2523/Rome from England. Chia Seeds. Chiyo.

Rome from England. Chia Seeds. Chiyo.
Date of Scene:	11 May 2025
Location:	Game Crown Arcade
Synopsis:	While burning off some stress at the arcade, Chiyo runs into a new Radiant Heart Student. From England. She shows off how to win some claw games while becoming increasingly suspicious of Rome. Does he work for the enemy?
Cast of Characters:	Chiyo Sakai, Roman Talleday

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Chiyo Sakai has posed:
The arcade was always a popular place to hang out. The cafe was often bustling with those after tasty snacks and drinks, and the machines often had people lined up to play the most popular ones (or watch those that were currently working on the high score). Of course some times of days were busier than others so it wasn't *always* bustling full of people.

At the moment there were a decent handful or more moving among machines and games. Notably some seemed to be avoiding a plum-haired girl who was currently at the crane games. Probably due to the few bags of stuffed toys she'd already won that were gathered at her feet.

Chiyo leans close enough that her nose almost bumps against the screen as she squints, and lines up the claw, and taps the button to release it. It was anyone's guess how long she'd been here by now. The bags near her bore the logo of the Crown Arcade. A few poor stuffies had already fallen out and tumbled bare onto the ground.

Roman Talleday has posed:
Through the beeping machines and light displays, a young man with blond hair was making his way across towards the UFO catcher. Denim jacket and fairly casual looking in his sneakers, he had a backpack slung low over shoulder that was covered in patches. From a small clip on his belt, he took a tamagotchi of some age-- well loved and blue and yellow in colour, and bearing the adornment of flapped stickers-- and set it upon the control panel as if to watch him play.

The machine itself, to be noted, was Tamagotchi themed, and filled with classic character plush and various accessories and charms.

After slotting his coinage, he spent a minute tapping at his phone before scanning it over some sort of reader, and the machine registered an account of some kind. A great show of happy colours and lights, alongside music, as he started to play.

"Right. Lets get you somethin' nice, yeah?" A thick accent-- British, from Essex-- left him as he seemingly spoke to his Tama.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai leans back away from the machine as the claw descends to open and clamp (with a quick double-tap of the button) to the cartoonish strawberry milk carton plush that she had aimed for. The lights flash, music plays, and when it drops it plunks down the chute causing another series of lights along with a canned chorus of cutesy 'Yaaay~!' to play.

Chiyo was wearing a casual-but-cute dress herself rather than the stuffy, questionable color combination that Radiant Heart Academy seemed fond of. A ruffled green jumper-style dress over a pale green button up shirt adorned with red cherry print. There's little ribbons at the waist where the straps met the skirt. Comfortable, cool, and yet she wasn't going to be flashing anything untoward when she bends down to collect her winnings.

A quick stoop-and-scoop has her rising once again with the strawberry milk plush squeezed in her grip. It only earns a moment of her attention though: Her gaze lifts trying to find the next target to keep her attention.

Instead? Instead her ears prick at the sound of a not-unfamiliar accent from the denim-clad boy that took up residence nearby at another machine. "Ah? That one's tricky," she remarks without thinking about how it may seem to talk to a total stranger out of the blue. As it is she finds herself staring at him a moment longer.

"Ah, sorry!" She finally blurts out with a small smile. "I'm sure you know what you're doing."

Roman Talleday has posed:
Thankfully, Roman's not unused to be spoken to by total strangers, having only recently arrived in Japan. He himself was still adjusting, at large, to the culture shock-- different ideas about politeness being chief among them.

He turns his head to the girl, and immediately the slight wobble of an earring can be caught dangling from his other ear. Of all things, a tiny teacup, no bigger than a thimble. Sterling blue eyes catch hers, and after a beat, he grins at her. A cheeky expression that lights up his face. "Me? Nah. I never know what I'm doin'." There's a hint of a laugh on it.

His attention turns back to the catcher, "It's cool, but. They haven't got this back home, do they? Only seen 'em on the internet and that, the Tamagotchi ones. It's all cheap stuff and candy bars on my end."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
That little glint of an earring causes her pink eyes to snap toward it long enough for her to realize it's a teacup. If she'd thought he might be some kind of punk in the attire he wore, seeing a *teacup* earring somehow made that concern melt away. She wore enough candy-based jewelry herself on occasion that it was a bit of a familiar thing. Just a bit.

The response wasn't expected though.

A little laugh breaks from her which she quickly stifles with her hand over her mouth so as to not be rude. Ruder? Oh who cared at this point. "No better way to learn than trying, then! The machine here always have good things," she assures with a gesture at her veritable pile-o-loot she'd already won. "There's even some shops that will buy them off of you if you don't want them."

Chiyo pauses again to finally look over her haul with an emerging frown. "I ... think I may have gone overboard myself. Maybe I should turn some in." A thought for later.

A step or two is taken closer to Roman and his machine to watch without being so close as to potentially get in the way. "There's different types of claws, and set ups, for winning here. Sometimes it's not about grabbing them but about pushing them off or knocking them into something. I could offer you some tips if you'd like...?"

Roman Talleday has posed:
"Some of these games, I don't even get." He claw moved with a slightly mechanical jank, and he paused just long enough to glance at her and jut his thumb behind him. "There's one with a stack of cup noodles over there, in a roulette wheel. And one what you win cakes in a can from. S'mental what they come up with."

Food prizes for arcade games was still a very new concept to him. Many things about the general convenience and vending machines-- how complex some of them were-- had taken him aback over the last few weeks.

The catcher snagged at something lightly, but it was a fairly weak grip, pulling at a lanyard only briefly. As it retracted to reset, Roman turned his attention on her again. It was easy to do, she was pretty cute. "I get it though. Sometimes you just get into a zone. You want a go?"

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai ducks her head in agreement. A zone was certainly one way to put it. Somehow she looked just a bit guilty though. "I was using it as a distraction. I guess it worked." The mention of snacks in the machines causes her to crinkle her nose with a clear bit of distaste.

"They're really not bad snacks, they just have a lot of preservatives in them. Good for a snack session but not a *good* snack. Really if you want good snacks you'd be better off hitting some of the local shops around here. Any one of them would be way better!"

When he offers to allow her a try at it, she hesitates. "I guess I could show you the trick and then let you try again? Sometimes it's easier to see than just explain."

A step or two closer and the controls are taken in hand. Rather than try to grab the item directly she drops it quite a bit away. When the claw extends however? It catches at the lanyard loop so that when it closes it actually pulls the object toward the hatch causing it to almost topple into it.

"Like that. Next one you'd do similar but have it push from the opposite side and it'll knock it in, if you want to finish it."

She was getting distracted again though, she realizes. A bit sheepishly she looks back to the blonde to offer, "I'm Chiyo Sakai, student at Radiant Heart Academy, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

Roman Talleday has posed:
"I come up eatin' tayto crisps and peanut butter off a spoon, love. Jammy dodgers an' that. Think I've got enough preservatives in me t'be functionally immortal."

He has no idea what to make of her stance on snacks, but he does step aside somewhat to watch her work the machine. His attention flicks between her hands and the catcher, taking in the explanation-- it makes sense, this little strategy. He feels as if a lightbulb has popped into being above his head. Before he can take the controls back, though, he blinks at her introduction.

"Real? You is from RHA?" His brows are high as if he didn't expect that, and he looks her over-- from head to toe-- with a shift of his weight from one leg to the other. Tongue pokes into his cheek, and he is either amused or impressed, but it's unclear which by expression alone.

"Alright. Yeah. I'm Rome." He nods as his gaze returns to her features. "I just started there. It's well fancy, isn't it? Bit prep for me, but you know... Red was shipping me out either way, I didn't exactly get a choice."

He took back to the game.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean any offense by it. My Ojiisan owns a wagashi shop so I grew up with fresh snacks. Either made by him, or made on my own when I was big enough to learn how." Which was quite awhile ago really, nevermind her height being not that big at all. In Japan it was good enough! "Nounamu Sweets. You should stop by sometime if you want to try something different."

Her hands shift to clasp behind her back preparing to watch him work the controls again when she finds herself being regarded so thoroughly. The urge to squirm under that gaze was repressed but she doesn't really manage to avoid the slight blush of embarassment that creeps up her neck. "For real," she agrees quickly, head bobbing. "Nice to meet you Rome, from England." She's about to tease a bit perhaps but then he says he was shipped out... like a soldier. That's a weird thing to say. Who was Red? That causes her eyes to glint a her smile falters. It's her turn to now stare at him, gaze raking over him roughly, sizing him up.

Roman Talleday has posed:
He had no idea what Wagashi even was, but he wasn't about to tell her this. A sweets shop was a sweets shop, though. Nounamu Sweets-- he filed that away for later.

"Rome from England... yeah, I'm gonna be getting that a bit, ain't I?" He sucked his teeth, focused upon the claw. Following her advice, it came down on the opposite side, pulling the lanyard further towards the chute. For a tense moment, it wasn't a sure thing. But finally, it dropped with a rustle of plastic and metal.

"That's what I'm about!" An animated clap celebrates with a small shuffle of his feet, a dance-like victory move. At once, he's dropped to fish it out, snatching his prize from the machine and popping back to his full height like a jack-in-the-box. Chiyo wins another grin, lop-sided and pleased, as he waves the prize with a popped brow.

"You're onto it, aren't you?" He snatches his tamagotchi from the control panel, and chuckles. "Nice work."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai pushes down the voice in the back of her head currently telling her to be cautious about what information she may give away to this relative stranger. She knew better by now! She'd been at this for a few years at least. Longer even than her cousin who was apparently some Princess at this point and of galavanting with her Prince and their knights on some trip elsewhen.

By the time he looks back she's smiling again (a bit hard perhaps), but smiling. The little victory dance actually earns a small chuff of a laugh.

Her hands come forward to clap together with a quick nod of her own. "Good job! I wouldn't worry too much about the England thing. There was another student from England not long ago so it's not going to be so strange. Plus a lot of students come from other countries. I hear there's even a few from France."

"Like I said there's tricks to all of them. I could show you more if you like, sometime."

Roman Talleday has posed:
"My sympathies." Roman said of the French students, distracted now by tearing the protective plastic around the lanyard with his teeth. He made short work of it, freeing it up to work at attaching it to the Tamagotchi.

"Yeah? It's not a bad spot, this. They got a Deka Tama tower up the front for gift downloads too. That's a bonus." He lifted his head to look at her again, and his brows bounced. "I'll see you around the school, then? Smile big when you see me, so people know cute girls talk to me, yeah?"

He was already remembering her name like Chia Seeds. Chiyo.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai hadn't actually met the French students that she could recall so couldn't say one way or another. The remark does remind her that she read in history that the two countries weren't always the most fond of one another. A side note to keep in mind. Just in case.

"Oh the arcade is wonderful. The cafe upstairs is great, too." Chiyo hesitates as she catches that expressive look her way along with the more-than-implied compliment. That does very little to help keep her from not looking red-faced again as she grins.

"Yes, see you around school, Rome!"

Rome from England.

Stiffly turning she moves to scoop up her double-bags full of prizes intending to rush off before she gets herself in further trouble. ... How much allowance had she spent? Oh dear.