#eri is a party member rgg

[overdevelopedglasses]

Tojoctober Day 1 - Dance

(All this energy's got us inspired now)

Alt title is from “Dance!”, the P4D opening song

It's Zhao's birthday! Can he and Ichiban convince the party to bust a move?

(Joon-gi Han drink link spoilers)

------------

The local bar of Survive never had a dull night once Ichiban Kasuga and his ragtag team declared it as their hideout months ago. Music would often be loud enough for anyone passing to hear the tunes, along with the rambunctious cheers and infectious joy of the party. Typically, there wouldn't be a rime or reason for the music to play (despite Ichiban's reason of "bonding") but today was a special occasion.

The locals who knew of Survive would know it's typically occupied by the owner and his assistant, but they are nowhere to be found. Behind the bar instead stood a large assortment of balloons and a big helium tank. Streamers and banners adorned the ceiling and walls, along with a small pile of gifts on a table near the door. The record player, commonly finding a home on the bookshelf, now sat on the piano, and the karaoke machine was fully loaded with yen, as the people celebrating took turns with the machine.

Serenading the room this go around was Tianyou Zhao, with his rendition of "The Future I Dreamed Of." Ichiban is usually insistent on being the one to sing that song ("It's my theme! I have to sing it!") but the man in question sat next to the bar with a big grin on his face. How could he say no to Zhao, since it was his birthday?

The others in the room were everyone who Ichiban considered a member of his party: Nanba, Adachi, Saeko, and Eri were crowded around the karaoke stage. They'd usually clap along, but they were all enthralled by the birthday boy. Even Joon-gi Han, who was so dedicated to his self-imposed role as lookout, found himself cracking a small smile at Zhao's sweet tones.

Zhao finishes the song with a flourish, and the audience breaks into uproarious applause. Ichiban walks up and swings an arm around the man's shoulder, an even wider grin on his face.

"Zhao-san! Since when could you do that???"

"Yeah man, what the fuck? I knew Kasuga could serenade and scream, but you too?" Adachi chimes in, walking back to the bar, stealing Ichiban's seat, and pouring himself another drink. The bartender leaving the place to the party is a semi-common occurrence, especially late into the night. How Zhao got that to happen much earlier, along with almost free reign of the drinks, was beyond most of the party, but Adachi wasn't one to complain.

Zhao laughs at the remarks from his comrades.

"Consider it my birthday gift to you all."

Saeko beams at the man. "Well, it was very nice, Zhao. Thank you." Eri, sitting next to her, also made a noise of agreement.

Zhao flashed the women a grin before clapping his hands together. "Well then! Time for the main event." He exclaims, his eyes darting around to everyone before settling on the man next to him.

Everyone's faces became overrun with confusion, except for Ichiban, who's eyes went wild with excitement.

"YEAH!" Ichiban exclaims in return, walking towards the record player. He only stops when he feels Nanba grab his wrist.

"Hey, Ichiban... what the hell is Zhao going to surprise us with this time?"

Ichiban grins widely as his best friend. "Don't worry, Nanba. It won't be anything bad."

While that doesn’t do anything to settle Nanba's worries, he does let go of Ichiban, who completes his journey over to the record player. He sorts through the records before finding the one Zhao requested he start with when it was time.

Soon, a classic 80s hit fills the room with a sense of vigor. Zhao grins again, and leans down, offering his hands to Eri.

Eri gave a glance of hesitation towards Ichiban. He waves at her to say "go on!"

Eri takes Zhao's hands, and Zhao pulls her up into the middle of the room. A sound of surprise, then laughter comes from Eri as they begin to dance. Their movements are a bit awkward, but they quickly settle into the beat and rhythm of the song.

Ichiban, as part of Zhao's plan, goes over to Nanba, hoisting him up by his shoulders.

"Oi, Ichibaaaah!" Nanba's protests made the man laugh, as Ichiban gives Nanba a lighthearted shove towards the ones already dancing, then sliding up next to him as he himself begins to join the dance.

Adachi, who is at this point too intoxicated to consider something like embarrassment, jumps in between Ichiban and Eri and attempts to break dance. He ends up falling on his face, lacking the skills that Ichiban surprised them all with many months ago. Saeko laughs, and assists the older man up, before settling on a position between Zhao and Nanba as she begins to groove.

The six members of the party dance in their circle, their own little slice of joy, laughing and swaying to the beat. It's not until a lull in the music, as Ichiban walks over to the record player to set up a loop of danceable songs, when Eri glances over at the last seated member of the party.

"Aren't you going to join in?"

The remaining member, Joon-gi Han, shrugs.

"Dancing... isn't my thing. I'll be fine." He resumes what he was doing, looking out the window of the bar, before another voice draws his attention back inside.

"Oh come now, Han-kun, you can't humor us just this once?"

Joon-gi Han spins around, prepared to retort, but falls short when the party is all staring at him.

"Come on, Joon-gi Han!"

"Join us, won't you?"

"Do it for me, Han-kun. It's my birthday, after all!"

The party beckons him towards the circle with outstretched hands and arms, and Joon-gi Han shores up his defenses, ready to deny and ignore, despite the dull ache in his heart.

This is when Ichiban, done with the records, as the first song he put on begins to fill the space, walks over to Joon-gi Han's seat. He leans in close, his voice dropping to a whisper intent for him and him alone.

"Yeonsu-san. What's the harm in having fun?"

Oh.

If there's one thing Joon-gi Han never expected Ichiban to do, it was to catch him off guard. Joon-gi Han was supposed to be prepared, all the time. For anything. The last thing he expected was for Yeonsu to be asked something.

The loudest voice in his mind screams no, to go back to surveying the situation for threats, to walk away from the bar entirely, anything to not let his guard down.

And for the first time in what felt like forever, the man makes a choice. The quietest voice in his mind, one suppressed for years on end. What's the harm in listening to it once in a while, especially in trusted company?

Joon-gi Han takes a deep breath, and gives a genuine smile to the man who knew his name.

"You're right."

Ichiban's eyes widen, blush rushing up his cheeks, as Joon-gi Han rises from where he sat, and slowly makes his way to the circle with Ichiban. Nanba and Saeko create an opening, as Joon-gi Han stands awkwardly, all eyes on him, mouths agape in shock.

"I hate to admit this... but how does one dance?"

Those who walked past Survive on a regular basis, who are used to hearing 6 unique sounds of laughter, were puzzled but brightened when a 7th voice joined the choir. For the first time in a while, Survive enjoyed a night of pure bliss and only bliss.

[skrunksthatwunk]

ok im snapping I'm making the post.

ERI YAKUZA 7 DESERVED BETTER

in like. SOOO many cutscenes in the plot eri is literally completely absent for no reason. why is she not there. no speaking lines not even a shot of her. like they'll find a way to give most characters lines EXCEPT for her she'll literally not even BE THERE. WHERE DID SHE GO. she's not taken out of the party for plot reasons AND she's introduced WITHIN THE STORY so it's not like she's completely unacknowledged and only unlockable through side content, i.e. ichiban holdings stuff. she didn't even really get her own drink link, just the ichiban holdings stuff, which was way less personal and in depth.

she was one of my most powerful and reliable party members and i LIKE her!!!!!!!!!! why did you do that to her rgg studios. let her have thoughts let her contribute let her have influence. idc if she's getting replaced by kiryu or something in y8 (ylad2??? whatever) she deserved attention while she was here :((

anyway she's my tanimura she deserved better and even if no one else cares about her I CARE ABOUT HER

[moophinz]

I guess Yong Yea got lunch with David Hayter (or something along those lines) and people were speculating they were in the booth together and so Kiryu and Kashiwagi'd get to meet? But taking that at face value, I'm not sure which of the games this would be. Honestly I think it would be pretty funny if they met and pretended not to recognize each other the whole time though

Kiryu having his own party has been driving me insane since it was first announced lol, but not going to do too much good to speculate when we know less than nothing, I guess. All I can really predict is that it'll be smaller than Ichiban's (since they don't share equal screen-time and Kiryu is ultimately a deuteragonist). But Ichiban's party only really "needs" to have the core four, so perhaps Ichi's could be smaller to compensate for having two parties. If not, I'd expect to see a proper replacement for Eri, at least.

I will say there are a number of interesting routes to be taken. Totally agree we're (probably) not gonna be seeing past major characters from the Kiryu Saga in Kiryu's party, but then... is it gonna be past characters of another kind? Entirely new characters, like most of Gaiden's cast so far (though admittedly, most have ties to past characters)? People Ichi knows, but not necessarily Kiryu? It's all so AUGH

Huh. I wonder what that was about. If it really is a sign they’ll meet (which would be CRAZY if Kiryu got to interact with revived characters) or if it’s just Hayter giving Yea a welcome to the team. God imagine them meeting again in 8 and being like haha idk who this old gray fart is :)

Oh? Kiryu’s part will be smaller?

I wonder what Kim and Zhao will be doing. I want to see my annoying moaning catboy again

This could go any which way right now and it’s got me by the neck if I think too much about it 💀 Uh Daigo is an optional party member and you have to bring him to Mine as a twisted surprise substory. RGG Studio appeared in my room last night to tell me that. Yup.

Speaking of that though, I wonder if even Daigo and Mine would get to meet again if a revival actually happened. He was such a big part of his story before— sexuality and all that. It’d be weird to not see them meet up someway. It’d be sooooo funny if Mine called him Daigo-san and bowed out of habit.

[overdevelopedglasses]

Tojoctober Day 20 - Phone

(Please select an item to be printed)

Alt title is from “Trials” by Starset

The LaD gang talk about mobile games.

(no spoilers!)

—-----------------

“Hey, Zhao-san, what are you doing?”

Joon-gi Han walks up to the Chinese man, who’s deeply engrossed in his phone. 

“Oh, this? Just a little game I like to play sometimes. You know, I have this thing on me all the time, don’t want it to be all for business. I don’t know if you’d understand that, would you, Han-kun?”

Zhao shows his phone to the other man, and Joon-gi Han sees the game he was referring to: a yellow bird was face-first on the ground right in front of two green pipes, and the English writing for “Game Over” was written on the screen, with two buttons hovering below them.

“I don’t have games on my phone, since I never thought about doing something like that… How does this game work?” Joon-gi Han asks, trying to mask his curiosity. Zhao gives him a mischievous grin.

“Well, it’s skill-based. You have to get this dumb little bird through the pipes and up your score that way. You just have to find the right rhythm to make the bird fly, in a way.”

He hands his phone to Joon-gi Han, with the title screen now visible.

“Just tap the button on the left to play.” Zhao says with a smile, taking a sip of his drink.

Joon-gi Han does so, and soon becomes engrossed in the game. The pattern he has to tap in becomes a weird bit of second nature to him, so he quickly is able to rack up his score with another few attempts. A few minutes pass before a voice cuts into his concentration.

“Wait, Zhao-san, how’d you get Flappy Bird on your phone?”

The voice belonged to Eri, the young secretary walking up to stand behind Joon-gi Han. He tilts his head so that she can see him play. Of course, this small action takes his focus away, which means the bird slams into the ground once again. He looks back and curses under his breath. His score was so high, too. 

Zhao gives the two of them a chuckle. “Well, I have my ways, and my connections.”

“No way, you have Flappy Bird?” Adachi pipes up, and Joon-gi Han sees the older man swivel on his bar stool away from his drink. “I heard that the game had been taken down from the application store a while ago?”

“Yup. What games do you have on your phone, Adachi-san?”

“Glad you asked!” Adachi jumps up from his barstool and shuffles over to the trio, pulling out his phone and turning it sideways.

“It’s this game called Genshin Impact! It has a really rich story and some great character designs.” Adachi flips his phone around to the group and shows off a somewhat small girl with blue hair, manipulating ice magic.

“What… the hell is that?”

“Don’t give me that!” Adachi replies, nudging Joon-gi Han in the shoulder, producing a chuckle out of Zhao.

“Well, why is this character the one you want to show us?” Zhao asks, arching his eyebrow.

“Well, I really like her story, for once. It’s really compelling. And she’s really powerful in battle. There are more characters than just her!”

“Maybe I should give it a try…” Eri says, outwardly pondering the thought, but Joon-gi Han can tell she isn’t very serious about the statement. He chuckles to himself.

“Hell yeah! Join me, Eri-chan. Maybe you can help me convince Nanba to start playing it, although that requires him to get a phone…” It was Adachi’s turn to become lost in thought, but a new voice flows into the main room of Survive.

“Really, Adachi? Of course you’d play Genshin.”

Saeko emerges from the stairway, leaning against the wall with a smirk, drawing laughter from Zhao and Eri. Joon-gi Han simply grins.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“I just expected someone like you to play the game.” she retorts, causing Joon-gi Han to join the laughter. It’s a weird feeling, genuinely laughing in front of people, but he also has a growing trust in his friends. He can let a couple walls down, can’t he?

“Well, what games do you play, Sa-chan?” Adachi asked with a bite of confidence to his tone.

“Candy Crush, of course.” Saeko replies, and Adachi lets out a shocked gasp. 

“What’s Candy Crush?” Joon-gi Han asked, and Saeko gave him a look that just said “really?”

“Wow, the Geomijul really have you really living under a rock.” This earns her a returning glare from the man. “You match different colors together and they clear a board. It’s a puzzle.”

Joon-gi Han’s ears perked up at that. He always liked puzzles. “Candy Crush, right?” He grabs his own phone, one that the Geomijul only recently let him take outside of the territory, and begins to search the application store for puzzle games, finding many different varieties of puzzles. Mysteries, things like what Saeko described, and an odd one about a grandmother? He shakes his head and puts his phone away, filing the browsing of games as something to do later.

“What games do you have, Eri?”

“Oh! I play this game called Chicken Evolution! I really like it since it’s so simple, and it runs in the background, so I only have to check it every few hours.” Eri pulls up the cute looking game, with…

“Are those… mutant chickens?” Zhao asked, with a weird expression on his face.

“Well, the game is called Chicken Evolution, Zhao-san.” Adachi replies. “I’d expect there to be some weird ass designs.”

“Hey! That’s not nice. Apologize to Omelette Junior and Omelette the Seventh right now, Adachi-san.”

The group starts to laugh, but Joon-gi Han swivels in his chair as he hears the door to Survive open. Thankfully, the figure standing there is not one that sets off Joon-gi Han’s danger alarms, and he lets himself smile. 

“Wait, what’s this about games on your phone?” Ichiban steps into the space, a few grocery bags in his hands. He walks over to the bar, setting some down, and the bartender takes a couple of the bags from him, beginning to put some of the things away.

“Oh, hey Kasuga. Yeah, we’re showing each other what games we have on our phones. Do you have any games downloaded?”

“You… you can have games on your phone?” Kasuga asks with wonder and amazement coating his voice.

“Yes…?” Zhao replies, then remembers “Oh yeah, you were in prison since 2001. But yeah, technology has come a long wa-”

“CAN I GET DRAGON QUEST ON MY PHONE!?” Ichiban shouts with excitement, interrupting Zhao on accident.

This causes the whole party to burst into laughter. 

“I mean, you probably can?” Saeko taps away on her phone, then smiles. “Yeah, it looks like there’s a bunch of them on here.” She shows the group her screen, which has many of the Dragon Quest games on the store. “They seem to be a few hundred yen, but there you have it.”

Ichiban lets out a shout of excitement, hurriedly pulling out his own phone from his pocket.

“Or… I could probably get something special working on your phone, where you don’t have to pay…” Joon-gi Han winks at Ichiban, who lets out a small gasp and smiles.

“Han-kun, that’s piracy!” Zhao says sternly, poking him in the side jokingly.

The group starts to laugh again, calming down after a couple seconds.

“What about you, bartender? What do you play?” Eri asks the man who owns the establishment.

All heads turn towards the bartender, who had just finished putting away the groceries Ichiban brought in. He grabs a glass from the dish rack and begins to dry it, before responding cooly,

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

This draws groans, and then laughter, out from the party. They continue to debate the games until Nanba comes downstairs, which then makes everyone berate Nanba into getting his own phone.