The next day was Sunday, so no videogames. Mateo’s parents claimed the electronics needed a break, just like us. I didn’t argue physics. Mateo and I wandered around the city instead.
Trust me, there was plenty to see. The world in catastrophe wasn’t a great place to call home, but the sightseeing was both heartbreaking, and awe-inspiring.
This town had used to been cramped full of refugees, people fleeing from the plague as it traveled north. Hastily constructed buildings were all over the place, falling in on themselves quite often nowadays. The already sketchy idea of stability our engineers had was wrecked by the flood of people, and buildings had been thrown atop other buildings haphazardly.
Then the plague hit, and we lost two-thirds of our population. All of a sudden, you could live anywhere you wanted, practically. That had seemed great at first, till they turned off all the water and electricity on the people not paying rent. Things went pretty much back to normal then, with communal houses like I had and fourteen kids in one single-story slab like where Mateo lived.
But that meant there was like, hundreds of falling apart buildings in this city to explore.
Using a wind-up flashlight as illumination, we trudged through different structures, before finally ending up at a giant warehouse.
It looked to have been recently looted. It’s owner had never come back to claim whatever had been in it.
We peeked through the door, taking in the giant vastness of this place. So empty. Somebody had made a clean sweep.
And then we got the exact same idea at the exact same time. We glanced at each other, a gleam in our eye, and then spent the rest of the entire day throwing stuff into the street.
I just realized that saying, "without you I would be stuck in my room being an introvert" Is totally incorrect because here I am doing it day after day. And loving it!
*screams and falls over* AAAUUUUGGHHHAAAA!!!!
Being an introvert ain't bad. And despite the introverts saying so, neither is being an extrovert.
I just realized that saying, "without you I would be stuck in my room being an introvert" Is totally incorrect because here I am doing it day after day. And loving it!
*screams and falls over* AAAUUUUGGHHHAAAA!!!!
Being an introvert ain't bad. And despite the introverts saying so, neither is being an extrovert.
*flicks band-aid onto your face* There, I am unsympathetic.
The interesting thing about this game’s arenas and games were that you could watch. Of course, nobody was interested in the duel between two practically newbies, so the stands were full of NPCs, but still, it was a cool option.
The type bar was before me. I glanced over at Mateo. He nodded at me, somehow sensing I was looking at him despite his goggles. My fingers took up the normal typing position, abandoning the arrow keys. His did the same, as he slid his laptop back onto his lap.
I tried a few commands.
TheGreatCon: attack
My minifigure did a standard slam. I was equipped with a semi-automatic pistol of sorts.
TheGreatCon: fire
Thank goodness that worked. Mateo, meanwhile, was trying to get his guy turned around to face mine. It was laughable, really, our feeble attempts at combat here.
TheGreatCon: pivot
My character turned just the slightest amount.
TheGreatCon: pivot pivot pivot pivot
Lined up with Mateo twitching body.
TheGreatCon: fire fire fire fire fire fire
And I got my first smash of the night.
~<>~
We played a bunch more rounds of that before logging off and watching Jurassic Park, after shooing all the youngest of his siblings out. We still had a good six of them left, sprawled on the couch, chairs, and floor.
The movie was great, and one particular quote did make me smile.
The interesting thing about this game’s arenas and games were that you could watch. Of course, nobody was interested in the duel between two practically newbies, so the stands were full of NPCs, but still, it was a cool option.
The type bar was before me. I glanced over at Mateo. He nodded at me, somehow sensing I was looking at him despite his goggles. My fingers took up the normal typing position, abandoning the arrow keys. His did the same, as he slid his laptop back onto his lap.
I tried a few commands.
TheGreatCon: attack
My minifigure did a standard slam. I was equipped with a semi-automatic pistol of sorts.
TheGreatCon: fire
Thank goodness that worked. Mateo, meanwhile, was trying to get his guy turned around to face mine. It was laughable, really, our feeble attempts at combat here.
TheGreatCon: pivot
My character turned just the slightest amount.
TheGreatCon: pivot pivot pivot pivot
Lined up with Mateo twitching body.
TheGreatCon: fire fire fire fire fire fire
And I got my first smash of the night.
~<>~
We played a bunch more rounds of that before logging off and watching Jurassic Park, after shooing all the youngest of his siblings out. We still had a good six of them left, sprawled on the couch, chairs, and floor.
The movie was great, and one particular quote did make me smile.
Finders keepers, losers weepers was officially instated as law about, what, a year and a half ago?
I asked about it at school the next day. Our teacher had a thing about selective learning, which was basically, anything that interested us and was at all educational, he’d talk about. Normally he took time to study his material beforehand (probably read it all off Wikipedia), but this time he didn’t have too.
“Ah, yes the revised ownership laws, Mr. Chavez.” He scratched at his day-old stubble. “Yes, I do believe they were put into place November of last year…” He leaned back onto his desk. “Basically, it means if you find anything, upkeep it for a month, and nobody comes along and legally claims it, it is yours. Lots of exceptions, granted, but there’s too many good things out there right now rotting away for the government to be too worried. Anyways, if somebody stole your car or something, generally you can just go find another one in some abandoned garage that’s just as nice.” He shrugged. “Anything else?”
A hand raised. “You’re joking right?”
“Not in the slightest, Mrs….” He paused. “I don’t know you.”
“Celeste Huntingway, sir.” She said, standing. It was the girl from the soccer game. So she was here. And right in the front. Very nice. I groaned, and buried myself deeper into my folded arms.
“Ah…well, sorry you’re here.” My teacher said. That was the normal thing to say down here to people who (presumably) came from a better place. Our definition of polite had become a little screwed.
He paused, obviously wondering if he had said the right thing. She gave no indication, sitting back down. He then opened his mouth to CONtinue on with his topic. Then he realized that he had no clue what he was previously talking about, so he shut his mouth, and furrowed his brow. Finally, he gave up and just rang the bell for lunch.
We all snatched out our lunch containers, and people started bunching up, choosing their “table” of friends. Mateo and me simultaneously pulled out a bag of chips, ripped it open with our teeth, and then fist-bumped each other before digging in.
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