RP log: Ryuuji and Sarah, part 2 of 2
Sep. 8th, 2006 03:29 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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hh_mirror((Part 2 - backdated way back, to the morning before the fanfiction shopping excursion.))
“Doesn't matter, I insist I get to give you a present too!” Sarah said, shaking her head as more laughing hit her. “Oh that is terrible, random people asking you to tattoo them, I think I'd run and hide someplace if someone asked that of me! Though I do think you could well pull off James Bond, I could teach you to shoot if you like,” she said with a grin, once more obviously unaware that Ryuuji definitely did not need the lessons. “and then you can go around the Ravenclaw common room ordering your martinis in a well-tailored suit.”
She laughed, not swatting away his hand as he flicked her, just grinned more. Amused at his preening in an affectionate way, not a mocking way, she assuming a perfected look of stage horror at the comment about teen movies. “You mean you haven't been in a movie?” she asked, and then flailed about exaggeratedly. “Quick, find a director and a producer, we must rectify this terrible, terrible void in the cinema immediately!”
Despite the teasing, the brilliant smile she now wore was completely genuine at his words. “I'm glad too, Ryuuji.”
"Uh, well, if I ever think of anything I need, I'll tell you." Too bad everything Ryuuji really needed weren't the kind of things you could buy as gifts. Sarah's offer to teach him how to shoot made Ryuuji quirk a grin at her, touched by the wholly unnecessary promise, "I have well-tailored suits! But I promised Nightwing I wouldn't get drunk anymore after I turned him into a kitten while drunk, so maybe I should stick to ordering chocolate milk. You think that would be okay?"
Clasping both hands over his heart, he played along easily, "Oh Sarah! You must agree to co-star with me, you must! I cannot think of any lady more skilled at the theatre arts than you -- together, we shall become stars!"
He laughed again, and winked at her, "And then, you'll have to learn how to not run away and hide when crazy fans accost you."
At the mention of turning people into kittens while drunk, Sarah was lost to laughter again, holding her sides. Oh, now that was too much. “You turned him into a kitten? Oh my God,” she got out once she had calmed a bit. “Yes, maybe chocolate milk would be best. I swear, Hogwarts really does make people drink and do bad things. So yes, you can have your milk shaken and not stirred, maybe even as an ice cream float.”
Still grinning, she posed. “We will turn the wizarding world on their ears with our fabulous skills and charisma.” She then mimed putting sunglasses and a hat on. “No no, my friend, I will teach you how to go out in disguise so the masses will not notice you. Because really, big sunglasses and a ballcap? Are completely stylish and just so obviously a good disguise.” She rolled her eyes and then laughed. “Really, you never tried such a lame disguise, did you?”
"I was drunk!" Ryuuji defended himself, laughing sheepishly even as he said that, "And he made a cute kitten. And I turned myself into a kitten as well so that I could play with him so it wasn't massively unfair or anything." The mention of an ice-cream float made his eyes light up, "Yeah! Ice-cream is high on sugar and energy, and therefore much better for you than alcohol is anyway. And it doesn't kill brain cells."
Acknowledging her pose with a quick round of admiring applause, he widened his eyes at her, "Big sunglasses and a ballcap? Why, those disguises are practically genius! In my world, it's considered very rude of celebrity figures to not appreciate their cheerleaders and stalkers and fans, so I rarely bother with any disguise at all. I just go out as me and smile."
Pause. "If I stopped smiling, maybe that would count as a disguise? I'm not sure anyone would recognize me when I'm unhappy."
“Hey, believe me, I'm not judging you at all, I know well the evils of alcohol and the crazy things it can make you do!” Sarah exclaimed, still smiling but even now wanting to facepalm and cringe in embarrassment over that night. “And I think its cute you made yourself into a kitten too so he would not be lonely or feel it was too unfair. So long as you aren't turning people into kittens anymore!” A firm nod in agreement on the ice cream, luckily enough having eaten recently and therefore not wanting it badly after her own suggestion.
“I would recognize you, Ryuuji, don't worry,” she said solemnly, though her expression was still happy. “And wait, you have cheerleaders?”
"That sounds like a story." Ryuuji winked at her, elbowing her lightly in the side, "C'mon. Share. What did the evils of alcohol make you do?"
The question about the cheerleaders made Ryuuji snort, casting her an amused look as he quickly tapped a random key on the keyboard of the laptop, "Yeah. Three of them, actually. Two girls and one cross-dressing guy and no, they weren't my idea at all. They just randomly decided to dress up like cheerleaders and follow me around. And then there are my fanclubs."
He wrinkled his nose at her, "They're crazy. Did I ever tell you about the time that they kidnapped me by knocking out my limo driver and taking his place?"
On the screen, a photo of Montaro and the two girl cheerleaders was displayed, Ryuuji gesturing at it with a quick, impatient wave of his hand. "There. Cheerleaders. Who were good for my ego and bad for my sense of privacy." Pause, then a snicker, "Also good for my sense of style, since I had to make sure that I looked good from every angle what with them watching me from every angle."
“The evils of alcohol made me decide it would be the best idea ever to send notes while I was so completely sloshed I don't even remember what I wrote,” Sarah explained, facepalming then. She really did not want to go into the details of it, mainly because it involved Stephen and some very personal things that she likely would never have said while sober, as well as the Lily-aspect that she would just end up depressed about. “Now I only drink in small quantities, away from parchment and quill and always with Stephen there to make certain I don't make a complete idiot of myself.” Except for that time in Ravenclaw sitting in Stephen's lap when she had not been drunk and he was, but yeah, Ryuuji could probably be spared that too.
She stopped facepalming to look shocked at the limo story and then laugh at the picture of the three cheerleaders. “I can't believe they followed you around dressed as cheerleaders, that's just too funny and a bit shocking. Seriously, though, when were you even allowed to have a private life between cheerleaders and crazy people kidnapping you in your own limo?” She gave him a curiously look, head tipped. Her mother had been relatively famous for an actress and her life had often found its way into papers – sometimes tabloids rather than the news. “As much as I wanted to be an actress, I always thought that part would be hard.” A laugh. “Then again, I doubt I would have had cheerleaders to follow me around!”
"Oh man," The look that Ryuuji gave Sarah was profoundly sympathetic, "There's evidence of your drunken debauchery in the form of notes? That must utterly suck. You can't track them down and burn them -- or was it whatever you wrote in the first place that freaked you out?"
The mention of Stephen being an alcohol suppressant made Ryuuji snort. HAH. This was the man that had mudwrestled in a BATHRUB in the Ravenclaw COMMON ROOM while drunk! Ryuuji liked Stephen very much indeed, but he didn't think much of Stephen's abilities to stop people from doing anything foolish while drunk.
Then again, Ryuuji was hard to talk out of things in general. Part of his charm.
Normally, anyway.
Laughing as well, Ryuuji clicked the picture shut and then gestured around the room, "See this? This is my private life. Or part of it. Whenever the paparazzi can't find me, it usually means that I'm offworld. And as a kid, my father homeschooled me most of the time and we shifted countries often. Plus, most of the hoop-la didn't start up until I started designing games and having them produced since before that, I was just a rich brat who looked good on camera."
With a quick once-over of Sarah, he shrugged and laughed again, the sound blithe and relaxed, "Well, our world is very gaming-centric. Actresses don't inspire the same kind of devotion. What's it like on your world?"
“What I did write was pretty bad, but I'm lucky because they did get burned quite promptly after I sent them,” Sarah explained, shaking her head ruefully. “It actually could have turned out to be a catastrophic mess had I wrote the wrong person. But, apparently my drunken self still possessed a bit of common sense, thank God. I definitely learned my lesson and avoid the brightly colored bottles of alcohol now.” She realized how ridiculous it sounded, but it was the truth as far as she saw it. “Somehow, thought I doubt its always true, the brighter the colors are, the worse it is. But enough about that.”
She listened with interest, pleased that Ryuuji seemed so free about his life. She certainly liked learning,so it made her happy he wanted to share. “We still have paparazzi, and they love to follow any 'famous' people – actresses, actors, sports figures, wealthy people, politicians, you name it – around, but I don't think I've ever seen cheerleaders for anything other than sports, and those cheerleaders are usually part of the team or school, rather than independent fans. I mean, fans do crazy things and so do the paparazzi, but usually famous people have bodyguards and security to avoid being kidnapped or accosted by crazier fans. My mom loves it because she loves to be the center of it all, but I just wanted to do it to act. I imagine that is different from gaming then, as I bet no one in your world became a gamer just to get their picture taken, right?”
"Well, the blue Evil Clown Repellent tastes the worst, and it's probably the brightest." Ryuuji mentioned thoughtfully, tilting his head to a side, "Though the red is pretty bright too, and the green as well, but I like both of those."
A little defensively, he added quickly, "For their Evil Clown Repelling properties, of course. I'm not an alcoholic or anything." That's Mai's job.
The question about gamers and fame made Ryuuji laugh, slanting Sarah an amused look, "I doubt it, but you never know? Mai's in it mostly for the money. You can get prizes of upto one billion dollars for winning a tournament, so it's actually a very good lifestyle if you're in the upper echelons of the gaming world. And the fame just comes along with being good at it, I think. Nobody could seriously be dedicated enough to getting famous to go through all the work of being a top-ranked duellist just for the publicity. That sounds insane to me, even though I guess that money's a good enough motive to put in all that work."
Despite the smile on her face, Sarah nodded solemnly. “Of course it's for the repellent properties, getting sloshed enough to make drunken radio broadcasts is just a terrible side effect.” While she did take the threat seriously, and did not think Ryuuji an alcoholic, she still did find the memory of that broadcast completely hilarious. Enough that her lips twitched at the memory as she smiled at him.
Hers eyes widened at the revelation of how much a gamer could make. “Good God, a billion dollars? You must all be incredibly talented.” She looked at him, puzzled. “And duellist? Is gaming different in your world than what I'm thinking of?” she asked. “I thought you made games, you do other things with them besides just sell them to people?”
"Let's not forget drunk enough to make it rain My Little Ponies onto your friend, or drunk enough to turn another friend into a kitten." Ryuuji wryly added, wincing slightly at the memory but more than good-natured enough to laugh at himself. He kinda deserved it, really, for getting that drunk and then going on air. Gods. Could he have sounded any more bitter?
Sarah's surprise made him blink, his tone slightly confused, "Well, yeah, you play games too. International tournaments are held to find the best duellists -- a duellist is someone who plays Duel Monsters, which is currently the most popular game in my world. You say "Let's Duel!" instead of "Let's Play!", and yeah, I'm pretty sure that the prize purse for the ultimate winner at Duellist Kingdom was two million dollars as well as the title of King of Games, to take a random example. See? You can easily earn a living just by competing in duels and scoring high. Mai's one of the top-ranked gamers worldwise, and--"
Cue a half-laugh, "I'm admittedly as biased as hell, but I also think she's the top female gamer I know, full stop. She's got a lot of versatility, and she supplements her earnings from tournaments by doing modelling work every now and then."
He didn't say it, but the shine to his eyes made it obvious how much he admired her.
“Wait, who did you rain My Little Ponies on, I don't remember that part!” Sarah exclaimed, laughing all over again. The mental image was just too funny not to laugh, and laugh hard at it. “I would have paid to see that, I really would have.”
She noted his confused look and smiled. “I think you are going to have to teach me Duel Monsters, I didn't realize part of gaming was to play the games for money,” she said, looking curious. “Granted, I didn't play many kinds of games in my world in order to know if their were tournaments and such... well, okay, there were poker and euchre tournaments at college but I never learned those.” She grinned. “You are dealing with the gaming inept here when it comes to anything but board games.”
Also noted was his look and how he spoke about Mai. “And Mai sounds amazing, I'd love to meet her sometime. After all, I'm sure we already have liking you in common and who needs a better conversation starter than talking about you?” With that, she grinned and winked.
Shame-faced, Ryuuji admitted, "Victor. Poor guy. I have no idea what inspired it either, it just seemed like a good idea at the time!" Laughing a little, he added, "Good thing Vic's a robot. Otherwise, I could have probably seriously hurt him what with how I managed to make them pile up."
The idea of teaching her Duel Monsters made Ryuuji blink, then laugh again, shaking his head, "You want to learn Duel Monsters, you ask Seto to teach you. He used to be the world champion at Duel Monsters! But yeah, gaming is at least partly financially motivated. Like I said, gamers in my world are like sport stars or actors from other worlds -- the elite of the elite, with the principle that theoretically, anyone can make it to the top as long as they're good enough." Pause. "Not that there's anything wrong with board games. I personally kick ass at Monopoly. And -- dorky as it is to admit -- Scrabble. Especially the polylingual version."
Feigning horror, Ryuuji held both hands to his mouth, "Oh man, you and Mai talking about me? That would be awful! I already warned Terry about her tendency to unabashedly discuss my sex skills with anyone at all. Really, if you talk to her, you'd probably never be able to talk to me again without blushing."
“That's terrible, and I should not laugh, but that mental image is too funny,” Sarah said, giggling around her hand as she tried to stop herself. “and yes, though I want to meet Mai, there are things I never want to know about you Ryuuji, and not because I don't like you, but yes, so I can look you in the face again. My active imagination would never survive a conversation like that.”
That effort to stop laughing now was lost at the mention of Scrabble. “Scrabble is not dorky, but since coming to Hogwarts, it has taken on a whole new level of weird for me.” Still laughing, she explained about the night Stephen had gotten himself inebriated and decided letting other people know they were together was a good idea, so they had ended up playing Scrabble with Homsar and others, using suggestive words while she sat on his lap and Homsar cheated, which had led to pretty much everyone cheating. “He thinks Professor Homsar is a genius, you know,” she said, still giggling though her look was somewhat more serious. She would never mock Stephen's opinion on Homsar because she respected him. If he saw genius, it likely was there. “I really tried my hardest to figure out what the Professor was saying, but I think I only get a little bit of it.”
"Well, at least nobody was hurt!" Ryuuji protested half-heartedly, then wrinkled his nose, "And I think that Stephen might just want to kill me for giving you ideas. Or letting you talk to Mai to get ideas."
Pause. "And that is not in any way an invitation to start talking about what exactly you two do in the bedroom because I really don't need to know in the least."
Not unless Sarah planned on giving him nightmares, which would result in Ryuuji complaining to Stephen. Or trying to. Somehow, he had the feeling that whining, "STEPHEN, I'M TRAUMATIZED BECAUSE I DREAMT ABOUT YOU AND SARAH HAVING SEX!" wouldn't be a smart move to make. Not unless he wanted to get challenged to a duel for imagining Sarah in knee-high leather boots and a dominatrix corset.
Wait. She hadn't even mentioned BDSM. Why was he thinking--
Okay. MIND OFF THAT TRACK, STAT!
...Was sex-Scrabble any better a thing to think about?
Dismissing that, Ryuuji blinked, "Why does he think Homsar's a genius? I've never met the dude, but I think it takes a little more than that to impress me..."
“Girl talk is perfectly acceptable as long as I don't have to associate the ideas with people I know doing them,” Sarah said, laughing, then playfully pushed at his knee. “And I would never, ever talk about that, not to you or anyone else! I'm not like that!” And really, she was not - talking about specific details was more than she would feel comfortable talking to anyone about. She might hint at things if she ever felt like teasing Ryuuji, but that would be as far as she would go.
“Honestly... I don't really know,” she admitted with a touch of embarrassment that she had never bothered to clarify the matter. “I think it has something to do with the Professor actually being very intelligent before this and Stephen knew that, but some botched arithmantic rite made the Professor the way he is now. I know his assistant seemed puzzled by the way Professor Homsar is now, but Stephen is certain the Professor is still very intelligent, only no one is capable of understanding him now.” She grinned at him. “Genius or not, I don't think I'll be able to learn Arithmancy from him!”
"Girl talk is dangerous to the male patriarchy." Ryuuji deadpanned, then stuck his tongue out at her, "Annd oh yeah? Could have fooled me with your seeming insistance on making sure that I know that Stephen's receding hairline doesn't reflect recessions anywhere else."
Did that even make sense? Ryuuji decided not to think about that too closely, instead blinking at her explanation of Homsar and deciding to scratch that entirely. So, he suggested instead, "Hey, how about we play Scrabble before you have to go? We can do just plain English instead of polylingual to make it fairer, if you like." After all, he knew more languages than Sarah did. Allowing him to use all of those would have given him an extremely unfair advantage. Enough that it would have seemed like cheating and winning wasn't any fun if you had to cheat for it.
“I never said anything like that, I just said it wasn't receding,” Sarah protested, eyes dancing. “If your mind is filling in the blanks about why I'm protesting, then so be it. I can't stop you.” Still grinning, she nodded. Playing a game of Scrabble with Ryuuji sounded like it would be great fun. “I'd love to play Scrabble, and we can add French into the mix if you like, I can both read and speak that. I'd offer Spanish too, but I don't know that nearly well enough to count it for Scrabble ability, so perhaps we could just try bilingual?”
"Very well then, Ms. Williams." Ryuuji said with a grin, dropping to a deep, dark, doctor voice. "Let's play... Scrabble."
And they did play... Scrabble.All night long.
Or at least, until Sarah had to leave for her shopping trip with Stephen, leaving Ryuuji with an extra kitten and fond memories... of a good game of Scrabble.
“Doesn't matter, I insist I get to give you a present too!” Sarah said, shaking her head as more laughing hit her. “Oh that is terrible, random people asking you to tattoo them, I think I'd run and hide someplace if someone asked that of me! Though I do think you could well pull off James Bond, I could teach you to shoot if you like,” she said with a grin, once more obviously unaware that Ryuuji definitely did not need the lessons. “and then you can go around the Ravenclaw common room ordering your martinis in a well-tailored suit.”
She laughed, not swatting away his hand as he flicked her, just grinned more. Amused at his preening in an affectionate way, not a mocking way, she assuming a perfected look of stage horror at the comment about teen movies. “You mean you haven't been in a movie?” she asked, and then flailed about exaggeratedly. “Quick, find a director and a producer, we must rectify this terrible, terrible void in the cinema immediately!”
Despite the teasing, the brilliant smile she now wore was completely genuine at his words. “I'm glad too, Ryuuji.”
"Uh, well, if I ever think of anything I need, I'll tell you." Too bad everything Ryuuji really needed weren't the kind of things you could buy as gifts. Sarah's offer to teach him how to shoot made Ryuuji quirk a grin at her, touched by the wholly unnecessary promise, "I have well-tailored suits! But I promised Nightwing I wouldn't get drunk anymore after I turned him into a kitten while drunk, so maybe I should stick to ordering chocolate milk. You think that would be okay?"
Clasping both hands over his heart, he played along easily, "Oh Sarah! You must agree to co-star with me, you must! I cannot think of any lady more skilled at the theatre arts than you -- together, we shall become stars!"
He laughed again, and winked at her, "And then, you'll have to learn how to not run away and hide when crazy fans accost you."
At the mention of turning people into kittens while drunk, Sarah was lost to laughter again, holding her sides. Oh, now that was too much. “You turned him into a kitten? Oh my God,” she got out once she had calmed a bit. “Yes, maybe chocolate milk would be best. I swear, Hogwarts really does make people drink and do bad things. So yes, you can have your milk shaken and not stirred, maybe even as an ice cream float.”
Still grinning, she posed. “We will turn the wizarding world on their ears with our fabulous skills and charisma.” She then mimed putting sunglasses and a hat on. “No no, my friend, I will teach you how to go out in disguise so the masses will not notice you. Because really, big sunglasses and a ballcap? Are completely stylish and just so obviously a good disguise.” She rolled her eyes and then laughed. “Really, you never tried such a lame disguise, did you?”
"I was drunk!" Ryuuji defended himself, laughing sheepishly even as he said that, "And he made a cute kitten. And I turned myself into a kitten as well so that I could play with him so it wasn't massively unfair or anything." The mention of an ice-cream float made his eyes light up, "Yeah! Ice-cream is high on sugar and energy, and therefore much better for you than alcohol is anyway. And it doesn't kill brain cells."
Acknowledging her pose with a quick round of admiring applause, he widened his eyes at her, "Big sunglasses and a ballcap? Why, those disguises are practically genius! In my world, it's considered very rude of celebrity figures to not appreciate their cheerleaders and stalkers and fans, so I rarely bother with any disguise at all. I just go out as me and smile."
Pause. "If I stopped smiling, maybe that would count as a disguise? I'm not sure anyone would recognize me when I'm unhappy."
“Hey, believe me, I'm not judging you at all, I know well the evils of alcohol and the crazy things it can make you do!” Sarah exclaimed, still smiling but even now wanting to facepalm and cringe in embarrassment over that night. “And I think its cute you made yourself into a kitten too so he would not be lonely or feel it was too unfair. So long as you aren't turning people into kittens anymore!” A firm nod in agreement on the ice cream, luckily enough having eaten recently and therefore not wanting it badly after her own suggestion.
“I would recognize you, Ryuuji, don't worry,” she said solemnly, though her expression was still happy. “And wait, you have cheerleaders?”
"That sounds like a story." Ryuuji winked at her, elbowing her lightly in the side, "C'mon. Share. What did the evils of alcohol make you do?"
The question about the cheerleaders made Ryuuji snort, casting her an amused look as he quickly tapped a random key on the keyboard of the laptop, "Yeah. Three of them, actually. Two girls and one cross-dressing guy and no, they weren't my idea at all. They just randomly decided to dress up like cheerleaders and follow me around. And then there are my fanclubs."
He wrinkled his nose at her, "They're crazy. Did I ever tell you about the time that they kidnapped me by knocking out my limo driver and taking his place?"
On the screen, a photo of Montaro and the two girl cheerleaders was displayed, Ryuuji gesturing at it with a quick, impatient wave of his hand. "There. Cheerleaders. Who were good for my ego and bad for my sense of privacy." Pause, then a snicker, "Also good for my sense of style, since I had to make sure that I looked good from every angle what with them watching me from every angle."
“The evils of alcohol made me decide it would be the best idea ever to send notes while I was so completely sloshed I don't even remember what I wrote,” Sarah explained, facepalming then. She really did not want to go into the details of it, mainly because it involved Stephen and some very personal things that she likely would never have said while sober, as well as the Lily-aspect that she would just end up depressed about. “Now I only drink in small quantities, away from parchment and quill and always with Stephen there to make certain I don't make a complete idiot of myself.” Except for that time in Ravenclaw sitting in Stephen's lap when she had not been drunk and he was, but yeah, Ryuuji could probably be spared that too.
She stopped facepalming to look shocked at the limo story and then laugh at the picture of the three cheerleaders. “I can't believe they followed you around dressed as cheerleaders, that's just too funny and a bit shocking. Seriously, though, when were you even allowed to have a private life between cheerleaders and crazy people kidnapping you in your own limo?” She gave him a curiously look, head tipped. Her mother had been relatively famous for an actress and her life had often found its way into papers – sometimes tabloids rather than the news. “As much as I wanted to be an actress, I always thought that part would be hard.” A laugh. “Then again, I doubt I would have had cheerleaders to follow me around!”
"Oh man," The look that Ryuuji gave Sarah was profoundly sympathetic, "There's evidence of your drunken debauchery in the form of notes? That must utterly suck. You can't track them down and burn them -- or was it whatever you wrote in the first place that freaked you out?"
The mention of Stephen being an alcohol suppressant made Ryuuji snort. HAH. This was the man that had mudwrestled in a BATHRUB in the Ravenclaw COMMON ROOM while drunk! Ryuuji liked Stephen very much indeed, but he didn't think much of Stephen's abilities to stop people from doing anything foolish while drunk.
Then again, Ryuuji was hard to talk out of things in general. Part of his charm.
Normally, anyway.
Laughing as well, Ryuuji clicked the picture shut and then gestured around the room, "See this? This is my private life. Or part of it. Whenever the paparazzi can't find me, it usually means that I'm offworld. And as a kid, my father homeschooled me most of the time and we shifted countries often. Plus, most of the hoop-la didn't start up until I started designing games and having them produced since before that, I was just a rich brat who looked good on camera."
With a quick once-over of Sarah, he shrugged and laughed again, the sound blithe and relaxed, "Well, our world is very gaming-centric. Actresses don't inspire the same kind of devotion. What's it like on your world?"
“What I did write was pretty bad, but I'm lucky because they did get burned quite promptly after I sent them,” Sarah explained, shaking her head ruefully. “It actually could have turned out to be a catastrophic mess had I wrote the wrong person. But, apparently my drunken self still possessed a bit of common sense, thank God. I definitely learned my lesson and avoid the brightly colored bottles of alcohol now.” She realized how ridiculous it sounded, but it was the truth as far as she saw it. “Somehow, thought I doubt its always true, the brighter the colors are, the worse it is. But enough about that.”
She listened with interest, pleased that Ryuuji seemed so free about his life. She certainly liked learning,so it made her happy he wanted to share. “We still have paparazzi, and they love to follow any 'famous' people – actresses, actors, sports figures, wealthy people, politicians, you name it – around, but I don't think I've ever seen cheerleaders for anything other than sports, and those cheerleaders are usually part of the team or school, rather than independent fans. I mean, fans do crazy things and so do the paparazzi, but usually famous people have bodyguards and security to avoid being kidnapped or accosted by crazier fans. My mom loves it because she loves to be the center of it all, but I just wanted to do it to act. I imagine that is different from gaming then, as I bet no one in your world became a gamer just to get their picture taken, right?”
"Well, the blue Evil Clown Repellent tastes the worst, and it's probably the brightest." Ryuuji mentioned thoughtfully, tilting his head to a side, "Though the red is pretty bright too, and the green as well, but I like both of those."
A little defensively, he added quickly, "For their Evil Clown Repelling properties, of course. I'm not an alcoholic or anything." That's Mai's job.
The question about gamers and fame made Ryuuji laugh, slanting Sarah an amused look, "I doubt it, but you never know? Mai's in it mostly for the money. You can get prizes of upto one billion dollars for winning a tournament, so it's actually a very good lifestyle if you're in the upper echelons of the gaming world. And the fame just comes along with being good at it, I think. Nobody could seriously be dedicated enough to getting famous to go through all the work of being a top-ranked duellist just for the publicity. That sounds insane to me, even though I guess that money's a good enough motive to put in all that work."
Despite the smile on her face, Sarah nodded solemnly. “Of course it's for the repellent properties, getting sloshed enough to make drunken radio broadcasts is just a terrible side effect.” While she did take the threat seriously, and did not think Ryuuji an alcoholic, she still did find the memory of that broadcast completely hilarious. Enough that her lips twitched at the memory as she smiled at him.
Hers eyes widened at the revelation of how much a gamer could make. “Good God, a billion dollars? You must all be incredibly talented.” She looked at him, puzzled. “And duellist? Is gaming different in your world than what I'm thinking of?” she asked. “I thought you made games, you do other things with them besides just sell them to people?”
"Let's not forget drunk enough to make it rain My Little Ponies onto your friend, or drunk enough to turn another friend into a kitten." Ryuuji wryly added, wincing slightly at the memory but more than good-natured enough to laugh at himself. He kinda deserved it, really, for getting that drunk and then going on air. Gods. Could he have sounded any more bitter?
Sarah's surprise made him blink, his tone slightly confused, "Well, yeah, you play games too. International tournaments are held to find the best duellists -- a duellist is someone who plays Duel Monsters, which is currently the most popular game in my world. You say "Let's Duel!" instead of "Let's Play!", and yeah, I'm pretty sure that the prize purse for the ultimate winner at Duellist Kingdom was two million dollars as well as the title of King of Games, to take a random example. See? You can easily earn a living just by competing in duels and scoring high. Mai's one of the top-ranked gamers worldwise, and--"
Cue a half-laugh, "I'm admittedly as biased as hell, but I also think she's the top female gamer I know, full stop. She's got a lot of versatility, and she supplements her earnings from tournaments by doing modelling work every now and then."
He didn't say it, but the shine to his eyes made it obvious how much he admired her.
“Wait, who did you rain My Little Ponies on, I don't remember that part!” Sarah exclaimed, laughing all over again. The mental image was just too funny not to laugh, and laugh hard at it. “I would have paid to see that, I really would have.”
She noted his confused look and smiled. “I think you are going to have to teach me Duel Monsters, I didn't realize part of gaming was to play the games for money,” she said, looking curious. “Granted, I didn't play many kinds of games in my world in order to know if their were tournaments and such... well, okay, there were poker and euchre tournaments at college but I never learned those.” She grinned. “You are dealing with the gaming inept here when it comes to anything but board games.”
Also noted was his look and how he spoke about Mai. “And Mai sounds amazing, I'd love to meet her sometime. After all, I'm sure we already have liking you in common and who needs a better conversation starter than talking about you?” With that, she grinned and winked.
Shame-faced, Ryuuji admitted, "Victor. Poor guy. I have no idea what inspired it either, it just seemed like a good idea at the time!" Laughing a little, he added, "Good thing Vic's a robot. Otherwise, I could have probably seriously hurt him what with how I managed to make them pile up."
The idea of teaching her Duel Monsters made Ryuuji blink, then laugh again, shaking his head, "You want to learn Duel Monsters, you ask Seto to teach you. He used to be the world champion at Duel Monsters! But yeah, gaming is at least partly financially motivated. Like I said, gamers in my world are like sport stars or actors from other worlds -- the elite of the elite, with the principle that theoretically, anyone can make it to the top as long as they're good enough." Pause. "Not that there's anything wrong with board games. I personally kick ass at Monopoly. And -- dorky as it is to admit -- Scrabble. Especially the polylingual version."
Feigning horror, Ryuuji held both hands to his mouth, "Oh man, you and Mai talking about me? That would be awful! I already warned Terry about her tendency to unabashedly discuss my sex skills with anyone at all. Really, if you talk to her, you'd probably never be able to talk to me again without blushing."
“That's terrible, and I should not laugh, but that mental image is too funny,” Sarah said, giggling around her hand as she tried to stop herself. “and yes, though I want to meet Mai, there are things I never want to know about you Ryuuji, and not because I don't like you, but yes, so I can look you in the face again. My active imagination would never survive a conversation like that.”
That effort to stop laughing now was lost at the mention of Scrabble. “Scrabble is not dorky, but since coming to Hogwarts, it has taken on a whole new level of weird for me.” Still laughing, she explained about the night Stephen had gotten himself inebriated and decided letting other people know they were together was a good idea, so they had ended up playing Scrabble with Homsar and others, using suggestive words while she sat on his lap and Homsar cheated, which had led to pretty much everyone cheating. “He thinks Professor Homsar is a genius, you know,” she said, still giggling though her look was somewhat more serious. She would never mock Stephen's opinion on Homsar because she respected him. If he saw genius, it likely was there. “I really tried my hardest to figure out what the Professor was saying, but I think I only get a little bit of it.”
"Well, at least nobody was hurt!" Ryuuji protested half-heartedly, then wrinkled his nose, "And I think that Stephen might just want to kill me for giving you ideas. Or letting you talk to Mai to get ideas."
Pause. "And that is not in any way an invitation to start talking about what exactly you two do in the bedroom because I really don't need to know in the least."
Not unless Sarah planned on giving him nightmares, which would result in Ryuuji complaining to Stephen. Or trying to. Somehow, he had the feeling that whining, "STEPHEN, I'M TRAUMATIZED BECAUSE I DREAMT ABOUT YOU AND SARAH HAVING SEX!" wouldn't be a smart move to make. Not unless he wanted to get challenged to a duel for imagining Sarah in knee-high leather boots and a dominatrix corset.
Wait. She hadn't even mentioned BDSM. Why was he thinking--
Okay. MIND OFF THAT TRACK, STAT!
...Was sex-Scrabble any better a thing to think about?
Dismissing that, Ryuuji blinked, "Why does he think Homsar's a genius? I've never met the dude, but I think it takes a little more than that to impress me..."
“Girl talk is perfectly acceptable as long as I don't have to associate the ideas with people I know doing them,” Sarah said, laughing, then playfully pushed at his knee. “And I would never, ever talk about that, not to you or anyone else! I'm not like that!” And really, she was not - talking about specific details was more than she would feel comfortable talking to anyone about. She might hint at things if she ever felt like teasing Ryuuji, but that would be as far as she would go.
“Honestly... I don't really know,” she admitted with a touch of embarrassment that she had never bothered to clarify the matter. “I think it has something to do with the Professor actually being very intelligent before this and Stephen knew that, but some botched arithmantic rite made the Professor the way he is now. I know his assistant seemed puzzled by the way Professor Homsar is now, but Stephen is certain the Professor is still very intelligent, only no one is capable of understanding him now.” She grinned at him. “Genius or not, I don't think I'll be able to learn Arithmancy from him!”
"Girl talk is dangerous to the male patriarchy." Ryuuji deadpanned, then stuck his tongue out at her, "Annd oh yeah? Could have fooled me with your seeming insistance on making sure that I know that Stephen's receding hairline doesn't reflect recessions anywhere else."
Did that even make sense? Ryuuji decided not to think about that too closely, instead blinking at her explanation of Homsar and deciding to scratch that entirely. So, he suggested instead, "Hey, how about we play Scrabble before you have to go? We can do just plain English instead of polylingual to make it fairer, if you like." After all, he knew more languages than Sarah did. Allowing him to use all of those would have given him an extremely unfair advantage. Enough that it would have seemed like cheating and winning wasn't any fun if you had to cheat for it.
“I never said anything like that, I just said it wasn't receding,” Sarah protested, eyes dancing. “If your mind is filling in the blanks about why I'm protesting, then so be it. I can't stop you.” Still grinning, she nodded. Playing a game of Scrabble with Ryuuji sounded like it would be great fun. “I'd love to play Scrabble, and we can add French into the mix if you like, I can both read and speak that. I'd offer Spanish too, but I don't know that nearly well enough to count it for Scrabble ability, so perhaps we could just try bilingual?”
"Very well then, Ms. Williams." Ryuuji said with a grin, dropping to a deep, dark, doctor voice. "Let's play... Scrabble."
And they did play... Scrabble.
Or at least, until Sarah had to leave for her shopping trip with Stephen, leaving Ryuuji with an extra kitten and fond memories... of a good game of Scrabble.
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