Xaviers!

Tosh was playing the zombie shooter again. This time, however, he was mowing through the undead horde and racking up the points.

Dude! Nice one!
Good shootin' kid!

He took a self-congratulatory sip of Mountain Dew and went back to shooting and looting.

(open)

Ainsley heard the commotion from the common room and ducked in out of curiosity to see what all the fuss was about.

He wasn't supernatural, but he was seemingly silent in his approach thanks to all the noise a video game can make for atmospheric purposes.

With a luckily-timed shot in the eerily glowing mouth, the necromantically enhanced zombie t-rex currently before him was defeated just before a certain game over.

In reality, Tosh whooped and jumped to his feet. "Holy shit! I beat Mortum Rex!"

Ainsley tilted his head curiously at Tosh's excitement, his face neutral. He let him celebrate for several moments, then shrugged and started clapping for him, since that seemed to be the appropriate response.

Tosh turned and grinned. "Awesome right? The damn thing's cheap-ass malboro breath gets me every damn time. Until now that is."

Ainsley smiled in a friendly fashion and gave Tosh two thumbs up. Holding it until just before the point that it got awkward, his arms fell to his sides and he looked at the screen to see what was going to happen next.

Was he done? Did he beat the whole game?

Tosh's slayer of the undead was currently just standing there next to a shining lootable dinosaur carcass. He followed Ainsley's gaze and pressed (A) as the game prompted.

"Let's see... 5 grand necroplasm... a bunch of bones... the Talisman of Demonic Flesh... and... Sweet! The Eternal Eye!"

"It's the rare drop," he explained, "Basically a renewable extra life."

Ainsley listened intently, though he had no damn clue what Toshiro was on about. Rich kids got to play video games at home. Poor kids, at best, got to play them in the electronics section at Tesco.

He enjoyed the colour palette of the game and inched closer to the imaginary world Tosh had summoned up onto the TV.

Then, like a child trying to see what was coming up next, he craned his neck around towards the corner of the screen as if somehow he could get a better look that way.

Tosh looked back at his audience and chuckled awkwardly.

"Your silence tells me you have no earthly idea what I'm even talking about."

Ainsley's head whirled around and he looked at Tosh, then shook his head slowly.

His mouth abruptly burst open in face of a horrified scream. However, nothing but the sound of laboured breath came out. The expression was disturbing as Ainsley tried several times to cry out, but couldn't.

Huh?
He's mute ya dummy.

"Oh!" Tosh exclaimed, looking embarrassed, "Sorry dude. I didn't know."

Ainsley didn't seem offended, giving Tosh a casual shrug, then turning back to Tosh's game.

He would look to him, then the screen if Tosh waited long enough to start playing again.

"You... wanted to watch? You're welcome to, but I was kinda going to call it quits at the next checkpoint," he said as he guided his avatar further into what looked like a museum.

Ainsley pulled out his cellphone and typed something up quickly.

"You play alone?"

"I'm always up for multiplayer," he smiled, "You want to? I can't play much longer though, because I have a paper I should probably be working on."

Ainsley thought about it, then shrugged it off.

"Studies more important. What is paper about?"

"Witchcraft and wizardry in the European countries and its effect on literature. I regret my choice already."

Ainsley grinned widely and typed furiously.

"Just submit Philosopher's Stone. Library has more than enough copies. Won't miss one."

He laughed. "Yeah, but I was specifically told no paper on Harry Potter. That I should be more creative than that."

"I should have just taken another science course. Stupid well-rounded education," he lamented.

He laughed almost maniacally.

"Dude! I've literally experienced that and kicked its lizard butt."

It was epic.

"You taking the piss?"

He asked.

"Not remotely," he said before going to retrieve his personal memory card from the game console. "X-Men mission went sideways and we spent some time in another dimension. Crazy shit."

"You don't know the half of it," he chuckled. "That virtual town we got stuck in? Revenge by a couple of nutjobs from that reality, one of whom is an evil cybernetic mutate version of my cousin modified by my mad scientist evil twin."

"I had many animal friends there. " He frowned.

"They weren't real if that makes you feel any better."

"So... by animal friends, do you mean pets or are you, like, an animal empath?"

"Cool."

A guilty look crossed his face. "Sorry about the whole fighting dinosaurs thing. My alter ego... I'm a shifter... might love a good fight but I don't enjoy hurting animals. In that case, the poor thing had a brain implant and was being used as a mobile gun emplacement. It fared far better than its crew."

"I don't know no dinosaurs. Do what you want mate." He was clearly being facetious there. He made sure Tosh was done with his message before following up with-

"Philosophy of life somewhat pagan. Life is a cycle. Creatures come and go. Just do no unneeded harm and we're cool."

"Not too different from the way I see things. But I still feel bad about having to do it."

"Funny how it's always a dinosaur though," he mused.

"Oh wait, giant cybernetic squid submarine. I blew up a giant cybernetic squid submarine."

"My evil twin was insane."

"The word you're looking for is eccentric. Insane scientists we don't need," he said a bit defensively.

"Perhaps.

Do you invent?" He asked, changing the subject.

"I'm trying to learn more before I do. But I did cobble together a most of a time machine on short notice from stuff in an electronics store. It was... well, not supposed to be a time machine... not that kind anyway... and I probably couldn't do it again if I wanted to."