Chapter 3: A New Friend (?)
So I left this alone for like ages and I'm sorry ;-;
This was kind of left forgotten, but I have a stronger idea of how things will progress here now, and hopefully it'll continue to flow properly and I won't leave you guys hanging. Feel free to push me off a cliff.
I'm publishing this very, very late at night. I should've waited until tomorrow morning and edited or something, but I really wanted to put it up. So without further ado, Long Distance, chapter 3.
Hi! I'm Amy Rose. I'm a seventeen-year-old hedgehog from Station Square, with short pink hair and green eyes, and I'm just trying to achieve my dreams and carve out a life for myself. I live in a nice apartment, and while my mother is technically my legal guardian, she's often working abroad, which means that I have to take care of myself. I manage, though. Her paycheck is always sent to our address, and I've learnt to work with a budget. And if I ever ran into a tough spot, Vanilla Usagi, who lives next door, is always willing to help out. School and homework is probably the only real difficulty for me - and doesn't everyone have trouble with that?
So, on this particular day, I woke up and got ready for school as I do every morning. I was on time for the bus as usual, and sat back for the hour and a half ride from my place on the outer suburbs to the centre of the city, prepared with my iPhone and headphones. (How do people use earbuds? They're uncomfortable and always fall out and get tangled up and lost. Not headphones. They're big and comfy and look awesome and you'll never lose them and they don't fall off.) For the first fifteen minutes, I let my music cycle through. Most girls in my age group like boy bands, but I'm not most girls in my age group. My favourite band is Crush 40, and they do rock. But anyways, I was in the middle of a song when I heard a Skype notification come through.
See, this isn't normal for me. I never get notifications on social media. I'm kind of an outsider. I don't have any real friends in school, and nobody in my class follows me anywhere, except for Mum because parents do that kind of thing and this one guy called Shadow who I guess wanted to follow me because I was the only person who'd follow him back. So, of course, I was interested in why I was being messaged. I turned my phone on, and the username reminded me of what had happened last night. SuperSonicChao.
Well, explanation time. Again. I'll try to shorten it: last night I was playing Chao Island. It's my new favourite game - it's like all the other MMORPGs, except adorable! But anyways, I played with this nice user called SuperSonicChao, who was good at racing but I also beat him twice in karate. And then - get this - he asked my Skype name. I had known him for less than a day, and he was already asking to add me on social media? Still, I like the idea of having friends. I haven't really had any since I moved here when I was 11 (but that's another story for another day). So I let him add me. His real name is Sonic, but I don't know much else about him. Still, he seems very nice.
Okay, now that you know who this guy is, back to the actual events. I opened Skype to look at the image he had sent me. It was a picture of a Dark-Power Chao, in the same position as the posters for this one politician who's trying to get into some position of power or something, with a parody of the infamous slogan underneath reading 'Make Chao Island Great Again'. I laughed unusually hard at it, then stopped myself quickly, hoping that the two other people on the bus (well, not many people need to get on public transport at 7 a.m.) weren't judging me. I typed a quick 'lmao' back to Sonic. I wasn't expecting much else, but he almost instantly responded. Question: Do you know if that guy is actually as bad as the internet tells me?
I replied as fast as I could on my tiny phone screen. He's giving my country a bad reputation, but he can't do much. Of course, if he ran for president, it would be just as bad as all the memes say.
Rip. So, you're from the United Federation?
Yeah. I paused for a moment, considering whether or not to elaborate, then decided I could trust Sonic - anyways, it's a big city. I'm in Station Square. Where you at?
South Island.
Where is that?
Tiny island in the middle of the Whatever It's Called Ocean. 78 people living on it, including myself. I don't blame you for not knowing where it is, I didn't either until I moved here like a year ago.
Oh, okay. Wyd?
Waiting for my uncle to finish using my computer so I can go back to playing Chao Island instead of just browsing memes about it. You?
Bus ride to school. I have an hour or so to kill if you wanna talk?
Sounds great! My phone told me that 'SuperSonicChao is typing…' so I let him write his next message. It came through a moment later. So I don't know all that much about you, and you don't know me very well yet. What kinda stuff do you like, etcetera?
I decided to compile a quick list of things about myself. Nothing that might put me at too much risk in case he wasn't who he said he was, but interesting enough to tell him about me if he was genuine. I'm 16 years old, going on 17, I like video games and anime/manga, my favourite music style is 80's rock, I make jokes that nobody else finds funny, I can work with either 'I just want to be friends with everyone' or 'if you breathe near me I will impale you', and the main things that make me angry are slow internet, stereotypes, and badly written forced pairings.
Sonic didn't reply for a moment - I guess he was reading - and then fired back with a list that perfectly mirrored my own. I'm 16 as of this year, I like gaming and running, anything with guitar and/or good lyrics pleases my ears, I'm funny when I'm not stuttering, I'm usually either carefree or capable-of-murder serious, and I hate lagging, people who exploit other people, and water.
Did you copy my list format on purpose? I ask.
Yes. Yes, I did. What's your favourite game series?
With the exception of one-offs? I'm not sure how to choose just one, but my top three are The Chronicles Of Hilda, Nanomon, or Doodlenauts.
Hilda is consistently great and fun, Nanomon is timeless, Doodlenauts looks creative (haven't played it tho), but my all-time favourite is by far Giga Man.
Cool. I haven't actually played Giga Man, but I've read the manga adaption, and it seems pretty interesting.
What are you doing? Find a computer and emulate an old Giga Man game instantly for the sake of your health!
There's no WiFi here lmao XD Favourite game of all time?
Giga Man Y for nostalgia, but Terrainus for overall quality. You?
Nostalgically speaking, Doodlenauts Unbreakable is the only choice for me. But coming down to quality, my absolute favourite is definitely The Chronicles of Hilda: Winds of Nature.
Oh, you have WoN?
Yeah, although I have the Uss E version, because I can't afford a Swap. It's honestly the greatest game I've played in a long time, although it can be tricky as hell sometimes.
The newest home console I have is the Ycube 180. It's hard to get literally anything out to an isolated community in the middle of nowhere. A lot of my friends got the Swap and apparently it's the best game of all time, but I can't get it for myself and I'm losing my mind over it.
Well, it is pretty awesome, not gonna lie. It doesn't have a 98/100 average review score and the most perfect reviews on a game of all time for nothing. I just wish that there wasn't so much anussbo-exclusive content for it.
If I get my hands on it somehow, I literally have a mental list of things I'm gonna do with Ecti in the game.
Examples?
He immediately sends a string of messages. Run straight to the final boss with only the first pair of pants I find and a leaf. I laugh internally, remembering my own experience with that strategy. Set as many things as possible on fire. I sigh, again knowing how that's gonna turn out. Take selfies of everything. I make a mental note to do that - I haven't been doing that as much as I could be. Get a horse and find the most outrageous name possible for it. I decide that maybe my first instinct was right for that, although I still think I was tired and unreasonable when considering the name 'Ass' for my horse. Like I said, tired. Talk to as many people as possible without any clothing equipped. The memory of trying to do that makes me giggle. Take Ecti's shirt off before every single cutscene so that the atmosphere is ruined by the hilarity of him standing there shirtless. The mental image is funnier than I expected, and I have to fight to stop myself from bursting out laughing on the progressively-getting-more-crowded bus. Literally just make any possible in-game joke about the ability to walk around in only boxers. I finally give up and let out a laugh. I have the maturity of a five year old. I agree silently, but know that I'm the same.
Breathing heavily to stop myself from cracking up, I respond. I tried heading for the final boss with a leaf and nothing else. It didn't really work out. At all.
Just smack the enemies on the head with your Epic Leaf Of Justice?
The Epic Leaf Of Justice broke and I got my ass handed to me after one minute.
I need this game so badly. Can I have your copy?
Okay, I'll throw it over the ocean and hope that it makes it there.
Well, I'm not swimming out there to get it XD
I look at the time, and to my surprise, nearly half an hour has passed and I hardly even noticed. Usually, the time on the bus trip just crawls along at the slowest pace possible. Sometimes I catch up on sleep to pass the time, but it's a dangerous game. I'm a heavy sleeper, and getting too comfortable could lead to me snoring right through my stop and waking up halfway across Station Square (which actually happened once. Only once, but that's when I stopped doing that). But now that I have someone to talk to, the time's actually going by quickly - and I still don't have to worry about missing my stop.
Well, the conversation with Sonic continued until the bus pulled up outside school. Grabbing my bag and walking out, I sent my last message. I just arrived at school and we can't text it class so I gtg. I'll ttyl.
Alright, I'll talk to you later. Before I can put my phone away, he gets in one more message. And for the love of all things holy, play Giga Man.
The school day wasn't very eventful. It was just a regular Tuesday, with no extraordinary events or unexpected plot twists. I walked in, dumped my stuff in my still-messy-beyond-words locker, and spent the day doing normal Tuesday things. Struggling through maths, feeling disappointed that we still weren't doing creative writing in English, half-assing my way through drama, playing Flash games in media. Avoiding Fiona Fox, Rouge Gunn and Sally Acorn so that they wouldn't take the piss out of me. Sitting with Shadow Kintobor at lunch and not saying a single word to him the entire time. Trying desperately to push through the crowd around the lockers and grab my stuff, just making it to the bus in time, and settling in for the long road home. When I finally make it home at four o'clock, I decide to go over to the apartment next door. I have a crapton of English homework, and Vanilla is very helpful with keeping me focused. That, and she always has food, and I don't have the energy to cook, the money to order pizza, or the tolerance for any more toasted sandwiches.
Within a second of me knocking, Cream Usagi is opening the door excitedly. She's Vanilla's single daughter, she's six years old, and the most adorable thing in this part of the city. "Hello, Miss Rose! It's lovely to see you! Please, come inside!" she greets me cheerfully, grabbing my hand and pulling me indoors.
As she always does when I come over, Cream starts to talk about everything that's happened since yesterday. Vanilla looks over from the kitchen table, where she's reading the newspaper, and waves. "Good afternoon, Amy. Here, I'll tidy up the table for you if you have homework to do. Would you like a drink while you're here? I have coffee, if you're interested…"
"It's alright," I decline. The last time I agreed to that offer, I didn't sleep for five days. The strongest drink I can handle is drinking chocolate. "I have a lot of homework to get started on, would you mind if I stay here for an hour or so?"
"That'd be lovely!" Cream agrees enthusiastically. "You can stay for dinner too, and you can stay overnight if you like, and-"
"Cream, that's enough," Vanilla tells her. "Although, she is right. Feel free to stay here for dinner if you don't have the energy to cook something yourself. I don't know how you manage, living alone at such a young age…"
"It's alright when you're used to it," I reassure her for the billionth time. I take out my homework and get started on it, so that it doesn't build up later on. In the background, Cream talks away, asking me questions which I provide one-word answers to, making jokes that I laugh at in the right places. Eventually, she runs out of things to tell me, so she sits down next to me with a cheap sketchbook and some crayons, and starts drawing. About half an hour into this, my phone goes off with another notification. It's Sonic again. He's sent another picture to me, with the caption of 'when your friend hasn't played Giga Man', and showing what I guess is an awkwardly timed screenshot from one of the games (I wouldn't know which one exactly, but it's definitely early 64-bit era) that looks like the namesake robot having a seizure. I laugh and send a fitting emoji back. He returns the same emoticon, then adds, It's late af here and I need to learn how to sleep normally again so I'm gonna go to bed now. Night!
Goodnight! I finish the conversation and turn off my phone, determined to continue concentrating.
I decide to make the most of the study time and put some more work into a few ongoing assignments. I end up getting three times as much work done as yesterday in only an hour and a half, and as a bonus, Vanilla insists that I stay for dinner (lasagne, it's amazing). When I get home at about six, I use my time well and spend a solid three hours gaming, mostly playing Chao Island, but switching to Winds of Nature whenever the internet cuts out - frustratingly often in my apartment, but it usually runs without problems, so I shouldn't complain too much. In between levelling up Rose, slamming noobs in karate, and giving the slammed noobs training tips to level out my karma and make the world a better place, I take Sonic's advice from earlier and take in-game selfies of everything I encounter in WoN. I manage to snap an image of the main character casually walking away from a burning forest, and the forced normality of the scene makes me laugh non-stop for about a minute. I take a photo of it on my phone, making a mental note to preserve it somehow, maybe as a lock screen or uncaptioned reply.
And by that point it's nine o'clock, and I don't want to mess up my sleep schedule. So I play through one last battle on Chao Island, then turn off the TV and my laptop, and bury myself under the covers of my bed and fall asleep.
Before I drift off completely, I randomly wonder if I might have found a friend in Sonic. But before I can answer myself, I fall unconscious.