Stephen and Maya

[xp-strange.livejournal.com]

Looking for Bas Maya comes across Stephen and offer's him a unique opportunity

The weather felt just like it did at home, cold grey and miserable. While on some subconscious level that made Stephen feel like he was slipping into a pair of comfortable clothes it still didn't make him want to go outside. Instead he retreated to his room, lying in the bed reading was just one of those untold pleasures that you couldn't beat. Having a tub of humus as well was jsut hte cherry on the cake.

Maya had been looking for Bas, but since he wasn't here she knocked on Stephen's door.

"Um, hello?"

"Door's open," Stephen called sitting up in bed scrabbling around for his bookmark. As was bound to happen he knocked over the humus and only the sheerest of luck let him catch the tub before it hit the floor. "Umm, want some Humus?" he asked trying to put a positive spin on the fact that he was lying on the floor, humus in one hand and a book in the other, "It's pretty good."

“Homemade?” Maya asked, offering him a hand up with only a mild grin.

She could have laughed – and frankly she would have had it been anyone else, but Stephen was Bas’s friend and considering she was trying to get with the guy, ticking off his friends would be bad.

"Sadly I'm not that good a chef, store brought," Stephen admitted, "I did warm up the Pita and cut the veg if that counts through," he noted with a self-deprecating smile as he took Maya's, "thanks."

“We can’t all be cooks,” Maya replied, stepping back from him and looking around the room. “What’re you reading?”

She absolutely detested small talk, but frankly, she didn’t know Stephen, and everything else she might have said tended to fall into ‘not very good’ territory in regards to pissing people off. Like, how she didn’t actually give a damn if the Humus was homemade and could this conversation be any more useless?

She forced herself not to fidget with an almost herculean effort as she waited for his answer, maybe she could direct him to something more interesting, like Computer Games, or Star Trek.

Stephen smiled wryly and held up the video game magazine, "I'm trying to to figure out what I should convince Bas and Clea to buy me for my birthday," he admitted with a smile, "I figure if I drop enough hints then maybe they'd figure it out and get me something good."

Jackpot – thank the Great Spirit he was a gaming fan, this might not be quite as painful as she’d though.

“What kind of games are you into?” Maya asked, waving for him to move over so she could sit as well. “RPGs are fun, but I really like FPS games the most. You ever play Halo?”

"Who hasn't?" Stephen asked, "It must be one of the most played games ever. you can't go wrong with a good FPS, though I have to admit I prefer the open world FPS games, GTA or Just Cause. Sometimes it's just fun to drive around causing chaos. Or explosions, lots and lots of explosions, only don't tell Amanda or Tpaz, pretty sure I'd be banned from doing magic." he noted with a conspiratorial grin.

“If a little technology is all it takes to upset them, they probably need a crash course in not being old,” Maya replied, crossing her legs as she sat on his bed. “You ever play Guild Wars 2 or WoW? I tried out SWTOR but it just wasn’t my thing – although I really want to see what Skyrim Online is like. GTA isn’t bad – not a fan of their treatment of women though. I like my FPS’s with being able to play my own gender. So, what kind of magic do you do?”

"Probably more along the lines of if I'm willing to drive over crowds of people in a game what might I do in real life with the ultimate unlimited power...well I don't have anywhere near that but you know my parents are always complaining that it shows what you would do if you could." Stephen shrugged and gave it some thought, "Mostly I can enchant things, kinda like Urza from Magic the gathering." He grinned, "You know, apart from the whole going crazy or being taken over by a dark power thing. What I'd really like to play is a game like Log Horizon, though I've tried SWTOR, it's Star Wars, I mean I had to. I've mostly stuck to single players games though, I love the Final Fantasy games, and X-com."

“That just sounds like a chick tract waiting to happen,” Maya noted with a grin, wriggling her fingers at him in a scary motion. “Dark gaming dungeons made me do it. Watch out they don’t start talking about the internet as a series of tubes. Did you hear about the remake of Final Fantasy 7? ”

"Oh god yeah, people have been crying for that remake for as long as I remember. I hope that it's something like the movie, that was awesome. Maybe a real time combat system like 15? Now that would be the greatest remake ever. Besides, dark caves made me try to shrink a giant cat which ended me up here so it's not like they're entirely wrong." he noted with a grin.

"Maybe they're not completely hopeless," Maya admitted somewhat reluctantly. "The movie was fantastic, especially the scene where he's fighting the big bads. Tifa was always my favourite, what about you?"

"Zack, got to be Zack," Stephen decided, "Not so much a main character in the original game, but after crisis core. He's the guy who lead the way for Cloud in the first place, and after playing the game he's got to be my favorite."

"Good choice," Maya replied with an approving smile, sitting cross-legged at the end of his bed. "So, what did you do for fun before you got dragged here?"

"Oh the usual," Stephen mirrored her pose, offering her the tub of humus, "Mostly football when it was good weather, reading and videogames when it was bad weather. And of course schoolwork, never could seem to get away from that. How about you?"

"Usual for you, maybe," Maya replied but she was smiling when she said it. Her expression became thoughtful, and a little sad - although she'd deny the emotion should someone bring attention to it. "I was a dancer, contemporary for modern stuff but I also did powwow dances with my Grandmother and my Granddad and Dad used to take me hunting when he was home. I never really liked being inside much and when I had to be, I used to spend most of it online or gaming."

"Games are a great way to distract yourself and spend time which you just want to go," Stephen agreed, "That's normally what it was to me, a way to relax and ignore things when my sister started acting up, which," he confided, "was all the time. So dancing huh? That's really cool. I've always wished I could dance but, never really had much luck with it." Stephen gave a wry smile.

"Fool! You just set of the Dancer's curse," Maya replied with ominous finger gestures in his direction. "Mostly that just means I teach you some really basic moves and then sick you on Clea to practice."

"Ahh, but I'm a magician, curses work in mysterious ways with us. How do you know you're not the one afflicted with the curse of having to teach me, the unteachable?" He teased easily, "Many have tried before but fallen victim to the depravity of the curse." continued with a wide grin.

"Weirdo," Maya replied, grabbing a pillow from his bed and giving him a light bap with it. "I think I can chance it, long as you don't mind being taught by someone younger then you."

"I think I can handle that Sensei," Stephen replied with laugh, "As long as you don't try to make me break dance. There is no way the world should be exposed to that."

"You're a white boy, I'll be lucky if I can get you to move your hips," Maya noted but her grin belayed any possibility that she wasn't joking. "No way I'm gonna try getting you into hip hop as well."