Survival Of The Fittest

She was being worked out of the conversation, and this was not the most pleasing moment of Edith's day. Sure, first world problems and all that, but why not toss Owen in a minefield as a third world solution. All she could do was listen to them talk about Golden Sun, and she started to slowly fade them out until Owen asked to sit with them. God damn it She snapped in her mind as she took a bit of her sandwich. All the things she wanted to do, and Edith decided to shrug.

Oh, but Owen would pay for this. Somehow, someway he'd be minding his own business and Edith would sneak up on him, and swallow Owen in one bite. Spending all of eternity in Edith's belly, with all of the other annoying kids in this school.

Deciding to steer the conversation towards something she could be a part of Edith said,

"So, are you guys going to get Kingdoms of Amalur? I've had my eye on it for awhile."

"Ah, well, Golden Sun always has had above average music, so I can't really say anything bad about that." Annabelle conceded as she listened to Owen's response. There wasn't anything really extreme in it, so she couldn't really find anything to really turn this into a huge debate. Then again, it wasn't exactly a hot topic and she could see that Edith was getting a little bit irritated. She didn't have any clue what to do about that, but then Owen asked whether or not he could eat with them.

Annabelle certainly didn't have a problem with it, so she simply nodded and said, "Sure, go ahead."

She was beginning to regret having eaten so early. It didn't feel right to be the only person with a finished lunch lying to the side. She decided to push it out of her mind as Edith brought up Kingdoms of Amalur. With a big grin on her face, she turned to look at the other girl as she gave a vigorous nod. "Definitely! I mean, I've only played the demo so far, but it's been so much fun. I mean, the character customization isn't as in-depth as Oblivion or Skyrim, but come on, who needs all those options? The opening was great and the battle system definitely is smooth. I already placed a pre-order on it at Gamestop and I can't wait to finally pick it up. If I'm absent the next day, it's probably because I got sick staying up too late playing it~"

Owen was sincerely glad that Annabelle was happy for him to sit with her and Edith; the lunch room was pretty much literally full by now, and Owen was glad he'd found a seat with people he could happily talk to. Well, person he could talk to would have been a better description. Edith hadn't said anything since the whole Golden Sun thing, and didn't seem in the best of moods. Whatever. If she didn't want me to sit here, she'd say something, right? Right. Good-o.

However, as Owen placed his tray on the table (Oh how he regretted leaving the home-made lunch back at home now) and took his seat, Edith did say something, something about a thing called "Kingdoms of Amalur" or something? Owen had no idea what that was. He guessed it was a game, though, or something like that.

Annabelle's answer confirmed Owen's guesses; it was indeed a game, something along the lines of The Elder Scrolls games. That… didn't really help Owen much. He didn't actually own Oblivion or Skyrim, although he had played the latter at a friend's house. Owen realised that he had inadvertently tilted his head slightly out of confusion, and hastily straightened it up, listening to Annabelle speak.

Man, Anna, you sure can say a hell of a lot about a small subject…

Owen grinned at her last comment. Although he had never gotten sick from staying up too late playing video games, he had, at some point, been playing a combination of Sin and Punishment and Castlevania, and found it had suddenly become pretty late in the morning. When he was sure that Annabelle had finished speaking, Owen spoke up. "Uh… sorry if I seem stupid and all, but… I've never actually heard of Kingdom of… Amawhatever before. What's it like?"

Edith listened to Anna display her excitement, and laughed when she said that she would be up all night playing it.

"I know what you mean. I reserved it a few weeks ago myself, so I'll be up a while." Then Owen asked about it. Great, he's some kind of hipster gamer. Rolling her eyes, Edith was going to explain to him impatiently when she remembered.

She was going to study with some other friends for lunch, and she completely flaked on them.

"Oh shit," She said, collecting her things. "Sorry guys, I just remembered that I had to meet someone today." Great, now she was going to convince them she forgot and wasn't being a total bitch. Ugh, great note to leave. Before walking away Edith looked at them and said,

"I'll see you later, Owen. I look forward to meeting you tomorrow, Anna." Walking away, Edith chided herself for being so forgetful.

((Edith West continued elsewhere))

'He's never heard of it before? Does he not own a PS3 or doesn't go to the PSN or doesn't read a gaming magazine? I mean, admittedly, a lot of the magazines aren't exactly that good, but they at least cover new releases.' Annabelle couldn't help but looked shocked at Owen as he replied to her...overeager rant about the game. She was about to say something when Edith spoke up, mentioning the fact that she had to go meet someone. Anna winced and gave her a small wave and a smile as she replied, "Sure, I'll see you tomorrow."

She turned her attention back to Owen, jokingly wagging a finger in his direction as she said, "As for Kingdoms of Amalur, I'm surprised you haven't heard about it. I don't know if it has a lot of advertising or something, but I found about it thanks to my Game Informer subscription. Something like that. Anyway, I downloaded the demo on the PSN, so I can tell you a bit about it. It's a high-fantasy setting with humans, gnomes, elves, dark elves, that sort of thing. It's a real-time exploration RPG that's sort of like D&D, I guess. There aren't really stats and things, but instead you invest points in like...I guess you could say disciplines that conform to the three archetypes: warrior, wizard, and thief."

She paused for a moment before smiling apologetically. "Sorry if I ramble on. When it comes to games I like, I can't just seem to stop talking about it. ...Then again, when it comes to games I hate, I can't stop talking about how much they suck so maybe it's just me..."

For a moment, it looked as if Edith was about to say something about Owen never having heard of Kingdom of Arnoldschwarzenegger, or whatever. But after rolling her eyes, she suddenly jumped up, collecting her stuff, saying something about having to meet up with someone. Owen couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. She didn't seem to be exactly enjoying the conversation, and Owen couldn't help but feel as if Edith was just making up some excuse.

Ah, whatever, give her the befit of the doubt. Not like I've never done that before.

Owen gave her a quick nod, and a "See ya", before he saw Annabelle wagging her finger at him. As she launched into her speech, he briefly entertained the thought of actually eating his lunch. It was getting less and less appetizing by the second, however, and again Owen wished he hadn't left his lunch back at home. So instead of eating, Owen listened intently to Annabelle. Apparently the game was a pretty big thing, but it was also on the PS3. That would explain why I've never heard of it, then.

Annabelle went on to describe what the game itself was like. Something like D&D, which Owen had never been interested in, although his friend Johnny had tried to get him to play it back in England. Still, the game sounded genuinely interesting to Owen. Too bad I've got no way of playing it…

Owen broke into a grin as Annabelle apologised for rambling. "Nah, don't worry about it" he said, before taking a sip from the bottle of water that he, thankfully, had remembered to bring. "Least the stuff you're talking about's interesting. Yeah, that game does sound interesting. But I guess I never heard of it cause I don't actually have a PS3 right now. Used to have one, but it broke down and we never bothered to replace it."

Absentmindedly, Owen placed his right hand against his neck, and pushed, causing the bones in his fingers to make a cracking noise. It was something he often did, occasionally to freak out friends who found it disgusting, but this time he'd simply done it out of habit. "Ah, shit, sorry. Hope that didn't freak you out too much. Most people don't exactly find that sorta thing normal…"

(OOC: Wow I am so late with this.)

"Ah, eh, well...I guess it's kind of strange, but it's nothing really freaky, you know?" Annabelle replied after Owen began cracking his neck. It was definitely odd, that was for sure, and she had no desire to try to see whether or not she could do it herself. "I mean, I cracked my knuckles from time to time. I heard it was bad for you or something, but it's kind of habitual. It always helps when my fingers feel stiff so...I dunno, I just keep doing it out of habit."

"Anyway, sucks to hear about your PS3. Was it one of those old models that got that uh...yellow light problem? Whatever it was. Well either way, that's kind of a shame. I'm sure you'd enjoy Amalur. Heh, maybe if you get a part-time job in the future, you can save up your paycheck for a new one." She said with a slight grin.

"But anyway, that's enough from me. Why don't you tell me about what games you like? It feels kind of bad just talking about what I know, so it's cool if you want to gush about some game you really enjoyed."

To Owen's relief, Annabelle seemed okay with him cracking his knuckles and such. He was pretty sure he'd inadvertently do it some more. He'd actually been yelled at and even slapped for doing it in front of people who hated it, so he was glad he didn't have to worry about that this time.

Annabelle kept on talking, and seemed as if she was leading into a ramble, which Owen was pretty much prepared for by now. She quickly went from topic to topic, from the cause of Owen's dead PS3 to getting a part time job and then to what games Owen was currently playing. Owen was slightly stunned for a moment, formulating answers for all of the topics in his head, that then managed to mix together to form an incoherent mess of thoughts. Okaay, so, should I start with the first thing? But it'd be kinda awkward to lead into that. I guess just answer the video games question first then take it from there.

Owen put on a look of mock thought, whilst stroking the small amount of hair currently on his chin, which was more than slightly unnecessary. There were several games he was currently playing that he really enjoyed; the only problem was actually choosing one. He'd recently got back into Monster Hunter Tri, but really hadn't gotten too far, and he'd been pretty hooked on Rhythm Paradise-or Heaven, whatever-so he could always talk about that. But…

"Right, okay then, there is one game that I've become seriously addicted to. It's, uh, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, for the DS. You heard of it? It's like a mix of, uh…" At this, Owen waved his hand around, searching for the right words. "Yeah, it's a mix of tower defence, puzzle and RPG. That's probably the best description. It's kinda old and made by an unknown company, but it's seriously addictive. You've got five different factions, and you play as each of them during the main campaign. Each faction has a different leader, with an unlockable leader for each, and each faction also has unique normal, champion and elite units: So, uh, for instance, Haven has the Swordmaster as one of their elite units, which basically inflicts a poison status on the other leader, whilst the Necropolis has the, uh, Reaper, I think? Anyway, an elite unit that can instantly kill anything in it's path."

"The basic aim is, you have a bunch of normal units, with a couple of champion and elite units thrown in too. There are three normal units, and three different colours for each faction, so each type of normal unit is one of those colours. You have to match three of each colour in a column to, like, make it attack the enemy. If you match them in a row, you create a wall, which lessens the damage done by the enemy. Anyway, you probably don't really want a tutorial on the game, so I'll just say this; it is seriously addictive. And fun, too. There are just so many different strategies you can apply to it. It gets pretty hard too, which I appreciate, seeing as one of my other favourite games is Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. So, uh, yeah… that's what I've been playing lately…"

Oh wow, that was pretty much the lamest finish ever. But jeez, didn't actually think I could gush so much about a game! Go me, I guess. Owen pushed a forkful of suspicious looking matter around his plate before speaking up again. "Sorry, I kinda assumed you hadn't heard about the game there. So if you have, I kinda rambled on pointlessly, not like that's a new thing."

Annabelle listened politely as Owen began talking about one of the games he had enjoyed. It wasn't something she recognized and she inwardly promised herself to try to see it the next time she asked her parents to take her to the mall. It sounded interesting, at least, although she wasn't too into the handheld games. Still, Owen seemed to be really into it and his enthusiasm for it seemed genuine (and a little bit charming), so she kept her smile as the boy awkwardly finished his explanation.

She waved off his concern, responding with, "Don't worry about it. I ramble on a lot about games so it'd be hypocritical of me to get angry at others for talking about what they like. I hadn't heard about the game either, so it was nice to get a full explanation about it. I might try to find it the next time I go to Gamestop or something. I'm not really much of a handheld game player, but if I manage to find it, I'll be sure to give it some time to see if I like it."

She looked down at her half-empty tray of cold food and wondered just how much time she had spent here talking with others. Time certainly did fly when you were having fun, even if that fun was just chatting about video games. She took a glance at her watch and frowned. "Ah...sorry, Owen, I need to get ready for my next class."

She got to her feet and started packing her things, sliding her notebook inside of her backpack. She grabbed a hold of her tray and was about to leave when a stray thought ran through her mind. 'I hope he doesn't think I'm leaving because of him or something. Should I say something? It'd be really weird to go 'I'm not leaving because of you!' or something like that, wouldn't it?'

Instead, she flashed him a brief smile and said, "It was nice chatting with you. Maybe another time."

With that little worry taken care of (she hoped), she quickly dumped the rest of her food in a nearby trash can and left the cafeteria.

((Annabelle Summers continued elsewhere.))

Much to Owen's relief, Annabelle hadn't heard of Clash of Heroes, so his rambling hadn't been entirely pointless after all. Thank God. That'd have been pretty awkward if she did own it. Although she'd probably have said something, wouldn't she?

Annabelle said she would look for the game next time she went to Gamestop, which was a Good Plan in Owen's book. No matter how good the game was, there was only so much challenge the AI could bring, especially after Owen had beaten the game three or four times. The only other opposition was Noel, and he was, to put it bluntly, horrendously bad. Still, Owen had a niggling doubt in his mind that Annabelle wouldn't actually be able to find the game. It wasn't new, after all, and it wasn't the most mainstream of games.

Oh wow, way to sound like a hipster Owen! Least that was in your mind this time. And hell, least she's interested in the game. Most time you gush about Fire Emblem the other person either doesn't care or doesn't like it…

Owen returned from his thoughts to see Annabelle check her watch, before she excused herself and started to pack her things away. This showed one of the upsides of being ever so slightly naïve, as Owen was; Owen didn't suspect for a second that she might just be making excuses to get away from him, which thankfully wasn't the case here. He simply said "No problems. I guess I should probably get going too, huh?"

Owen looked at his now pretty much inedible lunch as Annabelle got up to leave, smiling at her and replying "Yeah, hopefully." As she left, Owen prodded the "food" with his fork. Nope. Nothing salvageable there. He knew he probably should have eaten something, but hey, he occasionally did that at home sometimes; get into such a large conversation he'd neglect his food.

Owen picked up his tray, dumping his food into a bin. He could live without lunch for a day. He'd just have to survive the constant feeling of hunger until he got home, as well as the inevitable jokes Amy would make about how he was too fat for today's lunch or something. Ah well. Such was life.

((Owen Kay continued in This One Time At Band Camp))