2986/Flawless Victory

Flawless Victory
Date of Scene:	21 March 2026
Location:	Game Crown Arcade
Synopsis:	Amy, Hinote, Rashmi, and Molly all come to the arcade to blow off a little steam after school; and it turns into a much more important experience, with an old aversary finally defeated and a victory for the one who needed it most desperately.
Cast of Characters:	Molly Skyline, Hinote Kagari, Amanda Faust, Rashmi Terios

---

Molly Skyline has posed:
It's Thursday evening in Tokyo, and school's out which means the arcade has seen its usual evening influx of teenage patrons, all here looking to blow off some steam with whatever manner of electronic joy is their personal preference, here in this digital arena with its vast cacophony of human and synthesized noise. And for some, that's paradise.

It's a paradise that Molly Skyline hasn't visited very often since regaining exclusive rights to her own body -- she's catching up on a year of missed schooling and trying to cram two entire grades into a very short period of time, and schoolwork hangs over her constantly like an ever-present raincloud, ready to descend onto anything she might plan on doing. Between that and the usual duties of being a Mahou (saving the world, that sorta stuff) she really hasn'y had much personal time in the last couple of weeks.

Of course that can only go on so long and after catching herself with her hands shaking from exhaustion while trying to do math homework (usually her best subject) there was really only one option: Take a nap, then get bubble-tea, call in some friends, and come to the arcade.

Right now she's on one of those dance-machines, where you stand on a big pad and try to hit the right moves; the kind of game she avoided like the plague before, which shows in her scores... but hey, it's fun.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari is here with Tracy. Tracy is narrating. "We wen't down to the local watering hole to take a swig of the ol five and nine." he says. Hinote stops. "We are going to the Arcade and. I might buy us a soda." he clarifies. Tracy says. "Same thing." "No." says Hinote.

Hinote and Tracy watch Molly dance on the machine and Tracy nods approvingly as eh whistles. "Come on, you can do it, Dollface!" he says as he cheers.

Hinote rolls his eyes but also nods along all the same. Molly can do it!

Hinote and Tracy are drawn by by the siren call of the nearby '63rd Street' machine, a beat 'em up about two private eyes beating up badguys and are soon playing it. How is Tracy Playing player two? Operating the joystick with his arms and tapping his feet on the buttons! This...

Looks odd to passerbys who see an invisible player. But luckily the veil works wonders and they soon forget they saw such a thing, or urge it away as a trick of the light. Probably.

He occasionally glances over to see how Molly is doing. Tracy keeps at the game for the two of them as he glances.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Hell yeah, arcade trip!

    Amy needs a break from studying and worrying about what she'll do after she graduates next year and the magical worries of the Fade and the Black Beauty Sisters on the loose, and when Molly went for dancing she does too.

    With a red T-shirt and black yoga pants she thought she was ready but once she kicks up past the easiest levels she realized she needs to tie her hair back. She's not sure whether one ponytail or two wuould work better, she's trying one at the moment.

    "Hey Kagari-san, Tracy." She gives them a friendly smile and nods as she walks to the dance machine.

    Not treating it as a competition, just as both doing their best. The challenge and activity and seeing Molly getting to have fun all bring a smile to her face, "Yeah, go Molly!" she cheers.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
It's nice to get away from finals-plus-youma-plus-everything-else, and going to the arcade with Molly? That's also just a recpature of some really, really nice memories.

Watching Molly work on the Boogie Boogie Uprising machine is also fun, and she cheers her friend along with Hinote... then laughs upon seeing a gumshoe-themed beat-em-up that inevitably attracts Hinote *and* Tracy.

"Oh hi, Amy-chan!" she says as the fellow redhead approaches, grinning. "Yeah she's getting this down *real* good!"

Molly Skyline has posed:
Eventually for Molly, the game ends -- and by ends, she misses too many combos in a row to continue and the game basically says yeah go work on your footwork nerd and take off the clownshoes, but it at least has the good grace to say it with polite wording and an upbeat tone. So, Molly steps off to let someone else have a go; she picks up her half-drunk bubble tea, shifting it from biological hand to prosthetic (making sure her grip is good), and takes a step back beside Rashmi to watch Amy keep doing her thing.

"Yeah I'm never going to be good at those," she admits. With a glance over her shoulder, she can't help watching Hinote and Tracy playing the gumshoe beat'em up, and that brings a grin to her face as well. "Looks like he's in his element," she comments. "I should... probably try something you play with your hands instead of your feet, though. Maybe when I'm done my drink."

She has specifically been avoiding the racing games on every visit since her return; this is probably the first time she's done anything here other than moral support for her friends. Maybe the second.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Neither am I," Rashmi laughs. "And that's fine! It's still fun, even to watch. Speaking of which go Amy-chan!" she says, briefly turning to cheer the Puella through a climactic part of the song.

Turning back, she watches Hinote play a bit, chuckling. "Well I mean, with a game like GumStomp even *existing,* it was naturally gonna attract them. Her eyes flick to the tea, and the hand that grips it. "You look like you're getting a lot better with that, Molly-chan."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
EVENTUALLY, the two eat it on the second level boss, which is some big guy with a tommy gun and the two can't jump the big bullets in time to actually land many hits and they die and he sighs and lets the hilarious countdown timer of the private eyes running from a bomb die out and game is over and the two return back to the dance machine as he sighs.

"We lost. Oh well." he says with a shrug. Tracy shrugs too and Tracy says. "Hey Dollface, what other games do you like playing here?" he asks. Hinote Kagari is also wondering but Tracy asked first, if with also interjecting dollface. :I

"Yeah I'm curious too. Any competitive games?" he wonders. "We could all play?" he asks curiously.

He looks over to Amy and smiles. "Hey Amy-san. How are you holding up?" he asks curiously.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I mean... I think you could if you wanted." Amy reassures, after finishing her song. "Eventually you notice patterns, that arrows in a certain sequence combine into certain motions... you could use your hands, I suppose, I know I've seen some players incorporate hands into their fancier freestyle moves, but there are rhythym games where you use your hands, too!"

    "Also the people who look really amazing at this have practiced the same song tons of times. Then the same like... pattern thing extends to longer sections that you've memorized how to do, that's how I'm able to turn all the way around during that one part of Burning Heat; only they have it down for the highest difficulty, and multiple songs..."

    Wheeeeeew. She tried to talk instead of catching her breath right after finishing the song, so she does that for a bit now. She takes a closer look at the game Hinote and Tracy are playing.

    How's she holding up? "Oh, uh... I mean... I've been kinda anxious about the future, honestly, but right now it's just... it's good to be here, playing games, together, you know?"

    At his other question, she taps her chin. "Do they even have any 4-player games at the arcade besides racing games...? Well, there's VO: Force... if you're down for a mecha fighting game."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly glances down at the drink in her hand, and blushes softly, "Yeah, uh... Yeah. I mean a year ago just holding something in my left hand wouldn't have been much of a triumph but now it's... all part of the process, I guess?" She shrugs lightly, and has a sip for good measure.

"Yeah I never really had that much patience for dancing games," she admits, "Which like... might sound silly since I've always been happy to race the same track over and over again until I know every square inch of it and that's just repition in exactly the same way, but context really matters, y'know?"

Any four player games. Molly pauses, lips back on the straw mid slurp, punctuated by how one of the pearls is just stuck halfway up the straw. Four player game. Racing. It was suggested.

There's a big problem with the racing games. Well, two actually; Molly doesn't like the idea of trying one and sucking, and in this arcade a number of them (including Molly's absolute favorite) all have the same three letters at the top of the high-scores. Nyx.

And she's been pointedly not looking in their direction for that reason.

"I uhh can't... not sure if there's... anything four player other than racing but... we could... try one..." she ends up mumbling around the straw.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Watching Molly retreat a bit, Rashmi purses her lips in thought. "Well, like Amy-chan said there's VO: Force... But I think there's a new version of Prevengers? over that way?" she says, gesturing toward the primary beat-em-up section. "That's more co-op, but still. Either way, I'd be happy!"

It is, of course, up to the others, but Rashmi knows *why* the sudden retraction back into her shell. If only Rashmi was good enough to erase that name from the leaderboards...

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari notices some hesitation there. The pointed glances AWAY from the racing games. He wonders, but he doesn't pry. That's when Tracy opens his mouth and that's when Hinote leaps and covers his mouth before Tracy can ask a big dumb, obnoxious question that might put Molly on the spot because Tracy has a penchant for saying crap Hinote is thinking because he's a mini him.

"Not now please." he whispers to Tracy. Tracy grumps with a nod and Hinote releases him and Tracy looks grumpy and hrmphs as he pulls his tiny fedora down over his eyes for dramatics.

Hinote doesn't seem bothered. If Hinote knew what was going on, he'd be paying a bunch of people to wipe the name from the boards because that's lame and Hinote Kagari would be the kinda guy to stage a power outage just long enough to reset the high score counters. :I

But he doesn't know so perhaps later. But for now he ohs! "The four player beat em that arrived?" he asks.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Doesn't make sense? "Nah, it's different kinds of challenges even if practice and memorization is part of it. Like, I mentioned coming up with longer chains of foot movements for certain sections of the, the, what's the word, chart, but that's a bit different from, uh, finding the optimum way to take a curve, when you can accelerate and just how fast you can take it without wiping out..."

    She looks thoughtful. "Dang, I was binge-reading Misfile again a few weeks ago, you'd think I'd remember more racing lingo... but that talks about a lot of, like... the changes you make to a car for racing or for racing different kinds of tracks. And maybe some racing games go into enough detail that you're worrying about how to cut weight down or whether you've adjusted the suspension for potholes or changed the tire pressure for grip or whatever, but none that I've played..."

    She blinks at Rashmi. "Prevengers? But what kind of game is-- oh, I guess there's 4-player beat-em-ups, too..."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly closes her eyes, and sucks in a deep breath at the same moment as slurping up the last of her bubble tea. Which, honestly, sort of ruins the image. But only sort of.

Molly is reflecting on how easily everything can go South while her friends are talking about which games to play would be best. And, it's fine, she knows they get it, and she can count on their support whatever direction this day goes in. And already she can feel the emotional turmoil starting up, swirling around and around inside her skull, and she's entirely sick of this, the constant reminders, the constant poking and prodding and day ruining of someone who doesn't even exist anymore but is still managing to take things from her every damn day.

Rashmi might notice it first, since she's the closest. The sudden, determined clench of the jaw. The empty drink, passed back to her biological hand and lobbed towards the nearest trash bin, not looking to see if she makes the shot or not (which she does). "No," she says, quietly. "No, let's..." She trails off, and sucks in a breath.

"Let's race."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When Molly sets her jaw, Rashmi perks. When she passes the drink to her living hand, the redhead stands up a little straighter. When the empty cup is lobbed into the trashcan Rashmi's smile is wide and brilliant.

"*Yeah,*" she says, as much a victory cheer as excitement. "Now *everyone's* gonna get to lap me!"

This is not a prediction. She *has* had practice.

But she's still pretty awful at racing games, so, it's *almost* a prediction.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari smiles. "Alright." he says. "I wanna drive a car someday, but I suck at it right now." he says. "I'm sure I'll race fine. I'm fine." Tracy shakes his head as he follows along as he walks to the racing game of choice and has a seat in it and settles into the chair and flexes his hands and grasps the wheel with one hand, then another and---

"Alright. I'm ready."

"Gotta put the money in champ." says Tracy. "O--oh right." he says, In goes the money, ziiiiip.

There, now he's ready. He looks to Amy. "Worried about the future?" he asks curiously, as looks back towards the game.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Let's race. Amy smiles. "Yeah, let's do it!"

    Only once they get to the machines does she see the high scores and realize Molly isn't just concerned she'll have trouble playing with her prosthetic hand. Anger at Nyx flickers over her face briefly, but she doesn't say anything.

    "Yeah, like... what place in society I'll have after graduation, worries we won't all get to see eachother as much, stuff like that." She feigns a grin. "Normal highschooler stuff."

    She settles into a seat at the game Molly leads them to, trying to quickly familiarize herself with the options.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly settles in to her seat last; just in time to see that name flash across the screen. This was always HER cabinet, a year back, she always dominated the high scores and even now it's still hinted at. The top four high scores out of the top five all say NYX but the fifth is still SKY; she's still hanging on with an old high score from a year ago, just barely.

Just... waiting to be pushed off by someone better, of course.

This game has a few modes, one of which is a series of races with a card for keeping track of progress and car upgrades which is where you get the really high scores, but Molly just opts for a single race this time. And of course, she picks her favorite car -- a white Toyota Supra.

"Alright, let's do this," she says, projecting confidence to herself as she uses both hands to position her prosthetic on the gear shifter and close her fingers, just in time to see the countdown begin.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
When Hinote sees the high score list, the picture becomes clearer. Ah. "I see." he whispers. Tracy floats in front of the screen and says gravely. "The case isn't closed." he says.

"Yes." he says, as Hinote suddenly shifts the game into drive and burns rubber, in the game, to take off. He may not be the best but he's gonna hell try to wipe out one of those four.

He doesn't need to beat his friends. Just Nyx. Again.

He asides to Amy. "Ah. I see." he says. "I haven't thought much about that. Been kinda making sure my mom and dad are okay mostly." he asides. "That's what's most important to me at the moment." he admits as he shifts the game a bit with determination.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi can't help it; she chuckles at Hinote forgetting to put the money in. Not long enough for it to be embarrassing, just one of those 'yeah I've forgotten too, isn't it silly?' chuckles.

Settling into her pod, she puts in her quarters and, of course, stamps down on the gas pedal *just* before the magic moment that would give the driver a starting boost. And thus begins the comedy of errors that is Rashmi in a racing game. Her oversteering and subsequent overcorrections, occasional moments of driving the wrong way before the game physically picks her up and puts her back on the track, and occasionally-skillful drift turns. The latter are almost entirely random in their happenstance, but she beams with pride every time she pulls it off.

"I mean, it helps if you know you have something you *want* to do," she says at one point, while waiting for her car to finish rolling sideways off the cliff. "Even if you don't know how to *get* it, you can always do things that'll *help* it. Step by step, y'know?"

And she's off again-- wait no that wasn't a shortcut, it was a tree.

Wups.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods to Hinote, and looks at the screen as--

    Oh gosh there are so many cars. How is a Subaru WRX STI different from an Impreza WRX STI different from an Impreza 22B STI Version? aaaaaaa

    With the timer ticking down, she picks something prioritizing acceleration and handling over top speed -- more forgiving as she makes mistakes learning the track.

    She does, at least, dare to drive a manual instead of automatic, but the first several times she has to keep looking at the shift to try and remember where each gear is.

    It doesn't even occur to her to rev the engine for a starting boost, this has real cars instead of cartoon karts, she knows nothing about drag racing and the thought of putting a transmission through that terrifies her. She'll need to start remembering it's a game and experimenting more!

    They're off! And honestly, her past-life experience helps less than she'd hope unless the feedback and wheel sensitivity is really good. There's still some oversteering, especially trying to move at race speeds, and bumping into railings at the corners. She's got the basics of shifting down but doesn't know what to do differently in a racing' context. And she doesn't even try for shortcuts, just learning the course.

    She still grimaces as she goes off a cliff a couple of times. "Geeze... do people really race on courses this dangerous? But then, I guess they pick the flashy stuff for a game precisely because it's something very few have the skill for in real life..."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly crashes.

Immediately.

In the opening chaos she collides with another car and goes into the guard rails, and it takes her crucial seconds to recover and by the time she does she's in last place. With her face red and her teeth ground into each other she stomps on the gas pedal and flies down the track, chasing the 19/20 position that's already four seconds ahead of her. And honestly, it doesn't take her long to identiy the problem.

"I'm used to having both hands on the wheel except to shift," she explains out loud, as much for her own benefit as anyone else's. "But I'm not fast enough with my, uhh, new fingers to do that, so I'm -- CRAP"

And promptly she crashes again, just after overtaking 19th place. Shaking her head she gets back on track and accelerates hard again.

"Amy-chan -- Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive in that order."

As she speaks, she's overtaking 19th again. And then 18th. And then 17th.

But of course, this is a short race and the first lap is already done.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari manages to stay on the track and not roll off cliffs or crash into trees but misses an obvious shortcut here or there. He is not adept, but he's passable enough at the game as a regular player of video games to grasp it. Tracy watches with wide eyes as Hinote manages to outpace many of the computer players and is suddenly outpacing Rashmi.

"Hi Rashmi-chan, Bye Rashmi-chan." he says cheekily. He might actually get a score at this rate.

Lap 1 done.

He frowns at the trouble Molly is having through he doesn't slow down his own race. That'd be crappy of him. Maybe. He isn't sure. But he knows he'd hate it if someone 'took it easy on him', himself?

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Bye Hinote-kun!" Rashmi says cheerfully, clearly having a great time despite her only occasional skill at the game. "Dust, eaten~!"

As Molly makes fairly vocal and obvious mistakes, Rashmi tips her head back to regard her friend over Hiote's head -- ignoring that she's slammed into a tree -- and clears her throat. "You got this, Molly-chan," she calls. "Figure out the new balance this time, next game we'll race for real!"

Then she turns back to her game, stomping on the pedal just in time to grin. "Bye, Amy-chan!" she singsongs.

It's utterly impossible to take it easy on anyone, when you're already abysmal.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Molly describes the problem of her arm not moving fast enough. "Hmm. Think you can get better at driving one-handed? Although maybe there's reasons that's a bad idea when racing... Do they make any electromechanical switches, where you can press a button near the wheel and it moves the gearshift for you?"

    She wouldn't dare suggest one of those 'sport' automatics that pretends to be manual -- she assumes racers see that as poser stuff and that it's inferior somehow.

    Amy's not doing especially well, in the middle-back of the pack. She blushes a bit as Molly catches her looking at the gearshift. "I picked Manual!"

    Like Hinote, her honor as a gamer demands Amy do her best unless she's teaching or it's explicitly a casual match for fooling around. She's going off road and slamming into rails a lot, but she's trying, damn it.

    And Rashmi passes her. "Aww!" She focuses on following Rashmi for the moment, driving a bit more carefully and waiting for a slip-up.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Yes they do but I can't have one hear and besides that's blasphemy!" Molly responds, as she corrects an understeer with both tires on the right side of her car in the ditch and manages to avoid a heated argument with a tree.

The purplenette can see that her friends aren't about to let her beat them out of charity as she climbs back up into 14/20, and honestly that's preferable, as anyone who's witnessed her playing videogames for more than twenty seconds would know. Winning is only winning when you beat someone at their best, anything else is an insult to someone's intelligence, even if you do want them to win, really.

"Not this race I don't," she replies to Rashmi, "But--" And there's a tree.

Back to 18/20. Then promptly 19/20 and 20/20.

"...I was never not going to need to do this."

Molly doesn't immediately peel rubber out of trouble. The game is going to decide for itself that she sucks and kick her out when she doesn't get the next couple of time-ups anyway. So she relaxes her fingers, adjusts her grip on the wheel, and thinks through her grip on the wheel and the shifter. And by the time she does get kicked out of the race early... it's okay. Because she starts driving much more smoothly once she stops caring about the score this go around.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari is racing and Tracy pulls out a little pennant with Hinote's face on it and waves it around, "Go Hinote!" he cheers. Hinote is just trying to keep on the track and pass opponents and... he laps Molly. And he feels bad. But he keeps at it. Indeed, it seems his gut instinct was right to not give it less than his all for Molly's sake.

He doesn't care. He keeps at it with determination. There's a case to close. And Tracy has all so been close to forcing a chara change over it but he knows Hinote would kill him after for making him cheat at the game.

He keeps at it and looks over to Amy and Rashmi and Molly and gives a smile all the same as he looks back to the game. He guesses he has the lead over the four. Even if he's not in a lead place he's keeping his times!

"Are you guys having fun?" he asks. Because that's what's important. Right?

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Always!" Rashmi chirps in answer to Hinote, a biiiig grin on her face that only falters when she passes Molly. Because she knows how these games go, and it's a nasty shock when you manage to outpace your friend-who-is-the-best-at-these-games.

Amy can at least feel better when she blows right past Rashmi who, on a long straightaway, has managed to confuse a quick nudge of the track for a full turn, and is settling down on top of a tree further down the cliff.

"How 'bout you, Hinote-kun?"

Another quick glance confirms that Molly has for the moment put the pressure of the race behind her, and is concentrating on figuring out the new normal.

*Excellent.*

Amanda Faust has posed:
    If that's blasphemy Amy's definitely not suggesting a sport automatic. "What about some kind of robotic waldo? That mirrors your movements on a stick placed near the wheel? No, that'd be so complicated..."

    "...What if it plugs into the signals in your arm? Like... a button on the left side of the wheel toggles -- or maybe it only engages when the clutch does! -- and so while your foot's on the clutch, your muscle movements also move the gearshift, though you might be waving the actual prosthetic in the air a little. Could... could that work?"

    Having fun? "Oh, uh, yeah!" Admittedly, she's distracted from the racing by the engineering problem in her head, but that's its own kind of fun!

    "You'd have to learn how to control it, but ultimately it's still your skill both deciding when and how to shift and shifting."

    She understeers on the turn after the long straightaway and has to get back on the track, but at least there's a patch of brush there rather than a cliff.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I'm gonna learn how to race properly," Molly asserts. "I'm gonna learn how to do things with this arm and that's that."

Yeah, she's lapped by everyone, but there is no bitterness in her expression as she gets timed out and doesn't even finish. She takes her right hand off the wheel, and her prosthetic off the shifter, and sits back, watching the screen for a time, as the high scores roll up.

Nyx, Nyx, Nyx, Nyx, Sky.

Hand reaches into pocket and pulls out her wallet -- only a handful of cards in it, the blessings of being a teenager -- and withdraws a little plastic rectangle that has this machine's logo on it. Of coruse; her car, for the long races where you can save your progress and upgrade your ride. Somehow it survived a year of Seriss' possession and she's kept it since. She taps the card against the steering wheel, watching as the high scores scroll up again.

"Yeah, I'm having fun," she answers. Though maybe she sounds a hair less convinced, but at least she isn't stressed. "You three... mind if I do a long game? Three races? ...I want to see... how I do."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari comes off and...

You Placed 4th! Runner Up!

Hinote Kagari narrows his eyes and signs the name 'NOR'. Short for Noir. That's right Nyx. Noir stole your spotlight again a little, eat absolute crap forever you living alien body snatching sleazebag.

Nyx, Nyx, NOR, Sky

Scrolls by for him and he huffs as Tracy cheers! "Yeah I'm having fun. Sure. I'm game for a long game. Lemme try again." he says. He won't place any higher than fourth ever again. He isn't that good.

He was racing with DETERMINATION.

Now it's for fun.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
=You placed 18th!=

"Absolutely," Rashmi says almost immediately, feeding in the money for a long-game. Choose car, choose car, choose car, acceleration and light weight, choice made!

At which point she assumes a SUPER SERIOUS DRIVER POSITION -- honestly the pantomime is *half the fun* of being a terrible player -- and readies for the starting light.

Doot doot doot DEET!

*STOMP*

*Just right.*

Rashmi roars off the starting line-- and crawls right up the exhaust pipe of one of the CPU cars dead ahead of her.

...Hey at least she pulled off the trick! ...It's gonna be like this for three games.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods at Molly's determination, and focuses on racing.

    She still gets timed out anyway. "Gah. Brutal for an intro. But all games usedta haveta be learned this way." She will buy a magcard -- maybe not now, if she has to tie a specific model of car to it, she'll figure out which one first -- if Molly's going to be playing this game a lot trying to beat Nyx's high scores, then Amy's going to play it some too and learn it somewhat!

    A long game? "Yeah, that's fine! I'm down for it too... uhh, does it still time us out, or do we all place? I'm still kind of fuzzy on how whatever-you-call-the-kind-of-race-this-is works."

    "...How do you even know what car to pick?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly slots in her money and then her card, and her car is brought up on screen without her having to scroll through a menu and pick it. White Toyota Supra -- but now with dual exhaust, wider tires, a definitely more aggressive looking front bumper, a supercharger sticking up through the hood, and of course louvres on the rear window.

"Pick your favorite," Molly suggests. "Or... if you don't have a favorite, Amy-chan, just pick whatever speaks to you. Pick the one that looks the coolest. It takes a few races to really leanr their strengths anyway." She pauses, and blushes, "I've got like... ten more cards at home if you wanna try any of 'em."

Yes. Molly likes this game.

Her start, this time, isn't perfect but it's much smoother. She gets that starting boost, rubs down the side of a CPU car but recovers and climbs up into a perfectly respectable 7/20. Honestly, not a bad spot for a human player to be in right off the bat.

And this time, instead of gripping the wheel like she's trying to kill it and looking like she's bracing for a nasty trip to the dentist, the purplenette is managing to just look chill.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari chucks in his money and Tracy looks over Hinote's shoulder now, watching him play and---

Without all that determination and drive powering him forward, just for fun? He isn't as great as before. But passable. Probably better than Amy and Rashmi. Technically not better than Molly, but Molly has that huge asterisk at the moment.

He doesn't slack all the same, as before, he gives it his all still, not playing nice just because Molly might have 'trouble'.

"I'm enjoying myself." he gives a smug smile. "I think I prefer Plumber Karts though." he says, admittedly.

"Less stress." he says as Tracy waves his pennant.

"Hold on. Tracy go cheer for Molly."

Tracy huddles near Molly and waves a tiny Molly pennant. Where did he get a Molly Pennant? Don't worry about it. Chara magic. >.> <.< >.> <.<

"I dunno what car I chose." he admits. "I think it was green so I picked it...." he says.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When it comes to long games, Rashmi absolutely knows she's not going to place higher than 12th across all three races. So she's created little challenges for herself, to keep the silliness interesting. Little challenges like 'Hey can I ramp off that dog-leg and make it to the racetrack further down the mountain trail?'

Turns out? No she can't. Partly because of the invisible walls, partly because even with boosts there's no way she's making it that far.

It's interesting information to file away for later, though! And who knows; maybe one day one of her experiments will get her into the single digits!

...Rashmi is unaware of how much of Entrapta has shed onto her thought processes, sometimes. Which is fine, because this is all about fun first, objective second. And Molly even looks like she's calmed down enough to be *having* a good time!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I mean, I don't really have a favorite... In a past life, I drove Ford D3s because they made a zillion of 'em, so there'd be plenty of cheap spare parts. I always heard Subarus are good though."

    Pick one based on looks? "But they all come in different colors, right? Ooh, this one has two shades of red..." And the spoiler makes it look cool.

    Subaru Impreza WRT (GBDF) it is!

    She has no idea what the letters mean. Is this what it's like for most people when their computer geek friend talks about RTX graphics cards and how much GDDR RAM they have...?

    She picks the red that matches her eyes, rather than the one that matches her hair.

    "Woah, you can do the starting boost thing in this game?! How do you do that?!" Amy says in amazement as Molly shoots ahead.

    She's driving a little more cautiously than before, but also getting a bit better as she adapts to the game's handling.

    Hinote doesn't even know what car he chose. Amy glances over at his screen. "...I don't know either." She admits.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Nissan Z," Molly declares as she catches up to Hinote, but has to back off from beside him to complete the most efficient route around the corner. Which, she pulls off. She's altered how she's holding the steering wheel, too, instead of trying to grip it like she would with two hands and just has one of said hands missing, she's holding it much more loosely, with her hand positioned to move from the rim of the wheel to one of the three 'spokes', and from there, well. She still knows how much to actually turn the wheel. She still knows where to shift up or down, or where to turn one foot sideways so she can hit the gas, the clutch, and the brakes all at once to fly around the corner.

And then Amy asks her about the starting boost, and Molly is caught trying to both explain it and focus on the track as she keeps climbing up in position, chasing that first place spot. "Yeeehhhhh ebb wah," she says and gives up. Yeah, explain that later.

On the plus side, her game has improved considerably. She's still got the track memorized and it's not like her reflexes went away, now did they?

Hinote Kagari has posed:
"My car is the best. Because it's green. Got it?" he asks.

Tracy nods along in agreement as he waves his Molly pennant to cheer on Molly, "Go Molly-chan!" says Tracy as he waves the pennant!

Tracy is doing his best as Hinote can see Molly's arrow appear at the bottom of the screen and he panics! and starts swerving a bit, but keeps himself from crashing but then Molly veers away to take a different path and he keeps at it, pressing the gas, gas, gas, step on the gas. (tonight).

Hinote Kagari starts living in the 90s a moment as he slows down and whews. The streets on fire!

"Close one!" he remarks.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Glancing over Hinote's head again, Rashmi grins at Tracy's pennant-waving, turning her attention back a moment too late to avoid the rock looming up in her way.

She makes up for it in the next few seconds, however, loosing a delighted squeal as, for the first time ever, she nails the drift-turn downhill hairpin just right, and is *still* giggling when she overcorrects, slams into the tunnel wall, and comes *out* of the tunnel with her car still rolling.

Small victories, after all, are as important as big ones, and now that she knows she can *do* that, it's just a matter of getting consistent.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    'In a past life', she said.

    She started saying that, likening to the past lives the Senshi remember -- was it in early 2024? -- To make conversations less awkward, but in truth... it's actually started to feel that way for some time now.

    The world is still recognizably the same world, unlike remembering the Silver Millenium, but the day-to-day was so different; she never had friends like this, she never did stuff that mattered...

    Even like this. She was never able to help a friend with something like 'get the top score on an arcade game'. Well, okay, she's not really 'helping' so much as being what she hopes is a supportive presence... still! Helping!

    As she slightly oversteers and tries not to wipe out, she wonders... if she were in a real car, right now, would she have as much trouble? Is it so distant that she's forgotten?

    She's kind of okay with that. Even if she never drives a real car again. This is so much better.

    "WOAH!" She's startled by Rashmi shooting ahead of her into the tunnel and then wiping out, and while trying to avoid Rashmi's car, also slams into the tunnel wall, and Amy starts laughing and can't stop for several seconds either, even as she gets her car going again from the stop.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Nice, Rashmi-chan!" Molly calls out, managing to grin for a moment in spite of being focused. She's in second place at the end of the first lap, which is much closer to how she'd have been back before... Well before. Y'know. Then.

But this is now, and while she's still not perfect, she's not out of the running for a high score either. Dare one say even the top score might still be within reach if she can play like she used to.

Don't. Think. About. That.

Her eyes glance up to look at Tracey, just briefly, and the corners of her lips quirk upwards at the sight of the little Molly-banner, even if she blushes a little as she focuses on lap number two, and how she's flying around it. Is she going to lap people? She's already coming up on lapping a CPU car, but there's always a few of t hose. At least for her there are, when she's in good form and not trying to figure out how to play with a completely different... arm setup.

But she's been practicing for a few weeks now. Maybe she's got this particular part of it figured.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari is racing his green car and suddenly he's wiping out. Wiping out hard and spinning out and his eyes go wide and he's trying to keep on the track but off her goes. Why?

Rashmi rolled over him. :IX

"Thannnnnnks Rashmi-chan." he says as he drives back onto the track and now has to play catch up.

"Don't worry, having fun!" he insists. He starts pressing on the gas again.

"You'll get used to it." he finally says, to Molly. "I hope me playing my best isn't making you upset." he finally admits as he tries to play catch up.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Sorry, Hinote-kun," Rashmi says, flushing as she sinks in a bit. The note that he's still having fun *is* appreciated, but, it's not a mistake that can keep her from enjoying being awful... with occasional flicker-short moments of brilliance, and the praise from her friends more than cancels out the moment of oops.

That she's going to be lapped by Molly is, by this point, a fait accompli in all honesty. But there are people who play go to win, and people who play it to make a beautiful pattern, and Rashmi Terios is *very definitely* more the latter. It's just that in this case 'beautiful pattern' means making choices that would get her laughed out of tournament play.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh my gosh" Amy laughs as she sees Rashmi's car roll over Hinote's. "Ahaha I wish we could've recorded that!"

    Once she gets going again... She's a bit ahead of Rashmi, still. She's not lapped yet, she's going to have to make one big mistake or a series of small ones for Molly to straight up lap her unless the other girl is playing nigh-perfectly.

    She slows down too much on the curve after the lap-start straightaway. Molly gets a little closer.

    She turns just slightly too late and slightly too sharp on the next turn. If Molly's focused on her tail lights it's probably frustrating not to gain on her more for that.

    The next turn she takes fine.

    It's just before the tunnel that she dares to get fancy, drifting slightly and messing up the timing on coming out of the turn, that maybe Molly can pull ahead!

    Aside from being, y'know, a whole lap ahead. But it's hard not to feel like they're racing closely in the moment!

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly doesn't particularly react as she manages to pass Rashmi or Hinote, or even Amy when that finally happens; she's much too focused. Even though she's trying not to be too focused. But she can't focus overly hard not not focusing or this whole thing is going to fall apart, and she's doing far, far better than she thought she'd do for her second game. Maybe perhaps possibly she might even pull off her ultimate goal WHICH SHE IS NOT THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW.

But she does make it around the track three times in first place, which, naturally, puts her at the front of the pack for the start of the second race, and she succeeds in maintaining that position all the way through to the end.

Before the third race starts, the game gives anyone who earned enough points a chance for an upgrade; Molly did, and she waffles hard (in the sixty seconds alloted) between leaving her setup exactly as it is, or making a change. In the end she opts to change out the turbo and get something that offers a little less raw acceleration for a better top speed, with a deeply conflicted look on her face. Overall it's an upgrade but it's still a change.

"Everyone still having fun?" she asks quietly while the setup sequence is happening for the third and final race, on the hardest track out of this set of course. "Not just me I hope??"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi *has* been having a good time all through the races, and it's easily noticeable from the little cheers or bouts of laughter that float up from her pod. Every race she starts out SUPER SERIOUS, and every race is just a Yakety Sax of chaos; some stretches she almost looks competent, some treat the racetrack more like a pinball board, and it changes with nearly every section of the track, if not sooner.

When the third race starts, she's *definitely* still having fun, and her arm shoots out of her pod to wave Molly's way in answer. "Dust ready to be eaten!" she chirps.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy decides to take tires with better traction. Having fun? "Huh? Uhh...oh! Yeah, sorry, I was just focused on the game. 'S been an interesting change from the games I usually play."

    She's managed to not have her races be a yakety sax of chaos, but something silly happening once or twice per race -- or getting caught up in Rashmi's -- gets a laugh out of her before she's back to seriously focus.

    "Aww, you don't have to just eat dust! You'll get better, keep trying! We can look up strategies after, and... look, that bit last race? Certainly made this more memorable!"

    For a few minutes, there's no thoughts of magic or the past. She's just a teenage girl playing videogames with her friends!

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly isn't really talking too much; she's focused. Very focused. She's got the steering wheel and shifter figured, and... Okay this isn't a real car by any stretch but maybe, just maybe, she'll be able to tackle driving a real car (and driving it like she means it) in a similar way, and that's buoying up her spirits in a palpable fashion. You certainly don't need to be a Mahou to know that she's feeling better than she has since before a certain day on a certain beach.

There's a small crowd formed now, too; nothing major, just a half dozen teenagers standing around, variously watching the dichotomy between focused with a chance ot winning and Yakety Sax. And when Molly gets to lapping other cars, she makes sure to be extra careful around that one car just in case.

Which finally leaves the purplenette in a significant lead with just one lap remaining.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"No no it's *fine,*" Rashmi laughs. "I've played these enough to know what's gonna happen!"

But gathering a crowd is... a *very* different feeling. Maybe it's a smaller version of how it feels to be a performer... or a public speaker. There's a weight of regard that doesn't happen when you're just playing by yourself, and it's something that just sort of... settles on you, whether you're paying attention or not. The chaos settles... just a little, though; she's no longer doing silly things just to do them, and she works a little harder on nailing the drift-turns... but she *very definitely* straightens up a little, when Molly's car is about to lap hers, just to make it less likely that she rolls over Molly's win.

The moment Molly *does* pass her, however, the bug comes to arrow for another shortcut... which it turns out *is* a shortcut this time, but she forgot to add better traction on her tires, and a little ding turns into a series of overcorrections that have her getting back onto the track...

...skidding on the roof.

Ah well.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks sightly concerned when Rashmi says that this is how racng games always have to go for her... She hasn't even noticed the crowd, though.

    When she hears the placing announcement from Molly's cabinet, she cheers as she works to finish her own race!

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly's car flies across the finish line.

Molly gets prompted to enter her initials for a high score.

S. K. Y.

No sooner does she hit the button for 'Y' than she leaps up out of her seat, struggling a bit when her prosthetic doesn't function quite the way she's used to her left arm performing, but it gets her up out of the seat. Now that that's obvious, of course, there are hushed (trying to be polite) but still audibly comments about 'Holy crap she's only got one arm' that just makes the purplenette blush and try to get away without abandoning her friends in the process which really just leaves her standing there like a bit of a dork, and entirely not watching the screen when the high scores are displayed.

Sky, Nyx, Nyx, Nor, Nyx.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Woooo!" comes the cheer from Rashmi's pod, and when she's climbing out, she's *laughing.* She got next-to-last place, but she clearly had an absolute *blast,* because for her it was never about winning; it was about doing silly things, amusing herself, and most importantly... being there with her friend. So no matter what Amy ranked, she gets a high five, and when it's clear Molly is just frozen?

She stands right up next to the purplenette, grabs her flesh arm, and hoists it in the air like one *ought* for a victory. "That," she says breathlessly, "was a *killer* first place! *And* personal best!" she adds, hiking a thumb over her shoulder at Molly's leaderboard. "Now you just need four more!"

Because this is how you get someone out of freezing in public; you jolt them into motion, whether or not it *acknowledges* the gathered crowd. And preferably give them something small to focus on.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy high-fives Rashmi, then does look over in concern about the 'one arm' comment. "Who cares?" She shouts back, "She's all awesome, and she just got the new high score?!" Amy's eyes glanced back at the screen while she was talking. She grins, "Holy crap, Molly, you did it! That bitch had nothing on you!" She nods to Rashmi.

    "She spent all that time to mimic a fraction of your power!" She strides over to hug the purplenette!

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly is, clearly, a bit weak at the knees and she's shaking from adrenaline, that flooded into her veins just a few corners before the finish line with the checkered flag. When Rashmi hoists her arm up it's like a noodle, but she's grateful for it, and finally lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

As the crowd disperses in the wake of Amy's chastistement, Molly finally turns to look at the screen, in time to see the high scores get their repeat. And there's SKY, right up on top. Above Nyx.

"...I beat her by three points," she half-whispers, and swallows audibly.

"...But... I beat her? I beat her."

She sucks in a breath.

"I never got to... beat her. Before. I just watched all of you beat her, this... this is the first time I actually beat her."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Amy's right," Rashmi says quietly. "She could *never* have stayed on top forever. And *you did* beat her."

Her arm wraps around Molly's shoulders for a quick hug, then releases. "Y'know what sounds great? Victory fries, and sundaes."

Because by now, it's not just tradition that one follows a win with food, it's *routine.* Practically a law of nature. Gravity sucks, victory hungers.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy Faust adds a squeeze to the hug when Rashmi comes over, then releases. "You outsmarted her before. And... outlasted her. But I get it. That was asymmetric warfare. And this is a fair contest of skill, both of you against the same track, the same challenge. And you beat her. And you'll beat her many more times." Amy smiles.

    "Victory fries sound great! Lemme just get the magcard. Guess now I have better tires next time!"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Yeah," Molly replies, wistfully. "And when I've beaten her enough times... it'll be like nobody even knows she was ever here."

Molly returns the hug from both of her friends, one with her fleshy arm and one with the prosthetic. She beams, grinning like she hasn't since...

Well, today has been a really good day, as of about three minutes ago. She looks over at the screen as the high scores flash up across it again. She won. She won.

Take that, Seriss.

"Yeah, victory fries and a sundae sounds fantastic," she agrees. "I hope they have raspberry today. Or peach. I'd take either. ...And a really big bowl of fries, with way too much salt."

Because she won.