Nomf!

"That was cute. I think there's no reason to try too hard. Take time to have fun too. Because you burn out."

"I think... That was part of my dad's problem with life and everything. Or one of them. Did I tell you about that? I think I did, at least at a gloss. Probably for the best I do not remember much of it..."

"...yeah.  I didn't have the smoothest first life ever, but I can at least be glad I didn't really have troubles like those piled directly upon me.  The number of friends and family who had to deal with stuff, though...  There were rather too many.  ...One was already too many."

"...We do what we can, be~cause we must. For the good of all of us... Except the ones who are dead~ I have no i-dea~ where this tune comes from~ But my brain picked it up out of the ae-ther~ Something something, still alive~"

Alicia bursts out laughing.

"I think we have Portal on here," she waves the device that is not technically a Switch around demonstratively.  

"I wonder if someone ever did make a portal gun.  ...And now I want to make a portal gun.  Probably not an actual Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device though, they're mad over there.  'Aperture Science: We do what we must, because we can'.  And apparently 'what they can' involves black holes and moonrocks."

"...mm, how does the rest of that actually go...  Cannot be arsed to beat the bossfight over this on controller and I don't even know if there's a save handy."

She fusses over the tablet for a minute, pulling up a synthesizer and, after a bit of fiddling with the sounds, fingering out a familiar-sounding arpeggio...

"It's from the credits of a video game, after you've beaten the boss.  From the perspective of the boss that you were supposed to think was dead then.  And there's a lot of injokes so some of this just won't make sense if you don't have your memory jogged.  The cake is a lie, for instance.  Except there is an actual cake in the credits sequence...  But... Behold.  Still Alive, as written by Johnathan Coulton and performed, inexpertly, by me."

And because there is no such thing as cringe when the Red Dream's in full swing, she just does what she can for the music, and starts singing.

(The sourceless electric guitar kind of surprises her, too, but the show must go on!)

This is a good and fun song. Hug!

Hug!

"...Was not expecting to be able to do the electric guitar.  So that's neat."

"I have said this already but I'm so glad to meet someone who knows earth stuff?"

"So am I.  It's.  Really good.  That I'm not alone."

"...Makes me wonder, what if it was someone from, like, the 17th century. Still from Earth, but... The past is a foreign country. We both seem at least to me to be American? Or at least western?"

"Yeah, I'm from the fucking United States.  ...What year was it for you?"

"...I cannot quite remember. Um... Obama?"

"...Three elections ago, two of which were Donald fucking Trump running on a platform of ruining everything he could possibly make worse.  Nonconsecutive wins.  Hadn't stopped the fascism."

"Who even?"

Sigh.

"I miss Boston Market and Subway."

"Easily-led blowhard.  Reagan but somehow worse because of all the conspiracy theories.

"...Oh damn yeah dammit now I miss Subway!  Nooo!"

Sarcastically: "We should start a fast food sandwich empire with all our shiny modern knowledge about, like, standardization. And... Marketing? Pfft."

"Wouldn't be any good without shipping and logistics and stuff, probably.  And then there's the 'most of this world is full of gribblies' problems we just don't have precedent for.  But dammit, I miss my sandwich."

"I don't have the bones for cooking. Real cooking. Microwaved potatoes covered in pepper. Boiling pasta and premade sauce. Rice and crackers and sausage, like we're having now, nothing schmancier than that from me."

"Mood.  The most complex things I ever made were.  Like.  Cheese on a bread.  Or pasta."

"Bet we could make a microwave, though.  It's something to do with rapidly-oscillating magnetism?"

"...I'm thinking of a story about RADAR? I dunno actually. Hey, are any of your games marketed as ultra realistic?"

"...Very good question!"

She'll search that up, why not.

There do seem to be some of those! It's hard to guess the quality or level of commitment to realism, but there's True Aerodyne Sim: New Shenzhen (2660) and Frontier Wildcat Asteroid Miner and Offroad: Heavy Trucks & Construction Vehicles! and PC Repair Simulator and the like.

"...Looks like we have some options, at least."

There any chemistry simulators?  She bets there's at least one...  Though she also bets that something as heavy-realism as she wanted (rather than, say, MOLEK-SYNTEZ and Spacechem and anything that built off of puzzle-game bones) might have been destined for VR.