World Tree MUSH

    School's out for the day and there are no insane jewelry sales, no crazy burger monsters, nothing. Just an ordinary day for once and that means...
    TIME TO HIT UP THE ARCADE!
    Usagi Tsukino, school slacker extraordinaire probably just failed another English test and that means she needs to blow off some steam, play some videogames, ogle cute boys, and kill some time until dinner tonight. And she just got her allowance too. Which means it's time to waste it all at Game Center Crown!
    After school, the arcade isn't quit packed... Actually it's pretty quiet because most students are in their after school clubs and such. But Usagi Tsukino isn't most students, and that finds the twin-tailed blonde jamming on the controls of the newest SAILOR V game.
    "Come on! Come on! Jump jump! Slide slide! Jump jump! Sli- A-AHHHH I DIED AGAIN!"

    Dante might be a little old to be hitting up the arcade openly, some less than open minded types (INCLUDING YOU, KAREN.) might think. Regardless, he's giddily pummeling the competition in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Mix, dishing out the pain as Ken like it's going outta style. His Shoto game in on point, getting another KO via Shoryuken as the disappointed teen pays up and walks off, for the next challenger.

    "Alrighty, who's next?" Dante says with a grin in -perfect- Japanese, currently sporting a red t-shirt and jeans instead of his red coat today.

    Uni's around, mostly just watching the small crowd mill between machines, the dynamic union and splitting over video games. "Reminds me of home." she pulls out her modified N-Gear, and goes through the options, before slipping it away into inventory again. She lets red eyes follow from Dante being a big manchild, over to Usagi struggling at her own machine, to a group of teens around Time Cop or some other lightgun game, over to another kid sat in the seat of Afterburner. "Everyone seems to be having fun, at least."

     A young man simply *appears* in the arcade, seeming to congeal out of the shadows in the corner with a faint, fading scent of brimstone behind him. "Aww hell yeah! I haven't been to an arcade in ages!" he remarks in a somewhat squeaky voice, skipping around to check out the machines. He's pale-skinned, barely an inch over five feet tall, has short, deep red hair, and his eyes are black with red irises... probably contacts. Plain black pants cover his legs along with black shoes, and his long-sleeved shirt is striped in red and black, clearly a "perky goth" kid or something.

And then he spots Dante, grins cheekily, and neatly slides in next to the hunter with a small bag of quarters in his hand that he definitely didn't have a few seconds ago. "Heeeeey there, Johnny boy. Or was it the Devil? I forget. Anyway, if you're still open for a challenge..." he says, spinning a quarter on the tip of one finger with perfect balance, his teeth pearly white and gleaming from the arcade machine's screen light.

    Usagi isn't the only one failing at video games. Nearby there's a tall kid with a pompadour engrossed in a doomed game of something like Gradius... and getting his ass kicked by it! Eventually fate has mercy and someone accidentally knocks into him -- and bam! There it goes, his last game life lost.

    "...Aww, man..." he mutters. Well, he's already wasted enough money in this thing, time to get something to eat! Once he turns from the machine though, he sees a few other people he knows! His bummer mood evaporates, and he waves. "Oh, hey!" he chirps, with a broad, friendly smile. "What's up?"

    Huh? Huh?
    Looking up from her defeat in the Sailor V game, Usagi's brow furrows.
    That pompadour sure is familiar.
    Picking herself up from her seat at the Sailor V game, Usagi... Siiiiiiiidles on over. Sneaking from cabinet to cabinet, peeking around from behind it.
    "Ah?"
    She does know that pompadour!
    Just as she's about to try and sneak away a voice from behind her makes the girl jolt.
    "Friend of yours, Usagi?"
    Needless to say, the blonde near chokes on her own spit as one of the arcade clerks peeks around from another cabinet.
    "GEH! GEH! GEH!" Is Usagi's reply as she coughs and sputters.
    But MOTOKI FURUHATA rubs his chin. "Oh, we sure do have a lot of offworlders here today, hello!" He greets the collected group.

    Dante recognizes that pompadour too, and he grins at Josuke. "Hey kid! Looks like you ran into some ugly luck there." He says, chuckling. The demon hunter spies a blonde and her friend, and waves to them. "Am I that obvious?" He says, pale-skinned and silver haired. It's not like he really hides anything. "'sup."

    Then...a CHALLENGER approaches. The pale, redheaded kid approaches. Dante makes eye contact, and he steels himself. "Sounds like a good time for round two to me. The Demon code demands it." He says with a dangerous chuckle, motioning to the stick besides his.

    Uni offers a little smile to Josuke. She recognizes him from a few jobs over her time here. She doesn't recognize Damian, though the perky young man does get a curious glance.

    When Usagi starts creeping over, red eyes lock onto her and track her as she approaches, smirking when she spots the clerk shadowing the totally stealthy blonde. "I thought I blended in pretty well, but I supposed red eyes aren't common in this part of the Tree." she comments to Motoki, giving a slight curtsey.

     Damian gives a slight wave to the others as they're gathered, but right now his attention is fully on Dante. "Yeah, nice to meet you guys. Anyway, you are correct. There is no escape from a challenge once issued." Slotting his quarter into the second player side of the machine, he takes his place at the stick, setting the bag with the rest of the coins in the middle. "May the best shoto win."

    Josuke looks in Motoki's direction upon heairng him speak. "Hello," he greets with a smile. Though he doesn't know Motoki, so he's assuming it's professional courtesy. Maybe. Unless the guy's about to ask the 'delinquent' to move on. That happens to him sometimes too.

    Though he pauses as he notes a name. "Usagi?" Blink. "Usagi Tsukino?" he asks. He reaches into his uniform coat. "I think I have something of yours, if so." The paper's old and crumpled, but he's smoothed it out. And he has the grace to leave it folded as he offers it to her. "I think you dropped this... a long time ago," he realizes. "I just didn't want personal information, even just your name, floating around out there so anyone could get it, you know?"

    Dante's words bring a sheepish smile, and he raises one hand to rub at the back of his neck. "Ah, haha... nah, I just suck at bullet hell games, that's all," he notes honestly. He's never had issues admiting his limits, after all. "I mean, I like 'em, but I'm not so great at 'em." And he also returns the smile of greeting from Uni with a friendly smile of his own, and a thumbs-up. Noting the challenge in progress, Josuke's eyes go wide. "Oh, good luck!" he offers to both Dante and Damien.

    Nope, Motoki doesn't ask Josuke to move on, it's not like the youth is doing anything bad for business, he's just exending some friendly Juban courtesy while Dante and Damian gear up for their contest of might. ... In videogame form, anyway. "Well, I just have a knack for telling, I guess." The arcade clerk chuckles when it comes to picking out offworlders.
    "We've actually managed to get in a few new games from a few of the nearer worlds too, now that I think about it... DDR, Sunset Riders, Something about samurai tortoises..." He muses rubbing his chin as the doors open, "Ah there they are now." He says as a few workers wheel in some new cabinets and start plugging them in. "I better go help them, if you need any tokens don't hesitate to ask." Motoki says, leaving Usagi to fend for herself.
    Though as he goes, there's a noticeable change to the blonde once his back is turned.
    Usagi has hearts in her eyes.

    <3_<3

    Riiiiiight up until Josuke approaches. With something familiar.
    Something the schoolgirl had thought would never come back to haunt her.
    "Y-yes?" She replies confirming her identity just as that rumpled sheet is produced from Josuke's pocket.
    Usagi goes deathly pale.
    Sweat beads down her brow.
    Shakey hands accept the folded sheet, and slowly, like a woman ready for death, she unfolds it to see what it is. And there lays her worst fear, staring back at her... A big, fat, nasty, leering...
    Score of 30
    For a moment... For one, silent, painful moment... Usagi's expression can be summed up thusly:

    https://i.imgur.com/06mptQ1.jpg

    "W-weh... I thought I got rid of this." She says in a tiny voice.
    Before she's grasping Josuke by both hands, tears streaming down her eyes. "My mom's gonna kill me, please don't tell anyone you saw this!"

    T_T

    Uni just curtseys to Motoki as he turns to leave again, then quirks a brow at Usagi's reaction. "So obvious." she muses to herself, before hovering closer to watch Dante and Damian's little duel.

    Josuke nods to Motoki. "I was a little afraid to say I was from off-world, since I don't know how public it is here," he admits. "My world's been trying to keep public knowledge to a minimum, since they don't want people to panic over 'real life aliens', you know?" He chuckles. And of course he's reminded of a certain 'evil eye' type chuunibyou...

    Of course he gives a bit of a wince when the mention of 'samurai tortoises' is mentioned, his eye twitching faintly for a moment. "...Never did like that show," he admits. Though as Motoki departs, Josuke offers a wave to the guy. "Take care!" he offers. And then he turns his attention to Usagi again as she looks at the test. He notes the distressed look and reassures the blonde, "Oh, don't worry. English is hard. I'm no good at it either--"

    And then suddenly Usagi's clinging to him! Josuke does what any red-blooded teenage boy does with a cute girl clinging to him. Blush! "H-hey, it's okay, really," he assures. And then he suggests, "Y-you can toss it in the trash bin outside your house, right? So your mom won't ever have to see it. O-or... wait, I have an idea."

    Yes, of course he's going to employ his Stand. And he's going to be pretty brazen about it. Between finding out that people in this world know about off-worlders, and the fact that most normal people can't see his Stand anyway -- and also wanting to make sure Usagi's not upset; there's not a Joestar currently alive who can stand to see a girl upset (even if all the Joestars have different reactions to it) -- he's not going to care much.

    The crystal blue-armored pink figure appears, and punches at the paper, with a loud, "DOUUURRRRA!", fist glowing with an orange glow. Yet if the punch hits, the paper barely moves. It would look -- and more importantly, since Usagi may still be holding the paper! -- like a mere breeze brushed it. But, should the fist hit, the ink may begin to to disappear from the page, small drops of the stuff lifting from the page and zipping away out the door somewhere! If all goes well, the page will be blank once this is done, and Josuke can dismiss his Stand.

    Speaking of offworlders, here comes one now. Or, well ... technically two. But Lex currently has Lightshard 18 dematerialized; if she's reluctant to go around in public with a gigantic sword on her back, she's definitely reluctant to walk into a place of business like that. For the same reason, her prosthetic arm and leg are flesh-tone.

    The first thing she sees is Crazy Diamond, so she's about to reconsider this. "Wha --" She rushes over, pushing through the crowd, and then ... stops as she sees what he's doing. "Oh. Uh." She furrows her brow. "... What are you doing, Josuke?" she says, her scratchy and androgynous voice taking a relatively flat tone. Only then does she glance around, noticing the presence of everyone else.

    "Bunch of familiar faces here tonight," says an electronic-sounding girl's voice from her prosthetic arm, as if it was a communication device. At the same time, Shard connects to the wifi to check what the news has to say about the incident at the burger joint.

    Dante nods, and selects a stage once Damian chooses his fighter.

    HERE COMES THE NEXT CHALLENGER. ROUND 1!

    Usagi has a good reason to cling! Only three people in this whole wide universe know of her test score. Those being Usagi herself. Ms. Haruna Sakurada; Usagi's English teacher. And Josuke himself.
    "I'm serious, you've gotta take it to your gra-
    Crazy Diamond comes out and slugs her test.
    Seeing the big pink phantasmal silhouette hovering over Josuke's shoulder, even as a glimpse is one thing. When the Stand goes and punches the ink right off her test, the girl naturally balks. Takes a few steps slow back... Then looks down at the sheet in her hand.
    It's... It's blank.
    It's blank!
    And that means...
    "All right! PLAUSIBILE DENIABILITY!" The girl exclaims as she hops up and down extatic.
    In an instant Usagi's expression shifts from waterfall tears to all bright smiles and sunbeams, before peering over to see the battle in progress.
    Then... Enter Lex Brando. A face that is familiar to Usagi for stealing her thunder.
    Ahem.
    She's not pouting.
    "Heeeee's helping me!" She says holding up the blank sheet, smiling brightly. "Totally helping, he did great, really."

     Since Dante is going with Ken, Damian makes the obvious choice: Ryu. The round begins, and immediately he's playing with the precision of a veteran gamer, never giving an inch, his fingers flying across the buttons while pulling maneuvers on the joystick that seem impossibly fast. He doesn't even notice Uni coming to watch them, his eyes burning with competitive fire as he hurls Hadoukens, strikes with Shoryukens, and traverses with Tatsumakis... you know, across the screen. It goes over projectiles and works well in combos, get off my back.

The point is, he's utterly absorbed in the game and playing like a demon, which is rather fitting all things considered.

    Josuke is still a bit flustered when Lex approaches and asks what he's doing. It may have looked a little weird, since Lex may have seen Usagi clinging to his jacket. So, well. He's still blushing a little, either way. "Oh, I was uh. J-just fixing something, that's all," he notes. "Nobody's hurt, though," he assures, with a smile. Usagi confirms it, and Josuke nods. "Yup! Just a little creative schoolwork," he notes with a grin and a thumbs-up.

    He's actually unaware of any friction between Lex and Usagi. Mainly because he noticed something else. Looking to her, he asks, "Did you see it? A lot of people can't." Proven of course, when there likely wasn't too much of a reaction from the general overall population when he did all that.

    Lex (who doesn't have identity-disguising magic, and it doesn't occur to her that it might be a thing for Sailor Moon) is genuinely baffled at the look Usagi gives her, and she tilts her head in confusion. She quickly goes poker-faced at the sight of the blank sheet, however. "Uh. Good for you both, kind of thing," she says, unable to completely stop herself from smirking slightly.

    "How are you doing, by the way?" asks Shard's voice from her arm. "We didn't see you after the 'riot' began in earnest."

    But then Josuke has a question, and Lex raises her eyebrows. She's kind of curious now about Usagi's answer.

    That's right, it looks like no one really noticed Josuke's Stand. Except Usagi herself, who goes pale when it's revealed that most people can't see Crazy Diamond.
    "Aheh? Ahahahaha what? See what? Can't see what? I have no idea what you're talking about!" She says. "All I saw was one minute I had a bad grade, the next I didn't!"
    It's a terribly acted lie, and the girl is sweating. THANKFULLY Shard steals her attention.
    No, literally, Lex's arm is talking at her and the girl blinks rapidly as she processes it.
    --Riot. Right. That. Because that happened yep! I sort of ran awayyyyy I'm really good at that, eheheheheeeeh~."
    Before something else catches her eye from the corner of her vision.
    "Oooooh they got an even newer Sailor V game... C'mon let's go have a look~."

    Dante trades blows with Damian as they brawl. It's a flurry of shoryukens and hadokens, and the frenzy is fierce. But sadly, Dante slips up. One mistake, and he's on the receiving end of a brutal combo from Damian. "Damn it!" He shouts, after an equally brutal round 2. Despite the intiial rush of frustration, Dante just chuckles again and claps Damian on the shoulder. "Guess my luck just ran out. GG, bro." He grins, then spies Usagi running off toward the Sailor V game cabinet. "Whaddaya say we go check out what's got them so excited, huh?"

    To note, Josuke's expression regarding this 'creative schoolwork' is an unmistakeable... well, if one were inclined to use profanity, one might call it a 'shit-eating grin'.

    Though when Usagi pretends not to have seen Crazy Diamond, Josuke blinks. He doesn't automatically think 'She Is The One Named Sailor Moon', no. If this was his own world, he'd think she might have the potential to be a Stand user -- like Josuke's half-sister Holly, who... technically does have a Stand, but it's dormant. She can still see Stands, though. Maybe, he figures, there's something in this world that's similar. Maybe she's a dormant magic-user or something?

    But not to worry, Usagi. She clearly doesn't want anyone to know that she's got any sort of special talents. Which is no problem -- particularly not in a public place. Josuke has her covered -- he lets the matter drop. And he leans down and says quietly enough so it shouldn't carry in the arcade, "Don't worry, I won't tell anybody." And he follows her over to the Sailor V game!

     Damian's fingers are literally on fire by the end, though whether it's from friction or just supernatural demon shenanigans is unclear. He does take care to shake them out and blow the smoke from the tips before he causes any lasting damage to the buttons though, grinning at Dante. "Yeah I'm pretty great. I kinda feel like you were holding back though, man. You sure you didn't let me win?" he asks with a wink, then follows Dante's gaze and nods. "Yeah, alright."

It isn't long before the two half-demons join the gathering crowd of weirdos.

    Lex is about to comment on Usagi's obvious lie, but then Usagi has a fairly reasonable reaction to an arm talking at her. She holds up her arm as if she's talking to a nonexistent communication-wristwatch. "Uh, Shard, it's kind of weird when you talk at people out of the blue and stuff." She takes Josuke's lead, and doesn't try to press the matter of Usagi as she follows them towards the Sailor V game.

    "Then give me more opportunities to do so in a matter that's less weird," says Shard archly. "I still can't manifest." She pauses. "Actually, Mr. Higashikata, does your healing and repair capability have an ... expiration date? Something rather unfortunate happened to me and Lex a month and a half ago."

    "Understatement," Lex says wryly.

    Lie? What lie? Was it really that obvious?
    Aside from the fact that it really was pretty obvious, Usagi is already gallivanting towards the Sailor V cabinet and rummages through her coin purse.
    Only to nearly spill everything.
    "Ghhhhhk?!" She asks Josuke, heart freezing for a solid few beats as she looks like a deer caught in the headlights, bug-eyed with shock.
    With a stiff neck she woodenly turns back to the arcade cabinet and draws a steeling breath.
    There's no way.
    There's no possible way he could know?
    HOW DOES HE KNOW?!!?
    Play it cool, Usagi, act casual, divert attention from the fact that you are, in fact, Sailor Moon.
    Lie. Lie. Lie some more, Keep lying.
    Use a diversion!
    "Ahem! THIS... Is Sailor V! She's a local hero and she's super cool. No one knows anything about her except that she shows up and fights crime." She explains, feeding a coin into the game to start it up.
    "Okay let's see. This is to move... This button is Sailor V Kick... That button is Sailor V GUN... Uhhhh--"
    Usagi immediately dies.
    "Hey no fair!"
    She feeds the game another coin.
    She dies again.
    Another coin.
    Another death.
    One more try?
    One more die.
    It's like watching a rookie play Dark Souls and Usagi is in tears by the end.

    Dante tries to get a look, and he just...flinches. "...oof." He cringes, -cringes-, as he watches Usagi bumble and die. It's horrifying to him, in a sort of sympathetic way. In some universe, someone playing Devil May Cry is suffering just like Usagi is.

     Damian winces as well after watching Usagi's poor performance. "Yeesh. Maybe if you try jumping there... or shooting at that... ehhh I don't know how to help you, man." he says with a shrug.

    Josuke blinks at Shard's question. "Well, uh... not that I know of," he notes. "But sometimes it fails, and I'm not sure why." He pauses, to rub his chin, with a thoughtful pout. "Maybe my abilities just don't understand some of the stuff that's out there on the Tree. Maybe I need to understand what I'm fixing on some level, or maybe magic interferes with it. So... I could try to help out, but I can't promise definitely that it'd work."

    And yeah, Josuke has similar feelings to Dante watching Usagi fail so much. "Maaaan... that looks like a hard game..." He's only half doing it to salve Usagi's feelings. It's also half to make himself not feel bad. Because honestly, Josuke doesn't think he'd be much better at it himself!

    Lex nods to Josuke, and relaxes slightly in a way that only now calls attention to the fact that she'd gotten tense when Shard started asking.

    "We'll talk more about this later, then," says Shard.

    Lex stares at Usagi's inept game-flailing for a moment. Then she scurries away, and returns after a moment with more coins for Usagi.

    ... Her urge-to-help-people really doesn't discriminate.

    Inept game-flailing is... Certainly one way to put it. It's very accurate, especially when Usagi starts flailing for real in a near tantrum, she looks ready to stand up and kick the game. Up until Lex comes back with more coins.
    The Usagi has been placated.
    "A-ah, thanks. Let's just... Give it one more time."
    She pops the coin in and puts her game face on, eyes narrowing as she hammers buttons, trying to jump where Damian suggested, and shooting at everything-- just as she's about to die she finds some meat hidden in a wall while fighting zombies and eats it for an HP boost. But it IS a hard game, and ultimately, though she makes it to the boss...
    It one-shots her.
    "..."
    ...
    "......"
    ......
    "........."
    Calmly, Usagi stands up. Calmly, Usagi takes a deep, cleansing breath. Calmly, USAGI STARTS KICKING THE MACHINE AND FLAILING IN A PETULANT TEEN RAGE.
    This is when the machine spits out a girly pink pen into the prize box and--
    "Oooh I won a prize! Yoink! Ahahaheheheehhh~."

    Josuke's sympathetic to Usagi's plight. Though as she starts getting better, he starts to perk up. "Hey, there ya go!" he encourages. "Memorizing the enemy and stage layout, that's a good idea!"

    Usagi gets to the boss! "Yeah! You're doing <great>!" he encourages.

    And then, of course. One-shotted. Josuke sighs, and seems to deflate. "Aww, man... you were doing good too -- ah, hey wait!" Because kicking the machine?! She might break it, and he has a feeling she won't be able to pay for it! Josuke stands by ready to fix the machine, when...

    Blink. It drops a pen? "...Weird, I didn't think video games gave out prizes," he remarks. "Tickets, yeah. But directly a prize? That I've never heard of before."

     Damian cheers Usagi on as she gets a prize! "Great job! I mean you didn't exactly /win/ the game, but you did /beat/ it, so it still technically counts!" he says, snickering at his own lame pun. He doesn't bother remarking on the oddness of the pen though, instead waving a dismissive hand at Josuke. "Pssshh. Probably just something new they're doing. Cut out the middle man at the ticket counter, make it all automated. Everyone else is doing it."

    Dante blinks. "...well, it worked." He says, scratching his head. Usagi's little outburst does work! "Hey, ya got a prize!" He laughs, then realizes something. "I don't think you've been introduced. Guys, this is Damian. We were at a gala, there was a rock-off. It was awesome." He says, clapping Damian on the shoulder.

    Usagi... Beat the game. Yes. Yes that's what happened. Physically anyway.
    But that doesn't matter as the girl beams brightly. She has a brand new pen, and all those miserable losses? Instantly forgotten.
    "Eheheh~." Yep. She's as happy as can be. At least before she checks her wristwatch.
    "Oh huh. It's getting late. I should get going." She says.
    "It was nice properly meeting you all- and thanks for the help~."
    Yes. Help. Now that she doesn't have a test with a failed grade on it she can go home without worry about being kicked out of the house for the night.