the moment that Peter had tapped the screen (which had actually turned out to be a touch-screen despite ho old the machine looked in appearance), two large, black buttons popped out of the top of the machine next to the power button. On them, in chipped, old looking white stenciled labels were the words 'Traditional' and 'Immersive'.
"Traditional and Immersive? Eugene, what did the box say about these again? I think we should all know what we're getting into before we just make a decision that affects everyone" Judy said, giving her boyfriend a glaring side-eye through her heavy eye-liner and hopefully trying to intimidate the normally caring jock from making any other brash, jerkish decisions.
Of course, Peter just thought it looked kinda hot, but he played up the 'whipped boyfriend' act so that the gang would stop being mad at him. And he was a little confused as to why, exactly, he'd just batted Eugene's hands away and just selected sports as the game type. He wasn't typically a jerk like that, especially to his friend (who needed all the help he could get getting out of that nerdy little shell of his), and the feeling of just being...compelled to tap the screen left him with a weird after-taste in his mouth. It tasted like...green? But the feeling (and taste) quickly passed.
"Sorry, guys. Guess I just have football on the brain. I've, uh, been a little worried about what's gonna happen in the fall with the, uh, Coronavirus and all. Kinda my scholarship thing" Peter said with a shrug and a sheepish grin, and hoped that it was a sympathetic enough excuse. He was rewarded with Judy's glare softening just a bit.
"Well, like, it's actually called Covid-19. Coronavirus was just the, um, term for like when it just gets discovered in a human and stuff" Lindsey said with a knowing nod. She wanted to tag on how, like, totally not cool it was for Peter to have done that but she relented. She didn't fully believe his apology but Pete was definitely at the top of the list for jocks that had surprised her for not playing to the stereotype. But it was a pretty short list.
"It's okay Pete I, uh, just want us to have a good time" Eugene said with a thumbs up and a smile that looked every letter of the word 'forced'. Eugene wasn't really a sports guy at all, with baseball being the only one he could really tolerate (mainly because he had fond memories of going to Dodger's Stadium with his mom and grandpa when he was a little kid), but Peter had been a good friend to him. A slip up here and there wasn't enough to just end their friendship like that.
And Judy knew that Peter clearly wasn't truly sorry for making the decision for everyone, but unlike Lindsey, actually believed his excuse. Peter, in private, could actually be something of a mess when it came to his scholarship stuff. The big palooka was smart and if pressed could probably find a major to support him if they DID cancel his scholarship due to the pandemic...But despite his family being pretty well off, Peter had often gone on rants about how his dad wouldn't financially support him if he messed it up. That was, after all, part of the reason Peter had come all the way out here to Colorado rather than attending some expensive East Coast Ivy League school. Cheaper tuition and a smaller student loan.
And of course, if all that hadn't happened, Judy never would have met her darling buffoon. There was no telling what would have happened if he hadn't been there to support her and give her the confidence to actually live HER life, not that stuffy, oppressive life that had been built for her back home. The one she'd run away from. So she was a little more willing to accept Peter's apology, even if she was biased. But then the moment passed and she cleared her throat once more.
"So, what do we do to get started, Eugene? What's the difference between the modes again?" The top-heavy and curvy goth girl asked the overweight freshman once more.
"Oh! Uh, I, uh..." Eugene's eyes went wide as he fumbled for the lid of the box the strange R2D2-esque game had come in, "It, uh...Well Traditional is just like a normal board game and Immersive is more like, uh, Dungeons and Dragons?"
"Nah, with sports it'll be more like Stratego or something" Peter chimed in from the couch.
"Or yeah. That." Eugene nodded, not really knowing WHAT exactly Stratego outside of the version Peter owned was from the 70s and in dire need of replacment. But then the geek sputtered as Lindsey reached over and brushed her hand against his and, like a cat, swiftly swiped the box lid out of Eugene's hands as she took it for herself.
"So, um..." Lindsey brushed a few rainbow-colored strands of hair from her face as he brow furrowed in concentration, "It totally comes pre-loaded with some, um, presets but we can set it up to play like, however we want. We just push the button and then we, like, get to choose our game pieces. Then we just type in the piece names into that tiny little keyboard and hit enter and the game will start. Oh, wait, that's just for Immersive. IF we go, um, traditional and stuff, we gotta choose a game length but it'll totally be conformed to what game we want. Like baseball!"
"Of football" Peter added in, causing everyone to frown once more.
"...Or yeah. Football"
"Well I just think we need to choose something that EVERYONE will enjoy. Not just the people that know a thing or two about sports" Judy said as she leaned over to inspect the game's lid. That was a LOT of text and it was small and faded and aftera moment she just gave up trying to read it from this distance. Instead she just naturally fell into the role of peacemaker; knowing that compromise was usually the best way forward after having spent her entire life unknowingly miserable at having everything decided for her.
"Well I can teach you guys how to play Stratego if traditional is like that. It's SUPER easy" Peter offered, his voice more than just hinting that he wanted it to happen.
"I wonder what Immersive is like. Like do we actually have to, um, play sports and junk?" Lindsey said, softly biting a nail and pretending not to notice Eugene shifting in his seat. Specifically shifting his pants in his seat as his face turned red.
After a few moments of Peter-dominant discussion with a dialogue back and forth about each version of the game and then Lindsey passing the game lid around so that everyone had a chance to look over the rules and differences between game modes (the rainbow-blonde noticed that everyone had a slightly different interpretation of the rules as they read them, as if the faded text was altering itself slightly of, like, something), the group took a vote and chose to play in...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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