{OPEN} Arranging the Pages

Mizo sat down in his desk chair and leaned back with his arms behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. He was a bit tired because he'd spent the better part of the day unpacking. He'd gotten most of his stuff situated there was only a few things left to take care of.
For the moment he though he enjoyed the small breeze that wafted through the open window and out his partially open door. He figured no one would mind if he made a little noise while he unpacked. The semester hadn't started yet so the dorms weren't that full yet. Mizo figured that more students would start arriving over the next week or so. He thought about what his other classmates would be like. Then something else crossed his mind, he was pretty sure he remembered reading about something called the “Partnership Initiative”. He wondered what his partner would be like, would they get along? would they be in his same grade? He was sure he'd find out soon enough.
Breaking away from his thoughts he looked back at his room, two boxes and his keyboard left to set up. Boxes first, keyboard last. Always best for last.

"I really should have labeled these things."

He thought as he opened up one of the two remaining boxes. Lifting the flaps revealed an assortment of neatly wrapped cords, a couple of controllers, several games and his SNES. It immediately reminded him of his Dad, and he wondered how he was. He'd only last seen him just a few days ago but already missed him. He could already tell that it was gonna be hard being across the country from his parents. He returned to the task at hand, no use worrying about the things that can't be helped.
He started to set his SNES up on the shelf attached to his desk, stacking the games next to it. He'd only brought 6 games with him, it was enough though. As he went about hooking up the various cords and setting up the A/V to HDMI adapter that would let him use his computer monitor for his games he hummed the tune to the song "Keep Quiet" by The Protomen. Even just humming it music always put him into his own little world.
Once he had all of the cords situated and hooked up he took a look at the games he'd brought. He picked Super Mario World out of the stack and popped it in to the system. Holding his breath for a second he flipped the power switch to the on position, he then released the breath as the screen flickered for a second before displaying the familiar start screen and the music began to play. Mizo pressed start and looked at the save slots, two of the three were filled. The top one was from his first play through, the one he'd done with his Dad. The second was from his first time beating the game on his own. The third remained empty.

"A new start, A new save."

He said with a smile as he selected the empty file and started a new game. The first level loaded up and he began to play, moving Mario almost in time with the music. He was admittedly a bit distracted and kind of in his gaming zone. People could have been jogging past his room and he most likely wouldn't of noticed.

(Just realized that I forgot a portion of my post when I copy and pasted it. >_< )

While Hawke certainly wasn't jogging, he didn't seem to be noticed either. He'd spent the day lounging in his dorm room, too tired to go outside, he'd mostly browsed the various social networking apps he had installed on his phone and spent an hour or two playing various games on his laptop. The wait seemed to be becoming endless now - he'd only met two people so far, and other than that the school seemed devoid of life. He knew Ellie was skulking around somewhere, but she'd mentioned in a phone call that she'd made a couple of friends; there was no point in dragging her away from them if she was happy.

He'd been tempted to give his sister a call, but before he'd had a chance her status on Skype switched to "offline" - he guessed she was asleep. He wasn't sure of the timezone difference, but he simply assumed she headed off to bed.

Earlier, he'd heard some banging form down the hallway - probably a janitor or something - but then he heard the oddly familiar sound of a Mario game. Unless a janitor was taking a break, Hawke was about to meet one of his neighbours.

Lifting himself off the bed, Hawke strolled down the corridor at a leisurely pace, peering in at the empty dorm rooms as he passed each one. Only a few rooms down he spotted the room he was after - it was clear the boy had been unpacking all day, empty boxes seemed to populate the entire room. Hawke stood there, watching him playing Mario with the single mindedness that only seemed to stem from doing something you enjoy. This led Hawke to wonder what he looked like when playing music.

He shook his head to escape the mire of his thoughts, and called out from the doorframe, "Hey. Got a spare controller?"

Startled by the voice behind him Mizo jumped a little, he'd forgotten that he'd left his door open.
He spun around in his chair to see who was there.
"Whoa, he's kinda tall."
Mizo thought before snapping himself back to the question he'd been asked.

"Uhh...Yeah I'll grab it, sorry you caught me a little off guard there. Always happy to have a player 2. Gotta admit though it's not the best controller."
he said as he pulled his second controller from the box of gaming stuff and removed the Velcro strip from around the cord and plugged it into the console.

"I'm Zee by the way, I'll grab you a seat."
Mizo said as he handed over the second controller that looked well enough like a normal SNES controller bu instead of the familiar Super Nintendo stamp on the top it read CirKA.
Unfolding the stool that he used for his keyboard he set it up next to the computer chair in an optimal two player set up.

"You can sit in the computer chair if you want, you're kinda tall so it might be more comfy for you."
he said as he took a seat on the folding stool.

"You sure?" Hawke said with a smile, moving towards Zee. He took the controller at looked at the design. He smiled to himself, making a mental note that Mizo seemed to be a cheapskate like him. Why pay a premium for something someone else is gonna use, right? Hawke himself had a multitude of knock-off Xbox and Playstation controllers that he reserved for friends.

"Tiberius Hawke." he said, still standing behind the computer chair and extending his hand towards the guy in front of him. "I guess we're gonna be neighbors for our time here."

Hawke moved around to the front of the chair and took a seat, angling himself towards Mizo. It wasn't until he was close up that he noticed the very obvious damage to his eye. Hawke wondered to himself whether Zee was blind in that eye - depth perception would be a pain.

Gnarly.

Tiberius Hawke wrote:"You sure?" Hawke said with a smile, moving towards Zee.

"I'm sure, I sit on this quite a bit any way so it doesn't really bother me."

Tiberius Hawke wrote:"Tiberius Hawke." he said, still standing behind the computer chair and extending his hand towards the guy in front of him. "I guess we're gonna be neighbors for our time here."

Accepting the handshake with a smile Mizo said

"Nice to meet to you Tiberius. Nice to know there's someone else here who enjoys abusing koopas as much as I do."

Once he'd taken a seat Mizo turned to ask a question and caught Hawke looking at his scared eye. He was used to it by now, yeah it still bothered him a bit but he learned to accept it...well mostly. He had to give Hawke credit though, he was being subtle about checking out the scar.

"Admiring my scar? It's alright, most people stare at it. Kinda hard not to with it being so center stage on my face."

"As long as you're sure." Hawke says, as he settles himself down into the comfy computer chair, still feeling a pang of guilt. He checks out the controller in his hands once again, re-familiarising himself with the controls that he hadn't used in many, many years.

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't noticeable." Hawke said with a laugh, then added, "Looks kind of badass, actually. I can just imagine you at 90, with a giant white beard, teaching the 5-Point-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique to a student."

Hawke himself had quite a few scares to show off himself, so felt he was in a position where he could speak frankly with Mizo about his. If he ever wore anything but jeans people would always notice the scars on his leg. The same goes for his chest and abdomen, which were covered in a rich tapestry of angry-looking scars. To put Zee at ease a little, Hawke rolled up the leg of his trousers on his shin to reveal several large scars.

"Snap." He grinned.

Mizo inspected the scars on Hawke's leg, it kinda hit home with him. His own leg wasn't in the best shape but the scars on his own right leg were rather minimal, even more so when compared to Hawke's scars.

"Whoa, those are pretty twisted."

Mizo thought for a second about his follow up before continuing.

"So do you have trouble with your leg? Sorry for asking like that, it's just that I can relate."

he said as he patted his right leg.

"Can't walk all that well." Hawke replied, rolling down his trouser leg. "Got beaten up pretty badly, my leg came out the worst. Permanant ligament and tendon damage. I should be using a walking stick or be on crutches, but I don't like the feel of them."

Hawke didn't seem uncomfortable when talking about the incident as one would probably expect, he treated it very casually and sounded as if he could be talking about the weather.

He nodded towards Mizo's leg and raised his eyebrows, "You?"

"I was...in a bit of an accident when I was younger."

He replied, choosing his words carefully

"As you already noticed my eyes got the worst of the long lasting effects, but I also messed up my leg pretty bad too. There's some permanent nerve damage so I've got a really bad limp. It makes walking harder if I don't work it every day, and I can't really run. After seeing your leg though, I kinda feel bad even calling my leg a problem."

Hawke listened, genuinely interested by Zee's story. He nodded along as he recounted his ailements, and Hawke made the mental note that the pair of them seemed to share a lot in common with their disabilities.

Hawke shrugged when Zee mentioned that he was feeling guilty about complaining about his leg, "Hey, if it troubles you it troubles you. It's not a competition. We're all here for a reason, right?"

Hawke smiled at Zee, hoping that it came across as supportive. "Shall we get started?" He asked, gesturing towards the TV which still displayed the "pause" screen of Super Mario World emblazoned across the display.

"Well when you're right, you're right."

He said with a smile as he un-paused and the familiar music of SMW resumed.
Mizo decided continue the conversation while they played.

"So, aside from being a fan of really good video games what else are you into?"

"I play a lot of music." Hawke said, eyes on the screen as the pair started to work their way through the familiar levels of the classic game, "Guitar, mostly, but I play bass and piano too."

Hawke's eyes wandered from the screen a little as Zee took his turn after Hawke had an unfortunate encounter with a Bullet Bill.

"I see you do too." He said, gesturing towards the keyboard in the corner of the room.

"Oh yeah, it's how I spend most of my free time."

He answered as he narrowly avoided a rather nasty grouping of Koopa Paratroopas.

"It sorta started off as a kind of creative outlet, but now it's one of my favorite things to do. Maybe we should jam some time. It'd be nice to have someone here to play with."

[Sorry for the abnormally long reply time - in the process of moving my entire life to the other end of the country so things are a bit hectic for me at the mo!]

Hawke smiled at Zee, happy to hear that he'd found someone to play with. Music, for Hawke, was best played together. It brought a kind of fraternal spirit that he hadn't quite managed to capture when pursuing his others interests. The feel of making a connection with someone while creating something together held a very special place in his heart. That isn't to say that Hawke didn't enjoy playing alone, though - he spent most of his time in his room experimenting with some new guitar effect or practicing a different instrument on a daily basis.

"That sounds great." He said, voice laced with enthusiasm. "I haven't played with someone for months. I used to be in a band, but..." Hawke trailed off for a couple of seconds, then shrugged and added, "Well, that didn't work out."

{No worries Grimm, I've been in a similar situation before my self.}

"Part of a band huh? That must of been fun. I was a fill in for a guy in a band for about two months, dude got grounded for pulling the old "Cow on the school roof" prank. If you're gonna pull something like that don't paint the words "Winston was here!" on the side of the cow.
But, yeah it was a pretty cool two months. They called them self's "Charge Shot", played a lot of 8-bit era covers. Lucky for them I knew a lot of those songs by heart."

Mizo realized he was rambling a bit as his mind was kinda wandering. Unfortunately he caught himself a bit too late as he took a fire ball to the rear and his character gave the famous Mario death pose and fell off of the bottom of the screen.

"So what was the band you were in called? Wait let me guess, was it....Skyhawk?"

He asked, smiling a little bit too much at his own joke.

[Seeing as activity seems to have picked up again, I guess I should probably finally reply to this...]

An amused grin on his face, Hawke raised his eyebrows and simply said, "Cow on the school roof prank? Can't say there was much of that in London."

Hawke let Zee's question hang in the air for a little while, unsure of how to answer. His silence was filled with the various 8-bit sound effects emanating from the television, before he finally replied, "Didn't really have a name, just played school concerts and stuff."

The subject was a little touchy for Hawke, as his bandmates had all but stopped contacting him following his life-shattering accident. The slight feeling of betrayal still stung, but Hawke tried his best to hide the bubbling emotions frothing below the surface. It wouldn't do to come across as a pensive and moody character to someone he had just met. After all, he was trying to make a new friend here. Instead, he slapped on as convincing a smile as he could.

"Skyhawk would've been rad, though."