Gamelit Novel, 12 (Patreon)

Ray leaned back in his chair and exhaled with all the satisfaction of a job done amazing.Not only had the game spun up a miniboss for them to fight in the Veilgrove, but it had improvised a graveyard, a crypt, and a hidden quest to clear out the evil presence that had been attracting the ghouls to the area. Goldie and Killz had slain their way through the event, stylishly destroyed the miniboss, and earned themselves a cut scene animation of a noxious-looking vapor dissipating into the cold night sky. And with his editstream key, Ray had been able to modify the cut scene, accentuating the best angles, even feeding in some epic music: metal, of course, that thinned out into some fancy orchestral string instruments with an ethereal choir to symbolize the return of peace and beauty after the dark terrors of the night. There were not enough exclamation points for the exhilaration of live-editing that stream, and he could not waitto take the footage and chop it up for a highlights reel.

The dialogue, he wasn’t too sure of. Goldie was doing the usual ‘RPGs are cool, man’ spiel. Killz was also doing his usual ‘RPGs are stupid, when can we kill more things, can we skip the stupid cut scenes/quests’ routine. Ray wasn’t sure how the combo was going to play for viewers. Would the bickering become meme material… or would it annoy both sets of fans? So far the viewer counts looked good, but it was only the first day. Ray chewed his lower lip, then pulled the headset off for a bio break. He debated a shower but didn’t want to be gone that long. Ordering a pizza, though… he could work on the highlights reel while waiting.

With a coffee refill to keep him pumped, he put together a cinematic four-minute recap of the improvised Veilgrove adventure and posted it, just in time for the door bell to go off. He tipped well—he’d done service jobs, they sucked—and returned to his workstation to eat and check the analytics. Looking good, he thought. Which meant it was time to check on his other job. With a sigh, he pulled up the loser channel.

It had not taken off while he was paying attention to the superstars—totally unsurprising. What did surprise him was that twelve people had bothered to watch ‘Chatting With Centaurs,’ and one had even left a comment: “like the cooking parts, it’s like fantasy cooking channel.”

That was so weirdly specific he started skipping through the stream and… actually, yeah. Lots of cooking. He paused when the flatbread came off the firepit stone and eyed his pizza, which suddenly looked a lot less appetizing. Huh. Ray dug into the email to pull out the second editstream key and dropped into Mom-and-Kid’s recorded footage. Lots and lots of cooking, and if he tried to think like some cameraman from a cooking channel show… yes, actually, he could make that work. It was even interesting, a little, to try thinking like that… less like he was cutting a big budget epic fantasy and more like he was putting together a youtube tutorial. There was plenty to work with, and when he was done he had two shorts and a fifteen-minute. He labeled these ‘Cooking with Centaurs’ along with the dishes and called that good enough. More than good enough, really, because who the heck was going to want to learn to cook lizardhen stew from a pony? Omen Galaxica’s audience was not cozy kitchen larpers.

The pizza was cold but still good, and Killz had just out and out murdered an NPC trying to sell him weapons repairs and rations. Ray pulled the headset on and dove in.

***

Nick opened one crusty eye and stared until the battered old clock on his nightstand came into focus: almost 11 am. That… was honestly not as bad as he expected, given how late he’d gone to bed. His impromptu mandolin lesson had gone on for hours when he’d started talking with the centaurs and then, somehow, that had become an invitation to travel with their caravan to Thunderspan. He’d spent the remainder of his night—by then, early morning—hunting through the nearby forest for herbs and roots to mix up some potions, less because he wanted to evolve his herbalism and more because he was curious what all those plants would look, taste, smell, and feel like now. The Cervinaethi had racial bonuses to herbalism, and as an assassin he could boost his DPS with poisons, so at the time he’d leveled the skill for completely sensible gameplay reasons. Fish had teased him mercilessly about it, of course, because it wasn’t enough to be playing the elf-analogue in the game, he also had to have girly flower-picking powers.

But watching an umbral orchid open its petals and glow purple against his palm had been magical. Its pollen had puffed out in a myriad of little blue-violet motes that sparkled like glitter and smelled like vanilla. And he’d been able to draw glowing designs on his wrist with them, and it had been fantastic. Even chasing down the nearly impossible to see shyvine had been rewarding when he could sense the air pressure against his fake deer ears and hear the rustling of critters in the duff.

No, he had no regrets. He’d even compounded a bunch of newbie potions for his mom, for when she logged back in. Which wouldn’t be until after his dad left for work, but his dad had left for work a long time ago. Going downstairs, though, revealed her snoozing shape on the couch. Did all pregnant women sleep so much? You would have thought they would be able to run from lions or whatever. Nick peered in the pantry, was about to give up on breakfast, and turned to see muffins on the counter. She’d baked! He snitched one and returned upstairs to see what was going on in the group chat. What he really wanted was to go back to the game, but maybe it was for the best that he, you know, shower once in a while, and talk to his living, breathing friends.

Nick: hey, whats up

Fish: fairyboy picks flowers all night long, lol, srsly what was that

Then again, maybe centaurs were better company. Nick knuckled his eyes until they cleared and had a bite of the muffin while swiping.

Nick: jelly i see

Fish: not of what youre doing, lol

Fish: checked out your channel, it was lame, when are you gonn do somthin interesting

Oh, heck, the channel. Nick flipped to the video app and brought it up. Twelve viewers? Better than nothing. Four videos, though, counting the paused livestream, and as he watched the number clicked up on one of them.

When he switched back to the chat app, Blythe had woken up.

Blythe: I looked, it was pretty cool watching the game evolve

Fish: what evolving all i saw was lame npc dialogue

Blythe: no, really, it started out as a human camp with some centaurs

Blythe: because Greenweald, you know

Blythe: and then it became a centaur camp, suddenly lots of centaurs

Blythe: now its a centaur caravan and its going to the bridge

Blythe: obv a new quest, you never see that many centaurs in greenweald

Blythe: really cool, nick!

Nick paused in the middle of wolfing down the rest of the muffin. With it hanging out his mouth, his hands were free to reply.

Nick: didnt notice now that you say it that is cool

Fish: okay fine game responding to you to spawn new quests is pretty rad

Fish: can you please spawn less pathetic ones

Fish: lol

Nick rolled his eyes.

Fish: am logging into my familys accounts and setting them to subscribe and watch your stuff

Blythe: wait what? you have their passwords?

Fish: duh I live with them

Fish: also they dont care

Fish: arent I a good freind lol

Fish: no really if your’e gonna do loser stuff you need all the help i can give you my man

Nick chuckled and typed back, ‘thnx’ because he did appreciate it.

Shellie: hey lets do the arcade

Blythe: morning shellie

Shellie: 1 pm sound good

Blythe: I’m game

Fish: sure why not

Blythe: falc will come once he wakes up

Blythe: you coming nick?

Nick hesitated. The arcade was the go-to spot for most of the teens in the area, a pizza place in walking distance from most of the local neighborhoods. It was big enough for large groups, cheap enough to eat at frequently, and it had five old arcade machines that were still fun to waste quarters on, especially since quarters these days weren’t good for much else. During the school year they used it to study, or more often pretend to study, on some weeknights; now, in the summer, they went there to hang out, eat, waste some time, and then wander in the nearby ‘park’, which was a block of sidewalk with a handful of trees and one playground for tiny kids. It was a ten minute walk away, and faster by bike, and normally Nick would have left a note and gone.

But he kept wondering what the Greenweald looked like during the day. Would there be weather effects? He hadn’t tried fishing yet, what would fishing be like? There was a creek that ran through one of the corners of the forest, and it was the only place to score spotty perches.

Nick finished the muffin and typed: ‘maybe tomorrow.’

Fish: hes gonna game girls weve been dumped

Blythe: it is the second day of the beta!

Blythe: we’ll eat a slice of pizza for you

Fish: nah well eat the whole pizza lol

Fish: but do something more interesting or my fake family members will get bored of your stream

Falcon: hey I can go, see you all soon

Falcon: except nick whose too good for us

Falcon: XD

Nick sent them an entire line of random emojis and tossed the phone aside. Another muffin, a shower, and a drink later, he set the wireset in place and sank onto the bed.