"Uh… basically somebody from somewhere else who's transferring… somewhere." Aiki searched for the right words. "Sorry, that's… not a good way to put it. Ah…" They looked to Eiji for help, and he spoke up to offer a better explanation. "An exchange student is essentially someone who is supposed to study at a different school temporarily. Since that's normally pre-planned and acknowledged by the school, you'd be more like… a shadow, I guess. You'd be following one of us around to 'see if you like the school', even though you're obviously not actually considering going there."
“Ah,” Farah hummed in understanding, and she looked immensely curious at the description. “Alfea doesn’t have exchange students since it’s the only college for fairies in Solaria. It sounds incredibly interesting.”
Aiki and Eiji nodded. "Yeah, typically exchange programs are from other countries, but that's not always necessarily the case. But like I said, you would probably be more like a shadow, and then you wouldn't have to do as much. Or pretend you're a normal student there."
“I guess we’ll have to see then, won’t we?” Farah remarked. Her eyes glanced around the room taking in the little details. “Is all of the First World this…” she tried to come up with the word she was looking for, but instead chose, “interesting?”
Aiki and Eiji looked around when Farah did, and Eiji looked back at her at the question. "Interesting? Well… uh… we live here, so it's probably more interesting to you than to us. It isn't super exciting if you've lived here for sixteen years."
“I could say the same about the Otherworld, but knowing the things Aiki has told me and now getting to meet you, I believe you would soundly disagree with that statement as well,” Farah replied, her eyes absorbing even the most minute details of her surroundings.
"Yeah, it's definitely different there…" Aiki hummed thoughtfully and Eiji yawned. "Well, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Probably me rather than Aiki since my grade in history is much better." "Hey!" Aiki squawked. "Uncalled for!"
Farah chuckled quietly. “I don’t have very many questions currently, and even if I did, I’m not sure if they would make any sense. I’m not sure how to ask anything at the moment. Bring here on my own is overwhelming enough.”
"I understand that… really, though, feel free to ask if you want to know something. We won't think you're stupid or anything." Eiji stretched and sighed. Aiki got to their feet, getting uncomfortable just sitting for an extended period of time. "We've still got a while until dinner though, so we should find something to do…"
Farah nodded. Her eyes lit with potential for action or excitement. “Tell me, what is it that magical First Worlders do for fun in their free time?”
"Uh… watch TV or play video games sometimes when we don't have homework or other stuff to do." Aiki shrugged. "We've got a TV in our room if you wanna try. Do you have that kinda stuff?"
“Yes, and no,” Farah answered. “The same technology in the First World exists in the Otherworld, but we’re not allowed to bring much technology into Alfea besides our phones. So while I am familiar, I also may need to be taught.”
The twins nodded a bit and Eiji got to his feet as well. "Well, we should get started, then. Do you have any games on your phone?" He asked. "That might make it easier to gauge which games you might find fun."
Farah rose with the twins, but she shook her head quickly. "No. I don't have much on my phone for fun. There's only one game on it." She looked slightly embarrassed. "It's… Candy Crush. Saul, Ben, and I are in an ongoing competition to see who can make it the farthest."
"Candy Crush? Uh… I don't think we have a ton of games like that. We'll just opt for something pretty easy." Eiji laughed nervously and led the group up the stairs. "We have… uh… MarioKart isn't too hard, is it?" Aiki asked, looking to Eiji for confirmation, but he only shrugged in reply.
"Something easy would most likely be best," Farah confirmed, following the brothers' lead. "What is MarioKart?" she asked, checking her phone with false hope she would see a text from Saul. To her evident dismay, there wasn't a single notification on her lock screen.
"Um… it's a racing game, pretty much. Do you know how to drive?" Aiki asked, pushing open their bedroom door. There were two beds, one on each side of the room, and one side was noticeably cleaner than the other.
"Yes," Farah replied, stepping into the room. Once she had entered, though, she became hesitant, not knowing where to go or sit. She didn't want to appear rude or impolite by any means.
Aiki and Eiji both sat on the floor in front of the TV and picked up controllers. Aiki handed one to Farah while Eiji turned on the TV and got the game booted up. Aiki started explaining the basics of the controls as well as they could to Farah.
Farah simply followed the boys' lead and did her best to pay attention to the controls while Aiki explained it. "Darling," she said when he was finished, "I really appreciate you explaining this to me, but I haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing. I could just watch you two play."
"But you might enjoy it! And it'll be a fun story to tell everybody when you get back." Aiki smiled encouragingly up at Farah and Eiji got the game set up. "You could at least give it a try, and if you don't like it, we won't force you to play."
Farah sighed and looked at them. Aiki was too adorable for her to decline his offer. "Oh, alright," she relented. "But we have to play it at a beginner's level. And I have to practice."
"Alright! We'll go easy on you! Right Eiji?" They asked their brother, elbowing him in the side. Eiji nodded in confirmation as he swatted Aiki's hand away. "Yeah, we can do a race with just us three to practice." He selected the parameters for the race and went to the character select screen, where he selected Yoshi and Aiki picked Isabelle.
Farah looked from the controller to the screen. "Um, how do I…?" she trailed off, figuring out how to move her icon to select a character. "Oh! Now, how do I pick one…?" She felt slightly embarrassed and stupid for not knowing how any of the controls worked. Just because the Otherworld had video games didn't mean that she had played any of them.
"Just move this joystick until your color, which is yellow, is in a square around whichever character you want to play. Their stats aren't really different enough to matter, in my opinion, especially not for a beginner, so just pick whichever one you like the look of and press the little button that says 'A'." Aiki explained, pointing to each of the things as they mentioned them.
"Thank you," Farah murmured appreciatively and followed their instructions to select Peach as her character. "Now what do I do?"
Eiji moved to the next screen and Aiki helped Farah pick a kart combination, pretty much just giving her the same one that they and Eiji were also using. "Alright, you should be set! Now, when we get in the game, the 'A' button will make you go forward. I turned on assisted steering for you so you don't have to worry quite as much about steering, but this joystick is the directional one. This bumper lets you use items, and the other one lets you drift, but don't worry about drifting."
Farah paid close attention, mimicking the buttons Aiki was demonstrating with her own controller until she was relatively comfortable with the controls. "Items?" she asked. "What are the items?"
"You'll run into item boxes while you're driving, and they have stuff in them that will either power you up or impair other players somehow. You can get shells to throw, or invincibility stars, and other stuff like that." Aiki explained, and Eiji looked up. "The further back you are from first place, the better items you get, usually. At least… they're easier to get. Higher percentage since the game is trying to help you catch up."
"Lovely," Farah remarked a bit sarcastically. Still, she knowingly smiled. "I should be getting lots of those then. Shall we get started?"
