2022-06-01: Searching
- Log: 2022-06-01: Searching
- Cast: Rena Lancaster, Arriety Hearn, Akane Shinjo
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Shopping Arcade
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-06-01
- Summary: Rena and Arriety hunt down a game on Rena's behalf in one of the sleepiest parts of the... world?
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena has been to Tsutsujidai before, but it still surprises her every time -- the way she has to take a train there, and how she always -- without fail! -- falls asleep on the train. There is something nostalgic about it, even if she never really rode that many trains in her childhood.
But she wanted to come, and she brought her girlfriend along, because she wanted to check out the video game store there. There is a release of Dozoo Degwa from two years ago that ended up as a black sheep; a remake of the UC 0084 game, which wasn't quite full-featured despite looking better, but it had a few interesting subsystems. Besides that, it reflected the nature of UC 0084 very well: it was the least 'Zeon-like' of the games, because it was made in the aftermath of Operation Stardust. The remake kept that, but that proved rather controversial in UC 0094.
So it didn't have many copies made and didn't sell that well, and Rena heard that this game store has some rare ones.
"I'm not sure if they'll have it," Rena admits to Arriety, holding the door for her. She is dressed in civilian clothes today: a black tank top, a flanel shirt over that, and shorts. She has her ashen hair styled short, now, after the fight with Yuliana. She doesn't, particularly, look like a pilot.
"But I thought, if any place does, maybe it's here...?"
She peers inside the shop -- her expression curious. Something about Tsutsujidai always leaves her feeling nostalgic, somehow.
But for someone else's nostalgia.
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
Arriety was a *little* bit hesitant about going to Tsutsujidai, but she settled on the monkey's paw-inviting statement of: "It's a big city, I won't necessarily run into Akane out of nowhere when I have an objective with Rena this time." Oh, she's going to suffer for thinking that in a bit.
And... it's kinda nice to fall asleep on the train with Rena. It reminds her of that one time they fell asleep on the colony orbiter and woke up at the last station on the other edge of Winter Wonderland. That was kind of a fun trip, with some mild panic involved.
"Hmm... going all the way here to buy a rare video game... is this the first time you've done it?" Arriety sounds mildly pleasant as she puts her hands behind her back. She's got her usual style -- turtleneck sweater, enormous jacket, skirt, leggings. She's ready to get owned by Tsutsujidai's eternal summer again.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The good news is: it's there.
The bad news -- for Arriety, at least -- is: so is she.
Akane has her own rarities to finally look up -- specifically, the Tarabaman X4 video game. She'd owned a copy, another time, another place -- but never finished it; now, she... kind of wants to take another crack at it. She knows there's an alternate ending, but she sure didn't when she was 8.
She glances back as the pair peer in from outside the shop; her brow furrows a little bit. ... admittedly, she can't *perfectly* identify Arriety through the signage, and Rena isn't familiar... for the moment, she returns to looking through the games. Everything's a little disorganized...
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"N-No," Rena says to Arriety, with a sigh, and her shoulders slump. "I think I've made special trips for... a bunch of releases."
She looks a little downcast for a moment, but only a moment, and then she looks up. She spots the racks of video games -- and then she forges ahead. "Let's see, I bet it's over here--"
Dozoo Degwa is sometimes filed near Tarabaman games. It's understandable; they both have a similar aesthetic, and while the gameplay is (usually) different, there is some fandom overlap. Besides, a clueless relative will know to go to that section -- versus, say, the latest sports titles. Thus, Rena walks ahead of Eight, and ends up in front of Akane.
She looks at her, blinks, and then lifts a hand to wave at the younger girl. "Hey," she says. This isn't that out of the ordinary for Rena.
She says hello to strangers. She smiles, and glances over the shelves. "Are you from here, or from... ah... out of town?"
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
"That makes sense, though... do you think you're going to enter this year's Side 1 Regionals?" Arriety asks, but then...
Arriety freezes as she spots Akane's hair and jacket combo and gets about eighty percent sure that it's her. This is awkward... what does she even say? Sorry for... having a bad breakdown in front of her that sent her running away? (This is the sort of half-truth the memory of that day has coalesced into, with a heaping dose of self-guilt.)
She ends up about half a shelf away-and-to-the-back, listlessly staring at a Magical Lychee game.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane does feel somewhat markedly more lively than the rest of the city -- though the gulf between her and it has started diminishing, it's still a little noticeable to those who're open to the world in the right way.
Those red eyes track over to Rena, and she offers a, "I live a couple kilometers from here," with a small shrug. The voice would probably give the rest of the game away for Arriety, of course. "Is that your friend back there?" Akane is now likewise about 90% sure she remembers her; she seems nice, but... Akane sure said something about herself and Arriety got so hurt by it that Akane had to eject, huh.
(That's how *she* remembers the situation.)
"She was at a concert around here a couple weeks ago I think..." It's small talk, but maybe there's a little fact-finding in it, too.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I might," Rena says. "I'm thinking about it. I've done really well in the internal ones, and it'd be good to go back."
She doesn't, initially, register that Arriety hides. She is struck by how Akane is a little different than the locals -- a little, not a lot -- and she can only half-put her finger on it. She smiles, at the question, and nods. "Mm-hm. We've been friends for... basically all of our lives."
But being a Newtype, she is well-tuned to Arriety. So she feels the sudden flood of self-guilt; it's like an inky, purple feeling at the edge of her awareness, and she traces it to the source immediately. Akane can see the shift in her expression -- the way her eyes turn, glancing back towards where Arriety is. She blinks.
"Hey, Ah-ri...?"
Qivi teleports in.
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
Arriety jolts just a little as Rena calls out to her, and she sets the game she's been holding for a solid two minutes back on the shelf without thinking about it. "Ah-- sorry, I..." A pause, as she looks towards Akane now, her own red eyes catching Akane's own.
She's silent for a while longer, before awkwardly smiling to say, "Um-- hi, Akane." Rena can sense the anxiety suddenly spike up in an enormous gush in a split second, before she says, "I'm-- really sorry about last time."
The anxiety settles after she blurts that out, coasting to a seven out of ten or so; she flits her eyes back and forth, then nods quietly. "This is my childhood friend, Rena..." ... girlfriend? Are they at just admitting that to people now? She's not sure. She chooses not to tread on that possible eggshell.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Oh, huh." A moment passes in which Akane wonders about how good of friends Rena and Arriety actually are; Arriety always seemed kinda lonely. Then she works her way to whether people would make those kind of negative inferences about *her* friends if they met her (wait, does she have any real friends???) and --
-- okay, rabbit hole. That... whole line of thinking has to go out the window, or at least wait, as Arriety comes over. "Uuuh... don't worry about it." Akane rubs at the back of her head, conceding, "That was just kind of a crappy few days all around." She breathes out slowly, admitting, "I think I was actually getting kinda sick, anyway... I missed like two weeks of school right after that concert. Nnnnot your fault."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
It dawns on Rena, then: 'Oh, they know each other.'
And parted on awkward terms, it sounds like. She pauses for a second, her left hand's fingers around the back of her neck, and looks between the two of them. She can only read the emotions, not the thoughts coming from Akane; the sense of stopping a train of thought, without knowing what it was. That makes her wonder, for a moment.
"You two know each other?" she says. "That's--good? I'll go with good." She hesitates. Good because not knowing someone is, usually, a net negative. "I'm sorry you were sick, though." She extends a hand out towards Akane. "I'm Rena Lancaster." Then, because it seems relevant: "I'm here for Dozoo Degwa."
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
Arriety certainly can band around that. "... yeah, it was a pretty rough time ... I've, um, I've had some talks with people since then. I think I'm more manageable now." 'More manageable'? Ugh. What kind of phrase is that? She thinks about adding some context to Rena, that that was the time when she went to the Sheryl Nome concert that got attacked by kaiju, but... she doesn't want to set off Akane.
"I'm glad you seem a bit better now," she ventures, from what she can tell of Akane. "Alsooo... yeah. Rena'd go anywhere for Dozoo Degwa. She's placed first in a regional tournament before," she offramps into something more pleasant: videogames.
"... this kinda reminds me I haven't really played any videogames since you left... should I try something again?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Rena provides a somewhat challenging activity: 'shake hands with Rena.' There's a moment where it looks like she might, just to be polite; after a moment, though, she instead moves a hand over her heart and notes, "... I'm not much of a handshake person, ahaha."
"Dozoo Degwa? Which version?" Akane doesn't know puzzle games from a hole in the ground, at least in their fine points; she's actually kinda bad at them. Slightly wrong flavor of nerd shut-in for that. "I know I've seen a few different ones around here..." She does at least seem willing to help Rena look. When Arriety notes that Rena's got that kind of experience, Akane says, "That's actually pretty impressive! I don't know many people with that kinda talent..."
Arriety asks for direction on videogames, and Akane admits, "I... haven't played much that's come out in the last seven or so years. The game I'm looking for is almost as old as I am, ahaha..." She rubs at the back of her head. "Rena's probably gonna have better advice for you there..."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena blinks -- there's a flicker of uncertainty, then an easy smile. "Don't worry about it," she says. She slides her hand back down to her side, and it's smoothly done.
It dawns on Rena, a little, that they didn't say what their relationship is. She glances at Arriety -- flushes -- and then feels that flood of embarrassment and uncertainty. Should they correct it? Or maybe, Arriety would rather not, or--suddenly, her life feels a lot more complicated. She frowns a little when Arriety says more 'manageable,' and then she shakes her head.
"I am a pretty big fan," Rena says, with a laugh. She doesn't say she is very good at it, because once you're competing in contests and winning, that seems a little gauche. But she does look at Akane, and says: "Right now, I'm doing Dozoo Degwa DX Konpeito Kampello. That's the previous release, but the scene is a little better for multiplayer," she admits. "And they haven't swapped to the newest release yet, since they haven't really made all the levels."
She looks up for a second, and considers. "I've done most of the major releases, though... um, I started with Valiant Eye, but--"
Dozoo Degwa Valiant Eye was created on Axis, in UC 0085, and really only saw distribution in Side 3 and parts of occupied Earth during the first and second Neo-Zeon wars. It's an off-shoot, really.
"...it's kinda niche," she admits. "The first one I really got into competitively was Bigaroko Cross Hopes. And right now, I'm trying to see if they've got a copy of Dozoo Degwa Smiling With the Skies 94 edition."
The ill-fated remaster.
She looks at Arriety and thinks for a second about her other question. "I think they're good... I mean, um, when I kind of want to get my mind off things. Or lose myself." She looks at Akane. "What game are you looking for? We can help! And, um, you know... older games are great, too."
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
Arriety does, at least, also help Rena look. She can at least pick out the titles and the general look and feel of the game. Akane not being a handshake person makes Arriety feel a bit sympathetic, though... she also isn't much of one, for... well, reasons obvious to Rena that maybe aren't to others. But those thick gloves are never seen off her hands.
"She gets... really worked up about like-- what changed for multiplayer and what it means for competitive play," Arriety remarks to Akane. It's not said meanly, though, as if she's fond of it when Rena talks about her hobby. "Personally, there's so many of them I lose track..."
She scratches her cheek, as Akane admits she hasn't played much that's been out in the last seven years. And she's looking for an old game.
"We used to play this role playing game together a lot as kids, but I was mostly only interested in the story and the characters, I'd leave the numbers and the fighting and everything to Rena, who was more into that part. Someone even asked why I don't just read manga, but it's kinda nice when everything's animated and voiced..."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The barrage of information on puzzle games here is a little much; Akane retains almost none of it. She does at least try to *listen*, though, for the particular thing Rena is actually looking for. "Okay -- let's see what we can find," she says, going through the shelves. This, at least, she doesn't mind doing; it's slightly more involved than her usual type of giving, but...
She doesn't mind. "Oh, uh -- I..." ... they're gonna giggle at it. "... I'm looking for the Tarabaman X4 game? It's a lot more complicated than the usual Tarabaman game stuff, and it's got a whole second ending based on stuff they cut from the TV run. It was supposed to be a four-cours show, but they got cut down to three... I know what *happens* but it's another kinda thing to actually see it."
The topic of roleplaying games does get her attention on Arriety a bit more, and she asks, "What game was it? I've never actually watched someone else play a game through... is that a thing?" It'd be nice to have someone do that for her... some of this stuff is hard work! Then again -- who on Earth is going to want to slog through a licensed video game on *her* behalf?
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Y-Yeah, I mean... don't get me started on why Kanpeito Kampello is better," Rena says with a sigh. Her shoulders slump again, and then she looks sideways at Arriety -- and she grins for a second. Then, she looks back at Akane.
"Thanks," she says, as she starts looking through things. Her eyes blink for a second, before she looks at Akane. "Oh--oh, I heard about that! I saw the show..." When she younger, but nonetheless. "I always wanted to play it, but it came out during tourist season and all the copies got snatched up by out of towners."
She looks sideways at Arriety, then, and blinks. "It was a series--we played a few of them. It was called Shadow's Unveiled, um... you might know the cover? It had the two girls, one with blue hair and one with green. And they're holding a magical rod up together?"
She pauses. "It didn't need to be a series, but that's how we bought four games that were 20 hours each instead of one long game." She laughs, though. It's a good memory.
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
"Oh, I found it!" Arriety exclaims, pulling... well. She found Dozoo Degwa: Smiling With the Skies, but it's very clear to Rena from the fact that it's just flat out on the wrong system that she found the original 0084 release, not the remake she's looking for. "Or... is it? I'm not sure."
The topic of Tarabaman jogs Arriety's mind, though. "Oh yeah, you were into Tarabaman, right? Rena, remember that time Auntie Seo-yun took out her Tarabaman 60 tapes with the Korean dub one weekend when we were kids? We ended up watching a bunch of it together..."
Akane's comment about how it has a cut ending makes her go, "Wow... sometimes cut stuff makes it in other forms, huh? That's really neat."
Then, on the topic of RPGs... "Oh, yeah... I was never any good at the hard stuff like what swords to use or what jobs to level up, but Rena was a real pro at it. But, mm, I liked the second game's finale... that was when the main character had to fight to get her best friend back, because the Shadow had tricked her emotionally and made her think she'd betrayed her. I think I cried before it was even over... the voice acting was so good, I looked up who did it afterwards."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Ahahaa... no, yeah, I get it. Some stuff you just can't let go of," Akane offers. It's pleasant -- but at the same time, a little bit checked out. She seems to perk at Shadow's Unveiled. "... Wait, that's *from* something? Oh wow, uh. I had no idea, actually." Akane has that in a hard drive somewhere as reference art for something she considered commissioning and then never did.
"Oh, huh... I've never watched a dub of something -- wait, no, the Japanese version of Eclatant is a dub, never mind." One of the few Taraba entries that *actually* came out in a different language first -- and one of Akane's favorites but that's neither here nor there. "I'd be kinda interested in seeing how stuff changes..."
Akane looks a little enthused at the plot of this game at this point, even as she continues flipping through stacks of boxes. "Hm -- is this it?" she asks, calling Rena over, before adding, "You might enjoy X4, actually... that's probably my favorite Japanese-produced Taraba. It's kinda... not the *same* setup? But you'd probably dig it." She doesn't want to spoil *too* much, and she's pretty sure she'll bore Arriety to death if she talks about it in detail.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Hey... this is the original!" Rena exclaims. "You don't usually see it in stores anymore. I'm tempted to pick it up, too..." She looks it over -- and cracks a smile, looking quite pleased. Her eyes turn to Akane, then, and Rena nods.
"Yeah. It's... really good, actually. I'd recommend it," she says. "The relationship between the two girls is great, and there's a lot of fun moments. And if you like crunchy battle systems, it's good, but it's only necessary for the optional bosses."
Ah, Tarabaman... Rena sighs, happily with the memory.
"Mm-hm. After we moved to Winter Wonderland. Tarabaman Zora was the one I was really into..." She trails off for a moment, then sighs. "The Tarabaman 60 tapes were something else, too. I'm glad you could translate the tapes for me, though."
She looks at Akane. "It seemed like--like it kinda changed the context and not the plot? Some of the names were different, and I thought the relationships had some different tones since the actors put their own spins on it."
Rena's nose wrinkles.
Then, she hurries over. Rena's eyes widen, and she holds up the game Akane found -- and sure enough, it's a similar cover to the one Arriety did. She shows them, side-by-side. "Perfect! I didn't think I'd find both!"
She looks at Arriety, then she nods. "You should try it, Ah-ri!"
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
Arriety is excited her discovery is something Rena's excited about, even if it didn't end up being the exact thing she's looking for. She turns to Akane as she rubs her chin in thought, saying, "I think some of the names got changed... this got really confusing, because some of the text on screen was obviously not the same as what was being spoken. There was a better dub much later, I think, but Auntie's dubs were from way back in the 60s..."
Akane then sounds like she's found it -- and Rena confirms it. "Nice...!" she claps twice. The clapping sounds a bit muted with her enormous gloves. "I'm glad it was worth the trip."
She'd enjoy X4...? "Hmm... yeah, maybe I'll try it... I kinda wanted to just binge something longer. The manga I'm following start and stop a lot, since it's just individual artists doing it..."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Hmmm... well, have fun!" Akane's actually pretty pleased that Rena found what she was looking for; she wasn't sure that was even on the table, but... Part of her is tempted to buy it for her, but it's probably better for her to -- *not*, default to that urge.
She realizes she hasn't even bothered to look for the X4 game; it's now that she bothers to. She's more interested in hearing about the dub, at this point -- and pushing her X4 agenda at Arriety, a little bit. "I liked that the investigation team was so strong, and the Taraba was always kinda on the back foot... the lead boy is nice, too. Not the first Taraba host, the investigation team one." (On this point, at least, Akane is correct and normal.)
"I probably shouldn't keep you," Akane says, realizing that she is dangerously close to tipping into the rabbit hole. "Still, uh, nice to have a chance to catch up!"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Me, too," Rena says. She slides the two games atop each other -- then clutches them in her hand. She looks at Akane and grins, before she nods. "Yeah, I will. I think they'll be really good!"
She doesn't quite catch the urge to buy the games for her.
Rena hesitates for a second, though, and looks at Arriety for a second. She tilts her head, then she nods -- scanning the shelves. Maybe they'll have two copies of Tarabaman X4. Or maybe not. Or--
Akane says she shouldn't keep them. Rena looks back at her and smiles. "Yeah, it was nice to meet you! We could hang out a little longer. Uh--if you want, maybe we could all play something sometime? X4 or maybe something else? I can probably get Shadow's Veil out if I look."
The dubs, she thinks, were likely destroyed. Rena doesn't volunteer that. It's sad.
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
"Wait... so do you end up just playing it on the Ra Mari?" Arriety wonders of Rena. "I wasn't sure if you could hook consoles up to those terminals that the rooms have, or what..."
Akane explains a little more. "Oh, I kinda get it. Usually the Taraba is the main focus, and the humans are on the side... so they kinda flipped that around? That sounds neat, I guess." Arriety definitely doesn't react much to 'lead boy'. Knows her priorities.
Rena offers to have them play something together sometime, and Arriety doesn't look opposed to it. "I'd honestly just be happy to watch you play something, so I'm easy..."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
An invitation to a group activity with people who are already plenty close without her...
... Nah. That's a little much.
"Uh -- I kinda tend to play games on my own," she offers, instead, at slight strain. "Thanks for the invitation, though!" It's... *almost* a normal interaction. It's fine.
"Anyway, uh -- see you later," Akane says, with a somewhat more final nod; she slips away without poking around *too* much more for what she came for in the first place. At first she just heads into the racks...
... a little while later, though, she decides to get something to drink. It is way too hot to not have something.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Yeah, it took some rewiring," Rena says, with a shrug of her shoulders. Is that to regulation? She didn't look up the regulation, so she doesn't know if she is breaking the rules.
(She is breaking at least some rules.)
"Oh--yeah, no worries, let us know if you ever wanna," Rena says, and it's a little awkward. She waves a hand at her, as she departs, and watches a moment longer. Did she say something...?
She shakes her head. She isn't sure.
She looks back at Arriety. "Let's get you something, then we'll get going!"
<Pose Tracker> Arriety Hearn has posed.
<poem>
Akane turning down the conversation doesn't surprise Arriety one bit, because if she were in Akane's shoes, she'd probably have done the same thing. It's always awkward when other people are closer than you are... it's part of why it's so difficult for her to establish other relationships outside the Kakapos.
"Yeah, that's fair," Arriety nods, then quietly waves as she heads off. Then looks to Rena with a quiet nod. Well, that ended better than when she last met Akane, so that's a big plus for her. "Mmm, let's."