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(Setting) The FalkMartell 532
| >Most of the building was restricted to residents and their guests, but the first five floors were occupied by an electronics shopping center and arcade which was open to the public. At this time of night the crowd wasn’t too big, but a steady flow of people – mostly teenagers heading for the arcade or well-to-do corp types coming off of work – trickled in and out through the main entrance.
| >Lennart stood outside the row of doors to the lobby, shivering slightly.
“Right, so... What kind of phone are you looking for?”
| "Funny enough, I don't really know."
>Jòsef exhaled a small cloud of steam and scratched the back of his head.
"When I served in SRR, I didn't have too many contacts, so I cared more for the reliability and durability, just so I didn't have to care about the phone too much. Even then it wasn't me who bought the phone, SRR provided me with one. It looked like a brick... I could've sworn it WAS a brick, with phone features integrated into it."
| "But now that I'm in Glitch City. I think something versatile, functional... And at least somewhat durable, yeah."
>Jòsef nodded to himself.
"It would be stupid to trip over something on the street, get up completely fine only to find your new shiny phone a complete mess."
|
| “You know, it might be easier to find something similar to what you used to use than a quality general-purpose phone... Like you said, a lot of people don’t use normal phones anymore, but I do know for a fact that robustly built communications devices are still very much a thing even for people who aren’t in the military.”
| “Extreme sport players, adventure tourists, execs traveling to undeveloped areas, mercs and shadowrunners and stuff, they all need to make sure they won’t be stranded if their communications equipment gets some dust or water in it, and unless they have ‘ware a solidly built phone is their best option.”
| >Lennart rubbed his hands together for warmth, not realizing his gloves prevented him from actually accomplishing anything by doing so.
“Obviously we’re not going to find any mil-spec gear here, but we can probably get you something close.”
| "What I meant was that I need something that would at the very least give me access to the net, maybe some kind of navigator and calling-texting functionality. Having a radio would help as well. As long as I get this much, I'm happy."
>Jòsef looked on Lennart's futile attempts to warm himself up.
"You do realise we can just go inside instead of standing here? Or does something bother you with the place?"
>Jòsef turned around and took a closer look at the entrance.
| “... You’re right, what the hell are we doing out here? I need to get it together, not thinking straight...”
| >Lennart rushed into the warmth of the shopping center. Within, the design matched perfectly with the tower’s neo-futurist facade.
| >Asymmetric black and white patterns lead the eye to different clusers of stores and parts of the building, balconies and staircases were angled to provide optimal lighting to every part of the building using minimal actual light sources, and fixtures seamlessly blended into the building envelope in such a way that it was somewhat difficult to tell where they actually were or if they were even there.
| “Okay, the stores that’ll have phones are on the third floor, next to the fitness equipment and the food court.”
| >Short man swiftly followed Lennart into the building.
"I think I'm getting old. My dad has always been grumpy about my choices with clothes and furniture designs. Now this place makes me understand what he was going on about with his constant ranting. I just hope I dont end up as grumpy as the old man. He could go on for hours about colour balance and proportions and so on and so forth."
>Jòsef addressed the taller man.
"So, how do we get to the third floor?"
| “The stairs right in front of us might be worth trying.”
>Lennart pointed at what looked at first to be a wall holding up a catwalk between balconies, but was in actuality a pair of curved staircases.
“It might take a little while for you eyes to adjust to this kind of décor if you’re not used to it.”
>He smiled warmly, the sharp points of his front teeth poking out slightly.
| "Really, it looks more like a Nanocamo's HQ, than a shopping center with all that visual mumbo-wumbo."
>Jòsef went for the stairs, shaking his head in disapproval.
"I assume you're more famili— oh right, you live here."
| >Lennart followed closely behind Jòsef. His metal shoes made a peculiar sound against the floor, like marbles hitting each other.
“I am, but most of the building isn’t actually like this. Just the retail areas. I’m on the 476th floor, where the theme is a little more posh, I guess you could say. More Art Deco-Futurist than Modern High-tech. I don’t actually come down here often.”
| >Jòsef went up the next row of stairs, leading to the third floor.
"You mentioned working in the model buisness, now that I remember. How did you switch from the med school back at home to your current occupation? Thats two completely different career paths."
| Oh my *no*, I’m not a model. Who’d want their brand to be represented by a freaky fish monster?
>Lennart stifled a giggle.
“I’m a designer. I work for MAItreya, which, if you haven’t heard of us, is a Japanese luxury fashion house. Do you watch j-dramas? We did the wardobes for the recent modern adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber.”
| "Sorry, I haven't watched tv in years."
>Jòsef checked his wristwatch, then extracted a pack of pills without any markings from one of his pockets and gulped two pills, all without stopping. He returned the pack back inside and continued.
"So you basically work with designing costumes, did I get it right? Still, no connection to medical schools here. Why did you choose this job after all?"
| “Ah, well... I guess you could say it’s the same reason you moved here. I just... Needed something different.”
>Lennart’s expression became pained for a moment, but before long he shook it off and was back to his usual self.
| “But as for what I do, it’s not so much costumes as it is clothes in general. I’m on the streetwear team, so most of my designs are at least practical enough to not be impossible to sell in stores. Like the coat I’m wearing, that’s one of my designs.”
>He did a little turn as the two walked to show off his outfit.
| “I do what I guess you’d call ‘costumes’ as well, but since I haven’t been with the brand very long I haven’t had a chance to get any of that stuff shown. Next year though, I’m supposed to get a slot during Glitch City Fashion Week, God willing...”
| >Jòsef shaked his head.
"No offense, but I always have thought of fashion weeks as something stupid. I guess I can get behind the idea that you just show off how insanely creative you can be with your designs, but most of the time it just looks like a retardation festival. Although I never really researched into the thing, are there, like, different kinds of it? Something actually sensible?"
>He finally took the last step and now stood on the third floor, looking around.
| "It varies a *lot*. Usually you only see the absolute craziest extreme avant-garde designs if you don't actually follow fashion, but there's actually a lot more going on. For every outfit that looks like a planetarium made of ice cream, there's like five whole collections of men's suits and little black dresses."
>Lennart pointed to the left, at a store with a large, stylized '8E' emblazoned on the glass doors.
| >Jòsef nodded and followed to the glass doors.
"Makes sense. So, which one do you hope to participate in? The crazy one, or a sensible one?"
| "Well, ah... The former, to be honest. I have some prototypes up in my place that should hopefully make quite an impression. Need to work on the articulation on the legs though, they don't move quite right yet... Too tentacular, not enough vertebral..."
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| >It didn’t take long to arrive at Lennart’s building. The FalkMartell 532, named for private banking and financial services group Falk Martell AG, was practically a self-contained city. With 532 floors of luxury residential units, upscale retail and office space, and every manner of recreational facility imaginable, one could comfortably live out their entire life without ever leaving its walls.