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 Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 4:57 pm
RP 15- Somehow I think this is called "cheating"
Players:
Silverah as:
Darsais
Zero Dream as:
Sei
here
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:43 pm
3/10
I've been playing Dance Dance Revolution like mad lately, and I've gotten really good at it. There's an arcade in town near the theater where mom works, so I go there and play. I met a boy who hangs out there named Sei. He mostly plays Street Fighter, but I taught him about the strategy of DDR and he's pretty good now. Not as good as me, but pretty good. For a newbie and all. I think we're friends, though I haven't talked to him or seen him really since then.
Sei has wire markings on his cheek and neck, like some of the other Kybernetiks I've met, so at first I thought he might be one of us, but when I asked him about it, he told me no, he wasn't a Kybernetik, he was a Fa'e (is that how you spell it? With the comma like that? Mom told me she had a friend back where she came from who used to say, "In normal english, an apostrophe indicates a conjunction, but in black english, it indicates a break in sylable," but Sei wasn't black, and to be honest, I don't think Mom really is, either.)
But, so apparently Fa'e have to have a guardian to take care of them or they disappear from the world, so Sei doesn't live with his parents, which I think is kind of sad but then again, some people might say Doc is my father since he built me after all and I don't live with him, so I guess we're kind of alike. Sei had these orbs floating around him which I think had to do with magnets but I didn't feel anything, so I dunno. But I thought it was an upgrade at first.
Oh yeah! I'm entered in a DDR tournament tomorrow! I think it'll be fun.
And another thing! Mom told me that she found a school I can go to so she can stop homeschooling me. I'll be in the Jr High. Sixth or Seventh grade? Something like that. With other kids my age (sort of?) I think it'll be fun!
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:40 pm
RP 16 - DDR TournamentTeagan Russo The days got shorter, the nights longer, and everything seemed to slow down. Winter dragged on for longer than it should have but eventually, it started to let up. Not that the teen had really noticed. For the past few months since the gym closed down, Teagan had been spending every available moment at the mall, mostly in the arcade. He found out that people cheered when he beat someone playing DDR, and it almost gave him the same sort of rush that he had once gotten from gymnastics competitions.
On this particular day he was competing in a local contest, nothing big, just something held by the arcade. He had grown his hair out some, just long enough that he could pull it back while he played, and he had kept up with his weights just incase the gym should reopen. All in all, he hadn't changed much. They were playing in rounds of three songs, and after losing one and winning the second, he seemed to be concentrating awful hard. The lights were flashing and the speakers blaring, blasting out a sped up mix of The Caesars' Jerk It Out. Sweat beading up on his skin, he seemed like he was in his own little world, fed by the people yelling and the sense of competition. The song didn't last long, and when the scores came out, people jumped at him to congratulate. He had smoked his opponent yet again. Silverah Darsais was oblivious to the celebration across the arcade. Her emotional processors were pumping a mixture of joy and dread through her circuits, insisting that this was how a person would feel about having gotten to the semi-finals of a DDR tournament, but her personality chip was trying to shut down the negative emotions. ConfidenceConfidenceConfidence! it was screaming.
She pressed a finger to the electronic scoreboard and watched a name flash into place on the tier next to hers.
Darsais Starling vrs Teagan Russo it read.
Who was that? she wondered. Maybe she'd seen him play earlier.
She ran a hand through her purple hair and tied it into a ponytail, waiting for the supervisor to tell her which machine her next game was on. Teagan Russo Once the people around Teagan dispersed he too glanced up at the scoreboard. Daraias, interesting name, and someone he'd never played against. Jake slapped him on the shoulder, snapping him to attention, "How you doing bud? Need me to get you anything?" Tea shook his head, slinging his towel around his neck, "Nah, I'm fine, why don't you go check on Beckie? And tell them to turn the fans up."
After asking around he figured out where the next game was, and that his opponent was a bit younger than the ones he'd been playing so far. The machine they were assigned was in the back corner, a cooler area than the ones in the front, and was preset with three songs for them to compete on. Tea reached it quickly, dodging through the crowd and the congrats, and perched himself on the metal bar to wait the few minutes till the match. Silverah The machine number finally popped up on the scoreboard and Darsais hurried to the back corner of the arcade. Unlike most of the competitors she passed, she wasn't sweaty... mostly because that was one thing her hardware couldn't do.
Arriving at the machine, she saw her opponent was already there. He was older than her, and tall. And he had ears and a tail, but she decided not to make a point out of that. After all, she had metal strips on her kneck and knuckles, and purple hair, so she wasn't really allowed to judge appearance.
"I'm Darsais," she said firmly, hopping up onto the dance platform and sticking out a hand to shake. "You're Teagan?" Teagan Russo "Yep," he chimed, shaking her hand momentarily. "Good job making it this far kiddo," he said cheerfully, not really meaning it as an insult, he called a lot of people kiddo after all, "Wonder what they've got lined up for us." He always hated these rounds, they kept him from picking the songs he was good at. And they usually had the same kind of songs, kinds he didn't really like.
The manager came on over a speaker, first shouting something about staying away from machine two until an injury was cleaned up, then announcing what matches were where. Gradually the crowd dispersed to different corners, leaving a small group surrounding them. Some were Tea's friends, some people he'd seen around and competed with, and some he'd never seen before. Silverah "Thanks," Darsais replied, glancing around the crowd. It seemed like some of these people were stalking her, but whatever. "You too," she said to Teagan. "I mean, about making it this far."
Shutting her mouth, she looked at the screen and the three mystery songs. Hopefully they'd be ones she'd play before, but they probably wouldn't be. Oh well. Maybe she'd get lucky. She cracked her knuckles and settled into a ready posture, her heels slightly raised. She'd taken one or two tap classes at the studio where she took ballet, and the technique had always seemed helpful in DDR.
"Well, Teagan," she said, smiling, "Let's dance." Teagan Russo Flashing a sideways grin to the girl, Tea waved his hand to the manager, signaling that they were ready. While the intro screen flashed through he stretched his arms up, tensing up the muscles in his body. This should be fun. The first strings of the music started to drift out of the speakers and he nearly choked when he realized what it was.
The screen was showing a 3D animated group of lemurs throwing a dance party and the music, well, was from the Madagascar soundtrack, "I Like to Move It". Definately Jake's doing. The people in the crowd had started laughing, and Jake shouted out, "Think of it as a present!" Deciding to play along, Tea waved his tail fiercely, and started to follow the fast flowing arrows with a large amount of flourish. Silverah Darsais tried to ignore the lemurs and the show going on next to her and instead focus on the arrows flying across the screen. Feet flying, she tapped out the first few combos but messed up at the end of the fifth. Frowning and glad for her balance upgrades, she focused on acing the next few.
Well, that explained the animation. You'd have to be a monkey to pull off some of these moves without falling over. Teagan Russo Once the song got back into the rhythmic chorus Tea took an opportunity to glance over at Darsais' screen. She was doing pretty well, especially since she didn't seem like she'd ever heard the song before. With one last flourish for his show her swung his tail and turned backwards, remembering the pattern from the hundreds of times Jake had made him play this. He could almost mimic the king lemur perfectly by now. Didn't really seem fair to her.
Tired of showboating, he turned back around and just danced for the rest of the song, feeling a little bit guilty that this was the first song. Well, maybe not quite so guilty when he realized they were almost tied. But definately thrilled. Silverah Darsais was trying her hardest not to look at Teagan. Was he intentionally trying to be distracting? Or was he just showing off?
Gritting her teeth, she dove into the next combo, her shoes pounding against the dance pad. Was the song getting faster? Never mind that. She had to keep up and get the early lead.
The song had to end eventually, right? Teagan Russo And so it did. The arcade version was shorter than Tea remembered, and he hadn't turned around fast enough to catch up. When the countdown to the end started he cringed. Almost 20000 points behind. When the song cut off he was still behind, by just a bit less. The screen flashed her name, showing a little dancing stick figure. The crowd cheered, and Tea leaned back against the bar, "Good one. Almost forgot that pride was a sin." Alright, so he'd gone a bit overboard with the attention grabbing on that one. She deserved to win. Silverah Darsais leapt in the air momentarily, cheering, and then turned to Teagan. She thought she'd heard him right.
"Thank you," she said. "You're really good. Do you need a little time before the next song?" Personally, she figured she could stand another two songs before needing chocolate or something. DDR put her circuits into overdrive, but she'd been being careful about keeping her energy levels up. Fainting in the middle of competition was definitely not a good idea.
Indeed, having to behave like a diabetic was a drawback of a sugar-to-electricity battery, but it sure beat having to plug herself into the wall every night. Teagan Russo "Nah, I'll be fine," Tea said with a shrug, taking a quick swig from the water bottle he had set on the machine. Once finished, he stood back up and hit the next button. The video switched from the score screen to a sort of matrix rain of blue numbers. They rotated around for the first few notes, which were pretty slow, then zoomed in to show a little square headed robot dancing. As the robot sped up, so did the pace of the music.
Someone in the crowd yelled out, "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!" Bringing on a roar of laughter and chattering from the rest of the people. Tea had only played this song a few times, but it seemed fairly straightforward, even if it had some interestingly fast combos. Silverah Whoever had picked their songs had a sense of humor, decided Darsais as she realized what song it was. First the lemurs and now this? She didn't know what they would pull up next. Probably something irrelevant.
As it were, she was good at this song. It was one of her favorites, and she'd played it several times in the past. The combos were fun, like tap steps.
Really, she could identify with the little dancing bot on the screen, going faster and faster and faster. Except the robot on screen looked about ready to trip over its own feet, and she was going to avoid that at all costs.
When the combos slowed for a moment, she took the opportunity to do the classic arm motions that went with the song. Two could play at showing off. Teagan Russo Teagan almost fell down laughing when she busted out The Robot. Either she was making fun of him or she had a great sense of humor. Whichever one it was it was awesome. Damn, and distracting. He flicked his ears foward, increasing the volume of the music he was hearing so he could try and concentrate. The song was starting to wrap up, and slowing down as such. There was maybe one bursting series of notes left, and then after that there would be one more song. Silverah Darsais finished the last set of steps with a flourish and stomped the final beat. She thought she'd done that one nearly perfectly, but wasn't sure how well Teagan had done. She hadn't been paying attention to him. DDR was like that - she could get lost in the rhythm and movement and not even know what was going on.
Even though she didn't have to breathe, she held her breath as the scores tallied up, only to exhale with a joyful "whoop" when hers was higher than Teagan's - barely.
"You're tough competition!" she said enthusiastically, turning to him. "Do you want to play the last song, or just call it a win at two out of three?" --in progress--
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