No More Extra Lives

	People have always wanted to come together to enjoy themselves - whether it be to enjoy the sights and sounds of sports or the calm serenity of a night on the town, people are always wanting to share in their experiences. Three girls were having a bit of fun together at the moment, each of them dressed in their most casual outerwear and relaxing right on the carpeted floor of a living room.
	“Go, go, go, you’ve almost got it this time!” One of them, a rather darker skinned Faeline leans forward in her spot on the floor, her body covered with a rather comfortable-looking pair of pajamas and her hair tied back in a tight ponytail. She had been laying there the entire night aside from going to get something to snack on. Nevertheless, she presses her palms to her cheeks for a moment, her eyes wide with suspense.
	Another of them was sitting on a couch wearing a sleek camisole top and a pair of short shorts - an elf, from the looks of her rather pointy-looking ears. She had been sitting there with her body tilted towards the T.V. set in front of her, determination on her face and a controller in her hands - she had been trying to complete this level for the past hour or two, and she was getting frustrated. For a moment or two, she sits there pressing buttons on that controller before letting out a grunt of disappointment and dropping the controller onto her lap.
	“Ugh, y’ gotta be kiddin’ me!” She quickly leans back onto that couch before splaying her arms out behind her onto the cushions - she ended up getting hit one too many times before everything went south and the words “GAME OVER” flashed their way onto the screen. For a moment or two, the Faeline on the floor in front of her looks back to the elf, a sigh of disappointment escaping her lips a moment later.
	“Are you sure you don’t want to hand it off, Clementine?”
	“Naw, naw, just… gimme a second, Lydia. Gettin’ mad ‘bout bullshit.” With that, the elf sits back up and rubs her face for a moment - she might be getting frustrated, sure, but if she quit now then she wasn’t going to be happy with herself for at least a while. She quietly opens her mouth to say something, but is suddenly cut off by the sound of a new voice coming in from a nearby doorway.
	“Did she lose again?” Just then, a blonde-haired Cu Sith saunters her way through before planting her rump against the floor next to the Faeline, a small bowl of potato chips in hand. She was the third of the trio, and she was simply trying to enjoy as many snacks as were available. If nothing else, she was rather comfortable in her t-shirt/loose pants combo, and the low braid in her hair did what it was meant to do - keep her hair out of her face. At the sound of her voice, the Faeline turns her head towards the new arrival.
	“Unfortunately, yes.”
	“Tooooooooold you.” And with that, the Cu Sith pops a chip into her mouth before turning towards the elf behind her. “When’re you gonna use that cheat code I told you about?” The elf’s brow furrows at the sound of that.
	“What, ‘n take all’a th’ fun outta ev’rythin’?”
	“Well, why not?” The elf rolls her eyes for a moment before pressing herself back to what was going on and pressing the “Start” button once more. Almost immediately, the character on the screen stands up in its spot and starts to move again. With each press of a button on the elf’s controller, the character on the screen moves in and out from fireball after fireball heading its way, the platform-like car beneath it doing its best to keep itself on its programmed course.
	For a moment or two, the elf keeps her gaze pointed to the screen in front of her before the character glowing its way out from there smacks itself against an orange sphere of pixels - almost immediately, the elf lets out a groan. If she kept this up, then there would be no way that she could finish that game! She shakes her head after a moment or two and gets back into it, though soon lets out another groan and a “Come on!” after getting pelted by another sphere of simulated fire.
	Before long, though, the elf leans back in her seat once again, the screen in front of her quickly being covered by the words “GAME OVER” once again.
	“AUGH, YOU’VE GOTTA BE KIDDIN’ ME!” At the sound of the elf’s voice, the Faeline lets out a bit of a wince - her friend was loud, there was no doubt about that. The Cu Sith lets out a bit of a cackle at her friend’s plight, too, before stuffing another set of chips into her mouth.
	“Hah! Tooooold ya’! You gonna do something with that cheat code or not?” For a moment or two, the elf simply lays there with her arms splayed out behind her against the cushions.
	“Ugh… iffin’ I do, that gon’ shut y’up, Ezzie? Cause iffin’ it don’t I know somethin’ that will.” With that, the elf sits up with anger burning behind her eyes - she grabs the controller from beside her, and leans forward. “Now, what’s th’ damn code?” With that, the Cu Sith plants a smirk onto her face.
	“Finally breaking down, huh? Fine by me, I guess.” She stuffs another chip into her mouth before answering. “So, go to the main menu, hold start, L and R, and tilt the controller back towards you.” At the sound of that, the elf lets out a grumbling sigh before doing as told - first, she presses a button on the middle of the controller, then the buttons on the top, and quickly tilts the controller back towards herself.
	A moment later, bright white light fills the room.

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	For a moment, the only thing that the three of them could see was the bright, sterile white light that filled the room. The next thing they knew, the three of them were standing on the back of the largest car that they had ever seen. They each stand there frozen, as if trying to process everything that had just happened. The Faeline was the first to say anything.
	“Wait, we’re… O-Oh no…” And with that, the Faeline starts to look her way around the place before nearly missing a rather pixelated ball of fire that would have likely taken her head off if she was just an inch or two to the right. Almost immediately, her eyes go wide and she quickly turns to look at the plight in front of her. “Oh no… oh no, oh no, oh no…” She shakes her head - in front of her was the boss that the elf had been trying to defeat for hours and hours. Wait… the elf! She quickly turns around to face her two friends that were standing stock-still on the top of that car.
	“Ezzie, Clementine, are you two al- Oof!” And with that, another ball of fire lobs itself her way before smacking itself square against her back. She quickly falls forward onto her knees before scrambling to the elf and grabbing onto her camisole and yanking her down towards the front of the car. A moment later, the elf blinks and looks around from her new spot on the hood of that moving car.
	“Huh? Wha-...? Lydia? What… where are we?” At her words, the Faeline scrambles towards the Cu Sith before dragging her down as well, a fear-stricken look on her face. Almost immediately, the Cu Sith presses herself up from her spot on the ground.
	“WHO-WHAT-WHEN-WHERE-HUH!?” Just as soon as she says those words does a pixelated sphere of orange smack itself across her cheeks, causing her to bring her hands up to her face. “FUCK!” Almost immediately, the Faeline is there at her side, making sure that everything was alright.
	“Well… I c’n rightly tell ya’ that we’re… well, we ain’t havin’ no Girl’s Night anytime soon…” The elf looks around from her spot on the front of that car, her eyes wide with worry - woken up to everything looking like it’s from some sort of game, and everything looks like it hurts you in every single way possible tends to do that to you, of course. The Faeline, on the other hand, simply sits there with the Cu Sith by her side. “Lydie, you got any thoughts on what’s goin’ on, or…?”
	“Well… from the looks of things, I daresay that we’re in the final level of the game.” At that point, the elf furrows her brows - there was no way, was there?
	“You’re shittin’ me.”
	“Well, Clementine, judging from the fact that I’ve seen everything you’ve played for the past hour or two, I think I am not “shitting” you right now!” And with that, the Faeline sits up a bit before turning towards the elf. “Needless to say, I don’t think that I want to see what happens when we lose.”
	“No shit, sherlock.” And with that, the Cu Sith sits up for a moment or two, her face looking like it’s not too hurt from that ball of pixelated flame from before. “You know how the hell we can get outta here, Lydia?”
	“Ezzie, if I did, we wouldn’t be here right now!” The Faeline presses her palms to her cheeks for a moment or two - this was starting to wear her patience thinner and thinner by the second… “Can we, just… can we at least try and win this? See if we can figure things out, then?”
	“Well, iffin’ we don’t, I doubt we’re gon’ get another life fer this.” And with that, the elf stands up from her spot on the car top - thankfully, even with everything going on, the three of them weren’t being knocked around. Hopefully, everything stays that way. Now, let’s see what we’ve got, yeah?” Almost immediately, though, she ends up swerving her body to one side to avoid another fireball from smacking itself against her face. “Shit!”
	Meanwhile, the Faeline and the Cu Sith stand up as well, and begin their own digital dodging for the time being - now that they know what was going on, dodging shouldn’t be too difficult to do. With that, the three of them start to bob and weave their way around the pixelated onslaught coming their way, each fireball missing each of their forms with barely another word between  the two of them.
	“Heh, hey, Ezzie, check me out! Don’t think y’ got anythin’ t’ say ‘bout me right now, do ya’?” And with that, the elf looks back towards her friend for the time being, a smirk planted on her cheeks. The Cu Sith furrows her brows for a moment or two before her eyes widen and she points a finger.
	“LOOK OUT!” At the Cu Sith’s words, the elf’s eyes widen before she turns herself around towards the front. Almost immediately, a fireball smacks itself against her face, knocking her onto her rump with a dull “thud” onto the hood of that car. As soon as she lands, everything fades to a dull gray before the words “GAME OVER” flash up out of nowhere in front of the three of them. The Faeline’s eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.
	“W...We lost, didn’t we…?” She looks to the Cu Sith, who simply looks ahead with equally wide eyes and a slack mouth. She simply nods her head before the car beneath the three of them starts to rumble… A moment or two later, and that digital machine explodes into a mass of pixels and polygons, each one scattering itself to the digital wind with the three girls coming along for the ride.

	No extra lives for them.