Filed to story: Outplayed Story (Brooklyn & Ethan) Book PDF Free
She sat back and closed her eyes. The video game was less important than the sound of his voice. That voice had lulled her to sleep on many a night, especially in the weeks after her redundancy. She was half asleep by the time the gameplay ended. Then Blaze’s voice came on, slightly louder than before and missing the raw edge it had when he was playing. ‘And don’t forget, if you want to be in with a chance to play alongside me in the never-seen-before game SyrenQuest, just hit the button below and enter the draw.’
Ha! For a second, she was tempted, but she wasn’t really into playing and was pretty bad at most of the shooter games that her brothers had. She was more of a puzzle solver. She only watched Blaze’s channel because she loved Blaze, not for the games. Her teens would have had a little less light in them without him.
Brook yawned and sat up. Now she was relaxed enough to go to bed. She looked at her phone, intending to close the YouTube page. The cash prize for the competition flashed up on the screen. She felt a pang of sadness. That amount of money would more than cover her first batch of bags and then some.
‘I know you’re thinking, “It’ll never be me”, but it might be,’ Blaze said. ‘Not only do you get to come and play with me or one of my pro-gamer friends, you get a ticket to the final, which has a convention attached to it, and … you get a Syren3 headset. And if you win, you get to take home all that lovely prize money. It won’t cost you anything to join in. You’ve literally nothing to lose.’
She ended up watching the whole segment. She loved him. Imagine being able to meet him? To actually see him up close in real life. What would she even say? If by some miracle she ended up playing alongside him, there was no way she’d be able to concentrate with him within touching distance. There was no way she would be able to play well enough to win all that prize money.
‘So go ahead and click the link,’ he said. ‘I’d love to meet you.’
A thrill ran through her. It was like he was talking directly to her. She couldn’t help herself. She hit the link, typed in her email address, and agreed to whatever the T&Cs were. It was a futile thing to do. The chances of her being chosen in the lottery were miniscule. The chances of being paired with Blaze were even smaller. But it had been a shit day and just entering cheered her up. Now at least she could go to bed smiling.
Three weeks later
Brook hurried through the rain-slicked street, her phone pressed to her ear. It was still a bit damp, but she was walking so fast that she was warm enough to open her coat. ‘I’m nearly there. Has it started yet?’
In her ear, Niro said, ‘They’re just doing the intro about the new headset. State of the art. Lets you see the facial expressions of other players … blah, blah, blah.’
They were announcing the winners of the SyrenQuest competition today. Brook had intended to catch it at home with Niro, but she’d had to go and pick up her brochures from the printers, so she was heading to her office to watch it instead.
The façade of The Nest building was visible ahead. She tried to walk a little faster, which wasn’t easy to do in heels. Brook ran up the steps, keeping her bag clutched to her chest. The atrium was a double-height space that contained a large cafeteria. It was light and airy and one of Brook’s favourite places. The tables in the main atrium were full of people who had come in for a drink and a sit down. At the far end, where the floor above made a lower ceiling, was a more cosy seating area with a sofa and a TV screen.
The Nest had offices at a subsidised rate and Brook’s was on the second floor, where the tiniest ones were. The smell of coffee wafted past. She hesitated. ‘I’m in the building,’ she said into the phone. ‘I need caffeine. I didn’t have time to grab any before I left.’
‘Well, hurry up. They’re explaining the game now and going through the professional gamers they’ve brought in.’
Brook smiled. She had introduced Niro to Blaze’s channel. It was nice to have someone who understood her thirsting after him – something her brothers would never fathom. She and Niro made an odd pair. Brook was neat and looked very ‘establishment’, while Niro had a pierced eyebrow and purple streaks in her black hair. But they’d always got along well. A few weeks ago, when she’d got the email telling her that her name had been drawn to be one of the rookie players in the SyrenQuest competition, it was Niro who’d celebrated with her. Over the last few weeks, with all the paperwork that she’d had to sign, she would have dropped out if it weren’t for Niro. And now she was a whisper away from her dream of meeting Blaze in real life.
She still couldn’t believe she’d won a place. There was no way on earth she’d win the prize money, but it would be fun to go to the convention and meet Blaze. For Blaze to be her actual game partner was too much to hope for. She would find out who she would be paired with today – any minute now. Part of her was desperate to know, but another part just wanted to hang on to the futile dream of playing alongside Blaze for a little longer.
‘They’re starting. I think they’re going to announce the pairings at the same time as they announce who’s on the newbie shortlist,’ said Niro.
Well, that made sense. She had known that she was one of the contestants for a week now, but she had been sworn to secrecy until the formal announcement (Niro didn’t count, as far as she was concerned). ‘Okay, well, I’m nearly at the head of the queue for coffee now,’ Brook said.
She glanced across the room at the big screen on the wall. A group of guys whose companies had offices in the building had taken over the sofa. One of them flicked through the channels. ‘Here we go,’ he said. The all-too-familiar advert for the SyrenQuest competition came on-screen. There was no audio, but Brook had seen the ad often enough to know the theme song by heart.
‘Someone’s just put it on the screen in the cafeteria,’ Brook said to Niro. ‘I’ll try and watch it here rather than upstairs.’
‘Are you excited?’ asked Niro. ‘After today, you finally get to tell people about it.’
Brook laughed. ‘Who would I tell, Niro? You’re literally the only person I can talk to about it. And you promised you wouldn’t tell anyone.’ She reached the front of the queue and ordered. A quick glance. One of the guys was poking around behind the screen, probably trying to turn on the sound. ‘Okay. I’ve got to go now, Niro.’
‘Good luck, good luck, good luck.’
The sound on the telly came with a blast of noise that made the barista jump and nearly spill Brook’s coffee. The guys on the sofa turned and shouted ‘sorry’ to the room in general. No one responded.
Brook added a dash of cold milk to her coffee and sauntered up to where the guys were sitting. On the screen, the head of Syren Corp was talking about the list of professional players who were going to be ‘ushering’ the newbies through the game. Brook bristled a little at that. She wasn’t a complete novice at video games, nor were any of the other amateurs, probably. And in fact, no one had actually seen SyrenQuest yet, not even the pro-gamers. So they were all new to it anyway. It was a ridiculous distinction. She blew on her coffee and watched the first couple of pro-gamers being introduced.
‘Next up … this YouTuber is a fan favourite,’ the man on TV said. ‘He’s been streaming his gameplay since he was a teenager. He’s known as the gaming world’s Mr Nice Guy. It’s … Blaze!’
Blaze’s avatar came up on-screen. As always, he’d chosen a character who was tall, slim, and had something of the pirate about him. This avatar had a neat beard, long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, and a Zorro-style mask. It was similar to avatars he’d chosen before, in other games, but this time it looked almost real. It had tattoos on the arms, too. Syren Corp must have designed it especially for him.
From now on, her imagination would always think of him like that. Brook smiled. That was no hardship.
She herself had been allowed to customise her avatar using some limited options available in the game. She’d chosen to be a blue pixie, with pointed ears and a long blue plait. She had tried to choose some sensible armour. Not easy, because female combatant armour was never practical. Seeing as she would have to dress up as her own avatar in the unlikely event that she made it to the final and went to the convention, she felt she should wear something that she would actually be able to carry off in real life, even if she was painted blue.
On screen, the man asked the computer to randomly select one of the pro-gamers and one of the newbies to play with. The idea was that the pro-gamer and the newbie would work together. There were sixteen pairs, and four rounds. The final would take place at SyrenQuest Live, which was going to happen in two weeks’ time.
Brook leaned forward and noticed that one of the guys – she thought his name might be Pete – was writing down the names of the people selected, and who they’d been paired with. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
He looked up. Remembering that she was at work, she added, ‘What’s all that?’ She raised her coffee cup towards the screen. She had decided long ago to keep the gaming as her secret hobby. If people didn’t know about it, they couldn’t make fun of her for it.
‘Oh, it’s the latest thing in the games world,’ said Pete. ‘It’s a new headset that Syren is bringing out. Quite interesting tech actually. They’re doing a soft launch through a video game competition a few months before the big conventions start. It’s very cool. Everybody’s watching it.’ He tapped the notebook and looked sheepish for a second. ‘We’re running a book on it.’
Of course they were. Out loud, she said, ‘Wow. That sounds interesting.’
‘You’re Brook, right? With the handbag business?’ asked one of the others. ‘Do you … play?’ He said it in a dubious tone, as though someone couldn’t possibly be interested in handbags and computer games at the same time.
‘Oh. No.’ She shook her head. She stopped talking and stared at Blaze’s avatar rotating on the screen. They were choosing who would be playing alongside him. Names scrolled past too fast to read. The computer would stop any second now. She wondered what it would be like to meet him in real life. She had spent so long with his voice in her ear that she felt like she knew him. But to him, she would be a nobody. Meeting him could potentially be cripplingly awkward. On screen the avatar smiled, the eyes behind the mask sparkling green. Oh, but meeting him would be so much fun.
‘That’s Blaze,’ the guy on the sofa said helpfully. ‘He’s awesome. I used to watch him when I was a kid. I almost grew up with him.’
‘You make him sound like he’s really old,’ said another. ‘He’s only in his late twenties, you know. He’s just been going a long time.’
The computer rapidly cycled through the remaining amateur gamers, and stopped on a name. Bravura9.
‘Bravura9 will be paired with Blaze.’
Brook stifled a little squeak. Bravura9 … was her.Ethan spotted the SyrenQuest logo on the TV at the far end of the cafeteria. He had started streaming the big reveal on his phone, but when Pete had texted to say he and the guys from the office opposite had put it up on the big screen, it seemed only right to come downstairs and watch it in company. Of course, Pete had no idea that Ethan was actually taking part in SyrenQuest. No one here knew that he was Blaze, but the guys on the sofa knew he was interested in video games. As far as they were concerned he was just the quiet chap who ran an online events service company. He liked to keep it that way. YouTube fame was great, but he didn’t want it leaking into his real life. His channel was his escape from the real world.
When he came out of the lift and turned the corner, his step faltered.
She was standing there watching it too. She seemed to be asking the guys what was going on. For a second he didn’t know what to focus on. The game announcement, or Brook, the girl he’d been trying to pluck up the courage to talk to for the past three weeks. Now would be a good time. He should just go up to her and say hello. It’s not like it was a big deal or anything. It was a normal, everyday thing to do. He took a deep breath and went across to join them. He walked in what he hoped was an easy, laid-back stride. Nonchalant was what he was going for. She didn’t even look at him – she seemed to be fixated on the screen.