Extreme Clownery

         SHAME IS A MISERLY THING: it coils at his spine, elicits nausea that spreads from his larynx to all inner workings. It’s thoroughly his part to act verbally through seething incredulity (but when he grits his teeth, he reproaches himself bitterly for what he’s called more than a culpable weakness—even if he’s deserving of venting his spleen).

         ”When you lose something, I think you feel it in your marrow: that sense of loss.” —and with his morose reveal, he feels sunken: he frowns, slinking back; and inwardly searches for thousands of ways to speculate—but all he can grasp is the dolorous, and certainly not grand self-directed plaudits. All he can think about is how normalcy may claim that he’s seeking ghoulish menaces made of fear-aligned genotypes and phenotypes—and how he’s one of them.

         ”It is an evacuated cavity. Loss. Something hollow. And like marrow that faces reconstitution, it takes time.”

With the city being as small as it was, some folk, Justin supposed - weren’t all too happy about the smaller, perhaps more cramped area of exploration. There was also the fact none of them had gotten answers about how home was doing in all this, which worried him: he liked talking to people and making friends here, but his students at home were no doubt worried. It would at least be nice to know if they were okay.

Whether it was something back at the stranger’s own home or another matter altogether that he missed, he spoke heavy serious sentences that - while Justin normally liked to make puns and joke to make a conversation cheery - he felt it might be a little disrespectful in the current circumstances for once, ah. “Are you worried about those that hail from wherever you were taken from as well? Mm...it is troubling that we don’t know how they are, and upsetting to be taken and lose that, you are right.”

“Good eye, chum! Let’s give it a shot – I mean, shop!”

Dante shifts his weight over to the button his new compadre had pointed out and presses it with a click! …And when nothing seemed to happen the presses became a little more rapid until he held it down for a moment, causing the electronics in front of them to give a low fading whirr as all the lights blinked out. Counting to ten with his foot taps Dante then reunited his finger to the button and lo and behold, the machine was revived.

“Hehah, just like the PS2 back at home! Jackpot!”

His triumph was short-lived, however, as the checkout screen soon reopened to a basic w*ndows 95 desktop. Pulling items through the checkout itself offered no new changes.

“Uhh…”

He stops and thinks for a moment, before shrugging and opening all the desktop shortcuts at once. A myriad of windows open, at the forefront a small application that requests a login and password. He shrugs.

“Looks like security’s pretty tight – I mean type around here…See any other buttons that we might want to check-out? Unless, of course, you know the login or something…?”

He types in [iwanttobuybeer] into the first field and [now] into the second, but no dice. He turns to his co-operative for guidance. 

“Surely - you will have the power to change the waiting-here situation if that button is pressed. Ohohoho...” More terrible joking aside, he moved his gaze to the innocently-sitting machine, watching keenly - at first, it seemed simple presses would do nothing, but on holding it down, the lights all flickered and faded - but triumphance prevailed on it being turned back on, resulting in a little cheer from Justin himself. “Aha, now we’re loading up a recipe for success- oh?” It....seemed to be just on a desktop right now, further presses revealed a myriad of windows all at once. Squinting a little at it with ever-tired-looking eyes to adjust and try not to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of numerous windows, he...could just make out one that asked for a ‘login’? Like some sort of code? Hm. His stalwart companion in wondrous joking noted the security was indeed type-tight there, and wouldn’t simply let them scan the items and be on their way.

Dante blinks a few times as if to try and decipher what the boy had just said before gifting a smirk. “Well then, if this, uh… flashier cashier is gonna take their time, you seem like a fun sort! Let’s step around, see if we can make heads or tails – cents, get it? – of the till. Or will we cause a spill instead? Ohoho, the suspense.”

It couldn’t be so hard, could it? He placed his items on the bench in front, bottles clattering, and leapt over to the till, signalling his new accomplice over. He picks up an item and passes it through the scanner. 

No beep.

“Hey, uh, Smiles? I think we need to prime it or sumthin’… what do your comedic senses say I should press here…?

       ❝ e-eh ?! u-um, th-that is, i… ❞ oh god, oh god. she fumbles with her words, clearly looking horribly panicked. puns ? puns ?! that requires some ability for word play and asking someone with consistently low scores in high school to even try ? oh, justin had too much belief ayano could keep up with his onslaught of jokes. ❝ th-the rain was… p-pourly timed… ! ❞ 

Now, when Justin had made the joke to the scarven-clad miss, he was surprised at her attempting to join in the routine: but oh dear, dear, she was very nervous and on the spot about the whole thing, wasn’t she? He could understand first-time nerves, not everyone felt the thrill of excitement on performing as he did. It was a valiant effort, he clapped politely and even laughed genuinely for it. “Water stunning performance...though, it’s quite alright if your methods of making others smile are different than mine, you know? Everyone has something different that they excel in when giving cheer, no two people are alike with how they choose to interact with others, true?” It was true, even if two people had similar personalities they did interact differently!

(closed starter for @lunyluns​ ) Phew - all that walking from one part of town to the other had him quite tired. As much as he loved being energetic and cheery, he wasn’t as young as he used to be, so was resting a while on a small bench near one of the strange ‘fantasy shops’ that seemed to mirror to get a bit of his energy back. Just needed a cuppa tea and two winks, he’d be right back in the fray in a bit: at least that was his initial intention, but he’d tired himself out more than he thought and thus ended up asleep on the bench. Snoring softly, though he became quickly awoken and alert by someone talking close by. “W-whaa? W-who....mm...”

Justin Thyme (yes, even his own NAME is a pun)

extreme ‘Hi hungry, I’m Justin!’ energy, can and will make puns at any time

Too trusting and nice for own good, honestly

also prone to over-worrying and doubts himself under the smiles a bit more than he lets on

‘wait i have POWERS now. what on earth is this this was not in the dangan ronpa ultimate brochure’

‘dads’ people very, very easily, tries his best to keep smiles on the faces of those around him