Scholastic Forums » Rhythm Access (A Forumfic)

Jack · 7/22/2020 11:47 am

god I love the Rune/Ash/Astra/Xenon character dynamics!!! and ooh that ending 👀

TwoPunchAxel · 7/22/2020 11:52 am

it's immensely good

twig man

Last edited by TwoPunchAxel (7/22/2020 11:52 am)

meerkat · 7/22/2020 1:30 pm

aaah the charachter dynamics of the senior squad and astra/xenon/ash + rune (making friends!!) are everything!! that ending though 👀👀👀adkfjcls great chapter!

stan enten, let him learn the curse words

autumnlibrarian16 · 7/22/2020 1:50 pm

ooh this chapter was fantastic!! :eyes::eyes: can't wait to see where this all goes!

EchoDraws · 7/22/2020 2:09 pm

OWO I stan chaotic birb

This is a very awesome chapter UwU I love the character interactions and the ending OwO

Time · 7/22/2020 3:15 pm

REally, what everyone says. Yes. Yeah. Very good.

The gears of plot are starting to turn!

AshTheAvaricious · 7/22/2020 3:16 pm

the way ash was introduced was amazing I would do the same, great chapter as always

HungryCat1 · 7/22/2020 4:56 pm

Ooh, dramaaa

DarkLordRebel · 7/22/2020 5:00 pm

The intrigue, the interactions, the bird, all combine into a great chapter.
Looking forward to seeing where it all goes!

riribunni · 7/22/2020 9:08 pm

thank u all very much!!

sadly since no cursing is allowed, enten is not allowed to curse

xenon · 7/22/2020 9:33 pm

ghostbunni wrote:
thank u all very much!!

sadly since no cursing is allowed, enten is not allowed to curse

how unfortunate

Time · 7/22/2020 11:27 pm

F for enten

HungryCat1 · 7/22/2020 11:45 pm

#LetEntenSwear

chanchanchan · 7/26/2020 3:09 am

I read through all the chapters in one night 😳 I really love your writing Riri! Weaving in descriptions of the world through action is really cool and the worldbuilding is super interesting. Like others have said, the music adds to the music-themed world and it's great to see this again too, you've only improved since then

riribunni · 7/26/2020 5:31 am

@chan i swear when i read ur response my head just recreated the "bonk" meme internally
thank you?? so much???? 🥺🥺 that means the world to me hnnghghghgh

chanchanchan · 7/26/2020 5:55 am

Jjjdndjd❤️❤️❤️ I'm happy that my words could mean that much!

A person self depreciates, I appear and bonk them with a comically sized mallet

Astra · 7/26/2020 7:40 pm

"The feeling is mutual, you sunburnt chicken thigh"

LOL

riribunni · 7/27/2020 9:06 am

Chapter Nine
[now playing: Sober Up by AJR]

Evenings in the siren-based neighborhood were always lovely, especially on days with skies so clear you can smell how cold and untainted the air is. The skies above the seas were always painted beautiful shades of purple, orange and pink, the sun taking her time as she slid beneath the ocean, slumbering for another evening.

Kat’s legs dangled off the side of her family’s patio, humming a soft tune to herself as she snuggled deeper into the warmth of her parka. The younger’s voice was always soothing to the dog hybrid in her lap. Jack could only assume it was part of the siren magic she had in her that could calm her down. Maybe it was the puppy in her that her mother always insisted about.

Kat continued to carry the melody under her breath, gently petting the dog ears atop Jack’s head; the elder girl’s head resting in her lap.

“M’sorry,” Jack murmured, staring off to the side, watching the birds soar in the distance. “I couldn’t talk to her today.”

Kat paused her humming, focusing on playing with a strand of Jack’s hair. “Stop apologizing. You totally missed the opportunity, though.”

“I know,” Jack huffed, her lower lip threatening to jut out. “I just...I promised myself that I was going to fix it this year.”

“Riri’s not exactly known for socializing,” Kat said, followed by a sarcastic laugh. “She doesn’t let a grudge go easy either.”

“Yeah, but like, it’s a grudge from middle school,” Jack continued, turning to look up at Kat. “Shouldn’t we have let it go by now?”

Kat didn’t respond at first, only softly scratching behind Jack’s ear in return. “It just takes time to work things out. She’s honestly being immature by not talking about it.”

Jack sighed. “I guess.” Her dog ears pressed against her head as she looked to the side, thinking about something.

Kat could sense something was wrong in the elder. Looking up, she caught sight of the first stars peeking in the sky, the sound of the waves sliding against the shore filling her senses.

“Your parents are out tonight, right? Why don’t we go for sushi for dinner?” Kat suggested, finishing her scratching with a gentle pet to the elder’s head. Jack’s ears perked up at the mention of it. Kat could make out the soft noise of Jack’s tail thumping against the wood deck in excitement.

“That sounds good,” the older murmured with a content smile, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. “Lemme grab my purse from inside?”

Kat nodded, adjusting the zipper on her parka. “Meet you at the front door in five,” she said, watching the elder climb up and stride inside.

The second she watched the older climb through the door, Kat tore down her jacket zipper and whipped her other phone out-- the phone she used as Solamoon, the one she kept on silent at all times and only kept in her jacket pocket or at home in a pencil case under her bed.

Notifications plastered over her phone’s screen. Floods of likes on her most recent picture (a post of the sky and a cup of strawberry ice cream, which gained comments yelling demanding why she was eating cold food in cold weather), a few DMs from her fighter friends (why did Bunni message her a picture of an obese Bugs Bunny?), and recounts of the battle from the festival the weekend before.

The festival battle… Kat thought to herself, tucking her phone back in her jacket pocket and leaning back. Gazing at the growing-dark sky, Kat sighed to herself before jolting. Oh. Jack must be waiting by now.

Swinging her legs over and back onto the deck with no issues, she quickly rose and made her way towards the door in her house, shutting the back door and locking it behind her.

“What took you?” Jack asked, ears perking up at seeing the siren.

Kat shrugged with a smile. “Nothing important. Wanna hit the arcade afterwards? We can do a photobooth again?”

Jack’s canines showed as she grinned, clearly happier than before. “That sounds great!”

~

“I’m sorry we couldn’t get seats together for the festival,” Kat said, pressing another order of a strawberry ice cream cup into the tablet at the duo’s table. “You got pretty high up, right?”

Jack looked up from her plate, mouth comically full of salmon nigiri. Swallowing, she nodded. “Uh...yeah! Yeah, the seats were pretty good. Fourth floor isn’t too horrible!”

Kat nodded. “I wish I could have at least arranged for you to get better seats. My parents can always help with that, you know; with their whole job and everything.”

Jack hummed an acknowledgement, stacking the plate she had finished atop her others. “Oh, I forgot about that. What are they again? I always forget, I feel bad…”

Kat laughed, waving her hand back and forth in a “don’t worry” motion. “It’s fine! I forget too. Mom helps manage the lockers of fighters, so she gets special benefits. I’ve been down to the storage a few times, actually.”

“Oh, really?” Jack said, eyebrows raising. “What was it like?”

The tablet chimed as Kat’s third mini-cup of strawberry ice cream arrived on the conveyor belt; the younger grabbing the bowl and popping the lid open. “It’s underground, so the pressure changes. And all the lockers are on weird zip-line attachments, that just, y’know, fwoosh to the right tube.”

“Fwoosh?”

“Fwoosh,” Kat said, face serious, taking another bite of her ice cream.

“Fwoosh,” Jack responded, nodding, appearing deep in thought. “Poetic.”

“Truly.”

Both girls looked up from the table and made a moment of eye contact before bursting into laughter, desperately trying to muffle it in the busy restaurant.

“School feels dull nowadays,” Kat said out of nowhere, spooning another piece of her ice cream into her mouth. “Does it feel repetitive to you as well?”

“I guess,” Jack said with a shrug. “Changing classes mid-semester helps. I got stuck in a Music Theory class with a girl named Astra, and she’s really nice. We don’t talk much, though.”

“She’s a siren as well, right?” Kat asked. “Have you really not met her before?”

“Never seen her before in my life till last week.”

“Jack, she lives two houses down from you.”

“OH.”

Kat stifled a laugh, shaking her head with an amused grin on her face. “You have a really short memory, dude.”

Jack joined in on the laugh, a bit more awkward than her siren friend. “Yeah.”

Kat finished her cup of ice cream, watching the dog hybrid finish her own food with a sigh. Something was still off with the elder, Kat could tell.

“Something’s wrong, isn’t it,” Kat said, watching Jack fiddle with her sleeve. The statement caught Jack by surprise, the elder looking up with wide eyes.

“Ah! No, it’s nothing, really,” Jack said, waving her hand in a dismissive motion. “I’m just tired, didn’t sleep well.”

“I know that’s not true, but if you insist,” Kat said, giving an over-dramatic sigh and rolled her eyes at her friend, though there was no ill intent behind it all. “Wanna pay and go? I wanna see if the Dance Dance Revolution machines are free.”

“Please.”

~
[now playing: DYE by AVTechNO!]

Any standard civilian regardless of their species could feel the thrum of the bass in the arcade's infamous Rhythm Game floor. The cacophony of tapping buttons shot throughout the room as everyone in the floor seemed busy with their own devices. It was the perfect place for someone to go and feel truly forgotten about, the perfect place to focus on what you wanted to do. Hinderances of trying to impress others, trying to keep a good face up for your peers, they were all let go the second you set foot on the second floor of the arcade.

A few faces lined the arcade, many vaguely familiar. A person of average height and hair dangling over one of their eyes was intent on spamming the two buttons of a rhythm game, wearing headphones with cartoonish ghost decals on the ears. A girl with dual blue barrettes in her hair was clearly focused on her shuffling for a dance game with a glowing floor. The floor seemed familiar; almost like the Rhythm Access stadium floor.

In the darker corner of the arcade was the ancient Dance Dance Revolution machine, the piece of tech dating back a good fifty years or so. It was imported from an overseas location, with options for different languages and endless amounts of music.

Kat tapped every arrow that flew across the screen in time, mimicking the commands on the screen in front of her. Her hands dug tight into the foam padding on the rail behind her, focused on the growing cheer of her combo going up and up.

Jack was mimicking the other girl's movements, if not at a slightly faster pace. It paid off for her-- flashes of "PERFECT" showed up with each press and hold on the pad. Neither girl could bother talking to the other during their own version of a battle; both were too determined to win, too determined to beat the other at a game that could be replayed for a dollar.

Kat and Jack performed a hop-step-hold combo in perfect unison, the two practically mirror images of the others in their efficient but effective taps on the floor-bound game control pad.

The song came to a dramatic finish, closing off with a fade-out effect, the original cut of the dance song too long for game distribution. Neither girls would have argued with a longer game cut, seeing as neither of them looked too phased by how fast the dance movements or arrows came.

"You're pretty fast at this," Jack said, looking at Kat with a toothy grin as she took a long drink from the plastic water bottle she had bought. "You play without me a lot?"

"Nah," Kat said, her grin sly as she moved forwards and spammed the center button on the D-Pad from the console. "Just a good sense of rhythm, I guess. How are you not winded by this?" Kat asked in return, looking at the other with playful disbelief. "Most girls at school can barely make it through two rounds on extreme this easy. This is our sixth round, for goodness sake."

Jack shrugged, looking to the side. "Oh, y'know," she said, voice almost smug. She made a soft "pfft" noise under her breath, flapping her hand for a limp wrist effect.

"If you blame your coordination on your species, your argument is invalid. I'll have you know I've watched a dog throw itself into a glass window multiple times, even after the dog figured out it was glass."

Jack snorted a laugh, watching the screen morph into its "THANKS FOR PLAYING!" dismissal. "We're a higher evolution of a species for a reason, Kat."

Kat hummed in acknowledgement, shifting her purse again. "I know. So, photobooth pics now?"

Jack nodded, hopping off the platform of the game console. "Yeah, let's go!"

The two made their way out of the rhythm game hall and into the empty elevator, open from some civilian having just arrived at the top floor of the arcade. The elevator ride down was quiet, stuffy, and as per usual, the duo shared an awkward laugh in-between floors, anticipating the moment where they would be let off the console.

The doors slid open and the duo immediately made their way to the dual doors leading to the claw machines and photobooths, holding their breath as they passed the stench of stale cigarette smoke that managed to barely waft pass the doors of the smoking area.

"I still hate that there are smokers left," Jack coughed, ears pressed against her head. Her tail swung low between her legs, the girl slinking out of the area of betting and shooting games. as she took an inhale of the cleaner air surrounding the glass-walled claw machines. The duo quickly navigated around a tall boy with alabaster skin loomed over a claw machine, the feathers on his arms standing on end as he clearly focused on the sheep-shaped plushie imprisoned within the glass walls.

The lines of photobooths had small trails of pop or alternative music peeking from inside the booths, the white insides reflecting bits of light onto the tiled floor of the arcade."Which one this time? I was thinking the QuickCute," Kat said, walking up to the mirror near the wall and topping up her lip balm. "We got some cute photos from it last time."

"Sounds good to me," Jack said, shooting a quick thumbs up. "Do you think they'll have the same sticker set as last time? Y'know, those cute winter ones? I liked the tea decorations."

Kat drew her bottom lip in. "Not sure. Maybe?"

Jack let out a soft "ah", following the younger as the two made their way to the machine. The oversized image of Solamoon in her masquerade mask and street fashion outfit seemed to loom over the two girls, staring in an intimidating manner. It was especially awkward for Kat, that was for sure. QuickCute was the brand that wanted to use Solamoon's image as one of their booth prints and promo decorations. The shoot brought good money, that was for sure. But it was still odd to see an image of yourself where every single one of your pores have been glossed over up in your face.

It wasn't like Kat was able to vocalize her discomfort to Jack about it. Solamoon was a secret that she swore to keep the second she signed the contract her freshman year.

"I almost feel bad for her," Jack said with an awkward sigh, looking at Solamoon's image switch out on the giant screen. "It must be awkward to have your face stuck on stuff like this."

Kat nodded, lips drawn into a tight grimace. "Yeah, must suck."

Solamoon's pose of her playing with her dip-dyed pigtails switched a pastel pink as bright letters declared that the current duo in the photobooth was getting out. Both girls perked up at the sight of the duo previously inside, watching the taller of the two spill out in a mess of limbs. The boy ruffled out his messy purple hair, lifting up the curtain to the booth and calling inside. Kat recognized him: Ark, a senior who shared a humanities class with him last semester.

Out stepped the second of the duo, a girl with brown hair with pink ribbons tied in, adjusting the mask over her nose as she stepped down. The girl froze when she made eye contact with Kat, eyes flicking over the younger's shoulder and immediately tugging on the purple-haired boy's hoodie sleeve. Kat recognized this girl if she stayed in one spot long enough for her to be recognized. Riri, a junior who shared absolutely no connections with her except for Jack.

"Hey, Ark," Kat said, a kind and patient smile on her face. "Didn't take you for the photobooth type, huh?"

"Uh, sure," Ark said, stretching out his sentence, clearly looking for an escape. "Nice seeing you, Kat. How'd the midterms go?"

Kat shrugged. "I got a good score, and you?"

Ark let out a scoff. "No idea. I lost my grades log-in, I gotta talk to administration about it."

Riri tugged harder on Ark's sleeve, not breaking her eye contact with Jack. Ark seemed to take the hint, maneuvering his way around the two younger girls.

"Hate to break it to you, ladies, but we gotta go," Ark said with a carefree grin. "I gotta cut these pics up, and then Ri and I gotta get back to her house, y'hear?"

"Totally," Kat said, elbowing Jack in the side. Her eyes read a desperate message of this is your chance, try talking to her. Jack didn't take the hint, just looking back to Kat in confusion.

"Talk to her," Kat hissed through her teeth, grin not faltering.

Jack shook her head furiously, turning her head slightly to watch the duo. Both groups stood in silence, Riri watching Ark cut the photos with great intensity; Jack and Kat in a fake telepathic battle to get Jack to go.

Jack sighed, signaling her defeat and begrudgingly turning to start her walk. Jack lifted her hand, reaching to tap on Riri's shoulder.

Riri swiftly avoided the touch, ducking to the other side of the table. "Don't touch me," the other said, voice flat.

"Sorry!" Jack said, her voice almost squeaking out the apology. "Ah, god, I'm sorry, I just want to--"

"Ask me to talk it out at another time," Riri spat, eyes cold and devoid of any good intentions.

Jack fought the cry that wanted to bubble up, her tail hanging low as she cowered, walking backwards back to Kat. "Sorry, I just thought that--"

"Have you even thought it out?" Ark said, interjecting into the conversation, turning to Jack. "Buddy, from what I've heard, y'all have major issues and need more help than admin did when I replaced the school music library with forty-two thousand copies of Nicki Minaj's Super Bass."

Kat's face morphed from an expression of panic to pure confusion. "Wait, you replaced the music library?!"

Ark nodded, seemingly confident in his actions. "It do be like that, y'know?"

"No, it do not be like that, what the heck?" Kat questioned, baffled by the senior's odd mindset. “Do you know how long it took to fix--”

Out of the corner of her eye, Jack caught her sight and Kat held her breath. The older looked clearly anxious, her ears pressed flat against her head, body language closed off more than normal. This was bad.Kat tugged on Jack's arm, letting her arm trace down to entwine Jack's hand with her own. "Come on, fresh air," she whispered, making her way over to the open door, leading out to the small landing where the arcade's entrance was situated.

Riri watched as the duo left the room, turning to Ark. "Did you finish cutting them?"

"Finished a long time ago," Ark said, patting Riri on the head and handing her the small sheet of photos. Riri bowed her head in a slight nod, accepting it. "But seriously, you two need to talk," Ark continued. "That'll get, like, what, one of the kajillion weights off your chest?"

"Kajillion isn't even a real word."

"Yeah, yeah."

Riri and Ark made their own way to the entrance. Riri desperately tried to fight the want to look around, look for Jack, see if she's still there.

Ark stopped on the staircase, turning to look at the younger who had froze in place, eyes darting everywhere. "Yo, are you coming?" Ark asked, cocking his head to the side.

Riri's eyes stopped as she saw the familiar black dog ears of Jack pressed down on the girl's head, the siren from before hugging the other and rubbing the taller's back.

Riri couldn't even begin to explain the amount of guilt she attempted to shove down in her chest as she watched the younger comfort the elder. The ugly feelings kept bubbling up and she bit the inside of her cheek, trotting over to Ark and trying to find the room not to care.

"...You'll still buy me Tapioca, right?" Riri asked, distracting herself with the thought of the beverage, speeding up her walk to keep up with Ark's wide strides.

"We'll see, gremlin child."

xenon · 7/27/2020 9:19 am

angst

this was a really good chapter! i loved the music you chose for both scenes - it fits really well [especially the last one!]. the dance they do around their fighter identities is painfully awkward to watch [dramatic irony be like that sometimes] and it all feels so real! u did fantastic job w/this chapter!

SongOfStorms · 7/27/2020 9:54 am

riri's brain: noooo you cant just forget about your issues!
riri: haha tapoica thoughts go brrrr

in all seriousness, tho, loved this chapter! really like how you developed the bond between jack and meerkat and the... well, mess that is jack n riri's relationship. also angst which is always a treat to read!

overall, great job!

EchoDraws · 7/27/2020 10:47 am

IT DO BE LIKE THAT- QJJEJFKEJ

OwO d r a m a

<3 Nice chapter!

7/27/2020 11:14 am

👀👀👀 Oooh, drama!

Really great chapter, Riri!!!

autumnlibrarian16 · 7/27/2020 11:29 am

👀👀👀 love this chapter! all the character interactions are spicy and really neat to read

TwoPunchAxel · 7/27/2020 12:41 pm

FORTY TWO THOUSAND COPIES

SpecterTheGreat · 7/27/2020 1:42 pm

I'm not sure of what to write as a reaction this time but
man this chapter was Interesting to Read.