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[postictal]

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[postictal]

Which of them is better for beginners?

[Maybe they should've invested in a cat toy or two. Or a cardboard box for Archie to play in. Cats fucking love cardboard boxes, right? They climb in them, bite them, roll all over them. That's just basic cat knowledge. They love cardboard boxes.]

I mean, as long as you don't get angry that I'm probably gonna fuck this up a bunch.

[His hand-eye coordination is...passable, he supposes. He has no idea how musical reflexes might translate to video games.]

Is he gonna pull the plug on us or anything like that?

[burntvideocassette]

[Tim has a...very good point there. He stands up again, setting his own controller back on the chair.]

Hey.

[He bends down, making an odd, whispering noise in an attempt to get Archie's attention. Pss-pss-pss. God knows why it works, but it does, and Archie's eyes are now on him, even if his claws are on the controller cord.]

[He could head back to the closet to get some kind of cat toy, maybe even a bag of treats, but this is easier. He reaches for the pile of napkins on the table, wadding one up in a ball.]

[Certain that he's got Archie's attention, he tosses it. Archie drops the cables and scuttles after it.]

[Jay settles back into his chair.]

He's...he likes to chase stuff.

[Back to the matter at hand, at least for the moment.]

[As long as you don't get angry.]

[He'd scoff, like that's not even a possibility, but honestly...he knows it's a possibility. Nearly five years on the road, plus one in Wonderland, have made him...twitchy. But he's not gonna let it happen. He's not gonna get pissed off at Tim because he's bad at video games. That'd be stupid.]

I guess...like, the camera follows Sonic, so I guess, maybe...I dunno, you can start with him and see how it goes.

[postictal]

If you say so.

[He's still mostly watching Archie, surprise, surprise. The animal in the room makes for a more compelling distraction than the pixellated figures on the screen, brightly-colored as they are, but he eventually manages to tear himself away from Archie's endeavors to reduce some napkins to shredded tissue paper, and picks up the controller.]

[The weight is strange and unfamiliar in his hands. Lighter than he thought it would be. It really is just...weirdly molded plastic.]

He's supposed to be a...hedgehog. Right?

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay's full attention is on the screen, but behind him, Archie's dug his front paws into the napkin ball and is kicking at it furiously with his back feet. He's disemboweling the napkin. Truly, a mighty hunter.]

'Supposed to' being the operative word, I guess. Words. The nineties were weird.

[Still, this means Tim has actually heard of Sonic before, which means Jay isn't entirely starting from nothing.]

I got the options set, so, uh, just press the...the button on the right there, with "Start" on it. That should...start. Might have to switch controllers if it gives you Tails.

[postictal]

...all right.

[He doesn't know half this jargon, but he suspects he's going to have to learn. This is what "birthdays," apparently, are: learning to play as pixellated hedgehogs and listen to irritating soundbytes as they clip through levels on occasion.]

[It's still a better birthday than he can ever remember having.]

[That counts for something.]