The Streamer
“Yes I am listening!”
She panned the camera to face Godrick again and watched as he swung his axe into the air, winding up for a strong attack. She dodged too early, again. Before she could get another roll in, his weapon came crashing down on Nefertitty, her green-skinned warrior.
“Noooo!!” She laughed through her frustration and hit the desk beside her controller. “I know I have to wait longer there but I start to panic and…”
She sighed, swinging her hair out of her face, and slouched back on her gaming chair. Her eyes darted away from her game and back to her chat, where she tried to read as much as she could during loading times.
“Wait until you think it’s time to dodge and then wait a bit more Kappa, That’s some GREAT advice, thanks a lot for that.” She winked at the camera and took a sip of water from her cup. “Run away and wait for an openi.. Yeah I’ll try it for this next go. I know I could take it slow, one hit at a time, you know, but I don’t want the fight to last an hour either. Alright, we can do this.”
She adjusted her position on the chair and placed her right foot back on the adaptive controller under her desk. She smoothly rotated the camera using her big toe before walking out of the tight passageway towards the fog gate, controlling her character with the help of her left arm. Angling her shoulder down, she pushed on the oversized joystick with her stump to reach Nepheli Loux’s summon sign, using this short pause to get a few more reads in.
“Yeah, I read that too on the Elden Ring Wiki. I just don’t want to spoil myself too much on weaknesses and tips yet… I gotta try and get good" She raised the stump of her upper arm, wiggling it as a way to mimic air quotes. "by myself first. Alright, here we go.”
After walking through the fog gate, she immediately sprinted towards Godrick, taking a sharp right to evade his first swing. She pressed the right joystick to lock-on to him and moved her toes left to gain easier access to the action buttons. In the center of the stick, her arm hesitated, tugging slightly towards her. Although fingerless, the skin of her stump gripped on the soft rubber. One, two, three strikes, she took her chance. With Nepheli Loux having all his attention, she managed to get in a few good hits before the aggro switched back to her. She yelped, dodge-rolling away from him as fast as her foot would allow her, and took a quick second to look at the chat. She didn’t register a single message, but the scrolling speed told her a lot about the encouragement she was receiving.
“Slow and steady, boys. Slow and…” Her eyes grew wide. “Hey, hey, woah calm down my friend…” After channeling the wind around him, Godrick quickly jumped towards her and knocked her down. “Shit, shit..”
Again, she tugged the joystick towards her, but this time raised her shield as she backed away. She lifted her chin off the plastic button to lower her guard and took a sip out of her flask before quickly pressing it down again. When Nepheli Loux took aggro again, she took some time to prepare her next attack, first pressing another large button with her chin to activate Barbaric Roar, and then simultaneously hitting triangle with her toe and yet a third button with her face. She swallowed and tried to unclench her jaw while maintaining good pressure on the button. Now wielding her club with two hands, she dashed towards the boss and jump-attacked, rolled through a swing of his axe, and hit him again twice in the back. She went for a third one but regretted her decision.
“Aw shit I didn’t recognize the animation from the back, he’s gonna slam the ground!! I’m out of stamina! NOO!!”
Godrick slammed and emptied her health bar, throwing her around the area like a doll. She knocked her foot camera down out of frustration, letting it point towards the underside of her desk for a minute. Not without effort, she replaced it correctly on the designated tissue box to her left. She stared at its feed on her second monitor as she rocked herself from side to side, biting the interior of her mouth. Her shorts crumpled around her empty left hip, twisting the cartoon unicorns in impossible angles, messing up their designs and shapes.
“Yeah rip camera, I know. Can’t say I never did anything for you guys. I’d love to get it to look down at my foot, like to fix it to my desk but I’ll need help for that. For now, you get the tissue box stand!” She laughed and fixed her hair, taking another sip of water. “Lose the shorts? The shorts stay on, my brother.” The game had finished loading but she let her character idle where it had spawned. “Nope, not losing the top either. You guys have to be more convincing than that to get that sort of treat.”
The subscription jingle soon broke the silence she had left to linger. She laughed out loud, folding herself in half to rest her forehead on the desk. “Lose the game! Yeah that’s definitely true. Thanks for the 5 bucks my guy, greatly appreciated. Welcome to the Crippled Club.” She brought her stump to her lips and blew a kiss to her facecam.
The Runner
Hayley didn't know for how long she could keep running at that pace. The muscles in her legs burned like they were on fire, the air lacerated her throat as it was forced into her lungs… She wiped the sweat that dripped into her eyes and the scratches on her face started burning, too.
"FIND THE GIRL!!" A voice shouted. "YOU'RE OUTNUMBERED, GIVE UP ALREADY!!"
She tightened her grip on the stolen amulet and pressed on, pushing through a thigh thicket of leafless bushes, crouching to dodge low branches, heaving up a slippery hill. As she emerged into a clearer part of the forest, she noticed a moving shadow to her right. Before she could even frown, a bolt of magical energy hit her in the shins and threw her down on the forest floor.
She knew she had to get up, but her body had started to give up. She looped the amulet’s golden chain around her neck with difficulty, her limbs feeling like overcooked spaghetti. A groan escaped her lips as she tried to push herself up, a handful of dirt into each of her clenched fists, anchoring a foot on the uneven ground. A loud crack tore through the stillness of the woods and sent her to the ground again. A sharp pain exploded in her leg. She almost forgot about the chase, the Priests, the amulet, the forest. Her racing breath was the only thing she could hear.
Her right foot had broken off of her calf. It laid before her, incandescent like smoldering embers, indistinguishable from firewood ; cracked, splintered. Her hand reached under her tunic only to feel the flesh of her thigh dissolving into ashes. She panicked, flipped over on her knees and collapsed once more. It was her left leg this time, somewhere near her hip. Pain flared where her limb had snapped off, pulsating with every beat of her heart. Pushing her leg stump against the earth and mud, she forced herself forward with strength born of despair. She crawled over branches and sharp rocks, yelped when one of her nails was torn off her finger, battling against her oversized tunic just as much as her own dismembered body,
"There you are.."
To her right, a man towered over her, his hands joined in an intricate pattern. He mumbled a few syllables and projected his palms towards Hayley, letting out a thick cloud of black smoke. Before it could reach her, the amulet around her neck sprung upwards, absorbing every last drop of darkness that was left in the spell. It hovered in midair, vibrating, before blasting the man with a burst as black as the spell he had just cast. He recoiled, flying several feet into the air, before collapsing on the ground, his limbs twisted, dead.
Two other men quickly arrived at the scene, alerted by the altercation. One of them started mumbling an incantation before being stopped by the second.
“Wanna end up like Gustav?” He said, pointing back to the amulet’s victim. The caster untangled and lowered his hands. “That’s better.” He reached forward, slapping Hayley’s hands away as she tried to defend herself. He ripped the chain off of her neck, stuffing the amulet in the inner pocket of his cloak, and put his boot against her neck. He cackled. “Oh, how much I’d love to kill you right now. That’ll be the council’s decision.” He signaled at the other, still eager to cast a spell. “Take her arms, too, and bring her along. We’re going back to the Cathedral.”
A Sunny Afternoon at the Beach
“I’m sorry, is this spot taken?”
Shielding her eyes from the sun, she looked up at a man setting up a lawn chair beside her, then at the mostly empty beach all around. She gestured at it all and shrugged.
“Sure, why not. It’s not like I can stop you.”
“I figured you wouldn’t want to.” He flopped into the chair and reached inside his cooler, pulling out cans of mixed drinks. “Would you?”
She smirked, intrigued by his confidence, and pushed herself up, sitting. “Well if you put it that way…” She reached for a raspberry and basil vodka just as he pulled it away and opened it for her. “Patronizing me already?”
In a smooth, almost imperceptible motion, he stopped handing it to her and twirled the can around to take a swig of it himself, getting another identical can from his cooler. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
She bit her lower lip, looking at him through her eyebrows. “Thank you..” She set the can on the towel before her, securing it between her short right leg and her empty hip, popping the tab with her thumb.
“Andy.” His right hand hovered in the space between them.
“Handsome, outgoing and cheeky?” She stared at him, then at his hand, deciding to go all in with his joke. She leaned towards him and twisted her torso, pushing her right shoulder forward. “Ùna.”
Without skipping a beat, Andy crossed over to set his hand on her receded shoulder, gently pinching where she had no arm. Ùna shrugged, doing her best to mimic a shake, poking the pointy bones of her clavicle into his palm. “Pleasure.”
“The pleasure is allllll mine, Andy.” Eyes locked, they drank.
For a minute, they let their gaze wander, scanning each other from head to bottom, hers lingering on the toned abdominal muscles of her new friend.
He let out a contented sigh after taking a big sip of his drink. "Day off?"
"Every days are off when you're unfit to work." She drank and lifted her short leg. It ended a few inches off of a knee in a narrowed stump. Andy scoffed goodheartedly. "I’m a freelance model on Instagram."
"That explains the perfect tan. Then I’m a soldier for hire. I play Call of Duty on Twitch. You can thank me for my service whenever you want."
She clicked her tongue. "That explains the ego." She winked, took another swig and set her drink in the sand beside her, licking lost drops of alcohol off of her lips. She pointed at the shore with her chin. “How’s the water?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.” Andy downed the rest of his drink, crushed the can, and opened himself a new one.
She gestured for him to come closer and leaned to whisper in his ear. “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
She finished her own drink, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and set her sunglasses beside her. She pushed her leg down and, with the help of her arm, plopped herself ever so slightly towards the beach. She did it again, and again, and again, and again. Always the same movement, always the same result. Andy stared as Ùna thumped down the hot sand, hypnotized by her jiggling rump every time it hit the ground. He slowly stood up, downed the entirety of his second drink, and caught up with her in just a few steps. He stayed a few paces behind, setting up the most amazing plunging look at her breasts. Them too fought to stay in place as she walked, thumped, and threw her pelvis before her. The waves finally hit them, running over his toes, and her hand and stump. Forgetting his manners and the public place they were in, he knelt and slipped his hand inside her top to gently feel her breast, letting her nipple rest in his palm. She turned to kiss him and rummaged for his dick through the bottom opening of his shorts.
"Is it time for a swim yet?" Ùna said, her hand now up against his chest.
"I think so, yeah."
Hands on her waist, Andy lifted and kissed her again, pressing them against each other. She hooked her arm around his neck and clawed at his back, like trying to dig her nails into his skin. Her right leg pressed at his side and he grasped it, holding onto it firmly himself. Into the sea he walked, and into the sea she followed, hanging on the best she could, and kissing as hard as she should. His right hand traveled downwards, feeling the dullness of her left hip, and slid her swimsuit to the side.