Return to Equestria

by David Silver

46 - Infatuation Situation

Joy headed into the kitchen. "No reason to chat over an empty stomach. I'm cooking tonight."

Gerome looked around, picking the sofa that they used for gaming to perch himself. "You don't have to."

"Yes I do." She rattled about the kitchen. "I'm hungry. David's hungry. I'm cooking. You are a happy accident, so enjoy."

David flumped next to Gerome. "So."

"So," squeaked out Gerome, perhaps not expecting that move. "Um... Shoot. I feel like a damn foal."

"You aren't one." David rested an arm on the back of the sofa, flopped comfortably. "None of us are."

"Right, of course." Gerome took a few breaths, steadying himself. "Right. I should stop acting like one. Your friend, Joy? She has a point."

"I usually do," came the sung retort from the kitchen.

Gerome nervously chuckled. "I don't know you yet. This is a crush. Love at first sight. As an adult... I should be getting to know you better before anything else." He applied a hoof to his face. "My friends said as much."

David flipped a hand palmside up. "So, wanna do that?"

Gerome twitched up an ear. "You're alright with that?" David didn't shy away. "Okay..." He pointed to the console laying there in front of the television. "Got a favorite game?"

David chuckled at that. "The one my friend happens to be playing."

"Valid," sang out Joy amid the sounds of sizzling and spreading pleasing aromas. "He watches more games than he plays."

"I'm actually not a big gamer." Gerome tapped his hooves. "Besides imagination games. I love those."

"I'll drink to that." David toasted with his bottled water. "Been a while since I last played one."

"What was the last one you played?" Gerome sounded more comfortable, back in familiar waters. "Foals in Darkness? Warriors of Westerby? The Lost Treasures?"

Joy emerged, a wide plate on her back. "Are those imagining games or video games? They sound familiar."

David grabbed the plate, placing it in his lap and off of her. "Thanks." He slid to the side, making room for her to hop up between him and Gerome. "This is a pony thing."

Joy cocked a brow at that. "Is it? Well, two out of three ponies at least. But I haven't seen this happen before." She looked off towards Gerome. "One stallion declaring love to another older one on meeting them? Not sure that's a pony thing."

Gerome looked between the other two. "What thing is it then?"

Joy grabbed a smaller plate off the bigger one, passing it along to Gerome, then one for herself. "It's a you thing. So, that's David. He's a human, which isn't a pony. You know next to nothing about him still. You don't even know if he has whatever parts you're hoping for. For all you know, his people meld minds to show their love."

"That would be neat... but no." David picked at the remaining plate, his by default. "I am a mammal."

"Ha, so he has the usual parts." Gerome clopped once, taking some food to nibble on right afterwards. "A well-dressed mammal."

Joy perked an ear at that. "There's a reason for that. He doesn't have fur, except up there." She pointed up at David's beard and thick curled mess of hair. "That's it. So, no clothes, he gets chilly. So on go the clothes. Not like ponies." She curled a hoof at herself. "Clothes optional. Fashion statement, but unless it's snowing out, we're not getting chilly."

"Huh." It was at that moment that Gerome really looked. It was then that he saw the exposed flesh, so much more than a pony's twitching nose or the insides of their ears. He had no twitchy nose, or ears. He had no tail, though not as obvious in his seated position.

He was an alien... "Huh... Your eyes are small."

"You eyes are big," countered David, perhaps a little too amused at the comparison.

Joy raised a hoof between them. "Good. I was hoping that'd happen. Now you're seeing what's there, instead of what you want to see. We're all delightful freaks." She folded her arms. "So, still want some of that?"

Gerome reached across Joy, for David. "May I?" David didn't say yes, but he also didn't say no, or move away, or do anything to stop it, so Gerome touched him, patting his side and upwards slowly. "Huh..."

"Different, isn't it?" Joy leaned back, giving room. "But he's still a creature, like us. He breathes, he eats, he sleeps. All the good and bad of being alive, just in a different wrapper."

Gerome pulled his hoof back. "Um... I was being very stupid..."

Joy crossed her arms. "What are you thinking now then?"

"I'm thinking I'm too good at seeing what I want to see."

"About that." Joy leaned in, frowning. "You both can see things up here?" She tapped at her head. "I thought that was just ponies being all fancy and flowery. A metaphor! I mean, I can imagine things, but not like that. I imagined this store, but I couldn't see it until I built it..."

David brought down a hand gently on her head. "I can vouch that your head is working just fine." He ran a finger along her ear, teasing it up and down slowly and making it twitch gently. "It's just one of those things. Some people do it one way, others not. Some can catch a ball, I'm pretty awful at it."

"Catch a ball?" Joy grabbed a poofy thing she had lying around. "I've seen you tossing things up and down. What do you mean you can't catch something?"

Gerome shook his head quickly. "I'm not much for sports."

"This isn't sports," argued Joy as she raised the floofy thing. "Catch." As soon as Gerome had a hoof up, she gently lobbed it at him.

Gerome fumbled it about, but did manage to gain control of it with a phew. "T-there. Um, your turn." He send it sailing towards David.

David squawked, and it bounced off him. To his credit, he managed to snatch it while it was falling, just for it to slip from his grip and finish its trip to the ground. "If I throw it, I can usually catch it. Outside that, no assurances are given."

Gerome tapped at his cheek a moment. "Well, there. You can't see things up here, but you can catch that." He pointed to the floofy thing. "Better than me, I bet." He flopped from the couch, grabbing it. "Here." He tossed it at Joypad.

She caught it without hesitation. "I'm a gamer mare. I have reflexes, thank you." She waggled the floofy thing menacingly. "I'm going easy on both of you. But alright... I feel a little better. Tell me one other thing I have that you don't."

"A tail?"

Joy squinted at David. "That hardly counts."

"Right right." He hummed with proper thought. "You manage a brick and mortar business. I've never done that. Gerome?" Gerome shook his head quickly. "See?"

Joy raised a brow dubiously. "The way you said that... You've run a business, just not 'brick and mortar'. What's the other kind?!"

Aw dang it... "Do ponies have online businesses?"

Gerome raised a hoof. "There are ponies that make bits with their videos."

Joy nodded at that. "And businesses that sell online too. What's an online business?"

"Take a business that sells online." He gestured in the air, the cube that was the business, and a smaller thing that was the online part. "Take out the not-online parts." He removed the larger cube. "That's an online business. Only sells online, no store that you can get to without visiting the Internet."

Gerome blinked owlishly. "Wow... Would that work?"

"It worked for me, but different skills than a real store." He tapped at the sofa he was seated on. "Different bills too."

Joy raised both hooves. "Alright, I'm satisfied. We're getting off track a little." She lowered a hoof at either of the other two. "Am I getting in the way of smooches right now? Tell me, I'm not that young."

Gerome flipped his ears back as his cheeks lit up. "I have a lot to learn about him. I'm sorry... I guess I really was.. crushing... Joy snapped me out of that, but I'm still interested."

"Good!" Joy clopped in one firm strike. "Glad to hear that. How's the food?"

It was only in that moment that he remembered he was eating. "It's good! Um..." He looked between Joy and David. "So... really, what are you?" He wobbled a hoof between them.

David patted her far shoulder. "We're BFFs. Nothing more or less than that."

"That." Joy nodded in agreement. "He does have hoof 'thing', so watch out for that."

"Hoof thing?" Gerome looked at one of his own hooves. "He has hands."

"He sure does." Joy leaned towards Gerome. "Which makes him jealous of hooves. He will play with yours, eventually, I bet. Just a thing he does. Harmless."

That got David to look awkward. "I would only do that with someone I'm already pretty close to."

Joy brightened. "Thanks for that vote of confidence there..." She coughed into a hoof. "So get closer so he'll play with your hooves. That's your goal line right there. Plays with hooves? You made it to the next level!"

Gerome sat up. "Um. I thought... I thought you didn't want me to do that."

"I didn't want some crushed pony to do stupid things at my friend," countered Joy. "We broke you out of that, so you're just a pony now. And if a pony wants to get close to David, cool. Just didn't want a fanboy or a love at first sighter doing it." She hopped down and began collecting plates. "You two are adults, adult it out."

Gerome tapped his hooves in the air. "So... Which imagining games did you play? You didn't say."

"Wow." Joy snickered softly. "I should have seen that coming."

David ignored her for the moment. "The games I played are all from a world away." Maybe a reality away? Little real difference. "Some similarities, some differences. I used to write for them and GM them all the time."

Joy and Gerome had the same question, "Gee Em?"

"Game Master." David pointed at himself. "Someone has to tell the story everyone else is playing, right?"

"Oh, that!" Gerome nodded quickly. "I never... had the bravery to do that... You have to know all the rules! You're the one that has to make the game fun for everypony there... You did that?"

Joy blinked owlishly. "You're a game console? No fair! I could have been playing you and you didn't tell me?! This is an injustice!" She stomped a hoof with a dull thud on the sofa. "I demand justice!"

David laughed at the idea. "Almost, not exactly. Still, if you want a game, I'm up for running it." He glanced towards Gerome. "Do they have VTTs around here?"

"V what?"

That was an answer, possibly... "Imagining games, but online?"

"Oh, no..." He pointed to the console there next to the TV. "That's close kinda?"

Shoot, a human thing... "Dang." He didn't know the local programming languages, so being the first to do it felt pretty out of reach... "Still, all you need is your--"

"--don't say it," growled Joy. "I thought that was just a thing ponies say, like reaching for the stars. Nobody reaches for the stars, but we say it all the time. But, surprise, 'imagination' is a thing ponies do literally! Ugh." She grumped. "Can you play this without that?"

Gerome curled a hoof to his chin. "You understand the idea of going on grand adventures, right?"

"Just went on one." Joy pointed to the console. "Go on them all the time."

David patted her gently on the back. "Then you can play, if you want to go on an adventure. Maybe more visuals, and less theatre of the mind."

"You have a whole theatre up there?" Joy peered at David's head suspiciously. What was he fitting up there?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Turns out Spike was a gamer that helped Gamesmaster as well.Gamesmaster TV

Especially given Gamesmaster guided us to the Moon. To The Mooon. and gave us the music to Lyra, a ballet. Unfortunatley, it seems everyones forgotton about it.

[howard035]

Joy is going to need minis and maps.