Chapter Text
Coming out of the simulation was always kind of a weird experience for the Boss. Despite spending most of her time running around in the thing for the past few weeks, it still kind of freaked her out. Coming literally back to your senses was odd.
Once everything had stopped being quite so fuzzy, the Boss stepped down from her pod, stretching out her back and shoulders. Yawning and rubbing her eyes, she headed over to the console Shaundi was sat at and draped herself over her shoulders.
“Hey, Boss, knock it off,” Shaundi said, though totally without malice, shrugging off the contact. At the Boss’ quiet ‘aww’ of disappointment, she glanced sideways from her work and commented fondly, “You’re always so clingy when you get out of that thing.”
“Yeah, ‘cos when you’re knocking around hordes of virtual Zin, you really have time to stop and cuddle,” whined the Boss, backing off to stretch some more. “Whatcha doin’, anyway?”
“Oh, just logging some routine tasks Kinzie wanted set up, and starting to sift through the organisation of the Zin empire,” Shaundi replied nonchalantly. A little bit of pride crept into her tone as she continued, “I may not be on the same level as our resident geniuses, but I know my way around a computer. Plus, planning’s kinda my thing.”
The Boss regarded her warmly, feeling a not inconsiderable amount of pride herself. “You’re doing great,” she said, giving her a brief but affectionate shoulder rub. Shaundi leaned into this but didn’t turn around. The Boss, knowing that Shaundi would rather get on with work now than hang with her, moved round to head out to the back of the ship.
“Going to see Miller?” Shaundi asked, slight amusement in her tone.
“Ye-e-es, why?” replied the Boss, turning around, a little confused.
“Nothing,” said Shaundi, smiling a little at her computer. “Have fun on your play-date.”
The Boss hovered a little, not sure whether to be offended or what, before turning away to go down to the hold. She vaulted over the railing rather than taking the stairs, rolled on impact, and came to her feet, looking around for the self-proclaimed hacker king.
He was lying on his back on the sofa, mashing intently away on his portable game thing (honestly, the Boss had no idea what it was called), frowning in intense concentration. The Boss tried very hard not to grin as she sauntered over.
“Oi, Matt, move your legs,” announced the Boss, giving him approximately five seconds warning before she plopped down on his sofa.
Matt, having been engrossed in a very stimulating round of “NyteFight 3: High Staykes!”, let out some very undignified squawks and only just managed to scramble out of the way in time, ending up half on the floor. He desperately pounded the buttons on his device to no avail; NyteBlade had fallen at the hands of the Bloody Canoness once more.
“Christ!” He shrieked, “I very nearly fucking had her that time!” He made as if to throw the thing down, but thought better of it, instead placing it down gently by the side of a sofa, but in as angry a fashion as he could manage. He twisted to glare at the boss.
"There is plenty of room for you to just sit at the end of the sofa! Without having to sit on me!"
The Boss chuckled, "Aw, but where's the fun in that?" Matt shifted himself up into a more reasonable sitting position and settled huffily into the corner of the sofa. He shot her a dirty look.
"You're cute when you're angry," she grinned, leaning over to nudge him in the side with an elbow. He huffed and wiggled away from the contact.
"It's one of my many charms," he mumbled, looking away. "What did you come here for, anyway?"
"Ah, right, that," said the Boss, yawning and leaning back, stretching out her arms across the back of the sofa but taking care not to invade Matt's personal space. "Simulation's getting old, we've not found anywhere to invade yet, and beating up the Zin is now off the table. I'm bored, Miller."
"So... What?" Matt asked, cautiously. "You want me to run up some training simulations, like I do for Asha?"
"Nah, not really... I mean, sure, could be fun, but I miss doing stuff in meatspace, y'know?" Matt looked at her, somewhat surprised at her use of 'meatspace', to which she shrugged. "It's a good word."
"So you're bored. What does this have to do with me?"
"Agh, I dunno. I just want a change." Glancing down at Matt's abandoned gamepad, she asked, "Got any two-player games for that thing?"
Matt ticked this over for a few seconds, until realisation dawned on him, and he lit up like a Christmas tree. "Oh my God, yes! Yes! We can play the Co-Op campaign of NyteVale!" He's out of his seat, fussing around the monitor by the sofa, digging around in the boxes off to the side while the Boss looks on, amused.
"NyteVale? This is exactly what I think it is, huh?"
"It's a very underrated but highly immersive addition to the NyteBlade universe," Matt gushed, tossing cables onto his vacated seat, "It's almost an entirely new addition to canon, taking place entirely separately to the TV universe, in a pocket of alternate reality he's trapped in by The Judicar, the main villain of the game, who's an original character, and--"
"So it's basically like us being trapped in the Simulation, but NyteBlade?"
Matt pauses. "...It's exactly like that." He deflated a little, then perked up when a new idea hit him. "What if... What if I translated it into a new simulation? It'd be brilliant! Actually living out the NyteBlade universe..!"
Sensing that he's about to run off to make his scheme reality, the Boss stands up and grabbed him by the wrist.
"Matt, no. I want out of that thing for a bit. Let's play the ordinary version first, OK?" Matt actually looked kind of upset, so she rubbed her thumb in soothing circles on his wrist, adding, "Look, pick Zinjai's brains about it later, alright? But surely you'd want your first major release to be original content, not a remake?"
She grinned at him playfully. He huffed a little and pulled away, but he's just making a show of it, and returns her grin with a small smile of his own before heading back to the couch. He pulled the screen round to sit in front of the sofa, fiddles with it a bit more, and handed the Boss a controller as the screen flickers into life with booming thunder.
"So, what kind of-"
"SHHH!" Matt violently shushed her, continuing in a stage whisper, "We need to watch the pre-game cinematic!"
The Boss rolled her eyes affectionately and opened her mouth to make some kind of smartass retort, but shut it again when she sees how focused he is on the screen. She shook her head fondly at him and began to watch too.
Lightning flashes across the screen, and the scene pans down to NyteBlade driving along a rain-soaked highway on his motorcycle, cape fluttering behind him. Suddenly, some kind of blockade appears, and a volley of arrows flies towards him, which he flicks away with the cape. He jumps off the motorcycle, which torpedoes into the attackers, before transforming into some kind of albino bat monster and flying away. In the background, a wolfish looking man is superimposed across the sky, laughing evilly. The title screen appears, and Matt sighed happily beside her.
"You watch that thing every time you boot it up?" Asked the Boss, who normally skips that kind of shit.
"But of course! It's all part of the experience!" Replied Matt, sounding downright scandalised at the suggestion he wouldn't. He's flicking down the menu, booting up the co-op campaign. "I've actually not managed to play the co-op campaign all the way through. Nobody to play it with, really; I was writing a bot to to take the second player's part, but AI's not really my strong suit, believe it or not, and there were always more pressing projects, so..."
He trails off, looking to gauge the Boss's reaction, but she's not looking at him with mockery or pity, so he just swallowed, hard, and turned back to the screen.
They sit in silence as the introductory cutscene rolls, featuring NyteBlade sitting on a rooftop at night, alone. A strange noise causes him to investigate, when he's grabbed from behind and pulled backwards into a mysterious portal. He wakes up in an unfamiliar town with a medieval feel. A stranger dressed in black with wavy, shoulder-length blue hair and a kind face comes across him, kneels down and checks if NyteBlade's OK. With concern, he urges NyteBlade to come with him and hide, because the town isn't safe.
The two head out, and play begins. Player one (Matt, naturally) has control of NyteBlade, while player two (Boss) gets the kind stranger. (The Boss is more than OK with this; the stranger's kind of hot.) While Matt pressed ahead to the objective, the Boss jumped around and tried to attack NyteBlade.
"What are you doing?!" Hissed Matt, rolling NyteBlade away from the Boss' attacks, "That is totally out of character for Jason!"
"Hey, dicking over your friends is the best part of co-op," laughed the Boss, lunging Jason towards NyteBlade again, "'Sides, I need to get used to these controls..."
Matt let out a long suffering sigh and directed NyteBlade to climb a wall and take out the poor unsuspecting guard mook below, as per the tutorial directions. Boss just made Jason run up to one and punch it in the face, which downs that one, but causes two more to rush in. Matt made an aggravated sound and swoops in to the rescue, taking them out swiftly.
"This is a stealth/action game, not a 'rush in and get mobbed' affair," He said scathingly, sticking NyteBlade back in the shadows. The Boss positioned Jason next to him, prompting a further annoyed direction to "Find your own damn hiding place" from Matt. Jason is sent to hide behind a lamppost which is definitely not wide enough to hide him. Matt groaned.
"If you're not going to take this seriously..!" He threatened, aiming his reticules at the errant Jason, prompting a snorted apology from the Boss, who ducks Jason behind a barrel.
The Boss goes along with it for the rest of the training level, following instructions and not making too much of a nuisance of themselves. Matt squawks when they keep messing up the parkour section, but the Boss snaps back that damnit, they're trying, what the fuck are these controls anyway?
The game is actually pretty good, and the Boss gets surprisingly into it. After the training period, they're taking out enemies and scaling rooftops with just as much competency as Matt, eagerly suggesting battle tactics ("I'll go right and distract them, you take them out with the rocket launcher!" "We haven't got a bloody rocket launcher! This is a pseudo-medieval setting!" "...Shit, uh, Matt, can you get them off me?") and playing along with the somewhat overly convoluted story. Despite lingering derision of the NyteBlade franchise, they're really kind of enjoying it.
Casting a glance over at Matt, the Boss permitted themselves to grin a little. His face was a picture of intense concentration, mouth slightly ajar, as he nimbly moved NyteBlade around in a complicated combo that took out about ten terrifying wolfmen in one fell swoop. The moment was broken somewhat when Matt noticed Jason standing idly by and grumbled, “I know I’m pretty, but Jason’s about to be mauled to death and we’re on our last Holy Vial, keep up!” The Boss snorted, amused at having been caught, and returned her attention to the screen.
After no less than three false endings and eight final forms of the Judicar, the credits rolled, leaving them to lean back in their seats, triumphant. The Boss opened her mouth to say some smart-ass comment about the Judicar’s wolf ass or something, but thought better of it, given Matt’s absolute silence rule about every damn cutscene in the thing. Five minutes of elaborately gothic-styled names later, and they were done and dusted. Matt turned to her, a puppyish expression of “well?” on his face.
“That was… That was good!” Ventured the Boss, faltering slightly when she realised a more in-depth critique of the game was required. “It was fun, and Jason was pretty, even if he did turn out to also be a wolf-beast that was somehow also half-bat, and the plot was… Interesting, and, uh, it was fun!” She looked at him with a slightly uncertain grin, hoping that was enough.
Matt had been following her words with a dead-serious expression, as though her thoughts on the game were deathly important to him. (Which, well, probably wasn’t far off the mark - it was NyteBlade, after all.) He took a moment to look pensive, and nodded slowly, before haughtily saying, “Well, I personally disagree with some of the liberties taken with established beast-kin mechanics, and the sneaking mechanics are slightly broken in places, not to mention the final pre-boss fight is totally overdrawn, somewhat killing the delicate pacing work done up to that point. It is, of course, a vast improvement over the utterly dire previous NyteBlade franchise game, “Bloody Cannonness: Lady of the Nyte”...”
He trailed off, noticing the slightly glazed look on the Boss’ face, before smirking mischeviously and adding, “Plus, Jason isn’t that pretty. NyteBlade is obviously prettier.”
At that, the Boss could only roll her eyes fondly and pull him closer, murmuring, “C’mere, NyteBlade.”
If NyteBlade could bring her times like this with Matt, then, fuck, he could be the prettiest damn princess in the whole world.