Log dump II.
<> Living Room - Lv1
Despite the rich Victorian reds of the walls and the dark colour of the hardwood half-panelling, large floor to ceiling windows brighten the room into something warm and inviting. Several couches are present here: two face a large TV set, along with an armchair or two for individuals, while the others form conversation circles in other corners, complete with coffee and end tables. Against the walls are tall and leafy plants. Fake or not? It's hard to tell. Exits leading away from here lead to either the great hall or the hallway, or even the classroom, and the central unifying feature of the room is a large fieldstone fireplace, both elegant and cozy.
[Exits : [H]allway ]
[Players : Alyssa]
The living room is dark, save for the flickering blazes of light that come from the TV. Alyssa is curled up on one of the couches facing the screen, a remote in one hand and a two-liter of Mountain Dew in the other. The picture changes with a press of her thumb, and she gnaws on the end of one of her braids. There has got to be /something/ worth watching on!
As of something perhaps out of a bad horror movie, a silhouette moves into the doorway and onward into the room. Shuffling steps carry the figure forward toward the side of the couch, where Jareth stands silently for several moments. In time, he makes a dismissive flop of a hand toward the TV. "It's Friday night. Won't be crap showing."
"Says you," Alyssa grumbles, and flaps her braid at him. "/Fine/. No movies, I make my own entertainment." She hits one button on the remote -- video mode -- and then sets it down on the arm of the couch. Uncurling from her seat, she settles her bottle of soda on the ground, and then gets to her feet. "D'you wanna watch me play Xenogears, Final Fantasy Seven, or pick a DVD?" she asks over her shoulder.
The hand lifts again to perform the same dismissive raise and flop, toward Alyssa now. Jareth ambles around the side of the couch and sprawls gracelessly onto it, legs stretched out and feet left to fall limply sideways. "Ah, I don't know. Can I put smiley faces on characters in any of them?"
Alyssa rolls her eyes at turns back to look at Jareth, hands on her hips. "You are /so/ obnoxious. Come on, for real now -- games or a movie?" She turns back to the DVDs on the shelf, then reaches out to snap one up. "/Or/ movie about a game?" She waggles the box. FFVII:AC.
Great indignity and laborious effort decorate Jareth's hoisting of himself back off the couch. The same shambling steps continue on his way to look over the options. Before examining them, he reaches over to snap the elastic of Alyssa's waistband, proferring a stuck-out tongue. "Xenogears is good."
Alyssa squawks as Jareth snaps her elastic, batting ineffectually at his hand. "/Hey/." But Advent Children is put back on the shelf for another day, and she digs a battered PlayStation -- the original, mind you -- out of a nearby cabinet. She tucks it under her arm and gathers the cables as well, then sighs at the TV, and the DVD player already set up. Then sets down the boxy machine, and starts unplugging the 'player.
Little perturbed by the squawk to outward indication, Jareth returns to the couch as soon as the gesture is made. He does not do so without first lightly poking at Alyssa's stomach, however. He flops back onto the couch with no more grace than before, there to sit and observe. "Are you far into the game?"
"Er. I actually haven't played it in a while -- but I'm in this prison thing? And I have to like, go beat crap up underground." Alyssa flounders, her head and one arm stuck behind the TV while the other hand gropes for the correct cord to plug in. She grabs it, eventually, and after a few muttered curses everything's plugged in. She slaps the top of the PlayStation, and it oblidgingly pops open -- she fishes the correct disk out of the case, deposits it in the waiting space, and closes the lid. Hitting the 'on' button, Aly starts unwinding the controller as she backs up -- and then flops onto the couch, halfway sprawled out, halfway in Jareth's lap, since he was so unwise as to take up the entirety of the thing.
With hands evenly split between lap and neighboring armrest, Jareth settles into content and silent observation. His fingers slowly drum, now and then on his lap, now and then the armrest. Only abrupt reaction and movement saves one hand from imprisonment between bodies as Alyssa in turn settles herself. Jareth casts her a quick and odd look, then a playful prod to the side, and finally turns his attention to the TV.
Alyssa squirms around a bit until she's comfortable -- with her back against the armrest and her feet taking up space along the length of the couch, and the majority of her her curled up in Jareth's lap, facing the TV. She fiddles with buttons, calling up her game, then flaps her hand at the one poking at her side. "/You're/ the one who wanted to watch me play a video game," she teases.
Only a continued poking, of precisely equal playful force (or small amount thereof), gives acknowledgement to this protestation. Jareth makes a small noise of faux annoyance. "No one told me the job description included being a chair." The poking hand relents to instead briefly scratch through Alyssa's hair. "Go on. Play. Be merry."
Alyssa's little avatar trundles around, guided by her hands on the controller. Eventually she finds what she's looking for, and he goes down a little ladder, and the screen dissolves into a new location. Sewer! In the meantime, Alyssa leans into Jareth's hand with a murmured sigh. "You know, if you rub my shoulder -- well, my neck and shoulder -- riiiight below where your hand is on my head, it'd be awesome." Fight music starts, and Aly hits combinations of buttons. xxxo. xxxo^. And so on.
No smiley faces appear, to the dignity of anyone onscreen. Jareth proves satisfied enough to watch, if thrown off long enough for a moment of quizzical glance. Even so, his hand moves from hair to base of neck and resumes motion, kneading into the skin there at the junction of neck and shoulder. "What next? Charm your way into my will and make off with all but a few dimes?"
oox. ooo^. "Mmm," Alyssa murmurs, sighing contentedly. Her avatar does not die. YAY. "Mm," she repeats, then laughs. "I dunno. What's in it for me if I do, and what'd I have to do to get in it, huh?" She shifts slightly, curling up a little coser while at the same time moving more of her weight so it's supported by her shoulders against the couch, rather than her hips against his.
The hand continues its kneading, left on some half-automatic rhythm. Jareth makes a thoughtful little sound. "I suppose there are various ways. Do you do windows?" A faint smirk curls his mouth. "Depends if you really want all the geeky crap I've got lying around." He ventures the hand elsewhere to tickle along her back just for a fleeting moment, then returns to the ministrations at her neck and shoulder.
The game is paused for a moment -- just a moment -- long enough for Alyssa to let go of the controller and snake her arm around Jareth's neck. It's awkward for a moment, until she squiggles around and sits up a little higher -- but once she does she hugs him and kisses his cheek with a grin. "I dunno," she says brightly, "I've got a lot of geeky crap, too. You got geeky crap I don't?" It's a moment more before she reclaims her arm, but she doesn't go back to leaning on the arm of the couch -- she curls up with her head on his shoulder, and unpauses the game.
Only brief the awkward embrace may be, but long enough to tug Jareth a touch down and diagonal. He straightens with a touch of reflexive gratitude, and a moment later a smile surprised but warm. "I dunno. You got books on electronics projects for the evil genius?" Another smile, light and mischievous, pirouettes across his face. While he settles his attention on the game, this easier now than the adjoining head on his shoulder, he not entirely consciously returns to an absent scratching of Alyssa's head.
Alyssa plays video games. Alyssa and Jareth are still goofy.
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Pirates!