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 Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 7:16 pm
Sure, he had to take time to handle more 'important' business in the city. Reacquaint one's self, check up on Negaverse activities, visit Primase's grave...all handled! And yes, of course he'd continue to reintegrate into life here...well, while he was here, at least. This still wasn't home, but he could pretend it was when the time called for it.
Now that some of the more pressing matters were taken care of it freed up some time to take care of something else near and dear to his heart.
Topping the Guitar Hero charts at the arcade.
Yes it had been FAR too long since the name STAR had been seen at the coveted first spot on the points list. In fact, it'd been far too long since STAR had graced any of the spaces. This was something that simply couldn't be left to linger any longer.
He'd posted up in a corner of the arcade, once again before his beloved machine. One hand lovingly played down the length of the guitar before he picked it up and readied himself for battle. Oh yes, victory would be his.
Two hours later and he was still there, rocking away on every song on the setlist. Guitar Hero had a way of making him zone out and forget just how much time had passed. But why worry about it? He was singing along as he expertly played the songs. Not a single care in the world.Strickenized Let me know if I need to fix anything!
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 4:45 am
Arcade games weren't his forté, but they were a nice break from the pressure to perform perfectly and strategize his every move while random strangers on the internet watched him play. Of course, he still pressed himself to perform perfectly and strategized his every move out of habit while random strangers in the arcade watched him play, but Laike told himself it was different somehow. He even told himself it was refreshingly different.
He just needed to rest his eyes, or drink his Coke, or something.
The person who designed the place either knew that gamers were lazy at heart, or they had an eye for voyeurism, Laike noted, because there were benches scattered throughout the place and they were always in the vicinity of a cluster of game machines. The nearest one he found was on a slightly raised platform (which he slouched low on) oriented near the DDR, Rock Band and Guitar Hero machines. All together it was a horrible cacophony, but that was fine. He could text his sister and not draw attention with the noise this way.
The DDR guy held onto the bar, which always struck Laike as cheating, so he looked toward Guitar Hero instead. As he sipped his soda, he watched this blonde dude work his way down the song list without really getting anything wrong. And the arcade versions weren't the same as the console versions, so it wasn't like the guy could easily sink dozens of hours into getting each song perfect. No, this was skill. Laike liked skill.
But Laike wasn't good at talking to people, and telling a stranger that they're great at Guitar Hero sounded horribly awkward in his head, so he settled for the clearly-less-awkward idea of excitedly texting his sister about how good this stranger in the arcade was at Guitar Hero, which elicited no response from her, and altogether left him feeling his own aloneness. So he slouched a little more and continued watching the show. Maybe he'd get tired and Laike could coolly ask him for tips, or something. He could hope.
Even though that would never happen.
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:29 pm
Guitar Hero was Demy's game. It had been a huge part of his life, through school and...early years with the Negaverse. But nobody needed to know about that. Just like nobody needed to know this was the only game he ever worried about being perfect on. Not that he didn't admire that sort of dedication and skill. He did! Speedrunners in particular were something he found absolutely fascinating. When it came to his own gameplay though it was usually him just bumbling along and having a good time.
Except Guitar Hero, where he absolutely had a good time and rocked the hell out of it.
Even masters of Guitar Hero had to take a break eventually though. After thoroughly whipping the score board on Cliffs of Dover, a personal favorite, he took a step back. Time for a good stretch, a breather, and to enjoy his own soda.
Besides, taking a break was a good time to scan the arcade and see what other people were up to. The DDR guy seemed to still be going strong, and even while holding the bar that impressed Demy! For the moment he watched on from his spot, oblivious that someone had a good perch from which to watch him.
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Posted: Sat May 01, 2021 5:51 am
Look at that, another song perfected.
Look at that, another top score.
Laike squinted. STAR? Maybe super convenient initials, maybe a monicker he went by in the arcade zone. It was easy to remember; Laike could keep an eye out for it while he played other games. STAR might be into other things, like Guilty Gear or Rock Band or any one of the million Asteroids derivatives. It got him curious.
Though now that the blonde stopped, Laike felt the pressure to say something mounting. He told himself that the sweat on his palms was just the condensation from his soda. He also told himself that his sister would be mad at him for choosing not to say something, again. Sighing aloud (because no one could hear him over DDR anyway), Laike picked himself up off the bench.
As he stepped down, he felt too tall. Like, noticeably tall. But he was only 5'10", and blonde guy looked taller so why was this an issue, but the bunch of girls crowding around a game he didn't recognize looked like they were maybe 5'6" and he was definitely giant compared to that, and he sort of wished he brought a hoodie even though it was too hot out for one and it was definitely too hot inside but he could at least hide in the hood —
Okay. Enough. Whatever. Say the thing and then walk away. The guy wouldn't even remember his face. Just — one gamer to the other.
Just a drive-by, he told himself. After tossing the remains of his soda, Laike shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and strode like he was going to pass the machine. Then, as they were about to brush past each other, he muttered a "Heyyourereallygood", and tried to keep walking.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2021 3:20 pm
There weren't many other games he'd find the name. Not yet at least! Demy took few breaks from Guitar Hero, and when he did it was usually to mess with the UFO catchers and do his best to win some new trinket to take home. There was also a well-loved Joust cabinet in one of the less trafficked corners his name graced. An odd choice, perhaps, but he did love that old game.
There'd be time to get his name on some of the other games later. Right now there was something else to pay attention to. In all the blinding colors and sounds of the arcade, something else hit his ears. Yes...he was fairly positive the guy who just passed him had muttered some praise, and this was something Demy had to pay attention to. Laike may have thought he was going to get away quickly, but that simply wasn't meant to be.
"Hey, thanks!"
He quickly strolled after him, seemingly moving to walk along beside his new arcade friend. Surely that's what he'd be too! Anyone who could recognize Guitar Hero skill was already a friend in his book. Maybe he was a bit too easy to 'befriend', but that's simply how he was.
"Do you play too? Maybe we could play a round together? That'd be pretty great, haven't had a chance to play with someone in a while. Hell I'll cover the credit cost if you want to play! What do you say?"
Surely offering that would be further incentive! Right? The taller blonde was grinning at his new companion, eagerly awaiting his response.Strickenized He can cure shyness! Or make it worse, one or the other.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 6:13 pm
"UmmmmmIamprettysureIhaveburningcatsinmykitchenorsomethingandIshouldreallyseetothatyeah…" Laike's pace slowed with the volume of his voice until he was essentially standing still, and the only indication that he was speaking laid with the bob of his prominent Adam's apple. That STAR heard him and decided to strike up a conversation terrified him was strange, and left Laike in a lurch where he wasn't sure how to respond.
There wasn't time to think it over, either. Laike knew he would rather quietly watch the guy play, or go home and take a nap. Having a conversation exhausted him. Free gaming was seductive to his gaming tendencies, but he hadn't played Guitar Hero in like, fifty million years, and hung out with too many white kids to have any rhythm left of his own.
Laike opened his mouth to speak. All he had to say was no, maybe make up an excuse that sounded sorta convincing (lemurs ate my sister came to mind, but it was a mouthful and didn't sound very convincing), and he was prepared to do exactly that, but when he put voice to words, the sound that came out was "okay".
Cuz, well, going along with it sounded like way less work than the guy trying to talk him out of saying no. Or something. Whatever, it was a kneejerk answer.
"I just uh, haven't played since like. The cretaceous period. So I'm uh. Not good."
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 3:47 pm
Oh he definitely would have tried to talk the other boy into the game if he had tried to refuse. Who would turn down a free game of Guitar Hero?? It was pure INSANITY to even think of such a scenario!
Which is exactly why he didn't even have to think about it. A quiet word of 'okay' was all he needed before Demy was immediately herding the other towards the machine. Of COURSE the other would be into this! The blonde was practically bursting with excitement as he got Laike over to the cabinet.
"Name's Demy, and don't worry about it at all! I play...a lot...but it's not how good you are at it that matters. You just gotta have fun, ya know? That's all that really matters in the end. Just enjoy the game, and the company."
He grinned, and moved to take care of the credit input. It'd give Laike a moment to get situtated at least.
"You can pick the songs too, I don't mind at all. Just glad to have someone playing with me!"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 5:01 pm
Demy, huh? STAR wasn't his initials, then; maybe it was a moniker or something. Or initials for a gamer handle? It'd be easier to ask, Laike knew, but that definitely wasn't in the cards right now.
Right now, he was being half-dragged, half-corralled toward the machine. And it left him a little more nervous, which pushed him a little closer to cresting that anxious hill into the land of apathy, and Laike was kind of okay with that. At least he knew that Demy didn't like, actually not want him around but was playing some kind of awful social game where Laike would wind up the butt of some joke. Or at least, he hoped not, but the blonde seemed pretty genuine.
"Um, I'm sure it'll be fun." He wouldn't have to look at Demy (though he stole some glances every now and again, whatever he could afford), just the screen, and that helped.
Eventually he would blend back into the arcade's landscape, be it by tuning out the world or fitting in with it.
Laike joined him at the ostentatious machine and took up Player 2's guitar from the steel pegs. Long, thin fingers wrapped around the frets and found their homes among the buttons. They were worn and smooth, and Laike always liked their texture.
Brushing his hair out of his face, he asked, "can you pick the first couple? I don't know which ones are good for warm-ups…
"Oh, right, ah, and I'm Laike, by the way. Or well, that's my nickname, I guess, but everyone calls me that anyway." Smooth, he told himself, as he covered his flush with his hands.
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Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 11:49 am
A shame Laike didn't want to ask, Demy would have happily answered any question! That said, he was quite content to just ramble on his own and fill the conversation for both of them if Laike didn't want to talk too much. He was also ecstatic to have the other to play games with. Not rude, tricky sorts of games. Arcade games, of course!
"Well alright Laike, I can pick something to get us started!"
He got his own guitar situated once again, fingers giving the keys an experimental tap before moving to select something. Hrm...he played all over the board, though usually favored the songs further in the setlist. Those wouldn't be good for a warmup though, especially not for someone who hadn't played the game since dinosaur times apparently.
"How about a warmup in the first set of songs? Jukebox Hero should be an alright start, and then we can go from there!"
With a few more taps of the buttons the song was selected, and they were off!
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2021 2:07 pm
In the song's beginning, Laike fumbled with remembering which color was where on the fretboard. Thinking on it, he must've been in middle school when he last played Guitar Hero (back when he had friends or something), though it came back quickly enough. He wasn't looking to challenge STAR's score, of course; he was, however, happy with how quickly he recovered his rhythm and relearned how to play the game.
"I think I've got it." He nodded, still looking at the screen. Laike felt like he reached a point where he could trance out and let his fingers do the work.
It was an alright song, too — one he recognized, but couldn't place what the song was or who sang it. But a lot of the songs on this list would be that way; he didn't usually listen to the classics like, ever. And what he did listen to? Well, that wasn't turning up on a Guitar Hero game anytime soon. Or DDR either, he supposed. Maybe not Rock Band. Probably just japanese karaoke bars.
"Okay, um…" Laike chewed his lower lip as he keyed through the selections. He wasn't much paying attention to tiers; if he bombed, he'd get over it. Mainly he just wanted to see Demy fly through something.
"Wanna do this next?" His browsing settled on Monsters by Matchbook Romance. It wasn't the hardest tier, but it was up there.Demy-Stardust sorry had to google some stuff about guitar hero >>;
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 6:52 pm
Ah, those early fumbles! It always took a bit of time to get warmed back up, especially with such a long period of time in between plays of the game. Demy might have been an expert, but it hadn't made him completely egotistical with the game. When playing alone he pushed himself to be perfect and take those high scores. But the second someone picked up that guitar beside him? Well, then it was all fun! It was such a treat to have a companion on the cabinet today.
"Yeah, looks like you were really picking it up there around the middle of the song. That's great! It's like riding a bike, you just find the rhythm again and off you go."
He waited patiently as Laike made a song selection, honestly so thrilled the other boy was doing so. Seemed he was warming up not only in game, but perhaps to this whole situation in general? Maybe? Demy could hope so at least.
"Uh hell yeah I'm down for that one, let her rip!"
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Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 4:29 am
Laike started the song before his shyness could say something about it. And while it was significantly harder, with more multitasking elements involved, Laike felt pretty good about it. He made it to the leaderboards, even if it wasn't one of the top three, and that felt nice — he still had it to be good at something quickly.
STAR — Demy — fared even better. Laike straightened up a little, pressed his knuckles into the small of his back while the guitar hung off a bony shoulder.
"Do you ever uh… Watch LPs?" Laike looked over at Demy's screen. "There's this one vtuber I watch that does Guitar Hero sometimes. Like, enough playlist to last a week, or something. I'm pretty sure you're at his level." Which was, more or less, the god level. The 'I wrote this game and I'm the best at it' level. Or whatever's higher than that. And maybe that was exaggerated, but Demy was good, the vtuber was good, and it'd be pretty cool to see them face off.
Cocking his head, Laike blew some stray bangs out of his face and looked toward his new friend. Not at him, but just past his ear, toward one of the other machines. "You could start a channel too, if you don't already have one."
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2021 3:20 pm
Well.
s**t.
This was...difficult. It was in his nature to want to brag about his accomplishments. He absolutely watched LPs! He also had a channel where he played all sorts of games! Including Guitar Hero, when he could get past DMCA strikes.
But that channel was under his vtuber persona, one crafted to protect his identity when he had fled this town. Sure he was back now, but things were still....strained? No, not quite strained...things weren't settled though. Demy wasn't quite ready to dropthe protections that had been in place for nearly a decade at this point. Maybe someday. Hopefully someday. But not quite this day.
"Hell yeah I watch LPs! Not sure I've seen this vtuber though, I haven't seen a lot of Guitar Hero ones. Maybe I should check em out, huh? As far as running my own channel I don't really think it's for me... It's so cool but I just don't think I have the attention span to keep something like that running. Much prefer just random trips like this to get some game time in."
...This was killing him, he was sure of it. The urge to bust out and talk about Midi was overwhelming, but he managed to push it back and just smile at his new friend.
"How about you? You got your own channel?"
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Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 7:18 am
Demy's answer made sense; what would he really do with watching another tuber do Guitar Hero, anyway? Maybe he wasn't interested in scoping strats or whatever, and some games are more fun for other people to play than to watch (he knew he was strange), and Laike was sure Guitar Hero was one of them.
The attention span thing was sad, though. Laike thought Demy could really get somewhere if he picked up streaming and stuck with it, but if he only streamed for a half hour at a time and at sporadic intervals, then he could write that Twitch account off as dead. "I hope you change your mind." It was as close as Laike could get to convincing a basically-stranger otherwise (in the name of hype).
He could settle for this, though looking down at the controller, he felt a little too spoiled being the only one to watch him. But, looking around, no one else was lining up to play or looking in their direction. It was comforting, but not.
"I do," he answered belatedly as he returned to their present circumstance. "Mostly it's single player games, and hard stuff that people recommend, and a lot of Dark Souls." Not really anything in common with Guitar Hero, but Demy was allowed to like different stuff, just like he was.
"It's not that big," he finished, ducking his head in the way of pleasedon'taskmefortheurlimadeitwheniwasakid.
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Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 6:31 pm
Oh this was killing him...
"Yeah maybe I'll play around with the idea of a channel or something sometime.
Likely won't ever get big but...still could be fun to have some videos up."
It was absolutely killing him.
"But hey, I like playing all sorts of games myself. Not normally too hard of stuff, but that's because I get frustrated...means I really enjoy watching others play all those difficult games."
There was perhaps a brief moment where Laike could enjoy the thought of being off the hook. The briefest of moments before Demy was piping up again.
"What's your channel? I'd really like to check it out sometime!"
Perhaps he was oblivious to the other's nerves. Perhaps he was just trying to be interested and help him out of his shell. Whatever the reason, if he got that URL he was absolutely going to follow it.
With his MIDI account.
...That was fine right? It wasn't like he blatantly spilled the beans or anything. Laike would have to put two and two together from that point.
But they'd be in the comfort of their own homes, and not standing here together at the Guitar Hero machine.
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