Gun

Player One

It was said that every cloud had a silver lining, and yet, sometimes there was nothing to be seen but thunderclouds.

Nian Nian's day had gone from bad to worse to downright abysmal. Quite honestly, the tiny student could not wait to throw herself into bed, pull her covers over her head and just surrender herself to the sweet embrace of oblivion. Surely if she was safely cocooned in the recesses of her king size bed, her every step would no longer be dogged by the ever persistent Lady Misfortune. It was unprecedented - never before in the history of all her life had a day been so cataclysmic! Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, she was the latest unfortunate victim of Murphy's Law! Whilst the young woman usually led a somewhat charmed life, the tides seemed to have turned against her and she was favoured by the gods no more. She didn't like it one little bit. In stark contrast to her trademark sunny disposition, Nian Nian was feeling decidedly gloomy, nothing but a pale imitation of her usual bubbly self. Despondency had settled over her like a rotten blanket and she had decided that her entire day had been a write-off; the only possible salvation was sleep. It would be the only escape from this most wretched of days - well, weeks, she supposed in actuality.

Truth be told, Nian Nian hadn't been having the best month of her life; her terrible day was just the cherry on top of an already ghastly sundae. Life as a student had been the norm for her since she was fifteen years old, but she was experiencing a particularly tumultuous period with her doctorate. It was like everything she had ever known and loved had turned against her with a snarl and it was beginning to take a toll on her. At any given moment, Nian Nian felt she was only a whisker shy of hysteria. It most certainly didn't help that she had been toiling relentlessly over her doctoral dissertation for what seemed like an age. Slowly but surely, the blasted document was taking over her every waking moment. Nian Nian could swear that she lived and breathed strings of code and DOS Windows were currently her arch nemesis; whenever she so much as closed her eyes, she was plagued with reams and reams of data that were seemingly chiselled into the back of her eyelids. There was no escape. Little Squid was no stranger to hard work but her dissertation had come as a bit of a shock to her. Struggle wasn't a word that was usually part of her vocabulary - it was hitting her harder than she had anticipated.

The ferocity of the work required was almost startling to the pint sized prodigy, as much as she hated to admit it. She stubbornly refused to let the workload deter her; instead, she had worked long and hard on her complicated thesis, day after day and night after sleepless night. The light had finally been beginning to glimmer at the end of the tunnel but alas, her luck had been dealt yet another bitter hand. The fruits of Nian Nian's labour had withered and disintegrated into the ashes of nothingness. Victory had been so close, she had almost been able to taste it, only for it to be cruelly snatched away at the last minute. Her own hubris meant that she was now floundering and gasping for breath without a lifeline. Five hundred measly words and her masterpiece would have been done and dusted. So, so close. Defeat was an irritating thorn in her side - hindsight was twenty twenty and now she was left with nothing but a rough outline and a mountain of regret. Such a stupid mistake and she had nobody but herself to blame! Nian Nian felt hot tears of annoyance prickle the back of her throat as she drummed furious fingers against her now useless keyboard. Of all the things to happen, her baby had to die now and take her hard work down with it?? Where was the loyalty? Why did bad things happen to good people?!

It was a frustratingly elementary mistake; contrary to the lessons learned over a lifetime of computer maintenance, Nian Nian had neglected to follow her own most cardinal rule. She had failed to make a back-up and she could kick herself for it. All the blood, sweat and tears she had sacrificed in the name of her dissertation, amounted to nothing due to an uncharacteristic error in judgement. She was usually so studious and fastidious, what on Earth had she been thinking? Nian Nian inhaled deeply as her aching head dropped into the crook of her arms, heavy with the weight of her own stupidity. The blank mirror of her laptop was but a mocking black hole, draining every last vestige of hope from her flesh and bones. How ironic that the computer genius had been bested by a machine! Little Squid was suddenly gripped with the overwhelming urge to toss her now defunct laptop down the stairs and just be done with the blasted contraption. It would only serve it right but she instead forced herself to swallow down her pique; senseless violence would only exacerbate the situation.