Page 121 of Level Up
A breath of laughter escapes me, and he glances at me with a small smile.
“And I think I get why you didn’t say anything when people were asking you todenounceme,” he continues. “Side note: everyone was being totally over the top about this, right? It’s not just me who thinks it’s crazy?”
“No, they were completely rabid,” I agree. “Everyone whipping each other up into a panic because they didn’t want to think that they’d been watching someone Problematic—TM—this whole time.”
“I mean, the fact is, I do still see my father, like on holidays and stuff, even if I’d rather not,” he admits, and he does seem a bit ashamed of it. “And I guess if I were a better person, I would just cut him out, since I don’t agree with him on any of that?—”
“You can’t justcut outyour family, like it’s nothing. Anyone who asks you to without knowing the full story is a jerk.”
“I guess.” He shrugs solemnly. “It’s not like it really matters. I can’t stop people from thinking what they want to think, all I can do is keep going, right?”
I take his hand in mine and nod reassuringly.
“Anyway. I’m sorry I was being an ass to you,” he adds, squeezing my hand back. “It’s not like the situation was any more pleasant from where you were sitting, I’m sure. And I probably should have been the one to stand up for myself, not make it your problem.”
“The thing is, Iwantedto stand up for you. I just didn’t know if I was supposed to. I didn’t know what I was allowed to say. So, in the end, I just let your actions speak for both of us.”
“Which was such a cheesy thing to do.” He laughs lightly, shaking his head. “But thank you.”
“I don’t know if it worked—I’ve been too afraid to read my notifications yet,” I say. “But I did notice some people seem to have come around, on your stream.”
“Well, it got me out of my self-pity spiral enough to stream again, so I think I’d say it worked.”
“I’m glad.”
“This whole situation…” His brow furrows pensively. “Well, it was kind of a kick in the nutsack, to borrow a phrase,” he adds, and I snort. “Like, it woke me up to the fact that, even though all I do is stream a silly fantasy RPG seven days a week, my actions still have consequences. My choices still matter.”
“You make good choices, though.”
“Sometimes.”
“Like you said the other day, we’re all figuring it out and we all screw up sometimes, but that doesn’t make us devils, or whatever,” I tell him. “Just…people.”
He grimaces, like that’s the worst thing to be, and I laugh. “I’m not good at…people,” he says.
“I think you’re better at people than you think you are.” He looks at me with a small smile and I cup my hand to the side of his face. “You’re good at me, anyway.”
His face splits into a dorky grin at the ridiculousness of my words and I laugh again. “You say the weirdest things,” he says. “I love it.”
“Yeah?” I lean towards him like I’m going in for a kiss, but I stop with barely an inch between our mouths. “What else do you love?”
His eyes scan my face, and he chews his lip. “I think you know.”
“Yeah, I do.” I lick my own lips as I watch his and then look him in the eye. “Hadley.”
The corner of his mouth pinches into a smirk. “Exactly.”
This time, he’s the one who kisses me first. Like he trusts that I won’t let him do anything I’m not comfortable with. That I’ll stand up for myself and what I want. That he doesn’t have to tip-toe around me, like I’m fragile and helpless.
I think we’re figuring it out.
Together.
I can say with complete honesty that this game changed my life.
I’ve been playingSOAgames for the past fifteen years, almost every single day, and this game still managed to deliver more than I ever thought possible. The quests are creative, the level design is top-notch—noOblivion-style reused assets in every dungeon—and the voice acting is the best of any game in the series.
The combat is less spongy thanSOA3and less gruelling thanSOA1, but on a Normal difficulty setting it’s enough of a challenge to be fun. And Story Mode is actually pretty chill, for people who want a more relaxed gameplay experience. Hardcore Mode even has a survival element. There’s something for everyone here.
