San Francisco with Dick!

[cutting_edgex23]

Fisherman's Wharf is a nice place. Crowded, but nice. There are a lot of people, and it is a good place to pretend to be normal.

To practice blending in, as it were.

And also, at this particular moment, to go see the Musée Mécanique. Because 19th century penny arcade games are great.

And X has been told it is fun.

Comments

[daringyoungman]

X has been told by Dick that it is fun, and Dick only knows from looking at a leaflet. But here he is, a loose sweater over his cast, a handful of pennies in his pocket, and a big grin on his face.

Blending in like a pro.

[cutting_edgex23]

X is keeping pace with him, and occasionally trying to remember to look casually at what is around them.

Chatting with Dick may also not be a terrible plan.

"You have played games like this before?"

X has not. She is trying not to be nervous about that.

[daringyoungman]

"Once or twice," Dick says. He's adopted a kind of swinging gait, scuffing his heel on the ground as he walks. He even has a hand in his pocket - though that's his right hand, so it wouldn't be much use anyway, and he's walking to X's left so his fully functional left hand is free.

Not that there's any reason he'd need it free.

"Some small towns still had them in their arcades alongside the space-invaders and pinball. If I got a night off I might come see if it wasn't crawling with rubes."

The problem with arcades, in Dick's experience, was they tended to be places for local kids to get territorial.

[cutting_edgex23]

X swings her hands a little harder, then lifts one and tucks her hair behind her ear.

The motion is a little awkward, but not much.

"I have not played Space Invaders. You like it?"

There are a lot of things X has not done. Shockingly.

[daringyoungman]

Dick wrinkles his nose in thought, and shrugs.

"It's alright. I dunno, I'm not a huge video games fan," (his counterpart would be devastated) "These things have more soul."

They feel more circusy, even if they aren't.

[cutting_edgex23]

"You think they can be people? Some of them."

What? It's a logical question. Right?

[daringyoungman]

"Um."

Well, the immediate answer would be 'what?' But Dick isn't a normal kid and X is even further away, so he doesn't give the immediate answer.

"If they were given intelligence by some magician or a scientist or something, sure. But like - not if they're just, y'know, machines."

[cutting_edgex23]

"They are not sufficiently complex," X observes, after another moment of thought.

"You think they would be angry? If someone made them. Awake."

[daringyoungman]

"That one definitely would," Dick says, pointing at an animatronic mannequin that kind of reminds him of Scarface. "I think that one would be stuck on angry."

[cutting_edgex23]

"I do not understand why people build faces that look angry. For toys."

It is -- people are weird, Dick. So, so weird.

"Fortunetellers that are frightening make more sense. A little."

If she squints?

[daringyoungman]

"S'pose," Dick says, "We had a fortuneteller as a sideshow. She was better than those."

[cutting_edgex23]

X peers a little more closely, head tilting as she studies the too-still features.

"We can see how terrible the fortunes are."

She only sounds a little dubious.

"For comparison."

[daringyoungman]

Dick tilts his head up at her, and quirks a small smile as he rummages in his pocket, eventually producing a quarter.

"You do it."

[cutting_edgex23]

X looks down at him, expression blank and composed.

"Okay."

She takes the offered quarter, sticks it in the machine, and stares fixedly at the animatronic display that follows. Okay, the waving back and forth of the terrifyingly mask-like face of the booth.

"The lights are very bright."

Eventually a card pops out. X takes it.

You are a star!

She blinks. Twice. Well, it is not inaccurate. Sort of.

[daringyoungman]

Dick stands on his toes to peer over at the paper as she reads it.

"That's not even a fortune."

[cutting_edgex23]

X tilts it enough so that he can read without straining his calves, if he likes.

"The tense is wrong," X allows.

"But it is not inaccurate."

What?

"You want to try? To see if you get something more useful?"