2. Well, that’s [Y]arn Cute!
WELL, THAT’S [Y]ARN CUTE!
The prospect of another day tackling the same tedious level wasn’t very stimulating, but when Oscar had confessed that he was supposed to be testing the game late the previous night, Aaron had felt so guilty, Oscar had promised he wouldn’t waste the day.
Not that he considered the previous day wasted. Where there’d been an empty chat, Oscar now had hours’ worth of texts to scroll through.
Aaron had been adamant, though. He’d known what kind of carrot to dangle before him, too—a five-minute text break every hour and a special secret reward if Oscar actually managed to beat the boss.
“Time to rip you to shreds,” he muttered, leaning forward, controller in hand like a weapon.
By the sixth text break of the day, Oscar still hadn’t managed.
Spikey: I don’t know why they make boss levels this hard.
CowBoy0705: Maybe to increase playtime? I mean, if you finish a game in ten hours as opposed to a hundred, you’ll feel cheated of your money, right?
Spikey: I don’t have any money to be cheated of. This is cheating me of my life. T.T
CowBoy0705: Sending you good luck vibes, if you believe in that kind of stuff.
Oscar had long before stopped believing in anything, but he liked the idea of Aaron sending good vibes his way. He heart-reacted to the last message and turned back to the game.
The monster loomed large, webbed feet stomping on the broken churchyard tiles, each step sending vibrations through Oscar’s controller. As it screeched, another crack formed in the ground. Oscar had played the level enough times to know to step aside.
The screen would light up in just a few seconds, and Oscar had been meaning to try something new.
Quickly swapping out the axe with the magic staff, he slammed it into the ground just as lightning flashed.
The controller vibrated as power surged into the staff.
The character wielded it like it was nothing, twisting and twirling it in her grip.
Oscar crossed to the middle of the courtyard, knowing the harnessed power would fade away soon.
He charged at the monster, cutting a blow to his fleshy shin before a wad of venomous slobber could drip onto his character’s head.
The monster screeched loudly, the vibrations throwing Oscar’s character back a few paces.
The axe came out, replacing the now fairly powerless staff.
Oscar aimed it at the gooey leg, burned by the power of lightning.
The blade lodged into the skin, the monster’s health bar flashing as the hit registered.
Retrieving the axe would mean certain death. Being thrown back had taken his character’s life down by half, and if she drank the health potion, then she wouldn’t be able to use any others for thirty seconds.
“You don’t have thirty seconds,” Oscar muttered as the monster began to sway. He flicked through the flasks in his inventory and picked the Molotov cocktail, throwing it directly at the damaged leg.
The hit felled the monster, melting the leg clean off and stopping him from moving any closer.
“Yes!” Oscar equipped himself with his bow and arrows and started aiming at the monster’s most exposed body parts. Each hit was small, taking down only a few health points, but with every arrow lodging into him, the monster remained pinned, unable to stand and attack Oscar’s character.
When the monster craned his head at last, Oscar aimed the final arrow straight into his large, veiny eye. His final screech sounded damning, but to Oscar, it was the sound of victory at long last.
The character cheered, the music finally fading into a background track and giving way to ambient noise. Oscar retrieved the axe and passed through the arched door into the abandoned church, where the Quest Master awaited with his reward.
“Our thanks, Fair Rogue,” said the man, his robes in far better shape than his church. “Now that you have slain the monster terrorizing our sacred place, the villagers will once again feel safe.”
“I’m glad,” Oscar’s character said. “But I didn’t do this out of the goodness of my heart, Priest.”
“I am a man of my word.”
The coin value shot up by a hundred, and the inventory opened, the new addition blinking. Oscar hovered over the reward, a chalice. He pressed it.
“What is it?” the character asked.
“Oragoun’s Chalice is an enchanted relic. What would you like to know?”
The priest swayed in front of his character while he waited for Oscar to pick an option.
What are its powers?
“If you use the chalice to consume a potion, it will double its powers and its longevity.” The priest swayed again. “What would you like to know?”
Goodbye.
“Goodbye, Fair Rogue. May your travels lead you to greatness.”
Oscar walked through the back door of the church, enjoying the sound of boots scuffing against tile. He was glad he wouldn’t have to go through that again.
“Maybe he should have given me a cloak,” the character said snarkily as she stepped out to the rain. “I’ll have to find a merchant.”
Oscar would take the character to market later, equip her with any new armor he’d unlocked and get her better gear for the weather. The chalice was quite a cool prize, he had to admit. He’d put that in his feedback.
For now, another reward awaited.
Spikey: Guess who just turned a fleshy one-eyed bitch into mashed potatoes and earned an enchanted chalice.
CowBoy0705: I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s probably you.
The rain raged on in the background, his character shuddering repeatedly as she got soaked, standing a step outside the doorway, but Oscar was owed a reward, too, and somehow it felt like he’d already received it.
How many days had he waited for Aaron to finally text him?
Weeks. Oscar had just about given up on ever hearing from him.
He’d hoped to run into him at the follow-up appointments, but there’d been no such luck.
A part of Oscar had been relieved, because how awkward would it have been to come face to face with someone who had ignored an agreement to get in touch?
The greater part of him, though, had felt even more let down not to have had a chance to see those eyes again, that freckled face.
But now those three dots were bouncing again on the chat and Aaron’s avatar was beaming up at him in those round glasses, eyes as bright as Oscar remembered.
CowBoy0705: This calls for another one of those cookies.
“There is a lot you have to learn about me, Cowboy,” Oscar said, chuckling to himself.
Spikey: Gotta be fast in this place. Those cookies were gone before either one of us went to sleep last night.
CowBoy0705: Aww :( I really wanted a taste of them.
Oscar’s throat tightened. A taste. In order for Aaron to taste his cookies, he’d have to be here.
Oscar couldn’t help his widening smile, his heart jackhammering against his ribs.
In a moment of true unadulterated frenzy, Oscar stamped his feet repeatedly on the floor, something like a giggle escaping him.
Spikey: I’ll be sure to make another batch ;) I hope you weren’t cheap enough to be hoping that was going to be my reward. I collect my dues, Cowboy.
Oscar leaned back into the soft fake leather of his couch, curling his legs in.
The screen glitched a black box into existence.
Oscar’s core heated at the thought that Aaron might have sent him a picture, heart lumping in his throat as his imagination drove him wild, the anticipation choking him with want.
Even a glimpse of his face, at this point, would be more than enough for Oscar to—
Aaron hadn’t sent a picture of himself, but the image was beautiful still.
Oscar studied what looked like a knit blanket displaying the trans flag with a heart pattern in its center.
It tugged on the corners of his lips, and of course he should have expected as much.
Aaron wasn’t the type to send private pictures to people he’d only just started talking to.
He was sweetness and sugar. Aaron was coffee with cream, marshmallows floating on top of hot chocolate.
He was the sweet dessert that came after the savory warmth Oscar had been starved of ever since Papa had died of that heart attack.
CowBoy0705: My recovery project :)
Spikey: Wait…you made that? :O
CowBoy0705: From scratch!
Oscar wished he had something to send back, but he hadn’t come up with any interesting projects for his recovery.
Mostly, he’d focused on trying very hard to lift his arms a little earlier than expected, to be able to shower a little sooner, to start lifting things the moment the doctor cleared him.
In the end, no matter how many years passed, he would always be that same kid who wanted to be independent, and Sandra had reminded him too much of his mother, despite not being an awful hag of a transphobe.
Failing to find anything meaningful to pass along, Oscar glanced at Luigi, who paused in the middle of licking his paw, as though he understood he was about to become a flirting device.
“Thanks, bud,” Oscar said, snapping a quick photo.
Spikey: Luigi approves!
CowBoy0705: Cat!!!!!!!!!! I must meet him.
“You will, if I have anything to say about it,” Oscar mumbled.
He smiled to himself, sent Aaron an emoji, and returned to his game. The deal had been for him to work an entire day and then some more to make up for the day before.
After buying his character a cloak and roaming around the village talking to every NPC he found and trying to interact with every inanimate object in his way, Oscar found the next Quest Master waiting for him by the town well.
The man went on a long heartfelt rant about a missing horse required for the work carried out by his family, which was suddenly at risk of starvation.
“Can’t have that,” Oscar said.