Damned Dancing's Return [Cecilia/Cecil]

He'd done it. He'd talked his inner self into allowing arcade time to be used as improvement time, and in doing so, spared himself from having to study for the hell that was Isla Class History.
For fuck's sake, why did they have to focus on all the shit the woman did so much instead of actual bloody history? He could swear that they were making half of it up, even. Like anyone had a bloody clue what was going on during the hell of the Divide other than lots and lots of screaming.

...ahem.

Anyway...Ankou had allowed him to go to the arcade instead of studying - with one little catch.
For most of his time here, he was going to be stuck playing Dance Retribution. And as much as he liked the idea of it, he didn't feel confident actually playing it, let alone with anyone watching. It took someone dragging him up last time to make it happen and...
Alright, the fuckup there was basically unrelated to him playing the game, but it was still a fuckup!

So now he stood at the machine, taking calming breaths as it counted down on his selection.
...he understood why he was being made to do this, but that still didn't stop him suspecting that Ankou had its own separate sadistic streak.

The flashing lights of Arcadia felt surprisingly familiar, almost comforting in a way to Cecilia, though she wasn't quite sure why. She took occasional visits to it and had consistently enjoyed those experiences, but that was just that: they were occasional (even if they had begun to increase recently) and that wasn't even taking into consideration the fact that 95% of the time she only played one particular machine. She'd never been much of a gamer in the first place, so why she was starting to take a liking to this locale was beyond her... not to imply that the newfound sentiment bothered her. If anything it was lucky that she felt that way given the recent events weighing on her mind; she stepped through the doors knowing that this was a place she could relax, that she could use to distract her mind from the feed of information she'd been bombarded with, somewhere she could escape to and use to while the day down.

Still, even if a new feeling had emerged in regard to this place, her old habits remained refined and true. Her footsteps instinctively guided her down a familiar path to the "Dance Dance Retribution" machine, although she'd stop in her tracks upon noticing a boy was already playing it. After standing there in silence for a few seconds she'd come closer and lean up against a nearby unoccupied cabinet, watching him quietly and slowly shifting her eyes over to the screen as the song began to start. Normally she'd've tried striking up a conversation with him, but with little energy to spare she'd just stay silent and watch the stranger's gameplay for the time being, figuring that any sudden chit-chat would only serve to throw him off anyway.

For the moment, Cecil was too focused on the machine he stood at to notice any eyes on him, nerves overtaking his awareness of his surroundings. Honestly a good thing at the time, because this was just about the exact situation that had always steered him off stepping up on these machines in the first place.
Cecil wasn't exactly a performer. Doing these things as people watched wasn't exactly something that appealed.

The song started, an uneasy peace serving as his warmup before the track kicked into gear. His movements were tense to start, but after a bit his body loosened up, rhythm starting to carry him into each step demanded. He was no expert, that much was certain, but he kept his pace and didn't lose his beat even after he barely caught one input or missed another his feet just couldn't keep up with.

As the track came to a close, the machine decided he'd done well enough not to demand more of his money just yet, and he leaned back on the bar taking deep breaths with a half-smile.
Still, he had yet to notice the girl watching him.

Cecilia would watch patiently as the man played through the entire song. At first, she was unsure of his abilities, but as time went on he noticeably improved and came into his own. His final score ultimately wasn't anything extraordinary, however, his performance had definitely been admirable and the fact that he seemed satisfied by it put a matching grin on Cecilia's face.


Pushing herself off the cabinet, Cecilia would walk up to him with a slowly returning spring in her step, her face most concealed by her rabbit-hood save for the encouraging smile on her face. She'd look to the screen again for a few seconds while awaiting his response before turning her gaze back to him and stepping a bit closer to the game (though staying off the platform for now). "You mind if I play a round? There's no harm in a little competition, right?" Of course if he rejected then she'd relent for the moment, but she'd at least continue to watch unless he decided to explicitly tell her to go away.

Cecil near leapt to one side at the sudden voice, and then near froze at the realisation that yes, she had been watching the entire time.
Because of course somebody had! It was hardly like he could do a thing like this without something like this happening, because god forbid he partake in such a thing without the exact thing that kept him from it before from happening.
And on top of it all, he knew Ankou would be pleased by this, because it was another angle to push him along with.
Fuck it. He was starting to get an idea of how to do this.

Cecil shook his head once he was done with making his legs stop trying to get him to dive off the machine. "Go ahead. Pick the song, even. Can't think of anything I want to play right now."