Filed to story: Outplayed Story (Brooklyn & Ethan) Book PDF Free
The first time the contestants were allowed to try out the game was that evening. There was an 8 p.m. start. At 7.30, Brook opened the box and lifted out the Syren3 headset. This special edition set was white with the year written on a teal flash along the side.
Niro plugged the player into the TV. ‘You know, if you ever decide to sell that, it’ll probably be worth a fortune. There are only thirty-two of those in the UK. If the headset takes off, it’ll be a collector’s item in no time.’
‘Why would I want to sell it?’ Brook turned the headset on and brought up the settings on the screen.
Niro shrugged. ‘Dunno. If you get trashed in the first round, you might be so scarred that you don’t ever want to look at it again.’
Brook paused in the middle of raising the headset to put it on. ‘What sort of pep talk is that?’
Niro sat down, cross-legged, on the sofa and pulled a bowl of popcorn onto her lap. ‘I’m not saying it’ll happen. Just giving you a scenario where you might want to get rid of it.’
‘Nope. Even if I humiliate myself in front of Blaze, I’m not getting rid of this. It’ll remind me of the only time I got to meet him in person.’ Brook gave the headset a gentle pat.
‘I don’t get why you love him so much. You don’t even know what he looks like.’
Brook inclined her head to acknowledge that. ‘I’m hoping he looks at least a bit like his avatar,’ she said. ‘But I know his voice. I know his sense of humour. I know his competence … so, weird as it sounds, I do know him.’ It was hard to explain. Blaze was extremely good at what he did and that was very sexy.
His voice was tied up with fond memories of her middle brother, Gihan, teaching her how to play different games. They had played
Tomb Raider together, with Brook doing the puzzles and Gihan killing things. Watching Blaze, to her, was like hanging out with her brother’s best mate. A place to pretend she was playing. He was virtually family to her, but to him, she meant nothing. Now she was going to play alongside him. He would realise she existed. It was like meeting a movie star.
‘So, how does this work, then?’ Niro asked.
Niro picked up a pair of 3-D glasses that Brook had kept from the last time she went to the cinema. She would be watching along on the TV screen.
Brook settled the Syren3 onto her head and adjusted it so that it didn’t wobble. ‘So … I turn this on.’ She sat down and worked through the menus on-screen to get to the demo. ‘Okay. Let’s see what this looks like.’ She pressed the button on the side of the visor and entered the demo.
The graphics were 3-D and very detailed. It took a few seconds for her brain to get past the uncanny valley feeling. The demo was set in the grounds of a manor house. She practised moving around and found the commands that appeared in front of her easy enough to follow. She spent a few minutes doing the standard moves. Niro said something.
‘Hang on.’ Brook adjusted the sound balance, so that she could still hear her cousin. ‘What did you say?’
‘I said, it looks pretty good. It took my eyes a few minutes to adjust to the 3-D thing, but it’s really good. You’re doing well with all the running and jumping and … stuff.’
‘I need to practise,’ said Brook. ‘I’m quite slow.’
‘I’m impressed though,’ said Niro. Her voice was muffled and disembodied compared to the sounds coming through the headset. ‘I wouldn’t be able to do that.’
‘Yes, but I’ll be playing with Blaze and he’s a pro. I don’t want to slow him down too much.’ She tried punching something. ‘This character seems to be good at running and climbing, but rubbish at fighting.’ She tried another combo. Instead of the flying kick she was expecting, she managed only a small jump. ‘Okay. I really need to work on my fighting skills.’
‘That’s not so bad,’ said Niro. ‘At least you’re nimble.’
After a few more minutes of intense practice, a banner flashed up to say there was a live event in five minutes. ‘Oh shit.’ Brook hit the button to flip up her visor.
‘What?’ said Niro, who had just picked up a handful of popcorn. ‘It’s only the kick-off. You’ve been waiting for this for days.’
Brook’s breath was short. ‘I’m going to meet Blaze.’ She felt hot and breathless. She flexed her fingers. ‘I’m finally going to meet Blaze. Oh my god.’
Niro stared at her. ‘It’ll be fine. He’s just a guy. To him, this is just a job. Be cool.’
‘But what if I screw up and play really, really badly?’ Brook swallowed. Her throat was like the Sahara.
‘Then you screw up. It’s fine. It makes no difference to your real life. You still get to play and be part of it. Half of the other people in this game will be in exactly the same position, okay? No big deal. Besides, all you’re doing today is meeting up, right?’
‘But-‘
‘Just get on with it.’ Niro waved her handful of popcorn at the screen. ‘Go on. I want to watch.’
Heart pounding, Brook lowered the visor and clicked back into the alternate world.Ethan entered the game. He would be meeting his game partner for the first time. He had done a search on Bravura9, but hadn’t found much, other than that they always seemed to choose a female avatar – so he was assuming she was a woman. She barely had a presence on social media or in the gaming community. A quick search on his own feeds had shown a few comments from a Bravura9, but that was it. So, a relative newbie then. She probably wouldn’t be much help in the game, but that was okay. As a pro-gamer, he was being paid regardless. He wasn’t the most accomplished player among the pros anyway. Two of the guys were proper e-athletics champions. Ethan knew that he was only there because of his YouTube following.
Sensing something move on the periphery of his vision, he turned. Bravura had entered the game. She was an elf, with pointy ears and blue skin. He raised a hand and said, ‘Hi.’
The avatars were animated and had ultra-smooth skin and oddly textured clothing, but the expressions were unusually nuanced. Bravura stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth a small ‘o’. The facial rendering on these headsets was excellent. The poor kid looked terrified.
‘It’s nice to meet you,’ he volunteered.
She winced, as though someone had kicked her. ‘I …’ She cleared her throat. ‘Hi. I’m Bravura. Which you know, obviously, because we were paired up for the game. It’s an honour. A complete honour to meet you. I’ve watched all your videos. I’m a big fan. Huge.’ She was talking very fast and sounded breathless.
Blaze smiled. He had come across this reaction before, but it was usually from 10-year-olds. ‘That’s great to hear,’ he said smoothly.
‘Wait, are you broadcasting this? You are, aren’t you? Of course you are. It’s part of SyrenQuest.’ A blue hand flew to her mouth. ‘I’m on YouTube. Oh my god, I need to stop talking.’
Oh dear. He felt sorry for her. To him, being on YouTube was fun. A chance to leave Ethan behind and become Blaze, but it must be scary to put yourself out there if you weren’t used to it. ‘How about we run through one of the training exercises, just to see where our relative strengths and weaknesses are?’
‘Oh, yes. Good idea.’
They ran through a few challenges together, Blaze narrating everything as they went. Talking to himself on the channel came naturally to him, but not to his co-player, it seemed. As far as he could tell, Bravura was concentrating fiercely, which didn’t lend itself to chatting much.
He observed her play. The character was pretty nimble, but her reflexes weren’t great. The fighting moves were … bad. Terrible, in fact. His heart sank. He would have to work hard to make sure she survived any combat, or they wouldn’t make it past round one.
Oh well, he’d known this was a possibility when he’d signed up. He would get paid regardless of the outcome, so there was no need to stress. Right?The introductory session ended and Brook flipped her visor up. She slowly leaned back against the sofa.
‘So … how do you feel that went?’ asked Niro, her tone cautious, like someone approaching a skittish cat.
‘Oh my god, I was awful. And I was such a gibbering mess.’ When she closed her eyes, all she could see was Blaze’s expression while he was watching her. He hadn’t looked angry, just resigned. Like he knew they were going to tank and he was making his peace with it. How humiliating.