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[notsolomon]

This is William Twining. I shall reply to your message at my earliest convenience. Thank you. ***BEEP***

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[babermetrics]

I guess you got a point, but . . .

[He pops back into the room and sets William's water, and his own cola, down on the coffee table before he heads over to grab the controllers and turn on the console.]

It's gonna get invented eventually anyway, right? Someone's gotta be the guy to do that! It happened in my world way before I was born! So it could totally be you. You've got a shortcut right here in front o' you. You're gonna be rich, man! Maybe I'll come with you so I can get a cut, ha ha!

[notsolomon]

Oh do not misunderstand. I will definitely try to bring something back home if I am able to.

[He takes a drink of water then laughs.]

You would hate it there though! Trust me, you of all people definitely would.

[babermetrics]

'Cuz you're all so repressed, or the dress code, or what?

[He's turned away right now to grab the gear, and it's only that that gives him the courage to add:]

. . . Might still work out better for me than my world.

[And then he turns back to approach the couch again, flop down in front of his soda, and hold out a controller to William. He sets his own down on the table, though, and grabs his CereVice off it instead, opening it up to browse for delivery first; if he doesn't do this now he's going to get into the game and forget to eat or something, he knows it.]

Sooooo! What kinda food d'you want?

[notsolomon]

We are not quite that repressed, but it is probably a bit more strict than you are used to.

[William had thought Leon to be a bit of a cad at first and well... he still slightly is, but that's less acceptable back home. Unless you are running in a lower social circle.

He takes the controller and looks it over for a minute. Well the principal doesn't seem too different at least.]

What are you willing to pay for?

[babermetrics]

Heh, what're you plannin' on asking for here? I'm not getting delivery otoro or anything! How 'bout you tell me what you're in the mood for and I'll either order it or laugh at you!

[Not that William is probably going to pick something like otoro anyway, but Leon's not sure what the Western equivalent is here. Caviar . . . steak? Delivery steak? At least steaks are pretty huge. He shifts closer to William on the sofa, setting his CereVice to hover so they can both look at the menu options; right now it's not a specific restaurant, but a list of options. Sushi, Chinese, Indian, Americana, there's probably a little of everything in a colony like this. And Leon makes use of the whole delivery thing here pretty frequently.]

[notsolomon]

Otoro? that sounds good...

[But no, he's not out to destroy Leon's wallet. William has more class than that.]

Pizza is fine though. Whatever you want to get on it. I'm pretty lenient on toppings.

[babermetrics]

Have you even had otoro before, or are you just sayin' that 'cuz I said it was expensive?

[Ha ha. He pulls up the menu for his favorite pizza place, settling back against the couch to scroll through and make his selections.

Man . . . at times like this, with his crazy hovering phone-thing with a billion apps that will order him delicious (cheap! so much cheaper than in Japan!) pizza delivered by robots, this place is actually pretty cool. As long as he doesn't think about CERES tracking him through said phone-thing.

But he's even got a friend over to enjoy it with, making all of that ten times easier to put out of his head.]

I oughta get some crazy topping just to mess with you.

[notsolomon]

Well it sounds expensive, whatever it is.

[But fortunately, William is easily satisfied.]

Try me. As long as it isn't something utterly horrifying, I can manage it.

[Probably. Or he might regret it.]

[babermetrics]

[Damn, it's hard to decide whether to call William's bluff or not. Leon himself isn't a huge fan of weird crap on pizza; he doesn't want to ruin it just to watch the expression on William's face! As funny as it might be. And what if William actually likes it and Leon "loses" twice over?

Better safe than sorry. He's just putting pepperoni and onions on it after all. Lame. He talks as he punches in the order:]

It's just the part of the tuna that's super fatty. You eat it raw . . . I always thought it was pretty pointless. Like, it's all just raw fish, it tastes like raw fish! Why would you pay that much money when you could get cheaper raw fish that probably tastes like raw fish too? I don't get it.

[notsolomon]

Oh, that sounds a bit disgusting then. I don't like fatty meat.

[The raw fish part seems durable, considering some of the stuff that passes for food back home.]

But eating it raw...

Pickled herring is bad enough cooked. I can't imagine it in the natural state.

[babermetrics]

It ain't my favorite thing either . . . y'know when we were stuck out in the jungle I ate a whole fish raw? The whole time I was just like, c'mon, it's just like sashimi, it's totally no different from sashimi! But I couldn't convince myself! . . . I was still hungry enough to do it, though.

[He finishes up ordering and tosses his CereVice onto the cushion next to him, grabbing his controller again.]

You wanna get started on an empty stomach? This'll be practice mode! I'm real generous even letting a prodigy like you practice first, right?

[notsolomon]

[Oh Leon...

What are you going to do when CERES or some other dumb preternatural being drops you in the middle of bugfuck nowhere again?

But that is a concern for another time.]

No problem. And I think you are the one who is going to need the handicap considering how well I have picked this up so far!

[This may or may not be over confidence speaking.]

[babermetrics]

Hey, I've played this game a billion times! And this's just the start, too! We're gonna find a game I can beat you at!

[His true intentions revealed. Okay, no, his true intentions just involved having a friend over. But there's maybe an aspect of this in there too!

He brings up the intro and the menu screen; it's another fighting game, but one that isn't in the arcade. It's Lethal Konflict or something, you know the type. The graphics and gore are both pretty impressive on this one.]

Buuut I figured since this is a rematch and all, we'd start with this!

[notsolomon]

Oh I do hope so, if only for your sake.

[Because it would be pretty embarrassing if Leon lost to him at all of these.

Yeah, William is over confident. He thinks he has totally mastered this, the last frontier of the future.

But wow, this game has a stupid name. It sounds so... what is that word he saw online? Edgelord? Yeah, that's the one.]

But let us see what we have here...

[He looks through the character select screen though and wow, so many generic ninja dudes and ladies that are just palette swaps. He settles for the dude in blue though, because his color scheme is the least atrocious.]

[babermetrics]

[Leon picks the blue ninja princess chick. They make an attractive couple. (She has an attractive couple herself, if you know what I mean. The outfits on the ladies in this game are as gratuitous as the gore, and certainly not meant for delicate Victorian eyes.)]

You know this game's totally unrealistic, 'cuz in real life no guy would ever be able to fight a girl dressed like this, right? Ha ha!

[notsolomon]

[Yeah she kind of is inappropriately dressed, but then again William's seen enough inappropriately dressed demon ladies to be unimpressed.]

You would be surprised what you can ignore when your life is on the line...

[Besides, those those proportions are even possible in real life.]

[babermetrics]

[It's a harmless enough comment, and for a second Leon's about to laugh it off—but then, unexpectedly, it hits him a little too close to home. You would be surprised what you can ignore when your life is on the line. Of course that's true. He hadn't thought about . . . that.]

. . . Yeah, I guess it don't really matter how pretty a girl is if she's trying to kill you.

[That's the sort of thing he'd normally say with a laugh, but he doesn't this time. Instead his tone is flat and cagey, and he occupies himself with the screen and the rules selection rather than look anywhere else.]

[notsolomon]

[The change in tone is hard to miss and William has to wonder if he said something offensive, though he can't figure out what would have been offensive about it.

So he decides to say nothing for a moment, assuming his mistaken, reading up on the rules along with Leon.

the controller feels different enough in his hand that he takes time to memorize the buttons, even though the layout is pretty similar.]

Do you want to begin then?

[babermetrics]

—Yeah.

[He takes a deep breath, shaking it off, and turns to flash William a smile. It's a little less convincing than usual . . . but he's not entirely faking it or anything. What's the point of dwelling on all that, anyway? It's not like he wants to talk about it or anything. How would he ever explain . . .

It's better like this, with William here to give him something else to think about instead of sifting through all that crap again. He does that plenty on his own.]

You ready? You've never used a console before, right? That's just like a video game in your house instead of the arcade.

[notsolomon]

I understand that much about them...

[Yeah continuing on to the next topic in full was definitely a good idea.]

But it does seem to be too different otherwise. I mean, I will still win in the end.

[babermetrics]

Dude, you really gotta stop sayin' stuff like that to a guy who's totally treating you to pizza 'cuz he wanted to hang out . . .

[They're like one button-push confirmation away from starting their battle, but it's time to take a time out to complain about William's sore winning propensities first.]

[notsolomon]

and I appreciate that. A lot.

[He does actually. And well yes, he will tone it down.]

But fine, I will try not brag too much.

[babermetrics]

. . . Heh.

[He eases off, leaning to bump up against William's shoulder, companionable. Good answer.]

Thanks for comin' over! . . . For me to kick your ass!

[Can't get too touching now, can we?]

[notsolomon]

Glad to see you in the spirit then!

["Because it will be so much more satisfying to beat you then." But he did promise to chill a little.]

But we should get started. It will take a bit to get used to this one.

[babermetrics]

So you're admitting you ain't perfect! Heh, we'll see how you handle this . . . go!

[He says, and presses his button to confirm.

Of course, William needs to press his too, so it's not as cool and dramatic a moment as Leon was hoping for.]