Astra grimaced as she followed May through the arcade. Strange machines blinked with searing lights and belted out high-pitched music, many of them accompanied by humans screaming emotion into a void only she could hear—along with the occasional regular scream. Noise had been a new and uncomfortable aspect to city life, but this place seemed to amplify the worst qualities of each variety to new levels.

“It’s kinda loud,” Astra complained, wincing as one machine let off a flurry of chimes. “Are we going to be here for long?”

“Aw, come on!” May cajoled with a grin. “Just relax, you’ll get used to it! We haven’t even played a game yet. You’ll forget all about it once you find one you like.”

In the distance, someone lost a game with extreme disgrace. Astra flinched and rubbed at her ears, grimacing. May looked at her and hesitated.

“Tell you what, how about I just buy like, a handful of tokens; if you still wanna dip after I run out then we can go, alright?”

“Thank you,” Astra said, quietly. “...what are tokens?”

“The games don't work unless you put a few coins in, and you buy those from token machines.”

“Ah.” You had to pay to have fun too? Well, she guessed that made sense. Sometimes her Grandpa wouldn’t let her go play without doing a few chores first, maybe it was like that? Astra watched May fiddle with a large red box with a golden inscription reading ‘TOKENS’ lined across the top. Coins clinked against a metal basin, and May turned around and showed Astra a small bronze disc covered with intricate engravings.

“Behold,” May proclaimed, holding it aloft. “A token!”

“Neat.” Astra said, eyeing the circle. Hopefully she didn’t get a lot of them...

“Don’t worry, these’ll vanish quick.” May grinned, shoving the lot in a pocket. “Now, where the hell is Brendan?”

They found Brendan at a small area in the corner filled with a few tables next to a window where a yawning man was handing out food. Brendan looked up while swallowing a bite of some kind of meat tube half-wrapped in bread. He waved, beckoning them over.

“Oh hey! I was wondering when you’d get here,” he said with a smile. He nodded at Astra. “How’d you like class, Astra?”

“It was really interesting!” Astra said, brightening. “I learned a lot. I kind of want to go again, but Roxanne's next class isn't until next week and we’ll be gone by then.”

May snorted. “Do it five days a week for nine months a year and the charm will wear off real quick.”

“I didn’t go to school for too long myself,” Brendan said. (“Are you gonna finish that?” Astra asked. Brendan handed her the rest of his hotdog.) “I was exempt under apprenticeship when I started working for my dad’s lab after I turned twelve.”

“Not the Trainer exemption?” May asked. “Coulda got out two years earlier.”

Brendan shook his head. “I’m a decent trainer, but I wasn’t enough of a prodigy for that. They only give out around a dozen of those a year on average anyway. Did you try?”

“No.”

Astra popped the last bit of hotdog in her mouth. She chewed, pondering the food thoughtfully. Bread was still a relatively new experience, the crushed and baked grains coming in such a wide variety that it was impossible to generalize. In this case, it merely served as a soft, somewhat dry cushion to hold what lay inside. The meat tube was a bit chewy but serviceable enough, and the dull yellow sauce on top was delightfully tangy.

“This is pretty good!” she decided. “What was that yellow stuff?”

“Mustard,” Brendan answered, smiling. “You can get ketchup, relish, and mayo too but—”

“Alright, enough yapping!” May said, clapping her hands. “Let’s play some games!”

May led the trio over to one of the cabinets that littered the arcade floor. The screen flashed vibrantly, the title of the game—Back Alley Blitz—displayed proudly above a side scrolling array of strange characters. She put a few tokens into a dimly glowing orange slot and the display flashed, presumably allowing them access.

“This is a game, right?” Astra asked, uncertainly. She was familiar with the animated screen due to her exposure to the TV—even if the drawings looked like they were made of squares rather than smooth lines—but the tilting rod and packed array of buttons were a mystery. “What do I do, exactly?”

“Oh here, let me show you,” Brendan said, leaning over and pointing at the controls. “Use the joystick to move around and select your character—”

Astra ended up selecting a tall man with a massive circular ball of bifurcated hair who moved like he was dancing. May picked a roughly dressed guy with what looked like an upside-down pokeball for a head and Brendan chose a regal girl who seemed to emanate blue-tinted fire from her hands.

“Alright, I’ve, uh, selected my character,” Astra said. She watched her character bopping to the music curiously as a number on-screen counted down. What strange moves. “What happens next?”

“Now we fight with them!” May cheered.

“We what? How!?”

“Hit buttons and find out!”

Informative. The countdown reached zero and suddenly the screen switched to show some dingy street. Their characters entered the scene in a ball of sparkling light, an explosion, and a whirl of blue flame respectively.

“CLEAR THE STREETS, A NEW BOUT ROCKS THE ROAD! BEGIN THE BLITZ!”

A whistle sounded and May and Brendan’s characters, by an unspoken truce, ignored Astra and began to battle each other. Astra examined them for a moment, glancing between the fighters on screen to her friends' rapid button-mashing and stick-waggling. Tentatively, she tilted her stick left.

Afro-man moved left. Astra stared. She hit a button. Afro-man struck out with a brief, whirling kick. She could control the characters on screen? Interesting. Television had reminded her of how the illusionists or the Smith could arrange images with the aid of lights and flame, but it was a rare day they let the audience dictate where the story went. This game went much deeper than simple dictation. What else could be done with it? Could the player go on an adventure from the safety of their home? See fantastic sights and interesting people without risking anything real?

May’s character exploded, sending Brendan’s flame-wielder directly into Astra’s Afro-man. The two were knocked down, but recovered swiftly and ‘stared’ at each other.

“Ready to join the fun, Astra?” Brendan asked. His character inched closer, threateningly.

Astra blinked. Oh. Right. They were using the game to beat each other senseless. In that way it reminded her of pokemon battling. Issuing commands and watching another execute them.

It always seemed to come down to fighting, didn’t it?

“Are you ready?” Astra shot back, re-focusing on the game. Best to pay attention, she had a brawl to win. “Take this! Hya!”

Despite her boast, Astra didn’t manage to win any of the following rounds, even with her friends taking it easy on her. Part of this could have been her absolute naivety in the realm of video games, it could have been her unpracticed twitch movements and unfamiliarity with the controls, or it could even be that the buttons were so close together that her giant non-human fingers kept hitting two of them at the same time.

The last game ended with her accidentally sliding into an attack and getting blasted off the screen. Astra glared at the controls, then huffed and stepped away, rubbing at her eyes. The displays were really grainy and the unnatural brightness wasn’t doing her eyes any favors.

Astra heard the whoosh of flame, and turned to see Brendan’s character spewing enough azure fire to blow May’s character out of the arena.

“Woo!” Brendan cheered, raising his arms in victory. “That was a tough one! Good game!”

Brendan raised a palm, looking at May expectantly. May looked at him, eyes lidded and mouth thin.

“Tch,” she scoffed, grudgingly returning his high-five. “You just got lucky.”

“You’re just mad that you got PWN’d by my leet skills,” Brendan said, grinning ear-to-ear.

Astra blinked and looked at Brendan, confused. “Pawned?”

“Absolutely not!” May screeched, pulling Brendan's hat over his face. This did nothing to stop his uproarious laughter. May shook her head. “No, just...no. Nevermind him,” she said, looking at Astra. “How was your first time with one of the greatest games ever made? I know you kinda got your ass beat—”

“I don’t like it,” Astra cut in, giving the machine a glare. “If that was the best one then I’m not sure I’m up for more.”

“Aw, c’mon. Don’t be like that!” May gestured to the rest of the Arcade. “There’s tons of different games around; they’re not all fighters. Hey, maybe you can choose the next one, eh?”

“Fine,” Astra sighed, rubbing her head. “But I’m not sure what to pick. Plus my head is pounding like a...drum?” she trailed off, frowning. She looked around, confused. “Wait, that’s not my head. I hear drums, and...a flute? Where is that music coming from?”

Brendan shrugged. “Probably the dancing games.”

“There are dancing games!?”

It was called Dragon Dance: Revelation, and it was not about dancing. Unlike the graceful artform her village practiced, the game seemed to be about stomping on one of the dance pad’s eight arrows in time with both the arrows on screen and the music.

“They don’t even do anything with their arms!” Astra complained, exasperatedly gesturing at the two strangers currently competing against each other. They seemed to be doing well by the game’s standards, but to hers they were abhorrent. “No spins, no flips, they barely even cross-step! You can’t call this dancing! They’re just—just throwing a tantrum on a beat!”

The mere thought of the concept of ‘dancing’ being applied to this ugly, static stomping of feet makes her want to tear the two off the stage and dunk them in an offal pit. Hatchlings had more grace than this!

“Well, the game isn’t really made to see those kinds of things,” Brendan explained. “Rhythm games aren’t about cool moves, just timing. There are others where you strum on a guitar or tap keys on a keyboard, but none of them are that, uh, thorough.”

“Just because you don’t need to doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try!” Astra argued, fuming. “Following a rhythm is easy. You could at least liven it up a little while you do it.”

May chuckled, her calculating gaze roving over the game in question. “Big words for a girl who’s never even played one,” she said. A gleaming eye turned on Astra, accompanied by a predatory smirk. “Got the moves to back them up?”

Astra raised a fist and clenched it, giving May her own combative smirk. “Wanna find out?”

Brendan chuckled behind them, scratching the back of his head nervously. “Already competing, huh?”

Astra and May stared each other down, the air between them positively crackling with energy. It quickly ran down into awkward, impatient shuffling as they all waited for the current players to actually finish. Once the two players left, Astra and May stepped up in their place.

Astra looked down at the dance pad. Eight arrows pointed out from the center and even her light steps were enough to make one light up when she tried it. Mindful of her dress, she tapped a few in quick succession and found that her new clothing didn’t noticeably hamper her movement.

“Ready?” May asked, hopping in place. She looked at Astra, eyes fierce.

“You know it!” Astra replied, grinning back.

May inserted a token and hit random. Artwork and song titles spun by before the screen flashed, revealing twin sets of eight arrows atop a rapidly changing background of abstract shapes, musical notes, and...piano keys?

Then the music began, and Astra had no more time to think.

Piano strings intertwined with a spark of electricity, a frantic, hyperactive stream of energy. Arrows rose in time with the notes, not quite in the massive flood the last players had been facing, but formidable in scope all the same. Astra’s feet skipped around the platform, her legs seamlessly flowing from one pad to the next. She was right, this wasn’t hard at all! Well, keeping her eyes on the arrows was annoying, but just hitting the right ones was simple.

“I don’t see much arm movement there, Astra. Game too hard?” May taunted, even as she missed a few notes herself. “What’s wrong? I thought you were gonna show us how to dance!”

Astra smirked. “Don’t worry, I’m just learning the rhythm. This is the first time I’ve heard this after all. But if you’re that impatient...”

She’d almost gotten it. If she was right, the chorus would repeat right about...!

“I guess I’ll just step it up!”

Astra spun. Her arms bloomed outwards, the song guiding her hands through strange and flourishing displays as her feet sprung from step to step. This wasn’t the graceful dancing of her village; it couldn’t be, not with this hyper-energetic music and her own lack of experience. But this wild and frenetic alternative came to her just as easily, as natural as the music flowed from her violin.

“Woah,” May exclaimed, a flurry of miserable ‘POOR!’ and ‘MISS!' flooding her screen as she did.

“Damn,” Brendan said, barely audible over the music. “She’s actually doing it.”

Astra grinned, her eyes tracking the screen even as her motions spun her to-and-fro. They thought mere stomping to a beat could compare to this? This was the epitome of style, the beating heart of rhythm! A connection between body and sound, refined into art!

But alas, it could not last forever. She could hear the song winding down. As the final berry on top, Astra jumped, spinning around once in midair before falling on the last two arrows in a perfect curtsy.

Then she bent double and gasped for air, clutching at her head. She may have gone a bit overboard. Just a tad.

She heard clapping. Taking a deep breath to even herself out, she turned to find a half-dozen people—Brendan among them—had gathered around to watch, all of them either clapping or whistling appreciatively. Astra flushed red and waved, chuckling nervously.

Shaking her head, she turned to May, who was looking at the screen contemplatively.

“How was that?” Astra asked, folding her arms and smirking.

“Hm?” May blinked. She looked at Astra and gave her an approving smile. “Pretty damn amazing! Sure showed those guys. Apparently you can do a whole ass jig while playing DDR.”

“Hah!” Astra laughed, holding her head high. “I knew it! Those lazy fakers wouldn’t know what dancing was if it bit them in the—”

May coughed. Astra paused, eyeing her friend curiously. May jerked her head toward the game screen. Slowly, Astra turned to look.

“ABYSMAL! INSERT TOKENS TO PLAY AGAIN!” The screen cheered.

Astra stared. Her head hurt.

May snorted, giving her a wry grin. “Yeah. You missed like, three-fourths of the notes. Turns out you gotta keep your eyes on the screen and actually step on the arrows to score good!” She shrugged sarcastically. “Who knew?”

Astra held her face in her hands and groaned. May patted her back.

“You did look pretty cool, though,” May said. “Wanna go again and kick my ass legit?”

“Just hit the fucking button.”

They played another round. Astra didn’t find it nearly as engaging without actual dancing; oh, sure, timing everything right was kinda fun, but it just really didn’t satisfy the need to move properly. Nevertheless, she hit all the buttons exactly on time and scored a perfect game.

In celebration, the game let her enter a three letter abbreviation of her name on the leaderboards. On May’s advice, Astra contributed to the grand tradition of arcades worldwide, and thus the song was crowned with a new champion: ASS. Somehow Brendan didn’t find it quite as funny, and his sigh of exasperation only served to set off a round of giggles.

Stepping away from the tantrum simulator, Astra stumbled as her developing headache made itself known once more. She rubbed her eyes, the pressure relieving the ache for a moment.

“I think I’m going to get a migraine if I stay here any longer,” she said, squinting at her friends. “All these flashes and buzzes are really getting to me.”

Brendan frowned, concerned eyes flicking across Astra’s face. “Ah. Yeah, of course we can. Do you need water?”

May watched on as Brendan fussed over Astra, her own frown showing shades of annoyance and disappointment. She pulled out her remaining tokens and looked them over before sighing.

“Hey,” she said. “I’ve only got a few of these things left, and I can’t really get a refund. If you’re up for it, we could just dump ‘em in—” she paused, looking around. She pointed to a machine. “—A crane game or something. Get a souvenir before we go.”

May smiled uncertainly, half-shrugging. Astra looked over at the machine, which was simply a glass cage filled with prizes and an overhanging claw-like mechanism. Astra considered it. She had come here at May’s urging, and the other girl seemed a bit stung by how poorly the night was going. If Astra could help her walk away with a happier memory...well, it didn’t look too stressful.

“I guess I could give it a go,” she agreed.

May brightened, though Brendan looked uncertain. He’d seemed ready to pull them all out of the building.

“Are you sure?” He asked as the trio made their way over to the machine. “You don’t have to push yourself if you’re feeling bad.”

“Hey, if I can salvage even a little bit of tonight, I think it’ll be worth it.” Astra said, giving him a strained grin. “May was really excited to show me this place; even if it didn’t work out, I don’t want to end it on a sour note. Besides,” she said, looking at the glass box filled with stuffed pokemon dolls. “This looks easy. How do I play?”

“Why won’t it just grab the thing!?” Astra yelled, glaring at the limp-wristed robot arm as it once again dropped a plush Treecko doll halfway to the prize hole.

“That’s how they get you,” May said, leaning against the case. “These things are always soft-gripped fucks, so you gotta dump cash into it to get the thing you want. But people still get shit from them, so I think they’re programmed to grab harder every so often.”

“No, no, that’s crap,” Brendan said, shaking his head. “Look, you gotta line it up right, get some good leverage, maybe spend a pull or two nudging it around so you can go in for the kill.”

“Well either way apparently I suck at it!” Astra grit her teeth, glaring at the collection of prizes. She was tempted to just telekinesis the things out, but this situation was not helping her headache! “Screw it, there’s only one token left so I’m just dropping this somewhere random.”

“Last chance luck!” May cheered, casually slamming a fist on the glass. “C’mon you stupid box, cough up the goods and end us off on a high note!”

Forgoing the Treecko doll, Astra maneuvered the crane over the middle where an assortment of awards had been piled up. She didn’t particularly care what she grabbed at this point so she dithered the crane around the area a bit and then hit the button. Astra stepped back and folded her arms, giving the claw a stink eye as it descended into the plushy depths. She blinked when it perfectly grabbed onto something white and tugged it straight into the air.

May whooped and pointed at the prize. “Look, you got something!”

“Finally!” Astra exclaimed, throwing her arms up.

“Nice!” Brendan said. He looked at the prize as the machine dropped it in the hatch. “What is it?”

“I’m not sure, but it sure is soft!” Astra said, reaching into the chute and pulling the doll out.

It was a Ralts.

Astra stared at the vacantly smiling figure. Ten inches tall, the doll’s glassy eyes were hidden under a dome of green cloth and a pair of plastic red horns embedded into a head about a third larger than it should be. Two stubby arms protruded from the solid robe, and though there were two legs the robe didn’t actually have an opening for them at the bottom, instead having them be formless white pillars with a small coat tail.

“...huh.”

May blinked. “Oh hey, it’s that pokemon I saw on 102. A...Ralts, I think? Neat.”

“Is it?” Brendan asked. “Oh, that’s what they look like. Neat.”

“Neat,” Astra echoed, still staring.

It was neat. Also terrifying, for a number of reasons. She'd known, abstractly, that there were probably Ralts and Kirlia elsewhere in the world; her Grandfather had said the village had only been made with the totality of the population on Hoenn alone, after all. But apparently her kind were so well known elsewhere that humanity had made plush effigies in their image.

She wondered, for a fleeting moment, what they were like. Without the safety and knowledge of the village, vulnerable to Humans the same as any other pokemon. Would they still be like her? Or would they be...

Her head hurt.

“I’d like to leave now,” she said. This time, nobody objected. Astra felt the pressure fade as they exited the building, the triple-layered din vanishing into the background. Incandescent lights still flooded the city streets alongside unrestrained emotions from every passing human, but none of it was nearly as aggressive as before.

“That’s better,” she sighed, glancing up at the sparsely starry night sky. “Nice and—well, not quiet, but...yeah.”

“We should probably get you back to your apartment,” Brendan said. “Rest easy for a bit. Do you need any water? I can grab a packet of headache medicine if you need it.”

“Water sounds nice.” Astra agreed as the three began to walk back. “I’m already feeling a bit better, so I’ll hold off on the medicine unless it lingers.”

Behind them, May stared at the sidewalk sullenly, arms folded. “Can't believe this was such a bust,” she mumbled, glaring a hole in the concrete. "Barely played two games. Great fucking idea, let's just throw her into a mosh pit next time you moron—"

Brendan looked back at her, first in confusion, then with a melancholic smile. “Hey,” he said, cutting May’s tirade short and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Just because there was a problem doesn’t mean you have to beat yourself up about it. It was a fine idea; maybe a little premature, but neither of us knew Astra would be so uncomfortable in an arcade.”

“I still dragged her in,” May argued, scowling. She sighed. “Whatever, it’s done with anyway. Just gotta figure out something else to do now that gaming is off the table..."

Astra frowned. "I mean, it's not like the games were the problem," she said, "It was just...all the people, the flashing lights, the constant noise...it was too much. I felt like I could barely think."

"Arcades can be like that, yeah. Especially the big ones,” Brendan agreed. He looked at Astra, a sad smile crossing his face. “I’m sorry that things turned out like this. Did you like what you got to try, at least?”

“I mean, the rhythm game was...alright,” Astra allowed. “Just named wrong. I could see myself trying it again. And the doll is nice.” A bit weird, but kind of endearing in a way.

May’s lips twitched. "Not a fan of the fighter?" She asked, shades of her usual teasing bluster returning to her voice.

Astra rolled her eyes. "Maybe if I knew what I was doing! You guys ran circles around me the whole time and I kept messing up the controls."

"Think that means you need to 'get good'," May jabbed, smirking. Her amusement was quickly replaced by disappointment, and she sighed. “Not like you’re likely to get any practice in, I guess.”

“Didn’t you say you were going to try to get your Pokedex to play Tetris?” Astra asked, recalling their conversation on the day they’d arrived in Rustboro. “Could you do the same for the fighter?”

May’s face scrunched up. “Maybe, but they aren’t really built for that. You’d need to get an actual handheld console, and they aren’t cheap.”

Astra rolled her eyes, exasperated. “Geeze, everything has to cost something, doesn’t it? I still need money to restock my food, how am I supposed to buy—uh, that?”

May shrugged helplessly. “Don’t look at me, I barely have more than you do.”

“Wait, you’re both broke? Is that why you guys have been making me pay for all your food!?” Brendan asked, astounded and a little irritated.

Awkward silence filled the air, both girls looking away in embarrassment.

May chuckled nervously. “I mean...” she trailed off, coughing into a fist and refusing to meet Brendan’s gaze.

Astra scratched the back of her head, face red. “Well, we’ve been kinda busy, with all the Devon stuff, and the class today, and, well, my new clothes cost a lot, you know!” she pouted, pulling the brim of her hat down and swishing her dress from side to side.

A hot flash of guilt settled in Astra’s stomach as soon as the words were sent. Well, that was all true, but if Brendan hadn’t been here she and May could have still gone fishing or picked berries, and breakfast at the hotel was free. They really hadn’t needed to burden him like that; she could blame May for instigating it most of the time, but she didn’t exactly rebuke her. Well, she’d make up to him somehow. Food for food? He’d like her soup, surely.

Brendan looked at Astra and sighed, folding his arms and glancing away.

“Yeah, I guess that would do it,” he muttered. He shook his head and refocused. “Well, if you’re short on cash then you could always enter a battle competition; you don’t pay for losing so bare minimum you’ll make enough for a week of cheap kibble. There’s always one or two happening somewhere, and I’m pretty sure the Gym is hosting one tomorrow afternoon.” Brendan raised an eyebrow. “Unless you wanna do some odd jobs like catching a dozen Shroomish for a pharmacy...?”

“Fuck the pharmacy, that competition sounds right up my alley!” May exclaimed, pumping her fist. “Can’t go wrong with a good fight. How about it, Astra,” she asked, grinning at the smaller girl. “Wanna go beat people up and take their lunch money?”

“Please don’t phrase it like that,” Brendan sighed. “We’re trainers, not grade-school malcontents.”

“Just lunch?” Astra asked, smirking at May. “I’ll beat them so hard they’ll only be able to eat dirt for a month!”

“You too, Astra?” Brendan asked, shooting her a look of mock betrayal. He shook his head, muttering to himself. “Playground bullies, the both of them...”

Astra giggled at his put-out expression, then winced as her headache pulsed again. Not out of the woods yet; she’d have to lie down for a while once they made it back. Still, she couldn’t help but be a bit excited for tomorrow. It felt like it’d been forever since her last proper battle, and the money was fresh jam on the fish. A few expected thrills were just what she needed, and she couldn’t pass up a perfect opportunity to train her team and practice her music. After that, she’d restock her supplies, grab the stuff from Devon, meet up with Mr. Briney down south, and set sail for Dewford.

Astra smiled, squeezing the Ralts doll to her chest. Tomorrow was going to be fun!