Back In Square One [Alisa]

[Vice Ysal]

It was such both a familiar and unfamiliar sight to him. Familiar because dredging through the memories of his human, this place used to be an area that he had frequented with who he had once been friends with a long time ago. In more recent years, it just became a place for him to unwind after a particularly bad experience or something new was being presented to the gamers present. It was unfamiliar due to him not being Him exactly anymore, so despite all the experience that the body already knew and the memories he could see clearly, Vice couldn't quite grasp the situation quite just yet.

If he were to be asked though, then it shouldn't be difficult to give an answer that his human would have given. They were one and the same anyway, so using that shouldn't be too difficult to ride along with. Oh the perks of being honest with one's self when it actually mattered, made so many things that much easier. Sure, no one could have predicted it to be used in such a complicated situation such as this but hey, that's where most of the fun went.

Dressed in the usual black biker outfit, denim pants and casual boots, Vice's hair this time was let loose and allowed to frame over his face while falling all the way back down to his shoulders. He might be in need of a hair cut soon, or he could just will them shorter. Perks of not really having hair, he supposed. The shadow simply took a sip from his canned soda, red eyes darting around for any game worth while to try and regain proper control of His body rather than just letting the brain do all the work. There wasn't much time until the next full moon came along after all, and getting as much subtle practice as he could should be more helpful than anything else.

Now…where was that shooting game that beat his high score…

---

Ayakura Alisa

[Ayakura Alisa]

I wasn't at the shooters today. Well, I was finished with my run for today. Second place on the board for this current run, but I was also first place so it wasn't a really big deal. For now I had maneuvered and found my way to the TwoDX machines in the other side of the establishment, working my way up the ranks of being a so-called arcade DJ, but I was not really the greatest at some of these songs, though I was able to get high ranks on other songs. This was not such an amazing feat compared to when I would play the shmups, but still, it felt nice to play and some of the tracks were legitimately good. After some time, I had felt myself satisfied with my performances and stepped away from one of the machines, looking around and soon I saw a familiar face.

I approached the biker, Vice, and waved towards him. "Hi," I said to him. He looked a little different, but that was mostly his hair. "You look different today. Must be the hair. How's everything with you recently?"

[Vice Ysal]

It was just a bit of time since his last wondering when the view of the shooter game finally came into his peripheral. A small smirk was evident on his lips at the sudden discovery but that soon fell away in favour of an indifferent sigh at the sight of a line actually forming. Apparently the guy up front was good, and was racking up the points up until the second stage. Shrugging his shoulders at that, the shadow decided to look for something else to get his hands on when a person unknown to the Shadow started waving at him.

A few milliseconds were sacrificed to find the info while the body was willed to respond to the stimuli. His senses coming back after arming himself with the information and the required means in responding and such, Vice just gave the girl a convincing nod of his head in return. Still keeping up with the not-quite-an act to try and fit in with society. "Oh? I haven't gotten a hair cut so it was probably the ride over here." The shadow commented as he took an inspectorary glance of his locks. "And same old same. Been teaching the New Bloods recently, hoping they're ready for the next Full Moon before it arrives."

Vice then took a quick cursory glance around the woman's state and quickly verified something that seemed different from the mental image his human had always had of her. "And you? You seem a bit different since the last time we saw each other."

[Ayakura Alisa]

I tilted my head as Vice responded to me oddly saying I seemed a bit different even though the only thing different about me was the clothes I wore, which were my pleated dress with my blouse. I didn't bring the jacket with me today. "Are you ok? I mean, I'm fine, but I haven't done anything different with my hair or anything..." I said wondering if something had hit him in the head or something. "I mean it's nice and all that you're orienting the kids on how to handle things, but if you don't take care of yourself you're going to go mad. I know how that goes. I've been there." I said, shrugging and looking off to the side. Yes, something felt wrong about Vice today. He didn't act like this usually. Not around me, anyway.

[Vice Ysal]

"You just seem…less tense is all, I guess. We're not quite so alone anymore, are we?"

The male informed, his shoulders drooping just a minuscule amount as a sign of him relaxing. Still, his eyes still held that dangerous glint they always had and today, there was a small spark of challenge in them to spice things up a bit.

"Gotta accept the reality that we may not always be there. Best we be prepared." There was a bit of a negative tone at the tail end of that sentence as Vice too took a glance around the place. Unfamiliarly fond memories slowly resurfacing and the shadow could observe just how his human would spend his time here back then.

[Ayakura Alisa]

"What's with you, dude..." I sighed and shook my head, wondering about the words coming out of this guy's mouth. "You're more chill than this... Is something really wrong? I mean, you are not usually acting like this." I looked rather concerned for the fellow and wondered if he had a bad run in with a philosophical twat or some other such person. Then again, Vice never struck me as the sort of person to get involved in that kind of affair. He seemed more of a free runner to me. So this really struck me as out-of-character to see him act more self-aware of these things. I waved my hand annoyingly in front of him to elicit a reaction from him.

"Did something happen recently, or am I being too invasive?"

[Vice Ysal]

The red eyed shadow blinked when he suddenly saw a hand moving in front of his face. Taking a step back from such an invasive gesture, the young male then turned his head enough just to acknowledge that the girl was calling out to him. Acting differently? He didn't feel sick or anything, and there was nothing he was doing out of the ordinary. Wasn't this how his human usually felt around this time of the month?

Besides, the increased efforts was something to go by and he didn't exactly have a lot of social interaction with the woman so there was that. The past few times must have been during less stressful periods of time, or when the human still didn't care so much about the others. So her surprise wasn't really off the mark and it surely wasn't because He was dead or anything, that much the shadow was sure of.

"Just a bad feeling for this one is all."

The male then rolled his shoulders and found there was something a bit more invasive on his right when it happened. Ah, he'll probably have to take care of that soon. Probably.

[Ayakura Alisa]

Yes, this Vice... Was not the Vice I once knew. Well, something had definitely changed about him, because he looked like Vice, moved like Vice, and spoke like Vice. But he was definitely not the Vice I first met and played a game with here in this arcade. Sigh... I hope he's alright. Soon, he told me he had a 'bad feeling' for this one and I tilted my head in response. "A bad feeling? Are we in danger of another shadow threat, do you think?" I asked curiously. Soon, I recalled back to a conversation I had with Phoebe, regarding the tiger kid, Gin Takemoto... He was once a human, but he had become a Shadow. So, it was possible for living humans to become Shadows. I didn't want to be too suspicious or dismissive, but... Hmm. It couldn't be true. Nope, I don't think that could have happened. But I can't just dismiss it, either...

"I'm sorry. You're just not acting how I'm used to you acting. Forgive me."

[Vice Ysal]

"We've established, from what we have anyway, that the full moons are dangerous. No reason to not be prepared for it."

The male said, his voice finally losing the tone he was injecting into it and slowly turning into the monotonous one that his human often ended up using for prolonged conversations like this. When the girl had more or less apologised for being intrusive, the young man just accepted it with a shrug. It wasn't anything that really merited an apology, so there was no need for one in this case, but might as well accept it because it was what He would have done.

Going back to looking around the place, Vice tried to search for any other game that he could get his hands on. Not just any game though, hopefully something that wouldn't waste his time. "Today's a full house, huh? Ah well, was hoping to play a round or two."

[Ayakura Alisa]

Vice's voice, which, while it was off at first, seemed to... change, back to what I was normally really used to. That still didn't detract from how weird he seemed at first, and how weird he still actually seemed, but now I wasn't so sure how to see Vice anymore at this point. I wasn't going to bother questioning it either. I sighed and looked around as Vice mentioned that the place was quite packed and full, and that they probably weren't going to be able to get a game or two done today. "That's alright, I guess, I think I was done for my rounds for today," I sighed once more, fidgeting and looking around, still awkwardly trying to figure out if anything bad had happened to Vice. "Why, what exactly did you want to have a go on now?"

[Vice Ysal]

"A shooter game."

There was a slightly boorish tilt to the voice this time, and it was soon accompanied by the indifferent shrugging of the male's shoulders as he then began to rummage around his human's memories in an effort of at least trying to find a way to help kill some time while he was still in the area. The only thing that really came into mind was to try and stuff himself with what was called a burger, and he probably could if he wanted to, but the monetary denomination he had left with him would most likely not be capable of supporting much more than a single round of a shooter game should he go for it.

Looking around one last time, not really expecting to find anything, the Shadow did however raise an inquisitive eyebrow over at one of the surprisingly empty corners. It being a full house today probably meant that this game wasn't all that popular with a lot of people. Having nothing else to do for the time being, the Shadow decided to home in on the 'virtual slasher' game that promised 'a workout even samurai's would love' or something. Huh.