Game Over
Okay, another oneshot. This one is complete crack, and I suggest you don't look for a theme, moral, archetype, or any of those things that they teach you in Language Arts these days.
And I'm playing with Balthier and Fran's ages, seeing as how it wouldn't be very common for a twenty-one-year-old man and a century plus year-old bunny to be in an arcade.
Disclaimer: Not in the very least.
"C'mon Vaan! Hurry up, the arcade's going to open soon!" Penelo urged hurriedly to her blond best friend as they ran through the crowded streets. Vaan sighed.
"Penelo, I don't know how to tell you this, but I DO NOT want to go to this stupid arcade!" he grouched, trying to get out of his friend's grip. Penelo rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on! You know you want to do some DDR!" And Vaan did. He had a secret penchant for that crazy foot-eye coordinating game, but he could never really win the game. All Vaan wanted was to find a game where he'd be the absolute winner.
"Ah, there it is!" Penelo shouted, tugging Vaan harder as they came to the most popular arcade in Ivalice.
Arcadia, the Gaming Mecca. Teenagers (and some adults) from every corner of the incredibly large city wandered to this vast building packed with games of every type, all after the same thing.
To play for the high score of their favorite games.
"Come on Vaan, or I'll force you!"
And Vaan didn't see the point in going through all of this just to play a game though. Penelo almost skidded to a stop in front of the arcade, pulling Vaan along with her. She stood in front of the door, bouncing on her feet lightly in a giddy manner. Vaan scowled.
"Can you at least let go of my hand?" he asked. Penelo looked at him as if he were stupid. Vaan sighed.
"At least I tried." And then the doors opened.
Vaan had never been so horrified yet thankful in his life. The moment the vague squeaking of the automatic doors sounded, Vaan walked inside, only to look behind him and see the initial onslaught of people running straight for the arcade. When Penelo pulled him to the side as all those people flooded the arcade, Vaan was so happy he resolved to do something totally outrageous for her.
"Vaan! Are you okay?" Penelo asked worriedly. Vaan grinned at her dazedly.
"I'll be okay when my heart crawls back from the pit of my stomach," he replied. Still holding his hand on his chest where his heart would be, Vaan looked around. He found the DDR station easily, but what really caught his interest was the big electronic scoreboard with the high scores of some game.
"Hey, what game is that Penelo?" Vaan asked curiously. Penelo looked up at the scoreboard and frowned.
"I really don't know," she responded.
"It's from the game Final Flight. A very difficult game; and mainly a few people have gathered up the skills to be an expert player." Vaan looked around for the voice, and turned around to see his twelve-year-old friend smiling at him.
"Hey Larsa! Were you telling me about this game over here?" he questioned. Larsa nodded.
"Do you see the top score right there?" the younger boy asked. Vaan looked to the top of the scoreboard and saw the blinking name LeadingMan, along with a high score of 894,000.
"I'm guessing this LeadingMan is pretty good, right?" Vaan remarked. Larsa laughed suddenly, making Penelo run to him and rub his back.
"Are you okay, Larsa?" she asked worriedly. The twelve-year-old covered his mouth with his palm as he tried to smother his laughter.
"I'm sorry about that. But Vaan, really. Good? He's the master of the game! No one has managed to beat him once!" Larsa exclaimed. Vaan cocked an eyebrow.
"And what do you want me to do about it?" he asked. Larsa smiled sweetly.
"Nothing, I just felt like getting your interest piqued." The platinum-blond boy pouted and wandered off towards the Dance Dance Revolution station. Penelo put her hands on her hips and looked at Larsa critically.
"Why are you at the arcade anyway? You don't exactly seem like the type, you know…" Penelo deadpanned. Larsa chuckled.
"I play cyber-chess." And everything almost made sense right then.
"Hey Penelo! There's a tall white-haired girl with dark skin playing a Dynamic song on Expert with 5 times speed over in the DDR area!" Vaan exclaimed as he ran up. Penelo rolled her eyes.
"So?"
"And she's in high heels!"
Penelo sped off towards the DDR section. Vaan was about run back as well, until he heard the annoyed moans coming from the Final Flight game.
"Man, I lost again!" A boy's voice called as he took of the helmet for the game. Vaan wandered closer to the arcade machine and blinked as the other player let out a sultry sounding chuckle.
"Then maybe you should give up, it might be good for the little pride you've got left." He purred. The other boy sighed and got out of his seat, throwing the helmet on the chair in an act of random maliciousness. Vaan frowned at the other player.
"That was really rude of you. He didn't deserve that kind of biting just because he lost a stupid game!" Vaan snapped. The helmet turned towards him, unseeing, and the player shrugged.
"If you're so undignified, then why don't you play against me yourself?" he taunted. And unfortunately, Vaan actually fell for the bait.
Reaching into his pocket, Vaan pulled out a quarter and flipped it in the air, catching it while still in midair. Putting the quarter in the machine, Vaan glared at the machine with a fiery determination as he sat down in the chair. Picking up the other helmet, Vaan first strapped himself into the chair before placing the helmet on his face. Feeling around, Vaan found the joystick and the buttons for the game. An annoying beeping sound occurred and Vaan glared as the helmet lit up with images.
TYPE YOUR NAME: Vaan thought about it before typing in SkyPirate.
LeadingMan challenges you. Accept?
Vaan pressed the button that led to yes.
And suddenly, Vaan was bombarded by surprisingly realistic graphics based off the sky. He noticed a small tutorial key on the side of the helmet's screen, and smirked.
"It's game over for you."
+-GaMeOvEr-+
Penelo was dumbstruck as she returned to where Vaan was, keen on showing him her new DDR-master friend, Fran. But instead of seeing the blond teen, she found a giant crowd gathered around that Final Flight game. Penelo tried to see what was going on, but it was just too many people. So she tapped the shoulder of some guy in front of her.
"What's going on?" she asked. The boy grinned.
"Someone's finally stepped up into the challenge of defeating LeadingMan, and he's doing a damn good job of it too!" he jovially exclaimed. Fran perked up at that.
"You say someone might defeat LeadingMan?" she questioned. The boy nodded. Fran smiled slightly.
"A good turn in fate. He needs to be knocked off his pedestal for once." she murmured. Penelo looked up at the taller girl.
"So, do you know this LeadingMan or something?" she asked. Fran smirked.
"You'd be surprised."
"Hey, the High Score has been breached!" Some kid yelled out and every head turned directly towards the scoreboard.
SkyPirate: 895,000 POINTS
LeadingMan: 894,000 POINTS
"Holy crap on a fudgestick, someone beat LeadingMan!" The boy from before said, as everyone else was utterly speechless. Fran even looked shocked, in an emotionless kind of way.
"GAME OVER… Player Two Wins!" A deep mechanical voice sounded from the Final Flight game. Player One stood up and took off his helmet, revealing the most clean-cut handsome face anyone had ever seen. A scowl was etched onto his face as he ran his fingers through his close-cut auburn hair, relieving it of any helmet shapeliness. He glared at the other player, ready to snap the moment he took off his helmet.
Except, when he took off the helmet, the auburn-haired teen didn't expect such a sight.
A platinum-blond teenager removed the helmet from his head, and shook it for the same reasons as the other player. The former champion stared open-mouthed at the other teenager. He was absolutely the sexiest thing the auburn-haired teen had ever seen since, well, himself. The platinum blond teen blinked at him and frowned.
"What?"
Oh God, even his voice was cute.
"My name is Balthier, and you?" Balthier greeted. Vaan looked suspicious as he put the helmet back onto the chair.
"Uh, I'm Vaan." Balthier smirked.
"Well Vaan, stay right here, and I'll be back in a moment!" Balthier instructed as he took off in a hurried rush towards the snack bar. Vaan, too stupefied to even really move, stood there. The crowd that surrounded the machine still stared at him in absolute hero-worship. Except for Fran, who was still shocked.
And then Balthier came running up, holding something in his hands. Vaan cocked an eyebrow as the taller teenager thrust the box into his hands, a piece of paper taped to the top.
"Vaan, I'll be coming to get you at approximately five PM tomorrow afternoon, meet me here, be sure to wear casual clothes, don't bring any money, I'll be paying, my number's on the paper and if you're good at memorizing then it's 555-678-1234, call me, and I am completely sure that you shall have a fantastic time tomorrow." Balthier said. Vaan looked confused.
"Did you just set me up on a date with you?" Vaan asked slowly. Balthier grinned.
"That's what I said." And he walked away, waving at Vaan as he weaved through the crowd.
"Remember to call me!" Balthier exclaimed as he met up with Fran. The two walked out of the arcade together, Penelo staring at them stupidly. She then snapped out of her stupor to go meet up with Vaan, who opened the box.
"Are you really going to meet up him?" The blonde girl asked. Vaan smiled.
"Hell yes, he bought me nachos!" he said excitedly, pulling out a cheese covered chip and eating it. He smiled in bliss and Penelo almost smacked him.
But, she didn't tell him that you don't go on dates just because some sleazy looking game freak buys you nachos.
"Yep, it's game over for that LeadingMan!" Vaan bragged as he ate another nacho of love. Penelo really wanted to bitch-slap him.
"Can I at least pick out your outfit?" Penelo asked sweetly.
Vaan almost choked on his nacho.
It's never game over for romance.
END
I should've put GAME OVER instead of END, but the former would've been overly clichéd and tacky.
Well, this kinda sucked, but I'm happy with it. I guess.