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[doesplaydice]

[In the middle of Starsand's top level, a certain arcade is having a big event- They opened a second floor! Which means a huge new selection of games!

Which means, of course, everyone on Starnet gets a message from Mega, providing the address.

"Come play games for a while, and forget all your worries!", she says.

Mega floats around the entire building, a very large arcade, wanting to investigate and make sure everyone's having a good time. There's every kind of arcade game imaginable, and there's even a snack bar with soft drinks.

There are not, however, windows- It's a good place to simply lose track of time and play until you can't play anymore.]

Comments

[tapformana]

[Now that Tau has introduced Tap to a lot of the music of Starsand, Tap has become an absolute terror of the DDR machines. She's got a line of challengers, but her energetic dancing, combined with her flourishes and bright and cheery atmosphere, has quite a crowd gathering... but still, no one can break her reign as DDR Champion.

Dare you challenge her?

Otherwise, you can find Tap evading the crowds by flying near the ceiling, trying to make it over to the snacks to get drinks to refresh herself. Dancing is tiring!]

[myturf]

Hold it, Lil' Rabbit.

[ Karin's watched enough of this. She'd been lounging around in her bomber jacket/skirt combo, looking like she belongs at the arcade to begin with.

Hanging out near the wall, she approaches. ]

You sure are gettin' ahead of yourself. Think you're at the top because of your DDR score?

[tapformana]

Karin-chan!

[Are you trying to scare her, Karin? Because instead, Tap is just floating over and throwing her arms around Karin in a hug, happy as can be.]

Are you here to play too?

dance

[fallmushrooms]

Whoa... That's so cool, how do you do it?

[Velda's hovering (literally, she brought her broom to the arcade...) above the crowd, amazed at Tap's winning streak.]

[marshmallowpurgatory]

[Pidonus just... Watches Tap play, from one side.]

Your movement is... Very wow.

[The Succubus has figured out the game pretty easily. The only judgment is 'did you hit the arrows on time', other than some complications around combos and such that she isn't sure she's meant to understand. So the flourishes are pure showing off in a way that she cannot help but respect.]

Very cool indeed.

[followthepolestar]

[Crane Game]

Oh--!

[One can probably imagine Honami's shock when she actually manages to pocket a cute critter from the crane game. Said critter happens to be a shiba inu plush that caught her attention; Shibao not being with her at the moment, this will likely be the closest thing she has to having him around again.

She frowns at that thought, but the surprise at getting it in the first place, and so easily, at that, remains strong.]

That didn't take as long as I thought...

[She stares at the crane game for more than a few moments. Does she push her luck...?]

[Bowling]

[While she can't remember the last time she tried playing, Honami isn't the sort to just back down from something new. A game like this is always an opportunity to make new friends, and strengthen current friendships!

She's playing by herself for now -- by the time someone runs into her here, she's close to finishing a set... but her aim is just a bit off; it's enough for her to miss a spare. And it wasn't even all that hard, what with the single pin that was standing...]

I'll get it next time...!

[As she turns, she catches whoever's approached her, and waves.]

Oh, hello! Did you want to play, too?

[Wild Card]

[Throw in a starter of your own, or hit me over on the Discord! I'm always open to new things.]

bowling

[tapformana]

[Tap is watching with interest, and claps incredibly when she sees the single pin left standing...

.... She may be under the impression that that was what you were supposed to do?]

Hi, Honami-chan! I'd love to play! How do you play?

[marshmallowpurgatory]

[One (1) Pidonus Marasia is... Actually dressed more normally, in like a T-shirt and pants, to maybe not be so obviously The Succubus Idol at a normal arcade so she can easily go around and play things.

She's probably not doing so great at the light gun game she's trying.]

Erm, how do you reload?

[The idea of 'pull the trigger while it's pointed offscreen' hasn't come to her yet... Help maybe?]

[stavros]

Shoot outside of the screen.

[If you think Kokoro has not played The House of the Dead, I don't know what to tell you.]

It is a difficult but worthy endeavour to time your reloads so as to not be caught by surprise.

[stavros]

All my worries...? A tall order for sure.

[But Kokoro's here, eyeing the phone message warily. Maybe because of what Mega told her earlier, she'll bite, checking out the games and occasionally even playing one. She might even look less serious as things go on, smiling instead as she fights dinosaurs in off-brand Jurassic Park.]

[fallmushrooms]

[You might think that, growing up in magical society and without much money, Velda wouldn't be familiar with arcade games. You would be wrong. She might gravitate at first to the old ones she knows better -- the stuff the laundromat might have had for 40 years at the front to keep the kids occupied -- but she'll be enchanted by everything and try it all out.

And then she finds the crane games. And contemplates the giant crab.]

It'd definitely be cheating if I levitated it... but how do you win it normally?

[marshmallowpurgatory]

[As Velda asks this, Pidonus glances around it.]

... Wow, this is. Um. Huh. So it's on sticks, and the gap between the sticks is wider over there. So you push it until it falls? Or maybe you're meant to kinda push it down from above? Or both.

[She glances at the crane itself. It only has one prong, so clearly it's meant to push it along.]

It seems like it'd take quite a few tries to get one.

[polishedlove]

[ Oh, funny... look who's left her home for the first time in months! Kimiko is all dolled up as usual, and is all smiles as she takes in the sights; it's very important to have a game plan first, after all. Surrounded by all the arcade games, lights flashing and sounds blaring, Kimiko was feeling a bit nostalgic for all the times she'd skip school in the otaku district.

Thankfully for her, arcade games were pretty universal. Take your pick of game, Kimiko's happy to play! ]

a. crane games

[ These games were supposed to be hard, weren't they? The whole point was to be a money sink that made you feel like you were one play away from nabbing the prize, but... Kimiko seems to be having awfully good luck. Sitting beside her as she plays were a handful of smaller plushies, and she's awfully protective of this particular machine.

Kimiko just really wants that giant panda plushie, that's it. ]

b. fighting games

[ Woah! Did you just get your butt whooped in the latest craze, Kami Kombat? Are they even allowed to show that kind of gore in public? Either way, if you get up to see who your opponent is on the other side, you'll find none other than Kimiko, giggling to herself. She flashes a playful grin and waves. ]

GG, scrub!

c. purikura

[ Sure, the line for purikura can get long at times, but it feels like you've been waiting for ages... Isn't there a time limit? It would be ridiculous if someone had paid in to hog the machine for multiple sessions, that was against proper purikura etiquette! Who needs that many pictures to begin with?

Kimiko does. She even has the nerve to loudly talk to herself while doing so. ]

Hmm... should Kimiko go with the sweet cream filter, or the fluffy clouds filter? It's so hard to decide...! They both make Kimiko look so cute! Maybe one of each?

A

[doesplaydice]

[As Kimiko focuses, it's as though the noises of the arcade become far away, distant, unimportant. Like she has hit the zone, she's surely going to get it...

Except, suddenly, piercing through the distant noise, a loud snap.

The plushies vanish.

A second snap.

The arcade vanishes.

Kimiko now sits at a table in a room. It isn't uncomfortable, but there is no obvious exit or entrance. In the center of the table, a game of mancala plays itself.

Across from the Kimiko, an adult woman with pink hair sits, in formal, Kami-like robes- Mega, but she looks a good five or ten years older than her normal form.]

Why are you doing that?

[She sounds... sad.]

b

[dokkans]

[ Wow!!! What a rude baby.

The girl on the other side's wearing a red hoodie, looking mighty frustrated until she's spoken to. Gee Gee?

...oh! This girl... who was this again? ]

Gosh, you really showed me. You must play this quite a lot!

[ i'm not owned ]

[writeastherain]

Platforms

[After agonizing and debating over visiting, Aimee finally convinced herself to see the arcade for herself. Playing games and forgetting worries feels wrong, but she's so intrigued by the concept itself that her curiosity got the better of her. After getting over her initial shock, she opts to try some kind of side-scroll platformer.]

So I have to avoid dying and then...I win?

[She wants to win!!! Too bad she sucks at it. It doesn't take her long to realize she's out of her league. It takes less time for her to...suddenly get better at it, and for her name to show up as first place on the scoreboard to any outside observers.]

Oh! I won!

[She looks way more happy about it than she should.]

First Person Shooters

[On the other hand, Aimee has discovered she finds the FPS genre a lot more intuitive, shooting her onscreen enemies with a cold and calculated detachment until she notices movement out of the corner of her co-player's screen.]

Careful.

[She's just gonna...kill that enemy too.]

They just keep coming, don't they?

platformer

[fallmushrooms]

Great job! [clap clap] Looks like you're having a lot of fun here.

platforms

[tapformana]

[Someone's been watching....]

That's impressive!! You learned so fast!

[she watched and she still believes it.]

[starrystoryteller]

[If she’s to be totally honest, Chron loves games. But what she doesn’t love is how competitive she can get. It’s more than a bad habit and something she tries to avoid.

But this is a celebration for Mega. Chron likes Mega. So she makes an exception and comes to play a few games. Just a few fighter games. It’s fine.

It’s been twenty minutes and she can be heard screaming:]

You little shit! I hit you fair and square! Your stupid hit box is definitely broken— Uuugh, GET BACK HERE, YOU PIXELATED LOSER! If you have to glitch out to win, then it doesn’t count!

[followthepolestar]

[Well, that shook Honami out of her focus. She watches helplessly as the claw completely misses the bunny plush she was aiming for. The things that happen because she happens to be in the vicinity of someone very loud...

Being somewhat close to the source at least makes it easier for her to tell where it came from. She makes her way over, setting aside her sadness for the missed plush to see what the fuss is about.]

I--Is something wrong!? Please calm down...!

[marshmallowpurgatory]

Ah, hey Chron!

[Pidonus looks towards the source of the voice of the girl playing a specific fighting game. From what she'd learned about them...]

Erm. Hello!

[... She'd better not challenge Chron on the game being glitched. But get her conversing and maybe that'd help a little?]

[tapformana]

U- Um! Excuse me! Are you all right?!

[Tap is. Definitely a little alarmed by the screaming... She looks like she might just bolt, in fact.]

[melancholie]

[Among Mega's fans is a tsundere. The kind who keeps his head down and trains a constant frown on his face. He's focused on the crane games; His power and understanding of space certainly helps him to spot the easier prizes. Though not using his power directly to win, Dimitri's eyes do glow when he uses them to analyze the game more closely than a normal human can.

With every prize he gets, he pauses, inspects it, then holds it out to the nearest person.]

You can have it. I have no space for it.

[doesplaydice]

Dimitri!

[Mega's floating nearby, clearly pleased to see him.]

I haven't seen you in a while. How are you doing? Having fun?

[spiritcarer]

[Stella liked games, even if she didn't spend so much time on them. Often, she was preoccupied with other things.

Still, she can appreciate an invite, and just how full of games this place is! Catch her over near one of the older machines - one of those side-scrolling platforms - and doing... a not-great job of it, from the looks of her expression.]

With how much running around I do, you'd think I'd be better at jumping around in a game.