Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 195 Return To The Pas

December 3rd, 2009, Within a villa in the Alps of Switzerland. Inside one of the seven bedrooms within the villa, two little six-year-old boys were huddled together as they focused all their attention on the TV before them. Both of them were holding onto controllers for the recently released Blaystation 3 Slim. To most people, it looked like they were spamming the controller's b.u.t.tons randomly. Yet on the screen, what played out was a world-cla.s.s arcade fighting match.

"Hah, looks like I win again!" A then loud and obnoxious Adrian boasted in a perfect, yet childish German, as he just barely beat the boy sitting next to him. As he held his wireless controller over his head in a victory pose, the other boy could be seen staring into the TV wondering where it all went wrong. Again, if most were to look at the results, it was probable that they would think one of two things. Either the boys were very close in skill as Adrian had only won in the end because his character had one point of health left. Or, he was clearly better than his rival since he won three games in a row.

"Hmph! You're just lucky I don't like fighting games." The losing boy said, clearly expressing the att.i.tude of a sore loser.

"Gaspie, just accept your defeat! You may be the best at First Person Shooters, Third Person Shooters, Role Playing, and most other types of games. But you'll never beat me when it comes to Rhythm and Fighting Games!" Even as a six-year-old, Adrian spoke rather eloquently.

"Che," Gasper scoffed, "Yeah, obviously you'd only beat me in those games since you have the patience of a ki…" In the midst of defending himself, Gasper broke out into a coughing fit. "Ack!" He even started coughing up blood as he fell to one knee.

"s.h.i.+t, not again…" In a manner unbefitting that of a small child, after Adrian cursed, he helped Gasper down before running out of the room to get help. A couple minutes later, he found his Father talking to Gasper's parents in the villa's largest meeting room.

"…With the Quark Estrangement Project making a recent breakthrough, we should soon be able to implement the use of Quark Manipulation into the lastest planetary defense systems. We can't always rely on Kurt over here to divert or blow up meteorites that are set to collide with the planet now, can we?" A tall and handsome man drew in laughs and smiles from all those in attendance. He had long blond hair and eyes as blue as Gasper's.

Suddenly, a crack in the meeting room's door caused everyone to look over and find Adrian who had lost his breath after running over a hundred meters. "Hah… Gaspie's sickness is acting up again…" Adrian mutter before collapsing by the door to regain his breath.

"Little Gasper?" Kurt questioned. He was met with a nod from his son. Yet to his right, underneath the cordial and slightly worried looking faces of his colleagues, a grim undertone of disgust and embarra.s.sment drew an unsettling picture of how Gasper's parents currently felt.

"Go on, Klaus. I can just continue the report while you take care of your son." Kurt offered.

"No need… I will be the one to go deal with him," said the woman sitting beside Klaus, Gasper's father. She walked over to the door, where Adrian was sitting by and after deliberately taking a while to help him up, she first took Adrian to a separate room before going to help her own son. Along the way, Adrian had tried to make her understand how serious Gasper's condition had gotten, emphasizing that he had collapsed and had probably been coughing blood since he left him in his bedroom, but the woman never seemed to understand.

All she did was put on a concerned face and a.s.sured Adrian that his close friend would probably be alright, before dropping him off in a separate bedroom full of games and entertainment and saying, "Now, don't worry about little Gasper. He probably just strained himself by playing for too long. He was born wea… with a weak const.i.tution, so even playing video games for a bit too long can result in his illness acting up. Just play here until your dad comes to pick you up, or you could go play with the other kids by the patio." With those words said and done, the woman left Adrian alone.

However, with how things were, the last thing Adrian wanted to do was play around. "Ms. Von Kinsterling, how can you walk away so calmly? Gaspie's hurt…" Adrian mumbled to himself as he watched Gasper's mother walk away just as slowly as she had when she brought him over to his new room.

Restless, Adrian couldn't settle down to play any games, much less go out to play with others when his best friend's state was uncertain. What was in reality about ten minutes, felt like ten hours as Adrian got up, sat down, laid down, and moved to every conceivable spot in the room without being able to contain himself.

Upon discovering that the room had a balcony that extended to the outside, Adrian even left the comfort of the room to see if he could find some peace outside. Instead, he prayed witness to one of the things that would later come back to haunt him.

Outside, as he laid down directly on the floor and let the coldness of the elevated alt.i.tude invade his body, he heard the sounds of Gasper's mother yelling from several rooms over. "You… you dare bleed on this carpet? Good, very good. After we gifted you this room, this furniture… You not only destroy the property, but you get your friend involved to interrupt our meeting?"

"I've told you time and time again Gasper, that 'this' will be the last straw and believe me, I won't say it again… You have one way and one way alone to get out of this mess and both your father and I have told you time and time again how to do it."

"But mom, ack…" Gasper's weak voice was still heard clearly as it was the only thing audible for kilometers. Even his coughs were heard as he continued, "I'm not like my brothers and sister… You already said so yourself. I can't practice that, it just doesn't work. It only makes me feel worse when I try…"

"WELL TRY HARDER THEN," Gasper's mother sent chills down Adrian's spine as he froze up on the floor. Though he didn't know about it then, that was the pressure of a High-Level Martial Pract.i.tioner and he could only imagine how terrifying it would be to be in Gasper's position; closer to the source.

"Hmph, you are a Von Kinsterling, so act like one! Otherwise… don't expect us to help you anymore." With those words, the frigid pressure vanished and Adrian could soon move again. Yet with freedom regained, all he did was go into his room and sulk until his father came to pick him up.

Today was his birthday and for his present, all he asked for was the chance to travel to Switzerland to play with his best friend. Only for the day to end up planting the seed that would come to form Adrian's future personality. However, that seed would only mature nearly a month down the line.

…

January 1st, 2010, almost a month later, Adrian was back in Switzerland after getting another chance to visit Gasper; with his entire family. As the Kinsterlings were known as a family of the highest standing in the Western European Union, they were connected to the Keters and the two families often traded favors. Consequently, as people close to Adrian's parents they held a meeting together; a New Year's gathering.

On that fateful day, after greeting Gasper's parents like the youth he had been educated to be, Adrian ran over to Gasper's room and played with him for one last time. All seemed fine as Adrian entered his best friend's room and for an hour the two played around like they always did…

"Che! This is impossible! Even as a Priest I can barely help you in this s.h.i.+tty RPG!" Adrian cursed as his character was over a dozen levels lower than Gasper's.

"You should play more multiplayer games and 'get good,' as they often recommend. It's not my fault you're only level 79." Gasper retorted. He smiled in arrogance as Adrian stared at the oppressive "Level 100" that was on his maxed-out avatar.

"Che! Why are we even playing this game anyway? You've already reached the highest level and possess the strongest set of armor and weapons… You could even solo the raid bosses if you wanted." Adrian complained as he certainly wasn't having as much fun as he could when his friend was decimating all the obstacles in their way.

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"Huh? We still haven't completed it, see?" Gasper pulled up the achievement tab on his screen and showed that the game was only 97.3% completed. "I'd rather not start a game I don't plan on fin- ack!" Unlike the previous times, Gasper coughed up an entire clump of clotted blood.

Yet for some reason, he didn't fall over as he had when his condition had been worse off. Instead, he apologized, "Ack, ack, Sor-ry…" He wiped the blood from his mouth and went over to clean up his mess.

Horrified, Adrian went over with his friend to pick up sanitized wiping cloths. He asked, "Gaspie… Are you ok? That was a lot of blood, even for you…" Even without the medical knowledge, he would later gain after becoming Elizabeth, Adrian knew it was unreasonable for anyone to walk around after coughing up that chunk of blood.

"It's… It's fine," Gasper smiled as what looked to be steam started sprouting from his eyes. "I just need to practice a bit, after I clean up my mess…" Thus Adrian helped Gasper clean the blood and chunks from the floor. Adrian volunteered to take the bloodied paper towels they used out to the villa's incinerator. But when he came back, he was mortified.

"Gaspie!" His friend was where he had left him to rest and 'practice,' but the previous Gasper was replaced with a glowing red husk. "What are you doing?! Stop!" Adrian ran over to help his friend, but after just touching his skin for a second, he felt his hands start boiling.

"Gaspie, stop! You'll f.u.c.king kill yourself!" Adrian was sobbing as he disregarded the burns on his hands and instead started shaking his friend hoping he'd wake up and stop whatever it was that was causing his skin to burn hot.

"I said… it's fine," Gasper said even as teeth were clenched hard enough to crack. "I'll feel better when I finish practice… Ack!" Obviously, he was in terrible pain, but even in the middle of his sentence, another coughing fit caused Gasper to collapse. From the blood he spat, the ground started melting along with a red mist.

Adrian started getting tunnel vision along with hallucinations that his friend was literally melting. So, like a cornered lamb forced to run as fast as physically possible, he left the room to get help. Ignoring the looks of everyone along the way, the other children, butlers, and maids could be dead for all he cared, as he ran to where his parents along with the rest of the adults were.