Filed to story: Outplayed Story (Brooklyn & Ethan) Book PDF Free
‘Can I ask you something?’ Pete broke into his thoughts.
Ethan swallowed his last sip of water. ‘Sure.’
‘Why do you have such a strong Northern accent when you’re Blaze? You don’t sound like that now. Which one is real?’
‘They both are, I guess. When I was 16 … when I started the channel, I grew up in Sheffield. We moved down south a couple of months later.’ He almost winced at the memory. His Yorkshire accent had stood out in Surrey. It had singled him out as different and made him terribly self-conscious. ‘I sort of smoothed out the accent over time. But Blaze has still got it. It just comes back as I relax into his character.’
He turned back to his console. Losing his accent had involved anger and tears and elocution lessons, but it had helped, he supposed. Or had it? He picked up his headset and looked at it for a moment. Perhaps that’s why Blaze was so different to him. When he was a teenager, Blaze was all the things he wanted to be. The inner boy that he could never fully unleash in real life. Cocky, confident … and much more Northern. No wonder he felt like they were different people.
A notification came up on his game screen. He put his headset back on.Brook stood next to Blaze and they watched the announcement. So far, Phil_the_Vicar and FlickNife’s teams had made it to the third round.
‘And in third place … we have Team Blaze!’
Beside her Blaze punched the air. ‘Yes!’ He turned and high-fived her. ‘Nice one, Bravura.’
‘One step closer,’ she said, her throat tight.
‘Yes indeed.’
The last team of contenders were announced. Fireworks went off in the sky. ‘These four teams are now in the semi-finals,’ the announcer said. ‘They will compete against each other to get the final key. The two teams that are the fastest will face each other LIVE on stage at SyrenCon this weekend.’
Brook could barely breathe from excitement. She had made it into the semi-finals. She hadn’t even expected to make it past the first round. She turned to look at Blaze.
He was talking to his YouTube people again. ‘So all we have to do is come in the top two in the next round. Easy as, right, Bravura?’
‘Er … right. Yeah.’
‘So, don’t forget to tune in on Thursday night, folks. I’ll see you there.’ He grinned at her. ‘And I’ll see you on Thursday too, Brav.’
She squeaked out, ‘Bye.’ In her mind, she was screaming, he called me Brav!
When she took her headset off, she could barely contain her elation. ‘He called me Brav. He had a nickname for me!’
Niro put her hands over her ears. ‘Well, he’s certainly got over his moody phase.’
Brook took a deep breath. ‘Sorry. I’m just a bit excited.’
‘No, really?’ Sarcasm dripped from Niro’s voice. ‘I’d never have guessed.’
‘This is a big deal for me,’ said Brook. ‘I’m playing next to Blaze. And we’re winning. It’d be like you having dinner with Chris Evans.’
‘Hey. Leave Captain America out of this.’
‘You know what I mean.’ She gathered up the headset and started to pack it away. ‘Do you think he might like me? We could be … I dunno … friends, at least.’
‘I’m sure you could,’ said Niro. ‘Anyway, you get to find out when you meet him for real at the convention next weekend.’
‘Oh.’ Holy crap. She had almost forgotten about that. ‘I’m going to meet him … in real life.’ She looked at the screen, where the SyrenQuest logo was rotating in silence. ‘I’m going to meet Blaze.’ She was suddenly burning hot. Her breath shortened. She had, for years, wondered what it would be like to meet Blaze in real life. To look into those green eyes. To be on the receiving end of his smile. And now she had the chance to do it. ‘Oh my god, Niro. I can’t do it. What if he’s not like that at all in real life? What if it’s all fake and he’s really a horrible old man with nasty breath.’
‘Have you googled him? He’s been seen in real life before. Stop being mad, Brook.’
Brook took a deep breath and let it out. Niro had a point. And yes, she had googled him. He looked tall and slim and he sounded young. She could only imagine that he looked like his avatar. Beard, pirate outfit, green eyes, cheeky smile. And she was going to meet him.
Another bolt of panic. ‘My costume.’ She turned to Niro.
‘You have your costume. We sorted it out already, remember?’
‘Yes, but is it good enough? I have to look like my avatar. I’m going to have to do make-up and paint myself blue and-‘
‘Woah.’ Niro held up her hands. ‘Calm down. Tell you what, let’s go and look at the costume and try it on, okay? I’ll help you with the make-up. I’ve still got the make-up brushes and stuff from when I did theatre. We’ll order the body paints and you have until the weekend to practise getting your face right. You’re going to be fine.’
‘I don’t want anyone to recognise me,’ said Brook.
‘So what if they do? You’re awesome. You made it into the semi-final round of SyrenQuest. You should be proud.’ Niro stood up. ‘Come on, daaahling, let’s get you to make-up.’When Ethan took his headset off, Pete was saying something.
‘Pardon?’ he asked.
‘I said, have you got the costume already?’
‘Oh yes,’ Ethan said. ‘Wanna see?’
‘Like you have to ask.’
The costume had evolved a little over the years, but was basically the same pirate-inspired coat, boots, and trousers that he’d chosen when he was building his avatar years ago. Different games had different skins, but he always chose something that nodded to this core outfit.
‘The SyrenQuest guys added a long coat with rolled-up sleeves as one of the options,’ said Ethan. ‘One of the newbies has the same coat, but the rest of his outfit makes him look like a space cowboy.’
Pete picked up the tattoo sleeves. ‘These are cool.’
‘They are. The tats on the avatar don’t match these, but otherwise, it’s fine. I just have to make sure I wear these to cover up the ends.’ He pulled out a bag containing some leather bracelets and woven bands. ‘You know how I sometimes get fan stuff?’ He pulled out a couple of friendship bracelets, each about one and a half inches wide. ‘These are from fans.’ He picked out one that had ‘BLAZE’ weaved into it. He handed it to Pete. It felt strange, sharing this stuff with someone. It made him realise just how long he’d kept Blaze a guilty secret. ‘Some of them are pretty impressive. I like to wear them to conventions and hold my arms up so that they get photographed. People love it if they spot something they sent.’ And it also meant that his face was obscured in most of the photos of him.
‘What’s the weirdest thing a fan sent you?’
He didn’t have to think about that. ‘Someone sent me underpants. I did not keep those.’ He smiled. ‘I did have someone give me a cardigan they’d knitted once. I put it on and had my photo taken with him. It was a good cardigan too. Very cosy.’