(This story was inspired by the anime series, The Helpful Fox Senko-san!)
*** Sam's Weekend. ***
Bright, colourful lights illuminated the small apartment living space. The mouse and keyboard sang clicks and ticks as fingers desperately, yet skilfully, played them like instruments. A chuckle came from the player as he read a comment in the bottom left corner of his screen.
'Spam that life drain, noob'.
Sam typed back: 'Get good kiddo'.
The game continued and Sam, using the character 'Ahri', helped his team push back the opposition. Even over his headphones, Sam could hear the sound of his keys as victory grew closer. When the team's fortress exploded due to Ahri's and Jinx' final attacks, he leaned back in his chair and cheered.
It was rare that the company Sam worked at allowed its employees to take the entire weekend off. It was one of the happiest moments he'd experienced the whole year when Mitchel, his boss, told him he didn't have to come in over the weekend. Sam could have wept for joy, but instead held onto his dignity as a man. When he went home the past Friday night the only things on his mind were how he'd catch up on his anime, wrestling PPV's, and try and boost his rank on League of Legends.
The weekend was over now. Sam spent it precisely the way he planned, and he felt awful for it. Empty bottles of soda filled the recycling bin in the kitchen, and there were wrappers of various chocolates and candies all over the place. Maybe I should clean... Sam thought as he looked around the apartment. Just then, he heard a ding from the League of Legends main menu. There was a new message in his inbox. It read:
'Yo, I dare you to fight me again scrub!'
Sam smirked and typed: 'Feeling salty my child?'
'Not as salty as your mum's mouth on my dick!'
Sam rolled his eyes. There were always players like this that took the game too seriously. The man couldn't help but chuckle as he responded with 'All right then, I'll meet you in lobby z120.'
Sam dominated the 'boy' in the game. That's what it felt like he was dealing with anyway; a child -- after all, who else but children would get so mad at a video game? It wasn't until the second half of the match that things began to turn around. The boy kept blindsiding Sam and getting cheap shots from the trees, then retreating and hiding behind his mobs. Sam sighed to himself in frustration -- he doesn't get to play League of Legends enough anymore, and he guessed his skills were no longer up to par. The messages the kid sent weren't helping Sam, either. After each death Ahri suffered at the hands of Teemo, Sam tried to ignore the comments, but he found them almost as funny as he did triggering. Sam was never able to push the kid back, and eventually, mobs of NPCs had swarmed his team's nexus. Sam had to watch as the hit points for the fortress whittled down to nothing, and all the while, the kid continued with his barrage of insults.
Sam maintained his calm and politely demanded a rematch. The next three games ended in much the same fashion.
Sam felt embittered with the losses, and to make things worse, it was late. The entire weekend had been great, but one petulant little shit on the internet managed to bring a happy weekend to a disheartened close. Although Sam was equally responsible for the result, he supposed. His own words came back to haunt him: 'Only a child would get upset with a video game'.
Frustration filled Sam's heart as he had to end the weekend on a loss like that, but at least he was able to play the game he loved. It wasn't often he got a full weekend of free time. Working as a salaryman took almost everything out of Sam, and the mere thought of returning to work after a whole free weekend drained him of all joy. He climbed into bed and shut his eyes. Several empty bottles of soda laying near the trash can reminded Sam he filled up on too much sugar. It was 12:30 am when he last looked at the clock.
*** Sam's Daily Life. ***
When Sam woke up the next day to the sound of his alarm clock, it was 5:30 am. The man dragged himself out of bed and prepared the coffee machine, then dropped some bread in the toaster. Next came the bathroom, followed by a quick shower. He didn't have time to idle, not with how far away his work is. Sam left the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, poured the coffee into a cup, fixed some butter and jam on his toast, then ate breakfast.
Once Sam finished, he left the plate and cup in the sink and returned to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Finally, all that remained was suiting up. The phrase reminded him of Barney from How I Met Your Mother, and it was something that always brought a brief smile to his face. Sam's suit top and pants hung from a rack on the clothesline on the balcony outside. When he finished getting dressed, he looked one more time at his apartment and mentally hit himself for not attempting to clean the mess last night. When I get home I'll do it, he thought -- but Sam knew that was a lie.
Dozens upon dozens of men and women filed into the train together, each wearing various uniforms. There was barely any space to move, and Sam had to stand like that for the entire forty-minute train ride. The elevator he entered when he arrived at the workplace took him to the 22nd story of a 30 story building. Sam greeted other workers and clocked in for today's shift at 6:58 am. He spent the next two minutes before work hours began sorting through some emails he received over the weekend. It seemed someone in the higher echelons made a mistake, and Sam was the one who had to clean up the mess. There was so much to do, and Sam knew he'd be spending the entire day with this task.
Occasionally Sam's co-workers brought him stacks of papers that needed checking. The hours passed slowly, and Sam felt like his mind was elsewhere. Not on video games, not on wrestling, not on anime. His thoughts drifted in darkness as he marked each file as complete while on autopilot.
"Sam," a female voice said beside him. "Sam?" The voice repeated. "Hey, Sam!"
"Huh?" Sam asked, turning his neck to look at the woman. She had to nudge his shoulder to get his attention. "What is it, Mary?"
Mary, a short, freckle-faced woman with orange hair, smiled at him and said: "It's lunchtime, space cadet."
"Oh," Sam said as he looked at the time on the bottom right of his computer screen.
"Are you okay?" Mary asked him with a chuckle, though there was a slight hint of concern in her voice.
"Yeah," Sam shrugged it off and walked together with Mary, and eventually Tony, to the breakroom outside.
"Haven't seen that in a while," Tony remarked as he saw Sam pull out a white plastic spoon filled with peanut butter, covered in glad wrap.
Mary silently watched Sam as she ate her lunch.
"Something wrong?" Sam asked with a slight smile.
Mary shook her head, returning the smile. "Just you and your peanut butter."
"What? I like it," Sam said, as he began licking the spoon.
"I mean," Tony chuckled, "At this point, everyone's used to it, but it's still a little strange."
Mary nodded.
"Huh? What, do you never do this?" Sam asked as he put the half-finished peanut butter down and unwrapped his sandwich.
