forum "You DO like me!" "I don't think 'like' is the right word." "You tolerate me." "Maybe." one on one

Started January 29, 2021 by @cryptic-glitch

tune

Orion scooped the tokens out of the receptacle and offered some to Lin.

Lin accepted them and put them in a cup that he'd found so that they'd be easier to carry around. "What do you want to do first?"

“Pac-man?” she suggested. “DDR?”

"I'm not sure I have the Dexterity for DDR. That's the dancing one, right? I mean, we can try if you want…"

"Oh, no. I thought you might like it. I suck dick at DDR. My sister, however, is a DDR wizard."

Lin shrugged a bit. "If you want me to try it, I will."

"Challenge accepted," she said and put a token into the machine.

Lin hesitantly stepped onto the machine and looked up at the screen. "So… what exactly am I supposed to do?"

"So you see the arrows on the board. You gotta match them up with the ones going down the screen. So when they hit that line, you have to step on the corresponding arrow. And sometimes you have to jump because it's both feet at the same time. Don't worry. It sounds difficult but its mostly just about having a decent reaction time."

"Right… I think I can do that." Lin let Orion pick the song and started, seeming to be doing pretty alright as he began.

"Alrighty then," she said, making sure her shoelaces were tied. "Here we go."

Lin kept his eyes on the screen and seemed to be keeping up surprisingly well, only missing a couple of moves in the beginning.

“You’re doing really well!” Orion said, frowning at her mediocre score.

"Thanks? I don't really know what I'm doing, honestly…" The song picked up the pace and Lin sped up to keep up.

"You're doing better than I am," she said in an encouraging tone.

"Am I?" He asked, seeming genuinely confused as he did his best to keep up with the song.

(i am so sorry i disappeared omg i had to go to inpatient therapy)
“Yeah, why would I lie?”

(Np! I hope you're doing okay <33)
"Dunno, to make me feel better about myself?"

(fhsjf thank you i appreciate that so much! i am doing much better now)
“Hm. I guess that’s just a. . . side effect of it, I suppose.”

Lin shrugged a bit and kept going. There were a few people watching them play now, but he was too focused to really notice them.

The song came to an end, and Orion knelt eagerly at the ticket dispenser, her face lighting up as the tickets fell into her hands.

Lin leaned back against the railing, panting softly as he watched Orion collect the tickets. "How did we do?" He asked tiredly.

“Good! Seventy tickets, I think.” She folded them halfheartedly and crammed them in her pocket. “What game next?”

Lin shrugged a bit. "Whatever you wanna do. I'm not particularly good at any of these, so…"

“How do you know that? You were exceptional at DDR,” she said. “Let’s do Pac-man.”