"I was on your computer earlier."
Those few words would've been enough to send most people into a cold sweat. What personal secret would someone else see in its files? What depraved side of its owner would be brought to light? What fetishes would be exposed?
With how little he was actually on his computer, Ragna wouldn't have even had time to develop a hidden side from the rest of the world. He'd gotten it as a gift from his younger brother before starting culinary school and while it was almost five years old, its technology had been so cutting edge that it could keep up with any modern setup just fine. Most of what he used it for was running the finances, stock, and utilities of the food truck he ran and his future plans to finally settle into his own small restaurant in the big city. He had games on it, but nothing worth being embarrassed about and nothing he'd touched in quite a while.
…Also, he'd already told Lambda she could use his computer when she spent the night before in his office room.
The young girl was the oldest of three sisters, each born a year apart from one another. While Ragna had still been her Senpai back in Middle School, the two hadn't been that close and they only really knew each other through association of Noel. Ragna and Noel had attended the same culinary school and… well Ragna had tried to help a friend out, but there was only so much he could when her best results only set off a Geiger counter instead of outright melting it. As a result, she'd flunked hard and was now working as a receptionist for his brother. Still a difficult job, but at least the pay was good.
That job was what left Lambda with Ragna in their current situation. While Noel was away at a conference with Jin, their entire apartment complex was in the middle of being renovated. Nu was able to stay with a few of her college classmates for the time being, but with limited room Noel had called on Ragna for a big favor to give Lambda a place to stay and work out of for the better part of a month. It had already been two weeks and the two had said very little to one another in that time.
He hadn't minded, but he was at least glad that it was Lambda staying with him instead of Nu. While the two didn't talk often, given the ways she always seemed to look at him…
He wasn't ready to start a family.
Anyways.
Lambda's job was online and while she had her own laptop Ragna's apartment didn't have the best wi-fi and his computer had the best router available. He'd told her she could work on it as much as she needed to… but work should've just ended for her. Why bring it up now?
"Okay. Did it something go wrong today?" he asked.
"No, but I accidentally clicked on this program called Steam before I signed out," she explained. "Is it for gaming?"
"It is, but I haven't done any of that for a while. Didn't even know it was still installed," he informed.
"I saw your library." Again, Ragna had nothing to hide so until Lambda gave him specifics he could only wonder where this was going. "What's Half-Life?"
"An old shooter game. You play those before?"
"Noel has." Big surprise there. Despite her demure nature, Noel was probably as good with any handgun, rifle, or other ballistic weapon as Ragna was in the kitchen. He wasn't sure that it would translate 1-to-1 with gaming, but it hardly shocked him.
"And you're interested in it because…?" he started before the answer came to him. Lambda. "Because of the file symbol."
"N-No…" Ragna couldn't help himself from giving a soft smile. It wasn't often that Lambda gave off this embarrassed blush, certainly not as often as the middle sister, but whenever she did, he couldn't help but find it adorable. "I was only… curious."
"Well, if you're still curious then go ahead and give it a try," he told her. "Probably have to download the game again, but the file shouldn't be too large so it won't take more than a bit." Her blush faded and her eyes brightened. "Though if you want my advice, you're better off playing Black Mesa instead; same game, but it's been given a lot of updates to make it an overall better experience."
"Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I'll try the original."
"Want to experience it in its purest form first, eh? I gotcha," Ragna conceded with a smirk. "Go ahead and play around with it; Imma hit the shower."
"Understood." Even if she was still speaking in her normal monotone voice, Ragna could easily hear the eagerness in her voice.
While Ragna's work in his food truck had been busy, he'd hardly call it difficult. He knew the dishes like the back of hand so he could cook several at once and put out a steady stream of them like it was nothing. He'd certainly had to for both the breakfast and lunch rushes he'd done in the company parking lots he'd been asked to cater for. Payment was pretty damn good with plenty of tips to make it really worth his while, but he'd needed to be up at 3 that morning to make sure everything was running smoothly. A hot shower was just the thing he needed to ease his aches, sooth his exhaustion, and all-around freshen up.
'Free for the first part of tomorrow, but they want my truck by that dance club Kagura Mutsuki owns by 7. Can't stand that damn womanizer, but I always make bank when I work the venue.'
Even just out of the shower, his thoughts never seemed to be far from work. He figured it at least meant he enjoyed what he was doing. Heading out of the shower with his damp hair down in a rare occasion of listening to the laws of gravity, he was surprised to find Lambda sitting outside his office door, slumped forward and hugging her legs in defeat.
"Did you break the computer?" No vocal response, but he could see her shake her head. "Okay… then why do you look like you've completely given up on something?"
"I keep dying in the game," came her muffled answer.
"Look, you can't expect to play great right from the start. So what if you died a few-?"
"25."
"25 times?" Ragna finished supportively, before realizing what he'd just been told. "…Was I in the shower that long?"
"You weren't."
"Okay… then how the hell is 25 times possible? You'd have to load up the game, go through the unskippable intro-"
"I died five times trying to push the sample in."
"…And the other 20 times?"
"Another 8 on the way out…. Then there were these walking monsters and this… thing that kept jumping at me. That's where I'm stuck at."
'She's dying to the first headcrab.' "What difficulty?"
"Easy the whole time."
'I don't have that much experience with first person shooters, but is it really possible to be that bad if you're over 6?' "Do you want some help?"
"Please."
Watching her play was painful, very painful to Ragna. Lambda couldn't keep her WASD walk to the point he was shocked she'd gotten out of the terminal car at the start. Every time she tried to turn, she ended up swerving the camera so much that the two got motion sickness. And aiming… well, it was clear she was about to get banned from any shooting range she attempted to go into.
Oh. And this was with Ragna trying his damndest to help her.
"Guess Noel got all the firearm talent after all," Ragna concluded bluntly. Seeing Lambda grow completely embarrassed though, his conscious got the better of him. "How about I play for a bit? Show you some of the game and see if it's actually a thing you're interested in."
"Okay…" she said as she got out of the computer chair and swapped seats with Ragna, taking her new place on the stool he'd brought in from the kitchen. "What's the story like in this game?"
"Pretty minimal honestly. Everything you're told is either through the environment or a few bits of dialogue. The closest thing this game has to an actual cutscene is the intro," Ragna explained as he set his preferred options; chief among them bumping the difficulty up to normal.
"You're not doing a hard run?" Lambda asked.
"Only played this once on easy and that was so I could get some context before I started Half-Life 2."
Loading up Lambda's most recent save, he saw that his shields were out, his health was in the red, and the security guard that was supposed to help against zombies was already dead. Quickly getting around the headcrab victims while getting a few swings in with the crowbar for good measure, Ragna managed to retrieve the basic pistol began actual combat with his first targets. Not too bad for his first time playing in a while, he was actually getting some pretty good headshots…
And that was part of the problem.
"Seriously, how many hits does it take for these things to go down?" he groaned before finally finishing the first off. With such limited ammo in the early game, he quickly switched to the crowbar for direct combat. It was sloppy work and took way too long with just a few foes, but he managed to take the first group down without suffering any further damage. "Not the best display, but that's usually what you're trying to do."
…Lambda meanwhile had sparkles in her eyes the entire, completely enthralled as she'd been watching every detail closely.
"Did you want to give this another shot?"
Ragna created a separate save so he wouldn't have to redo the fight and started Lambda at the start of the encounter… only to watch as she quickly got torn to shreds without even getting close to the pistol.
"…Want to watch me play for a bit more?"
"I'll make dinner for us tonight if you do."
-Later-
"Wasn't just the zombies; these stupid headcrabs take plenty of bullets too," Ragna complained as strafed around the lift into the lower parts of the research facility while the small, agile, and hard-to-hit enemies continued to fling themselves at him. Right now he couldn't do much expect dodge their leaps and hope they fell of the lift as they did so. "Creepy little bastards."
"Don't say that," Lambda ordered with a pout.
"Of course you're defending them." Insects, spiders, slugs, all sorts of creepy stuff really. Lambda has always shown a strong interest even when no one else had… Ragna still remembered the time he'd had to console Lambda when her pet toad had jumped out into traffic and been hit by a car immediately. "Don't tell me you think these things are cute."
"Maybe I do."
"Yeah, well try playing against them and then we'll see how cute you think they are… you still think those ceiling barnacles are creepy?"
"Burn them all."
"No flamethrowers I can use, but roger."
Much Later
"It's not a jetpack?"
"No, more of a long jump thing. I'll still take fall damage with it, so I gotta be carful how I use it… also, this ending part coming up is probably the worst bit of the game. It's going to be hell to run through."
"What so bad about it?" Lambda asked.
"Lots of enemies in annoying places and they're all the alien type so they won't refill my ammo when I kill them. Not too many chances to heal and shield units are really spread out. Add an annoying design overall and I just about gave up my first time around."
"…But you'll still go through with it?"
"I made it this far for you already, might as well take this all the way…" Ragna then realized how that sounded. "Uh…"
"Sounds like the sort of double entendre Nu would make."
"Don't remind me."
Post Game
"Uh… what?"
"Everything here's gonna be given a lot more context when we start up the next game," Ragna insisted. "So? What did you think?
"That the last section we played was… rough."
"Very."
"And all we did with the final boss was circle it and keep firing as fast as we could."
"After destroying the crystals and making our way through its bullshit challenges, yes," Ragna again agreed.
"…Is it that the reward for clearing all of that is starting up Half-Life 2?"
"That's how I choose to look at," he agreed with a shrug as he closed the game down and brought them back to Steam.
"So what about Black Mesa?" Lambda asked.
'Oh, NOW she's interested in it.' "Pretty much everything you saw there, but better," Ragna again explained as he clicked on the community tab of the game just to show off a few gameplay shots. "See?"
"I do, but what's with the purple hat?" she asked as she focused in on the object that several of the game's pictures seemed to carry.
"Part of a few sick achievements; the only ones that I haven't gotten for this game," Ragna groaned. He then realized that the game had already been downloaded to his computer, probably because he hadn't deleted it years ago. Shrugging he booted it up. "Here. I'll let you watch through the intro again and I can show you what you're supposed to do with it. It won't take long to get there."
And so Ragna proceeded to play through the Half-Life beginning once more, this time with improved graphics and gameplay controls. After playing the old version for so long, it almost felt off how responsive and clean it felt to play. After showing Lambda that you were able to pick up and toss objects much easier, Ragna got back to the initial station, jumped up a set of pipes, and found the purple hat in question.
"Now getting to this thing is just the first part; from here things just get a whole lot tougher," Ragna said as he picked it up. "See? It's not part of my inventory, so I have to make the effort carry it around and it won't respawn if I drop it into a pit or lose track of it. I gotta take it ALL the way to the end. There's a reason I haven't gotten all of the achievements for the game."
When Lambda didn't respond, he turned back only to see her focusing intently on the apparel in question. Ragna waved his hand in front of her unblinking eyes and they didn't respond.
A pit of dread started forming in his stomach.
"Lambda? It'd be the entire game again." Silence. "Lambda. It might take even long than last time." Silence. "Lambda, we can get started on Half-Life 2."
"…Hat."
That was the only response he was going to get. Sighing, Ragna braced himself for the long haul.
'Note to self; if she cares this much about quirky head apparel, never let her near TF2. I'll go broke trying to make her happy with all the hats.'
End of Black Mesa
"Alright, I got the hat to the end of the game, are you happy now?" Lambda hadn't said a word during the game since he'd picked the object up the first time, but now that the game was over the spell seemed to be broken as she finally blinked.
"Um… thanks?" She acted like she'd been possessed just by looking at the hat, something that made Ragna never want to see the damn thing ever again. She then took her phone out and checked her messages. "Oh… looks like the renovations are already done… meaning I should get home soon."
"Yeah, probably shouldn't keep Noel or Nu waiting for long," Ragna agreed. "Plus, you've been able to work from home for a while now, but they're going to want you back in the office eventually." At least the purple hat curse hadn't gotten her fired. "Shame we could get into 2. Think you would've really liked it."
"Right, that… is a shame." She meant it.
"Eh, not like you don't have any other options. You could probably find any Let's Play online and watch an expert that knows what they're doing. You've got plenty of options."
"I… probably don't need to go that far," she eventually decided. "Thanks for showing me though."
"No problem," he shrugged. "Come on, let's go get dinner started so I can make sure you get a good meal before you go."
A Few Days Later
It hadn't taken Ragna much time at all to grow used to living alone. Even as early as the first day he hadn't even turned the corner and expected to see Lambda waiting for him. Part of that was how busy his work was keeping him. He was making more money, getting requested much more frequently, and had even attended a big 'end of the school year' festival and made more food than any other time in his life.
Now though, things had finally died down and he was starting to find himself utterly bored with nothing to do. He'd checked his inventory, done maintenance on his food truck, cleaned his apartment for the third time that day… he was done.
"Guess I can get some gaming in," he tried to convince himself aloud as he booted up his computer. He couldn't keep his eye off of the obvious Half-Life 2 icon… and he'd already downloaded it when Lambda had still been staying with him. Trying to shake it out of his mind, he looked over his other games for something to try out.
He didn't even get any actual play time for the next ten minutes. Any time he decided to try something through his indecisiveness, his hesitation didn't even let him get through pushing the start button. Checking the online sales, there was nothing that appealed to him there either. Sighing, he went back over to Half-Life 2 and realized that Lambda had effectively put him in a mood.
…He didn't even start that game either; it felt wrong.
Taking a deep breath, he brought out his phone and dialed up Noel. She'd given him her contact number when she'd been kicked out of culinary school and had told him to call if he ever needed a favor. This wasn't making good on that, but it was still favor enough.
"Ragna?" she answered, obviously seeing who it was from the caller I.D.
"The one and only," he answered humorlessly, but decided he'd at least make the small talk. "How's the new place?"
"Oh, it's nice. Really nice. Even managed to fix some of the annoying damage that it had when my sisters and I moved in." Right, her place had been a cheaper rental back when she'd first gotten it. "I really owe you one. I had no idea where Lambda was going to stay and I couldn't inconvenience Makoto when she had her huge family visiting. She was already all out of sleeping bags just to get through their visit."
"Trust me, it wasn't any trouble at all." If anything, he was underselling it. "How's she doing?"
"Fine, but… she's a lot quieter than normal. Like she's feeling down about something. She can't say enough good about you though." Sweet as ever. "Did you want to talk to her?"
"Yeah, I… never got her number. Would've called my house phone whenever I needed to reach her." He hadn't needed to… thankfully.
"Hold on a second, I'll go get her." A few steps followed by knocking on a bedroom door. "Lambda! Ragna's trying to call for you!" The door opened, but Noel hadn't handed the phone off. "I don't know what's going on, but I can't remember a time I saw Lambda smiling like this."
"Give me the phone," she squarely insisted. Ragna had never known Noel to be one for teasing, but he could faintly make out light giggling as Lambda took the phone from the middle sister before shutting the door. "…Hey."
"Find a Let's Play?" he opened bluntly.
"Didn't even look; I've been busy," she insisted. Something told him she was lying. "Did you get back into the game without me?"
"…Couldn't." He decided to be up front. "You said you've been busy, but what about Saturday? You open then?"
"I… should be." Something was returning to her voice. An odd kind of energy was there now. "Are we starting Half-Life 2?"
"Hell yeah we are. you can make the trip here, right?"
"I can be there first thing in the morning," she assured him. "Why don't I pick up breakfast on the way?"
"Thanks for the offer, but we both know I'd make a better breakfast than anything you'd be able to pick up."
"I know, but I think if we're going to have a gaming binge like this, then we should go all in with the appeal and let someone else cook for us. Maybe I can even pick up a ton of unhealthy junk food so we can feel utterly horrible when we're done."
"Sounds absolutely awful… I'm in."
Half-Life 2
"I like all the fresh dialogue we're already getting. And a ruined city seems like a much more interesting aesthetic," Lambda voiced, notably giddy as she'd heard that this was one of the best games of all time.
"It's still pretty light on story overall, but in this one they manage to get a lot more done with what's there," Ragna informed, obviously staying away from specifics to keep Lambda with some sense of surprise. They'd just met Alyx and Ragna was taking a brief pause to change a few options around in his menu, including decided to spice up this run to Hard Mode… for the time being. "Alright, let's get going. Open the vending machine to a hidden passageway and-"
"Hey, there's my symbol!" she said excitedly, simultaneously reminding Ragna how this had started in the first place. Smirking at Lambda, she noticed the childish display she was making and tried to control herself. "I mean… what's it for?"
"It's a marker to show off supply caches," Ragna explained. "Any other time we find one of these, we'll have some extra life, shields, or ammo right by it that we can get."
"So there's more than just this one?" Try as she might, Lambda couldn't help but show how interested she was. "How many of them are there?"
"44 after this one," Ragna answered. The number was probably larger than Lambda was expecting and he could already see her debating on whether she was going to make another gameplay request of him or leave this one be. "I'll show 'em all off; they're not too far out of the way and a lot of times they can be hella useful. Hardest thing is remembering where they all are."
"If you don't mind, then it sounds good," she said, already starting to love the second game… and that was even before her next surprise. "See? This man has a headcrab as a pet. They even call it a cat."
'Just let her have this.'
Later -East Mesa-
"So not only do we get a zero-point energy gun, but we also get an amazing robot dog to play with? This game is amazing!" Lambda gushed as Ragna kept tossing DOG's ball around the yard… until the attack started. "I guess it doesn't give you much downtime."
"Yeah, but it makes a point of keeping the slow moments brief you can enjoy them all the more," Ragna praised as he started making his way through the compound while COMBINE attacked.
"Wait, why are you bringing the ball along? You haven't let it out of the gravity gun," she asked, leaving Ragna to realize she was right.
"It's a habit from an old achievement. I'd have to play this next section only using the gravity gun instead of any other weapons. Even the classic crowbar's out."
"Is it tough?"
"Can be, but the ball here stays close to you, does strong damage, is difficult to lose track of, draws the enemy's agro, and doesn't get destroyed unless it takes fire damage. Not only that, but there are a lot of cinder blocks and sharp saw blades that are perfect for dealing heavy damage by throwing them."
"Are you going to try playing the section that way?" she asked, a little curious to see it done.
"Might at well, fun for the challenge at least," he answered. He then progressed through most of the stage until they came against their next enemy type. Poisonous headcrabs. "Great… these are the guys that can set you to one HP in one strike. You'll heal back, but they're one of the most annoying enemies in the game."
"…Is it just just me or do they sound like-?"
"The facehuggers from Alien. Yeah, they're not tryin' to hide it now."
A few weekends later -Back in City 17-
"What's the doctor saying about breeding?" Lambda asked, slightly confused as the two were ready to bring the night's gaming session to an end. "And Alyx just said something about 'getting busy.' Is sex somehow part of this plot?"
"I guess… never really thought about this part much," Ragna admitted, though he didn't really want to discuss this aspect of the game.
"And that suppression field that we're destroying. Is it supposed stop procreation?"
"I mean that's what they're implying, but it's more that they're slowly culling humanity and killing it off in a pretty cruel way."
"And there aren't even any kids in this game. I think Alyx is the youngest person we've seen. And given Gordon's timeskip, all of the adults were probably kids during the first game."
"I…" Ragna was struggling. "I think it's more of a side narrative thing and-"
"Holy shit, we're doing all of this so humanity can pork with purpose again."
"LAMBDA!" Ragna shouted, his face the same shade as his beloved coat. Shocking as it was to hear the demure blonde use his kind of language, Ragna kept his eyes focused in a tight scowl as he tried to tell her to drop the subject. She didn't say anything, so he proceeded to try and get ready for the big final assault.
"…Either way, maybe we shouldn't let Nu anywhere near this game."
"…It'd be for the best."
The Citadel
"What's happening to all of our weapons!?" she screamed as the two entered the security corridor. While Lambda was clearly aghast at the situation, Ragna just sat back in the chair and let things play out. "And our gravity gun's blue all of a sudden!? How are we supposed to get through the game with just that?"
"Oh, I'm not going to," he answered casually.
"…Why are you smiling?" That was when Ragna paused the game, set the difficulty to easy, and sat Lambda in his chair. "Huh?"
"You're the one wrapping this up. Have fun," Ragna insisted as he took his turn as the watcher now. "Come on, you've watched me play for almost three full games. You'd have to have picked something up along the way. I got us this far, but it's on you to bring us home."
"Do you really think I can?" At Ragna nodding, Lambda decided she'd at least give it a few tries… but him now watching her clearly added a new sense of pressure. "So… how am I supposed to get through this without any weapons?"
"Just feel it out as you go.'
"That's reassuring…" she sighed. "Okay, so here's an armor recharge station at least… which also gives me health back… and is charges much faster… and gets my shields to 200%." Ragna still wasn't saying anything, so Lambda proceeded until she came across her first group of enemy soldiers. "No real weapons and there's no debris I can shoot them with… but the gun's changed color. Can I catch bullets now?"
Ragna still didn't answer, only watching as she lined the upgraded gravity gun up with the firing soldier. Instead of grabbing any fired bullets though, Lambda ended up grabbing the entire shooter and screamed in shock when she did so. Acting purely out of surprised reflex, she then fired off the gravity gun and sent the soldier careening into the rest of their unit and finished them off all at once.
"You figured it out. Now go have fun."
Ragna couldn't help but chuckle at Lambda's widening smile.
End of the Game
"That wasn't too bad," Lambda said as she finally took her hands off the keyboard and mouse.
Ragna decided he wouldn't comment on all of the times she'd still ended up dying to the endgame's platforming challenges. Or the fact that she was dripping with sweat after how hard she'd needed to focus. This was still a victory for her and he decided that he'd honor her self-pride and treat it as such. Her sense of accomplishment lasted until the end of the credits when she asked the typical question anyone who just finished a game would ask.
"Now what?"
"Well, we still have some Half-Life content to get through," Ragna explained to her. "We've got two post game episodes, but those aren't nearly as long as either of the main games so we should get through those pretty fast. You looking to get started right away?"
"Maybe after I shower," she told him, though out of curiosity she did enter Steam and checked the page for Half-Life 2: Episode 1. "You've got all of the achievements already… what's this low rated one for?"
"You… have to do the entire three hour campaign… and you're only allowed to fire one bullet because it's necessary to proceed." Ragna was clearly filled with ire at what it had taken him to do the achievement in the past.
"Don't worry about it this time. Just have fun with it," Lambda insisted as she rose from her chair.
"Thanks."
Episode 2
"…"
"…I'm not saying anything."
"You don't have to; I know what you're thinking."
"There's no way you could know that for certain."
"I already saw you looking at the achievements, I know what you were focusing in on." In spite of Ragna's growing frustrations, his scowl was focused squarely at his screen instead at Lambda… specifically the gnome he'd just picked up with the Gravity Gun. "It's that damn purple hat all over again…"
"At least you have the gravity gun this time."
"I also have the achievement this time! No need to do this!" he forcibly argued back.
"Fine then. You're the one in control; you know you can just drop it." Ragna didn't move. "Or fire it off as far as you can. Make sure reclaiming it is impossible." Ragna grit his teeth as he tried not to look back at Lambda. "Well?"
Growling, he crumbled as he turned back to face her. She wasn't doing anything much; no teary eyes or any kind of surface level protest in her features. But something about that face all the same…
"You're responsible for keeping an eye on this damn thing," he insisted. Lambda didn't offer a vocal response, only smiling as Ragna began carrying it off. 'Least at the end of it I get to shoot the damn thing into space.'
Post Half-Life: Alyx
"I'm glad I finally played through it, but I'm sticking to the regular games from here on out," Ragna insisted as he removed all of the VR gear that had been required to play the game. Lambda had gotten an especially involved performance this time, being able to watch the gameplay in additional to Ragna's blind reactions to going through it in VR. "Wouldn't have even been able to play it if Noel's friend hadn't leant us this."
"You mean Makoto? We'd better thank her and get this back to her soon; I hear she's already going through withdrawals." The sporty girl had a fierce love for Beat Saber and held perfect scores on some difficult songs. "It's been fun, but I guess that's it for now."
"Yeah, guess so." In spite of a few bumps (two of which readily came to mind) Ragna had actually had a lot of fun going through the entire series with Lambda. They all had their charm to them and it helped that he was playing them again with someone as her supportive as her at his side. It was… honestly, he'd say it made the second go around even better than the first. "Maybe we find another game or something? Maybe even a two-player one so we can both play."
"I'd like that. We'll have to find something to keep us busy while we wait for Half-Life 3 to come out."
"Yeah, might as well find something," Ragna answered with an amused chuckle.
Lambda wasn't laughing.
"Uh… Lambda?"
"I mean it has to come out soon, doesn't it? I checked online and Half-Life: Alyx only came out a few years ago. It has to be on its way out eventually. Maybe we'll even get an official teaser this year."
'…She really doesn't know. She doesn't know how 'Half-Life 3 confirmed' is one of the most overused jokes on the internet. That the company is infamous for never releasing the third game in the series. She has hope that she'll actually be able to play the game at all.' "Listen, Lambda…"
"Yeah?" That innocent look she was giving him.
"You see… I think we should take a selfie," he eventually decided, pulling out his cell phone and turning the camera on.
"That's out of nowhere… and you hate getting your photo taken."
"I know, I know. I'm just thinking, now that we've finally reached the end of the series as it stands, we should have a picture of the two of us so we can look back on it when Half-Life 3 does come out. Look back on the series that started this whole thing."
"That's… unbelievably cheesy." Leave it to Lambda to challenge Ragna's bluntness at times.
"Tch. I was feeling sentimental for a change." He started to pocket his phone, but Lambda grabbed his hand to stop him.
"I think I'd like a cheesy picture every once in a while," she said with a soft smile on her face.
Holding up the phone, Ragna gave a big smile while petting the top of Lambda's head. His partner for Half-Life only kept her own gentle features as she held up the peace sign… along with a crowbar that she was starting to carry on her whenever it was Half-Life time.
Also a purple hat she'd made for herself.
A Year Later
"He'll see you now," the receptionist said as she adjusted her glasses, looking at her desk's computer. "I know how long you've been trying to arrange this meeting, but please be aware that as the head of an entire company he's a busy man."
"I understand. Keep it short and concise," Ragna agreed as he rose from the waiting room couches and adjusted his red tie. His new black suit hadn't been cheap, but he knew he needed to look the part if he was going to make a good impression and get his way. That, combined with the ticket just to get here, the sleeping accommodations, and the channels he'd had to go through just to set this up.
"If it's of any consolation, your visit is sure to be the highlight of his day. Many other developers wouldn't give you this meeting no matter who you knew, but he's the only one I could think of to give someone a chance," the receptionist assured him before opening the door to the head office. "Your six o'clock, Mr. Newell."
Ragna already had an entire briefcase ready for his presentation. He'd gone through it over a thousand times for practice and even gotten input from his brother (who thought he was insane but gave his aide regardless). Everything he needed was in there… well, almost everything.
"To start, I need you to take a good long look at this photo," Ragna said, taking something out of his coat's pocket before handing him the picture he'd taken a year ago, developed shortly after, and now symbolized a promise he'd made to himself. "This isn't a threat, a guilt trip, or whatever else anyone else with my chance has tried to do in order to try and make this happen. I'm just showing this to you to let you know that if I fail here and can't convince you to get work started on Half-Life 3, my friend you're looking at is going to end up extremely disappointed… and I won't let that happen."
Author's Note
…At the end of the end of it all, this was really more of a story for me than anyone else.
And you know what? I think I'm okay with that. I gotta put a fun story like this out every so often. So what if it's probably not going to do that well numbers wise, it was a good time for me and maybe someone else out there got a kick out of it.
Well, Bloodedge of Fairy Tail next.
Ciao for now.