Work Text:
Derek holds back his laughter as Arthur stares at the flatscreen device Avery handed to John. The 30-ish year old man looked lost, his pupilless eyes staring at the currently dark screen.
As for the matter, Arthur had been confused about most of the things in the dorm. He didn’t know computers could even be that small. In fact, he looked confused at how the gears even fit. Let’s not discuss tablets. The man thought the stylus was an inkless pen and tried to unscrew it.
It was difficult to even explain to the poltergeist since most of the words were modernized. Arthur didn’t even know what Artificial Intelligence was, and A.I. was publicized in 1956. In all fairness, Arthur would’ve been 50 by then, and not many people lived to 50 during the 1900s, with U.S. life expectancy at birth being only 47.3 years for men and 53.6 years for women.
Holy shit. Arthur is 126 years old this year. Derek quietly does the math. Arthur was born on the 30th of March, 1900. Which means he is currently 126 years, 111 days, and 12 hours old. Why the fuck is he counting this? This felt rude.
“They lived more than us.” Yellow shrugged and pointed at Avery and Derek. It seems that when Derek spaced out, Arthur had quietly inquired about the tablet and stencil. Now the ghost was looking at them hopefully.
“Wha- You-” Avery yelled, accidentally dropping a book. “You know this more than us, no?? You know everything, don’t you? The great King in Yellow who, I dunno, SHOVED all that shit into Derek’s head??”
“Hmmm… yeah, but my explanation wouldn’t be effective.” Yellow shrugs smugly. “Didn’t live through it.”
“Yeah! But you lived IN it!!” Avery retorted, picking up the book. “You were in Minecraft. A fucking game! You had an entire cult follow you there! You had an entire cave in there! A whole labyrinth of doors and SECRET doors! You’re better at redstone constructs than me!”
Arthur scribbles something and holds it up to John, who was sitting in his own corner up till now, reading Project Hail Mary. John stares at the note and bursts out laughing before wincing in pain. The wound hasn’t healed completely yet. “Ah, fuck…” He mutters, still chuckling, as Arthur flits around John, his movements slightly panicky.
“What?” Avery asked, half demanding. “Why are you laughing?”
John turns the notepad. On it, in Arthur’s swirled and slightly shaky cursive, was written one line of question.
How did you get stuck in a Monopoly board?
Derek snorts and covers his face. He can’t possibly be laughing at a 126-year-old right now. Avery looks away, but his shoulders shake faintly. Yellow just points and laughs. John snickers again before gently patting Arthur’s currently non-corporeal back.
“Minecraft, Arthur…” John explains, pointing at the ongoing open-world game on Avery’s screen. “A modern game on a modern computer.”
And… Arthur is thoroughly confused.