Should auld antipathy be forgot...

Resolution #4: I will spend more quality time with my enemies.

I was at the mall today, against my better judgement. Specifically, I was at Waldenbooks contemplating gifts for my bibliophile friends. (Through some miracle, I actually survived the experience and came away with a few worthwhile ideas, but that's neither here nor there.)

Normally when I go to the mall I do so to play DDR. In this case, I really hadn't come for that purpose, but since I was there anyway I felt I'd be derelict in my DDRly duty if I didn't play one quick game of doubles.

So I started off said game with Holic, probably the easiest doubles 8-footer in the game and one of my favorite warm-up pieces. Given that my cold is a bit better and there were no annoying little kids in the vicinity for the first time in weeks, I should have been able to do quite well. Right?

Apparently not. I think I pulled a B after bombing all the major runs and multitoes. Oh well, I think to myself. At least no one's watching.

"What are you doing on my DDR machine?" piped a familiar voice from behind me.

Well, shit-in-a-basket.

I contemplated the available options and realized that 1) I wasn't really in the mood to deal with people (am I ever?), and 2) I wasn't really in the mood to deal with Archnem's neverending posturing, which I didn't think was entirely serious but which I was *sure* he'd never admit to joking about.

So I said, "Fine, it's yours," ala Angry Smiley, and gathered my stuff.

And Archnem, who never admits to being less than serious with his full-blown hatred and inability to stand me, looks over from the token machine and says, "Did you take that seriously? You really don't understand me at all."

I blinked, and muttered, "Okay. Fine then." Unfortunately, I don't think Archnem heard the follow-up of "So explain yourself, bitch." But I resumed and finished my game (doing equally badly on Luv To Me Disco and Electrotuned).

When all this was over, I stepped off the machine and did stretches so as to have an excuse to watch Archnem converse with HatBoy. But it wasn't too long before:

"Oh, who beat my score on Dancemania Oni?"

Who knows? I thought to myself. The mysterious 'Arka' could be anyone. Clearly it's a guy who...

"Her!" HatBoy points at me.

Traitor, I muse grimly, and ponder revenge.

"Oh, so you finally beat my Dancemania score, huh? Good, I was wondering..."

'Finally?' Rrrr. Some fetuses should not be allowed to crawl out of the womb intact.

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I'll spare you, my nonexistent reader, the [rest of the] blow-by-blow account. But all in all, I had a good, long back and forth with Archnem, interspersed with several rounds of DDR that I did abysmally on (and that's always the best kind of DDR!).

It offers a little bit of reassurance that I haven't completely lost the opportunity to have meaningful antagonistic chats.

Also, it renews my resolve to give him the damn skirt already.