Metas Vs. Zombies - Robbie Tags Isaac

[Robbie Wilkes]

Getting stuck with a Math project had Robbie cursing the dude who created Mathematics in the first place. Seriously, who needs numbers? He'd never encountered someone inserting the square root of pi into conversations before. Needless to say, Robbie was pissed. And the rumbling thunder in the distance was clear proof. And his facial expression of course. It was now contorted into something akin to someone experiencing constipation. His mouth was moving as random words started spewing out in varying volumes.

In his right hand, he was clutching the directions to one Raelene Priestly's dorm room while the left had a folder filled with loose paper, a pen and an electronic calculator. Raelene was apparently going to be his tutor for the next four weeks. Compensation was in the form of weekly payment and acting interested in what she said. He wasn't sure how he felt about that but there he was stalking down the stairs to the second floor where room 207 was.

He finally located the room and knocked on the door, which was slightly ajar. He heard faint gun shootings inside and someone yelling at random spurts. After the second knock, he slipped in and tried to figure out which was Raelene's room but to no avail. One of the doors was a crack open and Robbie ventured it. He knocked a few times before pushing the door inwards to find a curly haired boy yelling at his TV where zombies were crawling all over the screen.

Robbie was entranced by the visual as one by one the zombies were shot in the head, the torso, the leg...everywhere. He blinked a couple times before he realised the reason he was there was because he was looking for his tutor so he cleared his throat. "Hey dude? You know if Ray-lean or...um... Rai-lean is around?" Robbie flubbed the name a little.

[Isaac Tilford]

"No, you little...gotcha!" Isaac shouted at his TV, punctuating his jubilation by punching the air with his wireless controller, before gripping it properly again so he could continue his slaughter of the oncoming zombie horde. This time, he was armed just with just the basic shotgun, because he wanted that achievement, and he had to run through the whole game with just the starter weapons.

Was there a reason to be going after this particular achievement? No, but he was on a bit of a completionist streak, since he'd already played through all of the games he'd received for Christmas.

He jumped at the voice, and a particularly nasty zombie seemed to defy the previously-considered-bullshit AI and chomped down on his neck. Well, that was annoying.

With a frown, he paused the game, then looked back over his shoulder at the guy who had talked to him. It was Robert or something--he was younger than him, so they weren't in the same classes or anything--looking for Raelene. "Her room is the one at the end, but I don't think she's around. At least I haven't heard the front door close." Then again, he also didn't hear Robbie come in, so he was unreliable.

[Robbie Wilkes]

"Ah crud." Robbie scuffed his shoe against the wooden tiles to the suite when the other boy explained the situation. He was kind of bummed that he couldn't get this Math thing over with. It just meant he was going to have to dread one more day before he met his dictator of numbers. That was so uncool.

Well, he was already here. Maybe he should wait for her? Really, he had nothing else to do. Plopping himself down on the bed without prior invitation, he scoped the room. Pretty standard, much like his own room. Nothing much to say about it. Just the Xbox 360. And that sewing machine.

...

Not note-worthy. Moving on.

"So," he drawled, playing with his folder clasps as his eyes roamed to the television set where it was paused with the zombie stuck on the boy's neck. "Whatcha playin'?"

[Isaac Tilford]

Isaac had turned his attention back to the game and unpaused, then waited for his character to respawn. He hadn't been too far past the last save point when he'd been interrupted, so it wasn't too much to make up. But the teenager looked sidelong at the other boy, who had apparently volunteered himself as an audience. He leaned back in his desk chair--a nice one, a gift from his parents for his birthday last year--and paused the game again. "It's Red Dawn of the Dead. Came out last year."

He kind of hoped that Robbie wouldn't ask about exactly what he was doing, because playing a game again just to get a random little achievement was kind of excessive. "It's got co-op. You wanna play?"

[Robbie Wilkes]

His aversion for technology did not deter him from being awesome at TV console games so when he was offered to play alongside the older teen at a zombie killing game, Robbie was quick to jump out of the bed nodding.

He was given an extra controller and the game was unpaused. Robbie learned quickly and without having to concentrate too much, he was allowed to have a random conversation with the boy beside him. "So you have lots of games like this? Coz I brought my PS3 over but all I've got are my old games from home. And I don't wanna spend my allowance on games coz I'd much rather use it for food outside and stuff ya know?"

[Isaac Tilford]

How anyone could have an aversion to technology in 2011 perplexed Isaac. There were people who could fly and supercomputers and he could talk to a friend in Israel online before he got out of bed in the morning. They were living in the future. Now all they needed were flying cars.

"You've got a PS3? Sweet." Isaac grinned, thankful that he finally had a co-op partner who appeared to know what he was doing. On occasion, the older boy would rope another friend into playing with him, but a lot of his friends' gaming experience started and ended with the Sims, and maybe Guitar Hero. "I've got more games at home, 'cause I send them back and trade with my cousin. So I don't spend too much on them, but I get twice as many anyway. Or a bit more. He's out of school and has a job and everything, so he buys more than I do. I've only got those ones here." Taking his hand off the controller for only a second, he pointed out a stack of game boxes next to the dresser. It was an unstable-looking tower of twenty or so games, most sent over in the last package from his cousin, Roman. "You can pick out a different game, if you want. I've got the newest Rock Band. Your name's Rob, right?"

[Robbie Wilkes]

If Robbie knew Isaac's thoughts right then, he would have laughed in the boy's face and proceeded to explain his theory on the future. As it were, he was too engrossed in the game to care much about his silly fear.

"A yuh," Robbie replied to Isaac's compliment as his tongue stuck out to the corner of his lips while his thumbs tapped the buttons on the controller. "Totally." He gave the boy a sideways grin. "Oh that's awesome man," he said when he noticed the unsteady stack of games which he planned on bugging the older boy for when he got the chance.

"Aww I suck at Rock Band." He admitted to the boy. It wasn't a shame, really. He just can't do the whole choreographing the button pressing. He didn't mind though. He could actually play some instruments in real life so that was okay. "Well Robbie. But yeah. Rob's okay. I just prefer Robbie. And you're...um...yeah I don't know who you are." He grinned sheepishly as he killed three zombies that were behind the other boy.

[Isaac Tilford]

It's probably a good thing that neither of them were telepaths then, because that argument could last a long time. They were in the future. Electrical technology was here, and was going to stay until everyone became psychics and all interaction happened on the psychic plane.

...Okay, so maybe Isaac had some theories of his own about the future. And maybe they were more than a little influenced by Douglas Adams. But he didn't actually believe in hyper-intelligent shades of the color blue.

"Yeah. He's a doctor, but like a therapist or something, and he's got no life. It's just work and videogames." He really did love his cousin, but when Isaac thinks someone is a total geek, then there was a problem.

"It's not hard once you get used to it. Practice and all that." Isaac had more than his fair share of practice, but he didn't mind if the other boy wanted to play a different game. "Robbie? 'Kay, I'll remember that." Or at least he would try to. He didn't respond to the other bit right away, as frowned when Robbie took out the zombies behind him he'd been setting up for a combo attack bonus. Oh well, the chance would come up again, even if he had to wait for another wave of the undead. "I'm Isaac. I've got like a gas form. Why are you here?"

[Robbie Wilkes]

Robbie laughed as he ran away from a zombie. "How many zombies do we have to kill man?" Robbie asked in good nature. He must have passed about fifty already. "So your cousin's like the younger version of Dr. Sean?" He continued to ask before depositing a bullet into a poorly dressed girl zombie. "And dude, work and video games IS life. What else is there to life than that, uh?"

At the mention of "Practice and all that." Robbie flinched just as he got to a save point. "I guess. I mean I didn't get good at GTA the first try. Kept getting killed before I could move." Then again, Grand Theft Auto didn't actually require too much brain cells to play. Maybe for Robbie it did.

He beamed at Isaac's introduction. "I have a cousin named Isaac. Haven't seen him in awhile. He lives in San Francisco." He shrugged off the random fact. "Wait...gas form? Like...you could literally disappear into thin air?" Robbie didn't even bother pausing as he turned to look at Isaac. "That's pretty cool. Erm, me? I can change the weather. Make it sunny, snow, rain...my specialty is lightning. The others require more from me. You, talk about your gas form!" Robbie was genuinely interested because he'd never heard of anyone with that power.

[Isaac Tilford]

"In theory, we don't have to be killing any of them. What we need to do is head down to the river and cross the bridge, then blow it up afterward. And we've got to break into a warehouse and rescue a dog, I think. It's been a while since I played through this level." Isaac furrowed his brow as he focused on slaughtering the undead. It was great for stress relief. "Yeah, Rome's kinda like that, except he's not psychic. He went to Hammel though. Plant Manipulation. So he has plants and work and videogames." And according to his other cousin, Rome had a girlfriend now, and didn't know what to do with her. It was quite entertaining to hear the stories from the others.

It was rare that someone was interested in his power like that. It wasn't flashy, or even particularly useful, so people tended to ignore it in favor of the more dramatic ones. Stuff like weather control. "Uh...dunno what to say about it." Isaac frowned as he maneuvered his character around to pistol-whip a zombie that was sneaking up on Robbie's character. "It's linked to my heart rate. If I get too excited about something, I dissolve. Unless I'm concentrating on being solid, ten I can usually stick around. You ever struck anyone with your lightning, Zeus?" His question was more curious than anything else. Robbie certainly didn't seem like the kind of guy who would go all Zeus on someone.

[Robbie Wilkes]

Isaac's explanation of the game was listened to intently as Robbie maneuvered his way around about five ugly zombies without managing to kill any of them. He thought that was pretty nifty of him. "Plant manipulation...like he can zombify a dead flower?"

Robbie saw what Isaac did and he thanked the older boy properly. He made his character run ahead to pick up a health pack and ammunition as Isaac explained his power. Robbie nodded understandingly. He was a little bit engrossed in the game to say or do anything else but when Isaac asked about having stricken anyone with lightning, Robbie gulped.

That was why he was in Hammel. It was an easy answer for sure but something held Robbie back. He had hurt that bully a little more than he'd have liked to. Even though the bully deserved payback, getting hit square by a tree trunk was a little too much. He was sent to the hospital and was in a coma for three months.

He blinked long enough to watch his character being bitten by a zombie. "Ah damn." He mumbled. He pressed a few buttons to shake the zombie off but it was too late. He waited as the character respawned and turned to Isaac. "Zeus is my dog's name." He gave a nervous chuckle. "I couldn't bring him over. Miss him a lot." It was a wistful reply but he quickly changed his demeanor with a laugh. "I'm sure he's having fun with Joel, Desi and Mere." He paused to kick a zombie in the groin. "They're my siblings."

[Isaac Tilford]

"Dunno about that. I think he can only work with them if they're actually alive...though he did tell me about giving a girl a flower and making it bloom in her hand, so I guess?" He shrugged, "Kinda amazing that he thought of it. Romy is a dork. But he says it impressed her." And he supposed it made sense; girls like flowers, and it probably looked like a magic trick.

Fortunately for Robbie's discomfort, Isaac didn't notice it at all. And even if he had, he wouldn't have mentioned it. It was just easier to focus on the zombies than the possibility that the other teenager had ever actually zapped someone. Sure, there were some accidents with the kids who were dangerous, like that flaming (literally) stoner.

"Hit X+Y+X and you can do a break-hold." He nodded, and watched as the other character died anyway. Oops. "Good name for a dog. I never had one, because my sister is allergic. We had a bird though. Named her Zelda."

[Robbie Wilkes]

No, Robbie knew close to nothing about flowers. Come to think of it, Robbie knew close to nothing about girls too. But that obviously didn't deter him from trying to get under their skin all the time. And if flowers helped, he should start learning about them. Or at least save up some money to buy some flowers. "That's cool," Robbie nodded absentmindedly.

Robbie laughed when his character had to respawn despite Isaac's guide to break the hold. "Oh, he's a good dog too. He's been with us since he was a puppy. He can do all sorts of tricks and all." He paused before giving Isaac a cursory apologetic grin. "That sucks about their allergies," Robbie didn't know what he would do without Zeus around. If he were allergic even, he'd probably risk it. Stock himself up with all the allergy pills the pharmacy provided. Zeus had been a good friend.

"Zelda? Erm, that's a cartoon character isn't it?" Robbie tilted his head in confusion. He knew nothing of computer games so the name didn't strike him as familiar.

[Isaac Tilford]

"Nah. Well, kinda. There was a Zelda cartoon, but it was terrible and was on in the eighties, so yeah, before our time. You can find clips of it on youtube." Not like there was anything you couldn't find on youtube. Isaac's character ran out of ammo, so he decided to just brawl until he found another ammo pac. With a grin, the teenager lunged forward and grabbed the arm of a zombie, ripping it clean out of the shoulder socket and using it to beat the same zombie down. Luckily, it worked that time. He had about a 50% success rate on that move.

"Legend of Zelda is a videogame series. You know, with Link and Ganon and Hyrule?" He arched his eyebrow at the blond teenager, because seriously, how could anyone make it into their teenage years without at least hearing of the Zelda games?

As he took out another zombie, Isaac finally asked, "So why're you looking for Raelene?"

[Robbie Wilkes]

"Really? In the eighties? That's a...long time ago." Robbie scratched the side of his nose as he watched Isaac kill the zombie in the most unconventional way. He laughed before running away from the zombie that was closing in on him before meeting with his next save point. He hung back to listen to Isaac explaining what Zelda was.

He shook his head slowly before shrugging. "I never played I guess. I usually just stick to like GTA, NFS, Mario Brothers even...you know stuff like that." He nodded at the usual stuff he played. He liked to stick to the classic boring ones that didn't require too much brain usage. He completely missed Isaac's dubious look directed at him before turning to the older boy at his question.

Robbie's gaze averted to his file lying abandoned on Isaac's bed and he hit the heel of his palm to his forehead when he remembered why he was here in the first place. "Oh dang. Yeah...Raelene," he rolled the name on his tongue, getting the feel of it before continuing. "She was supposed to help me with this bogus Math project I have with my project partner. She was highly recommended, apparently." Robbie gave a small sideways grin.

"You...you don't happen to be good at Math...are you?"