strangetrip | Video Game Challenge (OTA)

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Video Game Challenge (OTA)

It was a shame not a lot of people seemed to like renting the various video game consoles the makeshift library had to offer the Madonna Inn. Quill was a frequent visitor to the library, but rather took out a book. Gamora would be annoyed with him, but the video games held more interest to him. A lot of the games were new to him as they had come out after he left Earth. Quill was delighted to explore them.

Multplayer games were much more fun with people. He dragged a TV into the lobby and set up a Super Nintendo. He sat on one of the ostentatious couches and was currently playing Super Mario Kart while he waited for some challengers. On the coffee table there was also a cartridge for Donkey Kong Country and Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

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There was a dark idea rippling underneath much of what Curnen thought, said, and did, and even now she refused to let it surface. But it was always there. The reality that unless she made herself die, she could potentially be stuck here for eons on her own after she'd watched everybody else die of old age.

But she wouldn't even let herself look at that thought, let alone voice it.

"It ain't that bad for some people. God knows some of us came from some shit. But for me... this place ain't home. And it ain't gonna be."

"Of course it's not home." He replied. "This is kind of like a way station or vacation. We'll all go back eventually. I'm pretty confident on that one ."

Quill had no reason to be so confident, but he was.

"So I figure while I'm here, I should enjoy it." He said.

Well, optimism wasn't a bad thing. They all had to keep going somehow. Still, sometimes the only right answer was a song, or a piece of one, and Curnen found herself softly singing just two lines.

The cock he crew in the morning, he crew both loud and shrill
I awoke in California, many miles from Spancil Hill

She finished the race in last. "Fuuuuuuuuck." But it still more amused than frustrated.

Quill grinned to her even if her results weren't a typical victory.

"You kicked some butt on there." He said "I'd say you did awesome for your first time. And you didn't quit. Too many people quit when stuff gets hard "

Curnen's nose wrinkled at the thought. "Those people must not do many things." Everything about learning to play music had been relatively hard for her just because her extra fingers meant she had to do something different from everyone around her.

"Mind if I try again? Or would that be real boring for you?"

"Nope!" He replied pleasantly. "Be my guest. I bet you'll come in a better place. And sometimes I'm pretty sure the computer cheats, but I haven't been able to prove that yet."

That didn't make a lick of sense to Curnen. "It ain't alive, how can it cheat?" But all the same, she sat up straight and rearranged herself, tucking her legs beneath her. "Nah, never mind, that's ain't important."

"So what's your deal?" He said as the game began. "You a super hero or a magic person or alien. Oh! Or maybe some sort of robot?"

Curnen gave him a sidelong look with a sly little smile. "Oh, nah. Flesh and blood, that I promise you. Why, what's your deal?"

Edited 2018-09-04 07:20 (UTC)

"Me too," He said. "Flesh and blood, I mean. At least the last time I checked."

Quill smirked to Curnen, then turned his attention to the tv.

"I did notice you didn't actually answer the question," He said nonchalantly. "That's cool."

Curnen shrugged. "Ain't really anything to me that's like a lot of the folk 'round here. Got out of a curse 'bout a year back, I guess."

"Curse, huh?" He replied. "Like from a wicked witch or something?"

He shook his head.

"Never thought it sounded fun, getting cursed." He said.

Curnen's smile was both slow and sharp, almost more like baring her teeth than a real smile of any kind. "Nah... it ain't."

"Gonna keep that on me 'things not to have happen to me' list then." He said. "Along with permanently die and eat Brussels sprouts."

Curnen snorted and started to giggle. "Time may not work the same for everyone, but it does catch up eventually. Ain't sure you can really avoid that forever. Brussel sprouts, you got a real shot with that one."

"I don't know," He said. "I've seen a lot of the Galaxy. Pretty sure somewhere out there, there's a way to live forever. Just have to find it and make sure it'll let me look this good while I'm at it."

Quill glanced to her and winked.

Curnen smirked in answer to the wink. "Maybe there's ways. But that ain't a thing you want. A body that dunno how to die is a body that gets mean after a while."

That sounds like a voice of experience.

Quill turned his head to look to Curnen.

"What do you mean?" He asked, watching her carefully.

Curnen shook her head and stared fixedly at the screen. "That ain't a story for racing little cartoon characters on a TV."

He stared for a moment longer, then let the topic go.

"Just because it's your second time, I won't go easy on you," He said playfully.

[[Fade?]]

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