The Legend of Laurinda [Open/Closed]

[extremelycute]

Who: Ayu Maruyama (Miu Matsuoka) and open; Ayu and Natsume Maruyama (Nakigitsune)
Where: A local video game store; Ayu's house
Summary: It's time to treat herself, so Ayu heads to her favorite place to forget about the app; later, she and her brother tiptoe around discussing the same app while playing an old video game
Warnings: N/A

[Game On; Open]

[It’s been a rough...what, week and a half now? She’s just a kid, it’s not like she’s keeping track of the days or anything. That strange app she can’t show mom. She hasn’t even showed Natsu. Part of her feels like she’d be in big trouble if they found out she’s be talking to strangers with the cavalier attitude she’s been employing, like some sort of internet troll. Part of her is just...worried. And it’s not fair, Ayu thinks, it’s not fair to be worried about something so intense when she hasn’t done anything wrong.

As a result, Ayu decides that Wednesday is the perfect day to treat herself. She can forget all that stuff about Miu Matsuoka, people stealing vegetables, real and fake Baalberiths, and creepy chatrooms. She wanders into the local video game store (GameShop?) and starts looking for a cheap game to enjoy. Of course, she gets distracted several times along the way. Anyone looking to buy video games (or maybe comics or other nerd items, come on) might notice Ayu putting the display figurines in questionable poses.]

They’ve decided to embrace a life of sin and divorce.

[That’s what she’ll say if she gets caught. She’ll also flip through the latest comics and peruse the DVDs before finally settling on an old game from the portable game section and rushing home with some sodas.]

[The Legend of Laurinda; closed to Natsume/Nakigitsune]

[When he gets home, Ayu has already invaded his room. But that’s okay. He’s not like other teenage boys. There aren’t dirty socks on the floor or dirty magazines in his mattress (she pretended to check once just to get a reaction from him), so she feels pretty safe about invading his personal space. Instead, there’s a giant bowl of potato chips right on the floor like it’s not a great way to attract ants. She’s also busy hooking up an old system to her big brother’s TV, and he enters just in time to hear a familiar chime, a start-up movie movie playing right after.

The Legend of Laurinda: Chain’s Wakening.

She steps back, proud of her handiwork. She might not have the newest system, but the older ones come with all those cool gadgets so you can play handheld games on them.]

Wow, this game’s even older than I am. Hey, what’s that look for? You should be excited! You love Chain. Or you will. Probably.

Comments

[kouteipenguin]

[She's not the only one who's had this idea. Michi's been in the market for more distractions than ever before lately, and it's gotten to the point he's willing to trade in some things in order to get new ones. He wanders in, stack of already beaten games in hand, and on his way to the counter he slows... stops...

For a while, he just takes in what he's seeing. Endmyth 5's Lierth and Kuma Daivus have been painstakingly positioned to the very limits of their articulation, fawning over the questionably armored final boss of a completely different game. Even Gonky Gonk is somehow in on this, despite being a legged puffball with no arms. It takes him about that long for the amusement to overtake the astonished surprise on his face, and he's immediately heading over towards her as she moves on to see what she can do with Vetta. The tail doesn't seem to bend, which might limit options...

The explanation just makes that better. He could judge this, or...]

Oh yeah? I think they're missing Duskalor.

[He reaches for said multi-armed spider person to hand her. Needs more freaky boss characters - if she's going to mess with them, go for broke.]

[extremelycute]

[The tail doesn't bend, but Mikoshi the Dinosaur has a really wide open mouth. If she elevates Vetta just a little, she can slide it just right to make it seem like Mikoshi is ready to chow down on this poor dude's tail. And she can slide it just right. She is dedicated to her craft of making the employees groan whenever they leave her alone for too long.]

Oh. Hey. That's a good idea—I was wondering who I'd use for this final bit. Make sure no one's coming, okay?

[Ayu accepts the display figurine and...pops his head off before setting him next to one of the others. She then pops the head off of Rukumi the Casino Bunny Girl and places it on Duskalor's body and vice versa.]

[kouteipenguin]

[Michi's eyebrows shoot up in complete surprise when she pulls Duskalor's horrifying head right off his body. He hastily agrees, but he's not paying as much attention as he should be. Curiosity pulls his attention back to the stand to see what she could possibly be doing. When she pulls the head off of Rukumi, though, he starts laughing, and that laughter only increases in volume as she switches them out.

Duskalor poses menacingly, all six muscular arms spread out, menacing clawed hands aimed forwards to catch or parry anything that comes his way. He crouches low on muscled legs. His scarred chest and hairy back support a wide, innocent smile and red doe eyes. A cascade of auburn hair falls down his spiked back. To complete the image, his small horns are replaced by floppy bunny ears. And Rukumi looks hilarious - a snarling, mandibled horror with a curvaceous body and not much clothing to hide it.]

Perfect. That's the best thing - hang on. I've got to get a photo of this.

[And he digs out his phone, ignoring a certain app that's larger on his screen than it used to be, tabbing to the camera...]

[extremelycute]

[It's a real work of art. Back home, back before she moved to Eddan, she'd have been able to afford figurines like these. Without her dad in the picture, she has to resort to playing with display toys and buying hand-me-downs. Or relying on her uncle, who is so shady that it's kind of cool. Ayu would so love to take home Rukumi as she is now. She's even more perfect like this. She can only imagine Natsume's reaction if she were to place this on her desk.

But a photo is good, too. She steps just a little out of the way.]

I hope I can have a giant insect mouth like Rukumi someday. Ahhh, it's so hard being a girl...

[Yet another unrealistic body expectation. Fortunately or not, she's watching his phone as he boots it up. That's. That's definitely the same orange that's been haunting Ayu for the past forever (a slight exaggeration). She hurriedly fishes out her own phone—she's never met anyone in person with the app.]

Hey—I have that, too! That same thing!

[She drops her own phone in the struggle to free it from her bag as quickly as possible, but at least she managed to unlock it. There, on the floor, there's the same app button.]

[kouteipenguin]

What?

[I have that, too. Michi's fingers stall, his need to take a photo completely forgotten. That's nowhere near as important as the fact she could see the app. This girl can see the app! This earns her Michi's undivided attention as she fumbles with her phone, eventually sending it clattering to the floor.

Michi bends down to pick it up, staring at the app with wide eyes. There was no mistaking it.
That was the same thing.]

That's ... No way. There's no way.

[extremelycute]

What do you mean there's no way? It's right there!

[She snatches her phone (or attempts to! he is older and bigger, after all) back. Why is this random kid in a store the only person she knows who has the app? She'd been meaning to talk to Natsume about it...that's part of why she's shopping for a fun game to play, but. But. Ayu just isn't prepared for this.

She hasn't really mentally prepared for most of this.]

I tried showing it to my mom and she couldn't even see it. I almost had my phone taken away for her thinking I was trying to prank her. So how come you have it?

[kouteipenguin]

[He's not going to hold onto the phone. If she makes a move to snatch it, Michi easily lets it go. What he won't do is immediately recover after this.

In theory, all of those names on the app belonged to real people, but he hadn't really connected that to the possibility of ever meeting any of them. They were names on a screen. Michi never considered this could happen until suddenly he's confronted with it. What does he do? What does he say?

Fortunately at least one of them has words. It jumpstarts Michi into talking.]

It just installed itself on my phone! I even reset it to factory default to try to get rid of it! I have no clue why it's on my phone and not someone else's... it's the same for you, right?

[extremelycute]

Ah...I didn't try resetting my phone. I have too much currency in my cellphone games. I'm waiting to pull for all my favorites, you know.

[At least Ayu is brutally honest, right? She stares down at the phone in her hand, tempted to open the app and see what other people are talking about. Or maybe to show this other kid that her name in the app is 'Beall' and see if they've spoken. She's trolled a lot of people with her responses, but she's become quieter as the app rested on her phone, as it became more threatening and ominous.]

I don't know why it's on mine, either. At first, I thought it was kind of cool, kind of like a secret chatroom where I can't get in trouble. But now I sort of feel like I'm always in trouble. That kind of feel.

[kouteipenguin]

[He still almost can't believe he's hearing this. It somehow makes it feel just that much more real, listening to someone voice thoughts that either of them would have been completely unable to say to anyone else. Freeing, but terrifying at the same time. He just nods.]

Yeah. No matter what I do, there's something that's watching me. I can't stand it, but what can I do? That's how it's been for me ever since the stupid thing showed up.

Oh, uh. I'm Michi. By the way.

[foxhands]

[It's been a rough week for Natsume, too; he'd been planning to come home, flop on his bed, space out for a bit...a nice short break from thinking, from all the stress of both the increasingly worrisome mystery app and helping the theater club prepare for the flower festival.

And then that familiar sound rings out from his room.

He looks at Ayu, at the TV, back at Ayu again.]

...Maybe this is my excited face. [Dumping his backpack by the wall, he plops himself down next to his sister and grabs a handful of chips.] Is he going to wake up before or after saving Laurinda?

[extremelycute]

Well, he looks awake dead right now.

[She points at the screen. In the opening cinematic, it does indeed look like he's just lying on a beach, dead to the world.]

But what do I know? I've never played it before. If we don't press start, maybe he'll rot away eventually. It's like he keeps getting back on the ship and dying on the beach.

[foxhands]

[It's true, he definitely looks dead right now...but we all know he'll be alive again once you press start. It's the way of video game protags.]

Maybe you can play as a zombie, if you wait long enough. [Or wait 180 times for that special color intro!

....Not that he can wait that long. His patience is about as long as this bowl of chips, I gotta be honest here.]

That egg looks tasty.

[extremelycute]

I doubt it. This game probably isn't that fancy. Not like the later Laurinda games, anyways.

[Ayu has a few of them herself. Or they share them. Either/or. She prefers competitive go-karting games, but these are pretty cool.]

I bet the egg is the final boss and you have to soft boil it. I always leave my eggs in the water too long for that. If they ask us to boil it for a few minutes, I'll just walk away and forget, so we're doomed from the start.

[But it's time to play! This system has a wired controller, so she helps herself to sitting on the edge of Natsume's bed.]

Ah, what should we name him? We're not going to stick with Chain, right?

[foxhands]

That sounds like a pretty tasty boss, though. Maybe you could fry it instead, that sounds more interesting.

[Edible either way! Also let's say they share their games, that's the sibling thing to do.]

...There's not enough space for Usamin......how about Fluffy?

[extremelycute]

I think you're going soft on me.

[Get it? Fluffy? She's hilarious. She hums for a second, but eventually Ayu keys in a name. It's the most hilarious name.]

There. I named him Umaibo.

[She stares at Natsume expectantly. Is he going to take the controller and re-enter the name, or is he going to accept this fate? She even leans forward a little...the controller is right there...time to see how tough her big brother is.]

[foxhands]

[If Ayu stares at Natsume she'll see him staring thoughtfully at the screen, an uncrunched potato chip held up to his mouth. Hmmmmmm.........crunch.]

Sounds good to me.

[Your brother is an Usamin-loving nerd, the toughest guy in town! He hides issues of Cat Fancy under his mattress! Naming your character Umaibo is encouraging him to eat the rest of the snacks while you're busy playing!]

[extremelycute]

...You're too easy.

[She mock-sighs and swings her legs over the bed so she's facing the television more squarely.

And then Ayu starts to play. She talks to the village girl Karen, and then Umaibo is off to find the sword at the beach.]

So, Natsume...you know, you're a pretty quiet guy. Sometimes, I worry your voice is just going to up and leave someday. I've heard of it happening before.

[truthkills]

[Kiran's got a big box full of gaming crap that he is pretty sure is stolen, so clearly the right thing to do is to unload it on some poor idiot before the police come sniffing around. He just hadn't been expecting to run into his niece here.]

Excellent composition, but you might want to watch out for the guy with the shoulder pads, looks like he's gonna fall over and everyone with him.

[He should maybe not offer this critique while he is still holding his box.]

[extremelycute]

...You're right. He's not ready to be on top of so many people yet.

[Is that a sex joke? Probably not. Ayu has tremendous power to repeat thing she's heard on TV and read in books, though, so who knows? She adjusts the figure, folding his arms at his side and then placing him off to the side, face down.]

I can't believe they killed shoulder pads guy. ...Woah, are those all trade-ins? Looks like someone's having a good day.

[truthkills]

Rest in peace, shoulder pads guy.

[He looks down at the box.]

Yeah, I'm gonna see how much they'll give me for the lot.

[Probably not much; this racket's more of a ripoff than he is, as far as he's concerned.]

[extremelycute]

I'd say he had a good life, but that'd be a lie.

[Why sugarcoat it? He's just an action figure.]

Hey, if you get even anything back, that's still good. I'm pretty surprised. You never seem to run out of ways to get money.

[Ayu's had a rough few days, but she still finds her uncle inspiring.]

[truthkills]

That's my job! Making sure I stay solvent, keeping the old cash flow going.

[It is entirely possible the poor employee behind the counter there has realized exactly who's hauled in a big box of crap and is wishing he were anywhere else.]

[extremelycute]

[Ayu notices the man, too. She knows that expression anywhere. She gets it herself whenever she has to deal with school staff.]

Wow, that guy recognizes you. He looks kinda scared. What did you do to him?

[truthkills]

Haggled with him.

[Look, you don't get very far in Kiran's current profession without being good at driving a hard bargain.

The poor employee visibly pales when Kiran sets that box of stuff down on the counter. It's a big box.]

[extremelycute]

Did you haggle with him, or did you throw something at him?

[It's an honest question! But Ayu is curious so she walks over the counter, placing her elbows on the countertop and staring up at the cashier.]

What are you gonna do, huh? Are you gonna fly or fight?