2025-09-18: Gender Gendarme
- Log: Gender Gendarme
- Cast: Yoko Hirano, Katsuya Suou, Myunghon Yeo
- Where: Cardboard Dragon, Hirasaka Ward
- OOC Date: September 19, 2025
- IC Date: July 10, 2012
- Summary: Katsuya and Yoko visit the Cardboard Dragon and find Myunghon sleeping on the job. (NOTE: This scene is backdated to line up with the events of 2025-09-13:_Perhaps_Too_Cautious.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Yoko can't think of another time that she had to use a fire escape to reach a business.
But even if Officer Suou weren't here, the directions she was given do say to go up a fire escape, to the second floor. "It feels like an adventure," she declares as she reaches the landing. Like she's doing something she isn't supposed to. Breaking and entering. Except that if the door is locked, Yoko will actually turn around and go back to Iwatodai.
She has no idea how to pick a lock, even if she wanted to!
But it's open, instead, when Yoko tries the handle. "Do you suppose she feels better?" Yoko doesn't know anything about the owner, only that Katsuya had said 'she'. She wasn't sure what she expected to see inside - maybe a display or something? - but the dreariness of the tired interior doesn't seem to bother her either.
"Look, there are cards..." She hurries over to the nearest case, giving a glance around for the mysterious owner before staring through the glass.
So colorful...!
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"Does it?"
It isn't... typical. At least, not in Katsuya's frankly straight-edged experience of the world.
He's not sure what he expected. A sign, perhaps. Or for the door to not open to start with. There aren't any outward signs about what might be happening within the storefront, at least, nothing that would be diagnostic of the current state--
But the door opens. "Ah," he remarks, pausing for a moment as he stands there on the landing and Yoko lets herself in. "...So it is open..."
Does 'she' feel better? He doesn't know, and thus, can't say whether it will be Myunghon awaiting them within, or if it will be one of the attendant staff. "I suppose we will see," he says, following Yoko inside. Catching the door, he closes it carefully behind himself, then stops to take a look around the store as Yoko zips on ahead. There are the cards, of course, and the shelves of ancient foreign books, and...
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
The Cardboard Dragon is surprisingly quiet at this hour -- there appears to be no other students or attendees at present. Which is kind of irresponsible for a shopowner, as Yoko glances around -- the shop's divided into essentially four sections, one with all kinds of old foreign and translated books from around the turn of last century, a playspace consisting of several tables for people to play at, as well as the actual shopfront with the glass counters and counterspace that's currently advertising...
NEW! Vampire Bakers: Rise of the Sourdough Princess, Sourdough Starter Set!
Will your Dough Rise to the Top?
But where is the owner? Glancing around further reveals the last section, a little lounge-type area with two couches and a coffee table and a television set with a Baestation III in one corner, as well as various shelves and bookcases containing Myunghon's myriad case files, which is the most it will ever look like a detective agency... and...
Currently Myunghon is tiredly tuckered out on one side of the couch, a sling on their right arm. They look like they're in the midst of something with their laptop open on their lap, but they've fallen asleep...
...
It's a good opportunity to swipe some cards for free.
But can you do it, with Katsuya Suou watching?
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
"'Sourdough Princess'?" Yoko reads out loud, because it's not at all what she was expecting! So the surprise is in the cards after all. "...the picture is so cute... I thought it would be mostly dragons and wizards and things." She'd only seen a few cards when a classmate had taken them out during lunch break, and it had seemed like standard fantasy fare.
She hasn't seen Myunghon asleep on the sofa yet, but Yoko did kind of just... zip right over.
And there many more games to choose from than she'd expected. And there are accessories and dice and... "Ah, they look like jewels." She sounds delighted, both hands on the glass (but not leaning onto it, because Yoko has been chastised for it before). "Look, look, there are so many different kinds!"
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
There isn't anyone else in here-- at least not at first glance. If it weren't for the lights, Katsuya would have wondered (he does in fact wonder) if the shop was actually closd but not locked and they've come in here unwittingly. He lingers there for a long moment by the door, taking in one element then another as if he were... some kind of police detective. Everything in here at least looks normal, like it was instead somehow vacated of any other human presence just seconds before they walked in the door.
Sourdough Princess?
"I... don't know anything about that," says Katsuya, who is most certainly not ever-so-slightly curious about what a vampire would even get out of baking.
And then--
There. He sees them, asleep on the couch, as if they had been working on the laptop there and just... drifted off. Now what do you do, Sergeant Suou?
[EMPATHY]: Leave Yeo-san be. After everything that's happened, rest may be the best medicine.
After a moment's pause, he begins to start forward towards where Yoko is ooing and ahing over the gem-like multi-sided dice. Strange, do they really have dice with twenty sides?
[LOGIC]: ...No. You have to wake her up. You haven't seen anyone else here, have you? If Hirano-san wants to buy something, what will you suggest she does if there isn't anyone here to take her money? Surely, you aren't going to suggest she 'pay later'?
Katsuya, to the external world, suddenly grimaces. He turns from Yoko, his gaze on the slumbering Myunghon. "..."
He fidgets with his sunglasses. This is going to be awkward...
Walking over towards the wan figure on the couch, he clears his throat, then:
"Yeo-san?"
(If Yoko's going to steal cards, this is probably her best and last chance...! But, can she do it?)
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
*35mm film spool noise*
THOUGHT CABINET COMPLETE -- Vampire Bakers
What *doesn't* a vampire get out of baking? Let's put this to the simplest course of logic. A vampire is eternal. After several decades of eternity with an unchanging body, one simply gets *bored*. Gone are the days when your body physiology surprises you at every bend and turn. Yes, you at first feel invigorated by the youthful strength and stamina afforded by vampires in fiction. But ultimately, vampires have human minds, and human minds are awfully *fickle* and prone to boredom.
Enter, then, the act of baking. What is baking but the equaliser that makes the practice of chemistry available to the common man? You've been through such times where populists become suspicious of words like 'ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate'. But everyone understands 'one cup of flour' (which kind of cup? That's an entirely separate thought cabinet altogether), 'two teaspoons of sugar', 'one teaspoon of instant yeast'.
Baking is chemistry. Chemistry is life. Life crosses class boundaries.
The vampire ultimately cannot ignore its roots.
"Ummh--"
Myunghon stirs, then suddenly jolts as they hear a throat-clearing and their name being called out. They look really alarmed and embarrassed, looking around and the sudden jolt of activity has their laptop sliding off their lap and--
"Ah!"
They fumble to try to catch it with their one working hand and it's somewhat awkwardly sandwiched between the coffee table and their lap, but they exhale with relief since it didn't take a hard spill to the cracked tiles on the Cardboard Dragon's floor.
"O-Officer Suou," Myunghon sounds a bit nervous to see them there. They've certainly looked... a bit better -- it's a lie to say Katsuya's ever seen them healthy, given they were dunking themself into rivers when they first met, but the sling is new, and the expression simply is more fatigued and concussed.
But then their self-sacrificing habit comes in as they rise, laptop set aside, and looks towards them. "A-are you all right? Were you shot?? What happened--"
A pause, as they spot Yoko present as well. "Ah, my apologies, I will be right with you." They haven't connected that Katsuya and Yoko walked into the store together and are familiar with each other. They quickly bolt to their feet--
mistake!
--and instantly their head is dizzy and the world starts swirling, and they're swaying dangerously.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Officer Suou is probably too old to enjoy card games (roll 2d8 psychological damage).
The cards and dice are beautiful. Beautiful little paintings one could carry in their pocket. A stack of them in a bag. A treasure box filled with them, tucked under her bed, counted and hoarded and admired in secret. She could open the case, surely, and reach inside--
Yoko covers her mouth with her hand and steps back from the counter. ...Is that thought hers? The paintings could be hers. And sparkling gems to bewitch the eye. If she were to...!
Yoko frowns beneath her hand, heart thumping in her chest.
And then there's a muffled yelp and a clatter and Yoko forgets about coveting things, turning on her heel with a flutter of messy hair and an elevated heartbeat, feeling very much like she got caught with her hand in a cookie jar. But she didn't!! That wasn't her!
Her hand moves just far enough to let her speak. "...Nobody was shot," she offers, which seems like a true thing. And then she looks to Katsuya, to confirm. "Um... are you all right now? Officer Suou said you were feeling bad," she blurts out... and then Myunghon tilts. "!!"
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Perhaps... with enough time to consider its many values, baking is something that anyone can come to love.
Alas, further ruminations on the form that vampire baking might take will have to wait for another time. Here and now, Katsuya turns away from the starter packs and the colorful and oddly-shaped dice towards the shape that lies on the couch--
Myunghon stirs. They almost drop their laptop! Katsuya doesn't so much as start forward, but the way his gaze shifts from her to the device as it's just barely caught in time suggests that in another world, there might have been a flash of movement. He might have even been in time to catch it! But here and now, there's no need for any of that.
Instead, Myunghon, who looks just about the worst he's seen outside of 'suffering a headwound on the streets of Hirasaka', addresses him. "Do not worry, I will not be long," he starts to say, but then they remark on him being shot, and his own gaze shifts over at Yoko for just the moment as if to assess her reaction. "Please do not worry," he says again, unwilling to outright lie, but also unwilling to unduely alarm a teenager (and she is a teenager, for all that she looks like she ought to land in the 'preteen' category). "I had only wanted to--"
And they're up on their feet.
And they've begun to sway.
[ENCYCLOPEDIA]: Orthostatic hypotension can lead to someone collapsing if they stand up too quickly. Or it could be--
[REACTION SPEED]: You have two seconds before she hits the floor.
[REACTION SPEED: 4]
[EVEN: 58%]
He moves, as quickly as he can, swooping in to try to steady her by the shoulders and give her an arm to lean upon. Of course, there's the chance that he's been a little... overzealous in his approach.
He may be distracted, after all. A part of his mind is insisting that there's also a cat in here, which is impossible! Of course!
He closed the door. The cat couldn't have followed them into the shop unseen.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
_______ _______
| o o | | o |
| o | | o |
|_o___o_| + |_o_____|
|_______| |_______|
REACTION SPEED: 2d6 (8) + 4 + 2 = 14 vs. Formidable (13)
+1: Vampires are bakers
+2: Yeo-san is worried about the shot
-1: Gender gendarme
Myunghon's world is a dizzying blur of doubles and movement for a moment, Yoko's question about whether they feel fine or not bell-ringing in their ears as they're suddenly held and steadied. The remaining whiplash of motion continues to stir within them as they plant their fingers on Katsuya's arm, looking like they might heave for a moment -- then it passes. "Ah." The ringing continues. "Ah... my apologies, Officer Suou."
The sudden touch and movement in their private space has definitely alarmed them, and it takes them a few moments to tell everything that it's just Suou-san -- 'just' Suou-san? It's Suou-san, who's doing his best, no matter what. They cup their hand to their mouth tremblingly, before steadying themself further.
"No, I should be all right." ... it'd be more convincing if it sounded like 'I should be all right now', but the intonation more indicates they're saying 'I *should* be all right(, despite the fact that I'm not)'.
"Ah, are you familiar with Officer Suou, then...?" Myunghon asks Yoko, since she did mention him by name. "My apologies. I'm Myunghon Yeo, purveyor of the Cardboard Dragon. May I assist you with anything today...?" They look to Katsuya too, since the question does extend to him. Whether it's Skill Cards or more clues on crimes...
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Many things are chemistry. The brain is chemistry. Feelings are chemistry. Maybe even entire personalities, whole people... If Yoko stops taking her medication, the whole world changes. Chemistry is for everybody, and everybody is chemistry.
Nobody was shot, she's pretty sure. Unless that's how Myunghon was injured? But who would have a gun? Maybe this is a more dangerous kind of adventure than Yoko anticipated.
But she still has her hand up near her mouth when Katsuya turns to check on her, and she looks vaguely troubled in that muted way.
'Should' be all right. It's a familiar sentence, for all that half was left unspoken. "Um. Um, please don't hurt yourself more. Or get sicker, just to help us," she frets, both hands clasping on to the strap of her messenger bag. "I just wanted to look at the cards. I saw some at school and they were so well-illustrated, and I asked where I could see more and my classmate gave me directions and--"
She's rambling. "...so please don't make yourself sick," Yoko finishes, clamming up afterward.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
For a moment, things seem perilous.
But he's just in the nick of time. He's caught them before they can crumple to the floor, taking that long moment to steady them where they stand. "Do you need to sit down?" he's asking them, and for a moment, he has cause to be deeply concerned for the continued integrity of his suit, but. But, even that moment passes and they seem to come around to themself.
His hand lingers on their arm. One moment passes as he studies them carefully. Two moments. Three--
It takes him a moment more to realize that they're uncomfortable. "Ah--" His hand shifts away, moving to instead hover inches from their arm. "Do you need to sit down again?" he repeats, hovering in spite of Myunghon's declaration that they should be alright, now. They should, yes, but they look just about anything but.
"It will be alright, Hirano-san. Yeo-san only needs to sit down," he tries to reassure her, only to be visibly taken back when, after some hesitation, Yoko explains herself and tells Myunghon to take better care of herself with all the bluntness of a 2x4. He blinks, and with his free hand, readjusts his glasses.
To Myunghon, he says, "No, I encountered Hirano-san while in the neighborhood. We weren't sure if the shop was open but thought we would check. She is interested in your regular trading cards," he says, which is to imply, just the regular ones. Not the special ones. Yoko doesn't have a Persona. ...He's pretty sure about that.
But is there something he needs, here? Surely he didn't come in here for 'no reason'.
He...
hesitates.
"Actually... I had been meaning to check in. Is everything alright here?" It should be, given that the worst has likely blown over (even if his fellow officer at Konan is still... out there). Is Myunghon alright, he doesn't ask, but unfortunately, the question itself is as clear as day on his face.
Fortunately, before things can get too much more awkward, Katsuya sneezes.
"--So there is a cat in here!" he declares, jumping to conclusions. He turns, looking for signs of the animal. Perhaps there's an open vent somewhere, or a window in back? Some other way he discounted!
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Yoko is firm on not wanting Myunghon to exert themself further just to help, and on Katsuya's question turning to a soft imperative to sit back down, they do just that, pressing their knees together and letting out a relieved, if laborious sigh. Of course, it has only been about seven days since Myunghon was attacked and rushed to the emergency ward...
... and then there was news they fled from their emergency ward room by jumping out of the third story, if some of the weird rumours about a vampire sighting are to be believed. Whether or not that's reality, the reality is that they haven't gone back to the hospital, and has in fact insisted that the Cardboard Dragon is once again open for business. Is this really responsible?
(It isn't. Yoko's right on the money.)
Yoko's adoration of the art does please Myunghon, though, and they notice how they're embarrassed to have been rambling. It just reminds them of when they let slip an interest in a topic they adore, before they inevitably catch themself and assume others raen't interested. Myunghon gestures towards the counter to say, "Ah, then, Hirano-san, if it is the art that pleases you, the black folder has samples from all the sets we are selling. They're not the largest samples since they are cards, but..."
They do wonder how old Yoko is for Katsuya to be speaking to her so politely, but perhaps that's part of being Katsuya Suou too.
Is everything all right here...?
"Ah--" Myunghon hesitates. "I have not seen..." Further hesitation. "That man... in a few days now. And--" they look flustered. "I-- yes, I did flee from my hospital room, if you were asking about that, but the others were able to stop me from-- further harming myself," is the very difficult ending to that sentence that they manage to blurt out.
Officer Ishiba did get a suspension for his behaviour, which Katsuya can likely pat himself on the back lightly for his report...? Things were a bit strange after, with Sergeant Ezoe involved as well. It's as if the incident was too much heat for whatever operation it is is going underneath -- and the operation needed to go to ground.
This is so difficult. They miss the days when they can just wear their clowning mask freely around Katsuya.
Fortunately, Katsuya sneezes after and Myunghon lightly jolts, reaching for a box of tissues--
So there is a cat in here!
It takes Myunghon two seconds of stunned silence. Then, they softly chuckle, fingers coming to their lips, "Ah-- um, my apologies, it has been a while since I have been able to dust and clean, but... the only pet that has been here would be Tsubasa-kun's dog and..."
A pause. "Oh, yes, Amamiya-kun's cat as well, come to think of it. You are correct, Officer Suou." They look quizzical for a moment. "You have a very sharp sense for cats, do you not? I think we have an air purifier somewhere if it is uncomfortable..."
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
So there is a cat in here!
Yoko blinks at him. And looks around. Did the orange cat follow her all the way from Iwatodai on the train?! But she didn't even buy takoyaki today... She didn't even change out of her Gekkoukan uniform. (There's a red splotch near the skirt hem that's too bright to be anything but paint.)
The black folder is lying out on the counter. Nowhere near the latch. Yoko eyes it with a little wariness, but manages to pick it up and leave the counter with it (without being tempted to do anything wrong in the process, now that she's once again policing her thoughts so strictly).
She holds it tight to her chest and brings it back to Katsuya and Myunghon and the sofa. Her bag bumps against her hip with each step, a reassuring weight. "Thank you, Yeo-san. Um. I'm Yoko Hirano. I go to Gekkoukan, in Iwatodai." Maybe she was supposed to stay at the counter with it, but...
She puts the binder on the coffee table and sits down opposite Myunghon. When she was in the hospital, it had been nice to have company. Even just to sit and read at the same time. "I'm glad you didn't get hurt more," Yoko tells them, like it's just that simple. "You should leave the hospital by the door."
She turns the page, staring down at a page of fantastical drawings with wide eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
It hasn't been all that long at all, no. Even with healing spells, a Persona can only help with the healing of wounds so much. Eventually, one finds themselves in need of modern medical care. And it had been a terrible wound.
...He had heard that rumor, and he'd known at once what Myunghon had done. At this rate, it was a miracle they were even upright. He'd thought that the store would be closed for a while for a reason. Or at least, would be run by one of the others for a time. Instead, he's been mildly displeased to see that not only is it open, they're apparently not even all the way healed yet.
He's just being polite enough yet to not tell them off. If his own brother had done something like this, he would have really let him have it.
So there's art in the folders? It's not of interest to him, but it's still a small detail tucked away for later, how... ever later that might end up being (it might be 'never', Suou-kun).
There had been nothing for several days. And then, suddenly, a small miracle had occured, fresh off the heels of another. If Katsuya were a superstitious man, he would have ascribed it to his luck finally turning. As it stands, if he can affect even a small change... Still, there had been more than one reason for Katsuya to keep his head down inside the precinct. Something had felt off, and thanks to Akechi, now he has an understanding of what it might be. It can't be everyone. But some, certainly.
It would be an easy thing to say it had been Ishiba alone. Wouldn't that be nice, if he'd solved the rot in one go? But it can't be that simple, that neat. Things rarely are, even if Katsuya often wishes they would be. But he can't deal with the world he wishes he existed: he has to deal with the world as it exists, and that means grey areas and warts and all.
But, it means that Ishiba hasn't come around here to bother them since, either. That's good.
Less good, the admission that they'd fled their hospital room and only had been stopped from doing something ('further harming myself' elicits a reaction on Katsuya's face: he may be somewhat stoic, but this has struck some sort of nerve) drastic by their friends. "Yeo-san... you must not do things like that. There's no call for-- please, the next time you find yourself in such a state, contact a support number." ...Just what does he think they tried to do?
He might even be right in his suspicion.
Yoko, meanwhile, has a far more practical recommendation. Katsuya finds himself staring over at her for a moment, apparently at a loss for words.
But fortunately for all of them, he sneezes. Allergies, one can assume, based on his comment.
"No, I shouldn't have a reaction if it was that long ago," he says. Tsubasa-kun? And their dog. So they've been here, too. "But if it were a few days ago, maybe. You said 'Amamiya-kun'? I do not think I know them." He shakes his head. "In any case, it still feels like there is a cat..." It had felt like there was a cat in the alleyway, too. "...I'm not mistaken, am I...?" he wonders aloud, starting to perhaps doubt his own sanity a little bit.
If a cat has gotten in here, it's hiding very well.