It was such a waste that they had turned this into a high school sporting event.
I spent the next fifteen minutes wandering around the game, getting ran over by very-material people and ogling at the exotic sights. I remembered way too late that this was a spectator sport, and walked into a building to escape the eyes of my tormentors. They weren’t privy to my personal awe of this place.
I ended up sitting on a couch, watching anime. There was literally a movie on. It wasn’t looped or anything, the whole film appeared to be playing out. I was actually getting really engrossed, when all of a sudden I wasn’t alone.
XD I did the exact same thing when I was enrolled into ballet class when I was like, six. Just snuck away from class and watched a movie in the waiting room. Only difference was it was old-people anime, "Pinocchio".
You ever had one of those moments when you have a typo and you just sit there and stare at the screen and you don't know what to say because there is literally no excuse for it it's just there looking at you like, "Can't touch me fuzz"?
Yeah, that was the dream. I welcomed all the new users over on the JW board. I mean, I was like one of three readers on some of those stories. If you're going to put in users, might as well stick in somebody who's there to appreciate it.
Hey I say that counts. You even do it here. Oh. XD
I would have wanted to hit him more than once....I guess the others got to him though and we don't want him out of broken. Eey King almost makes an appearance!
Not so fond of Nate now, are we? Yeah, more on him later.
Yes deep down but at the moment irritation has overridden that feeling. It's still there just not dominant at the moment. XD Yey!! : D
“Oh, great.” I said, and pulled me and my bad foot inside.
“Did you win?” She asked, not leaving it at that.
“No. And my team didn’t either.” I mounted the stairs with some difficulty. Thump. Thump, Thump. My foot rested limply on each stair.
She eyed my progress. “You’re hurt.”
“Oh yeah. All over.”
“That’s part of the game.” She said. “It toughens you. Gives you grit.”
“Or breaks you.” I said, sitting down on the bed.
She followed me into my bedroom. “It was one game. You’ll get better.”
“I don’t want to.” I yanked off my shoe, and peeling back my sock examined my foot. She leaned over my shoulder, entranced by the appearance of another metallic appendage. I pulled the sock all the way off, rolled the pants leg up, and then opened a panel. Seemed fine in there. I opened another. A screw fell out. I reached inside and pulled out a back panel, laying it to the side.
~<>~
Pretty soon the foot was pretty much dismantled on the floor. I, of course, couldn’t figure out what was wrong, much less fix it, but I figured to save face I had to try. December sat silently through all this.
I gave up eventually. The ground was littered with pieces. It would take me an hour just to reassemble this mess that way I didn’t lose anything. I was basically a LEGO set. A lot of pieces put together. And a pretty poorly designed one at that.
“The…Echelon…did that?” She gestured to my foot.
“Sure did, April.” I grabbed a piece of metal tubing and tried to fit it over a socket. “I bricking love your game. So much fun. Whee.”
“You gotta get yourself a dispensation.” She said.
“They won’t give me one.”
“They will if you show ‘em that.” She pointed at the leg.
“I don’t want to show them that.” I rolled my pants leg back down for the moment. “Cause you know the first thing they’ll do? They get somebody on that bricking loudspeaker to announce that their beloved new student from no school listed is a freak who doesn’t get to play the games.”
“So there’s no good option?” She asked.
“I gotta get this to a mechanic.” I scooped the parts into a ziplock bag and tucked it inside my jacket. “And hope he knows what internal wiring is supposed to look like.”
Why do both your characters have bum legs... He wants out but not at the expense of his pride....understandable.
I stood up, and realized there was a give and take to a painless execution. My leg wasn’t responding. I shook it. Still good at the knee. The foot, though? Unresponsive. I tried to run internal diagnostics. The ping came back empty, stating my right foot to be “offline.” Like bricks it was. What did my stupid internal computer think my foot was? A Bluetooth speaker? Oh well.
I sat down and prepared to finish the movie.
Argo showed up at my elbow a good twenty minutes later. There was a boss battle on, and I ignored her for the most part.
“Well, that was a brilliant start.” She said. “First game. What’d you think of it?”
“Marvelous.” I said. “I played like a champ.”
“You’re a brickin’ disgrace to the sport.” She took off her helmet, and threw it at me. I ducked, thankfully. I’d had enough broken hardware for one day. “People are laughing! They are laughing at squad #81! We go out there, fight to the death, and you…what?”
“Quiet, it’s a good part.” I said, motioning to the screen. Actually, it wasn’t, but I wanted her to shut up.
She hit me this time. Right in the chest. I felt that. I winced. “Hey, cut it out.”
“We’ve never been laughed at.” She looked down at me as I sat there in a purple recliner. “You’re wrecking our reputation.”
I thought she was being a bit harsh. Turns out, though, she wasn’t. Cause next in the door was Tacks. And she chewed me out royally. And she kicked me around. And then she had DeadBeat kick me around.
They all tromped out together, me trailing behind, dragging a bum foot. Turns out the game officials were waiting on me to vacant the arena before starting the next round. Hilarious. They had to send in my squad to drag me out.
I neatly folded up my gear and stashed it in my compartment. I glanced over at DeadBeat. “How’d it go for you guys?”
“Bad.” He rumbled in a voice so low that I felt like I should stoop to hear better. “Team ain’t been the same since King left.”
“Who?”
“The guy whose shoes you’re miserably failing to fill.” And he walked out before I could get an actual answer. What a cad.
YES! Oh gosh, yes. I wouldn't have minded. XD ![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
Finally being introduced to Echelon is kind of terrifying for me for some reason. 
![[lenny]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/7elNEqtPK2hcSAiIMFNh.png)
![[y]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/WYWPH2VRo26pOFDid7QZ.png)