Match of the Millennium

Description: After strengthening her resolve to improve herself, Moondyne runs into Tairyu in a Southtown arcade playing... Space Harrier?

[MOONDYNE]
Earlier that day, at one of NESTS Southtown based facilities...

Moondyne Mouse's long-nailed fingers clutched at the chain link fence that surrounded the area where they were working on one of her squadmates--the one based on a feline, specifically. The last mission she had been out on went a little sour and she wound up taking a 5.56mm round to one of her eyes--which normally fatal for a human was not to her. Not to their kind. She nominally was in charge of overseeing and handling some of the repairs herself, but the new team they had brought in was taking the opportunity to study and get to know Dr. Leblanc and Mehta's handiwork, so to speak. She hung against the fenced in area of the underground garage area, her eyes darting about as she studied the work they were doing through the red-tinted visor. At one point one of their hands slipped with an industrial-grade electric ratchet and she winced ever so slightly as she heard the scream. She had to figure out how to get her and her group out of there at some point... she couldn't trust /humans/ to know what to do with them, and she didn't want them to be used... nevermind the amount of programming that had went into making them like their new jobs.

First, Moondyne knew, she had to work on getting stronger.

The arcade on this rainy day seemed like a good a spot as any, though it wasn't as loaded as it might have been normally due to the weather. Even for an arcade in Southtown. UFO catcher and various toy dispensing games of chance and skill were lined up among arcade cabinets sporting many retro titles--Space Harrier, After burner--clustered together immediately across from some of the newer and more trendy attractions, like Silent Scope.

The lighting was also a fair bit subdued in some of the areas, meant to make the arcade screens themselves pop to the eye better.

[TAIRYU]
It just so happens that this particular arcade is a spot a certain Yakuza frequents.

Is it because his Family has a stake in the business? No, no sir. Then, is it because they're within their protection racket, and he has to come collect from them? No, they're not even within Aizawa-gumi's turf.

No, it's for such a simple reason alone as... Tairyu likes to come play the games here.

Of course, the sight of a tall man in a black suit over a red dress shirt, with a very thug-like air about him playing arcade games might be a bit of an odd sight, but he doesn't particularly seem to care. The young Yakuza has found himself, on this particular day glued upon the Space Harrier cabinet, intensely maneuvering the joystick to control the player character on the screen, face lit up by the bright colors glowing out from within.

[MOONDYNE]
On this day, Moondyne Mouse was actually in the area looking for a particular informant, who might have had some information on one NESTS lower-level dealings in Southtown. Of course, she wouldn't forget to steal if the opportunity presented itself, either--she had a little bit of her own money squirreled away in places and accounts that only she knew about, not counting the 'petty cash' of whatever NESTS allowed their operative. Which, even though their leaders were a bunch of high-powered psychopaths--well, wasn't /too much/...

She paused as she passed by one of the arcades that lined this section of the city, sniffing at the air a little. She turned on her heel, moving instead toward the arcade's doors, dropping her disguise as she went.

"Aren't you a little too /old/ to be playing videogames?" if Tairyu could be distracted from playing vidya, he'd see Moondyne Mouse sitting there--looking quite like she did in her armor back in that hotel room encounter, though her gear had a much more plasticky look and sheen to it, as if it was all fake--like Stormtrooper armor.

"Hiiii~" she waggled her long nailed fingers at him, her tail flicking about behind her. It's like she was trying to remind him that no, he didn't just get ripped and watch too much cable TV porn that night. She was actually real.

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu is duly distracted! That voice is so familiar, and the association he has to it makes his whole body stiffen up for a split second before peering back over his shoulder to the source of it... and resulting in the pixelated character on screen exploding into bright explosions. Damnit!

"... There's no age limit to these things last I checked," Tairyu protests, and since a great GAME OVER message has come up on the screen anyway, he turns himself fully around over to facing the mouse, with his thick arms crossing up together over his chest while he eyes her over.

"... Is it cosplay day? Or are you looking for trouble? I figured you would have fought me back the other day if you were going to do it at all."

[MOONDYNE]
"To be faaaair, every day is cosplay day when you've got a military-grade hologram emitter," Moondyne raises a finger to waggle at Tai, before skipping past him and around at the game he was playing. "Space... Harrier? He doesn't look like a bird, what gives," Moondyne actually had to stand on the tips of her white foam-rubber sneaker boots to get a better look at the screen and the cabinet itself, as she was again only about 5-foot nothing.

"And how is he flying around the screen like that? I don't see wings or a jetpack... what kinda company would make a game that weird?" Moondyne frowned, looking down and suddenly more interested in the other aspects of the machine--like the cam-style lock over where the change went in--or the coinslot, which she plucked at with the nail of her index finger.

"Interesting..."

[TAIRYU]
"...Well that explains a lot of things..." Mutters Tairyu quietly-- right before he sends a curious look up-and-down the mouse. He coughs quietly after a few seconds at... whatever thought he had.

He steps aside to make some way for her when she comes closer, and he watches her study the cabinet with no small measures of amusement on his own part. "Have you never seen one of these things before?" He asks of her with a lifting of dark brows.

And just like that, he's already pulling a stool over, and holding out a coin down to the mouse. "Wanna give it a shot?"

[MOONDYNE]
"What, did you think you unlocked free cable that day? Pretty sure it wasn't free in that room," Moondyne Mouse's tail was already snaking around her to try and fiddle with the coinslot--the tool pod tip of her tail extruding some kind of piece of wire--Tairyu would likely notice the 'credit inserted' noise of the cabinet chiming several times in quick succession as she physically manipulated the mechanism in the coinslot.

"Ta-daaaah~ Good luck mouse has smiled upon you today~" Moondyne popped up on both feet after kneeling with her hands clasped together and eyes closed with a big grin on her features, acting like this was a promotional stunt by an arcade 'mascot'.

"Hmm...? why yes, you can give me a kiss~" Moondyne takes the offered quarter and then tries to hike up the sharp-dressed man's side as she tries to steal a kiss from him on the cheek, likely urging him under her breath to go along with it, like 'c'mon damnit just stay still!'

[TAIRYU]
"...I don't really make a habit of watching porn, just so you know," Tairyu protests with a narrowing of his eyes and a little huff underneath his breath.

THeres a rapid blinking of his eyes, then, when he realizes what exactly the mouse is doing -- right on time with that 'ding!' of the cabinet accepting credit.

"That... that's just straight up cheating," Tairyu mutters under his own breath with a shake of his head. His brows knit together briefly too when she comes leaning up towards him on tiptoes. "I didn't... oh, well..." WIth a quiet breath let out in relention, he leans himself down over low enough that she can, in turn, reach his cheek with her lips. "What's got you in a happy mood like this anyway?"

[MOONDYNE]
"Mmmwah~" Moondyne hops back down after she's given Tai a great big smooch--rocking back and forth on her sneaker-esque boots as she tilts her head. "What? It's not cheating, I didn't do anything to the game," she smiles a little. "I wasn't going to make you pay for me, though--I do appreciate the thought," she stood back a little and would let the man get at the cabinet again.

"Me? ...eh, was in the area, trying to find a special someone, looking around now that things seem like they're about to get back to 'normal', whatever /that/ is," she nods. "I'm a thief, I like to burglarize stuff in my spare time," she gestures.

"I know, I know, mouse stealing stuff, but I wasn't originally programmed that way--I just like to do it," she leaned against the warm plastic and wood arcade cabinet. "I can kinda see why you like it here," she looks around, her tail flitting about near her feet.

[TAIRYU]
Tairyu wipes his fingers over the spot where that big wet smooch was laid on his cheek -- not that he seems exactly upset by the fact that he received it in the first place. "Yeah, yeah, if you say so," he murmurs before he steps up to the cabinet.

"A special someone, huh?" His voice rumbles back over his shoulder at her before he takes hold of the joystick. "A boyfriend or something?" His tone ever-so-slightly teasing when he says that, even flashing his teeth wickedly for a brief moment.

"You *like* to steal stuff," he repeats after her then, sounding a little dubious. "I will never understand that sort of thing. You know folks like me have a thing about that, right? Stealing things and robbery aren't things we're supposed to do at all."

[MOONDYNE]
"More like someone's face I gotta smash, probably," Moondyne nodded a little, showing off those big white mouse-like buck teeth of hers. "If it comes to it--though I prefer some more subtle methods, at times," she looks a little confused. "What, a yakuza? I thought stealing was kind of what you do--most of the time? Just y'know, more blue-collar crimes--thought it was drugs or murder you're not supposed to do, or something," she frowned.

"Care to fill me in there, then? Mr. Tall Dark and Leisure Suited?" she teased. "Sure, I like to do that stuff all the time--stealing, I mean. Do you find it weird that I do that even though I'm a robot?" she ponders, reaching up to brush back her light blur hair.

[TAIRYU]
"Yakuza don't mug people or rob stores or banks, silly robot," Tairyu insists with his foot reaching out over to bump lightly against the side of the mouse's shin. "They're more refined than that. Just straight up taking someone's property is brutish and dishonorable. What do you think I am, some kind of shitty street punk?"

A subtle look is given to her from just the very corner of his eye -- the shortest he can manage without getting distracted from the game to the point of losing a life. "I guess it's a *little* strange. But I guess by that vein it would also be a little weird that a robot would like pulling a prank on someone."

[MOONDYNE]
"Well, no--you don't, you just extort the shit out of banks and real estate companies," Moondyne grins a little, before blinking and wincing at how he just nudged her shin like that. Good thing her boots went all the way up past her knees.

"Hey, careful there--wingtips can hurt!" she flustered a little, blowing him a raspberry. "Now, let me tell you about the box of cut diamonds the jewelry stores keep in the back--with a little effort, and provided you can take the hard drives the security system uses--you can make off with a few hundred thousand--easy," she grins, "You might even wanna get in on some of that, we could sometime, if you wanted..."

[TAIRYU]
"Oh come on, I can tell you are made of sturdier stuff than that," Tairyu murmurs, with just a subtle sign of playfulness in his tone. That, however... it goes away pretty quickly.

"It's not the same."

The insistence comes in a firm, almost steely tone, there.

"I told you. We don't outright take peoples' property like that." With the convenient timing of the level in the game getting cleared, he takes the few seconds of respite to give a meaningful look to Moondyne herself. "Listen. What do you think those people are exorted with usually, anyway? Some more modern families just use direct threats, sure, but... For me and my old patriarch, at least, the blackmail used has to be of something 'genuine'. Signs of corruption, acting in unbecoming ways... It's their payment for acting in these ways. And in many cases it encourages them to act in better ways in the future too, see, hm?"

His eyes move back to the cabinet screen with that, since the next stage starts up just then. "And the protection schemes too. It's not like we don't give them anything in return for the percentage they pay. It's different, completely different."

[MOONDYNE]
"Maybe, but I think we come from two different worlds... even if we were both flesh and blood, which well, we're not," Moondyne grins, tracing a furred finger and nail along the edge of the cabinet. "Well, it sounds like you have a lot less violent of a racket, I'll give you that," she moves around him, to the other side of the cabinet--she had been on his left, till now.

"I just have a bit of a different... taste, I guess, and if I steal something I usually sock it away for later, I got people that depend on me, too, y'know," she waggled a finger, sighing a little.

"I don't mind taking stuff from humans, I guess--they haven't exactly been my friend the entire time I've been online, the more I learn about you humans the less I want to know sometimes..."

[TAIRYU]
"Hmm..." Tairyu gives a longer, thoughtful look at Moondyne over her latter words... which does, unfortunately, result in his character in the game dying an explosive death while his eyes aren't on the screen. "--Ah, damnit."

Well, he's still got lives left so it's *mostly* fine.

"The thing about us humans," he murmurs then. "Is that we are... complicated creatures. And in no way at all uniform. You can find those of us on both ends of the spectrum in that way. A lot of shitty folks. Some really good folks."

[MOONDYNE]
"Why does that guy explode...? Does he eat gunpowder for breakfast?" Moondyne had been casually observing the game of Space Harrier going on, apparently seeing fit to 'take the piss' or make fun of it idly as Tairyu plays, good naturedly, at least. "We still haven't gottne over the anti-gravity powers he has, either--or why his planet is infested with weird dragons," the mouse shrugs. "Outworld has dragons, I think, sorta," she looks back at up Tai.

"I know, a lot of you are pretty neurotic and terrible, too--I guess I can let it slide here and there, though," she winked.

[TAIRYU]
"Wow, you've really never played a videogame in your life, have you?" Tairyu asks with a low grunt. "That's just how these older games were. Everything exploded when they died because they didn't have any better way to present it back then, or something like that. And it's just a fantasy thing, don't worry about the details..."

%Another sidelong look to the mouse, this time with a curious upward arch of his brow. "Well, you don't seem to hold my humanity too much against me."

[MOONDYNE]
"I actually like fantasy, humans imagining things--and all that. How else do you think I was able to put those images on your TV?" Moondyne laughed a little, apparently finding that particularly memory quite amusing. "And no, I am alas not really expected to be... well, doing things like that, I guess I can--what're they gonna do, stop me," Moondyne rolled her eyes a bit, before returning her attention to Tairyu.

"Yeah, well, most people are horrified at running into a 5ft tall mouse robot," she paused, "Or, you know, what they look like in a bra and panties," she snickered.

[TAIRYU]
"I assumed you hacked it or some nonsense anyway," Tairyu notes with a low snort. "And like I said. I just didn't expect a robot to be so into pulling a prank on someone who was just trying to sleep."

There's a low, wickedly-amused chckle deep inside of his throat, over her following statement. "WEll, you know... If there's one thing I've learned about people, it's taht there's *definitely* some people out there who are into that kind of thing, too."

[MOONDYNE]
"Whaa...? But that's the /best/ time to try and pull a prank like that on someone, when they're half-asleep and don't know what the heck," Moondyne laughed again, not apparently seeming to find a problem with this, really. After Tairyu's last reply there, she nodded with a little grin herself.

"I know... I think I'm looking at one," she teased, this time reaching over to goose Tai by squeezing the back of his right calf, a little--before dancing away.

"Well, it's been fun, I think I should go look busy so my bosses don't get annoyed with me--Lucky Mouse will catch you later, okay~?" she gave a wave with a big theatrical grin, before trotting off.

[TAIRYU]
"...Clearly you enjoy that kind of thing too much," Tairyu rumbles with a quiet sigh. "You troublemaker."

AT her accusation, he promptly protests with, "I don't know what you are talking ab-WAH!" The unexpected squeeze to the back of his calf interrupts his line of thought and makes him jump in place -- and he ends up jerking the joystick just so as to guide his character on screen right into the mouth of a flying dragon.

"Whuh--" A bti red in the face, he spins around over after, only to be given the briefest sight of the back of the mouse before she's out of view. "... Troublesome mouse..."

Log created on 15:02:27 07/08/2020 by Moondyne, and last modified on 19:54:14 07/08/2020.