Three episodes in I have decided Fate is a good show that just happens to have characters with the same names as characters in this cartoon I like called Winx Club. Really, names are all they have in common that I can see. I'm happy to have a new show to enjoy and snark about and consider rewriting but the larger question of why anybody thought this was a good idea remains a thing.
The 'gamer goggles' the girls play on is a thing that exists. It's called a Magic Leap One- but the magic words to see it are "Dr Gordbort's." Look it up on youtube. And if you get a chance to try a Magic Leap, do it! Augmented reality is incredibly neat.
6 154 Vera ~Game~
Madame's been herself again for a week, long enough to redo all our sketchbook finals. I got a B, not perfect but good enough. It's been a good week but this morning I woke to a message from Twig in Magix and it's put me in a bad mood.
Tuesday is one of the days we get up early to wave foam swords at each other and it's really fun. Some of our classmates sort of halfheartedly want to practice too and I enjoy trying to teach them. Our swords are light plastic pipes wrapped in foam and tape so we can feel like we're swordfighting without, you know, actually hurting each other. I think Shimmergloom would rather use our phantoblade swords, but whacking away with what looks like lightsabers would definitely freak everybody out.
Today Monique and Liza and half a dozen others are here with the foam swords I made them. I'm not in the mood for correcting people's strikes while I'm miffed at my sister, but I did say I'd show them how to actually sword fight sometime.
Shimmergloom is entirely too cheerful for an early morning, bouncing around in the chilly air waving her foam cutlass. She turns and I catch the look in her eyes and shift my foam sword to both hands in time to fend off her attack. We smack away at each other, swords swatting dully at each other. I dodge successfully and suddenly I'm smiling. The world shrinks to my hands on this silly sword, my feet on the grass, my opponent's smirk. Strike, dodge, turn—we're hitting sword on sword, not actually trying to hit each other. It's more like choreography than fighting, really, and it's so much fun.
I glance sideways and see people watching, and lose my zone. Shimmergloom misses and smacks my arm and I stagger.
"Oh! Sorry!"
"I'm all right. Um, people are watching."
"We want to do swords!"
"My roommate's hogging the goggles."
Goggles? Oh, that new game everyone's playing, the one Twig was on about. I've only worn gaming goggles a few times and they're fun but video games aren't really my thing. My classmates are super enthusiastic though and I trek back to the dorm to get the extra foam swords I made with the leftover pipe and foam and pretty soon everyone's running around whacking away at each other. Nobody's interested in actually learning anything though. Shimmergloom says, "Just pretend ye be a pirate!" and calls me over to demonstrate a wonderful move she knows that sends the opponent's sword spinning up into the air. I haven't gotten it yet—you have to pull at a very precise angle, and the fact that we're using soft foam doesn't help, but Shimmergloom can do it so I'm going to learn.
Once we've done all our usual workout and practice we end up sitting on the grass watching our classmates mess around. We've bundled up both for the cold and for getting smacked and after working out I'm really war so it's comfortable.
"Are ye angry about something?"
I shrug. "Twig thinks her favorite video game guy lost his shadow. She also thinks I should drop out of school and move to Magix."
"Ye don't have to."
"I know..." I can't just tell my sister, who I love and miss, straight out that I'm busy with my own dream and not interested in moving to the magic dimension right now. I've wanted to come to this school since before the magic.
Shimmergloom yawns and says, "I can't believe they're going longer than us."
Six of my classmates are still swordfighting, though a lot slower than when they started. I say, "The game is about ghosts appear and you hit them with a glowing sword. A virtual glowing sword, not a magical one." I need to specify since we have real glowing swords.
"I want to try it! Monique! Can I be trying your game?"
"I suppose." Monique says reluctantly.
I stand up and dust myself off, and pull Shimmergloom to her feet It's time to go inside and get ready for class. We all head inside, with general griping about how it's still too early to go to school.
But Monique and Liza aren't in our class. They're not sick, so they're cutting class. The teacher asks if anyone knows where they are and I don't say anything because I don't want to be a tattletale. If Monique has senioritis so bad she wants to skip a math quiz, that's her choice.
All day I notice a few people are missing from classes. I think maybe a cold is going around until I overhear Catherine complaining at lunch, "Hogging the goggles!"
I lean back on my cafeteria seat. "Monique's cutting class to play a video game?"
Catherine groans, which means yes.
I don't know what to say to that so I just take a bite of my lunch salad. The sister in me wants to run and tell Monique this is a dumb thing to do, skipping class. But Monique is a senior, and not my sister, so I can't tell her like I'd tell Twig.
I go through the rest of the day of classes: art history, architecture, and literature—French literature, my worst subject. Back in our dorm I dump my books on my desk and check my phone. This morning I sent Twig a map with a pin in Paris and a pin in California, to demonstrate why I can't go see if this game guy really lost his shadow. Twig sent me back a thoughtful face emoji. I wash my face, stretch, and sit down to get started on my homework. I like to do the book work before dinner and the creative stuff after.
I'm finishing up math when Shimmergloom comes in, drops her backpack, and flops on her bed. "Ye be still working?" she asks the ceiling.
"Did you do all your homework in the library?"
"Aye. Enough of it. Let's make Monique and Catherine let us try the game!"
Ok that sounds a lot more fun than editing an essay. I can move commas around later. "Ok."
Shimmergloom pops to her feet. I smother a laugh.
We go next door and knock. Shimmergloom calls, "It be Shirley and Vera!"
A grouchy Monique opens the door. Behind her Catherine is wearing gaming goggles and waving the controller around. It looks pretty goofy from the outside.
Monique says, "I guess you two want a turn."
"Aye! If ye let us, we'll check your English!"
That gets both Monique and Catherine's attention. We're all really supposed to be learning both French and English but Monique's English is as bad as my French would be if I didn't use magic.
Shimmergloom apparently speaks every language. That's what she told me anyway. She sits down at Catherine's desk and picks up a pencil.
Monique passes me the goggles and shows me how to put them on. The power pack clips on my pants pocket and the goggles themselves sit almost like a helmet, with the band almost over the top of my head and the goggles sitting heavily on my nose.
"I'm in the middle of a minigame. Kill the ghosts and my guy gets money. And don't put pirate talk in my essay!"
"Aye..."
I look at the room through the lenses. A cleaner dorm than ours; Monique and Catherine have made their beds and don't have piles of fabric on their dressers.
Then a portal to the spirit realm opens in the wall and a character from the game steps out. He's an old guy in overalls and I can only see part of him at a time because the goggles' field of view is limited, but the part I can see looks totally solid. I know this is just images on the glass in front of my eyes, but it looks really real. In my ears the guy says, "You're a part-time grave keeper now! Don't let any ghosts get past you!"
In my hand the controller sprouts a sword blade that I can only see if I keep my hand in the right place. I look around and see virtual graves and tombstones have appeared around the dorm. Now I see why they cleaned up so well; all the empty space is full of cemetery.
A little blue ghost rises up with a "Woooooo!" and I swing my virtual sword through it. Another woo sounds behind me and I swing at it too. It's really fun. I keep playing until Shimmergloom finishes playing homework helper and drags me off the bed.
The first thing I think of in the morning is how soon I can play that game again. Shimmergloom's up and throwing clothes at me singing, "We're late, we're late!"
I groan and turn over. I don't want to go to class. I don't want to get up because it's early but it I have to I want to fight ghosts.
"Vera, class!"
"Coming, coming..." I drag myself up and into clothes and to art history class, where I try to stay awake through the rococo period. The horrified faces Shimmergloom makes at the terrible curlicues are all that keep me from dozing off again. I want to play that game again. I want to stop thinking and fight ghosts.
At lunch I find Monique in the cafeteria. "Hey… can I have a turn again after school?"
"After school is my turn!"
"Come on, please? Shirley will help with your homework again."
Shimmergloom makes an 'I will?' face.
Monique pauses. 'Maybe."
We eat lunch.
We go to class.
We go to another class.
We go back to our dorm for the evening. I peek next door to see if our neighbors to see if they're playing the game, in time to see Monique kick Catherine off it and take over.
Shimmergloom stretches with her arms over her head, then takes her hair down and balances a textbook on her head. "Want to go do homework outside?"
"Nah… you can."
I have an essay to write, and I'm sewing a shirt with ruffles, but once Shimmergloom goes outside I find myself wandering around, peeking next door, neatening the dorm, peeking next door again… I can't concentrate on history. All I can think about is how much I want to play that game again. I didn't get to see the ghosts that come from some of the graves and I want to see what they look like!
I'm not really getting anything done, but I miss dinnertime. Shimmergloom reappears with two plates that sparkle with magic to keep the food hot. She looks at me, looks around at the room and says, "...are ye under a spell?"
"No? This is Earth, nobody can even cast spells here except for us?" Why does she even think that? It's not like I've never been distracted before, it's just nopt usually by a video game.
"Hmm." Shimmergloom clearly doesn't believe me. She takes the little silver bell from around her neck and holds it out.
"Don't do anything weird."
Shimmergloom flicks her hand and her bell tinkles a few soft notes. Something in my head relaxes and suddenly homework seems less pointless. I still don't really want to write the essay but it makes sense to do it. So… "Was I under a spell? If you do that again will I want to write my essay?"
"A little bit under a spell maybe.' Shimmergloom grins suddenly, her amber eyes lighting up. "There be no magic big enough to make homework fun!"
I laugh too, marveling at how I feel like myself again. Then I realize we have a bigger issue. If I was a little under a spell, and all our classmates must feel the same since they're skipping class to play it, then it must be a magically addictive video game. People all over the world are probably ignoring what they should be doing to play it. This is not a good thing.
"How big can you cast that spell? Monique and everybody..."
"Aye. If you help me."
I hesitate, I haven't done magic for months and it feels weird in our very mundane dorm room. But I put my hand over Shimmergloom's and let my magic out. It comes swarming through me, eager to be used. I send a thread of it into our hands and the silver bell shimmers violet. Shimmergloom flicks her hand and a note rings out, humming deeper and longer than it should have been able to, coming from that little bell.
Shimmergloom tips her head to the side, listening. "It went really far! A couple of blocks!"
"Could you do it for every kid who's played this game?"
"Nay. Hmm..." Shimmergloom hangs her bell around her neck and plops down on her bed. "Throw it back to your sister. We caught the last shadow."
Since I still have all my homework to do, dumping the magical problem back on Twig sounds like a great idea! I turn my computer on, start my essay, and shoot her a message explaining that there's a magic video game and we can't do anything about it from here.
