MINGLE: LASER TAG ARENA

[stealshinies]

[Being from Ancient Egypt and all that, seeing the dark, neon-lite laser tag room is enough to make him stumble back in awe. On the wall are vests with a sensor above the heart, as well as a set of guns.

Just beside that is a set of rules that Bakura sure as hell can't read:

EACH PLAYER TAKES ONE VEST AND ITS CORRESPONDING GUN.
DO NOT COVER UP THE SENSOR ON THE VEST.
THE OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME IS TO HIT THE TARGET ON OTHER PLAYERS' VESTS.
WHEN YOU ARE HIT, YOUR GUN WILL TURN OFF.
THE LAST PLAYER STANDING WINS!

Needless to say, he just takes a gun and decides to explore the room.]

((ooc: decided to intro one of the new rooms that I added last week (I'll also add these specifics to the setting page). Anyway, play laser tag with each other, tag around, and have fun! Feel free to handwave your character re-entering the game if you want to keep playing after they've already lost once.

Also, feel free to be a big fat cheater and not play by the rules, if that's how your character rolls! That's the fun of RP, isn't it?))

Comments

[stealshinies]

It's annoying!!

[It was easy to dismiss reading when it was only the Pharaoh and his men, and he could easily get by without, but when everybody here could do it?! He felt ill-prepared! It wasn't like him.

He was supposed to be one step ahead of all these fools, at all times.]

[moderndaydragon]

What's --

[Wait. She knows. She glances down at the book, back at him... and then bites her lip a little. Don't offer it. Don't offer it, you know you'll regret it...]

...Do you want me to teach you how to read?

[Dammit. She's really too nice for her own good, but seeing that expression and just thinking about the idea of lacking something as basic as reading... well, even she can't be that mean.]

[stealshinies]

...

[Bakura reaches towards a specific ring on his finger--the one he was told that held a piece of his Akh's soul--and uses it to contact him with a simple request.

Akh! Teach me how to read. I won't be shown up by everyone here any longer!]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[...ah. He just lost the high score on his game. Damn soul fragment... Closing his eyes, he forced it to speak inside of the Thief King's head.]

Huh...? What am I, your schoolteacher? I'll teach you if you pay me for it.

But wasn't reading one of the skills of the lazy elite?

[stealshinies]

[Fuck off. It's not anymore--that's the problem. I'm not paying you, you should do it for free!

He was his Akh after all. Paying him for something like that was bullshit!]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[What an annoying memory you are... He restarts his game, frowning.]

That's too bad! Teaching someone shit like that is time consuming and boring. I don't feel the need to do it without an incentive. Ask Ryou, if you're so desperate.

[stealshinies]

[Tch! Like I'd ask him!

Bakura removes his hand from the ring, ending their "call" as he focuses his attention back on Karasu.

...Just to spite his Akh, he slips off a bracelet and tosses it to her.]

Yes, and I'll give you this in exchange, so shut up and don't tell anybody!

[moderndaydragon]

[She drops the book to grab at the bracelet, not expecting to suddenly have it flung at her. Especially not after he seemed to zone out for about five minutes.

...it is a nice bracelet, though. And something from Egypt... she'll be looking over it as she talks.]

All right, all right. Thank you very much, and I'll keep it a secret.

[fluffydeathdealer]

...

[The soul fragment inside of the thief king is trying to contact its' master despite the thief king's severed connection.

Oi. He just paid Karasu to do it, after he said he wouldn't do it to you.

Silence.

Uh. Aren't you jealous?

No.

Huh? But he wouldn't pay you and he paid her! Aren't you mad or anything?

Go to hell.

But-

I SAID FUCK OFF! I don't care if you're me, you're annoying!

Really... these soul fragments wouldn't shut up! And if people didn't stop fucking interrupting his gaming, he was going to get mad...]

[stealshinies]

Good. [He brings his legs up, crossing them in front of him as he looks over at Karasu expectantly.]

Well? Start teaching me!

[moderndaydragon]

[...Why isn't she surprised he wants to start right away? She slides the bracelet on her wrist, checking the difference in sizes before sliding off the bed and starting to dig for one of those journals she found lying around.]

English seems to be the major language here that Campus uses, or at least converts everything into. So I'll teach you how to read in that. All right?

[stealshinies]

[Bakura stares at her for a moment longer, his brow knitting.

And then...

Wait for it--] ...What the fuck is English?

[moderndaydragon]

It's the language spoken in parts of the world in modern day. Since I'm only half-Japanese, I speak and read it just as clearly as I do Japanese. And since it's the one that Campus tends to default to, that seems the best one to start with.

[Here it is. She'll go over to the bed with the journal and pen.]

Ready?

[stealshinies]

Wait.

[He turns slightly to keep his eye on her, looking more bewildered than ever.]

...You're not speaking Egyptian?

[moderndaydragon]

No, I'm not. That's what I meant by Campus "defaulting" to English: it seems to be the language everyone's speech is translated into, unless they already know it or know multiple languages. I can write in Japanese and it stays Japanese, for instance.

I'd love to learn how to speak Egyptian, myself... but I don't know it, no.

[stealshinies]

... [Why didn't he notice any language change?! He thought everybody had been speaking Egyptian this entire time!

Has he been speaking English somehow, and he didn't know it...?! Now that he thinks about it, it doesn't really make sense for everybody to know Egyptian, but...]

That's impossible...

[moderndaydragon]

Not any more impossible than anything else this place is done. Considering it's kidnapped through space and time, caused the building to disappear, and has a barrier even I can't break, an "auto-translate" spell seems pretty simple to me.

[stealshinies]

[There definitely has to be a way for him to tell the different. For him to be able to hear it. How was he supposed to learn to read anything in a language he knew, but didn't know?!

Steeling himself a moment, he speaks deliberately, trying to speak in Egyptian.]

Is this...still...English...?

[moderndaydragon]

Yes, it is.

[She can tell what he's trying to do, putting her pen down to listen.]

[stealshinies]

Rrrghhh...

[He takes in a deep breath, clenching his hands to calm himself. This was frustrating, but he tries again, harder than before and with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. Maybe if he says something without any foreign words injected into it, like the "English" from before.]

Nefer sedjmetj.

[moderndaydragon]

[The confusion that spreads across her face should be enough to tell, but she says it anyway, just in case.]

I didn't understand that. That was probably Egyptian.

[stealshinies]

Then it is possible! [He grins, filled with a new sense of power now.

It was just a matter of training his ears now to realize the difference between the two. Just now when he'd spoken...he could feel the difference.

It was something he hadn't felt before.]

[moderndaydragon]

It seems so! [...it's jokingly, though she's almost regretting saying it] Maybe I should find a way to pay you for Egyptian lessons.

[stealshinies]

...H-heh heh heh, I'm sure we could think of something.

[He points to the journal.] But enough of that! Let's get on with this!

[moderndaydragon]

Well, then... we'll leave that for later.

[She's written the alphabet in her journal, and begins with trying to teach him every letter, using both her name and his to show what they are and how they mesh together.

It's only going to be a starter few lessons... but she's trying her best to make it interesting, or at least not dull as hell.]