A/N: I've been wanting to write a gamer!Gelphie series of fics for a while because I think it'd be fun. Since I recently started playing my favorite video game again, I decided to make the first chapter the game that started my addiction. And, I'm going to try to keep spoilers for the games as few as possible, but keeping the experience as genuine as possible with them.
Honestly, there was a slight problem with this game considering this game is pretty long and full of emotional moments that I wanted to put into the experience, into words, but that would have made this far too long, so I settled for the more important parts. The parts I thought would get reactions out of the two. Especially the ending. Oops.
Um yeah so this probably won't be updated super often, since I'd much rather use games I've played and I've been too busy to really play games lately er...if you guys have any suggestions for games, I'm up for it. That'd be awesome...since I only have about two games left for them to play uh...yeah. Suggestions = awesome! Now, let's get on with the story.
A/N 2: Also this is a modern AU where the setting is somewhere in our now time. Elphaba is not green because of this - I'm sorry. Haha okay now to the story.
The game was a steal - a game she had wanted to check out for...a little while, she supposed. Maybe two months. Since around the time she heard a remaster was being made for it. And here it was, sitting in the game store for the original system.
She had to buy it. Glinda would like it too, she just knew it.
Making sure she had enough money, Elphaba grabbed the game and headed to the counter to pay for it. The cashier - a man in his early 20's, by the way he looked, with short, messy brown hair and blue eyes - chatted with her for a moment while he rang up the game, telling Elphaba about what a great game it was. He said that he played it when he was younger too and then wished her luck, telling her that she really needed it if she was going to play it.
Back in the car, Glinda took the game from Elphaba and looked at it while Elphaba drove, confused and intrigued at the same time. "I thought you were getting that zombie game you wanted so much?" the blonde asked, looking up from the back of the game box and staring at Elphaba.
The brunette shrugged, smiling just a little. "This seemed more interesting - I read a little about it, and apparently it's a bit longer than the zombie game and has a pretty good story to it. I figured it was worth the try. If we like it, we have a good game we like. If we don't, we can always return it and get the zombie game, right?"
"Yeah...I guess..." Glinda sighed, sitting back in her seat. There was a short pause before Glinda cleared her throat. "Do you know anything about the story?"
"Not really. Other than the protagonist is a boy who is transported to a land that's so foreign to him and everyone treats him like he's sick at first because of it," Elphaba replied. "That alone hooked me. There's also supposed to be a pretty girl protagonist. But that's all I know."
Nodding to herself, Glinda stopped talking. She just stared at the box again, wondering to herself exactly what the game was and if it was going to be like the other Final Fantasy games Elphaba had bought before - emotional and mostly slow moving. She really didn't want to cry again. Not like she did when she watched Elphaba play the ninth one.
She didn't have high hopes for the game, honestly. Especially since it was for a system that she and Elphaba rarely even touched anymore, but Elphaba usually had good instincts when it came to choosing good games, so she was going to give it a chance no matter what she initially thought of it.
They'd had the game literally a day, and they were already arguing about how to play it. Because of Glinda's constant whining about using Lulu to kill every monster and her trying to take the controller away from Elphaba so she could attempt to use Lulu for everything battle-wise, they'd only just barely gotten on the ship going to Luca.
Just barely.
"Do you not like her or something?" Glinda asked, her voice low. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was pouting, sitting with her back to Elphaba, just as she had been for the past fifteen minutes.
"Glinda, we can't use Lulu for every single battle! We have to use the others too!" Elphaba shouted for the twentieth time, focused on the game more than the pouting blonde sitting near her. "Oh, look, we have to go save Yuna and Lulu is one of the three people we can use - how great!"
Despite being angry at Elphaba, Glinda watched Elphaba run around the stadium, looking for the boat the Al Bhed were on. Honestly, even though she was really smart, Elphaba wasn't the best at games like these. She was better at reaction game, not planning games.
"Shit shit shit!" Elphaba shouted. "What is that thing?"
"It's just a giant machine, calm down," Glinda muttered.
"How about you stop pouting and get over it. Lulu isn't the best in the group."
"Take that back!" Glinda shouted, immediately turning and pouncing on Elphaba, knocking the controller out of her hands.
Even though she had been angry because Elphaba refused to give her the controller originally, she forgot about the game completely, instead wanting the make Elphaba take back the insult. So the two girls spent another hour rolling around on the floor, on the verge of a full-on fight, shouting at each other, the battle music playing endlessly in the background.
Another two days passed before Glinda would speak to Elphaba again. In that time, Elphaba played the game a little, but ultimately ignored it, instead returning to an already long finished game. Finally, the two sat down at breakfast on the third day, Elphaba sighing and apologizing for the fight, telling Glinda that she's invited to watch more of the game. When Glinda didn't respond, Elphaba went and started playing again.
Less than ten minutes later, the blonde was sitting on the floor next to her, watching her play. There was a short time of silence, and during that time, Elphaba ran down the never-ending Mi'ihen Highroad. Finally, someone said something. "So what do you think of that Seymour guy?"
"He's okay," Elphaba answered. "A little creepy, I suppose. I'm sure he'll be a cool guy, but he'll probably end up being an antagonist for some reason."
Glinda giggled. "I like him. He seems really kind, and smart. I can't wait for him to join the party - he'll be a great guardian for Yuna! And hey - wasn't he a summoner too?"
"Yeah...he...was..." Elphaba sighed. "I think that may become an issue later..."
Another week and the two were finally at Macalania.
"What a ridiculously puzzling game," Elphaba mumbled as she ran around the cloister of trials area, trying to figure out what to do. "Why are there no simple trials? Glinda? Glinda are you still angry?"
"How could he do that?" the blonde shouted, her already high-pitched voice rising a couple octaves. "I mean - why would he? How could he? I trusted him! I was hoping he would be everything for Yuna - Yunalesca and Lord Zaon reincarnated!"
Elphaba snickered, earning herself an angry 'What?' and glare from Glinda. "You had about the same reaction about Hans when we watched Frozen for the first time. It's kind of funny how you have similar reactions."
Without much help from Glinda, Elphaba finally managed to solve the puzzle and continue on with the game. Sadly, for her, what followed caused the loudest, angriest string of curse words Glinda ever screamed since they watched Frozen.
"How fucking dare you motherfucking assholes break that fucking thing? Your shitty ass fucktard of a leader fucking killed someone, and you fucking destroy the proof? Fuck this game, fuck your race, fuck Spira, fuck this, I'm fucking done!"
With that, the blonde stood up and walked away. The sheer amount of anger alone made Elphaba start laughing so hard that she had to pause the game. Not to mention the fact that Glinda had said 'fuck' more times in that one moment than she had ever said before in her twenty year life. Even though Glinda had left the room, she was still yelling and cursing.
This game was probably the best thing that had ever happened to the both of them.
"It only took us an extra month - why is this game so long?" Glinda asked, leaning back too far in her chair and falling over. She didn't care...she could still see the television. She could still see the stupid blond boy running around the stupid plains.
As if the never ending desert wasn't enough.
Now there was never ending plains with annoying music and like a dozen Chocobos.
The only reason Glinda wasn't screaming at the game again about...well...everything was because of what had happened roughly an hour prior. Which, of course, Elphaba chose to ignore that it had happened.
"They kissed," the blonde repeated for the tenth time. "And then she grabbed his hand."
"Will you stop that? We both saw - Kimahri saw too. He watched them kiss. Now please stop talking about it so I can figure out what's going on."
Glinda wasn't silent for very long. "If they kissed...does that mean...when Yuna..."
"He loves her," Elphaba mumbled.
Scooting closer to Elphaba, Glinda looked at her face, a smile stretching across her own. "You're about to cry! Elphie, it's not that sad!"
"Glinda! The poor girl is going to - and he...shit!"
Pause. "Have you been wandering aimlessly because you don't want to get to Zanarkand."
"No."
"Elphie come on, this is boring."
With an annoyed sigh, Elphaba started heading the right way out of the plains, having figured out where she was supposed to go long before. She just didn't want to go because she didn't want the ending to happen - she loved Yuna and the new addition of romance between Yuna and Tidus had made actually finishing the game a task which she's much rather have left undone.
But Glinda - despite being a procrastinator and a hater of sad and/or romantic endings - didn't want to wander aimlessly, so Elphaba couldn't prolong the final portion of the game.
Glinda was always the one that kept the game moving when Elphaba wanted to wander aimlessly.
Silence. A long silence. The only sound that could be heard in the apartment was the music playing from the television as the credits rolled down the screen. Elphaba and Glinda sat there, stunned silent, both confused by the game and their own emotional reactions.
Elphaba was crying silently, slumped over with her knees pulled to her chest, her shoulders shaking as she cried. Glinda just sat there, silent, a blank stare. The controller was discarded a few inches from them and it hadn't been touched since the ending sequence of the game began.
Finally, the tiny blonde stood up. "No - I will not settle for this kind of ending. There has to be something else to fix it. It can't end like that! Screw this game!" And she stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her, leaving Elphaba alone to cry.
Thirty minutes later, the door opened again and Glinda walked in, another game in her hand. Lying on the floor in front of the television was a sleeping Elphaba, who had fallen asleep shortly after Glinda left, having cried far too much for herself. With no regard to manners, Glinda shook Elphaba awake, shoving the game case in the brunette's face as soon as her bloodshot eyes opened.
"Here. Sequel. Play it."