Nerd 2.0

Who: Tad and Misha
When: Afternoon
Where: Tad's house

Tad was waiting for the younger guy, sitting on the front porch of his house, Diet Coke in hand and headphones on. He wasn’t going to admit that he was outside just in case Jess wandered by, or that cat. Admitting that would sound stupid. It sounded stupid in his head which meant he was keeping it to himself.

Misha was really hoping for something uncomplicated. He wanted to get back to the way he felt before all this happened, before everything crashed. Tad was a nice guy and they had a few shared interests so maybe it would be nice to try and make another friend. Then he couldn't be accused of wallowing. But also, he'd kind of been hoping that Tad would be a friend. From what he knew about the guy, which wasn't much but enough to make a quick decision for Misha, he was worth trying to be a friend to. Tugging his earbuds out of his ear as he walked up, he smiled when he saw him. "Hello," Misha said, voice quiet before he cleared his throat. He needed to talk. He couldn't be the weird kid who asked to hang out but then didn't say anything. “Thanks...for letting me come over.”

Tad glanced up, pushing the headphone back off his head so they sat around his neck. He only wore the bigger ones when he was around the house, opting for earbuds like Misha’s in class and places, but the big ones had the better sound and helped blast away the myriad of thoughts he was going through.”Of course dude,” he said getting up nodding towards the house. “I’ve been trying to get you and your friends to come over for ages. I could use some real competition. The other day I straight up let someone win. Like annihilate me win. I think I’m getting soft.”

At the sight of Tad's headphones, Misha was immediately envious. The sound quality had to be amazing, but something like that was more than impractical in Manchester. He'd never given his earbuds a second thought until he saw Tad's. "Those look nice," He said instantly before he could stop himself. Awkwardly, he followed Tad into the house, wiping his shoes on the mat outside. "Why would you let someone win?" From what he knew about Tad's skills, or expertise rather, was that he would have to let someone win but the question still remained. Why?

“Huh?” Tad said then tugged at his headphones. “Oh yeah, they’re cool. I like them well enough.” At the door he pulled his shoes off leaving them by the door out of habit more than anything else. “Yeah I kept asking myself that same question,” he said rubbing at the back of his neck. “I think it was ‘cause she was a girl.”

Misha followed suit, dropping his shoes at the door too and following Tad up the stairs. The house was nice, something he missed. It looked like something normal, something that he might have even lived in back home. It stung a little, but not as much as Tad's girl comment then. Great. More girls. Girls all the time. Girls and girl problems. He was pretty much sick of it and was kind of hoping he didn't have to talk about girls for a long time. "That was nice of you...to let her win."

“Yeah I have absolutely no idea what came over me. It seems really stupid when I look back at it.” He grinned a little as he pushed open the door to his room, video game set up across from his bed including a ton of consoles and a decent looking television to go with it. “Any idea what you want to play?”

He shrugged a little. Girls made boys do stupid things. He certainly felt fairly stupid now. When the door opened, though, he chose not to talk about girls anymore and just stand in awe of the set up. "Woah..." Padding into the room in his socks, Misha brightened up, beaming a smile by the time he looked back at Tad. "Anything. Everything." This. This was normal. This was what he wanted.

“You pick dude. I got...just about everything.” He saw how wide Misha’s eyes went and that smile, the one that didn’t look like anything he’d seen before. “Or you can play. I can watch. Whatever you want.”

"What? No. Co-op," He said instantly, shaking his head. He was no good at things on his own. He needed help, he needed friends and allies and, besides, it was more fun when you played together. Walking over, he took survey of the consoles and stopping in front of a telltale white one. "This one!" He said instantly, eyes wide. He knew it wasn't the most impressive or maybe even the most serious console Tad had but Misha had always wanted to play the Wii. Manchester's descent into hell had made that fairly impossible but here it was, before him. "Can we?"

Tad reached for a box, pulling it off a shelf, handing it over to the other boy. “You pick the game.” He grinned then grabbed controllers, holding one out to Misha as well. “Have you played before?” It was a rarer console before everything went to shit, but Tad had waited for his, saved up for months and then waited for a long while to get his hands on it.

Misha shook his head a little bit. "Always wanted to. But..never could..." He flicked through the boxes, all the games appearing fun and seemingly easy. But it was the small paper CD case that caught his attention and he hesitantly held it up. "Wii Sports?"

Tad took the disc looking at it. “Um yeah that works.” He popped the disc into the unit then queue up the television. “I don’t think I’ve played this since I bought the thing. Like you know once to remember that I don’t like sports in any way.”

Misha smiled. "I know it's not Mario or Zelda...but it seems fun." Waiting for the disc to start, Misha held the Wiimote in his hand, turning it over a little bit. "I played football...soccer...for a little while." When the warning screen came on to indicate wrapping the strap around your wrist, he made a face. "People actually do that?"

Tad sat on the edge of his bed, not one to stand until he had to. He really did look stupid playing this game. "Soccer? Really? I have...Yeah I've never played sports. Not exactly athletic. You'd totally have me beat there." At the warning screen he laughed, clicking through it. "Seems completely ridiculous, but there were like a million videos on youtube of people launching controllers into televisions, people's heads, windows. It was nuts."

"I wasn't good at it," Misha said with another smile. In fact he was the least athletic person in his quartet of brothers but that didn't mean he didn't try it. "I like football..." Glancing down at the strap, he wondered if he should just so keep Tad's television safe, but he had enough faith in himself to think that he wasn't going to catapult it through his tv. "Maybe they have never played a game in their life...those people. Seems silly." But he mentioned Youtube and Misha's other idea for the day came back up. "Are you still trying to...make the intraweb work for gaming?"

"Maybe. Most of the people who have this system aren't gamers. The real gamers got up in arms, but I am a Zelda guy. If they were coming out with a new Zelda game, I was buying whatever system it came on." Tad grinned then shrugged working through the menus. "And anything sports wise is better than me. I've been trying to run, but I make it about five blocks and I want to die." At Misha's question he looked over and nodded. "Still trying. I can get it to connect, but I'm having some network issues. I think Roxie and I are going to work on it this week."

Misha was full of what felt like good ideas today. He smiled more. "We should run together. I try sometimes to run with Brad but..." Bradley had been spending more time with Hayley and the wound was still fresh. Plus, it seemed like he was more with Tad on the level of what they could and couldn't accomplish, athletics-wise. Bradley had been nice and let him trail along, but Misha didn't want to hold the guy back anymore anyway. "...But he's much better."

Though he didn't know Roxie, he assumed it was the girl that Tad had let win in games and didn't want to bring any girls up at all. "...Can I help?"

Tad watched Misha during the pause about Bradley. He had a guess it had to do with Hayley. They hadn't had a chance to talk talk, but she'd updated him that things were better with her and Bradley. "Well yeah, no use in running with someone who's that much better. Next time you want to go let me know, I'll drag myself out of the house." He grinned a little then nodded. "If you want to help, that'd be great. Roxie's good, but it'd be good for a third opinion. Plus that way I can keep working when she's not off on camping trips with her boyfriend." He rolled his eyes a little even if he liked them as a duo. They worked, much better than most couples he'd seen and especially given how different they seemed to be.

Misha fought a groan. He didn't want to talk about couples or even think about them but now, instead of Roxie and whoever her boyfriend was going camping, he was picturing Hayley and Bradley going camping and it just sucked. It plain sucked. Annoyed with himself, Misha looked back at the television. "I'd like to help." It would be productive and it would keep him away from Hayley and Bradley and anything that was going to make him feel worse. Besides, he liked this kind of thing. He liked being able to have a goal and try to reach it. "Which sport should we play?"

Tad didn't answer right away, making a little bit of a face. "You okay dude?" He was going to go with 'no', but the reason behind it was likely the important part.

Looking back at him, Misha nodded. "I'm fine," He assured, wondering if he'd been less than tactful about keeping his upset to himself. He didn't want to push a potential new friend away just because he couldn't pull himself out of the sheer crap rolling around in his head. "It's nothing."

Tad made a face then shrugged. "Just so long as you're fine then." Kaori wouldn't have let him off that with that kind of answer, but he didn't want to push Misha. Misha was a quiet guy, not much of a talker. Pushing him might very well push him away which was not what he wanted at all. "You pick the sport. I'm not terribly great at all of them." Even if there were trophies for levels completed under every option.

"I'm fine..." Misha replied, not wanting to bog down Tad with stories. Besides, he didn't really know Tad yet and he didn't feel right talking to him about that kind of stuff. Maybe later, maybe another day after they'd spent more time together, but Misha was secretive and quiet and kept to himself most of the time. It just didn't feel right saying it yet. "You have to be good. You played enough to win trophies." Though he picked tennis and readied himself, choosing the goofiest looking Mii that Tad had for his character.

If Misha said he was fine one more time, Tad was going to really not believe him, but he kept that to himself. If he didn't want to talk he didn't have to talk. They were guys, guys didn't usually talk about feelings. Instead he shrugged. "Well yeah. But not great. And I got tired of it really quick." Which meant he'd left it unfinished. It was rare choice, usually preferring to finish the game before quitting.

"What do you play when you play this console?" He asked, smacking an at virtual tennis ball and grinning when it bounced across to Tad's side of the court. This he could do. It was aimless, thoughtless, and none of the Wii people looked like Hayley or Bradley.

Tad swung, watch the ball bounce back on the screen and shrugged. "Love the Zelda game. Mario Galaxy is pretty awesome too. Seemed silly at first, even though, hey it's Mario and he's pretty solid, but it's really cool. All three dimensional and you can turn in different directions, like completely different directions. It's really neat." There were only so many hours he could put into Halo, and the Wii was a good change of pace.

"Different directions? Can we play that next?" That sounded incredible and really confusing at all once, so much so that Misha just needed to see it. As their game of tennis dwindled down, Misha noticed that even if Tad said he wasn't good, he was still up a good amount of points. Enough that by the time it was over, he'd won. "I think you only think you're bad at sports."

Tad glanced at the score as the game ended and shrugged. "Definitely bad at real sports. I have a knack for video games." He was the best at Halo, despite what Scott said. "I think if you actually got me on a real court with a racket, I'd hurt myself." He reached into the box to find the Mario game then switched one out for the other. "You'll like this one. It's really neat."

Misha sat down on the floor, laughing again when they were prompted to attach something called a nunchuck. "Are we ninjas in this?" He asked, grinning a little. Nunchucks, what a ridiculous concept for a video game controller. "No wonder people broke televisions with it."

Tad handed Misha the extra piece to his controller, showing him how to connect it. "I know it seems completely ridiculous, but you get used to it actually. It's different." He grinned a little. "I really should see if I saved some of those videos. They were classic."

"I would love to see them," He said, holding the controller at the ready. When it popped up, he pressed the buttons but stalled at the saved games screen. "..Should I start a new one?” He didn’t feel right playing the 100% completed one under Tad’s name.

Tad looked at it and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. If you want to play it through, start a new one. You can keep coming back and working on it.” It wasn’t exactly a multi player game, but it was fun to at least show Misha how it worked. “Or pick mine and you can just pick random worlds to play. But like any game it’s one of those ones that builds your skills as you go you know?”

So he wouldn't know what was going on anyway and besides, it would be nice to have an excuse to come hang out with Tad more. So he chose a new game in hopes that this would mean he could come hang out with his new friend more often, then geared himself up for the myriad of cutscenes bound to be at the beginning of the game. "Is your favorite game still Halo?"

Tad frowned thinking about that. “Yeah I think so. Really like Uncharted too, but I’m good at first person shooters, so Halo is...the way to go. But anything like that or like Call of Duty? That’s what I usually play. What about you?”

"I like Fable. And Final Fantasy. Games where I can be a mage." He was still working on his skills as a witch, though he'd gotten sidetracked with a lot of outside things. It was probably time to get back with Nic again and try for more spells. "Do you ever play fantasy games?"

“Dude. I play everything,” Tad corrected. “I’ve got all the Final Fantasy games, including the old ones. Fable. There is very little that I haven’t tried.” He grinned proud of his skills. It wasn’t much but it was something he was good at.

"Impressive." He had to wonder if Noelle would like Tad. He thought she might because he had the Wii system and it was something even she'd wanted before everything had gone to hell. He tugged at his sleeve, hoping to keep her bracelet covered because it was a difficult thing to explain, the wearing a girl's plastic bracelet thing. "Favorite platformer?" He asked, looking back at Tad just before he was given control of the game and then he was staring at the screen, virtual Mario running around and around on the screen until he got the controls right.

Tad thought about it for a moment, watching Mario run around on the screen. "Mostly old school stuff. Super Mario 3 for sure. One of the best games, possibly ever. I gotta say though, I liked Sonic a lot too. I've got a Genesis somewhere. It's not hooked up but it's probably in the closet." Without much to play he leaned back, relaxing while talking about things. There hadn't been a chance for it since Porter and even then, Tad was the truer gamer. "You?"

"I like Sonic. It's not classic, but it's fun and he's fast. He has lots of friends, too, which is nice. Mario is pretty solitary." And selfishly, he liked having Tails keep Sonic company in the game. Maybe he read way too much into that game. Ok, so he totally read way too much into that game, but it was still a nice feeling. “Mostly I just like how fast he can run. Wish I could run that fast...Or climb walls like Knuckles.”

"Oh totally. I loved to just see how fast I could blow through levels. Couldn't do that with Mario because he's so slow." He glanced at Misha's profile when the other boy mentioned the fact that sonic had friends. "Maybe that's why I always liked Link, solitary warrior right? All he had a was a fairy?" Tad was always on his own anyway. Not as much anymore, but back when he'd first started gaming that was how it had been.

Misha smiled back at Tad. "But his fairy was a little annoying...Everything else was awesome." He started the first world on his new game, immediately blown away by the controls of the game. It took Misha a good few minutes to even look back at Tad and when he did, he was grinning. "This is amazing..I've never seen...anything like it before."

"I know right? It's nuts," Tad said sitting up a little. "Just wait 'til the later levels. They do things with the original concepts that I didn't think were possible. It's really impressive."

Misha smiled. "Next time, I'll bring some snacks." It was the least he could do, provided that Tad had all the games. He'd make them something delicious so they could sit around and eat and play games and it would be nice. It was what friends did, right?

“I never turn down snacks,” Tad confirmed with a grin. He leaned back again, watching Misha play. It was nice to have another friend, pleased that he was slowly filling up the void that Porter and Kaysen had left behind.