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[In a time that feels like an age ago, Dettlaff had once been a newcomer to Beauclair. In those days, it had taken time and patience to learn the layout of the city, the wide expanse of neighboring vineyards, the streets converging their way into the mouth of the castle presiding over it all. But he had learned the essentials, or at least well enough to function day-to-day and to play the part of human without issue — the friendliest shopkeepers, the sternest guards and their patrols, where to wander and what to avoid.

He can do the same here given enough time; an immortal has plenty of it, after all. But Sumarlok is so much bigger than Beauclair by an exponential amount, and the task at times feels impossibly gargantuan. Each turn leads to another alleyway, and there’s always a district or a quaint little square or a shop that might have cropped up like a freshly-grown weed, for how he fails to remember it being there just the other day.

Now, Dettlaff finds himself wandering again. The scent of this place is like oil, like machinery being taken apart and being put together again, and he ducks in and out of places that he has no business being in, drawn forward by simple curiosity. As luck would have it, one garage rewards him greatly for his vampiric nosiness — there, in the center of the wide space and hard flooring, is his new human friend and loyal comrade: Daigo.

The vampire approaches with a growing ease to his gait, eyeing the vehicle the other man appears focused upon.]

Daigo.

[Hi. Whatcha doin.]

Are you always keeping so busy?

[ Daigo glances back at him, amused. For once he has not done his hair, its just tied at the base of his neck with a bandana over it. It's the least put together he's been, but that seems about right for an afternoon in the garage. ]

Hey. Were you looking for me?

[ If so that's what phones are for, buddy. Daigo sits back on the little stool he's using, his hands loose between his knees. ]

Well, as it turns out these bikes run on crystal batteries. Something I know nothing about, so I'm out here learning about them.

[ Literally just a larger scale version of taking apart that phone. The irony is not at all lost on Daigo. ]

[Dettlaff has not seen him this casual before, and he thinks for a flickering moment that it suits Daigo, before his attention is redirected, again, to the matter at hand.]

I was exploring. This city will take a long time for me to become well and truly familiar with it.

[Running into him had been nothing more than a lucky coincidence! He knows how use his phone... relatively well now. He’s gutted it several times over, put it back together again, and it hasn’t yet failed him. That counts.

And, walking around the bike that Daigo appears to be working on, he wonders at the similarities. He’s seen these vehicles many times in passing, loud and rumbling, wondering at their insides and how they worked — yet crystal batteries is none too different from the inside of their devices, he muses.]

Is this yours?

It always does, a city this size there's always going to be a neighborhood or two that you never really know. The streets are organized pretty logically though.

[ He's from Tokyo, one of the most densely populated cities on Earth. Sumarlok bothers him literally not at all. Urban advice with Daigo. ]

The transit system is usually organized to follow the city's flow, it can be useful to ride around that way to get your bearings.

[ He's been riding around on the bike though, and his smile shows that he's been having a good time doing so. ]

I suppose I could have invested in a house, but this seemed more fun.

I prefer on foot.

[Spoken like a true boomer refusing to embrace the tech enveloping him at every turn. But the truth is a little less stubborn: existing in shadow, or at least in the background, has made him keen on observation. Dettlaff, accurately or otherwise, feels as though he will miss too much barreling down the city's veins in one of these contraptions, or any other mode of transportation available.

That doesn't make it any less of a curiosity, though, where his mind is concerned. He's likely already taking it apart, piece by piece, via imagination.]

They are fast.

[He crouches down low, better to inspect it.]

And sometimes loud. [Depending on the model, one supposes.] Is that what you enjoy about it?

[ It's ok, Dettlaff. Daigo will never call you a boomer to your face, he's much too polite. Besides, how is he supposed to fault an old man for wanting to take a few walking tours around the city? Sounds like the kind of activity that was made for him. ]

They need to be loud, or you can't hear them coming in traffic. Sure, when I was younger it was fun to startle pedestrians but it's also a safety hazard if a larger vehicle merges on top of you.

[ He was much more wild when he was young. Getting into fights, harassing pedestrians on his motorcycle, drinking himself to death in Tokyo. Yakuza are all a little wild at heart, even the business school guys. ]

What I like the most is how physical it is. You can feel the engine and the environment in your whole body. Even the little bugs pinging off your helmet.

[ Less driving, more experiencing. ]

Want to help me take it apart?

[He would have you know that he is not a boomer in vampire years! Those guys are really temperamental and crotchety, okay.

But he understands — less helming this vehicle, more experiencing. Less necessity to a degree, more indulgence. Dettlaff supposes he cannot blame anyone for that much, given that all living creatures are prone to seeking exhilaration in unfathomable ways.]

Yes.

[The answer is immediate, almost as immediate as the way Dettlaff lifts his eyes to Daigo, something eager and curious in them.]

You said that they run on crystal “batteries”. If that is true, it’s similar to our communication devices. In that way, they are the same, and we should be able to draw assumptions of its functioning based on that alone.

[opennnn the bike]

[ Daigo grins in direct response to Dettlaff's enthusiasm. He had a feeling his vampire kyodai might be interested in this project. ]

That's right, I'll show you.

[ He gets up to grab a couple of different tools from a workbench. He one to quickly twist out the bolt holding on the motor cover. It's quick work. ]

Even some of these tools are specific to these bikes... I've been looking them up on my phone all week.

[ Watching youtube videos, reading manuals. The grounder style is popular with the gembonded because it's familiar, but the locals have them too and they've put out resources about them. ]

[It’s like unearthing the insides of an animal — that’s what Dettlaff thinks. A mess upon first glance, probably enough for most to dismiss as only that, but each and every individual part plays its role. He can already make educated guesses just by their placement in the frame of the bike, compared to what he knows about how their phones crystal batteries operate on a very basic level.

Of course, their devices don’t exactly have engines. Dettlaff’s eyes eventually fixate on that beast of a thing, the very epitome of what makes any motorcycle a complex machine, and if any of Daigo’s explanations stray from it too long, he’ll have a question loaded in the chamber that brings the focus back on it.

Eventually:]

This machine… [He taps at the frame with a long nail to indicate.] Is yours, and I assume different from the others in some way.

[It’s Daigo; Daigo must have one that’s a little special, right?]

But if I were to open up the others I see passing by on the street, they would be similarly built, would they not?

It depends. For some people, a lot of the fun is customizing it. But even if someone built their own from the ground up, it would be from a set of known parts.

[ This is where a parts catalog would come in handy but like hell does a city this advanced print paper catalogs. ]

I could really use a screen in here to cast references to...

[ In the meantime, what he can do is show it to Dettlaff on his phone, swiping left and right shows the same kind of part for different models. ]

Sometimes all that's different is the size or the style, sometimes it might be for different performance priorities.

[He watches silently and diligently as before. Dettlaff's eyes track every contour of every vehicle that Daigo shows him on the screen, and though he is far from understanding the intricaies of how any of them work, the generalized idea is forming in his head -- crystallizing itself into an array of questions.

For the most part, he keeps them leashed on his tongue. He does not expect Daigo to explain the guts of the thing to him on the spot.]

I should like to work on them.

[Well, that's not quite right. He does not want a mechanic's job; he probably does not completely realize that it is a job to have. But Daigo should know by now Dettlaff's propensity to tinker and work with his hands. This must be an intrigue impossible to simply walk away from.]

That is, I should like to be able to see one up close, much like this. Take one apart, put it together if I can. I would not risk the effort with your machine, specially.

There's plenty of space in here.

[ It is roomy, like there's plenty of room for more equipment and work benches and vehicles. It will take a while to upgrade the space, just like it will take time to upgrade the bike. ]

I'll keep my eye out for a project for you.

[ Or two. Building up some stock of bikes and parts is an inevitable part of really maintaining a racing group. ]

[Dettlaff pulls his gaze away from the screen to his surroundings; it’s plenty empty, room for more to be built-up in here, but intriguing nonetheless to him.]

Is this place...

[How to word it? From Daigo’s comments, it seems to imply a more permanent endeavor than a one-day visit.]

...yours? An area for your “projects”?

I'm renting it for now. Maybe I'll find a space to buy in the future.

[ He leans back on one of the work benches lazily. ]

In movies you'll see people with garages attached to their homes, but there's no room for that in Tokyo. It's pretty normal to find some local garage where you can do any maintenance, and meet up with other... [ Yyyakuza ] enthusiasts.

...Enthusiasts.

[Okay, Dettlaff might be ignorant when it comes to human complexities, but he's not completely daft: he knows a euphemism when he hears one. And he's blunt enough to ask about it further without equal delicacy.]

Will these enthusiasts being doing more than maintenance, and speaking about their vehicles?

[ He chuckles, looking down at nothing for a moment. He hasn't really fessed up to anyone about the menace he's been making of himself on the streets of Sumarlok. He is reminded of when he'd first gotten a car and Kashiwagi had caught him by the back of his shirt to chew him out for racing. Of course Wagi is dead now, and the memory is bittersweet. ]

That would depend. Custom vehicles draw a certain crowd. There's a lot of money in it, and you can move those investments around under the table easily... Not to mention all the money you can pull from races and rallies.

[ He talked around the question a little bit, but he wasn't too subtle either. Some yakuza shit may sometimes be discussed inside the garage. He lights a cigarette as he returns his gaze to Dettlaff and the bike. Daigo, your crime lord is showing... ]

But mostly maintenance and vehicles.

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