cat planet cat planet cat planet

[Espi]

Gwen was jolted back into reality. Jarred, she shook her head. "Oh, sorry! I was just thinking about a thing." It was a silly explanation, but she figured it was close enough.

"So it has non-animal things, too? Neat. I might look into that at some point." Honestly, Gwen doubted it, but maybe she'd look it up if she had a chance. Gwen wasn't big on video games, but whatever. By the way, sea angels are these cute little mollusks. They live in water and eat other little mollusks. I've hard people love 'em in Japan."

Gwen looked back to Owen, letting her picture slip away so she could focus on reality. "So what other kinds of video games do you play? Fire Emblem, Pokémon, and other things like them?"

[Pippi]

Well. That was an, uh... interesting explanation for why Gwen had been spacing out. A broad grin appeared on Owen's face as he realised that Gwen was currently heavily reminding him of Raocow. The mild spacing out, the calling of things... 'things', the generally friendly and cheerful nature... it was a little surreal, really. But also pretty neat. But also a reference Owen would have to keep to himself. No point in confusing Gwen with minor internet celebrities.

"Things are good." Owen nodded as he spoke. "I too often get distracted by things." This was all too true. Owen's mother had called him a space cadet many a time, and his old History teacher had had to talk to him about falling asleep in class a couple of times. It hadn't been his fa-Okay, no, it had been entirely his fault for staying up so late.

"So, little cannibal molluscs, eh?" Owen mused. "That, uh, doesn't sound very angel like to me. Pretty cool, though. I've always been fascinated by, like, sea life and stuff. Somehow managed to develop a fear of stonefish, despite living nowhere near them, but whatever."

Owen thought for a couple of seconds on how best to answer Gwen's question. There was quite an extensive list, really, and he wasn't going to list off every single game or even genre of game he liked. He didn't even know if Gwen liked video games or not, so going on for ages about them wouldn't be a good way to increase their friendship.

"Yeah, mostly RPGs and strategy games like that." Owen responded. "Golden Sun, Age of Empires, that sorta thing. I've played, like, one Final Fantasy game. And of course there's Mario, and Metroid and all that. Only played on Zelda game, though. Currently I'm playing this game called Virtue's Last Reward. It's, uh... it's really good... yeah..." Owen trailed off lamely, feeling a familiar heat in his cheeks. Rambling mode had been activated inadvertently. Ah well. What was the worst that could happen?

[Espi]

Gwen had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. She heard Golden Sun and then everything just sort of...stopped making sense.

Still, she did her best listening to him, trying to pay attention while simultaneously trying to not get so distracted by something she understood, like that daffodil over their that was really pretty and she wished she could sketch it but Owen was done so now she had to talk.

"That's, uh, that's a lot of games." Gwen said scratching the back of her head. She wished they had some kind of antiperspirant shampoo or something, but that probably didn't exist. She looked at Owen, mentally preparing herself for a bomb of words.

"So what exactly is an RPG? Like, a rocket-propelled grenade-based game or something?" It was a joke, but Gwen wasn't sure if it came off as funny; it seemed to serious. She laughed. "Uh, yeah, bad joke. Sorry. Question still applies, though!"

[Pippi]

Owen's face fell a little as he realised that Gwen had hardly understood a word of what he'd just said. In hindsight, he probably shoulda expected as much. He had rambled, and rambled about a specialist subject that he knew Gwen knew little about. God, he felt like a prat. And a little disheartened as well, seeing as very little of what he'd said had sunk in.

Gwen then asked something, and Owen simply stared at her, trying to work out what on Earth she had meant. Rocket-Propelled Grenade game? What was she-And then the penny dropped, and Owen's confused look swiftly turned into one of bemusement. He shook his head, grinning all the while.

"You know, I could judge you for that," Owen said, looking back at Gwen. "But I am the master of bad puns. Any opportunity for a pun, and I'm there. Anyway, uh, no. No, I don't think that's what it stands for. In fact, I don't think I've played an RPG with an RPG in it. Missed opportunity if you ask me. RPG stands for Role Playing Game. They're, uh... well, don't wanna ramble again..." Owen grimaced, and then carried on.

"You know Final Fantasy? Turn based combat, all that? That's basically it. Yeah."

[Espi]

"I see." Gwen didn't, not really. Turn based combat? Sounded...odd. Like, how do you take turns killing each other? Whatever.

Gwen checked her watch suddenly. She'd thought she'd have time to sketch, but this conversation, though pleasant, was taking a good amount of time. It was unfortunate, but she'd have to leave quickly to get home in time to have some free time before working on some homework.

"Hey, Owen, it was nice talking to you, but I gotta go. I'll see you at school, 'kay?" She smiled, giggled at her
unexpected pun, and then she walked back the way she came.

Hopefully when she got home she'd have time to do some proper art.

[[Gwen O'Connor's story continues elsewhere]]

[Pippi]

Gwen still didn't really seem to get RPGs, or turn based combat for that matter. Ah well. You couldn't convert everyone to a video game fan. Not that Owen had done, actually. He'd persuaded someone to watch Rooster Teeth before, but nothing else.

And now it seemed as though it was time to go. Gwen was leaving now, giggling a little as she did so. Owen waved goodbye, not quite sure what was so funny, until Gwen was halfway gone and he played her words back in his head. He shook his head, sighed whilst smiling, then cupped his hands to his mouth.

"Boooo! That pun was not O-Kay!" Countering a pun with another pun. Beautiful. Owen smiled to himself, and idly spun the ball on his finger again. The day hadn't gone the way he'd expected, but that wasn't a bad thing. Getting to know new people, or people he vaguely knew better, was always good.

As if to counterbalance all the good vibes going on, the football slipped off Owen's finger and bounded away in the direction of the exit. Shaking his head again, Owen stuck his hands in his pockets and idly followed it towards home.

((Owen Kay continued elsewhere))