Audience: Hanako

[becomemod]

Comments

[becomemod]

[Welcome to the arcade then! Yes, this is Ox's HQ. They love it.

It's also early enough that it's not open yet, but Cobalt Ox is milling about helping to set it up for the day. Making sure there's quarters in the change machine, booting up all the arcade games, that sort of thing. They do pause when they see Hanako though.]

Oh hey. It's not quite open yet if you came to play games, you've got about 15 minutes still.

[hanaban]

[ He's tense when Ox first speaks, still guarded when he isn't immediately yelled at or told to go away. ]

I'm not here to play games.

[ He will wait, though. He'll sit right there by the door and stare intensely at Ox finishing up ]

[becomemod]

[This gets their attention, so they set down the bucket of quarters and go over to talk.]

Okay. What's up then?

[They seem open to talking at least? They're not tense or guarded.]

[hanaban]

[ The fact that they seem okay only makes Hanako feel more tense, like this is the opposite reaction he was expecting ]

I came to say sorry. [ careful. still closely watching ox's every move ] For hurting you last night.

[becomemod]

Oh.

[They seem a little surprised to hear that.]

It's...Well, it's not a serious injury, so it's okay. You were spooked because I tackled you anyway, weren't you?

[They would like to believe Hanako doesn't stab without reason.]

[hanaban]

I wouldn't say spooked... but I was surprised. At least, I was surprised it was you.

[ they were in a room full of heroes and everybody just popcorned ]

[becomemod]

[They shrug.]

Sometimes someone has to make the first move to get others to act.

Sorry I punched you, too. I, er...I have a bad temper. And stabbing me set it off.

[hanaban]

Sometimes nobody else will act after, because they think that person has it taken care of.

[ but that's not what he's here to talk about ]

Is that why you left so quickly? It takes a lot of self discipline to step away from a fight.

[ he knows because he would've kept going ]

[becomemod]

I...guess so? I mean, I had already stopped you and you didn't have your knife, so there wasn't any reason to continue it.

PLEASE don't attack the mayor in the future though. Even if you weren't going to kill him, you could have caused a lot of trouble for all of us! He's an idiot, he doesn't know anything.

[hanaban]

[ if he had his knife right now he'd be tempted to raise it again ]

Then he shouldn't be mayor. Somebody who doesn't know what's going on, and has no power to change what's going on shouldn't be in charge of anything. No wonder this city has a villain problem.

[ better mayor = no villains = no need for heroes = let everybody go home?? ]

[becomemod]

I mean. You're not wrong. But threatening to stab him isn't going to change the power structure here.

[hanaban]

He didn't even have bodyguards. How can everybody in the city just go along with this?

[ he can too change the power structure, it's called a coup ]

[becomemod]

Because most of the people here understand that society is a social contract, and murder is counterintuitive to that social contract?

[hanaban]

I get that. I haven't been out of human society that long.

[ still stupid, though, the whole "murder is illegal" thing ]

Just how much are people going to put up with before they fight back? Isn't a hero somebody who fights for the people?

[becomemod]

Harming the mayor isn't really 'fighting for the people'. If you want to fight for the people, you have to actually listen to them. Have you even talked to anybody from this world, or did you just assume you knew best?

[hanaban]

I... spoke with somebody with a weird looking dog? His name is Makkachin!

[ and continued to just assume he knows best, yeah, because he does ]

[becomemod]

...a talking dog?

[What.]

[hanaban]

What?

[ yes ]

[becomemod]

Was it like...Hung? Or more of a dog-dog?

[hanaban]

More of a dog-dog. But kind of lumpy looking?

[becomemod]

Huh. I usually see humans or 'looks like humans' around here.

[hanaban]

Are you surprised? One of your new heroes is a raccoon, after all! And Whisper is a fox?

[ ?? or that's what it said on the profiles, anyways ]

[becomemod]

They're the outliers!

[hanaban]

[ looks up at the sky like whisper is a wolf, i can't read ]

You really haven't seen more of that sort of thing around here? Like, talking foxes, or fish, or maybe a tree?

[becomemod]

The most I've seen has been from people not from this world. That's why I was surprised to hear that there's a talking dog in this world, apparently.