Maximus could not help but be excited as he walked away from the large, concrete building that had held him for so long. A prison, jail, locker of sin or anything else people had deemed to call it – He finally felt freedom wash over him at last.
His heart pounded, his hands shook, his smile could only grow as he walked.
It was an hour long walk home from here to his new, government granted home, and he would have plenty of things to think about. Mostly one man, who had never once left his heart.
'Four years… I can't wait to see him again.'
In prison, he was fueled only by memories. His blushes and glances, the way he clung to him whenever anything remotely stressful happened, it made him feel so wanted, so helpful and worthy...
It was funny, the thought of Charice leaving never once occurred to him, it was unthinkable.
That is, until he finally reached the quaint town in the middle of the day. It was a strange place, yet oddly comfortable.
Clearly a town built in the starting years of the USA, with cobbled and asphalt streets, two story tall saloons now repurposed into restaurants and stores, and tall wooden beams carrying high-voltage cables – with crows and pigeons resting atop them, silently watching him.
There was some traffic, but not anywhere near what one would expect.
The first thing he saw upon entry was a shop selling antique TVs, ones that were colorful yet oddly bland despite it. Upon it was broadcast the news, mostly to show off the quality, but likely to help people catch up on the happenings as well.
"After many long years of its run time, the popular game 'Genesis' is finally reaching its end. Originally released in…"
It all faded into white noise for Maximus, his hand pressing against the glass in stunned silence. He was never one to gasp or to scream, but this time, he almost did just that.
The old man sitting in the shop furrowed his eyebrows, his disapproving gaze snapping Maximus back into this world. He had to move. Now. He spotted the headset used for the game back on release all those decades ago on one of the shelves, selling for ten thousand dollars.
He was in luck, there was a bank not that far just down the street next to his new apartment. He strode in, still in his blue jeans and white shirt the cops gave him, alongside his ID and other documents, all held in his black backpack slung comfortably over one of his shoulders.
The soft tingling of the bell echoed in the clean reception room. The white coloring as pure as fake, he silently approached the front desk where a fine lady was seated.
She turned her attention to him moments after he sat down across from her, her smile practiced and polite. He smiled, though it felt more like a smirk on his numb face.
"Good day sir, how can I help you today?"
She sounded young and full of energy, her hair blond, eyes blue, yet skin subtly tinged with an olive hue. Maximus sighed before speaking.
"I'd like to take a loan."
He, by contrast, was to the point and direct, to which the lady quickly adapted.
"Alright, if you could give me your ID and the amount you'd like to take out, we can get this done quickly."
Maximus glanced at her with a doubtful expression, shouldn't this process be more complex? Maybe things had changed over the years…
He silently handed her his card, her movements crisp as she prepared to scan it in a strange machine.
"Alright! I am obligated to inform you that by granting us access to any personal information, you are agreeing to our privacy policy in accordance with the law, you can find the details here."
She passed him a large clump of papers, neatly organized into a total of twenty one pages, assuming Maximus counted correctly.
He nodded with a smirk.
"I see some things never change, huh?" He mumbled, and the lady awkwardly chuckled before proceeding to scan his ID.
Her skin paled as she read the data her computer fetched, and she gulped before speaking again.
"A-Ahem, apologies sir, but we are unable to provide a loan to you at this time…"
'My criminal record and lack of a job.'
Maximus tapped his fingers on the desk, and small crackles of white light, splitting into red and blue branches, spread from his fingers to the wires of the computer, seeping through the isolation like a strange liquid before vanishing into the system.
The screen stuttered for only a second, and the woman looked again.
"O-Oh, apologies, it seems like there was an error…?" She was quite unsure of herself, but convinced herself the polite man in front of her was no criminal. After refreshing the page and finding nothing of note, she quietly sighed in relief.
"We can proceed, I just need you to sign some papers for me."
Maximus wasn't one to hesitate when opportunity showed itself, so he nodded.
The rest of the process was tedious and boring, and Maximus didn't bother to negotiate any of the predatory tactics this particular bank employed – He was in a rush.
After many hours, he walked out of the bank with ten thousand dollars in his backpack, and he took that money straight back to the antique store he found. He pushed the door open with a creak and grabbed the headset along with the cable, placing it on the table in front of the old man.
"I'll have this, assuming it still works." He announced, pulling out ten thousand dollars, all in cash.
The man was clearly not happy and clicked his tongue. "...Twelve grand." He said, with a glint of power in his gaze, clearly anticipating Maximus' next move.
The air froze over as Maximus felt something grab him by the back of his mind.
He noticed a few things, the way the old man seemed to wear only black, the crosses around his neck, the unwashed dishes visible at the back of the store through an open door. If this was both a store and a house, then managing it all alone seemed like a tall ask for one man…
"...Are you religious, sir?" He asked with a glint of pity in his eyes, "I recently lost someone, and was hoping to hear some wisdom from a fellow believer. This… They loved this game, and I wanted to bury them with it."
The old man squinted his eyes, mistaking pity for true sadness, he sighed and waved his hand dismissively.
"Take the scrap and go, boy."
"Thank you." Maximus said before quickly making his exit. Not noticing the old man's knowing look.
He then rushed to his new home, on the top floor of a small apartment building. He threw the door open, ignoring the near empty place and quickly plugging the headset into the power socket. Then, without a second to waste, he put it on.
It didn't work.
He grumbled, looking at the boxy machine to try and figure out what was wrong with it, after many hours of desperate scrambling, it was just about to hit midnight. The headset was ripped and unscrewed at various places, his neighbors let him borrow their equipment luckily, and now he sincerely prayed to every Pantheon for aid.
Red and blue fog filled the room as Genesis booted to life in the old machine, just a few seconds before the countdown ended, desperately, Maximus struggled to skip past hundreds of notifications and adds to find anything, a number, mail, anything to track down Charice by.
And then, the world broke, and the virtual became real.