capeandcowllogs | v > ^ o y y is probably not a real combo but i use it anyway

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v > ^ o y y is probably not a real combo but i use it anyway

WHO: Alex, Steve
WHERE: A vidya game store
WHEN: 3/8
WARNINGS: Steve talks a lot
SUMMARY: Teach me abut your silly interactive games, child
FORMAT: no

While planet Earth might have been lacking a great deal of the everyday technologies Steve was accustomed to as a space-traveling android, it certainly seemed to be working hard to make up for it by the sheer amount of...well, far less necessary curios. Which was not to say Zerard was lacking its fair share of luxury items and what many would call pointless inventions and time-wasters, no. Only...Only...

There sure are a lot of these little games, aren't there...?

Steve, no longer space-traveling or an android, was presented with three walls full of assorted games. Colorful covers for boxes in gray and green and white...It was rather exciting, he thought! Though he didn't particularly grasp the real charm, having never picked up a controller for such a thing in his life. He was simply making an observation: What few folks were there during that time of day (it was school hours, after all) seemed rather invested! And...and, if he had any basis for his assumption, a little old for games. But who was he to make that call? Adult humans had every right to play, too, didn't they? Though given the amount of time needed to invest in work to secure a stable quality of life...Hmm...

His attention was redirected by the sounds coming from one of the demo consoles. He approached it with no shortage of curiosity, eyes fixed more on the screen than anything connected, which made it all the more puzzling.

"'Press start...'" Start? He started glancing about, then down. He missed it the first couple look-overs, but after giving the controller a good, hard squint, he saw it. "Oh!" Start! There it is.

He pressed 'start.' The sounds changed, drawing his stare back up to the screen. Something was happening! How exciting – he was going to play a modern Earthman's game!

...

The little character on the screen was just standing there for minutes on end. Was...something else supposed to be happening? Steve frowned back down at the controller, pressing 'start' again.

"Oh--" Oh, wait. Now the screen was grayed out again. 'Paused'? But I pressed 'start,' not 'pause'...

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Unless one was heroing around or some sort of city wide catastrophe was taking place, there wasn't much to do in the City. Alex wasn't exactly the social type, not that he couldn't be, it was simply something he didn't feel he had to be. He did get what he justified as suficent socialization through online gaming though, plenty of interaction and none of the predicability that made life monotonous.

After being a week in the City, he needed to break the routine of looking at his communicator and figuring out what exactly happened the two years he was gone and if any of it was relevant. Video games happen to be the perfect distraction.

So there he was at the store looking at all the games that were there, games he hadn't seen before because where he was pulled from, it's still 2010 almost 2011. It's already 2012 here.

He didn't want to be greedy, after all he could always come back later for more, but he also wanted to choose carefully. He browsed the sections slowly before coming across the person playing the demo they had available. He seemed strange, confused at what he was doing and even looking at and kept pressing pause.

Alex inched closer to them, looking at the screen and then to the guy and back to the screen. "You gonna play, or what?"

"Hmm-?" Steve was shaken out of his thoughts by the voice, straightening up, blinking, and looking about. Then down. Oh! His smile twitched with his realization. Oh, dear. He hoped he hadn't been ignoring him for very long...he didn't remember hearing a greeting, just the question.

"Ahm, well!" He gave the controller another doubtful look. "Well, I'm certainly giving it a shot, but I'm...unfamiliar with this device, I have to admit. I've never seen one before!"

"What?" Alex let slip a look of disbelief before returning to his usual demenor. It wasn't...or it shouldn't have been a surprise judging the way he had been staring at the monitor.

"That's the controller," he pointed to the device in the guy's hands. "Those buttons and directional pad will move that dude on the screen, get it?"

"Ah, of course!" Steve ran his finger across the color-coded buttons. "Now, what about this start button? I pressed it as commanded, but I appear to have overused it." He looked earnestly back at the boy. "Please, would you tell me how to fix it so I can play the game properly?"

It was a little weird for Alex, he knew that there were people who had no idea how to play video games, but this guy was so gosh darn polite it was embarrassing. Like having a relative try and play games with you but having no idea how to do it or something similar.

"Press it again, the game'll resume."

Steve did as suggested, giving a little sound of surprise and delight when it did just as the boy said it would.

"Oh! Well, that's simple enough, isn't it?" How silly he didn't just try that on his own; Steve had to laugh a little at his own lack of foresight. "Thank you very much!"

Now. Now there was more to it than simply starting play, wasn't there? Steve took a moment to observe the layout on the screen. There were a couple bars in the lower right-hand corner, some numbers and a little map on the corner above that...a little, flashing marker therein -- some sort of goal to reach? Most likely.

"Ah, another question," he said, glancing back at Alex. "Am I to direct the little person toward that flashing goal?"

At this point Alex found himself amused, Steve looked so eager to play the game yet had no idea how to go about it.

"Yeah," he nodded, glancing at Steve then turning back to the screen. "Just make sure you don't get killed by the monsters," he pointed at the red dots on the tiny map.

"Ah, those?" Steve squinted. "Those will be foes I will come across as I move in that particular direction, I take it." Like radar, then. Not too alien, he thought. Not at all!

His hands hovered over the controller, hesitant, trying to determine the best way to approach working it. It wasn't rocket science; he wound up handling it much like it was designed to, thumbs settling over the button panels. He made a small, pleased sound, then a louder, amused one as he saw the figure twitch into motion with the flick of the analog.

"Oh! This one is for navigation. I see! And then these..." He began pressing the color-coded buttons at random, watching the figure do assorted kicks, swings into the air, crouching... "Haha! It's quite an aggressive character, isn't it? Is it supposed to fight without any weapons at all?"

"For now, probably," he looked over to Steve. His face practically sparkled with excitement from the game, which could only cause Alex to come to the simple conclusion that this is something extremely new and that he was probably an import. It didn't surprise him, though, the City was made up of mostly imports so bumping into one another would be common.

His attention was back to the monitor, at this point the monsters were almost to the little figure that looked as he was kicking and punching his way across the field. "Ah, here they come."

Here they come, indeed. Steve only had to blink and then there were little, lumbering shapes.

"Huh!" They had a similar look to certain beasts he'd fought before...how peculiar! Though the coloring was all wrong, and there were a couple extra legs, too...

"Oh, dear!" Wondering about it wasn't helping his cause too much; he hastily mashed at buttons, sending aimless punches and kicks – a few of which did connect, given the law of averages, but he watched with a bit of alarm as his character was flung backward. "Oh, this is harder than it looks, isn't it? That can't be good!"

"You're not doing too bad for your first time," he pointed to the few foes that he managed to take out. Of course he missed more than he hit, but for someone who has never played a game before, it was good.

"When an enemy comes toward you, press that red button twice and then the yellow one. Oh, and to block, press that button over there."

Steve risked glances down at the controls to see what the boy was talking about, musing about it aloud.

"Red one twice, then yellow..." He did as told, looking up quickly afterward to see what would happen. "Oh! That did a great deal more this time. Thank you!"

Alex nodded and smiled, a small one. "With some more practice, you could easily dominate this game."

Steve made a delighted, giggling sound, watching his character perform the same combination again. Then, a little wince as it was thrown and damaged by another monster.

"Oh, I don't know about that," he admitted. "This is hardly my realm of expertise..." He glanced back over at the boy, eyebrows lifted. "But I take it to be yours? Am I correct?"

This time, Alex grinned. It wasn't often he was able to boast about his gaming skills. "Yeah, you could say that. It's something I do when I have free time." And he sure had a lot of it here in the City.

"What about you?"

"Ah, well--!" Steve's smile took a bashful tint; he scratched at his cheek thoughtlessly. "My realm of expertise is primarily in data acquisition and interplanetary navigation, but...but that's not been something I've been readily able to do here. I'm not from this planet, you see."

He sure hoped that wasn't too strange; so many people had given him wary looks and dropped the conversation outright at that.

Nailed it, he was an import...not that Alex ever doubted it.

"That's cool," he shrugged a bit and turned so he was facing Steve rather than the game. "What planet you from?"

The young were much more receptive to such a revelation, Steve observed. It was nice! Encouraged, he hardly hesitated.

"I was assembled on the planet Zerard, out in the Wilherser System! It's a very advanced place – much moreso than here, certainly. All space travelers head there to purchase and renew their travel visas, so it has no shortage of interesting creatures."

So he was from space, it made sense considering how awkward he seemed in general. "Sounds exciting, space traveling and all."

"So what brings you to the City?" he raised an eyebrow, already knowing the answer.

"A rather fickle, unreasonable, near-sentient artificial intelligence, apparently!" Steve replied, still sounding rather surprised by it. It was strange. "Perhaps you've heard of it, if you're a native of this City and its...unusual quality for attracting strange people and creatures?"

"Oh I've definitely heard of it before," he said while brushing some of his hair out of his face. Steve's description of the porter was definitely the nicest one he has ever heard thus far. "I'm one of those strange people that it attracted."

"Oh!"

He oughtn't have been too surprised, given the number of ImPorts in the City, as well as how well in-stride he'd taken the remarks Steve had about other planets and the like, but even so. This boy struck him as rather...rather normal! But then, wasn't that the case for several? He certainly couldn't judge by appearances; who would assume he had once been a machine, anyhow? Or--

Er--

He lost his train of thought. He blinked out of his dazed stupor, refocusing, albeit sheepishly.

"Goodness, I should've guessed! My apologies for not coming to the conclusion on my own!" He tried to laugh it off. How silly!

With a little chuckle in his breath, he introduced himself properly, turning away from the console with a hand on his chest. "My name is Steve. We're...kindred spirits, in a way, I suppose!"

Steve's well mannered behavior was endearing and almost excessive, but not quite. It wasn't often coming across such a polite person...or whatever he was before getting to the City, and so Alex found him refreshing.

"Steve," he repeated, looking at him and finding the name not fitting. For being someone from space and advanced technology, he would have thought he would have something more sci-fi. "I'm Alex."

"Alex," he repeated, nodding. An easy-to-say, easy-to-remember name, for certain. Good! "It's very nice to make your acquaintance! And earn a little insight into...to..."

He took a second to glance back at the screen. His neglect seemed to have led to a poor outcome for his little, polygonal stand-in. The screen was red, with a big "MISSION FAILED" notice in the middle. Steve's smile twitched.

"Ah, well...I believe your insight did help! When I was paying attention, at least."

"Likewise," he smiled as he glanced at the screen, they were doing well until they started chit-chatting, oh well. "That's fine, it's only a trial, so you would only be able to play the first level anyway."

Alex moved away from the console, making room for the kids standing behind them who were eager to play now that Steve lost.

"How long have you been here?"

Steve had hardly noticed a wait for the game, but when he did, he hastened to worm out of the way, backing up until a shelf prevented him from going any further. At least there he wasn't blocking anyone's path. Position secured, he gave Alex's question some thought, making a soft humming sound through his nose.

"Well, let me think...Though I didn't acquire an Earth-calendar the day I arrived, I've been able to discern that--" He rummaged into his jacket's pocket, pulling out his communicator. "Given the date of my first posting...December twenty-three! And since then, the calendar months have changed, though I've forgotten if it's turned twice or three times...All that talk of 'leaping years' was quite confusing, too!"

This guys was just amusing, eventually he knew that after awhile the act would get tiring but for now, he enjoyed himself. "A little more than two months, then. That's not too bad."

Alex moved from standing opposite of Steve, to stand next to him against the shelves. He found speaking over the children playing the demo annoying and impractical.

"I've been here for almost a week."

"A week," Steve repeated. "Quite new! That must be exciting or...or at least, still rather jarring, given how little warning a trip here comes with." He squinted. "Actually, no warning at all, unless someone's proven otherwise without my knowledge." Likely.

But still. Back to Alex.

"Have you adjusted well? Is it enjoyable here?"

"This is my second time here, so it's not as new as you would think," he said with less enthusiasm. The first time wasn't so bad being brought to the City but a second time? Yeah, not as fun.

Alex looked over to the kids playing the game, they were rather engrossed with it and seemed so carefree. Somewhere inside of him wanted to be envious of their ignorance but knew that there was no honor living a life like that.

He then glanced over to his new acquaintance, "It still takes some time to get settled in but I've managed."

"Oh..."

Right, that was a not-so-uncommon thing, wasn't it? Steve's head tilted a little as he peered down at Alex, wondering if it was truly not the problem he said it was. Humans were really hard to read like that sometimes; it was naive to take everything at face value, but until he really learned how to interpret human emotions without the aid of his android sensors, he was rather in the dark!

"That's quite admirable, Alex," he said; there wasn't a shred of falsehood in it. "Statistically speaking, it's a supremely rare thing to endure once, let alone again. It speaks well to your character that you've managed well for yourself so well so quickly!"

Steve spoke so earnestly that Alex couldn't help but feel embarrassed by his words. It had been ages since he felt embarrassed by anything and he thought he never would have ever again. Steve proved him wrong.

"Er, thanks," he managed to say with a straight face.

Steve let it go with a bright smile, satisfied enough with the thank-yous. There were other things to ask about, after all; machine or not, he was still hungry for data.

"Is this planet at all like the one you've been drawn from?"

"It's almost the same thing, the only real differences between my world and this one are the people and the City itself." When he spoke about it, it only made him realize how boring being ported in was. Environmentally speaking, it was nearly identical to his world, which might have been why he had yet to get home-sick. It hasn't registered yet that he wasn't home.

"That's still rather strange to me," Steve admitted, his arms folding out of habit. "From what I've observed – and been told – a great number of those displaced here have been raised or, or are at least well acquainted with a planet of this nature. If not virtually the same, name and all! While others like myself, we...well, I'd never heard of an Earth before! But the percentage on our part – the non-Earth-knowers, if you will – is quite low, comparatively. I've been wondering if that ratio has any real significance or...or is perhaps simply another chance happenstance!"

Musing aloud? Oh, yes.

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v > ^ o y y is probably not a real combo but i use it anyway

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elle there is a parade going outside the office and i saw a guy on stilts...and a herd of hoses...

it's me

oh. stop that.

but it's my present to you

it's too noisy

the noise of love

that doesn't sound like love

i have a thick accent

i don't believe you

but i do :(

:|

:(

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