Their first stop was an obvious one. Given that all of the machines here seemed to operate via modern card readers instead of old-fashioned tokens, Kaitlyn navigated toward the self-service kiosk to pick up a couple. She tapped on the largest possible amount of credits she could purchase for each, handing one card to Vinny and keeping the other for herself.

  "Why're you givin' me one?" The guy asked. He left his arms crossed in front of him instead of reaching out to accept the piece of plastic. "We ain't here for me."

  "Sure, but that doesn't mean you can't play. What, are you just planning to follow me around and be bored while I have all the fun?"

  She tried to press the card into his chest, but Vinny stepped back out of range. Sighing, Kaitlyn kept it held out. "Look. Just hold onto it at least. Just wait. You're gonna find something you like, and then you'll be glad you have one."

  "Yeah, right. If that happens, I'll just steal yours."

  She shot him an affronted look. "No way! This is my card. You're crazy if you think I'm not going to use every single credit on this thing."

  "The fuck does that make sense? You can just put more on it, can't you?"

  "I could, but it's about the principle of the thing. Also, I don't want to be here all day." She waggled her own card meaningfully. "This is how I'm limiting myself."

  Vinny sighed, shaking his head in dismay. To her surprise, he actually reached out to snatch the second card from her offering hand. "You're a weirdo, Lynn."

  She just stuck her tongue out at him.

  They wandered around the arcade, scouting out what it had to offer. There were the usual mainstays—spin-the-wheel ticket games, shooters, racing simulators and the like. She even spotted a few coin-pusher games that required her to exchange credits for physical tokens to play. More than once, Kaitlyn found herself stopping to try out the more unfamiliar machines along their path. But what really caught her interest were the skill games.

  There they are, Kaitlyn thought, stepping toward a row of tall glass boxes. Inside stood a colorful array of prizes crammed together, their faces turned toward her while a three-pronged metal claw hung overhead. The classic crane game, a staple of arcades and shopping malls everywhere. But those weren't the only machines on display. A few took a different approach to the classic format, empty except for individual prizes hanging in tantalizingly precarious positions over the prize drop. They'd been deliberately set up to appear easily winnable, tempting passerby into making at least one attempt.

  Her eyes roved over the offerings. To her surprise, they were actually quite good. Each game boasted shockingly cute and relatively high-quality plushes or figurines compared to the obviously cheap and mass-produced offerings she was used to. That alone made the games too tempting to pass up.

  Rolling her shoulders, Kaitlyn focused on a chubby polar bear holding an ice cream cone. It sat among the other prizes in one of the more traditional crane games and didn't seem to be particularly stuck compared to its neighbors.

  It doesn't look like it should be that bad. Though I guess it depends on how strong the claw is… If it's one of those wimpy ones, then there's no chance I ever win.

  She swiped her card and took up a position at the controls. Navigating toward the bear, she positioned the claw atop its head and dropped it, just to get a feel for what she was working with. It tugged the plush upward a tiny bit before slipping off.

  Huh. That's not too bad at all. I think I can actually pull this one off.

  It took a few tries, but soon, she managed to hook the claw between one of the polar bear's arms and its body. She held her breath as it lifted out of the pile and levitated toward the prize drop, wincing as every jostle of the crane threatened to dislodge her prey. Then, it finally fell, tumbling unevenly into the hole.

  Kaitlyn grinned, ducking down to retrieve the prize. She straightened triumphantly and held it out for Vinny to see. "Ha! I did it!"

  The blonde ran a hand through his hair. "Took you long enough. Prolly coulda just bought the thing for cheaper."

  "I mean, you're not wrong…" Kaitlyn admitted, hugging the plush to herself. It was somehow even more satisfying to squish than it looked. "But it's not all about the prize. It's about the victory."

  "Uh-huh. That sounds like some kinda zen shit you say to make yourself feel better. 'It's about the journey, not the destination' and all that."

  "Hey, the destination is pretty awesome too. I mean, feel this thing! It's so soft!"

  After her initial victory, Kaitlyn tried her hand at a few more of the games. Some of them quickly proved not worth the effort, with prizes being too firmly lodged in place or claws being too weak to make any meaningful progress. But she did manage to snag an adorable cat that resembled a curled-up croissant and a rotund chicken that was more blob than bird.

  This is a good haul, she admitted, struggling to hold the trio in her arms. I honestly didn't expect the prizes to be this good. But I should probably move on. Otherwise there's no way I'll be able to carry everything without juggling them…

  She was just about to step away and return to the rest of the arcade when one more machine caught her eye. It was tucked away in the corner, just hidden enough that she'd somehow missed it on initial inspection. But it wasn't the machine itself that made her stop in her tracks. It was the prize inside.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  It was a dinosaur—a brachiosaurus, to be precise. If it were just that, then perhaps Kaitlyn wouldn't have found it particularly noteworthy. But the body of this dinosaur resembled a corn tortilla, its back loaded with embroidered lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and ground beef. A cute sombrero sat atop its head to complete the picture.

  It wasn't just any dinosaur—it was a tacosaur.

  Holy crap. I need it.

  Kaitlyn immediately switched directions and made a beeline for the game. A closer inspection revealed that the tacosaur was the only prize in the machine. It laid horizontally across two long bars that were the only thing standing between the plush and the prize drop beneath. The yawning gap beckoned tantalizingly, almost taunting her with the deceptively simple setup. All it would take was a bit of rotation for the dino to slip between the bars and into her grasp.

  Kaitlyn didn't hesitate. She slid her card through the reader and grabbed the joystick, eagerly aiming for the neck in hopes of lifting it up slightly. The claw descended and slowly closed beneath the tortilla-colored plush…

  …Then slipped right off the neck as it pulled back up.

  What the heck?! This claw is awful!

  Another try just confirmed it. The claw's grip was too weak to even budge the animal through lifting. The prongs would simply slip around and off the prize, leaving it millimeters off from its previous position if she was lucky. It was like trying to pick up a bowling ball with two pool noodles.

  Ok, fine. I get it. What about if we try a different method?

  She swiped again. This time, instead of trying to grab and lift the dino, Kaitlyn went for the opposite approach—pressing it down. She positioned the claw so that its extended prongs would depress the neck or tail as it descended. Maybe that would work.

  While the approach yielded better results than her previous one, it still wasn't nearly enough. The claw would stop before putting too much pressure on the toy, meaning that the satisfying frontflip she'd hoped for never materialized. Still, Kaitlyn couldn't give up. It was clear that the game was completely and totally rigged to make this a nearly impossible win. Yet despite that, she couldn't help the tiny ember of hope that glowed whenever she shifted the dino just a bit more to the side. If she could just do that enough times…

  "Oh, for— move over."

  Vinny appeared next to her, bumping her away from the controls. Before she could even protest, he'd already swiped his own card at the machine and started playing.

  "I'm gettin' tired of watchin' you fuck this up," he said, eyes narrowing as the twin prongs of the claw descended toward the dinosaur again. He swore as the prize wiggled, then settled back into its original position.

  "It's not as easy as it looks," she defended herself. "See?"

  The tacosaur wiggled once again, the motion making it appear as though it was laughing. Vinny just narrowed his eyes and growled. "Now listen here, you little shit…"

  What followed was a battle of wills between the surly blonde and the arcade machine. Vinny settled in, hunching his shoulders almost protectively over the controls as he made attempt after attempt to secure the plush. His occasional swearing and look of undisguised malice drew a few curious eyes from passing arcadegoers. But despite all of his efforts, he only managed the barest amount of progress towards victory.

  After watching for a long while, Kaitlyn stepped forward hesitantly. "It's ok. Thanks for trying, really. But I don't think it's meant to be. We can go play something else instead."

  "Nope." Vinny didn't budge. His attention remained laser-focused on the game. "You can go do somethin' else, but I ain't leavin' empty-handed. This thing's pissed me off too much."

  After a moment, Kaitlyn nodded and settled back in. She couldn't really blame the guy. These kinds of machines had a way of drawing you in, even the obviously rigged ones like this.

  I don't want to just wander off, though. He stuck around and watched me this whole time, so I'll do the same for him.

  She tried to offer some advice. "Maybe we're going about this wrong? What if instead of trying to rotate it, we try to move it toward one of the walls, bit by bit?"

  "Uh-huh. And how am I s'posed to do that?"

  "Maybe angle the claw so it slides along the body a bit? Not sure if it'll work, but might be worth a try…"

  They remained there, trying different ideas and approaches for how to dislodge the stubborn dino. Most of them amounted to nothing, while others allowed them to affect some minimal amount of change—helpful or not. Any change was a welcome sight though. At one point they'd done everything short of literally banging their heads against the machine—something which would probably get management called down on them, as she had to explain to the blonde.

  Eventually, after what felt to Kaitlyn like a frankly unreasonable amount of tries, the claw descended once more. It nudged the tacosaur just slightly to the side, moving it further along the path they'd hoped. Only this time, it didn't stop. Its tail slipped off the metal bars, sending the plush suddenly tumbling down into the abyss below. The machine lit up as it sensed the prize fall and began playing a congratulatory tune.

  Vinny pumped his fist. "Fuckin' finally! About damn time!"

  "You… you did it!" Kaitlyn gasped. "You actually did it!"

  "'Course I did. I ain't no quitter." The guy knelt, retrieving their coveted prize from the drop with a triumphant grin. "Here. Take it."

  Kaitlyn stepped back. "It's ok. You definitely earned that one—you should keep it!"

  "You think I wanna keep this goofy-ass thing? Fuck no." He waved it at her. "It's yours. So hurry up and take it."

  She hesitated, looking down at the other three plushes in her arms. "I… don't know if I can. My hands are kind of full. Can you carry it for me?"

  Vinny's expression turned to a scowl. "Bullshit. You can totally grab it."

  "I can't. Besides, you did win it, fair and square. Don't you want to show off your prize a little?"

  "Not a chance. No shot I'm gettin' caught dead lugging this around."

  Vinny stepped forward, trying to shove the dino into her overstuffed arms. She tried to retreat back, but he kept following. Before long, Vinny was practically chasing her down to foist the prize upon her.

  "Vinny!" Kaitlyn couldn't help but giggle. "I told you, my hands are full!"

  "Well figure out how to un-full em'! That sounds like a you problem, Lynn!"

  Vinny kept on her, rubbing the dino against her head as he chased her. She ducked down with a laugh and turned back to face him. "Fine, fine! Just give me a second!"

  It took a moment to reshuffle her winnings. But she managed to figure out a solution, hanging the polar bear off her arm so that she could carry all four at once. Her tormentor folded his arms with smug satisfaction. "See? Told ya you could do it. You just needed motivation."

  "Yeah, right. 'Motivation'. More like an overt threat…" She paused, glancing at her reflection in one of the arcade machines as they walked by. "Oh, come on! You completely messed up my hair!"

  "Eh. Worth it."

  She shot Vinny a glare as he grinned back at her.