2026-04-27: Crane Game Caper
- Log: Crane Game Caper
- Cast: Hyousuke Suzuki, Lisa Silverman
- Where: Central Street - Main
- OOC Date: 2026-04-27
- IC Date: Wed Oct 31
- Summary: Hyousuke, finding himself with a day off, decides to pay a visit to an arcade to pass the time. Lisa seems to have had to have had the same idea - but she's brought company.
(|========================== Central Street - Main ===========================|)
-====================================================== Tokyo/Shibuya Ward ====-
Chances are, if you're a fan of a youth trend in Tokyo, it started here. Less
than a five minute walk from Shibuya Station, Central Street is lined with
businesses that cater to youth culture. Boutiques and media stores are just as
common as cafes and fast food. Arcades display the cabinets and claw games with
the latest merch, while back alley shops serve more merchandise for more niche
interests, such as military otaku looking for realistic-looking model guns at
Untouchable.
Drug stores, convenience stores, book stores, discount stores, video rental
stores? You name it, they got it. Sports gyms, karaoke bars, movie theatres,
diners? Yup. The local Big Bang Burger stands out most of all with its flashy
space-themed pneumonic entrance.
While it has a reputation as a safe neighborhood for both tourists and locals in
order to preserve its image as 'for the youth,' darker elements have started to
creep in from back alley folks that try to offer school kids opportunities for a
quick buck or job opportunities for tourists who find their passport stolen in
short order. Or so the rumor goes.
Still, rumors are just rumors, aren't they? There's no reason to hold back, so
come on in, enjoy yourselves.
(|============================================================================|)
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
It wasn't often that Hyousuke had a day where he didn't have anything to do after school. Most of the time it was training, but there were occasionally jobs that required he head out early, or a visit to Mementos organised right after school let out. However, as things stood, none of the above applied. He'd picked up no bounties from the agency that required he make the trip out so early, he'd taken care of training that morning instead of the afternoon, and he'd decided to leave Mementos well enough alone that day.
So, with nothing that required his immediate attention, Hyousuke had ventured over to one of Shibuya's arcades. He'd not paid much attention to its name or the rumoured win rates, but the signs were colourful and the prizes looked appealing. He might as well have been a magpie, for all the reasons that it had caught his attention, but such thoughts did not occur to him while there were prizes to be won and high scores to be had. The only question that remained in his mind as he stepped past the threshold was which machine he'd go for first.
The crane grabbing game caught his eye first, and he eyed - from a short distance away - the assortment of prizes within. It was only a pile of stuffed toys, each fashioned after a certain mascot or demon, but the goes were cheap and he seemed interested enough to go for it on the off chance that he got a lucky turn at the controls. However, he also seemed quite interested in one of the plethora of lightgun games, with his gaze drawn over to it not long after. Games like Countdown Chaos and Home of the Horrors were classics for a reason, and he *did* need some target practice...
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Lisa's already nearby, in fact--by coincidence, she's out shopping in Shibuya, and that means when she walks by the arcade, she would not ordinarily be tempted. Not ordinarily...
But Mee-ho loves arcades!
The blonde is accompanied today by a girl with purple hair worn down to her neck, in a very cute outfit with a fur-lined jacket. Lisa herself is also fashionably dressed--they didn't come out to Tokyo in just uniforms!
"Lisa-chaaaaan," Mee-ho says, "Let's play some games! I wanna take a break anyway!"
"Haha, okay," Lisa answers, and steps inside. She looks around and--
"Hey, Suzuki-kun," Lisa says as she spots Hyousuke, and starts to walk over.
"You know him?" Mee-ho asks.
"Yeah! He's one of the guys who was at the martial arts meet with me and Sheba."
"Hiii!" Mee-ho greets him.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke blinked a little in surprise. Suzuki was not an uncommon name. In fact, he was fairly certain it was one of the more common ones, at least in his usual haunts. But the name had been spoken near him, and in a voice that was hard *not* to recognise. With a light smile playing on his lips and a thumb tucked neatly into his pockets, Hyousuke turned around to meet Lisa, offering a short and friendly wave at both her and her friend before that hand joined its friend in the opposite pocket.
"Silverman-san!" Hyousuke said cheerily, "And..." His face scrunched up a little. Not in displeasure, but in focus. The hamster wheel turned, and attempted to crank out a single thought, but he couldn't quite place the new face. "...I don't think we've met!" He finished, with all the skill and grace of a three-legged rhino. "Like she said, I'm Suzuki. Hyousuke Suzuki. Pleased to meet you." He looked between the two, taking stock of the situation before he continued, then canted his head in the general direction of the various machines. "You here for the arcade too? I was trying to decide if I wanted to go a few rounds on Home of the Horrors or try and grab something off the crane. I'm feeling lucky today..."
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Not uncommon, but today Suzuki is specific! Lisa waves back.
"Mee-ho, this Suzuki-kun. " He just introduced himself. "Suzuki-kun, this is Miho Ogashima!"
"Nice to meet you!" Mee-ho says.
And Lisa hmms. "Mee-ho's the one who wanted to come into the arcade," she admits. "Though I can do a mean game or two..."
Mee-ho says brightly, "Why not both? Home of the Horrors... That's the one that's like House of the Deceased, right? I'm pretty good at that one!"
Beat, "Though..." She glances over, "Oh! Pyro Jack!"
Lisa grins. "Looks like we've got a couple options! Sure, we can stick around here a bit, Mee-ho." She hefts her shopping bags. "Up to you, Suzuki-kun!"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Miho Ogashima - another name to write into the archives. He silently hoped that he would remember it more clearly than he did the answers to his English homework. That was one foe he wasn't entirely certain he'd be able to beat. It was also one to be tackled another time. For the time being, games took priority, and he nodded sagely at Miho's assessment of the various amusements on offer to prospective patrons. It took him only a moment to decide when he heard the mention of a Pyro Jack, however, Though he did blink in surprise and force himself to stay quiet for a moment by tightening his lips.
That did not stop him from silently wondering what it was with Pyro Jacks being everywhere lately, however.
"Then I think settles it!" Hyousuke said, before canting his head towards the crane game, and then swivelling his entire body in its direction. "Let's see if we can win us a Pyro Jack!" He stepped forward, and muttered to himself - quietly enough to not be questioned, he hoped - "Why is it always Jacks..."
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
English homework...
Don't remind Lisa narratively!!
The Jacks cannot be stopped.
Lisa doesn't notice what he mutters, but Miho does. She tilts her head thoughtfully, and wlaks on over. "I'll supervise!" she declares pleasantly, and laughs. She laughs pretty easily, as it happens.
"That one looks hard to get," Lisa admits. "Let's go for it! Your turn first?"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke, though a little concerned that his muttered remark had been caught, elected to move forward in the hopes that it was not focussed on. Instead, he focussed on the machine, and the multitude of mascots and collection of creatures piled atop each other.
"I could've sworn these ones usually had a King Frost..." He pondered aloud, surveying the machine and the ones to its immediate left and right, but seeing no signs of such a demon. He shrugged, seeming not to care too much about it. "Maybe someone's already got it. Who knows."
All the while, he sized up the pile, judging what angle might be best, and how many moves it would take. It wasn't his first rodeo, clearly. His rodeos may have even totalled in the double digits.
"My turn first." He eventually confirmed, with no shortage of confidence. He paid for his turn. He pressed the buttons. He eyed the prize like a hawk. He... nudged it closer to the hole, but that was the extent of his progress. "Looks like we're gonna have to do this one the hard way." He said, grimacing playfully at the other two there, before stepping back. "Who wants next?"
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
"I've got one of those at home!" Mee-ho says brightly of King Frost. She doesn't worry about any mutterings; She just moves on up to the machine. "But I didn't get it from here..."
Lisa watches thoughtfully. "You know what you're doing," she says. "But I think they make these machines hard on purpose..."
Not rigged, of course. An idol wouldn't say such things.
"Oh oh, I'll go!"
Mee-ho steps up. Thanks to Hyousuke's work in loosening it, she starts to get it closer--clooooooser to the hole--
Will it make it!?
"Oh, go go!" Lisa says.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"You got one of those? Nice. I've only got the regular one - won it off a festival stall." That was a lie. He'd won a fox and exchanged it for one with a friend. But it was basically the same thing. Either way, when Hyousuke asked, he took his eyes off of the machine for a moment just to look to Miho curiously - and perhaps with a hint of awe. He didnt know if she meant she'd gotten it from a different machine or from some store somewhere, but he chose to believe it was the former. He also chose to believe she had the skill and luck to get the Pyro Jack free from its plastic confines
Which she did not. It went tantalisingly close, teetering on the edge of the hole, so near that an errant breath could have knocked it free. But the fates had not shone on either of them, and so Hyousuke turned to the last member of their party.
"Looks like it's on you!" He said, a little excited by this point. "Come on, it's right on the edge, you've got this...!"
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Lying to girls is a crime, Hyousuke Suzuki. ...But not one he's likely to get in trouble for today; it's Close Enough. But Miho is pretty good at these things, as it turns out, and aaaalmost gets it. "Ah!" she syas. "But fun, Jack Frost is pretty cute too!"
But now it's Lisa's turn. "Oh," Lisa starts, "So no pressure..."
The last member of their party does her best! Lisa walks up and takes the joystick. "Uhhhh," she starts. "This uh..."
Tilt. Tiiiilt. Tilt!
"Oh!" Lisa says, and it tumbles right on down!
"We did it!"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke pumped his fist in triumph, and let out a jubilant cry of "Yes!" As the stuffed toy fell through the exit. It was a sizeable thing - not to the level of a King Frost, perhaps, but it held a respectable amount of stuffing within its fabric skin nonetheless. "You did it! Ah man, I knew we were gonna get lucky today!" The more he looked at it, however, the more the cloying smell of pumpkins began to plague his senses. He wasn't sure if it was just an unpleasant memory or if his hair was irreparably stained by a certain squashly sovereign, but it was unpleasant all the same.
Hyousuke looked up at them, at first intending to ask who got to keep the Pyro Jack, but seeing them together called to mind a poster he'd seen somewhere of their group. That, in turn, called to mind an upcoming event he'd marked out.
"Oh yeah, you guys have a concert soon, don't you?" He asked, canting his head a little to the side, calling to mind the image of a curious dog. "Man, can't believe it took me this long to actually go to one of yours."
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Pyro Jack... is powerful.
"Yeah!" Mee-ho answers brightly. She doesn't notice the pumpkin problems, and neither does Lisa. They are innocent of that particular sin...
Mee-ho immediately picks up and hugs the Pyro Jack, which might settle that one; she's adorable with it, and shorter than Lisa.
"Mm-hm!" Mee-ho answers, and Lisa nods along. "That's right! So you're coming, then? Great!"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke smiled a little more than usual, upon seeing Miho (whose nickname conjured some grisly images of gourd-based tyrants by sound alone). He was glad to see that someone enjoyed it so much - he himself would not have, if his brief and sidewards glance at the remaining pumpkin-headed plushes was any indication. Perhaps his disdain for upstart vegetables would be so great as to warn the minions - through their effigies - not to try such a stunt again. Perhaps not. It mattered little.
"Definitely!" He confirmed with a nod. "Not sure I can stick around for the meet-and-greet though, I've got something to take care of after. Maybe next time?" He sounded hopeful - like he was trying to encourage himself more than them. "...Does this count as one?"
Hyousuke was only vaguely aware of the customs regarding idols, and the culture surrounding both. Hyousuke was not aware of the minefield he was set to tread.
Hyousuke had a skull as thick as a dam and a look of blissful ignorance in those dull, emerald, eyes of his.
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Miho loves these little guys, and has never considered eating one.
"Oh, that's OK," Lisa says, and then nods along. "Totally, next time. And since you can see us at the meets..." Martial arts stuff!
Pause. Miho laughs merrily. "No, or else we'd have to stick around a lot longer!" she says. "But I'll call you a fan, OK?"
"Yeah!" Lisa answers. "Next time," she says too. "..Say, do you two want to do the scary game a minute? I want to get something to drink. I can grab you some, too."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke was still blissfully unaware of the finer points of idol culture. And the blunter points. Most of the points in general, really - he was just blissfully unaware of idol culture in general. As such, when nodded emphatically, there was only one thing on his mind when Lisa brought up those meets.
"Yeah, I can't wait to spar with you again! Not that the other guys're bad, but Mutou-sensei really wants us to start learning from others too." When the conversation shifted to Miho, he shrugged playfully at her. "I'll take it. Gonna be fun at the concert either way!"
The topic changed again, this time to the arcade cabinet, and the various monsters contained within. Hyousuke nodded a little to Lisa at her offer of drinks. "Could you get me a green tea? I'll get the next one." He then looked over to the machine, and squinted a little at the signage above it, stroking his chin before speaking to Miho.
"...Hey, can I take player one on this? One of the guys in class told me there's a secret level on this version, and I wanna see if he's right..."