“Are you busy right now?”
Litvir glanced up from their packet of potato crisps. They were just sitting on the sofa, staring blankly ahead.
“Oh, hello Kyr Relkir. I am not busy. Do you… need me?”
“Not in particular…” Relkir sat down next to Litvir. Litvir was a good 40cm taller than Relkir, despite being a teenager. “I was going to ask, do you have roaming data on your communicator?”
“The thingy that lets me use the olanet?” Litvir asked back.
“Yes, that.”
Litvir grabbed their communicator from a pocket in their stomach wrap. “Um… yes. I have the thingy.”
“Do you play games on it?”
“Uh… you can play games on it?” Litvir blinked. “Mama… uh… Kyr Elkay told me that my communicator is only for communications. But Kohra has things on their communicator that are not just communications.”
“Like games?”
Litvir nodded. “Like games. It is a weird thing. Different things. Connect the candy and make explosions. Or collect the little animals by throwing balls at them.”
“But you are not allowed to have games?”
“I… I assume so? No one has said I cannot play games. But Kyr Elkay wants to make sure I am not too distracted.”
Relkir shrugged. “Well, as long as you know to not play games when you are working, it should be fine.”
“I guess… But why are you asking?”
Relkir went back to smiling, then grabbed their communicator and opened it up. “I believe your friend Kohra and I play one of the same games.”
“The candy one?”
“No, the throwing balls at cute animals one.” Relkir smiled even more. “Would you like to play it with me and Gath?”
“You play the throw-balls-at-cute-animals game?”
“Yes.”
Litvir thought for a moment. “But I will be distracted.”
“As long as you turn the game off when you are working, it is fine. I do not play at work either.”
Litvir perked up a little. “It looks fun! How to I get the game?”
“I can install it for you.”
“Oh. Alright!”
Litvir immediately unlocked and handed their communicator to Relkir. Relkir found the application store, found the game and started installing it. Once they were done, Relkir handed the communicator back to Litvir, with the loading screen open.
After a few moments, Litvir was presented with a screen asking how old they were. They glanced at Relkir, not too sure what to do.
“I am too young.”
Relkir shrugged. “You can just lie. They will not check, and you are physically a teenager, which is old enough.”
“Oh.”
Litvir set the year to 2015, then clicked continue. They were prompted with a screen to give themselves a username, so they just entered their own name. This came up with a message saying “that name is already taken”. So Litvir added the number 12 to the end (their favourite number) and that worked fine.
The game loaded up properly and Litvir could see grass and roads on the screen. There were also three characters, little animals just sitting there.
“So, which of those will be your first Walkymonster?” Relkir asked.
Litvir stared at the screen. “They are not real animals.”
“No, they are made up animals. They are called Walkymonsters.”
“Oh…” Litvir stared at the screen some more, looking at them intently.
“You can choose the one you like by tapping on it.”
“They are weird.”
“They are. They are cartoon animals. And they all have special powers.”
More screen-staring. Relkir wondered if Litvir was unable to choose a favourite, or if they had somewhat frozen at the idea of having a choice. After a while though, a fourth animal appeared.
“FLUFFY KITTY!” Litvir suddenly shrieked. “I want the fluffy kitty!”
Relkir patted Litvir on the shoulder to get them to calm down. “If you want it, tap on it, and then throw a ball at it to catch it.”
Litvir did as they were told, but they clearly struggled with how to judge the correct distance. Relkir was somewhat glad that new players got lots of extra balls to catch walkymonsters with. But, eventually, Litvir did catch the kitty Walkymonster.
“I have my own fluffy kitty!” Litvir beamed. “It is my friend now.”
“There are lots of other Walkymonsters to catch too.”
Litvir excited the screen showing the kitty and looked at the main world again. After a moment of thought and confusion, Litvir realized that the game world was based on the actual roads and buildings outside. Somewhat nearby was a purple thing that spun around on its own, and there were some different Walkymonsters. None of them were cats, so Litvir wasn’t too interested.
However, in the corner, there was an orange button, and Litvir tapped it. A tutorial opened up, with a Spast explaining a few things. They called themselves Professor Flafflebutt.
“Oh. This Spast, it looks like Kohra but more blue!” Litvir exclaimed.
“It looks like Kohra’s older sibling.”
Litvir paused briefly. “But Gladiator Levik is green.”
“Uh, oldest sibling.”
Litvir paused even more. “Oh. Tenuk. Who was friends with your big sibling. They got taken too.”
Relkir nodded solemnly. “You are right.”
“I wish I could see them.”
“Me too.”
The awkward feeling in the room though was replaced with big stomps coming down the stairs. Gath was up and awake.
“Hello, my dear, hello little Litvir, how are you both?”
Relkir went back to smiling. “We are fine. I was showing Litvir how to play Walkymonsters.”
“Oh!” Gath grinned. “That sounds like fun!”
“Do you play as well, Kyr Gath?” Litvir asked.
“I do, yes. Do you want to go to the flower park, so we can catch some more? And perhaps, on the way back, we can get ice cream, if you want.”
“I do want! I do want!” Litvir bounced excitedly. “Can we go now? I want to go now! Can we?”
Gath nodded. “Of course. Let me put some casual armour on, and we can head off in a bit.”
Relkir got up as well. “I need to put armour on too. Cannot go out without armour, right, Litvir?”
Litvir wriggled around in their seat. “I will wait for you! And I will do this explaining thingy while I wait!”
“Wonderful!” Relkir smiled as they patted Litvir on the shoulder. We will be right back.”