_24 HRS BEFORE_

**NEW PLAYER DETECTED.**

**~MISSION ACQUIRED: METEOR~**

Milton had heard that there's like...over thirty-something verbs that all mean "to kill" in Latin.

There's actually four he remembers in particular: 

_Neco. Caedo. Interficio._

**_Vivamus, moriendum est!_**

He knows you've probably never heard that last phrase before, but since you're wondering, it means:

**_“Let us live, since we must die.”_**

Before he got sick, Milton's dad used to say "that’s what he'd call an _epic statement_."

But then, back to what Milton was saying... 

In Japanese there’s maybe eleven or so words meaning “to kill”.

_Kiru_

_Korosu_

Honestly, that’s all he knows.

He figured that there’d be a lot in English, too. He started his own list, actually.

Words that mean “to kill”

1. Murder

2. Assassinate

3. Obliterate

4. Exterminate

5. Execute

6. Slaughter

7. Annihilate

8. Snuff

9. Neutralize

10. Eradicate

11. Finish

12. Massacre

13. Waste

14. Slay

He only has like fourteen but that’s not even taking into account all of the words depicting _how_ a person could die.

_Drowned._

_ Poisoned._

_ Asphyxiated._

_ Electrocuted._

_ Liquidated._

_ Smothered._

_ Suffocated._

_ Sacrificed._

_ Crucified._

_ Butchered._

_ _

_Decapitated._

_               Hung._

_                    Buried._

_                             E x p l o d e d_

_ _

So yeah, actually, the list there is pretty extensive, too. 

That’s fourteen more...so like twenty-eight in total for whoever is counting. 

Milton loves things like that -- studying concepts that most people might not know, things they may think are weird or a waste of time.

It was quixotic, really.

He fancies himself a collector of the eclectic…for him, it was almost... like a game.

And for Milton, naught was more poetic than a good game.

The world was shit...certainly...but that's what he supposed escapism was for.

That’s how he met Mady, after all.

_Cosmically._

**_COMPANION UNLOCKED

~ LEVEL ONE~ _**

Mady was something like the result of several galaxies colliding and reforming at once, or at least, that’s what Milton thought.

He thought she was the perfect side kick to his genius...or y’know maybe _he_ was the sidekick. 

He was okay with that, too.

He liked the way her lime green hair drew the worst kind of attention.

Though, to Milton, it was like looking at Palutena from 1986 Kid Icarus, _ruler of Skyworld._

He liked that she was so forward and bold -- that was often rare to find these days.

He liked that she was uncomfortable and strange, too. It was refreshing, and Milton had grown so bored of _normies_.

When they’d first met, Mady had shamelessly shoved her pointer finger in his face. 

He remembered staring at her dirty fingernails as they disappeared into a fist. 

He remembered his heart stopping as her empyrean eyes connected with his.

He remembered the stars that had exploded into his vision as her knuckles connected with his chin.

“You fucking killed me, ugly dickshit!!!!!”

Milton had looked down to find his too-big dress shoes resting comfortably atop a nintendo DS. Though the screen was cracked, it still lit with an impressive scene from vintage_ Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time_.

“I _hate_ you!!!” Mady had screamed, scooping up the game and stomping into the street.

Milton remembers this moment as the exact instant _before_ he fell in love with her.
It wasn’t until Mady walked away, her checkered skirt and fringed denim jacket tailing behind her, that he’d truly fallen. 

And once it clicked what game she'd been playing, Milton knew he'd just been **obliterated**.

That’s kill word #3. 

"_She's perfect_." he whispered.

**_~FATALITY~

WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE WHERE YOU LEFT OFF?

_**

The day that Milton met Mady, he followed her like a puppy as far as she would let him.

Which, to Milton's delight, was simply the local arcade.

"Weird kid...load up on bills and get me another 300 coins. I swear I'm about to get this record in _Galaga_."

"That's like $50..."

"So, halfway to the new DSi console you owe me then...let's make it 600 coins- _NO! I was fucking merked again!_"

Milton had only just met Mady and she'd already given him a new word meaning "to kill". 

#29 - **_Merked_**. 

She was just _so smart_. 

"Why is the arcade so empty anyways? This is _boring_ -- I wanna shoot someone in Black Ops but no one's even here but you. It was packed yesterday."

"Oh, do you come to this arcade often, then?"

Milton already recognized Mady as a woman of superior (S-Tier even) taste and class. So he was already confident the answer would be yes.

"**No**, I hate people."

Well, _even better_, Milton thought.

"I do too, sometimes."

"Well, that's obvious, noob -- people suck. But if no one comes, who's pockets am I supposed to raid for coins? Are they at school or something?"

"Oh, true."

Milton found himself enamored by Mady's undoubted genius.

When he looked at her, her eyes glimmered two different colors. Purple and green.

Like a comic book character.

He knew it was definitely colored-contacts, but still, he found staring at her like looking into an outerspace kaleidoscope. 

"_Drivewar! Monsoon! Roller Coaster!_"

"Huh?"

"It's a game I made up in prison -- but you have to answer quickly or you're dead. **_Favorite color!"

_**_Made up herself?_ Mady was so creative.**_

_**_"Uh_...**black****_. _**Aren't you too young for prison_?"_

**_

_**_"_That's just what I called my foster lady's spot. **_Favorite food!"

"_**Chicken nuggets?**_"

"_**_Yum_**_..._**Nothing better...**_Favorite game!"

_**Milton's eyes widened. His voice fell silent as his vision found the store's _first_**_ _**_edition 1979 Atari arcade machine for _**_Asteroids _**-- beautiful and untouched. 

Usually the machine was wrapped tight in plastic, like an eighth world wonder, unreachable from prying hands and eyes.

But for some reason, today, Milton's gift had been wonderfully unwrapped.

Mady followed Milton's eyes to the _Asteroids _machine.

"Well-"

"**_Kids_**_!! What are you still doing here? The city is _**_shut down_**_! Haven't you watched the news? Where's your _**_parents_**_? There's no _**_time_**_!_**"**

The familiar shopkeeper, Mr. Juvani, who sometimes gave Milton snacks, bursted through the arcade doors.

"_Parents_?" Mady asked, "For _what_?"

And laughed heartily.

Mr. Juvani's eyes squinted as he turned away.

"_I don't have time for this...find a _**_bunker_**_! _**_Hurry_**_! The meteor is _**_coming to destroy everything_**_! _**_Tomorrow! We're ALL gonna DIE!"_**

And with that, Mr. Juvani disappeared.

Once he was gone, Mady asked Milton,

"So your favorite game is **Asteroids**?" 

"Yes! How'd you know!"

"Mine too! And it's kinda funny since there's a meteor or whatever." 

"I know right? Sounds like a _skill issue_."

"Literally. Go get the coins, though -- I'm serious. Let's play _Asteroids_." 

_ _

**COMPANION ACQUIRED: MADY**

**~FINAL ROUND ~**

Now that the machine was open, all day and all night, Milton and Mady played _Asteroids_, working hard to set its first and only record. 

Milton knew it was seriously the best day of his life. 

Their dawdling went from stealing snacks out the back room to bubblegum pops and overstuffed bears from the prize shelves.

Milton died hundreds and hundreds of times playing, Mady too, but it wasn't even about that.

They'd been:

             C_rushed._

_                    Smooshed._

_                          Destroyed._

**_+#30, +#31, +#32_**

But milton had never smiled this much...like...ever.

It was nice to have a teammate.

A few other people stopped in to scream about "the meteor" but all of them were mostly annoying and loud.

So Milton and Mady knew that those people were obviously trying to nerf. 

To Milton and Mady, things like death or being killed weren't the scary part.

Milton could tell you, people die from less all the time. Like Milton's dad, people get sick. 

They get into accidents. 

They get hurt by bad people. 

They die.

So literally who cares, honestly. 

And heroes die all the time and its cool as fuck so. 

_"Driveway! Monsoon! Roller Coaster!"_

Milton asked in the morning, winds peaking and sky glowing an unnatural reddish purple.

"Shoot..." Mady asked.

"Are you scared?"

"Scared of what?" Mady crowed,

"If anyone can beat an asteroid it's us, honestly."

"Exactly!" Milton lauged.

"It's actually funny, though. This sounds like a skill issue."

"**_Vivamus, moriendum est"

_**

"Oh I know what that means."

"You do?"

"Duh. It means _you're so ugly I could die_."

"_She's perfect..._" Milton sighed.

And as they prepared to fight the final boss -- level **one thousand **of_ Asteroids_**,** or maybe Meteors, Milton swore the fiery flames looked almost purple and green.

So he added "_Mady_" as **word #33** that means "to kill", 

because he was definitely...

**_~ WASTED ~_**

**GAME ERROR>€£*%££££££**

**~YOU'VE LOST CONNECTION~**

**~****_GAME OVER~_**