow always found himself trapped in dangerous places where killings took place. She had also made certain that the detective, though helpful to the plot, never did any actual battle against the killer. At least, not yet anyway.

When he glared Sara felt even more shivers run down her spine. The same kind that she got when she watched a particularly thrilling scene in one of her favorite movies. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensations coursing through her body while she listened to his words, mentally dissecting the character that was this man. He was well educated; she could determine that easily enough. And he wasn’t remotely afraid to meet her insult for insult. No, that approach wouldn’t work with this man. He was too clever to fall for one of them without providing a comeback of his own. But his words, though not that harsh by themselves, struck a chord with her. She knew perfectly well that most horror novels were in fact very similar to one another, but hers weren’t. This man made comments out of total ignorance. Without looking back at the teens around her she frowned. ”I surround myself with no one by choice. These are just unfortunate side effects of being a writer.” It was harsh, and she knew she’d probably lose some of her fans, but she really didn’t care very much at all. If they wanted to hate her because she was a mean person than so be it. She didn’t want the type of fan who would be scared off so easily. Besides, there was also the chance that by appearing more unusual she might actually bring in more business for herself. Even that though was something she could care less about. After all she didn’t write for these foolish sheep, she wrote for herself.

Folding her arms across her body she smirked. ”Admitting a failure is like drinking bitter tea; unpleasant and in the end pointless. Perhaps my books are a genre that is stereotypically linear, as you said.” Pausing she had to blink a few times, her sensitive eyes unused to being out in the bright sunlight for more than a moment or two. She could feel the heat from the sun on her white flesh and she had a feeling that she might end up with a sunburn for this. A sunburn wasn’t a good enough reason for her to back down though. Besides, it might be interesting to see what a sunburn was like since she had never gotten one before. Continuing to smirk she narrowed her eyes. ”Then again, hasty conclusions are like gunpowder. They are easy to explode.” Although it was a slightly different tactic she preferred this over direct insults as they gave her more room to work with if she needed it.

Tags! Open
Words! 712
Notes! And I have old black and white movies on the brain, so I apologize for the weird sort-of insults she made.

[takayama]

Takayama couldn't help but be impressed with this women, he could tell how righteous and proud she felt after delivering her tasteless, yet tacky insults. She was right about one thing; Takayama was prejudging her on works that he'd never layed eyes on. He really had no right to storm in on her little world and disturb her, but for some nagging reason he really didn't feel any remorse towards her what so ever. Seeing how much pleasure Sara was getting out of there little argument, he didn't think she was one bit truly insulted by anything he'd said. Takayama drained all the harshness from his face and tilted his head back words slightly, as to indicate without words that she had won this little tiff. He shrugged his shoulders simply as he had seen Masane do many times, and allowed Sara to gloat for only a short time. Takayama decided to try something that might catch her off guard, "Do you always verbally attack complete strangers when your criticize on your works?", Grinning "Or am I just lucky to be graced with your dry wit and poor humor?."

[Sara Kosaka]

Sara shook her head, boring of this man. Although at first it was fun to mess with him, by now she was starting to tire of it all. She wanted to go back home where she wouldn’t have to deal with so many people. Just because she had no fear about insulting someone didn’t mean she liked being around people. Besides, her face was starting to burn from the sunlight and her shoes were hardly comfortable. Narrowing her eyes she simply frowned at him. ”Neither. I… don’t get out much so interpersonal human relationships are not my forte.” She shook her head again, her long hair falling over her shoulders. ”At least not functional ones. There is a reason why I chose to write horror novels over any other genre.” This of course was a total lie as the real reason she chose to write gory books was because the subject fascinated her. It always just seemed so much more intriguing than the other, more boring stories. They all had the same basic plot with very few variations after a while, while horror novels provided so many options. ”Since you obviously don’t approve of me nor my work, what is it that you do that’s so… profoundly important?”

Tags! Takayama!
Words! 208
Notes! Wow... short. Lol ran out of steam on this one.

[takayama]

Takayama could see Sara was no longer amused by their little conversation, as soon as he admitted defeat she completely lost all spark, the conversation had drifted towards one of the more basic and plain topics he mostly avoided. Only thing that bothered Takayama more than trying to switch from an enthralling argument to simple small talk on the subject of occupation was talking about the weather. Takayama visibly winched at Sara's question, luckily for him and seemingly unknown to Sara. Takayama had alerted his limo driver to pick him up as soon as this little argument carried on to the outside of the book store. All he needed was for somebody to recognize his face, even with emitting that he was souly responsible for what had happened with the x-cons there was still plenty of bad blood out there, people who really had no use for a man by the name of Reiji Takayama. That is why he still kept out of the lime light and far away from any news cameras or papers. In was in his and riko's best interest to stay hidden away and just try to continue to live their lives. The driver had spotted Takayama's position and quickly approached, before his company could speak out, Takayama quickly and with some grace got inside the car. With the window down, he decided to shoot Sara a quick look of encouragement, and left her with "Our conversation was most intriguing, till we meet again Ms Sara." Signaling the driver, the limo quickly sped away from the book store.

[Sara Kosaka]

Sara watched in disbelief as the man all but fled. Had she done something so terrible that made him want to leave then and there? Her calculating mind replayed the entire brief conversation in her brain. He hadn’t started acting strangely until she had asked him what he did for a living. Could that be it? Her eyes narrowed slightly. ”Interesting man,” she murmured to herself, starring after the car. She was going to have to do a bit of research to find out just how he was. Turning back towards the store she headed into its cool interior, wondering why she even cared so much. It wasn’t like her to want to do research on a person if it wasn’t for a story, so… She mentally shook her head. There was no point in trying to figure out the reason why. All that mattered was that she knew exactly how she was going to get the man’s information. As soon as she was inside the store she turned and pointed at the security camera secured in the corner. ”I want that tape,” she told the owner, who had come over to her immediately to see if she would go back to signing the books. ”In exchange I’ll continue to sign those books for you. Wouldn’t want your store to get a bad reputation after all, now would I?” Laughing softly she walked back to the table she had sat at before, a smirk on her face again.

Tags! Takayama!
Words! 248
Notes! Um... nothing, again. ^^

[takayama]

Continued here:

witchbladeanimerpg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=dghq&action=display&thread=82