Chapter 2: The Line
The following week wasn’t too horrible. Felix didn’t show up at the door and I stayed inside that week. It was too hot outside, anyways. I had given it a little thought recently, too. Alex cares and Mom care. That’s a start. I still cannot forgive them from not telling me about Dad. I’m not stupid, I could handle it. What I cannot handle is how Felix is handling the whole situation. Showering people with gifts does not help. And if he really couldn’t see what was written there, then maybe he could have hacked and seen what was there before letting me take something that bad. This is all a simulation, some horrible corrupt simulation, and he has control over shit like that.
I didn’t even ask for much of this. I didn’t ask to be dumped into a computer or to learn that my dad was a criminal from a lanky pencil-pusher. Hopefully things will get better. I still wasn’t in the mood for games, and I was getting a little use from the Wacom tablet. I had found a free drawing program online and while I wasn’t too good at art, it was a start. I had also done a little bit of writing. Not too much. It is the foundation for creating things (especially animation), so I wanted to have a firm grip on it before I did anything worthwhile.
Sometime later that day, there was a knock on the door. I didn’t bother to get it, Alex just slid a package wrapped in red paper under the door. It looked like a CD case, and it probably was, but unless it was Damn Skippy, I wasn’t that interested.
Okay, I was kinda interested. I unwrapped the gift, and sure enough it was. That’s pretty rad, albeit a little creepy it showed up. I hadn’t expressed any verbal interest in Neil Cicierega’s music in years, and he hasn’t done anything that interesting in recent years save for The pair of Smash Mouth-themed albums. I set it on my desk and got back to work. I was still curious as to how Felix figured that one out. Nathan called later that day to check in on me, and Franklin was with him. The two were apparently doing some work on a video for Nathan’s blog. Best of luck to them, I guess.
The next morning, I went to pick up some breakfast and get back to animation when I saw a letter from Felix on the table. I was starting to get sick of seeing his name on things coming to our door. It was addressed to me, so I opened it. Apparently, there was a new arcade in New Infinity, and me and 4 (or 5) people of my choice would be the first to enter tonight. It’d be free for us as well, including free lifetime access. And wouldn’t you know it, it was located at the corner of Ashland Ave. and Capitol Street.
He’s not even subtle. Fine, I’ll humor him. His presents have been alright thus far, but he’s approaching the fine line between being generous and annoying. I got ready for the day again, took my medications, and called up Nathan.
“Hey, how’ve you been?” He asked.
“I’ve been better. Felix sent me an invite to a new arcade opening and 4 or 5 friends of my choice get first access and lifetime passes.”
“Four or five? That’s how it’s worded?”
“Yep.”
“Lemme guess: George, Frank, myself…”
“Alex and, heck, I dunno… Randy?”
“Randy? Isn’t that Francisco’s friend?”
“Not anymore, it seems like. He keeps texting me memes.”
“We can keep this in mind. We could discuss this out in the park or something. I’ll text Frank and George.”
“Alright. I don’t trust this though.”
“Ash, it’s fine.”
Nathan hung up and I picked up my keys. Alex was on the couch, working on another project. “Hey, Alex, you busy?”
“Not really. Just working on a project for myself, nothing too much. Why?”
“Felix has this arcade thing and invited me and 4 or 5 friends to it tonight. Would you want to tag along?”
“I mean sure, why not.”
“He also gave us lifetime access.”
“Even better.”
The evening came around and Alex came to my room. “Let’s roll. I’ll drive. Saw you got that Lemon Demon album you wanted like 5 years ago. Was that the gift from Felix yesterday?”
“Yeah. No clue how he figured out I wanted it. Even then, it was 5 years old, and I haven’t talked about it at all since arriving in New Infinity. It’s still damn good, but I have no clue how Felix figured it out.”
Alex and I drove out to the park and met up with George, Nathan and Franklin. “So the invite said four or five? How does that work?” Franklin asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied, “but that’s how it’s worded.”
“Ah, man, what crazy wording,” Randy said from around a corner, seeming a bit winded, “boy, how those… those words are put t—together on th—with the—how he put them. I—I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Evidently,” Franklin said.
“Hey, you need four or five people? I heard that right?” Randy asked.
“Yeah?”
“I could be your fifth person, then! Shoot, now there’s six, hold up—“
“No, it works out. I can invite up to five.”
“…Oh. Oh! Oh! I can come with?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Aw, sweet! Francisco never wants to do stuff like this! He’s been spending a lot of time with Twitch. And it all looks really technical, stuff about variable types and overflowing them. I don’t know what they’re doing.”
“Well, that looks like a full party. Where’d you say this was?”
“The corner of Capitol and… and Ashland.”
“Heh, that’s a clever little nod to you.”
“I don’t really like it, though.”
“Well, how bad could it be?”
We drove out that way and pulled into the parking lot. We were the only car in the lot. The arcade was a whole lotta glass, three stories, had a classy logo emblazoned on the front of the building, next to the name… Ashland.
This has already gone to shit.
ns 15.158.61.37da2
