2025-08-18: Killing Time

• Log: 2025-08-18
• Cast: Maria Sakurai, Tatsuya Suou, Yoko Hirano
• Where: Sumaru City - Time Castle
• Date: August 18, 2025
• Summary: Tatsuya and Yoko fail to escape from a terrifying extrovert. Maria has an excellent time.

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<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.

    There is absolutely no reason for a normal high school girl to be in a place like Time Castle. Even the lower end antiques are far out of scope for the large majority of students at Seven Sisters, and that's assuming that any high schooler would find antiques like this 'cool'. Come to think about it, most of the antiques here are clocks, at that-- is there anyone at Sevens who is enough of an otaku about old mechanical clocks to come into Time Castle?

    Maria, in her street clothes, her long pink hair pulled up into a ponytail, isn't in here by choice. But she's making the best of it, starting up at one of the grandfather clocks as if hypnotized.

    She'd ditched her friends and slipped away to come in here. But it was for the best. Otherwise, 'he' would have noticed her. Or worse, 'he' wouldn't have noticed her.
    Or maybe, her friends would have noticed 'him' and either spoken to 'him' or asked her about 'him', and that would have been worse yet.

    At least, she can rest assured that no one she knows -- or knew -- would come into a place like this.

    An old man perusing antique desktop clocks looks at her for a moment as if he were wondering why a kid was in here, but returns to his review. Maria's attention remains fixated on the grandfather clock.

    Come on, minute hand... move faster! Please...

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.

    JUST BEFORE MARIA ENTERED

    "A pawn only has meaning if it can move..." the Time Count speaks courteously to Tatsuya Suou. His expression is, as ever, unreadable. "Hm hm. I can see you're a little surprised that I only have cards, young man. Why is that, I wonder?"

    BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RARotEaobh0

    Tatsuya's face is in a deep grimace as he stares daggers at this man. This man... he's taunting him in a way that's unmistakably familiar. Why, he...

    "Don't look so frustrated. I'm here to help you, however meager my assistance may be."

    Tatsuya closes his eyes taut, and then frustratedly yanks the card out of the Count's hands. Somehow, he's shopping for Skill Cards here, not at that other shady card store in Hirasaka, because he doesn't like unagi kabayaki. It's endangered, you know.

    But then the door opens, and--

    NOW

    There's a young woman in pink at the store now. Well, that's not entirely strange -- this is a store, after all, and people do visit... stores, even if this store seems like an eccentric choice for teenagers. This is the kind of stuffy atmosphere that suits only really rich old people. So why is Tatsuya Suou, in his red motorcycle leathers, here?

    Her attention sure seems fixated on that clock. She's really tense. It's like she isn't actually in here for the clock itself, just trying to transfix herself...

    ...

    Now that he's a bit closer, he does recognise her. Maria Sakurai... there's a quiet chill down his spine as he thinks of some far-away memory, but... it's not any of his business to pry. She's here now. Tatsuya puts his hands to his pockets, the Skill Card safely tucked away inside, and slowly tries to leave the store.

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.

     Old mechanical clocks? Expensive antique whatnots? What kind of high school student would think this kind of stuff is cool?

    Does it count if the student looks more like she's still in middle school?

    Yoko already has a thick sketchbook in her arms when she steps over the threshold, and a pencil stuck behind her ear as well. A heavy-looking satchel on a strap over her shoulder, a baggy but clean tee over wide-legged pants covered in pockets (less clean, more smudges of graphite), sneakers in good repair. Fingertips gray with pencil lead. Inky hair that may or may not have seen a brush today...!

    She's looking around with wiiiiide, wide eyes at the complex workings of the orrery, at the understated gleam of tasteful lighting on immaculate glass display cases, neck craning to take it all in--!

    And she walks right into Tatsuya. Bump.

    "Ow," Yoko complains, in the manner of someone who isn't so much hurt as she is offended that the universe would do this to her.

    Oh right, she should apologize. Looking up (and up, and up) at Tatsuya, Yoko's mouth is already forming the word, "Sorry--" when her eyes go even wider. Up close, they're an unusual shade of acid green, but more importantly they seem to be staring right through him. "......"

<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.

    Normal teenagers wouldn't be in a place like this. And Maria looks... pretty... normal?

    This may stand in stark contrast to the other young lady in here, who, well. There's no good way to put this. But there's no such thing as a normal art student. Not even one.

    Maria, still staring at the clock as if it were the only important thing in the world (come on, minute hand, move faster! keep going! she wants to be somewhere else...) is interrupted in her little fugue by the sound of a person walking into another person, and the little sound of pain that follows. "Eh?"

    She stares over at Tatsuya. And Yoko. But mostly Tatsuya.

    All at once, Maria comes awake. "Suou-sempai!! I heard you quit school!" She waves at him, broadly.

    ...she was like that on the other side, too...

    Without further ado, she buzzes over to the both of them, gazing up at Tatsuya. And down at Yoko. She's somewhere to the middle of their two heights, how fun!

    "What are you doing here, Suou-sempai? I'm just killing time," she explains, then giggles at her own joke, because she's also like that. She jolts then, and looks back down at Yoko. "Oh! Right. Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? ...What's your name?"

    Oh no, a wild extrovert has arrived...

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.

    Shoot!

    He's so distracted by Nyarlathotep that they didn't even think of the possibility that someone *else* could be coming in to the store at the same time. "Ah-- sorry," Tatsuya gruffly grunts out an apology, before realising he's letting his mood affect his voice. Yoko's eyes are just drilling straight into him, however, and he finds it a bit displeasing. He breaks eye-contact.

    But this starts a whole chain reaction where Maria recognises him, and waves and identifies him. Great... he could've just slipped out quietly... he's used to being the tallest in a bunch, especially when the other two are girls -- but this kind of uncomfortably reminds him of when the girls interested in him in Sevens are fawning over him. Why don't they understand that he's not interested...?

    (Because the aloofness is KIBBLE, Tatsuya.)

    "I--" Tatsuya doesn't have an excuse ready. "Just really... needed to use the bathroom."

    "Oh yes. It's in the back," the Time Count adds from afar. He's just loving this shit.
Huh? (Type "help" for help.)

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.

     No art student has been normal, ever.

    A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood. Yoko blinks once, twice, and takes a step back. (This time she doesn't run into anybody. Progress!)

    "Uh-- I'm," she stammers at Sudden Pink-Haired Girl. Takes a deep breath. Breathes out through her nose. Starts over. "I'm okay. I got- distracted by the, everything." Suou-senpai. They must know each other then. Pink like sea shells and tea roses and cooked meat.

    His voice is deep--! Ah-- she knew it, he's upset. She said she was sorry!

    "I'm Yoko," she introduces herself, holding the sketchbook a little closer. At least now her dread basilisk gaze is focused on Maria! Isn't that a relief, Tatsuya??

<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.

    It's too late, she's already detected her-- prey?! No, surely it's not like that. Hadn't she been dating someone on the Other Side? It should still be the same here.

    "Really?" Maria says to Tatsuya, looking him over as she slowly cranes her head to the right. Her ponytail sways in obeisance to gravity, sashaying this way and that. "Then why are you still out here?" She's-- not thinking he still needs to go, right?

    Pink like cherry blossoms and kitten noses and smeared blood.

    Yoko takes up all of her attention now. Maria nods, emphatically. "Really! That's good. It'd be pretty bad if you got hurt. Where do you go to school? Not Sevens, right?" She's figured out that Yoko isn't a fellow student of hers. "Or-- are you still in middle school?" She reaches out a hand, hovering it just above Yoko's head. What's she doing, trying to figure out how tall Yoko is? "Yoko-chan! Got it. I'm Maria Sakurai. Like, 'cherry well'. Right?" Oh, come on, that's the most common way to read it!

    "So, what are you doing here? Oh, drawing pictures?" What is this, twenty questions?

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.

    "N... no, I already... went, I was just leaving," Tatsuya finds himself incredibly bad at following up this lame excuse that he's chosen. He can positively feel the Time Count's grin burning itself into the back of his flesh. Whether Maria is dating someone or not is not something he easily recalls, though... well, it's not like he pays much attention to those who are interested in him.

    He's definitely here just for the Skill Card. He's definitely not here because he's thinking of a watch that he gave to the one he loves, in another time, another line.

    The way Yoko peers is definitely unsettling, but at the very least, her atetntion is on Maria now. That's a step forward. What is it that she sees? Tatsuya gets a bit paranoid for a second, but there's no reason to make a scene. "No, it's my fault," he tries to reassure Yoko in a tone that's more neutral. "I wasn't paying attention."

    Is Yoko in middle school...? Her stature definitely could make Tatsuya believe it, as Maria points out, but it's somewhat hard to pick out an exact age. He doesn't remember a Yoko from Sevens, nor that distinctive gaze -- so perhaps a different school...?

    ... why is he still here? He should go.

    "I'll see you later, Sakurai-kun," Tatsuya attempts to jettison himself out of the scene a second time. But Persona is a JRPG, and the Escape command famously has terrible rates if you're just trying to use the raw command. Is Maria or Yoko going to intercept?!

    (The Skill Card is for Trafuri, because Tatsuya is a habitual speedrunner. If only he could equip it right now.)

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.

     Maria turns the force of her terrible, terrible extroversion towards an innocent artist. Now it's Yoko who is on the defense! But her eyes follow the sway of Maria's ponytail, like a kitten and a feather wand. "It's-- I didn't get hurt," she reiterates, like she's reassuring Maria - or reminding herself? "I'm a first year at Gekkoukan High. In Iwatodai." When is she going to hit her growth spurt? Soon, right?!

    She's looking back to Tatsuya, but this time it almost looks like a cry for help...!

    "Uh. I came to practice technical drawing. It's a detailed kind of work used in diagrams and technical manuals. I usually like life drawing better but I thought it'd be useful. And clocks have lots of small moving parts and complicated mechanisms which should be really good for depicting how pieces fit together." Oh, so if you ask her about art, suddenly Yoko can use complete sentences!

    Cherry well is a pretty name. And her hair is pink, so it's extra suitable. "...Mine's the normal way. Flat plain. But the yo in Yoko is ocean." She's stopped fidgeting as much, at least...?

    And Tatsuya is still bighugetall but she eases a bit more when he apologizes too. Yoko is definitely not from Sevens, on this side or elsewhere, but she's about to be a different kind of problem when Tatsuya heartlessly makes to abandon her to the full force of Maria Sakurai...! "What's your name? Suou-san?"

    It's familiar in her mouth, that name. Yoko forgets almost immediately.

<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.

    Is the worst part the fact that she asked or is it the part where she doesn't even look a little bit flustered for the asking?
    ...The Time Count may be far too amused either way, Tacchan.

    "Oh! So she bumped into you!" Maria tells Tatsuya, clapping her hands together. "You've got to watch where you're going, Suou-sempai! You're tall, after all." ...What's that have to do with anything? But then, Tatsuya might know better than anyone else in this room that Maria is a 'no thoughts head empty' kind of girl.

    The old man over there is starting to give them dirty looks. Youngsters shouldn't be allowed in a store like this!!

    "Flat plain? Flat plain... Oh! Hirano. I get it," she tells Yoko. "Should I call you Hirano-chan, then? Or can I call you Yoko-chan? Oh! Okay, I get it," she reiterates. "You're just little... But that's great! It's easier to take the subway if you're small." Why is she like this?

    "Can I see? I've never been any good at drawing. I like to knit, though! But that's not the same thing," she natters on, reaching out a hand as if she's already been invited to take a look at Yoko's sketchbook. "Neat! I like the way clockhands move. It's soothing." She seems like she could be distracted by anything that moves rhythmically, which is mean, but probably also true.

    She nods emphatically. "Yeah! Tatsuya Suou-san, I guess! He's my sempai." Maria pauses. "Or was. He quit school," she explains, passing on that rumor like it was fact...! augh, why are people like this.

    Tatsuya makes his farewell. Turning, Maria seems to just about chase after him, her rapid-fire sentences continuing. "Why, do you have somewhere to go? Oh! Do you have a job now, sempai?" Maria says, trailing after him as he starts towards the door. Can he get out of the store before she does something like block the exit?? "Are you late for work?" Why is she being like this!

    "...If you're not late for work," she says, a little more slowly, a little more pensively, almost, "Can you stay here for a little bit? I don't want to be here alone."

    ...So why's she staying, then?

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.

    Tatsuya is summarily stopped from leaving because the gaze that just screams 'HELP' from Yoko reaches him to his very soul. Tsk...!! So, she's a Gekkoukan student? That was... there was a lot of good people there... and then... the world ceased to be... they all died in the blink of an eye because the world just... ceased to be outside of Sumaru City.

    Tatsuya still has enough spoons to not just drown in Other Side sorrows, though. "Technical drawing? I know a thing or two, I guess, but not from clocks... just motorcycles," Tatsuya offers to try to offramp Yoko. He kinda spaced out about name readings, though, because his is really boring. "... yeah. I'm Tatsuya. It's nice to meet you, Hirano-kun."

    He gets told off for being tall. Well, so-rry...! (A 1999 localisation of this line would've just used '...whatever.')

    Maria is a truckful of extrovert energy, though, and even he feels like he's losing the battle, so he feels the need to stand guard with Yoko. She's already on if he has a job and before he can even open his mouth to answer she's ALREADY on whether he's late or not and suddenly he feels like he's got Napoleon's Holy Guard on his ass again.

    Stupid Napoleon. Just won't ever leave him alone.

    The way to defeat them was to turn the tables on them, and thus Tatsuya employs the knowledge of his previous battles on Maria too, by turning the conversation on her.

    "... are you in trouble, Sakurai-kun?" Tatsuya glances outside. The... The Order of the Holy Lance is probably not outside, Tatsuya.

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.

 
    Is Tatsuya so tall that the floor feels like a different country? Does he, too, have his head in the clouds??

    "Uh. Yoko-chan is okay." She doesn't think about formalities often. Unless she has to. And then it's worrying! Why do they have to be so important? Maria reaches for the sketchbook and Yoko hands it over easily. Apparently she isn't shy about her work...!

    The recent pages are full of detailed line drawings of machinery with little or no shading. The emphasis seems to be on proportion and the relationship of every piece to its fellows. The pages beyond that go in sequences: life drawing, motion sketches, many still lifes. Interspersed between them are... they look like toy designs, maybe, or jointed dolls. There's evidence of practice, practice, and more practice...

    "...You quit school?" Yoko asks Tatsuya, now that her sketchbook has been sacrificed to keep Maria at bay for the moment. Yoko that's not a nice thing to ask your would-be savior in his time of need!! "I mean. It's nice to meet you too, Suou-san." In solidarity, perhaps, she inches a little closer to him (or maybe she's looking for a chance to escape too, even if it means leaving her artwork behind)...!

    ...It is kind of... a gloomy place, maybe? Or just 'too upscale for a shopping mall'. "Are you waiting for someone?" Because why else would Maria stay someplace like this, but ask for company?

<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.

    "Okay, Yoko-chan it is! You can call me Maria-chan if you like." Is that even... a little bit appropriate??

    She takes a good look at the sketchbook, making little noises like, 'uh huh' and 'ooh!' and occasionally furrowing her forehead like she just doesn't get it (art is complicated, sometimes). "Do you like dolls, Yoko-chan?" she asks, handing the sketchbook back over after a few moments.

    "Just motorcycles, huh? That's right, you have a motorcycle. They're pretty complicated. Bikes are complicated, too," says Maria, a bicycle-rider herself, "but a motorcycle's more complicated." Yes, this is pretty obvious, Maria.

    Is she waiting for someone?

    "Well, no..."

    Is she in trouble?

    Maria immediately freezes right where she is, her darkeyed gaze momentarily a blank one. "Yes," she says, which is followed by an immediate, "No! I mean, um, why would I be in trouble? Ah ha ha ha..." Maria is fooling no one, though, least of all herself.

    "...I'm avoiding my ex," she says at last, looking away from the both of them. Ooh, touchy subject, if she's not making eye contact. "I don't want to see him. But he's here. In the mall." She braids her fingers in front of her, clearly ill-at-ease. "So... now that I've bared my heart, you'll keep me company, right? If I wait here long enough, then I won't see him." She pauses, thinking this over. "Probably not."

    How is this Tatsuya's problem? Or Yoko's?

<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.

    Tatsuya isn't gonna call Yoko Yoko-chan, sorry. He's too paranoid about rumours starting if he did... but he doesn't have to at the moment, but they get to check out Yoko's sketchbook for a moment! There's a moment where that facade melts away a little and they admit, "This is really good." Like, professional-grade, even, he thinks. He looks a bit less interested in the still-lifes, but it's still really good art. And toys, and dolls... there's an easy hundred, two hundred hours of practice in here.

    That's cool.

    "Well... I used to have one..." Tatsuya lets slip. What happened to his motorcycle?? A landmine blew it up. What're the odds?

    He quit school?? HE FORGOT TO REFUTE THAT "Uh-- I'm..." A pause. "I'm just trying to figure some things out right now," Tatsuya non-answers. He does notice Yoko inching forward, but don't leave your life's work behind, Yoko...! That'd be too tragic. Tragedy is not supposed to happen on This Side.

    The Time Count just politely smiles for some reason.

    But Maria admits that she's avoiding her ex, and doesn't feel safe. Tatsuya frowns at this, glancing outside... then gestures. "... hey. There's a service exit out the back, right? Can we use it?"

    "Of course," the Time Count answers.

    Wow, why's he so casual and blase with the weird owner of this antique clock shop?

    "There you go. Do you want me to accompany you out the back? He won't see us if we go that way," Tatsuya suggests.

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.

     "Maria-chan." It's very informal, but there's nothing formal at all about Maria Sakurai! So it's fine, probably. "I do. They can be very complicated, or really simple. You can make an entire little person that fits in your pocket, or an enormous effigy like a wicker man. I like to draw, but I like sculpting even more," she rambles. She doesn't seem to treat the sketchbook with any kind of overt affection, despite all the work that's gone into it! (It's just one of dozens, after all.) But she holds it close to her chest when Maria hands it back over, even so.

    It's good. Yoko smiles a small, secret smile just for herself. "Thank you. I want to be a professional when I grow up. So I work hard at it." She squeezes the book a little tighter.

    He used to have a motorcycle. Ah, maybe he had to sell it...? Especially if he's figuring things out. "I hope you find a good answer to the stuff that's bothering you, Suou-san," she tells him solemnly. Maria's problem is more immediate - and thankfully, easily solved for the moment. "Oh. It's awkward," she supposes, rocking back and forth on her feet and thinking. But Tatsuya has the answer!

    Yoko leans over to peer at the Time Count. Maybe it's nice to have that kind of relationship with a gentleman...? "I've never been in the service hall. Let's look at it."

    Yoko, that is so not even the point. And you just invited yourself...!

<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.

    Honestly, Maria's grandparents raised her better than this, than to be so rude and intrusive to other people! But this, too, is her little rebellion-- well, that, and just the way she is, no matter how much she got scolded growing up. It's just natural for her to want to talk to other people, and befriend them, and...

    Used to? "Oh yeah! I guess it's hard to keep up. I heard you were always having trouble with it," Maria says, spilling a little too much Tatsuya Lore. Well, he was one of the more popular students at school, and one of her friends has a crush on him. You just learn these things, at Sevens.

    "Oh! Okay. I get that. I wish I could do that," she tells him, shrugging her shoulders and letting them fall again. It'd be nice to not have people act like she's made out of glass for a minute.

    "Really! I haven't played with dolls since I was little, but they're still so cute. I'm trying to knit some dolls lately!" She pauses. "What's a 'wicker man'? Wait, when you say 'sculpt' do you mean, stone?" She stares at Yoko, as if imagining her with a hammer and chisel. "... ...that's so cool!"

    "Good luck! I'm sure you can do it," she says, chiming in with Tatsuya's remark and Yoko's response about her dreams. Is it just Yoko's imagination, or is Maria's own smile here a little bit... forced?

    Maybe the reason for that's clear, since the whole situation is awkward. --But the sort of awkward that has an easy solution. "Oh right! The service exit." Yes, those things that exist. "So we can use it?" she confirms, acknowledging the Time Count for the first time. That guy's monocle... wow. It's kind of creepy, Maria decides, and in a rare moment of Maria Tact, keeps it to herself. "Thank you! And thank you, Suou-sempai!" At least she's not calling him Tatsuya-sempai. She has some sense of what's appropriate here, it's just... selective. "Um, if it's all the same to you, I want to get out of here. --Eh, you're coming, too, Yoko-chan?" Maria considers this for all of a half-second. "Okay! 'The more the farrier', right?" That's not how that turn of phrase works... "Once we're in the clear, we'll-- go somewhere else!" She turns towards Tatsuya again, bows shallowly, and waves for good measure. "See you around, Suou-sempai! Don't be late for work!"

    ...Does she just make up her own decision about what's real or something? Really, this girl.