Jake sighed as he was reassured to again about not having to worry about paying for the food, while he wasn't the biggest fan of it, he caved in and internally agreed that she was fine paying for it, nodding as he reached over and gently shook her hand. "Eheh, I suppose it should be fine for you to pay for the food then, though I still think it's unfair since we're both getting friends in this." He said, pouting a little at the end. It was nice though that he was at least able to develop a friendship with a coworker now, working before had sometimes felt a little stressful with him not really knowing anybody, so maybe having  friend there would be nice. He then giggled softly at her joke of him being able to rest his head on her lap. "Ohh, well I'll keep that in mind then. Still thanks for all of this, this is nice." He thanked, smiling as he properly sat up in his seat.

Jake sighed, he wasn't too fond of the idea of him being bought food and stuff, it felt like he'd owe her something and he didn't really like owing people.  Though Makoto did seem perfectly content with buying food for him so he decided not to object. "Hmm, I suppose so, you really don't have to pay for it though, I'd be happy with paying for my food instead."   While he didn't directly oppose the idea of Makoto paying for the food, but he did at least try to point out that him paying was an option.  Afterwards he swapped over to the area of the menu Makoto was referring to with the salmon burger, it looked delicious, though he wasn't too big a fan of bread, so he decided to go with the simpler option instead. "Ohh, mm that looks so good! I think I'm just gonna go with some basic grilled salmon with maybe some hash browns. Oh and I do agree it is quite comfortable, and a great emergency pillow in cases where I don't have one." He pointed out happily.

"I mean eh, I don't get it either, I don't really see how age gaps like that are super important for less important topics, like having a conversation about videogames, or in environments like a bookstore, people are just confusing, that's why I prefer videogames, I can at least understand AI, kinda, and if other people like videogames I don't need to struggle to find something to talk about," Jake said. While some people may find it a bit of a bad way to think of things, he had a simple and very science-oriented way of seeing things, if it wasn't grounded in facts, he was skeptical about it, if it was proven, then he believed it, so he never really understood why some people thought certain secondary genders were  better than others, sure preferences are a thing, everyone has those, but thinking someone is a completely better person only because of their secondary gender seemed foolish to him.  Of course, he'd never say this to someone's face though, confrontation like that makes him more anxious than normal, besides, the situation was rarely a big enough deal that he'd feel the need to.

"Well yeah, some people do seem to have a natural talent for this game, I have no idea how, but it seems to be the case. While getting them behind the counter is expensive, I think you can also get them from tickets you get from other machines, though it's still a bit more expensive than from the claw machine, it's a neat risk and reward system, you could play a risky game like the claw machine to maybe get one super cheap, play some of the ticket games for a more consistent chance at one for a bit more money, or buy one from the counter, I think it's pretty nice, granted, the ticket option is far more time consuming," Jake said.  He really liked situations where people were given multiple option to get to the same goal, it really made things seem much more approachable that way.

"Yep, anyways we should probably find out what to eat huh?" Jake said, he felt the conversation about staying serious vs not serious had gotten a bit dry at this point.  A waiter then came over and dropped the two of them a couple menus, Jacob thanked him before opening up the menu and practically drooling at the different options. "Ohhh, this restaurant really does have some good options, what's your favorite?" He asked curiously to try and continue their conversation now that the other topic ended.

"Hmm, well there's also  other nice parts of us nekos, our tail, it's really soft, and I've always thought it could be pretty nice if curled up and used as kind of a tail pillow, like how in some romance books people give lap pillows, a neko could lay their tail over their lap for an upgraded lap pillow.  Just an idea though, I haven't seen it at all in books or manga, granted I could just not be looking in the right places, who knows." While doing this he let his tail sway from side to side, the slightly more playful nature of being a neko showing through.

"trueee, I mean of course there are times to be serious, but the idea of always being really serious sounds so boring, serious times are there to make the normal times better," Jake said, while at time he did overthink things, he generally didn't like being serious about most things, sure he gave important things more of his attention, but not most things. Overall this whole conversation with Makoto tonight was pretty nice, Jake rarely managed to find people he could actually manage to have a nice conversation with, mostly because of his lack of being able to find things to talk about most of the time.

Jake giggled at Makoto's sentence about touching his ears if he'd allow it. "I mean, I'll probably let you touch my cat ears someday, not tonight though," Jake assured, wiggling his ears half-teasingly.  "Anyways, yes, we probably should find a seat." Jake said, only then noticing that Makoto was already walking towards a seat in the middle. "Oh," he said simply as he followed her.

Jacob was always a pretty big fan of arcades, he enjoyed the energy they had and how it was easy to find others in them that also liked games, making conversation much easier with most people since he didn't have to worry as much about people not being interested in games. Though with it being winter right now, the arcade didn't have many people inside it at the moment.

Jacob was currently standing in front of one of the multiple different, rigged, prize machines, right next to the one Usagi was inspecting.  It was one of those prize machines where you have to line up a pair of scissors to cut a wire that's holding up the prize, the only issue though is that the scissors are dull enough to make paper cutters look as sharp as steak knives.  Jacob had already made 10 attempts at winning the new phone at the top of the machine, he sighed as he failed again, absolutely defeated, his coat's sleeves tied around his waist as he was dressed in a black and blue hoodie and a pair of jeans.

While Jacob was busy coping with the loss of half of the money he put aside for the arcade, he heard someone next to him, having not noticed them beforehand because of him focusing on the machine he was using.  His cat ears perked up as he turned to look at the person, noticing that they were staring at the among us plushie in the other arcade machine.  It was a bit strange to see an adult wanting to try out some of the games but Jacob didn't see much of an issue with it.  He decided to try and start up a conversation with her since he didn't have anything else to do now that he was done with the other arcade machine.  "Ohh, that plushie looks nice, maybe you'll have better luck than I did, hehe" Jake said, feeling a bit awkward since he didn't have much experience in starting conversations.

Jake stopped next to Makoto at the intersection, glancing at the light every now and then to have something to do, lightly tapping his foot on the ground.  His attention quickly shifted to Makoto as she spoke about the difficulty in finding similar interests in people.  "Yeah, I guess you're right, it's all about the challenge in getting to know people.  Though some people do seem more adept at it than others, half the time I'm trying to keep tabs and make sure I don't misunderstand what people say, hehe" Jake says as he scratched the back of his head.

Jake's cat ears wiggled a bit as he thought about what he wanted to learn how to make, there were a few things he's been interested in learning how to make. "Hmm, oh! Would brownies be fine for you to teach me to make? I've wanted to know how to make at least one kind of sweet for family occasions, and everyone I know likes brownies." Jake said, noticing that the light had indicated for them to walk while he was dosing off and thinking about what to learn how to make, he quickly caught up with Makoto and continued on the walk to the restaurant.

"Oh! Yeah fighting games are pretty fun, I also like survival and adventure games too, like Minecraft, it's suuuper fun, especially with all the exploring you can do and stuff.  Also, I completely agree with a game needing it's fair share of plot, it's also really fun when the game gives you a bit of plot in the main story, but forces you to go out of your way to find secrets and learn some of it on your own, there's also vague ones that let you interpret your own story from the little information the game gives you, I like those too... hehe" Jake said, the excitement of the topic switching to something he really liked having opened a much more talkative side of him, he didn't notice until after he finished his rambling, where he paused for a moment before scratching the side of his face a little "Yeah, hehe, sorry for the rambling"

He was surprised as well when he heard that Makoto also liked reading, as well as that she liked romance novels, romance ones were also a thing he was interested in, however he always made sure the books he read had romance be just a side to something like a sci-fi or mystery novel. "Oooh, yeah romance novels are nice, the novels I normally read though have romance on the side, with something like a sci-fi or magic plot as the main story. It helps make the romance feel more natural for me, I don't know if that's just me though." He said, his rambling on videogames putting him in a much more comfortable mood to talk, that only being even easier because of the topics they were talking about. When the topic changed to cooking and baking though, he was a bit more lost. "Hmm, well that sounds like a good business idea, with how much you love baking it definitely sounds fitting.  I'm not as good with cooking though than something like games or reading, I can make some alright dishes, but baking is a different story, I can make some cookies every now and then, but I've only tried baking a few muffins once and they uh.. didn't didn't turn out so well, hehe" Jake said a little sheepishly about the last part, he wasn't much of a cook, but he was certainly better at cooking than he was at baking.

Unlike Makoto, Jake didn't have a whole lot more to share than what he already said, except maybe his tendency to watch movies or videos, but the conversation didn't move to those topics, so he had no real reason to mention them.  Jake's lack of quantity in his activities and interests was also part of the reason for his rambling when the topic did eventually make it's way over to them, as he never really had many chances to talk about those things, unlike some people who seem to dabble in literally everything there is to do, especially with how rare some of his interests were, although he couldn't deny that more people were starting to become interested in videogames, the only reason for it's rarety was probably because of how new it was compared to other activities.

"That sounds interesting, I wonder what they have, hehe" Jake said happily as he grabbed his bag that he brought his lunch in and left the building after Makoto, nodding in appreciation "Thanks for holding the door open, so which way is this restaurant?" Jake asked, looking down both ways of the sidewalk