“Just do it. It’ll make you feel better,” Leigh sighed and glanced over at the black-haired man.
“Well, for one thing, that game is stupid and I’m over it. And for another, I don’t want to get too sucked in and have that affect you,” he replied.
She looked deeply into his dark eyes, “it won’t. It will be good for you. I remember Jason saying after his move, he felt lonely and he needed a way to connect with the guys. I’ll be fine. If it helps you, then that will be good for me too.” Leigh’s words were gentle and loving.
There was a moment of silence, then Pat said, “alright, but I’m only playing this game for you”.
She smirked; what a smartass.
---
The phone chimed and rattled on the nightstand. The shaved headed man didn’t open his eyes. He merely turned over and tried to shut his mind off once more. But it was difficult. Numbers and sequences flowed through, as though he was just a conduit for something more fluid, more visceral.
The phone clattered and finally fell off the table, with a dull sound as it landed gently on the pile of wrinkled shirts and socks below. ‘You’d better be hot,’ thought the groggy man, as he rubbed his eyes, scooped up his phone, at slid it unlocked to discover the culprit that had interrupted his trance.
Dude, I’m back. So is Garrett. So is Rolly. So is…. Pat! Shit is going down! -Jason
It was a text from an old friend. One he hadn’t spoken to in quite some time and, frankly, whom he only ever spoke to when they were gaming together. He knew before even reading the black pixelated lines what the content of the message would be. But he didn’t believe it. Not Raleigh. Certainly not Pat. What the hell was Jason playing at, anyway?
Huh?
The reply was simple. He looked it over three or four times before sending it off. It got his message across eloquently, Josh thought.
Log in, see for yourself. We are running ToT right now. I’m getting them geared up a bit. Draenor drops in 2 weeks! Get your ass in gear!
For one thing, the idiot had misspelled Raleigh’s name for the thousandth time. For another, of course Josh was happy to see his good college friends back, but he still didn’t fully believe it.
Jason, the short-tempered support class, always jumping too quickly into the action and then complaining about dying when he did so. Raleigh, the most expert gamer in any room and just as generous. And Pat. No way Pat was coming back. He despised the game.
---
“Goddammit! I swear to God, one more pull before I’m ready and I’m letting you tank it”. Alex’s bubbling voice in his ears made the edges of Jason’s lip curl upward.
“It’s ToT - relax,” he replied.
“Yes, but I’m not a tank. I’m a dps. You’ve got to give me a second. And what the hell is the healer pulling for, anyway?” Jason thought he had a point, but he was too engrossed to care much. Besides, his fingers shook with excitement, for there were other voices over the feed. Those of good friends from which he had only long ago heard.
There was Garrett, the irritable, but endlessly loyal Arcane Mage. This was a man that would rather go an entire night neglecting sleep, than give in and admit defeat to an adversary.
And Raleigh, the soft spoken and pensive player that always paid it forward. Any hefty reward the humble Paladin found himself on the receiving end of would be distributed generously among his friends, so that everyone could enjoy the good fortune.
Stephen, in an effort to mitigate the inevitable disagreement between the two bull-headed children, whispered to Alex in a thick voice, “next time he does it, I’ll redirect him. He will die almost instantly."
“Hey guys, just keep moving; come on over here with me,” Pat perthisted.
“Noooo!!!” came several voices at once. There was immediate raucous laughter, as Pat’s character, the humble and underdressed rogue, went flying across their computer monitors.
“Thanks for the warning, assholes!” He had hit a shining patch on the floor and prompty been jettisoned to a grim death.
Bing - rang the friend alert and Jason looked up to see that Josh had finally arrived.
“Bout time!”
“Are you kidding me? Pat? Riz? You guys came back?!” Josh was still unbelieving.
“Don’t rub it in. Just get ready for some pee-vee-pay! We're gonna wreck shit in Draenor." Pat mocked his best thug-like tone of voice.
---
The next week was a blur of work hours and sleep, intermingled with endless entertainment as the seven heroes adventured together across the lands of Pandaria. Josh, the militaristic and cocky Warrior would stand at the helm, shield braced, ready to absorb an onslaught, as the Pat the Rogue, Garrett the Mage, the Hunter Stephen, and Alex the Feral Druid tore through the flesh of foes. The brave Paladin at the fingertips of Raleigh danced between pulling excess teeth-gnashing enemies away from the group, throwing well-placed heals on needing allies, and bashing in the skulls of computer-controlled orcs. And Jason the Priest, ever present at the back of the group, wisely watching over the health status of his friends, preventing damage, curing wounds, and throwing the occasional smite at a group of oblivious berserkers, who would then join the fray. Just to keep things interesting.
It was less than one week now. And the true fun would begin. An all-new continent. Hundreds of hours of new and treacherous content. And the group of seven friends would be ass-in-chair, facing down the most epic gaming experience of their lives, and they would be doing so together.
Stephen had discovered a cave deep within the bowels of Orgrimmar. They were in the midst of sieging the Orcish capital, when he said, "um... Hey guys, has anyone ever explored this cave over here?"
It was odd because it stuck out curiously against the grizzly background of spikes and war machines, an oblong tunnel with a muddy purple glow and a thin pink mist floating along the ground. None of them had ever seen it, actually. Wild. They'd been standing in sis very location perhaps a hundred times before.
"Alright, I'm auto-following you Stephen, bio break, be right back," Alex said. They plunged forward, curiously scanning left and right, as the tunnel carved deeper beneath the city, the light became more obnoxious and the textures more obtuse and unfinished-looking.
Just then - ZAP - the screen went black. Jason let out a frustrated groan, as he realized his machine had failed at the very crux of the strange burrow.
The phone buzzed, "hey man," Jason said into Josh's ear.
"Hey my power just went out, I'll be back in when I can," he breathed heavily, sucking in smoke as he spoke.
"Don't worry Josh, my computer just shut off," Jason reassured him.
"What the hell? That is a weird coincidence," Josh shot back, blowing the smoke out slowly from his lungs.
"Yeah, I-" Jason's phone buzzed in his ear, "I'm getting a text from Stephen. His power is out too, what the hell?!"
After a few more moments of baffled conversation, along with the exchange of various messages with his friends, Jason escaped into the kitchen, where he pulled out a glass from the cupboard and poured deeply from his whiskey bottle.
"Be careful with that, sweetie, we have to go to church early tomorrow with the Phipps'," came the loving tone of Katy from the couch.
Jason nodded, kissed his wife gently on the forehead, leaving behind a pleasant scent of aged wood, and retreated back into his cave, ready to fire up his machine and deal the death knell to his computer-generated adversaries.
Leaning over his computer, he noticed a strangle purple flashing coming from inside the box. How odd, he'd not installed that color LED inside his computer. What did it mean? He leaned close to the box, but unable to make anything out, he resorted to slipping the black metal siding off the machine, exposing the guts within.
More phone vibrating - he didn't check, but assumed his friends were back up and running. Moving quickly now, Jason leaned very near the source of the light, trying to discern its meaning, its source, anything. It was very vague though, as if not coming from a single LED at all, but rather a glowing bulb of some sort. He realized he hadn't yet attempted to power the machine on yet. So, one hand vacantly on the glowing purple bulb, his fingers found the power button.
The sound rang in his ears. It screamed at him, like fire imps dancing and crying and scratching at one another. The bright purple bulb exploded on all sides of him and seared his eyeballs, leaving rich negative images as he blinked away the pain. His hair was being ripped from his scalp, hands and legs being forced apart, his back arched dangerously. And then all was quiet, as his face felt the cold kiss of a mucky stone floor.
After a moment of spinning, glasses began to clink quietly, mumbling could be heard from somewhere beyond. Jason sat up, dizzy, sucked in the strange chilled air, and pushed his way to his feet. Flowing blue robes warmed his arms and torso, as a fine-sewn belt dangled at his waist, and bejeweled rings cut into adjacent fingers. He swerved directly into a mop handle as he negotiated an upright position. The tiny cramped space was some sort of closet. But his cramped apartment had no such amenities, which was puzzling.
The door creaked open, as Jason, now realizing he was fully emblazoned in bright blue glowing garb that flowed like silk, scanned the old musty bar, half full of rumbling and chuckling dwarves, squeaking gnomes, and whispering blue-skinned elves.
No comments:
Post a Comment