Blake is in to books, this… is undeniable.
It doesn't matter what book she reads, be it smut or adventure, picture books or poetry. Blake loves it all. To get lost in these undiscovered landscapes and fly for miles and miles in someone else's shoes is the kind of thing that paints a smile across the Faunus' lips.
This desire to experience new types of worlds and understand the thought processes behind their creation eventually lead Blake to PC gaming. At first she didn't think that video games could ever match up to the potentially, epiphany inducing emotions that flooded through her body with every flip of a page.
But she had been so wrong. There was something else about games that called out to her. She didn't need to think about how the world looked, what colour the grass was or how friendly the passers-by were. It was all laid out for her. The ground beneath her feet, the moon in the sky and the expressions on another's face were all there for her to see, plain as day.
Her passion for this new format of entertainment grew by the day. She upgraded her PC from time to time to allow her to play the more demanding games. But that didn't stop her playing whatever she wanted.
Story oriented games like RPGs or even dialogue-less indie games were her favourite kind of games, she was hooked on this type of well thought out game just as quickly and hard as her reading.
So when she had received an anonymous recommendation to play through a horror game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent, she had been sceptical. she knew from the videos she had seen that the majority of people that played through horror games were in it for the thrill of the chase and rarely took the time to check the corners of a room for something they might've missed.
That wasn't how Blake liked to play. Taking her time and absorbing the story is what enthusiasts like herself were used to, so from the advertisements that these other players put out, she hadn't felt the appeal to start one up herself.
Not to mention Blake was scared shitless.
Despite her being a Faunus and some of her senses being greatly enhanced against that of a human's, like her hearing and her smell. This didn't mean that when she had her guard down she was immune to people coming up behind her and making her jump. If anything this made her even more sensitive. Once her senses had alerted her to another person's presence she was already on high alert, like her body was preparing her to jump and the when she turned around and discovered there actually was an unexpected person there, that actually triggered the full blown jump.
But a game was different, even if she could see what was in front of her and hear what was around her through the speakers, her Faunus senses were of no additional help at all. She was dreading playing the game but she wanted to form her own opinion of it without speculating on a subject she knew nothing about.
The game had actually just finished downloading when she heard the door open behind her and Blake, consequently, jumped.
"Oh, Blake." It was her team leader, Ruby. Her wide, innocent eyes were a comfort to Blake in this difficult time. "You're already on to another game?"
"Yeah, unfortunately." She mumbled the last word but was quickly struck with an idea that might just make this new experience a little more bearable. "Hey Ruby."
"Hmm?" The young girl asked as she took her shoes off.
"Would you like to watch me play?"
Blake watched as a wide smile stretched across Ruby's face.
"I'd love to watch you!" She chirped as she bounced over to Blake in her swivel chair. "What are you playing?"
Blake patted her lap and Ruby happily made herself at home, sinking her back in to Blake's chest.
"It's a game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent." She told her. "It's a horror game so I won't blame you if you don't want to stick around."
Blake wanted her to stay but she would feel too guilty if she forced the girl to stay and then she got nightmares about it or something. So giving her ample warning was the least she could do.
"Nah, I'll be fine." She said as she flashed Blake a blinding smile. "I've got you to protect me."
Blake gave a shaky laugh. Looks like they'd be scratching each other's backs in this one.
"Alright then." Blake said as she curled her arms around Ruby's waist to first pull her a little closer and then to reach the keyboard. "Let's take it away Ernie. It's gon' be a bumpy ride."
Ruby laughed. What a pleasant way to start off a horror game. The title screen loaded and just the sight of the single, flickering torch and the archway leading to an infinite blackness was enough to send a shiver down both girls' spines.
Blake rested her chin on Ruby's shoulder, hoping that she would be able to gain some kind of stability through the action but as they started up a new game she quickly realised that it was useless.
The protagonist was already speaking, introducing himself as Daniel. He was apparently worried about forgetting who he was and was insistent that he had to stop a certain unnamed person. Daniel's accent sounded like it had come from the same area as Velvet's. Blake took a moment to imagine Velvet playing through this game and already felt like getting up and going to comfort her. She was far too pure a person to be subjected to this kind of torture.
The prologue ended and Blake was given control of Daniel. She quickly familiarised herself with the controls, especially those of crouch, sprint and lean. She had a feeling that she would need those controls.
The castle that they were placed in was dark, very dark. The only apparent light was coming from the grey, overcast weather that shone through the large, Gothic windows and illuminated a pitiful amount of floor space. The girls could hear lightning and running water flooding in to the corridor. It most likely brought in the rose petals that they could spy on the floor. But the patches of what looked impeccably like blood couldn't really be explained so logically. Blake ignored them.
The two were silent as they traversed further in to the castle. Blake was already thoroughly enjoying how eerie their first five minutes had been, even with just the occasional flashes of lightning and running water to spook them. They found a couple of Tinderboxes that Daniel seemed to know where he was stashing them away to and they came in handy when Blake discovered that once they got close to one of the conveniently placed candelabras, she could use said Tinderbox to light them.
Considering that this was a horror game, Ruby informed her that Tinderboxes were most likely hard to come by and they should use them sparingly, only when necessary. Blake agreed and they moved through an archway in to another corridor. Ruby jumped and gasped and that made Blake panic a bit but once she saw the two suits of armour stood at either side of the corridor, she knew it was understandable. As they approached the statues, Daniel seemed to have some kind of a hallucination. His vision swam and he looked to have sunk to his knees, possibly from exhaustion but if this was just the start of the game, Blake was sure that he'd have to suck it up if he wanted to get any further. He couldn't be collapsing so quickly.
Once Daniel had sorted himself out Blake moved him over to the statue on the left. A little hand icon appeared when Blake looked it in the eye and both girls knew that it meant it could be moved. Ruby sank back a bit further in to Blake as the taller girl counted under her breath.
"One… two… three."
Blake quickly removed the helmet from the statue and back-pedalled away from it, preparing for a fight. But none came. The suit of armour was empty and the girls sighed in relief, but Blake was quickly back on edge as she remembered the second statue. Whirling around proved that it luckily hadn't moved. Blake wasn't too keen on doing this with every statue they found so she lined up her cross-hair and promptly threw the helmet in her hands at the the remaining statue.
Both helmets fell to the floor, revealing nothing to be inside the second one either. But Blake was still uneasy. She picked up the helmet once more and moved to the large double doors at the end of the corridor. They looked important.
"What's with the helmet, Blake?" Ruby whispered.
"George will protect us." Blake told her. "I can throw him in their faces, like pocket-sand."
"George?"
"Yeah, George."
The two pulled away from the game to share a look and Ruby was ready to laugh once more but it came out rocky when she saw Blake's pretty face donned with a deadpan expression.
They turned back to the screen and Blake pouted when she saw that she couldn't hold George at the same time while opening the door. She set the helmet down between Daniel and the door at just the right distance that she could easily reach the two quickly should anything burst through the door.
Blake took a deep breath as she leaned forwards with Ruby as they approached the door a little more.
Ruby's hands clenched in anticipation on top of Blake's thighs when there was a familiar click to show that the latch on the door had been raised.
But when Blake moved the mouse ever so slightly to open the large door, they slammed back in to place and some unearthly creature growled from the other side.
Both girls screamed and leapt back from the computer, both girls' backs colliding with the back of Blake's swivel chair. The chair toppled adding once again to the girls' fears and the only words Blake managed to choke out before the two hit the floor backwards were;
"Shit! GEORGE!"
Ruby's foot had caught a cable under the desk which just so happened to be the power cable and the screen went black as the two bounced out of the chair and slid across the floor.
The two were shell shocked as Blake held Ruby tight in her arms while the only things Ruby held tightly closed were the fists balled in to Blake's jacket and her eyelids.
About a minute went by with neither of them moving, just in case those large, wooden doors weren't properly fastened and that thing was somehow still there. But soon enough what had happened sunk in to Blake's mind and she weakly attempted to recompose herself.
"Ruby, are you OK?" She asked.
The small girl tentatively peeked out of one eye and seeing that she was in Blake's arms, relaxed a bit. She let out a shaky sigh as she relaxed against Blake's body. She looked up in to her senior's golden eyes for a few moments until she felt calm once again.
Blake watched as Ruby unwound but was set on edge a little again when the girl suddenly started shaking. Blake was once again about to ask if she was OK, but was cut off when Ruby burst out laughing.
Blake didn't know what to do but the adrenaline running through her veins seemed to have some idea as she settled back down on to the wooden floor and laughed alongside her leader.
"You cried out for George!" Ruby giggled and their laughter only came harder.
