dates usually involved only two people

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe felt Devyn squeezing her hand, though it wasn't as if she had a decoder ring for whatever secret code it was that her girlfriend had decided to use tonight. Instead, Zoe was more focused on what Devyn was saying, smiling shyly at the mention of their being stuck in a big white room. Something told Zoe that Devyn wouldn't want to be in any place for too long. The only time she could recall seeing her girlfriend sit or lay still was after... well, vigorous activities. No, if they were stuck somewhere, Devyn would find a way out. That was just how Devyn worked.

Thankfully, the arcade played right into that. They were already moving across the noisy complex, Zoe hurrying to keep up with Devyn, who was clearly excited. That excitement continued to feed Zoe's own nervous energy, reminding her that she had, in fact, done quite well with the selection of their date location. That knowledge gave her a secret smile that she kept mostly to herself, along with various other joyous and warm feelings. Zoe still nodded as she heard Devyn's explanation, something about teams and picking music.

"You mean something that sounds like a toaster and a trash compacter decided to make love to one another?" replied Zoe, pushing the boundary of her ability to be cheeky. She soon flushed and then went up to plug tokens into the machine. A loud announcer expressed far too much excitement at their being there. Zoe worked the menu as best she could, semi-awkwardly lurching about the pad, working through menus. They could work together in a team for "Team Score!" So that much was easy. It looked like Devyn could even set her own difficulty if she wanted. Zoe had to set something fairly easy for herself, but first she needed a song. Eventually she located something that sounded fairly peppy, though the screen did show what appeared to be dancing Japanese bears or something. Zoe shuffled nervously as she worked into position, not quite able to shake the feeling that she was about to embarrass herself thoroughly.

[Devyn Solway]

Yes, Zoe was right about the whole Devyn finding a way out of such a situation; it was indeed who Devyn was. Even if it was just Zoe trapped in that room and Devyn found out about it. She would do everything in her power to get Zoe out of it. Just the idea of being trapped or tied down anywhere was just no fun. Again a bit of her past started to trickle in her mind but it quickly pushed itself out of her head with the thoughts of games and playing them with Zoe. This was going to be fun, even if they didn't do to good job at it or whatever happened. Devyn was more concerned if Zoe would end up falling or not and just had herself automatically ready just in case. She would make sure to catch Zoe no matter what, even if it meant her arm being pulled out of its socket. She would deal with it like a champ.

Zoe's words were perfect and Devyn made a mental note to remember them to twist around and use for her own benefit later. She faked being wounded by such words and gave Zoe a puppy dog look. "Ouch, coming at my music again. It’s fragile ZoZo." Devyn said with a small whimper and then chuckled. "Can I be the trash compacter and you would be the toaster?" Devyn asked as a sly smirk took over her face, but she didn't do anything past saying such words. Zoe put the tokens in the machine and Devyn was already on it, practicing her different hopes and combinations that would pop up in songs to get into it. Hug smile already on her face. Watching Zoe figure out all the navigation and setting herself up on heavy, because she figured it would be alright to go sort of hard for one song at least. Yet she didn't want to seat too much so this would be the only song she would do such a setting on. They did have to go through three songs after all.

Zoe picking the first, one that Devyn did sort of recognize but she was not really sure. It didn't matter either way as she bounced on her feet. Ready. "I'll pick the next song then, and you can pick the last." Devyn said as the music started to kick on, grabbing her attention and Devyn ready. Arrows starting to slide up the screen with more notes and a little faster on Devyn's side, but she was ready.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Again with the ZoZo, which had Zoe giving Devyn another confused look. Was that supposed to be some kind of pet name? It sounded almost like something you called a dog as opposed to a girlfriend, though of course Zoe wasn't going to say as much to her girlfriend. She also wasn't sure what to make of the comment regarding trash compactors and toasters, but figured that it was probably meant to be some kind of comment. It had her smiling and lowering her eyes again. it was when the machine talked again that she looked up, nearly jumping.

Pick the next song? Zoe was tempted to admit that she wasn't entirely positive that she'd be able to get through this song, let alone another, but she just smiled and nodded. The machine started, and Zoe looked up. She could see the barrage hitting Devyn's side and didn't know how to even process that. Fortunately, Zoe had decidedly less to deal with. She soon started moving, trying to catch the beat. The song proved to be ruthlessly cheerful, practically raining sunshine and gumdrops and the like. Zoe hurried to dance as best she could.

In fact, Zoe fared... decently. She hit the arrows more often than not by quite a number, though mostly getting goods. The announcer mostly wasted his time shouting at Devyn though, probably because of the difficulty. Zoe couldn't really waste much time looking over at her girlfriend, since it took all she had to simply keep going and keep up. The song hit a fast part though, and Zoe couldn't help but groan a little as she struggled to keep up.

[Devyn Solway]

Confused look once more at Devyn using that nickname, Devyn removed it from the list for sure now. Well that was a bust. Maybe she should not have given Zoe a nickname or a pet name like she did others. Yet pet names where how Devyn showed she cared and gave her sort of verbal affection. Sure she could go the whole route of calling Zoe love like Devyn heard a lot of European people call others as a sign of endearment. Yet the word love was risky, so no love bug or anything with the word love in it. So what other names could she call her? Sweaty? Soft? Or was she safer just going the whole possessive route and calling Zoe hers and saying 'my Zoe'. Devyn honestly didn't know and now it was in the back of her mind. Not clogging all her thoughts but it was something she was either going to have to bring up to ask Zoe about or just keep testing things and see what would happen.

Devyn's main thought were focused however on the machine, making sure to hit every arrow that she could. Doing actually pretty good having played the machine before and having quick enough reflexes to know which foot went where. She was even able to glance over at Zoe and see that Zoe was doing really well herself. She made a mental note to praise Zoe at the end of the song. Maybe give her a head scratch or just words of praise to her girlfriend for pulling it off. The sound was a bit too happy for Devyn’s taste however. She would not have been surprised if the Nyan cat just ran across the screen leaving its stupid trail of rainbows. Arg! Now it in my head! Devyn had a small inner rage as the Nyan Cat song entered her head, not helped by the fact that the song hit a fast part and she was starting to miss here and there, getting scolded by the machine for breaking her combo. She still managed to keep her bar from going past the halfway mark and pull it back up enough

"Man, I was not ready for that." Devyn's words came out a little bit breathy as she tried to speak while doing the dance moves. Not a good idea. She coughed a bit, but still managed to get through the song and pull it up into the whole make the bar go all rainbow, but missed that last note. Every. Time. Devyn thought to herself, knowing the last notes were like the Bane of her existence. She always missed the last note; like always, and it killed her attempts to ever get a fill perfect on a song. Even on an easy level.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Dancing definitely invigorated Zoe, though she wasn't sure she was doing that great of a job. They only had one score shared between them, but Devyn no doubt contributed far, far more to that number than Zoe. Still, she managed to keep going, stopping herself from at least failing out. She did lose her step when Devyn made her misstep though, mostly because the game felt it necessary to let out a loud noise of disappointment when that happened. It made Zoe yelp and miss a few notes, though she hurriedly moved to salvage it. She didn't do nearly as well as Devyn there, but she at least recovered decently enough.

The round ended with Zoe panting and leaning on the bar while it tallied their score. They fared well enough to get a "B" which seemed fitting enough to Zoe. It at least meant that they did alright enough to get to do another song, though they did have tokens left, so they could've continued regardless. Zoe worked at her side and looked over to Devyn, who looked at least as worked up as Zoe herself. Zoe smiled at her girlfriend, nodding.

"That was certainly something,' she said, taking a deep breath, "and now it's your turn, right? I don't suppose it can get much faster than that though... right?" she hoped not, though she could probably move a bit quicker. She felt warmer than she really wanted: dressing so that you covered everything generally wasn't a great strategy when you planned on vigorous exercise as well. Zoe pushed it out of her mind, focusing on her enjoyment and the screen in front of her.

[Devyn Solway]

Shared score also meant that if one of them outright failed, then the game would end for the both of them. Not that it was a concern since Zoe managed well enough and Devyn was able to recover so failing the song was not really possible. The yelp did distract Devyn for a moment, worried Zoe was falling or something, but her girlfriend was alright. Once the song ended, Devyn was leaning back on her bar as well, working on catching her breath and pushing her hair out of her face. The curse of it being long and how she wore it, it often blocked her eyes or got in them. Plus sometimes it would curl and she was not a fan of the whole curling, but she did with it. Zoe was panting as well and it made Devyn chuckle a little as she leaned over to give Zoe's should a quick kiss. "You did really well." Devyn said with a warm smile, looking at the screen and seeing Zoe's B to her own A. She wanted a double or triple A, but she did miss so getting just an A made sense.

"Indeed and oh I'm pretty sure there is even faster song on here, but if it’s alright with you I like to avoid it." Devyn said as she gave a small chuckle, still leaning back on the bar and now wondering if they should even try to get through all three rounds. Each turn required coins so it was not as if they had to stay or risk leaving the game running and screaming at misses and fails since no one would be playing it. One more song could not hurt. Devyn thought to herself as she moved to stand up fully and give a stretch. "You alright with me picking a slow song and this being our last round? I don't want us to be a sweaty mess unless you plan on..." Devyn stopped herself from going there. Biting her lip and then looking away as she cleared her throat. Waiting for Zoe to put the coins in so she could select a slower song and put her level down to basic.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"I did okay," argued Zoe, looking down at her feet. That was pretty well the definition of a "B" grade, and they both knew it. Zoe supposed that doing "okay" at a game you didn't practice that often and hadn't dressed to play was probably good overall though, but she had quite a time convincing herself of it. Easier to shuffle her feet and feel that she'd failed on some level instead.

Even faster song? Zoe looked up at that, her eyes widening a bit. Devyn had barely finished saying as much when she admitted that she didn't plan on doing it, which had Zoe sighing with relief, quite audibly and visibly. She'd done okay with this, but she didn't think she'd enjoy going faster. Part of her wondered if she'd get as much enjoyment out of just watching Devyn play the game. No, no, she quickly dismissed that thought. Better to enjoy this with her, get sweaty together and stuff.

Zoe nodded; she was fine with both of what Devyn said, and the mention of getting sweaty had her raising her hand. "I'm fine,' she said, not wanting Devyn to think she was anything else, 'and I'm having quite a lot of fun," which had the benefit of being 100% true. She even offered a smile before looking back at the machine. "Um, it's ready for us," she said, pointing and nodding, "it's waiting for you to pick..."

Was Devyn expecting to have to feed more tokens? Zoe didn't think they needed more; it didn't say so; it just said to pick another song and move along, didn't it? She looked at the machine, more than a little confused now.

[Devyn Solway]

"More than okay, considering how you are dressed. Not really in speed dancing and breathable clothing." Devyn pointed out, knowing that if she was wearing what Zoe was and did the song just now at the level she just did it, she would be sweaty, need a drink, possibly ripped something she was wearing, and maybe even fainted from just being too hot. Of course Devyn would have gotten rid of some layers if she really needed to, but Zoe could not do that. Nor did Devyn actually see her girlfriend doing such a thing in the public eye, with her power, and that watcher of theirs. Devyn just wished that she could do a better job at getting Zoe to have more confidence in herself outside of photography and being cute. She still liked Zoe the way she was; a lot, but she still wanted to like leave Zoe with a good strong standing and appreciation of herself. Leave...

Devyn smirked a little at seeing how Zoe was so relieved to hear that Devyn was not going to pick a faster song. She was not that cruel. Not to Zoe. Not when they were both having a good time and Devyn was trying to keep it that way after her little mess up. A hand raised and Zoe informed Devyn that she was fine. Well that was good and all, but that didn't just wipe Devyn's concerns for Zoe away. She understood what Zoe was wearing and how hot arcades ended up being the more people where in them. Or they would end up really cold because the staff could crank the AC up really high to keep the machines cool. Devyn smiled even more, rubbing at her face because sometimes she felt weird if she smiled for too long when she was not actually flirting. "I am too...a lot of fun." Devyn pointed out and then rubbed the back of her head at Zoe pointing out the machine was waiting on her to pick.

"Oh right, I forget that some machines are different. Some ask for fewer tokens in order to take more lately, while other make you give the set amount for the whole game." Devyn said in a slightly embarrassed manner as she went through the song list, picking the slowest one she could find, and dropping down to one of the lower playing levels. The machine went into action as the song starts up, giving them both enough time to get into position before the arrows started to slide up the screen. Devyn already moving to hit them, aiming for a perfect this time.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Yes, Zoe had certainly not dressed for such... active activities. She wasn't even certain that she had much in the way of clothing that would've worked for something like this. It really didn't matter: she looked cute, and that was just as important on a date. Besides, it seemed like Devyn was willing to take pity on her girlfriend. Zoe almost sighed with relief when Devyn worked through the menu, selecting a song on the lower end of the tempo spectrum. Devyn had also confessed to having a lot of fun, which had be the whole point of things. Zoe just wished that Devyn could understand that they could do this, have fun with one another, be one another, and still be girlfriends instead of fighting to rewrite the terms of their relationship.

The song kicked into being, and Zoe almost missed the start, even with the forewarning and hearing Devyn move into place. Zoe wanted to lower her eyes or shift nervously or something, but she couldn't really do any of that, not while preparing to actually dance and such. She moved along to the beat, again letting the music carry her. The slower tempo helped Zoe immensely, especially since she'd just "warmed up" on the previous song. she continued her trend of not really missing any notes, but this time there were a few "awesome" exclamations mixed in with her good and great. She even got a perfect here and there.

Not enough to unlock some strange "freestyle mode" which was what the screen yelled at Devyn. The screen on Zoe's end kept supplying notes, but apparently Devyn did well enough to just sort of hop around a little. Zoe turned to watch, and was slightly surprised to see that her guardian had sneaked in and now stood by the counter, watching them like an impatient mother watched her children. The machine let out a warble, bemoaning Zoe's lack of movement, and she turned back, hurriedly catching up, not wanting to have the game end early or throw off Devyn's groove.

[Devyn Solway]

Zoe always looked cute, and that was not just because Devyn was going out with her or well the other things that Devyn wanted from Zoe that she was currently surprising. Zoe always looked really nice, took good care of herself, and had that certain style about her. Devyn would never dress like Zoe did, for many reasons obviously. Still, Zoe had a look, it worked for her and Devyn never found herself tired of looking at Zoe. At the moment she could not since she was busy playing a game, but later she could take the time to enjoy the view. Devyn would not argue that they could not have fun; she liked having fun...a lot. It was just complicated for you when you didn't want to love, yet you were thinking you were heading in that direction. Then on top of that knowing someone was in love with you and feeling that you were just so wrong for them. Not even just a feeling, like without a shadow of a doubt you knew you were not the best person for them to be going out with, but yet Zoe was...well Zoe.

Devyn was hitting perfects, it was on an easier level and a slower song so there should have been no reason for her to miss anything. She was getting awesome, had that little rainbow going on and even did well enough to do a little freestyle. Devyn took complete advantage of such an opportunity and was doing all kinds of foot work and even turning around. She could not go too crazy since the song was a bit too slow for her to fully get into it, but she had fun either way. Devyn didn't even notice the guardian was back closer now as she was busy making sure to still hit every note. She was going to hit that last one. She was determined to. Her green eyes locked on the screen and the arrows as her body moved to be ready for it. She got distracted for a moment at hearing the machine give Zoe a warning for missing arrows, but was not too concerned as she heard Zoe start to move again.

This was it. She was going to do it. The last arrows where hers. She was over nine thousand percent sure that she had hit the notes as soon as they were at the right spot. Yet those evil, evil words appeared. Miss. Devyn could not help the slew of two or three curse words that left her mouth as she through her hands up. "I'm cursed! Never to get a full out perfect!" Devyn groaned and she turned to lean heavily on the bar. If she was the crying type, she might have even had a quick sob but since she was not it was more of a deep sigh and mutter under her breath about how life was so cruel and how she had gotten a ninety-nine percent now.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe managed to finish her last note, noticing that Devyn was leaning on the bar and bemoaning her fate. Zoe looked at the scores at they tallied, and considering that Devyn's was looking to be something involving more than one A (to Zoe's newly risen "B+"), she didn't quite see what the trouble was about. "Is something the matter?" she asked. Zoe definitely didn't want to point out that their little watcher stood behind them.

Not least of all because Zoe was "glistening" and feeling a little worn for the time being. She too leaned against her bar, wishing that she was in better condition. Maybe she should try working out or taking walks or something like that? Then again, she already did that. This was probably just different; Zoe just shook it off, smiling.

"It looks like we did good again," she said, nodding toward the screen. They weren't exactly the highest scorers ever, but they'd done better this time around. Surely that should be enough to lift Devyn's mood, if only a little, right?

[Devyn Solway]

"The fact that I can’t ever hit the last note on a song and get a perfect is what is the matter." Devyn mumbled into her arm as she remained on the bar. Why was life so cruel? She was sure she had hit it; she felt it, saw it. Yet the screen had said miss and sure enough it had to say that she had missed a note. The machine had to be rigged to make sure that Devyn never hit the last note. All the dance machines in every arcade had to be set just too like know when Devyn would be on the machine and to make sure that she never got the last note. It had to be a cure. A Solway curse. She remembered that her dad never hit the last note either. Had to be in the genes or something. Had to be. Alright, yeah she knew that it could not have honestly been that but she could still think that it was possible.

Zoe's words brought Devyn out of her small moment of despair as she glanced over at the screen and saw that she had gotten an A and Zoe had improved to a B+. Who cared if Devyn didn't get that last not? She did, but they were about having fun still and that was all that mattered. Devyn smiled a little as she took a deep breath and moved to be a little closer to Zoe. Reaching out to take her girlfriends hand. "That we did. You did better I see. Told you that you were a fast learner." Devyn pointed out, moving to lean in and give Zoe a quick kiss but caught the guardian out of the corner of her eye and started to growl. Was their time up now? Or was their watcher just done eating so she was back to looming over them like some kind of force. "Need something?" Devyn words came out short and still with a low growl as her green eyes locked on their watcher. Was there something she needed to say or was she just being that presence for them. That reminded of Devyn’s mess up.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The last note? Zoe was tempted to ask why that would even matter, but she supposed that the game awarded higher scores if you managed to hit all the notes. She also wanted to point out that an "A" struck her as being a most excellent score, but, again, she didn't think that Devyn wanted her to pander to her or anything. Better to simply smile, remain quiet, and nod a little.

Devyn was soon focusing on the bigger picture anyway, looking at the score as it showed. They got a decent score, and Devyn was pulling Zoe in for a quick kiss, which Zoe returned in kind. "It's just because you picked a slower song," the shy girl insisted, flushing and lowering her eyes. She did think that she probably would've gotten better the more she played; that was generally how it worked. For now though, she walked off the dance-mat, wanting to clear the area for other people to play. There were a few other games to play, though they were starting to run low on tokens, or at least on the original ones. Zoe bent to gather up her bag and things, checking to make sure that everything was there.

As she did, she heard Devyn's short words and growl. Sighing, Zoe looked up at Devyn. "Just ignore her," she whispered, flicking her eyes, "I think she's getting some kind of enjoyment out of frustrating you. I reserved plenty of time and got everything cleared," which sounded almost silly, but Zoe had wanted to make sure that everything was above board. She knew they still had a few hours left if they chose to use it, and she did want to do a little window shopping for prom attire before heading back.

[Devyn Solway]

A returned kiss and Zoe flushing as she tried to write off he doing better because the song was slower. "Some people do worse on a slower song after having done a fast song. Accept that you have some talent." Devyn said, tempted to jut bop Zoe on the nose to see if that would help Zoe get it. Zoe seemed always ready to turn Devyn's praise down and to write off things as no big deal. It was the small things that did matter from time to time. Especially depending on the person. Having done better and gotten through the whole song in what she was wearing and after doing a fast song, Zoe had done well. Devyn was proud of her. Yet Zoe still seemed to be fine with just making things less of a big deal. Was Devyn supposed to not treat them as a big deal then? Would she have been doing a better job at being a better girlfriend specifically for Zoe if she didn't praise her unless she had done something truly great? Devyn was hard to impress so...that would be difficult.

Devyn followed Zoe off the machine and making sure she had everything, not that she was actually carrying anything. No, she was just checking her pockets to make sure nothing had dropped or fallen out of them while she was doing all of her hoping around and having fun. It would suck to lose her wallet here after having promised to buy a dress for Zoe. A whisper stopped the growling as Devyn glanced over to Zoe who was speaking to her about how their watcher might have been getting some kind of enjoyment out of it. "Well she is about to get a full dose of entertainment in a second." Devyn said still with another low growl as she glared at the other woman. Oh how she would love to just throw a nice solid punch across the face. No, she had a nice face; Devyn didn't want to kill looks, so a good hit to the stomach would be good enough.

Zoe said they still had plenty of time, that she had reserved it all and that everything was clear. Devyn hated hearing that. That Zoe had to set a time limit to how long she had to be out, having to be watched, and pretty much everything that came with that stupid incident that Devyn was starting to wish never happened. She took a deep breath to calm her growing anger on the matter, moving to just take Zoe's hand and hold it. "Pick another game for us." Devyn said simply, not in the mod to pick one herself but was not going to mess this up for Zoe. She just needed another distraction. Distraction after distraction, it felt like it would never end. For the moment it did, she fear she break.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe could tell that, despite her words, Devyn had gotten riled up thanks to their watcher. Zoe was tempted to continue, to point out to Devyn that this was exactly what the other wanted, but she'd already done that. Instead Zoe settled for gently tugging on her girlfriend, leading her away from the gaze and toward various machines. Devyn offered for Zoe to pick another game, and the poet-photographer looked over the various offerings. She felt around, fingering the few tokens and adding them, figuring that they could probably play just about anything there. She didn't like the looks of most of the fighting games: too much violence and no way they could work together. Most of the gun games involved blood and killing, neither of which was all that pleasant to Zoe. Why didn't they have more games about taking pictures? Zoe thought she'd heard about one involving taking pictures of Pokemon that sounded amazing, but she didn't see anything like that here.

"Maybe one of the racing games?" she suggested, pointing. She looked that direction, seeing a wall dedicated to various racing games. Quite a few of them involved various paraphernalia, such as fake cars or ski-doos or the like. There were a couple that were in closed off booths too, which Zoe thought might not be a bad idea. "Maybe something like that?" she said, pointing at one. True, they'd have to compete against each other when they entered there, but it was more the two of them against several others; they could handle that, right?

Really, Zoe just wanted to  get them out of sight. She started to move toward it when she saw a game that had probably been set up for children. It involved riding various magical creatures through a racing circuit, and Zoe couldn't help but stop and stare at it, both amazed and slightly embarrassed at the same time.