Eidel Shain was not in the best of moods, she might even be in the worst mood she had in quite a while. After all, waking up way later than planned while also having said wake-up covered in sweat and actually feeling even more tired than when she went to bed would certainly put anyone in a terrible mood. Today, she had planned to explore Shine City and get to know her new home.
Hm. "Home" sounds strange. she thought to herself with a scowl. And as she made up for lost time by wandering around through the new place, she felt less and like she was discovering a new home, but
instead wandering around without the slightest direction. The girl, dressed quite darkly, coincidentally like her mood (
So edgy she remarked silently with a wry smile), had already walked the same streets quite a few times in the last hour or so and she felt little motivation at this point to follow the itinerary she had written for herself on her phone. Even though it would probably put her on track and help her find her way to discovering more of the city, it wouldn't do a thing for the feeling of being totally out of place. It was a hot summer day and even with the short sleeves of her blouson and her not so lengthy shorts, she felt hot, irritated and wanted to go home. But where was home? It wasn't her small apartment near the Shine City Academy, no, not yet. She had only been there for one week and it still felt about as homely as a hotel room, and not even a good hotel room. No, more like a hotel room that one would reluctantly choose because all the others are either filled or too expensive, with the walls having holes in them, paint peeling and a strange smell wafting from the shower. She had covered most of the blemishes on the walls up with posters and had sprayed copious amounts of air freshener in the bathroom to make things a bit better, but even now, she didn't feel so safe and comfortable at home.
Shine City, it was, fittingly enough, a city that seemed to glitter before her eyes. Most of it was clean, the buildings were modern and the streets were nothing if not colorful. People seemed friendly, some smiled at her when she glanced at them and Shine Junction in particular was the sort of place she had always dreamed of visiting, with many shops, many interesting looking people, many things, so much of everything. But she still felt wrong and every so often, she'd stop and leave the world around her to focus on her phone, giving herself the excuse that as a member of one of the most hardcore parties in one of the more popular smartphone RPG's, she had to regularly check in and give her contribution to any quest or raid the party was working on. She'd stay leaned against a random wall for about twenty minutes or so just tapping away, feel a bit more positive afterwards and then continue walking only to find herself feeling lost all over again. Even with all the fancy stores, nothing seemed to particularly interest her, never spending more than a fleeting moment window shopping and the constant bustle had her feeling quite dizzy.
Then, she came to the sort of place she had only dreamed about. In fact, it was one of the reasons she had initially decided to move to Shine City. Standing before her after turning a corner like some sort of cathedral of technology was Lancom Arcade. As she stared in sudden realization of where she was, she instinctively reached into her pocket and reached for her wallet.
Damn it, she winced as she saw two 20's gazing back at her. No quarters. This wasn't going to keep her from venturing in, as she finally felt a tinge of motivation. Walking with a new brisk vigor, she only paused for a fraction of a moment when she was shot with cool air from the AC of the arcade, then continued with the same vim as soon as she was through. Slamming the twenty on the counter, she tapped her foot in impatience but with a blush as she surprised herself with her excitement. It only took a few seconds for the man at the front desk to give her back twenty quarters, a bill of ten and a five, though it felt like an hour to Eidel. She felt almost angry with him for taking
so much time, since this was her first chance at recovering this day. However, the situation only made her blush more, as this sort of passion was the sort of thing that she always felt a bit embarrassed about.
Her first goal was to find herself an opponent and a game. Though she typically was quite shy unless it was a group, with communication between individuals being her weakness, game opponents, even in person, were another story. Wandering through the aisles, she passed on light-gun shooters, vertical bullet-hells, dancing games and eventually found herself in her promised land; rows of fighting game machines to both sides of her. However, most potential opponents were already playing and she wasn't the kind of person to invite herself into someone else's game. Stalking past people, mostly teens and people around her age, and with decidedly average skills, Eidel paused when she saw someone at the cabinet for StreetBrawler Delta 3. A girl, it seemed and one also quite a bit taller than her, she was piling up KO's against CPU characters who were stringing together respectable combos (or at least attempting to, most of the time, due to the skill of the player) and lining up an exorbitantly high score. Somehow, this felt attractive to her and something seemed mighty competitive about the girl, even if she seemed to fade a bit into the scenery. However, StreetBrawler was definitely not a game she was very good at and something within Eidel wanted her to win. She'd have to fight on her own terms and on home field against someone as good as her.
With a scan of the aisle, she made reconnaissance of the area. By some luck, directly behind her hoped opponent was
a row of six cabinets for one of her favorites, BlazBlue Continuum Shift, arranged two by two for three sets of two opponents. Still blushing at her own rashness, but still feeling compelled to grin, she hatched an idea. Though it was an older game, already with a few sequels,
Continuum Shift was still a fairly popular game that people tended to like, at least when it came to the console version she fervently played with a fighting stick at home. If she could get some people playing and beat them, she might attract the attention of her hoped opponent. With the advantage of playing an
Arc System Works game, she might, even probably win.
Arc System Works had a certain style of fighting game and it was a style that Eidel knew by heart. Heck, it was probably one of her few hobbies.
She stood in front of the center cabinet and cracked her knuckles as the demo reel played.
Operation... Regicide, begin!
Watching the aisle, she waited until a group of a few youths walked by and dropped precisely eight quarters on the ground. At the sound, a young man turned around and knelt to help her grab the coins. "S-sorry." Eidel stammered and the stranger shook his head.
"Don't worry about it!" He smiled a very wide grin that made the girl blush even more. "Were you gonna play
BlazBlue? Wanna do a round?"
"Why not..." Eidel laughed inwardly, despite her awkward demeanor. It was an impish laugh, that only she could hear. The poor man had fallen into her trap. His friends gathered around and the two sat down. Selecting her favorite character, Noel Vermillion, she got comfortable on the stool and within minutes, she was onto a new opponent after an Astral Finisher ended a rematch. A couple of people, seeing the fires of competition, stopped when they walked by the machine and started watching and soon, cheers and boos were being made.
Gathering attention, Operation Regicide continued, with Eidel deftly moving and playing with the controls, similar to her homebuilt fighting stick at home. Only once in a while, she'd glance at her hoped opponent, waiting for attention. She was going to strike down this queen and save her day.
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