Adrian
The skies above were overcast, shrouded in a tapestry of greys and whites and the occasional pop of blue sky, and River couldn't help but yawn as she stared up from the second floor balcony. Grey skies brought a sense of weariness and a malaïse not unlike the gnawing pit of anxiety she was all too familiar with, and she knew staring at the bits of blue in the sea of grey wouldn't help. So she took her hands off the railing and scooted inside, making sure the door closed solidly behind her; an old habit mated to the instinctive back-forth kick of her socks, as if knocking dirt off a pair of Converse.

River didn't precisely know *What* To do with herself, with the restlessness gnawing at her bones and at her legs and the tiredness in her head, and the debate raged on in her head for several indecisive moments as she leaned her hip against the thick frame of the door. The weather outside was a touch colder than her frail frame seemed fit to handle, and the music room was closed for cleaning last she checked, but simply going back to her room felt amiss and liable to simply make her feel worse. She pursed her lips and hummed. *Screw it.* She strolls down towards the stairwell – the Nook, as she's heard this particular landing called – and makes her way downstairs. The ground floor had more to do anyways.
-

Once off the last step and in the library prior River scratches the back of her head, trimmed but unfiled fingernails dragging pleasantly against her scalp and the itchy patch that'd been yelling at her off and on all day, a silent reminder that her hair needed a good rinsing. That could wait, however. It'd been an hour since she had swung by the music room, and she was intent on seeing if she could get in to bang on the drums a little before retiring to her room, but as she strolled from the library and out towards her destination her eyes wander. They wander, and it's as she walks by the computer lab she catches a glimpse of a screen with a game that seems familiar-ish. She stops, snoops, and decides to become a pest. She pushes the door open.

"Heya! Is that Risk of Rai... Ah, nope. Never mind. Too gritty. Risk of Rain is, like, gloopy art, and this isn't. Izzat Helldivers? Friend loves it and has been tryin' to get me into it, but like, I've just been dragging my feet, y'know?" She announces her presence, planting a hand against the desk and looking first at the screen then the fellow seated behind it. She's got on an oversized mauve t-shirt from some skate brand and loose knee-length cargo shorts, and she's got a curious expression spread across her features.
-
Eileen
Sounds good, I'll respond shortly!

Sam would be fighting on hellmire, one of only a few thousand willing to deal with the bugs on that cursed planet. Stupid termicide, who could have expected that using mutagenic agents on bugs would have caused all this. Oh, right, anyone with a working brain. Nope, enough of that, no dissident thoughts, only those for super earth. 

Sam would be started by river's arrival, turning his head a bit only to get obliterated by a charger. Aaaand into the reinforcement cycle his character went. He knew he should have brought stun grenades, he could have been done with the charger a bit ago. 

In the meantime, he turned more fully towards river. Annoyance at having been distracted and dying would flash through his mind for a second, before his face would soften. A fellow gamer was a fellow gamer, after all, especially if they were thinking of becoming a fellow diver. He shifted a bit to let river see, hopefully that wouldn't be a passive-aggressive message about the impact of the sudden distraction.

"I just got it a few days ago, I've been playing it a ton since I'm cooped up here. You should get it, it would be nice to have someone to play with here."

He seemed to suddenly realize something, mainly that he didn't know this person.

"I don't believe we've met before, I'm Sam. What brings you here?"
Adrian
River looks on as the lad gets killed in a moment of distraction, and winces softly. An *Ouf* Squeaks its way from the corner of her mouth.

"Ah shoot– didn't mean to get you killed. Sorry 'bout that." Her expression remains apologetic as the lad replies in turn with a voice far less annoyed than she'd have expected. She loosens up thusly. "But like, I hear ya. I've been on the Stardew Valley grind since getting banished here myself, so like, I feel it. Gotta do what'cha gotta do to pass the time, right?... Oh also, I'm River! Nice to meet'cha. Honestly I saw your screen from the hall and I kinda thought it was Risk of Rain 2 so I came in because, y'know, I'm a sucker for that game. Even if it gets on my nerves sometimes."

She leans over towards the nearest chair and paws it towards herself, albeit not fully.

"Y'mind if I take a seat? I'm actually, like, curious about this now. Whatever the heck that bug thing was it took you out like a Left for Dead charger, and now I'm intrigued. Sorry about killing you, but intrigued regardless."
Eileen
Sam would roll the chair out a bit in approval, reinforcing near a bile titan. Lovely, what a great start. Not that it wasn't his choice, he just expected to hit the thing. Unfortunately, it moved and he was off course regardless, so right next to it he goes. Maybe if super earth gave him some pilot instruct-nope, no doubting super earth in the middle of a mission, lest a democracy officer catch him. Time to run and get the weapons back, otherwise this helldiver won't last nearly as long as the previous. 

"Don't worry about it, that's my bad for dropping with a bad loadout. Didn't even bring anything to stun the damn speed demons" Funnily enough you reference that, by the way, these guys actually are called chargers. They're a pain, as you saw when you walked over. I know Stardew, just never got into it, but I've never heard of risk of rain. What's it about?

Done asking questions for the time being, he'd find and grab his dropped gear, finally taking out that bile titan.
Adrian
Sam pulls out a chair, and River wastes no time spinning it around and flopping herself down into it. She leans her chest against the backrest and crosses her arms, propping herself against it as comfortably as she can manage.

"Wait, really? Those things are actually called chargers? Huuuh. Neat! Lookit'im go, he's just a charging, uh..." River replies, visibly chuffed to have been damn near correct off nothing more than the seconds of Sam's diver being massacred in swift fashion. She keeps her eyes on the screen, watching him drop in again and beeline it for his death point. "Bug? Those are bugs, right? They sure look it."

"Risk of Rain 2, though, is a rogue-like. It's kinda like... It's a shooter, but every run is different, every set of levels is different, and really all you're trying to do is get absolutely BLOATED with items. Like, I deadass have killed bosses in a single tap because of all the stuff I had. It's addictive almost. I have something like 550 hours into it? And I still find myself going back. 10/10, no complaints."
Eileen
Sam glanced at river long enough to answer, narrowly avoiding another embarrassing and easily avoidable death.

"Technically, they're called terminids, but everyone just calls them bugs. Name is almost certainly a reference to warhammer's tyranids, but they function in this universe more similarly to the bugs in starship troopers. The other side is the autom-sorry, I don't want to ramble. Point is, yes, they're giant space bugs who have taken no liking to humanity. Totally not our fault, but even if it was, too late to fix it now."

"550 hours, huh? That's a lot, I definitely don't have 550 hours in this, not yet anyway, but I'm afraid to check steam for my counts on tf2 or any of the payday or battlefield games. Maybe I'll have to look into it sometime though, seems interesting."

And apparently, embarrassing and easily avoidable death comes for us all, as Sam's character dies to yet another charger. Unfortunately for Sam, the mission is almost over anyway, and he doesn't get reinforced, so there goes that extract perk. Stupid bugs and their stupid charging, he's going back to the bot front. 

"So, what other games do you like to play?"
Adrian
"Ahh. Rightright. I guess if it scuttles like a bug it's a bug huh? Like duck logic." River replies, voice equally inquisitive and upbeat. "Ramble on dude, I'm the one who asked about it. I love when people rot hard about stuff too. Like yes, gimme *All* The lore, tell me your ships, whatevs!... I'm getting ahead of myself. Whoops."

River laughs awkwardly, and shifts her arm about a bit. Watching Sam duke it out with bugs the size of city buses as nothing more than a man seemed neat. The game itself seemed neat. Really though, she seemed content to simply watch, arcing her gaze towards her newfound buddy – *Was that too soon a call to make?* – as he commented on his own games with far too many hours into them. She chuckles.

"Tellya what. You check out Risk of Rain, I check out Helldivers, and we see what one sticks. Not gonna like, make ya shake on it or nothin'. You got other games rattling round the dome, i'm sure. Jeez, that..." She trails off. Seems she felt herself wandering too far and needed a mpment to lasso her runaway brain. "But if you ever played Binding of Isaac and found yourself wired up on broke ass synergies you'll probably like Risk though. That game goes 'balance? Pff, who needs it!'" She gesticulates the whole time, latent Mediterranean in her blood showing in the illustrative motions of her hands. "Also, can I just say you sound so much like my bestie back home? She has like 600 hours in Warzone and outright *Refuses* To talk about her Apex time. Izzit that bad for you?"

"Far as games though? I mostly play, like... Stardew, Risk of Rain – I know, I already told,... Pokémon. Genshin. Stuff like that. Also Deltarune! God that had me in a chokehold last year. Don't Starve and me are on the ropes 24/7; it's *So* Stylish yet so tough... Blegh."
Eileen
Sam would exit out of helldivers, partially to take that challenge and partially spare himself the embarrassment of his pitiful performance in that mission. Making a mental note about the stun grenades, he'd turn towards river. As he talked, he'd open steam back up to check some of his hours, as well as install risk of rain. 

"Alright, bet. I'll check this out. I think I've maybe heard of binding of Isaac once, so this should be interesting, I have no idea what I'm getting into. *Please* Though, tell me risk of rain isn't as imbalanced. If I get killed by something super overpowered in the first like second I'm going to be sad. As for my hours... You just can't tell anyone, alright?"

He trailed off a bit at the end there as he clicked through most of the battlefield series, payday, and tf2, each having hundreds of hours, with the same applying to several assassins creed games. 

"Like I said, I know stardew, just never got into it, same with don't starve, and I played some of the older Pokémon games, but I haven't really kept up. Mainly just a *Lot* Of battlefield and some helldivers along with that."
Adrian
River thinks for a moment, and then her smile flattens out. She looks back at the computer monitor, watching Sam bring up the homepage for Risk of Rain.

"It's definitely harder than Isaac to just pick up and play, but like... Honestly? As long as you keep moving it's not all that bad. Lotta aim manoeuvring and stuff, yeah, but once you get the hang it's really not all that hard. You learn the enemies and you learn your dudes and you find out how to get busted fast. Also it's, like, easier with friends. Solo Risk is hell sometimes." River calmly talks, disjointed bits of her most memorable (and most frustrating) runs flashing in her head. Her eyes widen slightly at the *Hours played* Tab of each game Sam brings up as he scrolls through his list; "Gee. That's a lot." Is all she can muster. He really *Does* Remind her of her best friend back home.

"I remember the one time I played Battlefield. It was... Not great." She remarks, faintly sarcastic and otherwise light in tone. "I suck at first-person shooters like that."
Eileen
Cue Sam dying horribly. Once. And again. And yet again. Yep, seems like solo risk might just be hell. 

"Harder? Try impossible. The enemies keep changing! And why does my guy run so slow? What am I doing? How do people even play this solo? Can you help?"

Sam would take a breath. Getting unnecessarily frustrated didn't help him with any of his other games, and it wouldn't help here. He tried again, actually getting past a few enemies this time before getting obliterated once more. He'd stop briefly when she spoke. 

"Like I said, I do a little gaming. Which battlefield? I like the first one the most. I'm not amazing at shooters, but I can hold out"
Adrian
River looks on as Sam boots up Risk, and winces as he immediately is descended upon by a horde. Suddenly she's regretting bringing it up; *What a bad impression!*

"Oh, uh– so y'gotta stay moving. Walk, jump, whatevs. And you gotta keep 'em where you can see 'em, since, as you saw, they really gang up on your ass." She explains, talking fast as Sam does what Sam does. "Also that's just how it be at the start. A few items in you actually pick up the pace – which, by the way, you really gotta prioritize in this game. Anyways– but at the start you're kind of a snail. I usually just spam restart until I get a speed up first item actually, pleb as that is." She chuckles.

"Also it was Battlefield 4...? I believe? I was like eleven and rummaging through my brother's stuff and it was in the Xbox I found. All I know is it was a shooter and I sucked at it. Anyways if you wanna I could take over and show ya how best to approach the game, because I promise it's not hell constantly. It's just... *Tough* To pick up. Weird of it. Ah well."

She leans forward a little, and shifts in her chair.