pslplz | Futureverse

No rest for the wicked, so the saying goes-- and not much more for those that chase them. This much Naru knows from experience. He taps a patch hidden under his sleeve for an infusion of caffeine.

He keeps a good distance from his mark, a distance afforded him by virtue of technological advancements in night goggles that could track not just heat but heat trails. So much the better for enabling him to chat while he tracks. This job would be a lot lonelier without that constant connection.

"I dunno. I could see it having some advantages! Never having to deal with the weather, you can snack whenever you want... No worries of being seen by someone you know that doesn't realize you're in the middle of a job."

Naru might have sounded a bit awkward about that last one. Ah, the pitfalls of being popular! Getting distracted like that was risky, though. Every magician knows you only need one second of averted attention to pull off a trick. It wasn't as bad if you were waiting anyway, but when you were following like this, it could be the difference between keeping tabs on your target and losing them to the night.

"Why? You wanna try being out here on foot?"

On his screen monitoring Naru's vitals, Nagi can see a slight uptick in blood pressure when the patch is activated. Meanwhile, Nagi himself sits back sipping on Americano, a habit he picked up in college, when he was trying to stay awake for midterms. He feels like drinking his caffeine helps him regulate the amount better, but in truth, he just likes the flavor.

He snorts softly at Naru's awkwardness.

"Maybe you should think about curbing your dating life a little bit. For professional reasons."

He's teasing, of course.

"Anyway, I was just asking." Tech supports suits him better, which they're probably both aware of. He's trained in the field too, of course. You can't be an agent without the proper credentials in every facet.

"Aw, if you'd seen how cute she was you'd have understood!" Naru protests with the same playfulness. Come on, Nagi, work-life balance!

"Haha, I'm kind of glad to hear it. You would totally rock field work, but it'd suck balls to lose you on tech supports!" He's so knowledgeable about systems operation and infiltration, more than anyone else on the force Naru can think of. This is really where they most need Nagi.

"Hn." Nagi rolls his eyes, not that Naru can see it or anything. Pretty faces can be faked quite easily these days, even outside of VR. But maybe Nagi is just a little more jaded about people in general compared to his friend. He's never quite understood how he could make such fast friends with so many people. Nagi just doesn't find that many people very interesting. He's always been this way.

"And you're better out there, even if you get distracted sometimes."

An agent in the field is much more valuable than a drone or a bug. Programs can only do so much, when following a real person. People are unpredictable. Naru is good at reading them.

"Are you still dating that girl?"

"Who, Minako? That was weeks ago." Not that she isn't still cute, but there are so many fish in the sea!

"I mean we still talk, but I'm seeing a girl named Mimi now. Tall, light brown hair, really good at karaoke!" Naru pauses to take note of his target making a turn and adjusts his course to shortcut over in the same direction.

"...You know if you're interested, I could totally hook you up with her. Mina-chan is a blast, super friendly."

"Right." Weeks ago, as if dating someone for any longer would be unthinkable. Nagi snorts softly.

"Do I look like I'm interested?"

When was the last time Nagi showed any interest in anybody? He's too busy with his career.

"Can you know for certain that you're not interested when you've never met her?" Naru countered.

Really, he knows that Nagi is focused on his career, but that's sort of exactly the dilemma to Naru. It doesn't seem healthy for career to be the only important thing in a person's life. And he knows Nagi isn't as much of a social butterfly as he is. That's why as his friend it only makes sense for him to use his own charm to help Nagi meet more people.

He snorts softly. Naru never really changes. Even back in school, it was always Naru who was getting him into all the extracurricular activities (some of them not always permitted by the teachers, but Nagi didn't really mind).

"You weren't interested."

If that's a prompt for Naru to discuss why he wasn't, he can take it as such. Generally though, Nagi doesn't quite understand Naru's thought process in his dating life. Maybe because for Nagi, becoming interested in anyone at all is such a rare occasion. How can one become disinterested so quickly?

"I was interested!" Naru protests. Sure, not long-term interested, but he'd known that going in. Long-term wasn't the intention and he didn't mean it as the intention for Nagi (though if the cards fell that way, he'd be happy for him).

"Anyway, why does that matter? We're different people."

"Exactly."

Point being, Naru can be interested and disinterested in lots of people. Nagi isn't the same. He's always been slow to make connections with people. Maybe that means he doesn't date around much, or at all, but that suits him just fine. It's probably better this way. The last time he had a real interest in someone, they were interested in someone else.

"Your target is on the move."

That was totally a subject change! Maybe a fair one, though. Naru probably shouldn't expect Nagi to humor discussion about his love life (or lack thereof) for long. Still, he doesn't like the thought of Nagi spending his whole life alone. Deep down, he doesn't think Nagi likes that thought either.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm watching," he says as a rounds a corner in pursuit.

"You down for a game tourney in a few weeks? Thought it'd be fun to get a big group of gamers together, order pizza and watch each other get pulverized."

"Sure," he says. Nagi isn't all that great in big groups, but gamers at least speak the same language as he does. And in a tournament, they'll be more focused on talking about the game than small talk.

"Are you going to be on my team, or the losing team?"

"Hey, you know I'm going to be on the winning team," Naru banters back. "I haven't hashed out all the details yet. We'll all have to network and figure out who's available when-- I'll send out a calendar for everyone to block in."

Futureverse

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