Heart to Heart

Heart to Heart
Date of Scene:	15 July 2013
Location:	Game Central
Synopsis:	Just after the incident in Fit-It Felix jr. Shiki and Deelel start to have a talk. Which become a bit more personal than either expected as the topic of the nature of their worlds come up.
Cast of Characters:	Shiki Misaki, Deelel

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Shiki Misaki has posed:
It's a little while after the... well, we can't call it so much of an 'adventure' as it was a 'chaotic, bloody scrap' in Fix-It Felix Jr's game.

For Shiki, who- owing to the star character's handy hammer- has not had to worry about any injuries she's sustained, it was a... strange experience. Just how strange, however, is only really sinking in once she and Deelel return to Tapper's for some downtime.

She has a drink, but she's just been staring at it for a couple minutes, looking at her reflection in the root beer glass. She is eerily quiet.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is still a bit unsettled after the implications about the Cybugs, she also needs to get herself a back up weapon. If they ate her disc? She does not want to think about that, oh she doesn't want to think about that at all. So here the pair are at Tappers now. Deelel is perched at the bar beside her friend and is already on her second drink at this point. The basic now looks over to Shiki who has just been staring at her drink for the last little bit.

"Hey are you all right? Your really quiet, this isn't like you Shiki. Not like you at all."

Deelel was concerned ,perhaps this was something to do with now starting to understand the type of world Deelel and those who were native to the Arcade was from? She would hopefully find out and be able to help her friend with it, if that was the case.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
The Cybugs are... just one of several things on Shiki's mind. Tension is the word on a lot of off-duty characters' faces all through the bar, in fact- seems that quite a few people heard about the overspill and they're talking about it. Nobody is going to like the Surge Protector for a while after this. Well, they'll like him... less. Than usual.

That discussion is a low buzz in Shiki's ears, though, and it takes Deelel's voice to spark her out of it.

Shiki makes an uneasy noise, running her fingers along the glass. For the first time since she was given it, Shiki raises the glass to her lips and takes a sip- not even a big one, though.

"I guess... it's just culture shock setting in, Dee. After... spending time here and enjoying it, something like that... it..."

She taps the glass with her fingers. "I mean, look at this drink I've got here. It tastes like root beer. Glass feels like glass. But it's, like... pixels, isn't it? If you looked at it from the outside. I... guess? I mean... is... is it.. if someone looked at us from outside, would /we/ look like we're made of pixels?"

She sits back in the chair and sighs, looking at the ceiling (and presumably the glass screen). "When you first showed up in the... realground, what happened to you? I never even knew before now. Heck, I don't know much about you at all, really."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has the Cybugs on her mind honestly for several reasons, they basically are one a virus. Two operate like LEXUS but without any o the control or planning. Three holy cow alien space bug things, seriously. What kind of nightmares did users have to get the ideas for these things? Given the Surge Protector's function? She can't fault him too much really. She doesn't think much to listen too hard to the locals for a bit.

Deelel has much experience with this sort of line of conversation after all her own early experience in user space, proved to be quite the level of culture shock to her.

"My body feels like flesh right? Same deal I guess. I don't think about it too much, I guess."

"This is like I guess how I look at things in your world being made from what it is. I haven't thought about it that way really."

"I was fleeing a tyrant trying to find help to save the system. I'd been broken out of the death games a program named SARK was running..."

She looks into her drink for a moment. "I guess I'm a mystery like that, it's also a lot of people don't have the frame of reference to quite understand my world. It's something you have to see honestly. Like my kind and say the Sun? I didn't know what it was I thought something was exploding and going to consume the city I'd found myself in. Now where was I? I was on the run and ran into a strange program named LEXUS he spoke of a rumour of a way to another system in the ruins of an old unused sector of the Operating System I was on."

"I had no idea he planned to use me to see if the way was safe. I found my way out but the tyrant I'd been fleeing tracked me. MCP also followed me out of the system into your world."

She downs some more of her drink. "That's when I found myself in the basement of Flynn's. The world felt so ... broken there, run down, dirty, chaotic and yet... so very beautiful."

She looks at her drink again and orders another from the bar tender before going on some more.

"As for me? I'm a mufti media program, I make music, images, 3D models, design things. Basically an artist more less. Learning to fight was born out of my hobbies on my original form and simple trying to stay alive. I was not from the OS that TRON's from. I came from another I don't know how I ended up on his but? I was dialled back my mind was slowed down to an older level so I could function. Problem was my memory locked out for the most part, given it was in a form I couldn't process. Think about it like your trying to load a game from just the time of your world's fall? On a computer that was 15 years old. It wouldn't go so well right?"

Still can't get home for what its' worth but even being here I'm a lot more at ease I better understand the workings of this place than your world. It's full of things without function or purpose, I still amazes me how easily your people can figure out what to do. We need purpose like you need your air or food even if we go off and start to do things we were not created to do."

That actually gets Deelel grinning she's a bit proud of that and it shows. She sets her drink down now and looks over at Shiki again.

"I just keep getting in over my head. Still how are you taking things here? I know a lot of it can be alien but it's not that bad, people are people, right? I never thought ... my gods for lack of a better term would have so much in common with us. I ended up in the death games for refusing to recant in believing you and the rest of your people existed."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki scratches her head. "Well, that's kind of the thing, isn't it? I was at the 'trying not to think about it' phase... before this. Everything was cool and exciting and wow and you could have fun. Now I'm sort of ... pickin' up on things. You know, like how everything in Felix's game was just... one building, and a big... black backdrop. And a dump. And that was /it/. And just how scary a monster that can eat just about anything and change into it is."

"And how Avira and Maira almost /died/ within thirty seconds of walking in here." Sightseeing in some of the games is just functionally impossible. Stupid old games that didn't have an endpoint! Razzen frazzin... coin guzzlers...

It /is/ mystifying, though, especially when Shiki listens to Deelel and considers the fact that she has spent quite a long time outside of her virtual world. Even though this place isn't the same it's still fundamentally similar, being a digitised world. She wonders what would happen if someone brought something like one of those awesome giant cherries all the way out, back to the grid, and back into the realground.

But she quickly drops that thought as it's time for some exposition! Imagine a voiced-over flashback sequence here, because Shiki certainly is, soaking in the strange history of a world she could never imagine.

Shiki's fist tightens under the table as Deelel explains. Death games. What /is/ it about games of life and death? She really wishes she could not relate to that.

"I'm sorry, Dee," Shiki says with a sigh. "Don't wanna feel like I'm harshing on ya. Things have gotta be as different between these worlds as you they could possibly be."

And on the story goes. Deelel was used- used, in fact, by LEXUS and the MCP to open a path to other worlds. What a terrible thing to think of.

It's strange, but Shiki tries to understand as Deelel begins to talk about computer terms. It's actually difficult for Shiki to understand /as such/- being born in about 1988, Shiki was post-crash as far as video games go, so she couldn't exactly appreciate just how basic early computers and consoles were. Even over eleven years, technology moves very fast. But she does her best to understand.

"In some ways, we can still relate to one another, though," Shiki comments when Deelel talks about purpose. "Although 'having nothing to do with fighting before, then getting dumped into a life or death game' is not the way I'd like it to be if I could choose. But..."

She takes a drink, having not drained her glass as quickly as before. "I, hum..."

"Wow. That's just so weird," she concludes as Deelel explains the principle of the 'myth of the users'. "That's way beyond culture shock. I gotta wonder how all of these people think about the people who play these games. Man, wouldn't it be freaky if we did something like hid behind one of these tables if someone played this game, and looked up and saw some really huge person on the other side of the glass?"

The bartender gives her a disapproving look. "I'm not gonna do it!"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel goes back to her drink for the moment as she liens to her friend talk. She nods a little bit as she listens to Shiki describe Felix's world and she thinks about that for a moment

"Yes, my world could have a lot in common with yours. This world feels like it's somewhere in between, I was pretty tense about that myself. It's not something I'd like to see happen to anyone, but it seems whoever created these world had some sense of mercy. The people here respawn when carrying our their function."

Deelel would have to wonder about that too if blood sport as it's more commonly known never really sits well with her. Non fatal combat tournaments are perfectly fine for her.

"Your not, this world is still a bit strange to me, if I must be honest about it."

That was always the problem, a lot of people had a hard time understanding her world, just having ti described to them it was something they really had to see. Even then it can be hard but she does try, she really does try.

"Fair enough it's not something I ever make the assumption that one could understand it. Still even a little understanding is good."

"It would be but that might make someone think the game was broken. That wouldn't be good still it's pretty funny to think of."

Deelel giggles a little bit before she goes back to her drink and gives the bartender an apologetic look.

"Still your enjoying yourself here right and I'm sorry you got dragged into the death game with the Reapers."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Mercy, yes. Except for those Cybugs.

The Cybugs. Shiki can't get her mind off them. "They do respawn, but... something feels weird. I'm only thinking about it now. I still can't... understand how those Cybugs managed to cross over. If they managed to transform into the things they ate, what would happen if they managed to eat some/one/?"

"There's something really weird about those guys. I'm going to be really keeping a close eye on that game they came out of."

Shiki stops to think again, thoughts racing behind her furrowed expression. The phrase 'it's only a game' seems to be in full effect here, but what if this is some kind of exception?

"Yeah, we're lucky things have been pretty mild so far. We've always been able to clear out of a game we visit quickly before someone wants to play it before."

Imagine if someone had come to play Fix It Felix Jr. while the Cybugs and all of them were ... in... there.

What a disturbing thought.

"It's fine, though. I've kinda... come to terms with it. I don't regret what happened."

"Actually, now I think about it. Deelel, when we made that pact, did you feel anything unusual?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "It's likely, such processes exist in my world. MCP can do it, if he wanted a program's functions for his own, also LEXUS he attempted to consume me when we fought."

Deelel had had to cut off part of her own arm to get the tendrils out it was not a present memory for her. She not even going to share it.

"I will as well, those things shouldn't be let lose they operate like LEXUS but without his control or even awareness. As for that game they risked a lot to come to help the people in Felix's. People coming to play is something we need to watch out for. Also we need to watch out for them getting on the grid or to realground as you put it."

As the pact comes up she wonders for a moment she did feel something but she wasn?t sure quite about what she felt she looks at the bottom of her now empty mug and then looks back to Shiki.

"I felt something but I'm not sure how to describe it really."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"Oh my gosh, I never even thought about that," Shiki says. "Man I- never mind the idea I had where you'd get a... freakin' cherry and take that out of here, out of the grid, and then to the Arcade. Imagine if a Cybug got all the way there."

"Not going to happen on /our/ watch."

"OK, well." Shiki huffs. "I was thinkin'... you know how, ever since we went to see the Legendary Smith, I was training with that mythril rod, right?"

"That was the first time since then that I... when we were fighting, it was like nothing else was... relevant. I gotta admit, I know you, and Felix, and Serah and that were talkin' up a storm but I hardly... heard any of it. I was just in this 'zone'. Getting those people to safety... and defeating the things threatening them..."

"Sometimes when I form a pact with someone, if it gets deeper I can... it feels like my soul is on the same wavelength as theirs."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "That's what I been thinking about, honestly. If the natives get out it wouldn't be so bad but if the Cybugs it would be a disaster honestly."

She orders yet another root beer. she really was coming to like this stuff she really was.

"I recall that and you'd been training pretty well. One tends to focus on what needs to be done if your going to survive a fight. Extra stuff just ends up causing you to be cubes on the ground."

If Shiki had remembered when Deelel was badly hurt she didn't bleed you saw this strange pile like cubes rather than her body behaving like it was made of flesh.

"It' happens you shouldn't worry about it your just learning how to fight and hum wait you mean? Is that even possible between an analog being and a digital one? We can read each other's discs if needed but I didn't think...we could link like that."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki Misaki winces.

"I guess it's a good sign?"

She takes a rather large gulp of her drink, for some reason, suppressing a dry mouth. She didn't know she had that.

"It just feels... not bad, I guess, but I'm just... it's weird how ..."

"I don't know. It feels good... to have that kind of payoff. Focus. I've been training solidly for weeks after Daguerreo, but this was the first real fight since we had to deal with Priel. I guess... this is what it means to really be dedicated to fighting for a purpose."

And then Deelel makes her think. "I'd like ... I have a dream where understanding and working together between all of the different people in these worlds can come together to fight evil things like the Heartless... and these Cybugs. The shard seekers are a great example... if our souls could connect even though I'm originally made of skin and bones and you're originally digital, that's a great sign."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel Says "It's understandable for it to feel strange. Still training is good right and now you'll be able to deal with her. I'm still concerned. I hope Ivo isn't blinded by Priel and gives her the boot."

She'd not feel safe honestly with Priel being about, right? But enough on that she's got nothing else to say.

"I'm not honestly sure total understanding is possible. It's like chasing perfection you can't get it but it's always something good to chase after because you improve."

She takes another drink, and listens to Shiki, seriously this stuff was good but damn she's going to not need to recharge for a few days after all of this honestly.

"It's a bit ... unsettling to think it's possible. Given how alien our very physical natures to have something that in common? It raises a lot of questions but we may not get the answer to for some time. Still if I'd not escaped? I'd be voxels by now and I'd not have met any of you. Nor would I known I'd been broken."