PING ~ATH
A blinking cursor waits at the top of a blank computer screen.
"pseudo run SBURB Installer" types the computer's owner.
At 4:13 PM on April 13th, 2012, four friends will begin a game that will change their lives forever.
tortugaTerran began pestering the group Fruity Rumpus Asshole Factory at 12:00 PM
TT sent a file. [SBURB Installer]
TT: Heyyy so what do you guys think?
TT: Should we all play this?
TT: I think it looks cool as hell.
PP: bideo… james?
TT: yeah
TH: what's it about?
TT: Uhh it's like a multiplayer RPG with building controls
TT: And you like… play as yourself?
TT: idk it's just some cool indie game I found on the internet.
PP: yooo indie for life
TH: looking it up
TH: …
TH: looks pretty legit tbh
TH: i'm downloading it
PP: sweet dude
PP: i got today off so heck yeah i'll play some games
PP: yooo arousingAntagonism babey u there?
AA: Yeah, kinda busy with school stuff rn.
AA: If we all want to play this for game night, then yeah, I'm in.
AA: You know I'm always up for an indie mindfuck.
TT: Sweet! We got a team!
TT: Well actually I can't play right now cuz I gotta work today :T
TT: but I'll install it before I leave and see if I can get on tonight!
PP: cool i will tell u how it is homie
TH: catch you guys later
SBURB Installer
Progress (13/413 files installed…)
Galaxyman ~ATH
In a future that's a lot closer than you'd think, a lone spaceship pilot makes a frantic flight across an inky black void. The true battle is taking place miles behind him, on and above the surface of a wide planet marked by rolling fields of black and white squares, but he presses onward in the opposite direction, the only soul in a massive army marking this cowardly course, an enigma on the battlefield.
This Enigmatic Harrier is agitated. The white chitin covering his body jitters with anxious little tics, making a light and rhythmic clicking sound, almost like a soft cricket song. Lights on his console glow with reds and greens and blues and yellows, fading in and out, blinking off and on, in a pattern he has spent his life memorizing, in preparation for the very battle he now leaves behind.
He speeds ahead, passing over the colorful lights on the planets in his orbital system. In the blackness beyond, the lights of other universes glow like bits of glitter on a velvet carpet. Flecks of space dust float by entirely unheeded by the Harrier aboard the speeding starship.
One of the red lights blinks to life on the Harrier's console. Something has entered his attack range. He sees it ahead, coiling and churning like a serpent whose body has no meaning or boundary. Swarming little insects twirl through the dead emptiness of space, their papery wings flapping, their pointed legs clawing at nothing, their coiled proboscises twitching with anticipation. He presses down on the fire buttons on his throttle. The searing light of the red laser beams reflect in the many facets of the space-bugs' compound eyes before it burns a hole straight through them. Their guts, incinerated instantly to ash, drift lazily away in unexpected directions, their singed and lifeless bodies crumbling into blackened flakes.
When the swarm is thick, it's easier to shoot a bunch of them, enough to make a noticeable dent. But when they're alone, they get wily, swift. It's almost as if they are able to move faster when unburdened by the number of other bugs getting in their way. The Harrier knows, though, that he must catch every last one of them. It only takes one to start an infection.
He also knows they aren't called space bugs. They're called Ectognaths, and they're only the first part of a deadly infestation that could decimate life in this system. He knows because of what he saw. And what he saw, he must now convey to a boy from another planet. It will be a challenge, but somewhere within the meteor belt known as The Veil, he will find a way to do it.
The last bug thinks it can take him head-on. It drifts into the path of the oncoming ship, then clamps down with its thin, pointed feet as it slams into the ship at high speed. The impact just about kills the bug – it twitches, spits out charcoal-black grime – but the Enigmatic Harrier finishes it off with a point-blank shot from the blaster it just fell on top of. Its whole body burns away. The Harrier can see he didn't get away scot-free, though. The Ectognath left a dent and several large gashes across the wing of the ship. That might cause problems when he tries to re-enter a planet's atmosphere, but it's a problem for another time.
His skirmish complete, the victorious Harrier resumes his previous route. He races on in hopes of stopping the oncoming Ectognath infestation, alone, because no one fighting in that war he left behind would understand. Their quarrel is not with the bugs. Their quarrel is with their brothers, a century-long bitterness that is finally coming to its conclusion. The pawns all fight to bring about the demise of this universe, but this Harrier, an Enigma among his peers, fights to save it.
Shootaman ~ATH
Launching Account Sync…
413 new files detected
A young man ignores the notification on his TV screen. He is too engrossed in Shootaman, the seminal title for the Kbok 180. Onscreen, Shootaman dashes around a city plaza with the fervor of a crack addict, waving his ridiculous-looking gun arms as he shoots down the slew of gangsters who are, for some reason, out for his blood. It wasn't the story that got this gamer hooked; it was the gameplay. Anything about fast-paced shooting is just begging for him to master it.
tuneHarmonic began pestering acidReaction at 12:03 PM
TH: hey tortugaTerran just sent us this cool game
TH: idk if you wanna play
AR: what kind of game
TH: it's like an rpg
TH: i guess that's not really ur thing
AR: why did u invite me then
TH: last time u were mad we didn't so here's my invitation now
TH: u don't have to play if u don't like it
AR: and u don't have to invite me if u dont want me to play
TH: that's not what i'm doing
TH: i'm trying to include you man
TH: i know you're bored all the time at mom's house by yourself
TH: don't say i didn't offer
AR: i will take a look and see if i like it
TH: k
He does take a look, but it's such an obscure game that the first decent search result is halfway down the first page, and it's just a forum post. This game is so "indie" that it doesn't even have its own website or show up on Steam or anything. Leave it to these guys to pick something so artsy fartsy like that. It looks like a stupid game about holding hands and talking about feelings. He is not interested. He declines to even text his brother back about it.
He throws his phone on the couch next to him and goes back to playing a game he actually likes. Little does he know, he'll be playing that stupid game with his brother's nerdy friends anyway, before long.