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The hallway of one of TAScorp’s residential areas was mostly silent, save for the light footsteps echoing through it. Lucinia treaded carefully along, fighting her fatigue and the soreness of her fingers. It had been a particularly long day for her, as Lucks implemented a new training regimen to get her and the new wave of Meta Runners up to speed for the next tournament. The woman was determined to keep her skills up to par of course, but that didn’t change the fact the increased effort wore down on her. While the thought of passing out in bed sounded inviting, she wanted to give a visit to a particular friend of hers.
As she approached a door that was a short distance from her own, she gave a light knock.
“Hey, Masa? Can I come in?”
She waited for a second, hearing muffled shuffling from within the room.
“Lucinia? Uh- yeah, you can come in.”
Opening the door, she stepped into the doorway and leaned against it. She saw Masa sitting on a black couch in front of a television monitor, placing his controller in his lap as he turned to face her. His expression softened upon seeing her, the stiff concentration melting away from his form.
“Hey there.” She waved a bit.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I hope I’m not bothering you, but I’m done with my training for today, and I was wondering if I could hang out with you for a bit before I turn in for the night; if that’s um, alright with you.”
“No bother at all. Besides, as invigorating as Battle Blaze is, it does become repetitive once you figure out how the AI works. Human company would actually be quite refreshing right about now.”
Lucinia giggled. “Then I shall accompany you in your valiant quest, my friend.”
Masa gave a playful smile as she walked over to his couch. The monitor displayed the latest of many victory screens the Meta Runner had achieved during the evening, including a rather impressive high score on the top of it.
“So I’ve been meaning to ask, how’d the rookie’s first official match go?” Masa asked as he selected the option to start a new match. “Haven’t had the chance to talk about it since last week.”
“You mean with Belle? Well, we managed to win the match, but wow is that girl a handful.” She sighed. “There were several times I had to calm her down from a shouting fit, and at one point I thought she was going to get physical with one of the opposing players”
Kid turned out to be a firecracker, huh? Heh. As long as she doesn’t stick someone’s eye out, I think we should be good.” He chided.
“Don’t get me wrong though, she does have genuine skill, we just need to work on controlling her anger.”
“Should be an easy enough job for you, Luce. You wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
She grinned sheepishly. “I just want her to reach her full potential is all.”
“You’re not the only one, I’ve noticed Lucks seems pretty fond of the rookie himself.”
“Makes sense, especially seeing as he gave her a show match so early on.”
“Yeah. Knowing him, he’s got a pretty bright future planned for her I’d bet.”
Lucinia nodded, wondering just what laid in store for her fellow Meta Runner. Masa pondered the same thing, however he caught an odd expression from his friend. She appeared deep in thought, but she also seemed somewhat… Concerned? He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, much less if something in particular was causing it, yet took the initiative to change the subject.
“You know, on the topic, that reminds me.”
He exited out of the match and selected to enter into the training mode.
“Did I ever tell you about one of my first practices?”
She perked back up at him, now sporting a curious look. “Can’t say you have.”
He chuckled, recalling the tale from a few years ago. “So it was my first week and I was called into practice for the day. Battle Blaze was booted up, we did our drills, everything was going as usual.”
As he explained, he maneuvered his avatar through the barren virtual landscape, occasionally jumping or dodge rolling as he went.
“We’re all off doing our own thing, and I’m getting myself familiar with the map when I get an idea; what if I created some diversion to throw the enemy off? So being the ever-confident rookie I was, I decided to test my notion in the middle of practice, because of course nothing could go wrong with that.”
Lucinia smirked, intrigued by his tone of sarcasm.
“I wait for an enemy to approach, and I get into position with a grenade, ready to exact my plot. What I didn’t know was that if a grenade exploded next to a building while a player was within a certain distance, it messes with the player’s hitbox and has the potential to corrupt some of the graphics.
He then had his avatar equip a grenade, aiming it just so.
“And the best part is? It was never patched.”
Just then, Masa preformed the aforementioned glitch, lunging his character into the wall as the grenade went off a few feet away. After a moment of the game readjusting it’s briefly-spastic camera, it presented his avatar’s model, limbs and torso now stretched and seemingly paper-thin. It was still able to move around, but flailed wildly as it did, lagging and bugging out in exaggerated, erratic movements.
Upon seeing the contorted, glitched out model, Lucinia burst into laughter, not expecting such a sight. “Well now, that’s a pretty interesting stunt to pull on your first week!” she said as she regained herself.
“Yeah, you’re telling me. Safe to say Lucks wasn’t entirely happy about that one.”
“That didn’t get you into any real trouble though, did it?”
“If it took more than a reboot of the game to correct it, it probably would have.” He rubbed the back of his neck, wondering what would have happened if that were the case.
“Guess you got a *Lucky* break then, huh?”
This time the both of them laughed, Masa a bit embarrassed to be entertained by such a pun. “Aren’t you clever?”
“I try, I try.” Lucinia sighed as she reclined further into the couch, her fatigue beginning to catch up to her. “Y’know, after the day I’ve had, a good laugh was just what I needed. Thank you, Masa.”
“No need to thank me, as I said I always like spending time with you.”
“Likewise.” A sleepy grin spread across her face.
Masa noticed the exhaustion on her face, and concern overcame him as his laughter died down. “Hey, you seem pretty tired, you wanna call it a night?”
“Mmm… I think I’ll stay for a bit longer, if that’s alright with you.”
“Well, alright, if you’re up for it.”
For a while, Lucinia was content with just watching Masa play practice matches, nodding along to his occasional back-handed commentary. He admittedly became re-immersed in the game as she began to drift off. Eventually, Masa himself started to feel worn out from his many hours of gaming, and was about to turn in for the night; however, as he was about to wake Lucinia up, he found that she had nestled into his side, sleeping soundly on his shoulder. He froze for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. He briefly considered waking her, but she just seemed so peaceful sleeping against him… He remained still, taking a moment to admire her tranquil form. He was glad to finally see her at peace, even just for a bit. He powered off his monitor with the remote sitting at his side, giving her a very slight nudge of affection. He snaked an arm gently around her side, being careful as not to wake her.
“G’night, Lucy.”