[OOC][PLOT][ARC 1] Planning for Season 1 - The Retcon

[robkelk]

I suspect that at least this much of the introduction story will make it through prereading and editing reasonably intact...

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Vancouver, BC, Canada
September 7, 2016
10:34 am PT

Are you xenophobic? This is not for you. We dearly need an open-minded person. He or she must be in good health, fluent in English with some Japanese, some knowledge of business practices or property maintenance essential, willing to assist the people around him or her. Permanent employment, pay and lodging, opportunities to learn and teach. You must apply in person at 1 Trevor Wingrove Way, Coquitlam.

Garnett thought that the ad at the very end of the alumni e-newsletter was a joke, at first. She had no prospects lined up after graduating with a General Business degree and a Japanese Modern Languages minor from Douglas College (which she was certain would have landed her a job in Tokyo, but it didn't), her bank account was nearly empty (there was no way she could pay the rent on her one-room apartment after the end of September, let alone the payments on her student loans), and the address was smack-dab in the middle of Town Center Park (less than a kilometer from her old campus).

But what did she have to lose? If it was a real job opportunity, she had to give it a try, and if it was a wild goose chase, she could at least spend a couple of hours relaxing and turning heads in the park. Garnett was well aware of how good she looked, and with her job search going so poorly so far, she could use an ego boost no matter how sexist it might be.

And thus was Ms. Garnett Iwasaki, 22 years old and looking for employment, surprised to find a laneway just off Trevor Wingrove Way, near the Lafarge Lake-Douglas SkyTrain station. She knew that the laneway hadn't been there a month ago, but it looked well-used and well-maintained. Ooooo-kaaaaay... she thought as she looked for any signs saying what was down the laneway. All she found was a sign identifying the address as 1 Trevor Wingrove Way and the laneway as private property.

Well, that was the address in the ad. So she headed down the laneway and around the bend a few meters in from the road.

Then, when she saw the house at the end of the laneway, she thought she'd gone around the bend in more ways than one. She recognized that house, from an anime that her father Masahiko had shown her. After a moment, she whispered, "It's the Masaki house."