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quicksilversquared · 6 years

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There’s No Camembert in Tibet: Chapter 10

A sequel to Plagg and the Butterfly Costume

With Hawkmoth defeated and school out for the summer, it’s time for Ladybug and Chat Noir plus their newly-assembled team of superheroes to head to Tibet to try to rescue Mrs. Agreste. Hiking, magic, and adventures await them, and hopefully at the end, they’ll be returning to Paris with Mrs. Agreste in tow.

as like normal recently, links will be in the reblog.

The upside to Ladybug and Chat Noir's spectacular wakeboarding across the lake and subsequent accident was that the Rat had found it absolutely hilarious and had lightened up, just a bit. He still wasn't talking much, but he had stopped scowling.

It was an improvement. And he was actually answering some of the questions Mrs. Cheng asked him, which put them all a little bit more at ease. Still, it was hard to shake first impressions, and the teens were all hanging back a little ways from the turtle shell.

"I can't believe that he only lives a day's journey away from where we were," Queen Bee muttered as they skirted around the bottom of a series of tall hills. "Couldn't we have just gone to his town or whatever by bus or car or something instead of hiking all this way? I got blisters, you know."

"We wouldn't know how to find the trail from there," Chat Noir reasonably pointed out. "The instructions didn't cover that. And from what I could make out of what I overheard, he doesn't live in a town. It's a village. It might be really hard to get to."

Queen Bee sniffed and flipped her ponytail. "How hard can it possibly be? You just go down a road until you get there. Maybe we would have to stay in some really small hotels-"

"I don't think that there are hotels out here."

"Fine. We could camp, then. It's not like it would be much different to what we're doing now, only we wouldn't be hiking as much."

Ladybug did her best to ignore Queen Bee's grumbles, knowing that she was just prickly because she was embarrassed about being scared by the Rat before and was fast growing tired of the camping and progressively simpler meals. If she actually thought about what she was saying, then she would realize that Chat Noir was right and stop whining.

"We're almost there!" Master Fu called, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Dusk was falling fast, and if they didn't reach the Rat's home soon then they would have to figure out sleeping arrangements out of what tents they had along.

"I'm still not comfortable with this," Chat Noir murmured to Ladybug as they made their way up a steep incline to a plateau above. "We're going to be on his home turf."

"We'll keep an eye on him," Ladybug promised. "And I'm sure he won't recognize you- oh, hey, look! Houses!"

All of them promptly dropped to ground level, Queen Bee folding in her wings and Paon twisting his cape in his hands, clearly trying to mask its silhouette in case anyone glanced over. The Rat glanced back at them and beckoned, clearly not worried about anyone seeing them.

That...was not particularly comforting. Not after they had gone to such great trouble to keep people from knowing that a group of Miraculous holders was in the area when they were first starting out. There was no way that they would be able to venture out as themselves if the neighbors had seen that there were superheroes in the area-

-and okay, maybe she was overreacting, just a bit. The houses were very spread out, with stretches of fields and orchards and garden patches between them, and the Rat seemed to be directing Master Fu to the closest of them. Unless the neighbors looked very closely, they probably wouldn't notice anything amiss with the group, if they even happened to glance over and see their group at all.

Still, they wouldn't be able to go out if they stayed for more than a couple hours. Master Fu and her mom and Marinette herself would maybe be able to go out without attracting too much attention, but the others were too obviously out of place. And even then, people would no doubt wonder how they had arrived without notice.

After all, Ladybug had managed to notice from their slightly higher vantage point that the roads crossing through the village didn't exactly look terribly car-friendly. She wouldn't be surprised if the primary mode of transportation for the villagers was more along the lines of horseback, or maybe donkey-back. Or burro-back.

She really wasn't well-versed in what kind of riding animals were likely to be in this area, but perhaps she would learn.

Their group moved past several fields, most filled with tall, grasslike plants. The Rat had hopped out of Master Fu's shell and was leading the way down the path between the fields towards the closest house. It was a little larger than she had expected, really, sprawling out in a one-level rambler style.

Maybe the Rat was part of a large family? That would explain the larger home.

The group moved past the last field and past a pen of chickens, then entered the swept-dirt courtyard. The Rat glanced around, then pushed the door open and entered, waving them in after him.

Ladybug moved closer to Chat Noir as they stepped into the house. It wasn't that it looked creepy or anything- actually, it looked quite nice, if perhaps a bit old and weathered- but now they were actually on someone else's turf. Even though there were seven of them and only the only one other unknown Miraculous holder, Ladybug still didn't like it. There was no way to tell if the Rat had anything hidden up his sleeve, and his history of threatening Adrien's parents didn't exactly make her trust him any more, even with his recently more relaxed attitude.

Out of the seven of them, only Jade Turtle looked relaxed. Clearly he wasn't concerned about the Rat having ulterior motives or carrying out any of the threats that Mr. and Mrs. Agreste had described in the journal. He was looking around the room that the Rat led them through, taking in the decorations and the books piled against the wall. Ladybug was looking around as well, but in more of the style that she used during akuma attacks, looking for potential threats. There wasn't anything obvious, but they couldn't be too careful.

"I hope he doesn't demand that we detransform," Chat Noir whispered to her. "If he actually planned on carrying through on any of his threats and researched my family, he would be able to recognize me."

"I'm sure that Ma- er, Jade Turtle would object to that requirement," Ladybug assured him. "He wouldn't put you in danger like that."

Chat Noir let out a nervous little laugh. "Are you sure we're talking about the same guy? The one that gave two teens magic jewelry to fight supervillains with no prior experience or instruction?"

"And we did well, didn't we?" Ladybug pointed out. "He knows what he's doing."

Even with the reassurance, she could still feel that Chat Noir was still stiff and on edge. His kitty ears twitched, picking up on every noise. They finally flicked forward and stayed there, honing in on the next room. "There's someone in there."

"Well, of course there is," Ladybug teased him, squeezing his hand to show she meant no harm. "We're going to see the old Rat, remember?"

Chat Noir just nodded.

The elderly man snoozing in the next room awoke with a start as they all piled through the doorway. He blinked, adjusting to the view, and then his eyes slid over the French superheroes. They lingered for a moment longer on Paon and Lycaena.

He grinned as he sat up, warm and welcoming.

Master Fu stepped forward, greeting the other man- or so Marinette assumed, since she couldn't really understand what was being said.

"I bet the rat kwami liked that guy better," she heard Rena Rouge whisper to Paon. "He seems super-nice."

She was quickly shushed by Lycaena.

The conversation between Jade Turtle and the old Rat picked up. Jade was nodding along to whatever the other man was saying, occasionally interjecting something. The pinched look on the younger Rat's face slowly eased away as he listened to them talk, replaced by curiosity. He eased into the conversation as well, apparently asking questions about whatever was being said. As the chat went on, they all relaxed.

They weren't going to get attacked. In fact, maybe the Rats could even help them out. If they knew how to get to the temple, maybe the younger one could guide the group there to make things go faster. Maybe they could suggest another way back, something that would take less time. Maybe-

Maybe she shouldn't get ahead of herself just yet. Maybe the Rats hadn't ever actually located the temple. After all, Mr. and Mrs. Agreste had indicated that the temple's exact location was still lost to everyone, as far as they knew, and the Miraculous had still been there when they arrived. It had only been a year since they were last in Tibet. If the Rats hadn't found the temple before, after decades upon decades of trying, why would they manage it now? Maybe all this stop would accomplish would be to set them further behind schedule and to hopefully restock some of their supplies. There was no way to know, not yet.

They would have to hope for the best but be ready for the worst.

Jade Turtle was having a grand old time.

Sure, maybe this side trip would put a bit of a delay in their plans, and they might have to inquire about where to buy more supplies so that they would be sure that they would have enough for the rest of their journey and the return, but it was fabulous to talk to another old holder, one who had heard stories of the lost temple and everything that had gone on there. It turned out that several of the previous Rat's relatives- well, his ancestors and their relatives- had gone to the temple. A few had been lucky enough to receive a Miraculous over the years, and several had been killed in the attacks that had destroyed the temple and scattered the Guardians. The man had wanted to dedicate his life to recovering the lost Miraculous and restarting the temples, but had to largely set the goal aside to get a job and raise a family once he reached his 30s. After that, he had wanted to focus on simply finding the temples and recovering the lost Miraculous so that they could be used again.

(Privately, Jade Turtle thought that was just as well. The kwamis had never been thrilled about being confined to the temple, preferring instead to find Chosens in areas that actually needed their presence. He hadn't wanted to break the news that he wasn't here to restart the temple, but it seemed that the other man no longer considered that a goal.)

"It's good to see that the Peacock and Butterfly are back in safe hands," the old Rat told him. "I grew worried when I heard of the happenings in Paris."

"Well, at first we were quite excited," the younger Rat told Jade, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. Excited? Hawkmoth's attacks had been clearly malicious from the start. Wayzz had been able to sense Hawkmoth's ill intentions, and even without a kwami to clue them in, it had only taken Paris a very short time to realize that the entity called Hawkmoth was evil.

"Excited?"

"Well, we were trying to figure out how to get in contact with other Miraculous holders," the old Rat corrected. "And then there's suddenly Ladybug and Chat Noir, completely obvious and visible. We were going to call on them and see if they knew of you, but we waited, because we knew that there was no way they could leave Paris, not while Hawkmoth was still loose."

Intrigued, Jade Turtle leaned forward. "Wait, why were you trying to get in contact with me? Why now?"

The two Rats exchanged a look. "It has to do with an incident just over a year ago," the older one started. "Tsomo, tell him about it. You were the one there, after all."

The younger Rat gave the older one an irritated look, probably for using his real name, before he turned back to Jade Turtle. "I was out looking for the Temple, trying to trace the records we did have, just like my uncle did before me. I don't get to go out often, since I have a job of my own to tend to, but when I can I went out. I had been getting closer to the Valley of the Kwamis, I could feel it, but around there the lingering magic that I was using as my guide was a bit haywire, and of course the valley can only be found through a single hidden entrance. I found many valleys, some more touched by magic than others, but not that one. And then that day, I felt a strong pulse of magic, something old springing up. I focused on that, using it as my guide to steer me. And after circling the area for several days in search of the entrance, I finally found the valley."

"But no one there?"

Tsomo shook his head. "No one. It took me two days to get in from where I was, so if there was someone else there before, they had taken off. The only thing out of place in the ruins was a glow from one of the temples. I figured out that it was the one that the Miraculous holders had slept in, the one with the traps to catch those who might bring harm to the holders. And the glow was from one of those very same traps. It didn't take long to figure out that someone had been there before me, and they had been caught by one of the old spells."

"He came to me at once," the old Rat said, picking up the story. "After marking his path, of course, so he could find the valley again. It didn't take long for me to realize that we would need all seven of the topmost level holders to rescue whoever had fallen ill of the trap. But of course, I had no idea where you might be, and the Butterfly and the Peacock were still missing. Still, I needed to find you to let you know so that there would be more heads to think about the problem. And then Hawkmoth showed up."

"So you knew where I was likely to be found, but there was no way we could leave Paris then," Jade Turtle finished. The old Rat nodded.

"And we figured that you had enough to worry about without news of a trapped soul that needed to be freed. It wasn't as though it was a very time-sensitive problem."

Jade Turtle shook his head. "It would have been another thing for me to work on while keeping an eye on the Hawkmoth problem. And it would have been a clue for us to figure out who Hawkmoth was."

Two sets of eyes snapped to him. "Wait, you mean it was Hawkmoth who was there- oh, of course he was!" Tsomo exclaimed. He swore abruptly. Jade Turtle startled, and he could see the rest of his group suddenly tense up, looking to him for guidance. "I should have known. That was how he got his Miraculous! And he came with someone else, but they were trapped. I bet I know who it was- they were poking around too close for my taste several times, but I only confronted them the once. I should have come to Paris as soon as I heard the news, then- I could have pointed him out! The attacks could have been stopped a whole lot sooner if I had been there- I mean, I didn't know his name, but I could have done a pretty good drawing, and then we could have investigated, and-"

"The young superheroes might not have been ready had they gone after him earlier than they did," Jade Turtle pointed out, realizing it as he said it. Yes, it would have been good to make some headway about who Hawkmoth was earlier, but things had turned out well. "This way, they had most of a year's worth of experience fighting. They were able to access some secondary abilities. And with Ladybug's Miraculous Cure, there was no lasting damage to the city. And think of it this way- now, we have two fresh superheroes experienced in fighting. That by itself is important."

"So it wouldn't have helped, then? Not even remotely?" Tsomo crossed his arms, looking doubtful. "I find that hard to believe."

Jade Turtle shook his head. "No, no, it still could have been useful! The way we discovered who Hawkmoth was- well, it a lucky accident, and it could have very easily not happened. We're lucky that Chat Noir's kwami has an insatiable appetite."

Both Rats glanced towards Chat Noir in confusion. Jade Turtle didn't miss the way Chat Noir drew back, wary of the attention.

"But we might have not been able to attack right away, since the young superheroes were still learning how to fight," Jade Turtle finished. "It may not have ended the attacks much sooner because of that. Experience is a difficult thing to imitate. But it ended well, so there's no need to be upset."

"The past is in the past," the old Rat agreed. "We must focus on the present and the future. In this case, I believe we can help most by assisting you and your group on the way to the temple. Tsomo can speed your journey up, I think. And you can spend a night or two to rest and recover and wash up before setting off again, which I'm sure you'll enjoy."

Jade Turtle chuckled, thinking of the disgruntled expressions on his charges' faces from whenever they had to wash in the rain. "I'm sure we can help with that. We've been using a solar shower sort of thing, but when we do it's at the end of a long day and there's not much time for the water to heat up. And if there's a downpour, we use that. A more traditional wash would be welcome."

"And a day's rest before you venture out again?"

Jade Turtle had to think about that one. While he was sure that Wayzz could use a break- his poor kwami wasn't accustomed to transforming for days on end, with breaks only at night, and on top of that he seemed to be tiring faster than expected- and the children could also use a rest from hiking, he was sure that they were all impatient to get to the temple and complete their trip. "Can I get back to you on that later? I should ask the rest of my group what they think."

"Of course."

"If you have a market of any sort nearby, I would be interested in seeing it before we go," Jade Turtle told them. "Or if any of your neighbors might be interested in selling us any fruit or vegetables. We've been out for about a week and a half now, and I'm sure we would welcome any fresh food. I know I should get some fresh veggies for my kwami, as he has been getting quite the workout on this trip."

"I might say, it is very impressive that you're doing the journey. I had to give up being the Rat when my bones got too old." The old Rat glanced over at Tsomo. "Of course, the Rat has to walk and run everywhere."

Jade Turtle chuckled. "Yes, having the shell is quite nice. I had to hike without it as myself at the start of our journey, since we were on hiking trails. I can't blame the locals for making the area into a day hike zone, but it was quite difficult to carry all of our supplies as myself."

"If we had gotten in contact with you before you left Paris, we would have told you to come from our town," Tsomo said immediately. "It's a shorter journey on foot, though it's very difficult for cars to navigate all of the way from the nearest city. I would offer to let you take that way back, but we don't have a car for you to borrow. Neither do any of our neighbors."

"Ah, we'll be fine," Jade Turtle assured him. He waved the GPS, with all of its carefully backed-up data. "We're planning on transforming on the way back and going straight-line distances cross-country, as fast as we possibly can. My shell can get quite speedy when I want it to. Trying to go out via your roads wouldn't speed things up for us at this point, but I appreciate the thought."

The old Rat nodded. "I suspected as much. We will simply have to content ourselves with letting you rest and speeding along your journey to the temple. Now, since it is getting late- I'm guessing that you might like some dinner?"

To Master Fu's surprise, his group was largely accepting towards the idea of a day's break to wash and restock a bit before continuing on their journey. They took his word that the Rats were trustworthy- well, except for Chat Noir and Ladybug, but given Chat Noir's family's history with the Rat, perhaps that was understandable.

"Could you maybe do a little fishing about the threats they made towards my parents before the rest of us detransform?" Chat Noir asked. He glanced over at the younger Rat, who was standing in the kitchen. "Just- if he's going to tag along, once we free my mom- I mean-"

"You want to make sure that both she and you will be safe," Master Fu finished. He smiled kindly at Chat Noir. "Of course. Perhaps I can bring it up at dinner. I'll make sure that he knows her true intentions for coming out, and that further harassment will not be tolerated."

Chat Noir nodded.

Master Fu smiled at the boy again before heading over to the kitchen to offer his services to get dinner made. They were an extra seven people, after all. Seven people and his kwami, at least. It was possible that a couple of the others might decide to detransform before dinner, but perhaps not likely.

"Your companions are still wary, I see," the elder Rat commented when Master Fu joined him. "They're all still transformed, even though they could use their kwamis to translate and talk to us if they wanted."

Ah-hah. Perfect opening, handed to him on a silver platter. "Yes, well, all they had known about the Rat before we met him today was based off of what we had read in Hawkmoth and his wife's journals. And what we read was based on one rather unfortunate run-in that they had, around perhaps two years ago?."

The elder Rat gave Tsomo a flat look. "Yes, I heard about that as well. And we had a discussion about at least hearing people out before threatening them."

Tsomo scowled. "Clearly my threats weren't good enough, if they didn't stop the two of them from coming back. Those chasing power cannot be trusted."

"They had been searching for the temple and the Miraculous, yes. But using it had not been their original goal." Their heads turned towards him, and Master Fu inclined his in return before starting to explain Mrs. Agreste's true intentions. Tsomo looked rather contrite at the explanation, and the Rat's eyes widened.

"I remember the girl," he said once Master Fu was done speaking. "A friend of one of my granddaughters. Kind, I remember. She struck me as someone who liked challenges. Stubborn. And her intentions were nice, if misplaced. Had I known what she had planned, I would have tried to dissuade her, or at least warn her of the booby traps that my kwami told me about."

"If they had to find the temple, if they had their minds so set on it, it would have been better for them to simply find it and then come to us at once instead of searching the ruins." Tsomo's expression had turned a bit stubborn again. "...but I suppose I could have listened, first. And if she was once a friend of the family, then I suppose she spoke Mandarin and we could have had a conversation. But how was I to know? It looked like outsiders coming in, trying to find the sacred ruins for their own gain. That isn't the first time that it's happened since the temple's fall. How they hear of the temple or how to find it, I have no idea."

The old Rat sighed. "Patience is a virtue. Rats are meant to sneak and spy and gather information before deciding on a path of action."

"They were getting too close. I didn't think it was smart to watch and see." Tsomo looked displeased as he added, "Though I suppose they would have gotten as lost as I did once the trail ended, giving me enough time to intercept them."

Master Fu simply nodded. It sounded quite like Tsomo would pose no further threat to the Agreste family, but he wanted to make sure. "Well, the girl- she's a woman now- she's the one we're looking to rescue from the temple."

His meaning was clear. Tsomo let out a long sigh. "No harm will come to her. I never intended to carry through with the threats, really. They were just supposed to scare them away. The most I would do would be give chase. Your Ladybug and Chat Noir are much scarier than I am, trust me. Even if they look friendlier, I've heard the stories of their fights, and gone into town to see the video. They're strong fighters, and I've never seen proper combat."

Fu made a mental note to tell that to Chat Noir. It would probably bring him some peace of mind.

Surprisingly enough, it didn't take long for the meal to come together. Tsomo and the Rat had decided to go for a vegetable-heavy meal, clearly correctly surmising that they hadn't had many fresh veggies on their hike. The noodle-filled soup smelled amazing, and the barley bread tasty. Master Fu was itching to sit down to enjoy the meal.

Across the kitchen, Wayzz had been settled with a pile of pea pods and chopped squash and was looking quite pleased as he munched on his own well-deserved feast. Fu knew that he had been pushing his old friend hard, perhaps too hard. A day's rest where Wayzz could be untransformed and munching on vegetables to his heart's content- Fu would have to compensate the Rats for the food they offered- would be much appreciated.

The kwamis were not used to being transformed all day, every day. If he could persuade the rest of the group to detransform and let their kwamis rest up and eat what they needed to fully recharge before the final part of their journey, that would be best of all involved.

After all, they didn't want to have to stop their journey on the way back and stay huddled in tents to hide their identities if the kwamis gave out from exhaustion and had to take a break to recharge.

With dinner on the table, they all sat down to eat. The elder Rat gestured for them all to serve up, assuring them that they could dig in as he had made plenty. Master Fu translated for him, and the teens dug in. As he waited for a bowel to be passed down to him, Fu decided to continue their conversation from earlier.

"So you told me that you met Mrs. Agreste years ago and told her about the temple," he started, encouraged by the old Rat's nod. "There is one more question I had- why do the instructions start from the town way back near the waterfall trails? Why not start from here?"

The old Rat laughed. "Oh, that's easy. My family originally lived there, and so that was the trail we had been familiar with, the one that our ancestors had taken. Most of our family still lives there. I chose to move out here, when I discovered that this village was closer to the temple ruins. It was quite a recent move, really- maybe twenty years ago?" He glanced at Tsomo, who shrugged. "After I met that girl, and after my wife passed. I had been planning to move for quite a while, though. The trip out took ages, where now it is only a couple days' journey to get there."

"That is convenient." Master Fu had to admire his dedication. He and the other six top-level Chosens could move across land quite quickly when they wanted to, but the lower-level Miraculous holders didn't have that same ability. They could move faster than normal humans when transformed, yes, but they could not move as fast as a speeding train like he could, or fly so quickly that all the world practically turned into a blur. Trying to hike all the way out without that would take quite a while.

He himself had only hiked that first day, when he had had no other choice. The rest of the way, he had flown on his shell.

"Did she know Tibetan, then?" Master Fu asked. "Or did her friend translate, or...?"

"I speak Mandarin and so did she," the old Rat told him, and Master Fu nodded. He had suspected as much. "So does Tsomo. Oh, I should have asked- does anyone else in you party speak Mandarin? We could speak that instead if it would allow more of the group to partake in the conversation."

"Two of them do," Master Fu admitted. "One better than the other. For the timing being, however, I would like to keep discussion about the temple in Tibetan. Some of the conversation might be, ah, upsetting to one of them in particular."

Tsomo nodded gravely as he accepted the bowl that had been passed to him. "That's understandable. The temple's history is long and glorious and filled with a great many good things and great accomplishments, but there are some rather upsetting events as well. In particular, its fall."

Master Fu winced as he accepted his bowl. Yes, that part was not the temple's shining moment, and he was partly- nay, largely responsible for setting in motion some of the events that brought about the final fall. That, to his knowledge, was the most upsetting event that the temple had involved in by far.

"It must have been rather impressive when it was all active," Tsomo added. "With all of the buildings standing, and the trainees in the courtyard, and the fields active... I try to imagine it every time that I visit."

"Have you visited the temples often since then?"

Tsomo nodded. "Quite often. I've been working to get all of the bodies that were there properly buried. There were only bones left, of course, and some scraps of clothes that had survived, but I didn't feel right leaving them out in the open for the crows to peck at. I've recovered some of the books that were there as well, but the burials have taken precedence."

Master Fu nodded, burying another wince in favor of trying to think about the situation objectively. Prioritizing the burials was perhaps not what he would have done- the scrolls and research was important, and after all the dead could not be saved- but he was glad that the children wouldn't be subjected to seeing the skeletons. They were too young to see it, too young to have to face the severity of the loss from so long ago. They were there to try to rescue Adrien's mom, not to see the bones littering the courtyard and be forced to think about all of the deaths that had happened years prior.

(Master Fu wondered if the younger trainees had made it out. The oldest ones had stayed to fight, he knew- they had had enough training to actually make a difference and to have a chance at surviving- but they had decided to evacuate the large groups of young children that made up the lowest classes of trainees. He had never found out if they had been successful in getting them out, and did he really want to know?

After all, what if they hadn't? What if they had all been struck down as they ran for their lives?)

"So that's what the fresh dirt is from," Tsomo finished. "You'll see it when you get there. I've cleared the courtyard area, and what I could see from a couple of the buildings. I found the old Butterfly and Peacock, and could label their graves. The others...well, I marked where the grave was, and all of the information that my kwami could sense from the bones."

"Age and sex, mostly," the old Rat elaborated. "If there was a distinctive enough magic mark on them, then what they were training to become. But it's hard to learn much from some bones that are over a hundred fifty years old."

Master Fu nodded, wondering if he and Wayzz would have been able to figure out anything more with the information they could get. After all, he had grown up at the temple. He had known all of the Miraculous users and quite a few of the magic users as well, while no one else in the world could say the same.

Still, maybe it was better for him not to delve too deeply into figuring out who had died in the attack that day. Everyone he would have known from his time there would have already passed by now anyway, either in the attack or naturally. It wasn't healthy to continue beating himself up over a mistake that he had made well over a hundred years ago. He would thank Tsomo for burying his fallen brethren and leave it at that.

"I thank you for your work," Master Fu told Tsomo. "I would not want my fallen colleagues to lay out in the sun forever. They deserved better than that."

Tsomo inclined his head in agreement, and a silence fell over their end of the table. The six other members of Fu's group fell quiet as well, eying the three of them warily.

"Let us move on to more pleasant topics of conversation," the old Rat proposed after a minute, breaking the suddenly uneasy silence. "So! Tell us about your journey so far. I'm very curious about how it has gone."

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #There's No Camembert in Tibet #still trying to catch up on the quilting backlog

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oliveraaliyah1994 · 4 years

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gamerestart · 7 years

Text

My Personal History with Electronic Games: 4 of N

Previously on Game Restart: [it’s a series]

The thing about arcades is that arcades are expensive.

Adjusted for inflation, a quarter in early 80s money is approximately 63¢ in today’s money at the time of this writing. Most people probably aren’t used to spending money after the initial investment in the console and then the game for their home, but imagine spending that for every three tries, lives, or continues.

And some games in the 1980s were 50¢ (or $1.25 as of 2018). Many remember Dragon’s Lair (I certainly do), one of several LaserDisc based games which rocked arcades back in the day, and games like these certainly commanded a pretty high price. I have to admit, my total investment in that particular bit of entertainment probably amounts to no more than $1.50 in 80s money. Nine lives all ended in failure, and then the bank was broke.

I didn’t investigate any of the others, though I was morbidly fascinated by the gory bits present in the attract mode for Bega’s Battle standing in the entryway to the base exchange in Yokota.

Still, on occasion, I’d spring for Pac-Man, but since most of these games demanded a lot more than home console versions, they tended to end pretty quickly. I was more keen on spending my video game money on books, specifically game books, specifically, books, like, for example:

Among others. Modules were $5.50, rulebooks for the Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert were $6.00, and I want to say boxed sets were something like $12, but that included dice and sometimes another module, too. The hardcover books ranged from $15 to $18 (for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide). I was also into Star Frontiers and paperback game books like Joe Dever and Gary Chalk’s Lone Wolf series.

Arcades got a little play, but I spent much less time in them than I spent in libraries. And clearly, I could certainly kill some time gazing at the books at the Stars and Stripes bookstores over the summers (or at Waldenbooks, stateside).

When it came to money, what I wasn’t spending on Zoids, I was saving for books, which frequently came to me used. I spent a lot of time amassing my collection of role playing game materials, and most of it I’ve kept since those days. Virtually everything else, like the video games, Commodore 128, and toys, were either lost or sold somewhere along the way. Moving a lot meant regularly purging; I purged books absolutely last and only if it was absolutely necessary. I did my best to keep the books, but the Vectrex and Atari 2600 never properly belonged to me anyway.

Moving was big, and was done every two years without fail—even if it was literally down the street on base. Once our stuff was packed up and shipped out, we had a short empty stay in our former residence—always as empty as it was whenever we first arrived two years prior—and then either drove or flew out to the next destination. Often, there would be extensive road trips regardless, because that’s when the vacations would be timed: between Dad’s assignments, over the summer so we missed as little school as possible.

May, 1984 involved a trip to pick up some cousins and we hied forth to Orlando and Disney World and—with the greatest possible anticipation by myself—EPCOT Center. I might play games in medieval-styled fantasy worlds, but at heart I’ve always been a futurist, and this marvelous new place promised to speak eloquently to me of better futures.

I voraciously consumed science fiction in print and whatever I could get on television or in theaters and home video. Star Wars at the drive-ins had been a favorite of mine since I was seven. The Empire Strikes Back made a greater impact, but was more downbeat, and I’d seen Return of the Jedi only the year before in an outdoor theater in Antigua. Anything else was delayed to home video. Living abroad often meant missing or being otherwise behind whenever it came to pop cultural stuff. Base TV (AFRTS) also didn’t have commercials, so we only saw local programming, not the stuff people were being subjected to stateside.

I was more a fan of our space program, and NASA. My elementary school in Antigua was named after the astronauts of Apollo 1 (Chaffee, White, and Grissom), and there was a small mural of the astronauts inside the building.

Heck, it was a small building, holding grades 1-4 in one room, and 5-7 in the next. There was a small library—read Watership Down for the first time from there—and a few bathrooms and closets but that was it for the most part. It was a very small school. Eighth graders were sent elsewhere, I forget where, but it was moot in my case, since I would be repeating seventh grade when I got to Japan. Being held back for “developmental reasons” always struck me as bullshit. I could have been out of school one year earlier. I got back at everyone by failing the ninth grade, but that backfired and I was moved into the tenth grade on Adak anyway. I may have honestly earned a bit of my opposition to establishments which practice hypocrisy back then. The world of adults made no sense, and they were too inconsistent with the rules to be trusted.

But this was a trip to remember, and I was looking forward to it.

Apart from the long drive with cousins, there was always entertainment. Reading in a moving vehicle was still something I could do at that time, so I did that a lot. There were also a very few portable electronic games. Crazy Climber (from Bandai), a “Monkey Business” wristwatch (also by Bandai), and an VFD (vacuum fluorescent display) game I’d resurrected from dead—purchased for about a dollar at a yard sale on Antigua. It came with considerable battery corrosion from four AA batteries, and I actually spent a lot of time trying to recover it to a working state. Some soldering was required (my Dad helped with that part) and I was able to get it working again. It was Star Hawk by Mattel, the first electronic game I would ever fix. Anyway, these saw some use, but these would be mostly forgotten when we arrived at the campsite.

KOA campgrounds were all over the US (near as I could tell), and we’d spent a lot of time in them, driving all over the country, saving money (I assume) on hotel bills. We set up tents, visited bathrooms, gazed at the swimming pool, and … and then …

And then it rained like a swimming pool poured through a sieve for almost the entire week. I didn’t care: Disney World/EPCOT were too nearby to feel anything but slightly dampened anticipation.

The only dry spot was the KOA laundry and check-in building where the snacks and vending machines were and—

And there it was. One arcade console by Atari—still close enough to the heyday to inspire excitement even in a jaded, dampened, and world-weary twelve-year-old—and no mere upright cabinet console this, and certainly not the blocky-chunky pixels of the Atari 2600 home console but the clean vector graphics I would later associate with the Vectrex; this was a cockpit to climb into to save the rebel alliance from the Death Star. (And it had some early voice samples from the film itself.)

Star Wars was fifty cents to play. Half a dollar. Cripplingly costly.

Objectively I knew I needed to save money for the Disney experiences which were the entire basis for the whole trip, but I also must needed to play it. It’s one thing to grab a friend’s X-wing (er, with permission—I never had my own), and run around the playground like a lunatic blowing up the enemy, one gets tired of that kind of exercise. Also there are compromises like Luke technically being unavailable so a Micronaut Time Traveller had to step in and save the day, but imagination is as fierce and unyielding as it is malleable.

This was the summer of 1984, and I probably spent 70% of my budget into that damned machine. The parents did not object. It was rainy, and we had been holding out for better weather, and it was warm and dry nearer to the glow of the screen. X rays are like that. And what was I going to do otherwise? Go swimming? That was like walking.

The rain relented slightly, and I had a fabulous time at EPCOT and Disney World (adventures to recount later), and it turns out, even after coaxing one last play before we packed up camp and left, I was unable to end the Death Star. That fight would have to continue later.

Back to 2003, at a Tacoma Fred Meyers, I wander into electronics, just to see if there was anything new. I may have been killing time for the next bus home. Fred Meyer doesn’t seem to do this any more for home consoles, but they had a video game kiosk set up for the Nintendo GameCube.

Nintendo. I’d heard of them. Why not. The demo is playing Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II. I grasp the controller, and feel my way around playing for a bit.

And I’m back in 1984, sitting in the cockpit of an X-wing, trying to ‘splode the Death Star.

In 1995, graphics like this would have been mind-blowing. But I regularly used SGI hardware far more capable than any video game console, and there wasn’t that much difference between this and the PS2. Perhaps the GameCube was better overall, but that’s not the whole experience. Running down TIE fighters and crashing into walls is.

I bought the game. I bought the GameCube (Indigo, because, reasons). I bought a copy of Luigi’s Mansion. And I bought a wireless Wavebird controller all on the same day.

It would take a few months, and I certainly didn’t know it at the time, but this machine would put dust on the Sony PS2.

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