A Doll's Destiny

She was glad he did pretty well in the game. She had yet to figure out how he might act if he didn't do all that well in a game. She would have helped him dismount if he needed it, but he seemed prone to wanting to do things himself which she understood. But she would always be there if he wanted any help. "Hmm, how about some skee-ball. I've always enjoyed playing that." There were some towards the back of the arcade.
 
"Ski Ball?" Aiden cocked his head. "Never heard of that one."
 
"You take a ball and you roll it along the alleyway to get it into one of those holes," Clara said as she showed him with one of the machines. "See those numbers on the holes, you want to get as high of a score as you can get. What do you think? I find it fun to do and try to get as high of a score as you can get."
 
Aiden glanced at the holes and the numbers beside them. "So...each whole equals a certain amount of points?"
 
"Yup. They equal the number that is written on the hole. The higher the number, the harder it is to get the ball in the hole. So you have to decide how you want to try to get a high score, by going for the higher numbers but you might miss, or go for lower numbers but get more balls into them potentially giving you a higher score," Clara replied.
 
"Do we throw the balls. Seems simple enough to just role them down tubes," Aiden remarked.
 
"You roll them down this alleyway here not throw," Clara said as she showed him the game itself. "Kind of like what you do for bowling, but instead of hitting pins, you hope that you put enough strength into the ball for it to make it to one of the holes, but not too much that it misses the holes completely."
 
"...I still don't get it," he looked at the alley and shook his head. "If there's only one path, how can the ball get into multiple wholes?"
 
"You don't get the ball into multiple holes, you roll a ball one at a time. You have more than one ball," Clara replied. "And the path is big enough that depending on how you roll, you'll hit different holes."

SKBL_copy__20121.1598061477.jpg
 
"Okay, now I understand. Sorry, that just threw me for a loop for a second," Aiden said through a laugh.
 
"That's okay," Clara replied. "So do you want to try it out? I enjoy playing it. I can show you if you still need some more explanation too." This had always been one of her favorite games as a kid. She didn't find it super hard but there was still enough challenge that it remained fun to her.
 
"Sure, and yeah, I may need some help with this one," Aiden commented.
 
"That's fine, but they know kids are going to play it so it's low enough for you. I'll start out and show you how it's done." She put a coin into one of the games and the balls came out. She picked one up and rolled it like you would a bowling ball along the path. It hit the lip at the end of the path and the ball lifted up into the air, falling into the hole for 20 points. "Does that help?"
 
"Yes, it does. Thanks, love," Aiden said. He picked up a ball, rolled it down the path, and it bounced into the whole for 1 point.
 
(The lowest hole is actually always 10. They always are the way in the picture I showed you. You can get none though because there's a gap between the lip and the 10. You'll see it on the picture, kind of looks like a black line.)

"It's really common to have the ball end up in that bottom one," Clara replied. "I used to do that a lot when I first started and I still do it even now." She took another ball and rolled it to end up with another 20. Usually you just had to figure out how much strength you should put into the roll.
 
(I'm blind, so pictures don't work for me. Thanks for the added info, though.)
"Makes sense, considering it's the lowest one," Aiden threw another ball, which bounced into the twenty point whole.
 
(Oh, okay. I'll try my best to describe things then.)

Clara nodded. She rolled another ball and get it into the hole for thirty points, then she rolled another one and got that one into the ten points hole. "What do you think of the game?" she asked him. "Are you getting the hang of it. It isn't too hard to start getting the higher numbers, but I will say I still haven't quite figured out the best trick to get the hundred points since those two are on the sides unlike the rest being in the center."
 
"Loving it so far," Aiden said, rolling a ball into the fourty point whole. "And, maybe try rolling the boll against the side of the path instead the center?"
 
(Oh, there's ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and hundred points, just to let you know.)

"I'm glad you are," Clara replied. "That's true, but there's more chance of you missing and getting zero points if you try only for the hundred point. You are more guaranteed to get some amount of points if you stick with the middle. But if you want to risk it, you can try for the hundred points. It's all about how hard you throw it to get it up just high enough but not too high or else the ball will fall back down and miss completely, getting the zero points."
 
(Thanks.)
Nodding, Aiden threw two balls, the first landing in the thirty-point whole, the second in the fifty-point. Grinning, he threw his third ball harder, but it bounced off the center and rolled back to him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back