LOUISE

Amvery was silent as she appeared to be thinking to herself about how to best cancel the tag team storyline we’d ended up in, deciding that leaving our brand entirely would be the way to go.

“Yep, canceling this now is the best option,” Amvery said. “Ugh, but Crimsalia’s so boring.”

“More boring than the worst storyline in the game?” I asked. This was my opening if I wanted her to stay. She would be miserable stuck on the Crimsalia brand.

Amvery groaned. “OK, fine, I guess oddball partners isn’t as bad as normie Crimsalia mode.”

The two brands in career mode served a few purposes. The Crimsalia brand was the one more advertised as it was seen as more palatable to a wider audience, with more of a focus on a male roster and generally had cis and straight characters (and it was more boring, as Amvery said).

Due to the Indicordia mode focusing more on a female roster, as well as it being the only brand that they snuck in more LGBTQ characters and features that the publisher wasn’t entirely aware of, it ended up as the one preferred by queer DFA fans, and because the main advertised brand was boring, the queer DFA fandom gradually became the main fandom of the game, turning it into a cult classic of sorts.

“But…if I stay…how are we supposed to team up?” Amvery asked.

“We didn’t have too many problems teaming up when we played for our little club.” I said.

“Just a few shouting matches, one broken A/V cart that led to us getting suspended, not too many problems.” Amvery said.

“Alright, but this is a new world,” I said. “And we’re the only ones that are from another world, so we have that connection. It might be good for us to team up.”

“Tch.” Amvery said. She was starting to concede a bit.

Knowing I was maybe a better option than the dull Crimsalia brand kind of made my tummy warm. I blurted something else out that I maybe wouldn’t have if I thought about it more.

“Us girls gotta stick together, right?”

Amvery scowled. “Don’t use my words against me. We’re not sticking together, we’re just…compatriots of circumstances of fate. Once I get my Proto legs and once we figure out our deals, I don’t think we’ll have much to say to each other.”

“After we finish this tag team storyline that is.” I added.

“Sure.” Amvery said.

“How about this,” I said, knowing how Amvery was when she negotiated for something.

“If you don’t switch brands, and if you stay,” I said. “While we’re going through this, we can have a truce of sorts.”

“A truce.”

“Yes, it’s not that absurd. Hear me out. If we make it through this tag team storyline without incident, then we can end it amicably. We just have to make it through this. Maybe together we can figure out some more about how we got here, or more excitingly, win our first championships?”

Amvery froze.

“Did you forget we could win championships now?”

“I…yeah.” Amvery said. “Fine. Deal. We make it through this, and then we don’t have to deal with each other. Sure, we can do that.”

I almost added “We don’t have to be done with each other, either.” But I kept my mouth shut.

And so we found ourselves waiting backstage for our match. With some of the sports clubs I was in, I had fairly good teamwork. At least my coaches never had any complaints. But I never really forged any long-term bonds with any of my teammates. Maybe it was best to say my teamwork was perfectly average.

“OK, when we go out, I walk out first.” Amvery said. “And I start the match, I want practice with the opening tail duel. And I’m the team leader if anyone asks.”

“What if I want practice with the opening duel?” I asked.

“You don’t need the practice there.”

“So you’re saying I’m better?” I asked.

“Ugh,” Amvery said. “I’m just saying you won a match already! I haven’t.”

“So we get you out of the way and then I go in later to make sure you don’t lose this for us?”

“If you’re going to be a brat I can just stay on the side and let you get your ass kicked by your favs.” Amvery said.

“And you’d risk an 0-2 record for that?”

She didn’t have an answer for that.

I let Amvery go first. I held onto my debates for a while, but she tended to wear me out long enough to win via having better argument endurance. The announcers explained the situation.

“These two were rivals last week,” Graptikulus Krisp said. “And now they’re partners!”

“I guess the managers wanted to see if some teamwork chemistry could come from this!” The Beez said.

A very concise explanation.

Mikayla Speed and Kylie McCloud waited in the ring for us. I would get to face off against two of my favorite DFA characters. Or personifications of them. Or their real selves? I shook my head. I always had a hard time reading stories about characters reborn in other worlds, and I couldn’t let the way my brain processed things like that catch me off guard as the bell rang. True to her word, Amvery went first. I was stuck on the side. Amvery could tag out and I’d be the legal fighter for the match, but I knew I may have to tag myself in if Amvery really tried to tank this on her own.

She was against Kylie first. The bell rang and the two swung their tails at each other. I expected Amvery to lose this easily, but she held her own long enough for a stalemate.

“A good start,” Kylie said. “Let’s see what you got.”

“How about less talking and more of your fabled hands-on approach, yeah?” Amvery said.

“Sure.”

Just in terms of stats, Kylie McCloud and Mikayla Speed against week two career mode Protos was kind of a shutout. They had overall stat scores in the high 80s, while Amvery and I were likely in the low 60s. This was probably a match we wouldn’t likely win. That didn’t mean we weren’t going to try though.

Amvery rallied against Kylie’s early offense, taking a lot of shots to the face and gut but not taking a lot of overall damage. Because of Proto’s biology, they can endure quite a bit of damage without any serious repercussions, which makes for fun battles when playing, as you could deal out absurd damage without having to worry about internal injuries or anything of the sort.

Since the characters were relatively humanoid and some of the grapples and attacks are technically doable by regular humans, there’s still a ton of “Don’t try this at home” messages plastered all around the game.

After a lucky counter, Amvery darted back and prepped for a leap at Kylie. She flopped on her face just like she did during training and cursed loudly. The crowd laughed. So far, they had been firmly on Kylie’s side, which made sense with Amvery picking the bad guy route. I wondered if they’d cheer me once I got in the ring.

“Folks,” The Beez said. “This one’s probably a foregone conclusion unless Amvery Astrell can tag her partner in.”

Amvery’s head whipped my way. I held my arm out. Kylie’s eyebrows raised as she waited, inching back to her corner to tag Mikayla, stopping to see what Amvery would do.

“C’mon,” I said. “If we’re going to win this, I have to contribute something.”

I leaned forward. Amvery scooted my way and almost reached forward. I was itching to fight. Amvery moved out of my reach just before our hands touched.

“You asked me if I’d risk my record for this,” Amvery said. “And go 0-2 and just be an even bigger loser than I already am. And you know what, to spite you? I absolutely would.”

“Amvery…” I said.

“So I’m not tagging you in.”

“You idiot,” I said. I tried to reach out to smack her back, which would count as tagging in even if Amvery didn’t want to. But she dodged me. “Why are you even doing this? We had a truce!”

“Yeah, but now that I’m out here, I’m realizing nothing about the truce means I have to let you play, or that we have to win this.” Amvery said.

To their credit, Kylie and Mikayla let us have our little spat, watching on intently as we went from oddball team that potentially could show something to trainwreck partners who stood no chance because Amvery couldn’t be a team player for more than two seconds.

I started calculating a plan in my head immediately. I would wait until the next time Amvery got knocked down, rush the ring, drag her to the corner, and tag her. She’d probably have another tantrum on the way over, but that way I could get in and save herself from losing this for us.

“But!” Amvery said. “I won’t lose.”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“About winning? Yep!” Amvery said. “And I can do it single handedly.”

“There’s no way you do this on your own.”

“Watch me.” Amvery said before darting out of the ring.