15
IT'S 9 P.M., JOHN MULANEY'S LATEST SPECIAL IS PLAYING ON MYspeakers, and I'm waiting in my favorite pajamas for Royce to appear online so I can show him my box, which I have taken pains to arrange so it looks presentable when we finally play together after a hot and heavy week of studying.
And the answer is: Yes, I do hear myself. Apparently, the double entendres come faster when I'm nervous.
Okay, okay, stop it, brain.
I take a deep breath and try not to sweat or burp, which affects my playing. I need to be on form today, especially since it's our first-time gaming together. We'd been trying to sync up our packed schedules to play CounterFlash (no mean feat with Royce's tutoring and our open-mike commitments of two performances a week at a minimum, preferably not the same ones as each other's, plus my physio sessions); this was our first free night hanging out, just the two of us, in the week since the Saturday we spent at his home. Our last two peer tutor sessions had been held in the school library with a couple of other seniors who needed help with the same subjects, which is just as well since who needs to be alone in a beautiful mansion with Taslim, surrounded by sugary treats—not me, that's for sure.
Speaking of being alone with Taslim, my heart is doing sprints in my chest as I wait for Taslim, who's late. Gaming together is an intimate exercise. I have a bunch of people I play CF with online, such as NerdWolf from New York, Xilixili from China, and OldNicky from Cypress, people I've never met before but who I know intimately (where they are based, what time they sleep, how often they take toilet breaks, their favorite snacks, their go-to swear words, their strengths and weaknesses, how they deal with pain and pleasure). Some of them I've built online friendships with over the years and some relationships have even crossed over to other platforms like Twitch. The camaraderie, the bonhomie, that shared history, often translates to real life. If you gel together on multiplayer tactical games, if you have each other's backs over days, weeks, months, sometimes years of gaming together, you share LOLs, triumphs, disappointments together, and that connection is something to be cherished.And vice versa.
All to say—I'm nervous about gaming with Royce. It could get train-wrecky, fast.
Play it cool, playitcoolplayitcool.
Royce Taslim is here—or rather, his avatar is.
Cute outfit, he messages. We, or our avatars, check each other out: He's got a special edition sunset-gold Direwolf skin with a Bludgeoning Hammer, and I'm wearing a limited-edition purple-and-neon green Vampire skin with a special Soul Scythe that I found in a special loot drop, which helps you regenerate 20 percent faster.
Business first or pleasure?
Pleasure, he responds, brandishing his Hammer.
A boy after my own rotten heart, I reply, flipping my Scythe.
We turn on our gaming headsets and get to it, and it is glitchy and glorious. Royce's hammer is a new one that replaced the buggy version released a couple of months ago, and it's powerful enough that we coast through some of the wilder melees. I get to show off some of my special combo moves, and lots of brains and guts go flying. It's epic.
It's almost like a date, but better. Not that I've actually been on a one-on-one date, come to think of it. My dating experience has so far been limited to group dates with different combos of the Hot Flashes and their counterparts, and most of them were mind-numbingly boring and involved lots of flexes about vacations and fancy overseas camps that went over my head.
But Royce and I chat as we disembowel enemies, and sure, most of it is game chat ("Fray him! Fray him!" "Brain them! Harder! Watch out!" "Evacuate! Evacuate! Left! No, your other left! Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!") but occasionally, when we are resting in one of the Gloomy Tunnels, we exchange words of encouragement and gossip about school or the latest K-drama we're all pretending not to be into. And then back to the ending of other people's lives.
It's actually quite relaxing. And it's certainly the most fun I've had since I stopped running.
This was a pretty sick sesh,I say at the end of a three-hour marathon, and it's 1 a.m.
Yeah you were . SLAYED.
WAS THERE ANY DOUBT?I retort.
None, he responded. I knew you'd be good at anything you set your mind to
Thanks. I"m glad we mesh well together.I hurry to clarify. In the game!
Don't worry Agnes, I know what you meant God forbid IRL friendship develops!!
But for real, GTG. I've got to work a shift tmw
After I have entered that into the chat field I freeze. I hadn't meant to type that. I would have normally told him I had to sleep or something.
What kind of shift?Royce asks.
It's too late to lie now.
I have a Saturday dinner shift at this Korean BBQ restaurant. Nowhere you'd know
Royce probably ate at fancier Korean places than this little hole-in-the-wall.
Which one?
He"s clearly not letting this go. Seoul Hot. It"s in Little Korea, Ampang
Nice! Glad you're back in action
I guess, I write, my face still burning.
I had so much fun tonight, really
Sames,I typed.
So. Now to business.He means my promise to gift him an item from my loot.
I sigh and bring him to my inventory tent. Have at it.
He barely pokes around before he clicks on an item. A Slippery Devil ring from my loot that adds some dexterity and mediocre damage to his attack. A nothing ring, really, something noobs get within the first ten levels of CounterFlash. I'll take this.
Oh, are you sure?I respond half-heartedly. I have way more valuable items. Like, you can get anything—except my Soul Scythe and my Hellforged Breastplate and my Invisibility ring and my—
It's OK, I only want a little more dexterity, really
Dexterity is very valuable…Not a +2 dexterity ring, but if he really wants it.
Night, LilFlashes
Night, BashfulTactician
In a flurry of random emojis, he leaves, and curiously, in spite of all the disemboweling and dismembering, I'm…content. Somehow, despite him being my former rival, my feelings toward him had mellowed. Maybe, just maybe, we were becoming friendly, if not friends. Taslim and I are just really friendly friends.
~
Zee: Do you know any jugglers?
Zee:Never mind
Me:Er, no?
Me:Dare I ask what for?
Zee:The charity fundraiser/school ball
Me:Oh that
Zee:Any chance you can learn to juggle by December?
Me:Absolutely not