2025-08-01: You Need To Block More
- Log: You Need To Block More
- Cast: Hazuki Nakao, Tyler Gould
- Where: Gigolo Arcade, Akihabara, Tokyo
- OOC Date: August 01, 2025
- IC Date: June 18, 2012
- Summary: After her rejection by Peacock Silk, Hazuki wallows at the arcade. Her acquaintance Tyler comes to check on her, and they forge a stronger bond.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki Nakao is having a very bad no-good day. She was excited about Peacock Silk, making friends, seeing cool fashion, but she got summarily kicked out, scared off by a peacock, and given a crappy consolation prize she can't even do anything cool with.
Her tears have long dried, and she's now at Gigolo Arcade. There's a serious, cold demeanor to her right now, as she plays someone who seems pretty good. She did not sandbag this time, which people just called 'the Goddess of Tricks playing another trick!'
"Wow, you're pretty good..." the guy tells her, as she doesn't reply.
Soon, he's being combo'd, and taken out at the final round.
"Oh well! Good game," he says, getting up and moving over to shake her hand.
"...good game," Hazuki replies, shaking his hand lightly before sighing once he leaves. She slumps across the arcade cabinet that's basically been claimed as hers. "Ugh..."
The bag from Peacock Silk sits on the side of the cabinet. She has not thrown it away. She probably won't, either.
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
Peacock Silk. It was definitely... an experience. A little bit of the strange -- you don't run into talking peacocks very often. Probably. But Japan has been pretty strange lately so who knows. Certainly necessary, if their wares do what the proprietor had claimed... but at the same time, also elitist, as proven by Hazuki's abrupt dismissal from the store.
Bullies don't get far in Tyler's books. After the announcement of... exactly what kind of market the place serves, he can understand it a little more...
...but ultimately clothes were clothes. Even if the girl *couldn't* use the other side of what they could do, it's not like she'd explode if she tried to put them on...
Right?
So after confirming that his dormmates wouldn't need assistance bringing their purchases home the store, Tyler said his goodbyes and made his way back towards the Gigolo Arcade. It's a hunch that the girl might have returend to the arcade, based on his own predilection to return to the quiet, dead spaces when things go sour. When he spots her playing, he knows he was right on the money.
He doesn't approach *until* she's done, until she slumps. "Have you run out of challengers to decimate, oh Goddess of Tricks?" he asks, deciding to test just how strong her English is. With nobody else in the conversation, it might be eaiser for both of them to speak this way!
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
As Hazuki slumps, she exhales. But a voice eventually reaches her.
It's in English. Interesting...? Why is it familiar- oh! It's Tyler, from Boston...
She looks up, replying in perfect British English. "Decimate's a strong word. But, it seems the store's slowing down for the day, so probably..."
A pause. "Congrats on getting selected." Hazuki noticed him! She doesn't hold it against him, even if she's still befuddled by their selection criteria. "Guess I wasn't chic enough... oh well!" She laughs it off, but it's clear it stings if you read between the lines.
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
Hand digs into pocket, pulling out some coins once again. "Then let's go a round. See how quickly you can put me away; show no mercy." he encourages her. Is he trying to cheer her up?
A little. Tyler might not be the most empathetic person in the world, but he knows what it's like to get picked on... and turning around and excelling in something is often a good salve for that.
As for her comments about the store? "I'm not sure congratulations are in order. It was Peacock Silk, not Cold Subject." A store found in malls across America that caters to the alternative crowd that the goth probably shopped at on multiple occasions. "Besides. If the selection process had anything to do with fashion sense, I would've been banished to the gates of Hades right along with you." It's honesty without saying what the selection process actually *was*.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
As Tyler offers to play, she sits up enough to let him join her. "Okay, but only if you mean that. No getting salty, got it?" Her mood's still down, but she can tell what he's trying to do. It's clearly appreciated, as she lets loose a small smile.
"Cold Subject... man, people here just wouldn't get that name. They'd think it's weird." She's not sure she GETS it either, but it makes sense if it's goth clothing! "So, what do you think their selection process was? Something strange and inscrutable based off the will of a peacock? Maybe he's into goth aesthetic."
She'll put her own coins in, waiting for Tyler. She'll hover over a character... and then pick her main. "I assume you're the type who picks the coolest looking one, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
"I can't promise that. I have a handful or so of salt in my pocket, so being salty is my perpetual fate." Tyler replies, moving properly alongside and dropping his coins in the slot. "But there will be no hard feelings when you annihilate me." he promises. After all, he literally asked for it.
"That's okay. A lot of them think I'm weird, too." Beat. "I'd personally claim to be strange and unusual, but I can still see the fit." he meanders around the selection screen, putting more thought into his fighter this time. "I think the staff there are some sort of new-age spiritualists." Truth. The way they talked openly about the Dark Hour once the normies were gone? They had to be. "The kind who don't want to be around people who are still... living in a box."
See what he did there?
"Because if they were looking for a goth aesthetic, my dorm-mate Yukari would have never gotten in." He shrugs a bit, and then settles on a character. "Something like that. I like her jacket." he explains, and then confirms his character selection. As matchups go, this will be a Walk In The Park for Hazuki's main, much like it should be for their comparitive skill levels!
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"...it's sealed, right?" Hazuki asks about the salt. Just making sure! But, no hard feelings... good.
"Yeah, what's wrong with weird? Strange and unusual is a good vibe. I'd call it 'uniqueness', myself, but I get what you're going at."
A pause.
"Oh, they're hippies... I'm not living in a box though. I'm very... outside the box." She beams at that, as her mood slowly thaws. Company seems to be the answer.
As they go to pick characters, she turns her head at 'dormmate' being a girl, but doesn't say anything. Instead, the GAME STARTS.
The first round is over in fifteen seconds. Hazuki's main needs setup time, being a zoner, so it's slightly slower than most, but as soon as she gets in, she annihilates Tyler's character in a single combo chain. Hazuki flexes her fingers. "I'll tell you what, I won't use that same combo for round two."
And then she does an *entirely different* one-tap combo chain to end the game, once they get there. Even so, she's watching how Tyler moves, and has already picked up some things. "You need to block more... I couldn't have gotten you that fast if you were!"
To be fair, every fighting game player except the pros needs to block more. But it's still good advice!
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
"For the moment, yeah." he confirms, pulling out a refillable salt shaker -- though it's one of those with an easy-open cap, so the right jostling could result in a pocket full of flavor enhancer!
"It comes in the description. Unusual. It doesn't fit with the usual, so people cast it out, aside from the others who are also unusual, which are frankly better company most of the time anyways."
"Something like that," Tyler agrees. Maybe not exactly the type of hippies that *he's* used to, but it feels like a wide enough umbrella that they could be a local variant! "Yeah, you seem like it to me, too." Granted, Tyler doesn't quite grasp the concept of 'Potential' in the purest sense. Honestly, all he thinks it takes is enough openness to the supernatural to be awake during the Dark Hour. But he's an expert on the other side of paranormal, not this side.
"I'll hold you to that." he tells her to her promise not to use the same combo, and seems... not happy, Tyler doesn't really *do* that, but satisfied? When she holds up her end of the bargain. He's definitely too aggressive in combat, trying to strike first and often despite being the one with inferior skills here; so blocking more *is* good advice.
"I'll keep that in mind... it seems like good advice for life in general, too."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki did not expect him to actually carry salt, but... it's cool in a weird way. Instant food boosts... ghost warding... he really is a weirdo. But in a good way!
"Right! Back in London, the coolest people were counter-culture."
Hazuki smiles as Tyler agrees she's 'outside the box'. But once the game starts, she's focused until it's done... and he seems satisfied! He really didn't take it poorly...
"Hey, do you want to exchange numbers? I'd be willing to help you learn, but it'll be hard if we're just randomly trying to figure out what arcade the other is at. Who knows, it could be fun!"
The hidden subtext: 'I really need a connection, and you seem cool.'
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
Salt is good for a lot of things! It's more functional than sand (at least without something to melt sand into glass!) and can be found in so many places when a restock is needed... often even free!
"Same in America. Where I was living last, there weren't many of us... but there's a town near where I grew up called Salem, and I'd swear everyone there was raised by bats." ...and from him, that's a compliment.
Then she asks about exchanging numbers, and he watches her for a moment, considering... "Yeah, I think that's a good idea." Beat. "We could probably do other things too, if you wanted. You know, like friends do. I promise not to drag you to *too* many graveyards, even if they are cool to look at."
At least twice so far that he's run into Hazuki, she's become a target of someone. First the old guy at the arcade, then the Peacock Silk staff. He figures she could probably use someone watching her back... and he could use someone to talk to who won't immediately punch him.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Raised by bats. "Salem... I thought they'd be witches?" Hazuki's heard of Salem, at least.
But, Tyler asks to be her friend, more or less. Hazuki freezes, pausing, before...smiling. "I mean, I could visit a graveyard. ...as long as it's not midnight." Especially because, unknown to her, it'd become *really* boring for Tyler.
But, even so, she has to answer his question. She hasn't made a single real friend in Japan; her arcade friends, do they count? They don't seem very happy with her... but this guy's been nice, so.
"Alright, then. Like friends do."