Private Finished Technophile

Phoebe loved the arcade. They had had one back in Blackwater Bay. She could almost still feel the roughness of the etchings on the game token against her thumb as she looked out among the different games to be seen. And now that she was aware that she was a video game character, it kind of made her feel a kinship with the games themselves. Silly as that sounded. And above and beyond all of that, she was spending time with her friend Smokey! Smokey was one of the few people who seemed to get it. Maybe not in the exact same way that she did, but Smokey laughed along with her when she told a morbid joke and didn't get uncomfortable when she talked about killing. It made Phoebe really nervous when people got all antsy. Just because she was talking about killing didn't mean she was going to kill! It was fine. She'd had therapy.

As she bounced into the arcade, her drone hidden in the center of her chest and projecting her form around itself, Phoebe grinned as she looked for Smokey. The drone thing was a new trick she'd figured out, one that let her feel a little more real. A little more there. She was in a pair of light gray denim shorts with frayed hems and a black tank top with a picture of a kitchen knife on it. In red, blood splatter-like letters it read "to meet you" underneath the knife. Well, she at least thought it was clever. Grinning a she spotted Smokey, Phoebe blinked out of sight, leaving her drone behind. She rematerialized next to Smokey, grinning ear to ear.

"Smokey! Hey! Glad you could make it. I'm excited, are you excited? It feels like I haven't played skee-ball in so long."

"Thanks!," Phoebe said, leaning in to give her friend a hug around her neck. Watching the smoke that was her hair react to being touched. It was wild. And really really cool.

Leaning back after the hug she gave a quick little spin to show off her new shoes too. Galaxy patterns Converses with a rainbow of glittery stars all over them. "I bought a designer pack for my clothes. I've been making myself some cool custom designs to fit my aesthetic."

"So do you wanna try skee-ball first then? It's a pretty fun game, and it'll get us tickets for the prize wall! We should probably get some tokens," she said, eyeing the token machine off to the side.

Phoebe's cheeks flushed a bit in response to Smokey's praise. Her form glitched ever so slightly as she waved her hand dismissively. "N-no no. It's really nothing. Just a lot of drag and drop, ya know? Nothing really special."

She smiled though, enjoying the compliment as she gestured over to the token machine. "Then let's get our tokens and get to work. The alley should probably be near the back." Phoebe was right, a little to her surprise. But she figured if it wasn't broke, why fix it? Phoebe got to explaining the game. "It's easy, really. You get nine balls. You rolls them up the alley and try to get them in those holes. You can see how many point each one is worth written on them. The more points you get, the more tickets you get. Rinse and repeat."

For her part, Phoebe was pretty decent at it. She could consistently get the 40 point goal, and at least once per game get a 100 point one. She laughed and glitched out once, the ball missing its mark and landing in the gutter instead. That made her laugh harder and soon enough her whole form was corrupt and her skin was bright blue for the next five minutes while she readjusted her color balance. "Whoops! Haha. God I missed this..."

Phoebe mimicked Smokey's air punch and grinned at them, turning and offering one of the skee-ball alleys to Smokey. "What if we make it interesting? First to a hundred tickets wins."

She put in more tokens and set herself up at whichever alley Smokey didn't pick. "I dunno what happens if you win. I guess you just win," she said with a grin as her machine released the nine balls she would use for the game.

Phoebe let out a noise like a hiccup when she registered what Smokey said. Turning to her, her cheeks going bright red, she stammered a bit. "W-what? You, I mean... like me? Like, like like me?" Not a glitch, just an embarrassed. "ha-hͪaͣhͪaͣhͪaͣhͪaͣ" Okay, maybe that one was a glitch. Glitching nervous laughter.

"I-I mean, I don't know what to say Smokey I've never really had someone like me okay that isn't true therewasJoannbackthatonesummerbutweonlykissedtheonceand-" Her whole form staticked out momentarily and she dropped the ball with an audible thud.

"S-s-sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry." She took several moments, trying to recompose herself. About the time that an employee was coming over to check on the two of them she finally got it together. Offering a quick, embarrassed apology that was more clearly aimed at Smokey than the employee, she waited until he'd left to look back at her friend.

"I- um. I mean." she fidgeted as she thought. Smokey was nice and they appreciated Phoebe for who and what else was, rather than treating her like she was a monster or a weirdo like other people did. But they also weren't, well-being "I, um... I... Like girls. Sorry. You're a good friend and I definitely still wanna hang out I just- ya know. Sorry."