Queen of the Machine

[L. Malady]

Setting : A pizza and arcade place in downtown Rosewood. Early afternoon, Monday in very late November. Sunny, windy, and a tad bit cold.
Status : Please ask before joining.

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Amid the usual chatter of the restaurant, amid the cries of orders in the back and the large TV in the front that played some Christmas specials on a kiddie channel (so soon, too!), if one listened closely, it would be possible to hear the mad smashing of buttons, of fingers rapidly coming down onto the old buttons of the arcade machines and joysticks being jerked about in a frenzy. These were to be expected; the high schoolers had just recently been released from their droning hours in their places of learning, and perhaps they craved something after a long day of cramming their head with knowledge (or not). When they were done devouring the greasy deliciousness of the pizza and various other goodies the restaurant sold for a cheap price, of course, the adrenaline they had left pent up all day long had to be released somehow, as well. What better way to do this than to smash someone else in a game of Street Fighter?

Unfortunately, the populace of the restaurant weren't quite the ones dealing out the smashing at machine number three; her lucky machine. She leaned over the arcade machine with such grace as she blew a big bubble with her pink bubble gum, and drew it back in with skill. The girl stood there with an almost bored expression spread across her face, but a spark in her green-blue eyes that surely challenged anyone that looked into them.

What a slow day. She'd gotten maybe seven boys to pit themselves against her in the sacred arena of the virtual fighting game, where man was man, there was no cheating, and the loser was the loser. Clearly bored, she started twirling the pinkened half of her hair around a finger.

Oh, won't someone interesting show up?

[abbz]

A jingle of a bell and the sound of the front door being pushed open signaled that someone had arrived. It was one of the regulars of the Pizza place/arcade. The boy waved and flashed a friendly smile at some of the workers at the counter as he walked over to it. He shoved his left hand into one of the dozen pockets sewn onto his khaki cargo pants. He shook his head and tried another pocket. When that one was found to be empty, the boy looked up at one of the workers and nervously chuckled.

"It's here somewhere.." He murmured, resuming checking his many pockets.

Finally he had pulled out a wad of dollar bills. "Quarters for five ones, please." Once the cashier handed him the money, he made his way towards the arcade games. He picked a simple game to start out with; Pac-man. The game was stationed next to a couple Street Fighter games. He took his position at the Pac-man game, he bent over to put in a quarter. Quickly glancing to see if anyone was playing any of the Street Fighters before he put the quarter in, he spotted a girl a little older than himself. She seemed to be bored, just standing around doing nothing but blowing bubbles with some bubble gum.

Shrugging, he slid the quarter into the slot and stood back up just in time to nearly avoid a red ghost.

[L. Malady]

The somewhat odd-looking girl regarded this newcomer with an interested look. She estranged from the familiar "please insert coins" screen of Street Fighter to the darker screen of Pacman, highlighted with the yellow dots she'd dominated time and time again. A new face for her, how interesting! He moved with such familiarity, though, and the workers treated him with the same level of familiarity. The yellow warrior scurried across the screen while being pursued by the many-coloured blobs, with their quiet, nonassuming faces...those mocking, nonassuming faces.

She quietly positioned herself a bit out of arm's length from the boy, carefully observing his playthrough. The girl was very sure to keep as quiet as she could be; she knew what it was like to have a noisy spectator. The rest of the bustle of the restaurant died out, until it was only the three of them: she, the boy, and the entirety of the all-consuming maze that printed itself on the screen. Go new boy.

[abbz]

The adolescent boy chuckled softly when he lead the Pac-man to one of the larger yellow dots in a corner of the maze. Once Pac-man went nomnom on the pellet, the menacing ghosts all turned blue. He quickly chased after two of them, eating one of them. The eyes that remained of the ghost traveled back to the square in the middle of the maze. After that, the ghosts began to flash and turn to their normal colors.

After about ten minutes, he lost his second life. He hated the siren-like sound when the Pac-man disappears. Quite frankly, it got on his nerves. He was on the third level. He quickly ran towards an Energizer while three of the ghosts cornered him. They turned blue, and he began to chase them. But the higher the level you're on, the shorter the time that they stay blue. Right as he was about to eat one of them, it flashed back to normal colors and killed him. "Ack! Stupid game." He growled, pouting slightly.

Only then did he notice the odd girl watching him. He turned his head towards her and smiled. "Hiya. I haven't seen you around."

[L. Malady]

A smirk of intrigue came to her attentively glossed lips. "Likewise," her somewhat high-pitched voice returned. "You put up a pretty good fight, kid," she said in admiration, "I don't see many people able to make it that far. It's too bad they pulled a fast one at the end, huh?" She stepped back another step as to give space for the next move; she extended her arm, opening her fingerlessly gloved hand (it helped her grip) in anticipation of a handshake for the new boy.

"I'm Lily Josephine," she introduced herself with a pleasant smile now. "People around here call me the 'queen of the machine'--it's kind of silly, but maybe you've heard of me? My reputation tends to exceed me among high schoolers."

She paused for a moment, considering if there was anything else to add to the introduction. Maybe she was coming off as a little conceited or arrogant? She really didn't like it when people mistook her for such. A nervous giggle escaped her, "And uh, I hope I'm not coming off as full of myself?"

[abbz]

He released his grip of the joystick and turned towards the girl. He nodded slightly. "Yeah. Those ghosts get faster and the energizers have less time as you get higher in levels. Kind of sucks," He shrugged his shoulders a bit, "But whatever."

When he noticed she had extended her arm for a handshake, he took her hand in a firm, but at the same time gentle, grip and shook it. He then let go and his arm retreated back to his side.

He listened to what she had to say about herself and then spoke, "Nice to meet you, Lily. I'm Tobias Mandez. But you can call me Tobi." He chuckled quietly and shook his head slightly. "You're not. Believe me, I know when someone's being full of themselves."

[L. Malady]

Now quite pleased with herself and the situation, she smiled warmly to him. "Yeah, they do, huh? No fair at all!" she said with a little snort. "Well, good to know that, haha. Pleasure to meet you, too, Tobi!" After a pause, she peered over to the counter and the pizzas already laid out. I haven't eaten yet, have I? She blew another bubble contemplatively and shrugged to herself.

With her hands on her hips, she walked over to the counter and peered down at pizzas layed out with hunger in her eyes. She bit at her lip for a moment, and looked back to the Pac-man boy, "Hey! You hungry for something?" she offered. Before she made any further offers, she dug into one of her deep pockets and fished out a small wallet; enough to feed her and perhaps one or two other people with a few slices of pizza, assuming they didn't want to eat the entire bar. She shook it around to assuage her concerns about a lack of money (she hadn't worked a job in a week or so, and it was running out surprisingly fast). Ah, much better. Now, what is there to eat...

[abbz]

Watching the girl walk to the counter, he slowly followed behind. When she asked if he was hungry he nodded. "Yeah." He murmured, eyes scanning over the pizzas that were laid out. "Those look good, eh?" He chuckled and quietly stood behind her, waiting for her to order their food. He didn't care much about what kind of pizza she got. He would eat anything about now.

[L. Malady]

( OoC: I thought I would include this, as I thought it was very interesting. While I type this, there is an ad for an extra large, 3-topping pizza from Papa John's at the top of my page. )

"They sure do," she responded, grinning hungrily. Her hand fished around inside of the wallet more and pulled out some amount of money, she wasn't sure how much at first, with a distinct lack of quarters. She peered over the options again, before finally pointing at the pepperoni-topped pizza. "I'd like three pieces of that, please." The scrawny man behind the counter nodded, pulled three slices away from the pie, and placed them on a plate. With a motion that made it clear he'd been doing this for quite some time, he reached over the glass that prevented customers from taking their food without paying and handed her the slices. She quickly handed him the money in payment, and peered over to Tobi.

"And he'll have...uh..." she paused, sliding money over the counter to the boy. "Pick out what you want, just don't break my wallet, if you don't mind," she whispered to playfully to him.