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Titanite only rarely got the craving to go to the park. She hadn't had much a chance of late, what with her attempts to figure out how her arms and legs worked again, and her avoidance of the many people who regretted her promotion to Captain quite a bit more than she herself did. Overall, she rather liked the new power, though it made some things much less fun. For example, she was expected to participate in non-Lieutenanty stuff like paperwork and s**t.

Nope.

She was running from that as fast as she could. Papers and leadership or something- no, she was meant for the more punchy sorts of activities. It was known. So tonight she was taking a break from hiding by going to the park. Shahar loved the park. Adored the park.

And yet the park was infested.

"Oh," she said mildly, staring up the jungle gym, "It is you." one hop took her up, the Captain, now, peering at the red-headed cranberry and its 3DS. "Are you actually playing Pokemon? You know there are a hundred better games, right?"

It was far to easy to hue hue hue and reach out to ruffle the bright hair presented to her by sulking kiddo. "That is my opinion, and you are right. I have not played Pokemon since Pokemon Yellow." she leaned in a bit closer and added, "I was seven, and I did not like it as much as Red and Blue. Turns out it was a good thing I did not like it."

By the time the next game was coming out and her father could have sent it to her, the fatwā against it had been issued in Saudi Arabia and taken up in Egypt, and it just was not worth it, so her mother had told him not to send the games. Instead, Shahar had been neatly pressed off to other franchises. It had wound up for the best; she had greatly expanded her taste in video games.

It led to her affection for FPS and paintball. It led to her spending time watching cartoons, and those other few hobbies she had that were not drinking and fuc- well.

"Just because Pokemon games have a high score on metacritic does not mean it is a good game," she informed him sagely. "Have you even tried the Xenoblade game? Do you play on any other consoles? I have been gaming since before you were a- what do they say over here- a speckle in the eye?"

Oh- he slapped at her hand and Titanite laughed without shame, dropping down next to him, leaning in to consider his 3DS with interest. "I do not ruffle the hair of dogs," she told him, "only little humans. Most dogs do not have hair, anyways. They have fur."

His disdain for the older Pokemon games made her gasp in (only partly true) affront, and she clucked her tongue at him. "You suck butts," she informed him maturely. "Mega Evolutions are an unnecessary amount of Pokemon, and internet battles too. Back in my day we did not have the cheat codes, either. And if you like to play alone, by yourself, it makes little sense that you would care about internet battles."

The fact his 3DS was all he had made her a little bit sad; expansion into other systems at an impressionable age was so very important. "I agree with you, though," she said after a moment. "Game choice is incredibly personal, but you will need to find someone to refer you in the proper gaming direction, or you will keep thinking classics are dumb. Have you even played Zelda?" she sniffed, peering at his handheld.

MarioKart was pretty evil. "Mario Kart," she informed him, "Was made for playing while you are drunk. Something which you should not be for many years, Cranberry."

Berry leaning away didn't bother the Captain; her long torso merely followed him, leaning on to keep her position in relation to his screen. It was times like this that she enjoyed the extra length her height gave her; she barely had to stretch, yet.

Her head tilted, a predatory bird considering his 3DS like she was going to eat it. She was sure she could probably pick up a couple titles from her nephews a kid of Barry's age might like. Being more than a decade apart from his age probably put her in a different generation of gaming. And then there were the other differences- like the fact she was, arguably, evil.

"Seeing the enemy is always important," she told him firmly. "Then if they mock you, you get to watch their face fall when they realize you are about to wipe the floor with them, and perhaps feed on their tears as you smear their lifeless Pokemon across the arena." or kick their headless body or exploded body or however she had killed them in a 1v1.

"Start with the game you can," she said dryly. "You only have a 3DS? Grab those. Play them all." tilting her head, she said- "when is your birthday? Perhaps I will give you my used games."

He seemed to take offense to being called cranberry; with a laugh, she said "Berry Berry Quite Contrary- How does that poem go?" she leaned back, and said, "you could call me hag, but then I would be obliged to play the part. Hags devour naughty little children out past their bedtimes. Like in fairy tales."

Titanite leaned back as Berry stood up. What was she getting at? That was a very good question indeed. "You might not be wrong, Berry." she admitted after a moment. "You are very wise not to trust the Negaverse. Not to trust me. One day I may be in a position where it is you or me. Where you are across the battlefield, and I cannot turn around or forfeit that which I hold most valuable in the world- my life."

She shifted, and pursed her lips. "But you remind me of my family. Presumably American, redheaded, and brash, but still familiar. And I enjoy video games. If I wanted your starseed, little Berry, I would have had it by now. I have been close enough many times."

She could see the young man making up his mind, considering her words with a critical mind, and she let him, tilting her head back to stare up at the sky. Out there, they were no longer stars. There were alien homeworlds. Species and worlds not like Earth. Relics and tombs to explore.

"I am a weird person," she told him with a smile, feeling the jungle gym quiver with his kick. "And it is not that I think of you as family, but that I have.... many nieces and nephews. I have fourteen siblings, you see, and many have kids your age. It makes me think of those things I have not seen in many years. It makes me think of if my family would be proud of me."

They would not.

"I think you are very pleasant as well, little Berry- when you are not spewing cranberries in my face."

His question was complicated, but Titanite was not going to avoid the answer. "No," she said after a moment. "I am not part of the Negaverse because of my family. I am part of the Negaverse because one day I ran afoul of a man who could have killed me, but instead decided to make me like him. To use me for my knowledge of the streets. To show me what, for a long time, I thought was a better way. He was my General-King, and when he was called to Destiny City, it was to be my privilege to join him."

She shifted her weight on the jungle gym, shifting to curl her arm over her belly, slowly wilting inwards on herself instead of expanding ever out. "I have seen more cruelty from my own side than from your little White Moon. Many of my comrades kill people, cull and harvest them for a goal I cannot see. I know you are supposed to be a danger, yet many of you..."

They attacked her out of fear. A reasonable one. They were hesitant to let her get close, as was appropriate. "I hid a long time from the indoctrination of our Queen, and I am sure my views would not be looked kindly upon. I drank, and called it mourning. I lazed, and called it distance. I stayed, because they know who I am, and about my family, and how to hurt the things I love if they think I betray them and live."