Sound and Silence 3: Arcade Days
#4 of Sound and Silence
A wolf goes to the arcade and tries to be social.
POV shift~ A chance for me to get into Reyson's headspace.
Also, apologies for the frequent formatting and font changes, I'm trying to figure out how to work the uploader and it's not going great.
Sigh
After all the bug reports suddenly came in from my department that needed fixing, I'm ready to tune everything out and just finish my day in peace. Make sure I got my car keys... lock the doors. Alright, time to take it easy at Game Engine...
..
...Maybe I should have asked if Clair wanted to come with. He usually goes clubbing around this time, but I guess I can ask him
Phone:.
"At arcade, want to come?"
...sent. Cool.
...Oh, looks like some of the regulars are here today... including that one panther from the other day... Oh god. Should I talk to-
"Hey! You come here a lot, Don't you?"
Well. I guess she decided that for me.
"Yeah, here for CDE." I'm never really sure what to say in these situations... It's been so long since I've had to make small talk. What am I doing? Bet Clair would know what to say if he were in my shoes...
"Yeah yeah! I've seen you play! You rock at this game! To be honest, I only played this game every once in a while, but watching you play has really inspired me to play more often! You always look like you're having so much fun when you're on the pads!"
I... I do? Well... I guess if she's having fun and I had a part in it, that's a good thing. I guess I should thank her for her compliment
"That's cool."
....That's not thanking her.
"My name is Sarah, but my friends call me Sal! What's your name?"
"Reyson... Your friends call you Sal?"
"Oh, yeah, it's a long story, maybe I'll tell you about it sometime. Oh, looks like Jake is done. You wanna hop on?"
"Oh, sure..."
...I didn't realize I had blurted that thought before out loud... but I guess she didn't mind. Well, better get my game in before someone else takes the spot.
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...
Haa... Haa... tired... I shouldn't have picked such a hard song so early on...
"That was awesome!"
Oh, I guess Sarah was watching me play-though I guess, she doesn't have any reason not to?
"Thanks."
"Hey, so that one song you played... there's that section in the middle with that really tricky step sequence, I tried to follow what you were doing there, but I totally lost track, can you show me what you did?"
"Oh, that. That's a pretty hard pattern. So you have to rotate your hips in this position... there's some crossing over that you have to do with your feet in the middle section, and then there's a twist here that you need to do to hit the panel at the end. Did that all make sense?" ...That should have been a pretty accurate explanation. "There are a couple of other songs that have this same pattern as well, but slower, like ..., ...., and ...., so you can play those if you want to practice on an easier song."
"Oh wow, I get it now, awesome! I'll definitely try out the songs that you mentioned to practice that pattern.. thanks so much!"
"Yeah." I need to sit down, I'm still out of breath.. Huff... huff..
"Remember the other day, when you came by and I asked if you wanted to play?"
Oh no.
"A h. I... uh... I'm sor."
"No, no! Don't be! I was actually worried that I had offended you or something.. The other people here were telling me not to worry about it and that you're kind of an awkward weirdo."
"Oh... they're... kind of not wrong?" ... why did I say that?
"Haha~! I mean, you kind of do have a way with small talk, I'll say that much, but you seem like a pretty nice guy, and you're definitely much smarter when you're explaining things. I'm glad I took the chance to say hi to you again!"
This person... is surprisingly willing to put up with my stupidity.
"Oh jeez! I gotta go, it's already getting late and I need to eat. Reyson, right? I'll see you around! Teach me some more stuff next time!"
"Alright, sure, take care."
...
..Hold on, did I just make a friend?
...
...
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...Whew. Alright, I've played for a while, I guess it's time to g-
"Hey, check this video out, this guy's got like glowpads on his hands and he's dancing to this sick bop! Who is this guy?"
"...can I take a look?"
"O-oh, yeah! Check it out!"
..video titled "Cat puts on light show during blackout!! MUST SEE!!!"
...
"..ha, I knew you had it in you, Clair."