Description: Rose and Kyoko go out for a little fun. No shenanigans or monkey shines occur whatsoever. Really. Definitely not drunken horse racing.
Rose had met Kyoko some time ago, while slipping into the flow of a professional fighting circuit in quest for some unnamed personage. She never said exactly why, but the two of them had enough in common to make drinking buddies, along with the occasional round of Rose wanting to practice her Japanese. Though that was years ago.
When she came in recently to discuss a lingering backache after a disastrous match - the one that was known publically to have been ruined by the abrupt collapse of the financial building it was sited atop, but which Rose elliptically implied was actually /destroyed/ - something far more worrisome was at hand.
At that time, Rose had reached out to place a hand atop of Kyoko's partway through an explanation. "Kyoko, darling," she said then, "no more of this. You need to get out in the fresh air. I am cancelling my afternoon appointment."
"We're going to the races."
SOON
The Tokyo Racetrack is huge and impressive, large enough to contain practically its own shopping mall. From one of its grandstands, there's a view of Mount Fuji on a clear day - and it's pretty clear now.
However, there isn't a horse race. "Hm," Rose says as she passes by the announcement board that declares this fact. "How sad, that they aren't staging any races." She doesn't sound very sad at all. In fact, she sounds /knowing/, more than anything.
Some walking later, and she's moving down, nearer to the track. Of course, there's also a bar passing nearby, on their starboard side - Rose pauses there, doubtless to obtain some walking-drinks. As she leans against the bar, Rose asks a perhaps cryptic question.
"Have you ever wanted to be a jockey?"
She orders a bottle of red wine when it comes up. Yes, she confirms: Entire bottle.
Kyoko's explanation interrupted, her eyes lit up at the idea of going to the horse races. First however, there was a more pressing issue. The Orthopedist smiled at Rose. "What a lovely idea. Before we head out though..." She cracked her knuckles with a certain theatricality, "...Let's take care of that lingering backache, shall we?"
SHORTLY
The series of soothing massages, and subluxation of the back joints had left Rose's back feeling almost as good as new. Certainly chronic back pain was a tricky issue, but Kyoko Minazuki was an expert on that. Her methods would at least alleviate the symptoms for some time, but they're best left off-camera.
SOON
There was a certain electricity in the air in the Tokyo race tracks... that was missing when the races weren't actually underway. Still it left for a wonderful view, even if she'd prefer to see the horses milling about. Right now, sans her white jacket, there was a certain playful smile upon her expression as she glances down towards the bottle of wine, licking her lips on their insides with a certain thristy quality and replying "Why, Rose, don't you think I'm a bit too tall to be a jockey?"
Posing, with one arm playing against the locks of black hair at the side of her head, she grinned with an infectious sort of smile, "I've certainly had fantasies about it though. Ah, if only I were a properly short Japanese woman." She winks at her, before she titters while adding, "If only I was a /proper/ Japanese woman!"
With her spine cracked that thoroughly, Rose suspects that the emanation of Soul Power will be enough to handle things. It's still throbbing just a tiny bit - but now in a good way!
"Pf," Rose says when Kyoko seems to be licking her lips for more and more. "And perhaps a bottle of whatever my friend would like, as well," she says, as she reaches into her tasteful little Italian purse for the bills that this indulgence will require.
But it's no big problem, really. She shares in that little laugh as the wine is brought out along with a super-classy plastic wine glass; Rose fills it, even as Kyoko's own maxi-sized drink order is left in the air. "I would say you are a wholly proper woman, my dear lady; if you are not seen as such by the population at large, then that is their loss."
She takes a hefty sip from the wine. Once Kyoko's liquored up, Rose resumes strolling... towards a side door.
"But the issue with a jockey is that a jockey must be small, so that the horse can go as fast as it possibly can - yes? Because the burden is less. But the horse can bear many more kilograms of weight than that - it would simply not travel quite as swiftly."
"But," she says, "if there were jockeys of similar size, there would be no problem - wouldn't you say that makes sense?"
While Kyoko is a both a lover of beverages of both fine and lower quality equally, there is one that stands out in her mind. And as she taps her finger across the bar, the bartender, who recognizes her, instantly knows what it means.
Sake.
Seishu sake in particular. However, instead of having it served cup by cup, she received a bottle of the clear liquid, clearly not caring about the strange stares she receives for doing something this improper. She takes a plastic cup with her, downing small amounts of the bitter liquid cup by cup. And while her tolerance was high... there's already an occasional hitch in her step as she strolls alongside Rose, in her heels. "Wholly. Unless it's by the ingrates at Justice High that is."
Swirling about the Sake in the plastic cup as if it were wine, she downs another glass as Rose gives her explanation, wiping the hand holding the bottle across her mouth, she manages a smile. "My, my~ Rose, my dear. You certainly sound like you're planning something... wicked."
She puts a hand to her chest, fingers rapping along the side of the sake vessel, "But I'm not certain my reputation could suffer another hit like that." She then titters again, "It would be a true tragedy... if I gave one whit about the state of my reputation that is!"
Rose smiles as she opens the emergency exit door. "You're quite correct," she says.
Standing out there on a patch of greenery are two racing horses. One is black and one is that dappled shade of gray which you aren't supposed to even consider as white, though if it wasn't a bit bright out, you could probably take it for that color. They are peacefully eating grass, even though it's cold out. They have some blankets on, against the cold.
Rose gestures with the neck of her wine bottle. "Which of them do you prefer? We are going to have a race."
Where did these horses come from? (From lady horses, of course! do ho hoooo)
Following Rose through the emergency exit door, Kyoko Minazuki is suddenly forced to 'pick her pony' as it were. It wasn't a hard choice. She strides forward with sudden purpose in her steps, and... slips out of her high heels. Kicking one off, then the other. Fortunately she's wearing hose, as it is a chilly day after all. "Prefer?"
She clucks her tongue, as she moves beside the black horse. "Rose my dear. As you..." She thrusts her own bottle her way, "...ought to know. I always identify most with the dark horse."
She gives her a grin that's just a little lopsided, as she peaks under the blanket to see if they're already saddled. "The more important question is..." She allows that to linger for a time, before offering, "...What should we wager on the race?"
Rose steps out of her own, though her usual nylon bodystocking business means that she's not really ever /not/ in hose. It's certainly an interesting fashion statement.
The horses amble over, as if summoned. (They probably were.) The paler one whuffiles a little.
They are, indeed, both saddled out. And is that a gate that's been left open, leading to the racetrack?
Rose vaults over the handrail, landing with neatness on the saddle of the lighter horse, her wine glass showing absolutely no sign of spilling along the way. She refills it though, and tosses back most of its contents before gesturing with a faint smile towards Kyoko: "I don't know... What stakes are you willing to brave?"
Kyoko steadies herself against the side of the rail beside the horse, pulling off the blanket fully, as she watches Rose mount the steed. "Show off." She comments with a certain playfulness as she sets her cup upon a flat part of the rail, before she tosses the bottle into the air. Leaping, she performs an actual graceful flip, before landing atop the horse's back. On her feet no less. A hand darts up to catch the bottle, before she simply widens her stance, and plops right now.
Fixing her feet into the stirrups, she grabs the cup upon the rail, perhaps indicating that she hadn't /quite/ figured out how she could do that maneuver without spilling any of her drink from the cup. It caused her to give Rose a chagrinned look at her limitations. And well, that would be a true shame, now, wouldn't it? Taking a pull from the cup, she wipes away her mouth.
Given that she was technically unemployed right now, it'd be unwise for her to make any substantial bets, wouldn't it? Well who would ever dare to call Kyoko Minazuki wise? "How'sabout the loser picks up the winner's tab for the next... month." Given their habits, that wasn't an insignificant expense! Grasping the reins with the same hand as the bottle, she mirrors Rose's smile.
Rose's feet find the stirrups as she refills her glass once more. Really, at this point, she should just keep the bottle - or the glass alike. But the glass is classier, and so after filling it to the brim, she tucks the bottle into the crook of her leg.
Rose takes a deep breath. "Hmmmm-- that's quite the challenge you've presented. I'll see you those stakes... and I'll raise you a sushi blow-out, or a trip to a steakhouse... winner's choice."
Rose is going to spend Alma's money on that, probably. Her eyes turn towards Kyoko as she takes up the reins. "Shall we begin from here, in the honor of a nontraditional course? There's no one out there. I imagine we'll have the track all to ourselves... though I'm afraid a cheering crowd may be rather absent as well."
"You're on." Kyoko Minazuki answers instantly. Compulsively unable to turn down such a bet, even if she already hadn't knocked back quite a few drinks. Clucking her tongue, she lightly touches the flanks of the horse with her feet, causing it to move forward just a few paces to be in line beside Rose's steed.
Refilling her impromptu sake cup, she then holds it out, to 'clink' it against Rose's plastic wine glass in the motion of a toast. Even if her words certainly don't match it. "On your mark then, once we both finish this drink." A beat, "If I didn't know any better. Given the stakes, I'd think you'd already read a certain outcome in those cards of yours." She needles Rose affectionately.
Once Rose tips back her own glass, Kyoko would do the same, allowing the bitter but fiery liquid to roll down her throat. Out of the corner of the eye she watched, waiting for Rose's signal to begin the race.
Rose clinks glasses with no real clink to them. She smiles, and then says, "I would never read an event which I am involved with, darling, if I could possibly help it." She raises it to her lips -
Drinks -
And finally exhales, her face slightly reddened like the wine she just bolted down. (An entire bottle in less than ten minutes?!) But she bears it well. The glass leaves her lips --
And they're off!!
The gray horse pounds the turf as he lunges forwards, making for that open gate and snorting in the sheer thrill of the race. Rose rides in the saddle easily enough, at least for this part, the wind of accelerating whipping at her hair - she'll think to lean forwards and stop being so wind-blown soon enough!
For now? She's laughing in sheer delight. Moments like this are all the more precious when they might all end, soon enough.
Flushed as well from the intense amount of Sake she consumed, she doesn't steal a glance down to her bottle, but feels that it's nearly empty as well. As the plastic cup leaves her lips, and her mount's nostrils flare...
A cacophony erupts as Kyoko's starts just a fraction of a second behind Rose's. Unlike Rose though, staying seated is mostly an afterthought. Instead, like a jockey herself, Kyoko presses forward against the muscular crest of her mount's neck. "If you say so, my dear! If I had your talents, I daresay I wouldn't be able to restrain myself!" Her voice is lilting, though raised to overcome the fierce wind that rushes past as both mounts continue to surge forward past that open gate, side by side.
Her shoulder length hair moves of it's own accord, and she lets it, making no motions whatsoever to control it. She simply enjoys the feeling of being /alive/! Alive and free! In many ways this was better than any fight. And yet in others it was lacking. Perhaps it was the originality, the uniqueness of this experience that caused it to stand out, when her inhibitions were loosened by the drink. It had been so long since she'd done something this wild and carefree.
... Well two weeks certainly felt like a long time at least.
Rose, whose talents are at the moment being wind-whipped, laughs at Kyoko's remark - gustily, aptly enough. And then she leans forwards, her knees clinging to the side of the horse as she races ahead, galloping down the first stretch. Between the subtle touch of delirium in the wine and the speed of the horse, she has little more to say.
But as they round the track, Rose yields a bit of a lead to speak to Kyoko again.
"You restrain yourself too much, I think. There's professional conduct and concern, yes, but you wrap yourself up in so many bindings, my dear; they are chafing you. I can tell right now; you are feeling free, yes, liberated? But you should be able to feel this way all the time, if you so wish!"
Rose straightens up a little as well, before saying, "By the way..."
Her head turns as the curve starts to straighten out. "Did I ever tell you the song I came up with while I was riding the train?"
The hand with the wine bottle thrusts towards Rose, the reins following, bringing her steed precariously close to Rose. "Only when I'm on the clock, darling! And given that I just cleaned out my desk, I don't think that's really a concern. I feel..." She spreads her arms theatrically wide. Her horse seeming uncertain what to do, she momentarily falls back in the race. "....liberated!"
The explanation comes, as her arms close, and she gains back on her, "Do you have any idea how many of my former students? How much of Justice's faculty wanted a /less/ than professional relationship? And so many of them little boys..." She shakes her head, "...so scandalously young. If I'm to be taken seriously as a physician, as a teacher. It must be that way."
If Rose thought that Kyoko was too restrained now, she should have seen her back in High School, when she was a wilting wallflower. Perhaps that changed somewhat since she went to college. And yet, despite appearing to be some wild mare herself... was that really what she was under the surface? Rose perhaps, truly had the right of it when it came to her restraint, even when was acting like some 'wild child' despite her age.
"You hadn't." Her eyes twinkle with mischief, as she presses in her heels and thighs to try and move the horse's gallop to something... even beyond it's normal limits in an attempt to pull ahead in this race. "Are you holding out some ribald ditty on me?"
"My goodness, did they really? I thought that was just the subject of fantasies - are you telling me that Justice is built on /that/ sort of an ancient Greek foundation?" Rose gossips merrily on the straightaway.
After a fair bit of galloping, she muses, "Maybe I should have become a teacher myself... do you think it satisfies most of them, or has it just been where they ended up after failing at other things? I suppose I do have Alma." Kyoko has likely been able to figure out Alma's role in Rose's life, though perhaps she has a different take on it than Alma himself does.
And then -
"Well," Rose says, "That is to say - ahem - It's not EXACTLY a ribald song. It's based on an old tune that a man from Naples wrote... But the melody was lost, only the lyrics were saved. Are you certain you wish to hear it, Kyoko, darling?"
Clucking her tongue, as a signal both at her horse to try to pick up the pace, and as mild disapproval towards Rose's words, with no bite to them. Kyoko tips back the bottle to her mouth, mid-race in a move that's certain to make most sake purists aghast. Once it's lowered, she states, "What they say is wrong for me at least, not that I can speak for my former colleagues. I could have been a very successful Orthopedic Surgeon. I have what it takes to be the best in my field... but medicine isn't about actually helping anymore. It's about acting within a budget, lining pockets by maximizing profit. While at the same time, insurance companies and the government are locked in a war to make certain those who truly wish to help people aren't compensated in the slightest for it. Battling against misogynistic hospital administrators was half of my job to even procure a surgical suite and the personnel for a single charity operation." A beat, "No. I chose to teach to nurture young minds, not because I failed. The system..."
There's a lingering pause, before she utters something profane, yet utterly appropriate. "...is just fucked." Snapping the reins, she tries to use that moment as a time to pull ahead in the race. "What was that about restraining yourself Darling? Don't hold back on me now! I'm on the..." She turns her head, grinning at Rose like a fool, as she sits ahead on the very edge of her saddle, "...edge of my seat."
"You certainly have a way with bones," Rose remarks cooly, before wrinkling her nose.
"It's been so difficult for you," she says as the straight away falls ahead - and it seems that Kyoko is seizing the initative. As Rose struggles with herself, she's pulling ahead. Rose gently nudges her mount forwards, shouting ahead, "ALright -- well, please do be merciful for my singing!"
"Ahem," she continues. "The title is 'The Cheese Song.'"
Rose sucks in a deep breath, and steers with her knees as she places one hand to her bosom and the other spreads out in front of her, as if to conduct herself.
"Pizza, Mozzarella - Pizza, Mozzarella -"
Her tone is light, lilting, and then the tempo picks up briskly as Rose straightens up further. "Rella rella rella rella," a little more stentorian, "Rella rella rella rella,"
A final brassy flourish. "Pizza, Mozzarella--!!"
And then the singing ends as Rose draws nearer, to speak aloud. "-- And that's how it goes? What do you think? The second verse repeats with 'Gorgonzola.'"
Kyoko may feel that she's being screwed with. Nonetheless, Rose begins in the same tempo: "Zola zola zola zola -"
"Sometimes I wonder if I'm better at breaking them, than repairing them." Kyoko says, with a mildly dark edge to her voice, but it's nothing out of the ordinary given her moods as of late, ever since her firing. But then the song begins, and all of that dissipates. Evaporating out of her like dew before the late morning sun.
It begins with snickering. And then giggling... and then it's just a full out knee-slapping guffaws, as it continues. It takes her a while to calm down, though the adrenaline rush of her race does wonders for that. "Rose, I'll say nothing ill about your singing because..." A beat, and suddenly she's belting into an impromptu third verse, "Parmigiano, Reggiano - Parmigiano, Reggiano!"
Her singing is absolutely awful, she has no sense of rhythm, and she's more than a little off key. Sounding just a little shrill, though she seems like she has no inclination to stop "Ano ano ano ano!" At least she can keep up with the tempo, even while 'concentrating' on winning the race, which seems to still have taken a backseat concern. "Ano ano ano ano!"
Log created on 20:34:08 01/15/2015 by Kyoko, and last modified on 01:53:28 01/16/2015.