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Another sideways glance was the initial response to that, then she leaned back, raised her left hand, and proceeded to ruffle the boy's hair. "I think you're still young to be giving that kind of talk, Negi-kun," she said quietly, giving him a thin smile. "But I'm old enough to give you a piece of advice, so here it goes. People always go through a grieving or moping period when bad things happen to them. It's different for every person, but it's there. This is reality, you know, not a game. I don't just respawn immediately, all fine and dandy, when I take a hit like this. Yeah, I'll get over it. Just not today."

She gave him an understanding smile. "Regan-san understands that one's heart takes more time to heal than any physical injury. And, you know, respawn. You die in a video game like a shooter, you come back to life in a safe area."

She nodded, and decided to further this topic for a while. After all, Makie wasn't a gamer, so the wide world of electronic entertainment was one to which she could temporarily retreat to escape the pain. Too bad she hadn't brought her 360 with her... "Theoretically, the game always picks a respawn point for you that's away from any enemies that way you don't get killed again as soon as you spawn. There are some douches out there who watch spawn points and kill people as they respawn, but that's bad etiquette, and fortunately most gamers have more honor than that."

"Of course, honor and politeness are two different things in the game world. Of all the players you'd ever encounter in Halo matchmaking, only about 30% of them show any class. You'd hear all kinds of trash-talking and language that would curl your toes, Negi-kun. And players like you and me, girls and kids? We get derided mercilessly. Everybody thinks that just because they're a colonel and wear the Hayabusa armor, it makes them the greatest friggen players on the planet. Greatest friggen egos, maybe. I hate those kinds of people." She scowled, memories of literally hundreds of such events passing through her mind.

After a moment though, she gave a smile, and her tone lightened. "Of course, you'll also come across the players who are really great, not because of their skill, but because of their manners. If it's a team match, they'll watch your back, coordinate strategy, and never raise voices. The best games I've ever played, win or lose, were games when all sides gave appropriate recognition for doing awesome things. I usually never add any less than three people to my friendslist from those kinds of games." Yeah, it was obvious she was pretty passionate about her Halo.

(no s**t. -.- though there was this one poor kid in one of my groups last night, swear to God the first word i associated with him was 'Negi.' he was so damn innocent, and the other players were riding his a** so hard that i was seriously contemplating a betrayal spree)

She smiled a little at the terrified look that Negi exhibited concerning her telling of the Halo game pool. True, social matchmaking was a little better in that regard than ranked, but not by much. "The great thing is that you can always set up self-run games just for people you invite, that way you know it'll be a good competition without having to worry about getting any of the idiots." Of course, she wasn't exactly guilt-free when it came to the gaming etiquette, but the difference being that she only started up in defense of herself and her friends; she was not one of those ones who would bother people for no reason.

She nodded. "Yeah, me and the folks on my friendslist end up doing that a lot, too. It also lets you customize the gametypes and maps, too." There was a short pause, not because she had to stop to think, but mostly because it seemed appropriate to put a pause between topic changes. "I play a bunch of role-playing games, too, and hack-n-slash games are always fun."

Wow. Negi really wasn't your average kid. Like, moreso than was already known. "RPGs tend mostly to be fantasy games. You more often than not get a single main character who you play as throughout the game, and most also give you a steady party of allied characters who help the main character through the story and in battles. Fighting in RPGs is mostly turn-based, as that's really simple, though there are some real-time battle systems out there. Final Fantasy is the most well-known RPG, and games like Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers also count."

She nodded and grinned. That was just perfect. "Cinema Village is up near the top of my list of places to parade around our faux Konoka-san. And with Asakura-san there, that means we can get an easy recording. I'll go get Claude-san." And with that, she took off back up the stairs to the rooms.

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