I don't want to do this anymore
I wake up and feel sick.
There are days like this, and days where I feel perfectly fine.
I hate these days the most. I have to force myself to get rid of all the damage my body's taken and actually get out of the bed instead of just wallowing in the comfort of my bed. It's Wednesday, that means school again. What was even the point? It's not like they were actually going to teach me anything that I needed to learn about in any meaningful manner.
There were a few popular kids that would probably think something is odd about my sudden absence, and even though I didn't really care much about what someone like those three thought about me, if I stayed in bed I'd end up getting nothing done today.
I suppose I could miss just today, it wouldn't hurt me much in the long run.
I get out of bed chuckling.
Pain like this isn't anything new after all, people like me have to be able to laugh when it hurts, otherwise what's the use of acknowledging the pain. Right? It's a joke. Though I suppose it's not a very funny one is it? Well, I've never been good at comedy so who cares if you don't think it's funny.
I wash up, get dressed, and head out for the day with a sour apple in my hand.
"I'm leaving."
I see people waving at me, I blink back tears and they're gone.
No response as usual.
I decided to take a trip down to the Boardwalk today, they have a nice arcade where there's plenty of games to play. It's an easier method than going and actually buying a console and some games, or the alternative of method of just downloading something online. I'd done the later and had only pissed myself off after playing some bullet-hells yesterday, ZUN created something very nice if also very annoying.
As I enter the arcade I see the regulars there all huddled up only one of them really standing out. She had mocha skin, black hair with a blonde streak, nice cheek-bones and an almost stunningly beautiful face. This was all, of course, contrasted by the fact that she was currently dressed up very trashy. She was almost exactly the sort of person I despised, her only saving grace was the fact that she didn't act like she was better than anyone.
"Howdy," I said, making my presence known to the group. "What's going on guys?"
"Oh nothing, Aisha's just beating the new guy is all." Minor Character A responded after a moment.
They were playing one of the more unique games in the arcade. One of those Co-op games that let you play the role of a hero or villain, that were not so subtly based on actual people, and complete a set of missions. These ranged from doing things like saving civilians, fights between the heroes and villains, and finished with a battle against what was ostensibly an Endbringer.
It was a rather neat game all things considered, and if you had a few friends you could play the team mode and take on the game as intended. I'd wasted some hours on doing that before, and currently held the highest individual score on the leaderboard. Games were one thing that I never really lost full interest in after all. If I had, I'd probably do something to fix it. Probably.
Anyways, Aisha and Minor Character E are currently in a mode called Face-Off, which is kind of what it sounds like. One person picks a group of heroes, the others picks a group of villains, and they go head to head. They each control only one individual member of the party, and have to actually strategize around the surprisingly decent AI, while they either capture or defeat the opposing team.
I appreciated the thought that the developer of this thing had.
I vaguely knew it was some parahuman with a minor obsession with games and a specialty relating to that field, but didn't much care for the other facts past that point. It simply didn't do anything for me to know what the guy's name was, or if the guy was in fact a guy and not some strange eldritch abomination. Though, I had no right to judge on that point.
I decided to wait off to the side until she was done playing.
It wasn't a long wait until she spotted me standing off to the side.
"Yo, what's up dude?" She greeted cheerfully. "Haven't seen you in a minute bro, everything work out with all the plans you had set-up?"
"Eh, things went alright." I said with a shrug. "I have a few more things to deal with before everything's done, but I can wait for awhile longer to finish up."
"Sure you still don't want to talk about it? Or even include your best friend Aisha in on your schemes? It's not very fun keeping all the secret stuff you do to yourself, ya know? It's like your some sort of grand mastermind and I'm just the sort of secondary character to your main. I get enough of that with my big bro."
I looked at her for a moment, it was always hard for me to tell whether or not she was being sincere or not. I wonder, if I ripped her face off and got rid of her good looks, would I still bother to even talk to her? Or would I just not care? I decided not to test that theory, I was a bit better than that after all. It was one thing to have those thoughts, another to actually act upon them.
"Meh, a guy's gotta have some secrets right? Besides, I told you that eventually I'd tell you about my plans or that they'd reveal themselves at the least. I'll only reveal what they are if you can successfully guess them." My lips curled into a smile.
"Ugh, whatever, could you just not smile like that? It's creepy, dude."
"Oh, whatever do you mean?"
"Dick." She punched me in the arm for good measure.
"Yup. So, scammed any more chumps with your hustle you got going on?"
"Of course, just got a cool $50 out the guy I just beat. He was some sort of bullshit chivalrous type and..." As she worked her way into explaining what happened, I thought about some things.
Our friendship was a bit odd really, but I think I treasured the fact that she could make a shitty day just a bit better. She reminded me a lot of my own family honestly, I guess that's why it was easier for me to see her as a little bit more than another background character. Well, it wouldn't matter for much longer I guess. Nothing ever would.
6 days until the end of the world.