Jack scratched the side of his head, not really understanding.
"Um, I don't really understand how we are supposed to do a fighting game here. There are too many chairs and tables in the room to play games!"
Mia waved her hand.
"No, no, not like that. We will be using the computer in order to play the game."
Jack tilted his head to the side.
"Eh? How do we do that?"
Mia blinked a few times before pointing at the keyboard.
"Just use that. Also, depending on how the game works you might also have to use the mouse."
Jack put on a rather dumbfounded expression. It was almost possible to see several question marks appearing above his head.
"Eh? But I don't see any mice here. I remember they make squeaking sounds, and I don't hear any of those!"
He moved around in his chair as he said that, causing it to make a squeak. That made him gasp in surprise.
"Ah! Wait, there are mice here?"
He looked under his chair before looking back and forth, quite clueless. Jessica couldn't help but let out a laugh.
"She wasn't talking about a living mouse. It's the thing to the right of your keyboard. I guess they do have the same name, but they are still different things!"
Jack looked at the mouse with furrowed brows. He poked it a few times, causing it to move around a little bit. As for the keyboard, he placed his palm overtop, rubbing his hand across it. He let out a small gasp as he did so. It was all so unfamiliar. Though, a rather wide smile formed on his face.
"Ah, this is so cool! But I have no idea how to use them."
Jessica tilted her head to the side.
"You really haven't seen a piece of technology before at all? Your home must have been really remote. But I'm sure the two of us can teach you pretty well, right Mia?"
Mia blinked a few times in surprise.
"A-Ah, of course!"
Jessica looked a tad bit concerned.
"Ah, did you not want to? You sounded so excited earlier, so I thought you wanted to join in."
Mia blushed and clenched her fists together.
"What? It's nothing like that! Besides, what's the big deal in teaching the basics about using a computer? Anyway, to start, you should take a look at the arrow keys. Usually, games used W, A, S, and D instead, but it's easier to understand if we look at that first."
Jack listened attentively and slowly began picking up on how he was supposed to do things. Jessica also helped out too, usually helping by pointing out the things left out in Mia's explanation.
All of a sudden, Mia felt a strange feeling overcome her. She looked over at Jess who was dutifully explaining things to Jack just like a mother, and Jack, who was rather spoiled, but also way too excited for something incredibly trivial, just like a child. Not that he wasn't one in the first place, but it made Mia feel as though...
They were all a family together.
Two parents teaching their child. Mia originally thought that she would hate kids, but for some reason, now it didn't seem all that bad to have them.
Though before she could think about it any further, the display on their screens suddenly shifted. Instead of the instructions, it revealed a pixelated table and set of cards in the corner.
First, a Queen of Diamonds was dealt out with an exaggerated flip sound which then turned into a 2D character. From there, a 9 and 10 of spades appeared, which wrapped around the character to form plate armor. From there, a 10 of hearts appeared, becoming a sword within the character's hand.
From there, a health and attack text appeared at the top of the screen, both showing 19 and 10 respectively.
Afterward, the deck dealt out cards to each of them respectively, appearing digitally on the screen. Jack received a total of 4 cards.
3 of Diamonds, 6 of Clubs, 6 of Diamonds, 7 of Diamonds.
Jess and Mia also received different types of cards themselves. Jack let out a small gasp of awe before attempting to reach out toward the computer screen as though he could pick up the card.
However, he was surprised once his fingers only bumped off of them, just like how a bird would fly into glass unknowingly.
"Ah! What is this?"
Mia smiled bitterly.
"That's the monitor, the things you see aren't actually there. Instead, it's just making a picture to look like them."
Jack's eyes widened.
"Oooooh!"
While he was in awe, a blue circle of light appeared underneath him, and what appeared to be a rectangular CD tray popped out from the computer. There was text on the monitor above it along with an arrow pointing to the tray.
'Insert playing cards you wish to use here.'
The queen gradually transitioned over to the right, while a pixelated character that looked awfully close to Jack appeared on the other side. Big text appeared near the top.
'Select a card to use as an attack.'
A dotted outline appeared and waited for his choice. Out of instinct, Jack reached out with a finger, and pushed against the monitor, attempting to move the 7 of diamonds into the empty area. Unfortunately, that didn't really work for him.
Jessica chimed in with a bitter smile.
"No, no, you have to use the mouse for that!"
Jack pursed his lips and hurriedly retracted his finger.
"Oops! So I have to hold it down with one finger and then drag it?"
He fumbled a bit with the mouse, but was able to get it to work in the end, putting the 7 into the hollow area. The 7 of diamonds warped before becoming a rapier, which his in-game character now held. Afterwards, the text switched.
'Select the card(s) you wish to use for defense.'
After a moment of thought, Jack put both 6's in. He didn't have to worry too much about suits, since none of his cards were hearts or spades like how it was for the Queen. They warped together to become a red and black set of chainmail.
All of the weapons and armor had suits decorated on top of them depending on the cards used to make them.
The game screen then pulled the cards away, so that the only thing visible was the simple plain red and black background and the two game characters. However, before the game actually started, a set of instructions appeared on the screen.
They were quite simple.
W to Jump
S to Duck
A and D to move
O to attack.
There were no inputs available. Even to children, this kind of game was unbearably simple. However, Jack was overwhelmed when he looked at the screen.
"E-Eh? So I use these to move... and then this one to attack?"
He looked down at the keyboard with furrowed brows. Before he could think too long about it, the actual game started. The queen immediately began moving towards him, causing Jack to panic.
"Ah! Wait, I need to attack!"
He looked down and pressed the O key. However, while his character did an animation to thrust forward, the Queen simply jumped over it. From there, the sword came down and slammed into Jack.
Although it hit his head, the armor all around his body was heavily damaged. Although it was still on his character, it was essentially all reduced to scraps.
Jack let out a concerned gasp when he returned his gaze to the computer, trying to retreat away. However, just as he did that, the Queen followed up with another attack, which caused his in-game character to cough up blood and fall onto the ground. Big bold letters appeared on the screen.
'Game Over'
Jack held onto the side of his head with shock.
"Ah! This game is so hard! Did I already lose? Oh... what did I do wrong?"
Jessica had a gentle smile on her face.
"Well, you are new to using a computer. Don't be too worried about it. But still... this game really does seem unforgiving. Not only was your attack dodged, but it was quickly followed up by a finishing blow."
The blue light then appeared underneath Jessica. She furrowed her brows while looking at the cards on her screen.
"The suits are quite unfortunate..."
She used a 4 of hearts for her weapon and a 7 of spades along with a 3 of clubs for her defense. It gave her a sword like the Queen, though it was a bit shorter, along with what looked like plater armor.
The instructions for control appeared briefly, and Jessica took a deep breath, ready to try and fight. When the game started, the Queen immediately moved forward again, and Jessica furrowed her brows while backing away.
However, backing away was slower than moving forward. The Queen caught up soon enough, prompting Jessica to slash with the sword when she got close. Yet, while the animation was happening, the Queen backed up out of the way.
Right after it finished, the Queen stepped up and did her own sword swing.
Jessica tried to back away, but she was frozen in the ending animation of her attack for a moment and ended up getting hit. All of the plate armor immediately shattered and fell off, leaving only a bloodied Jess in her plain clothes.
Jessica didn't give up at this point, moving forward and attacking, attempting to get one attack in. Since she attacked while moving, she dashed forward and did a wide overhead swing. Unfortunately, the Queen ducked while next to Jessica, and the hitbox of the attack didn't reach, only banging off the ground uselessly.
Then the Queen slashed once more, making Jessica reach the game over screen. She stared at it for a while, taken aback by the situation.
"Is... Is this game even meant to be beaten?"
Mia narrowed her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm an expert in these kinds of games."