Toco Brower does not own the rights to 'To the Moon' or any of the characters in the work... He just really, really loves the game.
Dr Eva Rosalene sat at her desk, absent-mindedly rifling through a folder of paperwork. It had been a long few weeks of work, jobs coming in thick and fast, and the constant pressures had begun to get to her. She was pretty sure that the bags under her eyes had worsened tenfold since last month, and the amount of coffee she was drinking was undoubtedly unhealthy, although nowhere near the levels that Neil had been consuming. Speaking of her infamous co-worker, Eva hadn't heard from him for a while. Most of her days when not on call were spent trying to get through her work whilst fending off Neil's incessant distractions. Honestly, it was as if the man refused to even touch anything work-related. She was constantly amazed that Rob hadn't yet fired him due to his constant slacking off. Nonetheless, on recent days in the office Neil had barely bothered her, staying in his own room most of the time. She shook herself alert to realise that she had been re-reading the same paragraph of text for the past minute or so, evidently she was more worn out than she cared to admit.
Placing the paperwork back on her desk and leaning back in her chair, Eva ran a hand over her tired eyes. It didn't seem like she would be managing to get anything productive done, so a little break wouldn't be amiss would it?
Stretching herself out, and wincing at the cracks of stiff joints, Eva stood up from her chair and began to make her way out of her office. First on her list of things to do would be to check up on Neil. After all, she couldn't be too careful. Who knew what that mad idiot was up to. Hopefully whatever it was it wouldn't necessitate her having to disarm a complicated tomato sauce trap. Rob barely let Neil get off with that one, although making him clean the entire office block was probably enough to deter him from pulling a similar stunt.
As she closed her door behind her, Eva noticed that across the hall Neil's door was open a crack. Taking this as a sign that things were back to normal she made her way across, striding confidently into the room. "Hey Neil, just checking up on your work. Not goofing off again are...you... Neil?"
She was met with silence from the empty room, only the whirring of the heating and Neil's computer fan responding to her greeting. That was strange, usually she was able to hear when Neil was leaving his office. Not a particularly difficult exercise considering that he seemed to make enough noise for a stampede of buffalo wherever he went.
Just to be sure Eva checked under and behind most of the room's furniture. She wouldn't put it past Neil to try and catch her off guard with an unwelcome surprise, not that much would top the bowl of custard that he had caught her with last Halloween.
She thought she caught sight of something odd behind one of the cabinets, which had been put further forward than the others, but just as she had craned her neck to get a closer look a sudden noise behind her made her whirl around. Of course, a small snow-globe had fallen off of the desk. Eva remembered it; a rather lame Christmas gift from her from the previous year, even if she said so herself. Evidently Neil had been keeping to his usual habit of leaving things precariously balanced on the edges of desks. Honestly, one day he was going to break something very valuable like that.
Eva walked over to the desk and picked the snow-globe up off the floor. She turned it over in her hand, inspecting it. A rather odd looking snowman appeared to be waving up at her, along with a sparkly "Happy Holidays" written on the snow. She had no idea why he had kept it. Most of his Christmas presents seemed to be thrown out almost a week after he had got them, unless he found them actually useful. Placing it back on the desk, Eva turned to leave, but her eye was caught by something on Neil's computer screen. It had come off of it's screensaver (pictures of cartoon characters that Neil had Photoshopped to have the faces of various people around the office) and now displayed the start screen of that same game Neil had showed her at the Christmas party. Eva rolled her eyes. Evidently Neil had been taking a "little break' of his own, never exactly being the one to work day and night for anything.
She pulled up the chair and sat down in front of the screen. Hey, she could do with a break, and hadn't Neil said he was going to be making some changes to the game?
The start screen faded away as she began to play, and once again she was met with those horribly blocky graphics and that annoying music. It wasn't as if she didn't appreciate what Neil had done with it, and she supposed it was a nice touch to have added that particular melody, although perhaps it could have let up once in a while. She played through all of the familiar levels, strangely nostalgic for the events that they had represented. It was one of the more memorable cases she had done, and she guessed the same held true for Neil, whey else would he have taken the trouble to make a game out of it, as tactless as it might have seemed at first.
It was as she was reaching the part where she had left the last time that Eva noticed the little changes. The big Zombieva heads that were closing in on the small Dr Watts figure suddenly were caught by a swarm of the smaller Zombievas. As she looked closer though, Eva noticed small changes to the zombies. Their eyes were no longer red. Suddenly, from the side of the screen came another Eva. This one wasn't zombified though. The in-game Neil seemed to spot her, and a text window suddenly popped up. Eva blinked. Weird. I didn't think there was any dialogue in this game.
[Eva!? Gee, thanks for drop-[press space]]
Eva sighed to herself. Of course the whole speech didn't fit in the text window. No way that Neil would take the time to test that out properly, or perhaps he just did it on purpose, knowing that it would annoy her. In fact, why did he have to put 'press space' in there at all? It just wasted the space inside of the box! She continued the dialogue.
[-ping by finally! [press space]]
Cucumbers Neil, you'd think that you'd show me some respect for saving your life..
[Cucumbers Neil, you'd - [press space]]
...
[-think that you'd show me some - [press space]]
[-respect for saving your life! [press space]]
... ... We know each other far too well...and why is everything written with exclamation marks?!... Yes, I do see the hypocrisy in exclaiming that thought thank you annoying inner Neil voice.
[Hey! Me letting you save my life should be - [press space]]
[-thanks enough! Not everyone gets to do -[press space]]
[-stuff that awesome you know!? [press space]]
[But I do, because I am awesome! [press space]]
Wow, a really captivating script here Neil...wait..did he just admit that I'm awesome?
[Yeah yeah! So how did you do it?! [press space]]
[Well I did create them Neil, so of - [press space]]
[-course I managed to reprogra- [press space]]
[-m them to fight for our side! [press space]]
... I'm really starting to get sick of this constant space pressing. Why couldn't he have just used bigger text boxes?
[Awesome! Now let's take'em down! [press space]]
Eva started from the seat, having relaxed during the dialogue. Suddenly the giant Zombieva heads were shaking off the smaller ones and were slowly closing in on Neil again, accompanied with much more intense music than before. Just before they could reach him the whole screen shook. The tiles surrounding the characters began to disappear and became a big arena. The in-game Eva appeared to push Neil aside.
[Don't worry, I've got this covered! [press space]]
[press wasd to fire super anti zombie bullets]
Suddenly Eva was in control of her own avatar. The next minute or so was spent dodging around the "arena", firing bullets at the giant heads. It was actually surprisingly challenging, and she felt the tension ramp up a little as she fell to her last hit. Eva was backed into a corner with the final head closing in on her, mashing the fire keys just to desperately try to survive. With barely a pixel to spare the last head was destroyed before it could reach her, and the screen flashed with pixelated fireworks as a happy victory tune played. Eva sank back into the chair and breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the mild hammering in her heart. The screen was flooded with the reformed zombievas, along with all of the Rivers and Johnies who were waving pompoms. On the screen there were flashes of text as the assembled crowd kept chanting her name.
[Eva! Eva! Eva!]
[Yeah! You saved us!]
[Thank you Eva!]
[You're my hero Eva!]
The real Eva found herself having to keep her composure. Sure it was only a cruddy game that Neil had hashed out, but it still meant something to her. She had always had her doubts about her work, and those difficulties were only aided by the near constant protests outside Sigmund Corp. It really did mean a lot to her to be told that she had done the right thing, that she was doing good for others...that she was a hero to someone.
With a very quick dab of her eyes - just to massage them after staring at the screen of course - Eva pressed on with the next set of speech boxes.
[That was #"!ing awesome! [press space]]
Did he really just censor himself in his own game?
[Well I'm just glad it's over [press space]]
As the gathered crowd dispersed, the two doctors stayed behind. Game Neil moved closer to game Eva.
[Really, thanks Eva. I totally knew you could do it. You've always got my back, and I know I can trust you...
Eva raised an eyebrow at the suddenly serious tone the text had taken. Gone were the excessive exclamation points and...wait, how come the text box was bigger this time? Of course Neil just had to get in the last laugh didn't he?
...In all this time that we have been partners, you have always looked out for me. Heck, you've managed to stop Rob firing me for this long. And all this time, I've wanted to be there for you too. I want to be able to be there for you whenever you need someone to rely on. I'll always be ready Eva. I'll always be there for you, because...
Eva's feelings had become a rather confusing mix all through this speech. Was he joking? Neil was never this sentimental. Sure she knew that he cared, but he never really spoke about it. Equal parts touched and perplexed by the words that were appearing on the screen, Eva found her breath caught in her throat as she reached the final line. The speech concluded with small message; simple and yet oh so complicated all at the same time.
Eva sat there, re-reading that line, although her mind wasn't really focused on the screen. It was elsewhere, digging through memories and analysing them to see if it really made sense, it what was on the screen was really the truth; if Neil really meant it when he said-
Suddenly, Eva was startled by the rather loud noise of someone dropping something right outside the door. As a familiar voice streamed curses Eva panicked and hit almost every button she could find on the keyboard. Somehow, whatever she had done had taken the game right back to the main menu, just in time for her to swivel the chair around to face Neil as he stumbled past the door, struggling with a rather large box.
The two doctors froze, staring at each other momentarily before Neil's head head turned to look at the computer screen, and then back to Eva.
"Uhh, did you touch that at all?"
Eva hesitated momentarily, before shaking her head. She didn't feel like it was the right time to...discuss what she had read with Neil.
Neil himself seemed to relax a little before he waddled over to the desk and set down the box. "Good, 'cause it's...y'know... it still needs a little touching up. Found a couple of bugs in the ending and stuff, although you should totally see it when I've sorted them out."
Eva just nodded, eyes never leaving his face. She wished he didn't have his glasses on. It made him so hard to read, what with their ridiculously reflective lenses. Neil stared back at her for a moment, before cocking his head and raising a brow. "Hey, do you think I could get my seat back? Or do you like it so much that you want to trade?" It was a well known fact that Eva's chair was the comfiest in the whole office. No matter how many times Neil tried to sneakily swap it with his own, rather lumpy chair, he never got to keep it. Few things generally incurred Eva's full wrath, but apparently stealing her chair was one of them, as Neil had found out numerous times.
"Oh? uh, sorry Neil. Here."
Neil sat down in the chair, brow still quirked at the lack of a witty or at least scathing retort. He appeared to shrug it off however, and turned back to the screen, closing down the game window and switching over to a window of text, typing something out. Eva, still slightly unsure of herself, stood awkwardly for a moment before deciding to break the silence with a question.
"So...what have you got in the box there? A lifetime supply of gummi bears?"
Neil paused for a moment, the clacks of the keyboard halting too. Momentarily his bright green eyes, just visible from Eva's side view, locked with her chocolate ones, an intense gaze that was quickly broken as he evarted his eyes back to the computer. Neil shrugged and continued where he left off. "Just some stuff. Little bits of junk and all that crap."
As Eva reached out to open the box, Neil's had suddenly caught her arm.
"Don't. I've...I've packed it in a particular way, so you have to be very careful to open it. Only I know how to do it without damaging what's in there."
"Oh, alright then..." Although, if that's the case then why did you call it junk? And didn't you drop it in the hall outside just a moment ago?
"NEIL! ARE YOU SLACKING OFF AGAIN?!"
Robert's irritated voice called down the corridor, startling Eva out of her stupor. She caught herself, and began to make her way out of the room, pausing momentarily at the door and turning back to where Neil was hunched over the screen. "I'll catch you later, right Neil?"
The technician just waved a hand in recognition, still focused upon the screen. Eva took a last long look, before leaving for her own office.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Neil checked over his shoulder, before switching the window back to his game. With a few clicks he was away from the playable game, and into the text files, which he scrolled through until he reached the last dialogue. For a few moments there was no movement, just him staring at the screen. Then, with an unidentifiable grunt, he selected the text, his hand hovering over the keyboard with a precisely aimed finger that held itself, frozen in the air...
The next day, Eva was once again rifling through paperwork absent-mindedly, although this time it wasn't from exhaustion. Well, it was, but it wasn't work that had been costing her her precious nights sleep. Instead she had lain awake, mulling over what she had just had revealed to her that day, and the ensuing lack of sleep meant the her desire to work was less than stellar.
Suddenly the door burst open and in rushed Neil. "Eva! Now's the time!"
"What?"
"For the continuation of your glorious quest in 'To The Moon'!"
"Oh, your game again?"
"It's not just a game Eva! You should know from what you've seen already that it's a whirlwind roller-coaster of excitement, adventure, emotions, excitement aaaaand adventure!"
"Oh really now. I was under the impression that it was-HEY!"
She didn't have time to complete her snarky comeback because Neil had already dashed around the desk, grabbed her hand, and begun dragging her out of the office at an insane speed causing her to drop her paperwork and send it scattering all over her office.
"It's time for adventure Eva!"
"NEIL!"
Once again Eva found herself placed in front of Neil's computer, the very same game loaded up. She turned to face her partner. "So there's that ending you were talking about, right?"
Neil nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, and man are you gonna love it!"
Eva studied his face for a moment. There was no trace of uncertainty, or nerves for that matter. He just seemed like the same old carefree, annoying, self-centered Neil Watts that she had know for most of her life. If the end was really like what she had played the day before, then surely he would be more worked up than this? She turned back to the screen and took a deep breath, then began the game again.
Eva practically raced through the first half of the game, completely familiar with how it worked now, not that it was complicated to begin with anyway. When she got to the giant zombieva heads she noticed that not much had changed. Whatever Neil had added last night apparently didn't affect this part. In the ensuing dialogue Eva pretended to be suitably surprised by her appearance, and annoyed by the dialogue boxes, much to Neil's obvious glee. She even remembered to roll her eyes at him for his attempts at writing her mannerisms into the text, which she was still a little worried by. She was glad to see that Neil had kept his mention of her being awesome in the game, but she didn't notice anything much that had been altered. Things only really changed after she had beaten the giant heads.
Once again the reformed zombievas crowded the screen with the Johnies and Rivers, all of them still chanting her name. Eva held herself together a little better than she had the first time she had read the encouraging cheers, not wanting Neil to suspect her of doing anything other than scratching her nose. However, as the crowd started to leave and the ingame Neil approached the ingame Eva, the real Dr Rosalene began to tense a little. Was Neil really planning for her to see what he had written? How did he expect her to respond? How did she expect herself to respond? She glanced back at Neil, but his face only carried his trademark smirk. Turning back to the game, Eva tapped through the dialogue.
[That was #"!ing awesome! [press space]]
[Well I'm just glad it's over [press space]]
Eva held her breath...
[Damn right! Although I totally could have-[press space]]
[-done that faster than you did! [press space]]
Eva halted, her eyes unseeingly scanning the message again. Once Neil began to drum his fingers impatiently on the back of the chair though, she continued on.
[Yeah, I guess you could have. Let's go back to Sigmund Corp. shall we? [press space]]
[I'll race you there! And win! Because I'm awesome!]
With the final tap, the games credits rolled on the screen. Eva just sat there as Neil began to swagger around to sit on the desk, giving her a cheeky grin.
"So what did you think? Pretty awesome right?"
Eva looked up at him for a moment, face impassive, but eyes searching. She held that gaze just long enough for Neil's grin to falter, before standing up to face him. A gifted him a soft smile, one which he returned after a moment, only to be caught off guard as Eva wrapped her arms around him.
It wasn't like they had never hugged before - Eva still refused to let anyone speak of that time at the Christmas party two years ago... or the sleeping bag incident - but Neil was still surprised by the action, his face warming a little at the contact.
"Thank you Neil. For those kind words, and the support."
"Heh, you're umm...you're welcome. After all, it's only what people should really think about you."
Eva drew back, looking into his eyes directly, his glasses having slipped unnoticed down his nose again.
"It really means a lot to me though. I guess I just have so many doubts, and this kind of helped with that a little."
Neil looked at her with a steady gaze. "Eva, I know that what you do, what we do, is for the good of our patients. We grant them happiness when they're about to cop it. No-one else can really do that; make people's dreams come true."
Eva blinked rapidly, trying to stem the tears that threatened her eyes until she settled for resting her head against Neil again, feeling her own face heat up as she did so. The two held the embrace for a long moment or two they were suddenly disturbed by the loud entry of Roxxie into the office.
"Hey Neeeiiiilll! Rob want's you for something. He says be quick or else he'll fire you for real this time"
Neil sprang away from Eva, face quickly changing from embarrassed of generally disgruntled, then made his sulky way out of the office, muttering curses about Rob as he passed Roxxie and into the hallway.
"Sheeh, someone's in a bad mood today" Roxxie's eyes were drawn to the computer. "Hey, isn't that the game thingy? The one Neil had at Christmas?"
"Yeah." Eva nodded, not really feeling like going too deep into conversation with Roxxie at that moment.
"So you played it again? What's it like?"
Eva thought for a while. Roxxie was even about to tap her shoulder to get her attention when Eva spoke up.
"The graphics are terrible, the music is annoying and don't get me started on the dialogue boxes. But, I guess it has...heart to it. Although..."
She looked at the doorway that Neil had just left through, and then back at the computer with the brightly coloured game menu proudly displaying.
"...I don't know quite how I feel about the ending..."
There was a couple of moment of silence, which were promptly broken as Roxxanne turned to leave.
"Huh, whatever you say. Anyways, I'm going to get some ice-cream from the company kitchen, you coming?"
"...I guess I might do."
"Alrighty then!"
Roxxie promptly bounced out of the door, leaving Eva behind to look around the still room. She was about to turn and leave, when she suddenly felt a foreboding sense of..wrongness. Her eyes were drawn to the cabinets at the back of the room. She took a few steps closer, and the feeling increased. She reached out for the middle cabinet, about to try to shift it aside a little. She got a grip on the side and-
"EVA! ARE YOU COMING!?"
Eva stumbled back from the cabinet as she called back down the hall to Roxxanne. "Sure, I'll be there!"
She moved back towards the door, pausing only to give the cabinets a wary eye.
"EVA! IF YOU WANT ANY ICE-CREAM YOU'D BEST GET YOURSELF OVER HERE!"
"Holy corncob Roxxie, I'm coming!"
"What was that about ice-cream?!"
"Nothing Rob!"
Author's notes:
Well thank you for reading my first properly submitted Fanfic on this site! I hope you've enjoyed it, and feel free to drop a review and let me know what you liked and didn't like about the story.
Cheers! :)