35 Love Chains

[verygassy]

[Its Minako the Paladin!]

GUUUUUUUYS!! This is so AWESOME!! I love RPGS! I am an expert on them!

I mean, seriously, I've got tons of them at home on my and my friends' game consoles - the Final Fantasy games, The Legend of You-Know-Who games, Dragon Warrior, God Slayer, Ultima, Fire Emblem, Riglord, Magic Knight Rayearth...

[She even owns the RPG and games she and her friends are in! Not that she'll say it out loud.]

[Unfortunately, she keeps going.]

...Ys, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Mother, Legend of the Sacred Sword, Lufia, Breath of Fire, The Creation of Heaven and Earth, Dragon Quest, Shining Force, Phantasy Star, Lunar, Shining Force, Vay, Popful Mail, Grandia...hang on, I have a list!

[At this, she takes out a pile of papers and begins to rattle off the games she's played, owned, borrowed, etc. Eventually Cambot gets tired and turns the feed off.]

Comments

[sailorlaughter]

...Legend of the Who? I don't know who!

[verygassy]

Don't worry about it!

[punsofiron]

Finally, somebody else who's played Chrono Trigger!

[verygassy]

I know, right??

I mean, Usagi and Makoto and me played it but the rest of my friends haven't!

[punsofiron]

It's kind of amazing how hard it is to find people in day-to-day life who've played it now, given how it's probably got the most famous soundtrack known to mankind.

[Even Cambot knows it, apparently!]

[liefeldisgod]

[90s Kid, all things considered, looks about the same.]

Legend of....you mean Legend of Ze--

[crafty_punk]

I kinda feel like you're forgettin' somethin'...

[verygassy]

I am?

[crafty_punk]

Yeah. I dunno what, tho'...

[verygassy]

...........Well, then I guess I won't list it?

[crafty_punk]

Guess not. Ah, well.

[thirteenth_brat]

Video games...

[Roxas knows just enough about video games to understand that that's why they've been forced to take turns in battle rather than fighting normally.]

That explains a lot actually.

[optimistickey]

Oh, so this is all some kind of game?

Maybe that explains not being able to move unless it's someone's turn...

Butting in~

[thirteenth_brat]

Sora, with all the weird stuff that's been happening here, are you really that surprised?

Re: Butting in~

[optimistickey]

No, I'm not that surprised! I just wanted to have some idea of why fighting worked that way.

Re: Butting in~

[thirteenth_brat]

Now you know?

But, if this place can forced us to go through things like a video game, who knows what else it could do to us. Some of the things it's already done...

[optimistickey]

Guess so!

At least this isn't so bad! We're prepared to fight the monsters and everything, even if it's not our usual fighting style.

[thirteenth_brat]

I suppose. It's still weird, though.

[optimistickey]

That's for sure!

[thirteenth_brat]

I suppose it's kind of tame next to some of the stuff that's happened.

[Like evil doppelgangers, chaotic chimeras, a living glitch...]

[optimistickey]

Yeah. Just as long as the monsters stay in those weird little dimensions and don't mess with the satellite for real.

[thirteenth_brat]

Are we lucky enough for that?

[optimistickey]

Who knows? Whatever happens, we know we can handle it.

[thirteenth_brat]

You hope. Do you ever consider the possibility of a situation you can't handle?

[optimistickey]

Well...no. What's the point? If I can't handle it, I won't know until I'm in that situation anyway. And then I'll have to think of something else, or my friends will.

[verygassy]

[She watches this conversation, taking it in, before she speaks again.]

You don't believe in a no-win situation?

[optimistickey]

I don't know. But I don't think I believe in a situation where the only option is losing.

[verygassy]

But, suppose you came upon a situation where it turns out that losing is the only option? Sometimes...

sometimes games will have those.

[optimistickey]

I don't know. Lose, I guess? But if it's just a game, then life will go on even if you don't win it.

[verygassy]

True, but...what if it happens in real life?

[optimistickey]

In real life, just because there's no solution now doesn't mean there won't be one that can present itself later. It just doesn't make sense to give up if you lose.

[thirteenth_brat]

And that's a good way to get into trouble and have to be bailed out.

[Granted, Roxas know he's done just that at least once, if not more. But he'd learned from it and he was kind of hoping to maybe, possibly, keep Sora from having to learn the same lesson the hard way. Assuming Sora hadn't already been in such trouble and just hadn't realized what that meant...]

[optimistickey]

Hey! I've been fine so far, haven't I?

[Sure, Sora's learned from some past mistakes, but if he's got to go in to save someone or stop someone bad, it's not like much will stop him.]

[thirteenth_brat]

[Enter face palm.]

Yes, so far. Honestly, Sora, you don't think sometimes.

[optimistickey]

What's to think about? If anything can happen, it's not going to do me much good to imagine out everything, since there's no telling what'll happen. All I can do is try to be ready for whatever it may be.

[thirteenth_brat]

[Roxas knows that part of the reason this even matters to him is some of his training from the Organization. Though it didn't sink in right away, there had been some insistence on being prepared. Sometimes that actually called for just thinking about what might lie ahead and making an educated guess as to what the situation would call for.

He's beginning to wonder how he could possibly have been the mind, body and soul left over after Sora had become a Heartless and not also be just as absurdly short sighted.]

No, you can't. But you can look at the situation at hand and think of the possibilities for that situation and try to be prepared for those possibilities. Sometimes, the possibility might be that there isn't going to be someone there to save you ass if you screw up.

[optimistickey]

[Sora crosses his arms.] Who says I wouldn't do that? I know how to prepare for different situations! And the best thing to do would be to make sure that the possibility of someone not being there to help if I did need it doesn't happen.

[thirteenth_brat]

Seriously, Sora? You can't control that. Not completely. Like it or not, there are going to be situations you can't handle... fights you can't win, arguments you can't smooth over. It seems like you consider every situation but those. You just... charge in expecting that you'll be able to beat anything that gets in your way.

[Heart bro, if you guys were talking in person, Roxas would probably have smacked you upside the head by now.]

You know what? Look at the laser tag game. Do you have any idea how many points I could have gotten off of you if Ven hadn't reigned in some of that thicked-headed blundering? Or the argument you got into with Donald that one time where you crashed that gummi ship? And even when you know you're screwing up or something's wrong, sometimes you charge in anyway.

[optimistickey]

What do you expect me to say? That there's things I can't win? Yeah, that may be true, but what's the point of dwelling on it? Because I might lose, I shouldn't even try?

If it's just a game, then the point's to have fun in it, even if I do lose. And for something more serious...well, sometimes things are important enough that I've got to try even if there's a chance I'll lose.

[thirteenth_brat]

I didn't say that you shouldn't try just on the off chance you'll lose. But I would hope that you wouldn't try to plow ahead anyway in a situation that's very obviously hopeless.

And the point of using the game as an example is that you could have ended up being the one with the worst score. Not to mention you had a team to be concerned with too. What if there had been more on the line than just some humiliation?

[Roxas has a nagging feeling that this lack of foresight Sora's displaying is eventually going to bite him in the ass, hard. It's hard not to worry.]

[optimistickey]

I've never come across a situation that's completely hopeless. Even if it looks like there isn't a solution right away, that doesn't mean there won't be something that presents itself later.

And I don't just plow into things that are obviously going to be bad, anyway! You're acting like I don't think about anything at all. I'm not that dumb!

[thirteenth_brat]

So you won't even consider the possibility of a truly hopeless situation? Just because you've never personally encountered one?

[Roxas supposes he could share a few details with Sora about an unwinnable situation he'd found himself in. He hadn't realized it was that until after the fact, but it is valid to the argument. It might also unnecessarily mean to bring it up, so he passes on that idea.]

Don't you? Seems more like the fact that you do plow into things, whether it's going bad or not, has been used to manipulate you here and there. I didn't say you were dumb, but you can be awfully oblivious sometimes.

[Granted, Roxas has had his own issues in that department, but he's also had a bit of time while kicking around in Sora's heart to think about this stuff. His Cambot chooses now to butt in, playing a wrong answer sound effect. Roxas tries to ignore it, but a small eye twitch gives away that he's not amused by the commentary.]

[optimistickey]

It's not like I don't think they can ever exist. I just don't see the point in worrying about it. The time's better spent trying to find a way out of a hopeless situation.

Manipulate me how? Everything I've gotten into, I've been able to get out okay. Even if it wasn't me, it was my friends that made all the difference.

[thirteenth_brat]

It's... not a hopeless situation if there's a way out.

You know what? Forget it. Now we're talking circles. You're just not going to get it until something happens to force you to understand.

[And Roxas walks away. His Cambot hesitates a bit before cutting the feed.]

[lastresort]

You can't treat it like a game, though, that could get us killed.