Commission: Pop Sensation - Chapter 1 - Preview 1

Chapters? What is this nonsense? :P
This is a longer one, intended to be a multi-part, so there's a bigger focus on character development. Since you'll be with them for like, five stories instead of just one. So meet Sam, our main protagonist.  Or one of them, expect the "Liberty Girls" in Preview 2 sometime soon-ish.

"The harsh buzzing of Sam's morning alarm blared out, drowning out the sounds of conversation, bicycles, and summer cicadas coming from outside the window of his single room apartment. It had been a while since he'd needed to use it, having been more or less coasting on his savings for the past few months since he'd moved to the land of the rising sun. Like Phil's soil up on the windowsill however, they were drying up, which necessitated a job.

Forcing open his hazel eyes, Sam looked through his auburn bangs to the clock on his bedside table. Seven a.m., plenty of time to make sure things were tended to and get to the train on time. With a tired groan he rose up, stretching his arms up over his head and accidentally knocking the framed poster hanging above his bed.

“Whoops,” he quickly turned to catch and straighten the twenty-four by thirty-six of “The Return of the King”. “Sorry there Aragorn.”

Crisis averted, he pulled off his blankets, tossing his legs off the bed, and got to his feet. The summer sun, shining through his window, tickled his bare chest as he started his morning rounds. “How you feeling today Phil?” he asked the small potted cactus, soaking in the light. “Thirsty?”

He dipped his pinky into the dirt about his prickly friend, careful not to disturb it too much. “Yup, hold on, I'll get you a drink.”

With a half dozen steps he crossed the whole of his little apartment, to the small kitchenette where he kept the watering can by the sink. Setting it to fill, the auburn-headed American went for the fridge. Sparse would be putting it generously. There was a half-carton of milk, a nearly empty jar of apple jam, a couple of eggs, tub of margarine for cooking, a pair of pre-made sushi bentos, and a flan pudding he'd picked up last time the supermarket had a sale. His pantry wasn’t much better, with a mostly eaten loaf of bread, rice, vegetable oil, a bunch of junky snacks, and of course, the staple of any Japanese, poverty-skirting diet, cheap ramen.

“Toast it is,” Sam mused to himself, pulling out his jam and getting a slice of bread loaded into the toaster.

While that was cooking, he drew up the filled water pitcher and started making his rounds. “Morning Sue,” he greeted the ivy plant hanging above the sink while he watered it. He gave her a quick inspection, spotting a few dead leaves on some of her lower vines. “Still reaching for Martin I see. I don’t think you're getting enough light for that,” the boy teased, plucking the withered bits and crumpling them in his palm before sprinkling them into her pot. “You need a trim. When I get home,” he promised before moving on to the ficus in the corner.

“Still teasing her Marty?” he tutted, bending low and pouring directly into the entwined plant's roots. “What am I going to do with you?”

With a small laugh, the auburn-headed man picked up the spray bottle he kept near his largest plant, giving Martin's leaves a good misting to go with the watering. “Wait till she figures out how high maintenance you are. I think you could make it work though,” he offered with a kind smile.

Lastly, of course, the cute little cactus watching over it all from the window sill. “No worries, I didn’t forget you Phil,” he assured the oldest plant in his care, brought all the way from home when he moved. He only gave it a little, always careful not to overwater the more arid-acclimatized flower. “Oh, looks like you've got a bud. Gonna bloom the season are we?” he was gentle with his touch, mindful of Phil's needles, obviously, but also not wanting to damage the delicate developing flower.

It was an excellent sign, proof he was taking good care of his plants, even with the limited space. “Let’s hope it’s good luck,” he smiled and finished up tending to things in time for his toast to pop.

“There’s my meal,” he joked, rushing back across to catch it before it got too cold.

A quick spread of jam and it was immediately in his mouth, flopping up and down as he continued around the small apartment. He needed to get dressed in time to make his train ride, and he needed to make sure he made a good impression. Not easy for a foreigner in Japan, but on top of it, he hadn’t gotten this opportunity on his own; it was a favor from a “friend” that owed him, Tobiyashi. So he had to bring his “A” game.

Chewing back two big bites, he started pulling on the dress pants to his suit. Thankfully it still fit well, even if he needed to, one-handedly, tighten his belt an extra notch. Not as bad as it seemed, he could afford to lose a few pounds yet from his pudgy frame. It was nice not to struggle with the buttons over his belly, as he awkwardly finished his meal with a few laps of his sticky fingers.

A trip back to the sink, to properly wash his hands, and next was his tie. “’Round, round, under, away, and pull,” he ran through aloud, tightening the sharp windsor at his collar and finishing up by slipping into his jacket.

He cleaned up well, making sure everything was straight on his bulky frame. “Alright, Phil, watch over the place!” he joked, slipping his shoes on as he left out the door.

Checking his phone showed he still had good time yet to get to the station. “Ohayou Ramses-san!” his neighbor called as she swept the walkway of their building.

Like a switch in his brain went off, Sam swapped his thinking between English and Japanese. “Good morning Sato-san,” he replied in the native tongue without missing a beat.

Miss Sato gave him a smile. “You are dressed up today, somewhere important to go?” the older woman inquired, pushing a line up dust over the balcony edge.

“Yes. I have my first day of a new job today,” he flashed an excited smile back to her.

“That is good to hear Ramses-san,” she congratulated him with her pleasant tone. “I was beginning to worry about you.”

He gave a short laugh. “Thank you Sako-san, your concern humbles me,” he gave her a short, polite bow. “I must get going though, it would be terrible if I missed my train on the first day.”

“Good luck,” she waved the boy off as he dashed down the stairs.

It wasn’t a horribly long walk to the station, though being in full suit under the summer sun did make it a pinch uncomfortable. Every now and again, a cyclist would pass him by, giving him a small breeze that would air out his jacket and cool the light sweat forming beneath his woody bangs. By and far however, it was sweltering under the hot rays.

He was thankful for the shelter, standing in the shade on the train platform amidst a group of locals he towered over. The American hovered around the six foot mark, leaving him a good half a head taller, minimum, from most people around him. Not great, considering his pale complexion, and the red-tinted brown locks covering his head, already made him stand out. Loading onto the train, he drew a number of ireful looks from people who, clearly, felt he didn’t belong if their muttering was any indication. There wasn’t much for it though. It was part of what he'd signed on for coming here in the first place.

Ever since elementary school, Sam had always been good with language. His parents got him into a school that taught Spanish, and it had honestly been one of his favorite classes. Taking just a few steps into a different culture had left an impression, a desire to immerse himself in it, and it helped he had the right kind of mind that could shift into thinking in a different language without any difficulty. When he entered high school he doubled down into cultural studies, first with French, easily finding similarities with the last language he'd learned, then with German, which surprised him with parallels to English.

The more he learned the more it inspired his wanderlust, the desire to see these other countries he was getting snippets of. By the time he was planning his career path, he was looking into jobs with the state department, hoping to travel the world. Unfortunately, fresh out of school, there was no way he was hitting the credentials necessary for government work. So, a backup and some general college were in order.

It was through college that Sam met Tobiyashi, or Tobi as he preferred; an exchange student from Japan. The two bonded pretty well, with Sam helping the foreigner with a good amount of his English work, and Tobi introducing him to some foreign anime, inspiring him to take on learning Japanese as a challenge. Unlike his previous languages, there weren’t any parallels he could lean on, but he did have a native speaker to point out mistakes, and more subbed movies and shows than he could shake a stick at. He even started being able to pick out differences between the subtitles and what was actually being said by characters, which led to a small job, translating and subbing new imports for one of the local video stores.

A job that he enjoyed greatly, shifting his life path, to wanting to be an interpreter, or maybe an English teacher. Both were in pretty high demand out east, and with Tobi getting ready to head back home, there was an opportunity to sate that deep seated want to travel, while getting his foot in the door. Regrettably it didn’t quite work out to expectations.

His parents had given him a bit of a nest egg, which with his subbing money, and the remainder of his college grant, gave him a pretty good savings net to fall in. His ongoing friendship with Tobi, however, turned out to be the biggest strain on those finances. Every couple of days, his only real connection in the country would come knocking for a few thousand yen here and there for “emergencies”. Sam didn’t mind too much in the beginning, he had a few job prospects out, with some private and cram schools. When the only major experience on your resume was some low-key anime translation though, well… things fell through. And when they did, the American finally had to put his foot down on his friend's mooching.

It had become a bit of a sore spot between them, but Sam didn’t really have a choice. The debt between them was up to six digits, at least two months of rent, and without income…

At least Tobi seemed to be aware of his troubles, lining up this job opportunity with a friend of his family’s; in exchange for shaving off some of the debt, of course. Sam could handle the selfish aspects though, if this all worked out. Gazing out the train window, into the tall buildings of the city, he mentally prepared himself. The details of everything had been vague, little more than the company name, and the name of who'd be overseeing the project.

Kanaszuchi Kane, of Happy Light. As the train ground to a halt, letting him out, to walk the rest of the way to the warehouse studio address he'd been given, that name kept in his mind. This first impression was going to be everything; his life here in the country depended on it." - "Pop Sensation", by Madam Materia