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Post by fishstyx on Feb 18, 2015 3:38:57 GMT
Didn't actually write anything for what I'm calling "Video Game" for now because I'm too lazy to come up with a real title. And I can't tomorrow, although tomorrow is the last day that I won't be able to write at all! Yay! But I have sports coming up in school, so it could get even harder to write regularly every day just because I have to juggle that alone with homework. Oh gosh just thinking about it stresses me out. Anyway, I do want to let you know that I have something planned out for the future of this story, if we ever get there. It'll definitely be fun to write, and hopefully fun to read if I write it correctly. But for now I have to get to the next checkpoint in the story, which requires me to get out of the theater. I was planning to have her dislocate her shoulder, but since it wouldn't really have any effect on her ability to play, it just seems unnecessary. So instead I'll just have her show how clumsy she is irl for a reference to her real personality. And then it's back to the game! Or at least, a game. What does that mean?! Oooooh...you'll just have to wait. Sorry about being so obnoxious. I'm so tired. Hope everyone had a good day!
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Post by fishstyx on Feb 22, 2015 19:40:28 GMT
I'm sorry I haven't been on here for so long! Wow I was super busy and really I shouldn't even be on here today, but whatever. Screw it. So because I've been busy I haven't really been writing all that much except some quick RP things. But I have some stuff written down for the fourth part, and I think I can get it up sometime this week. There's still stuff I want to put into it, so I can't post it yet. And I might just shirk all my responsibilities today to write instead. So I might actually get it up later today if I can. Sorry again!
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Post by fishstyx on Feb 23, 2015 13:04:13 GMT
Guys yay I finished it yesterday! It's shorter than the rest, but I feel like most of the home-life ones will be just because that's not really the focus of the story. Anyway, sorry about the format. It's my first email conversation, so I just italicized a bunch of stuff and called it a day. Once again, there is some foul language in here, so please be advised if you are underage (comme moi). Here you go! I hope you enjoy it because I skipped homework for this. Three hours later, I’m enjoying life to the fullest. And by that I mean I’m deep into a bowl of popcorn while watching dumb horror films. I eat my popcorn with a light sprinkling of sugar, which a lot of people find weird, but I think is just delicious. It’s salty and sweet! Besides, it’s not like I pour a heaping mountain of sugary goodness onto my popcorn; it’s only a pinch or two. Or three. Guess I should explain why I’m not currently at the movies like I’m supposed to be. When Erika started putting the eyeliner on I sort of freaked out because it hurt, and then afterward it made my eyes burn. So I told her to stop torturing me and sent her to the movies with explicit instructions to never tell mom I let her go and to not get kidnapped. If she’s with her friends I doubt anyone would try anything. Plus, she’s too annoying to kidnap. My laptop sits open next to me as I watch my movie, waiting for the next email from K to pop up. He got off PF a couple of hours ago and then sent me an email. He and J couldn’t figure out how to find “Apollo’s Harp” to get it back for the god. I explained to him that he was probably under the area he needed to be in. There’s an out-of-sight passageway that leads into the air, where the harp lies protected by a guardian that’s about twenty feet tall and even wider. When you beat the damn thing and get the harp you have to find your way into Olympus because Apollo can’t very well tell his family he lost his harp. That’s a whole other level of trouble, but you get some pretty good items out of the quest. Now we’re just talking. After he told me he would tell J, he asked how everything was at home and if I cooked for my sister. I was a little happy he remembered what I’d told him; I’ve never been able to talk to any of my e-friends about my life, so this new feeling is strange, but not unwelcome. Legend (10:14): I made lasagna. I don’t know if she truly appreciated it, but she ate it anyway. KLS23 (10:14): Nice. I just had some leftover chicken from the other night. At least you don’t have to eat dry chicken like me. Legend (10:16): Yeah that would suck. Sucks to be you, my friend. Hey did you hear about that new game Heaven? I haven’t heard much about it and wasn’t sure whether to get it or not. KLS23 (10:17): Don’t get it! I’ve heard so much crap about it like glitches and stuff. Plus the storyline supposedly sucks. There’s no real main point and it’s pretty much your average shooter game. Not much fun. Legend (10:18): Okay I won’t! Hey I was gonna ask about that whole J thing. I totally saw you checking out her boobs. Don’t even deny it. KLS23 (10:26): Umm...can we not talk about that? Legend (10:27): Oh, we’re talking about it. What’s up with that? Are you into her? KLS23 (10:30): Kinda. Is that weird? I mean, do you like her? I feel like she likes you more if you do like her. She’s just so hot, you know? Legend (10:31): You know it’s just an avatar, right? And don’t worry, I don’t like her like that. I’m more into guys like you. KLS23 (10:38): You’re joking, right? Legend (10:43): No. I’m quite serious. I don’t like J like that. KLS23 (10:45): just say that then you perv. Anyway, I know it’s an avatar and everything. But still, it’s hot. Plus, she’s cute just as a person. Do you think she’d go out with me if I asked? Legend (10:48): No idea. But she does live on a different continent than you, so that relationship might not go well. Hey, though, I’m rooting for you man! When you guys get married I expect an invitation from whatever country you guys get married in. KLS23 (10:52): Shut up. What’re you doing right now? Legend (10:53): Why? You interested in me or something? Watching a movie and chilling. Hbu? KLS23 (10:53): You’re funny. No. And wow the great Legend watching a movie? I’d better write this down to go in my big book of celebrities. Can I get an autograph?[/i] Legend (10:55): You DO have a sense of humor, you dry little shit. And make sure you get my good side when you take your creepy picture of me. I wanna look good. Anyway, you never said what you were doing. This is a give and take relationship babe. [/i] KLS23 (10:58): Would you stop doing that? It’s creepy as hell. And I’m doing homework for math. Do you know how to find limits?[/i] Legend (11:01): It’s a good thing you asked friend! I learned it just for this precise moment! But really yeah I can help you out. What’s the problem?[/i] KLS23 (11:05): I sent it in the attachment.[/i] Legend (11:07): I feel like you’re using our relationship. It hurts. I sent the solution back. And dude I understand your pain. It’s all fun and games until integrals come into it. I’ll never understand why math is a necessity.[/i] KLS23 (11:10): Tell me about it. It’s one of my worst subjects, right after art.[/i] Legend (11:11): Didn’t know you took that. I’ve elected to never take an art class. No use having that senseless tragedy unfold. ANYWAY, I should go. My sis should be home any second and we have to compare stories to make sure my mom doesn’t know she went out.[/i] KLS23 (11:13): Good luck. Bye![/i] I close my laptop and tell the TV to turn the volume down. My horror movie is kind of boring, but that’s to be expected from a movie with a two-star rating. What was I thinking? Actually, I was thinking that I was bored and there was nothing else on TV. I’m going to game tonight anyway, so I want to take a quick break before diving back in. But not Pan’s Forest. One of my other games has gone neglected for too long, and I figure I should really go back and try to tie up loose ends so that I can end Legend’s presence in it for good. Then I hear the front door unlock and open, followed by my sister’s loud voice on her FastChat probably talking to the same girls she just left behind. “Get off Chat and go brush your teeth! You have to go to bed now because mom’s getting home any minute.” Erika enters the room and rolls her eyes at me. “Whatever,” she says. “No, not you, Hannah. I’m talking to my sister. Anyway, I gotta go. I’ll see you on Monday at school. Yeah. Okay. Bye.” Her Chat light goes off and I know she ended the chat. By the way, FastChat is kind of like a phone that you put on your ear with a thin mic that leads down the side of your face to your mouth so you can talk into it. They got really popular a few years ago, and now it’s stylish to walk around with it on even if you’re not using it. I never really got into that. “If I’m going to bed, you have to, too,” Erika complains. “It’s not like you’re that much older than me anyway.” “Hey, I let you go out to the movies. Don’t get pissy at me, or it’ll be the last time I do that. Or should I just tell mom about your boyfriend?” Her boyfriend is seventeen and it’s creepy. Plus, I think he does meth or something. Not really, but he definitely smokes weed. “Should I just tell mom you let me go out?” “Fine. Go ahead. You’d get in trouble too, and the most that would happen to me is getting grounded for a few days. You’d never be able to go out again.” I stick my tongue out at her in victory. “So go brush your teeth before I end your social life.” “I hate you,” Erika informs me breezily. “Hate you too,” I shoot right back at her. As she leaves the room to go to the bathroom, she calls out over her shoulder, “G’night!” I respond in kind and begin the process of heaving myself off the couch. Ugh. Physical labor. Actually, I usually just roll off the couch and let the impact shock me into moving. Not a bad idea, huh? Well, there’s probably better solutions, like real exercise and such. I’m not unhealthy or anything. I go for runs every day and I’m on the track team. I eat well (except for the TV dinners) and I make sure to drink enough water. But it’s impossible to not be lazy after diving. And hungry, for some reason. Whenever I come out of a game I’m always starving. But anyway, I manage to get up by myself this time, without using shock therapy, so there’s no slight ringing in my ears when I rise. I pick up my laptop and set it on the table while I fold the blanket on the couch, then pick it up again and carry it to my room before setting it down on my desk. Like I said before, I never got into using FastChat, and I’m most likely one of the last living humans that still emails and PMs anymore. I do have an EyePad though, which is a play off an old phone. We use them to write things down with our eyes while we’re on the go. Basically, you look at a letter on the hologram keyboard and it types it for you. Go science and technology nerds for making that one after the headgear. Anyhow, that explains why I still use my laptop all the time when it’s kind of outdated. After setting it down, I go turn the kitchen and living room lights off and make sure the door is locked and the security is set. My mom will probably get home in around a half-hour, and I want the place to be spic and span for when she arrives. Then I go to the bathroom and watch my sister’s back retreat to her room just as I reach the bathroom door. “G’night,” I call again. She answers by shutting her door. Gotta love sisters. I brush my teeth absentmindedly, thinking about life and such. Not really; my thoughts are mostly on messing around with K now that I know he has a crush on J-Pop. He’s really a fool for letting me know. When I finish up in the bathroom, I turn the light off and cross the hall to my plain little room, also turning off the hall light. Now everything is quiet, although I doubt Erika has really gone to sleep already. She’ll probably be up talking about the movie for a good two hours, criticizing the actress and drooling over Jordan Yulish. Well, I could drool over him too, but I won’t. I have better things to do with my time. With that, I sit down on my bed and take up my headgear, replacing the PF disc for Harmony’s Fable. That’s the game that I have to finish things up on so that I don’t get overloaded with video games. And I want to get this done tonight because I have a track meet on Monday and homework to do all of tomorrow, so I can’t play during the day and I’ll be too far gone at night from fatigue to even get the headgear on. The aforementioned helmet slips over my eyes and falls into place, and I let my head fall back into my pillow, the soft down of the feathers protecting my neck from injury due to the weight of the headgear. Now all I can see is black in front of me, with a small blue light flickering in the upper right-hand corner of my monitor. Then it finally boots up and everything goes pitch black as I link in with the headset. I wait a few seconds. Log-in?Hello again, dear.
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Post by fishstyx on Feb 23, 2015 13:04:45 GMT
Wow so none of that came out in italics. Wow. Oh well, you guys get the point.
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Post by fishstyx on Feb 24, 2015 22:21:57 GMT
Hello friends. So I've started the fifth part already, but I plan on it being longer than the fourth one. Not sure how long yet, but I guess we'll see. I'll be writing tomorrow and possibly today, but it's my mom's birthday Thursday. I guess what I'm saying is don't plan on another part until at least the weekend. Hope everyone had a great day!
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Post by fishstyx on Feb 28, 2015 3:54:29 GMT
The next part!!! Yay!!!! And I'm sorry about not italicizing things. When I copy/paste from google docs the styling doesn't carry over. And I'm too lazy this time to change each and every change. Sorry again.
“Did you hear about that new game that’s coming out in March? Paradise. I guess it’s supposed to be really cool, but there’s not much info about it anywhere that I’ve looked.” Lily speaks quickly and I manage to understand a few words here and there, which I connect together to get the whole sentence. I find myself piecing together her meanings pretty much every time we have a conversation, but I’m so used to it now that it doesn’t bother me. “Yeah,” I answer. “Some sort of shooter-thriller thing.” “Are you gonna get it?” I puzzle over this. Shooting games were a big thing with me for about a year, but that was two years ago. Since then I haven’t really touched that stuff, just because I’m so busy with my other RPGs. But I have to admit that with all the hype being created for it, I might have to check it out and see what they’re talking about. “I heard that Jordan Yulish is supposedly going to play too. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I might actually play if he ends up doing it.” Lily sighs in pleasure at the thought of her long-time crush. I feel surrounded by Yulish fangirls. Erika, Lily, every other girl I know. I can’t escape! It’s like a really bad horror film! Attack of the Jordan Yulish Fangirls! Setting down my sandwich, I pull out my chips and open the bag to begin munching on them. Lunch at my school is pretty informal. Right now Lily and I are sitting in the classroom, not bothering to go down to the cafeteria since it’s too crowded. Mac and Andrew sit near us, but they’re busy talking about the Snow Palace event from a few days ago. Apparently the topic has yet to die down in the gaming community. “But really, if you think about it, Legend can’t be older than twenty-two. Although he probably isn’t any younger than twenty,” Andrew says. “After all, he only plays at night, probably because he’s in college. And there’s no way a guy like him could be old. Or young because he’s too good for that.” “You’re kidding!” Max exclaims, interrupted Andrew. “He runs on the same schedule as a high school student! He only plays at night and on weekends, but never Sundays! Only high school students leave their work until Sunday. Most other people are only free on Sundays, not busy.” I’m surprised at Mac’s reasoning abilities. If he put them to use in, say, school, he’d probably actually get good grades. As it is, all of us in the room at the moment are pretty average. Thankfully, we’re good at different things, and manage to skate by with our combined efforts. Mac is a pro at literature and reading and that kind of stuff; Andrew is our government nerd; Lily helps out with history; I’m our math-savant. It’s a system we have slowly worked out over the years to make sure we don’t completely fail at life while we’re still in high school. “Tay?” Lily breaks in. “You okay?” Shaking myself out of my short reverie, I go back to eating my chips. “Fine. So do you really think Yulish will play, then?” Oh, yeah. By the way, my name is Taylor. Taylor Palooski. Sixteen. Female. Okay, now you have my profile! Lily gazes at me with star-filled brown eyes. “I hope so! I mean, I have no idea what he’ll actually do just because you know celebrities. They’re so busy all the time and I doubt he’ll have enough time to really get into the game. Who knows? It might be really time-consuming. I’ll never understand your obsession with them.” “Hey,” Andrew quips. He points one finger at Lily and looks her straight in the eyes. “Video games are cool.” “Whatever,” she responds. Turning away from him, she continues speaking to me. “Anyway, if he does play then could I use your gear so I can play too? I don’t have my own and you know those things are so expensive that my mom would never let me get one. Especially if I say it’s because of a guy. She’d absolutely kill me.” “I might play it, though,” I tell her. “So?” “So only one person can use one headgear. It takes in your stats and stuff, like height and weight. After the first use, it’s basically bound to the person who used it. You have to reset it to have someone else use it, but that’s a big hassle because then you have to re-reset it when you go to play it again. Plus, it won’t recognize the difference between you playing the game and me playing the game, so we’d be forced to be the same person.” “Right. So basically you don’t want to share with your best friend?” The look Lily gives me is one full of hurt and betrayal, just like our usual overdramatic Lily. “Fine, then I’ll just get my own if my mom doesn’t murder me for asking.” I roll my eyes. “I don’t get why you want to play just for one guy. He’s hot. I get it. But you don’t even know him. He might be a dick or a womanizer or both and you just think he’s cute.” “He’s beautiful and that’s that. End of discussion.” I concede. No use hashing this out with an obsessor. Instead of responding, I turn and join the guys’ conversation. “What are we talking about over here?” My arms lean over the side of my desk and I let my torso rest on the arm. It’s not very comfortable. So I draw my legs over my chair and under the bar of the side of the desk so that I’m sitting sideways on my chair with my feet planted on the floor and my elbows resting on the arm. “What do you think about Legend?” Andrew all but yells in my face. “Is he a high schooler or a college student?” “Neither,” I tell him seriously. “He’s a forty-year-old female who preys on young boys by pretending to be a young guy. In reality, he’s not very good and is using other people to appear like he knows what he’s doing. You guys haven’t heard about it already?” Thinking about it now, I don’t seem to change my personality when I become Legend. People probably just think I’m cooler because I’m attractive and play well. That’s kind of depressing. The only reason I bring this up is because I just realized that I don’t speak any differently to my friends as I do when I’m Legend. Then again, I don’t really speak much when I’m Legend. It’s more just actions. So maybe I do act differently when I’m Legend. Ugh. My head hurts from thinking too much. Let’s just call me two different people and then call it a day. It makes me feel better to think that I really am just totally uncool in reality, but a cool person in-game. Back to the conversation. “You’re shitting me,” Mac concludes. “No way. Seriously, what do you think? It’s so obvious that he’s young like us! But this idiot,” he points to Andrew, “apparently can’t tell shit.” He shakes his head in mock-disappointment. Or maybe real disappointment. I’m not sure. “I have no opinion on this matter,” I answer. “Not my business what the guy does during the daytime. He just kicks butt during the night. That’s all I know and all I need to know. Maybe you guys are just too obsessed with him” “You’ve never seen him in action, though, have you? He’s got mad skill. He moves so fast it’s almost like he blurs.” Andrews sighs at his memory, a wide grin spreading across his face at the thought of his man-crush. Let me just say for the record that I used to feel very strange at hearing my friends fan-girl about me, but now I just go with it. They’ll never know the difference, and I can say bad things about myself that other people counter. It’s a win-win situation. (Not really. I’m pretty sure I’m just a bitch.) “Are you done salivating?” I ask sarcastically. “Anyway, we should probably focus on homework. Mrs. Cerny gives literally the hardest frickin’ government tests in probably the whole world and I have no idea what’s going on.” With much grumbling, my friends collect their thoughts and we begin our journey through the wild seas of the inner working of government bound to fail.
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I stare at the game in the window of the store, not able to take my eyes off it for even one second. Paradise lies on a cushion, showing itself off to the outside world with as much pizzazz as possible. God, I want it. Now that there’s nothing to do in PF, I need another good MO to take up more of my time than I can give it. I feel so empty without knowing I have that distraction waiting for me at home. I might have a video game addiction. Maybe Unfortunately, Paradise doesn’t come out for another week, so even if I had the money (which I don’t, yet), I couldn’t buy it. Which means I can only worship it with my eyes from a chilly street where people roughly brush past me on their ways home or to some other place. A halo sits strategically placed above the game, advertising it as the “paradise” it is. What kind of paradise are the GMs going to go with this time? There still remains no confirmed rumors about the game, lending an irresistibly mysterious flavor to it. “I guess you probably think it looks pretty interesting,” somebody says next to me. A short, freckled girl with long, strawberry-blond hair stands to my right, her eyes also locked on the game in front of us, mouth working furiously chewing her gum. Pop. She has a sort of nasally voice, but it doesn’t bother me like it would with other people. “What have you heard of it?” So I might be talkative with my friends and my sister and such irl, but I am by no means an outgoing person. Maybe that’s the difference between me and Legend. He’s comfortable everywhere, but I’m only comfortable with certain people. However it is, I’m extremely unsure of how to answer the girl, or even if I want to answer her at all. I mean, I don’t know this girl! She’ll probably think I’m some crazy person for responding to a stranger! Then again, she wouldn’t be asking me the question if she didn’t expect an answer. Right? So that would mean that if I don’t answer, I’ll be strange. “Hello?” the nasally voice comes again. Pop. “S-Sorry,” I stutter. God, I hate stuttering. What am I? Some incapable protagonist girl that ends up becoming super confident in herself? No thank you. “Yeah, I haven’t heard much. Other than the type of MO, of course.” Good start, Tay. You’re doing well. “That just seems weird to me,” the girl says haughtily. Pop.“They should come out with something to the public, shouldn’t they? What if it backfires on them, all that interest in an unknown game, but then nobody buys it because they don’t know what they get out of it?” Pop. Although she has a valid point, I’m suddenly annoyed by this blond. What does she know about the gamemakers’ intent. “Well, are you going to buy it?” I inquire. “Of course I’m going to buy it,” the stranger answers pop snappily. “Then, doesn’t that mean their ploy is working?” “...” I want to forge ahead, but my nervous mouth has stopped working. It seems it can only handle one verbal victory at a time. Still, you had a good run, mouth. I’m proud of you. Now that I can’t speak, the girl beside me gains her words once again. Maybe we’re trading off the ability to form words cohesively. “Anyway, they should still give more information. I’ll get it, but if it’s not worth my money those GMs had better be ready to compensate me.” She flicks her hair over her shoulder pop and I feel it brush my waist. That’s how much shorter she is than me. Pop. I’m going to rip that gum out of her mouth. “I’m Ariel,” she says, sticking out one small hand to me. I take it lightly and shake it for a second before immediately letting go. “Nice to meet you,” I reply. “What’s your name and handle? I go by Hellafin86. Get it? Like ‘fin’ from that movie with the mermaid?” Pop. I wince, now thoroughly annoyed with this stranger. “I guess not too many people know about it any more. It’s super old.” “Umm…” How do I get out of telling her my name? I supposed I could always lie, although I don’t think my traitorous nerves would be able to take it. My best bet is to just smile politely and tell her I have to be somewhere and that it was nice to meet her and that maybe I’ll see her in the game. “I haven’t really played games much.” The lie pops out naturally, which surprises me. “I mean, only a couple. Anyway,” I continue quickly, trying to end this conversation, “I have to go. Bye.” I turn and all but run away from Ariel and her old movies and her gum and her nasally voice. Did I say I wasn’t bothered by it? I take it back. Her voice is so annoying. And what was with her gamertag? Hellafin86? By the time I get to the corner of the street near my apartment, I’m almost sweating from my encounter. I don’t know what it was about that girl, but her entire presence unnerved me to the point that I’m beginning to shake. Certain people trigger that reaction in me for no apparent reason and it takes me a few minutes to shake the feeling that they’re following me. When I was a kid, I was followed home by some creep who cornered me in a dark alley a few blocks from my house. That was when we had a larger house, but in a scarier place. Of course, I was stuck in the cliché dark alley. But anyway, long story short, I’m afraid of people that come on too quickly. That’s all different in games. Nobody knows I’m a girl when I play. Nobody knows my real name, or where I live. They can’t follow me home, and if I’m scared I can just log out. You can’t do that in reality. There is no log-off button in life. Only shut-down. My breathing slows down a little and I can think straight. Because of my position on the track team, I’m not too out of breath and can go back to walking around the corner. The grocery I work at is across the street and open. I work tomorrow after track practice, so I should remember to pick up some sandwich bread and bananas. And we should probably have some chocolate-covered pretzels for if Erika’s boyfriend comes over. He devours those things, but never touches anything else as long as we have those in the house, so it’s a worthy sacrifice. I get to the apartment and open the wooden door. We live in a part of town that’s poor but safe, so even though we don’t have the high-tech security of other places, we know that only keeping a house key will be enough protection for us to sleep at night. Plus, we have a security system in our apartment, so even if someone gets in it’s not like they can walk in without us noticing. Well, maybe Erika could sleep through the alarm. Our lobby is a tiny room with a front desk that’s remained empty for the last as-long-as-I-remember, and one elevator that miraculously still works. Two staircases frame the elevator shaft, one going up and then other down. I want to work off any of my leftover shakes, so I take the stairs, going two at a time even though that’s not safe. Screw it. I do what I want. Three floors up and I get to our apartment: 302. There’s only four apartments on each floor, and they’re all pretty cozy. Although it’s not like there’s not enough space to live comfortably; it’s just hard to find your own place in each room. There’s nowhere you can go to get real privacy, since the walls are paper thin within each apartment. Thankfully the other people can’t hear you from their apartments, so no one has to hear me and my sister’s abysmal singing. And I have video games to escape into. Speaking of video games, when I enter the apartment and lock the door behind me, I grab a quick snack and go to my room to start playing. Xiao Fei asked me to help him out with a tag-team on a remake of one of the Call of Duty games. I’ve played the original. It’s surprising how good the quality got by the end of the days of game systems. People still use things like Xbox and Playstation, but with things like Headgear who would choose anything but full virtual reality in the long run? I chomp my apple as quickly as I can, the skin cutting into my gums and turning the inside of the apple a little red. The fruit disappears before my eyes, juice running down the sides of my mouth. I’m not saying I ate it like a maniac, just with much gumption. Other than wanting to eat as quickly as possible, I also really like apples. Now that I’m slightly more full than I started as, and also much calmer after my snack, I can focus on diving. I pick up the headgear and lie back on my bed. Blackness envelops me as I put it on and press the on-button. Log-In? I type my username and password and I’m dropped into the loading room of the game. The NCP here is a grisly guy who wears sunglasses and is bald but still has a five o’clock shadow somehow. He’s got dark skin and is super muscular. When he smiles at me I feel like I’m looking at pearls inlaid in his face, shining at me and scaring me a little. Nobody should have teeth that white. What can I do for you today, soldier? His voice is rough and affectionate, like an old drill sergeant I’m visiting after winning a war. Loading or new game? “I’m visiting,” I tell him. “Joining a party.” Cool, cool. Sounds good. So, you got a pin? When you join parties in games like these, the person who makes the party gets a pin that they share with the other members. It makes sure no one random can get into your party. You don’t need to know the other members of your team; you can talk in the chatroom while playing and find people to team up with. After that you just share the pin through chatroom or however you want if you know the people outside of the game. Since Xiao Fei and I have been friends since I was twelve, we use our emails. “Ralf,” I answer. Just give us a sec, okay? “Sure.” I wish they did more with our surroundings than just white space, but they don’t, so I don’t have anything to distract me while I wait. Instead of looking around, I try to remember the one math problem I’d had trouble with earlier that day. I need to understand it in order to be of any use to my friends. Especially Mac. He’s the most abysmal at math out of all of us, so a lot of the time it’s me and him studying together because I help him one-on-one. Mac is kind of like a brother to me. Or actually, a cousin. He’s not as close as a brother, but he’s definitely like family. Okay, the NPC suddenly says. Everything looks good from this end. Kick some ass out there, soldier. And don’t come crying to me if you lose. This NPC makes me laugh; he’s a good guy. I doubt he remembers me because they aren’t programmed to, but I like to think that if he did we could’ve been good friends. Then everything goes pitch black again, and a few moments later I come out on a green landscape full of exotic plants and yellow sand. Not surprising, considering the game takes place during the war against Japan during the Second World War. Wow, that section of history was confusing as hell. How the heck FDR got through that, I have no idea. Good for him. Most likely, there are mines in the earth beneath us, and in out of sight places there are little shacks to hide in. A sturdy American man walks over to me and flashes me a smile. “What is up, Legend, my friend? All is well with you?” Xiao Fei is super good at English, but since he learned it formally in school he always sounds a bit awkward. “Yeah,” I respond. “You?” His smile grows wider still (Xiao Fei is a smiler) and nods emphatically. “Everything is well. I am glad you are here, friend.” I give him a smile and then look over at his friends. “So who are they? And you owe me one for this, you know.” “Ah, yes. Charlie is the person on the right and Niwoyay is the one on the left.” Niwoyay is just what his name sounds like, so that’s how I spelled it. Not really sure if that’s the right spelling, but probably not. It sounds like some sort of African language, and those aren’t my specialty. “They are very worthy players.” “I’m sure they are,” I agree. Charlie looks like he knows his way around a grenade. You’d be surprised at the amount of players that can’t handle those things. And Niwoyay looks pretty familiar with his AK-47, the barrel propped up on his shoulder. Charlie’s hair is a blinding yellow, to go with his bronze tanned skin, while Niwoyay is his exact opposite with deep black curls and dark skin. Both of them wear friendly smiles, though, in a way that make them seem almost like brothers. I can work with people like this. “Friends,” Xiao Fei says, walking over with me to the two men. “This is my friend, Legend. He has agreed to help us in the battle of today. Please guide him toward victory with us.” His friends raise their eyebrows at my name, and Charlie’s smile grows a fraction, before settling their expressions and saying hi. “I’m Charlie,” says Charlie. “Niwoyay,” says Niwoyay. “He doesn’t talk much,” Charlie smiles, pointing towards his dark twin. If this guy smiles any wider his face will split. “He understands English, but he sucks at speaking it. But don’t worry. He gets his point across if he needs something or has a plan.” Niwoyay winks at me, which I don’t know how to interpret in my current male state. “Okay, cool. I’m Legend. I’m just here because Xiao Fei asked, so I’ll just do whatever you guys want. I’m warning you, the last time I played this game was like five months ago. I might be a bit rusty.” “You? Rusty?” Charlie snorts. “Well, I appreciate the honesty. But I’m sure we’ll work well together. And after maybe we can exchange info and play together later? It’d be cool to be able to work with the famous Legend again.” I look at Xiao Fei desperately, hoping he catches onto my discomfort with Charlie’s request. It sounds too much like just another challenger or fan who wants to spend more time with me because of my name. Although I like Charlie, I certainly don’t want to play with a guy who admits outright that he only wants to play with me because I’m famous. Then again, I do appreciate how he didn’t beat around the bush. “Legend is only here to help us in this battle, friends. We should talk about the fight now and leave the rest for later. Yes?” Thank you, Xiao Fei. “So what’s the plan, then?” I ask. “What am I doing?” “Well,” Charlie begins, “we’re playing another team of four. We don’t know much about them, other than that they have a wicked sniper that you need to watch out for. We each get three lives and the last man standing wins for his team.” As if I don’t already know the rules. Get to the strategy! “Xiao Fei will stay here and communicate with us about the movements of the other team. Niwoyay and I will be tag-teaming around the edges of the trees and in the huts, flushing out any people hiding. Your job is to protect Xiao Fei, since he’ll basically be right in the middle of everything. Just shoot whoever you see from the other team.” Well this seems flawed. But who am I to comment? I just said I wouldn’t. I nod instead. “Okay. Where should I set up shop?” “Umm...wherever,” Charlie decides. “I trust your judgement.” He flashes me another smile, which I return out of mounting excitement for the fight. “Think you can do it?” “Well,” I say, “I’m not much used to the sniper position. But I’m sure I can figure it out. Xiao Fei,” I turn to him. “You’ll be talking to Charlie and Niwoyay, right?” He nods. “Don’t bother talking to me, since I can basically see everything you can. You’re just gonna be closer, which will be a good distraction to the other team. You’ll probably be the first of us to lose all his lives, so be prepared for that.” “So,” I finish, turning to Charlie. “That’s it, then?” “Yup. Well, I mean, when Xiao Fei dies the final time you can do whatever you want. Hopefully we’ll kill them all by that time, so we won’t have to worry about that. But, yeah. You know.” “Okay. Let’s do this.” “Yes,” Xiao Fei agrees. “Let us do this.
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Post by fishstyx on Mar 16, 2015 2:53:25 GMT
I have returned from the dead! (Momentarily) Sorry about the absence. Been super busy with cleaning the house since we're putting it up for sale soon. Plus, sports started at my school and I have practice every day now. Practically the only thing I have to write anymore is this story. And I literally just started writing it again two days ago because I didn't have any time before that. I also want to apologize for the laziness you are about to experience in my editing skills. Meaning I'm too tired to change everything to italics that needs to be italicized. So yeah. Hopefully it'll be relatively easy to figure out where they go. Just assume that any time an NPC is speaking, it's in italics. Anyway, enjoy!
First things first, I set up on a small hill in some trees. It’s a place that any sniper would hide, so most likely the opposite team will be searching for me, but it’s a chance I have to take. There’s no other way for a sniper to be effective than to hide, and there’s not many other hiding places than between some trees. Maybe later I’ll move to a small patch of grass and hope I blend in enough and the rest of my team distracts the enemy well enough to keep them from shooting me. While I set up, I keep in mind where Xiao Fei is; my number one responsibility is to protect him, after all. He’ll definitely be using mobile weapons, my guess being an S-12 shotgun in his pocket for emergency situations and an ARX-160 for its long-range ability, which will help him take out enemies from farther away. Obviously, he’ll have some grenades, but that’s not his specialty. Side note: Xiao Fei is probably number two in the world among assault rifle users, despite being only a few years older than me. Plus, he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t like to play around with his prey; he just goes for the kill. That’ll make this fight a lot shorter, thankfully. I don’t know why Charlie treats me like a celebrity when he’s literally playing with video game royalty every freaking day. I probably count as more of knight, not anybody royal. Right? Actually, I have no idea. Anyway, that’s not the important thing here. I shake my head and focus on finding my friend so I can keep him safe for longer so he can take out our opponents one-by-one. He’s probably setting up somewhere right in the open to draw them to him. I scan the land in front of me, not bothering to search the other hiding spots; although I’m careful to commit their locations to memory in order to root out their sniper early on. There. Xiao Fei stands in the center of a large, bare area with a radius of about one hundred feet, a circle of sparse grass popping up at its edge. This will give our enemy a good view of him from far away, but the grass may make it harder for them to find footing as they approach him. Of course, that may mean that they’ll just let their sniper take him out. We can only hope that Niwoyay and Charlie find the sniper and put him out of commission as quickly as possible, and keep doing so. We all get two lives; as long as one of our teammates is the last person standing, we win. Now, if I can just stay unseen, we might win this fight without me really having to do anything at all. My Atlas 20mm feels hot in my hands as I wait in my position, protesting its possible lack of use. “Are we all in position?” Charlie’s voice comes from the comm. “Roger,” I respond. “I am ready,” Xiao Fei says. “Mmm,” Niwoway affirms unnecessarily. He’s with Charlie, so I assume Charlie knows he’s in position. If not, there’s a problem from the very start with this plan (past the planning of it). “Cool. Remember, Legend,” he says suddenly, “Your job is to protect Xiao Fei. Try not to let them know where you are.” Yeah, dude. I’m aware, thanks. I would sigh if not for the fact that he would hear and be offended. “Roger that,” I say instead. Now that I think about it, maybe my Atlas wasn’t the best choice for this plan; but it’s my preferred sniper weapon, so I’m sticking with it. There’s a better chance of being discovered since it has a primer and I need to shoot at least twice in order to get off a shot that will do any damage. That gives the enemy more opportunities to find my position, but this weapon also has the best damage and best accuracy. And I can shoot fast, so I can activate the primer quickly enough that the shots will land almost exactly in the same place and will kill my target quickly. The battle will begin in two minutes. Players, get into position. We’re already in position, so I take this time to talk to my partner. “Xiao Fei,” I whisper over the comm, preparing myself for the quiet communication of battle. “I don’t want to have to shoot unless absolutely necessary, you got it? So either tell me you need help or give me a signal so I know I should shoot. I’ll be ready all the time, but the less I shoot the more effective I’ll be.” “I understand,” he responds. “I do not trust my voice to communicate my need, so I will use signals in place of this. When I reach for my pistol, you should then begin to target people. My pistol means I am in trouble and am need of help.” “Got it, thanks.” “Are you ready, friend?” “Yeah, I think so. I’m surprised you asked me to come, actually. I figured you would have an easy time of this.” “I have missed you, my friend, and missed our time playing together.” That’s nice, although with his proper grammar it sounds kind of funny. Probably just to me. He’s just so polite I can’t help but smile. “Also, I believe this may be my last battle, and I enjoyed the idea of fighting it alongside you.” “Wait, what?” “I will explain later, my friend. But first, the battle!” Battle will begin in three...two… My usual smile kicks in despite myself, and I forget momentarily the sadness in Xiao Fei’s voice. I forget the girl from earlier today that so unnerved me. All that I hold in my mind are thoughts of winning and killing. One. As soon as the buzzer goes off, I see someone jump out of a small bush, silently running straight at Xiao Fei. At least this opponent doesn’t have an idiotic battle cry. I’m sure I’ve already mentioned my pet peeve about that. He sprints quietly, barely kicking any dirt up behind him, seeming like a blue streak against the landscape. I have to give him props: He’s fast. But not fast enough to escape the flying missiles from Xiao Fei’s barrel, quicker than lightning in their path toward the runner; they hit with an explosive force, and I admire the graphics and reality of the game when I see the bullet pierce the skin of the boy’s forehead. A ripple of skin grows from the epicenter of the hit and blood squirts out comically before the boy lands flat on his back thirty feet from the safety of his bush. One life down for him, one to go. I search for his partners. A small flash of black behind a thin tree catches my attention, and I mentally snort at this person’s obvious lack of battle discipline. You just don’t wear black unless you mean to stay in the shadows or if you’re trying to be obvious. Here, he’s not trying to do either. Or rather, she. I see the hint of breast through my scope. She’s not thin enough for the tree to cover her all the way, although she is pretty skinny. It’s just a really thin tree and not at all a good place to hide. If I wanted, I could take her out easily. As it is, with the angle she’s at behind the tree relative to Xiao Fei’s position, I don’t think he’s noticed her. Are Charlie and Niwoyay near? Will they catch her for me? “Charlie,” I speak over the comm. “What’s your position?” Some static follows my inquiry and I wait impatiently for him to answer. Meanwhile, enough time has passed for the fast boy to respawn, so I assume he’ll have found a new place to lie low while one of his teammates takes their turn. “Legend,” Charlie responds amidst the overpowering sound of crackling. Why is his comm unit so out of whack? “Niwoyay’s checking the perimeter on our side, but so far we haven’t found anyone. I heard some gunshots. Our side or theirs?” “Xiao Fei took out one of theirs. I see another behind a tree, but I wanted to see where you guys were before telling Xiao Fei.” “Yeah, that was probably a good idea. Thanks for checking in. But I would go ahead and tell him so that we can keep focusing over here. I just don’t think I’d be able to get down to where you are in ti- shit!” I hear gunshots through the comm and also from the battle area. They’re coming from my right, over by where Charlie and Niwoyay went before the fight started. I guess they found some people. Quickly glancing over without using my scope, I try to find to source of the noise, hoping that I can detect where the enemy is without having to move my Atlas, but it’s to no avail. My naked eyes just can’t see well enough from this far, although in other games I’m able to develop my sight further. Unfortunately, Call of Duty is too vintage to have that level-up ability; the re-makers wanted to keep it as original as possible. Making do with what I have, I focus on our side of the battle. Charlie made the plan, so I’ll stick to it for him; instead of pointing my scope toward him, I watch Xiao Fei’s reaction to the shooting. He looks unaffected, probably too absorbed in his task to pay attention to anything else. That’s admirable. I smile out of respect for a fellow player. Then I watch the girl come out from behind the tree and start shooting. She holds an SN6 submachine gun that goes off in a quick rapid-fire assault of bullets. High accuracy, but low damage. I watch as a few bullets find their home in Xiao Fei’s chest, and he moves back a few inches from the force of the blows. Thankfully, his suit protected him enough to make sure he didn’t die, but if he gets hit any more he’ll definitely lose a life. Here’s the moment of truth: do I shoot, or do I let him take care of it at the risk of him dying? He isn’t giving me the signal; I’ll just respect his decision and let him deal with it himself. Instead, I search again for the player who probably respawned by now. Bushes are the most likely place, but I don’t want to assume anything just in case, so I check out the trees first. He might have been standing by his friend after he came back to life. The goods news is that even if I don’t catch him immediately, Xiao Fei might die at the hands of the girl, so I’ll have time before he respawns to find the guy. And when I find him I’ll take him and the girl out, if Xiao Fei doesn’t get her first; then I’ll move position and set up shop somewhere else. That’ll be one player completely down, and Xiao Fei can kill the girl for the second time. After that, we’ll go find Charlie and Niwoyay and help thme out. With a plan set firmly in mind, I keep searching for the boy. Any hint of movement will give him away in my scope, but there’s absolutely nothing. Maybe he went over by the other two for a different prey, you know, to switch things up a bit; he might be one of those people that can’t stand to go up against the person who killed him. How would I know? Until then, I can only keep trying to find him on my side, while keeping an eye on Xiao Fei. The girl appears to have gone back behind her tree, not taking full advantage of her situation and stopping right before the kill. Why would she do that? Is she that inexperienced? Somehow, I just can’t believe anyone would be that stupid. Maybe she ran out of bullets in her chamber and has to reload, so she’s hiding while she does that? But she didn’t even shoot that much, so I doubt she ran out that quickly. Just then, I see movement in the bottom left of my scope, opposite of the where the girl is. The boy comes sprinting out from behind a small lump of dirt that acted as a wall to block my sight, although I doubt he knows how well-placed his hiding spot was. On his first shot, he hits Xiao Fei square in the head, and my friend falls to the ground as if on strings that were just cut. Shit. I needed him to take the girl’s life before I can shoot, or else I won’t be effective. Hopefully he can do it on his next life, or we’re screwed. Meanwhile, I still hear static from Charlie and Niwoyay’s end, so I guess they’re not having any more luck than we are. Well, this is going to crap right now. How to fix it? Ah! I know! I quietly stand up and stay low as I run away from my vantage point, careful not to be seen or heard by my enemies. The boy and girl are signaling to each other, so neither of them is moving. If I run fast enough, this might work. As I run, I pull out a MP443 Grach, hoping that it’ll be accurate enough for what I need. I stop in a patch of grass and focus the Grach, knowing that if I don’t make this shot the whole thing will end up screwing me over. Two automatic shots fire from my pistol, and down goes the girl, the long range bullets finding their mark as if sent by heaven to help me. Not taking the time for my usual silent cheer, I’m up and sprinting away as far as possible, not worrying about where I’m going. Now that I’ve taken one of the girl’s lives, I just have to find my way back to my vantage point and aim again. Xiao Fei can keep the boy busy while I get there. Like clockwork, Xiao Fei respawns and I hear shooting behind me, which pushes me to run even faster. The girl will be back any moment, and I’d better be in position before that happens. It’s not that I don’t trust Xiao Fei, but this whole plan made his job probably the hardest one out of all of us. It was poorly thought through. I’m back to my gun, diving and hitting the ground flat on my stomach, all the air knocked out of me. But I manage to focus my gun and find the boy, who’s in the midst of a showdown with Xiao Fei. He’s sprinting around, dodging bullets and firing at my comrade, making it hard to get a good lock on him. But knowing Xiao Fei, he isn’t fazed by the boy’s movements and is getting fed up with his attempts to escape fire. Since I’ve already killed the girl, it doesn’t really matter how long I take to focus on the boy, and I take my time. Xiao Fei is adept enough to hold him off for me, even if he doesn’t know what I’m about to do. Taking aim, I get a good pinpoint on my target and let loose two quick shots, the primer launching first followed by the catalyst. The boy goes up in flame as my primer explodes, and the look on his face is almost comical. I see Xiao Fei’s eyes widen, but he’s too smart to be surprised enough to look at me, even from the corner of his eye. If he did, he’d give the girl who just popped up one hundred yards in front of him more knowledge on my position. “Legend, thank you.” “No prob, Xiao Fei. Do you want me to take this one, too? I think the others are having problems, so we should probably get there quickly.” “Yes,” he answers. “I will stay and distract her for you. We must go to their aid as soon as possible. Once you fire, I, too, will fire off a round in order to make sure the kill is successful. Once you see my gun go off, please move position and find our comrades.” “Got it.” I let off two more shots, the explosion even larger than the first time. Doubtful that the girl survived, but I appreciate Xiao Fei staying to make sure. You can never be too careful. He lets off a round and I stand up with my Atlas tucked under one arm, sprinting over to the other side of the field where Charlie and Niwoyay supposedly are. I’m sure Xiao Fei is also on his way. “Legend.” Sudden static rings in my ears, Charlie’s panicked voice becoming clearer as he speaks. “Niwoyay is down. I’m about to be toast, too. Get over here. I’m on the other side of the trees and there’s two of them on me. I’ve only taken down one so far. He’s almost on me. As soon as he finds me I’m done fo-” Static once again drowns out his words, and then I hear absolutely nothing. “Charlie?” No answer. “Charlie?” After another second of no reply, it’s safe to assume that he’s dead. “Xiao Fei,”” I say over the comm. “Charlie and Niwoyay are dead. It’s up to us. One of them has already died once, but he didn’t say which one, so we’ll just have to assume both of them still have both lives.” “I understand.” With my Atlas in hand, I find a good spot to settle down for now, and take a peek through my scope, trying to find the enemy. There’s some movement in the trees, but nothing definitive; and I don’t know whether or not it’s really Xiao Fei or whatnot. Still, I keep in mind where I saw the disturbance in the foliage and move again in order to find a different view of the terrain. “Legend, I have made it to the other side of the woods. So far there is no one, but I am keeping watch for anything suspicious.” “Okay. Be careful over there. I thought I saw something move near the edge, so if you’re anywhere close to that I’d be on high alert. We might be lucky and that’s the one that already lost a life. We can get rid of them first.” “Yes, that would be preferable,” Xiao Fei says with perfect dead-pan sassiness. “I will certainly search for them and tell you if I find them.” I continue looking for a few seconds when: “I have found them.” “Already?!” “Yes. They are dispatched. I am unsure as to whether that was their second life. Please continue your search.” “Umm...yeah. Good!” Then I see a shadow pass over the dirt near a bush. Without thinking, I pull the trigger, refraining from pulling the second one. If the person Xiao Fei killed wasn’t the one that already lost a life, they might come over to search for me. As it is, the other one will stay near, probably thinking that I have a regular rifle and just happened to miss. They have to be close though so they can find me. If they move at all, it’ll be hard to tell my position from the trajectory of the shot. I’m banking on this to make my final kill. Even still, I pick up my gear and move a little farther away. “Xiao Fei, I found one. I left a primer, but I didn’t activate it. I’m waiting for you to find the other one.” “Okay.” “If you find them and shoot them, let me know so I don’t have to worry about them. If you can’t kill them, at least try and shepherd them over to the bushes. You’ll know them when you see them because there’s a lot in the same place.” “I understand.” I set up my Atlas on top of a boulder, so that I’m standing up still. That way I can run away if necessary and not have to get up from my stomach, which will cut my gettaway time in half. My opponents could be anywhere around me, and I’m only helpful as long as I can keep my life and my unknown position. Even if I die once, I can still stuff, but it’d be better for me to get away quicker so I can keep both lives. “Legend, I see the target. There is only one. Should I shoot to kill?” “No,” I order him. “I’m also done here. You didn’t see anyone else, then?” “Yes,” he responds. But in Mandarin, they answer yes to questions like that. It doesn’t mean “Yes I saw someone.” It means more along the lines of, “Yes, you are correct that I didn’t see anyone.” Just so you know, if you were confused. “Alright, I’ll shoot then and activate the primer. That probably means that we’ll still have to kill that person one more time, so get ready to find them again and take them out. I want to get this done. And don’t get killed, okay?” “I understand.” As my lens comes into focus, I find the exact spot that I’d shot the primer, even though technically I just have to shoot within the area. But I don’t want to take chances that it won’t go off, so I try and locate the first bullet. Just as I thought, the person was still hanging out near the area, not wanting to go too far and then not being able to find me. Taking a deep breath, I let loose on the trigger, feeling the jerk of the gun from the missile, wincing as the butt of the gun hits me in the shoulder. I can’t avoid the pain, since I’m standing up for this shot. But it’s not like it hurts that much anyway, since like I said before games don’t put in 100% realcy, or else they’d lose all their consumers. As it is, the Call of Duty remakes usually have a higher pain realcy than other games because it’s supposed to be like a real war. They want players to feel like they’re experiencing at least a fraction of the pain the real soldiers went through. My primer explodes with a huge force, and I see the player knocked back, landing flat on their ass. One life down, one to go. “Xiao Fei,” I say over the comms. “Now it’s up to you to find them. I’ll still be here as backup, but I don’t think we’ll need me.” “Okay,” he replies. Now that my job is over, I allow myself to relax for a bit, trying to get the tension out of my shoulders, even if it’s only in my head. I don’t actually have tension in my muscles because my muscles don’t really exist here. Thank god for that. Sometimes I think it’s embarrassing how little I can do irl as opposed to Legend’s abilities, like I’m letting down the world or something for being as terribly average as I am. Whatever. Everybody’s a critic. But wait. Something just hit me. If the person that Xiao Fei shot earlier wasn’t the one that had already lost a life, that meant the one I just killed was. And that means that they’re gone and Xiao Fei should be looking for the other one. And that means that they could be anywhere, including near me. And that means I should probably get off my ass, pick up my gun, and be ready for them if they are. Thanks for the brain fart, brain. Considering I’ll only be shooting if the person is near, I decide to abandon my Atlas and go back to my pistol. I check the chamber just in case something glitched and I’m out of bullets, but it’s still full. That done, I stand up and turn in a slow circle, facing the area that I’d had my back to. Behind me is actually nothing my dirt for a good two hundred feet, so I was fair play for anyone who came for me from that direction. But if they did that I would know their location and could tell Xiao Fei as soon as I respawned, so it wouldn’t work out for them in the long run. And it also helps me figure out quickly whether or not there’s anyone in my vicinity. It appears there is not, as the empty space in front of me indicates. Still, they could come up behind my rocky perch when I’m not looking. No matter what, I’ll still know where they are, but I want to at least try to be ready so I can take them out without needing to lose a life and then communicate to Xiao Fei where they’re at. But best case scenario remains the one in which Xiao Fei shoots the player for the final kill, so we can be done with this at last without any hassle. “Legend,” Xiao Fei’s voice whispers in my ear. “I have found them. I will kill them now, yes?” “Sounds good to me.” A bang comes from the opposite end of my comms unit, and then I hear a horn blow off in the distance. A little anticlimactic, but I’m okay with that. The game is finished and I can go home and hopefully eat dinner. Winners: Players Xiao Fei, Charlie, Legend, and Niwoyay. Congratulations to all of you. Originally, there wasn’t anything like this is the Call of Duty series. Words popped up instead of a voice to tell you who won because many times your teammates had no idea what was going on elsewhere in the field. Thanks to full-dive equipment, this is no longer a problem, and so it’s faster to just say the words than to write them. Xiao Fei and I get a brief second to cheer before we’re transported to a chat room to see our team and catch up on the battle. It only takes a few seconds to load and then I see our missing comrades as well as Xiao Fei’s now-familiar army suit. None of us take our helmets off, knowing that we’ll be leaving soon anyway and the gesture would be unnecessary. “Well, thanks for saving us,” Charlie says with a big smile. “Sucks that Legend had to see us like that the first time he played with us.” “I’m right here. You don’t have to refer to me in the third person.” “Oh, right! Sorry about that!” Nothing will ever wipe the grin off that guy’s face, I swear. “Anyway, we apologize for our mess-up back there, but all’s well that ends well, eh? We’ll get ‘em next time.” God please don’t let there be a next time. I outgrew this shooting games months ago (but you still want to play Paradise, a hidden voice whispers in the back of my mind) and as fun as it was playing with Xiao Fei again, I hope I won’t have to come back. Well, that’s not exactly true. I just don’t want to have to play with Charlie again, in all honesty. There’s something unnerving about his neverending happiness, and the way he only sees me as a top player and not a person. “Right,” I say awkwardly, hoping he doesn’t hear the hesitance in my voice. “Anyway, it was fun, but I gotta go.” “Already?” “Yeah. I got shit to do at home and stuff. Nice meeting you guys, though. It was fun.” I smile at Xiao Fei and Niwoyay. Wait, what? Now that I look closer I see his name for the first time. It’s spelled Nwoye? How the hell was I supposed to figure that out? Well, sorry guys. I’ve been spelling it wrong the entire time. After exchanging glances with all three boys, I go to my settings and tap the log-off button. With one final wave, I let the game suck me back to the loading station where the NPC greets me heartily. How’d it go, soldier? You win it for us? “Yeah. Two soldiers down, though.” It happens to the best of us. He smiles at me kindly, but still with a hard edge in his well-trained eyes. I’m guessing you’re lookin’ to get outta here, then. I can help you with that. “Thanks,” I tell him. “Log me out, please.” Thanks for playin’. Then the world goes black.
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When I lift the headset off of me, my plain room sparkles in the last lights of day streaming in through my window. Dinner will be soon. Ding. I have a new FastChat message. Mom: I won’t be home for dinner tonight. Make something for you and Erika. There should be some macaroni in the cupboard, so you can have that. Sorry. I’ll be home late. I love you.
Well, dinner was going to be soon. I guess I’ll make some chicken for us, then, since it’s really hard to mess that up. Every time I make it it comes out super dry, but it’s the only thing we have so Erika has to eat or else starve. And because she starves herself all day she has to eat my bad cooking. Bwahaha! Actually, I’m just trying to sound upbeat. I haven’t seen my mom for days because she keeps working late. She’s going to make herself sick if she keeps going like that, but I never know what to say to get her to stop. ‘It’s okay that we can barely pay our bills anymore, as long as we can all eat together’? Not likely. In lieu of worrying, I get out of bed and put my hair in a ponytail. I’ll make the chicken as well as I can and leave some for mom to eat when she gets home. Hopefully it doesn’t poison her; or, for that matter, us. Why can’t cooking be as easy as video games?
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