ArchivedLogs:Aiming High

Aiming High
Dramatis Personae Blink, Scramble	2016-11-03 "I broke a lot of bones learning how to teleport, but I'd have broken a lot more if it weren't for Portal."
Location <NYC> {Madhaus} - Harbor Commons
The apartment is relatively neat, and has a homey feel despite the spare furnishing. Kente cloth tapestries in vibrant colors soften the stark white walls of the common area, and three mismatched geometric rugs cover its floor. The saggy futon is draped in a large Aperture Science blanket and sits across from a flat screen television hooked up to three gaming consoles. The bookshelves are eclectically stocked: sci-fi and fantasy novels rubbing covers with social critique and marine biology texts, bookended by stacks of boardgames and large, glittering geodes. A low, square table surrounded by cushions of in a dizzying variety of shapes and colors serves for a dining area, while the counter bordering the kitchen is usually a genteel clutter of snack foods and condiments (mostly spicy). Blink is sitting not on the futon but in a pile of cushions on the floor beside it, cross-legged, a Playstation 3 controller in her lap. She's dressed in a mauve tunic that reaches her thighs, and loose black pants. On the left half of the tv screen, a blue portal has just bloomed in one wall of an improbably cavernous chamber and her character (unseen from first person POV except for the blue-banded portal gun they hold) hops through it and sails across a chasm toward a pale blue translucent walkway, just barely making it safely. Stretched languid and catlike across half of the futon, Scramble somehow manages to look elegant in a black A-shirt and old, torn jeans. She cradles her own controller in long-fingered hands and has a bottle of beer tucked into the crook of the leg she is half sitting on. "You've spoiled me for this game," she says as her side of the screen whirls around until her character is facing Blink's -- a squat robot with a round central chassis dominated by a single blue optic sensor. "Tried playing it with Dusk the other day, felt clumsy as fuck." Blink blushes and aims another (virtual) portal at the ceiling just on the other side of the half wall blocking their path. "A lot of people think I'm good at these games because of my powers, but I think it's worked the other way around, too. As much, or maybe more." She glances back over her shoulder at her housemate. "I broke a lot of bones learning how to teleport, but I'd have broken a lot more if it weren't for Portal." "So Portal was kind of like your very own Flight Simulator." Scramble nods sagely, takes a long swig of her brew. "You were highly motivated to play it /well/. Just like Chell, really." She plants an orange portal on the floor between their two avatars and promptly walks toward it, falling through and safely landing on the other side of the wall. "You fond of cake, by any chance?" Blink follows suit, and while still mid-air shoots another blue portal through a narrow gap in the architecture ahead. "Basically! In addition to teaching me how not to die, solving the puzzles gave me ideas I might have never had otherwise." She spares a grin at Scramble while she waits for the other player's portal to pair with hers. "I /love/ chocolate cake. My sister made me a Companion Cube cake for my 20th birthday. It was sort of squashed and collapsing and had so much icing it sagged as though it had been partially melted." Her smile grows wider. "Best. Cake. Ever." Scramble takes a long pull at her beer and nods approvingly at the description of Alice's cake. "Heh, that sounds about right. Ambitious, though -- most folks who want bake a cake for Portal fans just go with the /actual/ cake." Her robot avatar pops an orange portal onto the nearest wall and steps through it before immediately opening another one onto the ledge above her, picking up a ball festooned with the Aperture Science logo. "Alice always aims high," Blink says fondly. "Likes to say it's because she knows I'll be there to catch her, but really, she's been like that since before we were sisters." She shoots another portal and emerges on the level above Scramble and accepts the ball her robot offers up, depositing it in a cradle nearby (a friendly jingle plays when she accomplishes this). "Of course, I wouldn't say no to a more /classical/ Portal cake, either. I might even teleport around a test course--" Though here she breaks off, glancing sidelong at Scramble. "Lo siento, I didn't mean like..." But then she shakes her head, trails off, and shoots a portal for her teammate. "...Like Prometheus." Scramble's voice is steady and devoid of anger. "You gotta /say/ it, sister. Humans love to skirt around shit like that, so they don't have to think about mutants being enslaved and tortured. Don't cater to /their/ comfort. Say it loud." After a moment, casually, "And anyway, it's not like Aperture is good modeling for consensual scientific experimentation, either. C'mon, let's beat our own best time." She goes through the portal to re-join Blink and they head upward through this new chamber again, hopping from platform to platform.