Were dee's eyes to shift toward the other cabinet to der left, they would see Shalin Nariya gliding across the cabinet's four panels... progressively less gracefully as the TOKYO STYLE SPEEDCORE drew to a crescendo. Her footsteps sounded less like a dance and more like a drumroll as sweat dripped down the Captain's long hair and onto the panels, where a large fan was quick to evaporate it. "This is a good chart, but it's not a 17," she huffed as she walked off the cabinet, having played her last song of the credit.

Stretching, Shalin saw the other cabinet was open. Retrieving her card from its slot, she walked up to Fenelle Miller . "Hey there - mind if I join you?" the lithe female asked.

Gladly, the Rustboro Captain is too busy with the game than observing Fenelle's split-seconds of a slipped expression, before dee falls into the neutral expression of der civilian persona again. After all, it's been Mille and not Fenelle who's been caught by the captain and barely made der escape back then.

Dee's been disguised back then, so there's no way Shalin would recognise dem - at most, der name might be familiar from that message exchange with the number slip-up.

Dee relaxes again, and has time to actually take in that Shalin's good at this game. However, it seems like the interaction would actually continue on - friendly people, really ... but Fenelle is also a friendly, so turns as a small psychic push notifies dem that Shalin's approached dem, too. In the dim light, dee pretends not to recognise the ranger captain, and starts pointing at der ear, shaking der head to signal that dee couldn't hear. To make it clear that dee can't hear anything, dee also has der hands form a 'X' while shaking der head.

However, Fenelle then points at the cabinet, quickly pointing between the two of them with a questioning face, inquiring if she meant to play together.

Shalin Nariya

All the hand and arm gestures made Shalin stop for a moment. Could dee not hear? Why would they want to play a rhythm game if they couldn't hear? Shalin wouldn't be one to judge, giving a thumbs-up. She swiped her card and waited for Fenelle to swipe.

Sorting the list by song popularity, Shalin hovered over one of the ones near the top of the list -- one that immediately turned the heads of the casual crowd watching.

The song was frequently played on the radio in Johto and Kanto; due to its popularity outside the game, the charts for it were all relatively easy. The girl gestured toward the screen, as if to ask whether this song was okay.

Fenelle mimicks Shalin's motion of swiping the card, and let the other choose - clearly, she's the more experienced one out of them so she might actually know what's best to choose. Dee nods in agreement at the chosen map, having no preference for the music itself and unable to judge the beat map if dee hasn't seen it before. However, dee takes it upon demself to shift the map to BASIC for starters, looking a bit apologetic considering that Shalin has already also tackled way more difficult maps.

However, the game would then start up - and it takes a moment, sure enough, to get into the game at large. Dee only played tap rhythm games before, so coordinating with der feet is, starting out, a challenge in itself, but dee focuses as dee adjusts to the general ryhthm of the game, and doing der best not to be distracted by the music video playing in the background.

Shalin Nariya

Thankfully for Shalin, both players were permitted to play different charts for the same song. "It's okay! I can play on whatever difficulty I want," she assured dem, selecting CHALLENGE for her side. Not all songs had CHALLENGE charts, but this one did. Even so, it was far easier content than she was used to.

With that, the stage started, their audience silent out of respect. Were Fenelle to glance over at Shalin's side, they would see that her chart was much more difficult, presumably a step for every single note in the song. Midway through the chart, there was a point where Shalin's right foot was on the left panel and her left foot on the right panel. Just because she preferred to ride everywhere didn't mean she wasn't nimble on her feet, too!

As the song came to a close, a golden splash image would pop up on Shalin's side, acknowledging her PERFECT FULL COMBO with a celebratory animation. She raised her hands skyward in celebration as the observers behind her applauded her achievement.

It's no surprise for Fenelle that the other chooses CHALLENGE, and it's a relief that it won't impact der own baby steps in this game. Still, having a CHALLENGE run next to dem also means that possibly, distraction could be afoot ... however, the game does make a good job of keeping dem occupied enough that dee doesn't actually peek at the other screen.

It takes every little bit of focus for Fenelle to learn the coordination of der feet, and dee would still miss the occasional note even as the notes appear at a fairly slow pace. Dee really needs to start getting more of that workout, huh ... But it's also surprisingly fun, not only moving der fingers like dee would with mobile rhythm games that require dem to only tap the screen.

As the track ends, dee only briefly looks at der own score before noticing the gold grandeur of Shalin's full combo. Dee joins the clapping without clapping - der expression is visibly, maybe a bit exaggeratedly impressed and dee has both der hands raised into the air and "shakes" them to applaud silently.

However, dee would also point at the track again with a pleading expression, and pointing at the REPEAT? option if Shalin would be down for it. While repetition sucks sometimes, in this instance, dee at least wanted to give it one more try (which sounds like a very probable lie).

Shalin Nariya

While a PERFECT FULL COMBO seemed like a perfect score to the average observer, it was not; a perfect score was achieving all MARVELOUS judgments, something Shalin had never done before, even on a level one chart. The hardest part of going for one was not the precision of remaining within a small timing window, but keeping that close rhythm without any feedback at all. Shalin did as Fenelle asked, replaying the song once. She would be adamant about picking a new song for the final play of the credit. The play wouldn't go to waste; the dancing expert would raise her side's scroll speed a little beyond her comfort zone, giving her less time to react, but the ability to see dense sections more clearly.

Several people within the crowd would walk away upon hearing the popular song a second time in a row, wanting to see the clearly talented player take on some of the game's most difficult content. By the end of the second play of the song, Shalin looked like she was growing bored of easier content. She did laugh upon seeing the results screen, as she got the exact same score as she did on her first attempt!

Spinning through the song wheel, she would stop on a song that got the crowd pumping and clapping: a high-energy song with a wide range of speeds.

The difficulty spread appeared to be much higher than the previous song, as well, though the lowest difficulty remained beginner accessible. It was so hard that the Captain dropped the difficulty to EXPERT. She gestured toward her selection, making sure Fenelle was aware of her pick before proceeding. "I love this song, but it's... really hard. You might want to drop the difficulty a bit," she advised, unaware dee could not hear her.

Fenelle appreciates the second try, and manages to significantly improve with it, too. Having more familiarity with the beatmap helps to map out the movements in der mind, in addition to it being the second run of the game, meaning that dee is now more familiar with the mechanics of it all as well. It's still not enough to hit every beat, but it comes fairly close. The inner autism requires another repeat, before moving onto the song, but difficult, before moving onto the song, but more difficult.

Social etiquette however activates the brakes, and Fenelle nods as Shalin suggests another song to go with. Dee hasn't really paid much attention to the crowd, just focusing on the selection wheel as Shalin runs through. And actually doesn't go for CHALLENGE anymore, but EXPERT - which tells Fenelle all dee needs to know that dee can't figure out in dim-light lipreading.

Fenelle hovers for a moment over the song difficulties, looking at the small preview - doable if dee is really, really focused. But, dee is up for the not-labelled-by-DDR challenge and nods after picking the appropriate level for dem, getting into position and ready for the song to start. The song generally goes better for dem, the movements being way more fluid compared to the first attempt, however- Dee frowns, always tripping up at the changing speed paces. Being able to adapt, dee only misses a few notes because of them, but that sure is another thing dee would need to consider and hasn't expected.

But, that's also quite thrilling and interesting to see.

Shalin Nariya

The high-energy song, even on EXPERT difficulty, was tiring. During the finale, her footsteps sounded more like the hits of a metal band's double bass drummer. Both players received applause from the crowd as the game cut from the results screen to a large splash reading:

"TRY EXTRA STAGE!!"

When the song select for the Extra Stage came up, they were not greeted with a traditional song wheel, but an array of planets against a cosmic background. Shalin and Fenelle would find the game locked to the highest difficulty they had completed during that set; in the Captain's case, it would be CHALLENGE. All of them had very high ratings, too. Even the song titles were intimidating: among them were "Come to m1dy" (when did speedcore get into the game?!), "SISYPHUS", and at the very end, a song denoted by a single Kantonian character:

Shalin recognized that character from ancient Kantonian scripts. It was the first character in the name Ho-oh. The artist was also a well-known name among rhythm gamers, having produced the audio for some of the most difficult content in other rhythm games. Even the speed of this song was masked by the game, showing up as three question marks. Shalin had seen this song on the internet before, so she knew what its main scroll speed was and could adjust appropriately.

The Captain would gesture toward Fenelle and let dem take a look at the list of boss songs.

Fenelle's clearly out of breath as the last beat is hit, having managed to achieve a new personal best among combos despite everything. (It's "Adapt, Overcome" all over again.) Dee takes a deep breath of the stuffy arcade air, not looking at the screen until Shalin pointed it out- Oh, dee has totally missed that this isn't the usual victory screen, but ... something like a boss fight stage?

Curiously, dee starts looking at the selection there with numbers that are definitely intimidating, but also ... thrilling, in a way. For dem, the challenge would be fairly easy, but even then the difficulty within der level is nothing like dee has seen before.

Eventually, however, dee just simply has no idea what to pick there since it's der first time, as well as they might generally fare after the first hiccups. Dee gestures at Shalin's screen, as if motioning for her to pick up something. Dee doesn't talk, but der expression seems to be challenging, ready to take it up a step despite the heavy breathing.

(Dee really needs to work on that ...)

Shalin Nariya

Shalin let the cursor remain on the single Kantonian character. Though dee couldn't hear it, many in the rhythm game section could, the crowd growing as they watched the Captain take the stage, about to play the game's most recently released boss song. Though the full chart was already on the internet, thanks to the best players in the world clearing it, she was not among their ranks. Shalin turned toward the crowd and set things straight. "I have no expectations of passing this song, but I'll give it my best," she said, trying to catch her breath as much as she could before the selection timer ran out, locking her into playing the CHALLENGE 19 chart and Fenelle Miller into the BASIC 11 chart. Another intimidating splash screen would pop up in between selection and gameplay, as to drive the song's difficulty home even more.

"THE PHOENIX HAS AWAKENED"

At the beginning, the scroll speed was so slow that it took quite the sharp eye to follow the steps at all. That would quickly change as a long hold note would come up on Fenelle's side and a fast drill on Shalin's, making her look like she was marching in place but on fast forward. All of the visual gimmicks were telegraphed, but some in more subtle ways than others. The song itself was just as intimidating, sounding like a boss battle from a game of another genre.

All it took was misreading one visual gimmick for her to get significantly off the beat, a cascade of MISS judgments preceding the GAME OVER overlay on her side of the screen. The Captain clutched her knees, completely out of breath as she stepped off the stage, doing her best to watch dem get as far as possible.

With the experience of the previous stages, Fenelle is more prepared for the rapid change in, well, tempo. It's a slow start that works in der favour, giving dem time to get into the gameplay some more before the long hold note happens and the song really starts. Dee knows by now that the held note is a little mercy, a calm before the storm that would be the next notes.

Dee has minimised the movement of der feet now to adjust for DDR's gameplay, though there's still improvements to be made. Still, it allows dem to better catch up with the notes dancing on the screen, appearing and disappearing at the same time. Der eyes stay sharply focused on the screen, reacting to the visual input in record speed. Dee still misses plenty of notes, however, but the gauge depletes slow - but steadily.

Fenelle only actually sees how close it's been as the last note hits, and there is a literal pixel of the gauge left. Seems like dee's really been living on a prayer here.

Dee turns to Shalin's spot then, seeing it vacant on a GAME OVER - honestly, dee doesn't even wanna imagine the horrors that screen must've shown. Or well. Dee really wants to figure it out - it's been quite fun. Dee waves at Shalin, offering a hand for a high five.

Don't think about that time you barely got away.

Shalin Nariya

Shalin watched Fenelle play the second half of the song. Having never seen the lower levels of difficult before, she gasped at how brutal the ending was. A behind-the-back move, followed by another one in the opposite direction, felt a bit much for the advertised level... on top of all the stutter gimmicks that made the chart harder. The developers sure liked lowballing chart ratings for their boss songs, didn't they?

The Captain couldn't help but applaud. "Nice... pass!" she complimented, hearing the triumphant theme the game played for passing the EXTRA STAGE. She weakly returned the high-five, her legs still trembling and feeling like jelly. With their credit having been played, Shalin took a seat at a nearby bench and watched the next group take the stage, eager to see what skill level they were at.

For everyone had to start somewhere.