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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By the time Tony made time to explore the offerings of the library, nothing had prepared him for how "Hogwarts" the inn could truly be. He had been wandering for some time, looking for a simple History section to get a better sense of where the hotel existed in "California" relative to everything else. Instead, he was focusing on giving the weird hocus-pocus BS a wide berth and living in a lowkey state of paranoia he'd get sucked into the Book Dimension if he opened the wrong thing.

While it was true nothing had happened yet, and he had had some warning that he wouldn't get trouble as long as he abided the few simple rules in place, Tony couldn't get the image out of his head as he paced the aisles. Despite all that, the apparent machinations of the library were intriguing in and of themselves and worth taking notes on. If all else failed, he still had that option.

That was, if he could focus on much of it. It was hard to immerse yourself where was a constant drone of digitized motors revving around the corner. He knew better than to react, but starting on a sentence just to get pulled out of it by an obnoxious whistling sound effect was like a cheese grater on his nerves. Shoving a book back in its spot after the fifth attempted re-read of the opening paragraph, he stalked around the corner to find the gaming area.

'This is what I'm doing now. Cracking the code of who puts a gaming hub in the middle of a library.' He folded his arms as he approached the back of the sofa, the current occupant none the wiser. Squinting, he identified the racing game at once. He wasn't much of a gamer, but he was savvy enough to identify the classics. Wasn't it a multiplayer...?

"So. Uh. Party of one there, buddy?"

[ooc: wow that was really long I kept thinking of things to add I'm sorry >>']

Quill occasionally let his mind wander to the magical cat that was up to no-good in the Inn, but he often got distracted by Princess Peach tossing down banana peels. Princess Peach is being a bitch right now

He looked up when Stark spoke. Quill was hoping for a Player 2. He looked like he recognized Stark immediately.

"Hey! Iron Dude," He said, putting the controller down. "Looks like you finally found your way here too, huh?"

[[haha, I love it!]]

Without paying too much attention to what Quill was actually doing, Rocket hopped up on the couch next to him. Company was good, Quill was occupied with... weird vehicles and cartoon things on the TV... and Rocket had a couple of clockwork things he could mess with.

When he wasn't laughing at his friend. "Hey Quill, I think the point's not ta hit every single banana peel."

"So what the hell is this?" Curnen asked, perched on one of the arms of the couch and head tipped to one side, not unlike a cat.

Curnen wasn't much for the library given she wasn't really a reader, so she wasn't as familiar with the contents as some. Mostly she picked out movies, or any music that was there for the listening. She had no idea what the weird gray boxes were with the funny controls stuck to them. Seemed like a good time to investigate.

Though she was just as likely to flit off and do something else or curl up on the unoccupied side of the couch and take a nap.

Edited 2018-08-14 04:47 (UTC)

"Iron Man." Tony looked Quill up and down before promptly disregarding him. He didn't recognize him, and if it turned out that whoever this was knew him from yet another universe, he could join the club.

"Yeah, I found my way to the library, where there's this guy playing video games while I'm trying to figure out where I exist in spacetime. A little bothersome. Thinking of asking this guy to tone down the grudge match with Yoshi for just a few minutes."

"Iron Man. Right. How could I forget." He said, leaning back as he listened.

Quill pressed 'PAUSE' on the game.

"Okay, well, first of all?" Quill said, motioning to the TV. "I'll have you know that it's Princess Peach who's kicking my butt at the moment. Yoshi's been pretty cool about things the entire time. And second, dude, you need to relax."

Quill regarded Stark quietly for a moment. His eyes narrowed a bit and he leaned forward on his knees.

"Are you still upset that we went with my plan because yours sucked?" He asked. "Because that's okay, buddy. These things happen. Not every one can be winners."

"This?" He asked, looking to her. "This is one of the best games ever invented for multiplayer action. I dare say, top 5, even."

He pressed pause and then held out the controller to Curnen.

"You want a try?" He said. "It's easy. Like riding a bike."

"Hey, I'll have you know it's actually pretty hard to steer." Quill replied defensively. "Plus I'm pretty sure Peach is a secretly sniper assassin with the accuracy she has right now. You'd think all that hair would get in the way, but it doesn't."

When Quill ended up in fifth place, he huffed.

"This game is obviously rigged," He stated.

Rocket laughed again. "Oh yeah, it's not just that you're a bad fuckin' driver. I get it Quill! I'm on your side!" There would have been an exaggerated wink there, if Quill hadn't been the only audience. Rocket was pretty sure no actual secret sniper assassin would go by 'Peach'.

"Uh huh, Well..." Quill said, struggling for a comeback. "Well, you show me how it's done, then."

He pushed the controller onto Rocket's lap with a look that was challenging in the childish of ways.

"What?" Rocket flattened his ears briefly. "I dunno how to play this fuckin' game, I just know how ta mock you doin' it!"

"Oh, so, you're afraid of Princess Peach too, I see." He goaded, sounding like a teasing brother. "I thought you were a great pilot, Rocket."

"Better than you!" Rocket retorted, almost cheerfully. What? He was a better pilot than Quill. He'd literally been built for it. "This ain't pilotin', this is I got tiny fuckin' hands for controls I ain't seen before!"

Curnen stared at the thing, then slipped down, almost flowed down to the empty seat so she could use her hands to accept the controller instead of keep balance. Sometimes even now, there was something that felt right about going on all fours rather than walking upright, and... she didn't want to think about why right now. "Well, sure," she said, holding the controller in one hand so she could point at it and then the machine it was connected to with the other, "but what is this?"

With a nakedly bewildered look, it was all Tony could do to keep from rolling his eyes. He would have thought that being a celebrity would have prepared him for getting constantly recognized, but it really didn't in this context.

"Yeah, gonna stop you there. I do not know you. If you outwitted me at Mario Party at some cocktail party however many years ago, congrats, I guess."

"Rocket, it's not the size that counts, it's how you use it." He said sagely.

Quill reached for the second controller. Part of his bravado went away, but his competitiveness remained.

"Alright, fine. How about we play multiplayer then?" He said. "I'll even give you a head start if you want."

"Oh." He said. Oh. Good job, idiot. "This is a video game. It's... like a computer, but just for playing games people have programmed. Like a board game on TV... sort of."

He wondered if there was a better way of explaining a video game, but Quill was confident that he got the idea across.

"The controller you're holding tells the person on the screen what to do and depending on what they do, depends if you win the game or not." He explained.

Realization dawn on Quill's features. Stark's from a different time. Awkward.

"More like we met on a planet and are about to kick some bad-guy butt," He replied. "You know how it is. Show up to a space ship. I threaten to shoot one of yours, you threaten to shoot one of mine. There's some yelling and then we all figured out we're on the same side. Fun times."

Quill was surprised Peter hadn't filled his mentor in on some of this. He remembered everything he and Peter spoke about on the not-Father's-Day hangout.

"Nice shiner, by the way." He said, gesturing with a circle of his finger at Tony. "You get that here or you walk into a door back home."

"I dun really know much about computers, neither," Curnen mused, leaning hard into her drawl as she studied the controller in her hands. Nobody expected a backwoods hick to know much of anything; the Beverly Hillbillies were still the beginning and the end of what the wider world knew about where she came from. "Though I figured out my phone, I guess, an' everybody said that was the same thing."

"People started leaving their asininity everywhere and I tripped, kind of like what I'm doing now. Also, you sure this wasn't another video game of yours? With the advent of commercial VR tech, I know it can get confusing for some types." Tony put a hand between them, emphasizing the last question with it.

'What is it with space, anyway?' It took Tony a moment, but he recalled one of Peter's weirder questions about them going to space, though the boy left it there.

"Ah, see!" He said encouragingly, pointing at her. "Your phone is basically a smaller version of this. And it probably has games on it too."

Quill had learned all about Smart Phones just recently, but he liked them a lot. He could picture Groot being obsessed with them too.

"In this game, basically you want to be first," He said. "And you can grab things to hinder the other people, like banana peels, so you can get ahead."

Quill then began to explain each button on the controller and what it does. It was a Super Nintendo, so the controls were relatively simple.

"Someone definitely woke up on the wrong side of his bed this morning." Quill said, watching him. You'd think for a dude who fought crazy ass bad-guys and was friends with wizards, he'd take this kind of stuff more in stride..

Quill got up from his seat and started to walk over.

"Alright. So you don't know me yet. That's fine. Let's start over." He held out his hand. See Gamora? I can be an adult. "Star-Lord. It's nice to meet you."

Curnen listened, touching each of the buttons as they were explained with her thumbs. She furrowed her brow at the whole thing between the controls and Mario and the premise of the game. Really, the racing part was the only part that definitely made sense, but okay. "This sounds kinda nuts."

Tony looked between Quill's face and his hand. He relented, accepting the offer in a firm shake. Insisting on a petty battle wouldn't have gotten him any further than he was, after all.

"Tony Stark." 'I sincerely doubt that's his name.' "You know me. A little hesitant to inquire how, but I'll bite."

"Right!" He said excitedly. That's the best part. "I mean, a racing games racing, but this one you have strategy."

He leaned over and pointed to the 'start' button.

"Just press that and give it a try." he said. "What's the worst that can happen?"

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Video Game Challenge (OTA)

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Quill and Rocket

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