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An Excuse for Field Trips, Wednesday, 4th Period

Instead of Portalocity, class today had been instructed to meet in the Danger Shop. When they got there, their instructors were dressed casually (for them; Hannibal was still in a suit) and the shop itself was set up like a cross between a comfortable living room and a pub.

"Welcome," Hannibal said. "Since all of last week was a field trip, we thought another one might be overkill. So instead, we're relaxing at home. So to speak."

"Here at home," Jono offered, jerking a thumb toward what looked more or less like a large rec room. With perhaps a few cues - the very particular sofa, that exact television - from the dorm common rooms thrown in for good measure. Hey, he'd lived there once, too. What better way to program in a staycation than to go with what the students actually knew? "Which isn't really home so much as a sim of somewhere homey, but that'll do in a pinch."

"So, have fun," Hannibal said. "Oh, and there is food. It's real." Because he had his own ways of relaxing.

[OOC: Open!]

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"...what?" Forgive Prompto for a moment, Jack; his brain was still a little thrown off by the idea of a world without video games, so it always took a second for it to catch up with the concept and put it into context. He blinked, head tilting a little. "The games?"

And then he grinned a little, because if Jack needed an introduction to video games, did he come to the right guy or what? "They're pretty cool and easy to pick up," arguably; they still couldn't get Ignis on board, but Ignis was...well, Iggy. But he grabbed a second controller and handed it out to Jack. "Wanna try? I can walk you through it."

"Why not?" Jack picked up the little ... thing, and randomly pushed a few of the buttons on its surface. "How is this, connected to that?" He pointed to the screen, bewildered. "And how do we win?"

You couldn't figure out anything else first, until you knew what people considered 'winning' after all.

"Well, these ones are wireless," Prompto ~~,shamelessly modding,~~ explained, waving a hand in front of the space where a wire in a lesser controller might have been, "which is good, because wires just get in the way, so it uses, like, signals or something? To connect this controller to that console there. Kind of like with phones and the internet and stuff."

He...fully expected he might have to explain those things, too, and he definitely would if asked, but was also content in trying to drive for just blowing over it, too, because...games! "And, as for how we win, I guess that depends on what game you want to play. It looks like this one's goooot...." He scrolled through the options a little, listing them off to see if anything in particular pulled at Jack's attention. "Fighting game, shooter game, racing game...Some puzzle and platformers, and RPG or two, but those aren't as good for more than one player..."

"What's a platformer?" Jack asked, feeling like they should do something he wasn't familiar with, if he was going to get the most out of it. "So this is like the television controller?" he said, looking over the remote. "Sort of?... Honestly if you just told me it was magic, I might believe you."

"Yeah," Prompto's crooked grin went a bit wide at that last part, "but it's better than magic. It's technology, which means anyone can use it. And exactly like the TV controller; that's a really good comparrison, actually. Platformer could be a good start, though, some of the first and easiest games are platformers, and they have two player options. It's basically where the main thing you do is move your guy on the screen between platforms and avoid obstacles to try to get to the end of a level or something like that. Here. I'll show you."

And, with a bit of scrolling, he found something that looked ~~nice and generic and moddable af~~ like a good example and started it up.

"See?" he said, moving the guy on the screen, making him jump, stomping on the few weaksauce enemies at the start of the level. "You just press the buttons to make him do stuff. Pretty simple concept, but it can get really challenging and difficult."

Edited 2019-03-01 16:46 (UTC)

"Is that the main difference?" Jack was not trying to be philosophical, but practical. "Only magicians can use magic? Or witches?" He frowned a little, then said, "Where do magic potions fall into that?"

Then: "Ooooo." Bounce, bounce, POUNCE. It was rather like having a marionette to manipulate in a picture book. Or something. JUMP! "So, it's the challenge of surviving the challenges." Jump jump ... jump into a wall. "It's trickier than it looks."

Prompto had to chuckle a little at Jack's reactions. "Nah, man," he said, "you're doing really good! You're right, though, it's harder than it looks, but that's part of the fun."

He, meanwhile, made it look like he was having an exceptionally easy time with it, unless you paid close attention to the instensity of his gaze on the screen the occasional appearance of his tongue in the corner of his mouth or him biting down on his lip in concentration.

"And that's a good point," he said, "about magic potions, but I guess those are like...artifacts? You still gotta have magic to make it, even if you don't have to have magic to use it. But you don't have to have magic to make a controler, just..." He shrugged, his attention mostly focused on the game for the most part, as he talked, "...knowledge, I guess."

He'd modified a ton of his own controllers, so, naturally, he figured that if he could do it, anyone really could.

Jack had managed to make his little man back up and try again, and make it onto the top of the wall this time. Good job, little marionette man!

"You've done this a lot," Jack noted, watching Prompto for a bit, trying to think of something equivalent in Oz. "Like someone who's played cards a lot. Or darts." The game took dexterity with the controllers, as well as an instinct for translating movement. The same kind of developed skill. Jack had never had a great deal of free time for those kinds of games, but they'd been around, at least.

"Right. That makes sense." It also meant that sadly, Tip wouldn't be able to make his own potions to change himself. At least Jack didn't think so. Which did beg the question... "I have a weird question."

Jack's mostly observant, harmless comment made Prompto's face flare up with a little bit of red, because, yeah, let's not think too much about exactly how much time he actually did just squander away playing video games when he could, you know, be doing something of actual worth and value.

And now he couldn't be sure if he totally missed that relatively easy jump on purpose in an attempt to make it seem like he wasn't really that good, or if he'd actually genuinely gotten flustered over the irrefutable fact that he'd done this a lot, and, by a lot, he was thinking too much.

So whatever weird question Jack might have, he just hoped it got things away from that.

"Weird question?" He chuckled a little. "Sure. Shoot."

Jack felt like he'd said something wrong here, but couldn't imagine what. Just that Prompto seemed a bit more nervous now. Which made him more nervous. "Um. Well." He paused to have his screen-man trundle along for a little bit, then bounce over a barrier. Twice. "I have a friend-- had a friend. Not me, an actual, other person," he clarified. "Who used to take a potion that..." How to put this? "Changed them." Right.

Was this giving away a secret? Did it matter? Would Tip be angry if they ever found out? ... Maybe not, if Jack obtained information that could help him. Right.

"It was made by a witch, he took it every day of his life. He thought it was for medical reasons, but it wasn't." Jack bit his lip, toying with the controller a little, just running his little guy in circles. "It changed his gender. From a girl, to a guy."

Well, that definitely did venture off into a completely different direction than video game addiction, didn't it? Prompto listened, though his gaze was still pretty focused on the game; his brows were knitted, though, in thought as he considered the little tidbits of information as Jack dropped them.

And was a little puzzled over what he was expected to do with them once he'd picked them up. He definitely didn't know anything about anything like that, but it definitely sounded like it would be one hell of a trip if he did.

"Was it, like...intentional?" he wondered, after realizing there wasn't really a question in there yet, just information, but feeling like he should at least engage in it somehow. "On the witch's part. Like, did she want to change their gender or something? For some....reason?"

Why? But he had a pretty good feeling stuff like that wasn't why Jack was bringing it up.

"I don't know a whole lot about that sort of thing, though, dude..."

"Well, what you just said. About magic, and technology." Jack was turning a slow red of embarrassment here, both about his ignorance, and, well. The topic. "Is there a way, technology could --change someone? Into the opposite sex, permanently?"

He concentrated on getting over a tricky bit on the screen, then said, "He didn't know. The witch was his foster mother, and she said everything she did was for his protection. Locking him in his room, not letting him leave the house. We didn't know about the girl-thing until he woke up a day later without his medicine." He blew out a breath, feeling like he was rambling now. "An apothecary we asked to make more said it was black magic, and no one reputable would make it."

See, thought Prompto for a moment, manuevering through a tricky bit for himself, too, there was another good thing about video games. They could provide you something to sort of focus on when talking about stuff like this because otherwise, it would all just feel way too super heavy and difficult to carry into a conversation. But with your mind partially distracted...

...Prompto definitely didn't get the tricky bit this time around, but he went right back to trying it again.

"Shit, man," he murmured, words that didn't even begin to really cover it. "That sounds so messed up." A little infuriating, too, because, sure, he didn't even Know Jack's friend, but who even did stuff like that? Seriously! Hell, his foster parents weren't exactly about to win Mom and Dad of the Year any time soon, themselves, but that made them sound almost like saints. His button mashing seemed to get a little angry and perterbed as he worked his way through his thoughts.

"And I don't know about that," he admitted, "but...maybe. I mean, medically, maybe, it could be possible. Nothing like that from where I'm from, that I know about, anyway...."

Only thing he'd ever heard about changing someone with technology was what the Niflheim Empire reportedly did to their soldiers, which...was hardly a positive thing that anyone would want to subject themselves to. Even thinking of it briefly sent a visible shudder through him.

And that wasn't even remotely helpful.

"With so many people from so many different places around here, though," he added thoughtfully, a bit more encouraging, "I'd be surprised if someone didn't know of something that might help, though."

Yes, exactly. He didn't have to look Prompto in the eye while talking about this, or worry too much about what his expression might be giving away, as he was now carefully studying how Prompto got the little screen-dude through the next tricky bit of maze-and-barriers.

Also, that one jump was very impressive!

"So it doesn't sound so ridiculous, that I shouldn't ask anyone else about it," Jack checked, obscurely heartened. "I haven't heard from him in a while, and-- we had a fight, before I got brought here. But. It really, really upset him, and I don't like to think about him not having any choices."

Jack might have been projecting a bit, what with his three metal limbs and very few choices about it.

"And... yeah. Mombi was-- I was kind of surprised? That she didn't track us down, after we ran away. But she had some other problems to deal with." He just really hoped that the two visitors had kept her busy enough fighting them, that she had no idea where to start looking for Tip and Jack.

"Sounds like you've just got a whole mess of stuff waiting for you back home," Prompto noted, with a newfound sympathy for how...well, desperate, he supposed, Jack had been to try to get out of here or at least contact some of his friends. And he had to feel yet another rush of guilt over how easy it was for him to keep in touch with his friends back home. He was glad for it, obviously, but it really didn't seem fair. Sure, there was the war and everything, but that had been going on for so long that most people barely even thought about it anymore. Meanwhile, people like Jack and Vette had all these things going on, and couldn't even get in touch with anyone...

"Maybe I'll ask around, too," he offered. Because, yeah, he didn't even know Jack's friend, but he felt a strong urge to want to be helpful. You didn't need to know someone to want to help them. "Cover some extra bases, you know? And I don't think it sounds too ridiculous. I mean, I might have, a while ago, but this place...has all sorts, you know? I think anyone who'd think it was ridiculous or crazy is either a) someone who hasn't been here long or b) someone in, like, serious denial, and, at that point, that's like, so not even your problem."

Jack couldn't help but snicker at that mental image, and said, "I suppose there could be someone on the Island like that. But after the last two months, I'm not sure how." He shook his head, and maneuvered his game-man up onto a bridge, bouncing merrily along. "And thanks. He's the only person I've ever even heard of to have that happen to him, but if the apothecary recognized the potion, someone else must have figured it out before. Fixing it so it can't happen again would be good too." He frowned at the screen, because his little man had just fallen down a well. "Oh, noooo."

"Oooooof," Prompto grunted, almost chuckling a little in sympathy for the spectacular fall. "That's a tricky one. If it happens again, though, try bouncing off the walls or something, see if you can't get yourself back up. Y'know, kind of like this thing with your friend. You won't know if you don't at least try."

Video games reflecting life, life reflecting video games! It was all, like, a big metaphor or something!

"Hunh." It was like poetry. Or magic! ... okay, more like poetry. "Just try a new angle."

And Prompto had to chuckle a little, feeling kind of proud for having inadvertantly managed to pull a nice video-games-life-lesson out of the whole conversation, especially since he couldn't really at that moment offer anything actually helpful. "Yeah, bro," he said. "Exactly! Try a new angle; sometimes, that changes everything."

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An Excuse for Field Trips, Wednesday, 4th Period

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