1918/Crime Simulator 2015

Crime Simulator 2015
Date of Scene:	30 March 2015
Location:	Heaven or Hell Tower <HoH>
Synopsis:	Arthur and Riva hang out at their place and play some Crime Simulator 2015 while eating pizza and drinking soda. There might also be some DEEP THOUGHT and PLANS made.
Cast of Characters:	Arthur Lowell, Riva Banari

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Riva Banari has posed:
WELCOME BACK TO THE STAGE OF HISTORY.

Well, maybe more the corner performance art of your aggregated internet news blog. Riva's arranged for some HANGOUT TIME at her place. Only fair, since last time she crashed his MAN-CAVE. Crime Simulator 2015 is already sitting on the title screen on her home theater system, and she's got a few pizzas and wings with some grape soda on hand for solid munching needs.

Riva is waiting on the couch, chilling and spinning a straw in her hand as she waits for when Arthur said he'd be by. EVERYTHING IS PERFECT.

Ish? Yes. Perfect-ish. Perfect-like. Are the pizzas too close to the soda? Oh god, you can't have warm grape soda! Riva fidgets, scooting various things around in a fit of nervousness.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    ARTHUR LOWELL is here! "YOOOO!" He calls out, greeting Riva enthusiastically. Crime Simulator is a wonderful thing to bond over, you know, and Arthur swaggers in with much enthusiasm, ignoring any and all awkwardness in part because it would be awkward for him to respond to it! Thus making his way to Riva now, he immediately initiates several complicated coolkid handshakes. "What's the HAPS? How've you been, RIVS? Since the whole DONUT DISASTER thing, and all. Shit's gettin' TENSE in a LOT of channels, you know? Things all COOL with you?"

    Oh hey, grape. Riva must have been listening. Arthur doesn't notice that, in a way, but there's the nice bit of subconscious appreciation as he grabs a quick drink and immediately breaks into the pizza without hesitation. He's very casual and doesn't judge this kind of thing, as always.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva almost leaps as Arthur arrives, catching her moving the pizzas for the sixth time in the last minute or so. She does, however, take the plunge, grinning wide as Arthur arrives and immediately burying the nervousness behind her normal Riva-grade enthusiasm. "Hey Arthur!" Riva calls, attempting to keep up with the Coolkid Special. She's getting better at it, at least! She gestures to the couch, inviting Arthur to sit down on it while she hands him a plate.

"Yeah, the thing with Melody was pretty intense." She frowns for a moment, and then shrugs. "Um, go ahead and grab anything you want! It's all hot and ready to chow!" She says, flopping back with a slice of classic pepperoni. She munches for a minute, and then nods. "Yeah, things are getting super tense. Between the Nathan and Psyber thing apparently coming to a head as well as the Mizuki thing..." She shrugs. "And then there was the 'beat up on Arthur Special' yesterday..."

She considers for another moment. "You know, what's with people just sort of accepting that some people are going to be jerks?"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur chuckles a bit. "Man," He says, sighing a little. "With PSYBER? I dunno. That's HIS CROSS, y'know? Not that I don't WANNA help him out, I just don't really know DEETS, and I'd just make it WORSE by makin' his side sound like the IGNORANT SIDE, right?" Then there's a few chuckles. "But, man, ME? Nahhhh. DON'T WORRY 'bout me. Crowraven's a JERK sometimes, but she's RESPECTFUL when it MATTERS. Won't do TOO MUCH if it'd make me REALLY unhappy." He bites a bit more into the pizza.

    "Lotta shit's COMPLICATED in the MULTIVERSE! Tough to just JUMP IN and still do ACTUAL GOOD when there's just SO MUCH COMPLICATED SHIT going on." He's gonna take a heavy swig of the soda now, as if to punctuate things.

Riva Banari has posed:
"With Psyber..." Riva pauses. "People give him a lot of crap over things. He doesn't have a chance to relax. Haruno, especially. When you hear him go super-formal? That's a tell, man. It means he's being /really careful/ to control his emotions because he's in danger of snapping. But then you see people like Haruno getting on their damn soapbox and screaming at him and telling him and Nathan to go start taking pieces out of each other just because it lets her feel vindicated." She sighs, eyerolling. "And no one calls them on it. I thought the Union wasn't supposed to endorse that kind of behavior, so now I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to fix it myself, since clearly the people in charge won't because they're too damn nice to not allow themselves to get walked all over by a crazy ninja nurse with trust issues."

It's at this point that Riva picks up one of the controllers and and loads up a save game, allow her own customized character to go start doing insanely criminal things for fun and imaginary profit. Arthur can join in with the other whenever he wants. She'll get her part off her chest first, then she'll poke at the other stuff.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur will join in on the co-op mode shortly. A pre-made, of course. He tends to choose the tanky, punchy types, more resilient than anything else. He'll not be arming up immediately, ensuring he doesn't slow things down or anything. "Well sure. I mean, like I said, it's tough on the guy, lots of people can tell. But, y'know, it's tough to act and /know/ you're acting the right way, and that's a problem for a lotta people, they have trouble with it. Hell, I got trouble with it, when it comes to social shit, you know." He's gonna stick close to Riva in-game for now. There's a slice of pizza weightlessly hovering near his face, that he still takes bites out of.

    "So, I mean, most sensible way to push forward is to help make things more... Open, I guess? Make it so more people know what's going on? That sorta stuff. Does that make sense to you?"

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva doesn't seem to be particularly worried about pushing content at the moment. She's casually rolling through some random HEISTING and maybe some CARJACKING for some joyrides on the CARMAGEDDON minigames. It looks like she's generally doing stuff she can do to make cool explosions and not think much right at the moment.

"That kinda makes sense, yeah." She replies as she ramps her car over a river. She glances over to Arthur, and then pauses, blinking at the hovering pizza, then giggles for a moment.

"But yeah, I find it weird why it seems like I'm the only person who's apparently willing to see or do anything about these things. Something big happened to Nathan too, but for a librarian, that's one hard book to read. He doesn't play his cards close to his chest, he plays them /inside/ his chest. I have no idea how to help him, I can't understand him. Psyber? I can understand him. At least, I think I do."

She sighs then, casually fishtailing through traffic and going for a creative sideswipe through a hot dog stand and a fire hydrant in order to parallel park. This might explain some of her other vehicular-related activity in real life. "Everyone seems really touchy though. I think no one's willing to actually pull triggers because they don't want to be the one to rock the boat. So people just let chunks get taken out of Nathan and Psyber and no one does anything. I'm worried, man. About them, among other things."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Nathan? Guy's a problem I don't ever wanna even look at, man. I kinda gave up on the Union angle, myself, back in the day. Pretty sure I told you that story, didn't I?" Arthur says, distractedly taking another bite out of the pizza. "Can't tell you much about him. Psyber you can figure, at least most ways, yeah. But, man, the willing to help thing?" He makes a somber, sort of conflicted noise.

    "It's tough. You're signing up to get your heart beat on a lot." Arthur's character is leaning out of the window, clotheslining any pedestrians too close to the sidewalk. "That's something a lot of people don't wanna deal with. Some people, they can't help /not/ helping. Other times, it's just... Someone else's problem you know? And like I said." His character rips off the hijacked car's door for a shield now, apparently. "It's something you have to know, and know deeply, if you're gonna help. Otherwise, you're gonna make the side you're trying to help look real stupid. Might make /you/ look dumb, sometimes. Shame's worse than punishment sometimes." Getting out of the car now, Arthur is gonna follow Riva while having his character punch dudes with that car door.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva pops her character out of the car and invades a corner store, specifically breaking one shelf with a baseball bat in order to get a drop of a bag of cheese puffs. she strolls out, letting Arthur pulverise anything he wants to as she strolls down the street towards a bank. "No, you never told me why you didn't decide to hook up with them. I always figured you guys felt you owed too much to both sides to pick one or the other since they all helped you deal with Super Meteor Armageddom Death Game. I like the Syndicate though. You guys feel like you're getting things done."

They walk into the bank, and Riva starts going on a clobbering spree, subduing bank guards with her bat while Arthur covers her with the car door shield. "You're probably right. But I feel like I can't just ignore it. People are hurting, and it's a tough situation." Said while she engages in clobbering a pixellated security guard. "I'm not worried about myself. I know I'm not super-smart. I just... feel. I'm good at feeling, not so good at thinking. I know it's a weakness of mine but that's just how it is. I learned a lot about how people work in college and... afterwards. Helped me more than my math courses, I'll tell you that much." Crunch.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Took 'em ages to do jack shit about one of their own threatening to kill one of my best friends at the time. 'Cause he called her a mean name on the internet." Arthur says. "See, that sounds like hyperbole but it's not. Thing is, people just don't wanna get involved. Shit's tough. Maybe I coulda done more in the Union, but I can't deal with that, you know?"

    He is looting weapons as he goes, gracefully manipulating his soda on the side with his spells. "Honestly, stick with feelin' here. Only way to go, really. Long as feeling doesn't regularly make people hurt more, you know, better than what most everyone else has got. Most people don't have /any/ idea, least you got a hunch." He's vacuuming up all the stray cash until they can get proper payoff. "If you wanna help, I say go for it. Just, you know, there's reasons why everyone else doesn't. Big ones, kinda."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva winces, the revelation causing her to mess up stunlocking a guard and taking a shot. She still has plenty of health though, so she gets right back to work. After a few minutes, the place is guard-free, the alarm is blaring merrily, and people are all cowering in corners or running. Riva doesn't seem too concerned. She heads to the vault door and starts placing some C-4. Looks like she's going to blow the vault. "That's crazy. I mean, I guess people sometimes go a bit crazy working on the Multiverse but /man/. If you're gonna threaten a dude's life, at least make it over something important." She sighs.

"I guess I'll just rush in where angles fear to tread. It's good to be the fool sometimes. There might be big reasons why people don't do anything about it, but you know... IF it was /easy/ it wouldn't be worth /doing/, right?" She says the last with a sudden intensity, almost as if she was chewing off the words as she hits the trigger on the C-4, the explosion basically punctuating her words. She clicks the vault, signaling Arthur to go ahead and get his loot on while she does... something. Methodically, she begins dragging all the unconscious people out of the bank.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Yeah, it was pretty shitty." That's about all Arthur has to say about his negative Union experiences there.

    "Being the fool's how you grow. You ever read the tarot shit, man?" Arthur says, swiftly moving onto the other topic as swiftly as he dashes into the vault. "Only way to learn's to smash headfirst into shit you don't know, right? Be stupid long enough that you learn how to not do it. Not that you look like the fool right now. That ninja chick's kind of being a bitch. No offense to her, if she's here and invisible or whatever." He's abusing the car door hitboxes to smash piles of bagged money out the vault door.

    "Point is, go the way you're going, I say. You know I don't like gettin' judgy or anything, but I'll judge this sort of thing and approve it." Shoveling the piles out the front door, he starts packing them into a car.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva doesn't press on that. She continues dragging the unconscious people out of the building, laying them out in a near row in front of the bank at a specific distance. She sets them up in casual positions, like sitting on benches and stuff. Then she sends all the remaining people in the bank running out, herding them into the street and letting them run around however they will.

Then she switches back to her C-4 stock and starts placing more of them. If Arthur looks over, he'll notice she has 496 units left in her ammo.

Oh God.

"I'm glad you approve. It means a lot to me." Riva says warmly... And then she suddenly shifts tone again to her prodding tone. "So what's with all those people giving you crap? You're a chill dude. You bave basically no enemies I know of, and you're a badass Mage of Space." She is pretty sure she /knows/ why but she'll let Arthur reply first.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur chuckles at the number, but doesn't comment. Screenwatching's for jerks, even in co-op. He does watch the people though, as always. And then Riva brings up the issue of his friends. Arthur's character gets back into the car, as if he's retreating a bit. "Oh, y'know... Not anything BIG. It's just FRIENDLY TEASING, I guess. CROWRAVEN'S a COOL GIRL, she's respectful when it... MATTERS, I guess, y'know?" He shrugs and chuckles in a good-natured tone. "I mean, HANGING OUT a bit with ELSA, it's not really a BAD THING, she was SORTA HELPING."

    He laughs a bit, slightly nervously. "It's not as bad as it LOOKS, for a couple REASONS. I mean, everyone ELSE kinda piles on." He makes an uneasy, sort of 'eye-rolling' noise. "And THEY don't really have the REDEEMING PARTS. But FUCK 'EM, not like their opinions MATTER."

Riva Banari has posed:
"I dunno, it seemed pretty relentless. It's almost like they know your deal and were looking for reactions, even if that's totally not what you're fully like. But at least if Crowraven chills when it matters, that's cool." Once Riva's done setting the entire place up with explosives, she exits the entrance, standing near bht building and fidgeting around to get oriented just right, standing next to the car and facing away from the building.

"You know, I wouldn't mind helping you too, if you wanted. I mean, two's better than one, right?" She says with perhaps a little too much casualness. "But it sounds like you have a good outlook on it. You don't have to prove anything to those chucklenuts." She starts putting shades on all of the unconscious people while she's at it, and changes her gear to put on a pair herself, then gets back in position.

She clicks a couple times to give Arthur the time to prep for what's going to come next. Riva uses that bag of cheesy puffs, going through the emote while she hits the detonator.

The bank behind them explodes, physics objects flying everywhere while the walls somehow contain the blast of a hundred blocks of C-4. Riva saves a screenshot while everythingis flying past, making sure to put Arthur's character in a good spot in the foreground with her. "Because we're /awesome/."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur chews his lip a bit. Little conflict on the mind there. "Nah, I'm COOL about it. Honestly, if I WASN'T, I don't keep that shit BOTTLED. I mean, I TALK that shit out. I'll TELL dudes, I just won't make a HUGE DEAL of it all the time." He sighs a bit, leaning back, letting his character sit in the car for a while, but watching the bank.

    "You know the problems I CARE about. Shit like MIZUKI'S WORLD, you know, THAT stresses me out. Some chump thinks I'm GIRLY, who gives a FUCK? I'm the guy ridin' high on the BIGGEST and most SUCCESSFUL fuckin' ADVENTURES and ADMINISTRATION job since the big stupid CRIPS AND BLOODS multiversal faction nonsense started up, runnin' off a PLANET I built with my HANDS." He chuckles. "HONEST FACT, I don't really LIKE IT, but EH. Crowraven needs some HUMAN CONTACT, stuff to make her LAUGH."

    He grins a bit more genuinely at the explosion. "Aw yeah." Is all he really has to say about that.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva, for a moment, doesn't look like she really buys that, but she just nods. "Maybe I should go visit Crowraven and pester them for a while." She chuckles. "But in the meantime, you're right. But the Mizuki thing is almost done. For now. And soon it'll all be over. We're gonna push that to the end and do a touchdown dance in the party afterwards. God, we'd all have earned one, right?"

The explosion is awesome. And no one's looking at it, not even the unconscious/possibly dead people who are pulling a Weekend At Bernie's. Riva gets in the car after the photo op is over, and then starts joyriding around. "We just have to hold up and remember what we're here for, right?"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur laughs a bit. "Awww, don't give 'em TOO MUCH SHIT on MY account, Rivs. They're a COOL GIRL. Get to KNOW 'EM, I think you'll LIKE 'EM. They're kinda... NOT GOOD like, not a GOOD GUY, but they're not EVIL or anything." He sheepishly scratches the back of his head. "MOSTLY, I mean." He leans back, though, after that. "Man. Yeah, it's gonna be worth it in the end. Pain's all necessary and stuff like that, believe me I know that better than anyone."

    He puts down the controller -- Riva's driving, that's alright -- long enough to rub his face in an exhausted kind of way. "Gonna be a hell of a time, the last bit, though. I'm uh... I admit I'm kinda not looking forward to it. 'Cause it's gonna be /really/ painful. Sophie -- Apathy, I mean -- had a plan, but, there's a sort of 'necessary loss' part of it that I'm gonna be trying to stop. Same old shit I can't explain situation, but, yeah. Let's... Take a day off after that day. Hang out a bit probably. God, we need to do that more."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva drives around, evading the cops and eventually just coming to a park with the car on top of a hill, lodging the vehicle nicely on top of a tree for a great view of the city while the sun sets over the ocean. The trail of fire and mayhem behind the car probably keeps it under dangerous romance levels.

"Nah, I'm not going to give him crap." She pauses. "Much." She leans back, setting the controller aside and leaning back on the couch, folding her hands behind her head. "It's just like you said. He needs human contact, right? I'm human, I'll pester him. I figure if I'm going to hang out with you, I should get to know the rest of the crew, right?"

She goes quiet, as she thinks about the Sophie/Mizuki thing. "There's a lot of ugly stuff that's about to go down. I can feel it in my bones, man. But I believe in you." She leans over and gives Arthur a playful punch in the arm. "You big man on campus," She laughs. "We both know some of what's up. You more than me, to be sure. Just tell me what to do when things go down. I'll back you up one hundred percent."

She leans back again. "After... Yeah. Definately going to need to hang out again. Maybe at an amusement park or something."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Man, you're making the same mistake I did." Arthur says, laughing a bit. "'She'. I ever tell you, Crowraven made me think she was a dude for years? Same with goddamn Val too." He shakes his head, smiling. "Man, I miss the days when gender bullshit was the seriously gripping problems I had to deal with."

    Then he remains quiet a while. "It's good having you to back me up, Rivs. I know I don't say it much, and I know I take the help even less, but it is actually really fuckin' helpful just to have the help to take if I need it. You know like how some circus dude can do mad flips with all the confidence in the world, 'cause he knows there's a net there to catch him if he fucks up?" He grabs another swift swig of the soda. "That's what I mean. It really help. Y'know, supporting and all. One of these days I'm gonna fuck up my mad flips and I'm sure as hell gonna be glad you're here offering to help."

    Then he chuckles a moment. "Well, hey! I've got two tickets to an amusement park on Afterus. Crowraven tried to foist 'em on me to go use 'em with Elsa. Dunno if she even wants 'em, the romance danger of the gesture could make one of us spontaneously combust. Anyway, you wanna hang out, she's actually pretty reasonable about stuff, all the jokes aside, could just reuse that."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva laughs in return. "I can see why you'd prefer that. But he's a she, huh? I didn't even notice. They're good actors, I guess!"

Riva grabs some soda herself and takes a long drink. "No man's an island, Arthur. There's no shame in getting a hand up when bad crap happens. You know that, and I know that. That's why we're in this together, you hear?" She winks at that. "Just don't be surprised if I end up needing you more often. Gotta pay it back when I can, you know?"

She tilts her head at that. "And goes Crowraven again. That's kind of thoughtful though, nice of her to give you a hand up. The romance danger though, huh? You sure Elsa wouldn't mind?" She ponders for a moment. "Well, I'm down for it! It's been ages since I've been to a park."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Elsa's actually a lot more on the ball here than you'd think." Arthur says, shrugging. "I mean, sure, she makes a big show of acting out all the romance anime tropes or whatever, but I'm pretty sure she'll be totally OK if you talk it over seriously." He chuckles makes a sort of broad, sheepish gesture with his hands. "Seriously. Way I've learned it, all kinds of shit looks tons more difficult 'till you try just talking it out openly like honest dudes. Anyway, romance danger with her 'cause she's into me, nothing for you, logically."

    He nudges at Riva's side. "You know you can count on me, though. You need backup, I'm there. I don't care if you need it more than I need it, half the fun of it right? I'm done with my big disaster, not gonna force you through another big one." He stretches in a relaxed sort of way. "Least, if I can help it, anyway. Don't worry, helpin' other people like you is a pretty big part of getting what I need outta stuff too."

Riva Banari has posed:
"Yeah, I guess I should talk things over with her, make sure we're all clear on things." Riva says with a nod. Elsewhere a DOOM COUNTER might go up a notch. "See? You've got all the good advice. How can people not want to be all chill with you?" Perhaps MYSTERIOUSLY, she hairflips, her expression casual as Arthur outlines why Elsa is more dangerous than Riva at the park. Play it cool, Riva, PLAY IT COOL.

She giggles again as Arthur gives her a nudge back. "You don't have to worry about forcing me through anything, Arthur. I'll jump through fire with you anytime. And then I'll drag your butt along on mine. We'll have all of the adventures. All of them."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Fuckin' MYSTERY, I tell you. LOT of 'em do, though. Wanna be CHILL, I mean." Arthur says, mostly looking in a thoughtful way at the view still on the screen. "You know, when it MATTERS and all. That's the MOST IMPORTANT TIME." And then he sighs, in an easygoing sort of way. He seems really relaxed, right now! "Like I said, Rivs. Having you around to back me up, even if I'm not exactly pulling all the big assists outta you, it's a real relief. Tones down the stress a bunch. I mean, you don't gotta do it, but doing it, man, it really helps. Looking forward to all those adventures. Hell if I know what comes after this though. Dealing with the Honnoujis? Focus on the Black Lodge shit? Man, there's way too much crazy shit going on."

Riva Banari has posed:
"Whatever happens, I'll be there, man. That's what's important." Riva assures him. "In the meantime, we've got crime time to do, and this pizza and soda won't get handled themselves!"

Eat, drink, and be merry...