Scene #3669: Satou and Evangeline at the Arcade

Owner	Pose
Evangeline	The little Neuroi known as Evangeline had a day off today. She didn't really understand days off, since she didn't get tired the way humans did, but regardless her commanding officer insisted. So, she has come to the Recreation branch of the Njorun station. Right now, she is in an arcade. She is mostly being a wallflower, just watching others playing games and trying to stay out of the way. Which is fairly easy when one can float around effortlessly. At the moment she is watching someone play a popular shooting game. Dinosaurs pop up, and the player uses a replica gun to shoot them in the game. It is intriguing to her because she doesn't use guns like this. And also dinosaurs are pretty cool, being big lizards and all.
Tatsuto Satou	The teenaged Tamer named Tatsuto doesn't really have 'off days'. But sometimes he just needs to get out of work and just... chill for a while. And what better way to do that than at the arcade? It's not the arcade he usually goes to, but once he walks in he's completely in his element, immediately straying over to the first game he doesn't recognise - a light gun game about shooting dinosaurs! ...Why does he have a yellow puppy on his head? How weird.
Evangeline	Evangeline, with her dark form and quiet manner, would be easily missed as Satou moves up toward the game. It probably isn't until he is either seated in the game seat or standing beside whoever is that he might notice the featureless face peering over the top of the chairs. Evangeline tilts her head slightly, then reaches an arm out toward the yellow puppy. Is it a digimon? Her slender fingers extend from her sleeve-like arm and she gives it a gentle scraching along the top of its head.
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto doesn't notice Evangeline for probably far too long - he can get pretty engrossed just waiting for a chance to play a game! - but after a few moments, he turns his head slightly and spots her. And then he leaps about an inch into the air in surprise! Plotmon blinks at Evangeline... and does absolutely nothing to shy away from that petting. Petting is good!
Evangeline	Evangeline's hand pulls back when Tatsuto jumps like that. "...ah...hello Satou...are you alright..?" she says in her soft voice, probably a little hard to hear over the arcade sounds. She then reaches out again and gives Plotmon some pettings. "...this is an interesting game...those digital dinosaurs are trying to eat people...so these children are defending the digital people..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto puts one hand on his heart and takes a deep breath. "Jesus how are you so stealthy..." He laughs a bit, rubbing the back of his head. Plotmon hops off of his head and onto the back of the arcade machine's chair - luckily, it's not currently occupied! "I uh... yeah, I guess? Heh. You're meant to pretend the characters are 'real', I think."
Evangeline	Evangeline tilts her head slightly as Tatsuto asks about stealth. "...I am not stealthy..." she says, then watches Plotmon hop onto the chair. The current player takes a dino claw to the face, ending his session, and groans before getting up. "That was totally unfair!" the kid complains. Evangeline tilts her head again, then does a forward flip in mid air to land in the chair. "...do you wish to play..?" she says to Tatsuto, slowly holding one of the corded guns to him. "...I have plenty of tokens..." Evangeline holds out her other hand, and coins just...sprout from her sleeve and into her palm. Plenty to pay for both of them.
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto looks a little taken-aback as those tokens suddenly appear. Then he grins, and hops into the seat beside her. "I'd be lying if I claimed to not be a complete dork about videogames. Sure, if you're paying~" Then he lowers his voice. "Those, uh, tokens are legit, right? You didn't 'replicate' them or anything...?" Plotmon pouts. "Plotmon wants to play!"
Evangeline	Evangeline is quiet a few moments after the question, then she just slowly turns her head toward the coin slot and deposits the tokens, enough for a couple of lives for each of them. "...I cannot replicate..." she says, then she carefully raises her gun toward the screen. "...Plotmon must wait his turn..." she says, then gives him a pat on the head. The game resets, and the intro story comes up. It's a classic story. Scientists make dinosaurs. Scientists get eaten by dinosaurs. Survivors have to make their way out of the park, starting on foot. The game certainly does a good job of setting things up, though. A dark, stormy night. No electricity. Just handguns to start out with against dangerous carnivorous dinos. "...do not let them eat us..." Evangeline says to Satou.
Tatsuto Satou	"Plotmon is a girl!" Plotmon retorts, only mildly indignantly. Tatsuto just snickers a bit. "Then act like one~" he teases her. Tatsuto grins at Eva. "...Just so you know, this isn't the sort of game I'm one of the top-ranked players in my entire world at." He steadies the light gun with both hands. "But I'll do my best!"
Evangeline	"...then...after we are eaten...we will have to play a game at which you excel..." Evangeline says to Satou, then looks to Plotmon. "...I'm sorry...but you must still wait your turn...even if you are a girl..." she says before turning her head back to the game. She seems quite unused to holding a gun. She can do it easily enough, but her posture and technique are hardly top notch. She has probably never actually aimed a gun. The game finally gets to the playable session, and to start there are just smaller things. Some little green dinosaurs the size of a boot that leap at your face. Even with their lack of skill, the half dozen or so small dinos are easily dealt with. Then, an entire swarm of the tiny terrors appears. Easily 30 of them. What follows is a mad shooting gallery of dinos as they try to overwhelm the two players, who's characters are on predetermined tracks that proceed without any sayso from the players. "...there are so many..." Evangeline says as she tries desperately to shoot as many as she can, but keeps missing the small targets.
Tatsuto Satou	Despite Tatsuto not excelling at these sorts of games, he's still played more of them than Evangeline probably has! He's pretty quick to empty his 'magazine' before pointing the gun out of the window to reload and quickly re-aquiring his targets. His aim is... better than Eva's, probably, but it's still not to the level of a pro. Still, he takes out more dinosaurs than she does... barely! "Don't worry, we'll get a powerup after this last wave. Just hang in there!" They're pretty low on health already...
Evangeline	Evangeline keeps shooting, and reloads finally when the game notifies her how. They make it through the tiny dinos with just barely any life. Evangeline lowers her gun a bit. "...we made it..." she says, and just as Tatsuto said, they get a powerup that restores their life. Then, the characters come across a jeep, and the driver is under attack from those little dinos! If they can save him, they might be able to ride out of the park! Of course, judging by their last effort, it might be difficult. But, there are only about six dinos, clinging to the man at different levels on his body. "...save him..." Evangeline says, then starts shooting.
Tatsuto Satou	"I'd try even if it wasn't obviously the only way to progress," Tatsuto murmurs, as he keeps on shooting! He ends up shooting the NPC a few times, which... doesn't really help them very much. He did say he didn't excel at these sorts of games! Plotmon is cheering the two on from the back of the seat. She'd probably be waving little pompoms if she had hands!
Evangeline	The shooting of the NPC doesn't help much, but as it is the main way to progress their shots don't quite kill the guy, and their on target shots manage to save him. He thanks them, then hops in the jeep and motions for them to follow. The characters leap into the back seat and the jeep starts down the trail. It is a fairly wide trail, with lots of sky overhead. Seems pretty peaceful! Until...an earsplitting screech! The camera pans up, and there are pterasaurs flying in overhead, ready to snatch the players and the driver out of the jeep! Their sharp talons rend at the players as they ride along, with only their pistols to defend them! Evangeline is already better at aiming, but these things are fast. Every 10 seconds or so one dives down and tries to slash them, or pecks at them. It seems impossible to stop them, until an accidental shot to a wing downs one in a single shot. Then, Evangeline starts aiming for those wings. Her aim still isn't great, but with Satou's help, they should be able to fight the fliers off!
Tatsuto Satou	"Man, non-VR games are so disorienting sometimes," Tatsuto comments conversationally while fighting off the giant flying lizards! "I keep thinking I should be aiming UP..." Once he sees Eva accidentally hit a wing and take one of the pterosaurs down in one hit, he also switches up his tactics! Unfortunately, their resources are running low... will they make it past this wave before they run out of health?!
Evangeline	"...it is confusing..." Evangeline agrees, since the game is looking up for them at various times instead of them aiming up. And it turns out...no. They will not make it before running out of health. A pair of the things comes in and slashes them at the same time, finishing them off. But, as the screen goes red a big 'CONTINUE?!' comes up with a counter. Evangeline pauses, then looks to Satou. "...do you want to keep going?" she asks as the counter counts down.
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto shrugs a bit. "If you want. Are you having fun? If you are, put those tokens in and we'll keep trying!" He gives her an encouraging grin. They have a few spectators now, but Tatsuto is ignoring them.
Evangeline	Evangeline seems to stare at Tatsuto a few moments, then she raises her light gun again and nods. "...then...we will keep trying..." she says. They still have a credit, so she hits the continue button and the screen starts a new countdown. 5...4...3...2...1... The game picks up from where they left off, the two pterasaurs flying away. Seems they died just before the end of that section, because then trees cover the sky and the camera pans forward. "It looks like we're safe!" the NPC says. The drive is peaceful a few moments, then...a steady 'crash! crash! crash!' can be heard, and with a mighty roar a terrifying T-rex breaks through the underbrush and starts after them! Evangeline is actually startled when he crashes through, and raises her off hand as if she is going to actually attack. There is even a momentary red glow at the end of her arm. Then...she lowers it and the glow disappears. "...he...surprised me..." she says as the Rex closes in on them. "Shoot its legs! Maybe it'll go away!" the driver shouts.
Tatsuto Satou	Plotmon actually barks at the screen when the t-rex appears! Seems Eva wasn't the only one who was surprised! "Oh man, a t-rex already?!" Tatsuto hasn't played this game before. "Okay, better do what the NPC says," he comments, shooting at the thing's legs!
Evangeline	The T-rex is fast! The jeep is just not fast enough to outpace it! Evangeline starts shooting at the legs as well, but it keeps closing in! And then, it roars as it plunges its head down, ready to eat one of them! The entire screen fills with T-rex maw! Time slows in the game for a few moments as target markers appear, giving them a chance to avoid getting chomped if they can shoot them all! Evangeline does her best, but can only get 3 out of the 8 markers!
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto nearly jumps out of his seat. There's a sharp BEEP from his pocket for... some reason... as he tries to make up for Eva only getting three! But... he only gets four. WELP!
Evangeline	CHOMP! Although in real life one of the characters would be dead, in the game it just takes away half of their life bar before the T-rex falls back and gives them another chance to shoot its legs. Evangeline turns just slightly toward Tatsuto. "...are you alright..?" she asks before looking back and firing some more. "...I hope he doesn't make it to us again..." she says as she fires. Similar targets appear this time on the T-rex's legs, and Evangeline is able to hit about half of them, but by then the T-Rex is ready to chomp on them again!
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto isn't really good enough to finish off the T-rex's leg markers. He's actually panicking a bit! He doesn't want to let Eva down but he's not really much better at this game than she is..! So when the t-rex comes back to chomp on them again... Tatsuto probably won't be able to pull out a win.
Evangeline	The leg shots don't work, but they still have a chance! Again the markers appear in the T-rex's mouth as he closes in, and again time slows in the game. "...shoot it..." Evangeline says. Her demure voice really doesn't match how frantically she is trying to shoot those targets, even leaning in closer to try and make sure the shots count. But of course the calibration of the guns actually makes that less accurate. She actually floats off the chair as she tries to shoot, then lands in the chair again, still shooting.
Tatsuto Satou	"I'm doing my best!" Tatsuto half-shouts - despite being right next to her. He keeps shooting! But he just... can't quite make more than four hits! There's a bit of jeering from one of the spectators. His cheeks flush a bit~
Evangeline	CHOMP! Again! This time the game goes redscreen and plays a little movie showing one of the characters getting pulled out of the jeep and carried off into the jungle. Evangeline goes still, then lowers her gun slowly. "...you got eaten..." she says to Tatsuto, even though it could just as easily have been her character that got eaten. She puts the gun down after that, then looks to Tatsuto. "...let's play something else...do you know anything good...?"
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto laughs a bit. "Yeah, guess I did..." He stands up after re-holstering the gun. "I don't really know this arcade... I usually play games at home, or go to the arcade near my house? But we could look around." Plotmon pouts. "Plotmon wants to play!!" Tatsuto kneels down. "Plotmon. I'm sorry to break this to you... but you don't have hands." Plotmon gasps melodramatically and flops to the floor in 'horror'.
Evangeline	Evangeline stares for a few moments at Plotmon, then slowly reaches over and rubs her belly. "...those are important to playing games..." she says as she nods lightly, then floats up from the chair and around to join Tatsuto. "...well...let's look around..." she says, then takes Tatsuto's hand in hers and starts floating around slowly, looking at the games and obviously waiting for Tatsuto to pick one.
Tatsuto Satou	"DDR... BeMani... Tetris... Tetris... Te- do they seriously have FOUR different versions of Tetris? ... Random anime fighting game... Ooo, electronic CCG? That's neat..." Tatsuto is almost in his own little world here! Plotmon seems to have found herself onto Eva's head. She's not very heavy!
Evangeline	Evangeline tilts her head upward just a bit when Plotmon lands on it, then continues floating along. "...Pacman...fighting game...shooting game..." she says, similarly to Tatsuto before she looks over at him. "...what sort of games are the ones you are a master of...?" she asks as the move about the arcade.
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto rubs the back of his head. "RPGs and, uh, raising sims, mostly. I'm fairly good at strategy games too... And I'm embarassed by how good I am at dating sims... Heh. And they're all types of games you don't usually find at arcade- oh hey is that a strategy game?" Sure looks like one! Some sort of strategy RPG game... involving zombies, because of course it does. That's not a common sight in arcades!
Evangeline	Evangeline tilts her head slightly as Tatsuto lists of game types. "...would you prefer if we went to your house...?" she asks before she is pulled along toward the strategy game. Zombies vs Fungi? What sort of game is that? Evangeline just floats there with Plotmon on her head, staring. "...I do not know this game..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto doesn't know this game either! So he pulls out his phone and looks it up. "My parents would get all weird about me bringing a girl home," he says conversationally as he searches! "...Okay so... You play as a 'Fungusmancer' who's trying to protect his home from a horde of zombies. Looks like each turn you get a certain amoutn of mana to spend on summoning fungi or leveling up existing fungi... then zombies come in from the right and trying to bash your door down... Basically, it's a tower defense game? Except the towers are mushrooms and stuff?" He rubs the back of his head. "Man saying this stuff out loud sounds really weird..."
Evangeline	Evangeline headtilts as Tatsuto says that first thing, then looks over his shoulder as he looks up the game online. "...but...there are no towers...you are in a basement..." she says, pointing a finger at the screen, which clearly shows a dark basement with a dirt floor that is perfect for emerging mushrooms and zombies. She seems confused again as Tatsuto says that sounds weird. "...It sounds no more weird than...shoot the dinosaurs that have been extinct for millions of years..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto hmms, then puts his phone away. "Fair enough. Wanna give it a try? It's single-player, so..." He's smiling. In fact he's been smiling all this time! He seems to really enjoy showing people new things.
Evangeline	Evangeline pauses a moment after the question, then nods lightly. "...okay..." She moves into position in front of the arcade machine and starts pushing pretty much random buttons. She obviously hasn't played a lot of games, or been to many arcades. "...how do you play..?" she asks, then pauses a moment before holding out a hand. "...ah...almost forgot..." She produces some tokens again and feeds the machine.
Tatsuto Satou	"Okay... hm. Guess this doesn't have a touch screen... That'd be really useful for this, but I guess it'd be easy to break..." He stands next to Eva to get a look at the controls! "Okay so I guess you use the joystick to move the cursor... Press the 'spawn' button to make a new fungus and the 'grow' button to upgrade one?" He gives Eva a reassuring smile. "Good luck~!"
Evangeline	Evangeline nods lightly at the instructions, then starts the game. Level 1. Only a few zombies, and only a few mushrooms to deploy in their path. Really all you have to do for this level is put the mushrooms down. Which even Eva can do. She moves the cursor with the joystick and hits the 'plant' button. Mushrooms pop up and throw smaller mushrooms at the zombies. LEVEL 1 CLEARED! Evangeline pauses a moment, then looks slowly over at Tatsuto. "...I won..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto grins broadly and gives Eva a thumbs up! "Great! Now you get to decide whether to plant new 'shrooms or upgrade your existing ones. Here's the 'strategy' part~"
Evangeline	Strategy. Evangeline hesitates. "...I...am not good with strategy..." she says, but decides to plan some more mushrooms. More is better, right? Well, at least at this stage she thinks so. Level 2! More zombies! The mushrooms throw their mushrooms, but with more zombies a couple of zombies make it far enough to kill a mushroom. Evangeline just stares in that way she does, watching the battle and trying to encourage her mushrooms to win with button presses and joystick movements. Eventually the mushrooms win, but besides the defeated mushroom several others are damaged. "...poor mushroom..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto is just smiling so goddamn much. "You passed the second level! Uuh, maybe try upgrading a few..? Just to see what it does?" Why is he grinning despite her suffering heavy losses?! ... One is heavy losses. :\|
Evangeline	Evangeline nods, then upgrades as many mushrooms as she can. Which, with one down, is all of them. But this is...LEVEL 3! There are a few more zombies than before, and tougher zombies mixed in! With only a handful of mushrooms to defend, poor Evangeline's fungi forces are overwhelmed, but only just barely. When the big GAME OVER appears, her hands slide free from the controls. "...I lost all my mushrooms..." she says, her head lowering in what could easily appear to be sadness.
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto puts a hand on Eva's shoulder! "As a chronic gamer, let me tell you... You will lose. You will lose over and over. But with each loss comes clarity and understanding. Every loss makes you slightly better than before. If you keep at it, there's no game you can't beat." Pause. "Except those games that don't actually end. Like Tetris. You can't beat those."
Evangeline	Evangeline looks over as Tatsuto touches her shoulder. She nods lightly after his reassurance, then headtilts at his provision about Tetris. "...well...I am tired of games now..." she says, then reaches up slowly to pick up Plotmon, then brings her down and holds her like she is a stuffed toy, even giving her a little squeeze. "...what else can we do..." Evangeline thinks a few moments. "...do you think there is a...playground...?"
Tatsuto Satou	"A playground, in a district of the city dedicated to entertaining the members of the Union military?" Tatsuto grins. "..Of course there is, like a third of them are ten years old. We can probably find one." Plotmon is a bit huffy at not getting to play any games. But the holding and the squeezing seems to cheer her up!
Evangeline	Evaneline twirls in place when Tatsuto says there must be one, then she floats out of the arcade quickly...taking Plotmon with her. Apparently she isn't considering that Tatsuto might not be able to keep up with her flight speed in a moderately crowded area. But, even if he can't, it would be easy to find them. The nearest playground is in an 'outdoor' area where the sun shines down gently on them. Evangeline floats to a swing and seats herself on it, then just snuggles Plotmon to her chest as she gently swings back and forth. "...do you like playgrounds...?" she asks Tatsuto and Plotmon.
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto can't really keep up! But... well, she has Plotmon with her. Even if he couldn't locate the playground easily - which he can - he'd be able to track Plotmon to the ends of the Earth. So he eventually shows up... panting. He ran all the way! Plotmon just BEAMS. He's enjoy all this attention. "Plotmon has never been to a playground before!" Tatsuto sits down on the swing next to Eva. "Heh. Honestly I've basically... well at my age I'm meant to have 'grown out' of it? I haven't been to a playground in years."
Evangeline	Evangeline turns her head just slightly toward Tatsuto as he sits down beside her, then looks down at the ground again. "...I have never been on a playground before, either..." she says as she swings. Which...she is doing without even moving her legs. "...Neuroi do not have playgrounds...or arcades...when we are created...it is usually with a singular purpose...I was the first that was created to be more like humans...so that I could interact with them...and try to find peace..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto just rocks back and forth, not really swinging. "I was just, you know, an accident. It must feel neat, to have some sort of special reason for why you were born." He's saying 'born' on purpose, rather than 'created'. "I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, but you just got it handed to you. Must be nice."
Evangeline	Evangeline raises her head, then looks over at Tatsuto. "...it...is good to know what I am supposed to do...but I do not know how to do it...I do not know how to stop a war with words rather than beams..." she says, then lowers her head again. "...is it good...to know your purpose...even if you are unable to carry it out...and end up fighting your own kind...?"
Tatsuto Satou	"You seem to be doing a pretty great job of finding peace with humans to me," Tatsuto says with a smile. "I admit I don't know anything about this war, but... Maybe the point is that other Neurois -can't- be at peace with humans. But you, and others like you, can?"
Evangeline	Evangeline's head lowers even more at that. "...then...the aggressive Neuroi must be destroyed...? ...they cannot be saved..?" she says, squeezing Plotmon a bit more and resting her chin atop her head. Evangeline shakes her head gently. "..I..am sorry...I did not mean to bring my burdens down upon you..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto shrugs his shoulders expansively. "I have no idea. Like, seriously, I don't know anything about how Neuroi think. Or if they think. I mean, you obviously do, but that might be what makes you special for all I know!" He waves a hand. "Don't worry about it. Place all your burdens on me. It's what I'm for."
Evangeline	Evangeline looks over again, then looks back. "...most Neuroi are not like me...they do not think much beyond their target...but...the nests where we come from...they are different...they are more like humans...they can think and feel and plan...and nests like mine...they want us to think...not just be mindless drones who go off to be destroyed...or to destroy..." She pauses there, then looks over at Tatsuto. "...honestly...I am not completely sure how...conscious the stronger Neuroi and nests are..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto mmhs a bit, then looks up at the sky. "...Seems to me you should try talking to the nests. And maybe ask YOUR nest what it thinks you should do."
Evangeline	Evangeline looks up at the sky as well. "...I cannot communicate with my nest...if I do..the aggressive Neuroi would destroy it..." she says, then she gives Plotmon a gentle snug. "...I hope I can return there someday...with friendly humans...and show all Neuroi and humans that we do not have to fight..."
Tatsuto Satou	Tatsuto smiles again. "With you leading the charge? I'm sure it'll happen."