Mario World
"I can't believe you actually came!" I exclaimed as I watched my friend Maria exiting her car to come meet me at my door. "What changed your mind?"
"I just thought, 'what's to lose?'. Nothing serious" She smiled nervously and gave me a quick hug. "So where's the game?"
"Downstairs, come on!" I eagerly ran off, not even pausing to see if she was following me. When I got to the game system I quickly turned it on and set up Mario Party World. It was an advanced version of the popular Nintendo game, including every Mario Party game on one disk and all the characters. After the game had come out back in 2010, video gamers had begun to disappear mysteriously. They were believed to have entered a coma and were soon hidden away, in case they were ever to wake up. The whole thing was soon hushed up and the game was banned, but a few people lived to keep the tale going. A few of my friends had disappeared thanks to this game though, so Maria and I knew the story far better then we would ever want to. I'd gotten a copy of the game before it had become banned however, but I'd never thought to take it out until now. If I didn't play the game soon, I could get questioned (after all, how many of my friends could disappear without making myself a suspect?) or have the game taken away.
As I grabbed the controller and passed the other controller to Maria, I hesitated. As much as I longed for the taste of adventure, I was not unaware of the danger. If I went into a coma, I didn't know what would happen. Would my family decide I was dead and pull the plug on me? Would my short existence thus far have been in vain? It seemed like a lot to risk, but deep down I knew I had to do it. What's life if you're not living it? Still, it wasn't entirely fair to ask all this of Maria.
"Are you still sure you want to try this?" I asked, as my mind went over all of the terrible possibilities. "We could just leave now if you want."
"No." Maria replied with certainty. "Never give up, never surrender, right?" She smiled sadly, quoting one of her favorite movie's 'Galaxy Quest'. Although I felt my insides squirming unpleasantly, I had to give a short laugh. Even in the face of unknown horror, Maria was still quoting her geeky movies.
"Gotcha'. I call Daisy though!" I added quickly, as I moved my controller up to click on the character of Princess Daisy. It wasn't my best character, but it was the one that best defined me. Besides Peach (who was the definition of girly-girl: A.K.A- NOT me), Daisy was the only girl character.
"Fine, Peach is my character, anyway!" she replied, clicking on Princess Peach. Unlike me, Maria was a geeky girly-girl, instead of the tom-boy that I was. She talked about boys, wore makeup and jewelry, and tried her hardest to keep up with the gossip. It was a pride and joy of hers that she was able to keep her femininity, in a way. I, on the other hand; prided myself in being a tomboy, a gamer, and different. After setting the game on for ten turns, I waited a moment: expecting to suddenly get drugged, disappear, or die. Nothing happened.
"Well, good lu-" And everything went black.