65/The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
Date of Scene:	13 June 2015
Location:	Uminari City - Game Center Crown
Synopsis:	Masato Sanjouin has sponsored a Sailor V themed event in the hopes of luring out the REAL Pretty Soldier. But the comotion and group of people has attracted the attention of another villian entirely...
Cast of Characters:	Homura Akemi, Gaofele Doiru, Ail, Minako Aino, Makoto Kino, Ami Mizuno, Nephrite

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Ail has posed:
It's a warm summer evening in Uminari city, and there's a crowd gathering at the Game Center Crown for a Sailor V themed Saturday Night! While there's a good number of younger patrons, there's at least an equal number of teenaged watchers; after all, it's easy to convince teenagers to show up when you promise to leave your arcade machines on free play. There's a VERY enthusastic announcer trying to convince people to sign up and try their luck at cracking the high score for the video game, stopping to throw his hand out (and cause his bow tie to spin ludicrously) and implore people, as well as reminding them all that the Sailor V Cosplay Contest will occur after the game. It's easy to look over the crowd and see a fair number of good... and not-so-good... imitations of the legendary crime-fighter waiting for that event. The Fruits Parlor Crown is also doing brisk business, selling treats to the waiting crowd.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto Kino hasn't been in the area all that long yet, but Game Center Crown (and its attached cafe) has already become a favorite hangout, and when she heard about this evening's event there was no way she'd miss it. She stands out a little amidst the crowd, tall as she is - she fairly towers over most of the younger kids, and even among the high school students she has a few inches on many of them - and from this vantage she surveys the colors and lights of the various games, the announcer calling for signups.

"High score, huh?" she comments aloud to herself, hand propped absently against her hip. "Maybe I'll give it a shot."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino has already played through lots and lots of cabinets. Some have high scores, some have long combos, some have quickest play time - she doesn't plan to do much playing since when it comes time to determine the winner, she'll just point to the machine she 'has played'. Possibly cheating, but nobody has made a rule about that (or she hasn't heard).

For now, she's hedging her bets on the competition later and trying to get people excited for the cosplay. And by 'getting people excited', she means 'getting people excited about her'. Currently, she's standing on a table with a drink in her hand, shouting catchphrases from a Sailor V online pop-up commercial and shouting at people to hang out at the 'cool kids table'. That she's standing on.

She's also in an unnecessarily elaborate Sailor V outfit she stole from a model shoot, with extra big bows, reflective shiny surfaces, a futuristic looking laser gun that shoots (probably unhealthy) bright green lights around the place.

She's currently shining it on screens of the better players who might beat her scores to distract them.

Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gaofele Doiru has traveled past the Game Center Crown on occasion before, noticing the bright and noisy machinces and the people playing them, but hadn't really paid much attention to them.

Today, though? There's a larger-than-normal crowd, an announcer of some sort, as well as--

--several Sailor Vs?!?

He wanders in to get a better sense of what's going on. Okay, so there's several people dressed up like Sailor V, although some of the costumes are more a product of enthusiasm than skill.

Gao chuckles slightly, then he hears the announcer challenging people to beat the high score at the video game. "Video game?" the Waldian murmurs to himself, wandering over to take a look. These elaborate boxes of lights and sounds are 'video games', then? One more thing to know about!

He watches some of the people playing the games, looking at the screens and what the players are doing with the controls. Okay, so if you move that odd stick like that, the character on the screen moves; that button causes the character to fire a blast... oh yeah, and letting those other characters touch your character is a bad thing. Hmmm...

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura doesn't have time for games!

... though actually, she could use a break after last night's events.

... and really, she could probably stand to meet a few more new people.

... and the Crown has some really good milkshakes.

Okay okay, Homura enters the Arcade. She sees the posters and hears the announcer and wonders aloud, "Wait... wait... was there a special event today? That's never happened bef-"

She quiets down before she says anything more. She notices the posters. Sailor V? Oh right, this is different because it has to do with non-Puella magical girls.

Well, all the arcade games are on free play now. Highest score wins? Interesting. She sits down in front of a cabinet and starts playing.

If some naughty girl starts shining green lights on her arcade screen, she glances over to the source, harumps, and does a hairflip. She holds up one hand to block the light, doing a pretty good job of tracking its movements. The other hand stays on the controls. She's pretty good at handling both the joystick and the buttons with just one hand, but she'll start having trouble when the levels get more challenging.

Nephrite has posed:
Nephrite is not usually shy about attaching his mortal name to his schemes. In fact, he'd wager that a fair bit of Tokyo is familiar with the name Masato Sanjouin, given his numerous spheres of influence in the city. His memory altering magics are strong; if something goes awry with one of his plans, he can clear Sanjouin's name with relative ease. So why is he being more covert about his sponsorship of today's events?

Simple. He's trying to attract the attention of someone who'd give Sanjouin some trouble, should she discover who he really is.

Though, if Sailor V *has* come to her own cosplay contest, she is doing an exceptional job of blending in. The Dark General had thought that he could spot the real 'soldier of justice' without problems, but there is a veritable sea of blonde wigs, bows, and sailor collars. Some are less convincing than others -- in particular, he's disqualified the dolled up contestant shooting a laser light at the other attendees. He dislikes that it has come down to actual investigation, though, when he was expecting an easy answer. It means he has to make an actual appearance to gather more info.

Blasted mortals. Why do they all have to look alike?

A second later, out walks Masato Sanjouin, dressed in his signature 'posh casual' attire. He doesn't announce himself, simply making his way across the arcade floor, glancing at the Sailor V high scores as he goes. Perhaps, even if V is being elusive or ignoring the event entirely, he'll find someone of interest through the arcade game.

Makoto Kino has posed:
After a little more consideration, Makoto starts to pick her way through the crowd with the idea of officially signing up for the high score competition. She's only halfway there, however, when Homura's upraised hand catches her attention and she stops again, watching curiously for a few moments to see if this is some kind of odd self-imposed challenge or something else.

It doesn't take long to spot the flicker of the green light against Homura's palm, and Mako's brows lift as she puts two and two together. *Someone's* being underhanded.

Tracking the light back to its source zeros her in on Minako, standing on the table. Immediately, Makoto turns and heads that way, moving more purposefully now, until she's close enough to be heard over the hum of conversation and tuneless melody of video game sound effects.

"I'm pretty sure that's cheating, you know," she says, not even trying to keep her voice confidential as she looks up at Minako from beside the table. Her arms are crossed loosely in front of her, shoulders square, chin up - a posture of casual confrontation.

(She's serious enough about this that even Masato Sanjouin's entrance has yet to ping her 'hot guy' radar, which is pretty impressive in itself.)

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino/Sailor V puts on an extraordinarily confident smile and is about to retort something clever down to Makoto before the poor judge sent to disqualify her arrives. She purses her lips, pausing a moment, honestly confused! But she's as quick on her feet as the real Sailor V, pitching an abbreviated fit before claiming they cannot disqualify her (giving the name of her obnoxious cosplay rival who made fun of her red bow), and stomping out the back service door.

Nobody is there to see the flash of light as the *real* costume goes on, although everybody might see the newest Sailor V to strut in and sign up for the competition (being careful to keep her handwriting 'cleanly sloppy' in case there's a repeat performance of jerk judge disqualifications - yes, '