Mirror (short story)

Remove all ads!

"I don't understand this."

"It's easy," insisted Simon. "You rolled a four. Seven points of damage."

"Not that," said Tom. "I don't understand...well, everything."

"Say again?" asked Simon quizzically.

"I mean...what's the meaning of it all? What's the point?"

"Of life? You picked a strange time to start philosophizing."

"No, not of life. Not this one, anyway. I mean, this game! This gameworld! What's the point?"

"For this campaign? I told you before we started. The Queen of Shiran has asked you to retrieve her magical Pendant of the Seventh Star, and you..."

"No, not the campaign. It's a good campaign," Tom assured his friend. "I loved the dragon trio. Kinda silly, but creative. What I'm trying to ask is...why?"

"Well, the singing dragons just seemed appropriate."

"Not the dragons, the story! Why should I find this necklace, anyway?"

"Pendant," corrected Simon, "and it's because the Queen of Shiran..."

"But why should I care what the Queen of Shiran wants?"

"Maybe you owe her a favor or something."

"Maybe? Maybe? Don't you know? You're the one who wrote this campaign!"

"Calm down, Tom," smiled Simon, setting down his pencil. "Honestly, I think you're getting into this a little bit too much."

"I wonder," said Tom, picking up one of the metallic figurines from the gameboard. "But doesn't it seem strange that this world seems so unreal?"

"There's a reason for that," said Simon dryly. "It's fantasy. It's supposed to be unreal!"

"That's not what I mean," said Tom. "I mean, unrealistic. Why in the world should a party of mercenary warriors and spellcasters join together to find some silly amulet?"

"Pendant," reminded Simon.

"Pendant, necklace, whatever," said Tom irritably. "But why should they care? What are they getting out of it? Why are they willing to stick together? And why don't they just find themselves an easier assignment?"

"You ask too many questions. Honestly, you're just like my mom," said Simon lightly. "Look, just enjoy the game, all right? Now, the fireball had just struck you, and we were about to take your magical protection into account, and..."

"I want you to tell me why I should keep playing."

"Um...if you want to do something else, I understand," said Simon, perplexed. "Chess, maybe?"

"No," said Tom, growing frustrated. "I just want to know why my characters are so insistent on finding this stupid amulet."

"Pendant," corrected Simon again. "You control your own party, Tom. You decided to go after the pendant."

"I change my mind," said Tom sharply. "I want to go home."

"OK," said Simon, bemused. "Where's that?"

"I don't know. It's your world!"

"All right, fine," said Simon, sweeping the figurines off the board. "I think someone's taking all this a little too seriously. Let's call it a day."

"I'm sorry," Tom apologized, his voice immediately softer. "It's just that lately, I've been thinking, and...well, I've had...I guess you could call it a crisis of faith."

"You can't have a crisis of faith, Tom," frowned Simon. "You don't go to church."

"No, a crisis of faith in fantasy. I just can't trust it anymore."

"What do you mean, 'trust it'? It's just a game!"

"I used to be able to blindly take everything for granted," said Tom sadly. "Sure, even though we spent sackfuls of gold in a town, we would still have lots of supply and no inflation. Sure, even though anyone could get rich just by killing a few easy monsters, most characters never ventured outside their humble shops or farms. Sure, even though once a week we went on a campaign that killed hundreds of full-grown men, the population was never seriously affected."

"Well, yes. It wouldn't be much fun if gold were worthless and fighting actually caused depopulation."

"But that's my problem! I just can't accept that anymore! It isn't any fun to live in a world like that!"

"I like it," winked Simon, juggling a ten-sided die.

"I used to," answered Tom. "But now I want something more. Something with depth. Something real."

"I hate to break this to you," said Simon, "but this is fantasy. It's not going to get any more real."

"I don't believe that," said Tom. "Surely there is some way to create a game that doesn't trample upon human nature or the laws of economics."

"Trample upon...? Look, just accept the simple fact that these fantasy games run by different rules. Why is that so hard to understand all of a sudden?"

"I don't know...it just seems wrong, that's all."

-------------------

"It just seems wrong, that's all."

"What seems wrong?" asked Calendria.

"These stories you write - these ones about this place called 'America'." He closed the book and put it back in his pack. "They just don't make sense!"

"In what way?"

"For starters, this whole war nonsense," said Gregor, adjusting his plate armor. "First you say that they've spent decades at peace. Then you say that they have this weapon which kills millions of people at once."

"That's how war works over there."

"It doesn't fit human nature!" insisted Gregor, hefting his huge battleaxe. "First, no people would ever be in such a peaceful state for so long a time. It goes against the human need to fight! Second, no one would use such a ghastly weapon unless they were guaranteed massive experience points."

"Not in 'America'."

"And another thing. I don't understand this fighting system."

"What about it?"

"There are no experience points! What's the point of fighting if you can't gain levels? Why would anyone have any incentive to work if they didn't have experience points as a goal? And what about hitpoints? It's a wonder any of them survive to adulthood. According to your stories, they die instantly from one fireball."

"One gunshot, actually," said Calendria, carelessly tossing fireballs into the air.

"That, too - the total lack of magic. How would a world survive without magic? How would anyone survive? Man's nature demands magic!"

"Not in my stories."

"I disagree," said Gregor harshly. "I think you've pushed too far. It's one thing to create a fantasy world, quite another to create a tale that flatly contradicts everything we know to be true."

"Now, Gregor, really. They're just stories. They're not meant to be totally realistic."

"Totally realistic? What about this nonsensical economics system you describe? A world where the supply of money is fixed? Where men resign themselves to living in cubicles for forty hours a week? Where the entire world works under this bizarre theory of 'capitalism' - supply and demand or something?"

"Gregor, listen..."

"No, you listen to me, Calendria. You're spending far too much time writing those silly books - and yes, I no longer call them creative, but silly - when you should be preparing for our next quest!" He pointed his massive battleaxe to the sun. "By tomorrow we'll be on our way to retrieve the Queen of Shiran's Amulet of the Seventh Star!"

"Pendant," said Calendria.

 

Suspension of disbelief.

 

haha! That's great

 

dude, thats BRILLIANT!

 

I loved it!

 

Clever!

 

Cashback!

Lol, that was great!

 

Thanks, all! You're too kind!