Shura's birthday party, backdated to the 26th

[demifemme]

Who: Shura, a bunch of friends and you?
Where: Growlanser Arcade, Cancer Ward. Will later move to the Taurus Ward.
Summary: Shura celebrates her birthday with friends and strangers alike.
Warnings: Taurus Ward, underage(?) drinking, Nyx's Club

The day was much better since she had decided to celebrate. After joining with Yamato in Virgo and getting a thick hoodie to keep herself warm in the snow, they had travelled across the river to the Cancer Ward to pick up Elizabeth at the station before heading to the arcade.

The Growlanser arcade was as loud and bright as ever, even in the middle of a quiet Monday afternoon. It was still time for school, so Shura and her group almost had the arcade to themselves, and they were going to take full advantage of it. And Shura was gonna begin by finding that table flipping game she had seen on the Network.

Comments

[drakenguard]

Yamato was adjusting to the loud, flashing noises of the arcade, so he inclined his head in agreement as he slipped his hands into his pockets. He still wanted his sweets too, dammit.

"Certainly. What does it look like?"

[demifemme]

"It's a table flipping game! The machine is red and yellow and I think it was at the end of a row to make space..." Shura is already looking around for it, passing by the stage for the dance games.

[drakenguard]

That just drew a confused look from Yamato, trailing after Shura as she hunts about. Table-flipping? That sounded like a senselessly destructive game to play - how would it even work? One would flip a table and it would...fall down?

His gaze was snagged by one large machine with two platforms marked with flashing arrows. Hm?

[demifemme]

Suddenly finding herself alone in her quest, Shura backtracked to find Yamato by the dance games. "Something got your attention, Yamato?"

[drakenguard]

Yamato turned away from his study of the machine. From what he deduced it was obviously some sort of rhythm game. Arrows would appear and one would step on the corresponding arrow. Finally, a useful game. It would be good to learn dexterity and improve overall fitness.

"I was just examining this surprisingly useful game. Have you found your, ah, 'table-flipping' one?"

[demifemme]

"Not yet, but if you want to play this game, I'm all for it!" She was happy that Yamato had found a game he deemed 'useful'. Maybe it would convince him to stay a little longer and have some fun.

[drakenguard]

W-Wait, he didn't want to- urgh.

Yamato swallowed his knee-jerk protest, heaving a quiet sigh as he glanced at the brightly coloured machine once more. He had been curious about how civilians occupy themselves, and, again, his prize were sweets. Would he rather shuffle about in boredom for the next forty five minutes or actually do something that would be useful and...maybe sort of fun?

"...very well," Yamato conceded, his hands lifting up to unbutton his coat. It wouldn't impede his movements, but it was very thick and heavy - and a Hotsuin never sweated.

[demifemme]

Shura removed her hoodie as well, wrapping her things in it. "Do I have to explain how it works?"

[drakenguard]

"I think I've figured it out," Yamato said a bit flatly. He was ignorant of civilian entertainment, but he wasn't stupid. Hrmph! He draped his neatly folded coat over the railing part of the dance machine's platfrom, and stepped up onto it.

[demifemme]

"I was just asking," she said, jumping onto the platform. She inserted the required coins in the machine. "Pick the song?" she asked as she rotated one ankle, then the other to warm up.

[drakenguard]

A song?

Yamato frowned, carefully pressing the green arrow below the screen of of the machine. He flipped through what looked like a music selection, each which played a small clip of its selected song. They all sounded... bizarre? Yamato only knew music of the traditional sort, or the kind which demons enjoyed listening to (he had heard enough enka to last him a lifetime...)

He eventually chose one at random, called 'End of the Century'.

[demifemme]

Shura gave Yamato A Look before remembering she hadn't told him about the end of the world yet, so he couldn't have picked this song on purpose.

When it began, she was ready. She had better be, for it started strong right off the bat. Shura was not too terrible at the game itself, but when it came to the dancing part, she was as terrible as she was at singing, her few movements stiff and looking more like flailing than anything else.

[drakenguard]

The game began with a suddenness that caught Yamato a bit off guard, and he blanked out everything in the arcade - including Shura flailing beside him - in favour of rapidly matching the commands given to him on the screen. He...did poorly, admittedly.

He wasn't exactly swift, so for the rapid changes in footwork and the like, he fumbled several times. It was only nearing the end of the song that he began to get into the swing of it, and by then it was far too late to salvage his score.

The song ended and Yamato was rewarded with a...D.

A D.

[meaningdies]

"My turn." Naoya leaned on the rail behind Yamato, a grin on his face. "I'll show you how someone with actual skill in dancing does on this game."

Where did he come from? One may never know, for he is the geta ninja.

[drakenguard]

Yamato jumped a little, having been far too irritable over his low score, but smoothly turned to face the grinning programmer. He sniffed and adjusted his tie, which had gotten a bit loose during the exercise.

"Actual skill? Are you going to dance barefooted?" Yamato said with a pointed glance downwards. Dancing in Geta sounded like a oneway trip to the hospital for a broken ankle.

[demifemme]

Shura hadn't expected much more than her modest C, but since she had gotten a higher score than Yamato still, and Naoya had joined them, she wisely avoided getting between the two of them.

[meaningdies]

Smart girl. Naoya smirked.

"Watch and learn." He hopped onto the pad and selected the song again, geta tapping on the metal pad as he waited for it to start up. As soon as it did, he began, stomping out the arrows with relative ease. His geta clacked as the song continued, and he leaned back on the bar for support.

As the song drew to a close, his grin widened, and at the score screen...

A B. Almost an A, but a B.

"Damn. Usually I score higher on that one."

[drakenguard]

Yamato's eyebrow twitched at the higher score, but he was smirking a little in vindictive, petty pleasure at the little /almost/ A.

"Consider me learned," Yamato chuckled quietly, "A B, how impressive."

[demifemme]

Shura just facepalmed. She didn't know if it was better that Naoya had only gotten a B or not. Still, getting a B at this song in geta was amazing. Not that she'd mention it for now.

[meaningdies]

Naoya reached over to Yamato, attempting to smack him upside the head.

[drakenguard]

Yamato just stepped backwards, leaning his body back a little with a quiet scoff. "Well, that's immature," he sniffed, tugging at the hem of his gloves with a dismissive turn of his head. Pot, meet kettle.

[demifemme]

Shura sighed heavily. "Guys, as much as I love fighting... don't fight on my birthday. Especially not for something like this."

[meaningdies]

Naoya just rolled his eyes at Yamato, stepping off the machine. "Where to next?"

[drakenguard]

Yamato grunted and turned his face away, as if shunning Naoya's existence from his presence entirely - only to quickly ruin it by directly speaking to the programmer. "You're accompanying us?"

[demifemme]

"I'm okay with that! The more the merrier,"she said. "You'll still get yours sweets," she told Yamato.