Side story 2 - A day at the arcade, Usagi is bossed around?!

[Anastasia]

> ---
> The next day, the girls meet up at the Crown. It's a nice place - an arcade gamecenter on the first floor, and a cafe above. Both places seem clean, shiny and appealing - and with eye candy. Motoki helps a group of guys, handing out tokens and looking as nice as he ever does, visible through the glass doors as you stand outside.
* Usagi takes both Ami and Hotaru's hands, leading them inside. "Lets try a three player on Virtua Racer?" she suggests brightly. 'I might actually win if they haven't played it, before...'
<Ami-chan> "You'd have to explain what to do," Ami replies. "I've not really played video games much in the past..."
<Hotaru-chan> "Um...okay," Hotaru agrees, looking around the unfamiliar place, and following Usagi closely. "What kind of game is that?" she asks,her eyes lingering on Motoki for a moment before she turns back to Usagi and Ami.
> Inside is conditioned air, just right, and the vague smell of treats wafting down from above. The blonde guy turns away as he finishes with the boys, waving to Usagi. "Usagi," he calls as he comes over, smiling. "Hey there.
> "
<Usagi> "It's a car racing game," Usagi informs the younger girl. "Formula something or other," she waves a little vaguely, before heading over to Motoki. "Hi, big brother!" she smiles sunnily.
> "Hi there," he nods to the two other girls. "Wasting your allowance again," he smiles to Usagi easily, reaching into the pockets of his apron.
<Ami-chan> "Wasting?" Ami asks curious. "Is she that bad at the games?"
<Usagi> "It's not wasting if it's fun!" the blonde protests, before wincing at Ami's words. "I'm not that bad..." she adds, far more weakly.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru smiles lightly, patting Usagi's shoulder gently. "Of course you aren't everyone gets better with practice...lots of practice."
<Ami-chan> "I believe you, Usagi-chan," Ami says trying to placate the blonde. "I still trust you to explain the game to me..."
> He chuckles, shaking his head. "Well...Usagi's not bad, I suppose," he says slowly, stroking his chin in wide, broad, overdone movements.
<Usagi> "You haven't even seen me play yet!" Usagi protests indignantly to Hotaru. Stuffing a hand in her pocket, she pulls out a couple of hundred yen. "Give me some tokens, and then I'll show you all!" she demands of Motoki.
> He takes the money, smiling as he hands over a nice handful of shiny tokens. "Good luck, all of you," he says, his grin showing amusement. "Don't go too hard on them, Usagi."
<Usagi> "I was going to go easy, but now I'll show my full power!" Usagi declares, fired up.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru sweatdrops, shaking her head at Usagi. "I didn't mean it like that, Usagi-san!" she insists, removing a slightly smaller amount of money, and exchanging it for tokens. "And it's not like we're challengers...we've never even played this."
* Ami-chan nods with Hotaru's statement as she also exchanges money for some tokens. "Shouldn't you at least show us how to play once before we all play?" she asks, hoping playing one solo round might make the blonde less competetive.
<Usagi> "It's just like driving a real car," Usagi informs them helpfully. "I guess it is kinda tricky... I crash a lot," she giggles, shaking her head. "Anyway, come on. It's fun even if you don't win," she adds, starting towards the machine.
<Ami-chan> '...Just like driving a real car? None of us have ever driven one!' Ami thinks, as she sighs and moves to the machine, crossing her fingers and hoping she figures it out.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru sweatdrops slightly at the 'explanation', and moves to another of the machines, eyeing it curiously. "Uh huh..."
<Usagi> "Pick automatic transmission," Usagi adds as she sits down and inserts one of her tokens. "It's slower, but a lot easier."
* Ami-chan does as Usagi suggests after inserting the required tokens in her machine.
* Usagi selects automatic herself, as well as the beginner track. "The big pedal makes you go faster. The other one is stop, but I never use it." Why on earth would you ever want to stop in a race, after all?
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru nods, following suit and choosing automatic after dropping in her tokens in, and going through the choices Usagi tells them. "Um...to not hit people?" she offeers tentatively, setting up the controls for herself in her mind.
<Hotaru-chan> *offers
<Usagi> "There aren't any people on the racetrack. And even if you try to crash off the course, it won't let you," Usagi notes, a slight edge of annoyance at that.
<Ami-chan> "You'd want to stop to take curves. It'd concievably be easier to take turns at a slower speed than fast," Ami rationalizes.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru blinks, nodding slowly, and thinking to try that if she could. "Um...we're all ready, then, I guess?" she asks Usagi and Ami, looking at the screen.
<Usagi> "Really?" Usagi looks askance at Ami, the concept being rather new to her.
<Ami-chan> "Well, I'm assuming that'd be the reason. To make a certain turn at a high speed, you'd need to turn the wheel more sharply than at a lower speed. I think."
* Usagi blinks a few times, not really parsing Ami's explanation. "Okay..." she says dubiously. "Anyway, lets go!" she then declares, hitting start.
<Ami-chan> "I guess I'll find out for sure right now. I'm going to try and play with that assumption, Usagi-chan," Ami notes as she also hits start.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru nods in silence, hitting start along with Ami and Usagi...
> The screens blacken a moment before loading a montage of bright colors, some bikini clad racing girl holding up 3...2...1 signs in front of the 1st person track POV. The road ahead looks like a racetrack, a sinple enough design. Pretty...and....go!
* Usagi switches to the third person view right behind her car, as she finds it less intimidating, before promptly slamming down on the accelerator and fishtailing into the other nearby cars as she attempts to weave past them!
* Ami-chan presses the accelerator pedal as she focuses on the screen so she doesn't hit any obstacles and stays on the track, not noticing Usagi's view change which would probably help a beginning player.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru hits the accelerator a little less quickly, trying to get a little feel for the wheel before she hits full speed. Keeping her attention focused on her screen, she tries to not jump the turns, and accelerate.
<Usagi> roll 2d6
* Queen_Serenity --> "Usagi rolls 2d6 and gets 7."
<Hotaru-chan> roll 2d6-1
* Queen_Serenity --> "Hotaru-chan rolls 2d6-1 and gets 3."
<Ami-chan> roll 2d6-1
* Queen_Serenity --> "Ami-chan rolls 2d6-1 and gets 3."
> And they are off! The race starts as the cars pick up speed rapidly, the first turn coming....and Usagi doesn't slow down enough on it, hitting the invislbe wall at the edge of the track. This causes her to bounce off and slow, falling to the 3rd position quickly. Ami and Hotaru take it better, slowing and breezing right on through! Down they go as Usagi is trailing, to the finish line...neck and neck...whosh! By a bumper, Ami juts ahead at the last moment, Hotaru finishing a moment later. Usagi peters out near the finish line, as the timer goes 0 and her car vanishes in a puff of smoke.
> By a bumper, Ami juts ahead at the last moment, Hotaru finishing a moment later. Usagi peters out near the finish line, as the timer goes 0 and her car vanishes in a puff of smoke.
* Usagi leans brokenly on the steering wheel, turning sad eyes to her friends. "That wasn't really the first time you played, right?" she asks hopefully.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru looks nervously at Ami, shrugging in embarrassment. "Not the first time I've played video games, but..." she trails off, hoping to avoid answering.
<Ami-chan> "Uhm...pretty much the same as Hotaru," Ami replies sheepishly. "I mostly just did what I said with the breaks."
* Usagi slumps a moment, before pushing off the wheel and exhaling as she stands up. "Oh, well. I knew I wasn't that good. But it was a fun game," she smiles. "Want to try a different one, next?"
<Ami-chan> "I suppose," Ami answers. "That was kind of fun..."
<Hotaru-chan> "Mm," Hotaru agrees, smiling a little. "Can't really hurt to try more..."
* Usagi nods, looking around for any other games that allow three players or more. She mostly plays single player platform games, after all.
* Retrieving #dunes modes...
<Usagi> "Hmm... how about that one?" Usagi asks, gesturing to a fairly large upright cabinet with spaces for four players.
<Ami-chan> "What's the game about?" Ami asks.
<Usagi> "Uh..." Usagi pauses, walking over to take a closer look. "You run around and shoot things?" she hazards.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru follows Usagi, eyeing the cabinet. "Do you two want to?" she asks, looking warily at the controls.
<Ami-chan> "If you guys want to, I'm game," Ami replies.
<Usagi> "I've never played this one, but it looks pretty fun," Usagi notes, examining the demo playing at the moment. "After that we can get something to eat?"
> The title is 'Gauntlet', with showy pictures running on the eyecatch. Looks like a top scrolling game of some sort...shooting...something.
* Usagi pops in a token, selecting the guy with the bow and green hat as her character. That way she doesn't have to get too close to the enemies!
* Ami-chan randomly picks a wizard once she sticks a token in and sees the selection of characters.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru winces slightly as Usagi takes the character she was thinking on, and puts in her own token to take the sword swinging one. Well, at least she had a little experience with being up close in a video game. A different video game, but oh well...
> The game starts, the characters appearing in a dungeon. Short instructions appear - find food to keep your dwindling HP score up, avoid enemies, find the exits to escape.
* Usagi gets to shooting the bad guys and picking up the items while distractedly making conversation. "Oh, yeah, I totally forgot to mention, Ami-chan. There was another monster attack, yesterday."
* Ami-chan blinks, allowing a monster to get too close and give one hit to her character before she moves away and hits it with a magic bolt. "A monster? Where? When?" she asks.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru distractedly begins working on killing anything that makes it past the arrows and magic. She perks a little as the conversation begins, but focuses mostly on the game.
<Usagi> "At the park," Usagi goes on, loosing off a barrage of arrows which mostly miss. "And there was a really big guy there, too. He hit Tuxedo Kamen really hard!" At that, Usagi grips the joystick tighter, looking rather upset.
<Ami-chan> "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help," Ami apologizes.
<Usagi> "It's alright, Ami-chan," Usagi turns to the blue-haired girl, getting hit a few times in game from her distraction before she recovers. "Not like you could have known, I mean. They just seem to keep showing up all over the place..."
<Hotaru-chan> "We managed, sorta," Hotaru murmured, nodding in agreement with Usagi, and trying to cover the other two. "Um...the giant guy seemed different from the others..." Hotaru works the controls a little more frantically.
> More monsters come, the pace of the game picking up in earnest.
<Usagi> "He didn't seem as loud as that man," Usagi nods, running away from a pack of monsters so she can get time to shoot. "But... somehow he seemed even scarier because of it."
* Ami-chan simply nods as she continues to rack up points along with Usagi and Hotaru.
> roll 1d4
* Queen_Serenity --> "Anastasia rolls 1d4 and gets 1."
<Usagi> "Tuxedo Kamen was so brave, though..." Usagi goes a little starry eyed, her attention lapsing once more. "He must have been hit really hard, but he acted like it was no big deal..." she trails off with a dreamy sigh.
> The game goes on, Ami's character taking a hit and falling over, vanishing.
<Hotaru-chan> "The giant was like...how you'd think a real general would act," Hotaru adds, shrugging, beginning to ease up as her hand movements become more reflexive, growing used to the game.
<Usagi> "Yeah," Usagi nods, coming back to reality. "That man would just run off and tell his monster to handle things. But the big man actually had the monster go home when it was hurt."
> Next is Usagi, her archer getting return fire and going the way of the dodo - back to the moon to make mochi. Splut.
<Usagi> "Awww!" Usagi looks rather put out at her character's death, electing to watch Hotaru continue for the remainder of the game.
<Hotaru-chan> "Eek," Hotaru whimpers as she's left alone in the dungeon, her mind going back to taking active involvement in the game, and trying to fight her way out...
> Hotaru lasts slightly longer, but her video life soon comes to and end as well. The credits and high scores cycle, and that's that.
<Usagi> "Want to get some ice cream, now?" Usagi asks the other two eagerly.
<Ami-chan> "Works for me," Ami replies with a nod. A scoop or two of chocolate ice cream wouldn't be too bad right about now.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru nods, stretching her fingers. It'd been a while since she did that kind of gameplaying. "Yeah, that'd be nice."
* Usagi nods, "Come on, then. Let's go upstairs and get a booth," she says, heading up to the Crown Fruits Parlour.
> Heading out, you pass by Motoki, whom is taking a moment to lean against a wall and relax. "How'd it go, lil' sis," he asks of Usagi.
* Usagi puts a hand behind her head and giggles sheepishly. "I lost," she admits, briefly sticking her tongue out.
> He nods, "Those games can be tough," he agrees. "How did your friends do?"
<Usagi> "I lost," Usagi repeats, glancing at Ami and Hotaru.
> "Oooooooh," he says, comprehension dawning brightly. "Well, there's always next time, right?"
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru shrugs, looking at Ami. "I came in second," she offers timidly, clasping her hands behind her back.
<Ami-chan> "Of course there's always next time," Ami says with a nod at Motoki's reply to Usagi.
> "Good job," Motoki comments. "Did you come in first," he asks Ami. "Usagi can be pretty tough to beat," he plays up.
* Usagi pouts. 'That's not what you said earlier!'
<Ami-chan> "I was mostly lucky with that win. She gave me a clue on a technique for corners that I probably wouldn't have considered otherwise," Ami replies.
<Usagi> "I did?" Usagi blinks, before wisely nodding, "I mean, I did!" she amends, laughing nervously.
> Nodding to that, "Well...Usagi's played enough games to know things like that," he agrees, glancing over as he sees a few more people entering. "Well...I'll talk to you later, Usagi."
<Usagi> "Bye, big brother!" Usagi waves cheerily, before starting back upstairs to get the sweet ice cream she so craves.
> Heading upstairs to the nice parlor, you get a booth in short order. Unazuki isn't around that you see offhand, but another girl you very vaguely knows comes for your order as you sit. "Hi there, what can I get you today," the late, blooming teenager asks. My...between that and the uniform, she's cute. She must have a boyfriend for sure.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru smiles slightly as Motoki leaves, following Usagi upstairs. "He's pretty nice..." she comments, her mind barely touching on what's ahead of them.
<Usagi> "Peach sorbet, please!" Usagi asks the girl, before nodding to Hotaru. "Yeah, Motoki's great," she agrees.
<Ami-chan> "Two scoops of chocolate ice creame, please," Ami says after Usagi gives her order.
> She nods, making short notes on a notepad she holds. "And you," she turns her eyes to Hotaru.
<Hotaru-chan> "Um...same as her," Hotaru finally adds, indicating Ami as she comes out of her slight stupor.
> "Comin' right along," she comments, going off to get the treats in question.
<Usagi> "Oh, and Luna said she almost remembered things that might be important for us, yesterday," Usagi informs Ami helpfully. "But she doesn't quite remember."
<Ami-chan> "Oh? What -did- she remember?" Ami asks curiously.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru blinks suddeny, nodding and frowning. "She said something about other senshi, too...but I can't seem to remember it," she added, sighing. "Well, there are a couple more of us around...somewhere."
<Hotaru-chan> *adds
* Usagi nods. "Jupiter is lightning and Mars is..." Usagi furrows her brow a moment before finishing, "Fire. And she said something about time but then just left it hanging..."
<Ami-chan> "So senshi of other planets? What about for Earth, Venus, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto?"
<Ami-chan> "Did Luna mention anything about that?" Ami asks, wondering if there's a senshi for each planet, which would be kind of helpful.
* Usagi shrugs. "Those two were the only ones she mentioned. Do you suppose Sailor Earth would be our leader or the most powerful or something?" 'Hey, what if I have to be Sailor Earth's maidservant or something because I'm the Moon?' she wonders, looking vaguely non-plussed.
<Ami-chan> "I don't know, I would think it might be Sailor Jupiter, since she'd be the senshi of the biggest planet, right?"
> As you chat, "Here you go,"  your ice cream comes in three bowls, being placed along with spoons.
<Usagi> "Or maybe-" Usagi cuts herself off, thanking the girl for her ice cream and waiting for her to depart before going on, "Sailor Sun?" she finishes, still frowning over the idea of playing understudy to Sailor Earth, whomever she may be.
<Ami-chan> "Thank you," Ami replies to the waitress as she grabs her ice cream.
<Hotaru-chan> Hotaru nods slowly, humming softly in thought. "Um...wouldn't that make me the second or third most powerful then?" she asks, looking nervous. "That doesn't seem right...thank you," she adds the reply to the waitress quickly, nabbing her own ice cream...
<Ami-chan> "Sailor Sun?" Ami asks to nobody in particular as she puts thought in the matter. "It might make sense. I was thinking of just the planets, but the Sun is the star around which all planets revolve, so..."
<Usagi> "And are there Sailors for all the other Moons as well? Jupiter and Saturn would get a whole bunch of servants," Usagi mumbles as she begins stuffing ice cream in her mouth.
* Anastasia is now known as Ana-work
<Hotaru-chan> "I don't want servants," Hotaru adds quietly, picking away at her ice cream with her spoon.
<Ami-chan> "Oh that's right, the moon isn't a planet is it? And yet you're the senshi of it. My, if we found all the other senshi we'd have an army or something, wouldn't we?" Ami notes somewhat astonished.
<Usagi> "I just hope Sailor Earth doesn't boss me around, too much," Usagi goes on worriedly. "I hope she's nice..."