1.24.1

Fun and Games

“Just because something is a game doesn’t mean it isn’t also a sport. Wasn’t tennis, or football, a game?”

Dell still argued after they’d located their destination: a massive arcade fit with neon and blacklights. Astrid stuck close to Anders and Tenya in the crowd. She did, however, spare a moment for gratitude that her senses seemed have adapted to larger swarms of static.

They still buzzed, always. But it was no longer all she could feel or focus on.

After checking in at the front desk, a cheerful hostess clerk led them to their own table set on the second story of the game center. Next to a clear cylinder the size of a large closet, the woman talked them through the safety measures.

“No shoes, jewelry, jackets, or affects not directly attached to your person are permitted inside the court,” the woman instructed. “As the chamber is oxygenated, we suggest at least fifteen minutes between turns to avoid any light-headedness. For your safety, each chamber is completely sanitized and cleaned between every shift. We hope you enjoy your game!”

Before the clerk departed, she entered their food order through a datapad system, and promised their meals would be along shortly. Then the team piled their loose possessions and shoes together for safe keeping.

“Just because it’s a game doesn’t mean it’s a sport!” Tenya’s curls bobbed in the intensely colored ambience. She continued her discussion with Dell where they left off. “Is Chess? Is Parcheesi?”

Beside Astrid, Anders chuckled to her.

“This could go on for awhile. Come on, we’ll set up the board.”

Astrid followed his lead to a terminal next to the chamber and watched him input each of their names until a display lit up at the back of the tank. A blank score illuminated for each player, listed in order of turn.

“We each get five minutes inside,” he told her. “Everyone having a single turn counts as one game. We’ll probably play a few. The first round is always the worst while people adjust, so don’t get discouraged.”

Anders pointed to each of the rings mounted just on the other side. “When the round starts, the machine pitches colored balls in from the bottom, one a time. Then the rings light up in different colors. Matching colors is kind of self-explanatory, but at the harder levels, the colors of the rings can change to keep you on your toes. The score only counts if you get the right color in.”

“It would help to see someone else go first,” Astrid suggested.

Anders smiled. “Of course.”

Finally, Tenya and Dell resolved their dispute. Given Tenya’s pout and Dell’s pleased expression, the conclusion seemed that their game qualified as sport, if a mild one.

After Tenya patted down her pockets and triple-checked she was free of anything that could fly off, she approached the chamber for the first turn.

Astrid stood back, fascinated, when Tenya stepped through a narrow door that sealed closed behind her, then stalked barefoot into the center of the tube.

A series of beeps ascended in countdown, and Tenya’s curls floated in the air. Her body rose with them. Tenya winked to the Channeler while music chimed in playful melody.

The edges of the circular chamber lit in marquee white lights, until finally, a small device opened in the floor, and a red foam ball the size of a peach shot upward into the air where Tenya waited.

Tenya’s body lifted the tiniest amount when she caught it, and she contorted her stomach and twisted her hips to rotate. It caused her whole body to drift, but Tenya quickly took aim and tossed her orb toward a pocket sparkling with red lights.

It missed, but not by much.

Intent, Astrid expected Tenya to chase after the lost ball, but it continued to float along its trajectory to thunk the wall. Then gently rebounded even slower.

Tenya, instead of pursuing it, was then beset by a second ball, blue. And another ring lit.

By the time a third, and fourth, entered the court, Tenya sank one color into the proper hole, and the others ricocheted within. The woman kept herself centered, and when each of the failed shots returned to her, she levered another attempt.

Inevitably, her motions pushed her toward the edges of the container. Once her body made contact with the glass, the machine bleeped in warning.

“What’s that?” Astrid asked of her companions.

“Two-second timer,” Anders explained. “You can use the walls to propel yourself, but you can’t touch them for longer than two seconds. So, you can’t brace yourself and throw from there. After two seconds, it deducts from your score.”

“There’s strategy in how you use those two seconds.” Dell grinned. Astrid strained to remember if she’d ever seen him so enthusiastic. “You can do a lot with it if you’re careful!”

Tenya, though focused, broke into a laugh when a particularly hasty spin nearly crashed her into the tube, and the reverberation sent her body into a more chaotic drift.

“You can chew up half your time just trying to steer yourself,” Romo smirked while Tenya struggled to regain composure. “It’s part of what makes it fun.”

Tenya acclimatized in her last minute, and it was in those sixty seconds that she sank two more balls, accounting for half her overall score.

When the final bell rang, a whir of machines siphoned the weightlessness slowly, and Tenya was able to land on her feet before she exited. Behind her, on the back wall of the game chamber, her score appeared.

All smiles, Tenya high-fived Anders on her way out and sidled up to Astrid. “It’s seriously fun. A little awkward at first, but you’ll like it!”

Anders went next, and though he retained more control, and more consistent success, he too, only racked up four points.

“You think you’re ready to try?” Romo prodded at Astrid after another score added to the board.

“Alright.”

Astrid would have been afraid to make a fool of herself if not for the other hundred new things she’d tried recently. Of them all, she reasoned an arcade game to have the least severe consequences should she fail.

“And no cheating with your little power trick,” Dell added.

“That’s a thing?”

“If it is, you’d find it,” Romo teased.

Tenya snickered and helped the Channeler into the chamber. Then the door sealed to a close, and as before, a set of rising beeps heralded the impending start.

A bizarre shift of pressure swept the tank. A faint hum cycled air into the chamber, and with the faintest of flexes in her toes, Astrid lifted off the ground in a float.

Her hair floated as if in invisible water. The constant sensation of pressure and weight became no more, and Astrid fell adrift. She flexed her hands, to feel the pull of muscle of tendons, the only sensation to ground herself within her own body.

Then, a purple ball propelled from the floor beneath her, and Astrid instinctively dodged the projectile. The action heaved her too far from the center, and in a flail, she tried to swim back into position to retrieve the ball.

Her moves were clumsy, and her aim amateur. The minutes passed so much faster inside, as before she managed to even throw her first toss, a second ball ejected into the room with her.

With catching up to do, she spun to recover some time, but it only served to make her attempts at precision more erratic.

Soon, five balls bounded around her. But at least one always seemed in reach, so she stretched for the closest and located its goal with determination.

When her first ball found the proper pocket, she cheered. But the motion of her arm, again, nearly sent her into a tailspin.

Astrid braced herself against the tank. It rang a warning, but she gained enough leverage to shoot one more successful throw before her time finished.

Gravity returned, while her organs and body settled back into their original position.

She stumbled out of the chamber, unbothered that she’d only managed to score two points.

“Well, what do you think?” Tenya popped on her hip, beaming.

“I can do better next time, I know it!”

Dell laughed. “I think she likes it.”