It's after school! Makoto had offered to meet Naoko at the arcade, which meant that she had to do some preparation: she spent the whole day worrying someone was going to see the outfit she'd squirreled away in her bookbag, but her paranoia seemed unfounded. Now she stands near the entryway, looking at the time on her cell phone and feeling like the proverbial sore thumb. Today's outfit: short-sleeved yellow blouse, blue slacks, black flats.
Minako Aino is arcade'ing it up after school!
She's situated prominently near the first line of Sailor V cabinets underneath one of many signs advertising tomorrow's tournament. This particular sign has various Minako-marks on it as if to 'mark her territory', including exclamation points around a little picture of a girl with a red bow, a picture of a milkshake, and <3 <3 different colored hearts <3 <3 around the word 'MINA' with an arrow pointing vaguely in the direction where she would be standing when playing.
She spends most of her time chatting to nearby players or shouting challenges at people coming in the door. The arcade is loud, but it's mostly Minako.
"Naoko-chan~!" Makoto's greeting is a friendly sing-song. As she arrives in the entryway of the arcade she quickly catches sight of Naoko and heads over, raising one hand to wave as though Naoko's likely to need any extra help in spotting her among the other arcade-goers whether her voice manages to carry over the noise of the Game Center or not.
"How's it going?" she asks when she's made it to where Naoko's standing. "I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?"
Naoko, looking at Minako's signage, is startled by Makoto's arrival but quickly recovers, giving the taller girl a wave. "Senpai!" She shakes her head. "No, it was fine! I only got here a few minutes ago." She seems to be more comfortable with speaking up than she was the last time Makoto saw her like this. "How're you?"
"Oh," Makoto replies, smiling, "I'm good. Same as usual. Your outfit looks nice," she adds easily, before glancing away to take a look around. When her eye falls on the sign that Minako has personalized, a little laugh escapes her. "Looks like someone's getting started on the tournament early, huh?"
Eyes bright with humor, she looks back toward Naoko with brows lifting in inquiry. "So, what would you like to do?" she asks. "Is there a game you like to play?"
Minako Aino spends most of her time trying to convince random other game players she's the reigning champion since she has all the prizes from the last event, even if technically nobody was declared the winner because of 'explosions'.
"Also, look. My name is at the top. That makes me a champ!" she announces, dancing near the door and making a scene. "There's a game you SHOULD like to play. And it's the best game ever, the V games!" she says, interjecting herself into various multiple conversations all around her.
Naoko blushes a little, scuffing one of her shoes. "Th-thanks! I just kinda put it together: I didn't want to be overdressed or anything." The second question merits a little shrug. "Well, I actually don't play video games that much." And then a smile as she looks over at Minako, "On the other hand, she looks like she's having fun. Why don't we join her?"
Makoto's grin widens when Naoko admits she doesn't play video games very often. "Ohhh," she says, drawing the sound out playfully. "You're in for an experience, then!" Following her friend's gaze back toward the Sailor V cabinets, she laughs again and nods. "Sure, why not? Let's do it."
And with that decided, Makoto starts over, leading the way over toward where Minako has staked her claim and seems to be doing her part to promote the game. "I'm not too bad at this one, myself," Mako comments.
Minako Aino steps back from a cabinet and invites the both of you to take it and play on her own dime (she means quarters or the equivalent).
"Go on. I'll watch. I've been playing all day. I'll stand behind you and help."
By 'stand behind and help', she means give advice obnoxiously and never stop talking, and the way she says it doesn't even try to hide her intentions, but she already hits start and steps back so as to make room for someone to step in front of her, gesturing with her fingers to encourage one of you along.
Naoko nods! "Sure, thanks!" She steps up to the console and joins in. What follows is confusing, vaguely panicky but a lot of fun. "Wait! What am I doing? What was that?" Lights, bleepy music, frantic button-pressing and joystick-wrangling. It takes a few minutes for her to have to put another coin in to keep playing.
Mako's intent was to stand by while Naoko takes her first shot at the game, maybe offer some helpful advice if it seemed apropos. She wasn't quite expecting how... zealously Minako intended to 'help'.
It's honestly kind of eyebrow-raising at first. As long as Naoko seems to be having fun rather than getting overwhelmed, though, Makoto is willing to get into the spirit. She ends up chiming in to cheer Naoko on through her trial-and-error of the controls: "Yes! Good job! Punch it again! ...Yeah, I have no idea why those guys have bazookas, that seems kind of unfair."
Minako Aino explains that bazookas are the great equalizer and aren't that bad.
"I saw a bazooka once. "Type 4 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher! The strongest bazooka ever! It put more American tanks into a tower than any other weapon in history!" she claims, which is wrong in just about every way except for 'I saw one once'.
All this weapon talk only makes Minako more zealous and loud.
"Does anybody want snacks? I'll snack you both if you wanna," she offers. "Makoooo-chan, I got free milkshakes forever," she adds, mostly as a brag.
Naoko is emboldened by Makoto's cheers and Minako's... advice? Sure, let's call it advice. She nods at the offer of snacks. "Thank you! I'll get you back later." Finally she dies one last time and then lets the 'continue?' screen count down, dusting off her hands. "That was a lot of fun! Senpai, do you want to go next? I can help you with those snacks!" She adds, to the girl whose name she has yet to learn.
"Seriously?" Makoto asks Minako, before she does a minor doubletake on the realization that she's just been addressed not just by name but by her nickname. Wheels spin for a moment as she tries to place the blonde and completely fails to come up with a name. "Wait, have we met before? I don't think I got your name..."
A glance to Naoko, and Makoto grins and shrugs. "Sure," she says. "I'll take a turn... and it's not like I'm gonna say no to a free milkshake, either, if you're offering." This to Minako with a friendly smile, as Mako steps up to take over the controls of the game. "Chocolate cherry for me, please?"
Minako Aino dances off to get some snacks as promised. She's obnoxiously friendly and repeats her name: "Minako-sama to most, but Mina-chan to my friends!" she shouts, waiting until she's far enough away that everybody else can (over)hear her.
She returns with snacks as promised plus three shakes. A chocolate and cherry one goes to Naoko and a strawberry one is offered for Makoto. "You wanted a shake too, right?" she checks, totally willing to have two shakes right now instead of play games should the answer be no.
"I got freebies 'cuz of winnign tournaments and also a special secret sneaky arrangement. I don't know if I should talk about it, though," she says, trailing off and waiting to see if anybody asks her to talk about it.
Naota Uneme switches the two shakes, giving Makoto the chocolate and cherry. She smiles to the very perky girl. "It's nice meeting you: I'm Uneme Naoko." Minako's brag definitely has her attention, however: "You win that many tournaments? That's amazing! How much time do you spend practicing?"
Minako Aino claims that she spends 'not much' time practicing. "They're not from years of practice. They're more, like, all-orgasmic all-natural skills," she brags. "I'm here a lot though, so practice does help too!"
By the time they get back with snacks and milkshakes, Makoto is busily working her way through the stages of the Sailor V game. She's currently at the guys with bazookas, which means a lot of dodging, but nevertheless she spares a grateful smile to both girls. "Thanks, Nao-chan, Mina-chan~" 'Mina-chan' has a teasing lilt. "A special sneaky arrangement, huh? Since you brought it up, it doesn't seem like it's *that* secret."
Minako Aino complains in response to Makoto's anti-secret claims. "Untrue. It's a super-secret secret. I just trust the both of you to keep it secret and only tell trustable peoples," she explains.
"I'm an undercover arcade operative. If I get people to come in a bunch, I get free snacks," she explains, which is mostly true but converted through Minako's truth filters to be much more exciting of a story and explanation that it really is.
Naoko sips on her milkshake and sighs happily: delish. "I was wondering. I mean, baseball's a lot of practice, and so's music." She doesn't mention drawing, her third hobby, but that's because while she may be learning to share her feminine side with the world she will probably take her manga to the grave. Minako's explanation gets a sage-looking nod from the younger girl. "That makes perfect sense. I won't tell anyone, Mina-chan, and I know that you can trust Senpai." With that she goes back to watching Makoto kick butt and take names.
Makoto's eyebrows lift at the explanation, and she responds with a drawn-out, upward-inflected humming sound of one who is, in fact, legitimately kind of impressed. "Hey," she says, "that's pretty cool. I didn't know the Furuhatas did that kind of thing, but it sounds like good work if you can get it."
She is briefly occupied with a flurry of furious buttonmashing and quick jerks of the joystick, but soon enough the boss monster goes down and she can spare an interested glance toward Naoko. "I didn't know you were into music, either, Nao-chan," she observes. "Seems like I'm learning a lot today."
Minako Aino interjects after Naoko's promises that she won't tell anybody that it's probably OK to tell people. "Go ahead and talk about it with your friends. Or people you trust. Or, you know, people you don't distrust," she says encouragingly. "I trust your trustiness!" she adds, leaning halfway over the cabinet to watch what Makoto is doing, hair piling up everywhere while she sips on her shake with her free hand.
"I like music, too! I karaoke every day. Every day! I'm gonna be an idol. I mean, a bigger idol!" she swears. "Let's all music sometime. Together. Or baseball too. I like sports!"
"Hmm?" Naoko tilts her head. "Oh!" She blushes a little, rubbing the back of her neck. "I guess I didn't mention that, did I? Yeah," she says, nodding, "I play the cello in music club." Karaoke is mentioned. "That sounds like fun, Mina-chan. I mean, karaoke. Maybe not trying to be idols together." WAAAAY too much spotlight there. On the plus side, Minako's energetic nature is perfectly charming.
"The cello?" Makoto echoes, eyes brightening with interest. "That's really impressive!" This time, the distraction does her in and the electronic figure of Sailor V on the game's screen pays the price, resulting in a flashing Game Over screen. Mako makes a wry face, but then shrugs and picks up her waiting milkshake, turning to face the other two girls.
"Karaoke is about the limit of my musical talent," she admits cheerfully. "I don't think I'd want to be an idol, but I'd definitely be up for going out to sing some karaoke sometime."
Minako Aino makes a distinctly unpleasant face at Sailor V's death. "I hate how every single pixel is lovingly rendered when dying. So specific," she mumbles, but quickly forgets about that to chime in on cello comments.
"It IS impressive. I can barely play that many instruments. It's hard. It takes practice!" she announces.
"But you gotta be careful. If you go out karaoke'ing too loudly, you might accidentally become an idol if the wrong people overhear. That's how it happened to me!"