{"id":408,"date":"2014-03-23T04:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-23T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/syphoncontinuity.com\/blog\/syndicate-helios-section-2-asagawa-kenji-chapter\/"},"modified":"2023-10-26T17:12:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:12:32","slug":"syndicate-helios-section-2-asagawa-kenji-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/syndicate-helios-section-2-asagawa-kenji-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-408 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/syndicate-helios-section-2-asagawa-kenji-chapter\/attachment\/409\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n2vftd3iy21qa9hi0o1_1280-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n2vftd3iy21qa9hi0o1_1280-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n2vftd3iy21qa9hi0o1_1280-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n2vftd3iy21qa9hi0o1_1280-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n2vftd3iy21qa9hi0o1_1280-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n2vftd3iy21qa9hi0o1_1280-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n2vftd3iy21qa9hi0o1_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 85vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><strong>Syndicate Helios, Section 2<br \/><\/strong><strong>ASAGAWA KENJI: Chapter 1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Climbing down a floor off the balcony is easier with two hands, and by the time I make it there I\u2019ve strained my stitches. The sliding door is locked for the first time in 6 weeks, and I don\u2019t look at going down another three floors with any excitement.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m too far down on the ground scale for M-stitches to work worth shit. My stitches are the old fashioned kind with slowly dissolving thread. And no, we\u2019re not lucky, just on the downslope. Well, my dipshit of a brother is far enough down to be his own fucking clean room, but I\u2019m just at the point to dissolve the cheap minor M-lock the landlord had installed given a stick of ash and 45 minutes\u2014by comparison the mech lock takes 15 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>An enthusiastic dog is on the other side, so I pull the metal grate off the air conditioning unit up as a guard when I slid the door open. The dog throws 40\u00a0kg at me, pushing me back into a crouch against the balcony and then jumps over and licks my face. Apparently he\u2019s friendly.<\/p>\n<p>I sound out his name from his tag\u2014the word is in roman letters so I fudge the ending. \u201cPa. n. za.\u201d \u201cPanza, sit.\u201d He ignores me and continues to lick my neck. I stand up as smoothly as possible while shifting grate and dog off. My shoulder screams at me as I do so, leaving me out of breath by the time I lurch to my feet.<\/p>\n<p>The inside of the apartment is stacked with boxes. Only the computer and tv equipment are out and set up, their cords piled up along the edge of the room. Panza follows me through the apartment, his tail wagging. The hallway has a door off its hinges leaning against the wall. The bedroom contains a mattress set up like wall to wall carpet with bags of clothes tossed in the closet. The bathroom has two toothbrushes, two sets of shampoo in the shower, and three q-tips with eyeshadow on one end in the garbage.<\/p>\n<p>Male. Young. Nerd. Stubborn. Has a girlfriend who does not live here.<\/p>\n<p>Since it\u2019s the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday, a free beer, a handful of painkillers, and a sit before I haul myself to the clinic seems the best option.<\/p>\n<p>When Panza perks up from his place on the couch, I realize I\u2019ve overstayed my welcome. There are only two ways out, door and balcony. There are four knives in a plastic tray to the right of the sink, but that requires crossing the hallway in front of the opening door. There\u2019s a flimsy wooden broom leaning on some boxes behind me. I remain seated. No need to appear more hostile than needed to the new tenant, and if I\u2019m going out the fast way, I\u2019ll need my strength.<\/p>\n<p>A male voice, speaking what sounds like English. \u201cPanzaru?\u201d There\u2019s an emphasis on the r-sound at the end that I can\u2019t catch. Panza looks at the doorway but doesn\u2019t move. Lazy dog.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWelcome home,\u201d I say for lack of a better response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syndicate Helios, Section 2ASAGAWA KENJI: Chapter 1 Climbing down a floor off the balcony is easier with two hands, and by the time I make it there I\u2019ve strained my stitches. The sliding door is locked for the first time in 6 weeks, and I don\u2019t look at going down another three floors with any &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/syndicate-helios-section-2-asagawa-kenji-chapter\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":5,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[180,110,171,56,44,20],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charactersketch","tag-ocs","tag-sh","tag-syndicate-helios","tag-syndicatehelios","tag-writing","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syndicatehelios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}