Out of This World Gaming [~ read description]

Chapter 22: Software Shock

Meanwhile, during the late morning..

Zerrin descended the stairs with exasperation and spoke while she set her foot on the first floor until she reached the living room couch. 

"Alright, so the bad news is that we lost Satara. The good news is that Iris should wake up soon." Zerrin announced. "What are you watching now?" she continued. "I was hoping this comedy provides us any leads, but I don't have anything." Clover gazed intensely at the screen.

A glitched image of the normal first boot up screen appeared and the normal top and bottom text was blue, jumbled-up code. "Bar codes?! Someone grab a scanner - decode their secrets!" the comedian commentated, much to the bellowing laughter of the audience until some text appeared in the corner. "I take it back - I know too much!"

"So, that's where he is." Zerrin concluded. "Who, Ziazan?" "Yeah. I hate how this comedian can just hurt someone and make jokes about it. Honestly, these jokes are tasteless! The least he could do is treat my brother to some high quality quips." Clover steadily rose her head to get a good look at her roommate's face.

As soon as her peripheral vision glanced at Clover, Zerrin looked downwards into the former's eyes. "He was adopted." Clover wordlessly looked back at the television just as her older roommate lied back on the couch. "Actually he might be related to Iris if you look at his lineage since they're both classified as the same consoleoid." she mused. "Good morning, ladies." a male's voice greeted.

"G'morning, Zucchini." the females greeted without even looking at his fish bowl. "Now that Zerrin's with us, we can get down to business." he continued, and while he squirted water out of his mouth onto the coffee table, Clover could be heard groaning as her palms smothered her face as she leaned forward, and outstretched them on the top of the couch as she threw herself back. "More business? Can't we just give it a rest?" she bemoaned. "The more we rest, the more Ziazan's is likely to be permanent." the catfish noted as he emerged from the puddle on the coffee table's surface.

Clover sighed and thought that enough had to have been enough at some point, but gave in upon accepting that they still had to finish what they were even trying to accomplish in the first place. 

"Fine, but what are we supposed to do? We don't even know where this consoleoid is." Clover lamented.

Clover had a point, if Zerrin didn't know where her adoptive brother was, how would anyone? She momentarily felt lost and useless in this scenario despite trying to look for leads even before she was invited to stay here with her human hosts and consoleoid teammates. Looking for a way to distract herself from inner turmoil, she materialized a game controller for her class of AI. 

"Well, I'm as good as bored. Wanna play a game?" Zerrin offered. "I'm not much of a console gamer, but whaddya got?" Clover asked. "Well, plenty of games. I've got a game where you use a keyboard as a weapon, a game where you skate around vandalizing walls, and even a game where you guide rodents to a space ship using overly simplistic controls!" she ecstatically told her friend. 

"Zerrin, we need to know how to find Ziazan, we can't just stay here and wait for something to happen." Zucchini scolded. "And you expect me to know? I don't know this place any better than the rest of you, okay?" Zerrin retorted. "She's got a point, might as well play some of these built in games." Clover agreed as she took the controller from her roommate's hands. 

Zucchini lowered his head in response to this and turned his body to face the television screen. He could only wonder if Zander and Larkspur were coming up with anything remotely useful. 

. . . . 

"What exactly happened to her?" Zander questioned. "Satara really did a number on her. I can't believe I couldn't help her." Larkspur said while petting the sleeper's forehead as she patched up the wounds in bandages. "But what exactly did she do to Iris?" Zander pressed. "Oh, right. It's easy to forget that consoleoids function like humans, and that means sharing some of their anatomy. We also have pressure points; some are more sensitive than others. Satara just managed to beat her in spots where she could weaken her." the eldest responded.