2025-08-13: Forlornness has a Taste
- Log: Forlornness has a Taste
- Cast: Myunghon Yeo, Suzume Fukura
- Where: Cardboard Dragon
- OOC Date: August 13, 2025
- IC Date: June 25, 2012
- Summary: Suzume returns to the Cardboard Dragon after her awakening to inquire about a skill card and other questions from the owner, Myunghon.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon is having something of a harrowing time between nearly getting crushed in Kaneshiro's Palace and finding out that their sister is now Awakened and it might have been a ploy of their mother's and also confessing far too much to Shinjiro which led to a disastrous attempt at getting Shinobu to take them out where they felt even MORE vulnerable at being exposed to a huge pack of GAMERS--
But today has come, and thus, they must camouflage. At around one hour after school ends, the Cardboard Dragon actually has a number of customers today -- mostly Kasu kids who're busy with their own card games, one of them haplessly browsing the shelves wondering if the books here will make them more Academic...
And then there's Gumiho, the blue-haired student worker at the counter, who's currently sleeving some new cards that a customer just sold off. "Oh, welcome, Fukura-san!" she's the first one to greet Suzume, who she met before, and just past that there's...
"Mmmgh..." Myunghon is sat at a perpendicular side to the Cardboard Dragon, with a large, bulky CRT TV that's pulled out of its wall socket where they're currently playing with some cables. Suzume can spot... a Baestation III sitting nearby! Whoa, they're adding a video game console to the store now too?!
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume has been having slightly less of a harrowing time. She already got harrowed. This is the time when she deals with the aftereffects of said harrowing.
One of those 'aftereffects' is coming back to the Cardboard Dragon, something she has meant to do for a few days but simply not had the time to do. These are the downsides of living all the way in Port City...
...also she's been broke and she needed to show up with money. You know. Just in case.
And so Suzume has finally made her way back. She's even in her uniform today because she didn't want to go take the time to go back to the dorm and change, though at least she's probably not the only person (inasmuch as Kasugayama students pay attention to their uniform rules, and she *is* the only one in a Gekkoukan uniform...)
"Hello," she says back to Gumiho with a nod. "Thought I'd look around for a bit..."
Her attention is taken by Myunghon. Good, she thinks. It'd be a pain to come all this way and *not* find who she's looking for. Spotting the video game console, she sees no reason to change her guess at the arcade: that must have been why Myunghon was there at all.
"I thought you didn't know how to play video games," is what she actually says to Myunghon, while they fiddle with the cables. Suzume has taken a spot a few feet away, so that she doesn't have to raise her voice. "You just get that in?"
What she does not do, at least not immediately, is offer to help.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Really, most of the Kasu kids here are in uniform because the Cardboard Dragon is like two blocks away from Kasu High, so it's more convenient for them to drop on in straight after school. You just know there's a ton of Kasu kids who like to flaunt the rules if they can...
"I don't," Myunghon laments quietly as they stare at an S-video cable and a small palm-sized box device where it's supposed to go in and an HDMI cable out the other end. "But I promised somebody I would play a video game for them, and it turns out I purchased entirely the wrong game and console and..."
Gumiho leans over the counter. "Boss is out something like eighty thousand yen," she says with a wicked grin. "And then it turns out the TV's too old for it, so it was either try to buy some kind of doodad to make the giga bites work or buy a new TV."
Myunghon looks up at Suzume again, and then decides they've had enough and rises to full height, in that lanky and gaunt way of theirs. They give Suzume a gentle smile. "I did see you the other day in that arcade, did I not?" They were dressed pretty cute in oversize sweater the other day... but now they're back to their usual suit jacket appearance. They were also pretty distraught the other day, but now, they have enough spoons to hide it better.
"Anyway. You came all the way over here again, the least I can do is set this aside. How can I help you today, Fukura-kun?"
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume is not sure which is Myunghon's preferred look. Is this one an act, for the store? Or was the other one just a one-off? They seem comfortable either way, which... well, in some ways she's kind of jealous of someone who can be comfortable looking cute and cool, if not always at the same time. ...if you can call Myunghon cool. They kind of need to rescue some of their clothes from the ragpile. Today, anyway. They were fine at the arcade... so maybe that's the real one, and this is an act?
Though, she is moderately annoyed by Myunghon towering over her. Why does everyone tall like to do that to me? she thinks to herself, with a mental-but-thankfully-not-physical eyeroll.
Suzume had been gently amused until 'eighty thousand yen' comes out.
Now, Suzume is, let's say, from a less privileged background. Not all of Gekkoukan's students are wealthy, but a lot of them are at least more wealthy than Suzume, who is generally broke a lot of the time because her family doesn't have as much to go around.
That's when her jaw sets a little. "Lemme take a look," she says. "If you HAVE the adaptor I can probably set it up. I've used one for going the other way." Retro systems at work. "If you don't, I know where to get one. For a lot less than you do, probably."
"I'll do it if you can ID this card for me. It's not in any of the pricing magazines." Suzume reaches into her backpack and rummages around until she finds the single hard card sleeve she has and pulls out, slipped into the display sleeve...
...a Gry skill card. She's holding it so Myunghon can see it, and Gumiho probably can't make out the details.
"I've got some use out of it but I can't figure out what it's worth." Suzume thought up this subterfuge - how to ask all quiet-like, about twenty seconds ago. If it works, she'll be impressed.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Which one indeed. If you asked Myunghon themself, even they wouldn't be able to give an answer. Tsumugi fished out some of the truth, though: the suit, in monochrome, feels like funerary garments for that who is about to be entombed. Are cute clothes, then, a little sign of life, of trying to grapple out of the grave? It's not certain. All Myunghon can say is that they're a work in progress.
"Ah..." Myunghon chuckles as Suzume offers to help with the console, but! For a price. Now that gets their attention. This girl just figured out how to get a deal all on their own. That's pretty good. And the Cognition emanating from that card...
"This one..." Myunghon's gray, somewhat cloudy eye picks it out for a moment further. "It's got a pretty good, weighty feel to it. If you play it in the right deck, you could really bog people down with it, really tangle them to the ground. What it's worth, though? I could give you a good price for it... but it'd probably be worth more if you can figure out how to work it into your antics, hmm?"
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
It's more than Suzume thinks about most of her clothes, honestly. She doesn't really pick her vibe, which gives her a different vibe whether she wants one or not.
"Like I said, I've gotten use out of it," Suzume says, stepping toward the television and wires to take a look. Given she is fairly certain Myunghon doesn't know she's a Persona-user (and, in fact, the last time she visited with Hitomi, she *wasn't*) that may be information all on its own. "It's pretty useful. I'm not sure if I'm gonna sell it right now, I just like knowing what I've got, in case a trade comes along."
It also lets her speak more quietly: "Do you know Aragaki-san?" See, she DOES know his name, she only calls him 'Beanie-san' for other reasons. "He sent me to see Rumourmonger Merry. And I figured if you knew the card, you'd either know them or be them. Which is it?"
"I've got some... questions about stuff. Or should I come back past midnight?" That part's more direct, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon has a more quiet smile for a longer moment, and then gestures towards Gumiho. "A'ight, boss," she nods, and then walks over towards the tables. "Hey Yasu! You still stuck with these loser skeletons of yours? Wow, you got such a huge pile going!"
It's getting a little noisier over there. Which means it's a little easier to speak quietly on this side of the shop. But Suzume clarifies that she's gotten use out of it, which means that she was able to evoke the Skill Card, which means...
That smile, a little dangerous on its own, just seems to grow all on its own. "It's a staple card. Not rare, but that doesn't mean it isn't useful," Myunghon advises. But then the topic turns to Shinjiro, and Myunghon doublechecks to ensure that the rest of the store's still off on their own little corner.
Does this mean Gumiho's in on it too?? Or is she just smart enough to not ask questions when the Boss goes 'go away for a bit'??
"I guess you got me," Myunghon chuckles, voice a little bit lower. "Rumourmonger Merry, at your service. I suppose I should do my spiel again... what can I do for you today?"
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume now has 'messing with the electronics' as an excuse to be off to one side with Myunghon. Rumourmonger Merry, she corrects herself. But either way, with the extra noise, it's a little easier.
She starts with the Gry card: "It helped me out once so I'm kind of attached to it now," Suzume says. "What with saving someone from - well, we can go into that later."
"I almost don't know where to start," Suzume admits. "Because when he told me, we were trading information. ANd it turns out some of that information isn't exactly secret, so I don't know what I can trade you to ask a question. The Mementos dare? Apparently people know about that. But."
"He said you, and people like you, knew what was up. Supernaturally, I mean. Is that just Sumaru? Or do you know anything about Port City?" She looks, piercingly. "Because I kind of walked into this all of a sudden. I mean. All of this, not just the Cardboard Dragon. Has this place *always* been a place for... that kind of thing?"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
They indeed have the television as cover. It doesn't even look all that difficult, really. The TV is old, so it accepts S-Video. There's an existing S-Video cable. The adapter take in S-Video input and outputs HDMI... then plug that to the Baestation III console. Of course, turning that on would mean eyes would be on them, so maybe it's good to pretend like it's harder than it is. ... can Myunghon really not figure this out? Maybe it's a surprising gap in their knowledge.
"It's good to have something you've practiced with. Later, you might want to branch out and try new cards, but make sure you've got practice with them first," Myunghon advises. Saved someone, huh? It sounds like there's a rich story there, but Suzume doesn't want to get into it, so Myunghon doesn't pry either.
Since... where does she even start?
"There are... a network of us working out of Sumaru City, yes. Are you familiar with the website, Dark Side of Sumaru? There's a lot garbage there, but if you know how to sift through the noise, you can find valuable information as well," Myunghon first points out. And Port City...?
There's a delicate smile from Myunghon as they lean over the side of the television. "Well, I was present on the night of that Full Moon. But the happenings in Tatsumi are a little further abroad than I would like. That said, it isn't as if I can ignore it -- the Tower there is clearly connected to the Dark Hour."
Has this place always been a place for... that kind of thing?
"A lot of us end up walking into the life all of a sudden, Fukura-kun. I'm no exception. But if you mean this place... the business does keep us afloat, but yes, I ultimately opened this store to assist Persona-Users. Ours is a dangerous enough job." They look a little more distant and serious for a moment. "If I can educate and give people a little bit of an edge... well, a community like ours has to stick together."
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
It's certainly something Suzume has set up before. Pretending like it's harder than it is is probably a good idea, but Suzume has trouble sitting idle sometimes. She gets things plugged in for something to do with her hands while she's talking.
Of course, nothing says they have to turn it on. And she does take the opportunity to investigate while she's at it... because Suzume can't afford one of these new consoles right now, herself.
"Okay, you know about the hell tower," Suzume says, because she's never not called it that. "That's where we rescued someone from." She looks at Myunghon a little thoughtfully after that. "I didn't see you," is what she says, somewhere between apologetic and suspicious.
(She wasn't exactly looking...)
She leans well over to make one of the connections with the television and half-squeezes behind it, fumbling to get them in the right slots by feel instead of by vision on an unfamiliar television. But this isn't her first S-Video attempt. "I've heard about the website. I went there and it looked like bullshit." Which, of course, the outer layers are. "I'll give it another shot, I guess..."
Suzume makes the connection. Score. She can get out from behind the television; everything else gets done in front, and so she squirms her way back out from behind. "Huh." Last month she didn't know there were any such thing as a Persona. Then she thought it was just a few kids at Gekkoukan. Now...
"I guess... that's a good thing, huh. I sometimes feel like I'm making it up as I go along." Suzume does with a *lot* of her life, but she's not going to dump that on Myunghon.
A pause. Then: "You sound all *different* when you're not running the card shop," Suzume almost accuses. "Like... I dunno." Less jokey, maybe, but that's not quite the right word. Suzume does not know what is.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
I promised someone I'd play a video game.
Suzume discovers a single game in the vicinity of the game console. It's last year's highly anticipated, hot new release, featuring a Western Action Man looking stoic in front of a city of gold. It's a highly cinematic adventure shooting game. It reads: 'DRAQUE'S ADVENTURE III: HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES'.
It suddenly clicks. The wrong console -- being 80,000 yen in the hole -- the wrong game. What that other person Myunghon promised must've been... that NES classic with the cute slimes... Drake Adventure III.
"Hell Tower, yes," Myunghon mumbles as they lean forward. "What an apt description. I took a taste of it while I was there, but we got wrapped up fighting those powerful Shadows before too long. Are you talking about Yamagishi-kun? It was a mess, so I don't blame you."
??? Wait, go back to that part about tasting Tartarus??
Suzume admits that their attempt to find info in the Dark Side has turned up with bogus. Well, that's not entirely uncommon. "The first trick is to sift a few pages back -- the real topics are manipulated to never be trending at the front. Once you get used to it, you start figuring out the keywords people like to use too."
But eventually, Suzume connects it! Looks good. Of course, with these old TVs, there's a real risk that while it'll output, a game that expects to be rendering on HDMI might not look... ...good.
But it's a step forward.
"We still are," Myunghon murmurs. "That Hell Tower, Mementos, Palaces... none of us really understand what they are or who's pulling the strings. But... if you ever find yourself confused about something, feel free to call me, and I'll try to see if I can't help you."
It's more genteel and understanding, perhaps, than Myunghon has been -- shouldn't a Rumourmonger be more interested in the trading of info? But there is the part of Myunghon that genuinely cares about their community too... but Suzume points out they sound *different* when not running the card shop.
A few blinks. A little chuckle. "Ah, which other me do you mean...?" Oh no, they saw them all sad and clingy to Shinobu at the arcade, maybe?? Or perhaps at the Peacock Silk?! Myunghon keeps a brave face, but tiny Myunghons are shouting, 'HELP??' as they race through the spiderweb that is their thoughts, gallivanting at a million kilometres an hour.
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
"Her," Suzume agrees. "Me and some ..."
Suzume doesn't want to explain SEES to someone who doesn't know about it already. But she also does not want to say 'friends' because one or two of them are extremely not her friends.
So she fumbles for the right words and settles on, "... of her other schoolmates and dormmates went in after her. If you were there you know how it ended." Suzume scowls. "I wasn't expecting to have to fight those at the end, either. We were lucky. If there's information on that kind of thing at Dark Side of Sumaru, I'm going to have to go." Suzume spends a fair bit of time online, so it makes sense.
"And, uh... thanks for the offer. I wouldn't mind knowing more about Mementos," Suzume admits. "I kinda... that's where I walked into this stuff, first. I did the Mementos dare, me and a friend of mine who was watching. It's real," she confirms, not that Myunghon needs that.
...wait, taste? "It's called Tartarus," Suzume says. "Not <tartar sauce>." That she says in English. Now, Suzume actually understands English (more or less)... when it's written. Her pronunciation is, let's say, not good. She learned to type it before she learned to speak it and it shows.
Suzume looks up at Myunghon when they ask which other me Suzume is thinking of. She can't make out what is going on in their mind, precisely, but she does know about overthinking, at least. "Eh. I mean, you were less serious last time," she says. "I guess this is more important, though. Never mind."
And then... Draque's Adventure III.
Suzume is extremely familiar with Drake Adventure III. She owned - and played the heck out of - the Super Famicom remake, as it was what she had, when she was younger. Still has; it was one of the retro games she brought to the dorm. She even commented on it, once, to Myunghon. Draque's Adventure she knows nothing about, but...
...to someone who knows nothing about video games...
Suzume picks up the game case and considers it for a moment, tapping the corner against the table gently once or twice. "Hey," she says, "what was the game you were looking for about?"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon catches that pause, and then shakes their head to say, "Relax. I know the surface details of the SEES operation, but you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to." Their mind wanders to Yukari for a moment, then back towards Suzume. There sure are a lot of Persona-Users in Tatsumi... was that just coincidence, or were there actors at the strings pulling kids in to Gekkoukan?
But Suzume explains how she got involved because she did the Mementos dare and... "Ah... and that was where you awakened, I assume?" Myunghon inquires. "Mementos is... well-- some of us have a way of navigating into it." They don't really want to bog down the conversation with talk of the Meta-Nav app. "That dare that got you caught up in it is another method, but it's risky, as you've seen. As for Mementos itself... it's something like-- a supernatural space where people's Shadows dwell. You can find out secrets there... but you can also be attacked by horrible things."
Their eye casts down for a moment.
Tartarus? There's a coy chuckle for a moment, before Myunghon says, "It didn't taste like <tartar sauce>..." Myunghon has, on the other hand, surprisingly good pronounciation, such that they're Toby Foxing it for a moment.
But there's a very important topic. Drake Adventure III!! Myunghon scarce recalls Suzume being an expert at 8-bit games when Ulala was trying to be coy about skill cards, but... what game was it?
"To be honest... I don't know," Myunghon admits. "I only had a name to go off off. Reiko-san was so excited about it. I just wanted to know a little what it is she saw in it. It turns out to have been quite the costly mistake, though... but I think a video game console in the store is a bit of a charm point, don't you think?"
They gesture. "Are there any other games you think I should put in the store, Fukura-kun?"
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Does everybody know about SEES?? Sometimes Suzume thinks they know more than she does and she's in it.
"OK, then it was SEES," she says, and drops the topic. (She'd like to drop the Yukari topic too. Talk about people who are not her friend...)
She'd actually rather talk about Mementos! "Yeah, it is. My friend - he didn't. He doesn't remember a whole lot about it, I don't think. I don't push him about it, in case it's hard for him." Suzume's normal attitude is sometimes confrontational, sometimes aggressive; usually a little prickly, at least. Here she relents, at least for a moment. "I didn't know what else was in there. People's Shadows... huh. I didn't know people had Shadows."
Suzume will have to share that. And maybe make a plan to return, because much as she likes to do things herself, somehow she thinks this is the kind of thing that would get her killed if she was alone. Do I have a Shadow? she thinks. And what does it look like?
"Then what did it taste like," Suzume asks, because she is assuming Myunghon is pulling her leg. She does not know just how literal they are being about it and is trying to find the bit, the joke, the part where Myunghon goes 'got you!'. That there is not one will be a bit of a shock.
As for the games, where she's a bit of an expert...
"You were probably looking for Drake's Adventure," Suzume says. "Not Draque's. Drake like the dragon. It's older, so if she remembered it, it'd be that one. I played it when I was a kid... you can probably get it pretty cheap used if you go down to the right places. I mean. Cheaper than this, anyway."
Other games...? "Depends on what kind of vibe you want. If you want something competitive is different than if you want something cooperative. But stick to ones you can play in a shorter amount of time, if you're renting time or something." Suzume has never thought about this before. "I dunno what all's on this system, I can't afford it. But isn't that why you went to the arcade? To do research...?"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
It came up! And Myunghon is a Rumourmonger, so knowing is sort of their business.
"There's actually more literature out there than you might expect about Shadows, but I'd also caution taking anything written too literally. We're dealing with something cognitive here, and exact definitions might not shake out. But... yes, people do have Shadows -- it tends to manifest as..." Myunghon frowns quietly. "Something like the bad side of ourselves we'd rather not let other people see. As a result, a lot of them are hostile, if you walk in on their territory. But..."
Myunghon looks serious for a moment. "I need you to promise me one thing, Fukura-san. If you go back to Mementos and encounter another person's Shadow, do not under any circumstance kill it. Pacify it or weaken it or run away, just... don't kill them, no matter how hostile they're being to you."
How did Tartarus taste like, though? "Somewhat acidic, and with a deep forlornness..." Myunghon continues. "The kind of loneliness you can't take back. But I wonder if I was being mixed up then, because I was convinced Yamagishi-kun's voice was Tartarus playing with our heads."
Cheap old games, huh... Drake, like the Dragon. "I see. I'll have to check the used stores and see if they have a copy... but that will have to wait, with how much in the red the store is this month," Myunghon chuckles sadly. Money's pretty tight, huh? Or perhaps, it's tight because of how much they want to support others, like Masao. "Hmm? No, it won't be a paid thing. A lot of people come here with friends that have no interest in cards, so perhaps a video game is something for them to do while they wait."
Isn't that why they went to the arcade?
"O-oh. Yes... that's it," Myunghon admits, because 'I was incredibly crestfallen and let my guard slip and gave Shinobu the puppy-dog look and begged her to take me to an arcade' would ruin that image of cool. Did that count as a date?? What does that mean???
"But... arcade games are not quite the same as console games, I found. I thought that the software was something you could take and put in there."
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Rumourmongers aren't supposed to know literally everything!
(They kind of are, Suzume...)
"Cognitive," Suzume repeats. "I've heard that before, about places like that. But I don't know a whole lot. If it was all in our minds..." She had been going to say 'it would make a lot more sense' but then she thought about that for a moment. "...I dunno. Would it be so *weird*? And would we all agree on what it looked like?"
That's philosophy.
But something like the bad side of ourselves. "Huh. I hope I never find me then. I hope *other people* don't find me." She already knows what people think of her, and she makes a fist. Too stupid, too unfriendly, too angry, too weird...
"Don't kill them? Why? What happens?" Suzume thinks about it for a moment, and perhaps she's not as stupid as she thinks she is... "I guess, if they're part of you, the cognitive part, it wouldn't end well. You can't just shoot your bad ideas." The world would be easier if you could.
She *does* look at Myunghon as if she doesn't believe what they're telling her. Forlornness has a taste? "Forget I asked," she says, puffing out a bit of air.
Suzume isn't sure she believes Myunghon about the arcade, either, but she doesn't press on it. Suzume knows what it is like to have people object to what you choose to do, and she momentarily feels a bond of sympathy. "Huh. While you wait... you might have people coming just for that, is all. And yeah, arcade games aren't quite the same, but some of them are on both. So you can practice the competitive ones at home. I used to do that, with the last generation system. Other games... take longer. Those ones are only on consoles."
She clatters the case against the table again. "This one's one of those."
"Anyway, turn it on and we'll see if it works." Suzume isn't quite ready to go yet, but she's got a few things to mentally chew on. Plus one more thing.
"Oh, and by the way, Yeo-san?"
...
"...never mind," Suzume mumbles. Can't bring that up. "I like your coat though. It's cool."
It is probably the coolest thing on their outfit, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"There are a lot of things we end up having consensus on, and sometimes, how it looks doesn't exactly come from what we think either," Myunghon explains, though they know it might end up sounding vague. That Mementos ended up looking like a subway station filled with endless tunnels, they think, probably has a factor with how this is the Mementos of the Greater Metropolitan Area in Tokyo. Perhaps over in France, it would look different.
Can you find your own Shadow? Myunghon has never been able to legitimately prove or disprove that, so they chime quietly with, "One can only hope..."
But Suzume connects the dots on what would happen herself. "It's more than just your bad ideas... it's still a part of you. One side collapses, the rest of the house can't stay standing. ... you'll kill a man in real life, Fukura-kun."
On this part, they have to be firm -- it's revealing, but they don't feel like Suzume would abuse the knowledge, and it's better to forewarn and arm her with that knowledge.
The topic is heavy as it is, but they get the chance to try the game console now. "Well, if people come here just for the game... ... ..." Myunghon pauses, then smiles a bit more weakly. "Chances are, it's the kids from around here, and if that means they have a place to crash, then perhaps all the better."
There's that softness again -- someone who's thinking of this rough neighbourhood and how few places there are to hang around that aren't inevitably dangerous or involved in crime or gang activities. Suzume speaks of competitive games, and they muse: "Shinobu-ssi is really into fighting games... she was supposed to show me the one she liked, but she ended up roped into that tournament..."
There's something like disappointment there. "People sure get really competitive about it, huh...? I guess I can sort of see it." They turn the game console on, and several heads turn as the logos appear, and...
...
...
"It looks good, but... it's really grainy. I can barely read the subtitles on screen," Myunghon admits. "I guess that's the limits of this old television..."
And, one more thing?
...
Suzume starts grumbling, unable to bring something up -- but -- the coat! Myunghon smiles gently, not pushing them on it, and says, "Thank you. I just got it tailored for me after the old one died." A Kujaku special.
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume will save it for another time. When there's an easier segue to asking about it, perhaps.
For now:
"Pretty sure my bad ideas are definitely a part of me." Suzume has a mix of amusement and irritation about that. On one hand, it's kind of self-denigrating, but on the other hand, it's absolutely true. "But I'll remember that." Don't kill a person-Shadow -
She jerks up straight. "The big ones, and the monster Shadows. They don't have anything like that, right? Just the people?" Fortunately, she's easy to reassure on that point. Nobody's a Heartless Maya on the inside. (Not even Maya.) Unfortunately... well, now she's thinking about it.
As for the game console...
"I guess that makes sense." A grudging bit of acceptance: "You're all right." Because, well - Suzume didn't go to Kasugayama, but she understands that you might not want to go home, and if all your other options are bad...
"I like the competition though, so I get that. If the one she likes is new enough it might have a port on this," Suzume says, tapping near-ish the system. "Uh, a version that runs on it. Which means if you can source a disc used or something you can get it cheaper. But it's never gonna look sharp on a CRT. Older games were made to work on them. If you get a copy of Drake Adventure III it'll be fine. New ones... not so much."
"Look, I've got to get back, 'cause it's a trip from Tatsumi and I have something I need to do this evening. But thanks. For answering my questions. And if I've got more I'll come back... or those cards. I probably won't be the only person from Gekkoukan coming by to look at them." Is Suzume going to send SEES business to Myunghon?
You bet she is!
"I'll say hi to Beanie-san - um, Aragaki-san - for you," she adds, pushing herself straight instead of slouching like she usually does, and not realizing that that may actually be easier for Myunghon than her.