Page 10 of Level Up
Besides, I’m pretty much over it by now. Sort of.
It’s been over a week since that stream and people aren’t talking about it as much—and Scones continues to say nothing about it, which is fine. Totally fine.
Instead of sleeping all day Wednesday, I spend most of the day playingThe Stones of Ayor 3—and yeah, maybe I tune into SconesOfAyor’s stream this afternoon, but it’s just background noise while I tackle one of my favourite dungeons. I hardly pay attention, and I almost don’t even laugh when he says something funny.
I certainly don’t care what he has to say about theSOA4release, anyway. Or how he’s going to be waiting in line to get the Deluxe Edition at midnight. Of course he is, that’s not news. It doesn’t make himcool.
“Shit, I’m out of health potions,” he says, and I glance over at my other screen to see his character jumping up and down, trying to avoid getting attacked by gremlings gathering around his ankles. “How do I get out of this, folks? Asking for a friend.”
He continues hopping around from stone to stone, but he must be reading the chat at the same time because he responds to someone suggesting that he light them all on fire.
“See, that’s a great suggestion,” he says calmly, not at all frazzled by his character’s predicament, “but then I would also be on fire. Also, Charles here is a vegan pacifist, so killing grems is not really his thing.”
I pause my game and tab over to the chat before I can think better of it.
OddlyAdored:Toss them some food to distract them, then cast a smokescreen and run the other way.
The playful smile that’s barely visible on his face vanishes, though his character keeps bouncing on the spot—the space bar rattles with each jump because he really needs to upgrade from stock stabilizers,jeez—while Scones is, presumably, reading my message. Which I immediately regret, especially since I hardly ever comment on anyone’s streams, let alone his. But he’s not the only one who can offer unsolicited advice. (Although I guess he did, technically, solicit advice for this.)
“Uh, right,” he says, straightening his posture. “Good idea, Oddly.”
I nearly choke on my sudden inhale and start coughing,reaching for my cold brew to chug it until I can clear my throat. I was not expecting that.
Not only did Scones just acknowledge me for the first time ever—mansplaining looting notwithstanding—but hearing him say my name like that catches me completely off-guard. The only time anyone on a stream ever mentions me is when Helmi is gushing about how amazing I am, in which case she refers to me as Audrey. And on the rare occasion I comment on someone’s stream—and they actually respond—they say the entire username.
But Scones just called meOddly, like we’re on a first-name basis—or first-word, at least. (Then again, I call himScones.)
Really, I picked a terrible username. That’s my problem. It seemed great ten years ago, when I changed my Play’N username to reflect my new favourite game,The Stones of Ayor 3. I thought it was brilliant, at the time. Not only is it a reference to a line said by my favourite NPC, Hadley, near the end of his romance arc, but my best friend had been calling meAudleysince we were kids. He had trouble with Rs at first, soAudreywas a struggle, and then it just sort of stuck for a while.
Cameron was the only other person who’s ever really understood my obsession withSOAin high school; he played almost as much as I did. But by that point he had gradually stopped calling meAudley—and then eventually stopped speaking to me at all.
Still, I could have changed my username after Cameron cut me out of his life like a rancid tumour, but I was used to it by then. It honestly never made me think of him anymore; it reminded me more of Hadley than anything else.
But Scones says the nameOddlyso easily, as if we’re real friends who talk about each other all the time. As if it’shisnickname for me. As if heknowsme. Which he absolutely does not.
And okay, yes, I have referred to him asSconeswith Victoryfrom time to time, but that’s different. I’m a fan of his channel—sort of. I’m allowed to first-word him. I’ve put in the time. Whereas he didn’t know I existed until last week and has probably been trying to ignore that fact ever since.
The worst part of all of this is that he actually takes my advice, and it works. I’d sort of hoped he’d be stuck in that gremling pit all afternoon.
With any luck, a bearwolf will maul him as soon as he steps out. One can only hope.
My stream tonight is uneventful.Just a bit ofPaper Plainsto keep things relaxed and low-key, in an attempt to settle my nerves. The anticipation of the release combined with the shock of Sconesacknowledgingme has me all muddled up inside, and I need to tune all of that out for a couple of hours.
Thankfully I have drinks with Victory to look forward to afterwards.
She’s standing in front of my grandmother’s house when I step out from my side entrance, but she’s not alone. Pal is next to her, with an eager grin on their face.
“I hope it’s okay if Pal comes with us tonight,” Victory says, taking Pal’s hand in hers and giving it a squeeze.
I hesitate for a moment, if only because I’m afraid of Pal judging me for being this excited about a video game, but if Victory thinks they will be cool with it, then I trust her. “Yeah, of course.”
We head to the pub at the corner of the block to grab drinks as we wait for the release. The two of them squish into one side of a snug booth and I take the other, the faux-leather seat sticking to my hand as I scoot along the bench. (Gross.)
Pal raises a skeptical eyebrow at me when I order a vanillaporter to start, and at first I think they’re judging me for my choice, until they order one as well. They cheers with me when the drinks arrive and I feel like I could almost becoolif I hung out with them more often.
“Tell me again about this midnight thing,” they say to me after a large gulp. “Your pumpkin turns into a sweet potato or what?”
“It’s, um, just a video game release…” Maybe I’m not that cool, then. “There’s this limited edition box set that I want to get my hands on.”
