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Viewing Single Post From: APRIL--or, How the Video Game World Fought Back
nya_chan Jun 20 2007, 07:00 PM
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TeH g00fy admin (I wonder why no one takes me seriously...)
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 Chapter 42

I sat on the ground, chin in my hand, waiting for a chance to speak. It was proving to be near impossible, seeing as the first part of the game was nearly over, and most characters that needed introducing were already here, and talking very loudly. I cleared my throat, but to no avail. I cleared it again, but louder this time. Someone took the hint.

"QUIIIIEEEET!" roared Pipsqueak, loud enough to wake the sleep deprived.

The room turned to stare at him in awe, myself included. "How big are your lungs compared to the rest of you?" I asked, dumbstruck. He only shrugged. After blinking several times, still in shock, I finally spoke up.

"Okay, so as you know, I hate it here. You--" I jabbed an accusing finger at Birch, "--know a way out. I know you do. You were talking about it before some people--" this time I took the opportunity to glare javelins at the Footprint Nut, Winston, and Brendan, all of whom had interrupted Birch in his earlier explanation the last time we were all here, "--oh-so-rudely stopped you. Now then, what were you going to say?"

Birch seemed almost terrified out of his mind at the forcefulness of my speech, so it took him a few minutes to respond. With a nervous swallow, he began. "Er, w-well, it's probably going to far to do it. I mean, it's a last-chance, desperation-ditch-kind-of-move. Uh... that is... no one in their right mind would do it.... It's too dangerous. It's glitching on a whole new level, APRIL. Even you haven't done something like this."

"Again with that name!" I exploded. "Fine. If it's so 'dangerous,' don't tell me."

"A-APRIL," Brendan stammered.

"Shut up," I snapped, more furious than I had ever been. Something inside me had snapped. I turned sharply and walked away from the awe-struck group. If the PTB were going to give me a crappy name, I was going to come up with one of my own.

Due to the lack of success last time, I decided to give up and just stick with English. Nothing called out to me, until I started considering months again. June? No, that's stupid. July? Definitely not. May... kinda generic, but.... For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why, but it almost seemed to fit. Almost. There was something slightly off about it; maybe it was just because I was the anime-May's angry-at-the-world/green version. But it was all I could come up with until a new name popped into my head. At first, I thought it was stupid, but after mulling it over for a few minutes, I decided to stick with it. I gave a small smile, calming down. In fact, I felt down-right pleasant. Just in time. At that moment, Stephen approached.

"Hey, APRIL," he said, though not unkindly.

"Not APRIL," I snapped, but not as rudely as I would have five minutes ago. "M-may." I scowled to myself. If I had my other name, why use May? Fine, I decided. It'll be my little secret.

He lifted an eyebrow. "Really? If that's the case, then-- wait... you're acting different...."

I furrowed my brow. Maybe this "being nice" thing wasn't so bad after all. Did changing my name give me a change of heart? Before I could think it over too carefully, I responded, "I-I guess.... I feel... not totally evil."

"That's good to hear. Oh, Eddy says he'll explain how to get free if your not throwing a temper tantrum anymore."

"Eddy?"

"Er.... Professor Birch?"

"Oh, right. He's 'Edward'. I almost forgot." With a nervous laugh, I walked back to the group, Stephen close behind me.

"So," Birch said as I drew closer to the thronging horde of NPCs, "you gonna be nice now?"

"Disturbingly so," Stephen muttered.

The old me would have smacked him for that, but the new me only nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. Oh, I'm May now." It still sounded weird, but I was going to stick with that lie.

"M-may? Why-- nothing. Never mind. Um.... What you have to do to.... Uh... but you have to promise me you won't actually do this, okay? It'll be bad. For every one. Especially you."

"I don't think she's planning on doing anything now. She's acting like a freakin' angel," Stephen grumbled.

"What's with you?" Brendan snapped.

"Nothing. It's just... no. Forget I said anything." I wondered vaguely if Stephen didn't like my change, but before I could consider anything, Birch continued with a bit less stuttering.

"Okay. So, you remember this thing, right?" He pulled the Adventure Journal out of thin air.

"The thing that taught me everything about everything when I just started? Yeah, it rings a few bells."

"Exactly. This is the thing that every tiny little detail is saved to when the PTB turn off the game. In fact, this might as well be the game. It contains the inner workings. However, when a GameShark gets thrown into the mix, or... someone like you even, it gets rewritten, though at a distance. All the same, the only time anything major is deleted is when the game restarts. But that's only the main character, technically. After all, if the PTB don't save, the other file is still there. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

I nodded slowly, which turned into a slow, left-to-right shake. "Not... really."

Birch sighed. "If every little thing was erased, it would be as if the game had never been started in the first place. After all, the 'CONTINUE' option isn't added until after the game's been saved in the first place. When you first start, using a brand new cartridge, the only choices are 'NEW GAME' and 'OPTIONS'."

I nodded, catching on. "So if it was all erased..."

"...everything'd be gone, excepting us, but there's no telling what would happen. We'd probably know everything we'd be programmed to know, but..." he pursed his lips, "we'd likely have our memories wiped. In fact, this most often happens after you beat the Elite Four. There are tons of horror stories bout it."

"That'd be horrible!" I exclaimed without a trace of sarcasm, drawing strange looks from the crowd.

"What?" I exclaimed. "I've changed! Is that so hard to believe?"

"Yes," muttered Stephen.

"What's your problem?" I snapped.

Stephen raised his eyebrow. "And just how much have you changed?" he asked quietly, so that only I could hear.

I made a face. "More than everyone expected. Even me."

"Come with me," he said, grabbing my wrist and leading me away from the crowd, drawing jealous looks from Brendan.

Far enough away, we stopped walking. Looking me straight in the eye, he said, "Look. I know change is great and all, but still, you don't have to make that drastic of a change. I mean, look at me! I still stayed irritable even after I gave into the PTB. There's nothing wrong with being like you were without the colonial-era U.S. mentality!"

"What if I like being nice?"

"You're not nice. You're a liar. This is probably just a front so that no one will expect it when you--"

"I'm not lying, okay? I'm just... different, is all. I--" I cut myself short, not sure what kind of point I was trying to make.

Stephen gave me a sad look. "Be that as it may, you're still going to be APRIL to me. And probably to yourself as well."

"That's rather deep for a former druggie."

He only smirked knowingly as grey fog filled the room. Then, like everyone else, he vanished.

***

The first floor was the easiest part of Victory Road. It wasn't as though it was completely without trouble, though. However, that which was vexing didn't put up a good resistance. And by that of course, I meant Wally, who popped up almost instantly.

"Augh!" he screamed. "Don't hurt me!"

I heaved a tired sigh. "I know you heard my whole 'I've changed' speech. Let's just finish this."

"Yes!" he squeaked.

His first five Pokemon didn't last long, but he seemed to have grown more confident as the battle wore on. In fact, even though he was losing, but the end, he seemed to have enough ego to fill your typical backyard pool. Of course, even a level 45 Gardevoir can't do much against a level 47 Absol. Maybe the PTB's constant obsession with leveling up wasn't such a bad thing, given that Absol was my lowest level Pokemon.

"I-I have failed," Wally murmured upon defeat. The figurative ego-filled swimming pool drained in an instant.

"It's okay. It's not like winning or losing matters anyway."

"APRIL...?"

"No, May, 'member? Eh, I'm just glad to see you're better now. Looks like the air in Verdanturf really did help, huh?"

"What the--?"

I smiled pleasantly and moved on.

The rest of Victory Road got a bit more difficult after that. The PTB, being lazy, decided not to bring a Pokemon with Flash along, thereby making the trip a nightmare. I pushed on, knowing the end was near. The end of the beginning, that is. It's common knowledge that beating the Elite Four is just the beginning. I swallowed. Unless you-know-what happens to the Adventure Journal.

Upon seeing the stereotypical "light at the end of the tunnel," I was just about to break out into some Martian Luther King Jr. quotes ("Free at last, free at last! Thank God almighty! I am free at last!"), until I actually came out of the tunnel and spotted Scott whom I hadn't seen since the very beginning. "Er, hello?" I said.

"Ah ha!" he said, sounding overly-proud. "I knew it! I knew you'd follow my suggestion to become a TRAINER!"

Oh, God. "Look. I'd love to stay and chat, but if we pick that whole discussion back up again I'm going to lapse into my old self."

"Can't have that!" he said brightly. "You're such a wonderful TRAINER as it is!"

I suppressed a shudder as I went forward, through the doors of the Pokemon League and Scott went back the way I had come. Stupid useless characters... I thought. No, that's not right. Quiet, APRIL. May is a nice person. "Urg," I groaned aloud, feeling schizophrenic.

After healing and loading up on items at the PokeCenter and Mart respectively inside the lobby, I received a congratulatory speech from one of the two people blocking the entrance to the actual Elite Four+Champion.

"But if I got here in the first place I'd need Waterfall, and that'd mean I already have all eight Badges." I defended after one of the pair checked to make sure I didn't have an inferior number of Badges.

"Oh, just go on ahead," the other guard sighed.

"Can do," I said with a bit too much enthusiasm ans shuffled past them.

After walking down a hallway, I found myself in a room that looked like a converted gymnasium. I walked up to the only occupant. Before I had a chance to say anything, he began to speak.

"Hey there, TRAINER! I like that look you're giving me!"

And that was my first premonition that this was going to be a very long day.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Oh, and did I mention there'd be plot twists near the end? *evil grin* (Note the use of the plural.) Keeping in mind that APRIL technically has three names now, even though one of them hasn't been said.

Okay, that's all of 'em for now. X.x And almost all of them for ever (not a typo XP). Yup, it's drawing to a close; just one more chapter and the epilogue.... :oops:
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