Origin

“There is no God in this world. The rain may fall on us equally, but there’s a big difference between the world of concrete and the world of neon. My studio apartment is small, and from my window I can see them both: the ad-covered billboards showcasing products most people don’t care about, and the streets that never seem to be empty of working people going to and from their jobs. Not me though, I work from home.” A man with a 5 o'clock shadow mutters to himself as he stares out the window. He takes a sip from his decorative coffee mug, his glossy eyes resting on the neon lights beaming from the city skyline. “I should write that down, it might be a good way to start an anime or something.”

The man stretches as he walks over dirty clothes to his fridge. He pulls out some old leftover pizza and puts it in the microwave. As he watches the plate spin with his tired eyes, his attention flicks to the active computer screen before returning. He groans knowing that he can’t procrastinate forever. With a huff and a sigh, he pulls his dinner out early then sits at his desk.

As if right on cue, a voice chat request from a user named GivFreeStuff pops up in the bottom right corner of his screen. The man reluctantly accepts it.

“Hey Narco! The convention is getting crazy, you really should have come man.” Free Stuff speaks with an exaggerated cheer.

“I told you earlier today when we met for lunch that I have work to do.”

“Yeah I know man. We just miss you. Gambit is here too. At least he was. I wonder where he always disappears to.”

“He wouldn’t be our assassin if we knew. Anyway, I really have to get started on work, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“You haven’t even started yet? Come on Narco it’s almost midnight!” Free Stuff shouts over the background noise coming from the convention.

“Working from home as a code monkey has its perks.” Narco chuckles lightly.

“You call that a perk? Come on, stop by for just an h-”

Narco hangs up on his friend. He minimizes the tab and gets to work. As he shoves the lukewarm pizza slices into his face, he begins to hammer away on his keyboard, writing lines of code for some company he owes hours to.

Much earlier today, Narco received a text invite from his friends to meet up at a pizzeria for lunch. It’s been a while since they’ve all hung out. They all met each other online a long time ago and found out they live in the same city. It was Narcolepsy78 (Narco), GivFreeStuff (Free Stuff), FifthGambit (Gambit), and CensorshipGG (GG). They were all grinding the Mega Quests in Dungeon Dive Online. That was several years ago. Since then, Narco graduated high school and dropped out of college, Free Stuff and Gambit moved to a new city, and GG got a corporate job working a nine-to-five.

Narco couldn’t remember the last time he saw them all in person, and he was excited to say the least. As he entered the pizzeria, he was greeted with a hurrah from his friends, in which he joined. With a stern look from the man at the counter, they all quickly quieted down.

Narco sat at the booth, and took in his friends' appearances. Free Stuff was as lanky as ever, and he foolishly still seems to think short hair means he doesn’t need to touch it. Gambit was in his usual black hoodie, hiding his face behind his hair like always. GG was dressed the best out of everyone there, wearing a black suit jacket and skirt that complimented her black hair and green eyes.

“I see someone is still a corporate stiff.”

“Shut up.” GG said bashfully.

The group of friends ate their pizzas and spoke about everything going on in their lives. This ranged from movies, to shows, to new game developments. Then finally Gambit brought up GodHaven.

“GodHaven was the best RPG ever made. Period.” Gambit said assertively.

“It was a buggy mess!” Free Stuff shouted.

“I don’t see how that changes what I just said.” Gambit smirked.

Narco was unable to stop smiling. “I agree, you both are right.”

Both Free Stuff and Gambit let out a little laugh.

GG spoke up. “Um, well, while I do think we might be feeling a bit nostalgic for it, I don’t think any of us can argue it wasn’t a good game. It sold really well when it was first released, and clearly we all played it at least once growing up.”

Everyone looked at each other, and slightly nodded.

Free Stuff cracked his knuckles to break the silence. “Still, I think I’m the only one out of all of you to have played it recently. It most assuredly does not hold up.”

“But that’s its charm. You wouldn’t hate the moon for being round.” Gambit said with half-hearted sincerity, not actually as invested as he tried to portray.

The two continued to bicker throughout the whole lunch, with Gambit enjoying more and more the ability to mess with Free Stuff.

Back in the present, Narco finishes up his work. It is 3:30 in the morning, and Narco stares blankly at his computer screen.

“I finally finished.” He says to himself in disbelief. As he looks at the clock beside his bed, pain overtakes his face. “But I have to be up in five hours to work more.” He whines.

As soon as he turns his computer off, his phone buzzes. It’s a message from Gambit.

“Hey Narco, I just saw your account go offline. I assume you turned off your computer which means you're done with work for the day. Anyway, check this out.”

Along with Gambit’s slightly invasive message, is a link to a gaming news page. Narco clicks it and sees what looks like an article interviewing a developer for a GodHaven remaster. This was dated many years ago.

Gambit follows up his message. “Can you believe it? Apparently that retro game got a remaster before we were even born and we didn’t know about it. Says in the article it was supposed to be released for the second generation of the AGUS Deep Dive console.”

Gambit successfully baited Narco. Narco can’t sleep now. Over the next hour, they both do some research and come to the conclusion that the game had a brief distribution period before being called a financial flop. Afterwards, the remaster faded into obscurity.

“Gambit, I really need to get some sleep. If you can find someone hosting it online, maybe we can pirate it and play it this weekend. I should still have my gen 2 console in storage somewhere.”

Gambit replies with a thumbs up, and Narco heads to bed.

When Narco wakes up, he is greeted by a message from his friend, and an archived folder. Gambit wrote “Good luck :)”

Narco spends the day unpacking it, reviewing the readme file, and learning about the pirate’s history with GodHaven. Apparently, the pirate was working on a multiplayer mod, and it seems to already be installed with a little winky face from Gambit. After getting it set up and installed on his gen 2 console, he messages his friends about the news. They are all excited, even Free Stuff.

The busy week comes and goes. Gambit and Free Stuff attend the convention, GG works hard at her job, and Narco procrastinates all day only to stress all night. Regardless of how eventful or memorable their week was, they all could feel it in their bones. This weekend is going to be amazing.

The day arrives, and they all head to Narco’s place in the evening. Narco has cleaned up to the best of his ability, pushing all the clothing on the floor to one corner of the room. In the center of the space he designated as a living room, he set up the dusty gen 2 AGUS Deep Dive console with four headsets.

“Damn Grandpa, I didn’t know you were a hoarder.” Free Stuff laughs at the old technology before him.

Narco shrugs it off. “It’s not that old. The time between the Gen 1 console and the Gen 2 console was probably longer than the time between the Gen 2 console and the Gen 9 console. They spent a lot of time adding several layers of safety procedures after a tragic power outage in a rural town.”

“I don’t think that means it isn’t old.” GG chimes in. “It just means if you had a Gen 1 Deep Dive console, we’d be teasing you even harder.”

Gambit laughs at her comment.

Narco clears his throat, preparing to embarrass himself. He presses a button on a remote, and music starts playing. “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, prepare your hearts. For years ago, there was a single retro game that we all had a love of, a single game that has taken a place in all our childhoods, a single game like no other! GodHaven!” The music cuts out, and when Narco finally sees his friends' faces, he’s relieved to see them appreciative of his effort and showmanship. “I guess that’s a sign to move this along.” He clears his throat again. “We all know why we’re here. So who’s going to be the first to experience this nostalgia-bait for the first time in a Deep Dive console?”

Everyone raises their hands, even Narco. They all put on a headset, and with a single press of a button, the system powers on. After a few interactions with the UI, they are transported to the world of GodHaven.

And yet in the real world, the tv screen connected to the console continues to show a processing symbol. Then suddenly, the screen flashes red with a message: FATAL ERROR.