Fangs and Scales [PRIVATE]

[Maria]

It was reasonable that he wouldn't realize the importance of rituals. There were probably even other sirens who wouldn't care. He mentioned it being dangerous, she nodded to that. Yeah, for both parties it could be called that. Who'd have thought? When you try and force someone to do something they don't respond positively? she thought sarcastically. Though she didn't say it out loud. Normally she would, but she was used to being quiet about things in regards to her species.

She looked around at the games and people there, trying to distract her from that part of the conversation. She really didn't go to places like this too often. Probably cause of the money cost really. She wasn't usually a big spending person. Normally buying something should last, unless of course it's food.

Her attention moved back as he pointed out a place to go and the smile returned properly to her face, she shrugged off her coat and hung it around one of the chairs. "Sweet, this oughta be interesting!" she said her normal cheer more visible, he offered to get drinks while they figured out what to play, she chuckled accepting the quarters, "Heh, well you did-" She hesitated, yeah probably best not to mention severed heads here, and instead altering her wording a bit more into a joke, "Lose your head earlier."

"Got no idea about what game to do though." She made a hissing sound through her teeth in thought widening and blinking her eyes in thought, "Recognize any of these as being two person games?"

[Marty James]

It was nice to see her smile return. She even joked with him, and he could not help but laugh at himself. Someone would have a hard time believing such a story. Marty figured he should just always expect the unexpected. "Yes, that I did… lose my head. So drinks? Anything in particular, or I can just surprise you. Don't think they have much to choose from." Thinking back to the last time he had been out this way, it had been awhile. When Cato and he went out, they mostly took shots, but Marty didn't take Maria for the type. He could always be wrong, she was certainly already full of surprises.

As her attention went to the games, he found himself glancing over the many different types to choose from. "They all look interesting. We could always try them all? Just start with one and we can work our way around." Marty figured this would be the best way to find out what game they liked most. He had honestly not played in awhile, so likely they would all be entertaining. " Just a spoiler alert, I am not the best gamer. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy playing." This was likely due to drinking, when he played in the past. For now, Marty was fine. His hand eye coordination was not too terrible at the moment.

" Can't go wrong with a good racing game. I do always feel like a terrible driver, when I play. Like who can ever stay on the road?! Promise I am not that terrible driving a real car." Smiling along with his words, as he continued to rattle on. "Shooting games are alright, but you can't go wrong with a classic like Ms. Pac-Man. The ghosts usually get me. Just am never fast enough in the end to get away." Taking in sight of the games, Marty would glance over to where they had more games. It would seem they had a nice selection to choose from.

[Maria]

She nodded in agreement, "Yeah drinks are good. And just have at it, I don't have any particular taste preference right now." she wasn't too concerned about how strong the alcohol might be. She'd always had a stronger resilience than most humans and sometimes she just kind of forgot about that. Have to keep careful attention to do things out of the ordinary in a place where out of the ordinary may mean something supernatural, which was true, maybe, depending on your definition.

He suggested trying them all and she laughed slightly, "I mean yeah I guess so! Might take awhile." she said, not remotely averse to the idea. She waved aside his other comment on his skills, "Oh psshh, skill's not the point of gaming. Or, well, maybe it helps. But the point is enjoyment so we'll work it out."

She shook her head on the racing game, and their notorious difficulty with actually staying on track. "You're telling me! I swear they design it so that you crash." He mentioned shooting games, which to her felt classic. Shooters and some roleplaying games were her personal preferences. But that was mostly for console and computer, arcades didn't exactly have many rpg's. Naturally Ms Pacman came up, one of the most classic of video games ever, maybe only challenged by Galaga and some form of Mario style game. "Man, haven't played a Pacman in a while. Don't even remember if you could win or not. Not that every one of those games were designed so you could win, pretty sure it was just based on how high of a score you could get."

[Marty James]

With no specifics made on drinks, Marty figured he would just get two of what he wanted. While Maria went on about gaming and games, Marty would search through the pockets of his jacket. Why do my jackets always have so many pockets! Sure helped to prevent his wallet from being stolen. Many pick-pockets lived in the city. Something Marty had caught onto fast. Most of the time he caught them, but a few times it had been too late. Marty didn't even have an ID anymore. Just to get another one from the states would be a lot of work. All of his important documents were still at a cabin he owned in upstate New York. He was still paying the taxes every year, so the place would be safe. It had been years since he last saw the place. He was considering sending Cato to fetch the rest of his belongings. Even if Marty could get out on his own, it was not likely he would want to. He was almost positive his family back home had someone checking up on him. Sure vampires were outed, but he didn't want his family facing persecution, because of what he was. Bad enough he had already had a few negative encounters of his own.

It took him a moment, but he did find his wallet. Checking inside to be sure his cash was still there, before pocketing it in his jeans. He would linger a moment before heading off to the bar. "Certainly could not play them all, if we happen to be really good at playing any of them. If I remember right, some games let you play on until you lose. We could end up playing Ms. Pac-Man all night!" He joked, as if it would be a bad thing. Marty didn't care, because the purpose of coming would still stand. He was still getting a chance to know Maria better. " Maybe we could start off with one of the racing games? They definitely design it so you crash! Though, that is a fun aspect to the game sometimes. Like when you spin out of control and just do donuts."

Excusing himself, Marty would head off to the bar. It was different, not having to push his way through a crowd of people. He didn't even have to wait to order drinks. A bartender was waiting for him the moment he walked up. He would order some ale and two shots of whiskey. Changing it then to three shots of whiskey, so he could drink a shot before heading back over to Maria. Marty was sure to tip the bartender very well. It was hard to tell what sort of living they were making, during such times. Heading back, he would set down the drinks near where Maria was. Taking one of the glasses of ale, taking a sip. " Alright, what are we playing first? Smiling, he thought about giving a toast, but didn't. Likely he would give one later, if he ended up having a couple more drinks.

[Maria]

Maria folded her arms looking at the games and thinking about which ones to go to first. Marty agreed they couldn't get them all tonight, and they could absolutely end up just playing one game the entire time. Made her chuckle just a bit. "Yeah! If we managed that though we'd for sure get a high score...well I'd think so anyway. I actually don't even know the longest time someones spent on a game....I'm looking that up."

She took out her phone typing, looking up again as he spoke, racing game first, "Sounds good to me! I know some of them are two to four person so could really test the skills eh?" she happily agreed. She looked back at her phone, mouthing the words out as she typed quickly and then scrolled for a moment before widening her eyes and looking at Marty as he was already on his way to get the drinks.

He came back with some drinks, she smiled holding her phone screen out to show him as she took a quick sip of the whiskey and made a noise with her throat a bit like a cough, "Almost eighty five hours on an arcade game! That's like three and a half days!"

"Oh right, and I think that's a two person racing one. One of those typical drag racers that go through cities or Antarctica, cause that's definitely where race-cars go." She added pointing one out and taking another slight sip of the whiskey.

[Marty James]

As the phone was held out in his direction, Marty would lean in to catch a better look. Two things surprised him. One, that someone would spend that much time on a game. The other, that Maria had gone for the whiskey first. He could not help the smile that lingered with him. "Now that's just crazy! Not sure I could dedicate that much time all at once to anything. Some people need sleep. Seriously that person must have been on an energy drink bender! Likely they slept for a week after that. Wonder if they ever played again, or just burned themselves out on it after that." Laughing then, before taking another drink of his ale. His eyes lingering around for a moment, grateful they still had the area of games to themselves.

With her motion to a certain game, Marty would give a nod. Smiling at her mention of the random places featured on such games. "Sounds good. And yeah, having a race track set in Antarctica, just goes unsaid ;none will drive well on this game." As he spoke, he gave a wave of his hand, as if the last of his words were some unwritten promise from the game makers. Making his way over to the game, Marty would settle into one of the driving seats. His feet messing with the petals. He took a long drink from his glass then, before setting it aside.

"Alright, let's do this. I'm ready to crash into stuff. Laughing, as if this was the main point of the game. He would try his best though, but it was likely his game play would involve off road disasters. " If only they had high scores for that. I could be king!" Joking, as he gave the wheel a spin. He would wait for Maria to load the game up with quarters. Grabbing his drink, he had a few more sips, before things would get started. He would let her pick the racing location. Truly he was enjoying himself, it had been a long time since he had so much fun and it did not involve massive amounts of alcohol.

[Maria]

Maria normally didn't go for whiskey. But she figured, if it was bad, ale was easier to wash it down with. And if that failed there was always just water but there was no fun in that really was there. She held out her hand admitting not knowing as he mentioned that whoever managed so many consecutive hours must have had a long sleep, "They better have. With that much time, oof. I can't even imagine."

Off to the racing game they went. She gave a quick test to see if she could adjust the seat...that was a probably yes, but she couldn't figure it out so she left it as it was. Slipping in the quarters for the two of them from the roll he'd given her. Before setting up and slapping her hands onto the steering wheel.

She chuckled as he said he was ready to crash and high scores. "Not if I crash you off the road!" Maria challenged, then thought for a second, "Not even sure you can do that..."

She'd select her car. Honestly she was pretty sure most of it was aesthetic, but who knows, maybe more regular players could tell. Full speed and just try and steer was her plan, maybe use the other cars as buffers to avoid hitting the walls until she could get further in the front...if she could.

She ran over the maps real quick then just ended up selecting tokyo.

The count down started, Red. Yellow. Green. GO.

[Marty James]

With mention of crashing him off the road, Marty would attempt to hold a serious look on his face; and not laugh. "Oh it's on! Can't crash me off the road, if I crash first. I mean wait…" He laughed then, but made no attempt to clarify what he was trying to say. Crashing in a game amused him. At least in a game, none could get hurt. Marty had crashed his share of cars in real life before; nothing enjoyable about it. Luckily he had never been seriously injured, or hurt anyone else. A few cars might have been destroyed, but that tended to happen when you hit trees or street lights at high speeds. All memories he cared not to remember, and a few he did not even remember at all.

As the game started, Marty would pick a green car. That was all he cared about, as green was his favorite color. He had not paid much attention to any other differences between the cars. As the Tokyo map was chosen, Marty knew this was going to be interesting. Likely the course would include many sharp twists and turns. Crashing was going to be no trouble. He reminded himself staying on the road, in the right direction was the key to the game. Easier said! Despite his joking around, he did intend to at least try.

As the countdown started, Marty would count along. Reaching for his ale, he had a drink while keeping one hand on the wheel. As the light turned green, he did not go right away. Distracted with setting his drink aside. Punching the accelerator down, he would be off; in last place of course. This didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. He laughed, smiled and would even call out as he nearly went off the road. "That was a close one!" Laughing then, as he spared a glance over to Maria. At this point Marty would crash. "Aw! Eyes on the road Martin!" Speaking to himself then, as he worked to get back to the road, but then ended up going the wrong way. Once situated, he would speed off in the direction of the other cars. He was seriously in last place now.

[Maria]

Maria couldn't help but laugh out loud at all this. This was possibly the most absurd of scenarios to come out of today. It just kept compounding on itself getting more and more unusual. Of all places of course Harper Rock was the one for that to happen in. But both her kind and his usually weren't keen on being public about what they were. Add onto that the specifics of the discovery, and the proceedings, and it would be hard pressed for things to grow more absurd. They were playing an arcade game of all things after swimming in the Harper Rock river where there were most certainly human heads, or at least skulls.

She shifted in her seat smiling and looking between the screen and him before they started. She at least tried to use the idea of more gradually pressing on the accelerator to gain momentum as they went off. Naturally, in a game like this they'd be moving quite fast regardless. She didn't even pretend to be driving safely, trying to full throttle it on the inside track and crashed into the cars beside her rather so that she'd turn rather than skidding way off the track.

Maria managed to see him crash, and the proceeding mishap of directions, "Aha! You're screwed now!" she laughed as she missed a car for turning and slammed into a wall, at least she was still facing the right direction "Shhhhh, you didn't see that."

[Marty James]

Having missed seeing Maria hit a wall, he would be distracted by her words. " Didn't see what?" Asked, before laughing to see he had gone off the road again. A main contributor to his poor driving, was how easily distracted he was. It was hard to keep his eyes on the road, when he kept wanting to look over at Maria. The way she smiled, and would look at him from time to time. It was clear she was enjoying herself. Marty too was having a lot of fun. It was nice to let loose in a way that would not bring him trouble. At least trouble was the farthest thing from his mind, as he raced around the track. He was a lap behind the other cars now, but none of that mattered. It was all in the moment and joy of the shared experience.

Reaching for his ale, Marty didn't see the harm in drinking and driving ; while playing the game. He was doing so poorly, it honestly could not be any worse. Or so he thought. While taking a drink and being surprised by a sharp turn, he would manage to spill a little on his shirt. " Aw s….." He found himself instinctively almost cursing, but managed to catch himself. "Shoot. Can't believe I did that. Ok, guess I can believe it." Laughing with his shared words, as he set his drink aside once again. It was probably best to drink between games.

The game felt to go on longer than he recalled racing games to last. This could be due to his poor game play. Surely the last lap had to be in sight at some point. It would be no surprise when it finally would come, Marty would be in last place. He was distracted once again, but this time by a tap on his shoulder. Glancing over, he noticed it was one of the humans he heard talking before. His friend stood behind him. The two didn't look very intimating, but Marty was sure this could not be anything good. " We should be done soon, but hey there are several other games to play. Maybe go see the bartender. Have a drink, tell him to put it on my tab." He tried his best, to keep his voice friendly and calm. Even if the human intrusion annoyed him.

"We know what you are." The human standing back would say. The man held a grin, which made Marty feel a little uneasy. He was not above a fight, Marty could hold his own; even under the influence. Tonight was different though, he was with someone he wanted to make a good impression upon. Already he had started on a bad note. "What's that, a bad driver?" Laughing, he tried to play it cool. "You're a blood sucker." The man spoke, as if it were some big secret he was proud of discovering. Likely he had used a mirror or caught his lack of reflection somehow.

Turning away from the game, Marty made eye contact with one man, and then the other as he spoke. " Vampires are no big secret anymore gentlemen. So why don't you go have that drink, and let me enjoy the rest of my evening." He laced his words, using his power to convince them to walk away. He prayed they just walked away. One of the men seemed to hesitate at first, but the two would walk off towards the bar. Marty would turn back to the game, worried of what Maria might be thinking. Would she start to regret hanging out with him? It was likely the humans would be back.