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+--- Thread: Fun & Games (/showthread.php?tid=48480)
Fun & Games - Game Girl - 02-07-2025
In an armory filled with swords, maces, crossbows and armor sits a greatsword glimmering in the light atop a red square of velvet. A blade made of steel and etched with silver; a golden hilt with a lavish guard and a small heart carved in the center. A clock ticks as we sit in the room for a moment.
POP!
Until Game Girl appears from thin air, her arms high in the air in victory with a toothy smile on her face; a goose egg on her brow from her most recent battle. GG flinches as she’s back in the armory, her eyes move to each side. The silence contrasting the roar of the crowd, the warm interior a shock from the freezing outdoors. GG lowers her arms to her side fully and splutters her lip, her foot kicking the air before she looks down and sees the sword.
“Oooh!” She grabs the hilt and tosses the sword into a flip before catching it again. “Yoink!”
She marches out of the room while whistling a familiar victory tune that’s been stuck in her head. As we go outside of the castle, joining the rest of the party. Pepe saddles his pony as Game Boy helps Princess onto her steed to murmurs of the gathering crowd which are kept back by armed knights. Game Girl exits with a hop and the sword over her shoulder; the crowd erupts into cheers as they see the hero of their city and she gives an excited wave back to everyone. GB looks back with a smile as he makes sure Princess is saddled correctly; GB goes to leave but Princess grabs his hand and squeezes tightly. Her brow furrowed with pensive lips as she looks down at Game Boy; her lip trembles as she goes to speak but GB pats her leg and squeezes her hand back, with a stern nod, he smiles trying to comfort her with a whisper.
“Don’t let the people see you scared, your highness.”
Princess lets out a long exhale and straightens her posture, mouthing a “thank you” to GB who pats the horse before moving over to meet Game Girl who strolls over with a skip in her step. GG flips the sword, grabbing the flat edge of the blade and showing the hilt to GB. He smiles looking down at the sword and takes it, admiring the sheen before sheathing it on his back. He looks at Game Girl with a raised eyebrow.
“What took you so long?” He tilts his head. “And what happened to your face?”
Game Boy goes to touch her cheek but Game Girl waves the hand away with a smirk showing her missing tooth.
“Long story. I’ll tell you about it later.”
GB gives a shrug and turns back to his horse; GG looks again to the lively crowd. Admiration washing over her and she smiles looking back at each and every face.
“He’s still working on the game?” Ai questions before slumping back into her seat with a shake of her head. “I-uh… Man… That’s pretty sad, right?”
The interviewer makes a barely audible laugh as Ai goes back to her tea.
“You did say he was a perfectionist.”
“Mmm.” She puts down the cup with an eye roll. “Yeah he is but there’s a line between making something what you think is perfect and being obsessed with something. Gabe is just going to run himself into the ground thinking his work isn’t the best and the game will never get released. It’s a lose lose.”
We move from Ai back to Gabe carrying cardboard boxes back into his “study”. He places one with a groan and hisses holding his back. Text comes on screen.
Gabe recently lost his job at Circuitry Games.
His employers say it was due to his lateness, excessive days off and lack of responsibility in his role.
Gabe has started his Kickstarter early for Tales of Narfinex due to his current financial difficulties.
His employers say it was due to his lateness, excessive days off and lack of responsibility in his role.
Gabe has started his Kickstarter early for Tales of Narfinex due to his current financial difficulties.
Gabe sits down with a sigh looking down at his phone. His voice comes over the footage.
“It’s a big day, a huge day.” The camera cuts to Gabe nodding and smiling. “I can focus all my energy on Narfinex now! The Kickstarter is up, we have 90 days to hit 200k which will be easy… People eat up this nostalgia stuff. And where I’ve got the game right now? It’s-It’s uh… Gonna be something!”
We cut to Arin laughing loudly.
“I knew he’d pull this shit!.” He continues his laugh loudly. “Any money he’s still using my code! And if he is, man, that is going to bite him in the ass!”
To Garrett, lighting up a “cigarette”. He exhales a plume of smoke as he whips the match out and tosses it over the balcony.
“Knowing Arin he probably put some kinda dipshit kill code in the game. When you hit a certain point the game files corrupt and you're stuck, it was an anti-piracy thing he cooked up, always did it. Gabe is… Smart, but I doubt he even knows about it.”
“I have had a few issues that I'd hope to clear up before the Kickstarter. It’s part of the reason I’ve been rewriting code and adjusting the characters and the story… But every time I get to the final act… It just goes black. No matter what I try, there’s no ending… Just… A black screen. Once I get some money in from the Kickstarter, I can hire some people, get a nice office and we can all work on ironing out the difficulties.”
“... So the game’s broke?”
Gabe taps his fingers on his desk with a sneer staring behind the camera.
“The game is perfect. I’ve just run into a few bugs. It’s common. I have a working demo at the very least it's something more than half these other Kickstarts do!”
We stick on Gabe for a moment before going back to Ai.
“My biggest worry is that the characters we wrote won’t be the same anymore. I was proud of Paige and Guy, we made them something special, two characters you could love, who had so much hope and optimism it made you root for them, want them to save the day… After 20 years of working on the game, rewrites, reprograms…”
“You gotta assume they’ve changed…”
We sail through the blue sky, passing puffs of white clouds as Game Girl surfs down atop Nimbus towards the road nestled between large oak trees. Game Boy looks up from his horse and smiles to himself as GG dives down with a spin towards them; his head tilts down to see Princess, flanked either side by her royal guard, looking back at him with a smirk before she looks back to the road. With a “whoosh” Game Girl hovers beside Game Boy and lets out a long exhale as she reclines on her cloud with a smile.
“Looks clear, for now, I can see the peak of Mt. Final Boss waaaaaay in the distance.”
GB scoffs with a smirk.
“Good to know, it’s best you stay low to the ground though.” GB looks around at the trees. “Just in case.”
Game Girl sits crossed legged on Nimbus and gives a nod.
“Okie dokie, cap-i-tan!”
“So…” He looks back from the treeline towards GG and gives a nod to her swollen eye. “What happened to you? Did a shield fall off a shelf and bonk you because it actually happens pretty often.”
GG gives a short laugh.
“And somehow only to you.” She gives a wide smile as GB rolls his eyes. Game Girl pushes her legs up close to her chest and wraps her arms around her shins, plonking her head on her knees with a soft smile. “I was in a fight with some guys at XWF.”
GB squints.
“XWF?”
GG straightens herself and cocks her head at GB.
“Yeah-oh… You don’t remember XWF do you?”
He gives a shrug; his pauldrons clink with the drop of his shoulders.
“Should I?”
“I-umm. I just assumed you would… You were actually the one who showed me XWF and Earth.”
“Urf?” He stammers briefly looking to the front of the convoy and back to Game Girl with a sigh. “How did I show you something I've never heard of?”
Game Girl looks away for a moment with a sharp exhale.
“It’s a long story, GB. Like real long. Like I said at the castle, I’ve lived through things so many times I can’t remember. But you, the original you, had the powers I have now-”
“Wait what!?” Game Boy almost throws himself off his horse jolting towards her in excitement. “I did what you do!? Be the Hero of Narfinex!? Super strength!? Super speed!? The beams and stuff!!?!? That’s- … That’s… Wow!”
Game Boy’s pupils flicker left and right, his jaw dropped in amazement as Game Girl looks at him. There’s a smile at the corners of her mouth but she looks away swallowing a lump in her throat and to the front where she sees Princess looking back at the pair. GG gives a wave which Princess reciprocates with a noble nod before turning.
“So…” He turns back to Game Girl, a solemn look on his face. “Did I lose my powers when the world reset or something?”
GG tilts up with a sad smile looking up at him and slowly shakes her head.
“No… You died…”
“Oh…”
He turns his attention back to the reins on his horse and the pair sit in the silence. Wind brushing the branches of trees, hooves crushing dry leaves under heel. Game Girl looks to the sound of sheep in the distance, seeing a small herd graze near a creek as they ride deeper into denser brush. Game Girl places her hands over a knee as she tries to get comfy on the cloud; her robotic thumb stroking the soft skin on her wrist; she goes to speak but stops herself looking at Game Boy who has returned to his proud posture atop his regal horse. His polished armor bouncing sunlight all around. He lets out a cough of laughter as he catches GG’s gaze.
“Welp, I’m alive now! No need to mourn someone still breathing.”
The words collide with Game Girl’s chest, almost knocking the wind out of her.
“Ye-yeah! You’re right…”
Game Boy lets out a belly laugh.
“Jeez! You’re real supportive aren’t you! I’m trying to come to the reality that I’ve died, possibly hundreds of times and am going to die again, and you can’t even give me a convincing lie!? Hahahahahaha!”
GG stifles a chuckle before GB’s laugh forces out a giggle and she pushes his knee.
“Stop! Hahahaha! It’s not funny!”
“You’re laughing too!”
The pair giggle like a pair of idiots before it naturally dies down into hiccups of laughter and finally back to the silence. Toads croak from the water nearby as insects chirp. A splash is heard as something dives in sending ripples meeting the flowing brook. The sheep wander closer to the party. GB lets out a sigh.
“I have to ask then.”
He looks back to her, their eyes meeting and GG nods.
“You died a hero. You saved a lot of people.”
Game Boy’s lungs inflate as pride fills him. There’s a crack in his voice as he replies.
“Good. I’m glad… But…”
He stops himself trying to find the words.
“Why did you get the powers?”
“Erm…” She grips her shoulder and massages it gently. “It’s a long story like I said, Game Boy.”
GB looks to the front once more and scans the horizon before looking back.
“We’ve got time.”
Game Girl rubs her brow with a sigh before planting her chin on her knee.
“Okay… So, you know how we’re in a video game, yeah?”
GB gives a few nods.
“We had multiple lives, not like actual lives, but we could respawn… And you were on your last life and when you died… It was “game over” for you and my… Game started.”
GB squints at her as he processes the words.
“This is very confusing.”
“Yeah, this is kinda why I didn’t want to talk about it, heh… But in this game, our world, you were player one and I was player two. So when you died, the first time, I just got your powers.”
“So have I got my powers back before?”
“Erm, not exactly. You’ve been different, one time you were a ninja, another you had stretchy powers-”
“Hey!” He clicks his finger with a point. “That’s pretty cool.”
She gives a slow nod before furrowing her brow.
“It was for a while…” Halting the nod, she then mutters to herself. “Made that versions General Big Bad very weird to deal with though…”
“Okay.” GB closes one eye as he scratches his head. “So if you die… Would I get the powers or would it just be the end of the world?”
GG goes to speak but nothing comes out. She looks down with a raised eyebrow.
“I actually don’t know.”
She ponders this, looking down at the grass as Game Boy looks at her. Then his eyes snap to the hilt of his sword and finally back down to GG. His pupils flick from her neck then back to the road as he shakes his head with a groan.
“This fight you had.” Game Boy raises his head up and pulls on the reins as the precession slows. Game Girl looks up to him. “How’d it go?”
“Oh man.” A big smile returns to her face as she falls back, her arms stretched behind her with her palms flat on Nimbus. “It was so much fun! I actually forgot how fun things could be! You wouldn’t know him but I met this amazing human being named Scoops McGee and we saved this woman called Roxy from an evil tower and then we fought these three really tough guys at this show called Snow Balls Barred, I think, in a place called Canada and it was REALLY COLD and it was SNOWING! And it was soooooo cool!”
Game Girl snaps her head to GB, finally taking a breath.
“And then we all beat up the Atma Weapon!”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s from Final Fantasy… It doesn’t matter! And then we fought the guys some more and I pinned this one guy called Bobby, who is really cool, and we won then me, Roxy and Scoops, who is a living legend and I got the chance to help him with some farm work which was SUPER COOL, all celebrated in the ring then I got whooshed back here.”
GG exhales with a pleased sigh as GB nods along.
“So you won? That’s awesome!”
Game Girl gives a shrug.
“Yeah but that isn’t what matters!” Game Girl turns 90 degrees to face fully to Game Boy. her legs swinging from Nimbus. “I’ve been a downer for a while, GB, I’ve been stuck in a rut with no real escape and for the first time in a long time I truly enjoyed myself. I’ve lost matches to better people, people like Sebastain Everett-Bryce and Lucy Wylde because I underestimated them, because I was trying to figure out my sense of self, trying to distance myself from what made me happy in the first place. I worked with amazing people, people I care about like Atara Raven and Dolly Waters and I let them down because I wasn’t with it.”
“I beat people like Matthias Syn and Sarah Wolf but… I was someone different when I was talking to them. I was lost in another world, a world where my depression or trauma took over. I said awful things to them… Things that I didn’t think I could say. And I’ve said worse in the past when our world kept changing over and over and I was left to stare at a black screen for so long while everything on the outside changed…” GG chokes up briefly as Game Boy looks into her watery eyes. She swallows the lump and composes herself. “And then, as if by cosmic interference, when I thought I was gonna stay in this weird way between worlds forever… I met Scoops… And we help each other and we talk and we try to save the day… And it reminded me of everything I loved in my life.”
“Now… I have to face him.”
“I have to face Sarah again.”
“Lucy again…”
“And some other guy who I’ve been lucky enough to avoid because he seems really annoying to deal with. Or some nordic woman who seems really cool. Honestly, it's all very confusing.”
“Yeah you’ve kinda lost me.”
“It doesn’t matter, I'm just kinda spiralling into semantics.”
“I, umm, I just want to have fun again. When I fought Lucy I was A-MAZED by her. She’s incredibly talented and I didn’t see it at first because I was laser-focused on someone I thought was a bigger threat but I was wrong. When she beat me, she stood up tall bathed in light like an angel and all I could do was give a thumbs up trying to say it was a good fight.”
“When I lost to her, I felt like I let my team down… And I did. I was fighting for them instead of fighting with them. I was trapped in my own head for so long that I forgot that I’m not on my own, I have you guys, I have people at XWF. Even when its one on one, I have everyone with me in here.” Game Girl pats her chest. “And maybe it's corny but I don’t care anymore!”
“I have hope again!”
“I don’t want to attack people verbally and point out their flaws, I don’t want to play mind games, I want to fight people and have fun! I want the people I fight to have fun! I want a match like I had with Bobby Bourbon where it reminded me of why I do this in the first place.”
“FUN!”
“Real, true joy.”
“Lucy Wylde is incredible and I adore her! And I want to fight her and I want to win so we’re tied so I can fight her again! I want to win and win that title so I can fight everyone and remind us all of why we started doing this in the first place!”
“I want to fight Sarah Wolf again because she deserves a second chance! Sure, she may be insane and harass children which I despise! But I haven’t stopped thinking about our match since it happened! I know she’s terrible but man, there’s something else there and I want to see it! I want to see that aggression again, that anger, that something different.”
“I also would like her to stop making children wet themselves in an elevator! But I’m gonna teach her a lesson again and she can apologize by bringing me sunflowers, they’re my favorite.”
“I want to fight Charlie or Yelena because they’re something NEW! To me at least.”
“I DON’T want to fight Scoops but I know if I don’t bring my S+ game he’s gonna be mad at me.”
“I want to have real fun again, GB, like how me and you used to fight dragons or chase displacer beasts or explore dungeons! I want things to go back to the way they were.”
Game Girl smiles to herself. Game Boy sighs and goes to say something before a branch cracking perks both their ears. The pair look to their right seeing an imposing wolf with ragged black fur and a long, awful snout with crooked, sharp teeth. The two, along with the rest of the party, gather closer and slow their stride as they watch the giant wolf stalk the treeline towards the herd of sheep.
The wolf steps gently and thoughtfully, the rusted spears stuck in its back brushing the leaves of the weeping willow in stalks under. Ragged breaths come from it, drool spilling from its open maw. It’s eye darts to the convoy constantly, it's not stupid to pick a fight with so many armed beings but desperate enough to show itself so blatantly.
Game Girl’s eyes meet the wolf’s.
She sees it for what it is.
Not an evil beast, but a beaten one. A sad, lone wolf.
Hungry, starving. Smart enough to avoid her but stupid enough to keep in her line of sight.
Game Girl feels pity towards the creature but as she looks to the sheep, the old, battered ram standing up in a stance with shaky knees her heart shouts to protect them but she knows she can’t. This is life, it's how animals work. The sheep get behind the imposing ram, its eyes cloudy, his curled horns covered in scars. The ram pushes dirt back, another young ram readying itself watching for its elder to make the move.
The wolf goes silent.
Then pounces.
The younger ram rushes ahead to, outpacing his elder, and lowers it horns.
WHACK!
The ram hits the air and slows its stride.
The wolf’s body lays on the grass, its limbs twitching as blood oozes from the hole left by a bolt.
The rams stare down at their foe, their pride snatched.
The wolf’s eyes finally close, her prey untouched.
Game Girl turns her head to Game Boy placing the heavy crossbow back on its sling around the horse. He sighs.
“W-why did you do that?”
“We have a job to protect the weak.” He looks down at her. “Also, you and I never chased dragons or explored dungeons. That was someone different, Paige, not me. It can’t all be fun and games.”
Game Boy whips his reins and forces the party to move quicker as Game Girl watches him move on before her eyes fall on the dead wolf.