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‘I can’t believe I’m doing this again...’ The thought repeated itself in her head constantly throughout the day as Carol tried her best to appear calm and collected. Of course she knew about the tournament happening right there in her town, but she’d had no intention of participating, not after what happened last time... While the larger community had moved on from her transgression, she herself had never been able to completely live it down.
Then a few days ago a friend of hers texted her out of the blue, talking excitedly about the event and how she would be playing in a side tournament for Splatoon (or something like that, all those shoot-bang games looked and sounded alike to her...). Of course this held little interest to her, but when the older girl practically begged her to come out to support her she had finally relented. Supporting one of her few real friends outside of her extended family was important after all...
Linge Lancaster. To say that she was a bit of an odd bird would be a massive understatement; the squirrel girl was even more socially awkward than she was. Still, she was very straightforward with her interests, and it was their shared love of gaming, even while they rarely played any of the same games, that had sparked their friendship. It said a lot about her that Linge treated Carol, 5 years her junior, as an equal and would often go along with her plans rather than insisting on her own. And most importantly, she was one of the only people she knew that wasn’t a massive pervert (at least as far as she knew), a breath of fresh air in her personal life and something she greatly valued now that she barely saw her brother anymore.
And so it was that Carol had entered the Soul Calibur tournament; there was no sense in attending and not participating right? She figured that this would be relatively low-key, being a single elimination bracket and with no cash prize on the line. She thought wrong. The competition brought out all of the local players worth knowing and ShadowCat would have to respond in kind.
Despite her misgivings though, she had to admit she was enjoying herself immensely. There was something electrifying about having an audience behind you as you played, appreciative of the highest level of play they were being treated to. Thanks in part to her new main, a DLC character that had dropped the previous month that so perfectly suited her ruthlessly aggressive playstyle, ShadowCat found herself deep into the bracket. Between her matches she would head over to where Linge’s tournament was taking place on the other end of the venue; while she didn’t know much about the game Linge was playing, she could definitely appreciate the girl’s enthusiasm and apparent skill. A few times she even spotted the other girl in the audience for her matches.
So it was that ShadowCat began her match in the top 16, riding high on her day’s accomplishments and all of the salt thrown at her by her older male victims throughout. Her opponent this round was a local scrublord; she didn’t know the lion’s name, just his hilariously edgy gamertag “killfiend”. Apparently he lived somewhere nearby because she fought him online in multiple games over the last several months. In that time she had never lost to him ever. What made him stand out to her though was his incredibly salty excuse-riddled rage quits, especially once he found out that ShadowCat was a little girl. In short, the kid was a scrub of the highest caliber.
Seeing yet another opportunity to humiliate the idiot once again, who apparently was famous for his antics based on the heavily negative reaction of the crowd, the kitten was even more aggressive in her play than usual and the boy simply had no answer for it. Sets in this tournament were two out of three so to keep the shockingly large (for a local, non-sanctioned) tournament from taking all day so there wouldn’t be much of a chance to adjust, even if he could. She quickly found herself up two rounds to nil in the first game and with her opponent nearly KO’d she went for an ill-advised super to close the game out in style. Unfortunately for her, killfiend, in a surprising show of foresight, was able to sidestep the brazen attack and in his counter was able to score a ring out. This was irritating enough on its own but the look of smug satisfaction on the idiot boy’s face burned at her core. There would be no further charity; he would be made to suffer greatly for this.
ShadowCat won the next round to take game one of the set convincingly. The second game was not even close. She won three-zero in what seemed like seconds, including two perfect rounds in a row to end killfiend’s day. For her part, ShadowCat decided not to pop off, knowing that her opponent, predictably, would fly into a salty rage on his own. Knowing she had the crowd completely on her side made his impotent rage that much funnier for her. Once his anger had run its course, ShadowCat dismissively waved him off, directing him back to his salt mine to practice; he appeared ready to launch into another self-destructive tirade but he was finally, mercifully escorted off by the event staff.
Satisfied that she’d gotten as much out of her moment of triumph as she could, Carol made to exit the stage herself. As she did though, she noticed on the opposite seat that her opponent had left his fight stick behind. There were a number of people in the fighting game community who preferred the feel of the arcade cabinet controls and insisted on using these for playing. Many of them came up actually playing in arcades though; for the most part younger gamers like Carol preferred regular controllers. Ultimately it gave no competitive advantage either way, but Carol was aware of how expensive fight sticks can be. Begrudgingly, she decided she should at least make sure that idiot didn’t leave his stick behind; after all, she couldn’t torment him if he couldn’t even play.
Taking the stick with her out into the lobby, Carol didn’t immediately find her target; there were a few people still milling around but not enough that she shouldn’t be able to find the boy in the crowd. So it came as something of a surprise when she heard, rather than saw the boy’s grating voice above the din of activity.
“Get the fuck out of my face, you freaky tree rat!”
Yeah, that was him alright, still throwing his tantrum apparently. When she found the source of the voice tough, her blood started to boil. The target of his latest rage for some reason was none other than Linge. What had happened between the two was uncertain but Linge was leaning against the wall behind her looking as though she had been struck. Around them was a few people looking on shocked. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what must have happened...
Her mind made up, Carol crossed the room quickly to the scene. “Hey idiot!” she called out as she stalked across the room. It said a lot about the boy that he actually reacted to being addressed as such, but nonetheless he turned around to her voice...
Just in time to watch as his fight stick smashed into his face.
“You forgot your stick, you fucking shit-ass!”
The whole of the room fell silent as the audience turned to the scene of a little girl standing over the body of a teenaged boy while another girl stood close by crying to herself.
“Oww... What the actual fuck?!” The boy screamed as his senses started to return to him “You fucking crazy little bitch! I’m gonna-”
“You’re gonna what, go run and cry to your mommy and all your shitty friends about how you got your ass kicked by a little girl? Twice?” She punctuated the last word with an actual kick to the fallen boy’s ass. Apparently this took any remaining fight out of him as he scrambled away from her on his hands and knees without another word. “Yeah, whatever, get out of here dipshit. Oh, and maybe try a controller next time; it’ll hurt less when I cave your stupid face in with it!”
With the scrub gone into hiding, Carol’s anger faded as quickly as it had sparked and she finally remembered her friend standing nearby, still clearly distraught. “Hey, are you alright? What happened?” The older girl didn’t immediately respond. Carol put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder, trying to comfort her. Adrenaline was still pumping in her, but she tried her best to keep her voice calm. “Hey, come on calm down girl. The scary part’s over...”
“Thank you,” Linge finally responded, wiping her face clean and offering her friend a small smile.
Carol gave her a smile of her own, rubbing the back of her head with her free arm. “Hey, don’t mention it. Like hell I’d let that loser get away with anything like that.”
A murmur rose through the crowd around them, finally alerting her to the now growing crowd gathering around the scene. Carol’s blood ran cold as memories of her previous public incidents started welling up in her mind. “Um... We should probably leave...” She said, suddenly seeming very much the smaller of the two girls.
“Y-yeah.” Linge nodded. The two girls made a break for the door, unhindered as the gathered crowd parted to let them pass. Doors flew open and the two disappeared into the evening.
artwork, concept, lineless style and Linge from my perv mind, this amazing story and Carol are from her