Hreijinda sat on the couch next to the Warden. Sir Yuulvan had retired for the night after the excellent dinner they had shared, but not before gifting to Hreijinda a strange device, and Xajymzia had likewise left them be.

  "Oh, that was the console I conjured for the old man when he wanted me to expin what gaming was.", the Warden said as she looked at the device Sir Yuulvan gifted to Hreijinda. "Hold on... you press this button on the back to boot it up and make it work."

  Hreijinda pressed the button, and the bck surface turned grey as it started to show various pictures. "Ooh, so each of those is a different game ?", Hreijinda asked, curious. That's a lot of games.

  The Warden nodded. "Yup.", she said. "Press... this button if you want to boot up the game and actually start gaming.", the Warden continued.

  "Ooh, which game should I start with ?", Hreijinda asked, smiling and the Warden shrugged.

  "I, uh, have no actual clue. Thing is you never pyed any video game ever, so... I guess the best approach is probably 'bash your head against it until you find something you like'", the Warden replied nonchantly, and Hreijinda, amused, shuffled through the pictures, familiarizing herself with the device.

  It was interesting. Hreijinda had never seen anything like that device. It wasn't some kind of illusion magic, as far as she could tell. The drawings too were a totally different style from what few paintings Hreijinda had seen in her life, and there were many variants to boot.

  "Ohh, these all look so different.", Hreijinda said. "This one is very remarkable.", she said, stopping at a more mosaic-looking one made of colored squares.

  "Yeah, this one is in pixel art.", the Warden expined, before quickly expining what a pixel is, Hreijinda nodding at the expnation. It sounded like an interesting way to show images. More flexible than painting for certain.

  "Do your ptop has pixels too ?", Hreijinda asked and the Warden nodded.

  "Yep. They both have screens and so they both have pixels.", the Warden expined, Hreijinda nodded as she looked at another game icon. This one depicted a strange, lizard-like creature standing on its hind legs. It had an odd-looking protrusion on its throat. "Oh, a Mokepon game.", the Warden said.

  "Let's try this one.", Hreijinda decided, the magic telling her to, and the Warden nodded, as Hreijinda pressed the area the Warden had showed her earlier. The screen changed as music came out for the device. She had no idea how this device even functioned to pull that off, but clearly it wasn't magic.

  Hreijinda had heard some music before, northern war-chants with growled voice and aggressive drumming. As far as Hreijinda was concerner, you heard one you heard them all. There were only so many variations on those that a girl could stomach before getting bored sick. This music by comparison was much more agreeable to Hreijinda's ears, being soft and melodious.

  The game started, Hreijinda returning to attention. She picked the female character, and started gaming, being guided through the story. The dungeon's knowledge helped, here. It guided her even when the Warden wasn't. She watched, slightly confused, before getting her first choice. "Hmm... Water, Grass, or Fire ? Which one's the best one ?"

  "I never pyed that Mokepon game.", the Warden admitted. "I stopped with the main series game after a while, so I have no clue here. Just pick your favorite one, generally all three of them are pretty strong."

  Magic is it, then.

  Zoemie watched as the student pyed the game. "Oh, this thing's a Bug type.", she said. A part of her remembered the very early days of her Mokepon pying, before she had Internet. Having to guess the type of each mons and remember what was super effective against which type. She felt slightly wistful about it. It was a different time.

  The student girl was easy to talk to, it was notable. Second time a girl ever shows interest in my games. Neth had been the first, but she also had other games she pyed. "Bug ? I didn't expect that judging by its appearance. Which moves should I use against it ?", the student asked, Zoemie returning to attention.

  "Fire, Rock, Flying.", Zoemie listed out. "And yeah, I had the same problem. Ended up catching one just to see its type when I was younger pying those games.", she expined. "Let's just say finding a type chart back then pretty much required specialized sites."

  "That's interesting. Is the type effectiveness chart that important ?", the student girl asked. "It seems that way, but I'm wondering why."

  "Because two times the damage. This game has... bonker high weakness multipliers." Ain't that odd ? 2 is the third lowest integer and the first one that gives actually useful numbers when multiplied... and yet it's an huge damage multiplier already. "Four times on double weaknesses. That's a massive number for effective targeting in a video game with this type of stat handling, and even in general."

  "That seems to involve lots of maths.", the student said.

  Zoemie raised an eyebrow. "I guess ? I mean, yeah, the damage formu in these games is a mess. And at the same time they've been using the same one for like more than 10 years now so clearly it's doing something right."

  She folded her arms. "Most damage formus are either substractive or divisive depending on the game. For those games, I... actually don't know, I never bothered looking it up. I don't think it's in my downloaded guides either."

  "Does all games involve that much maths ?", the student asked instead, seemingly curious and not sounding particurly bothered. Right. Not everyone's a head for mental maths, but doesn't appear to bother her. Zoemie had always been pretty good at mental maths.

  "Eeh, it depends a lot. A shooter game probably does not. A RPG like Mokepon, sometimes. It depends a lot on the game itself, and at least as much, if not even more, how you're pying it. Some game do require pretty intense number-crunching, but as we... you're pying right now, you can mostly do without. Type effectiveness will mostly carry you fine."

  The student girl nodded and returned to the game.

  "Hmmm... It really does seems like this type matters a lot indeed. What's your type, then ?", Hreijinda spoke to herself as she approached the strange, pink, birdlike Mokepon. She had caught quite a few more of them, now. "How many different Mokepons are there ?", she asked, curious.

  "Uh, dunno.", the Warden answered. "I think it's over a thousand st time I checked ? But not all of them are in this game, and a lot of them are just evolved or baby forms of another Mokepons, so if you counted actual families, I... actually have no idea. Never asked myself."

  "Have you pyed a lot of Mokepon ?" Hreijinda asked, and the Warden shrugged.

  "Kinda, although modified versions, not the genuine main series like you're pying. So my issue with it is that I would have liked it as a catch 'em all game... but turns out the devs are asswipes who love event-exclusive shit, so that's impossible without glitches or stuff. At least the glitching can be fun in its own right, but for general purpose... yeeeah..."

  "The... devs ?", Hreijinda asked, the word feeling odd on her lips.

  "Oh, right, you wouldn't know that. It's shorthand for developer. A book is written by an author, a theatre piece by... I think the word is pywright ?" Hreijinda nodded. "A developer is a person who makes a game, whether as a single person or rge-scale operation.", the Warden expined.

  Hreijinda nodded as the Warden kept talking. "Most games are either indies or studio-developed, the first being one or a few people while the second is for rger businesses specialized in it. The really big games are called "AAA" games, of which Mokepon is one, in term of cultural reach at least."

  Hreijinda had never heard of this Mokepon, yet apparently it was quite famous. An oddity for another time. "Beyond that, casual Mokepon is... I've talked about it before, although a modified version with speedup and included all-catches can be a lot of fun for me.", the Warden expined.

  "Is there non-casual gaming ?", Hreijinda asked, her curiosity piqued, and the Warden nodded.

  "Yep. From simple competitive gaming tourneys in your uncle's garage, to massive multi-million businesses of professional gaming, it can get very far." The Warden turned her head a little. "I never got too involved in competitive Mokepon because I hate losing, but it's a real thing, and it goes very, very, very deep."

  Hreijinda nodded, fascinated. It was a bit of a shame the Warden wasn't that knowledgeable about it, but it interested her nonetheless. For something she had never heard of, gaming clearly had around it the kind of culture that only came from a lot of people getting deeply invested, despite being completely new to her.

  The more she talked with the Warden, the more obvious it became to Hreijinda that she was one of a kind. When she looked at a person, it was fairly easy to deduce quite a few things about them. Their wealth and social position, their profession. To put it cynically, who should bow to whom.

  But the Warden didn't really answer by those markers. They seemed to care not a whit for such things. Hreijinda couldn't help but wonder where the Warden came from to function in this way. A community of Wardens ? Hreijinda doubted this. She shook her head and focused. "Let's save, and try another game ?", she offered.

  The Warden shrugged. "Sure, no probs." She saved, before giving the console to the Warden, who pressed on a few buttons going back to the game selection screen.

  Once again, Hreijinda let her magic pick for her, moving through the pictures. "Let's do this one.", she decided, looking at the game image. A white-haired girl in bck with a red cape, a nce-wielding man in blue, and an upside-down man in yellow with a bow.

  "Never pyed that series at all, but I vaguely heard of it.", the Warden said.

  "Oh, series ? Is there more than one ?"

  The Warden folded her arms, thinking for a bit. "Think of it like a book series. You've got sequels, prequels, and all that. Games are the same, they have sequels, prequels, spinoffs focusing on secondary characters or alternate gamemodes, and so on.", she expined, Hreijinda nodded in understanding.

  "One thing is that game series, throughout their various installments, that's the word, often iterate on their mechanics. Like, the first Mokepon game was really different from the second and so on. Also, some games are updated remakes of older games."

  "The thing is, though, the core gamepy loop rarely changes all that much from one installment to another, because that might alienate the game's core audience, which can be a problem depending on the game and situation.", the Warden concluded

  "You mentioned never pying these games at all ?", Hreijinda said.

  "Nope, not at all.", the Warden answered. "I heard a bit of it here and there but never got into them myself." Hreijinda smiled as she was led to a difficulty menu.

  "Hmm... let's be reasonable and go with Normal mode.", Hreijinda decided. It was always best to start easy when going into something unknown. Sir Yuulvan had taught her this wisdom, and he as usual had been correct about it.

  "For this one, you're kinda on your own, I have zero guides for it.", the Warden said, hugging her knees, and watching the screen with Hreijinda, depicting a battle.

  Zoemie watched as Hreijinda swapped through the menus. "Hmmm... Who do I pick ?", she grumbled and mumbled as she dithered between the three options at her disposal. Frankly, Zoemie didn't know which one she would pick either.

  She couldn't help the student there. "You know what ? I'll decide ter.", Hreijinda said, Zoemie grinning. Cssic. "What don't you show me your favorites games instead ?", Hreijinda asked instead, surprising Zoemie, a shiver running down her back.

  "I... uh, yeah, sure, gimme a sec... It's on another console, to start.", Zoemie said as she teleported the correct console from her bedroom. "Here, I've been pying this one tely.", she said as she showed the game.

  "Console ?", the student wondered, repeating the unfamiliar word with a slight accent.

  "Oh, right, yeah, I should expin that.", Zoemie said, blinking quickly in surprise before recomposing herself. "A gaming console is one of those devices.", she continued, pointing at the console the old man gave to his student.

  "It's used for pying games, but the one I'm pying on isn't the same as the one the old man gave you. Generally, games that can be pyed on one console can't be pyed on another, although some consoles do have backwards compatibility."

  "They definitely look different.", the girl answered. "Can't you game on your ptop, as well ?", she asked, more curious than anything.

  "I can, yeah. Computer gaming has the big advantage of being more versatile. There's a type of software called an emutor that allows you to py a console game on a computer, alongside computer-exclusive games, but consoles are either portable, being smaller and more practical to carry around, or are TV consoles, with more power, standardized capacity and sometimes unique features like following your movements."

  "I can definitely see the console being easier to carry around !", the student said with a small giggle. She's smiling, so let's hope this is going OK, Zoemie thought. "This is from another series ?", the student asked and Zoemie nodded.

  "Yup. Keep in mind I'm basically in postgame at this point, so there's no more story to see.", Zoemie started, before showing off various of the monsters she had obtained in the game, quickly expining their various purposes. "This guy's role is to help me get the ultra rge monsters easily.", Zoemie expined.

  "Your normal team can't do that ?", Hreijinda asked, referencing the general-purpose team Zoemie had showed her before and which she used for getting most monsters.

  "Not really. They just don't have enough power, but this guy has a damage amp vs big monsters and he moves like four times, so I generally get around 40% rate.", Zoemie expined. "That's not the best, but it's reliable enough, since I can run like half a dozen attempts before needing to reset, and I only need to succeed once."

  "That does make sense.", Hreijinda said. I could calc the prob, but why bother ?, Zoemie thought. She had more than enough power to get it semi-reliably and she didn't need enough of the mega monsters to need more reliability.

  "In the past games of this series you generally only had one attempt to grab any monster so going for 100% chance was a necessity, but with how many attempts this game allows it's much less the case.", Zoemie said.

  "You sound conflicted about it.", the student remarked. "Which version do you think is better ?" Zoemie took a deep breath. Huh. Actually asked myself that question before.

  "I don't think 'bashing head against RNG until it spits out what you want' is really engaging gamepy, you know ? ...On the other hand, having to setup for like 10 minutes before every single monster was also a pain, so... I'm not sure." Zoemie scratched her head. "This series in general really suffers from some dubious design decisions, so I'll freely admit I have no clue here."

  "I dread to imagine a compulsive gambler pying one of those games.", the student girl said, Zoemie raising an eyebrow. Huh, didn't expect that...

  "Never asked myself that question, to be completely sincere. Actually, I wonder if I can use magic to manipute RNG or even just luck..." Maybe I should try it next time I need to deal with egg RNG bullshit or something like that.

  "I have never been to a gamblehouse, so I can't answer that question. But I do think they have artefacts to prevent... meddling with magic", the student said, yawning. "It was an enjoyable evening, but I am getting tired."

  "Right, not everyone stays up to like 2AM like I do.", Zoemie said, a look of shock on the girl's face. It amused Zoemie a little. "Are you going back to your residence to sleep ? I think I set up a few extra rooms to sleep in, but it's your call."

  "I'll just use one of the hospital beds.", the girl answered and Zoemie nodded.

  "Sure, no prob. If you want to sleep there, I can't stop ya.", Zoemie answered, and smiled as the student left the room, before teleporting. That was a fun, but tiring.

  Still, a girl ! Who liked video games ! Zoemie was content as she id down on her bed.

  Hreijinda had drifted off to sleep easily in the comfortable bed. Sleeping in one of the unused hospital rooms was mostly just because she had wanted to try the soft-looking beds the whole day.

  She had thought about gaming. She wanted to know more about it. To be able to do it herself at her residence, inbetween clearing the Cursed Grounds and helping stranded travellers. That sounded great !

  But right now, she was in a dream, in a room she didn't know of. It had pale pink walls, and was retively bare of adornments. A plushie on the bed, of a three-headed, dark blue creature. Hreijinda knew it was a Mokepon upon seeing it, even if she had never seen that one before.

  She smiled, her face shifting, ghostly and ethereal, before taking flight and passing through the window. Far under her, blurs sped on grey ground, covered with white markings. It looked like nothing else Hreijinda ever saw, and she'd wager nothing else Sir Yuulvan ever saw either.

  The building had a few floors above her current one, and the other buildings around it were simirily tall. They appeared to be made neither of bricks, nor wood, nor stone. An impressive facade of windows at an exacting, repeated vertical and horizontal distance from each other.

  Hreijinda had never seen anything like it. She dashed, still ethereal, towards the ground, eager to see more of the strange area she was dreaming of.