Bowl-O-Rama Time

[andtherevolution]

WHO: Utena, Lucina, and YOU
WHERE: Kingpin Lanes, a bowling alley in Heropa
WHEN: Friday, March 8th
WHAT: The owners of Kingpin Lanes screwed up their alcohol order are offering massive discounts for anyone 18 and under! And they've kindly requested that Utena and Lucina spread the word to their friends. Why don't you come join them?
WARNINGS: Potential underage hooliganism. Otherwise, nothing so far.
OOC NOTE: Later on today Lucina will be posting on the network letting other characters know about this, with a link to the log. The log is just going up a little early because of our OOC schedules.



Hey, so your got Lucina's invite! Great! Or maybe they found out bout Kingpin Lane's generous deals (discounts on games with groups of six or more! free drinks with every order of atomic nachos! and so on and so forth). Or maybe they literally had nothing better to do. Either way, the lack of beer and the higher than usual concentration of youths have chased off the bowling alley's older regulars, leaving plenty of alleys free.

THE BOWLING LANES

Even with the lack of cheap beer, at least a couple of the lanes will be taken up by bowling teams playing their scheduled games. Around 10 PM, though, they'll shuffle out as the regular lights dim and the blacklights flip on, illuminating everything in a garish neon glow. Grab your friends, a pair of bright white shoes, and a neon ball, and knock down those technicolor bowling pins! If you forgot the score card, don't sweat it - the monitors up above will keep score for you. Assuming they don't malfunction, that is. Wait, did the screen just flicker? Eh, don't worry about it.

THE ARCADE

Is bowling not your thing? No problem! There's a mini arcade just to the side for customers to waste both time and quarters. There's pinball machines and ski-ball for anyone with more old fashioned taste, and a couple different crane machines for people who just love to throw money away. If that's not enticing enough, there's an electronic basketball game, the hit arcade shoot 'em up Burger Blasters, the light gun shooter Duckpocalypse Now, the driving game Krafty Karts, and a little mechanical horsey for the young and young at heart.

THE PARKING LOT

Sometimes you just need to breathe in some fresh air. Or bum a smoke. Or partake in other less than wholesome, possibly illicit substances where underpaid nacho slingers can't see you. As long as you don't get caught, there's no problem. The parking lot is a no judgement zone! As well as a "I don't get paid enough to keep track of every jerk here" zone.

OTHER

Start a brutal feud over the last pair of size six shoes! Make snide, passive aggressive comments as someone picks the bowling ball you wanted! Weep bitter tears as the change machine eats your twenty! Or be brave and daring and find out what makes the Atomic Nacho Platter so atomic (spoiler: it's just extra jalapenos and some tabasco sauce). If it can take place in or around a bowling alley, you can do it.

Comments

[khajidont]

[ Is that really it…? Jaime frowns a little, circling around to sit down across from her. He means for it to go more smoothly than it does; these are the sorts of seats that are attached to the table itself and swing wildly back and forth, so it’s a clumsy sort of collapse where the seat boomerangs right back into its spot, his knees banging up against the table. ] Stupid thing…

[ It’s funny. Ruka takes responsibility for so much. Heck, she’s even been touched by the gods. If there’s ever been a hero of a story, it’d be Ruka. And here she is, calling herself small. She may be small in size, but even that first time Jaime had met her, curious and half intimidated by her, she’d never seemed to have a small presence. She has a way of sticking in people’s minds. ]

Yeah. It’s just you. Which is why I stand by what I said - I always wanna do the things worth doing, and that includes looking out for you. You’re still a person, Ruka. That means you’re important.

[ It’s more than that too, though. ]

And you’re my friend. Which means you’re important to me too.

[ He doesn’t say it as any great declaration. In fact, it almost sounds as though he’s pointing out that the sky is blue, or that the grass is green. It’s one of the great truths of Jaime’s life: people, every person, is important. And that goes double for his friends. You don’t get to pick and choose who is and isn’t important, but if he could, he knows what and who he’d choose. ]

I think I get to decide what's worth it to me.

[ She's not gonna change his mind. ]

[dragony]

[ It's still different, she wants to say. Wants to point out the gulf between the value of doing a good thing and doing the right thing, between helping one person you care about and helping dozens, hundreds, thousands of strangers. (And there's no room for him to downplay the number, either; the Blue Beetle is a well-beloved hero for a reason.) To say something like, of course, anybody would want to do both, or of course we're friends, or, I can tell which one you consider first.

She doesn't manage to say any of those things. She moves to speak, even, but there's no sound in the air, no statements forming in the space between her lungs and her lips. Her mouth purses and, flustered, she turns her gaze elsewhere. It's not even arguing, what she'd mean to say, but it's hard to come up with anything to knock against ... pretty much any part of that.

Jeez. ]

... You're important to me, too.

[ It's a quiet echo, made softer by her averted gaze and the volume of the venue — it's a small miracle if he can hear her at all. Jeez. One little I want to look out for you and she's this overwhelmed? It's not even new information. Obviously he wants to — that's where this whole mess of a detour started. ]

I... guess. I'm... not used to that. I'm more, um, usually someone people try to help because they have to. Or, like it's their responsibility. Or it seems like the right thing to do. [ Obligation. Necessity. ] ... Not every time, but enough, that... this kind of thing is different, for me.

... Sorry. If I'm making a big deal out of nothing.

[khajidont]

[ Jaime blinks at her. ]

If it's a big deal, then it's not nothing.

[ He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world - and to him, it is. He's always been the sort to devalue his own feelings. It didn't come with the superhero gig. It'd been some attempt to seem more removed than he is, maybe, or to seem cool, or out of worries that the things that matter to him don't matter to anyone else, but every time he'd start down that path - oh, I dunno, it's stupid - his parents always set him straight. They'd never had to do that with Milagro, or if they had, it hadn't been nearly as often, but they'd handled him pretty well.

If it matters to you, it's not nothing. Even if it's hard to feel in his heart of hearts in difficult moments, he still believes it, and it's a simple enough message to pass on. He's not even sure if he completely buys that's how people feel about Ruka (okay, she has empathy so she should know, but surely it's just one part of a bigger picture; he can't see how anyone who gets to know her could dismiss her like that), but for stuff like this, it's not really the truth that matters. ]

I guess... it's harder when you came to a place like this when you were a little kid. But that's not the way I feel. I don't think that's how some of the others would feel either, once they get to know you like I do. [ Is that presumptuous? Maybe like I do, but they can't exactly claim they don't know each other well enough for that, so... it's okay. He knows that's not how Kanaya feels. It's not how Laurie would feel either, or Cass, or any of Jaime's other friends. That's just fact. ]

[dragony]

[ It's slight, but his first assurance only makes Ruka shake her head, gaze still averted. It is really nothing, in the grand scheme of things. Just because it's rare for her doesn't mean it is for anyone else; just because she focuses her attention too narrowly, or overthinks everything, or inflates the importance of simple actions — none of those things actually change anything, do they? Like now. Getting overwhelmed by these little declarations, that she's important because she's a person, that he cares because she's his friend — she's making these things bigger than they are. Obviously he cares about his friends. Of course he wants to protect people, and do good, and push past whatever boundaries are in his way to accomplish that; it really doesn't have anything to do with her. How she feels about it doesn't change anything, so it doesn't matter. ]

Like you do, huh? [ she echoes, quiet; her hands keep rotating the bowling ball, the finger holes appearing and disappearing, over and over. ] I don't think there's anyone like that.

[ And that's the crux of it, isn't it? By all rights, there should be: there are people in this world that have known her for years. There are people she's lived with. People she's worked with, day after day, for years. People who have known her since she was a child — and, under this same roof, someone who knew her before she ever left her childhood home. Do any of them know her, even half as well as Jaime does?

Does Jaime know her, even half as well as he thinks he does? ]

At least, there isn't anymore. [ She shrugs when she says it, and though she looks towards him now, her expression is shuttered, mouth pinched closed and pressed into a polite smile. She offers him the bowling ball. ] I'll let you get back to your game. Sorry I can't be better competition, right now.

[khajidont]

[ Jaime could protest. He might even be right to do so. But where would that get them? He'd list people, and Ruka would shake her head, dismissing them with some well placed point or another, and Jaime's never been as good at arguing as her - or as good with the minor details that seem to magnify in her presence, larger than the bigger truths that Jaime tends to see. He'd already overstepped. The way I do.

Presumptuous. Too presumptuous, for what they are. They're close friends, yes, but there's still so much they don't know. ]

It's okay, [ he says instead. ] You know I came here to bowl as much as you did. I'll just hang out with you instead, if you don't mind.

[ They don't have to talk about it. Heck, they don't even have to talk. They can just sit for a while. That's fine by Jaime too. ]

[dragony]

I...

[ It's a difficult place. There's a thickness of tension, of worry... he's worried about her, and that's... not what she wants. (It's not, right? He shouldn't be ruining his night just because she's in a weird mood.) She wants to stay; she doesn't want to make things worse.

She ducks her head, and looks away. ]

... I think... maybe later? My heart's... uh, a little too fragile tonight, I think. There's other stuff, too. That I should figure out on my own.

I'll catch you later, okay? Before you leave.

[khajidont]

[ Jaime's not sure why he feels - disappointed isn't the right word. It's something else, something he can't place. But he shouldn't feel that way; close as they may be, it's only natural for her to want some time to process things on her own, and it's certainly not her responsibility to tell him what's on her mind. He doesn't think something like him caring about her is the main trigger for this. Something happened, right?

But it's none of his business, much as he wishes it were. ]

Oh, um... [ C'mon, Jaime. Don't cling. She's got stuff to figure out. He's gotta respect that. ]

Yeah. Of course. I hope you figure out, um - whatever it is you need to figure out.

[ He taps his fingers on the table. ] You know where I'll be.

[dragony]

[ She puts on her boots and redoes her laces in the lull before he speaks; she keeps her eye and attention focused on the task, trying not to notice his reaction. But, of course, there is no ignoring it: that sensation like the ghost of a hand reaching out, hesitating, and falling back. It stings in its own way, and it's reassuring in its own way, and it makes her want to hesitate, too. She shouldn't. She knows she shouldn't. What she wants to do and what she should do are never the same.

She pushes her hands against the table surface for leverage, standing slow; she pauses, (hesitates,) and she looks him over once more. She's still a little too pallid in the face, mood wane, but her mouth pulls a little crooked, one cheek curved for a smile she's trying not to show. ]

You make it really hard to leave, sometimes. You know that, don't you? [ It has all the right words but none of the right sound for a complaint. Exasperated, maybe, but the tone is fond, and warm. ] I'll see you later.

[ And, before she can make anything worse, she turns and heads back up the alley stairs. ]