2025-06-27: Welcome to the Cardboard Dragon
- Log: Welcome to the Cardboard Dragon
- Cast: Myunghon Yeo, Ulala Serizawa, Hitomi Mandai, Suzume Fukura
- Where:
- OOC Date: June 27, 2025
- IC Date: June 01, 2012
- Summary: A pair of schoolgirls drop in to the Cardboard Dragon, where Ulala is already trying to make a sketchy purchase of her own.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
It's a fine Friday at the Cardboard Dragon in the middle of June in Japan, by which we mean, WOW, it's kind of unreasonably muggy and therefore the miracle of refrigeration makes shops such as these a little bit of a reprieve from the sweltering heat blasting the old and battered streets of Hirasaka outside.
The Cardboard Dragon isn't Hirasaka's premiere book or card shop -- there's hotter properties elsewhere -- especially because finding it is something of a chore. You gotta go into a back alley that feels like a dragon might be present, and then you gotta go up a fire escape, and hope the plot to a yakuza movie isn't happening. Then you go in and...
Well, the AC is running at full blast, so that's a relief. The store is definitely a depressing plot that used to be an office that was once having the time of its life in the 80's and has since experienced the end of the economic bubble and hasn't seen a lick of renovation, but maybe that's what gives it some charm.
Half the store's dedicated to the bookstore side, which has fancy foreign and... old... books by authors that, for most of these teenagers, they probably haven't heard of, or have the reaction of like 'isn't that written by the guy on the 1,000 yen bill?'. There's nothing written in the last ten years here.
The OTHER half is why everyone else is here: the card store! A bunch of regulars are quietly playing their game in the corner, and there are other open chairs, and there's a young blue-haired woman at the register. There's lots of glass shelves and displays with all sorts of colourful merch that you can spend way too much money on.
And of course, there's the RUMOUR that you can find Rumourmonger Merry and her Skill Cards here...
And then the CREATURE shows up -- a white-haired, lanky bean pole of a person, dressed in a strangely immaculate dress shirt, black tie and dress pants, with a long black suit jacket slung over her shoulders. Her face is half-draped in bandages, and so are neck and hands.
"Oh! Welcome, welcome one and all! Welcome to the Cardboard Dragon!" the Creature exclaims with much aplomb and gusto with a surprisingly practiced half-pirouette. "We can cater to any vice you have on cardboard here... for a reasonable price indeed!"
Hyousuke Suzuki has left for Hirasaka - Main.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Sometimes, life takes you in a twist of events. Taking a detour back to Hirasaka to grab something she left at work, Ulala planned to grab some street dumplings off an alleyway before the festival. As she waited for the line to thin out, however, she saw lights on... up a fire escape? Wait, is there a business up there? It's none of your business, Ulala, don't-
Soon, Ulala was inside the Cardboard Dragon, squinting as she peered around. Of course, she knew the rumors about Merry - only vaguely, but she looked into this weird stuff after meeting Baofu.
"So... do you carry any trashy romance novels?"
She'll probably like it here. But first, she has to understand what 'here' is. Her outfit is bold, a green dress with black spider-web patterns, and then her entire makeup and hair situation is just Classic. Therefore, when she sees the Creature...
"Are you... the owner?"
She's surprised, looking between the blue-haired woman (that's fine, she dyes too) and Myunghon. The reason she's surprised...
"Second question. Are you magic?"
Is because this feels like that Time Count guy. It's not the same, is it?!
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
The door opens from the external world, bleeding precious conditioned air. The air hits someone who is squeezing through it, sliding in. "uuuuuuugh" is the comment from that young woman, who is towering (for a schoolgirl) and kind of doughy (by schoolgirl standards). She is big enough that she holds the door open behind her, moving laterally. An awkward pose, but it helps LET ALL THAT EXPENSIVE CONDITIONED AIR OUT --
-- no, it's letting someone else in.
"I can't believe it took so long to get all the way out here," gripes Hitomi Mandai, sweeping some sweaty hair out of her face. She still has most of it in a bun, but 'most of it' is somewhat relative and she may have lost a hairpin somewhere. "But aaaaaat laaaaaaaast uuuuuuuuugh so hooooooooooooooot," she concludes, which is probably an exaggeration.
Once her confederate is inside, she straightens up. Slightly. Her eyes pan around... and those who dare to look at her can see, behind the slightly fogged up glasses, eyes widening. "Fukuraa, look, they've got it. It's Abacin Reborn!!" She gestures at the counter, and behind it, what are HOPEFULLY NOT EMPTY boxes of booster packs for some kind of...
Collectible Card Game.
"I think I see a lot... how many packs did you say you could get in on? We might be able to get a *box* I think I see a closed one--"
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
When the door remains open...
SOMEONE ELSE SNEAKS IN.
Suzume Fukura, who is a good half foot or more shorter than Hitomi, ducks in and ends up guiding the door closed with one foot so that it doesn't slam. Her hair's loose and so she runs her hand through it, shoving it back so that it stays out of her face and doesn't stick everywhere.
"I thought we'd never find it," Suzume grumps, which is an exaggeration - she has been before, she knew where it was, though it's always both out of the way and makes her double-take in case she's actually going the wrong way.
Letting out a breath of air and ruffling her hair a bit, Suzume doesn't *quite* flinch at the question but it's not one she's got a good answer for. "I don't think I can go in for a half box," she admits, thinking about her budget. Which is not great. "But I could get a couple..."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon's singular eye twinkles as she claps her hands together and exclaims, "*Trashy* romance novels! Why, perish the doubt, milady! Of course!"
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Doblin. The Decagon House Murders, Yukito Ayatsuji. The Makioka Sisters, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. Those are... those are not NOT trashy romance novels. They have a sexy, dark allure to them, right? It's all in the *framing* of the mind. The bodice doesn't need to be literal, it can be the metaphorical bodice of the mind to be ripped--
Is she *magic*, though.
Myunghon's eye half-closes as she practicedly flecks her long, bony fingers back to her sleeve, and then in an exaggerated 'PAF' that she makes with her own hand--
TADA!
Spell Cards! Of course, they look just like regular trading cards for a fictitious doujin game involving a pocket dimension in the far South to normal people, but to the Awakened...
"Wow. *Real* magic," Myunghon breathily half-whispers, as she spots the two students -- Gekkoukan? They've come quite a way -- entering and beating the heat through the miraculous power of their AC. The blue-haired girl's the first one to speak up, since Myunghon's busy with Ulala--
"Good afternoooon," she calls with that half-lidded, bored look. She doesn't look any older than either Hitomi or Suzume. She looks perpetually fed up at her boss' antics, is the expression that's been cooked onto her face. She's in a denim dress and has a striped blue and white shirt underneath. "Abacin? Yeah, we just got the shipment in last Thursday. We're gonna run the event this weekend, but we're selling wholesale boxes for 15,000--"
"Since you two've come all the way out here, I'll let those slide for 12,000," Myunghon interjects with surprising ease, her coat billowing gently in the breeze of the air conditioner.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala glances over at the books again. "Are you sure? I see... thinking novels." She sighs, though when Myunghon does the 'magic trick' she glances at the cards carefully. Those are-
"...I guess the rumors were true... then again, they're always true around here lately, aren't they?" Shaking her head, Ulala looks over to them. "You've got anything that can..." She considers how to say it, when two teenagers arrive! Oh no, she has to be incognito! She hates being incognito, but it might make her seem cool!
"Uh, go good against Killer...type...Magimon, I think they're called?" Ulala fakes it til she makes it, before looking over to Suzume and Hitomi.
"Oh, are these for that Magimon thing? Where you crack cards and build decks? I never played but it was all the rage in high school. How much does it cost-"
The price is rattled off.
"What?!"
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi's attention does not turn to the books at all. She has enough books. Books are comfortable and static and boring and tedious and good for construction projects. It is not that she does not like books. It is that instead: Jewel-like objects of wonder.
CARDS.
Hitomi's eyes flick for a moment towards the proffered Spell Cards and she purses her lips. Then, back to that blue-haired girl as she loosely folds her arms beneath her bust, not answering right away other than a slow nod. Visible radiating heat... though it's easing up, even if the 'Sweaty and Gross' status effect will probably take several more pose rounds to clear.
"Araa," she says at the first price - but mid ara, Myunghon lowers the price. Her mouth stays open, a subtle little :o.
Her eyes cut to Ulala. "..." In the clearing fog of Hitomi's glasses, there is mistrust. The natural response to the interjection of the Adult who is not providing a Good or Service. Somewhat more uneasily and less fluidly, she says, "It's a lot, but... you're getting a lot for it. Each of those is fifteen cards, and there's like, thirty-six packs. So if you look at it that way, you're paying like," her eyes turn upwards for a second and a half.
MATH! the job... of a STUDENT! "Like, three-forty a booster, or if you want to be a really nit picky, like 22 yen a card. And you need sixty to play. But, uhm." Her eyes turn to Myunghon. Then back to Suzume...
"Do you think we could call the others...? If we could front the money, we could... hm..." Her lips thin. "Do you think we can trust the others...?"
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume already knows you are an adult. You cannot fool her, ULALA.
Mostly because no teenager would be allowed to wear that dress by their parents, she's pretty sure. Not that she'd want to, but she's entirely sure that if she showed up with it she'd start *another* argument, and who has time for that? She does give Ulala a look over though, thoughtful, before turning her head slightly to regard the stranger image of Myunghon.
"I definitely can't take half of that," Suzume starts to say, at the 15000. But then there's the 12000, and...
Suzume still cannot afford half of that no matter how much she wants to. Her expression shifts from sullen disdain to thought, though - because she's *really* thinking about it. It's a good price, but unfortunately her parents don't have a lot, Suzume does not exactly rack up a lot of family money, and she does not currently have a job.
"Uuugh," Suzume groans, but not in dismay at the offer. She's thinking about it. "It's a lot, yeah, but..." How much does she even have? She starts doing mental math and briefly debates adding some of her snack budget to it. "I could probably sell a few packs to Yamamoto," she says, which Hitomi at least knows means 'Jiro Yamamoto, who is one of Suzume's gaming buddies and is also a second year student'. "Maybe some to Ito and Kimura too."
She's frowning. Which means she's thinking about it.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"Mmm, mmm," Myunghon makes a deliberately exaggerated musing of nodding and rubbing her chin at Ulala's quandry, effortlessly folding up the Skill Cards back into her sleeve like they never existed. Maybe she is magic. She also ignores the Thinking Novels comment. DIFFICULT Books that Require Brain Meats... well, she doesn't disagree with that. Like Faulker is what Faulkner does, okay,.
"I think I understand your predicament, miss!" Myunghon says, with a particular, almost jovial emphasis. "I, too, am often stuck at Drake Adventure III, because of those pesky Killers. They can do *so* much damage, can't they? I think your best bet would be to be able to heal or defend your party members. Be the rock that everyone can stand around!"
She's putting so much effort into making it sound like she's not an adult talking about a children's video game.
Myunghon and the blue-haired girl both look content to let Hitomi and Suzume deliberate between themselves, right down to the cost of an individual card. Hitomi's eyes turn back to her, and Myunghon seems happy to just give her a pleasant smile. The others. They're going to have to pool their money... ah, there's something nostalgic about going a far ways away just to get the best deal on something like a Treasure to share with others, on a hot summer day.
...
No there isn't. She never had friends when she was a kid. Hahahaha!! Joke's on... joke's on... her.
Now that she's done making herself sad (internal), Myunghon does point out, tapping the glass cabinet, "22 yen a card, but we do purchase any singles you don't desire, often for quite a lot more." Some of these Mythics are going for thousands of yen. "Aaand I'll be just happy to set aside a box for the lot of you until you're ready, even mail it free of charge to your address in Tatsumi."
This is the manifestation of evil in which she's ensnaring children into games of chance. Just look at her arcana.
She is THE DEVIL.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala, despite them being THINKING NOVELS, is eying one of the books longingly, due to the cover and the fact it may look Cool on her bookshelf.
Ulala could definitely not get through Faulkner's 'The Sound and the Fury' but she's going to pretend she can! She picks it up, eying the price as someone who refuses to Leave A Store Empty-Handed due to embarrassment, before turning to Myunghon as she talks... video games. "So, how much do you think it'd cost to... kit myself out for that, then?" She's figuring out the lingo.
She also actually realizes *exactly* what Myunghon is doing. She works in retail. She glances to the teenagers, but...
Adult secrets, right? They need to figure this out themselves.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"Jiro's probably good for it, but he's not in the dorms," Hitomi grouses to Suzume. She purses her lips. She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She looks at the floor. And then her eyes widen - and stop. She seems to be struggling. She settles on a frown, too.
Hitomi seems to not respond to Myunghon's enthusiastic love of Dargon Warrior Tres, perhaps because that's completely normal to be hella into Dargon Warrior. Even if it's a retro version. Nevertheless, even if it's Dargon Warrior for old ladies, it's still real... to them.
And then Myunghon speaks. Hitomi straightens up! Her eyes all but +_+ out behind her glasses. "Coooooooooould you..."
Hitomi hesitates for a moment. She leans over to Suzume instead, as if her courage ran out mid-sentence. "I have an idea but is she just nice or is it okay to haggle cuz I think this is going to work but we need to cover like half of them. So that's sixty. I've got forty-five... can we do it as a club fund thing?"
"Unless," Hitomi says, with something like anxiety, "If I did a third, not half..."
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume does not work in retail. And her inherent suspicion of... well, a whole lot of things doesn't apply to gaming.
Unfortunately (?) for Myunghon, Suzume actually does know old video games. How does she know these? That particular game must be older than she is... "Try Manusa," she suggests anyway, sounding slightly smug about actually giving advice. "They don't resist it and it shuts them down if it sticks."
She might have missed the subtext with what Ulala was *really* trying to buy...
But, to Hitomi: "*I'm* not in the dorms," Suzume points out. "I just don't live that far away." Also, she spends as much time as possible not at home, because it prevents arguments (until she eventually shows up, and starts a worse argument).
"Probably can't haggle down any further than that," she says, and scowls. "But we could put our names down and see what the others can contribute. I don't mind splitting it more ways if it means we can actually pull it off." Even mailing it... well, Suzume probably wouldn't mind coming back again, if only to browse.
The pull of the DEVIL is strong.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"How about that?" Myunghon sounds so chuffed to have Suzume chiming in on their video game conversation. "The young lady's so sharp, thinking of strategies even poor old me can't dream of in a hundred years."
The sharply dressed owner of the Cardboard Dragon swans over to the desk, where she pulls out a piece of note paper and a pen and starts writing it down. "Manusa, doesn't resist it... just make sure it sticks." She rips the paper off the backing, and then folds it and hands it to Ulala. "Let's try that first, and if you're still struggling, feel free to come back and we can brainstorm more strategies, hmm?"
The folded paper, Ulala can feel, is heavier than just a folded up piece of note paper. Myunghon's slipped one of the Skill Cards in the middle in there with it.
It also reads: 'THIS ONE'S ON THE HOUSE'.
At this point in time, though, Hitomi's crooning with ambition and light behind her eyes if she cooould... if she coooould... and then it's back to strategising. Haggling, eh? It is true that it's already a big discount, as Suzume expects -- and this is for new merchandise, not an old set that's past its prime.
Myunghon raises her eyebrow across the room--
And then the blue-haired woman sighs. "... fine! Actually, I also wanted some boosters of my own." A pause. "I'm Gumiho, I go to Kasu High nearby. If I chip in my share, does that get us across the line?"
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
As Myunghon steps aside, Ulala makes a face. The girl ruined her purchase...
Up until Myunghon gives her a note, a free Skill Card, and invites her to come back some time.
She knows the play. The first hit is free, she becomes a regular, purchases stuff, and has fallen right into her hands.
It's absolutely going to work, too, as Ulala nods with a smile. "This will definitely help, yeah. Thanks! I'll come back sometime soon... but before I leave, why a book and game shop? Are they a hit these days? You have a really nice setup here..." she says with a light hum.
And then she eyes Gumiho. A sale no matter what, huh? That's an interesting play... she turns back to Myunghon, though she's definitely watching the transaction with amusement. "Looks like you're in luck, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"Right, yeah," Hitomi says to Suzume about the dorms. She purses her lips. "... I think I can cover this. Hold on. Back me up, okay..?? And text Yamamoto cuz I don't want to end up losing out here." After this...
Hitomi advances... towards Myunghon, to whom she says, with that slight quaver of anyone addressing an adult. "So --"
"Waah??" Hitomi then says to Gumiho, blinkblinking at her as if shocked. And then she smiles and leans over and looks at her, raises one finger to her lips, and winks. She saw it. She heard it.
Back to Myunghon. "... So... as a club member, I have a responsibility."
She reaches into her skirt pocket (go with it, Mitsuru probably killed somebody to get one added to the pattern) and brings out her phone case and attached clip of money and transit pass. "If I bought a third of that box... I bet you I can cover the REST of it with all the rares. What do you think? If I can't..."
"I'll sell them to you anyway," Hitomi concludes, rather abruptly, "and we can maybe let Gumiho cover the balance with some boosters...?" But this seems almost afterthoughtish, and her attention is resting on Myunghon.
Until they cut to Ulala for a moment. Her head turns slightly. She pushes her glasses up her nose again. "... Heh. Don't jinx it..."
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume has made a contribution using her vast and inexplicable knowledge of RPGs that predate her ability to read. If she knows she ruined Ulala's purchase attempt, she doesn't seem to care -
Oh, wait. It's not ruined after all. Problem solved!
"Seems weird to buy from somewhere you're selling it from," Suzume says, before adding, thoughtfully, "Do you get a discount?" What? You never know. Maybe she's thinking about asking for a job. It'd be a pretty bad commute, though... so maybe not.
She pauses a moment as Hitomi makes... a decision. "You sure? I definitely want in on *some* of them, I just can't drop a whole third of it myself." She doesn't have that much spending money. Especially if she wants to stop at Big Bang Burger or Wilduck on the way home, which she does.
Suzume pulls out her own phone, which is very slightly decorated; it has a chubby bird sticker stuck to it to differentiate it from all the other black-and-silver phones that everyone else has, though since hers is several years out of date it's not actually that easy to mistake for anyone else's anyway. She immediately starts typing on it with her thumbs, demonstrating a surprising speed - surprising to anyone who hasn't seen a teenager going at it, anyway.
"Just don't expect me to completely bail you out if you hit every dud rare in the box," Suzume says. Because she can't.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon has one of those quiet, but seemingly powerful smiles as she watches Ulala resolve to come back, planting a finger on her lip gently with a charming little look when the conversation transitions over to why the store.
"I just wanted a bookstore, originally. Authors are my passion," Myunghon is honest about that much, spreading her long, spindly arms and doing a slow, lazy twirl between two bookshelves. "But Gumiho pointed out, 'Boss, ain't no one gonna care about some stuffy old books written by old farts who carked it 100 years ago!'. So I squeezed the juice out of my brain cell like an orange and thought, what kinda paper's hip with the kids these days??"
She's so theatric as she does this, putting her fingers to her temples. "I think the results speak for themselves, hmm?"
But it's deal time, so she's suddenly over towards the till with Gumiho when the camera transitions. Hitomi proposes her plan, and Myunghon's smile just seems to widen from ear to ear. "Oho, I like people who go for the long odds. And you'll be getting the excitement of opening the box right on the premises," she chuckles.
Gumiho has a little smirk to Suzume to say, "Is it? Better to part-time playing with cards you like than flipping burgers, right? And I do get a tiny discount. And sometimes, dibs. Only sometimes, though. Boss is strict."
Her accent's a bit weird, not local, but it's not thick.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
"Ah, a classic bookstore..." Ulala nods along. It makes sense, sell more things, get more customers, right? (She did not go to business school.)
But as the sale continues on, Ulala just frowns at Hitomi. "If anyone's going to jinx anything..." She doesn't finish that sentence, instead looking through the books some more as an excuse to see if they Buy The Box or not.
She really just wants to know how it pans out.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"That's the great thing here," Hitomi tells Suzume. "You can't lose. If I do get good rares, we can definitely cover it. We can make Yamamoto come up here and show the money, and if it's really close I'll just -- I mean I can cover a LITTLE." Back to Gumiho. "You'd be -- maybe I shouldn't say this in front of your boss..."
Who seems to be... ... going for it... Hitomi gets out what is, clearly, nearly all of the actual money she has, counting out the thousand yen notes and fishing out some change to get up to 4,000. "I'll wash my hands, if you want me to," Hitomi continues, to Myunghon. "It IS pretty hot out there. And I don't want to ruin your near-mints..."
But she seems excited. "What's your rates? For the cards, I mean. If you buy them. I know not everyone, haha, I know not everyone buys them back..." She brings her hands together, a quiet little clap.
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
"Guess that makes sense," Suzume agrees with Gumiho. She does not recognize the accent; she *does* think she recognizes the name, but the details aren't coming to her. She may look it up later, if she remembers. "I guess you don't handle the books section." She doesn't seem particularly interested by them, so Myunghon might have the right idea about what the kids these days are here for...
Type type type.
"He's in," Suzume says, after a few moments. "I only had to bully him a little." It is unclear if she is joking. She says it with a straight face and she's not smiling. "So. Good luck." It's not her money so she can afford to let Hitomi play with it.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
'Gumiho' means 'kitsune' in Korean. Pretty easy to look up.
It's totally not her real name. Maybe she's scared of sequence killers. Like the Killers Ulala's talking about. They could be three doors down.
"Well," Myunghon responds to Hitomi as she taps on the glass shelves, behind lock and key, "We do buy them, you are in luck. And there's a ledger by Gumiho for how much each card's worth." This is entertainment for her, the way she understands probability and statistics are cooking in Hitomi's head. When all you have is 4,000 yen to entertain yourself, you wanna make every little bit of it count.
"Just the till," Gumiho answers Suzume. "Can't answer jack about the books. Boring stuff."
"I'm interested now, young miss. Are you going to find the cardboard dragon in there, or are you going to come up with tin soldiers? It's not knowing that makes it exciting," Myunghon smiles, radiating thrill and danger off her posture.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi gives Myunghon a bit of a "..." and a weak smile, as if what she says is embarrassing somehow. Then, she gets the cards... and moves to one of the unoccupied tables, rather quickly.
"Good," she tells Suzume, not looking up. "I mean, hopefully this is going to be really easy, unless you want to hustle him. We could charge him two hundred each and come out ahead... eheh... hey, do you want to like, bring the book over? I'm hoping, but -"
The packs begin to unwrap! "You never really can be sure..."
Pack one! The rare is kind of mid. Hitomi ably separates the cards out, stacking the lands to one side, commons in another, uncommons in the other, and the single rare off to the side. Pack two! The same efficient sorting. No real deep reaction yet. Suzume has probably seen Hitomi handle cards at least twice now, so this may not be a surprise to HER. The other gawkers, though...
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume will probably remember what it means (if she doesn't look it up) at like 3am, because that's the way her brain works.
While Hitomi is opening packs, Suzume wanders over to - assuming it's on her side - leaf through the ledger, or at least the list of how much they'll give you for certain cards. This isn't a set Suzume knows so she doesn't know what the expensive cards are, and she wants to see what she's supposed to be keeping her eyes open for as Hitomi sorts through her prizes.
"Yeah, I bet," she agrees with Gumiho. "Some books are okay." But this stuff looks like what they give literature students... advanced literature students. Suzume can feel herself getting sleepy just looking at the covers.
As for the hustling: "Eh. I have the money I brought because I beat him best of ten at Punch Boxer. Seems unsporting to do it twice." Suzume...
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon's chin lifts a bit as she reclines against a desk in easy fashion, her eye glinting as she watches Hitomi work those cards. Yes... there's someone else inside of there, as she suspected. More than just a student who plays with cards and will forget about them in two years' time when something else hot comes around. Well, she still might, about these cards, but--
The way she touches the cards, understanding that the human being is a disgusting pile of oil and discarded skin cells that will TARNISH the value of this cardboard. The efficient sorting-and-ordering. She could ask her for a perfect riffle shuffle and she could do it without damaging the cards one bit.
Exciting. Really gets her blood going.
"Darn, you got kids you can bully on demand? That's me over at Kasu... I'll get one over 'em Bosses someday, though," Gumiho grumbles.
Gumiho has a SPECIAL SKILL, like she's a Creature card. It simply reads:
If Gumiho gets into a fight, she loses.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"He just has a bigger allowance than us," Hitomi explains to Myunghon, not looking up from the cards. The cards, the cards... OPEN PACK THREE. Take a little trip into your future with me...
In the end, Hitomi does not get the clutch rare. There's doubtless one in there that would have covered, perhaps not the whole box in a live set, but much of it - she gets a couple thousands and five in the 500-1000 zone. The uncommons are also decent, but, they're uncommons; maybe you need them but how many do you need. By the tenth pack she's looking tense, but after the twelfth, she sorts them out and sags back.
As if her battery ran out.
"Maybe I should have gone for the books," she says to Suzume, mostly.
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume was really hoping Hitomi pulled it off, because... well, because. But as the person leafing through the listing, she realizes that she hasn't hit one that's *quite* big enough, probably before Hitomi herself does unless she has the rares memorized.
(Which she might. Suzume doesn't. She plays too many games and CCGs are one of the ones she plays least because of the expense.)
"If you're getting a book, I'm not chipping in," Suzume says, with vigor as she steps away from the counter. Her hands would go into her pockets if she had pockets convenient enough to do it; as is she only has one, and she's just put her phone back in it.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi hangs her head.
This has delayed the inescapable three weeks.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon lets out a luxurious little laugh and pats Hitomi on the shoulder gently, before swanning on over towards the till again. "Come on now! You might not have unearthed the aces you need, but was that not all part of the thrill? In exchange for such a good time,"
Pause. Pause.
"Gumiho will cover the rest."
Gumiho hangs her head, letting out a little mushroom-shaped sigh from her mouth. "Seriously, Boss? You sure don't know how to read the room. A'ight, well, I said I got an interest in this, so let's sort out who wants what."
And thus ends the daring saga of whether or not Hitomi Mandai will become a BIG SHOT. But, hours later, when the two students check their spoils from that strange shop in Hirasaka... a Skill Card's been snuck in there, perhaps by mistake?! Wow, that must have been a really clumsy owner. No wonder she slashes her prices so easily! Is that why her shopfront is such a trash heap from the 80's?