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[codexthepriest]

It's been over a week since I found myself on the other side of the island. I'm making progress - I couldn't actually move much for a while, even with crutches, once we all made it back to civilization. I'm pretty sure that's the most walking (running) I've ever done in my entire life, if how sore I was said anything about it. It's a start. The

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[math_boy_eli]

Eli was starting to love this place. He'd gotten changes of clothes and was now wearing a shirt that fit and didn't say "You are here." (He'd always liked that shirt, but man, it got old.) He'd been eating real, recognizable food -- with meat and everything! Plus, there were new people to talk to, fresh air to breathe, a beach to explore...

Oh, and video games to play.

And, he saw as he entered the room, pretty girls who played video games. In fact, that girl looked a lot like... He grinned. It was official: this place was awesome.

"Hey!" He presented himself to her hopefully. "You want a second player?"

[codexthepriest]

I don't actually know what I'm doing in this game. What I can see is that pretty much everything is breakable, and okay, I admit it, it's kind of funny whipping all the random junk on the ground and watching them explode into Lego pieces. I don't consider what it'd look like to other people that I'm playing a game like this until I realize someone actually did take notice. I guess it's lucky he doesn't seem to care.

"Oh! Sure, the extra controller is over in the pile there," I say, shifting so my foot is on the ground instead of on the couch so he can sit. "I don't actually know what I'm doing, though."

Except try to follow the movie. Kind of. It looks like it's starting from the first one, which I've actually seen.

[math_boy_eli]

"Awesome." He happily grabbed the other controller and settled down beside her. "Whatever you're doing, it looks like fun. I've never played this before -- I'm more of a computer guy than a console guy." Partly because they hadn't had the money for the latter, but whatever.

"I've been stuck without any kind of games for the last few months, though, so I'll take what I can get. Besides, who doesn't love Indiana Jones?"

He flashed her a friendly grin. "I'm Eli, by the way. Eli Wallace."

[codexthepriest]

"There's always games down here if you want to play. Harder ones than this," I explain. I guess I could have played any of those, but honestly, I don't think I can deal with anything too engrossing yet. I can't help but "I am, too. But there's no working computers here! None with internet, anyway, and it's driving me a little crazy."

I still miss my game - my guild, too. As strange as they all were, they were probably my longest standing friends I could count on back home.

"Oh, and I'm Cyd," I add, almost as an afterthought, flashing him a smile. Tuning back to the screen, I find myself stepping on a switch on the ground. There was an identical one next to it. "Um, I think the point is we have to work together to get through some of these puzzles."

[math_boy_eli]

So, okay, not Felicia Day sitting next to him - which he'd sort of expected, given the way this place ran towards fictional characters. Instead, she was Cyd from The Guild, which was... pretty much just as awesome.

He pretended, hopefully with success, not to recognize her name. “It's nice to meet you.” He flashed her a smile, then made his little Lego guy run over to the switch. “Hey, cool. Right now, believe me, I'm completely happy with mindless fun.” And this was definitely both, in the best possible way.

Shrugging a little, he said, “I guess the lack of internet makes sense - island in the middle of nowhere, maybe not even on Earth, kind of hard to get a connection. But it still sucks. Is there at least a LAN? If there are at least a few computers, we could get some kind of game going.”

[codexthepriest]

"I know," I concede at the lack of internet point. It's something I've given up on hoping for as long as I'm on the island. It's not like I have a computer here anyway.

"And I don't know. I don't have a computer here," I admit. I'm pretty sure that's a good thing, considering I wouldn't be able to do much on it. It'd just be depressing. "These consoles aren't even mine. Everyone kind of borrows them."

[math_boy_eli]

“Oh. Yeah, no computer for me, either.” He laughed a little. “First time since I was a kid that I don't have one. Even the last few months - I was stuck on a spaceship,” he tells her, shooting her a glance. “We didn't have a lot, but we had technology. The stuff we'd brought with us and the stuff that was there in the ship.”

It was hard to say which he missed more: his macbook, which had the documentary footage, or the kinos themselves. Probably the kinos. They'd become a weird extension of himself - extra eyes floating around the ship.

“Any idea if anyone around here has a video camera?” If the consoles were fair game for anyone to use, maybe a camera would be, too. It wouldn't be a kino, but it'd be something.

[codexthepriest]

"A spaceship?" I ask, raising a brow. I don't know why I always just assume people are from my time, it seems like usually I'm wrong lately. "Wow. When are you from?"

I wish I paid more attention to the kinds of things people have here. I really only know some people have computers and there's obviously these video games here. "And maybe? I know a lot of things have shown up here, so it's pretty possible."

[math_boy_eli]

“2010, actually. I know - spaceship, weird, right? It was this completely unexpected experience. I solved a problem in a video game, actually, one the government had planted hoping someone would solve it. Which, like I said, I did, and they whisked me off to the other side of the galaxy - and from there, out to the far reaches of the universe.”

It occurred to him a little belatedly that maybe he wasn't really supposed to talk about the whole stargate program thing with people who weren't involved. On the other hand, crazy island with fictional characters; the rules probably didn't apply. Maybe he'd talk to Sam or Jack about it, though, just to be sure.

He shrugged a little, concluding a little lamely, “The crazy of it kinda made coming here... not so much of an adjustment. But I've only been here a few days. How long have you been here?”

[codexthepriest]

"Wow," I say, looking surprised. I mean, that's pretty crazy. I wonder if there's something like that where I'm from, too? Probably not my game, though. Most of those quests just involved fetch quests where I'd need to fight animals to get ears or eyes or something like that. It didn't take rocket science. "What kind of video game was it?"

It's sort of hard not to be curious at this point. At his question though, I did answer, "Over a year now. Which, wow, is weird just even saying outloud."

[math_boy_eli]

“MMO. Scifi-ish, not fantasy. It's not huge or anything, but it's addictive. I hated to stop playing.” It was also apparently based largely on the stargate program, but on the heels of his previous thought, he left that unsaid. “I wonder if anyone else has solved the problem by now. Huh.” Not that it mattered, really, but it was a point of pride.

“A year? Wow. You like it here?”

[codexthepriest]

"So was it some kind of quest?" I ask. Okay, it sounds kind of cool, though I'm not sure what I'd do if that ever happened to me. Probably close the door on their faces at the mere suggestion. I'm obviously not cut out for the real life adventure thing.

"Um. It's okay? Sometimes. Kind of scary most of the time," I admit, glancing down at my leg. "I'd like it more if the weird stuff didn't happen so often."

[math_boy_eli]

“Yep. Well, the puzzle was. Actually going off into a spaceship was... more of an adventure than a quest.” He shook his head, remembering what he'd said to Chloe - comparing carrying her through the ship to carrying his pack while climbing a mountain in WoW. “Doing this stuff in real life is both way more exhilarating and way more terrifying than doing it in a game.” Glancing at her again, he added, “But maybe I don't have to tell you that?”

[codexthepriest]

"I'm not really the adventuring type...ever," I admit with an almost embarrassed laugh. It's actually even an understatement putting it that way. "I don't know if you knew this, but people were taken to the dinosaur area not long ago, out of nowhere. I was one of the people taken. It...definitely was absolutely nothing like anything in my game. And my game had an area with a jungle and dinosaurs."

[math_boy_eli]

"Yeah, I can imagine. My game was scifi-y, and I wound up on a spaceship, and yeah -- way different when you can't just quit when it gets too tough or you get tired or whatever."

He frowned. "Back up, though. You said you were taken? Taken how? Like people came and kidnapped you?" How had he not heard about this?

[codexthepriest]

"Not - not really? Which is what was weird," I explain, and it still sounds crazy even if it happened to me. Things like this aren't supposed to happen. "I was in the kitchen eating breakfast and then I...wasn't and in the jungle with other people."