"Noooooo what, how!?"
"Ha!" Rachel said stepping off the platform. She had finished her orchestral practices for the day and now hanging out with the string quartet of 4 the orchestra had assigned her to. And while it was true on stage, each member appeared dutifully dressed as if they were always playing at a wedding, off the stage, they were still just young adults. And like any young adults… still played a lot of video games. But of course… all being the musicians that they were, the quartet had a favorite gathering spot on breaks.
"Undefeated champ… Boombaya!" Rachel said, giving a twirl before putting a finger on her quarter members forehead.
"Wow! Honestly ready for Coachella!" one of the other quartet members said, a dark-haired woman by the name Yuko, "you know Black Pink head lined last year, right?"
"Well yeah duh… they're like the biggest group in the world right now."
She clenched her first in the air.
"But I'll be even bigger one day."
"At what… basic Disney imitations?" The losing "Pump it Up" quartet member stammered. He was a slender man with wavy black hair and tan complexion by the name, Treble.
"Oh, shut up Treble! You saw me! I'm not basic! I listen to K-pop too!"
"That's still basic… just basic in a different country…" Treble said rolling his eyes, "you need actual ORIGINAL artistry to get to such a stage…"
The other two members darted their eyes back and forth as Rachel and Treble argued back and forth. It was mostly for show though as they did want to piss off too many Blinks arguing about the artistic merits of Blank Pink… especially with their Twice wands hidden well in their instrument cases.
"URGHHH You wouldn't understand a good dancer if she walked right in front of you!" Rachel said rolling her eyes back and posing, "just look at my hip movements…"
"Ummm…"
"What?"
But before Rachel could do any more Yabei movements… Yuko awkwardly pointed behind her.
"There are children watching… Rachel…"
"…"
"…"
And indeed, there were preteen children gathered around them, with many of the guys' noses bleeding as they saw Rachel. A few even taking pictures.
"Oh, come on? Is this so bad?" Rachel asked doing a natural gymnastic flip towards Yuko before leaning into her face, "I heard in your home country… Hoshou Marine is the most popular Idol among people this age!"
She then walked over and gently gave one of the preteen boys a head pat whose face looked like he was about to explode in embarrassment.
"…"
"…"
"That doesn't mean you should act like Hoshou Marine whenever you want…" Yuko said shooing the preteens away. All of them disappeared except one with thick glasses wearing a blank white shirt.
"Go go… nothing to see here!" Yuko said.
"Miss…"
"You want an autograph or something?" Rachel said walking up to him, "I mean if you insist then…"
"Are you two the Yuri ship?"
He stared at the two of them deadpan as Rachel and Yuko just looked at each other in bewilderment.
"Umm…"
"Rachel and Yuko, right?" the kid said still with a blank expression, "Rako is a pretty good ship name and Yuri ship. I endorse it."
And without saying another word or changing his expression, the kid vanished away from them leaving the two quartet members in disbelief.
"That kid's going places..." Rachel said.
"Agreed…"
"Whelp! What say we grab a bite to eat then?" the final member of the quartet said going up to the ladies. He was a tall light skinned red-haired man by the name Ike, who played Cello.
"Panda?"
"Panda…"
"Panda!"
"Panda."
Meanwhile…
"Wow… epic gamer alright… your high score is way lower than mine!"
"That's… because… these… damn… line… blocks… AHHHHHHH"
Calypso let out a scream as the "Game Over" screen flashed of the Tetris game she was playing on her phone. What a noob, couldn't even clear 100 lines.
"This game sucks! I'm going back to Pokémon…"
She began to reach into her backpack for a Gameboy. But before she could start down that rabbit hole again… I suddenly remembered the trick the academy taught us in case of such copyright emergencies.
"Did you know Calypso…"
"I swear if you fucking…"
"Did you know…"
"No… No… Seiso pixie… No…"
"That in terms of…"
"NO FUCKING…"
"Human Breeding…"
"YOUR BRAIN IS ROTTED PIXIE MAN I TELL YOU… ABSOLUTELY ROTTED…"
"Coming from a woman with that sort of reaction to some simple words…"
"AHHHHH…okay I get it! No Pokémon!"
She put the backpack that contained her Gameboy back down.
"Fricken… OKAY, I'LL PLAY A MUSIC GAME…"
"…"
She began loading up the game Odesza on her phone when suddenly…
"Oh, is that Odesza?"
"Ekkkkkk"
Calypso shrieked as a cute, tilted head, black haired lady suddenly appeared in front of her.
"What, huh?"
"That's Odesza the music game, right? Ohhhhh Coldplay! Lovers in Japan! That's my favorite! I have perfect scores ya know…"
"Who… who are…"
"Say Rachel, this is the roommate you always talk about, right?"
Behind Yuka, indeed walked in the most graceful being I had ever laid my eyes upon once again. The pinnacle of elegance reincarnated into one human being with blonde hair. Even the way she walked…
"Uhhh… why did you just randomly lift your shoulder up?" Yuka asked.
"Is it that pixie again?" Rachel asked, sitting down next to Yuka.
"Pixie?"
"Yeah, that's her…" Rachel smiled looking at Calypso who blushed slightly, "still on about the magical pixie huh?"
"Yeah, he's being as annoying as ever…" Calypso said as I continued to gaze at Rachel until owww….
She lifted her shoulder up landing another square hit.
"Need to keep him in check always… ya know!"
Yuko and Rachel looked at each other and laughed at the sight.
"She's a real comedian, isn't she?"
"Sure is! Could honestly do variety well. Hahahaha…"
"Ahahahahaha… sorry sorry just… this is my quartet mate," Rachel said gesturing at Yuko who gathered herself as well giving a head bow to Calypso.
"Yorishiko Onegaishimasu!"
"Uhhh… did she just talk in anime?"
"Japanese is an actual language you uncultured swine!" I shouted at Calypso, "that means nice to meet you, if you had actually done some travelling yourself then…"
My pretentious rant was interrupted by another shoulder bump.
"Hahaha… no no, she's from Japan," Rachel chuckled, but she plays violin which is rare! Pretty damn good at it too!"
"Yeah, she must be if she's in your quartet," Calypso said, "I didn't know you guys came to the arcade. That's lit! Which games do you play?"
"Mostly the music ones," Rachel said, "Since we're… you know… musicians. We come here with our other quartet members all the time after practice."
"The other members?"
"There you are!"
"Ahhhhhh…"
Calypso shrieked ducking her head under the table as gracefully walking towards us were Ike and Treble.
"What are you doing…" I said flying next to her.
"Bo… Boys…"
"…so?"
"Didn't you say that'd be bad for my rep?"
"No… only certain dumbass fans think that… I'll never forgive you for cancelling Vesper, Cover Corps…"
"Sorry?"
"Nothing Nothing… as I was saying, crossover variety shows like with Twice and Got7 have been going on since apparently their debuts according to the theories you told me last night…"
"That's different! These are REAL 3D Boys right in front of…"
"Yo, who's this cutie?" Treble said sitting down next to Rachel and across from Calypso, "ahhhh so adorable, look at her… just like Bocchi!"
"Don't scare her…" Rachel said getting up just to walk over and step on Treble's foot.
"She's right…" Ike said sitting down as well, "she could be dangerous… I smell a witch's scent on her."
"That's just sweaty gamer sweat…owwww…"
Calypso broke her box pose to deliver me another shoulder to the stomach. As she did however… her eyes matched the two boys as she blushed instantly looking away.
"Oh, save it for later when we hit the bong," Rachel exclaimed, stepping on Ike's foot this time, "wait, what is this game you're playing though?
"Odesza!" Yuko answered instead, "yeah, just ignore the stinky boys! Let's focus on gaming! What other games you like Calypso?"
"Uhhh…" Calypso said, still a bit reserved "I mean…I also like Smash Brothers… and Pokémon… and League of Legends… and…"
"Oh, look at the time!" Rachel said standing up suddenly. As she did, she began dragging Ike and Treble away from the table, "we really must be going now! Still got some brushing up to do on our harmonies before the next concert!"
"Wait no, I'm also into Smash Brothers!" Treble began, "can't we talk a little more with your friend here?"
"Absolutely not! Your only purpose is to serve Yuko and I whole heartedly, understand!"
"But…"
"We fight for our friends…" Ike said putting a hand on Treble's shoulder, "remember that!"
"Ike no… I don't think you quite understand Rachel's true nature yet…" Treble pleaded.
"I'm going to true nature your mom if you don't shut up!" Rachel exclaimed as she dragged them away from our sight.
"Whelp! Gotta run!" Yuko said giving Calypso a soft Kawaii wave, "we should totally hang out sometime though! You seem like a lot of fun! Then we can talk about gaming without these stupid boys with us! Byeeeee"
She scurried off in a ninja run towards the other quartet members.
"Ahhh she's so quirky… why can't you be like her?"
"…WELL WHY CAN'T YOU… BE LIKE JACKSON WANG…" She yelled shouldering me again.
"…you don't know what he's really like…"
"…"
"…"
"But do you want to meet him IRL or not? He's probably most interested in interacting with other artists you know…"
"…"
"…"
"Alright alright! What's next then, huh? Should I do some sort of K-Pop Dance or something? Since apparently that's all people want these days…"
"That's what I've been saying! And the answer is yes of course…you see Calypso, there's this Twice Mina fancam at night I view very often."