Shoot 'em up, bang bang! [Tal/Rina!]

[Rhi-Rhi]

Well. This sucked.

Wings ruffling in irritation, Kestrel scanned his wrist and took up the fake, plastic gun as he waited for the arcade game to load. He couldn't believe Sean sometimes! One second, they're playing air hockey. The next, some girl is breathing all down his neck and complimenting his skill or some shit, and then he ditched him. Just up and left, and not just for some quickie in the bathroom, either. He was gone.

And this was supposed to be their hang out day! With their conflicting work schedules, it made hanging out harder and harder. But apparently some random chick made him even harder. Hardy-fucking-har.

Aiming his gun at the zombies on the screen, Kestrel pulled the trigger and started blasting away at them.

Well, at least he'd gotten ditched in an arcade. There were worse places.

At least here he could wind down by slaughtering polygons.

[Tally]

This was a good day to be in the arcade.  Tons of people here to get lost in, didn't have to worry about standing out or running into anybody he knew.  There was some guy playing with the guns.

Darren hovered around the middle.  All the good games were taken right now.  He didn't want to leave though, even though he flet restless and jaded.  He instead wandered over to the guy with the gun.

"You gonna be much longer with that?"

[Anonymous]

It had been a long week at work and she wanted to blow some steam off! Zoe was dressed in a baggy, off the shoulder sweater, warm and comfortable, belted over a pair of shorts that could better be described as denim underwear than shorts and knee high heeled boots, with her long red hair half pulled up, the rest curling down her back. So what if she was just going to an arcade, no sense in not looking hot.

Striding into the arcade, Zoe swore. Her favorite game was in use! By two guys. One who had wings, which was kinda hot, and a cute little geeky one. Adorable! Well, two birds one stone! Walking over, Zoe wrapped an arm around each of them, "Hey there sexies. What do you say to sharing the game with me? Pretty please?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Huh? Oh." Kestrel glanced quickly over at the new guy then back to his screen so he didn't get his face ripped off by a zombie. Pulling the trigger, animated blood sprayed across the screen as he hit the monster point blank in the head, racking up more points. He nodded toward another gun that was still holstered. "It's co-op, man, or versus. Join in!"

He was aiming for another zombie when someone slung an arm around his shoulder. He gave a surprised grunt, missed his target, and was about to ask just what the hell was that when he realized--oh. It was a girl.

A really, really hot girl.

The zombies were ravaging his character on-screen, but he suddenly didn't care. Game Over! dripped in bloody letters, but so what, so he'd lost. There was a chick here calling him sexy. Blinking in surprise, realizing his mouth was sort of hanging open, he found his voice again. "Game...? Oh! Yeah! Here!"

He pushed the gun into her hands and, as the title screen popped up, he swiped his chip to pay for her turn. "All yers, go for it."

[Anonymous]

"Thanks!" Zoe flashed the winged one a bright smile. Well, that was one hell of an ego boost. Nice to know she hadn't lost any of her charm! Taking the gun, she turned her attention to the other one, "You wanna join me?"

Zoe had assumed the two boys knew each other and were taking turns on the game. Plus, he looked rather nerdy, and while she was decent with the game, she wasn't great enough to go farther than a few levels. Maybe he could help her go deeper.

[Tally]

Ah hell he hated playing with strangers.  Hated getting stuck with someone incompetent, someone who would just drag him down or worse.  Some of the people you ran into were decent, but most were amateur hour.

If he passed he'd have to wait out a whole session, though, and his annoyance warred with his impatience.

"Yeah," he said, grabbing up the extra gun.  If she sucked, he could always go find something else to do.  "I'm in.  Let's do this."

He chose the co-op mode.  Even worse than getting stuck working with a newbie was playing PVP against a crazy loser.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"No prob!" Kestrel said and, pressing his luck, he came up behind her and helped her position her gun and aim at the screen. "Ever played this before? It's sorta tricky at first, but once ya get the hang of it, it's cake. Oh yeah, and ya can throw grenades 'n' shit if ya hit this button here."

If the other dude was gonna get to play with her, well, hell, he could still flirt a little. It was really just an excuse to get close.

[Anonymous]

Well, the dark haired one seemed ready to go. Awesome! Zoe was about to make some comment when the winged one with the facial tattoos came up behind her. Well well! He was an aggressive one. Not one to pass up on flirting, Zoe didn't push him away, though she did quirk up her eyebrow, eyes on the screen, "Well lover, this may surprise you, but I have actually played this game before."

[Tally]

Darren rolled his eyes.  That one guy was all over this chick, being all flirty.  He better keep his hands to himself when the shooting started.  It would just distract her and he didn't want to lose just because some dude was all up on his teammate.

Hey at least she'd played before.  That counted for something.  Not much, but something.  "Anytime you're ready," he said, with a look to both of them.  Better that they got it out of their system now he supposed.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Oh? Ya have? Well, uh..." Whoops. Guess that's what he got for assuming a hot, chic babe didn't know much about geeky, violent video games.

The other guy spoke up and broke some of the awkwardness. As in, at least he didn't really have to think of some clever excuse or smooth line to save the situation, because she really should focus on the game. Good thing, too, because he wasn't so good at thinking up clever one-liners on the fly; his were all preplanned and situation specific.

Kestrel let go of the gun but stuck close to her and watched the screen. "Cool, then I'll jus', uh, be here, bein' morale support," he said with a grin.

[Anonymous]

"Sorry love." Zoe flashed the one with glasses a bright smile before putting her game face on and focusing on the zombies. Her problem had always been she tried to aim too much. As soon there were too many on the screen, she got overwhelmed.

But for now, it wasn't too bad. Taking some sweet headshots, Zoe racked up some points, "So what are your names huh? I'm Zoe. Might as well get a little friendly while we play, right?"

[Tally]

"Darren," he said mechanically, focused now in the sweet spot where vision met reflexes perfectly.  He loved this game.  It was an easy one and an old favorite of his.  Though he was more used to playing it solo.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Kestrel," he introduced, behaving himself for now since he didn't want to interrupt anyone. Zoe seemed pretty happy to talk, but Darren seemed super serious about this, which was pretty amusing. Kestrel wasn't much of a serious gamer; he was a social gamer more than anything and getting all the secret items and highest score had never mattered much to him.

"You guys're kickin' some serious zombie ass!"

[Anonymous]

"Oooh. Nice names. Darren and Kestrel-Fuck! Fuck!" Zoe swore, zombies bursting out and overwhelming her. She fired quickly as she could, struggling to resist her urge to aim, "Balls! I hate when they swarm! Ack!"

[Tally]

"Don't panic, don't panic!"  Darren leaped his character back and shot at the zombies surrounding her.  No friendly fire in this game so he could go wild and mow them down with a spray of bullets without having to worry about hurting her at all.  He preferred otherwise—more of a challenge that way—but there was something to be said for being able to rain lead through a zombie horde unrestrained.

[Anonymous]

Zoe squealed as the hoard closed in, backing up slightly into Kestral as Darren sprayed down the zombies. She took a few bites, but once the bullets died down, she wasn't too badly off, "Ohmygod. That was intense. I was so not prepared for that! Thanks! I just walked by the door and it was bam! Zombie orgy all up in this place!"

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Whoa!" Kestrel laughed and reached out to steady Zoe, though it was really just an excuse to touch her. "Man, first time that ever happened to me, freaked my shit right out. I think I died." He shuddered. "Fucking zombies. Hate 'em. Think that's why I like killin' 'em so much."

[Anonymous]

"They don't scare me as bad as some other ones. Those Quiet Hill games scare me shitless. Demons and monsters and stuff like that scare me way worse than zombies." Zoe hadn't really moved away from Kestral, enjoying the light flirting that was going on. Though Darren was adorable as well.

She gave Darren a quick grin, taking aim and blasting the head off a creature crawling across the ceiling, "Thanks for the save."

[Tally]

"Mm hm."  He caught the chick—couldn't remember her name if she'd given it—smiling at him and he snapped his eyes away in a hurry, not really able to maintain eye contact with another person.  He shot at some more zombies in the game.

[Anonymous]

Zoe caught the awkward look and it totally melted her. He was just so cute and adorkable. There was just something about socially awkward men that just got to her. Both of the guys were her type, just in different ways.

She then squealed and rapid fired at a zombie, "ShitBALLS! Where did he come from? I've never actually gotten this far before."