"Hand me the chips," Elliot said from the other end of the couch. Mark grabbed the bag in his palm and tossed it over to this friend.
The two young men were sitting on a couch in a dimly lit room. Bright streams of sunlight peeked through the blinds providing the only light other than the bluish glow from the television. The room smelled of stale food and beer. Neither of the young men noticed.
"You gotta jump and then use the dash ability," Elliot said. On the screen, his character leapt from one platform to another as a second avatar watched on. Mark bit his lip as he tried the maneuver, falling instantly to his death.
"Fucking platforming nonsense," he muttered. "People need to make more single screen co-op."
Elliot agreed, "They have that new shooter game coming out. They put split screen in and local network stuff. Changers I think it's called."
Mark's look of determination increased as he attempted the jump again. "I watched a video about that one, I think. Looks like a Borderlands knock off."
"They do look similar. Ok, so wait like half a second before you dash. You need to be on a downward slope from the jump," Elliot coached. Mark attempted the jump for a third time finally reaching the far platform.
"Oh yeah! Suck it weird rules of video games."
The pair continued playing, their eyes slightly glazed over. After a while, they reached a save point and Elliot tossed his controller on the coffee table. "The fuck time is it?"
Mark leaned back in a stretch. "Uh, one-ish? Feels like about lunch time. Possibly breakfast."
"Shit," Elliot said. "We're going to be late."
Mark chuckled, "Yeah, we're way behind schedule for getting drunk on the couch again."
Elliot stood up, his body rebelling against the sudden burst in minor physical activity. "Gonna head over to my apartment, take a shower that kind of thing. I'll be back around 8 or so."
Mark nodded. "I'll put myself together, go out for booze. I might swing by Gamestop and see Kevin, pick up something else for us to play. This puzzle solving stuff is getting a little tedious."
With a decent plan established, the two of them gave a non committal wave as Elliot left. Mark turned his attention back to the game. Backing out to the character select screen, he started to modify his avatar. He frowned at the lack of options as he changed tints on the tiny woman's shirt and pants. Finally bored, he clicked off the game and started about his tasks.
As he cleaned up the small apartment, he avoided looking at his work schedule held to the fridge by a magnet. His short vacation time was incredibly precious, and he didn't want his job intruding upon his thoughts. Originally, he had intended to go on a road trip with Elliot, but neither of them really had much money or the desire to go anywhere in particular.
They'd known each other since their first day of college. Mark had been assigned to the room across the hall from Elliot. They both hated their original roommates and eventually negotiated a deal to move into the same dorm room. Since then, they'd been as thick as thieves. The best way to find Mark was to find Elliot and vice versa. They had a large group of friends, but rarely did anything without each other. Mark attributed this to symbiotic personalities. Elliot was outgoing, but hardly personable. Mark was introverted, but somehow fairly charming. This created one functional human being in that Elliot would drag Mark out to a party, and Mark would then carry the burden of being worth having at the party.
Their close friendship caused a few abrasive moments as well. In their third year, Elliot had managed to secure an actual girlfriend. They lasted an impressive three months before she dumped him for making her constantly feel like a third wheel. Mark was disappointed because he too had liked the girl's company, despite the fact that she was pretty open with her disdain of his constant presence. The two young guys got drunk, convinced themselves that Elliot was better off without her, and quickly returned to their normal dynamic.
Mark grumbled as he dragged two bins of trash down to the curb. The sun glared down on him, making him feel dirty as he quickly slipped back into the dark apartment. Resigned that it was purely unhealthy to maintain the miasma inside the apartment, he turned on ceiling fans and opened the windows, ushering out the smell of stale food. For a brief moment, he considered vacuuming, but was able to suppress that desire until it passed. He did manage to clean the dishes and return some order to the den.
Despite the mundanity of it, he was quite enjoying his vacation. He and Elliot had been planning on clearing out a few video games that they'd wanted to play for months. After three days, they had achieved the majority of their goal, which meant the remaining three days would be very sparse of entertainment. Still, he was confident the pair could find something to distract them, but he was uncertain of whether or not his liver would survive it.
Once he had composed himself to conform to societal decency, he set out into the world for more provisions. Stopping first by the grocery store, he bought the types of food that sustained him ever since moving out of his parents house. None of it remotely resembled actual food, and he was sure it was the reason he constantly felt a slight malaise. Frozen pizza, microwavable chicken, a variety of chips, crackers, and other snacks all filled his cart as he shambled through the market. Lastly, he chose two six packs of respectable beer and two cases of what he affectionately termed, "pisswater." The decent stuff was used to make the latter palatable.
Once the shopping was loaded into his car, he drove the short distance across the shopping complex to the Gamestop where his friend Kevin worked. Mark considered calling Kevin a friend fairly generous, but the term "amiable acquaintance maintained for access to entertainment in exchange for cordial conversation" had not caught on. The game shop was off the beaten path a bit, located on the side of one of the strips of shops. It was small and charmingly claustrophobic with games and game merchandise occupying every square inch of space in a desperate attempt to remain relevant. Through this and what Mark assumed to be good management, the chain store had retained an almost local personality.
The door chimed as he walked in. He looked around for Kevin, but instead found a petite, pretty girl with a name tag on that said "Kairi."
"Welcome to Gamestop! Can I help you with something today?" Kairi said as she spotted him. Mark had a hard time hiding the look of surprise on his face. He racked his brain for the last time he'd seen anyone in the store other than Kevin. "Oh, hey Mark!" the young woman said, cheerfully.
Mark sputtered out, "Hello. Um, do we know each other?"
Kairi's brow furrowed for a moment, then as if remembering something incredibly obvious, she said, "Oh, um, no. But you know Kevin right? He was talking about you. Told me a funny story and you just match the description."
Mark nodded. He didn't remember any funny story that Kevin could tell. For that matter, he didn't remember any time that Kevin and he had an interaction more involved than customer and shopkeeper. "Yeah, where is Kevin?"
Kairi smiled at him. She was very pretty, Mark realized. Though she was dressed in the store uniform, he could discern that her figure was quite fit. The blue polo tapered to her slim torso without diminishing the rise and fall of her breasts. As she turned to walk back behind the register, Mark saw that her butt was barely contained by the jeans. Yet something about her felt oddly familiar, as if he were missing something very obvious. "He's out on vacation for a week or two. I'm filling in."
Mark smiled politely at her and moved to the back of the store to start browsing through the recently released games. After only a few moments had passed, he was startled by Kairi's sudden appearance beside him. "Just browsing, thanks," he muttered, hoping to get the strange girl away from him.
Kairi ignored the dismissal. "Looking at Changers, I see. My friend and I have been playing that all week. It's crazy fun. The reviews don't do it justice."
Mark cursed himself for obeying social niceties as he picked up a copy of the game to feign interest. "So, you like run around and kill aliens or something right?"
Kairi rolled her eyes. "No, it's not that simple. The whole game is about these creatures that change depending on what you do. They've invaded earth and start off looking like regular humans, but then you get these special goggles that let you recognize their heat signatures. Anyway, every one of them you fight causes the next wave to adapt to the strategy you use. Get's crazy hard after a while."
