Jocks ain't got nothing on l33t's

[Erin Hackett]

Erin was pleased that Lydia at least had made an offer for a way for Erin to pay her back. Erin really, really did not like owing someone a debt. Even if it was meant for their fun together, that just made it all the more reason for her to feel like she needed to chip in. Of course that didn’t work the other way around, meaning that only Erin was concerned with either sharing the bill or paying for all of it. She didn't like others being the one to pay for everything when she was involved in it, it just felt weird.

"Deal, minus this whole idea of you thinking you are going to beat me." Erin responded with a small chuckle. Okay, she was talking a big game but Erin fully expected Lydia to be able to back up each and every word. Erin on the other hand, she was good at games but she was not sure if that actually carried over into every game. No, she knew for a fact it did not carry over into every game she played. Sure with time she would get better at them, while others she just had natural skill in them. Arcade games...with the old school analog stick with the two to four buttons, she was not so sure about.

Not that she was going to give that away after making it seem like she had this in the bag. They were at a street fighter game, the old school one at that. Erin could not deny that when it came to fighting games, she mostly did a lot of button smashing with a few memorized combos. No doubt a few of them being different then on the game console. Erin was shocked that the character the Lydia seemed like she was going for. "I don't need a handicap, you know." Erin responded, still smiling a little as she was going to choose Vega for this.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia giggled at Erin's comment. "Well, I guess we'll see, won't we." She was feeling confident. She had spent a fair amount of her childhood burning her pocket money in the local arcade. She loved the feel of the various knobs and keys of an original arcade cabinet, the one her hands were on was in fairly good condition. She smelled the air, the metallic scenet. She loved it. She loved all of it.

The girl giggled again and poked her head around the side to look at Erin. "Pfffft. Handicap. You're about to get Danned." She grinned and flipped the stick around in select till she reached who she wanted and locked in. She was ready to kick Erin's sorry ass.

Lydia did have to pay some mind to the fact that she was quite excited, and in public so she had to work on making sure her power was behaving. Too many times had she given off stray sparks when she had been too excited for her own good, and she didn't want to lose her privileges of going out into the city and such.

[Erin Hackett]

"We will soon enough. No noobs allowed." Erin teased a little before looking down. Okay, she was doing pretty well at keeping at the top of her 'game' but it was still a little hard to fully stay in it. She was still dealing with a pretty girl here; and while she liked to think that she was getting better at socializing in general, it was still hard to talk to girls. Not that she was just going to give up on the matter and with a game now in front of her, she was feeling herself get into the zone. The zone where she was bold, skilled, and was able to talk like there was nothing really bothering her or making her blush.

Erin could not help but to laugh a little at Lydia's next words. Did she really just say that? She did not just say that. OMG, now I have to beat her just so she can never say that again. Erin thought to herself as she familiarized herself with the feeling of a joystick in her hand. Oh yeah, it was so odd and old school. Not really her style anymore and she already had a feeling that she was going to lose. Not without a fight. Heh, pun. Erin thought to herself as the game got started.

She made sure to move her character quickly, wanting to get in there and land as many hits as she could to try and win this before Lydia got into her game groove. If Lydia had ones of those, which she assumed every gamer had them; even if they all might not have called it 'game groove'. Erin didn't personally call it the game groove, but it was the name she was using for now. "I say bet out of six rounds. All together." Erin spoke up, meaning to include every round that way things would not be over at just the first go at the game.

[Lydia Faust]

It was such an awesome feeling to be able to talk video game stuff with someone, it just made the entire conversation more pleasurable, not to mention with an awesome girl like Erin. Lydia took a breath and tried to remember Dan's moveset, she wasn't going to have time to look it up mid game or anything, and he wasn't exactly the easiest person in the game to play, especially considering Erin had gone with Vega. "Sure!"

A moment later it dawned on Lydia what she'd said. She turned scarlet. Thankful for the arcade cabinet in between the two of them, Lydia muttered something under her breath along the lines of "danned.. what in the name of god was I thinking. So not cool."

Due to the distraction of her own embarrassment, Lydia completely and utterly threw the first round, her face was now more scarlet. She was again, glad that she'd spent so much energy on learning how to restrain her power. Or she'd look like a small electric firework about now if this was a year ago.

She was glad she'd agreed to the set of games. She went straight for Chun-Li this time, her eyes scanning the other characters furiously, thinking up strategies.

[Erin Hackett]

It was so weird to be playing an old game like this; she was already slightly cringing over the graphics. That was the hard part about getting used to HD games and what not, that when you went back to the old ones you were in physical pain. Wondering just how in the world you survived looking out those awful graphics. It just showed how far technology had come so far over the years, well video game technology. Other technology that would help improve the world felt like it was more at a standstill. Not that she was thinking too much about any of that, she had a game to somehow pull a win out of.

Vega was her player and she pretty much planned to stick with them for all the battles, especially when she had managed to quickly take up Lydia in the first round. She didn't really feel like it was a win because of the character the girl picked, but it was still totally a win. She had no clue what was going on with Lydia since she could not see the girl. Which just helped with Erin really get into her gamer mind set. Losing was not an option; she had to be the best at this game and was going to crush her opponent.

The look in her eyes changed as she focused on the game, switching up how she was standing to be a bit more comfortable. She had this in the bag. At least that was how she was starting to feel. Erin really didn’t have a plan beside just rush in as soon as each round would start to try and get the opponents health down as fast as she could before they could do much to her. That would likely only work for so long, but it was what she was going with.

[Lydia Faust]

When the second round came around Lydia was more focused than the previous one, she was playing a character she used to enjoy and do a lot more with. Her eyes danced across the screen, keeping an eye on her super gauge as she played, she got a several commands wrong as she played, and kept making mistakes, just subtle ones, which slowly wound her up. She muttered a curse word under her breath.

The second round also ended in failure, it was much, much closer this time. Erin had a round's head start with her character on Lydia. She could do this. She wasn't going to be shown up after boasting this much, even if she lost in the end she wasn't going to get aced, she was going to win at least a few rounds.

Lydia's grip on the fight stick tightened, her eyes were much more focused, she took a breath and calmed herself, she wasn't flailing on the stick this time, she was looking for patterns, commands, opportunities to launch her super's, she was going to make this round. She was gonna kick Erin's ass, regardless of how hard it was turning out to be.

[Erin Hackett]

Nothing else was even on Erin's mind by this point, only the game. The game had pulled her in and consumed all of her thoughts. She didn't even really connect the other character being played by the girl that had invited her here. That was one problem that came along with Erin really getting into a game and wanting to win. Nothing else mattered and her mind was set on that one specific thing; nothing else. Another round was won, but it honestly didn't matter to Erin. Yes another round meant she was that much closer to winning this all together but she was not thinking about the small wins.

She was just aiming to win, the end goal of defeating her opponent to claim the rights of victory and bragging. However; while Erin was fully in her gamer mode, she was still not the best with this old style game. Her specialties lie more in current generation games but there were a few in the arcade that she was certain she was practically a pro at. DDR being one example coming to mind but no way in hell was she ever going to tell anyone in the States such information. They didn't need to know about the skill there and Erin didn't want to show them.

It was very likely that Erin would manage to get at least another win in at some point, but overall she would lose once all of the agreed rounds were up. Her hands eventually messing up as her mind kept trying to move her hands in the way she would on a mouse, a keyboard, or on a control. She blamed not playing arcade games enough and not really playing the Atari she had back when she was really young. "Darn, looks like you beat me after all. But I was close." Erin said as she let out a defeated sigh, not liking to lose, but it had been sort of fun.

[Lydia Faust]

Up, down, high punch, back, forward, kick. This kind of rhythm played through in Lydia's brain over and over as her hands danced across the machine, quickly responding to Erin's movements. The nice thing about video games to a girl quite accurately diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was that her entire attention span tended to get at some point, completely absorbed by the game in question.

Lydia wasn't even thinking about the cute girl on the other side of her, which had so deeply distracted her before, she wasn't even thinking about winning. Just the next move, the next button press, reacting, taking control. This is the mindset that tended to eventually set in when she was working hard on something, she lost thought of the goal in mind, just focusing on the task at hand by itself.

Lydia kind of blinked hard to herself as everything seemed to slow down, the K.O ringing out in her ears and the victory screen beaming. Looking like they were about done she peeked around the corner to Erin, it felt like it had taken ages but it hadn't actually lasted all that long. She grinned to the other girl. "That was fun! Uh... Sorry for zoning out a bit there, I tend to do that when I get serious about gaming." She admitted with a soft giggle.

[Erin Hackett]

It sucked to lose; Erin was never really a fan of it. Not that she was going to lose her cool over a fighting game or anything like that. Clearly the other girl was the better player and Erin would give credit where credit was do. Still sucked to lose, that was very important to know that it very much sucked. The K.O was always made so flashy but at least you knew who had one and how they one. You did not always get a K.O, at least from playing now it didn’t seem to be the case. The K.O only seemed to appear when you were able to take someone out with a combo. That could have not been the case and Erin was mistaken but she was not too worried about it.

“Nice job back there. You won fair and square.” Erin responded with a nod. At least now she felt more relaxed after having been in the gamer zone. Thankfully no one had gathered around them and there were still very few people in the place so she was still relaxed for the most past. “It’s fine, I completely understand. I get like that too.” Erin responded as she gave the other girl a smile. It really was not a big deal, she honestly had gotten into the same zone. Erin then looked around for a moment before looking back at the other girl. “So…what next?” Erin asked. Lydia had invited her so Erin was up for doing whatever the other girl wanted to do.

That and Erin didn’t want to just go wonder off on her own to go do something in such a place. She didn’t have a purpose to be here by herself and that would mean if she got separated from the other girl she was likely to bolt for it. Funny how a person that was not really about exercise; except for to maintain her health, had a habit of dashing off as soon as she was uncomfortable or freak out about something. It just meant that she was more so a flight then a fight kind of person, which was not all that bad. “Umm…also, thanks again for inviting me out here and wanting to be my friend still.” Erin said, mostly muttered out as she looked to the ground as she said it.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia felt a big and goofy grin spread across her lips, it wasn't that often she got praise from somebody as pretty as Erin for her gaming, and it felt absolutely fantastic when she did. "You're not so bad yourself Erin." Lydia proceeded to flick a bit of hair out from her eye and sighed as she undid her pony tail and redid it. Her hair could be such a pain sometimes.

She used to have a little quirk whenever she touched loose hairs or split ends where she'd give off small sparks from them, she was glad to have enough control not to give off involuntary sparks very often anymore.

The blonde smiled as Erin reassured that she did the same thing. It did make Lydia feel a little less embarassed. "Well, I'm glad to hear it's not just me then. I have lots of little ADHD quirks like that which I get super duper worried are going to like, make me get on people's nerves, if you know what I mean." She replied in a rapid fire fashion.

"Hmmm..." Lydia pondered, looking around the machines and area around her. She whirled her head back around to Erin when she heard what she'd said. She looked straight at Erin, and felt a light confidence build up in her. "Erin." She began, pausing for a second. "I'm sorry I fell out of touch again, but..." She smiled at Erin "If anyone ever doesn't remain friends with you, don't even think for a second there is something wrong with you."

She took a breath and continued. "You're awesome. And I mean that. So if they don't hang out with you anymore, it's because they have poor taste in friends. People are lucky to have you in their lives." her cheeks were slightly red, but her grin was none the less sincere, as were her words. This was how she felt.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin felt awesome as Lydia was giving her a smile; there was always something about a girl smiling at her that made her feel so smooth. So very cool, sexy, and oh so seducing all of the ladies; in her mind. "Thanks." Erin said as she smirked with a little bit of confidence at the returned complement. Oh, she knew she was good at video games; not all of them, but enough that she knew that she most certainly deserved praise on it from time to time. Hearing a girl say it just made her feel that much cooler and like she could be her bold self like she was online.

Of course who knew how long that feeling would remain when she was dealing with a girl? Her bravado tended to build very easily but it always vanished just as easy. Erin watched as Lydia redid her pony tail, enjoying the view of how the girl's blonde hair moved about for a moment before she realized she was staring and looked around at the games. "I can relate...but uh, you would be surprised how many people have their weird quirks and how most tolerate them." Erin responded as she already started to ideally play with a button on her jacket. Playing with her buttons, zippers, or her jewelry was something that she did a lot, especially when she was around a girl. Her hands just needed to touch something; that was not them or who knew what she would touch or do.

Erin then started to blush a little when Lydia started to apologize once more about keeping out of touch and how it was not Erin's fault. That she was awesome and how people were lucky to have her in their lives. She wondered for a moment if Quinn would agree with that last bit for a moment. "T-thanks...no more compliments before I like...run or something." Erin said as she looked away to help settle herself down. "Lead the way to the next game." Erin said as she already turned to walk off to a game before coming back because she didn't know what game Lydia was going to pick next or where it even was. Talk about embarrassing.

[Lydia Faust]

As Erin digested Lydia's comments, Lydia found herself wondering what game they should play next. She didn't want to go easy on Erin, but she also didn't want to pick anymore fighting games, those didn't really seem to be her forte, and it wouldn't be nearly as fun if Lydia was at an advantage, it would be more fun if Erin was actually... The competitive side of Lydia was busy building up energy, like a bouncy child.

She thought about the comment about people putting up with each-other, her mind instantly drifted to Frank. One of the only cute girls she'd not swooned over. Mostly because she was a little bit crazy, also because the situation they had met in had involved an even cuter furry monster. Lydia found herself wanting to play with her hair, twist it around her finger. But it was all tied up, the urge not to undo it again immediately after having had it done up was a tricky one to resist.

Lydia smirked at Erin's comment and forced the smile to transition into a more relaxed one by clearing her throat. "Sure." She glanced around. "If there was one Genre, you could kick my butt in, what would it be? Something I could use to give you a real run for you money" She asked with a bit of mischief in her voice.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin didn't say much more, noting that it looked like Lydia was thinking about what she said about dealing with others. She honestly didn't know what else to say and was still just getting used to the fact that she was hanging out with Lydia again. It had been so long and Erin was just trying to get back in the swing of it as she tried to recall what Lydia liked and what were topics not to talk about. The major thing she did not forget what the power topics were a no-no, so she kept that off her mind.

She didn't want it to be silence between them the whole time but she also didn't want to talk about something that could make things awkward when they were going so well so far. Erin's mind started to wonder as she thought of a topic, only to be pulled out of her thoughts by a question. "Uh...well..." Erin started, hesitating as she thought about it. A game that would really give her a run for her money? Well if anyone was better than her in DDR, that would be it. However; Erin was not sure if she should suggest that because she didn't know if the other girl was good at it. That and well she didn't really want anyone to know that she was really good at that game.

"Shooter games. I'm good at those. Best with a controller but I'm pretty good with the gun type controllers." Erin spoke up. Yes, she was really good at shooters. It had been a while since she played one using a gun controller but she was sure she could do pretty good at that and it would be a good challenge for the two of them. "But uh...I'm up for playing any game you want to." Erin added.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia waited patiently, which wasn't massively easy for her because of how hyper active she could be, but she didn't want to make Erin feel any more awkwardness, so she wasn't going to pressure her. Especially considering a slight return to the awkwardness was Lydia's fault for falling out of touch in the first place.

Her smile widened when Erin gave a suggestion. Shooters. Shooters was something she could definitely work with. And luckily, they weren't her forte, so it would be a really fun challenge. She nodded happily. "Shooters sounds good, lets take a look around for something!" She suggested and shuffled off away from the street fighter machines. While she did love fighting games and all kinds of other games, she was a thinker, which didn't translate terribly well to shooters in her experience. She was also a little too... Twitchy.

She glanced around at machines as they passed. And as it turned out, arcades didn't exactly have halo or call of duty set up, even though there were a lot of machines with various kinds of light guns. She spotted something, a glint appeared in her eye. "Hey Erin, how do you feel about Zombies?"

[Erin Hackett]

Erin didn't mean for things to be awkward and she really was doing her best to make this all just go smoothly and less awkward as possibly. It was just hard when she was still accepting the fact that it had not been her fault that Lydia had fallen out of touch. That and the location also didn't really help Erin full relax now that they were no longer playing a game. There were still not a lot of people around but Erin still could not help but to feel on her guard and want to leave a little. She ignored her feelings; for the sake of being able to hang out and have some with Lydia.

However; she did plan to suggest staying on campus for the next time they hung out so things would be at least a lot easier than they were now. "O-okay." Erin said with a nod as she moved to follow the girl, sticking close but still allowing Lydia to have her personal space. Erin could not help but to want to be close to what she was familiar with when she was not in a familiar situation. Still, she knew about Lydia's power and also just could not handle getting to close to a girl without freaking out about it a little. There didn't really seem to be that many of the current games, mostly old school ones which made sense.

Arcades were a thing of the past and she didn't really hear about a company making a arcade game since guitar hero. Then again, she didn't really keep up on info when it came to arcades since she didn't really go to them unless she had to. Zombies? "Yeah, let’s kill some zombies. Have to keep my skills sharp for the day the dead rises." Erin said as she was quickly looking for the machine and basically running over to it. Yes, she was a firm believer that a zombie outbreak would happen and that she was going right back to Japan if that did happen. Or at least wanted to make sure her gamer skills translated well enough to real life shooting skills.