Page 2 of Dared

Want to play duos? See if we can get the limited-edition chest

I tapped out a reply.

VIKING:

You read my mind. Give me 5 to set up

HAMMERHEAD:

K. Mics?

Hammerhead was good about giving me what I needed, and if I wasn’t feeling up to talking through the mics, he never complained but happily stuck to the chat window. It was a less effective way of communicating since we had to pause what we were doing to type out a reply, but sometimes I needed the silence. I found myself needing it less and less lately, though. Tomy surprise, we’d clicked from the minute we’d met, and thatneverhappened to me. Yet now, I counted Hammerhead among my handful of genuine friends.

We had a level of anonymity, thanks to our gaming personas, but I felt secure enough around him to share bits of information about myself in and around our conversations about the game. We hadn’t gone too deep, and we hadn’t shared anything personally identifiable, but he knew the basics about me, other than the fact I was studying for a minor in dance. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t yet shared that particular piece of information with him. It might have had something to do with the fact that everyone always seemed surprised and confused when they found out I was studying a creative arts subject alongside a technical major. My own dad had told me several times it was “weird” for me to be studying dance, and his words had stuck in my mind.

Back to Hammerhead. I knew he was a guy, a second-year student like me, studying for a degree in engineering. Other than gaming, he played for his uni football team. He came across as a patient, easy-going guy, and sometimes I wished I could meet him in person, although I’d probably ruin it with my anxiety and lifelong habit of overthinking every single thing.

Speaking of my anxiety… While I hadn’t shared my real-life struggles with Hammerhead, he’d come up with a unique way to try and push me out of my comfort zone online.

In real life, Connor and Niall were mostly about the direct route, asking me to do things outright. My dance friend JJ was like my hype man, encouraging me until I somehow believed I was capable of things I’d normally be too afraid to do. But online, I had Hammerhead, and he had a different approach to pushing me out of my comfort zone.

He dared me.

For example—the first time we’d spoken through our mics. I’d been hesitant, ridiculously nervous about crossing a boundary, but he’d made it into a dare, complete with a reward—a rare in-game armour. I’d somehow found myself stepping up, and just like that, we’d started talking and never really stopped.

Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I returned my attention to my PC monitor as I replied.

VIKING:

Yes to mics

Slipping into my online persona, whereI could be a confident badass warrior—something I’d never achieve in reality—I switched on my microphone.

Shy, anxious Leo was gone…for now, and Viking was ready to play.

2

The bottle spun. Barely paying it any attention, I sipped from my beer bottle as I tapped out a message on my phone to Viking, confirming the start time of tonight’s online campaign.

“Finn. Finn.” An elbow jabbed into my side, and I raised my head to find my football teammate Pete eyeing me expectantly from my left. To my right, there was now an empty space where Ellie had been. She’d crawled across the circle and was kissing Nicola, straddling her lap. Right. It was my turn to spin.

My phone vibrated softly, and I glanced down at the screen, my lips curving upwards as I took in the words.

VIKING:

Any chance we could start earlier tonight? Today has been stressful. I could do with a distraction

I clapped Pete on the shoulder. “All yours, bro. I’m heading out.”

He shook his head at me, muttering something about boring bastards, but I was already on my feet and making my way out of his student house.

I probably should’ve made more of an effort, but I’d thought we were going to just hang out and watch the football. Somehow, Pete’s housemate had turned it into an impromptu games night, inviting several girls from his course, and then alcohol had become involved, and yeah, somehow, we’d ended up playing spin the bottle with an empty vodka bottle.

Fuck, I really was boring, wasn’t I? Who would complain about any of that? I never would have before, but over the last four or five months, I’d become obsessed with a certain game, probably to an unhealthy level.

Ah, well. Too late to change things now. I had a date withLesath Legends,and a certain Viking was waiting for me.

Settled in my gaming chair in my bedroom, I adjusted my mic as I waited for the portal to load up. Living at home with my parents and younger brother rather than paying for student accommodation meant I got to access all my home comforts, which included my PlayStation. WithLesath Legendsintroducing cross-platform support a few months earlier, it meant I got to play with and against thousands of players on different consoles and PCs all over the world. I’d stumbled across Viking the day the cross-platform play had come out of beta, and we’d hit it off straight away. Both of us seemed toend up online around the same time in the evening, and I’d eventually messaged him to ask if he wanted to partner up for a campaign.

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