savetheearth | [open] so many quarters and tokens.

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[open] so many quarters and tokens.

Who: Audrey Burne and anyone else who shows up.
What: First meeting of an organization/collective number group masquerading as an as-yet unnamed gaming club. This is mostly a meet and greet, get to know one another and bring up pertinent issues to look into/discuss in future meetings sort of thing.
Where: At one of Locke's largest Arcades, straight across the street from a pizzeria. Yes, pizza might be involved.
When: Backdated to July 21st (Sunday), from 5pm to midnight.
Warnings: None so far.

[OOC: The top thread here will be for speeches/questions/general meeting matters. These proceedings will all be streamed on the network for those interested who couldn't/didn't wish to attend.

The rest of the log is for mingling. Feel free to make your own threads and get into whatever hijinks you wish.

And forgive the backdating please.]

At one point in time, arcades were a dime a dozen. For the most part it's been a dying trend, though this particular one in Locke is standing against the test of time. It's likely due to it's size - it's easily one of the biggest arcades around - and the inclusion of party rooms in the back. The pizzeria nearby has quite the happy partnership with the arcade thanks to those.

For most of the night the arcade is a loud, bustling place. Enjoy dodging children here and there, maybe having this machine or that eat your very last quarter. Some of them take quarters and some tokens so enjoy carrying pocketfuls of both.

Around 7:30 once most everyone has had a chance to arrive, Audrey will try to herd people into the party rooms in back for the actual 'game club' meeting itself. During this time, anyone is welcome to bring up issues, questions, concerns and the like they may wish to see addressed or would like help with.

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Vanessa had shown up to the meeting place a little while before the actual meeting was set to begin, just to get an idea of what kind of building it was. She hadn't actually introduced herself to anyone, of course, just kind of lurked around the arcade to see who she recognized from the network.

It didn't take long before she realized that nothing incredibly dangerous or dramatic was going to happen and she now had a bunch of time to kill before the actual meeting began. Bored and with little else to do, Vanessa wandered over to one of the game machines and stared at it curiously. Road Puncher II? She'd never really played video games before except here and there when one of the homes she'd lived in had had a video game machine but it looked simple enough. Just beat the other guy up, right? She shrugged and stepped forward, dropping a quarter into the machine.

That was an hour ago.

Now Vanessa can be found hogging the fuck out of the Road Puncher II machine, with a stack of quarters next to her and a glare of laser-like focus on her face as she attempts to button-mash her way to victory. And by victory we mean past the first five guys.

There was a time when this arcade box simply housed a game. That time is passed. There are no games. There is only life and death now.

Edited 2013-07-29 18:08 (UTC)

"You need to kick the last guy."

Ever so helpful, Shou was leaning a little against the side of the game, looking on in amusement at her button-mashing technique. After the third time of her not getting past the fifth guy, he decided to impart with a tiny bit of knowledge.

"That's a combo of the L button with the stick at the same time."

Vanessa scowled at the screen as the AI character knocked hers out for the third time in a row. Her tactic of frantically smashing the buttons had served her well for the first few fights but this guy was proving to be more of a challenge.

She was already reaching for her next quarter when Shou spoke up and she jumped, scattering her pile across the control board. She had gotten so wrapped up in the game she hadn't even realized she apparently had an audience.

"Um. Right, I'll--" crap, the Continue thing was counting down. She quickly went about putting in her next quarter, also thankful for the excuse to not have to make eye contact after that reaction. "I'll try that."

"You can do it," he replied, smiling and nodding. It always was fun watching other people play games, especially people who aren't exactly good at it. It wasn't the amusement factor - though he would be lying if he said it didn't amuse him - but more watching them figure things out as they suddenly got a combo working.

"The game likes to catch you up with some of the purple-colored AIs. They usually need combo hits - that is, use the buttons and stick at the same time."

Damned right she could. As soon as the first round started she took a breath and focused in on the screen. Okay, combos, use the stick and the buttons at the same time. It... didn't go very well anyway, but Vanessa was a fast learner and by the time the first round closed, her button-mashing seemed to have some semblance of tactics behind it.

The second round went better and, finally, after some struggling she finally hit that combo, chopping down a chunk of the ~~stupid bastard's~~ computer character's health bar.

"Ha!" Now she had him! She was ready to go in for the kill... only to have the AI come back and promptly trounce her character, leaving her staring at the screen for a second. Only a second though before jaw-dropped bewilderment morphed to grim resolution and she snatched another quarter from board with righteous purpose.

"Okay, this time I'll get him." She growled. Like hell she was going to let some stupid game get the best of her.

"Keep the combo up, don't pause it but continue to pound him. If you let up, they will finish you."

She was learning. Shou could see that she was going to defeat the game, though it might take her a long time to do so in this place. Some people would have just give up because of the cost in quarters but others stick with it and those were the kind of people he liked. He found giving up to be boring after all.

Vanessa glanced over at the advice, nodding a little, clearly determined to do just that. Giving up halfway was not an option for her. In her mind, the decision to go after something or not was made pretty much immediately and when she decided to go for it, she went all out, every time.

As soon as the first round began, Vanessa went on the attack, remembering combos as Shou had said. It was still a fairly brute force approach, with nothing approaching any kind of experienced playing but it was better. Finally, after a long struggle and a close call at the end, Vanessa claimed victory over her hated enemy.

"Yes!" She shouted, jumping back from the panel with a huge grin on her face and pumping her fists in the air. And then she immediately froze, glancing around with a bit of red on her face and then pointedly stared down at the controls. "Um. I mean... finally."

[OOC: I... I have no smiling icons.]

He didn't try to direct her or make any noise about the style - or lack of - in her approach. He knew that it would take a lot more hours of gaming before she will be able to make the controls dance for her. But he laughed quietly as she hit the last guy and kept on hitting him, even when her character's lifebar started looking very bad. She did it though and the excited jump and yell had him grinning from ear to ear.

"Congratulations. Wanna get a celebration snack? My treat for getting through that level."

She had been about to refuse, because she couldn't stop now! Not after she had just cleared that fight and... wow, had she gone through that many quarters already? But she had only been playing for, for how long? She searched around for a clock.

Oh.

"Um, yeah. Maybe I should take a break for a little while." She said quietly and started scooping her remaining change off the console.

He nodded and stepped back, motioning towards the small cafe area raised up from the rest of the floor. As much as he can be a complete pig about things, he was taught to be a gentleman towards women. It was almost instinct to let them go first among other things.

"Another good rule of thumb when it comes to video games - never let yourself get too exhausted playing them. They'll get you back once you start showing signs of burnout. Always get up from a good win, do something else and then come back." He smiles and leans in close. "Also always save whenever you have a chance."

"And before you spend all your money on it." She muttered. Although it was totally worth it just to finally beat that stupid character.

She does pause when he leans in though, breaking into her fairly considerable bubble of personal space. While Shou might have learned to be a gentleman, attention from guys was something Vanessa had learned to avoid. It hadn't been that hard, being a skinny little thing like she was, and further helped by the deliberately plain and unflattering clothes she wore. The rest was just a matter of practicing a good cold shoulder.

"That sounds like good advice." She said quietly, even as she smoothly stepped back out of reach and started toward the raised snack bar. "I'll keep that in mind."

Ah, that wasn't a good move there. Too bad. He was a touchy-feely kind of person with little sense about just how far into a person's space he got into it was too late. So he kept that space she put between them, sighing to himself about how silly he was to act like she was just another date.

Oh well, it was something to remember for later.

"What do you want?"

As touchy-feely as Shou was, Vanessa was likely the opposite. Still, she hadn't outright walked away so that was a good sign, right? Of course, she'd be a little surprised to find out this could be considered any kind of a date.

She walked ahead up to the snack counter, glancing over what they had to offer, before settling on one of those chocolate-coated ice cream bars and pointed it out.

"One of those." She hesitated, glancing in Shou's direction. "But I can get it, you don't have to."

It probably was a good sign that she didn't. Shou was so used to dating that he sometimes fell into the same pattern when it came to all women around his age. It just meant he had to remind himself constantly that it wasn't a date and things would be just fine.

He glanced at the bar and then picked out some chips for himself, adding a couple bottles of water on top of everything else in case they get thirsty later on.

"How about you pay me the price of the bar, okay?"

It wasn't as if Vanessa was totally naive, and she wasn't a stone. She knew when somebody was hoping to get close, even in a casual way. And it wasn't as if he wasn't good-looking, and he seemed like a nice guy, so....

Except dating would have been a bad idea for her even before all this Numbers crap, now it was the last thing she needed to get involved in. There just wasn't any room for that kind of stuff in her life, never had been.

"That sounds okay." But, hell, all of the above didn't mean she couldn't at least be friendly about it. "My name's Vanessa, by the way."

He was used to being close to people. He treated even casual friends like they were special. He liked people, and he liked being around them, he just didn't understand those people that didn't like being one with the crowd.

Nodding, he paid for all their food and takes it to move out of the way of the next customer. He set the armload down and then hands her the bar.

"I'm Shou. It's nice to meet you."

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[open] so many quarters and tokens.

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