A/N: Here dwells another oneshot. AND... CHOKE ON IT. E.e
I'll do a character study for everyone eventually. Different formats for everybody, based on personality.
My Whole Freaking Life Is A Game Of Pac-Man: A Character Study for Mail Jeevas (Matt)
He likes the action games that only cost a quarter, but they're getting hard to find; he'll give a tirade to anyone within earshot about this. He knows where all the best arcades are anyway.
Pac-Man bores him after a few moments, because he knows that after the forty-somethingth level they start repeating courses. He hates the lack of action even though he can sit and do nothing but game all day himself, an effective double standard.
Outside of the arcades, he buys everything he can get his hands on. Stupid little-kid new Mario games and the "impossible" Super Mario Bros. 3 (he beat it in a day and a half and has replayed it at least five times since then) and hardcore stuff. Mature stuff. He's broke from spending all of his cash, and in running debt to Mello.
Much of the game choices give insight into how he thinks.
On days he plays Mario, he's light, and unthinking, only focused on beating the next easy level, getting to the next place.
On days he plays Black Ops, he's harsh, he's bossy, barking orders into his headset and feeling his headphones vibrate in return, the silent protests of those he orders around.
He doesn't ever get up to use the bathroom, showing his decreased care for urgent needs in his life.
He'll only raise his eyes and grunt if something big happens, and only if it's involving Mello he really cares.
They call him lazy, they call him a useless frustrating eye-straining head-ruining thumb-twisting finger-tapping study-skipping multitasking gamer, and even Mello will grumble when they're waiting for the train and he pulls out his worn Gameboy Color. The embarrassed blonde will hiss for the redhead to act mature and put it away or at least turn the beeping noise down.
He refuses, and won't speak to Mello for whole rest of the ride back. His gamer side doesn't care about the feelings of others.
He tunes the whole world out, makes it vanish simply by pushing a button and flicking a switch, and it drives everyone insane. He drives himself insane. He's considered treatment for his addiction both in jest and in all seriousness, but he's always figured they'd laugh- who could be severely addicted to gaming?
But he knows it's not the acts or even the satisfaction that matters to him, he's addicted to the painkiller. It makes the hurt go away. If he's had a bad day, if he misses his deadbeat dead parents, if Mello is in a hellish mood, there's always HALO, or Grand Theft Auto, or even stupid Pac-Man.
...As an afterthought, the other reason he hates that game is that it's exactly like his life. He's a dispensable creature, trying to accomplish a task, going around and around a maze, and there are ghosts with strange names and colors after him, chasing him relentlessly, as he jerks the stick frantically against the edges of the hard plastic, (his heartbeat, probably) trying to stay alive.
It's pretty depressing if he thinks about it, but he's done thinking about it.
By the way, Matt will be playing Top Gun if anyone needs him, but he'll probably snap at you for interrupting.
La Fin