"Let's play a couple of rounds of Sour," I said, launching the Sour Fight game.
Almost immediately, two juice cartons appeared, facing each other, a health bar, and a list of buttons, the sequential execution of which would activate combos, special, and fatal moves. It all looked like a parody of a real game, but specifically a parody of a serious fighting game, as if someone had poorly copied the real version.
Seeing that I had, without looking, skipped this description on my part of the screen, Mita looked at me distrustfully.
"Are you planning on letting me win??? Don't even think about it!" she asked, squinting. Her gaze was full of challenge.
"Nope, you'll see, I figured out how to play games like this a long time ago," I said, carefully examining the joystick, trying to memorize the button layout. I decided I needed to win honestly, meaning, by cheating.
"You just watch me, I won't go easy on you!" she threatened me with her finger.
Then the fight began.
While my opponent hadn't yet approached, I pressed each button, observing the effect produced.
As it turned out, out of the triangle, circle, square, and cross, the last one made the character attack with a low kick.
Realizing that the matter was halfway solved, I played around with the character controls themselves – up, down, left, and right.
The combination I needed for victory was down and cross. Simple and effective.
Mita's character approached and… got hit by a low kick, recoiling.
"Huh..?" she still had no idea.
It happened again.
And then again.
And again.
When her character's health was at half, her eyebrow twitched noticeably, but she continued trying to break through this defense.
The girl tried to attack from above, below, from the side, but it was all in vain. She was starting to get serious.
It seemed the solution dawned on her when she made her juice carton jump and attack with a kick in mid-air, but as it happened, by crouching, my character also blocked the hit, so my character didn't fly back, and Mita's already landed character got kicked again.
My victory!
"Hey! That's not fair!" she said, pouting and looking at me.
It looked cute. I wanted to squish those cheeks, though she herself was probably thinking of strangling me right now.
"Let's continue," I said with amusement, anticipating her reaction. I was interested in observing her.
The next fight started in stark contrast.
Mita wasn't going to give up and furiously mashed all possible buttons, while I… held down one button that made the character crouch, and occasionally tapped the cross with a finger of my other hand.
Bam, bam, bam!
Her character inevitably lost more and more health, while she frowned more and more, a furious spark seeming to appear in her eyes.
Suddenly, she built up energy and performed some super move, the description of which I had successfully skipped – my character instantly lost half its health.
It changed little, as I immediately returned to my previous stance.
Well, then her character slowly but surely lost from the monotonous low kicks. A memorized combination from which there was no escape. Her face, eyebrows, and smile were twitching.
"You should be ashamed," she said disapprovingly, looking at my almost gloating expression, and then continued. "Are you ashamed?"
"I responsibly declare that no, I'm not ashamed. If there are such loopholes in a game, then what's the point of them? If it's not fixed, then it's within the rules of the game," I replied, shrugging.
"Well, you certainly are…" was all she could force out, at a loss for words.
"No, wait. Look, you're losing, your character has about 10 percent health left, and you, as someone who doesn't want to lose, just go and do that, winning. In a game, there's always one goal – to win, and if you know a way, and it's not considered wrong because it's not fixed, then it's legal."
Her jaw simply dropped at such logic, or, if one could rephrase, audacity.
"This…" was all she could force out, at a loss for words.
I got another achievement.
"Well, don't worry about it," I said, trying to look carefree and smiling conciliatorily, and switched to the other game. I needed to defuse the situation somehow before she exploded with anger.
Penguins, as they are. This game turned out to be even more boring – just two characters, the task for the penguin being to collect more snowballs than the opponent. The only difficulty was the characters sliding around as if on ice. Even the cooperative component changed nothing. No fun at all.
Victory here was harder to achieve, as I had to actually play, not just stand still, but I still won, using some stupid tactic whose meaning I didn't even understand myself. The games in this world are kind of… so-so.
And another achievement.
Great, now I'm getting achievements for boring games too. Fantastic! The irony of fate.
I looked at Mita with a wry smile. She didn't seem happy about my victory at all. Her face was stony, and she was staring at one spot.
"Mita, you're not angry, are you? Maybe you're just unlucky? If you want, we can play again. I can even let you win, if you want," I offered, trying to speak as softly as possible and looking into her eyes. Though I myself didn't want to play anymore.
"No, it's okay. You're really good at this. A genius, really," she sighed deeply, looking at the screen. Annoyance was visible in her eyes. And indeed, playing these games for a long time and then getting completely thrashed by someone who played for the first time… it's probably upsetting.
"Alright then. I'll go wash up for a bit, I'm kind of tired. Something made me drowsy," I said, getting up from the sofa.
"Tired? Can I help somehow? Maybe give you a massage?" she asked, almost flying over to me.
Her concern… was unsettling. It felt like my heart started beating faster… or was it just my imagination? Curious…
"Help? No, no. It's fine," I replied, trying to speak as softly as possible. "I'll be back soon. Don't get bored."
I headed to the bathroom, lost in my thoughts.
I kept thinking how cozy and clean it was here. Like in a commercial. Like a picture from a magazine.
But something about it was still somehow… sterile, maybe. Too perfect. As if everything was designed to be looked at, not lived in. Too unnatural.
Reaching it, I turned on the tap and washed my face with cold water, trying to bring some freshness to my face.
We cooked together, ate, chatted about all sorts of things, played cards, the console – I don't even remember being so happy spending time with someone. For the last few years, certainly, I just couldn't recall. The main thing here was that we were sincere, without any outside worries or pretense, and that… that was so damn great!
I washed my face again and looked in the mirror, which didn't show my reflection, and smiled crookedly.
But things just can't be perfect…
Bam!
I suddenly heard a dull sound.
What? What was that?
It came from roughly the direction of the vent, but the vent itself clearly led somewhere.
The ventilation here was up high with a window, and if the air was to exit upwards from the room, then this ventilation must have led… somewhere else? Well, just by the logic of things, right?
Oh, wait, logic is only half-present here…
Bam!
Another dull thud, like an impact. Someone was clearly trying to damage something.
And yes, I somewhat doubt that in a world consisting of one apartment and Mita, there are neighbors.
A bit unnerving…