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Nam goes for Birdie, while I choose Chun-Li, a character I always chose when I wanted to be at my best. The first round starts, and I can tell that this game was different. Nam played a lot smarter, blocking my combo attempts, and grabbing me while my character ended her move for a painful drop. My mind raced as I kept walking into his hits, and it wasn’t long before the first round ended.
“Holy shit Nam, you won the first round!” Duncan belted. “Now just do it again, and we can give ol’ Luke here rabies.” “Yeah yeah, after this don’t expect me to share the spoils” Nam interjects. I’d prefer challengers who didn’t pre-emptively declare victory, but for some reason the cocky, gun-sure attitude Nam had made me feel a lot weirder than normal. The second round felt longer, as I pulled out combos and juggles that seemed a little too tryhard considering the skill level of my opponent. Maybe it was the inner conflict I was having that pushed me to inevitably take the next win, or maybe it was adrenaline from the fear of the unknown; of what would happen next.
“Uh oh, 1-1. I think Nam is about to become our personal little Sailor Moon.”Duncans quips fall on deaf ears as we both focus for the final round. We both play in a way that was rare for anyone in the house. Perfect blocks, parrys, reversals, punishes, it seems almost robotic. It all culminated in something neither of us expected. An outcome that, in all my years of playing before or since, has never occurred again.
“What the fuck! No way.” We all sit there speechless.“A fucking draw.”
“Cheeky. Very cheeky.” Duncan laments.“Well, that wasn’t planned. When did you get so good, Nam?”I had to ask. Truthfully, I wouldn’t know if it was skill, luck, or my warped mindstate, that caused such an odd outcome. What I did know, however, was that I wanted that feeling again. It was the most fun I ever had playing Alpha and, arguably, video games in general. “HAHA a man such as myself always has a trick up his sleeve.” Nam's arrogance was something to behold, surely. Some would even call it cute.
“Bullshit. Hey, you know what?”Duncan grabs the bottle and shakes it around, as if it was a magic 8-ball giving him the answer to his own question. “How about this, if Luke beats you this time you gotta take this pill and let us both rail you?”After hearing him say that out loud I stared to think the couch and carpet had been laced with some horny powder. There was no way the Duncan from 10 minutes ago would have been so on-board with this scenario. “What’s in it for me, assbrain?” Nam matter-of-factly spat out at Duncan’s proposal. “Duh, Luke’s gotta take the pill. Then we can both rail him.”The pat on my shoulder he gave me immediately after should’ve rubbed me the wrong way. Alas, like the passing fart I am, I just said “That’s basically the same deal as before.”
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