The Nemesis Versus a Grue

Summary: AU. While forced to stay in Castle together, Chuck and Bryce rekindle their old friendship over an improvised roleplaying game based on what happened when Bryce sent Chuck the Intersect.

Chapter 1: The Intersect Versus Boredom

Castle was silent. In one of the main control rooms, Chuck Bartowski and Bryce Larkin sat on opposite sides of the room. Bryce was scanning through files on the current mission, trying to find a new lead. Meanwhile, Chuck surfed the web on his laptop, trying to forget the current mission. Neither was having much success. After a botched attempt at capturing a high-level Fulcrum operative, both their covers had been deemed compromised. General Beckman had issued strict orders that neither was to leave Castle until further notice.

Chuck sighed. He already read through all the blogs and news websites he normally followed. He'd just caught himself refreshing the current webpage for the fourth time in five minutes, hoping something new would pop up. It was official—he was going stir-crazy. He glanced across the room. Bryce wasn't doing much better, judging by the pen he was drumming against the table. At Stanford, Chuck had been able to tell how well Bryce's assignments were going by that sound of that pen—apparently even CIA training couldn't wipe away all of a person's tells.

Chuck suddenly smiled and returned to his computer. Bryce's instant messaging notification went off seconds later.

Chuck Bartowski: Welcome to Zork: Intersect Edition. Start a new game? Y/N.

Bryce's eyebrows rose. He looked across the room at Chuck like he thought he'd gone mad. And he might not be wrong, thought Chuck. He smiled back, innocently. Bryce looked back at the screen, and typed a response.

Bryce Larkin: Y.

Chuck: It is evening in Burbank, CA. You spent your day working in the Nerd Herd of the local Buy More and attending your birthday party hosted by your sister Emily and her boyfriend "Commander Cool" at the apartment shared by the three of you. As you prepare for bed, an email arrives. It's from your old college roommate, Brad Larson. You and Brad haven't spoken since you were kicked out of college. What do you do?

Bryce glanced at Chuck uncertainly. He wasn't sure where this was going or whether he wanted to find out. His fingers hesitated over the keyboard.

Chuck: You have received an email from Brad Larson. What do you do?

Chuck: Come on! There are only so many things you can do with an email.

Bryce made a decision and started typing.

Bryce: I don't think I'm on very good terms with this "Brad" guy. Delete email.

Chuck glared at him. "What?" said Bryce. "I don't want to talk to 'Brad'-he framed me for cheating!" He grinned. "Apparently, I'm not as forgiving as you are. But seriously, I know what happens if I open the email. I want to find out what happens if I don't." Chuck rolled his eyes.

Chuck: After a pleasant night's sleep, you go to your regular Nerd Herd job. Your coworkers are weird (as usual), and the job is boring (as usual). That evening, you find that someone has broken into the apartment. Nothing was taken. The burglary is never solved. Some time later, you realize that your hard drive has been defragmented and had the free space overwritten more recently than you recall doing this yourself. You live a long, safe, and boring life until dying of old age. GAME OVER.

Chuck: Start new game? Y/N.

Bryce: Y.

Chuck: You receive an email from Brad Larson. What do you do?

Bryce: Ignore email.

"Seriously?!"

"I don't like 'Brad'!"

"Fine!"

Chuck: After a pleasant night's sleep, you go to your regular Nerd Herd job. Your coworkers are weird (as usual), and the job is boring (as usual). Upon arriving home, you find that someone has broken in and utterly destroyed your computer. When you attempt to recover data from the ruined hard drive, you discover that the disk was wiped beyond any hope of data recovery before the computer was destroyed. The police are stumped. You live a long, safe, and somewhat paranoid life until dying of old age. GAME OVER.

Chuck: Start new game? Y/N.

Chuck: BTW, further attempts to avoid dealing with this email may result in a power outage and subsequent grue attack under cover of darkness.

Bryce: Y.

Chuck: You know the drill by now. You gonna open Brad's email or what?

Bryce: Open email.

Chuck: A prompt from your old Zork game appears on the screen. After some thought, you type your response to attack the troll.

"Wait a second! This is supposed to a role-playing game! You can't just decide my response for me!"

"You took three attempts just to open the email in the first place. You are not going to hijack this into some roleplaying game within a roleplaying game."

"But—"

"You typed the correct response, and that's final! If you try to contradict that, there will be a grue attack."

"Tyrant," grumbled Bryce.

Chuck: A series of images rapidly flash over your computer screen. It's mesmerizing, and you can't tear your eyes away. After a very long while, the images stop and everything goes black. You awaken on the floor with a raging headache with your friend Matt standing over you. You and Matt carpool to work every day, and you're late. He wants to know if you're ok. What do you do?

Bryce: Tell him to go away. I've just gotten a supercomputer installed in my head, and I'm running away to join the CIA.

Chuck: Are you sure? Emily and Commander Cool are doctors and can have you checked into the psychiatric ward for evaluation if necessary. Matt has their contact information and will call them if he becomes sufficiently concerned about your health and/or mental state. Confirm action? Y/N.

Bryce: N.

Bryce: Tell Matt I drank too much and have a hangover.

"Is your sister's boyfriend really called 'Commander Cool'?"

"Of course not. 'Emily' and 'Commander Cool' are fictional characters. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Ellie's husband is 'Captain Awesome.'"

"Really?"

"Really. If you met him you'd understand. Everything he does is awesome, plus he himself uses the word 'awesome' in every other sentence. Strangely enough, Commander Cool has a habit of saying 'cool' a lot, but that's purely coincidental."

Bryce chuckled. "Purely coincidental."

Chuck: Matt says "Hey, dude, how much of the punch did you drink? Maybe I should have mentioned that I spiked it..." His talking is making your headache worse. If you rush your morning routine, you can both get to work only 10 minutes late. What do you do?"

Bryce: Ask Matt to stop talking due to hangover and quickly get ready to leave.

Chuck: You rush through your morning routine while listening to the news on the radio. You are interrupted by brief flashes of strange images. You have the strange feeling that some of these flashes are triggered by what you hear on the radio. You are now ready to leave for work. Matt is waiting. What do you do?

Bryce: What do I notice about the images? Is there any pattern? Do I get any information from them?

Chuck: The images appear to be random. You have a strange feeling that the congestion on the 5 is more than normal traffic, but you're not sure why.

Bryce: I guess I go to work?

"Is that a question or a statement?"

Bryce: I go to work.