[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]

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."

[attentionwenches]

"I haven't heard of any of them," admitted Loki. Something told him that none of them would be much of a hit in the warriors' mess back home. But Loki himself was very curious.

[shiromadoushi]

"Then you have a lot to learn!" Bakura grinned happily. "A RPG is a role playing game, where you create a character and adventure through a magical world on an epic quest to right wrongs and defeat the dark lord, chess, you use you pieces that all have specific moves to capture the oppositions team, shogi's a lot like chess, but uses different pieces, and in go, you want to capture as much of the board as you can with your stones."

[attentionwenches]

An answering smile crept across Loki's face. "What fun," he said. "You'll have to teach me how to play. Perhaps, when I return to Asgard, I can do the same. Someone ought to like them."

We can probably let this one fade to hand waved sleep over game time?

[shiromadoushi]

"Sure! Any game you want to learn!" Bakura grinned happily.

Hm--can we skip through Bakura teaching Loki to play games to Storytime With Loki?

[attentionwenches]

The evening passed quickly enough. Loki was a fast learner, and though he could hardly hope to beat Bakura, he mastered the basics of each game his host showed him. Unhealthy snacks were probably also involved.

It was so late at night it was very nearly early morning that they finally turned in. Loki would accept whatever bedding Bakura provided; he would not insult Bakura's hospitality by turning it down.

"I can't say my brother would care for many of these games, but my father might," Loki said after they were both settled in, staring up at the ceiling. "Strategy is not beyond him. I'd like to teach him chess."

Sure! Only hitch is that it's a 2nd room, so let's switch "settled in"?

[shiromadoushi]

Unhealthy in the sense that they were sweet, salty and fatty, but many were homemade. Just not the shrimp chips. Those were totally unhealthy.

"Chess is a good game for that, I think," Bakura smiled as he got the bed ready in the spare room. "My father taught me how to play. Almost every time he was home from a dig, we'd get the board out...." There was a touch of wistfulness in his tone. Being in a two bedroom apartment with one one bedroom filled... it was far too familiar to home for him not to think of his father, even without the talk of chess. "You can make the pieces out of anything too, if there's no board back home to share. Back home, I've used figures from my RPGs to play just for fun."

looks good to me!

[attentionwenches]

Loki laughed -- not out of any kind of mockery, just out of a combination of mild amusement and happiness. "I'm sure I could commission a metalsmith to construct an adequate chess set. I could even shape one myself, with magic."

He sighed. Being able to do magic was something he missed very much. Magic had been his most respectable talent -- and the one he felt was coolest. "I wish I were still able to do it. ...do you have any talents that were taken from you when you arrived?"

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura shook his head. "Back home... there really isn't much magic. The only of it that I know if comes from specific magical Items. I can't imagine what it must have been like to have it... and then to lose it..." he trailed off, shifting to sit on the side of the bed. "The only thing I lost was a treasure... one that had magic in it." As well as other things.

[attentionwenches]

"How terrible," Loki exclaimed, all sympathy. "An enchanted artifact is a treasure indeed. I am sorry you lost it." Even he hadn't had anything comparable.

[shiromadoushi]

"It's still back home, I'm sure... that thing..." Bakura trailed off a moment, hand idly moving to rest over his chest were the scars from the Ring were before he shook his head, pushing the thoughts aside. "It just couldn't come with me, that's all."

[attentionwenches]

"It wouldn't have been much use to you here, anyway." Not with the way only one type of power worked in Death City. Still, Loki was sad on Bakura's behalf.

"I wish I had had a magic relic," Loki sighed. "They weren't common in Asgard -- there wasn't much use for them. Not with the warriors' preference for nonmagic combat. I was fortunate enough to find a sorceress teacher, much less a sorcerous device."

[shiromadoushi]

"I'd think a teacher would be more valuable, if you already could do magic!" Bakura smiled. "Just an Item... it's pretty useless if you can't use it! All I could do with mine was sometimes use it to find where other Items were."

[attentionwenches]

"But that's very useful!" Loki argued. "You've no idea what I would give to own the likes of that."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura's left hand twitched just a moment as Bakura pushed back a memory that was threatening to surface. "I know what some people would do. Back home.. there's a lot of fighting over them."

[attentionwenches]

"I can imagine. In a world without magic, such things would be even more valuable than they already are."

So somehow it became storytime with Bakura instead, whoops. :)

[shiromadoushi]

"Thankfully not too many people know about them. A lot was lost in history and I think a lot, people just would write off as myth. Mostly it's just those who have been touched by them that know of them. I've been trying to find out as much as I can about them, why they were made, what they were for... but there's really nothing out there."

[attentionwenches]

"What a pity," Loki said. "If I could be sure we were from the same reality, I would offer to look for clues in our library when I return to Asgard. I'd wager we have far more information on magical items than the libraries in your world." Since Bakura's was all but without magic and everything. "I could also ask Amora," he added, as the thought occurred to him. "She might know."

Amora's name would not be familiar to one who had only read Norse mythology. However, to anyone with more than a passing familiarity with comic books, the name would ring a bell as a scheming but beautiful sorceress.

[shiromadoushi]

"Would she know about things from Egypt? Since that's where the Items are from..." Bakura asked, curious.

[attentionwenches]

"I can't say for sure, but it's possible. If the items you speak of are as powerful as you say, I doubt they've escaped her notice. The lore of the Egyptians is not entirely unknown to us -- they are old and powerful folk, far older than we are. My father has had dealings with them before." It had been long ago, though, long before Loki was born.

[shiromadoushi]

"It wouldn't hurt to ask, if it were at all possible. Though I think they might only exist in my world, just like Duel Monsters," Bakura reasoned. "How much older of a kingdom are they? Since it's been 3,000 years since that time back home."

[attentionwenches]

Loki thought for a long moment. "I cannot say for sure," he confessed. "But it has certainly been at least two thousand years since their gods came to be. Alas, a better estimate than that is beyond my learning."

[shiromadoushi]

"So if it has been that long, it's likely that the Items, if they existed there, are already lost..." Bakura mused. "Or at least if everything's on the same timeline, which it might not be."

[attentionwenches]

"I wish I knew how far into Midgard's future I have come," Loki complained. "That would make figuring ages much easier."

[shiromadoushi]

"We could try figuring it out. If certain historical things are constant between worlds, it shouldn't be too hard, right?"