Chapter 7 - Working on it

Friday, October 16th, 2020

Just past midnight, early Friday morning...

"So, what's in it for me? You just expect me to be on call for whatever errand you want?" Caspo argued. The hardwood floor beneath him squeaked as he shifted his weight.

The blue and orange figure in front of him facepalmed. "It's more of a repayment than anything. It was I that gave you your powers, remember?" Mr. Sandman reiterated, the near monotone voice only betraying a hint of annoyance.

"Just roll with it, Caspo. There's not much we can do in this situation." Jonah urged, standing next to the initiate and leaning on a bookcase.

"Don't think I trust you yet, Jonah." He pointed at the boy before returning to face the imposing stand. "Well, I still don't like being thrown into a dream world, or whatever the hell this place is. You expect me to kneel? You said it yourself that you gave me a stand, but can you take it away? Are you ready to fight?" Caspo boasted.

"In this world, I can. And I am prepared to fight, if you wish." The stand picked up its staff and began lightly thumping it in the palm of his hand as he slowly approached.

Shit, why can't I pull out my stand? Is he blocking it? Caspo thought, straining to make something happen. "Now let's wait a minute, maybe I spoke a little quickly, that's all!" He backpedaled, putting his hands out in submission.

"At least you can listen to reason." Sandman remarked, resting the staff back to the hardwood floor. "I do understand your hesitation though, so I am prepared to reward hard work on your part appropriately."

"...Keep talking." Caspo said while regaining his composure, and stroking his goatee.

"You must complete all assignments without question, or else I will show you the end of my patience. If you and your colleagues exceed expectations, however, I have my ways of providing benefits." The stand explained, slowly drumming his fingertips on the staff's head.

I do appreciate this new power. Caspo thought. "Alright. I guess I don't really have a choice in the matter. I'll do your bidding if you keep your end of the bargain. What kinda rewards you talking about here?"

"He's given me gift cards and textbooks on occasion." Jonah chimed in.

"Free textbooks? At today's prices?" Caspo recoiled in surprise. "Stop digging, my man, you've struck oil!" He beamed.

Mr. Sandman looked pleased. "I am glad that we can come to an agreement, then. Jonah shall be in charge, as I find him the most trustworthy. You and the rest of the group shall follow the orders I give him. Also inform Oscar of this meeting, I can't access his dreams at this hour for some reason." He slammed the staff on the floor twice. "Now return to your slumber and be ready for your assignments."

The ornate library began to dissolve as the two students drifted back into sleep.

…

The screen glowed in a comforting light. The clock on Oscar's desk read 1:00 am, but the freshman hadn't checked it for a while. His hands were busy working the mouse and keyboard before him, and the WASD keys had noticeable signs of wear. Focusing on the screen, the student moved his character through a colorful maze, carefully peeking corners with his assault rifle drawn. The steady hum of the pc was filtered out by the atmospheric suspenseful music playing through Oscar's headset. There were several internet tabs open behind the game's window, many of them related to schoolwork or music, but he paid them no mind as he crossed yet another intersection in the maze. Carefully approaching the next corner, he stealthily swept it and aimed the weapon down the empty corridor. Putting down his iron sights, he breathed a sigh of relief as he crossed the hall. Well, that's what he would have done if he didn't immediately receive several bullets into the back of his skull. The screen turned red as the camera went third person and the body of the generic soldier he controlled crumpled to the ground.

Oscar's grip on the mouse loosened as he leaned back in his chair, sighing in defeat. His frustration was amplified when that familiar blue skirt and gray jacket came into frame, and the 3d rendered model of Monika began teabagging his corpse within the cold confines of the game engine.

"That's 43 to 2." Oscar groaned, checking the kill feed. "Maybe we should try to get you into a different game that's a little more... cooperative." He said, searching for the right word.

Monika's voice giggled through the headphones. "I guess I am an aimbot, hehe. Sorry if that wasn't too fun for you."

That voice soothed his heart in an odd way. "You know I can't stay mad at you Monika, no matter how many times you fill me with lead." The two shared a quick laugh before he continued. "You said a co-op, right? What about Minecraft? That's a classic. Plus, I'm fairly sure someone's already made a skin of you that you can download."

"I'm two steps ahead of you." She taunted, as the window closed itself and a browser tab was already downloading from a Minecraft skin website.

"Nice." Oscar remarked. "It's only been a few days, but I feel like you already know my every move. You're like a surveillance state, but cuter." Oscar was taken aback by his own sentence, but he didn't show it. We're already talking like we've been friends since childhood. I guess it does help that she's been asking questions almost nonstop, as tiring as it can be. By this point, they'd already had a few arguments about petty shit like film techniques or economics, but they made him more comfortable than anything. The fact that she was forming her own opinions of things and not clinging to his thoughts was soothing to him, and the two always found ways to end the squabbles peacefully.

"I was about to say, at least I'm not China." Monika casually remarked. "Plus, I'm already blocking some monitoring that your government was doing. Let's just say that the FBI agent assigned to you has been very confused lately." She smirked at him from the monitor.

"Wait, what?" Oscar's eyes widened.

"Haha, I'm only joking. Somewhat." Monika replied. Oscar was about to ask what she meant by 'somewhat', but she cut him off. "I don't mean to come off as obsessive or anything, I just figured that since I'm bound as your stand that I should learn as much about you and your surroundings as I can, in case it could be useful somehow."

"Don't worry about it, Monika. Do what you need to do." Dismissed Oscar. "Anyway, do you want to play with or without mods?

She lifted a hand to her chin. "Maybe without mods for now. I can always add them in later if we wanted."

"Cool." He replied while opening the Minecraft launcher. "Sorry if I can't do much of the technical stuff myself, I never learned how to use Forge or anything, just premade modpacks."

"Dude, don't apologize about tech." Monika raised an eyebrow at the teen. "You're talking to a tech wizard here, I think you're in good hands."

"Thanks, Allstate insurance." Oscar smirked as she shook her head playfully.

"Very funny." She groaned in sarcasm at his uncreative reference.

Over the past few days, Oscar noticed that Monika had handled more and more of his responsibilities, even to the point of him asking her to finish some assignments for him. As a result, he hadn't really learned much and relied on her instead. It was convenient for him, and he had grown complacent in his laziness. However, there was always a pang of unease that he felt at his behavior, no matter how many times he pushed it away. He did so once again, though, when the game's launcher appeared onscreen for him.

…

The clock had advanced to 3 am before Oscar finally noticed it. In that time, the pair had made farms, built a castle, and found a few diamonds. Now, he stared at Monika's pixelated playermodel as the two of them continued down the cave they were exploring.

"Hey, can you pass me some torches? I ran out." Oscar asked.

"Sure." Monika replied before turning to him and throwing the items at his character. However, Oscar noticed a creeper appearing from the darkness behind her back, and he readied his bow.

"Monika, get down!" He yelled, firing off a shot. It hit the green enemy, but the recoil was minimal and it continued its approach. Monika turned to face the creeper, which was almost upon her at this point. She whacked it with her sword, but had to run backwards to avoid the oncoming explosion. Her character made the familiar "ough" sound of taking damage, but she survived the explosion.

"Well, that was a close one." Monika commented, eating some bread she had in her inventory. "Thanks for that, I don't know if I would've survived that point blank."

"No problem. Hopefully we should have enough iron to make full armor after this mining trip." Oscar said, pleased with himself. He then noticed the hole made by the creeper, and approached it. "Oh, what do we have here?"

Monika joined him in the crater. "I guess we had some good luck after all." She exclaimed, as Oscar pulled out his iron pick and began to mine the diamonds that adorned the bottom of the hole. She was about to join him, but not before he mined another shiny rock while standing right on top of it. before he knew it, he clumsily slipped into a lava pit below the block and began burning. "Oh shit! get out of there!" She yelled.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck" Chanted Oscar as he frantically slammed the space bar to try and climb out. To his dismay, however, the pit was multiple blocks deep and he could get no leverage. His health was already near half after only a second, so he knew what he had to do. "Monika, this is the last of my diamonds! Take them from me!" He yelled before throwing the iron and diamonds from his inventory onto the ground in front of her. Only a fraction of a second later, the infamous "You Died!" flash text adorned Oscar's screen. He could see Monika's character crouch next to the pit while picking up the items.

"Oscar!" She yelled in a purposefully exaggerated accent, her character's head facing the roof of the cave. There was silence afterwards for a few seconds, but this quickly faded as the two broke into a fit of laughter.

"Well, at least everything else I lost is easily replaceable." Oscar sighed as he came down from the laughing fit. He then gulped as he glanced over at the clock. "Jesus Christ, it's that late? I have class this morning!" He panicked. "Why didn't you remind me?"

Monika's sprite appeared above the game tab, and she grimaced. "I was having a good time, and I didn't want it to end that quickly." She admitted while averting his glare.

"I have to get up at 7:30! Do you know how hard it is for me to concentrate without sleep?" He accused.

"No, I didn't! Besides, there's literally a clock next to your bed! I'm not your personal assistant all the time, Oscar." Monika snapped suddenly, surprised at his sudden tone shift.

Oscar was taken aback. "You are my stand! Why wouldn't you take care of me?" He retaliated.

"Take care of you? You know, you haven't made any videos since I met you, and I've practically been doing all your homework for you. At the least, you could give me some respect." She argued,making a dismissive motion with her hand.

"Hey, I'm working on it!" He attempted to reply.

"'Working on it'? Okay, Chris-Chan." The digital stand scoffed. "Speaking of Chris-Chan, you ever thought about using the gym? There's literally one right next your dorm."

Oscar looked down at his gut. "Okay, maybe I should, but don't you compare me to him. I thought you wanted to help."

"I do, but I thought you said I was my own person, not some Siri-look alike? I am not your slave!" She retorted. "Before you go judging me, take a long look at yourself. I'll be waiting once you gain some common sense." Oscar was about to fire off another tirade at the girl on the screen, but the PC shut itself off before he could say a word. He stared at the black screen, and could see his face scowling back at him from the reflection of the glass. He also noticed how dirty the screen had gotten over the past months as well, with smudges covering its surface. However, his gaze always returned to his own face.

Do I really look like that when I'm angry? He wondered to himself. He also noticed that he involuntarily stood up in his chair during the argument, and as such he slumped back into the hard plastic seat. He then noticed for the first time how bad his posture was. He always slumped like that. He couldn't bear to look back into the reflection of the screen and see himself again, but Oscar forced himself to. After staring at it for a few minutes, he sat up in his chair and started to wipe the dirty screen off with a cloth. He then cleaned his keyboard, his mouse, his desk, and set the alarm on his clock before lying down in bed, with a stern look on his face. The words that they had exchanged kept ringing through his mind, and he spent a good while thinking of things he could've said to make up for it. Realizing how stupid the origin of the conflict was, there was a moment of clarity in Oscar's muddled thoughts as the guilt enveloped him more than the sheets that covered his body.

I don't have any excuses for this. I'll make this up to her. This was the last thought that crossed Oscar's mind before the bonds of sleep took him.