130/Electro-Dance Therapy

Electro-Dance Therapy
Date of Scene:	03 July 2015
Location:	Uminari City - Game Center Crown
Synopsis:	Kyouko meets a couple of Waldians at an arcade.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouko Sakura, Gaofele Doiru, Hinote Kagari

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Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Life isn't ever particularly pleasant for Kyouko Sakura. But usually she at least knows where she stands.. what she needs to be doing. And she's usually confident that she's the biggest fish in the tank. That's always the way it was back in Kazamino anyway. She had come to Tokyo because Kyubey had told her there was a whole lot of easy pickings here.. a bigger stage than her hometown, with bigger rewards. Well, that part might be true, but so far 'easier' hasn't really been the way of things. In fact, for the first time in a long time, Kyouko isn't quite sure what to think of the things that have happened in the past day or so. She's not really sure what her next move should be.
    And so, she does what she always does when she needs to think- goes to the arcade to play DDR. Of course, it was a different arcade than the one she's used to back home, but hey, they're all mostly the same inside, and this one has a DDR machine too. The redhead currently occupies it, booted feet nimbly stepping between the arrow pads as she effortlessly clears song after song, beating the previous high scores with ease. The funny thing is she doesn't even seem like she's really paying attention, almost like she's moving on autopilot as she thinks over her problems. A stick of chocolate pocky dangles from the corner of her mouth, the box tucked into the pocket of her hoodie. This hasn't stopped a small crowd of maybe four or five of the local regulars gathering around to watch her, though none dare approach since she's giving off a rather aloof aura.

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Ever since the incident with the bird youma at the Sailor V competition, Gaofele Doiru has taken to occasionally hanging out at the arcade when he happens to have some spare time. He's gotten better at some of the video games, but it's still a learning experience for him.

Today, though, he's watching the new girl at the dancing machine. It's always fun to see a skilled person in action, and judging by the size of the crowd she's obviously pretty good. Standing a respectful distance back, Gao watches her footwork, noticing that her expression is like a person practicing their weapon drills.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Aloof. I'll take words that don't describe Hinote Kagari for 200$ Alex. Hinote walks into the Game Crown arcade, brushing a hand across his head as he looks around. Has he been here in a while? Not really! He's been busy, as free time goes to Drama Club and also beating the hell out of monsters. Netherless, there's a crowd at the DDR machine, even if small one and he catches sight of Gao. He walks on over and peers over at the girl playing DDR.

"She's pretty good." he says.

"Do you think you could do that, Gao?" he asks curiously.

"I stink at that game." he asides.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Even Kyouko has to take a break eventually. As the latest song to fall to her furious feet ends, she glances at the screen. Top score, again? Man the people in this city must suck, she thinks to herself, as she types in her arcade callsign- KYS. Then she steps off of the machine, finally munching down the Pocky stick in her mouth, pulling the box out of her pocket and getting another one as she does. She isn't even sweating as she moves through the small crowd as if not noticing them. Several of them step back as if in awe, but she doesn't even seem to see as she walks over to a bench against one of the walls and sits down on it with a bit of a flump, sighing as she munches on this new pocky.
    That was fun, and she feels excercised, but she hasn't come to any magic revelation about what to do. Her reddish eyes wander the arcade as she munches.

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gao shrugs. "Haven't tried that one yet," he says to Hinote. "I'm okay at the rhythm of weapons practice, but trying to match the movement to the music -- even with the arrows helping -- might be a bit of a trick."

He glances over to where Kyouko is sitting. She obviously must have practiced hard to get to the point where she could probably dance the song in her sleep; depending on how well she could adapt her footwork, she might be skilled at navigating her way through a fight.

Gao looks at the DDR machine again. No brave souls have stepped forward to follow Kyouko's stellar performance, but some of them are talking about it. "I might give this a try," he remarks to Hinote. "Got any advice?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari snerks. "Yeah it's dancing and matching the arrows. I don't dance well. Well. I mean. I ballroom dance because that's what happens in plays and stuff- and my dad taught me that, but that isn't like tapping your feet like a madperson to some electronic music." he asides. His eyes trace the red haired girl as he huhs. "Well... I don't really have any advice. Maybe she does. Come on, let's go ask her." he grabs Gao's hand, like Gao doesn't have a choice, and begins pulling him over towards the Red Haired girl. He clears his throat.

"Hey, got any DDR pointers for my friend here?" he asks with a smile at Kyouko.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is not finding any easy answers, her thoughts racing 'round in circles, so she's almost glad for the distraction as the two boys, who appear to be around her own age, wander over and the one greets her. Her eyes flick over them, assessing. Kyouko has a strange relationship to boys- she doesn't really get giggly and shy around them like some girls do, but she also doesn't really consider them any kind of threat like other girls do- after all, she's a Puella Magi, and the only people (in her limited experience) who threaten her are other Puella Magi, and they're all girls. So while if a random girl walked up and started talking to her she might respond stand-offishly, looking for a trap, with the two boys she feels more at ease, and responds almost carelessly.
    "Yeah. Don't trip." She smirks as she says it, but it's not the kind of smirk which says 'bugger off', it's more just the one-fanged smile of an expert regarding a pair of amateurs. "And step on the arrows you see on the screen. It ain't rocket science."

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gaofele Doiru chuckles. It's the type of laugh that acknowledges that he walked right into that joke, while accepting that it actually was a pretty funny joke. "Reminds me of a couple of weaponsmasters I've trained under," he remarks. "Said the best way to learn is to actually try it."

He looks towards the DDR machine. "Probably the same way here," he muses, rummaging around in a pocket for the coinage needed.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari suddenly, blinks and tugs Gao over so he can whisper something.

'Weaponsmasters aren't a common thing around here!'.

Regardless, he says. "Well I guess that counts as advice. Come on Gao. Get into the game." he says as he walks back over towards the machine as Gao fumbles for change.

"Come on Gao--high score, do it!" he roots on.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko frowns a bit as the guy mentions 'weaponmasters'. While many people would be like 'that's weird', it rather piques the redhead's interest instead. "What, do you fight or somethin'?" She asks the boy who had spoken curiously. That seems a lot more interesting to her than watching him fail at DDR, although she doesn't stop him from walking over to put his coins in the machine either, remaining on her bench which is only a few feet away and chomping into another pocky stick, the small box rapidly depleting now that she isn't concentrating on something else.

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gaofele Doiru blinks for a moment while putting coins into the machine. "Oh, right," he mumbles to Hinote while he finishes putting the coins in. Not as much call for traditional weapons = not as much call for weaponsmasters; just another way Waldia was different than Earth.

It takes him a moment or two to select a song, partially from choosing the music and partially from getting used to the controls, but he gets an easy song selected. "I'm trained in a few weapons," he shrugs to the DDR expert. "Mostly quarterstaff and bow, but I at least know the basics of a couple of others." True enough, and not something that has to be kept secret.

The first few arrows are barely hit as Gao tries to get the hang of the game, but he manages to stay in the game and improve his rhythm. Not many Perfects, but even fewer Bads. Decent enough, for a first-time player.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari watches Gao dance on the DDR machine. Oh they're talking about weapons now. Okay. He stays out of that discussion. Weapons, what are those, he most certainly doesn't have any that light on fire or anything! <_<.

He huhs. "That's a good shot, Gao. Try again, you can do better!" he says.

He looks back at Kyouko as she gets into the weapons discussion, wondering why that's piqued her intrest, but not actually bothering to ask about it.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    "Huh." Kyouko says in response to Gao's answer about his training. "You should fight me." She says, probably seeming out-of-the-blue since this isn't the normal sort of thing one says to strangers in the arcade. "I mean.. spar." She waves a hand dismissively, as he begins to dance. "I do the staff too." Actually she does a spear, but she's not going to bother explaining that, nor is she going to break out her magic spear for a spar.. but the way she fights with the spear has enough elements in common with a quarterstaff that she's pretty handy with a stick whetehr or not it has a pointy bit of metal on the end.
    She watches Gao dance as she noms another pocky. "Not bad.. for a n00b." She comments, smirking again, but that's pretty high praise from her.

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
The offer of sparring catches Gao off-guard, causing him to miss a step. A bit of hurried focus helps recover his rhythm, then he contemplates the offer/request with the small part of his mind that isn't focused on DDR.

"Thank you, dance-sensei!" he absent-mindedly replies to her comment -- a mild slip of the tongue, but when addressed by a seeming 'weaponsmaster' of dance, the reflexive response is to address them as such.

And reflex is all Gao can spare, as he progresses through the song. Nowhere near mastery, of course, but good enough to survive comfortably to the end. As the song comes to a close, he looks at his score in comparison to the high scores for that song, gauging how far from truly skilled he is.

(Short answer: *Very*.)

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari hears Gao call the girl dance-sensi and facepalms for a moment. He does however smiles at Gao. "It's a good first try!" he says. He thinks a moment as his eyes trace back to the red haired girl. She fights with a staff too? It makes him wonder, but not very long. There's better things to dwell on in life.

"Are you a part of some sort of club at school for that? I mean. The staff stuff." he asks curiously. He taps his chin a bit. Because if some other school has an exotic weapons club, he might go there. That would be so awesome!

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    *Crunch* A pocky stick is bisected by Kyouko's sharp little teeth. She doesn't get an answer from dance-boy (she still doesn't know either of their names) about sparring, but he does call her 'dance-sensei', which makes her smirk, although she doens't appear to think anything odd about it beyond it being.. well, a bit odd.
    She does glance at the other guy though, as he asks about whether or not she's part of a club at school. "I don't go to school." She remarks off-handedly, as if it's no big deal. Another pocky meets its fate. "You could just call it.. a hobby."

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gaofele Doiru smiles to Hinote. "I think I have the hang of it," he nods. "Still have a long way to go before I'd consider myself good at it, but I wouldn't mind playing that a bit more often."

He looks over to 'dance-sensei', as he happened to have called her. "I think I might take you up on the sparring offer," he says with a nod of his head. "My name is Gaofele Doiru, and you are...?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari seems scandlized for a moment. "You don't go to school? How come? Are you home schooled, or wha?" he asks curiously. The idea of 'someone not going to school' doesn't seem to make sense in his head. Every kid and teenager goes to school! At least, in his head that is. Luckily, he calms his expression and looks over to Gao, before his brain goes into making assumptions like 'this girl must be a deliquent!'.

Hintoe nods. "I'm Hinote Kagari." he says. "Also, sparring sounds like a good idea. I need uh. Kendo Club practice. Anyways." Right, 'Kendo Club'.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    'Delinquent' isn't too far off, but it's not like Kyouko would admit to that herself. "Kyouko Sakura." She introduces herself when Gaofele asks her name. "Gaofele, that's a weird name. You're a foreigner, huh? Shoulda known by lookin' at you." Not that Kyouko looks terribly Japanese with her bright red hair or anything. Anyway, she doesn't say this 'foreigner' thing judegementally, just as an acknowledgement of fact.
    She glances at Hinote as he exclaims over her lack of school-going. "No. I just don't go. There's no point really." Which is absolutely true from her point of view, but she doesn't elaborate on the subject, and is unlikely to do so even if asked further. She does stand up though, glancing at the two boys. "You sure? I don't go easy just 'cause it's practice."

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gaofele Doiru shrugs. "If that's how you prefer to spar, that's okay by me," he notes. "But it is good to know ahead of time." Imbalance in the energy between sparring partners can easily to injuries, after all.

"So, where and when would be a good time for sparring?" he inquires.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari thinks about this for a good few moments. Well. He does get knocked out in Kendo practice a lot.

And it hurts.

Does he really need to, or want to, be knocked out over and over again. "Well, how can ya learn anything if you go easy on us." he says with a smile.

He looks around the arcade a bit.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    "Whenever and wherever, kid." Kyouko says to Gaofele in response to his question about the place and time for the proposed spar. "You can find me here often enough." She gestures about the arcade, indicating what she means. She smirks again, although the expression turns into a bit of a frown as she realizes her pocky box is empty. "But maybe not right now.. I need to go get some more snacks." She mutters, tossing the box into a nearby garbage can. "Next time, right?"

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
"Sounds good to me!" Gao smiles. "We'll be back when we next have some spare time." This also means having time to bring their sparring weapons; while Gao does have his collapsible staff, a planned-for spar calls for a more durable weapon, and that one's back at the store.

"It was nice meeting you, Kyuoko," he adds, then looks over at Hinote. "Say, Hino, which games were you thinking about?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari smiles. "Yeah, that's the ticket." he says as he smiles, and watches the red haired girl walk off and away. He crosses his arms a bit, tapping his chin. "Hrmmmmm....." what's he thinking? Well regardless, Gao interrupts this when he asks what game was he thinking about.

"Well, the Sailor V Game of course!" he asides. "I need to get better at it, for the next time there's a contest." he muses.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko tosses a wave over her shoulder as she heads out of the arcade and vanishes into the street. But as promised.. she'll be back.