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?"

[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."

[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."

[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.

[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 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]

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?"

[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."

[slays]

She wanted to push her apology and insist that it wasn't really fair when she knew he didn't remember much of anything, but … well, that would mean she was apologizing for herself instead of him. So, instead of worrying about trying to make herself feel better, she just let him drop it and set about trying to sort out the controls.

The words mess around initially made her eyes bug some for misinterpretation, but she swallowed it back quick enough and caught up. Right. Game. That thing she had a controller in her hand for. It felt weird.

"Sure, why not. Can't hurt. I'm not really a big video game person. More of a … go outside, scope things out kinda gal." She hesitated, glancing over at him. "How come you're all holed up in here, anyway? It's pretty nice out."

[bigbad]

He shrugged. He was all for going outside, but it would have to be at night for him. Damn this vampire thing. It was more trouble than it was worth. He'd better turn out to have loads of superpowers to make up for all the secrecy and paleness.

"Guess I didn't feel like going out today. Maybe later." When it was dark out.

[slays]

Buffy seemed to accept the answer, dismissing it and moving back to the subject of the game. So, he wasn't the most active of the knights. Not judgment-worthy. She fidgeted with the controller-wheel for a moment.

"How do you--?" She jammed her thumb against the arrows on the left side of the controller-wheel and managed to figure out navigating the menu. "Ooh! Got it."

[bigbad]

Spike dropped his controller in his lap, content to let her try it out for now. He'd already had his turn. Buffy didn't need him butting in with advice every few minutes. Especially when he'd win if she turned out to not be good at the game.

"Luigi circuit's easiest." Well, all right, a bit of advice wouldn't hurt. He'd spent enough time playing by now to have some insight.

[slays]

"Who says I want easy?" She shot him a look out of the corner of her eye, lips pursed in a miffed look of vague annoyance. Just because she couldn't recall a single time she'd played video games, and just because a steering wheel of any kind happened to make her anxious and spastic didn't mean she wouldn't be able to play just fine.

… Probably.

She selected Luigi's Circuit.

And if he said anything, she'd just punch him.

[bigbad]

Spike noticed exactly what she did there, and he looks entirely too amused at her choice. Not that he really judged. He'd started easy too. He'd just had the advantage of not having someone staring over his shoulder and laughing at him when he did. But Buffy had gotten so snippy about it. He had to poke fun.

"Apparently you. Worried about how you'll perform?"

[slays]

There's a flustered, frustrated look there and she drops a hand off the wheel-controller to sock him in the arm. She doesn't put much force into it, because it's more to express her butthurt than it is to actually hurt him, but since she's the Slayer and hasn't figured out her own strength and because I rolled a 31 check it hurts a lot more than it's meant to. She doesn't notice.

"No," she challenged stubbornly. "I just think this track looks prettier. And, if it happens to help in the taking it slow while I figure out the controls department, well, that's just a bonus."

[bigbad]

His reflex save of 21 was enough to keep him from falling off the couch, at least, but he still ended up falling a little to the side before catching his balance and rubbing his arm. That hurt a lot more than he'd expect a punch from someone her size would.

"Bloody Hell, Summers. How much time do you spend working out?" He rolled up his sleeve and frowned at the reddened mark where her fist had struck. "I think that's going to bruise."

Weren't creatures of the night supposed to be smaller than mere mortals like her? Had he overestimated himself or underestimated her?

[slay]

The look she gives his bruised arm is disbelieving, but when she sees the red mark, she flexes and clenches her fist. Huh.

"Sorry," she says quickly, tone offhand and deflated. She's distracted by her own thoughts. "I didn't think I hit that hard." She's not bothering to answer how much time she spends working out. Because, she doesn't. At least, not that she can remember.

After one last awkward look, she gripped the controller again and averted her gaze, paying attention to the TV again. It was her best hope for dispelling the weirdness that was her.