[Jingjing]

Life at the cafe had settled into a pretty nice routine lately. They made enough money to get by, vigilante work was going well, the girls seemed to be happy and having fun too. That didn't mean Jingjing didn't have any concerns that popped up now and then, far from it. Late at night in one of her idle moments keeping herself busy on her phone it suddenly struck her that the cafe seemed awfully... vulnerable. She'd had to bail out of China because of her vigilantism getting outed, having to abandon that old alias entirely as part of her move to Japan to start over. She was sure she could bail out of Japan too if it came to it, but...

She didn't want to!

She liked it here, a lot. Dressing up in whatever costume she wanted, seeing what the others picked for their shift that day, interacting with customers, beating up bad guys, going on adventures, exploring all the new things there was to see here in Japan, and even making friends with a hero student and other vigilantes! Maybe Kokoro would, but would Tamaya come with her if Random Cafe got compromised and they all had to dodge the cops as their real identities? Would where she could set up next even be as nice as it was here, as successful and cozy? No way could she let that happen.

So she did some searching around online before finding a service to get some extra good firewall stuff installed for the cafe, scheduling it for a day when the cafe usually wasn't too busy a bit before the lunch rush. Honestly, she didn't know anything about the stuff it was talking about. She was more an analog person than a digital one. But it sounded legitimate enough, reviews looked okay - admittedly she hadn't bothered to research too hard, but in her defense she was sleepy at the time - and it wasn't too horribly expensive. It was a little tight for the cafe's budget, but they could manage it! She'd just have to think up some ways to pull in a little extra money somehow. Besides, it was worth it to make sure the cafe was safe and secure!

When the day and time rolled around that the firewall system was scheduled to be installed, it was just Jingjing there at the cafe. The morning had been slow, it was already pretty hot outside and the bright sunlight was reflecting off Edogawa river in a way that seemed to make the area glow, and she was keeping herself busy with minor tidying. On a whim she decided to go coffee-house-trendy instead of a more thematic costume, but as far as she was concerned it still counted as dressing up in a costume!

A little bell at the door would let her know when someone came in, and when they did she'd perk up and give a cheerful "Good morning! Welcome to Random Cafe!" in greeting.

wraith

[wraith]

There was nothing 'random' about this place. Weird, more like it.

Yuudai stood in the doorway, a coffee cup from a competitor in one hand and a work bag in another. He made the mistake of clocking in to work after getting an important project done, and because he hadn't done any real work done in a while his boss made him come deal with this mess. "I'm here to install a firewall for your systems," he says, taking a sip of his coffee. A long, noisy and obnoxious sip. "Where's your primary server? Or do you just have a toaster with a flash drive? I can work with either." He didn't care either way, he just wanted to get this done, make sure the installation went without a hitch, and get back to doing important things. Like the new RPG that just dropped, or working on that coding project he had (which he probably wouldn't touch). Or even sleeping. That was a likely thing to do...

Jingjing

[Jingjing]

A little flash of recognition crossed Jingjing's face. She'd lost track of time a little bit, and stuff like this was always a vague time range too. At least this time it wasn't an hour off from when it was scheduled like some services tried to get away with. Giving an enthusiastic nod, she started to make a little follow-me gesture with one hand before pausing mid-motion to tilt her head to one side and bringing a finger up to tap at her cheek in thought. "Oh, they have toasters with flash drives now? Do they toast it in neat patterns? Maybe we can offer randomized toast..." Maybe she should get one for the cafe? Well, at least if they weren't super expensive anyways. She'd have to look into it and ask the girls what they thought would be best to go with.

After the technicians response, or just after a brief pause, Jingjing would put those thoughts aside from now and get back on track. "Right, the systems." With a little nod to herself and lightly bopping her fist into her palm, she led the way to their 'server room'. Really it was just a small back room with some computer stuff in it. Jingjing actually didn't know the details, but as far as she was aware it was about on par with most systems used by small businesses. Mostly it was there to handle the security cameras, make it so they actually could accept credit cards, and kept track of work hours and pay and stuff. And made it hard to do anything in here that involved tidying, with all the cables and everything. Giving one of the things she had no idea what was a pat on the side of its casing, she declared: "Here we are! It's not much, but with all the data theft going around its important to make sure customers don't get their credit cards and memberships and stuff stolen, right?"

She was just making that up as an excuse when she said it, but now that she had... yeah, actually! It was such a pain having to get her cards changed out because some try-hard hackers had stolen a bunch of stuff from a random business. She didn't want their customers to have to go through that if she could help it.

wraith,

[wraith]

Yuudai takes another sip, beginning to follow Jing as she lead him to where the work was. "I wouldn't know. Anyone in the tech space can tell you that designers have all lost their marbles." He was more surprised that she thought that toasters could even run off a flash drive, but he wasn't going to show that. Or even entertain the prospect. He just wanted to get this done and get out.

Which would prove to take a lot longer than he would have liked. A frown crossed his face as he looked at the mess of wires within the room, nostrils flaring a bit. "God, why is everything set up like this?" He took a single step, taking a wire that was stretched across the walkway, looking at where they lead. "This is a good way to ruin your connectors right here!"

He took a deep breath. It was fine, perfectly fine, he didn't have to do any of that stuff. Just handle the installation and that was that. He ducked under a few other wires, getting to the back of the room and setting his cup haphazardly on a shelf. What she said struck him as odd...more than a little. "A lot of that relies more on backend work," he says, taking a seat and pulling out his laptop. "That, and unless you're the ones doing the stealing then you don't have much to worry about." He glanced up at her briefly before typing in his credentials, beginning to connect to her network remotely.

Jingjing

[Jingjing]

Jingjing honestly didn't know anyone particularly tech-savvy, so she took his word for it. Actually, thinking on it, she preferred analog stuff just because of how annoying a lot of the more modern stuff was in little ways. So yeah, he was totally right about designers having lost their marbles!

His reaction to the 'server room' made Jingjing scrunch her shoulders up sheepishly, giving an embarrassed laugh as she glanced away from him at the wall. "Oh, that makes sense..." She actually hadn't known that, so she didn't even need to fake much of her reaction there. Standing up on her tip toes and peering over his shoulder, she added. "All this stuff was installed like this so I haven't touched it, but I take it they didn't do a very good job?" She wasn't technically lying, since she had gotten some help setting all of this up. Not professional help though, just a local that was lending her a hand. And maybe she had added one or two things here and there since then and made it even more of a complicated mess of cables on accident. And maybe-maybe now she was also afraid of unplugging any of them in case she forgot which one plugged in where.

Watching him work, Jingjing really had no idea what he was doing and eventually her attention drifted back to her phone.

Jingjing,

[wraith]

Yuudai just shook his head, sighing. "This is the kind of setup I'd expect from some amateur crimefighter trying to make some kinda super computer without any idea how one of those works, failing to realize a police scanner works just as good." Yuudai wouldn't know. He had an app that tapped into a few frequencies with a rudimentary AI that spat out reports to him throughout the day. Sometimes there was something interesting going on, others it was pretty boring. Of course, he didn't know how close he hit the nail on the head.

He set a hand against his cheek, looking over the readout as he waiting for the connection to go green. "I can only guess the guy that set it up was a single guy in his mid forties who claims he worked for one of the big tech companies, and while that might be right he was probably in accounting or something like that. Most devs at the very least try to manage cables in a way they aren't a hazard to others 'cause any damage their equipment suffers will set them back either weeks or months." He looked up at her, frowning slightly. "Is your coffee any good?" It wouldn't hurt to get topped off, at the very least.

Jingjing

[Jingjing]

Jingjing gave a laugh at the comparison, glancing off to the side before catching herself and moving over to adjust a random thing she'd ended up looking at to try and not look so... guilty. Thankfully he was focused on his work, so maybe she didn't need to bother covering her reaction up, but she relaxed again after a moment. Tipping her head to one side and thinking back to when she had first had all this stuff set up, she gave a more sincere giggle. "That description... actually is pretty accurate."

Blinking at him before his question, Jingjing broke out into a proud grin as she dropped her hands down to her hips and gave a big nod. "Yup! Here at Random Play we actually put a lot of effort into our drinks, treats and service! Want some? I can whip it up super quick!"

Part of her enthusiasm was just not being good at being idle, but if he did want something she'd quickly ask what kind before scurrying off to get him some coffee. It wasn't gourmet coffee or anything, but it wasn't like that burned-up junk some placed tried to serve their customers or super stale grounds that tasted like dirt. It was just coffee, made with care! If he didn't want anything though, Jingjing would visibly deflate and resign herself to just watching him work in the meantime.

wraith,

[wraith]

He held up his cup, offering it carefully towards her. "Just a top up, thanks. This shouldn't take me too long, ten minutes tops." As dry and unenthusiastic as he sounded, he was confident. She was...weird. He couldn't put a finger on it, but at the same time he didn't care. Besides, he had his own ulterior motive, and it'd start once he got the wall in place.

Yuudai was employed solely because he knew his code and could get the job done. He was well versed in cyber security as well as server code. He might have a reputation as a white hat hacker, but the truth was he was anything but. During the installation he'd put in a special little bug, something small. Any normal person not familiar with his work would never notice it, white or black hat hacker, but him? This was his signature. There was nothing personal against this establishment, it was just business. Coffee shops were hotbeds of activity, and this little line of code would grant him access to the building's systems. Cameras, logs, you name it. Later he could add this particular location to his network of taps, something he could use in the future to track down people in his investigation or use this place as a point to hide his own identity. The world would be his oyster...

Jingjing,