Game Day [open]

[Aiko]

Sweatpants and a tank top were the outfit of the day for Renée Donovan, the American girl in the Japanese mall. She did a lunge, stretching her muscles beneath the black fabric of her pants. The motion felt good, she reflected, her hands resting on her forward knee. She repeated the stretch on the other side as her almond-shaped eyes ran through the crowd. A bunch of wiry Japanese people, most of them around Ren’s own age or younger, were scattered around, some standing and looking awkward, others stretching like Renée. The American stood up, crossing her arms for lack of pockets to stick her hands into, as her eyes darted away from the crowd and towards the massive screen at the head of the crowd, pulsating with loud colors as music blared from speakers.

Renée shivered with a delightful combination of nervousness, excitement, and flat-out cold. Her eyes finished their journey by settling on the large devices on the floor, covered with tiles that had arrows and colors and symbols she couldn’t explain the meaning of. The devices meant to be stepped on in accordance to the patterns that flashed on the behemoth screen.

She was ready for this competition. She’d spent more days than she cared to recall in the mall’s arcade, practicing on these dancing games. Today, the mall had set up a competition for the popular video game, and they’d set it up smack-dab in the middle of the mall. Anyone could join, if they signed up before the contest started and payed a small entry fee. But whoever wanted to join would have to hurry up, because the competition started in a mere six minutes; Ren’s eyes hungrily turned to the countdown clock. She rubbed her arms, trying to get the goosebumps to go down. She was ready for this!

What she wasn’t quite so ready for was the crowd that was accumulating all around, apparently wanting to watch the competitors duke it out with fancy footwork. It was the crowd that sparked irrational fears in Renée’s mind, even though she restled it with the iron inner cry: [green]I want to win this![/green] But she had six more minutes to wait, and there were six more minutes for an even bigger crowd to gather.

[Naraku]

Coming out of a small tea shop on the second floor the youth looks around as he could hear alot of commotion that was not there when he first came to the mall. Keiko makes his way over to the balcony that over looks the center of the mall. He looks down towards the first floor as a large crowd was gathering. He was unfamilar with that of video games and was never interested in watching t.v. as is. But Keiko being curious like he was couldn't help but want to go down and see what the crowd was going for. He looks around before seeing a stair case as he begins to move for it. He wasn't paying much attention and before he knew it he was darting in and out of the crowd himself.

[Aiko]

Nervous excitement spiked Renée’s veins as she waited with growing impatience. Loud techno music was invading her ears, and she shuffled from foot to foot in rhythm with the melody. She just wished she could get started on the game, forget about the stares she was undoubtedly getting from being the only American amongst the competitors. She smoothed the top of her tied-back hair anxiously before returning her arms to being folded across her chest. She could still feel the goosebumps prickling her skin. Staring at the clock, she was unaware of the plight of one of her fellow competitors, a younger boy who was even more nervous than the American was.

Quickly, that boy ducked into the crowd, his widened eyes scanning the watchers anxiously. The person who was going to sign up with him (for an even number of people was needed to compete) hadn’t showed, and he was the last one to join as of yet. He needed someone to compete against in the first round! It was an emergency! He wasn’t any good at the game, but he still wanted to play very badly, so he grabbed the first person that he saw, a person that turned out to be Keiko.

“Please!” the random competitor begged the stranger. “Please sign up to play with me! I’ll pay for your entry, and I need somebody else to play with me! Please, mister?”

[ooc: Yay introduction of random person!]

[Naraku]

"Um... I guess so.... But I really don't know what I am doing...." He begins folloing him over to it as he answered him ever so queitly. "What is the rules when playing or what am I doing....?" He stops before the reach the spot in line he was at before grabbing him. Keiko looks arounf amongst the people and the back at the game. If it was about actual movement like it looked he may actually do good he thought to himself, for a first time anyways.

[Aiko]

“That’s okay, it’s easy!” reassured the boy, even though he himself did not find the game to be particularly easy. The concept of it, was, though. “You just step on the buttons that show up on the screen. Front, back, and side to side are arrows, the four corners are colors, and the middle button is for commands like jump or spin. Don’t worry, we’ll be going last, so you get to see everybody else do it first.” As he spoke, the boy had walked over to the sign up table and handed the money for Keiko’s entry fee to the person sitting behind the table. “Sign your name,” the boy said, handing a pen to Keiko.

As the boy’s new partner was signing his name [assuming he did, of course, but I’m guessing it’s kind of safe to say…?], the person behind the table added, “There’s a money prize for the winner, made up of the entry fees. You could win something here.” The man smiled, clearly trying to entice Keiko.

Meanwhile, the countdown clock had ticked down to three minutes remaining. Renee, her eyes scanning the crowd of competitors, counted in her head. [green]Eight partners to start with,[/green] she thought to herself, counting the two new people who were just arriving. [green]So I’ll be competing against my person sixth. I wonder which one of these people that is?[/green] Her eyes flicked around the crowd as she continued stretching (which was a sort of way to relieve her nervous tension), but she couldn’t even begin to guess who it was going to be. She ended up just staring at the tips of her pink-and-white sneakers.

[Naraku]

Keiko nods and goes ahead of signning his name. He heard the guy mention a prize but keiko never care for anything like that. He was unsure how the scoreswent but he was having to fight his own urges to run away. He couldn't stand all eyes on him, and he knew they soon will be, He steps back as he begins looking arounf the room. 'I wonder if everyone is new or if this is going to be that challenging?'

OOC: Sorry crappy post, kinda out of it.

[Aiko]

Three minutes were whittled away in complete awkwardness as far as Renée was concerned. Of course, once the guy who organized this whole thing stood up to announce the beginning of the contest, the American felt a rush of something like terror. Suddenly, she was wishing those three minutes could have stretched a little longer. She wasn’t ready to go yet! But there, the first competitors were stepping up onto the dance platforms, and the music began to pound louder and harder against the speakers. Renée sidled over to join the other competitors, who were gathering in a clump while they waited for each of their turns to get up and play.

Bustling up against the other people, the American was accidentally pushed a little by someone probably just as edgy as she was. Unbalanced, Renée darn near fell right into another of the waiting competitors, a boy with surprisingly violet hair. [green]“I’m sorry!”[/green] the American instantly squeaked, glancing briefly at the guy she had nearly squashed. And she did a double take, looking back at the stranger with a look of curiosity. [green]“Hey, wait a moment,”[/green] she said slowly, half-forgetting about the contest in her concentration on the boy. [green]“Do I know you from somewhere?”[/green] That odd-colored hair was faintly familiar. In any case, it gave her a strange sense of déjà vu.

[Naraku]

He stumbles forward and turns back and looks at her as he turns solid red as he begin to get attention and that she remembered him. "Um you sold me a drink the other day." He said as he looks down towards the ground. He slowly looks back up his golden eyes catching hers.

"Are you here waiting to play? I was kinda asked, I never played before...." He said as if trying his best to keep a conversation. He turns looking back towards the stage seeing what was happening before looking back towards her.

[Aiko]

[green]“Oh,”[/green] Renée said to the boy-who-was-still-a-stranger. It’s not like she remembered what happened. Just that hair, that unusually violet hair, stuck in her memory. [green]“Small world,”[/green] she mumbled to herself, turning her green eyes back to the current competitors. They were arguing over which song they were going to do, but Renée noticed that both of them were on the third level of difficulty. The highest level was level four. Not the toughest competition, but both of them could probably hold their own. The American was gauging her chances of winning when she heard the boy’s next words.

[green]“Um… yeah, I am waiting to play. That would explain why I am standing here with you.”[/green] Unfortunately, she felt that her sarcasm wasn’t quite as potent in another language other than English, since she couldn’t think of the right words to use. Renée adopted a nicer tone as she continued. [green]“You will understand quickly. Step on the buttons that show up on the screen.”[/green] The people who were already up had finally decided on a song, and she glanced at them for a moment. [green]“Like that.”[/green] She turned back to the boy, a little disconcerted by his golden-brown eyes.

[green]“It is not very difficult,”[/green] she babbled. [green]“Me, I love this game. And I am very bad at sports. This game is very fun. I love the music. I love to dance. But this game is not real dancing. No, not really. It is fun anyway. I am sure you will like it. You will do fine.”[/green]

[Naraku]

Keiko watches the ones playing as he would think to himself. He didn;t care if she snapped or whatever but he continues to listen about the game. Thinking about dancing as he watches the others play. His mind never lit up to how he would do or if he liked it but he figure he would give it a chance. "Do they have a board then anywhere that shows everyones first rounds and who they are going against?" He turns back to her, he wasn't surehow they did this only how they did it during his duels.

[Aiko]

[green]“There is a list,”[/green] Renée told him, her eyes returning to the game when the boy didn’t look back at her. [green]“The same one you signed up on.”[/green] Renée faintly felt like she was getting the cold shoulder, since the boy was looking at the game instead of at her. She glanced at him from the corners of her green eyes to spot him intently watching the players, and she looked away (just before he looked at her, incidently). Her lips twitched slightly in the suggestion of a frown as she folded her slender arms over her chest. [green]“Why do you not go to look if you are not sure who you are playing with?”[/green] she asked, her voice chilling a little bit. The boy probably wouldn’t even pick up on the double meaning of her words; boys were dumb like that. But she expected the boy to fail the little test she gave him.

[ooc: Did you mean Keiko when you said Hiroshi?]

[Naraku]

He sighs catching her sarcasim but ignores it. "So the first ones going up are the ones you are partners with not ones you are going against then?" He turns looking at her. His face was now flushed. Normally he always kept up his appearance but was beginning to get annoyed that all she does was try to keep him down. Even back when she served him, she still acted so coldly to him, and yet Keiko did nothing.

[Aiko]

So the kid didn’t leave to go check out the list. He was staying with Renée. The American calmed a little towards the boy, the ice in her voice melting as she turned to look at him again. To her immense surprise, his face was stained pinkish. Was he… blushing? What the hell for? To Ren’s horror, it felt like her own face was turning red in response. The pale girl blushed much too easily, and it seemed for no reason half the time. She bit the inside of her cheek, glancing away from the boy for a moment before flicking her eyes back to his face.

[green]“Um, no. This is not a game for partners. I mean to say the person you are… fighting?”[/green] Renée couldn’t think of the right word in Japanese. [green]“Every person plays for himself or herself, so… yes. That is all.”[/green] The tall girl was looking down at the boy again, her eyes flicking around her face. This boy made her curious. And then two people detatched themselves from their little group, sufficiently distracting Renée. She glanced around, to see that the first two competitors had finished and the next two were going up. One of the two first competitors came to join the waiting group, and the other slunk off to join the crowd of people watching. [green]I bet I’ll be that guy,[/green] Ren thought with a sinking, dreading feeling.

[Naraku]

Keiko turns watching the game as he steps forward. He slowly taps his feet as he watches the others, as he tries his best to learn the movements. He tried tapping his foot to the timing but did the rest of the movements in his head. Oddly enough this was how he first practiced anything. He was unaware of the songs playing but they all seem to have a beat that moved with the rytheme, so the sounds sound be able to help him to an extent, or so he thought.

[Aiko]

The pair of them lapsed into silence after that. Ren guessed that the boy was watching the game, too, though she peeked at him in her sideways sort of way a couple of times. As she watched the game going on, she realized suddenly that she’d met this boy twice, and didn’t even know his name. She was just turning to ask him when the announcer stood and called, “Karasoto Kisa and Donovan Renée, up now.” The American gave the announcer a look of annoyance, because he’d botched pronunciation of her name, then turned her frustrated eyes on the purple-haired boy for a moment before heading up to the platform.

She soon forgot her brief bout of annoyance as she found herself standing on the middle panel of the dance platform. On the platform directly beside her was a considerably smaller girl who Ren guessed was middle school age. Ren was suddenly very aware of the eyes of the crowd behind her, waiting for the ungainly American to screw up so they could all laugh. She thought she heard a snicker somewhere behind her. [green]Okay, just for that, I’m not gonna screw up![/green] she thought suddenly, but what if she did? As she set the difficulty on three, she turned to this Kisa girl. [green]“You choose the song,”[/green] she told her, since all the titles were in stylized Japanese, which Ren could barely read.

Moments later, the girl had picked a song, and music began to pour out of the speakers. Ren nearly fell off the platform in surprise. [green]I know this song![/green] she thought, shocked. It was a Japanese version for an American pop song. Ren didn’t particularly like the song, but hey, it was a familiar beat! Renée’s knees were bouncing to the familiar rhythm already, her green eyes trained on the colorfully flashing screen.

Arrows and dots of color began to parade across the screen, indicating where Ren had to step. Up, back, up, left, back, left, right, right, right, green corner, right, red corner and hold! Hey, this was easy! Even while her face was trained on the instructions, her eyes glittering with a hundred reflected colors, she found herself grinning. She should have known that the days after school she’d spent at the arcade, playing this very same game, would pay off eventually! The cost of homework left undone was the glory of showing off in front of a bunch of Japanese people. An American, beating the Japanese at their own game! And Ren didn’t have time to look, but she really was beating the Kisa girl, who was on the same level as Renée.

Jump! Jump! Spin around and hit the blue corner! Yellow, red, up, left, up, up, back, jump, up, back, right! One more jump, and the song was over! Ren was panting from exhilaration. “The winner is Donovan Renée,” she heard the announcer say, the same words that she’d ignored for the past five games. With a laugh, Ren practically skipped off the platform and headed back to the group of people waiting to play. A grin stretched across her face and her cheeks were stained red as she found the boy with the purple hair and stood beside him. She turned, looking for the Kisa girl, who was walking into the audience, and when she saw the girl turn, gave her a thumbs up and mouthed, “Good game!” The girl smiled and waved back before hurrying into the crowd.

The purple-haired boy would be going after the two people who were just then taking the stage.