2024-12-18 - Ride'em Cowgirls!

Declan is in the midst of the race of his life at the moment. As of now, he's simply racing against NPCs, but don't tell him that! Dressed in a pair of distressed jeans and a trademark sleeveless t-shirt (yes, even in this weather), he grips the reins of his 'mare' and works it up and down as swiftly as he can toward the finish line. "C'mon, Hoof-Hearted [(say it quickly...)], you got this, dammit!"

First night on the job! Exciting! Tig has already been here for a couple of days, getting settled in, but now she's ready to go out and conquer the world! Or, at least, conquer faulty machinery. Her boss had been gracious enough to pair her with somebody who knew about this event to bring her here so she could have a little fun while checking on the animatronics.

So far, she's spent a good hour poking at the machines, when her partner tells her to go off and have fun and meet some of the employees. With a sad little, "Awww," she turns and starts wandering around.

Eventually, she finds herself in front of the Final Furlong game, which she stops and watches. "You know," she says conversationally, "I don't think I've ever seen this game before."

There's an audible CRUNCH as Taylor wanders over from the vicinity of the snacks, carrying a small individual-size bag of chips, one of which she's just popped in her mouth. She's in her usual off-hours, laid-back attire, denim shorts, tank top and flip-flops despite the often chilly weather (at least they're inside), and (more sensibly) a green school hoodie with white lettering, although this one is more the hoodie-jacket kind so it's less obvious what it says when it's open.

She makes her way back over toward the game Declan is playing and hops up to sit on one of the other horses, but sideways, unsuitable for playing. Just for watching.

"They've got all kinds of weird ones here," she answers Tig, even if the comment might not have been directed at her. Declan's fighting for his life! Or who-farted's high score, anyway. "I mean, like, it's not half as weird as all that crazy steampunk stuff upstairs. But yeah, lots of old retro cabinets and stuff." She pops another chip. "I'm Tay, jockey's Declan."

Some folks in the park are just always on the clock, it seems. Thankfully for Tig, she gets a reprieve and as well as a firsthand look at Declan appearing absolutely ridiculous attempting to 'ride' a plastic machine on the way to victory. It seems that he has very poorly allocated his carrots/energy and has gassed his pony about a hundred yards from the finish line.

Every NPC-horse, except the one that mercifully always seems to keep the player from getting last zooms right on by Declan and his horse. The 'fanfare' that plays is decidedly not for him and is swiftly followed up by a dejected-sounding melody.

He looks over to his left at Tig and sighs in a dramatic fashion, but wears an amused smile all the same. "Oh really? God, I used to fuckin' love this game when I was a boy." His accent has a heavy Northern Irish accent to it. It doesn't seem at all that getting his ass beat in a game has bothered his enjoyment in the least.

Taylor comes along and plops down next to him. Of course, she happens to randomly sit on the horse that wins and it's her screen that gets the champagne shower and wreath in celebration. "Of course," he deadpans, eyeing that young lifeguard before smirking.

Back to Tig he nods after the introduction is given. "Aye, nice to meet you."

"Antigone," Tig responds, introducing herself. "Well, Tig, really. Everybody calls me Tig. Well, not everybody but everybody who isn't my parents do, and I don't know why I just introduced myself as Antigone if I don't want people to call me by it, I think it was because Tig is a strange sort of name so I want people to know where it came from." She snaps back from her reverie and grins widely, "Anyway, yes, hi!"

She goes over to the game and straddles one of the horses. "Wanna race?"

Taylor actually looks over with some slightly-startled alarm when 'her' screen starts making victory noises, since she didn't even think it was really 'on' in whatever mode Declan is playing. But, uh, a win's a win, right? So she turns back around. To gloat in unearned fashion!

"Booyah! Take that!" Big grin. Smug chip.

Then, more conversationally: "Yeah, he's old, so he knows all the old people games." The more complicated introduction just gets a grin, since hers is technically the same situation, just without the full explanation of the shortened version. "Mmm, if you wanna do another round," she muses, looking over at the screens. "Or we could try another one! Maybe something less... from the before-times. They've got pretty much everything here."

Declan lifts a hand to wave at Tig when she gives her name, offering her a tight smile at nod. He shares a quick,amused glance with Taylor when the explanation goes a bit too long, but it's all fine and dandy in the end! "Hey Tig, welcome. Yeah, let's race."

Taylor, however, gets a biiiiiig ol' finger wag. "Uh-uh, Puka..fuck that. You wanna celebrate, your ass better earn it. Mount up." He reaches down and hits the start button which prompts the other races to join on in if they're feeling up to it! Taylor's machine is on one side, Declan has another empty one to his left. "Then, once I show you how to ride, we can go play...TikTokRok or..whatever the hell is new and fuckin' full of microtransactions."

"Oh! Sometimes the old things are the best!" Tig chirps, as she leans over to press the start button so she can race. "Like pinball! The new stuff is neat with all the electronics and stuff, but the really old ones that did everything mechanically are really neat once you dig into how they did everything without computers." She crouches down and takes up the reigns in her hands as she waits for the countdown. "Having limitations means that you have to get creative with your solutions."

She scowls and looks over at Declan. "I don't think arcade games have microtransactions, since by their very nature they're just transactions, and they get their money by being fun, yet difficult, to entice you to ... OH!" Tig had totally missed that the race had started with her babbling, and her attention snaps to the screen. She starts shaking the reigns vigorously to get her horse to catch up with the pack, but it doesn't seem she quite have the rhythm down for it yet.

"Whatever." Taylor rolls her eyes expressively back at Declan. "I'm already up 1-0. So worst, I tie." Clearly, she's holding on to that unearned win! At this point, she pops another chip, and then kinda rolls the top of the bag closed and shoves it in a convenient hoodie pocket, before making a show of turning and tossing a leg over the far side of the horse to properly sit astride it to ride.

"Hmm, OK, join... how do I join... man this UI..." She jiggles and whacks at the 'bridle' controller a bit until she finds the right button. There's... only two buttons. "What do we even do? Oh, I see, it like... tilts?! So you really gotta ride this sucker? Haha, that's actually kinda cool, makes you get physical and stuff." Maybe Tig's defense of the old ways is winning out. Because Old Man Declan obviously isn't getting credit. She asides, about the micro-transactions: "Yeah don't try and correct him about that stuff. He barely knows how to work his phone."

Yet then, once it starts: "Ohshit here we go! Woo! Ride 'em, cowgirls!" Despite any prior complaint, she seems to get into it pretty quickly. Indeed, she's maybe a bit over-enthusiastic about the whole thing, rocking on her little plastic horse like a maniac.

It doesn't take long for all contestants to really get into it. Whether it's for the actual fun of the game itself or sheer competitiveness, who's to say! But Declan is huffing and puffing, giving his new horse 'Pasture Bedtime' a real run for it's money. He steals a couple of glances at his competitors screens and, on Taylor's, can see him and Tig a bit ahead. "Don't let an old man beat you, Puka! He'll never let you live it down!!"

Tig is taking to this race like a fish to water and it looks like things come down to the wire. Literally! As they cross the finish line, Declan huffs and puffs and relaxes while the game screens overhead work on some animation that eventually zooms in on a photo finish, showing that Tig's horse literally edged it out by a nose!

Declan laughs, groans, claps and otherwise has a great time while making up some clearly complicated and playfully lame excuses as to why he lost. "I think yours wasn't weighed down right, Tig. I'm gonna have to inform the race official!"

When Tig gets into something, she really gets into it. There she is, crouching over her mechanical horse, vigorously rocking it until she finds the right rhythm that the arcade game seems to want, her tongue sticking out the entire time. As the finish line inches nearer, she somehow manages to crouch even lower and she murmurs, "C'mon... c'moooonnnn...." until wham the game is over.

She lets go of the reigns and stands, laughing in delight, hardly paying attention to the screens. She nearly misses that her horse won the match, but manages to catch it in the corner of her eye with a surprised, "Oh!" She turns and blinks at Declan and says, deadpan, "Well, if you think so, we can switch horses. Rematch?"

"C'mon! C'mon! Gooooo! Giddyup!"

There's a lot of... noise, from Taylor's side of the race, the plastic clatter of constantly pushed buttons, the straining mechanics of the machine as it rocks back and forth, and far more so, from the commentary of its player. And those are just the safe for work examples! But most of all, it seems to suggest that she's at least gotten into the game, despite any prior disparagement. And that's what really matters in the end, right? Everyone having a good time?

Nope!

"Ahhhhhhhrgh! Stupid horse. WHY WON'T YOU GO FASTER?! Goooooo!" By the end, she is seemingly doing her best to beat the poor thing to death with the in-game 'whip' button, as if it might salvage her fate. It does not. "No!" At the end, she slumps forward, her defeat total and her dejection at the outcome complete and all-consuming. Well, until there's talk of a rematch. Then she pops back up, apparently none the worse for all the dramatics. "Guess that'd make it best out of three." She is totally keeping that first point...

Tig takes her digital celebratory lap around the track while Declan and Taylor attempt to handle their spirit-crushing defeats. He'd not expected them to want to stick with it or want another go, but they both seem keen on it if, perhaps, for different reasons. Tig is a graceful winner and Taylor has to save face. As of now the score is tied 1-1 between the women (hey wait, how'd Taylor get a point??) and Declan is deep in the hole.

But it's time to race again. Pride is on the line. Master horsemanship is at stake. The winner gets a massive stud fe--wait.

The race between them starts back up and this time there are no prisoners. There's raw focus, especially from Taylor who does not beat her horse to death this time. WEIRD how they might run faster that way...

But she makes it a clear winner with Declan pulling up there there, behind even Tig for a lousy last place. "Hooooly crap. Maythehorsebewithyou is a shitty mount. I need something better, I can't work with this."

This time Taylor indeed does not beat her virtual horse quite so severely. This does not mean she's any less of a screaming banshee down the track, nor that she overdoes it any less with the physical part of the game, sitting up nearly like a real jockey at the very end. Whether that technique actually accomplishes anything? Who can say! But her butt is up and bouncin', and her hands vigorously shaking the reins. Until, at the very last...

LanaDelNeigh comes dashing into first.

"YESSSSSS!" Taylor releases the reins to pump her fists above her head, before turning to... demonstrate some good sportsmanship toward Tig, of all things, leaning back on the horsei-mount to address her. "Well, a tie score isn't the worst way to end." Wait, did the phantom point go away now? "Really, the important thing... is that Declan came in dead last." There it is. Now she reaches back in her pocket to procure a victory chip.

Once again, it's off to the races! Tig flashes a grin, turns back to her mechanical horse, and grips on tightly. At the sound of the gun, she's once again hunched over her horse, rocking it back and forth in a steady motion, saving up the energy of her faithful steed to use at the very last second. However, it's just not enough. She probably should have used the whip some, but if the others noticed she just shrugs and says, "I don't really like hurting animals."

"WHEW!" She breathes, once it's all over. "That really takes a lot out of you!" She shoots a grin at Taylor. "Yeah. I don't really think I have it in me to do a third race. We should do something that doesn't require so much bouncing." Her eyes flick to Delcan, "Maybe give him a chance to show us up one?"

"Oh, I didn't mind the bouncing," comes a reply that is half-crude and equally half-lie. He was fully focused on the screen and result in front of him the whole time, didn't have a chance to notice any periphereal 'bouncing'!

And it does seem that the phantom point has since gone away. Looks like someone got a conscious or the taste of real points is just so much sweeter. "Alright, well..nice job. I guess it's better to be lucky than good, eh?" Because that's, obviously, the only way he could have lost two races in a row!

Taylor's play jab and picking coupled with Tig's attempts at diplomacy have him looking between the two as he leans back on his horse before getting up and off. "Well, I picked this game, only fair that one of you pick the next one." Declan adjusts his shirt a little bit, stretcing out his arms and legs that weren't used to so a position or movement.

"Yeah if I'm going to end up not being able to walk the next morning, I usually like a little more to show for it..." Taylor lets that linger for maximum effect. "...like winning a meet or something." Then she flashes Tig a grin, as she dismounts from her mechano-horse. "Pft, he doesn't need his ego stroked, trust me. No reason to go easy."

With her feet on solid ground again, she looks around for options. "I'm OK with whatever. Except not the shooting ones. I suck at those." Though her competitiveness seems roused in the face of an actual race or contest, in the end, her manner is laid back about the whole thing. They are just here to hang out and have fun. Competitive humiliation is just bonus points.

"Could do like, skeeball or one of those things, or head upstairs and check out the weird old timey ones or something, too." There's Declan old, and then there's the actual whole steampunk-themed main section. Finally she rounds on Tig. "New girl's choice!"