2026-01-31: The Arcade Economy
- Log: The Arcade Economy
- Cast: Roger, Tamaki Uchida
- Where: Electric Town - Gigolo Arcade
- OOC Date: January 31, 2026
- IC Date: September 18, 2012
- Summary: On a rare visit to Akihabara, Tamaki spots Roger in the arcade, which makes sense in hindsight but she wasn't exactly expecting to see him out and about the real world. After they hold a friendly match of Night Parade together where Roger emerges victorious, Tamaki informs him of two more recent Homunculi forming, and Roger enthusiastically promises to lend his aid.
(|====================== Electric Town - Gigolo Arcade =======================|)
-========================================================= Tokyo/Akihabara ====-
The Gigolo Arcade chain has a few locations across Tokyo, but the most popular
one is arguably the location at Akihabara, which is open all day and night.
After all, it sports not just booths for the hit shooting game Gun About, like
other locations, but it has the biggest and most robust selection of prizes in
its many UFO catcher games.
This includes several premium booths with deluxe boxed plushies of various
mascots. Supposedly, days ending in 7 (the 7th, the 17th, and the 27th) are
extra lucky and will boost your chances of taking them home.
The various games at the arcade take varying levels of money to play, so
change-making machines allow one to select exactly what coinage to get back.
Posters of cute mascots and anime girls line the walls over the machines.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
It's starting to get later in the mid-September day, out in Akihabara... but Gigolo Arcade's still open for business even overnight. Not that one is testing the present depths of night just yet, but, it won't be much longer here. Gun About remains the biggest draw here - and how! - but the newest iteration of Night Parade maintains significant presence.
Here, is where a very strange young man (high school age, or young adult? it's vague) is happily whiling away the early evening hours. He's cheerful just having a time of things working down his set aside change for the all-important act of play. Currently, he's racked up a surprising streak off of a grappler-type character that the forming meta up to this point had considered very weak.
It is not certain that he is aware of this, or even cares. He's having fun! But this streak is about at end to a Yuki-Offa main, who seems to have locked in after figuring out the bizarre shenanigans involving a command normal going over a lot of things the character visually should not be. This impending loss will prove itself ample time, soon, for this curious figure to disengage and perhaps consider whether the best way to continue playing is to stop playing for now.
Said curious figure being... Roger, a friendly and helpful Shadow met within Taro Nakata's Atelier who somehow awakened to the power of Persona, took his leave, and is taking up residence in a world he was not meant to. A cursory investigation shows he technically lives in relative squalor and does not make that great a living as a mascot. But that's measuring it by human standards. He seems rather content with his lot, given his primary desire is to play. This need being met, he is happy.
So far he has been a polite visitor. It's not clear if he actually is capable of returning to the Atelier as one of its Shadows, but given how they were ignoring or even fighting him... he might really be spiritually homeless, in a manner of speaking.
This angst does not seem to register, before a flashing screen with bright characters and buttons to push, levers to maneuver, and everything.
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
The arcade normally doesn't draw Tamaki's interest, much less most of Akihabara. Its culture is meant for some customer demographic which typically excludes people such as herself -- when it comes to games, she's mostly more into sports or board games. The operative word there, however, is 'most.' She does, on occasion, decide to visit the area to check out how the independent manga scene has been developing.
It's in this capacity that she's returning from a shopping trip with several new volumes in her bag, dressed in a wine red long-sleeved blouse, black slacks, and sunglasses. Her plan was to get in, get what she was after, then get out. This goes well enough, and it's a welcome reprieve from her classwork and work work, serving as a distraction from multiple open cases such as two different known Homunculi -- nope nope nope, this is Tamaki time, shake the thoughts of your job out of your head, she thinks to herself.
Tamaki just so happens to glance towards the inside of Gigolo Arcade. First, she recognizes the Night Parade cabinet, that arcade game which so deeply influenced Taro Nakata's Atelier, but this alone isn't enough to cause her to stop.
Next, she registers that one of the seated players at one of the cabinets is Roger. This causes her to halt in her tracks, take a step back, raise her sunglasses and crane her neck to openly gawk at him, wide-eyed and blinking in disbelief.
This is enough for Tamaki to step through the doors of the arcade and quietly wave towards Roger while he seems to be between rounds. "Good to see you again. Tough matchup, isn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger, in this human guise, is a heavy-set fellow with a noticeable underbite, a slightly upturned nose, and proportionally a smaller shoe size than someone his height ought to have - it's a kind of eccentric appearance that is all within 'possible' range for humans to have, but collectively it's a weird look. Fitting, for someone who really is not human.
He's lost his surprising win streak, but he doesn't seem bothered or upset in the least, affecting a much younger-seeming emotional reaction of someone who was just happy to be here. Simple niceties are exchanged to whoever beat him, and just as he gets up to make way for who wants to play next...
"Oh! Hello!" He smiles. The body language is one-for-one with that Shadow. Even the voice. It's him! He's here, in the human world! "It was... but I had a lot of fun!"
He tilts his head. "I'd play some more, but I'm also playing another game at the same time, too. The game that lets you play all the other games... managing money." It sounds harrowing, and in this economy, yes, it very much is. He has no actual family or resources to fall back on. There are so many points of failure before him that would make continuation here... difficult.
"...But it's fun too. There's strategy! Food, renting a booth..." He trails off a bit. "Did you come to play here? It's open all night! Hehe, working all day and then playing all night... oh, right. Sleep, too." Another head tilt. "Among other things..." The way he thinks about all of these is strange, indeed, as someone who is completely new to this concept and not someone who would have had twenty-ish years to come to grips with these realities and responsibilities.
"It's nice to see you again!" It's not the first time another Persona-user has been exasperated with him being around, but he's no less pleasant in a wholesome, guileless way.
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
"Roger-kun, was it? I'm Tamaki Uchida, if you remember me." On the surface, Tamaki is cordial enough, speaking just as if she had encountered any other acquaintance. Whatever panic she had exhibited outside the arcade is apparently gone now.
Internally, her sense of alarm increases at a steady rate. In the notes she takes for work, already had difficulty in cataloguing Roger's existence and had simply drawn a crude bipedal piggy-bank sketch with a caption that simply read 'Roger' and a footnote that read 'wtf???'
Tamaki nods calmly as he calls the tough match-up 'fun.' Too calmly, with her frozen smile and her deer-in-headlights expression. "Well, I'm glad you had fun regardless. It's important to not get discouraged."
Then Roger describes a game that she's all too familiar with, and one that she doesn't particularly enjoy. Her facade collapses, but so too does her sense of alarm, now replaced by pity and concern. Looking at those aspects of life as if they're a game is certainly one way to do it, but ... she's never managed to see the fun in that.
When she hears him ask if she came here to play too, she snaps back upright. "Here? Me? Oh, no, I didn't intend to -- " She briefly deliberates on whether or not she should tell him that she only came in because she saw him, opting not to. " -- Well, personally, I tend to enjoy games that you only need to buy once but then you can play for as long as you'd like. Would you like me to show you some of those later?"
She then turns an eye to the Night Parade cabinets. This isn't an entry she's familiar with, but she wouldn't mind engaging with Roger's interests. One of them might have an attract mode, or she might get to glimpse the character select screen while other players are starting a match. "While we're here, though, would you care for a round?"
Oh. Oh no. He's too charming. He's quickly growing on her, she's gotta admit.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"I do!" He says, cheerfully. "It was, Uchida-san!" Remarkably polite, all considered.
He seems a bit non-plussed, in the moment, when Tamaki's expressions seem more worried or shocked at times, but as she drifts to a subject - *the* subject - that seems to capture the heart, mind, and soul (as applicable) of the entity before them...
"Oh! I know what you're talking about!" He smiles. "I like games of all kinds! I want to play with everyone as someone." A strange phrasing, but an earnest one, as if a simple mantra that has somehow imprinted itself on a psyche that has done its best to mold itself around a greater sense of comprehension and 'self'-ness beyond the simplistic instincts that are. That said...
An offer for a round, while a cabinet is free. "Oh! Sure. I can do one more game!" Roger cheerfully says, because any excuse to play with someone is good enough for him. "But only that. I need to save enough to play tomorrow after doing work, too. It is a very difficult game. But you win money, so it's fun too." It's not like he can avoid 'playing' that, but maybe framing it that way is a coping mechanism for a mind that is just grasping at the totality of the human world's nuances in a way it can touch but not fully hold in one's own (mental) hand.
He puts in the coin slot, and if Tamaki were hoping to build on what little she saw, guess again -
He selects 'random.' He wants to play as everyone, and has settled with this in order to fulfill that impossible desire of getting to play as all the characters at once.
He gets Kappa. There was a harrowing time in the Atelier when facing Taro Nakata's Homunculus and the horrible body-snatching creature's attempts to turn his traumas and foibles against him. The context of this scary arcade cabinet should be fresh, especially to one who fully awakened to the power of Persona amongst them in this critical moment.
He does not seem bothered by this at all. This is a fun game to play.
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
"'Play with everyone as someone?'" The mantra doesn't escape Tamaki's notice. She pauses to consider those words, then cracks a smile. "I think I get what you mean." It's easier to develop a sense of 'self' when you pit yourself against others in competition, even if it's just a friendly match for sport. Even cooperation can inform someone about themself.
Tamaki fishes around in her bag for enough change for a game, then offers it to Roger. " -- oh, don't put yourself out on my account. Is it alright if I cover you for this one?"
On one hand, Tamaki is somewhat unsettled by how easily Roger can play this when it seems to have been the source of much of Taro Nakata's angst. Roger doesn't seem to bat an eye.
On the other hand, perhaps she could stand to learn a bit from how Roger seems to view work as play. Eriko certainly seems to become reinvigorated about topics which seem to fatigue Tamaki. Remaining dispassionate is how Tamaki usually copes, herself, walling herself off from how she may otherwise feel. Maybe she just needs to view things from a different perspective. Kappa-Tamaki had such a perspective, being transformed had brought out a sense of joy that she had desperately attempted to bury.
"Right, it can be fun. What do you do for work, if you don't mind if I ask?"
Such is the wisdom that can come from the mouth of babes. Well, pigs, at least. -- well, Shadows with the current appearance of a human but once looked like a piggy bank.
Tamaki had no expectations when it came to getting the download on Roger's tactics. This is all new to her, she hasn't played a Night Parade game since the first one. Oh dear, there are more buttons on this cabinet. The cast has tripled in size, at least. The timer on the character select screen is ticking down, and all Tamaki has to go on is pure vibes and half-remembered bits of returning characters. She hovers over several choices as she tries to decide, first lingering on Kaguya-Hime, then on Bakeduo-Neko, then on the oily-looking Noiribotocoat ...
In the end, she settles on Master Koto and locks her choice in right when the timer's at '01'.
This might have been a mistake.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"Oh! Thank you!" Roger beams with delight at this. "Okay!" He tilts his head. "I should pay you back... that's part of the rules of this 'money' game that's played, isn't it..." It's really not that much, but he is trying to wrap his head around just how complex a subject money is.
...In any case, playtime! Again!
"Oh! I wear myself and invite people to play!" Roger explains excitedly. By 'wear myself,' he must mean...
"I still look like as I did too," he clarifies, "but I look like this underneath. It's strange. But I don't mind. Everyone seems happy to see me..." Roger's Shadow shape is very mascot-like, and does have a few small traits in common with certain gaming characters. The overalls, for one. His mouth is very big and very wide, though, and had those prominent tusks. Which is a little scary and a far cry from more 'cute,' soft mascots with smaller mouths... well.
At least he doesn't bite!
Taro Nakata's angst was defined by just how much he was completely destroyed by Hazuki's skillful Yuki-Offa play. Even so, he was - is? - quite a skilled Kappa player, even if Hazuki ultimately dwarfed him in overall skill.
Roger...
Is clearly vibing. Not quite at the careless level of a masher, he just seems to do what he likes, and occasionally stumbles upon unconventional tactics that come off as a bit gimmicky at best. Night Parade has seen many changes over the years, but perhaps Tamaki's familiarity with the more trademark aspects of Master Koto will see her to victory!
Even if Roger has a knack for games - and there's a spark there, he was found in the Atelier of an avid gamer after all - the fact he just hits 'random' means he gets less proper match-up and play experience per character he plays. This does not stop him. He will play with everyone. That is his strength.
...Maybe in every sense of the word.
BBS: New BB message (7/14) posted to 'IC News And Rumors' by Jun Kashihara: Junko Kurosu Says "Gay Rights"
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
"Ohhh, usually, yeah ..." Roger's remark on the 'rules' of money causes Tamaki to appear pensive for a moment. When she figures out how to properly explain this to someone with his level of understanding, she grins. "But! Consider this a one-time gift that you don't have to pay me back for. Don't worry about it just this one time, okay?"
Tamaki lightly chuckles as Roger explains he's a mascot. Of course he is. "Invite people to play where? Here, at this arcade?" At least his design stands out from an otherwise indistinct sea of such characters. Maybe that's his appeal, she supposes.
The pair seem like they're on equal footing when it comes to following -- or avoiding -- 'conventional' Night Parade play. Both Roger and herself are explorers in the vast uncharted wilderness of novel game states and situations, miles away from the well-documented peaks and valleys that form the Night Parade community's perception of the meta.
Tamaki plays Master Koto like a dancer following Roger's lead. Her approach is reactive: careful, cautious, wary. She is a reflection: when he mixes it up, so does she. Her experience with fencing has given her a keen sense for the fundamentals of proper spacing and distance which translates to this context, at least in part. Perhaps most surprisingly, she also has a good sense of musical rhythm and knowledge for which time signatures can disrupt Roger's approach.
She'll fall for a trick for the first few times, but if Roger starts to form a habit, she takes note of it. Unfortunately for her, without having studied the game beforehand, she remains unaware of all the options for counterplay which are available to her. While she may find some measure of success in punishing some of his favored tactics, others are suboptimal at best, and others still she simply cannot figure out in the space of a single match.
It isn't enough for her to win right now, not this time. However, she has at least proven herself to be formidable in her own right, if still rusty and rough around the edges. Some consistent practice might do her some good. She slumps over the cabinet and exhales loudly, burying her head in her arms, then bursts into giggles before she sits upright again. "Okay, that was honestly, really fun. I'll come back some other time and we can play more rounds then, okay?"
Can she justify buying the home console version of this with her finances? ... probably not for a while. There are also very likely more important things to consider for Roger's well-being, too, like food and shelter and -- other aspects.
That invitation doesn't mean she's done for today, though. She stands up and steps aside from the cabinet to let others play, then looks over at Roger. "Hey, so ... there might be two more Homunculi forming. Would you like to help us out with those?" She wouldn't blame him if he didn't have any interest in it, but she is flying a little bit blind when it comes to how Ateliers work, only going off of theory and lacking in practical experience.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"Okay!" And so, matters of debts are circumvented for now. Anyway, play happens! It is a lot of fun, in the minutes of time it takes for the rounds to be decided. It's best of three, so it doesn't take long in the great cosmic scheme of seconds-to-minutes. But it is a fun time spent between them.
"Yahoo!" Roger cheers at the victory. It's exciting! One of the closer matches in some time! "We won! Are you good for--"
Tamaki, responsible adult, brings down the reality of it. "Oh... okay. Sure! I'll be happy to play again!" Roger is always happy to play. That is his driving force to exist. That is the way he wants to interact with this human world, as 'someone.' He tilts his head for a moment, in thought. Should he keep playing, now that he won?
...
A more important subject comes up, and Roger's eyes widen at the mention of there 'might be two more Homunculi.'
And then, an angry snort. "Homunculi?!" Uh, he should lower his voice. "I can't let that stand!" His face scrunches up as he stomps a foot.... but then, a nervous forward lean as he presses his fingers together. "...No Sanguin Humor worth their weight in mud," uh that's a weird way to phrase it but okay, "would let Homunculi do as they please..."
It's a serious enough subject he's stepped away from the cabinet entirely, stepping before Tamaki with a resolute look on his face. It's probably unnerving, how he's gone from fun-loving to that.
"I'll go full boar in stopping 'em!" He asserts. "Let me at 'em!"
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Tamaki goes wide-eyed and nervously glances around to see how the other patrons react. She raises her hands placatingly, then lowers them. "Hey, hey ... eeeaaasy. You've got the right mindset, but -- " She brings a finger to her lips in a shushing motion.
She can't say she's honestly surprised, though. Nakata's Homunculus yielded the same reaction in Roger before, and she had guessed that it wouldn't be much different this time. In hindsight, she could have picked a better place to break the news to him.
"Mud?" Confusion flickers across her face for a moment, but she shakes her head. "No, never mind that. I'm happy that you're willing to help, but, ah -- could we step outside at least, please?"
Kenzo Sasaki and Kazusa Motojima. Those are the two that she knows of, but she's more closely involved with the former's case. "What is it that you can do to help, just so I know?"
"I know that we already have the means to enter the Atelier for one of them. Someone who cares about the victim would like to go in, but she'll need some safekeeping." She narrows her eyes as she tries to figure out how to suggest something to Roger. "Have you played soccer? How good are you at playing goalie? Can you help in protecting her?"
The other one ... "I'm not sure how the other case is progressing. Are you in regular contact with anyone else? That Nakao girl, perhaps ..?" Tamaki's face shows a bit of hope as she asks. She doesn't know if she has the space to coordinate everything herself, but maybe she can do some delegating.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Taking it outside is a good call. Roger can be coaxed there, before things get dangerously awkward for everyone involved. And so, the two of them are outside, as Tamaki relinquishes the information.
Kenzo Sasaki, and... Kazusa Motojima. Roger flinches at the second name. "Her! Wasn't she... at that place with all the games and the cosplay?" And then something very scary happened with her and her father. "...N-Nevermind that! A Homunculus is a Homunculus!"
"Oh! So you already know how to thread through the Eye of a needle!" This is cryptic and caused problems before, but Roger assumes Tamaki's already on the level about that. "Good! That means we can get to work on dealing with that one!" He pumps a fist in the air.
"Soccer...? Oh! The one with the black and white ball you kick with your legs! That's very fun." Roger smiles. "I want to play that!" 'Want' does not mean 'proficient,' and Roger's build is not convincingly 'athletic,' but... this is a Shadow in a human guise. Who knows? "...Especially if it'll help get rid of that Homunculus!" Snorting, again.
"...Oh! You're speaking of Hazuki-chan! She's one of my best friends. I can reach her no problem!" He nods vigorously. "Um... there's a lot to say about going through an Atelier. I'd know! I'm a Sanguin Humor! Or was?" A head tilt. He straightens out again. "It'd be easier to explain once we bring together everyone who's going to play! I'll make sure we're all on the same page as to what to expect from Humors in the Atelier! And how we best deal with the Homunculus."
It's inevitable he'll have to give the rundown with every new Homunculus tackled. "Besides! Hazuki-chan and Ixquic will be more than happy to come play to defeat them!" Tamaki will have allies. She'll have help.
It's not really a 'game,' but considering this is a Shadow that seems to understand the urgency of the situation, she can count on him as an ally and information resource. "I'll do what I can!"
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
"Uh -- " Tamaki has no idea about anything involving Kazusa, games, and cosplay. " -- well, you're already familiar with her, so that's good."
Tamaki firmly nods and gives Roger a thumbs-up about the Thread and Eye. "Yep! All set there. Just a matter of gathering people, first." Retrieving the Thread for Kenzo was a nightmarish experience for Tamaki, so she's interested in getting some closure and ending the matter for good.
Roger expresses the desire to play soccer, but no experience in it. Tamaki rubs her eyes. Maybe what she said was good enough to convey the idea, at least. "That's correct -- " about soccer, at least " -- but I don't know if protecting the host's wife will directly accomplish anything towards getting rid of the Homunculus." She's on the fence about letting Rin tag along, even ...
"Cool." Roger can reach Hazuki, no problem, and Tamaki can reach Hazuki, no problem. The chain of communication is established! The name 'Ixquic' only rings a very distant bell in her memory. "Yeah, best to wait until everyone's gathered to explain. I know several other people willing to help, too."
Tamaki gives a light bow and a smile. "I appreciate that very much, Roger-kun." There are still a few questions she has about his overall well-being, but ... those might be better-suited for Hazuki to answer. "I'll come back around sometime this week, okay? Thank you, the match was fun, and you've been a big help!"