OPEN }{ the truth are you avoiding me

[bigbad]

♬ In Another Castle-Kirby Krackle

WHO || Spike and OPEN
WHAT || Spike plays video games. It's awesome.
WHERE || One of the castle rec rooms.
WHEN || Tuesday afternoon
HOW || Prose OR action spam acceptable!

One of the worst parts of being a vampire, Spike had found, was how bloody boring days could get. Sure, he was generally asleep for most of the morning, but even when he stayed up past dawn, he usually woke up before sunset. He couldn't venture outside without getting singed, so he had to find things to do inside.

Today, he'd found a room with a large, flat screen TV and some sort of video game player. It had taken a bit of running and dodging to make it to the window without burning up, but he'd made it. He drew the blinds closed and switched on the electric lights, then went to look at the available games.

After a bit of browsing, he selected Mario Kart and popped it into the machine. He wasn't entirely sure how to play, but he imagined he could figure it out quickly enough. It doesn't take him long to figure out the controls. (computer use check: 18) and pretty soon he's absorbed in the game. Oh yeah, the hours until sunset could pass quickly like this.

Comments

[witchwoman]

Myrilandel was still getting used to the layout of the castle. The large rooms and endless hallways made her dizzy. For all that she could roam the countryside, this massive enclosed space was more than she could account for. On this particular afternoon, she had gotten herself turned around and somehow ended up in a rec room- not that she had the slightly clue what a rec room was.

The lights and sounds coming from the large box on the wall don't make any sense to her. She wasn't sure what was causing it, but certainly wished it would stop. Slowly, she inched closer, hardly noticing the man sitting in front of the box. In fact, she passed him by completely and kept walking in front of him to stand in front of the box, trying to peer closer at the images to make sense of them.

Unfortunately, Myri makes a better door than a window.

[bigbad]

Spike craned his neck trying to see past her, but after a moment, he scowled and paused the game. Women. They obviously had no comprehension of video game manners.

"Out of the way!" he said, waving sharply to the side. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of a game? You're going to make me lose." He could see the corner of the screen even now. He'd gone down to second place before he paused. Dammit. He'd better overtake that gorilla. There was no way he'd let himself lose to a gorilla. It would just be... embarrassing.

[witchwoman]

Myri jumped at the sound of him, but managed to stay on her feet Reflex check: 12 by some miracle. She didn't want to be constantly known as that girl who fell over herself at the squiring- so she'd have to be more careful to stay upright from now on.

Moving quickly to one side, she glanced between the man's face and the large box, her confusion painted all over her face. Finally she just asked the question lingering on her tongue.

"What is this magic?"

[bigbad]

Was she for real? Spike sighed and put the controller down to the side. He could continue the game when the girl's curiosity had been satisfied and she'd left him alone.

"It's not magic at all. It's called a telly. I'm playing a game on it. It's a race. I want my little dinosaur thing to win, see?" He gestured at the screen. "Not so complicated when you get used to it."

[witchwoman]

"Tell...y..." She wrapped her tongue around the word, trying to make sense of it. The box was something called a telly. That much made sense. But that didn't explain how it made so much light and sound appear from nothing. Or how he was playing anything. And what was that in his hand? Oh, she was only going to have more questions than he had answers for at this rate.

"Not so simple as you might think." She said, blinking her wide eyes as she tried to take it all in. "I've never seen such wonders."

[bigbad]

"Television, actually. Telly's for short. So's T.V." He did feel a bit bad for the girl. If she was that clueless... well, she might be like him. From another world. One without television, which was too bad for her. "It's, uh, all electricity, you know. And lights, I guess." He didn't really know how television worked. Just that it did. "Where're you from, love?"

[witchwoman]

She was quiet, nodding as she absorbed what he was telling her. It might be new information to take in, but Myri would take it in stride. At least he seemed to soften from his initial bristly nature. She finally tore her eyes away from the screen and looked at him.

"The city of Coronnan." She said, already knowing that he likely had no idea where that was. "From the land of Kardia Hodos."

[bigbad]

Spike had no idea where that was. But then again, he wasn't particularly good at the geography here, either. He decided to try blunt, since subtle clearly wasn't getting him anywhere. He didn't think he was a particularly subtle person, but then again... he didn't really know.

"That a Shadow World place?"

[witchwoman]

Myri shook her head. "No, we're not of the Shadows. Kardia Hodos is another place entirely." She didn't know how to describe it other than that. Being on another world was a concept still so foreign to Myrilandel.

"Are you from this Shadow World?" It seemed like a fair enough question, since she didn't know much about it.

[slay]

He gives her seriously hinky feelings. Every time she's away from him, she wonders if maybe she's just not giving him a shot. He's been nothing but nice. But, then when he's around again, there's the feeling. That prickling of the hair on the back of her neck. The rush of blood in her veins. The feeling like her whole body is dilating and alert.

She doesn't like it.

Today, it happens when she's in the hallway. She's not really aiming for the rec room. To be honest, she didn't even know it was there, but when that creeping up her spine hits her, she stops in the middle of the walkway and glances around, spots the door, and can't resist pursuing it. Her curiosity has that way of getting the better of her, as she was quickly learning about herself.

Hesitant, she pushes the door open, glancing inside and spotting Spike on the couch, thumbing away at the controller. She glances down both ends of the hallway, then creeps in, not saying anything at first and just … lurking. Observing.

[bigbad]

She may have been creeping, but Spike's ears are excellent. He doesn't react right away, though. This level is particularly hard, and if he's not careful, he'll be run over by one of the giant trucks. Anyway, he's got about one more round to go.

Unfortunately, he critically fails his computer use roll this time. He misses a turn, gets run over by several of the cars, slides on a banana and gets hit by some bloody turtles. He's dead last by the time he finally finishes. How humiliating. It must be the pressure of trying to impress Buffy as she quietly lurks.

He throws the controller at the television. "Bloody stupid game," he mutters. Then he turns around, looking not even a little surprised to see Buffy. "There's multiplayer mode if you want to join in."

[slay]

An amused look tugs over her face as she watches him epically fail at the video game. She leans against the wall and crosses her arms over her chest, simply watching in silence until he's done with the level. There's mild surprise on her face when he casually turns toward her, and it throws her for a moment, leaving her in a more pointed silence. But, she recovers.

"Doesn't really look like you were ready for multiplayer, from where I'm standing." She does, however push away from the wall and head over to the couch, resting her hands on the back of it and leaning over. Of course, she's pretty sure she isn't ready for multiplayer either. She isn't sure she's ever played a video game in her life.

[bigbad]

Spike looks moderately insulted. "Hey, I was doing brilliantly before you showed up. I can show you the high scores and everything." But, to be fair, she has a point. He had really sucked last game.

He turns a bit, leaning against the arm of the couch so he can face her. He's really not sure why she was so sneaky when he came in. She's a mystery, Buffy is. Their conversations are all civil enough. Even when she's being weirdly invasive and checking his head for a concussion, he likes her. But she definitely hasn't told him everything.

Not that there's any reason that she should have. She may be the closes thing to a friend he's made so far, but they still don't know each other that well. They haven't made it to the share everything sort of friend.

He smirks a bit, tucking his hands under his head. "Are you any better? Or are you afraid to find out?"

[slay]

"So, basically what you're saying is you have trouble performing under pressure." The remark was attached to a particularly snarky look that's cast down at him. "You should really do something about that. Maybe see a doctor."

The juxtaposition of his arrogance warranted a roll of her eyes that was tempered by a barely perceivable chuckle, and she pushed away from the couch, straightening up and walking around it to drop down in the seat beside him.

"Only one way to find out," she reasoned.

She shouldn't have. In fact, she shouldn't be there, if her gut feeling was any indicator. And she certainly shouldn't be making with the friendly banter. But, despite all the warning labels, she was.

[bigbad]

He rolled his eyes at her snarky comment. "I'll have you know that I perform just fine--" Bloody hell, he didn't know how he'd perform. He couldn't remember performing, though he felt like he'd be good at it. He wasn't sure if that was just general confidence or reality.

It was a disturbing enough thought that he stood up abruptly to grab the other controller, hoping she wouldn't notice the somewhat dismayed look on his face. For all intents and purposes, he was a bloody virgin.

He'd managed to recover by the time he got back and handed it to her. "Ever played before?"

[slay]

Oh, did she notice, courtesy of a 24 sense motive check. And, she figured it out, too, from the way he cut himself off. He was veil-y amnesia guy, too, so any performance wasn't exactly ranking in the greatest hits reel of his head. Which made this whole conversation a whole lot more awkward real fast. Remind her to never, ever open her mouth again. Nothing good came of it.

"Not in recent memory," she returned as she took the controller from him, unable to dispel the feeling that ever played before could easily mean something much less family friendly than Mario Kart. It was a good way to be honest without letting on that she didn't have anything but a recent memory. But, like Wynn had suggested, she'd still kept her brain-wipeyness on the down-low. Well, for the most part. There was Val'drin … but, he was Val'drin. That was … different. But Val'drin didn't know whether or not she happened to remember … playing Mario Kart either.

And why was she even thinking about this?

The distracted look on her face was finally dialed down, but as she looked down at the controller, it roared back to life. Lots of buttons. Very steep learning curve. Learning curve of something she definitely should have been able to do and oh god was she going to blank like this on everything she did because that could get really embarrassing really fast and -- Right. Not thinking about it.

"I -- Sorry. I didn't mean to … I was just kidding." She cleared her throat, glancing back at him, then shifting her gaze away, uncertain, then back to the TV.

[bigbad]

He grimaced a little, looking down at his controller. He'd hoped she wouldn't mention his sudden burst of awkward. That just... made it more awkward. He shrugged a bit and looked up at her, bit of a forced smirk on his face.

"I know, pet. It's no big deal. I can take a bit of teasing." It wasn't her fault it had led him down bad paths. There was no way for her to know. He hadn't known. Even if he'd protested, he'd appreciated the humour before he'd realised that she might well be right at how he performed under pressure.

He cleared his throat, turning his attention back to the TV. "So, want to mess around a bit to get a feel for things before we start? It's only fair."

[postergirl]

It was while Spike was sitting there in the wake of Buffy's departure, mulling over what to do with himself and being generally grumpy, that Dumage walked past the door and cast a glance inside.

Seeing the lone occupant, she backtracked, planting herself in the doorway. It was impossible to mistake the bleached blonde head poking up over the back of the couch, and she smiled a bit to herself.

Time for that sexy espionage she'd promised Francesca. She swayed inside, moving behind him and letting the clacking of her heels announce her entrance.

[bigbad]

Spike was mostly staring at the window and wondering if the sun had gone low enough yet for him to change his mind and run after Buffy. But then he realised how utterly pathetic that would be. What was it about that girl?

He heard someone in the doorway and turned around, eagerly, thinking for a moment she'd come back. Then he saw it was someone else, and his face fell a bit.

"Oh. Hullo, there."

[postergirl]

What, what was this. People's faces weren't supposed to look disappointed when they saw her. They should be happy that she'd deign to grace them with her presence. God, Spike, get with the program.

Oh, well, she figured. He'd learn.

"Expecting someone?"

[bigbad]

"No, not really, just--" Spike shook his head. He'd hoped. But he'd known that Buffy wasn't coming back. She and her bloody horses in the bloody daylight. But this woman, whoever she was, had nothing to do with Buffy. Spike should just stop dwelling about it. No reason to be overly hostile before he'd even talked to her.

"Nothing. Never mind. I don't think we've met."

[postergirl]

"I think I'd remember if we had," she returned playfully glancing over him. But right, she wasn't here to do window shopping for herself, just dirt digging for Francesca. Of course, buttering him up couldn't hurt.

"Dumage Moulet." Rather than offer a hand, which was so completely unladylike, she just rested against the back of the couch casually.

[bigbad]

Spike smiled at her and did offer his. There was a reason people didn't generally accuse Spike of being ladylike. This was it.

"Spike. It's a pleasure, Dumage. I take it you're a knight too?"

[postergirl]

That's fine, she'll just give her hand to him delicately, as if to let him kiss it rather than to return a shake.

"I know. I hardly look like a Sir, but Wynn's apparently genderblind."

[bigbad]

Well, Spike can sometimes take a hint, so he brought her hand to his mouth and brushed his lips against her knuckles.

"Clearly so. Sir or not, I doubt anyone'd mistake you for a man."