Page 11 of Level Up
“Right on,” they say with a nod. “What game is it?”
“Are you familiar withThe Stones of Ayorseries? It’s a fantasy RPG thing.”
Pal squints their eyes and considers this for a moment. “Is that the one with the dragons or the one with that slutty vampire guy?”
“Uh, neither.”
“There aren’t any dragons inStones,” Victory says, “which is why I refuse to play.”
“Well, the fourth game in the series is releasing tomorrow,” I explain to Pal. “Or tonight at midnight, I guess. B.A. sometimes does a special event like this when big games are released.”
“Should we be wearing costumes?” Pal asks eagerly.
“I don’t think it’s required,” I say, and they laugh.
“Who’s that elf lady, the one who throws knives?” Victory asks me, sipping at her ginger ale. She doesn’t drink, but she loves coming to the pub for the ambience. “I would dress up as her, for sure.”
Pal raises an eyebrow at her, like they’d be interested in seeing her throw knives, too.
“That’s Mona,” I tell her. “She’s pretty badass. Although most of the companions in Three are kind of useless, except for Hadley.”
“Can’t forget Hadley.” Victory nods. She’s not familiar with much about the game, but she does know its most popular NPC. Everyone knows Hadley.
“Oh!” Pal points at me excitedly. “I know that dude! With the hair and that fucking giant sword thing? Built like a Greek god, looks like he’d be played by an actor named Chris?”
I nod and sip my own drink. That’s Hadley. “The previews of the fourth game make it seem like the companions will be better, at least,” I continue. “Everyone already loves Cartwright because he has, like, one line of dialogue in one of the trailers. I think there’s already fanfiction about him.”
Pal snickers at that.
“To be clear, I didn’t write it,” I add quickly, and they laugh out loud.
“That is definitely what I would say if I had written smutty fanfiction about him.”
“I never saidsmutty?—”
“How’re things going with the guy, by the way?” Victory asks me, before I can start babbling nervously.
Both of Pal’s eyebrows go up this time. “There’s a guy?” they say with a wolfish grin.
“Not like that.” Victory laughs gently. “There’s this other streamer who’s sort of like Audrey’s, I dunno… Nemesis?”
“Wow. Intense.”
“He’s not mynemesis,” I tell them. “He’s not cool enough for that honour.” And I’m not cool enough to have anemesiseither.
“What’d he do?” Pal asks, watching me expectantly, like they’re actually interested in the story. I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint them.
“Well, nothing, I guess.” I sigh, swiping my thumb through the condensation on my glass. “I mean, he sort of let his viewers verbally shit on me and did nothing to stop them.”
“Oh, not cool,” Pal says, shaking their head.
“And then the other day he commented on my stream,” I add hesitantly.
Victory snaps to attention. “He did?”
“Yeah, he was telling me what to do inmygame. As if I don’t know how to loot a dead body.”
“Everyone knows how to do that,” Pal jokes.
