I expected to have time to write a post during travel, but I never expected that would involve being stuck in a grounded plane for 3 hours and being delayed until TBA (10:00?) the next day.
It all started out so great, too. The plane was flying away from the sunset and the clouds were all lit red and orange. There were thin layers of yellow and green on the horizon between the blue sky and red/orange clouds (ROYGB of the spectrum). It was pretty.
So her name is Akane. I'll have to remember that. The conversation with Matsuoka and Red Scarf Girl Akane went pretty well. Matsuoka seemed satisfied enough with the peace offering and Akane apparently enjoys video games enough to at least observe the tournament. She's smart, she likes games, and she's really cute. Doesn't get much better than that.
When he finds himself free once more James notices that Mochavine isn't quite as busy as it was when he first arrived and decides to save Shining Kettle for another day. He orders a mocha to go and drinks it on the way home. When he arrives he forgoes lighting a candle and instead gets to work on a few days worth of mango curry. He found the recipe online early during his first year and has been making it frequently ever since. James prefers to cook for several days at once and reheat the food because it saves time. If food didn't spoil so quickly he would probably cook for a full day every few months and fill up the fridge.
James finishes cooking the curry, removes the light scarf he had tied over his nose and mouth (he learned to do that after the first time he made the spicy dish), and starts the rice cooker while he stores the extra. Meal in hand he searches through his list of things to watch and settles on a pair of movies just to pass some time until the tournament starts.
Saturday Night
Guess I'm a little bit early. James gives the arcade a quick once-over. It's a little more packed than usual, but fortunately not terribly so. No red scarf in sight yet, so he checks on the Mecha Saints machine and is welcomed by a leaderboard full of only two names -- 9 entries of Stratus and 11 entries of KeroKero. Whoever they are they managed to claim the top spot again. Looks like it's theirs now. They must be on cloud nine. Nothing like a small joke to soften the sting of defeat, not that James is sore. He managed to turn a completely garbage character into stiff competition, and that's enough for him.
As James returns to the tournament he spies ASS at the bottom of the Galaxian leaderboard. This again. James spends a fair amount of time trying to keep the leaderboards clean. It's like painting over graffiti, except that normal graffiti looks nice sometimes and this stuff is nothing but tasteless. Guess I'll take care of this before the tournament picks up. James pulls some tokens from his bag and starts dishing out a proper ASS-beating, so to speak. He uses his first play to watch for enemy patterns (most of which he already knows) and otherwise remind him of the feel of the game, then plays for score during his second play. It turns out to be a pretty good run thanks to a mix of luck and skill, and near the end he passes the target score. He continues to play for a little while, but he stops just below the second-lowest score and lets the game sit.
I should be able to make a post tomorrow during travel. It might not be very long but it will at least put James in the arcade where he should be right now.
While watching Matsuoka and Red Scarf Girl out of the corner of his eye James is distracted by a woman with a guitar who begins playing music he has not heard before. The lyrics aren't his type (no lyrics are, really), but he is impressed by how well she plays the music. She's probably a professional of some sort. Why would she be playing on the street? As if to answer his internal question she begins to jump and dance, clearly enjoying herself. For the fun of it, I see. It must be nice to be able to play an instrument like that. Or to be able to sing. Or dance, especially in public like that. Or own a dog! James' growing spell of sadness at his own rhythmic incompetence breaks instantaneously as he spots Moose at the woman's feet. It's so cute. I want to hug it and pet it and push its face into funny little smiles and... I suppose that would be awkward.
James calms himself and returns his attention to Matsuoka and Red Scarf Girl to witness the latter move the former's cheesecake closer, slice it in half, take one of the halves, and put it on her own plate. James quickly returns to looking at his phone. Are they sharing a cheesecake? Do teachers normally do that with students? Do students normally do that with teachers? What's going on over there? James considers the possibilities for several minutes before realizing that he doesn't have enough information to make a conclusion. If this were a romance anime that would mean they were into each other, but using stereotypical romance anime plot devices as a basis for evaluating a meeting between a student and a teacher, especially one that may be by chance, seems unwise. I suppose I'll have to ask one of them later. James returns to his cell and prepares to depart for the Shining Kettle, but as he does he notices the date. That's right. Today is the start of the Lancom Arcade tournament. I've been waiting for this. James remains where he is for a while longer as he considers what today holds.
@OppositionJ@MyCatGinger James isn't the type to participate in video game tournaments. He plays games to improve both himself and the person he is playing with -- not to see who is better or to win a reward. Despite that he does observe tournaments. There are few better ways to learn than by example, and spectating allows him to watch as much as possible and have ample time to analyze what he sees. For this upcoming tournament, though, he has a more pressing reason to observe from the sidelines. He wants to identify KeroKero KyuuKyoku.
It's not unheard of for somebody to manage to beat one of James' #1 scores. When that happens he usually lets them enjoy their victory uncontested (until after the yearly leaderboard reset and archival, anyway), but KeroKero is different. They have already taken two of his five remaining #1 spots and are currently competing for a third in a game called Mecha Saints. Mecha Saints plays like Fighter Street (except with mechas because Japan) but it has a few extras added in like a competitive leaderboard for AI matches and alternate game modes. Games like Fighter Street are normally James' weakest genre (tied for last with MOBAs), but he has found some very interesting quirks in the least played character because he picks it while teaching new people how to play (something he does quite often). He cleverly uses those oddities to post very high scores.
James decided to compete for this #1 spot. He played his typical cat and mouse game of posting incrementally higher scores in order to lengthen the competition*, but eventually KeroKero managed to force him to play at his absolute best in order to post the score he has now. The back and forth between the two has decimated the leaderboards for Mecha Saints. It has room for 20 entries but now it only has three names on it: Stratus, KeroKero KyuuKyoku, and, at the bottom, the tag for whichever poor soul held second place when the mayhem started.
James gets a token discount at the arcade because he does stuff like this, which is why he enters so many leaderboard entries. After spending most of his time at the arcade during his first winter break James realized that it was going to be an expensive habit so he found a way to soften the cost a bit. He told the owner that he was going to make him some extra money that week, and that he would keep doing it if he could get a token discount. The owner was skeptical, of course, but he came around pretty quickly when James delivered. He did so by getting scores just above the lowest spot on the leaderboards for several different games. Naturally the previous owner of that position played the game a few more times to post a higher score and reclaim their position on the leaderboard. It's an especially effective strategy later in the year when everyone wants to be on a leaderboard in order to make it into that year's archival of the leaderboards. Both James and the other player improve from the activity (the important part to James) and the arcade makes more profit thanks to the extra plays (also important to James because he likes the place and wants it to stay in business). After the owner calculated that James was generating enough competition to effectively double the money he spent himself (which is a fairly large amount to begin with) it wasn't hard for James to convince him that a 20% token discount was reasonable. He tried to negotiate cheaper snacks but the owner wouldn't budge on those. Shame. When posting scores for this purpose James uses the tag Stratus sparingly and rarely uses the same tag more than once. He only upsets the leaderboards for a game a few times so he seldom ends up with the spot himself, but sometimes he does unintentionally take the spot.
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