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 Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:12 pm
"Do you think they have Street Fighter IV here?" asked Chath with his eyes lit up in anticipation while they headed into the arcade. It had been awhile since they last visited the place, seeing how Michael was usually busy with work and the like. But he had a couple days off for once so some leisure time was in order.
"Who knows? They just might," he replied with a soft grin. He wasn't sure how this arcade was doing in general, so the chance of new machines might not be too great. Arcades, in general, were a dying breed or so to speak.
But even so, they should still have a pretty good time there.
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:07 pm
Gentry couldn't decide if Cessna was small or big for her age. On one hand, yeah, she was small. Other kids who came into the arcade, kids sort of on the same level of maturity as her, were generally bigger. Not counting the oversized gossamer wings, that is. But then again, those kids were what, five, six, seven? Cessna was a few weeks old. A month ago, she was a egg small enough to hold in one hand, if a little uncomfortable due to the temperature. Now she was running and dodging between teenagers' legs and beating everyone at Air Assault.
Hence, after all, the girl's name.
She spent a lot more time out in the arcade than Gentry himself - the reclusive hacker staying behind the counter most of the time, peering at his computer screen and doing... things she could not understand, and probably wouldn't find particularly interesting. Cessna liked airplanes. Guns, too. Preferably both.
Sitting in a pool of her own camo-print pants, it took her a moment to scramble to her feet as the door opened. She looked at the newcomers curiously, all-too-obvious dragonfly wings buzzing behind her instinctively. She didn't remember these - if they had been here before, she had probably been locked under her eggshell at the time.
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:19 pm
With a rather wide grin, Chath looked around the arcade as they walked on in. The place seemed rather busy, but that was probably to be expected for a Saturday. While his guardian went to get some quarters, something green caught his eyes.
When he looked, he saw a girl standing there and looking at them with dragonfly-like wings buzzing from her back. For a few moments he stared back while tilting his head, wondering if she was an ashe like himself. It was the only thing he could think of for why she had wings like that.
"Is something up, Chath?" asked Michael while returning with a fair number of quarters. He had noticed the boy staring off in the distance, and it wasn't until he reached the kid that he saw who he was looking at. Now, about a year ago, the sight of a child with dragonfly wings would have startled him. These sorts of things didn't surprise him so much now that he had received Chath.. and had met a few other Ashe and their guardians.
The boy glanced up at his guardian, then back at the girl. Still standing in place, he tentatively waved at her, uncertain if he should run up to say hi.
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:57 pm
The boy had dark red hair, all spiked up and sort of cool-looking, she supposed. He looked like a miniature version of one or two of the characters in the fighting games - not Cessna's specialty, but not a challenge she would back down from. The shooters were more her thing, her accuracy deadly - but she was reasonably good at everything else too, given enough practice. One day, she figured, she would beat everyone at everything. One day. But for now -
"I challenge you!" She exclaimed, pointing her finger at the boy, herself like something out of a fighting game. Given the boy's hair, she figured it was sort of appropriate. But other than that personalized touch, this had become Cessna's standard greeting for anyone approximately her 'age'.
For this reason, Gentry didn't hurry in looking up at the unwitting 'challenger' until he was done tapping in whatever he was doing, running some rather cryptic-looking black-screened hacking program. When he finally did, he muttered a quiet sort of 'hi', the sort you said when you were hoping no one would actually notice, and turned back to his screen.
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:14 pm
That was rather unexpected, but Chath didn't care really. A fire seemed to light up in his eyes as he was challenged before stepping forth with a fist curled up before him.
"Alright! I accept your challenge!" he called back. He wasn't sure what he was being challenged to exactly considering the multitude of games around, but it didn't matter much to him. Getting called out randomly by a stranger his age was actually kinda cool to him... it seemed to happen quite a bit in various video games too.
Michael raised an eyebrow before chuckling at the kids, amused with what he had just witnessed. Something gave him a feeling the two would get along fairly well.
"Don't forget you're going to need these," he said, holding out some quarters for Chath. The boy quickly took them before making his way to the girl, ready for whatever game she was challenging him to.
Glancing around, Michael saw something somewhat familiar. And it wasn't something he expected to see around here, causing him to do a double take. It was hard for him to see the screen from his current vantage point, but he could have sworn he saw a program he uses fairly regularly.
As it was kinda noisy in the arcade, he made his way over towards the other man. Aside from returning the greeting, he was wanting to see if he could confirm what he had seen exactly.
"Hey," he said casually, "I take it you're her guardian?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:05 pm
"Good! I was starting to think you were going to chicken out." Cessna grinned, folding her arms over her chest - not that the boy had actually given her enough time to 'start to think' anything. In fact, he didn't seem to have any problem accepting her challenge, which was cool. But hey, she had an act to hold up here. "The rules are, we each get to pick a game. If someone wins both, they win. If we tie... well, I don't know. I haven't tied with anyone yet."
This was true - Cessna wouldn't lie, even though she hated to loose. But so far, none of her 'challengers' had been much of a challenge. She'd done that on purpose, though... she didn't want to loose, so she didn't pick on the older kids, the teenagers who hung around here next-to-obsessively. Not yet. She'd been keeping an eye on their high scores, though... and hers were inching close. Her time would come soon. "I get to pick first. Because it's my place. And I pick... that!"
After a moment of thought, she had settled on one of the light gun games - Area 51, a somewhat dated but well-restored machine, one of the guns still the original.
Behind them, Gentry looked up, unsurprisingly surprised at being approached. "Uhh... Hi. I - yeah. I am." His roostertail quivered as he turned away for a moment, responding to a prompt from the program with a few deft taps at the keyboard, then turning back to the man. "Is that one, uh, yours?" They were getting along too well to be brothers or something of the sort, he figured. His older brother hadn't ever liked him much.
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:28 am
"Hah! Like I'd ever back down from a challenge," he replied proudly before listening to the rules of this contest. Nodding to show he understood, he couldn't help but feel somewhat impressed with the fact that she's never tied with anyone so far. He had a slight feeling it wasn't because she always lost too.
Looking to where she had pointed, he saw the Area 51 machine not too far off. It was an older game and he hadn't really played it much before, but that didn't matter too much. The mechanics were pretty straightforward last he remembered so he should get the hang of things pretty quick.
"Alright, let's rock!" Chath said with a mischievous grin. He may not have the home team advantage but he was confident still.
Michael didn't respond immediately. To him, it was still odd to think that he had a kid, even with all the time that had passed since he first found the egg. It was probably because he was a little young to have a kid around the age Chath appeared to be.
"Yeah, you could say that," he said after the pause, getting another glimpse at the screen. It seemed he wasn't mistaken earlier on. Raising a brow at this, he suddenly wondered if he had happened to meet this guy online somewhere while performing less than legal actions himself. That'd be something.
Quickly, he looked around to see if anyone was nearby before speaking in a more hushed tone. "Might want to be more careful... Don't know how many people can actually recognize that program but I've been able to catch glimpses of it now and then."
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:04 am
The kids headed over to pick up the colored light guns, Cessna predictably choosing the faded red original. There was just something... special about it, knowing people had been using it for years. Sure, most of them had been losers. But some of them must have been good. Coins rattled inside the slot, sliding down their channel and into the little safe deposit box Gentry emptied every night. Well, every weekend night at least, when it filled up pretty well.
She aimed the gun as they went through the startup screen. It looked like the boy had played before - good. No fun beating someone who barely even understood the rules, after all. As the screen counted down to the start of the game, she gave the boy another glance. "I'm Cessna. What's your name?"
At the counter, Gentry allowed himself a sort of shy smile, surprised to have this man recognize his program. Sure, the arcade usually hosted some pretty tech-savy guests, but... this stuff was a little more technical. Professional-grade, really. But there was nothing to worry about, not the way this man was acting about it. "I'm not, um... doing anything. You know? I'm testing some... changes. The Russian who wrote it let me take a look at the code, and I... edited it. A little. Make it harder to track, for one. Maybe you'll like it." Another smile - this was Gentry's idea of a joke, poking fun at the stranger's paranoia.
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:43 am
Upon reaching the machine, Chath was about to reach for the red gun, but the girl had beat him to it. Oh well, he'd just have to make due with the blue one then.
"The name's Chath," he said with a grin while glancing back. Once the game began, he turned his attention back to the screen and started to try and own as many of those aliens as he could. His aim was a little off, but he thought he was doing pretty well. For one thing, he hasn't accidentally shot one of the soldiers.
At the man's response, Michael chuckled lightly. Well it seemed that the guy wasn't really doing anything too risky out in public.
"Heh, I see. Sounds pretty useful," he said with a grin, "If you get kinda stumped at some point maybe I can lend a hand."
He wasn't trying to say anything of the guy's coding skills; even the best coders ran into hitches now and then after all. It was just a friendly offer in any case.
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Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:33 pm
Cessna, of course, was pretty damn good at this game. She held the lightweight rifle in one hand, dwarfed by it's size, and shot all her aliens down smoothly. She had to wait, a few times, with the screen empty before the game remembered to create more things for her to shoot. She won - no sweat. Accuracy was her domain, and even a few weeks after her still-rather-recent birth she had it all figured out.
Peering at Chath's score, though, she still looked surprised. He was a lot better than many of the other kids she's beaten recently - good enough that she felt pretty good about beating him at one of her games. The look of surpise gave way to frustration, though, as she studied the following screen. "No high score! I only placed sixth. Look, I'm third too. I have to beat the first two..." She squared her little shoulders, then put the gun away.
"Okay - it's your turn. You get to pick a game." For the first time in a while, she felt excited. She hadn't beaten him as easily as she thought, so that meant... there was a challange, now. He'd have an advantage at a game he was good at, and she'd have to defend her title.
Gentry was still feeling a little shy - no surprise there. He tapped at a few more lines of code, then looked up again and gestured for the man to come around the counter. "Well, I sort of - yeah, there's this one bit, that, you know - " And he launched into some rather technical explanations, momentarily loosing his nervous muttering as he outlined his problem to the newfound ally. It was nice to get someone elses' opinion, for a change.
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Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:22 pm
During the game, Chath had been too busy trying to shoot down the aliens to really notice that Cessna was doing an awesome job in the game. It wasn't until the round ended that he saw her score. And quite frankly, he was pretty impressed, especially since sometime before she had made it to third place.
"Wow.." he said while blinking at the high score table. Then, shaking his head to snap out of it, he holstered the light gun while looking around the room, thinking of what he could pick.
"Alright... I pick.. Marvel vs Capcom 2!" he exclaimed as he pointed at the machine not too far away. Grinning, he glanced over at his new friend, then made his way to the fighter.
After coming around the counter, he crossed his arms as he listened, Michael nodded as he tried to think of what he might be able to suggest. It seemed like a fairly tricky problem, and it took awhile before any ideas sprung up.
"Hm... Wait, have you tried this?" he started before pointing to a section of the code and suggesting how he might be able to clear up the issue.
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Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:44 am
Cessna rather liked the sound of that 'wow'. Head held high, she followed the boy to this chosen game. It was a fun one - but not one of her best. Fighters weren't her specialty - more reaction time and button-mashing skills than her trademark accuracy. But you did get cool characters. Namely Storm. Storm was Cessna's favorite, all with the cool flying and lighting powers. Plus, she had white hair, like Cessna. So after she had fed the tokens to the machine, she found her favorite character quickly and scrolled through to pick the rest of her team.
Gentry opened his mouth to say something - something along the lines of 'i've already tried that' - before he realized that no, he hadn't. He'd tried a similar thing, but not there. He tapped the command in and ran a test, watching the screen intently. "Better this time!" He remarked, almost loosing his nervous muttering in his excitement. He looked back at the code, scouring it over. "If that worked, then..." He punched in some more lines, ran a few tests and came up successful.
"Wow - thanks." he grinned - then seemed to become shy again, fiddling with some random wiring he had on his desk. "I, uh, would have taken forever to get that on my own. Do you, um... do you do this a lot? Like, for a living?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 11:15 am
Grinning maniacally, Chath started trying to get off big chains of combos on Cessna's characters the moment the first round began. He had a tendency to gravitate towards the moves that involved flames or explosions for the most part, but he switched things up whenever he needed to.
To be honest, Michael hadn't expected it to work so fast with his suggestion, but sometimes all a code needed was a fresh pair of eyes to look it over. And it seemed that the other hacker was on a roll now that the first kink had been dealt with.
"No problem," he said with a smile, "And well... I code for a living. Stuff like this here is more of what I do on the side, after work. What about you?"
He paused for a moment, realizing that he hadn't exactly introduced himself yet.
"Oh, I'm Michael by the way. Online I usually go by Razx."
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