unicorn (video) store

[greatlydares]

WHO: everyone visiting Random Play!
WHERE: Random Play on Shopping Street
WHEN: any time during September
WHAT: it's a mingle log! watch out for Bangboos and too-inspired store managers with decorations!
WARNINGS: none so far, will update if needed!

Comments

lighter (and red moccus) | ota

[fuegor]

[It is a beautiful day at Random Play.

And you are a horribl(y confused) Bangboo.

Lighter came by a little bit earlier before his help day to hang out with his favoritest Manager. They were probably just talking, vibing, hanging out as friends do.

And then suddenly there's a loud CRASH through the door by a familiar boar Bangboo in its Bangboo Sized Wheel jumpscaring everyone.

And making motorbike noises.]

WEEEEE-NAHHHHHH!!

[paraselenic]

[Here Lycaon was, enjoying a day off trying this thing called 'chilling' that he's heard Belle talk about. He was simply browsing the videos along the wall, pulling one or two out to read the synopsis, wondering which Belle would pick for the upcoming movie day they'd all planned.

unbothered. moisturized. happy. in his lane. focused. flourishing.

CRASH!

Lycaon spins around in surprise, tail poofed out as the door slams open, practically bouncing off the wall it hit as the sound of what sounds like a dying animal rings through the room.]

Miss Belle, stay back--!

[What in the Ballet Twins is-]

[fuegor]

[Lighter was keeping his ears and tail down easier this month, but with the surprise visitor his popped RIGHT the fuck out and poofed much like Lycaon's. All of his instincts... well, Lorenzo's anyway, told him oh fuck someone's trying to rob the place get Belle out and punch shit with Lycaon.

... His memory though.]

What the--?! Red Moccus??

[greatlydares]

[It's a beautiful day, and you are a video store manager chatting with your buddy as you order new videotapes online. And then you hear your other buddy yell.]

Huh, what—

[OH SHIT]

Red Moccus?! [And she does the sensible thing and just dives behind the counter with a yelp. Eous pops its little head out from behind the door, surprised, and calls:]

Eh-nhe-nha! (Hey, don't knock over the Conjuring standee!)

[fuegor]

[Luckily for Eous, Red Moccus manages to avoid the Conjuring standee with a Kaisoukyo Drift (13). But it was still driving very frantically and doing donuts in the middle of the store.]

Weh-nah-wata?! (Where am I?! It's Random Play but it's not New Eridu?!) [Alright, Dad (not to be confused with Big Daddy) is stepping in because CHILD PLEASE. And he'll just snatch the Bangbooar from right out of its wheel.]

Hey, hey, settle down! It's me! C'mon, you're making a mess of the Manager's store.

W-weh-wata...? (L-Lighter...?) [Oh the pleading emoji eyes Red Moccus was giving Lighter right now.]

only sort of here

[hexcrafter]

[A deep, long suffering sigh from several aisles over, followed by a muttered:]

Kurva, to si snad děláš srandu...

[And then the sound of the back door opening and closing. He'll just come back later.]

[fuegor]

[Ah... the frustrated tone of talking shit in one's first language... Lorenzo knew it well...

He'll need to make it up to that guy. He'll remember the face for sure (no he won't).]

Lycaon | OTA

[paraselenic]

[Lycaon's had a lot more free time recently. His forced PTO was a hard lesson learned that he should practice a little self-care. It wasn't easy, he often found himself with nervous energy he had to get out, but steps were being made. For one, he's dressing down a bit more, sporting a button up shirt and a collar and fingerless black gloves instead of his full gauntlets.

Two, he's been spending time at Random Play. While he's not exactly a huge conversationalist, he does take joy in the liveliness and the white noise, often leaning against the counter and listening to chatter. He knows (mostly) where everything is, so he's able to help any customers find what they're looking for--and it gives him that dopamine shot without taking all the work on himself.

Aside from that, he can be found browsing the tapes. There's just so many of them...how did Belle ever decide which one to watch when she got the urge?]

[hexcrafter]

[The impact of someone bumping into Lycaon's shoulder--or rather, the general vicinity of his arm given how much smaller Viktor was--in this case, was so light as to rank just barely above a stiff breeze.]

Oh-...I'm sorry, Lycaon. [Viktor pressed a hand to his eyes briefly, shaking his head like he was trying to quickly collect himself.] ...Finding anything interesting today?

[paraselenic]

[Lycaon's ears pick up that familiar timbre of Viktor's voice, swiveling in that directon like dousing rods to treasure. That gentle brush against his sleeve... the scent of Anise, no doubt that was Viktor.

His head turns to see his engineer with a smile but--oh. Oh sir you look so out of sorts.]

Viktor, are you alright? I apologize if I backed into you. [His arms go out to instinctively try to keep him steady.]

You look rather weathered.

Dr. Ratio | OTA

[mediocrites]

[An owl-winged professor has been hovering around the horror movie section for a little bit, picking up one case and then another, seeming caught in some internal debate. Eventually, he'll approach whoever seems available and relevant for assistance:]

Pardon me, but I have what I must imagine is something of an odd request. ...Which of these horror movies would you consider to be the worst?

[paraselenic]

[Hello doctor professor. Lycaon just happened to be rearranging some out of place tapes, having failed to resist the urge after he saw a teenager place the Saw movies in the wrong order. Unfortunately it's caused him to debate if the non-numerical entries should be done chronologically or alphabetically. (17).

Thankfully, the question breaks him away from what could be Pandora's Box once again.]

Ah. [He puts a finger to his lips, thinking this over.]

That would depend. Are we speaking of 'worst' in terms of film quality, or in terms of what is most frightening?

[mediocrites]

[An entire wolfman. He's gotten more and more used to people with some animal features, but you still don't see that every day.

There's a slight gleam in his eyes as he answers confidently, somewhere between amusement and satisfaction, like a hunter who's found the trail.]

Oh, the former, by all means. Although testing our nerves might be suitable for some other night, in this case I'm looking for something my partner and I can amuse ourselves by picking the flaws to pieces.

[greatlydares]

[Munching on some carrot chips idly behind the counter.]

The worst is a broad category, especially in horror film. A lot of now-classic horror movies were critically panned when they came out, but with time people realized they were actually pretty good. Other horror movies are so bad they loop around to being funny.

[Crunch. She swallows the carrot chip and hops off her chair.]

Off the top of my head, I'd say—Ouija—not the Filipino movie, the one that was released 2014—and The Apparition. The Apparition has a bad script and isn't actually scary once you get past the jump-scares. Ouija's one real gimmick is it's based on the board game, and beyond that it's overly reliant on stock characters that exist just to get killed off.

If you give me ten minutes I can work up a list of the worst horror movies for every decade starting from the seventies.

[mediocrites]

[Ratio seems both surprised and pleased by the detailed answer and the offer of additional help.]

A fair rebuttal. For my purposes, I'm seeking amusingly poor quality rather than critical disapproval - stilted dialogue, unconvincing effects, unlikely plotlines. My partner developed a fondness for such things when he was younger, and I wanted to surprise him with a night in spent picking something apart for entertainment.

In that regard, an entire list would be excessive for a single evening. [He raises his eyebrows, a challenge glinting in his eyes.] But if it goes well, and I've no reason to suspect it won't, a list of more titles to go through would allow us to make it a recurring event. And earn you a repeat customer, no doubt.

[He is all for rewarding extra effort, and enabling people to chase after their passions.]

Viktor | ota

[hexcrafter]

[After all the That with Lighter's little friend had settled, Viktor eventually came back when things were (hopefully) quieter. Wearing loose-fitting clothes and leaning more heavily on his crutch than usual, he looked pale and tired even by his own standards.]

[Today he seemed to be looking through box sets and longer movies--the kind of thing that could kill a whole lot of time, for whatever reason.]

Lia | OTA

[blossominghopes]

[As many times as Lia's passed by Random Play on her way to St. Gentleman, it's never actually occurred to her to stop in.

Well, she's changing that now. It's nearly time for her yearly rewatch of Clue anyway.

She has managed to locate Clue, but she's gotten distracted browsing the rest of the selection in the store.]

Can't believe I've never stopped in here before, as many times as I've passed the place... Maybe I should expand beyond my usual October rewatches next month...?

[She has her hand to her chin as she thinks out loud. Next to her, her Bangboo is doing her best to mimic the pose.]

Zelos | OTA

[wilder]

[As usual, on days where Zelos doesn't have anything on the schedule for his other job- it's common to find Zelos running the counter. Like every month, he wears a costume to go with the seasons-- this time, he's wearing an outfit that looks more fitting on a school campus.

Not that he has any interest in going to school. Nope, he's doing his usual thing of sitting at the counter, feet up, as he reads through another smutty book as he kills time through the slow days]

[life_ethereal]

[Harumasa has been giving it a bit before actually talking to Zelos about this. Mostly because of all the health concerns, but also generally he hasn't been in a good place emotionally to handle this kind of conversation. Now that it's September and the Spirit Vein is currently in its Wind stage, he's feeling a lot better. This... most likely won't last, but he's going to make the most of it while he still can.

He hasn't been around Random Play to work or hang out as much as he used to, still. He's not going to push it even if he feels great. Harumasa's been in the hospital enough in the past couple of months, so he would like to stay out of it for a little while thank you!!

Today, he comes in specifically to look for Zelos, and isn't surprised to see the redhead reading smut. No shame, here. Harumasa does deliberately pick a day that's going to be the slowest for the week so that Zelos can talk while not having to worry about customers.]

Slow day, huh? [His eyes catch on the title.] Oh, it has to be if you're bringing out Lies Embrace Hues to read~.

[It's a weirdly compelling book that you just can't put down no matter how mediocre it is.]

[wilder]

[Zelos has noticed how absent Harumasa has been lately. While no one's explicitly told him the reason why, it hadn't been hard for him to pick up the clues and piece something together. Health stuff that really wasn't his business, so he left it be.

So if anything, it's a bit of a surprise to see Haru come through the door. He raises an eyebrow, because it's not like Zelos is someone Haru usually likes to engage in small talk. But he'll play along. Not like he has anything better to do right now. ]

Oh, yeah. People are back in school and the weather's still nice, so it's been pretty dead. [He'll move to put a bookmark to mark his place] I take it you've read it? It's pretty good, even if the language is a little over flowery.

ragna | ota

[centralfiction]

[For having a membership, Ragna actually came by Random Play somewhat infrequently. Lately, though, he could be seen at the store more often. Be it paying Belle a visit or others. He won't admit it aloud but he liked watching movies with her and there was a ton of shit he hasn't seen yet.

So here he was, perusing the section of the store sorted by year. The 90's and 2000s for nostalgia and new things.

Though occasionally thinking aloud when he saw certain movies popular on certain blue websites in the 2010's.]

Jesus, couldn't get away from gifs of that one back in the day... [It's almost certainly something from the MCU.

Interestingly, there was a Bangboo with him. It was dressed in a similar red coat that came from his past life, but fun sized and had red eyes and diagonal vertical lines displayed on its front meant to evoke big scary teeth.]

Ace | OTA

[goldace]

[There's a new visitor to Random Play today! Ace has been by the store a few times, now, but this is his first time actually setting foot inside. Maybe he just didn't trust a video store to have an acceptable Western selection, or maybe he just got constantly distracted by the nearest shiny object or whiff of food.

Either way, there's a shirtless man with a cowboy hat browsing the shelves today! He has a massive jolly roger on his back and another tattoo of what seems to be his own name on his arm. His upper body is dusted with shimmering orange scales and he seems to give off the gentle scent of sea salt, roasted meat, and a beachside bonfire on a sweet summer night--

And right now, whether you work here or not, he's making eye contact and grinning wide, waving before he stomps on over and gestures to the documentary section.]

Hey! Hey. What's the wildest documentary you can think of? And I mean really wild. On the weirdest, most unbelievable thing that's ever happened.

[greatlydares]

[Almost immediately:] Planet Weird's The Unbinding. It's basically a horror documentary about a haunted object that someone found while hiking, you might like it.

Sung Jinwoo | OtA

[lowestclass]

[ honestly, he could barely believe his eyes. he wept the day Blockbuster went out of business. He probably still had his old card still in his wallet, unable to let it go despite how it didn't get him free popcorn anymore. and yet here he is. slowly making his way into what, on the outside, claimed to be a video store. did this even exist anymore? not a red box or a netflix storefront but an honest to god--

His eyes fall upon the first shelf upon entering and there it was. a shelf of honest-to-god, near-mint condition video tapes. he has to reach out to touch one to make sure it was real. he could cry.

Okay, yeah, he's definitely taking out his phone to text lapis that this place exists, while holding an old VHS copy of Alien in his hand. Is it rude to take a picture? probably. he starts to, when he realises there are other people in the store. Sheepishly, he puts his phone down. ]

S, sorry. I was just--startled to find a place like this exists. Or even functions in 2025. It's like a gold mine. I'm... impressed.

[greatlydares]

[Belle is staring.

She doesn't usually stare at customers like this, but there's something about this one that's...familiar. She squints at him for a long moment then flinches when she's caught, but when he fully turns to look at her, that's when it clicks. There's a drama she likes to watch, where one of the actors died during (or after?) production—rumors used to swirl around what happened, and now:]

Mizushino Shun? [It's said in a shocked whisper. Then she shakes her head.] I—Yeah, we're really proud we still exist—you're alive?