Chapter 3: Chapter 2

Leo

 

I rested my head against the door to my small two bedroom apartment and let out a long exhausted groan as my mind played out the day's events. “Why did I even ask them out?” I grumbled under my breath. 

 

“Man. You look like shit.” My roommate and adopted older sister August offered me a beer and gestured towards the living room where our Playstation was already loaded up with a game, ready to jump into duels.

 

I grabbed the beer, some cheap brand with a sour taste she brought home one night after work, but I drank it out of necessity.“You play. I just want to drink and regret my life choices.” I mumbled back to her as we sat down. I looked at the emblem for a new account and shook my head. “You're smurfing? That’s just messed up.”

 

“Don’t divert attention from your shitty mood .” She rolled her eyes at me before taking a drink of her own beer and grabbing her controller. “So… you wanna talk about it?” She asked, speaking over the other players on mic’s that are shit-talking back and forth to each other in the game lobby. 

 

“Not particularly.” I replied honestly before sighing and staring up at the ceiling. “They’ll be there tomorrow though- at work I mean… probably.” 

 

I could hear her game avatar running around throwing axes and stabbing players with knives from around corners while her rivals used guns and grenades. Before I had a chance to criticize her smurfing and the noxious gameplay of a top ranked player using a fresh account to queue with new players, she started talking.

 

“Well why don’t we start from the top then. You guys made plans to go out after you got off work, right?” I mumbled back a confirmation, seeing where this was going and preemptively cringing. “So where did you go? Movie? Dinner? You’re both geeks right? Avengers Vs X-Men is in theaters right now.”

 

I mumbled back my answer unintelligibly before taking a big swig of my beer.

 

She picked up a rifle in game and spun around sniping a jumping player out of mid-air before looking at me in confusion. “I’m sorry, what was that?” Her buzzed  hair and  bright green eyes made her appearance so striking that her disappointment seemed to be even more apparent. 

 

I sighed and finished off the beer, the alcohol loosening me up and letting my words flow easier. . “We went paintballing… at the Urban Free-for-All downtown. It was the spur of the moment!” I shouted in defense as she shook her head at me and scored the winning kill of the game before backing out of the lobby, finishing her beer, and turning to face me. I shrugged my shoulders and forced myself to avoid the judgment in her eyes.

 

“How-- noo.. ok no, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume that you had some reason to think they’d like this. Free-For-All was stupid, so you definitely  don’t get points back for that, but still… they had to have said yes for some reason. What happened on the date?”

 

I grabbed the controller she’d put down and started up a match switching to a hardcore one-life style match. “It went to shit is what happened…” I shook my head before shifting focus to the match.

 

I blasted a player with a shotgun, flanking them from behind and tossed a grenade onto a sniper post, scoring a double kill. My joy only lasted for a second before another player hiding in a shadow gunned me down when I stepped into the open without realizing it. 

 

I grabbed a fresh beer and a slice of philly cheese-steak pizza sat open on the counter before sitting down and explaining, as the rest of my team fought for their lives. “First, it was me realizing it was a free-for-all. I guess I knew it beforehand. I just honestly hadn’t thought of it. It’s not like I go out on dates very often.” 

 

August mumbled in understanding, and let me continue at my own pace, gesturing for the controller as the next round started up. I just sighed and handed it over. “You know how they have a bounty system over there?” 

 

“I think I heard someone mention it but I don’t really do that-” She gestured to herself and I nodded in understanding. “It doesn’t end great for people like me, remember.”

 

I started telling her that she could always go with me but stopped, remembering how hard it can be starting out. “Yeah, sorry, I guess I forget how lucky I am sometimes. Well the bounty system was initially made to help stop stuff like that.” 

 

She nodded, “I guess it’s not like that anymore…”

 

I took another drink, a small one, slowing down and letting myself focus on the game and conversation. “Mhmm. The idea is that there should be either one player or a small group of players in every match with a bounty on their heads, this encourages players who would normally be solo newbies to team up against the “wanted” player who is usually much more experienced. They will end up turning against each other anyways in the end but this way the matches are supposed to be longer and more entertaining.”

 

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“I can see where this is going…” August sighed as she hid from the rival teams last remaining player, essentially turning the game into a duel as they shot back and forth across the urban setting. Both of them were moving like rogues through the map, hiding inside busted out buildings. A minutes passed and the destructible environment began to be terraformed to each side's advantage. “You were still the most wanted player from last month's tournament right?”

 

I groaned as she hit the nail on the head. “How was I supposed to know nobody beat my record!” I shouted out indignantly before  eating the cold pizza and adding half-heartedly. “Until tonight anyways.”

 

August queried an eyebrow at me. “Maybe I didn’t see where this was coming.”

 

I laughed bitterly. “If you could then I would have even more to be frustrated about. Em destroyed them.”

 

August lost focus for a second and her rival took advantage, hitting the sniper shot much to the chagrin of our team, earning a chorus of angry swearing and belittling. “Why don’t you just mute them?” I asked her, annoyed at listening to people get so angry over a game, and a casual match at that.

 

“Their tears give me fuel,” she replied laughing. “I mean really, I’ve been pro for almost five years now, if that was enough to get under my skin I never would have made it this far.” I shrugged and laid back, quietly gathering my thoughts.

 

“So yeah. I got eliminated pretty much immediately. Doesn’t really feel great especially on a date, but not a big deal. The problem is what happened afterward. They were like a different person.” 

 

“Everyone is a bit different on a date…” August tried to defend them but I shook my head.

 

“Not like this. Em must have researched beforehand, because they left the building through a secret path. Even I didn’t know it existed, and I know the guys who built the damn thing. They got up to the sky-light, and rappelled downward somehow so they could hide in the rafters. They were hanging upside down held only by rope! Can you imagine that?! After that Em just sniped everyone who stepped out, using some kind of secret rifle stashed up there for anyone brave or stupid enough to try.” I shook my head exasperated. 

 

“They sound like a total badass.” August replied laughing. “I really don’t see where the big deal is here other than the fact your ego might be a bit bruised.” 

 

I waved my hand dismissively. “You know me better than that. No, it’s because it turns out that Em, wasn’t actually Em…” I sighed and used my phone to pull up the pictures I’d saved passing the phone over to August.

 

It was a picture of Em- Emily Burdowe turning down the medal for Tactical-Respawn. The picture had been forcibly displayed over our matches scoreboard, a very effective method considering the people seeing it were all just destroyed by one of the best gamers alive. The games weren’t exactly the same of course, Strategy War was a virtual real time strategy and first person shooter game that currently sits as the most popular esports game in the world. And we were just playing Urban Paintball, but the truth was in how they played, both Em and Hide0us_Replica acted as extreme strategists pursuing out of the box methods to gain an insurmountable advantage. “Emily Burdowe is Hide0us_Replica.” I stated dreadfully. “They were doxxed at our date.” 

 

August shook her head in surprise, “Shit.” August set the controller down and took a slow drink of her beer. “I haven’t heard about them in so long but they're a legend. After their girlfriend was murdered during a tournament they were forced to keep playing even though most of their team had quit for some reason. They won the entire thing single handedly and instead of taking the money they spat in the organizers face and outed themselves on stage as non-binary and queer. It was a fantastic moment. Then well… the internet happened. I guess it’s still happening to them based on what you said. What happened after that?”

 

“I don’t really know, to be honest. I tried to talk to them but they just ran away. Ordered an Uber home. I tried texting and calling but they never responded. I just hope their OK.”

 

August didn’t say anything as we just sat together in silence thinking over all that had happened.

 

 “Do you still want to see them?” August finally asked me, after getting up and grabbing us both fresh beers. 

 

I groaned and sat up taking a sip of the beer before putting it back down. “I just- I don’t even know. An enormous part of me just wants to forget today even happened and go back to normal. Just be a quiet, simple, flirting barista with the cute and mysterious customer.”

 

August gave me time to add on more but when I didn’t she prodded me to continue. “But you can’t turn back time. They're probably terrified now, a life they tried to leave behind has been forcibly revealed to the world once again. So what are you going to do to take responsibility? There is no taking back what happened on your date.”

 

I closed my eyes and chugged the beer, finishing it in one go before getting up and walking to my room. “I guess I’m going to go to work and be there when they're ready.”

 

August nodded smiling proudly, and wished me goodnight before grabbing their headset and switching over accounts to their main. “I guess I can give this a shot again, for you.” Before logging into Tactical-Respawn. 

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