Gift Post #14
Title: It’s A Game!
Recipient: pikabot
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Maka, Tsubaki, Kilik and Soul
Summary: Maka has been having a stressful day, so Tsubaki introduces her to computer games. Maka takes the rules and applies them to certain real life situations!
"I found this thing. Is it going to set me on fire?"
"Tell me what it looks like."
Maka and Tsubaki sat back to back in a dimly lit room, concentrating on their glowing computer screens. Small bright figures moved around on each one; Tsubaki's centaur was constructing a tall jeweled castle, while Maka's elf hacked through a thicket. Speakers filled the air with grand music, suited to battle and conquest.
"Hang on, I can't see through this stuff." Maka leaned forward and scrutinized the computer screen. "Right, it's a hovering beetle and it's yellow."
Tsubaki was leaning back in her chair, working mouse and keyboard with quick, smooth movements. "Hmmm! That's a claimable scout ship. I think you should walk over and touch it."
"Is the beetle important? Can I talk to it?"
"All yellow objects, like that airpod, and any yellow citizens you meet are unallied," Tsubaki explained in a recitative voice. "You may add them to your forces as long as their group does not outnumber yours."
"How do you remember all this stuff? Hey, now I'm on it, I'm way up in the air! I can see some mountains."
"Good! Now take it back to your base and you'll be able to make more of them."
"Wait, I want to see how far this forest goes. Or no, I want to see your base first." Maka tapped keys, swapping her screen view from snowy mountains to ocean shores and back in her excitement. "Where are you?"
As Tsubaki opened her mouth to reply, the music changed to minor chords, punched up with the rat-a-tat-tat of military drumbeats. "We are under attack!" cried an extremely theatrical voice.
"Now what?" Maka demanded, clicking the mouse rapidly while her ship jerked back and forth.
"The A.I.'s found you," Tsubaki said. "Quick, head back to your base! I'll send some archers. Put all of yours in a fort."
The music reached a crescendo and was replaced with the tolling of gloomy bells.
"Oh no," Tsubaki said regretfully.
"That's all right. I can't remember where my base was, anyway." Maka sounded tired, but her voice was not without a certain defeated humor. "Well, the mountains were nice."
"I'm sorry, that wasn't much fun. Want to try again? I know, we'll play against each other, but I won't attack you! That way you can just explore."
"Nah, I think today is the day that all the computers decided to get even with me." Maka walked to the kitchen counter, where her laptop was receiving emergency care. It was surrounded by an impressive array of tools, manuals, utility CDs, and handwritten notes that looked like gibberish. Beside it, a black external drive blinked in syncopation to the laptop's own drive light.
"The progress thing isn't moving...wait, never mind, there it goes. Whew."
"That's going to take a while," Tsubaki offered. "Probably hours, with a hard drive that size."
"I'm keeping you up. Do you need to go anywhere tomorrow? I swear when this is over, I'll run all your errands for a month."
"Maka, it's no problem! I don't go to bed that early, and I like doing things like this." Tsubaki joined Maka and examined the screen. "Look at all the files it's recovering. Your paper will be in there."
Maka leaned on the counter and put her face in her hands. "Ugh, why didn't I back it up. I knew I should, but no, I thought 'don't be paranoid.'"
Tsubaki shrugged. "When you have some free time, I'll show you how to image it. For now, just don't worry. Maybe there's something good on TV? Or we could play the bubble game again."
"Sure, maybe later. Can we go for a walk to the store? Is that okay? I know it's late but I want something to crunch on. And if you want anything," she said, pointing at Tsubaki, "I'm buying."
"I’ll take advantage of that."
The night was cool, almost chilly after the heat of the day. Maka looked over at Tsubaki, saw that she seemed perfectly happy with the outing, and decided to stop being so apologetic. If anything, Tsubaki seemed to be having a pretty good time fixing broken hard drives in the middle of the night.
"Okay," Maka said, "After this I'm going to ding you for every computer thing, you know, so watch out."
"I don't know that much. I just look things up."
"Yeah, that's what they all say. I think you have a lot of it memorized, like all those rules in that game. And you don't get nervous, either! When it gave me all those blue screen errors, I panicked."
"Troubleshooting is a game," Tsubaki agreed, nodding. "More like a puzzle game. If you have enough time to tinker with something, it's fun."
"I don't think I could do that! It would stress me out too much. All right, here's a question: what's the difference between solving a problem in real life, like my computer, and doing a problem in a game?"
Tsubaki was considering this when a beeping sounded inside her shoulder bag. "Oh, hang on." She drew a cell phone out and flipped it open.
"Hello, Tsubaki speaking." She listened for a while and her brows drew together. "May I ask who is calling, please?" Another pause, and she brightened. "Oh! Hello, Mr. Albarn; I'm sorry, your voice sounds different on the...yes, she is! Of course, one moment please." She handed the phone to Maka and whispered, "Your father! He's upset."
"Agh," Maka grumbled, but took it. "Hi, papa, what's--no, I'm fine. What?" She listened for a while, her expression growing baffled. "Of course I'm outside, but I'm walking to the store. He said what? Well, Soul is full of it, that's not what happened! I went and got Tsubaki to help me, she has this disc that...but I don't need a new one, I need to get my stuff off of my old one. I don't know what happened."
Maka listened until she couldn't take it anymore, then handed the phone back to Tsubaki. "Can you tell him it's okay? He thinks I need a whole new computer."
Taubaki was still patiently explaining when they reached the line of shops ten blocks later. "Yes sir, I agree, but if you came home one day and all your books were gone, would you rather buy all new books, or would you try to find out where they'd gone?" She listened and closed her eyes for a moment, the only hint of exasperation that she'd let slip so far. "No sir, I don't think Maka needs any new books, but it's a kind offer."
Maka slowed and waited, hoping that the phone call could end before they went into any of the shops. She didn't know which was more embarassing: imagining her father's clueless computer questions, or suspecting that she'd been asking Tsubaki the same things an hour ago. This is the second time today she's had to help me out, she thought. I have to pay her back. Maybe she wants someone to play that game with? I bet she's been playing it for months, but she never mentioned it to anybody. Well, if she wants a game partner, I'm in, and I'll get good at it if it kills me.
She was looking across the mostly-empty parking lot when she saw Soul's motorbike, parked across two spaces in front of the video store.
"Mr. Albarn, may I call you back tomorrow? I’ll let you know whether Maka needs anything. Yes, I'm sure she will be. Bye-bye!" Tsubaki flipped the phone closed and slumped a little. "Whew!"
Without taking her eyes off the motorbike, Maka thrust her own purse in Tsubaki's direction. "I know this is dumb, but I have a bone to pick with somebody. Take my wallet and buy anything you want, I mean absolutely anything. I'll be back in a minute."
Tsubaki watched her stalk away, boot heels cracking on the asphalt. The threatening military music from their game came to her mind; it would have been very suitable.
Soul and Kilik were picking out DVDs in the Action-Adventure aisle, Soul showing an unusual enthusiasm for schlock movies. His left arm balanced a clutter of DVD cases; the store's "Five For $5" special was somehow not generous enough. The clerk, who had hoped to start closing up by now, hung over the countertop and watched them, blowing bubble gum.
"Everything that guy's been in is lousy," Kilik said. "You could put him in Casablanca and boom, instant pans."
"That's why it's awesome," Soul said, picking up a fresh case and dropping three on the floor. "Casablanca's overrated."
"You can't seriously want to rent that. Even that internet reviewer said that it was bad, and he likes everything."
"He's an idiot. Heavy Duty’s an awesome movie. It just hurts to watch it. You have to go in with an attitude of..." Soul broke off as he saw Maka come striding into the store, giving the door spring a good stress test on her way.
"Why did you tell Papa that I'd gone running out in a panic?" She accentuated this with a wild sweep of her arm, nearly smacking Kilik, who took a judicious step backward.
Soul made an irritated face. "What are you even talking about? I never said that."
"Papa! He called me! He was talking like I'd run screaming into the night because my computer broke down. And he got the idea from you!"
"He got the idea because he's a--" Soul seemed to reconsider finishing that sentence, and continued, "Look, I just said you had some kind of computer crap and went over to Tsubaki's. That's all."
"And what else?"
"Well, I said that you need to be more careful or you'd lose your stuff." Maka glared at him even harder. "What?! You said it yourself, you wished you'd backed your--I was just making conversation! Do you know how hard it is to get him to hang the phone up?"
"Oh, I see!" She whirled and exited, giving the door another workout. Out on the sidewalk, Tsubaki was just leaving the convenience store, carrying a bag full of brightly colored junk food.
"Tsubaki! Have you ever played that game where they steal cars? The one the news is always complaining about?"
"I...no?"
"Well, we're going to play it now, so if you have any hints, now's a good time." Maka stomped over to Soul's bike, considered it for a moment, then reached beneath the headlamp. "I spy, with my little eye, a yellow enemy vehicle! Right?"
"Technically, the yellow ships are allies," Tsubaki said diffidently, leaning over to watch Maka work. "Ah, don't you need a key?"
"Watch this," Maka said. She pulled out a bundle of wires and pulled a pair of plastic connectors apart. A woman in a grey suit passed by and gave the scene a doubtful look, but decided to keep walking. When the bike's engine turned over, Maka flashed Tsubaki a triumphant grin. "Now back to the home base!"
Maka gave the engine several loud revs, purely for show-off purposes. Soul came out, handing his DVD to Kilik, who was close behind him. "What the hell are you doing? I need that!"
"You'd better be more careful, Soul, you're going to lose all your stuff!" Maka yelled. She looked like a true wild child, careless and grinning, until the bike bumbled over a pothole and she lost her balance, rocking dangerously. For balance, she grabbed the closest thing, which happened to be the accelerator. The bike buzzed to life and shot away with her on it, her long legs held out for balance like a high-wire artist's. Soul watched, torn between offended and alarmed, but Maka got the bike under control and wheeled it in a wobbly U-turn back to where she'd started. He let his eyelids relax to their normal bored state and sauntered over, since Maka was clearly going to stop fooling around now.
Later, he wished he'd walked faster, because Maka wheeled up to Tsubaki, said something that made Tsubaki mount the bike behind her, and both of them roared off down the street. Soul let out a shout and took off after them.
Kilik shook his head and walked back into the video store.
"You still need to pick another one," the clerk said. "How about "Gone in 60 Seconds"?"
"I don't know why we need a movie," Kilik reflected, passing money to the other boy. "This is all the entertainment anyone could ever want."
Maka had planned for a grander ride home, but ten blocks by motorcycle went much more quickly than ten blocks on foot. By the time she was fairly sure she wasn't going to crash, she was home and had no idea what to do next. Judging by the shouts, Soul wasn't too far behind them, and she was not ready to be caught yet. Whatever was happening, it was more fun than she'd had in awhile.
"Tsubaki!" she yelled, slewing to a ragged stop in front of their building. "Quick, get the door!"
Tsubaki leapt from the seat, hopping a little, and opened the front door. To her surprise, Maka didn't run inside but dismounted and wheeled the motorbike in, right up to her apartment, and began to wrestle it through the doorway.
"Get inside!"
"What are you doing?" Tsubaki laughed.
"I captured an enemy yellow vehicle and I took it back to my base," Maka panted. "It's a seige! If it gets violent, throw the food!"
They were still laughing when Soul and Kilik blasted in, yelling much more loudly than anybody needed to, and began beating on the door.
"Maka, you moron! When you steal somebody's bike, you don't go and hide it in their house!"
Maka yelled defiant insults and pounded on the door as well, also for no reason; this continued until the dormitory monitor emerged, and told them it was after midnight and he was going to personally beat them into silence with a quarterstaff.
"I'll need a technician to swing me around," he growled, "but since you woke the whole damn floor up, I'm sure I can find one. I'll bet there are plenty of eager volunteers." Multiple apologies and a bribe of chips and licorice calmed his grouchiness, and when Kilik arrived with the movies they settled down for some mindless explosions.
"The scan has probably finished by now," Tsubaki said. "Do you want to go over and check on it?"
"I forgot all about it," Maka said. "No...I'm sure it's fine."
"That must answer the question that you asked me, earlier. About games and real life. I say that a game is a pretend problem, something that you use to distract you from real life ones."
"Thanks for distracting me," Maka said, putting an arm around her friend and giving her a quick hug. "I think sometimes I need it."
Recipient: pikabot
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Maka, Tsubaki, Kilik and Soul
Summary: Maka has been having a stressful day, so Tsubaki introduces her to computer games. Maka takes the rules and applies them to certain real life situations!
"I found this thing. Is it going to set me on fire?"
"Tell me what it looks like."
Maka and Tsubaki sat back to back in a dimly lit room, concentrating on their glowing computer screens. Small bright figures moved around on each one; Tsubaki's centaur was constructing a tall jeweled castle, while Maka's elf hacked through a thicket. Speakers filled the air with grand music, suited to battle and conquest.
"Hang on, I can't see through this stuff." Maka leaned forward and scrutinized the computer screen. "Right, it's a hovering beetle and it's yellow."
Tsubaki was leaning back in her chair, working mouse and keyboard with quick, smooth movements. "Hmmm! That's a claimable scout ship. I think you should walk over and touch it."
"Is the beetle important? Can I talk to it?"
"All yellow objects, like that airpod, and any yellow citizens you meet are unallied," Tsubaki explained in a recitative voice. "You may add them to your forces as long as their group does not outnumber yours."
"How do you remember all this stuff? Hey, now I'm on it, I'm way up in the air! I can see some mountains."
"Good! Now take it back to your base and you'll be able to make more of them."
"Wait, I want to see how far this forest goes. Or no, I want to see your base first." Maka tapped keys, swapping her screen view from snowy mountains to ocean shores and back in her excitement. "Where are you?"
As Tsubaki opened her mouth to reply, the music changed to minor chords, punched up with the rat-a-tat-tat of military drumbeats. "We are under attack!" cried an extremely theatrical voice.
"Now what?" Maka demanded, clicking the mouse rapidly while her ship jerked back and forth.
"The A.I.'s found you," Tsubaki said. "Quick, head back to your base! I'll send some archers. Put all of yours in a fort."
The music reached a crescendo and was replaced with the tolling of gloomy bells.
"Oh no," Tsubaki said regretfully.
"That's all right. I can't remember where my base was, anyway." Maka sounded tired, but her voice was not without a certain defeated humor. "Well, the mountains were nice."
"I'm sorry, that wasn't much fun. Want to try again? I know, we'll play against each other, but I won't attack you! That way you can just explore."
"Nah, I think today is the day that all the computers decided to get even with me." Maka walked to the kitchen counter, where her laptop was receiving emergency care. It was surrounded by an impressive array of tools, manuals, utility CDs, and handwritten notes that looked like gibberish. Beside it, a black external drive blinked in syncopation to the laptop's own drive light.
"The progress thing isn't moving...wait, never mind, there it goes. Whew."
"That's going to take a while," Tsubaki offered. "Probably hours, with a hard drive that size."
"I'm keeping you up. Do you need to go anywhere tomorrow? I swear when this is over, I'll run all your errands for a month."
"Maka, it's no problem! I don't go to bed that early, and I like doing things like this." Tsubaki joined Maka and examined the screen. "Look at all the files it's recovering. Your paper will be in there."
Maka leaned on the counter and put her face in her hands. "Ugh, why didn't I back it up. I knew I should, but no, I thought 'don't be paranoid.'"
Tsubaki shrugged. "When you have some free time, I'll show you how to image it. For now, just don't worry. Maybe there's something good on TV? Or we could play the bubble game again."
"Sure, maybe later. Can we go for a walk to the store? Is that okay? I know it's late but I want something to crunch on. And if you want anything," she said, pointing at Tsubaki, "I'm buying."
"I’ll take advantage of that."
The night was cool, almost chilly after the heat of the day. Maka looked over at Tsubaki, saw that she seemed perfectly happy with the outing, and decided to stop being so apologetic. If anything, Tsubaki seemed to be having a pretty good time fixing broken hard drives in the middle of the night.
"Okay," Maka said, "After this I'm going to ding you for every computer thing, you know, so watch out."
"I don't know that much. I just look things up."
"Yeah, that's what they all say. I think you have a lot of it memorized, like all those rules in that game. And you don't get nervous, either! When it gave me all those blue screen errors, I panicked."
"Troubleshooting is a game," Tsubaki agreed, nodding. "More like a puzzle game. If you have enough time to tinker with something, it's fun."
"I don't think I could do that! It would stress me out too much. All right, here's a question: what's the difference between solving a problem in real life, like my computer, and doing a problem in a game?"
Tsubaki was considering this when a beeping sounded inside her shoulder bag. "Oh, hang on." She drew a cell phone out and flipped it open.
"Hello, Tsubaki speaking." She listened for a while and her brows drew together. "May I ask who is calling, please?" Another pause, and she brightened. "Oh! Hello, Mr. Albarn; I'm sorry, your voice sounds different on the...yes, she is! Of course, one moment please." She handed the phone to Maka and whispered, "Your father! He's upset."
"Agh," Maka grumbled, but took it. "Hi, papa, what's--no, I'm fine. What?" She listened for a while, her expression growing baffled. "Of course I'm outside, but I'm walking to the store. He said what? Well, Soul is full of it, that's not what happened! I went and got Tsubaki to help me, she has this disc that...but I don't need a new one, I need to get my stuff off of my old one. I don't know what happened."
Maka listened until she couldn't take it anymore, then handed the phone back to Tsubaki. "Can you tell him it's okay? He thinks I need a whole new computer."
Taubaki was still patiently explaining when they reached the line of shops ten blocks later. "Yes sir, I agree, but if you came home one day and all your books were gone, would you rather buy all new books, or would you try to find out where they'd gone?" She listened and closed her eyes for a moment, the only hint of exasperation that she'd let slip so far. "No sir, I don't think Maka needs any new books, but it's a kind offer."
Maka slowed and waited, hoping that the phone call could end before they went into any of the shops. She didn't know which was more embarassing: imagining her father's clueless computer questions, or suspecting that she'd been asking Tsubaki the same things an hour ago. This is the second time today she's had to help me out, she thought. I have to pay her back. Maybe she wants someone to play that game with? I bet she's been playing it for months, but she never mentioned it to anybody. Well, if she wants a game partner, I'm in, and I'll get good at it if it kills me.
She was looking across the mostly-empty parking lot when she saw Soul's motorbike, parked across two spaces in front of the video store.
"Mr. Albarn, may I call you back tomorrow? I’ll let you know whether Maka needs anything. Yes, I'm sure she will be. Bye-bye!" Tsubaki flipped the phone closed and slumped a little. "Whew!"
Without taking her eyes off the motorbike, Maka thrust her own purse in Tsubaki's direction. "I know this is dumb, but I have a bone to pick with somebody. Take my wallet and buy anything you want, I mean absolutely anything. I'll be back in a minute."
Tsubaki watched her stalk away, boot heels cracking on the asphalt. The threatening military music from their game came to her mind; it would have been very suitable.
Soul and Kilik were picking out DVDs in the Action-Adventure aisle, Soul showing an unusual enthusiasm for schlock movies. His left arm balanced a clutter of DVD cases; the store's "Five For $5" special was somehow not generous enough. The clerk, who had hoped to start closing up by now, hung over the countertop and watched them, blowing bubble gum.
"Everything that guy's been in is lousy," Kilik said. "You could put him in Casablanca and boom, instant pans."
"That's why it's awesome," Soul said, picking up a fresh case and dropping three on the floor. "Casablanca's overrated."
"You can't seriously want to rent that. Even that internet reviewer said that it was bad, and he likes everything."
"He's an idiot. Heavy Duty’s an awesome movie. It just hurts to watch it. You have to go in with an attitude of..." Soul broke off as he saw Maka come striding into the store, giving the door spring a good stress test on her way.
"Why did you tell Papa that I'd gone running out in a panic?" She accentuated this with a wild sweep of her arm, nearly smacking Kilik, who took a judicious step backward.
Soul made an irritated face. "What are you even talking about? I never said that."
"Papa! He called me! He was talking like I'd run screaming into the night because my computer broke down. And he got the idea from you!"
"He got the idea because he's a--" Soul seemed to reconsider finishing that sentence, and continued, "Look, I just said you had some kind of computer crap and went over to Tsubaki's. That's all."
"And what else?"
"Well, I said that you need to be more careful or you'd lose your stuff." Maka glared at him even harder. "What?! You said it yourself, you wished you'd backed your--I was just making conversation! Do you know how hard it is to get him to hang the phone up?"
"Oh, I see!" She whirled and exited, giving the door another workout. Out on the sidewalk, Tsubaki was just leaving the convenience store, carrying a bag full of brightly colored junk food.
"Tsubaki! Have you ever played that game where they steal cars? The one the news is always complaining about?"
"I...no?"
"Well, we're going to play it now, so if you have any hints, now's a good time." Maka stomped over to Soul's bike, considered it for a moment, then reached beneath the headlamp. "I spy, with my little eye, a yellow enemy vehicle! Right?"
"Technically, the yellow ships are allies," Tsubaki said diffidently, leaning over to watch Maka work. "Ah, don't you need a key?"
"Watch this," Maka said. She pulled out a bundle of wires and pulled a pair of plastic connectors apart. A woman in a grey suit passed by and gave the scene a doubtful look, but decided to keep walking. When the bike's engine turned over, Maka flashed Tsubaki a triumphant grin. "Now back to the home base!"
Maka gave the engine several loud revs, purely for show-off purposes. Soul came out, handing his DVD to Kilik, who was close behind him. "What the hell are you doing? I need that!"
"You'd better be more careful, Soul, you're going to lose all your stuff!" Maka yelled. She looked like a true wild child, careless and grinning, until the bike bumbled over a pothole and she lost her balance, rocking dangerously. For balance, she grabbed the closest thing, which happened to be the accelerator. The bike buzzed to life and shot away with her on it, her long legs held out for balance like a high-wire artist's. Soul watched, torn between offended and alarmed, but Maka got the bike under control and wheeled it in a wobbly U-turn back to where she'd started. He let his eyelids relax to their normal bored state and sauntered over, since Maka was clearly going to stop fooling around now.
Later, he wished he'd walked faster, because Maka wheeled up to Tsubaki, said something that made Tsubaki mount the bike behind her, and both of them roared off down the street. Soul let out a shout and took off after them.
Kilik shook his head and walked back into the video store.
"You still need to pick another one," the clerk said. "How about "Gone in 60 Seconds"?"
"I don't know why we need a movie," Kilik reflected, passing money to the other boy. "This is all the entertainment anyone could ever want."
Maka had planned for a grander ride home, but ten blocks by motorcycle went much more quickly than ten blocks on foot. By the time she was fairly sure she wasn't going to crash, she was home and had no idea what to do next. Judging by the shouts, Soul wasn't too far behind them, and she was not ready to be caught yet. Whatever was happening, it was more fun than she'd had in awhile.
"Tsubaki!" she yelled, slewing to a ragged stop in front of their building. "Quick, get the door!"
Tsubaki leapt from the seat, hopping a little, and opened the front door. To her surprise, Maka didn't run inside but dismounted and wheeled the motorbike in, right up to her apartment, and began to wrestle it through the doorway.
"Get inside!"
"What are you doing?" Tsubaki laughed.
"I captured an enemy yellow vehicle and I took it back to my base," Maka panted. "It's a seige! If it gets violent, throw the food!"
They were still laughing when Soul and Kilik blasted in, yelling much more loudly than anybody needed to, and began beating on the door.
"Maka, you moron! When you steal somebody's bike, you don't go and hide it in their house!"
Maka yelled defiant insults and pounded on the door as well, also for no reason; this continued until the dormitory monitor emerged, and told them it was after midnight and he was going to personally beat them into silence with a quarterstaff.
"I'll need a technician to swing me around," he growled, "but since you woke the whole damn floor up, I'm sure I can find one. I'll bet there are plenty of eager volunteers." Multiple apologies and a bribe of chips and licorice calmed his grouchiness, and when Kilik arrived with the movies they settled down for some mindless explosions.
"The scan has probably finished by now," Tsubaki said. "Do you want to go over and check on it?"
"I forgot all about it," Maka said. "No...I'm sure it's fine."
"That must answer the question that you asked me, earlier. About games and real life. I say that a game is a pretend problem, something that you use to distract you from real life ones."
"Thanks for distracting me," Maka said, putting an arm around her friend and giving her a quick hug. "I think sometimes I need it."