2015-08-03 - It's Just a Game

Leah unlocks the door. She grunts, then boots the door closed. Ignoring the intercom as usual, she packs the PS4 box to the elevator. Normally she's flown in through the window, but the penthouse is hard to miss. Aiming her key at the elevator, she tries to zap it with 'the force'. "Open!" No effect.

With a minor theatrical huff, she pushes the button normally and goes on up to Kara's place. "I brought stuff!"

Kara Zor-El is standing in her place, looking at a huge gift basket, rubbing her head in bewilderment looking at it. "Um... oh... hi Leah." She looks at the gift basket again. "What's a good way to tell a sultan that you don't want to be one of his wives, after you saved his life from a bomb attack?" She pauses. "Maybe this is why superheroes use secret identities." She then shakes her head and looks back at Leah. "Ooh what's that?"

Leah puts down the game machine box on a convenient section of floor, eyes on the gift basket. "I'm afraid my experience with sultans is largely confined to the Prince of Persia series. Which by the way is about fifty percent suck and I'll guide you carefully through if you want to try it someday. Consider superglue. My brothers tell me it puts anyone off.

She wanders over and gives Kara a hug, then says, "It's Sony's most recent contribution to science. Playstation four. Also known as my last paycheque. I come bearing games, but only one of actual interest."

Kara Zor-El peers at the Playstation 4. "Is it like a StarkBox?" she asks curiously as Leah puts down the game box. She looks at the gift basket, then at Leah looking at it. There seems to be all sorts of expensive stuff in it like jewelry and expensive chocolates. "Um... do you want it? He keeps sending them to me." she says, looking at it. "I told him a few times that I have a boyfriend. He said he likes a challenge." She pauses. "Don't really feel like holding him over a volcano and telling him to stop. Seems rude when all he's doing is sending me gifts and asking me to marry him. I wonder if Kal ever has this problem."

She then shakes her head. Then she hugs Leah back. "Wait... superglue?"

"Tell him you have a girlfriend, if he wants a challenge. But most guys I've met probably wouldn't be put off by that...just makes you a bigger challenge to win. Hrm." She snags one of the boxes of candied fruit off the gift box, not realizing it's actually got a ruby pendant in the box. "Superglue. Stick his hands to his desk. My brothers were far younger than their age."

While she's ruminating on the problem, she's starting to open the box. The PS4 box specifically. "If you really want to ruin his opinion of you, hon, just prove that you're smarter than he is. He'll back right off. Help me set this up, we've got zombies to shoot."

Kara Zor-El tilts her head. "So... what, if I solve 5th dimensional differential equations in front of him, he won't be attracted to me anymore?" She then looks out the window, peering. "Zombies?" She turns around. "oh wait um..... you're talking about a game right?" She breathes a sigh of relief. "Fought zombies once. It was so..... yuck." She walks over to Leah and the PS4, and peers at it. "Okay... lets see. Oh this doesnt look too hard to set up." She takes it, brings it over to the 110 inch TV, sets it down, then hooks up the HDMI cable, and plugs in the power. "You don't think he'd already know I'm smarter than him? I mean.... Krypton was pretty far ahead of Earth technologically."

Leah smiles while Kara's talking, even if her bringing in the overly huge tv does make her eyes widen a little. Not too much; after all she's seen Kara pull a tank. A slight giggle as Kara asks the last question. "Oh hon, you're so cute sometimes. I'm sorry. No, he doesn't know it. Even if he did, he doesn't really believe it. It's like the difference between being told that the earth is round and being able to see it from space. You don't feel the impact of the reality unless you actually see it. Or so I'm told."

She tilts her head, then gets back on topic. No space trips today, zombies. "Seriously, men react to having things made real for them. Women, we tend to get things a little faster. You got it all set? Okay, game time!" She flips Kara a copy of The Last Of Us, with a grin. "Single player I'm afraid, so you get to have me heckling and bandying the alcohol."

Kara Zor-El catches the disc. "Oh... The Last of Us. Looks like a war game. With zombies?" She crouches and puts the disc in the game system, then walks back over to Leah and sits by her. "Yeah that's true. About men needing things to be shown to them. I think it took Dedrick a few times to realize that my whole 'armwrestling to settle which movie to see' meant 'we're going to see the movie I want to see.'" She grins as she looks at the controller. "Have you been sleeping okay since you slept here by the way?" Then looks at the game as it goes to the title screen. "Aw... that's nice graphics. Looks like a nature game."

Leah sighs. She reaches for the controller, then starts the opening sequence. Then hands it over. "Bit of a movie at the start, you'll have control soon. I've been sleeping fine actually. Don't know what was wrong with me. Probably stress. That's Joel there." She points when the old man comes on, and Sarah. "I keep forgetting this section because of how awesome the game is." She watches Joel open his watch. Heh. Hardcore drugs.

Kara Zor-El smiles. "Aw.... that's sweet. My dad used to do that to me when I'd come back from camping with Thara and her dad and I was all half asleep). She watches, then widens her eyes when Joel shoots the neighbor. "Oh wow! She's really scared! This is so realistic!" Then she's moving around all over the place while in the car. "Why didn't they stop to get the hitchhikers? They should let you stop to pick up the other family..."

Leah nods. "Careful, we're about to see a whole lot of why. And mind the ...uh yeah, the swearing." She winces a little at the continuous use of the f-word. "I ...um...warning, this gets kinda graphic. Actually very graphic. Be ready to hit buttons." She pulls her feet up, when things start getting active.

Kara Zor-El watches the screen intently. She's really getting drawn into what's happening. "So I play the girl during.. oh Rao that guy in the hospital gown is killing those people!" she says as she blinks. Then watches them trying to get around the RV, then yelps when the car is hit by a truck. The same girl who let a truck hit into her when you first met her. Apparently virtual trucks hitting into her are a lot more scary.

Leah has her eyes wide open, watching the scene unfold. "Run, girl! Nobody knows what's going on, just get to safety!" She's kind of hugging herself, trying not to wince. And she LIKES this game. "Don't think, act! Go gogo!" She crushes a very expensive candied fruit in her hands, already drawn in to the panic that starts at the beginning of the end of humanity. The end of the world. Leah winces. Sarah's hurt.

Kara Zor-El starts mashing the square button. Luckily she doesnt break the whole controller - it would be pretty easy for her to do. Then she eeps again when a 'zombie' attacks. Then sighs with relief, "Tommy saves him! Oh... oh wait now I'm playing Joel?" She watches as he picks up Sarah and starts running while carrying her. "He's a good dad. Oh wow! Look at all this happening! Eeek!" she say as thing start exploding, herding them towards the movie theater, which then explodes and she goes through the alley with Tommy, who's shooting the zombie who tries to kill Joel, then barracading the door with himself while urging Joel to get Sarah to safety. "Oh Rao he's really heroic! He'll be okay right?!" she asks nervously.

Leah has only one eye open at this point. "Wrong way...that way that way..." she motions toward Uncle Tommy. "You can die in this section, really easy, you're almost there," she says, trying to get Kara past the zombies. Zombies. Toward dubious safety. Then they're approaching the military checkpoint. "He'll be...uh...okay..." She squints her other eye a bit. Oh god, I tried to forget this part. Kara Zor-El has Joel run carrying his daughter to safety, with two infected close behind, when they're saved by the soldier. Kara sighs with relief. "Oh Rao, that was so tense! This game is so nervewrac- wait why's he pointing the gun at.... AAUUGH!" she says as the soldier shoots at them, causing Joel to drop Sarah and both roll down the hill, then the soldier holds the gun at Joel, about to shoot him when.... Tommy shoots the soldier in the head. Kara's eyes are glued to the screen, not sure if she should be happy or not. She's happy that Joel and Sarah are okay, but not sure why the soldier tried to kill them. "Tommy!" she says happily as it's shown who saved Joel. Then she pauses as the gurgling, crying sounds of Sarah start and Joel scrambles over to her daughter. Kara actually is teary eyed, shaking her head. "Nooooo.... wait did I do something wrong? Wait .... no no! no she's going to be okay right?" Then blinks again as Sarah dies in Joel's arms and Joel starts crying and holding his dead daughter. There's a crunch sound while Kara's just looking at the screen, mouth hanging. "She died... I thought...."

Leah reaches over and grabs Kara, holding her as tight as she can. Even though she just lost a perfectly good controller. She brought one extra. ...might need to get a few more, this game has a few moments that are probably going to cost another one. "You did it as good as it...I mean...you didn't make any mistakes. That's just...what happened." And the opening screen starts, telling about the 'news' of the beginning of the new world. "You didn't do anything wrong. Sometimes...people die anyway."

Kara Zor-El shakes her head. "But wait... I got away from the zombies. Sarah's supposed to live... If I re-play it can I..." It might be quite a bit harder on Kara than a lot of people, given Kara suffers regularly from survivor guilt and feels bad for not dying on Krypton with her family. And now she's going to play a man who is a survivor with his own type of survivor guilt.

The controller didn't stand a chance in the girl's hands. Hell, it could have been made of titanium, and the only difference would have been the sound it made when Kara's hands tightened around it. Creak instead of crunch. She does look like there are tears though coming from her eyes.

Leah didn't think this through before bringing the game over. She says, "You didn't do it," to Kara, trying to help. This is what she does, every day, actually. At work. "This might not be the best game to have...Kara, look at me." She tries to get Kara's head to turn. Might as well be trying to turn the planet, but her tone of voice has caused stronger people than Kara to react.

"Kara. First thing, game. Just a game. Are we still clear on that? It's a really violent, very scary game, but it isn't real. The world isn't filling with zombies, and nobody is dead."

Kara Zor-El is shaky from playing that. And it was just the intro. She doesnt look at LEah at first, and yeah, her head pretty much is just looking at the screen, trying to process the game in her head. Yep - might as well be trying to alter earth's orbit. Then looks at Leah when she speaks to her. Yep, she has tears, which she wipes away. She nods a little. "Right.. right. Yeah. Sorry..." She takes a deep breath. "Sorry, that's just really emotional and scary."

This is coming from a girl that regularly fights giant monsters, and you once saw her on an news report have a mad scientist fire a railgun. At her face. And she didnt even blink. But yeah - video game ... that gets her shaky.

"Right. Sorry.... Rao, I really must seem stupid huh." She sighs. "I just don't..... I don't like being helpless."

Kara Zor-El says, "Not being able to help people. I hated being helpless."

Leah blinks. She hugs Kara even harder, taking the time. Hugs are important. "I know. I know, totally what it's like to be...helpless. I know." There's something in that statement, she might not even be aware of herself. But right now she's focused on Kara.

When she thinks it's alright, she says, "We gotta stop anyway. For now. Maybe we'll take this one slowly. It's pretty damn real to me too, and I've played it before. Deep breaths. And no, you are not stupid. You're smarter than I am, right now. Because that sucked serious donkey balls, and I should have warned you."

Kara Zor-El nods a little. "I remember what it was like being helpless and not being able to stop it from happening. Kal doesnt always understand how horrible it-..." She smiles a bit when Leah says that last part. "Sorry for breaking the controller. Um.... I'll buy you another one." Then pauses. "I think one of the faberge eggs in that gift basket probably would pay for a few of them."

Like maybe 300 of them.

Leah laughs. For a long time. It's important too. Especially tonight.