[Open] Taking over the High Scores

[shiromadoushi]

Characters: Bakura Ryou & anyone else near, in, or around the arcade
Location: The arcade
Rating: ...N for nerdy?
Time: Feb 17th, afternoon & evening
Description: Uncomfortably familiar weird stuff is starting happen around Bakura in addition to the drama across the hall, so he's avoiding dealing with it by sinking far too many quarters into machines at the arcade.



It had started when he noted that something he had left in the fridge to have for the next day had been missing. He didn't pay it much mind and had just assumed that he had absentmindedly eaten it the night before. But it seemed like it kept happening... And things he was sure he had put away properly were winding up in other places entirely.

Like they had back in Tokyo.

But he wasn't losing any time this time. Sure, he still would lose track of time when he was playing his games, but realizing that it was suddenly 2am and he had finished the game was different than realizing that it was 5pm and he couldn't remember where he'd spent the last 2 hours. Or why he was in a different part of town than he'd started.

Rather than think on it, after finding the drawers in his dresser looking almost as if someone had been searching through them, he'd headed out to the arcade. What better way to avoid a problem than to play games, right?

Of course, the fact that he was still there, packing away high score after high score on his favorite games after the sun was starting to set when there a possibly serial killer lurking out there, was it's own problem, but when had he ever given things like that any consideration?

Comments

[shiromadoushi]

"Almost all of them, un," Bakura nodded. A look at the high scores of any of the machines there would show at least one BKR, if not more!

[attentionwenches]

Oh. Wow, he didn't really have a hope of competing here, did he?

"...I see I have a lot to learn if I want to pose any kind of challenge at all."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura rubbed the back of his neck a bit sheepishly. "As long as you have fun, that sort of thing doesn't really matter. Just play your best, ne?"

we can handwave some of this if you like, so you don't have to describe game after game

[attentionwenches]

Loki wasn't particularly driven to win, not like THOR certain people he could mention who never could handle losing, but he also wasn't keen on giving demonstrations of how much of a novice he was. Loki wasn't bothered, not really, but he would come back. And he would practice.

"Will you show me how to play the others?"

His smile was carefully unguarded.

[shiromadoushi]

"Sure!" Bakura grinned happily. "Which one did you want to learn next?"

[attentionwenches]

"Why don't we start with that one?"

It wasn't long before Loki had relaxed for real and settled into learning to play everything in the arcade. He didn't challenge Bakura to another match, but just learning sure was fun.

If they weren't careful, time would get away from them. Loki hadn't arrived until late afternoon, after all, and it was getting dark fast outside...

[shiromadoushi]

And when was Bakura ever careful about a thing like that? Losing track of time was so normal for him that he rarely had even noticed when he had been possessed. Now that he wasn't working in the evenings, he had no need to keep track of time he spent in the arcade.

He certainly wouldn't be the one to ruin the fun by pointing out that it was nearing time to go home....

[attentionwenches]

...but Loki would. "Oh, dear, it's dark already!" he cried, staring out the window. "Where did the time go?"

It was careless to stay here so late. Loki could have kicked himself.

[shiromadoushi]

"Eh?" Bakura turned, blinking towards the door. "Aaaa... again?" he rubbed the back of his neck, utterly sheepish.

[attentionwenches]

"Oh, no. We never should have stayed this long, not with that murderer loose!" His mouth was pulled into an upset grimace.

[shiromadoushi]

"Aaaaa..." Bakura faltered. "It should be all right... after all, the murderer only goes after other bad guys, right?"

[attentionwenches]

"How can we know for sure?" Loki was a cautious person under most circumstances, and this certainly did not fill him with a need for adventure. It was just frightening. "We must return home with due caution. Do you live in Casualty Communal as well?"

[shiromadoushi]

"Aaaa, no, Death City Heights." Which was rather close to the arcade, which wasn't exactly ideal for his wallet...

[attentionwenches]

Death City Heights...it took him a moment to recall where that was.

"Shall I accompany you anyway?" Loki knew he wasn't good at this city's methods of combat, but two was always better than one.

[shiromadoushi]

"Sure!" Bakura smiled, never one to turn down more time with a friend. "It's not too far. And if you're really worried, you can stay over, if you'd like. A long as you don't mind a kitten around."

[attentionwenches]

Loki considered the offer for a moment, weighing it against walking all the way home in the dark along streets he was less than familiar with while a killer was on the loose -- to a small room he lived in alone that wasn't anything like home at all.

Honestly, staying over sounded pretty good.

"Why not? It'll be fun," he said, an answering smile lighting up his face. He crossed to the door and pushed it open, looking both ways outside before stepping through.

[shiromadoushi]

There was an almost childlike glee on Bakura's face as he followed. Having a friend stay over was something he so rarely had, and something he had really come to enjoy when Vash had been there. The apartment was still too empty without him, and having someone over... it helped.

"Un, it should be! I have more games at home, if you want to try playing some others!"

[attentionwenches]

"Games like these?" Loki asked, jerking his thumb at the arcade they'd just left. "You can't have room for more than one or two. How would you fit them into your home?"

He was careful to keep his voice relatively low. It was still casual, but there was no need to attract more attention than necessary.

[shiromadoushi]

"They're smaller! The case there, most of it is to bring the game up to you so you don't have to sit and play. The ones at home, there's a system that's about this big," Bakura held up his hands about a foot apart. "And you have CDs that you put in it that have the different games, so you can fit a lot of games in a small space!"

[attentionwenches]

Oh. That was cool.

"The technological innovations of this world continue to catch me by surprise," Loki said. He wondered if it came from lacking magic. Although his own world was not what you'd call reliant on spellwork, it was used for many tasks that would have otherwise been impossible. "We had no games of such complexity on Asgard. Most are content with dice or cards, or other games of chance."

[shiromadoushi]

"I have a lot of those too," Bakura nodded with a grin. "Since those are how games started out being, but there's been a lot of advances so you can get things like video games. Back home, there's even holograms for games! So when people play Duel Monsters, it's like the monsters are really there on the field, it's really cool!"

[attentionwenches]

Loki had no idea what a hollowgram was, but he understood the sentiment well enough.

"I always felt there were only so many times one could play the same dice game before even liberal amounts of mead could not make it exciting," he opined. "Most of ours are gambling games, anyway, and those often involve no-win scenarios."

[shiromadoushi]

"Un, when it's just dice, there's not too many ways the game can go. And while I like games that have chance in them, when it's only chance, it's not as fun. Especially with luck as bad as mine!" Bakura laughed.

[attentionwenches]

"I'm sure your luck's not as bad as all that," Loki said dismissively. "But I do prefer strategy to chance. It's just that few in Asgard shared the sentiment." He laughed.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura nodded. "A lot of people like the chance ones more, I think. Or other games that aren't really good for strategy, but I really love strategy games!" He paused to laugh a bit sheepishly. "I really love all games, to be honest, but the really involved games are my favorites, like RPGs and chess, shogi and go and games like that."