Collide Gamer

Rave clung to his arm to an almost uncomfortable degree. She squeezed his limb as if he was going to fly away the moment she let go. “Ya gonna stay, right?”

“Shouldn’t be too difficult to satisfy the criteria,” John talked in a calmer, a little deeper voice in an attempt to calm her down. “With my INT and WIS, I will pass the tests without issue. I don’t really need a lot of money and keeping the place clean should be easy too… can’t have it be dirty if you come around again.”

“Yeah… hey…” the school bus slowly rolled up to them. “Wanna skip today?”

“Uhm, you heard the grades part of the ultimatum, right?”

“Ja, but… ya also need to take care of Baldy’s stuff and levels.” Rave sounded like she was grasping for reasons. She did come up with a couple good ones. “Plus, do ya really need your parents approval to stay if ya get enough money to buy a house? Ya can just move in with me!”

That suggestion was a bit shocking, on two levels. One that Rave put the pedal to the metal again and casually suggested he stay at her place permanently and two that she suggested he just ignore his parents wishes. De-facto she was right. Even ignoring moving into her spacious place, putting aside the money needed to rent an apartment would be laughably easy even just grinding the Spectre.

The bus approached and John considered it thoroughly. After the shock of the morning, spending more time with her sounded wonderful. One day wouldn’t hurt, right?

‘Ah, the temptation of material goods,’ John thought, as he counted the number of 0s. ‘Is she going to start Armageddon if I take the Quest? Are you making me choose between humanity and my own advantage?’ In the end, wise fear won out and he refused the Quest. He truly did not need the encouragement to hang out with Jane.

“GET IN ALREADY!” the bus driver shouted.

Rave stuck out her tongue, then turned to John with a broad smile, as he pulled her away. Apologetically, he waved at the driver, who just scoffed and closed the doors. The Gamer could imagine hearing a ‘kids these days’.

John still wasn’t sure what Gaia’s investment in his life was or what exactly she wanted, but it seemed his refusal of the previous Quest had put her in a good mood. When the supreme deity of reality smiled upon him John was going to question it a lot. Not enough to look a gift horse in the mouth though. He tapped the button.

“Did ya just get a Quest to hang out with me?” Rave asked, a mildly displeased undertone in her voice.

“I did, but I declined that one and then I got another one,” John told her and gave her the more accurate rundown of what each Quest contained a moment later.

“Murdering stuff is always fun.” Rave gave him a carefree smile. One that he realized was mirrored on his own face. He didn’t believe he would have ever felt this great about skipping school. “Let’s go to the arcade first tho. Gotta change my clothes.”

John looked down on himself. Fighting in the school uniform indeed sounded like a horrendous idea. If his mom wasn’t wise to the fact that he had skipped school, she definitely would be when he came around in torn clothes. “I didn’t pack a spare set of clothes,” he realized, when he checked his inventory. “Kind of forgot about that because something was distracting me this morning.”

“Must’ve been mighty distracting,” Rave purred.

“Nah, I just get distracted really easily.” His girlfriend bumped into him, while he chuckled. “Well, I can’t go back home to grab things. Mom isn’t going to leave until she gets groceries.”

“Just ask Jimmie if he has some spare stuff.”

John nodded slowly, that would work. They were about the same size. Question was only if Jimmie was willing to part with something likely to get shredded. ‘Would be really nice if Gamer’s Body extended to the clothes.’ “Let’s hope he’s there then… actually, where does he live in the building? Upstairs is Travolta’s turf… is there a basement?”

“Yup, yup,” Rave responded chirpily. “There’s a shed in the back with a staircase. He lives like… well, he lives like a guy. Bed in the corner of his workshop.”

Did not sound terrible to John, but he was part of the category of ‘guys’. “Might as well, good opportunity to get to know Jimmie,” he decided. He knew very little about the guy, despite seeing him almost every day for the past two weeks. Same could be said about most of John’s classmates though. ‘I just am not that social.’ “While we’re on the topic of Jimmie, that makes me think about the hospital and the Apothecaries. What are they even treating there? Abyssal battle wounds?”

“Nah, Abyssals don’t have wounds after battles… usually.”

“Huh?” John looked at her funny. The image of the mangled corpses rose in his mind again. Crushed to bits by the thin arms of the Wall Shadow. “How?”

“Gaia’s trying to keep things hush-hush, remember? Kinda hard when people run around after a fight bleeding out all over the city. Wounds close when ya leave an Illusion Barrier. If ya enter another one too quickly, they open back up though. It’s not a free healing ticket. Kinda like… she saves the state in which ya entered the barrier and the one you left it in and applies it depending on where ya at.”

“Huh, that’s… neat.”

“Dad told me to go to the Apothecaries if I lose a limb though. Apparently it’ll go all necrotic if ya don’t take care of it. Something about an interrupted soul causing physical rejection. You, meanwhile,” she poked him in the ribs, “get to just regenerate fully wherever you are. Gamer stuff is BS.”

‘Really no rhyme nor reason to these,’ the Gamer thought. “Still interesting that you kinda get a version of Gamer’s Body.”

“Glad ya find it interesting. I feel kinda stupid I forgot to tell ya.”

“Well, I do have double your Intellect. Really, I should be thinking of asking better questions.”

“Ain’t I lucky my boyfriend is such a brainiac?” Rave asked sarcastically.

“Out of us, I’m the lucky one,” John insisted.

“Ya really are,” Rave responded in a teasing tone.

Ahead of them, the alleyway that led to the old arcade was coming into view.