Choatic Cosplay Conversation (Dice Changers)

It was a typical school day afternoon at the game store. Jack was doing homework, and Nick and Arron were playing video games on a TV. Trevor was struggling with making a trifold presentation for a school project.

"Hey, Nick, I know you love World War 2, so would you say that the Allies beat the Axis because of better logistics or better strategy?" asked Trevor. "Ok, that is a crazy question," said Nick as he struggled to play the game while trying to formulate an answer to Trevor's question. Nick lost the round due to being distracted. "Dangit, I didn't even see him," said Nick as he relaxed. "Another round?" asked Arron as he set up another one. "Yeah. Anyways. Sorry Trevor. Back to your question. So, the simple answer is better logistics. Like, there is a story of a group of Nazis seizing an Allied convoy and seeing freshly baked cakes, and they knew they were going to lose because if the Allies were able to get fresh food, they couldn't afford to keep going. There's also the ice cream barrages in the Pacific theater, which made the Japanese military leaders realize that they were way over their heads, but the emperor wanted to die with honor until the bombs dropped. Also, better strategies are only possible with equal or better logistics," answered Nick. "Wait, the Allies had ice cream barrages?" asked Trevor. "Yep, they were a very real thing. An entire military ship whose sole purpose was to sail with a fleet and carry ice cream for sailors," said Nick as he and Arron started another round. "Huh, I never knew that," said Trevor as he wrote stuff down. "Wait, you never knew that?" asked Jack as he looked up from his homework. "Wait, hold up, how do you know that?" asked Trevor, shocked by Jack's interjection. "Look, just because I was homeschooled by a crazy cult doesn't mean I don't know a thing or two about history. In fact, I get bored in history class because I already know like 80 to 85 percent of the information already," said Jack. "Trevor, do you not know that Jack and I are taking the same history class?" asked Arron. "You are?" asked Trevor as he put his head in his hands, looking at his trifold poster. "Congrats, guys, we all made Trevor question his sanity once again," said Nick as all the boys started laughing.

Then came Mia, who was wearing her new cheerleading outfit with a black jacket. "Hey, guys, how's training going?" asked a tired Mia as she found a chair and sat beside Arron. "Training? Oh, um. It was good," said Arron, not looking away from the TV screen. "It was just the normal stuff. Arron and I got all our work done, so we've been destressing," said Nick with sweat coming down his forehead and fingers. Mia looked at the screen and saw that Arron and Nick were playing some sort of 3D fighting game with both of them spamming moves, dodges, and blocks. As she looked at one of the characters. "You know, I think I cosplayed as that character before," said Mia as she pointed at the screen of a light-skinned woman wearing a very revealing multicolored dress covered in magcal energy. She was also hovering above the ground when Arron hit the pause button, and the Pause screen came on. "What do you mean by that?" asked Arron, who felt very uncomfortable. "Well, back when I was...you know. There were several times where I had to cosplay certain characters because people wanted to fulfill their um...' fantasies'. The character on the screen reminded me of one of them," said Mia as the memories began to flood her. She began to feel pain and chills all over her body. Then those memories were interrupted by Wav-Ta. She fought back. She stabbed and blasted with magic. She made Mia feel safe and calmed her mind. "Ok, welp, I won't be able to play this character ever again," said Arron as he went back to the home screen. It had a colorful cast of characters ranging from the sexy magic lady in a similar revealing outfit to a huge fat sumo dude with a shiny bald head in overalls. Mia then pointed at one of the characters. "Yep, that's her," said Mia. "You mean you were forced to cosplay Queen Ruth?" said Arron, feeling even more uncomfortable and on the verge of leaving. Nick just sat there, disgusted with himself, even making gag noises. Going so far as to lean over the side of his chair and fake vomit. "Ok, so did you play this or did you like watch others play it?" asked Arron shyly. "I didn't personally, because we weren't allowed to use voice chat or anything to ask for help. So I was forced to sit and watch as a grown man play as those types of characters, as I was dressed like her before and after he, uh, you know. To me," said Mia, her voice becoming more and quieter with each other word. "Oh my gosh, it keeps getting worse," said Nick. "I...I didn't know. I am so sorry," said Arron, shocked at what he heard.

In just 5 minutes, the game store went from laughing and good vibes to stunned and disgusted silence. Trevor and Jack came over from the bigger tables to check out what was happening. "Uh, is everything ok? We heard disgusted sounds and something about Mia's past?" asked Trevor. "Nope, everything's fine. Well, except for the fact that me and Arron can never play this game ever again," said a disappointed Nick. "Why, this is like your top five favorite game franchises?" asked Jack. "Well, it used to be until me and Arron were told by Mia that she was forced to cosplay Queen Ruth, back when she was...trapped by the um. Trafficers," said Nick, uncomfortable with the words he was forced to say. "Ugh. That is gross. Arron have some dignity, man. Mia's probably traumatized by this," said Trevor. "Well, actually-" Mia started to speak, only for Jack to interject again. "Wow, Arron, wow. Just wow. You're heartless. You know that. Mia's been scarred more times than I have, and I grew up in a cult," said Jack. "HE DIDN'T KNOW!" shouted Mia. The room went completely silent. "He didn't know, none of you knew. You weren't supposed to know. Now you do. Big whoop," said Mia as she crossed her arms across her chest. Silence.

The game store manager came in. "What happened now?" he asked. Putting his hands on his hips with a disdainful look on his face. "I recognized something from my. Past. The boys freaked out because now they won't be able to play without bad thoughts entering their heads," said Mia. The boys, at various speeds at various times, nodded in agreement. "Why do you boys constantly have to make everything dirty? Get your heads out of the gutter for one day," said the manager as he then walked over and stared at the TV screen, which had the word Pause in the middle. "Oh, this game. Well, now I see. Let me guess, Queen Ruth? Forced to roleplay?" asked the manager. Mia nobbed. "Crap. Freakin pedos always ruining good things," said the manager. "Well, I mean, if you think about it, it's kind of why...they got their name?" said Trevor as everyone in unison turned toward Trevor with disgusted looks. Jack, Arron, and Nick began chuckling at the dark joke, the manager shook his head, and Mia's jaw dropped in disbelief. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me," said Trevor as he shrank into a ball. "Aye na aye, what am I going to do with you kids?" asked the manager as he walked away, shaking his head. "It was supposed to be an easy training day," he said, still walking to the counter.

The rest of the time was awkward silence as one by one the members left and went home. Mia and Arron went together. As Mia looked through the mirror, tired from practice, tired of being treated like a disabled puppy, tired of fighting the demons of her past. Wav-Ta seemed to be the only one who actively fought by her side and for her. Why though? Why now? They've only known each other for at most a month, and they started on the wrong foot, too, so what changed? Mia tried to concentrate, trying to talk to Wav-Ta, but only got silence, and was given silence for the rest of the night.