2026-05-14: A Chance Meeting Amidst Some Trinkets
- Log: A Chance Meeting Amidst Some Trinkets
- Cast: Hyousuke Suzuki, Lisa Silverman
- Where: Yumezaki Centre
- OOC Date: 2026-05-14
- IC Date: Fri Nov 09
- Summary: Lisa chances upon Hyousuke while he's busy shopping for accessories, unaware of the true reason for his presence there. Fortunately for him, she doesn't catch on, and their conversation turns to more mundane topics.
(|============================= Yumezaki Center ==============================|)
-=============================================== Sumaru CityYumezaki Ward ====-
Yumezaki Center is unmistakable: countless bright billboards invite and welcome
in people of all walks to walk down its indoor and outdoor shops. One of those
doors leads to the Velvet Room--but that's only for those who can see it.
One of the more casual stores is Tony's Shop, which is really just several
tables on the sidewalk set up with various rings, necklaces, bracelets, and
other accessories. Tony, the stoned-looking blond foreigner who runs it, is
supposedly a smuggler for the Sicilian mafia, if you can believe it--but he does
have some rare goods for sale at times.
One can chow down at Peace Diner, which offers a variety of burgers, fries and
shakes; the part-timer who works the register is infamous for being a big fan of
period dramas and so talking like a ninja. Sevens rumormonger Chika "Chikarin"
Ueda, a first-year, likes to hang out here too to swap info for her school
newspaper.
A burnished bro in a Hawaiian shirt runs Bikini Line, a tan salon with a
tropical aesthetic, including palm trees, tiki totem poles, and an abundance of
hibiscus flowers. Though it might seem a little shady--literally--the tanning
booths here work wonders, leaving clients feeling healed in mind and body.
And, of course, it's not Sumaru City without a local Satomi Tadashi Pharmacy
branch. This one looks the same as all the others: aisles and walls laden with
medicine of all kinds, overseen from the back counter where magazines are
available by one of seven identical sisters. Satomi Sister #7 runs this one; a
techno remix of the store's theme plays here. "The eternal ally of those who
fight: our city's friendly! drug! store!! o`"
(|============================================================================|)
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Rumours came and went like the breeze. There would be a few whispers here and there, and maybe something would cause a person to shiver when it crossed their path, but they were more often than not an inconsequential moment in their lives. However, there came times where that breeze became something stronger, louder, and worth one's attention. Hyousuke had found himself on the cusp of one such time. He'd paid no heed to the rumours of some canine beast prowling Sumaru during the Dark Hour, mauling anything that crossed its path, but the reports kept coming in and his curiosity kept getting piqued.
So it was that he found himself idly browsing Tony's wares. One hand was pressed to his chin, holding it in thought as he scanned his eyes over the collection of tables and trinkets before him. He propped it up on his other arm, itself draped loosely around his torso, fingers drumming at his side as he carefully considered which of the items before him would serve to fit his style better. He mumbled to himself occasionally, speaking about stats and elements and all manner of things that seemed more pertinent to a JRPG than jewellery, to the point where it was debatable as to whether he would notice anyone approaching him.
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Lisa doesn't like that rumor; her cats are a lot more civilized than some beast roaming in the darkness!
But today she's been out shopping, and she just separated from her friends. She'll be on the way home soon enough, but first, some accessories maybe...
But as she approaches, still in uniform, Lisa spots--Hyousuke!
He's mumbling about something...
"Wai!," Lisa greets Hyousuke, stepping up to the accessory stand. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"How's it going?"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"Maybe pierce resistance... Wait, do claws do piercing or slashing damage?"
Hyousuke was lost in his own little world, populated by him and his intermittent mumbling. His focus was on the tables, his eyes on the accessories, and his mind elsewhere. That was until Lisa happened upon him, at least. He started, his eyes widening a little and his back going a little straighter as his train of thought ground to a screeching halt, before he finally realised just who it was that he had been addressed by. With a sunny and beaming grin, he looked to Lisa, and offered his response.
"Silverman-san!" Hyousuke said, seeming a little surprised himself, but pleased nonetheless. "It's going alright. Gotta get some shopping done, but I can't figure out what I want." He looked a little sheepish at admitting that. It was about the limit of what he could share with someone unawakened, after all. "What about you? Looking for anything around here?"
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Lisa hears that mumbling! She even understands the words themselves, though not their true meaning. She more notably notices...
Sunny Hyousuke!
Lisa smiles back. "Cool," Lisa says. "That's always how it goes, right? You have to pick something. I was here to look at what Tony-san's selling today too..."
She considers. "But if you're worried about claw damage, then you need to avoid the ones that have dangly bits to go after; accessories like this aren't usually that durable, so you want to avoid them being chewed on in the first place."
"Do you have a cat or something?"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke shook his head a little as she questioned if he had a pet, his smile gradually relaxing into something more polite than sunny. Still pleasant, but requiring markedly less energy to keep up.
"A cat? Oh, no, I live at the dorms. It's for-" Were one to listen closely as he cut himself, off, they would have heard Hyousuke's brain screech to a halt and then begin to buffer. The hamster wheel behind his eyes spun at record pace in order to conjure up a lie that he thought would be convincing enough to fool her, but in the end, it still came back to telling a partial truth.
"-A dog I'm going to visit." Hyousuke said, after a momentary delay he hoped could be passed of as tripping over his own tongue. "It's a little rowdy." 'A little rowdy' didn't result in people needing to get wounds sewn up, but it was about as much of the truth as he was willing to reveal, as long as it meant throwing her off the scent. He even tried a distraction tactic, for whatever it was worth. "Oh right! I never got to say it after the concert, but you guys put on a hell of a show! I just wish I could've stuck around for the meet and greet."
GAME: Save complete.
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
He lives at the dorms! "Oh!" Then not a cat. But Lisa does not actually hear the buffering brain. Hers does it sometimes, too. But--
"Oh," Lisa answers, "That's nice. Visiting an animal's not the same as having one, but it is pretty good. You're a dog person then?" Rowdy dogs... "Cats have more manners," she jokes. "Usually."
But the distraction...
"Oh, thanks!" Lisa says. "I'd love it if you could meet Sheba again too--you didn't get a chance to talk much at practice." Because she was also there, of course! Taller than Lisa, with darker hair. ...Not that that says too much given that Lisa's blonde.
"But we can hang out now!"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke tilted his head to the side a little, his crop of short, blonde, hair jostling with the motion. Were one to put a dog to his side making the same expression, the resemblance would have been uncanny, to the point where Lisa's question might have been a little more literal than she had likely intended.
"Yeah!" He agreed enthusiastically, after chewing on the question for a second or two. "Cats are cool! but I just feel like I can connect better with dogs, you know?" Perhaps it was the loyalty, or the friendliness. Perhaps it was something to do with both him and certain breeds being scatterbrained doofuses.
It was unclear, and he gave little thought to it.
"Sheba..." He said, once Lisa mentioned her. The hamster wheel squeaked again, and a lightbulb eventually flickered to life. "Oh yeah! Yeah, it's a shame I couldn't meet her too, but there's always the next meet. 'Sides, it's like you said - we can hang out too! I just gotta finish up here. What do you think of this one?" Hyousuke picked a bangle up gingerly, and held it up between them. Wrought from some heavy-seeming metal - stainless steel or similar - it gleamed in the November sun, the light catching on the simple engravings upon the outside.
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Woof.
"Totally," Lisa says, "I can get that. You'd think I might prefer dogs too since I'm high-energy and stuff... But I'm more for cats. They're graceful and..." Pause. "...Well, usually." Sometimes they are not. This is the way of cats.
It doesn't matter too much for now; instead, "Right! Hmmm, though..." She regards Hyousuke, and then regards the bangle. A heavy metal, gleaming in the sun...
"Something thick and heavy like that suits you better-you're a guy with a lot of presence, so something more delicate would be drowned on you. I think it works!"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke pouted a little. It was clearly nothing serious, with how exaggerated it was, but he made sure it lingered long enough that she'd be able to see his look of mock offence.
"Hey, I can be delicate and stuff!" Said the human wrecking ball whose primary method of solving problems punching them until they stopped being problems. "...But you're probably right. Something big like this is probably gonna work best." That, and it had the right combination of stats and effects for what he thought he'd be facing. With it chosen, he paid for it in short order, and slipped it into his bag for later. For now, there was one thing he wanted to focus on - hanging out with Lisa.
"So, where to?" He asked, looking back to her with an expectant look on his face. "I got everything I need, so we can go wherever. Maybe get something to drink?" It seemed he'd not learnt his lesson from Ichika to be more tactful about such things. The man was dense enough that it was a small miracle he'd not spawned his own gravitational field.
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Lisa laughs cheerfully. "I'm sure," she says of delicacy. But, "It just works for you, aesthetically, you know?" She doesn't know about the stats or effects, of course. But those tend to relate to how a thing looks; cognition, or something like that. It's probably sturdy and defensive...
"Oh, sec," Lisa says. "I wanted to look at some stuff too!" She was here for that in the first place, after all. "But if you wanna grab something from the vending machine down there while I pick something out, that's cool."
She has to eye things... for fashion!
She's pretty good at the social game, though.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke nodded along to her explanation. He was sure it was correct, but he didn't quite know how to follow up on it, having little idea of how aesthetics worked himself. He just felt it would be a good fit for his strategy - as far as 'hit things harder than they hit you' counted as a strategy, at least. The matter of vending machines had him a lot more vocal, however.
"Sure thing. You want anything out of there? My treat." He had the money to spare for it. It was best not to ask where he'd gotten it from, though.
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
It's not a bad strategy! If Lisa were a Persona-user, she might employ one similar. ...Maybe. But obviously she isn't and couldn't be. Ever!
"Sure," Lisa answers. "Whatever's fine. I'll pay you back," she insists.
THen she gets to eyeing accessories; when Hyousuke returns, she'll have her eye on something slimmer and silver with a nice woven chain, a bracelet.
If she were a Persona-user, it might boost defense against Earth attacks!
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke returned with two bottles of green tea, each of which was a modest size. It was hardly the most exciting drink in the world, and he had been sorely tempted by the offer of milk tea, but what he held was what he had decided on - and it was most certainly not that kind of tea.
"Don't worry about paying it back. Like I said, it's my treat." He said, his tone a little dismissive. With the drinks dispensed, he peered quizzically at her purchase, once more tilting his head this way and that, though more to get a better look at it than anything else.
"...Hrm. Yeah, that looks a lot better on you than it'd look on me."
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
Tea! Tea is good.
"OK, if you're sure." It's polite to try, but Lisa doesn't care that much about a simple bottle of green tea. It's not a big expense for her, anyway.
She grins. "Yeah," she says. "I can do this kind of thing way better. ...Some guys can pull off the delicate look too, but I don't think it's your thing."
"Hey, Tony-san," she says, and passes over some money for her own. Then she takes the tea and walks away from the stand. "Let's stick around here," she suggests. "I can't really be going off places with a guy..." She looks a little apologetic.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"Yeah, Kashihara-san'd probably look way better wearing one of those than me. Hell, this one's probably pushing it." It wasn't like Hyousuke had chosen it for its aesthetics though. It was a piece of gear- armour, no different to warplate or a gambeson. It looking good hadn't even been close to the forefront of his mind until she'd mentioned it - and that prompted another thought in his mind. "Oh, wait, do you know him? I think I saw him at the concert the other day, but I never got the chance to say hi."
Then the topic came to hanging out with guys, and Hyousuke looked confused for a moment. Not offended, simply perplexed. Then it dawned on him what she was talking about, and he nodded, seeming to come to a silent revelation.
"Oh, yeah, I get it. It's 'cause you're, you know... an idol." The pause, if he was asked, was for dramatic effect. It was most definitely not because his brain, tired from Dark Hour excursions and schoolwork, needed a second to spin up. "I dunno much about idol life, but it seems like it's pretty hard. You handling it alright?"
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
"He's so pretty," Lisa agrees, confirming that she knows him. "But nah, any guy benefits from a little accessorizing. A nice watch, for instance." ...Hm. Why does that mean something to her? Well, whatever. "I do! He's cool. I worked with his mom on a movie a little--she had the big role."
But Lisa has to be a little indelicate and... suddenly Hyousuke gets it! "Right," she says. "I don't want to give people the wrong idea."
A beat, "It's not a problem or anything," she's quick to assure him. "It's fun! And it's nice to get to see and meet so many people." The response may be a little canned, but she does at least mean it.
"But thta's why."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"On a movie...? Oh! Right. SMILE." Hyousuke looked inordinately proud of himself for remembering that piece of movie trivia. Given that his brain often screamed like a dial-up modem in order to conjure a single thought, perhaps there was grounds for it. He didn't care much to dwell on it, and instead moved on to talking about Jun. "He *is* pretty. How does he even do it? He makes it seem like he's not even trying..." The confusion returned, this time with a vengeance. His face even scrunched up a little as he tried to figure it out, like he had been working at a puzzle and had come to an impasse.
Talking about idol life fixed that though, and he nodded slowly.
"At least we've got the meets. That's just sparring. I don't know if anyone can get the wrong idea if we're all hitting each other in the face."
Then again, he'd met some odd sorts that expressed themselves through some rather... unconventional... means.
<Pose Tracker> Lisa Silverman has posed.
"Right!" Lisa answers, and she's pleased that Hyousuke remembered. Still, about Jun, "Oh, he's gotta do something with his hair," she agrees. "Good hair like that doesn't just happen." She sounds very sure of this. "That's a girl--and some guys--secret by the way--if anybody tells you looking good is effortless, they're probably lying."
But she smiles. "Yeah! Those are fun. Supposedly my manager thinks doing kung fu is kind of a charm point... I don't get it, but i'll take it. I love martial arts."
"...I guess that might be a different kind of wrong idea?" she laughs.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke nodded again, though with markedly more vigour than last time. Lisa had shared a secret with him, and as always, he was honourbound to keep it. Or at least pretend he'd never heard it. Socialising was hard, and navigating finer points of it was something that was liable to send smoke billowing from his ears. Fighting, though? That much he was good at. That much, he understood.
"Eh, people can think what they like. We're having fun with it, so that's all that matters." Hyousuke seemed remarkably flippant about the idea. To the point that he breezed right past it, even. "Oh, by the way, I'm looking for somewhere else around here. Does this place have anywhere that does good tea...?"