Sarah eyed the shiny red disk in her hand warily.
"Greg? Come on, you know I don't really like computer games."
"Sarah, this one is really good!" Sarah raised her eyebrows disbelievingly, setting the disk down in delicate distaste. Most computer games either crashed her entire system, or didn't give her enough directions for her to actually know what she was doing. I mean, Sarah thought, How were you supposed to defeat the evil overlord Googamel if you didn't know how to walk?
Greg tapped his fingers impatiently.
"I'll bet you for it.say, my.um.hmmm.my guitar against your lava lamp?"
Greg had a thing for Lava Lamps. Rashly, Sarah accepted with out a second thought.
"Deal. So what are the terms?"
"If you don't call me back with in one hour of playing the game, I get your lava lamp. If you do, you get my guitar."
"Fine." Greg smiled and picked up his schoolbag from the floor. "Well, I have the homework I came over for. And you I would surmise, have more than you bargained for. See ya?"
Sarah shot him a look. "Bye, Greg. I'll call you before an hours up I'm sure."
Greg just rolled his eyes and left. Tentatively, Sarah flipped the disk over and placed in her computer, and reading for the first time the name of the game.which happened to be "Labyrinth - The Game."
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jareth yawned lazily and rolled over in his fur covered throne. There was something annoying tapping on his shoulder. He swatted at it but it wouldn't go away.
"What?" He murmured unhappily. He lifted the lid of his blue eye to show him the unpleasant sight of Hoggle holding a clipboard. He was about to banish him to the Bog of Eternal Stench, but then he remembered that he couldn't thanks to the cursed dice game he played with Hoggle the decade before. Damn him. He thought angrily and shifted himself to upright position.
Hoggle ahem-ahemed importantly. Jareth shot him a glare of pure hatred only brought on by one being woken up all too early. Hoggle shut up and got on with what he was going to say.
"Sire, according to the bet you made against me - and lost, I might add-" Hoggle caught the unmistakable sound of teeth being ground together, and decided that it would be in his best interest to get to the point.
"Well anyway, the goblins had gotten bored and, well anyway you have been signed up to play the bad guy in the computer game version of the Labyrinth."
Jareth sat straight up in his chair. "WHAT!?" He bellowed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"WHAT?!" Sarah yelled, unknowingly echoing Jareth's sentiments. Then her computer accepted the disk and started to install. Frantically she tried to abort the download but it was impossible. Defiling Greg's name with a menagerie of four letter words not fit to print, she stared defiantly at the screen as the program loaded, booted up, and finally asked for her to press the start button.
The graphics were pretty good so grudgingly she pressed it. Another loading sign came up and she mused as she waited. I'm not particularly scared of Jareth, but rather of what in hell this is. Her attention was brought back the screen when a little bubble popped up asking her name which she obligingly typed in. Was it her, or did the screen do a double take? She pushed it off as suspicion. After all, Sarah was a hideously common name and a boring name at that, many people had it.
Shaking her head she impatiently answered all of the little blurbs popping up. When it asked if she had ever eaten an enchanted peach, she got pretty pissed off.
"OK! OK! I'm THAT FRICKING SARAH WHO RAN THE LABYRINTH!!! IS THAT FRICKING GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!?" She was standing up and yelling. To her surprise, the various boxes disappeared and a small, computerized looking Hoggle appeared.
"Sarah!" He squeaked, eerily - at least to Sarah's vantage - real.
"Hoggle?" She sat down with a start, falling abruptly to the floor - in her annoyed rantings, she had tipped over the chair. Righting the chair and herself, she adjusted the volume so she could hear him better.
"Hello, Sarah. Welcome back to the Labyrinth." Sarah was sure that the Welcome back part could not have been in the programming.
"The Labyrinth is an amazing virtual reality journey that takes you inside the many wonderful and unforgettable twists and turns of the Labyrinth."
Unforgettable is right, she thought.
"And you, Sarah the bold and brave adventurer, must conquer these puzzles of mind and body to face the ultimate test - Jareth Goblin King!
Again Sarah's last words before she was sucked into the Labyrinth were "WHAT?!"
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jareth looked disbelievingly at Hoggle, now fully and unpleasantly awake.
"You mean to say," He said this slowly as if Hoggle was slow. "That are forcing me, the goblin KING, to play the part of the evil villain in an ABOVE GROUND COMPUTER GAME!?"
Hoggle waited a second, considered. After a while he said. "Well, yes."
Jareth it was safe to say was seething.
"I can't believe this! If I hadn't taken that bet-"
"Ah, but you did." Remarked Hoggle, placidly calm. This made Jareth all the angrier. After about one broken vase and/or expensive object or two, Jareth was finally calm enough to consider his options. By his vow he made when placing his bet, he had to fulfill one demand of Hoggle's, and this was obviously it. Jareth clenched his jaw bitterly, willing himself to make the best of it.
"So, Hoggle, what exactly do I have to do?"
"Seeing as you will be playing to clichéd evil villain, milord-"
Hoggle was interrupted by a particularly ugly goblin running toward Jareth with a black cape on hanger covered by clear plastic that read "Underground Dry Cleaning" across it.
"Uh, Good day you kingship sah, I dry cleaned your black cape for yore, uhm, new position sah-"
Furious, Jareth pimpslapped the unfortunate goblin into the wall, leaving a pretty deep dent.
Somewhat amused, Hoggle noted that if Jareth had been an Above- grounder, he would have been a good pimp. Jareth turned back to Hoggle.
"As we were saying."
"Yes. You are playing the overly clichéd villain who always loses." Hoggle silenced Jareth's openmouthed protest at having to loose to anyone. "And then, at the end, the player will be rewarded with an actual magical talent." Jareth managed to look surprised, a magical talent was quite a heady gift for a mortal.
"And who, exactly is playing this game?"
"I think you might be interested, sire." Hoggle pointed toward a mirror that now showed a picture of Sarah.
"Greg? Come on, you know I don't really like computer games."
"Sarah, this one is really good!" Sarah raised her eyebrows disbelievingly, setting the disk down in delicate distaste. Most computer games either crashed her entire system, or didn't give her enough directions for her to actually know what she was doing. I mean, Sarah thought, How were you supposed to defeat the evil overlord Googamel if you didn't know how to walk?
Greg tapped his fingers impatiently.
"I'll bet you for it.say, my.um.hmmm.my guitar against your lava lamp?"
Greg had a thing for Lava Lamps. Rashly, Sarah accepted with out a second thought.
"Deal. So what are the terms?"
"If you don't call me back with in one hour of playing the game, I get your lava lamp. If you do, you get my guitar."
"Fine." Greg smiled and picked up his schoolbag from the floor. "Well, I have the homework I came over for. And you I would surmise, have more than you bargained for. See ya?"
Sarah shot him a look. "Bye, Greg. I'll call you before an hours up I'm sure."
Greg just rolled his eyes and left. Tentatively, Sarah flipped the disk over and placed in her computer, and reading for the first time the name of the game.which happened to be "Labyrinth - The Game."
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jareth yawned lazily and rolled over in his fur covered throne. There was something annoying tapping on his shoulder. He swatted at it but it wouldn't go away.
"What?" He murmured unhappily. He lifted the lid of his blue eye to show him the unpleasant sight of Hoggle holding a clipboard. He was about to banish him to the Bog of Eternal Stench, but then he remembered that he couldn't thanks to the cursed dice game he played with Hoggle the decade before. Damn him. He thought angrily and shifted himself to upright position.
Hoggle ahem-ahemed importantly. Jareth shot him a glare of pure hatred only brought on by one being woken up all too early. Hoggle shut up and got on with what he was going to say.
"Sire, according to the bet you made against me - and lost, I might add-" Hoggle caught the unmistakable sound of teeth being ground together, and decided that it would be in his best interest to get to the point.
"Well anyway, the goblins had gotten bored and, well anyway you have been signed up to play the bad guy in the computer game version of the Labyrinth."
Jareth sat straight up in his chair. "WHAT!?" He bellowed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"WHAT?!" Sarah yelled, unknowingly echoing Jareth's sentiments. Then her computer accepted the disk and started to install. Frantically she tried to abort the download but it was impossible. Defiling Greg's name with a menagerie of four letter words not fit to print, she stared defiantly at the screen as the program loaded, booted up, and finally asked for her to press the start button.
The graphics were pretty good so grudgingly she pressed it. Another loading sign came up and she mused as she waited. I'm not particularly scared of Jareth, but rather of what in hell this is. Her attention was brought back the screen when a little bubble popped up asking her name which she obligingly typed in. Was it her, or did the screen do a double take? She pushed it off as suspicion. After all, Sarah was a hideously common name and a boring name at that, many people had it.
Shaking her head she impatiently answered all of the little blurbs popping up. When it asked if she had ever eaten an enchanted peach, she got pretty pissed off.
"OK! OK! I'm THAT FRICKING SARAH WHO RAN THE LABYRINTH!!! IS THAT FRICKING GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!?" She was standing up and yelling. To her surprise, the various boxes disappeared and a small, computerized looking Hoggle appeared.
"Sarah!" He squeaked, eerily - at least to Sarah's vantage - real.
"Hoggle?" She sat down with a start, falling abruptly to the floor - in her annoyed rantings, she had tipped over the chair. Righting the chair and herself, she adjusted the volume so she could hear him better.
"Hello, Sarah. Welcome back to the Labyrinth." Sarah was sure that the Welcome back part could not have been in the programming.
"The Labyrinth is an amazing virtual reality journey that takes you inside the many wonderful and unforgettable twists and turns of the Labyrinth."
Unforgettable is right, she thought.
"And you, Sarah the bold and brave adventurer, must conquer these puzzles of mind and body to face the ultimate test - Jareth Goblin King!
Again Sarah's last words before she was sucked into the Labyrinth were "WHAT?!"
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jareth looked disbelievingly at Hoggle, now fully and unpleasantly awake.
"You mean to say," He said this slowly as if Hoggle was slow. "That are forcing me, the goblin KING, to play the part of the evil villain in an ABOVE GROUND COMPUTER GAME!?"
Hoggle waited a second, considered. After a while he said. "Well, yes."
Jareth it was safe to say was seething.
"I can't believe this! If I hadn't taken that bet-"
"Ah, but you did." Remarked Hoggle, placidly calm. This made Jareth all the angrier. After about one broken vase and/or expensive object or two, Jareth was finally calm enough to consider his options. By his vow he made when placing his bet, he had to fulfill one demand of Hoggle's, and this was obviously it. Jareth clenched his jaw bitterly, willing himself to make the best of it.
"So, Hoggle, what exactly do I have to do?"
"Seeing as you will be playing to clichéd evil villain, milord-"
Hoggle was interrupted by a particularly ugly goblin running toward Jareth with a black cape on hanger covered by clear plastic that read "Underground Dry Cleaning" across it.
"Uh, Good day you kingship sah, I dry cleaned your black cape for yore, uhm, new position sah-"
Furious, Jareth pimpslapped the unfortunate goblin into the wall, leaving a pretty deep dent.
Somewhat amused, Hoggle noted that if Jareth had been an Above- grounder, he would have been a good pimp. Jareth turned back to Hoggle.
"As we were saying."
"Yes. You are playing the overly clichéd villain who always loses." Hoggle silenced Jareth's openmouthed protest at having to loose to anyone. "And then, at the end, the player will be rewarded with an actual magical talent." Jareth managed to look surprised, a magical talent was quite a heady gift for a mortal.
"And who, exactly is playing this game?"
"I think you might be interested, sire." Hoggle pointed toward a mirror that now showed a picture of Sarah.