How To Spend the Rest of the Night
Luz’s POV
Luz flexed her fingers nervously. The Artificer's Staff floated on her screen, complete and ready to share with the public. She’d already pasted the link to download it into the online chat room where people could share the things that they were working on for other people to try out on their own personal servers. This wasn’t the first project she’d ever submitted though, so she didn’t understand why she was so nervous. Maybe it was because she was submitting it anonymously this time.
Shifting in her seat, Luz opened up the code one last time. She had already triple checked every line, tested the product on every surface and object the game had to offer, and just messed around with it until she was sure every bug and glitch had been discovered and eliminated. It was really good work. The best she could offer and she was actually surprised that it only took her as long as it did, seeing as there were still a few days left until school started back up again.
A twisting feeling formed in Luz’s stomach at the thought of going back to school, but she shook her head and kept looking at the webpage. She didn’t want to think about anything even relating to school at that time. No. All that mattered right now, was the enter button on her keyboard. Closing her eyes, Luz pressed the key and forced her eyes to open again to see that it had submitted.
For a solid few seconds, Luz’s gaze remained glued to the screen in front of her. Honestly, she didn’t know what she was expecting. It was well past midnight and it wasn’t like people were going to download, use it and leave a comment immediately. She had to leave it for a while, then come back and see what people thought. Luz nodded to herself as she minimized the page, then leaned back in her chair. The next problem was what to do until then.
Luz found herself clicking on discord to see if anyone was online only to exit out before the application even finished loading when she remembered that she wasn’t doing that anymore. Couldn’t do that anymore. She glanced at the icon on her desktop for her school email. She’d seen the email from Amity in her inbox. Just the mere appearance of it had made Luz sick to her stomach but for some reason she didn’t delete it. There was no subject in the box, she had no idea what it was about, she didn’t want to read it, but… didn't want to delete it either. Or mark it as read, or place it in a separate folder. It just sat in her inbox with the little blue dot next to it indicating that it was ready to be looked at.
Releasing a distressed breath, Luz ran her hands through her hair. She had no intention of reading it tonight though. There was still a few hours before her mom was due to come home from her shift but Luz didn’t know what to do until then. She didn’t want to play the game as a solo adventurer, she didn’t want to talk to anyone, she finished her little pet project, and the last thing that she’d wanted for the past two weeks had been to be alone with her thoughts. What more could she do? Luz groaned, presssing her palms against her eyes as she slumped back in her chair. What more coould she do?
Suddenly, a thought popped into Luz’s head and her eyes fixed on the screen in front of her. She’d created a very useful magical weapon. What did the game normally have a player do in order to access a magical weapon? It had them complete a specific mission to prove that you’ve earned it.
Luz picked up her sketchbook from it’s spot on her desk and flipped it open while opening up another google page on her computer. With The Artificer’s Staff, she had solved a problem that a lot of Artificers had, which was not being able to do things from a distance and had fixed the issue in regard to stacking glyphs. At the moment, people would be able to download her staff as it was and use it on their own servers, and of course she’d leave it up, but she could easily make it so that there was more to it as well.
Scrolling through the wikipedia page for The Boiling Isle’s Artificer class, Luz had already read everything a hundred times but she still looked anyway. It was such a new class that there wasn’t much there compared to the pages and pages of the original classes, but she took down the notes she needed and started making doodles of the layout of what a mission to obtain The Artificer’s Staff from The Boiling Isle’s main villain’s artificer… Luz had to glance back at the page to recall the name... Kikimora, might look like. The game developers hadn’t had a chance to make any real missions that involved her yet so Luz had a lot of creative freedom to work with.
Inspiration coursed through Luz’s head as she began to draw a possible layout. People designed obstacle courses in private servers all the time, and she’d downloaded a few fan-made levels to run through herself but hadn’t really had the time to make an attempt at one herself. She was excited at the prospect though.
The tip of her tongue stuck out from the corner of her mouth while she brainstormed. It would have multiple floors, including a special workshop for experiments. There had to be a lot of guards to make it challenging, but… Luz felt a grin spreading across her face, why would an artificer have to have human guards? She could reskin a golem, give it a more automaton-esque appearance, and recode it’s movements just enough so that it had a clunky, robotic, way of walking. There were abominations with sharp swords instead of forearms and hands, she could steal the coding for those and give it to her beautiful clockwork soldiers.
Luz’s pencil was flying across the paper as ideas skimmed through her mind. The mansion itself could have a vast entrance with an audio log, it wouldn’t be locked, why would a house as secure as the great Kikimora’s need a lock on its door? She would probably welcome anyone who would dare attempt to try to break in. Luz used her free hand to play with a rubber band. The artificer class was about figuring out puzzles, finding different ways to approach a situation. There could be hidden trap doors that lead to other areas of the house, some dangerous, some not. No, Luz scratched that idea, trapdoors were too simple, too mainstream, she needed a project that was going to keep her occupied for a few months at least. What would the greatest artificer in history have in their home to show off just how smart they are? Then, she got it.
There was a distinct crackle of tire against pavement as her mother’s car pulled into the driveway and Luz immediately stood up from her desk but just managed to scribble down one more thing before she headed off to the kitchen.
The walls can move.