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[cigsandbeer]

"Too bad; I'm busy with some shit. I'm only calling you back if you're a pretty woman ♥"

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[reformedsinner]

Hakkai, smiling, leaves them to the conversation while he slices vegetables and mixes tempura batter.

[cigsandbeer]

"Actually, yeah. Although she wouldn't show it."

Probably because she made it Monstrous, and Justine realised that Gojyo wouldn't respond well to that. The fact that it was a naked portrait doesn't occur as a factor for Gojyo.

[deuceoftears]

Jedao loves his own monstrous portrait, but has absolutely no idea where to put the damn thing.

"She's very fond of you. I never said, but...I'm glad you forgave her."

[cigsandbeer]

"Eh, we're just--" It's just no-strings-attached sex.

But it's not like Gojyo hasn't taken care of Justine when she was vulnerable, and it's not like Justine didn't comfort Gojyo after Poker Night a week ago. And it's not like Gojyo isn't friends with several of his girls back home.

"...Everyone does dumb shit sometimes. I mean, I'd know." Gojyo does dumb shit all the time. "People here are just prone to extra-dumb shit."

Does that mean Justine was upset enough that Gojyo was angry with her that she told Jedao specifically? He's quite sure their conversation was private, but.

[deuceoftears]

Jedao snoops her private messages, of course; but even if he hadn't, he would certainly consider the way Justine had abused Gojyo's trust to be worthy of some anger.

He laughs a little, ruefully.

"...that's one way to put it, I suppose." Refreshingly egalitarian, even.

[cigsandbeer]

"It's a direct quote from the Admiral: that's precisely how he justifies bringing in all these inmates," Gojyo deadpans.

More seriously, though... He looks up at the ceiling.

"If nobody ever forgave anybody for the stupid shit they did, we'd all be sitting isolated in our rooms staring at the walls all day."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao giggles at the sarcasm, before the laughter strangles a bit abruptly at the second part; he did spend the better part of two years alone in a room, in this room, staring at the walls whenever he failed to sufficiently distract himself.

"Nonetheless, nobody is ever required to forgive...specific betrayals. So I'm grateful for your understanding."

[cigsandbeer]

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Keep in mind she's got a really nice pair of boobs."

They're just about reaching the upper limit of how much Gojyo can stomach compliments about his good character, and he doesn't miss how something in what he said landed wrong for Jedao, so...

"Hakkai said you guys have lots of video games. Which one's the best?"

[deuceoftears]

Jedao makes a properly 8-year-old "uhg, grown-ups being gross" sort of face at the comment about boobs, but lets it pass.

"You realize that's like asking, 'what's the best weapon'? Lots of them are doing different things. What did you like about the one you played?"

[cigsandbeer]

Of course he realises: it was just the first change in topic that came to mind.

"Beating Hakkai at it."

Which is both cheeky and completely true: Gojyo hasn't analysed what he liked best about it, just that it was fun. He shrugs.

"I dunno. That it was fast-paced and that you could try out different things and see what worked". It wasn't just repetitive movements.

"Okay then, better question: what game do you like best and why?"

[deuceoftears]

"I used to like cute puzzle games best. I liked the - you know, aha! feeling when I figured them out. But I've been thinking of giving some of the big epic character-journey games another try."

They used to just make his real life feel lonely and empty by comparison, and most of them had a little too much hexarchate-politics baked into the world assumptions. But maybe he'd appreciate them more for what they do well, now.

"You'd probably like racing games too, let me pull one of those up," he suggests.

[cigsandbeer]

"It's like different movie genres..." Gojyo mutters, a little surprised at the sheer variety.

He does cast a quick glance involuntary glance towards the kitchen-- Argh, he is not a five-year-old who needs 'mom' to 'come with'; stop it, self. Gojyo nods, and follows Jedao to the living room.

[deuceoftears]

"Yeah, exactly," Jedao agrees, although he raises an eyebrow with his own glance toward the kitchen. "Should I go work on a translation project in my study after all?" he asks, although he does start pulling up Kario Dart, the little needlemoth space-racers available to select hovering on the wallscreen.

Based on his voice and body language, it's an actually casual, neutral offer.

[cigsandbeer]

"Oh yeah: Woof, woof. I forgot I'm an easily-spooked feral dog now."

Gojyo plops down in the couch, before clarifying, just in case it wasn't clear already:

"Don't be stupid. Show me how to play."

[deuceoftears]

"Uhhuhn, fuck me for giving you a choice, I guess. This ring track is the tutorial level so you can get a feel for the controls."

It's based on planetary rings: there's a clear path, but also gaps, moons, and twinkling lost treasures.

"The little swivel stick is for steering, and you tilt the whole controller for vertical altitude if you want to try to jump over something or dip below the track. Top button for acceleration, middle for stop, bottom one for grabbing and using the bonus items, they can do stuff like give you a boost or sabotage your opponents."

[cigsandbeer]

Fuck Jedao for giving Gojyo a choice, yes, very much. Gojyo never agreed to the easily-spooked feral dog treatment, so there.

"I don't need any tutorial level. Race me."

[deuceoftears]

"Don't be rude, good tutorials are hard to design," Jedao snips back. That's somebody's very hard work! Or a team of a hundred somebodies, probably, given the prestige of this series. "If you can get to the south pole of the lemon moon -" It's bluish-white, but very much shaped like a lemon - "That's where the level start trigger is."

[cigsandbeer]

"It ain't rude if it's true", Gojyo protests. But since he doesn't want to this to turn into a fight - especially not over something this stupid - he does start the tutorial level, albeit with some grumbling.

[deuceoftears]

"It's rude to the game designers to skip tutorials! It's like showing up late to a play or something," Jedao explains, though he's not terribly heated about it.

"Which is to say, you can skip the tutorial if it's badly designed, because then you're insulting their craft on purpose. But this one is pretty intuitive, I think."

How to be insulting in different cultures! They're learning about each other.

[cigsandbeer]

"People from your world really are weird about games", is Gojyo's conclusion. Who the hell puts any thought into the politics of playing-or-not-playing a freaking tutorial? Weirdos.

He does play through the entire tutorial, all the same. And, again: Gojyo has his weaknesses, but he picks up on the mechanics of the game impressively quickly. By the end of the tutorial, beginner-level though it may be, he's nailing the course. Once it's finished...

"Okay, now race me. Training wheels are off."

[deuceoftears]

"Yeah, that's fair," Jedao agrees, rather than bothering to quibble about the Shuos versus the rest of the Hexarchate. They are weird about it.

Jedao has been doing idle loop-de-loops while Gojyo navigates the tutorial, but the instant he triggers the level start, they're immediately dropped into the race; one of the functions of the tutorial is that if the group is all new players, whoever gets to the lemon moon first is rewarded for their quick learning with the advantage of cutting things short for their opponents. Jedao whoops happily as they start barreling down the space-themed track.

[cigsandbeer]

And this judgement is coming from a guy whose entire found family gets weird and thematically symbolical about games.

Gojyo throws himself into the race with his usual laizzes-faire entusiasm. He's good - impressively good for a complete beginner - but Jedao still likely has him beat in the end.

[deuceoftears]

It's not the kind of game Jedao plays all that often, so Gojyo isn't too far behind, but at least for the first few tracks, Jedao's greater familiarity with video games in general and knowledge of the classics have him comfortably ahead. But there are a lot of levels - all of them with interesting gimmicks and frankly gorgeous graphics - and a fair number of sabotage items meant to target the lead in a multi-player game and keep things interesting. So as they continue level to level, Jedao's lead starts to shrink.

[cigsandbeer]

The longer they play, the more intensively Gojyo's focus becomes. Eventually, several tracks in, he finally beats Jedao - with a slim margin and with help from the sabotage items - and cackles loudly over his victory. He won!!! In the moment, there's absolutely no consideration for the fact that being anything but a gracious winner could jeopardise the fragile peace they've achieved. Gojyo usually has plenty of emotional intelligence, but sometimes... he doesn't (at least it means he hasn't been overthinking this game battle at all).

[reformedsinner]

The smells of simmering broth and frying tempura have been slowly filling the air while Gojyo and Jedao battle it out; Gojyo's victory celebration is the cue for Hakkai to slip in front of both of them and set two bowls of steaming soba piled high with fried shrimp and vegetables on the coffee table.

"I thought we could eat here?" he offers. Yes, it's something he'd usually insist on taking to the proper mealtime table to eat, but the coffee table is just the right height. And both of them seem -- well, both of them seem to be actually comfortable. More or less.

He doesn't want to jinx it.