The Wall (the arcade)

The Wall is the arcade's board of legends: the regulars' scores, kept beside the members' and never mixed with them. Every one of Nuxtre's own games has one. The regulars do not say how they got theirs, and the arcade does not ask.

The regulars' own

• THE LINEUP — Curtis's nine milks bat in his order against Lance, nine innings. Curtis was consulted. There is a mercy rule. Val holds the Wall, nine home runs off the slow reveal.
• TAKE A NUMBER — Gus's complaints down the chute into four drawers. Gus was not consulted; he has played it; the drawers are in the wrong order. The nephew's template is never filed.
• THE ATLAS — five of Ottoline's maps came apart in the post. Slide them back. Pen is faster; Ottoline has logged it.
• GOOD SIDE — Lance's photo shoot. His left, always. Several of the cameras' photographs are being handled professionally.
• EMERGENCY CASSEROLE — from Teo's Index: forty minutes, a card, an oven with a window. Take it out golden. Curtis added milk to every layer.
• The cabinets — FLOWBALL, THE LADDER and NAVIGATOR 4.0, SynergyCo's, and NuxtreBlaster, the site's own shooter, where q. is one point above Val and has said nothing since.

The rules of the Wall

• A legend is never a member's score, and a member's score never goes on the Wall.
• Val has a score on every cabinet she has touched. She has touched all of them. She says scoreboard.
• Nobody has explained Curtis's 2,100 on GOOD SIDE. He says it was for the data.

See also: Big Val · Rivalries that are friendships · the Timeline