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Right after this email is sent, Jamie, Kitty and 'Yana meet for some randomness. Plus lots of multi-leveled conversation.

"Come on, 'Yana," Kitty said, tugging at her roommate's hand. "Little bit of mindlessness is good for you every now and then. And Jamie said he'd come join us. We'll blockade the door and insist that anyone who wants to come in must swear not to start anything, and bring us chocolate."

Illyana grudgingly let herself be led into the room. "Okay, okay," she said. "But I swear, if anyone even mentions the oatmeal I've just been cleaning out of my shoes, I'm going to just lose it."

"See, you haven't figured it out yet, but shopping is supposed to be fun. It's all about affirmation and having people tell you how fantastic you look. This weekend, you and me and the mall." Checking that the room was in fact empty Kitty flipped on the rec room tv and powered on the x-box. "So, mindless fighting games or mindless racing games. Or something else?"

"Something that's not too difficult one-handed? Or I could watch you play," Illyana added after a moment. "I've never really. And could you explain again how shopping's fun? I'm not quite getting the picture."

"Puzzle games, maybe," Kitty said, considering the selection. "Yeah, that will work. And shopping is fun because it's a chance to go out with your best friend, make snide commentary about the state of the fashion industry and who in their right mind would actually wear the stuff they sell, find something that you think would look good on you and try it on and find out that it really _does_ look good on you and then everybody tells you how fantastic you look. Fun." Pulling a puzzle game that wasn't too speed based off the shelf she swapped it into the machine and nodded to the couch.

Well, at least that was logical. She appreciated logic. "Just so long as you show me how it works," Illyana said, sitting on the edge of the couch as though she were nervous. "Electronics are kind of mysterious to me."

Kitty reached down and grabbed two of the controllers, pulling them over to the couch and not tangling them too badly. "Here, the direction control is fairly simple, and for this game you only need the first three buttons on the right to select and go back and so on."

"Are you done talking about the scary mall now?" Jamie asked, poking his head through the door. "It's safe to come in, right? I'm not gonna suddenly find myself buried under shopping bags?"

"Well, I think the shopping shop talk is done, for now," Kitty said. "Come in, grab a controller, and send a you for ice cream."

"Yeah, Kitty's just teaching me to push buttons," Illyana added, somewhat halfheartedly. "Might be a lost cause. Should be good for blackmail in the future, though."

"Woot," Jamie replied, flopping down next to Kitty and using the impact to trigger a dupe, which headed out the door. "What're we playing?"

Kitty pointed at the TV where the game was loading. "Dear boy, I know you can read."

"Yes, but I'm lazy. And going for ice cream. Got any preferences, by the way, you two?" Jamie brightened when he got a better look at the screen. "Hey, this is one of the ones I can still beat Miles at."

"That is because Miles has the cognition skills of a eight year old." Kitty grinned. "I would be worried if he was beating you at every game we owned. And, um, I think we were talking chocolate."

"Chocolate is good," Illyana, who had no intention of eating much, agreed. "Um. Nothing with any kind of breakfast cereal involved."

Jamie grinned. "No oatmeal, gotcha. Anybody else want chocolate syrup on theirs?"

"Nah, that's ok." Kitty quickly flipped through the options on the screen, setting it to the easiest level and slowing the speed and so on.

Illyana just shook her head. Even three weeks later, her concussion kept her appetite at a minimum. "So -- how does this work? Is it like Tetris a bit?" Tetris being the only computer game she knew.

"Well, it's a puzzle game, so it has a bit of everything. There's sections that are tetris-y and other bits that are different. But the whole point is to think your way through solving the puzzles." All in all, it was Kitty's favorite type of game, although she admitted it was less mindless than it could be.

Jamie grinned. "I used to be so good at Tetris. It was a thing of awe. This one can be a lot trickier though." The dupe came back and distributed bowls of ice cream.

"Thanks." Illyana took her ice cream, picking at it somewhat daintily. "I play Tetris in computer class," she added, shrugging. "There's this website. It's more interesting than class."

"Tetris is fun," Kitty admitted, "although I tend to like a little more of a challenge." Taking the ice cream she set it down on the table in front of her and hit start.

"And that is because you are a hopeless geek," Jamie said, saluting Kitty with his spoon. "The object on this level," he added to Illyana, "is you want all the squares the same color."

Illyana pressed a button doubtfully. "Not like that," she said, when the program bleeped loudly at her. "All right then. More like that." The program made a distinctly happier noise. Not that difficult.

Kitty smiled, softly before turning back to Jamie. "Yeah, but the hopeless geek thing works for me, you know. I do it with style."

"We are all three of us oozing with style," Jamie agreed, picking up his own controller and grinning. "And now that you've got the controls figured out, 'Yana, you get to try and turn the squares your color while the two of us are doing the same thing. That's the tricky part."

Oh, competition. I get it," Illyana said. "Okay, we could probably start now. Try not to beat me too much. It's hard on my fragile ego."

"'Yana, my dear, your ego is about as fragile as a mack truck some days." Kitty grinned, fingers working over the buttons. "But you're also quick and clever, so I doubt you'll be taking much of a beating."

"You just need to--ah-ha!" Jamie trapped two of Kitty's squares and smiled sweetly at her. "Just need to get used to the game, that's all. It'll get easier after a while."

Kitty grinned back at Jamie, and two quick flips later it was clear she had been expecting the boy to do that. "He's right, you know. These things just take practice sometimes."

She wasn't doing -too- badly, but she definitely had a ways to go in video game apprenticeship. "Notice how my quick and clever becomes lost and confused in video game land," she said, blinking when squares suddenly became Kitty's.

"That's because you haven't been playing very long. Here, watch this." Jamie managed a neat triple flip around Kitty's squares, clearing a wide space. "And now you can move in there. Competition only gets you so far."

"True enough. Sometimes team work is better," Kitty admitted, watching as more of the squares turned 'Yana's color, trying to think through the results of this change. "It is definitely not the best strategy to go at the world alone with all guns blazing."

"Great, now we're the video game X-Men. I get to be the one backseat driving in the jet."

Kitty giggled. "That's going to lead to some distressing analogies. Let's not go there."

"I dunno, if the silly analogies distract 'Yana from the three different spots she can get me, I'm all for them," Jamie said with a grin.

"Well then you get to decide who or what is the video game Magneto," Kitty said, flipping a few squares to her side but quickly coming to the conclusion that she was out of the running for this level.

"It's probably that bloody buzzer sound every time I try to do something illegal in the game. Obnoxious and unnecessary," Illyana observed.

"No, I think that's Toad," Kitty mused.

"Magneto must be the X-box itself, then," Jamie said, fortifying one of the corners of the board against Illyana's attack. "Because it controls the buzzer."

Illyana stabbed at a button somewhat randomly. "Electronics are always evil anyway," she said with authority.

"That makes the Playstation Mr. Shaw, doesn't it?" Kitty said. "An altogether different sort of evil, and one that involves more robots." Curious, Kitty started doing what she could to weaken Jamie's defenses to see if 'Yana could win the level.

Illyana glanced at Kitty, understanding, then went back to her semi-random approach to the game, based more on pressing buttons a lot and not worrying about the result. With Kitty's help, she was even doing somewhat better.

"And the Gamecube can be the Friends of Humanity? Caught up in the past glories of the franchise?" Jamie scrambled to plug the hole Kitty'd made in his territory, which unfortunately left him wide open if 'Yana saw the chance.

"Which leads to the very distressing question of who or what are Nintendo and Sega."

Illyana moved her cursor towards Jamie's territory, still unclear on the rules of the game but somewhat unsure what else to do. She stabbed at another button. "Mr Wisdom's guys," she suggested.

"God, I really hope they're not that far up the chain of theoretical command," Kitty muttered, providing a few more distractions for Jamie as she furtively watched 'Yana edge into Jamie's areas.

Jamie made a soft urking noise as Illyana grabbed nearly a quarter of his squares in one go. "Nintendo makes the Gamecube. And Sega's pretty much out of business these days, aren't they?"

"They're as far up on the chain of command as I want to see for that particular group," Illyana said, pressing another button and flipping a few more squares.

"Yeah, that's a point." Turning to Jamie, Kitty said, "Wait, I thought Sega corp owned Playstation..."

"Not unless they bought Sony. Did they buy Sony?" Kitty and Illyana between them sliced his territory in half, and Jamie had to laugh. "OK, obviously _you_ two need no lessons in cooperation . . ."

Kitty shrugged. "Um, I don't know? Never really followed the whole thing, so maybe I just got confused." Then she grinned at Jamie. "We also know you and I work well together. I think that makes the three of us collectively a good team."

"Just so long as I can be the backseat driver in the jet," Illyana said, deadpan.

"Depends," Jamie replied, as the last of his squares crumbled. "You gonna mess with the radio station and tell me I'm flying too fast?"

"That's my job," Kitty said, closing off the last of the squares and firmly setting herself into second place. "She's the _back_ seat driver. I'm the passenger side driver."

"I'll just point out relevant birds not to hit and tell you to go faster," Illyana added.

"I think this is a plan." Kitty grinned.

"Sounds like one to me." Jamie flipped through the game menus again. "Another round, ladies?"