Here Comes The Fun! [Lykaios Minsi]

[Ryland Yates]

This was Ryland's first time to the Cinema and Arcade. Although he seemed to say that about every place he had been. He figured a lot of the people at the academy shifted into outside animals. But just because they loved the outdoors, didn't mean they couldn't enjoy some aspects of being inside. Like the arcade for instance. At the moment he was playing a shooting game called House of the Dead.

He didn't mind shooting zombies at all. He was afraid to go into other arcades, though. Ever since he had known about shifting, he was afraid he would find a hunting game in an arcade. It made him angry when he heard about people killing animals. They overdid it too much, though it was weird, because he understood the need for food too. Some people only did it for the furs, or the "trophy."

Ryland was picking off the zombies fairly easy, but he was on an easier level at the moment. There weren't that many. He silently congratulated himself on winning the level and moved to the next round. They seemed to have kicked it up a notch.. a decent sized notch. The zombies were appearing much faster now than they had been. Almost as if the creators didn't have much of a sense for difficulty changes. He shot at them as quick as possible and reloaded when it was necessary, or when he had enough time to. Even though sometimes he had only used four or five shots. He could see the exit, but just as he reached it a zombie popped up took the last of his health.

"Ah, great. That's what I get for letting my guard down."

He returned the gun to it's holster, staring at the Game Over sign. It still had the zombie behind the letter. The one who ended his career. But at least it wasn't laughing. Maybe zombies just didn't laugh. That totally sucked. He was so close.

[Lykaios Minsi]

Lykaios walked into the arcade with a mixture of fear. Her curiosity had brought her here, something that isn't a rare occurrence. There were so many games! Lykaios looked around at all the large machines, not sure what to do. She wasn't a big gamer, but she decided to try something new this week. Last week she had gone to the beach, this week the arcade. It was a challenge she made up for herself. Do something every week that she'd never do, or had never done before. She walked past several games, stopping occasionally to watch a gamer or two before moving on. All these games seemed like a waste of time....

Then, she saw a game that caught her eye. She wasn't exactly sure what it was, but it looked interesting enough. Lykaios walked over to it. Someone was playing the game, and it looked like he had just lost.

"Shooting zombies," she said out loud. She looked at the Game Over sign. "Looks fun, strangely enough. I was never the one to get into this video game of stuff, especially seeing that there are guns involved." She shrugged. This seemed like the perfect game to play, seeing that in a normal circumstance she would never even look at it. That was why she was here in the first place, anyways. She saw another game, just to the right of where she was standing. It was the same arcade game, except no one was playing it at the moment. She walked over to it and glanced at the blank screen that read: Insert coins. She reached down in her pocket and pulled out the necessary coins, and inserted it into the game. The arcade game made a bunch of weird sounds as it started up.

"I'll take you on," she said, glancing over at the boy. "Bet I can beat your score." Of course, that was a big lie. More then anything, she was trying to convince herself that this whole "challenge" idea wasn't a waste of time. Lykaios tossed the boy a couple of coins, not waiting to see if he would decline the challenge or not. She studied the controls briefly, her eyes narrowed. All this seemed too coordinated for her, but it was worth a try...right?

She took in a deep breath as she took hold of the controls. Time to shoot some zombies.

[Ryland Yates]

Ryland had always wondered what it would be like if zombies actually existed. Every movie he had ever seen with them in it portrayed them differently. Sometimes they were slow and deadly, sometimes slow and useless. Other times they were fast and deadly. Very rarely fast and useless. Sometimes they were really hard to kill, other times they were so useless that you could hit them with a bat and kill them easily. Those would be the kinds he would want around if zombies existed. Slow. And useless. He heard someone from behind him as he had lost the game and turned around to see who it was. She didn’t seem to be too impressed with them. He shrugged understandably.

”Well if this were a hunting game, where I was controlling a human and shooting animals, I wouldn’t be playing it either. But I don’t see any harm in killing zombies.” Zombies were deadly to both people and animals, so they were an enemy of a sort. If they had existed. Ry watched as she took the arcade game beside him; it was the exact type of zombie killing game he had just played. She challenged him to another game and inserted coins into the game. He grinned and caught the coins she tossed to him.

He was not the most competitive person in the world, but he did like the fun that came with someone trying to beat his score, whether his was good or bad. It was just interesting. He inserted the coins into his own machine and looked over at her. She was looking down at the controls. ”Have you ever played before?” He turned back to his own machine as music and sounds signaled the intro to the game, waiting for it to start. The first level was easy, there weren’t many to shoot, so he took it easy when it started it up.

Then again, he had lost on a level that wasn’t that much of a challenge, so perhaps he should be more cautious. The last time had been his first time actually playing the game. Since he had been there, he hadn’t ever visited the arcade. It was good at killing time, though. ”If you lose this time, I’d recommend playing again. The controls are easy to learn and the second time always goes better.” Maybe not always. But usually depending on the game.

TAG - Lykaios Minsi
WORDS - 401
NOTES - sayWHAT?
TUNES - devil in a midnight mass , billy talent.
OTHER TUNES – None.
CREDIT - template by MUNZTAR * of caution 2.0

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[Lykaios Minsi]

Lykaios laughed when the boy asked if she had ever played. "First timer. I've never been to the arcade before. Thought I'd try something new, you know?" She went silent, concentrating on the screen before her. The controls were hard at first, but she started to get it. Until she lost on the second level.

Lykaios restrained herself from cursing as the screen flashed "Game Over" while a zombie fumbled around in the background. It was no big deal, really. Lykaios fished around in her pocket and produced more coins and inserted them, taking the boy's advice.

She have to look over to see if the boy was still playing. Of course he was. He probably came here every day. Lykaios inserted the coins, this time not looking at the controls. She was determined to beat her score. At least make it to level four,[/] she told herself. Getting beat at level two? Not cool. Now that she was ready for revenge. Those zombies were not going to make her look like an idiot again. She'd make sure of it.

The zombies seemed to grin at her as the hobbled around the screen, and Lykaios soon found herself lost in the game. "Stupid zombies," she hissed through her teeth. Occasionally she would say a few choice words, but for the most part she was totally absorbed in the game. Until that day, she had never understood why people played games constantly. She was actually having fun doing this, something she hadn't planned on.

She gave a victorious cry as she passed on to level three. Lykaios plowed down the approaching zombies with renewed vigor. She moved on to level four, where after playing for a few minutes, was attacked.

Lykaios pulled away from the controls with a smile. She felt very satisfied with herself. "Beat my old score," she told the boy next to her. "You were right. Thanks." She didn't have any more money to play again, but that was fine with her. Lykaios felt like she had enough gaming for one day. If she did this every day, she was sure she'd become addicted. That, of course, was unhealthy.

She stepped back to let another kid play. "Do you know of any other good games around here?" she asked, even though she didn't have any money left. She'd just go back to the arcade another time, with more coins. "I'm Lykaios, by the way."