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You can’t allow this date to start on your strongest point, it’ll go downhill from here, you must redirect her attention.
“You sure you want to start with this? I saw you eyeing the dancing machine.” You have an eye for detail.
“And you don’t think I didn’t notice you doing the same with the crane one?” Celia fires back.
You’re at an impasse.
“Let’s be clever, you don’t want to carry a plushy around all day, right? Let’s leave for later.” You reason.
“Hm...” Celia doesn’t retort immediately.
“...You want to carry a plushy around?” You raise an eyebrow. It shouldn’t surprise you, but still.
“S-Shut it, I didn’t say that. Move.” Celia walks forward to the legally distinct dancing machine game with arrows. “You wanna dance?”
“You first.” You give her a thumbs up.
“It’s for two players.” Celia invites you to the next cabinet.
“I want to see your moves though.” You want to focus on her.
“Suit yourself.” Celia’s face hints a smidgen redder as shows her back. “What song?”
“What?” You can’t hear her all that well with the music blaring so strongly.
“Pick a song.” Celia asks again as she rotates through the playlist.
“That one.” You like this one. Pretty high energy. It’s not Hobosound, but it’ll do.
“This one?” Celia wants you to confirm.
“Yep.” You nod.
“...Good taste.” Celia stomps forward and the round begins.
Celia absolutely smashes the highest score to levels never seen before! Her fluid movements go beyond human comprehension to an apex that only a machine can comprehend.
Scratch all that, it’s a lie, she matched the perfect score. The full list is plagued with them. A flawless execution, but nobody can beat a perfect score. Either, the arcade is full of pros today, or that the machine hasn’t been reset in a bit.
“Impressive! You’re crazy good!” You enthusiastically clap.
“Your turn.” Celia extends her hand to you. “Show me what you got.”
“I’ll do my best.” You adjust your glasses.
...And your best sucked. Compared to Celia, at least. You bet if you had a controller, you would’ve done much better! Even if this isn’t the type of machine that would work with one… Whatever, you’re not salty, you had fun. A lot of fun with your imperfect score. It’s a co-op game, you both won. This is what you need to take out of this.
After a handful of songs, you’re out of there...
“Sorry, I couldn’t keep up.” You lament.
“Hm?” Celia never cared about your performance. “Tell me, how did it feel?”
“What do you mean?” You ask to avoid a misunderstanding.
“Moving around, letting loose, and feeling… *you know*?” Celia gets self-conscious.
“Dancing does that to you, yeah.” You nod.
“Do you think you can feel like that all the time?” Celia asks. “Like… not here?”
Celia is opening up…
