5th Bravery | Audio

[radiantchicken]

[This has been an interesting day for Torin. He has arms now. And hands with opposable thumbs. This has been a most joyous development for him, and after a morning spent opening doors and flipping light switches and doing all the sorts of things that one generally did with thumbs, he decided to expand his horizons. He sounds pretty much like a human now, and although he enjoys socializing with the people on the network, he decided to use his new hands in conjunction with his human-sounding voice to meet new people.

And that's how he found himself logging into Xbox Live. He spent a couple of hours attempting to play with these people, voice chat and all, and soon found himself having to look up a bunch of new vocabulary words that all turned out to be pretty terrible curses or slurs of one sort or another. It didn't matter what game he tried; they were all the same. Once he figured that out, he tried to get the people playing these games to try to treat each other with some modicum of respect, but it didn't go as well as he would have hoped. Needless to say, the parrot is horrified by how he just spent his afternoon. He is confused and upset, and so he'll open an audio feed to the network once he's calmed down a bit.]

What is wrong with people on these online games? The language they use! It's appalling!

[That is a lot of distress in what sounds like the deep voice of a middle-aged man. Too bad it belongs to a six-year-old parrot.]

Why do they do this? I thought the point was to play, not to make disparaging comments about females or those who are part of a different ethnic group! I don't understand!

[And if you happened to be someone he ran into earlier when he was playing, then shame on you.]

Comments

[Voice]

[shiromadoushi]

[[oh no...]]

...What games were you playing....?

[[Because he's thinking of all the ones he has that have online play and no no no why would you even, Torin, why]]

[Voice]

[radiantchicken]

[Torin rattles off a list of every single game Bakura owns that has online and voice chat capability.]

And with each one of them, the players were all insulting and saying foul things to one another! I had to look up so many of those words!

[Voice]

[shiromadoushi]

...you were on the Xbox? [[Can you hear the wince in his voice?]]

Why were you even--

Look. When you play games like that, you ignore chat. Especially voice chat! Unless you've got a specific guild vent or something, just-- just don't. Got it?

[Voice]

[radiantchicken]

Yes, I was on the Xbox!

[He sounds all proud and hasn't picked up on that wince.]

I just wanted to play games and meet some new people! I couldn't meet people if I ignored chat!

voice

[endthiscycle]

[It's possible that Winry was someone he ran into earlier, aaaaand while she wouldn't be the one to instigate something if someone made any comments, especially sexist ones, you can bet she lashed back]

Anonymity. It's not just online games but really anything where people feel they can get away with it. Sucks but that's how it is.

voice

[radiantchicken]

That is no excuse for such awful behavior.

[He lectured some of these people...]

That makes it even worse somehow--that's just hurting others with no purpose!

voice

[endthiscycle]

I'm certainly not condoning it--you're right. But I think a lot of it also depends on what game you play. Some bring better crowds than others.

video;

[cava]

I see you've experienced the joys that only such a community might offer, monsieur.

video;

[radiantchicken]

[Oh, a video? Torin will reply in kind, so enjoy looking at a weird-looking parrot with arms.]

I do not believe joy is the right word for that.

video;

[cava]

[... is that a. what? never mind, you know what, he's gonna roll with it.]

It so rarely is.

video! (SHE IS JUST GOING TO THREADJACK NOW)

[wingsister]

:TORIN, ARE THOSE HANDLEGS? ARMS! I MEAN ARMS!:

[Areonwen is Quite Startled by her friend suddenly having extra limbs. Sorry everyone, you're getting the telepathic equivalent of shouting.]

text

[wonk]

oh dude

im so sorry

the reason they do it is sexism and racism + hella anonymity

worst way 2 find out tho

text

[radiantchicken]

[Torin stares at the text for a moment before realizing that hey, he can so reply with text! He has hands now. The response is slow, for he is determined that the punctuation and spelling all be good, and he has not typed before.]

I find it appalling that they are allowed to continue in such a manner. Is there nothing that can be done?

[wonk]

well i mean microsoft tries u kno it is techincally against the TOS

but they cant have a mod in every game so the teenage boys run rampant

theres more and more of a cultural shift away from that shit i think but its hard 2 manage on a "well im playing games and oh shit theres a racist sexist dbag" lvl

video;

[sucrosity]

[For a minute the feed is just the bun on top of her head, and then it adjusts. She's lying on her floor by the look of it.]

People think they can get away with whatever just because you can't punch them in the face for being a jerk, I think.

[She pauses to tap her chin.]

You might wanna try playing games that aren't for teenage boys, though, they're the worst.

video;

[radiantchicken]

[Torin decides to reply via video, so have a strange-looking blue parrot with a tuft of red feathers on the top of his head, white whiskers, and feathery white eyebrows. And arms. Those are also a thing.]

Ah, but I got these games from a teenage boy, perhaps there is where part of the problem was...

[Hold the phone, he's getting an Echo there...he'll jerk suddenly, ruffle his feathers, and then tilt his head to one side, like he's trying to figure something out.]

voice;

[skycutter]

Power of the internet. Some people think they can get away with being jerks on it because they don't have to put their real names or faces on it.

What were you playing anyway? Some games have better people, and some... just really don't.

voice;

[radiantchicken]

Well, I started out with this Call of Duty thing...

voice;

[skycutter]

... Oh jeez.

Okay no, worst game to start out with. Try MMOs on the computer. Those don't make you listen to people screaming nasty stuff in your ear and you can just block what they say anyway.

voice;

[hollowleg]

[creepy flange voice is go;]

Two words; mute button. I don't ever listen to the other players when I game. Or I only play with people I know.

voice;

[radiantchicken]

[The flange voice is interesting, certainly, but Torin's too polite to comment on it directly.]

But then how are you supposed to meet people? It is difficult for me to do that outside of the network; I thought this would be a good way to do so.

voice;

[hollowleg]

Oh that's right. You're a bird. ... Well, that is a dilemma. You could play with Numbers Club people only?

Voice

[fusionjack]

It's the Internet. When people are anonymous and not likely to be punished for what they'll say, they'll say just about anything.

[...What was that voice? Was that who he thought it was? The parrot?]

...is this Torin?

[How in the hell is a parrot playing video games?]

Voice

[radiantchicken]

It's too bad there isn't a way to bring justice to them somehow...

[The parrot perks up at the voice.]

Yes, this is Torin. Jackson? Is that you?

Voice -> Video

[fusionjack]

Sadly, technology hasn't advanced to the point where we can punch people over the Internet.

[Then there's a laugh, and a moment of delay before it becomes a video feed instead. That's Jack, alright. And he's smiling and looking happy to hear from the bird.]

That's me. How've you been, other than interacting with the dregs of humanity?