#icb he's missing the VIP experience to wrap cords because a pretty girl told him to. he's so real he's just like me fr...........

[contrastrio]

Did this guy just whimper? Against her will, Ran feels a stab of guilt. She hadn't even really been thinking about the words as they came out of her mouth (she guesses that's part of the problem, though), but she didn't think she'd said anything that heinous. If Anzu were here, she'd be able to tell me. Smooth it all over, too. Then again, Ran would have a different and probably more annoying problem on her hands if her friend roommate was here, so maybe they're better without her in this case. At any rate, his next words confirm to her that he's the new part-timer, even if his confusion isn't exactly reassuring.

"Haa?" Her brows knit, lips pressing into a lopsided frown at the mention of paper. Lapsing into a stern-faced and thoughtful silence that probably isn't helping this poor guy's nerves at all, realization hits a few moments later--Oh, this guy is new-new--and Ran turns abruptly on her heel and stalks out of sight for a few moments before returning with a pair of work gloves, a package of velcro ties, and an extension cord under her arm, already wound in a neat circle and cinched together with one of the ties.

"Gloves." She holds the work gloves and package of ties out to him. "Cables can get grimy, and wrapping them's gonna be rough on bare hands, especially if you haven't done this before." She shuffles the wrapped extension cord from under her arm and taps it. "When I say 'wrapping', I mean we loop the cords like this. We can't transport that fucking rat's nest tangle of wires Dojima left behind as-is." She spares the heap of cables beside them a scathing look and a disdainful click of her tongue, then turns back to the matter at hand, separating the velcro tie and unfurling the cable to demonstrate what she means.

"Over-under is the standard way of wrapping, and for good reason. Don't even think about elbow-wrapping, seriously... It strains the wire to shit and it doesn't even save you any time, don't believe anybody who tries to tell you it does. Eyes on my hands, I'll show you the method." She holds the end of the extension cord loosely in one hand and tosses the rest out to the side of him, then forces herself to re-wrap the cord slowly so that he can study the alternating hand movements. As she goes, she murmurs: "Over, under, over, under, you're using the natural coil in the cable to wrap here, so when the next person throws the cable out, it doesn't come out tangled. Just keep alternating like this until you reach the other end, then secure one of these velcro ties around it when you're done to keep it all together. That's about all there is to it."

"Got it?" She looks back up to see if he does, though to be honest she can't tell if the guy's actually absorbed any of this--does he always look this weirdly nervous? If he didn't get it, would he even ask...? I don't wanna have to re-do someone else's work. With this in mind, she tosses the cord back out and holds the end out to him. With perhaps more of a grave expression than she actually thinks she's making, she says: "Try it."

Truth be told, Choromatsu was only really here for the concert. He'd gotten VIP backstage tickets for once, having quickly spent the money on them after hitting it big at pachinko so that his brothers wouldn't catch any whiff of his cash prize, and it was worth every penny! Now he had enough money to even get additional merch, too, if he really wanted -- which might raise eyebrows between his brothers, sure, but by then it'd be way too late to do anything about it. Excitedly, he'd clutched the tickets all the way home, happily skipping, radiating joy. Which his brothers poked fun at, sure .. but, hey, it was ok! He had something to look forward to in a few days!!

When the time for the concert rolled around, though, he wasn't .. really told exactly what to do when the concert was over. The concert itself was, of course, a total blast, having bought plenty of merch to wear during it, too -- but, when it came time for the backstage part to happen, there.. didn't really seem to be anyone to tell him what to do. Maybe he was the only one who bought such VIP tickets, or maybe they just forgot that he did, so after about thirty minutes of waiting around in the empty stage room, anxiousness growing ever larger the longer he'd stayed put, he eventually decided to just suck it up and seek help.

First place he thought of going was behind the stage -- cause that's what backstage meant, right? But, as he stood there, shoulders hunched and head dipping a little low, his neutral resting frown only grew stronger. Brown eyes flit to and fro, fro and to -- eyes landing on a pretty lady who seemed to be pretty busy with work. She was so pretty, in fact, that he'd COMPLETELY lost sight of what he was even doing back there, opting to instead blankly stare at her with beady eyes.

When she jumped, he did too -- making a pathetic little whimper noise at the same time, though his posture now stood ramrod straight. Oh no. She was angry. Why was she angry? He didn't know how he could have messed up, his mind going a million miles a minute -- well, okay. Maybe he shouldn't have stared, but, cmon! Look at her!

... Ack. She was talking again. Before he could really stop himself, a pathetic "sorry" for startling her slipped past his lips. His body was already leaning back in preparation for more chewing out, like the kind of shit that Totoko would do to him when mad.. Only to find that he was perfectly physically fine, actually, and her tone quieted? Not only that, but she ..... was telling him to help her?? With wires?

Ok. Well, he's at a loss. What the hell does he even say to that? Did she think he worked here? He didn't, but -- he also didn't want to turn her down or make her mad again, and it really looked like she was the only one here... she definitely needed help. So, after a moment of slack-jawed silence, his lips press into a thin, worried line, brows knitting together in worry.

"... Uhhh, well, I mean I can try ... I don't really have any training, but I'm pretty good at detangling things. And wrapping them shouldn't be too hard, right? .... Is there, uh, paper or? Something? That I'm supposed to use for that?" <:D ....