"Sis, sis!"
A loud voice ripped apart the silence of the dark room, cutting the rhythmic sound of the clicking mouse. The woman on the other side of the table looked annoyed at him as she removed her massive headphones.
"What?"
"Check the link I just sent you. Found a One Piece MMORPG,"
"Really?"
"Yes. Looks interesting too,"
She opened the link she just received and started searching for gameplay videos, just to see if it was actually worth the time to make an account and start flooding one of her emails with one more game's spam. And she found nothing.
Not a thread, not a video, not a thing about the game. She stared hard at the search engine flashing the zero results message in the middle of her screen and turned to look at her brother, what the big oaf always managed to find could be put in two very different boxes. Either they were shady and pox ridden files or it was a song or game that was simply addictive to dangerous levels.
"Do you have anything on it? I couldn't even find the name,"
"Nothing but what is on the game's page, it has some very good concepts you know,"
"Examples. I don't go with just that,"
He rolled his eyes and started to look through the screen that specified the limitations on characters and stuff, and it was something else all right.
"Well, you can select the starting mastery of your character for one,"
Her eyes started to twinkle and he could see her inching to peek at his computer, he moved his rolling chair and heard it creak and groan as he pushed his weight to one side. The damn thing better not give out now when he had already fixed the wheels.
She started reading descriptions and the like as she went ahead and practically propped herself on his head, despite there being enough space for her to just be in the middle of the desk. Clingy tyke. He shook his head from side to side and managed to dislodge her after butting her clavicle.
"That hurts, bitch,"
"Language, sis. And stop using my head like a stand,"
"Language my ass, and if you weren't so damn big I wouldn't have to bother you,"
"You are just small,"
"Yours is small,"
She rubbed distractedly at where she was hurt as she read the descriptions of the game, limitations and other things. It seemed like there was no numerical values that you could touch up for your character's attributes, which was bullshit, but instead you had to work hard to get passives and techniques, which negated her previous opinion. It was all in all a very balanced game with a lot of thought into it to justify certain things.
You couldn't learn all the Marine Powers at once, for example, because the relaxing and flexing of your muscles needed to reach a certain value to keep advancing. Meaning you needed Kami-e and Tekkai before learning Soru and Shigan, then Rankyaku and finally Geppo. Which was kind of a bummer since she wanted to get everything at level one and work it up with whatever experience boost they would give her.
"Okay then, good enough. Made an account for me?"
"Like always, do we put some money in it?"
"Don't know if its that good of a game to pay for it,"
"Well I am going to use the Steam money,"
"Fuck that, there is like three hundred pesos I put the other day and they are mine,"
"I put ten dollars yesterday and that is like three times what you put,"
She looked at his smug face for a second, that infuriating slab of a face that was her brother wagging his club of a finger almost in front of her face just to drive the nail in. She was pretty sure she could slap him, but then she would hurt her hand and he would grin like the idiot he was, so she went for another way.
"What is in the account is split in half, no matter who put what. First thing we agreed on,"
And she felt the tip of her lip inching up as he made a constipated face. Up yours dear brother.
"We aren't going to use four hundred pesos for this, are we? That's like three dozens crepes,"
"I am, so if you want I can babysit you,"
"You were the one that was against using money and now you want to go all in?"
"Things change, people change,"
"You just want to use my money,"
"That too,"
He grumbled as she linked her account to Steam, it was his money, his god damn it. But there was that agreement in place and he had used her money too, it had been once but she always pushed it forward saying he had been the one to set the precedent and all that. But it didn't matter, he was about to move out the house in a month or so and would buy another computer, their parent were already threatening both of them. It was a matter of time before they find their things in boxes and on the street, not like they weren't right that twenty five was a good age to fly off the nest or get kicked out.
Sighing he looked at her sister, eyes already wide open and hands doing rounds between the keyboard and the mouse faster than a boxer could jab.
"You better only use half of what we have, I am using the other half,"
"No need to say it twice, I am going mid and long range with a [Ranger]. You also need to select a role to fit in the crew, I am going with Medic and Captain,"
"Going [Warrior] and I am using Cook and Trainer,"
"Trainer? I didn't get that option, what does it do?"
"From what this says, you are capable of imparting your Skills to others more easily and faster. What does Captain do?"
"Better situational awareness and better luck. Just hope that the Medic is realistic enough or I am sending a complaint,"
"Yes, yes, Miss Resident. No need to brag,"
"You are just jealous of your successful little sister,"
"Oh, yes. I am so jealous of your rounds that take your whole weekend and being paid a misery for it, I am green with envy,"
She just flipped her finger at him, what would he know. It was all just a phase she needed to go through like every other good medic, it was either a shitty life early on but get lots of hands on experience in a public hospital or a nice place in a private one and take twice as long to get everything over with. And like dad said, the private hospital is nice and all but it breeds mediocrity, a meek and unsure bunch that wouldn't last a second if they had a rebellious patient.
"I am going full Observation Haki and Kami-e,"
She was surprised by how much everything costed, there were thirty levels to each kind of Haki and the Marine Powers were as expensive as a kidney.
"Don't. Put something in Tekkai and Armament or you are going to get killed in a second. I am even in Tekkai and Kami-e and got four free levels in Soru for it,"
"Good for you, I am putting something in Armament and Tekkai then. But not getting it even,"
"Do what you want, I am just trying to find the Conqueror's Haki,"
"It says here that you have a twenty percent chance of getting it. If you are Captain that is,"
His face soured and twisted a bit like he had eaten a lemon or something equally bad, rubbed his fingers a bit and let it go.
"Doesn't matter, it's just a dud anyway,"
"Sure,"
They got everything sorted out after a half an hour of debating, arguing, and cursing each other like they were enemies already. Her brother even went back and changed his role to Captain a couple of times before he settled and chose the same things he had the first time around, she couldn't understand why he cared about something like Conqueror Haki when it was just making weaklings faint.
In her opinion it was a waste of time to train something like that, unless you wanted to rule an island full of sheep why bother with something like that. You surely didn't level much by fighting the weak and it was boring to go through mobs all the time.
Both of them confirmed their character creation and got a loading screen that was the Strong World film poster, one of the best for her. A pity they made it pre-time skip, it wasn't very convincing that Shiki fought Roger evenly when a super nova had him beat. It was poor planning.
She saw her brother get up and change his old sweat pants and flip flops for something more normal, something that showed he still had some dignity, and turned to her.
"Think I am going to buy something to eat, do you want anything?"
"Let me get my wallet and we together, we need to buy more than a bag of milk,"
"Sure, going to wait outside then,"
"No smoking!"
"Go get your wallet and shut up,"
The nerve of her, he had smoked while he had been a rugby player and he had performed exemplary. What did she know, she was just a medic, nothing more. He needed to deal with the stress of everything and he was never quite fit enough for that task, neither was she for that matter, what with almost breaking her teeth from clenching them in her sleep and stuff.
But he had found out that a smoke a day keeps the nerves away, so you don't murder the idiots at work. An excellent motto if he was any judge.
His sister showed up when he had gone through half of his cigarette, dressed in all blacks like she was going to the gym or something and small as she was she looked like a spider you would find in the corner of your cupboards. And she was evil like one, so the comparison stood its ground and he smirked a bit.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing, thought about a joke,"
"A dark one or a silly one?"
"Nothing offensive enough that you would laugh,"
"A silly one then,"
She knew her lump of a brother was lying to her, he always had that stupid half smile on his face when he thought he made some smart ass commentary on someone and he was dumb enough to sometimes let it slip and say it out loud. She knew he was a little slow in the head but she had a heart big enough to still somewhat love him despite his many faults and awkward situations he threw her in when he didn't watch his tongue.
The embarrassment still burned true whenever she remembered the time that he had called her ex-boyfriend her Uber to his face, and the poor guy could do nothing but make a weak sound that was close to a laugh and look at her for an exit. Because for all her brother was slow he was big, and an ex-pillar of the Jaguars made for an intimidating sight wherever you went.
They were already about to cross the avenue that was in front of the market, some idiots were revving their cars like they were driving Audis and BMWs instead of Ford Falcons like the poor bastards they were. She sighed hard at the need of some people of making loud noises when they saw women, bunch of half brains with the manners of a monkey.
She felt her arm being pulled, her brother grabbing her by her mid riff and the back of her head and turning her around. He gripped her tight, making it hard for her to breathe, she wanted to tap his arm and tell him to let go when she saw that the street started to go down, that the posts started to tilt and that her brother had almost folded on himself a second ago.
When she came to again they were both on the ground, they laid there side by side by some twist of fate and she saw that his shirt was teared up and showed white in all that red. His neck had a lump in one side he was clenching his teeth hard enough to draw some blood, she tried to turn over and help him, tried to roll on her arms and get up but strangely enough did nothing.
He limbs felt off, they didn't answer to her prodding, she couldn't even feel her fingers twitch when she tried for something less taxing. They felt like there was static going on and it was spreading through her chest from her arms and legs, she felt herself shiver as if she was slowly being put in ice cold water. The feeling kept going up, up her chest and up her neck, and when it reached her face her teeth clattered.
And then she felt no more and saw no more.