pugbutter

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

@sassy1085 That's a shame I've been looking forward to meeting her. 😩

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

@sassy1085@rocketrobie2@TheWendil@BenG85 Alright so which a yous is next?

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

@Noblebandit Again, one minor godmod just to save on some pacing issues. Let me know if it's not cool and I'll delete.

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

"She's just another first-year, ain't she? They're all tiny, but ..."

And before he could finish his thought, Ri Mai arrived, and although probably not in the way she wanted, she stole his breath from his lungs.

Yūya could've puked right then and there.

She stepped out onto the roof all coiled up, brimming with childlike enthusiasm and momentum. It may as well have been her first day at school, or her first date to the skating rink with a boy: clutching something to her chest, steadying her breathing, ... flitting her eyes about in some expectant way. Yūya couldn't decide whether she searched for something in particular (except, perhaps, her apparent friend in Yonaka) or merely awaited her reception as her attention nuzzled up to each one of them for a time; a newborn gazelle, still wet from the womb, watching the grass for lions. And that tiny, shivering thing? She was lion food. She knew it.

Obviously it was someone else. This "Ri Mai" didn't have braided pigtails, and she wasn't knobby enough in the knees and elbows; too cherubic. Obviously she wasn't wearing a helmet, and instead of a randoseru she carried a charcoal-grey bookbag, same as the rest of them. No doubt about it: hanging on a hook somewhere, or maybe tossed haphazardly into a washing machine, she had a Sarayashiki uniform. But for a second—just one—Yūya saw another young girl walking through that rusted access door.

Finally Ri's curiosity fell upon him, and in that same moment he learned, for some esoteric reason, one he didn't fully understand, that he couldn't stand to look her in the eye. So he hurried his scrutiny somewhere else, feigning interest in the iron knotworks of the HVAC unit on the other side of the roof. With a snarl and a drag from his cigarette, Yūya suppressed some kind of a wince welling in his chest. He reached for the beer on the shelf, not because he needed the alcohol that badly, but to give his hands something to meddle with, and his attention something else to fixate upon which wasn't her.

What the hell are you thinking, Yonaka-chan? he wondered, a question which wrung his insides until the first sting of sweat welled up to the surface, flushing his skin with an itchy, nervous heat. Was Ri just chum for the waters? Or someone's new toy? And Ishida ... had he allowed this? Even sanctioned it?

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

Mai is the protagonist and I'm here for it

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

@BenG85 It's not a meeting if Ten-Ton Takuya ain't there!

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

"Oh. Yonaka-chan ... Konbanwa."

Jeez, woman, you think I'm the one who's gonna steal him from you? Chill.

Yeah, there was overprotectiveness—a jealous boyfriend guarding his squeeze, a hikikomori for whom behind every corner there lies in wait a robber or a yakuza tout—an older brother watching his imouto at the park, perhaps—and then there was whatever the hell Yonaka Aimi was. A class all of her own, that one.

While she blabbed, Yūya leaned just far enough back to see past her, where Ishida had managed not to evaporate away in the intensity of her glare. Well ... if he wanted a beer he could always come grab it, Yūya reckoned with a shrug, so he set it down atop the precipice, right where the wall ended and the chain-link fence began. If Ishida took the initiative and walked over to it himself there was no way in hell Yonaka would keep interfering. She just about worshiped the dirt that touched his loafers, never mind getting in his way, even to "protect" him from whatever poison she had detected in the brown glass neck frothing with bitter effervescence. Yūya placed another beer right beside it for Yonaka, but if she rebuffed too he'd claim it was for himself all along.

Anyway ... Little mochi? Class pet? Ankle-biter?

"She's just another first-year, ain't she?" said Yūya. "They're all tiny, but ..."

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

URUSAAAAAAAAI

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

@Zoey Boey I like how you did it because you chose, albeit unwittingly, the absolute most informal, affectionate way to address him. (First name, no honorifics, so intimate it's usually reserved for immediate family only.) It says a lot about the character that she addresses him in such a way. Particularly if Ishida does not return that affectionate language and merely calls you "Yonaka-chan" or some-such.

No worries if others don't want to do it but I'm gonna keep doing it because it'll make the game more immersive for myself.

Street Punk Serenade: Delinquent Days

@LostDestiny The way I picture it, Ishida had to consolidate Sarayashiki before he could dream of going after the Ikebukuro Diamonds. So if he was the leader of the student council faction, then to own the whole school he also had to conquer the turfs of the cheer squad, the kendo club, the baseball club, etc., and meld them under his command. I imagine all of us used to belong to different factions (possibly clubs, possibly just delinquent cliques), except for those of us new enough to the school that we don't remember how things were before. (Or who belonged to the winning side in the first place.)

That's my mental picture, anyway.

Yuuya used to be the bancho of the baseball team's faction before Ishida's people beat him. So even though he hasn't done anything wrong at the moment, there's the simple fact that he's a recently defeated enemy who may be harboring more than a few resentments. Imagine you're an ancient Roman legionnaire and your Centurion has just allowed a bunch of conquered Gauls to join your legion. It's perfectly natural for someone to think they haven't sufficiently proven their loyalty to deserve any trust.