2025-07-12: The Claw of Destiny

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<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

It's a warm summer day on Tatsumi Port Island. Paulownia Mall is packed this Friday afternoon, including Game Parade, the arcade that is hip among TEENAGERS. After one gets their Chagall Coffee, they can hang out at the Game Parade and have some real fun and maybe get better at things...

As people enter the arcade, a little girl watching through the window at the claw machine for Some Reason, it's packed with different machines, from a dating sim to a horror game to a shooter to a quiz game. There's not many uncrowded spots with free machines - the closest would be near the claw machine...

Where an older teenager in a thick red coat and a beanie (yes, in this heat) is trying to win a Jack Frost doll. He looks third year age... which is weird because he's not in his uniform. He seems *extremely* determined, as if this was a life or death battle. The claw grasps the doll, moves forward...

Drop into the pile. It's a miss.

"Fuck," Shinjiro mutters under his breath. He'll probably need to take a break momentarily to avoid frustration. 

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.

Class today sucked.

Class sucks a lot of days but Suzume had a particularly unpleasant day of it, both because it involved math quizzes (math being one of her weakest subjects even when she *is* applying herself, which she wasn't) and because once again it was too god damned hot. She'd been hoping for some rain to cool it down, but was disappointed.

But she'd decided to head down to the arcade after it, so at least some things were looking up. Actually, she just wanted to go to Paulownia Mall in general, because she'd heard some Things about the police station from the rest of SEES.

So Suzume is a little late showing up at the arcade because she'd been over there instead. It's obvious she didn't go home (read: the dorms, because she is now both able and willing to avoid 'home') after class, because she is still in her Gekkoukan uniform. The slightly ill-fitting blouse is less than perfectly crisp, the ribbon is tied sloppily so that it spreads out a bit too far, and she still has the skirts on. Without leggings, even. (She really wanted shorts.)

She also still has her backpack with her, slung lazily over one shoulder. It too is lumpy. Suzume has been surprisingly careful about not turning too fast and bumping anyone with it for a change.

While she'd planned to meet someone here, she has instead become distracted watching a weirdo lose at the crane game while she finishes a granola bar away from the actual game machines (food isn't supposed to be brought in but they only yell at her if she touches things with sticky fingers). Her fingers itch. She wants to tell him how to win at it, or do it herself.

(Why does she assume she can get it?) 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
And who did Suzume come to meet?

Hitomi Mandai, who had been in one of those high-falutin machines that connect you to other game centers for an EXTREME RACE EXPERIENCE, walks over, nearer to the entrance. She has a game center card still in her hand, but the other hand is holding a cold oolong tea freshly acquired from a vending machine. Hitomi looks faintly sweaty, but that happens a lot to her: pale skin, hot weather, a generally corpulent cast. She is definitely someone who likes autumn better.

But she stopped when a man just said the FUCK word.

Hitomi looks at Shinjiro with something like judgment. She raises the beverage to her lips.

slurp

"..." Her expression is a mix of voyeuristic and intimidated, but it eases up when someone approaches. Hitomi turns her head and says, "Fukuraaaaa," as she often does, drawling out the syllable. (Hitomi's actual outfit is the Gekkoukan summer uniform, if with the neck-ruffle-ribbon untied and the top button unbuttoned.)

"That guy's got a bad attitude, Fukuraa, what do you think we ought to do...?"

Yes! She has gained courage, because now she socially outnumbered the strange and heavily-clad man! He can't be poor at both of them at once!

can he? check this later 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Under normal circumstances, Hyousuke was not one to drink coffee. He had no great disdain for the drink, but every time he had it, he couldn't shake the feeling that he could have been drinking tea instead. But the iced frappe he held as he pottered aimlessly about the place was different. It was, in no uncertain terms, loaded with sugar. Chocolate, syrup, ice, a small mountain of whipped cream, and an unhealthy dose of sprinkles left the drink looking more like a desert than any kind of conventional beverage. To someone that loved sweets as much as Hyousuke, it was an acceptable substitute for tea. For the time being, anyway.

The drink was not the only reason he'd brought himself to the establishment, however. That had merely been something he'd grabbed on the way to his main destination - the arcade. He stood at the entrance briefly, casting his eyes over the myriad of machines and attractions, looking for the first thing to catch his eye, and thereby his wallet. It wasn't a flashing light or digitised noise that caught his attention, however. It was someone uttering a curse that he was fairly certain was not supposed to be uttered in polite company. His eyes darted towards the source, and like an animal observing something unfamiliar, he blinked before staring quizzically.

A moment or two of observation was all that he needed to grow even more invested in the display. Seeing people frustrated with games was nothing new to him, but to the point that the stranger was? That much, he'd not seen often. Before his better judgement could kick in, Hyousuke stumbled forward, iced drink in hand, and came to a slow stop behind the object of his interest.
"You good?" He asked, tilting his head a little, evoking a startlingly accurate imitation of a confused golden retriever - one only reinforced when his blonde locks tumbled to the side with the motion. 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

Suzume has been Noticed. Shinjiro doesn't seem ready to reply, because he's too busy fishing for more change. It's when Hitomi comes up, speaking bad about him in earshot, that he turns his head.

His face is a perpetual scowl, but also youthful. He stares intimidatingly for a long moment, before deciding to finally speak.

"You don't think it's a bad attitude to chatter about someone from behind their back? Your buddy's been in here watching me. Why?" Shinjiro says to Hitomi, before a pause, addressing both of them. "You think it's funny that I'm failing?"

Oh no... Suzume and Hitomi have been pulled into a SUBSTORY.

Hyousuke, meanwhile, blunders into it. "I'm fine. I just can't get the damn Hee-Ho Guy out of the machine. I'm on a time crunch," Shinjiro tells him. Blonde, huh? Either a foreigner or a punk, probably. Shinjiro doesn't care, but it's good to know if he's gonna start shit. 

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.

Oh crap there's Hitomi

Suzume had actually intended to meet her but she wanted to finish her granola bar first, for the very simple reason that she does not have a second bar to offer her. Even Suzume can be polite.

So she stuffs the rest of the granola bar in her mouth in one go. This was definitely the right move and she isn't embarrassed at all. (That was a lie.)

This means that when Shinjiro addresses her, her cheeks are puffed out and she vaguely resembles a chipmunk. Suzume starts to say something, sputters on dry granola (even the chocolate chips in there don't save her) and fails to recover.

Staggering the step over to Hitomi, Suzume grabs the oolong right out of her hands (rude!) and takes a shot from it. The little bit of liquid is enough for her to swallow successfully, though she still coughs a couple times afterwards, clearing her throat.

Then she gives the tea back, without even saying thank you! So much for being polite. "Sorry," she croaks, before looking up at Shinjiro. Somehow she thinks she has lost most of her coolness factor. She tries anyway, drawing herself up to her full height - not a lot, she's the shortest person in this conversation by almost three quarters of a foot.

"There's a trick to it," she says. "Time limit, huh? What, there a big rush on Hee Ho today?" Seriously, why does a guy like this need a doll...? The swearing, on the other hand, she is neutral to. 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
Another guy, this one with blond hair?! is approaching Delinquent #1. Hitomi watches, with some mild unease. And then... Delinquint #1... addresses them.

Behind her glasses, which mist slightly from body heat and ambient humidity (though the arcade ACs are striving), her eyes widen. Suzume grabs the drink! And before Hitomi can answers Shinjiro, she is suddenly given back the tea.

Faced with several problems, Hitomi lets Suzume surge ahead. She looks at her drink then, and raises it up to glance at the inside of it... and seems to satisfy something like her squeamishness, because she takes another drink from it, in that careful, 'pour a bit in your mouth' kind of way that comes from drinks meant to be shared.

"... you were swearing really loud in an arcade," Hitomi says, then, standing approximately behind Suzume. (The height differential here is about eight inches, and as such, Hitomi is entirely visible over Suzume's head. "It's not like it's... your fault? I read online these things are kind of soft-rigged."

A beat passes.

"At least in America," Hitomi allows, as if remembering the rest of the article. This makes her lips purse. She looks at Hyousuke, in case he knows anything about this.

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Hyousuke found himself distracted from the rather heavily-dressed stranger by the sight of someone snatching a drink out of what he assumed was their friend's hand. He blinked, unsure of what to make of the spectacle, but decided not to comment on it or said friend's reaction. Perhaps some things were better left unquestioned. However, before he could make a comment about the doll or the machine instead, someone turned the conversation back to him, and he turned his eyes back to the machine itself. He fell silent, putting his free hand to his chin as he looked quizzically to the thing, before finally deigning to speak.

"...No idea." He said, after having unintentionally allowed a little dramatic tension to build. It took him only a fraction of a second to realise that this was perhaps a rather unsatisfactory answer, so he continued, not looking at any of them as he spoke. Instead, he seemed to focus more on the prizes that lay within, and which one he'd prefer to take home. "Wouldn't surprise me if the thing was rigged though. Most of the toys you see in these things are pretty cheap, so if you've got a bunch of people spending money and not getting anywhere with it, you got a lot of cash coming in."

He took another long sip from the drink, and silently wondered if the drink was really worth the money he'd paid for it. He was fairly certain that most of it was cream, and the rest was a watered-down mocha. He made a mental note to hit up the vending machine for a can of the tea that one of the others were holding next time, then turned to the person that had been actually attempting to win the game in the first place.
"Guy I knew that played these said you gotta push it to the hole, since the grabbing thing doesn't work right." He punctuated his advice with a nonchalant shrug. "I dunno. I've never played these things. I usually go for the shooters." 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

Suzume becomes a granola chipmunk, and Shinjro stares for a second, before scanning back over to Hitomi. Hitomi says he was swearing really loud... "Tch. Sorry, didn't mean to be a nuisance." He grumbles.

Suzume and Hyousuke, though, have tips. "Is that the trick you were offering?" he asks Suzume as Hyousuke mentions 'pushing it'. "Damn thing's rigged, huh?"

But, he was also asked why he's trying to do this... he gestures his head to the little girl staring from outside at his claw machine. "I promised that kid I'd get it for her. She said it was very important, so I have to get it for her." He looks to them with a look like 'you know how it is'. 

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.

Suzume is used to people standing right behind her. She has mixed feelings about her height (as she does with many other things) but she knows it's just a practical thing. So she doesn't try to turn to keep Hitomi in her field of vision while she does it.

Suzume is kind of scowly right now, as much out of embarrassment as anything else - just laugh, she'll deal with it! But nobody does, and so she relaxes, at least a little bit. Shinjiro explains his goal here, and Suzume...

Huh, she thinks. That was not her guess.

"Yeah," she says, relenting a little bit. "Like he says. Two-pronged claws don't grab as well as three-prong ones. Things tend to start sliding out. It drops a little, and then the prize slides out of your grip. If you're gonna put two coins in, use the first to try to move something near the edge, and then maybe you can use another prize to push it out. It works better as a rake than a grabber, sometimes."

Suzume likes to win. And with a crane game, she doesn't feel too bad about sharing her strategies. It's not like you can play the game *against* someone. It's just against the arcade. 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
Hitomi looks at Hyousuke as he speaks. She doesn't answer him. Instead she takes another sip off her bottle. She looks towards the claw machine again.

The weird dude (Shinjiro) speaks again. He apologized? And he's...

"... you're doing it for that girl?" Hitomi says, turning her head to look.

After this her head tilts forwards. The light from the claw machine, bright in the relative dimness of arcade ambient lighting, hides the look in her eyes from visibility by anyone else. She doesn't talk for long moments.

She inhales and exhales rather quickly several times. Her lips close. She dry-swallows, takes another breath, and raises her head.

"... I bet you I can do it in six tries," she says, looking at Shinjiro. 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

So, the prize wasn't for him. It was for the little girl that had, until that point, gone unnoticed by Hyousuke. He spared her only a brief moment of attention before looking back to Shinjiro, and the whole situation suddenly made a lot more sense. While he didn't approve of using such strong language around such a small child, Hyousuke held his tongue, having decided that there were far more important matters to attend to - chief amongst them making sure that the promise was fulfilled. He wasn't entirely certain what he could do beyond providing moral support, but by that point, he'd become invested, so decided to stick around.

He nodded along to Suzume's explanation. A far better one than his own, he had to admit, especially given how he'd somehow managed to forget the word 'claw' for the duration of his response. Nothing was added, however. He was certainly no expert on the things, and from the looks of it, there wasn't much else he could realistically add. Not until Hitomi made a bet with him, that was. He raised a brow, casting a glance over to Shinjiro, wondering if the frustration he'd seen earlier would carry over into that little dare as well.

Again, Hyousuke acted against his better judgement, even after taking a moment to sip his coffee and think about what constituted a sensible response.
"Six." He repeated, looking down at the prize intensely, before dragging his eyes back up to look Shinjiro in his own. "You just gonna stand there and take that? I bet you could do it in five." 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

Suzume gives Shinjiro the full tip, and he nods. "That makes sense. I can pull that off----"

And then Hitomi, who glances, bets she could do it in six tries. Assuming she wants to give it a shot, "Yeah, I am. Sorry, this is my promise. I gotta pull it off."

But Hyousuke MAKES IT WORSE by betting he can do it in five. Wait, was this a bet thing? Oh no.

"Five, huh. I can do that. I have just enough coins for that, too."

So it begins. Shinjiro puts in the first coin, attempting to grab a different animal nearby, but he can't quite clutch it. After a grumble, he goes on for attempt 2, and gets it a little further.

Attempt 3 is unspeakable. We don't talk about it.

Attempt 4, though... he gets one all the way next to the Jack Frost, trying to push it towards the edge. He succeeds.

Before he goes for his FINAL TRY before becoming a loser, though, Shinjiro takes a breath, turning to the others. "You Gekkoukan students?"

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.

Hitomi makes a bet, which Hyousuke intensifies by betting Shinjiro can do it in less. Suzume immediately wants to match it, and in fact starts to do just that, but Shinjiro is still taking the machine. "Huh," she is her eventual response. "This isn't usually my game. But I could do that well."

Suzume wants to watch, but she doesn't get too close to Shinjiro. Wouldn't want to jostle his arm. ...to say nothing of anything else. Who dresses like that in summer? He's kind of weird.

So she steps to one side so she can watch from a different angle, slouching a little; her backpack, still being carried only by one shoulder strap, slips slightly and tugs to one side. It works well enough, though.

In fact, it works really well. "It would be easier to do if the controls were on this side," Suzume says. Not that that helps him, but: "Pretty good view of the drop chute from here, is all."

'You Gekkoukan students?'

Suzume reaches up and flicks the ribbon she has over her uniform shirt. "Nah," she says, "I just wear this crap for fun. I should be asking you two, you're the ones without uniforms." 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
When Hyousuke says five, an enormous leering smile cracks open on Hitomi's face for a moment, though it disappears moments later, her face twitching a little as she pulls herself together. "Five," she states, before glancing towards Suzume.

"I won't... ask you to fade me," she says as she pushes her glasses up her nose. "But you've got to hype me when I win, Fukuraaa, can you do that...?" And after this Hitomi approaches the claw machine. Still well away. Shinjiro's got one more shot at this.

Hitomi's looking at the Hee-Ho intently. Maybe she's going to use psychokinesis.

"She's right," Hitomi says, not looking up from her intent focus on the machine. "I'm actually thirty-six and divorced, you know...?"

(that is a lie, she's like a 27 year old OL at worst) 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Hyousuke was not well-versed in the art of the crane game. He'd said as much, and felt no need to prove it to the others gathered there. However, even he knew that what he saw was not a terribly encouraging display. Not until the penultimate push, anyway. If one strained their ears, they might have been able to hear the gears begin to whir in his head as he dedicated all of his remaining brainpower to figuring out if retrieving the toy was possible with the one remaining push he had left in their informal bet, though his train of thought was interrupted before it had a chance to go anywhere.

He almost choked at the mere thought that he could have been a Gekkoukan student - quite audibly, in fact. One of the last few remaining dregs of his drink caught in his throat, and it took a fairly spirited cough or two to dislodge it from his windpipe, and leave him in a condition to answer.
"Gekkoukan?" He asked, brow furrowing a little at the mere suggestion. "Yeah, I teach there." He wasn't a particularly good actor, but he would have kicked himself for not playing along with the others.

"What about you?" He asked, fixing Shinjiro with a quizzical glance. "You a student?" 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

"Don't mess with me," is Shinjiro's reply to the three's 'no I'm not a student'. He's asked if he is...

"Technically," is all he says. TRUANCY ALERT, you may get DELINQUENCY COOTIES. In other words, he's definitely a third year.

"Don't tell Kirijo you saw me here," he says in a way that actually sounds Familiar instead of 'oh she's that famous student council president', even if he's joking.

The final push. He goes to move the Jack Frost over, and it's about to fall in, when...

It teeters.

It falls back into the pile.

Round 5: FAILURE

It is now Hitomi's turn, as Shinjiro moves away from the machine, grimacing.

"Let's see how far you can push it."

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.

"I figured you had functioning eyes and I didn't have to actually answer," Suzume shoots back. She doesn't like the uniform very much, but she didn't have a whole lot of time to change if she wanted to get to the police station before meeting Hitomi at the arcade. Which she did. "Unlike Teach over there." Sorry, Hyousuke, that's you now. Even though Suzume knows perfectly well he's not a Gekkoukan teacher, because: "I don't think you're supposed to fraternize with the students."

The delinquency doesn't bother Suzume either. If anything, she's impressed, though whether it's that he does it or some other reason is hard to tell. "Bad luck for you, she's in my dorm," Suzume says, which doesn't mean much to anyone except someone who is familiar with SEES. But: "Don't worry. I don't tattle. Even if I'm pretty sure I could just call you Beanie-san and she'd figure it out."

Nobody wears a beanie like that just once.

Shinjiro... fails. "Well, Mandai, looks like it's up to you, for that little girl." She suddenly grins, slightly crooked: "And if *you* fail, I'll show both of you up." She is privately hoping that that happens, because... well. That would be some impressive showing off. 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
Hitomi's answer to Shinjiro is wordless... She heard him, but she makes, at most, a 'hnn' in the back of her throat. She watches the game as Round Five plays out. She does smirk a little when Hyousuke becomes a faculty member. She adjusts her glasses.

Her hands lace together for a moment, around the tea bottle. Mentally, she reviews the facts of the case.

* Known: This is a two-claw machine, not a three claw. Suzume's right, that they're more unfair.
* Possibility: A push? or...

* Known: At least one of those punk guys is looking at me doing this... aaaaaaaaaaaa
* Possibility: He *would* have faded me if I - no, stop

* Known: He doesn't want us to tell Kirijo.
* Unknown: Does he mean Mitsuru-sempai or the company or one of Mitsuru's relatives or what
* Possibility: this man is a beanie of mystery

* Known: I have to do this in five tries... or less.
* Known: I could do this all day if I had to... I'd probably eventually win...
* Known: I would definitely spend all my arcade money and be eating out of the fridge at the dorm for the next week.
* Possibility: But...

"I think..."

Hitomi steps forwards, quickly. She plugs in her coins. And for try #1...

... the claw lifts... and...

... she's going for the digital watch in the corner???

Hitomi lines it up perfectly, craning her head and even leaning to the side to get another angle, and then hits the button.

The claw comes down... and it actually gets a good grip on the little plastic loop around the prize! Except it lifts up aaaaand nope it doesn't even have a grip at all, apparently. Except that for some reason this makes Hitomi crack an enormous grin, the kind of thing that lets people see what your back molars are made of.

"So that's how it is..."

ATTEMPT #2: This one happens pretty quick. Hitomi aims for the Hee-Ho - the two-claw design makes it hard to just snatch and go, but she does at least get enough hold of it to get it *near* the opening of promise, of treasure, of bliss.

ATTEMPT #3: This involves another one of those around-the-corner levering up sighting intervals, or maybe she just wants to build tension... and it almost seems like it works, except that the Hee-ho is grasped, as it turns out, at just the wrong angle -- because it ends up bumping against the cowling around the exit drop, and indeed, it flops downwards -- laying (sloppily) about half and half on the side of the drop.

Really, at that point, you'd probably kick the machine. Hitomi does not kick the machine. She seems to be breathing heavily.

ATTEMPT #4: The claw goes down... and grips onto the butt of the Jack Frost (there's no good way to say it), the loincloth-skirt-thing that every fashionable Hee-Ho's rephee-senting this season getting caught on the side. But the grip breaks and the doll flops on the same exact place it was at.

The same exact place? No, it moved...

... ten percent to the side...

... which means, with some drama as the doll begins to slide along the plastic lip, gravity exerts its merciless toll and...

                tump

"Just as I thooought," Hitomi says, straightening up and clapping her hands together with a beatific expression. "Every third try it does a little -- pop -- Teach, you saw it, right? Just..." She mimes with one hand, going 'drrrrrrr' with her mouth as she lowers her hand down, index finger and thumb curled in claw mimickry, and then-- 'pwoip!' as her finger and thumb part JUST a tiny bit.

"Araaa, I think that might be illegal... Fukuraa, should we get into blackmail...?" Hitomi says, as she folds her hands behind her back. This is perhaps the most pleased-with-herself and *happy* Suzume has seen her in... ... ever? 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Hyousuke shot Shinjiro a glance. It was a knowing one, tinged with just a little bit of harshness - something to silently tell him that he knew exactly what kind of a person he was. He could hide behind all the technicalities he wanted, but Hyousuke knew one of his own kind when he saw them. The look on his face changed quickly when he heard his new nickname, however. Teach was perhaps not the worst thing he'd been called, but it was by far the most accurate. To his mind, the only thing he could confidently teach was how to be a bad example.

Not at the crane game, though. Shinjiro exemplified that with his fifth and final try, and how it ended in abject failure. Close as it was, 'close' didn't pry free any prizes from the machine's cold and unfeeling grasp. The claw was an unforgiving mistress, and close enough wasn't good enough.
"Better luck next time." He said, shrugging casually at what'd happened. Was it perhaps not the best response to give to someone that had likely been trying for quite a while? Definitely. Did he stand a chance of resisting the urge to say it nevertheless? Definitely not. "I'll get you something out the vending machine. Consider it a consolation prize."

With that, his attention turned back to the crane, and the various motions it made. He wasn't sure about any of the specifics of what was going on - it had taken all of his brain power simply to process the idea that a claw was for shoving things around, rather than grabbing things, contrary to the primary purpose of actual cranes. However, he could tell (with a reasonable degree of certainty) that Hitomi was quite skilled at her manipulation of that robotic arm. Enthralled by the display, he stared like a chimp through an enclosure's glass wall, his focus only breaking when the doll finally tumbled free of its prison.

"Yes!" He said quietly, instinctively giving a fist-pump, as if he'd done anything other than provide moral support and light teasing. "You totally got it to swoosh just right. I thought it was gonna swish the wrong way, but I guess you knew how to..." He gestured vaguely, his hands waving about in a vague imitation of what was probably a crane (if one squinted a little and viewed him from a distance). "Dunno about blackmail though. You think we could get some more dolls out of this if we did?" 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

As Suzume mentions she shares a dorm with Mitsuru, Shinjiro pauses, appraising her. Those are not just the eyes of someone who knows her - they are the eyes of someone who thinks that is Very Interesting.

"You've got the right attitude for it," he mutters before moving to watch Hitomi. What the *fuck* does that mean?

As Hitomi gets the first three not quite, Shinjiro smirks. But...

She gets it in four.

"Well, damn. Good job," he admits. He glances outside, the kid luckily still there even after that many attempts. "We can get this to her. I bet we'll be thrilled."

He'll accept the consolation prize.

"You also in her dorm?" He asks Hitomi, appraisingly. "Or you just a school pal?"

And then-

"Blackmail, tch. That'll damn your permanent record." 

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.

Suzume looks right back up at Shinjiro when he appraises her. Her gaze is almost challenging; she actually raises up from her accustomed slightly round-shouldered slouch or slump, catching her backpack as it threatens to slide with her elbow and holding the shoulder strap with one hand, her arm making a V.

"What's that supposed to mean?" And that *was* challenging. She has sharp ears, apparently, or at least sharp enough to be annoying. "I just moved in to get out of my damn house. She had nothing to do with it." That part's a lie, sort of - in that Mitsuru was not with the first group from the dorms she met. She does not answer as to whether Hitomi is in the dorm, too; that's her business, and she's not inclined to be generous to Shinjiro until he answers that question.

Suzume absolutely does not understand Hitomi's strategy at first. Hers is pretty different; less exploratory, more direct in some ways. Still clever (at least she thinks so); Suzume tends to use the lift as much as the drop, letting it dislodge or reorient items she wants to pick up.

You always need more than one attempt for these things.

But:

"*Nice*." And Suzume means it; it really is an impressive grab. Hitomi's good cheer is enough to partially break some of her funk. "I'm not really into blackmailing the arcade. It's probably just waiting for some maintenance, they never fix these enough. They probably wouldn't give you any more dolls, but you could win some yourself. If I wanted to blackmail someone I'd go for Beanie-san," she adds, with another look at Shinjiro. "But I think I'll pass on that too."

For now. 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 

Hitomi flutters her eyelashes at Hyousuke. "Oh, thank you~! I just saw how it did that jerk, so I knew that if I brought it down at the right angle, it would grip and then rise up - so you'd have tension - and then it'd break, and it was juuust on the edge and --"

She falters a little, just a little, at what Shinjiro says, and Suzume too, about committing additional felonies. She rests two fingers on her chin as her lips pooch into a slight pout. "Mm... I bet we could get a doll each if we 'tell them' about the 'problem...'" But Shinjiro's going to take the doll, and Hitomi steps back a bit, so he can do so.

"You can have it," she tells Shinjiro, frankly. Hitomi pushes her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "It's cute, but... well, it'd be weird if I came in. She'd think you were less cool. This way, there's mystery! You can say whatever you - want -" He's asking about the dorms.

Hitomi's lips thin for a moment. "..." The bonhomie and good vibes that were practically pouring off of Hitomi fade quickly, though they take a while to completely go away. She glances at Hyousuke again. 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

She was looking at him. Why was she looking at him? First she'd fluttered her lashes at him like she'd had something in her eye she couldn't just wipe, then she looked at him like he was supposed to say something. But what? Was it about the dorms? He didn't even go to the same school as her. He went to Kasugayama - he'd never even seen any of these people before today. He blinked, his eyes silently asking her for clarification, then darting between her and the rest of the group, before he forced out a response so as not to leave a tense silence hanging in the air for too long.

"Now that I think about it, blackmailing's probably not worth the effort." He said, crouching down a little to get a better look at the doll. "They probably wouldn't let us back in here if we tried, and I don't want to get banned from any more places." He hoped that a joke would defuse the situation - or, at least, what he hoped they'd perceive as a joke. His behaviour before his transfer had not exactly endeared him to a great many business owners, though he didn't see a reason to let them know about that. "I'm not worried about my permanent record, I just don't want to get kicked out. I think the AC's busted in some of the other arcades around here."

Then, abruptly, he stood upright again, and locked onto the nearest vending machine. Whether it had tea in it or not hardly mattered - it was there, it had cold drinks, and it was also a rather convenient way of distracting from what even he could sense was tension brewing.
"I'm gonna get a drink. What do you want as your consolation prize..." He trailed off upon realising that he had not actually caught Shinjiro's name amidst all the chaos. Had he said it, only for Hyousuke to not be listening? Hyousuke had no idea. He wasn't even sure if he'd introduced himself at any point. "...Beanie." He said eventually. He wasn't going to be the only one in the group with a nickname, even if it came at the expense of someone else. 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

"Learn to take a damn compliment," Shinjiro replies to Suzume. His attitude flares, but so does... something else, accidentally, if you're Awakened. An aura, a feeling, a signal. It's not super clear *what it is* unless you're experienced enough to know what it is.

That means, for Hitomi, she'll know it's what SEES calls Detection. This is a Persona User. For Suzume, though, it might just seem like an odd experience and Vibes, if she hasn't been clued in.

Which makes Beanie-san even more mysterious... except to Hyousuke, who will be entirely clueless anything at all happened, being unawakened.

"Can't answer a question? It's fine. I don't care enough," he says to Hitomi, taking the plush. As he prepares to get his CONSOLATION PRIZE AND LEAVE...

He glances to Suzume. "Don't stay out too late," he says abruptly. She may *not* be awakened. But if she's staying at that dorm...

"There's not just shadows in the darkness." Okay, that's just kinda edgy. He's gonna smack himself later for trying to give a POLITE WARNING around NORMIES and sounding like a creep doing so. But... the world is wider than Kirijo thinks it is, for sure.

"Aragaki," he tells Hyousuke. "Beanie's fine, I don't give a shit." 

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.

Suzume has exactly one supernatural trip to her name (the one where she almost got herself killed by going into Mementos before she knew she had a Persona - indeed, before she knew what a Persona *was*). She has, so far, less than a week of Dark Hours to her name. Her first one was Sunday, and it is now Friday.

Needless to say that while she may have been *told* some of this, she has such a limited amount of experience that compared to Shinjiro she may as well have none at all.

There's a vibe of something from Shinjiro, but a moment later there's a similar one from Suzume - and despite her lack of experience it doesn't feel hesitant or uncertain. Rather the opposite. It's truly *there* even if she couldn't say what she's doing, and indeed isn't aware she's done anything at all.

She simultaneously feels rattled and intrigued. She just *stares* at Shinjiro's back as he steps aside. "The last person who told me something like that," Suzume says after a long moment, "was calling me an idiot." Hothead, idiot, impulsive... Admitting this is as close as Suzume is going to get to an apology, which itself says a lot.

Suzume says nothing for a few moments as Shinjiro leaves. She doesn't stop him. She doesn't even call back to him, even though that last line... he knows, she thinks. She's going to have to find him again. Without 'Teach'. Maybe without Hitomi, because he's upset her with questions, and Suzume hates that, too. Aragaki... she commits it to memory.

"Drink sounds good," Suzume says, agreeing with Hyousuke, "but I'm gonna get my own. Mandai, you want to get some coffee before we go back?" Chagall IS right there, after all. "I need to get some stuff from the pharmacy, too." 

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.

 
Why did Hitomi flutter her eyelashes at Hyousuke? It's a mystery. If this happens again, maybe he can get in the Mystery Machine. But of course, why you make eyes at someone from Kasugayama who's in the area to play the sick shooting games... is a secret. Though in time. "Yeah," she answers, mildly to what he says about the blackmail. "Uh... another oolong, if you're buying...?"

But her attention's on Shinjiro.

There's something that happens. Hitomi can't say what it is. Something that makes her teeth set on edge. Hitomi is quiet, to the feeling of Detection, but there was a tremor there for a moment. She purses her lips.

And then he's leaving.

"Fwah," Hitomi says once he's gone. Her arms fold rather defensively, as she walks over towards Suzume. "... I guess this kind of killed the move. I'm good for it, though..." (Strangely, she drinks that oolong shit all day and coffee periodically and still looks kind of sleepy in class. Maybe it's "ADHD." Maybe it's something else wearing her out.)

But Hitomi also looks obscurely frustrated. Maybe she did want the doll? It is a mystery. 

<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.

Hyousuke was confused. He was confused a lot, as anyone that had picked up on his lack of academic ability might have guessed, but this time it was for a different reason entirely. Looking around at the group, he felt as though there was an inside joke he'd not been let in on, or a crucial piece of information he'd missed at some point in the conversation. It was difficult for him to put into thoughts, let alone words, and it was hardly as if he had a reason to try. He would just have to keep his confusion to himself, and make an exit before he got dragged into any trouble.

Then there was the matter of the drinks. He'd only intended to buy for himself and for Aragaki, and that was only as a consolation prize. But he could hardly back out after the offer had been taken up. He was blunt, but he wasn't rude. Mostly. He thought. Or, rather, hoped. Whatever the status of his social aptitude (or lack thereof), that was three drinks he owed the group, assuming that one of them was still there when he got back from the vending machine. He tried to provide some self-reassurance by noting that the drinks didn't cost that much, and they'd already spent their fair share on making a small child happy, but it was of little comfort.

Before he toddled off to collect something cold to chug, however, there was the matter of introductions. Turning abruptly on his heel, he faced Aragaki, and spoke.
"Suzuki." He said, lazily pointing at himself with a single finger. "I'm not actually a teacher. I go to Kasugayama." With that, he turned away once more, and ambled off towards the vending machine's glow. 

<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.

OUTSIDE, AFTER SHINJIRO HAS LEFT:

Shinjiro Aragaki returns to the child. "Here's your toy."

"Oh, thanks, mister..." the girl replies, taking the Jack Frost and immediately turning it over, as if... looking for the fine print.

Shinjiro squints, before tilting his head. "Something wrong?"

"Yeah! This isn't an original... my brother told me those had a defect that made them worth a lot to collectors..." the kid says, hoping something that rare would still be in the machine. She turns to Shinjiro, shoving the toy back into his hands. "Well, thanks anyways, mister... you can keep it, I guess..."

The kid runs off when she spots an adult that is likely her parent, causing Shinjiro to remain baffled. Mission... accomplished?

SUB-STORY - THE CLAW OF DESTINY
COMPLETE

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