Day 66: Game Room (Fourth Shift)

[knightspirit]

The game room, huh... In normal, everyday life, it wouldn't have sounded too terrible, but as things were, it seemed like more of an annoyance. Games were fine, but priorities.... On the other hand, Kyousuke seemed to have hit a block in figuring out the clues to the the illness, and just thinking without getting anywhere wasn't very productive, either. At this point, it may have been best to push it aside and come back to it fresh. He had his reservations about it, especially since the end of the day was rapidly approaching, but... Frustration wasn't going to get him any closer.

He poked around what games were there with resignation, still half wondering what he was even doing and trying not feel guilty for needing a break. After a while he came across an electronic device marked "Game Boy Color" and picked it up out of curiosity. He'd heard of those before... If he was right, this thing was older than he was, by quite a bit. Flicking it on confirmed his suspicions; the sound and graphics from it spoke for themselves.

Shrugging, he took it a random seat, wincing at the pain in his ribs as he sat down. He guessed it wouldn't kill him to mess around with this thing for a little while.

[Lloyd!]

Comments

[repelling]

Lunch ended and with it, Uryuu found, went his headache. His numerous unsatisfied questions threatened to stir it once more, but whatever remained from his groggy stirring the night before, and from his face being half bashed in with a baseball bat, had finally gone. Eating a solid meal probably helped.

The Head Doctor's cheek remained consistent, he noted while listening to the shift change announcement. Loath to do as suggested by the man, yet disinclined to not wash his hands after eating, Uryuu stopped at the bathroom. Then at the bulletin board, observing no further notice from Kratos-san. After looking around for Inoue-san, he moved next into the Game Room, curious as to who had proceeded there, and if anything in it had changed.

As if by magnetism, his eyes fell to the televisions. He forced himself to properly scan the room, seeing that some of those already present had busied themselves with what looked like Game Boys. Bulky, older models. Sora-san sat with one and Uryuu didn't bother nodding, thinking him not bound to notice. Instead... he found himself taking one step, then another, toward the chairs in front of the televisions.

Uryuu knew he should continue to jot notes in his journal. Ought to solidify his plans for tonight and make certain that Inoue-san understood. Only, she seemed to understand. It felt wrong to indulge in such frivolity when... Only, there he was, kneeling in front of the machines. He'd blame it on playing as Gerard. Sure.

Though he'd neither owned nor ever had the chance to play either one, Uryuu recognized the Nintendo and its successor, the Super Nintendo. "How retro," he murmured, dangerously close to cheerful as he sifted through the small stack of games. After a minute, he selected for the Super Nintendo and switched it on, taking a controller with him to one of the chairs positioned in front.

Retro, yet so new to him. The screen loaded in pastels and he obediently pressed 'B' until presented with the character selection screen. Were there any pluses or minuses? Did any car or character have particular attributes? Uryuu pursed his lips, moving the selector among them. It made sense to choose Mario, right? Super Mario Kart.

[ swimming pool-san ]

[albuquerquesnorkel]

Riley had walked around in a bit of a daze most of the day, his head filled with images of AI's stuck in human bodies and monsters and other random bits of insanity. Not the good kind of insanity, either, where you got to meet the President of the United States right after kidnapping him, get personally pardoned, and then given your awesome car back. No. This was the kind of insanity where you couldn't even tell what was supposed to be the lie. Riley's nurse kept trying to tell him not to listen to the other patients, that everything was absolutely fine as long as he focused on trying to get better. She still wasn't letting him talk to anyone in authority, though, and completely ignoring Riley's increasingly desperate pleas that he shouldn't even be here. The girl from breakfast, Aigis, belonged here. So did Ishida. So did almost everyone who was posting notices on the bulletin board. But not Riley.

In an effort to cheer him up, Riley's nurse had suggested going to the Game Room after lunch. Riley visibly brightened at the prospect. And when Dr. Landel confirmed it over the intercom, it was only thanks to the slow and insistent manner of the nurse that Riley wasn't the first person in the room.

It didn't look like there was anything good, but at least it wasn't just board games. Someone was playing Super Mario Kart over on one of the televisions. Riley wandered over with a slowly growing smile, hesitant and nowhere near a good mood yet, but... getting there. This would all get sorted out. Sooner or later, someone would realize their mistake.

"Oh, come on," he said from behind the chair as he watched. "No one chooses Mario. He's the title character. That's just asking for bad luck."

[repelling]

Absorbed in the selection process, Uryuu failed to notice the approach of another patient until the guy spoke. That absorption also kept him from jumping with surprise; instead he only frowned, eyes narrowing (unevenly) at the screen before his head turned up and toward the voice.

"Why? That seems-" Uryuu cut himself off as he looked up at Poole-san. The man did not look much different by the light of day and fluorescents, and Uryuu found he had recognized his voice, as well, only been too distracted by the game to realize it. His half-lidded, violently dark left eye felt as if it throbbed at the sight of him.

"Poole-san," he said, only just schooling an unhappy thread out of his voice. It had been an accident. It might even have been a help, preventing worse from the creature. No point in holding a grudge. And he didn't, really. Just, it would challenge any person to dismiss being smashed in the face with a baseball bat, however unintended.

To better cast it from mind, he turned back to the game. Which Poole-san seemed to know about, even if bad luck was ridiculous.

"I trust you've had an enlightening morning. Does choosing Mario really have that sort of effect?"

[albuquerquesnorkel]

... Oh.

Speaking of Ishida... Riley took an involuntary and jolty step backwards that almost immediately became a forward step again as the significance of the man's black eye finally hit him. Oh, man. Oh man. "Are you - " Riley stopped himself just in time from asking the stupid, obvious question. The guy had a black eye. Of course he wasn't okay. "I am so sorry. I was trying to hit that bird.... thing. The giant... what was that? What happened? Did I just pass out?"

Not the manliest thing in the world, but Riley couldn't really think of another reason for the blackout. He wasn't in pain, and he didn't remember getting hit by anything. Just that giant bird and Ishida rounding angrily on him, and then darkness.

The nurse was definitely wrong. If Ishida remembered things the same way Riley did, how was she going to explain that away? Probably the same way in which nothing else made sense, come to think of it.

So Riley's best lead was a teenager who thought shooting invisible arrows at things was a logical course of action. A teenager he'd accidentally beaned in the head with a baseball bat. Great.

[repelling]

"There's no need to apologize," Uryuu answered, managing to continue admirably in his suppression of both a sour expression and a hard roll of his eyes. Never mind the incontrovertible fact that had Poole-san failed to apologize, Uryuu would have been unable to repress his irritation. Even offense.

"Obviously that's what you intended to do. I only ask, as I did then, that in the future when you swing, keep your eyes open. Not that I have any intention of testing your improvement."

In other words, he saw no reason to partner with Poole-san again.

Though not without appreciation for Poole-san's lingering confusion, the siren call of Super Mario Kart reduced Uryuu's patience for it. He just wanted to play. He really wanted to play, and fought a frown over Poole-san's failure to expand on his suspect claim against the wisdom of choosing the titular character's vehicle.

In fact, it was the intensity of his desire to lose himself in the game that caused him to pull back from it. Priorities, and how unseemly to be so taken by such frivolity.

(The music looped, catchy and not yet annoying.)

"I don't know the name of the creature," he said, at first his reluctance obvious, then fading into a more standard, matter-of-fact tone. "Night ended. There's no better way of putting it, unfortunately. I put off explaining that for too long and lost the opportunity. You were having enough trouble with everything else. That phenomenon is-" how had he phrased it last night? Ah - "that most annoying part. Why I attempted to dissuade you from leaving. Because, beyond even the creatures that prowl within and beyond the institute, beyond concerns of weather, it doesn't matter what you do, or how far you go."

Uryuu paused here, thumbing the arrow to move the selector off Mario. Seemingly for that reason. Really more to build the tension for what he said next:

"Regardless of act or distance, come morning, you will be returned to your bed. You won't remember falling asleep, yet you will feel reasonably rested. Injuries," and here he gestured at the bit of bandage visible past his shirt collar, "will have been treated. Unless you get yourself killed, and obviously I cannot speak to that, this will occur every night. Poole-san has already experienced it, and unless you disappear, you'll experience it again."

[albuquerquesnorkel]

Riley started to worry that he might be going ever-so-slightly insane himself, because Ishida was actually making more sense than the nurse. It was a twisted video-game kind of sense that went against everything normal and good and pure, but it made sense. Whereas his nurse assured him everyone in the Institute was crazy, and refused to tell him anything else - how he'd ended up back in bed, the date, their location, how long Riley had been there, why he was there, what was happening in the rest of the world. The President had personally given Riley his car back! Well, not... not personally, but close enough! He wouldn't let Riley drop off the face of the planet, would he? There should be search parties. Ben, Ben should be leading those search parties.

"Okay," Riley sighed. He sank into the second armchair and absentmindedly picked up a second controller, which someone had left on the floor nearby. If he was definitely going to go crazy eventually, or die, or disappear, he might as well start going crazy now. Until he managed to talk to an actual doctor who could sort things out, anyway.

"Why do you keep calling me Poole-san?" he asked after a moment, selecting Bowser for himself. It was the same name Ishida used last night. Some hazy part of Riley's memory tried to offer up a Japanese honorific, but that couldn't be right. Ishida's accent in English was flawless.

[repelling]

What an anticlimactic reaction to what he said. With the pause and everything! Uryuu wasn't disappointed -- as if he wanted to go through last night's frustration again, doubted and possibly wasting his energy! Nor was he surprised, as by now Poole-san ought to be more receptive to the absurd physics of this place. Further, though he'd pulled back from his enthusiasm, he had just been in the throes of a "let me play and shut up" sentiment.

He just... hadn't expected it that to be it, quick and easy and now Poole-san had the other controller. Uryuu blinked, and blinked again, shifting his focus back to the screen. This looked promising -- he would have a competitor in his first ever game! Certainly, one of the best ways to improve was to face opposition. He would have liked a practice run on his own first, to learn the controls, but they must be fairly intuitive. Right?

Vaguely aware that he was now leaning forward, eyes intent on the screen, Uryuu stuck by Mario as Poole-san asked a question and chose... Bowser. He knew enough about Mario to know that Bowser was the enemy. His enemy. The one who kidnapped the princess. He narrowed his eyes, pressing "B" with great determination. It would be unacceptable to disgrace Mario by causing him to lose against his nemesis. He couldn't permit the villain to win the cart race.

...Right, Poole-san. Coming from lunch and another's resistance to the suffix, Uryuu saw that he ought to resign himself to this. He spoke matter-of-factly, distracted enough by the game's loading to not mind how he surely sounded.

"I may not sound it, but I've never left Japan. They've a device of some kind that causes us to hear and read everything in, I think, our first languages. Very useful, for those from other worlds especially. Problematic when they turn it off. Anyway, Japanese uses honorifics. To use your first name, or to address you without a suffix, would be very rude."

Ah, countdown!