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The Player patiently waited for the "new" Henry to arrive. Their... so called "god-friends" in the other multiverses were having lots of fun with their Henrys and now was their turn. Though, they heard that some of Henrys and "games" had... a few defects. They heard from one deity that his Henry was blind. The other said her was a child, which cut off his fun, since... well, a child is a child. So she "played" with his imagination instead. Sometimes it wasn't even Henry - it was Hannah. Some multiverses were glitchy. Some characters that weren't supposed to be aware of certain things, suspiciously knew about them. And so on and on...
They only wished that this Henry and his multiverse were fine. They wanted to have their fair share of fun, too.
And a few moments later, Henry arrived at the bank. If we drop the fact that he looked very young compared to the others, he was pretty much okay. The deity, ironically, prayed that he wasn't deaf, blind or anything. That would be a pain.
Henry nervously looked around to see if anyone saw him. Little does he know... He gulped, as he came closer to the brick wall of the Bank he was supposed to be Breaking in. Henry started thinking.
Deity's first impression about him was: nervous, young, not too confident, probably dumb and naive. Good.
So they decided to let him know about his presence. At the snap of his fingers (how does he...), the whole world instantly turned gray, as the time froze. The Player, grinning, watched as Henry began panicking, looking around, trying to find the cause. The Player slowly flied towards him, got closer, and spoke:
"Hello, Henry,"
The... Well, Deity couldn't say it was a man, so... kid yelped and nearly jumped from hearing a sudden voice. He had a thought, that it was a guard of the bank, that spotted him, but... no one was there. He was alone... and was hearing things. What the hell?
"Do not worry, Henry, I mean no harm," The Player continued.
They wanted to continue, but suddenly got cut off.
"Um... Excuse me...?" Henry was still looking around. "Wh... Where are you?"
The Deity sighed.
"You can't see me, as I do not have any physical form." It wasn't exactly a lie, but not completely the truth. "And you're the only one who can hear me. Now tell me, I see you want to Break into this Bank, since you're low on cash. Correct?"
Henry, surprisingly, shamefully looked down, as if he was feeling guilty.
"Well... I..." He slowly nodded.
"Hm... Then, let's make a deal." Too soon? Whatever. The Deity, frankly, just wanted to get this started. "I can give you a little ability. A power to come back from death, so if you make a bad choice and die, you'll be able to Retry, and choose something else."
Henry blinked.
"Wait, wait, wait... Hold on a second." Henry shook his head. "What is that supposed to mean? What choices? Who are you? How do you know my name?! Why me???"
The Player nearly let out an irritated sigh. He's already annoying me.
"I am the god of this world, Henry. And I see great potential in you. Accept this deal and I promise, I'm gonna make it worth your while."
"...I still don't understand. There are billions of other humans in this world. So why you choose me?"
Why. Why me. Why do only I have such a damn "curious cat".
"Do not question my choice and be honoured. So... Deal or not?"
"What's the catch?" I swear I'm gonna murder him.
"The catch is, you're gonna have to complete the whole story I'll set up - Breaking the Bank is only the prologue. Five episodes. And after every death I'm gonna give you a poignant comment about it. But that's not much to ask for immortality, riiiight?"
Stickmin thought for a moment. He frowned in disbelief and turned to the wall, again.
"Thanks for the offer... but I think I'll pass. Find yourself another plaything."
The Player stayed silent. If they had a visible body and a face, Henry would be able to see their shocked expression.
"Wait... You... Refuse my offer?"
"Yeah, I know better than make deals with the Devil."
"I'm not a...!" They snapped. "Okay, fine. But... Are you sure? Imagine the fun you might have as well! And all the people you could meet...? You really gonna turn down this opportunity?"
"Yes. I told you, I don't wanna accept any deals from some "gods". Besides... It's probably not worth it and I'm gonna regret it. And the perspective of dying over and over is just... it sounds painful."
The Player was silent. Then presumably "shrugged" and dropped an "Okay then, bye". He flew away, but not too far and snapped his fingers, letting the time flow.
Henry decided, after a few moments, to use a shovel, and dig down. Soon, a huge fontaine of fire flew up.
It was a fail.
"Never dig straight down," The Deity remarked, smirking to themselves and left this multiverse.
____________________________________
"Sorry, but... no."
"No! I don't want to play your games!"
"He's taken! Go find your own Henry!" ("Wha...?")
"Break into a Bank?... But I'm not a criminal!"
Why. Why me. How do everyone convince those assholes to take the offer?! Ugh! Just my luck...
"Um... Okay...?" Henry - who was suspiciously similar to the first one Player encountered, - said. "You sounded sad, is everything alright?"
"Yes!" The Player exclaimed, happily. Finally! They coughed and cooled down, smiling to themselves. "Yeah, it's okay... just... just let's start this game already."
"So... I have to make choices that will lead to endings, either success or fail?" Henry asked.
"Yep!"
"Okay... then, what are my options?"
"Breaking the Bank is simple, as it has only one ending. That will change, however, I don't wanna spoil anything." Deity explained. "Your options here are: Shovel, Explosives, Laser Drill, Wrecking Ball, Teleporter and Disguise."
"Hm... Well, shovel is way too simple, while laser drill is too complicated. I don't believe they'll work. Explosives are too dangerous. Besides, they're really loud, and it might cause unwanted attention. Wrecking ball and teleporter... Wrecking ball will be too huge, the guards are gonna notice it. So... it's either teleporter or disguise. I'll choose teleporter first, I think."
Huh, clever.
He said, and a small, square device with an antenna and green and big red button appeared in his hands. He looked at it for a few moments and randomly pressed a few buttons, then the red one. The next thing he knew, he was stuck in the wall.
"Well... That was predictable..." Henry murmured to himself.
FAIL
It's emergent technology. I'm sure it will get better.
Henry looked around.
"Where... are we?" He asked.
"It's the Fail screen!" Deity said. "Welcome, make yourself at home, you'll be seeing it a lot."
They expected an annoyed sigh or an eyeroll, heck, even a mean or sarcastic comment. Instead, Henry just blinked and, carefully, pressed the floating Retry button, looking at it, uncomfortable. He nearly yelped, when the dark "Fail screen" changed into the sunny dessert, and a grey wall.
"I, uh, thought you said I had to die in order to come back...?"
"Um..." Yeah... I did say so. "Well, since it's your first time..." ...and I don't wanna bother waiting for you to die, somehow... "I'm gonna let you Retry from... not very pleasant situations. But only in the prologue. I'd suggest you to have a spare knife, since you're gonna have to kill yourself a lot,"
"Um... okay...?" Henry gave them a friendly smile. "Thanks..."
He choose disguise. An empty money bag appeared in his hands and he stared at it.
"Uh... When you said disguise, I thought... You know, maybe disguise as a bank worker or something...?"
The Deity sighed.
"Well, we're gonna have you pretending to be a money bag, so the workers will think they lose some and throw you- Actually, no spoilers!."
"But how am I gonna tie it, if I..."
"I'll help you."
"But you said you don't have..."
"Just. Get in it."
Henry gulped and carefully got into a bag. The Player tied the knot outside. Probably with magic, Henry thought.
Henry didn't know how much was he laying in the bag. It felt like a bad idea, as whole. He already started to feel how little air he has left and how his head was spinning... and he wasn't even claustraphobic. But soon, he heard some sort of a car stop by. Voices he didn't recognize (because he didn't even know them) and, finally, he felt being carried and thrown... somewhere hard, it was painful.
"Don't come out yet." Player said.
Henry felt being thrown again. Even more painful. That'll leave some marks... Ih, whatever. Deity said it's safe to come out, so he quickly got out of the bag. He cheered, but, before he had the chance to say or do something, he heard the siren and alarm, and a guard yelling him to "Freeze!".
He quickly raised his hands and was taken somewhere... in a prison, of course.
Wait... that's not a Fail?
"Nope, and congratulations with your very first ending! You finished the prologue pretty quickly, I'll give you credit. The next one is Escaping the Prison."
"Predictable."