Author's Note: This story was inspired by the song "Pixelated Vixen" by Schaffer the Darklord. So, it is being written and dedicated to my best friend 'sciencebranchblues', since she introduced me to STD and nerdcore in the first place (that girl has A LOT to answer for – she is such a bad influence on me for being half my age!). Just a little drabble while I find my groove on other stories. Total fluff with a geeky bent. Shout out to my geeky gamer girls!


"Watch the mountain troll on your left, Atomica!" hissed Brenin, his tone tight and low. Grunting, he brought his booted foot down hard on the ground, generating a glowing yellow force-field around both himself and the elven mage next to him. With a roar he spun around once, his flaming green sword raised high overhead, before thrusting it into the troll's body. The troll gave a great roar, then toppled, dark purple blood oozing along the stone floor.

"Damnit, Brenin! I had him. When will you get it through your head I know what I'm doing?" she replied, huffing in irritation. "Go over to the door and pick off the rest of the mob that keep respawning, while I unlock the vault!"

She watched as Brenin turned and ran toward the door of the mausoleum, his full-sleeved black shirt just visible under the embossed dragonhide breastplate they found earlier. His shirt, breastplate and tight black trousers were stained with blood and gore – some of it his own, but most of it from the trolls they had been fighting for the last several hours. Brenin was tall and lithe, which was to be expected for a Fae, she mused, although if she had her way, his hair would be more white than blonde. Brenin stationed himself just inside the door, cutting down the trolls that kept entering the room, leaving a growling pile of troll corpses upon the floor. The room echoed with the sound of bones crunching and blood splattering.

"Well hurry up with the vault then," grumbled Brenin sharply.

At the harshness in his voice, she felt her heart clench and her stomach tighten but shook it off. "I'm trying," she snapped back, digging through her pack for the vault key. "Got it!" she said, grabbing the key and fitting it into the lock of the door. As soon as she turned the key, the heavy stone door slid to the side, revealing the Minotaur King, towering over the small elf, his dark head bowed. Appearing still as stone in the vault, the Minotaur King's eyes were closed and he held a pair of wicked looking glowing red swords crossed over his chest. Atomica groaned.

"What the hell is HE doing in there?!" Brenin grunted, slashing his way through yet another hulking troll. "We killed him in the tomb…didn't we?"

The elven mage jumped back as the Minotaur King's eyes opened, their red orbs locking onto Atomica's slender form.

"Shit…he's locked onto me," she gasped, quickly firing several ice bolts at him. Lifting her pearlescent hands, she sent a swift blast of blue frost toward the Minotaur King, frowning when the ice seemed to fade before ever reaching him. "Shit…shit…I forgot…he's immune to cold," she muttered, frantically trying to find another spell.

"Well fire won't work, that's his magic of choice," Brenin said, sounding distracted, which was not altogether surprising since a sudden wave of five trolls had begun to fight their way through the door of the vault chamber. "Do you have any dark magic? A necromancy spell would be useful right about now," he added, then she heard him mutter under his breath, "We've got enough bloody corpses for one."

"Fine…but don't blame me if this goes wrong. You remember the buggy results from last time?" Atomica snapped, raising her hands. An ethereal wind spun through the room, pulling and tugging at her purple hair until it was flying wildly around her head. The room began to echo with eerie chanting from disembodied voices. Not bothered by the chanting, the Minotaur King snorted and began to charge her as a blast of shimmering black lifted over her and shook the room. In the next instant the corpses around Brenin rose, their eyes vacant and glowing white. Turning as one, the animated troll corpses rushed the Minotaur King with a chorus of menacing snarls. Atomica stepped back just as they pressed forward, her hands still raised as she tried to control the corpses. "I don't know how long I can manage them! If you want to jump in and save the damsel…now would be the time!"

"As my lady commands," Brenin laughed and launched himself into the fray, his glowing green sword cutting a swath through the corpses while delivering vicious blows to the Minotaur King.

The Minotaur King reared up on his hind legs, his roar deafening within the small chamber. Atomica growled between her clenched teeth, firing a blast of dark blue magic at him. Her purple eyes flashed evilly as her spell began to suck some of his remaining life away from him. With the Minotaur King held in thrall to Atomica's spell, Brenin pulled his sword back, before swinging it at the King's neck. An almost sickening wet crunching sound filled the room, then the Minotaur King's body fell to the ground, as his head rolled across the floor to land at the elven mage's feet.

Atomica panted, looking down at the severed head leaning up against her boot. Slowly she bent down and began to search the body.

"What'd we get?" Brenin asked, standing over her, fresh blood dripping from a cut on his cheek.

"About what was expected for this quest," she replied, standing up and examining the haul. "A blue Minotaur Horn blade, three full health potions, three full mana potions, a flawless diamond, two chipped sapphires, a rune of Ornix, a pink bracelet, a green staff of the Minotaur and a silver level leather jacket."

Of the items looted from the body of the former Minotaur King, the jacket was the best. It looked to be brown leather, with a heavy rounded spaulder on one shoulder. The front of the jacket was cut asymmetrically, with a curved clasp at the front of the waist, which appeared almost horned. Atomica smiled as she looked at the jacket, only to groan as the Minotaur King reappeared in the vault, while his dead body still lay bleeding on the floor.

"Um..luv… didn't we just kill this bastard?" Brenin asked, reaching out and touching Atomica's shoulder. "Diogelu," he murmured, a gentle blue glow suffusing the elven mage at his words, until she seemed to shimmer, a small blue crystal hovering above her head.

She eyed the Minotaur King figure. "We did. He's not supposed to respawn this quickly," she muttered, stepping back from the vault door. From the door of the chamber, the two of them heard a low rumbling as more trolls started to push their way into the room. "Fuck… they didn't fix the bugin the respawn matrix bug yet!" she growled, flinging an undead control spell toward the dead Minotaur King on the floor, only to have him slowly vanish. "Shit!"

A blue glow shimmered around Brenin as he looked toward the door in time to see six trolls barge their way through, with at least another six following them. "I'm good, luv…but even I can't manage all of these on my own," he said, grunting as he started to slash into the first wave of trolls as they surrounded him.

"Crap!" she squeaked, dodging a blow from the respawned Minotaur King and firing off a ball of dark magic, which only slowed him down a fraction. "I've got the loot! If I die in here we'll lose the lot!"

"Go then… use a portal and get out of here," Brenin replied, his glowing green sword flickering and seeming to freeze in mid-air. "Bloody hell… a glitch in the system?! Now? Great fucking timing," he grumbled, to the surprise of Atomica as he rarely ever cursed. Two trolls began to pound him with clubs that sucked his life force with each blow. Brenin grunted as he worked to fight them off, while repairing his health damage. "Go, luv!" he shouted.

Seeing her partner in danger, Atomica risked a blow of the Minotaur King's hooves and turned, sending a jet of ice at Brenin. The ice wrapped around him, engulfing him before melting into his slender form, a sparkling sheen coating his body and armor.

"That should hold you long enough for me to get away. + 10 to armor for the next five minutes," she blurted in a rush, then opened her bag, gasping as the Minotaur King sliced her chest with his wicked blade.

"Stop your yapping and get out of here already! I'll meet you at the usual place," Brenin ordered her, all the while dodging blows from the trolls, and thrusting his sword into their midst. "Die you bastards," he growled, as several trolls fell over dead, only to be replaced when more trolls forced their way through the door.

Atomica reached into her bag and grabbed the red portal crystal, squeezing it between her fingers. "Aelwyd a'r cartref!" she muttered, feeling a rush of relief flow through her as the sparkling white portal opened and she was sucked through it.

She appeared instantaneously standing in front of the hearth of a warm room full of people and talking. With a sigh, she flopped into the nearest chair, wondering if Brenin would make it out of the vault without dying. "The last thing I want is for us to have to fight our way back into the vault to retrieve his favourite sword…and I know he'd want to do it too," she muttered, glancing down at the slice in her chest. Within seconds it had faded from view – one of the perks of returning to the nearest keep of the Goblin King's kingdom.

"Of course I'd want my sword. 'The Goblin Queen' is an excellent weapon," she heard Brenin say. A moment later, he appeared next to her, with several cuts on his face and a large slice through his shirt, showing a bleeding cut across his pale chest.

"I still can't believe you named your legacy level weapon 'The Goblin Queen'," she laughed, rolling her eyes.

"Well I couldn't very well use the Goblin Queen's name, we haven't found her yet, so that will do until we do," he laughed, flopping into the chair next to her, then casually draping one leg over the arm of the chair. "Or until you just tell me what her real name is and where we can find her."

Puzzled she looked at him, "What makes you think I'd know that sort of detail." Atomica watched him stretch out, the cuts fading slowly over several seconds until he looked whole and lithe and sexy and blonde and…

Like Jareth – her libido screamed, a rush of heat flowing through her.

Biting her lip, she shook her head to chase the unwanted images from her mind, she nodded, "That was too close. We nearly lost the quest drop. I'll make a note about the continuing respawn bug in that quest."

He gave her a sly grin and purred in her ear, "And that, luv…is why I know you are on the development team."

She felt her cheeks flush at the dark purr in his voice, and the way he rolled the endearment across his tongue as if teasing it each time he said it. Her voice cracked as she replied, "I… all beta testers are supposed to report bugs and glitches."

"True," he nodded, a sultry laugh rumbling below his words. "But no beta testers take that seriously except those associated with the developers. So what are you? Graphic designer? Programmer? Storyboard designer?"

"I'm not allowed to talk about it, so…just drop it, please, Brenin," she sighed, hating the pleading sound in her voice. The handsome blonde Fae looked at her and she felt her cheeks burn hotter, wondering how he managed to make the programmed actions of his avatar seem so lifelike and so like…

Jareth! – shouted her inner self, only to be gagged and shoved into her mental vault with the Minotaur King, only to have her inner self and libido moan as Brenin winked at her.

"As you wish, luv," he purred. "So… do you still have my jacket?"

Pleased that he changed the subject, she grinned. "Your jacket? What makes you think you get the best item in that drop?" He was a good questing partner but could be so bloody presumptuous.

"Easy, darling. You're a mage…you can't wear leather armor, while I can," Brenin replied smugly, then winked at her. "Besides, admit it, you know I'd look fabulous in that jacket."

Frowning, Atomica shoved his shoulder, "Presumptuous bastard. I could always sell it and split the gold with you."

"Hah! It's one of the few silver items we've found since the latest patch update, selling it would be stupid and you know it," he laughed. "I'd bet that the resale value hasn't caught up to the new patch given the bugs we've been dealing with already this week. It's worth more as armor right now."

She couldn't really argue that, as he did have a point. "Fine, I guess the jacket is yours," she said inwardly thinking that the jacket would look far better on him anyway - the brown leather would be striking against the black of his shirt and breeches, which set off the hint of pale chest she could see now that his breastplate was off– not that she was looking or anything, because that would be creepy.

"Thanks, luv," Brenin replied, putting on the jacket then doing a turn for her. "Fits like a glove."

Laughing, she felt her cheeks flush, as they always seemed to do when he called her 'luv'. "Oh…it suits you. Like it was made for you," she grinned.

"I'm sure it was," he muttered under his breath.

At his words, Atomica paused, her face pinching in confusion. "What do you…"

Brenin cut her off, purring, "You can have the rest of the loot, pet. I've got to dash."

She sighed, feeling an odd wave of loss come over her, even as she nodded. "Yeah, me too. I've got to report the glitch and the bugs, then get some sleep."

Brenin stood up and brushed wayward strands of fine blonde strands from his face. "Sleep tight…don't let the bed bugs bite," he said with a wink, then smiled when she laughed. "Same time tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Atomica said, smiling back at him. "Although I have a meeting at 6, so why don't we start at 7?"

"See you then. Have a good night, luv," he grinned, then faded from sight.

~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~*~J/S~

Sarah sighed watching him fade, then frowned at herself. "He's just a questing partner, sheesh. Get a grip, girl! You've been gaming and writing games for years, and even studied gamer behavior and interactions. You know about the anonymity factor," she grumbled at herself, tugging her headphones off her head with one hand, while triggering the exit command with her other hand, her fingers smacking the keyboard irritably. In an instant the game shifted to the main menu screen, and just as quickly her brain shifted from feeling an odd sense of loss, to pure business.

Four hours of play and they only managed to get through one dungeon, with only one major bug and a minor glitch. Not too bad – Sarah thought, as she scribbled down a few notes on where the problems happened. Pulling up the error log on the company intranet she started to enter the bug notes, before she finally saw the flashing envelope symbol in the control bar. With a sigh she tapped it, seeing 10 emails from Vic pop up, the last two with titles in all-caps, "ARE YOU DEAD IN AN ALLEY?!" and "WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

Sarah groaned and reached for her phone, finding 20 messages from Vic and Jess. Hitting two buttons, she heard the phone ring. As soon as the call was answered she sighed, "I'm so damn sorry, hon."

"You'd better have a good fucking excuse for standing us up tonight," Vic grumbled. Sarah could just imagine her best friend's petulant frown, her dark hair plaited and falling over her shoulder as she looked over her small oval glasses, like she always did when she was frustrated. "At least tell me you were getting laid."

Laughing, Sarah relaxed into her desk chair and finished off the last swallow of neon green liquid in the bottom of her Mountain Dew bottle. "Hmm… yeah…and he was awesome," she chuckled then added, "Oh baby…right there. Ohh…do that again."

Vic giggled, the irritation fading from her voice, "Yeah…you are a lousy liar, Sarah. So what were you doing? Seriously. It's midnight, we figured you'd show up by now."

"Sorry, hon. I was working and checking the bug list, and Brenin logged in…." Sarah started, only to be cut off by Vic.

"Say no more, you stood us up for your gaming crush which you try to justify as 'work'," she laughed. "Yeah...yeah…don't try to deny it. So did your pixilated self get it on with him? I know you had your programmers writing in the /sex commands."

Sarah squeaked and felt her cheeks heat up at that, "I have not had them doing that!"

"Yeah, maybe not…but don't try to tell me you haven't thought about it," Vic teased. "Oh…oh…Brenin… glitch me baby."

Still blushing, Sarah grinned. "Yeah, okay. But only because the beta testers keep asking about having that as an option."

"Horny gaming geeks, sheesh," Vic chuckled.

Sarah heard a scuffling sound on the other end of the phone, then Jess's accented voice purred through the phone, "So, still harboring the hardcore crush on the sexy Fae dude huh?"

Sarah face flushed hotter, as her blood thrumed in her veins, while she frantically tried to remember if she'd ever told Jess or Vic about Jareth. Once the moment of panic eased, she realized that Jess was talking about Brenin, not the real Fae that he so closely resembled.

"Hm…maybe just a bit. He does have that lovely accent and a great laugh," she admitted. "And he's started calling me 'luv'…well, purring it more like."

Her friends on the other end of the phone squealed and began to talk at once. "Oh my God! How sexy…. When are you going to meet…Yeah…you are going to ask him outright…where does he live…is he single…."

"Whoa…hold up," Sarah laughed, shaking her head, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she finished logging the bug report. "I don't know if he is single or where he lives. We only talk about quest stuff and bugs. That's it…nothing else."

Her words were greeted with silence on the other end, then the sound of quiet whispering.

"What, no flirting?" Vic finally asked in disbelief.

Sarah sighed, remembering the brief interaction regarding the leather jacket that was designed to look like the jacket Jareth wore in the tunnels. The minute she saw it in the treasure drop, she knew Brenin would have it – not because her mage couldn't wear it, but because it was designed with Jareth in mind, and Brenin, even though he didn't know it, looked so much like a pixilated version of the Goblin King, it was his. It had to be.

"A bit, here and there," she replied. "Nothing serious. Just silly stuff as we play through various quests and areas."

"Maybe he'll come to the beta tester party on the release date?" Jess suggested, her words dropping into a sultry purr. "You can cosply in skimpy fake armor, like the graphic designers insist on putting on female characters. I'm sure he'd love to see your charater in real life."

Vic giggled, "Make sure you test out the /sex command on him before the party - so he knows you're interested."

"First of all, my character is a mage. The sexiest armor she owns is a set of purple and blue robes. Secondly, I am not going to test out the /sex hack... especially not with Brenin. That sort of thing is for losers...who don't get laid."

The moment the words were out of her mouth she regretted them.

"She who isn't getting laid shouldn't throw stones at glass houses," snickered Vic, while Jess laughed in the background. "Or...well...something like that."

Grabbing her keys from the desk, Sarah started for the elevators. "On that note, good night girls. I'm heading home and crashing into bed. I've been working on coding and approving release plans all day. I know the minute I close my eyes I'm going to dream about code chasing me through poster layouts."

"So think about the sexy, blonde and oh-so-fuckable Fae King," Jess purred with a laugh, before Vic snatched the phone once more.

"No...fap first... while thinking of the fuckable Goblin King. Then you'll be assured some wonderfully NSFW dreams," she chirped. "Sweet and horny dreams darling!"

The sudden mental image of Jareth looming over her with a predatory smile sent a rush of goosebumps racing over her body, until every nerve screamed with a desire to feel his touch - amongst other things.

Shaking her head, Sarah punched the elevator call button. "Oh fuck...it's going to be a long night."

As much as she hated to admit it, Jess's suggestion of a little 'hands-on' recreation while fantasizing about Jareth didn't seem like such a bad idea.


Note: As always...please review :)