Epilogue: Still Alive
I woke up in my own bed to the sound of birds chirping outside, a neighbor mowing their lawn, and a gentle breeze blowing the curtains. I got up and stared outside at that red capitol building, and sighed a bit. It'd been a rough past couple days (or did they not happen now? I dunno.) and I just wanted an off day.
By around 10:00 AM, Alex knocked on my door. “Yeah?” I asked.
“Hey, Ash,” Alex said, opening the door, “Mom just texted me, she's going to be working late tonight. I was thinking--”
“--you thinking pizza and I could invite my friends?” I asked, having heard this whole conversation before.
“Eh, yeah, around 5:00? There's not much of the Summer left for you guys.”
I agreed (suggesting Vinny's this time, that was some damn fine pizza) and texted Franklin, Nathan, and George, already aware of the answers I'd recieve. I figured I'd spend the rest of the day leading up to that playing a bit of TF2, it'd been a while.
Leaping from the perches the blue Teufort building was a lone red Scout, having eliminated the enemy team's Snipers and rushing to protect his own base. Making a flying leap off of the covered bridge between the blue and red building, the Scout throws a cleaver towards a Spy infiltrating his base, striking the foe and causing them to flee in panic. An expertly-placed crack with a bat leaves the Scout victorious.
_TWITCH has killed BananaSlamma with Sandman.
The Scout shouts in triumph at his kill, only to round the corner and find himself face-first in the barrel of a flamethrower.
AshLand97 has killed _TWITCH with Flamethrower.
AshLand97's Strange Specialized Killstreak Flamethrower has reached a new rank: Hale's Own!
The blue Pyro has been through this specific situation hundreds of times, definitely no stranger to the labyrinth-esque corridors of Teufort. The Pyro holsters their flamethrower, switching to a small flare gun, and launches a flare across the covered bridge, into the enemy's fortress. The flare explodes into a burst of flames, catching their target, a Sniper, as well as another, unseen enemy in the blast.
AshLand97 has killed Castorei with Scorch Shot.
It seems whoever the unknown assailant was was low on health, and was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Pyro exits their fortress and makes a leap into the water, swimming through the sewer and into the red enemy base, melee weapon at the ready.
AshLand97 has killed Bumpus with Powerjack.
AshLand97 has killed Spranger with Powerjack.
The Pyro is now closer than ever to the enemy intelligence, and doesn't hear the tell-tale beeps that would indicate a sentry nest would be guarding the briefcase. Rushing in, the Pyro suddenly meets their end to a well-timed blast of rockets too close by to reflect with a blast of compressed ait.
TheMaskedMan has killed AshLand97 with Beggar's Bazooka.
TheMaskedMan's Strange Beggar's Bazooka has reached a new rank: Rage Inducing!
Just as a new arrival to the Gravel Wars can arrive and kill, a veteran of several years armed to the teeth with highly decorated, sought-after weaponry can arrive and be killed.
I was genuinely proud of how much Isaac has improved in Team Fortress 2, he kinda reminds me of where I was years ago, having just bought the game for $20, not knowing what was going on but slowly and surely finding a character to play as, learning the mechanics, getting kills, and now he's honestly a skilled, even if it was just a clever trick. I wrapped up the round (we lost, though it was mostly because of us having just as many snipers as they did) and spent the day getting caught up on Game Grumps.
At around 5:00, our door bell rang, and Franklin, Nathan, and George were all at the door. It was kind of a relief to see Franklin arrive safe, I'll be honest.“Hey, guys,” I said, inviting them in.
“Hey Ash, hope you don't mind, I invited a couple friends of my own,” Nathan said.
“No, not at all. Who'd you invite?”896Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYGZqopUkq
“Two guys from class, Francisco and Twitch.”
I had to pause for a second. After all, they were rather new people if Felix was to be believed. “Yeah, that's fine,” I said.
“Great. So your brother is picking up pizzas?”
“Yeah, from that Vinny's place.”
“They've got good pizza,” Nathan said, “isn't their owner in a rock band or something?”
“I dunno,” I replied as George opened his copy of Pokkén Tournament and stuck it into the Wii U.
After a couple minutes, Alex got home carrying a stack of pizzas and some bread sticks (the one thing I regret not asking him about the last time this happened), and a moment later, another knock. I got up to answer the door, and saw Francisco and Twitch standing there. “Hey, eh... Ash, was it, you were in a couple of my classes?”
“Yeah. Francisco?” I asked, feigning ignorance.
“Yeah, and this is Twitch.”
“Hey,” Twitch said, staring at me with a sharp, unsure gaze.
I invited them in and entered the living room to see George playing against Nathan. “Oh, hey Twitch,” he said, glancing away from the game for just a second, long enough for George to land the finishing blow.
“H—hey, man. You, eh, you had something to show me?”
“Oh, yeah, those scripts. Uh, give me a minute to get my laptop out. Here, Ash, you take the game for a moment.”
“Wait, I--”
After getting annihilated in Pokkén a few times, Franklin suggested putting Super Smash Bros. in so we could all play that. As we were setting up the game, there was another knock on the door. I got up to answer the door and saw Felix standing there, holding a thermos. “Hey, Ash!”
“Hey, Felix. Hot cider?” I said, pointing to the thermos.
“Actually, just ice water. Could I come in for a moment?”
“Sure. What brings you in?”
“Just checkin' in! So how are things?”
“I gestured for him to stop heading into the kitchen. “Francisco and Twitch are--”
“--decent people under all that hatred?”
“Yeah, it's honestly refreshing. Hey, you said earlier, about an old friend. Could you explain that?”
“Not right now, maybe after New Years?”
“Really? Why?”
“It's just... it's hard for me to talk about the old guy and this is a rough time of year concerning him.”
“Could you at least tell me a little bit?”
“I could tell you that his name is Felis.”
“Felis, as in just one letter away from your--”
“Yeah, that's a whole other story. Next year, Ash.”
“...Alright.”
I sighed, but he did give me a lead. I'd investigate that tonight and start digging up what I could later, but for now we figured Felix should join us for an 8-player Smash Bros. match before he goes. He didn't do too well but had a blast playing, and Francisco was honestly really good. “So, Twitch, what are you looking to major in?” I asked, starting to get a feel for the people they were under their prejudices.
“Um, I'm going i—into game design. Love video games, love technology, programming, it's great.”
“And Francisco?”
“I was thinking of being an animator or a voice actor, but I think I'll stick with video production. My dad does video production, lots of ads, we get free shit from Coca-Cola all the time.”
“Nice,” I said. I never thought I could honestly say something good about Francisco yet here I was, legitimately enjoying his company. Later that night, Franklin brought out Cards Against Humanity and Munchkin and our fun lasted well past 10:00 PM, and it was honestly one of the best moments of the Summer, of the year, maybe even of my life, and I found myself silently thanking Felix for the weird, wonderful, weirdly wonderful time we've all had in New Infinity.
I would like to thank everyone young and old, whether you've been with me and New Infinity since the beginning or just started reading in the last few months, weeks, days, for pursuing this passion project of mine. I would also like to thank Steve Potjeau and Daniel Saix for their invaluable expertise and assistance in this project, and I need to specifically thank Daniel Saix for keeping me alive to finish writing this. Without him, there'd be no New Infinity. Cheers to all of you, and may I have inspired you to pursue your own passions and find the time and energy to chase after your own New Infinity.
With kindest regards and until we meet again,
-E3kHatena, 11 March 2014 - 12 November 2017
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