Gamer Girls 3 (Old) (Patreon)

  As the horde of AnimeCon attendees began to disperse from the bigger events like the cosplay contest, more and more people were wandering back into the game room. Although Lucas was nominally in charge of game room one right now, he didn’t feel like getting up to keep an eye on any of the new arrivals. Another two players had joined them a match or two ago, and their Slash Sisters arena had devolved into mayhem. To his surprise, he and the girl he’d started playing with were still leagues ahead of them in skill.

   She’s cute, too, he thought. Whenever he had a moment, he’d discreetly glance over at her. She was petite and had expressive features, she had a wry sense of humor, and she kicked ass at Super Slash Sisters. What’s not to like?

   Emily, on the other hand, periodically took her eyes off the game to glance at each of the newcomers in the game room as they arrived. Maybe Brian’ll walk in, any moment. Hey, that one had a cool Dmitri cosplay. The other girl with the huge titties needs to find a shirt in her size. Oh, there’s Mary; Mark’s little sister. She’s with some guy. Wait—what?!

   “What the fuck are you doing here?” Emily called out, twisting in her seat.

   “Emily,” Mary mouthed in surprise, eyes widening.

   “Ohmigod, they’ve got Grail five here!” Melanie exclaimed, breaking away from Jordyn and bouncing over towards the desks where the PC gamers were playing. “I’ve been wanting to play that! Can I play?”

   “Not on this one,” a scraggly-bearded guy with deep circles beneath his eyes mumbled to her, not looking away form his game. There was no movement on his screen. His character, a blue-armored supersoldier, was crouched over one of the teleportal exits with a snub-nosed shotgun at the ready.

   “How ‘bout I play once you die?” Melanie proposed, leaning over him until her boob was pressing against his shoulder. “Geez, you’re just camping, anyways! If you’re not gonna actually fight, let someone else play.”

   “I’m not camping, I’m waiting,” the guy replied, distracted. “It’s a legitimate strategy.”

   “Yeah, okay bro,” Melanie rolled her eyes and looked up across the other LAN players. “Are any of you other guys almost done? I want to play.”

   “Yeah, sure. I’m out,” One of the other players laughed. “Hah. I just knew that asshat Blaster Mage five oh one was still camping.”

   “It’s not camping,” the first guy, BlasterMage501 called back over absentmindedly.

   “I’m done too, fuck this guy,” another player chuckled, standing up. “Fucker’s totally been squatting there all game long. I’m sick of having to go around the long way.”

   “It’s not camping.”

   “How the fuck is that not camping?!”

   “I’m on him!” Melanie hopped into one of the freed seats. “I’m, uh… my dude’s handle is Commisar Crabs, I guess. Who’s with me?”

   “You can’t join in this game,” BlasterMage501 protested. “You saw my screen earlier, so that’s cheating.”

   A chorus of groans sounded out from all of the Grail 5 players.

   “Everyone knows where you are, dude, ‘cause you haven’t moved,” one of the other players laughed.

   “Jordyn!” Melanie’s face was already awash with the soft glow of the computer monitor as she immersed herself in a canyon filled with alien structures. “Come play! There’s another seat open!”

   “Okay, sure,” Jordyn agreed, before looking at the setup with some hesitation. “Uh. I’ve never played Grail on PC before, though. Last time I played was on the Phantom three.”

   “Me neither!” Melanie confessed, and her screen lit up with sputtering flashes of muzzle-fire. “It’s super easy, though. Just point at their heads and click click click!”

   “Ugh, console peasants,” BlasterMage501 grumbled out loud. A hapless player appeared through the teleportal he was watching, and a blast from the shotgun immediately opened up  a gory hole through the other supersoldier’s torso. “Aren’t the kiddie consoles over on the other side of the room? What, are they letting just anyone in here these days?”

   “Alright… let’s see here...” Jordyn had just begun familiarizing herself with the basic controls when her red-armored soldier’s looked down at its feet and stopped. Moments later, it turned its head up into the sky and the warrior turned a slight circle, unable to get its bearing. Before it could reorient itself, its helmet exploded in a grisly splatter of blood and ragged chunks of flesh.

   “Okay, that’s not good.” Jordyn made a face as the kill-camera hovered over the fallen body. “Yikes.”

   “Whoopsie, was that you?” Melanie giggled. “Sorry. Which name are you, Jordyn?”

   “I’m logged in as… Sad_Meme_Frog?” Jordyn's lovely face quirked into a wry smile as she mashed buttons on her keyboard in frustration. “Can I log in as a new guy? I don’t mind the mouse and keyboard, but this guy’s look controls are all inverted.”

   “Four and a half more minutes on this map,” a guy called over. “Just, uh… try not to look up or down, and you can still play just fine.”

   “Yeah, easy for you to say…” Jordyn grumbled, watching her soldier spawn back in. 

   “Thought you weren’t supposed to be here this year?” Mary grumbled, looking apprehensively over at Emily. She wasn’t scared of the little twerp by any means—they simply had a history of vocal confrontations, and Mary didn’t want to make a scene in front of Foxy.

   “Yeah, says who?” Emily scowled.

   “My brother, I guess?” Mary scoffed, keeping her distance from Emily. “He was trying to get all of his doofy little friends to take me around the con. Nobody but Brian showed up.”

   “Brian?!” Emily jumped up and tossed her Gamestation controller onto her chair, abandoning her spot in the game. On screen, the Plumber Princess Maria that had been locked in close-quarters combat with Flarefox suddenly went still and began taking a one-sided beating. “Where is he now?”

   At a loss, Lucas stopped mauling Princess Maria and awkwardly let the idle character be, jumping over to another platform to interrupt the battle of the other two players.

   “Last I saw, he was getting drummed out of the auditions for the cosplay contest,” Mary smirked.

   “He was at the—?” Emily’s eyes narrowed at Mary. “Why would you be there at the auditions?”

   “Because. My good friend Foxy here, he was one of the judges this year,” Mary announced proudly, pressing closer to Foxy. “Brian’s dorky getup just couldn’t make the cut.”

   Foxy? Lucas froze, unable to stop himself from turning away from the game this time. Fawkes Loxly?

   “Where’s Brian now?” Emily whirled, looking past the pair and hopefully scanning the scattered crowd within the room for the familiar sight of her Brian.

   “Who cares?” Mary scoffed.

   “Ah, Luke,” Foxy’s eyes flashed with recognition as Lucas turned around. “Buddy. I wondered who was playing that Flarefox. You finally getting back into gaming?”

   “Yeah, hey,” Lucas said, quickly turning back to the game so that his distaste for the guy wasn’t obvious on his face. “Long time no see.”

   “We’re havin’ a big get-together after the con, you should swing by,” Foxy said, pulling his pen and paper out of the coat Mary was holding so he could jot down his room number. “I bet everyone still remembers you.”

   “Who’s he?” Mary asked, glancing over at Lucas.

   “He’s a… well, he used to be a famous streamer,” Foxy said. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then scribbled another line beneath his hotel and room number. “You know, livin’ the dream, gettin’ paid to just play around whenever he wanted. You had what, hundred thousand subscribers? Five hundred thousand?”

   “Somethin’ like that,” Lucas muttered. “That as a long time ago. I’m working at ninety-five two, now.”

   “You were a famous streamer?” Emily looked at her Slash Sisters friend in surprise.

   “Radio?” Foxy’s eyes seem to light up. “That’s great, man. Awesome. Congratulations, I knew you were gonna wind up finding similar work. Here, my room number—you know the drill, we’ll have plenty of free booze.”

   “Ehh. Thanks man, but I’ll have to pass,” Lucas said, not looking up from the game. “I’ve got a lot going on tonight.”

   “Why don’t you take a look here, anyways—you might change your mind.”

   Something in Foxy’s voice caught Lucas’ attention, and he turned to see the slip of paper Foxy was passing him.

Grand Wingfield

Room 322

Sarah will be there.

   “Fuck, man,” Lucas grimaced, shaking his head, and his shoulders slumped. “Don’t do that to me.”

   “I think she went on a few dates with some photographer last year,” Foxy said, slipping into the seat Emily had vacated and taking up her controller. “But, she hasn’t been steady with anyone since—well, you know. Kinda weird, right?”

   “It’s not any of my business,” Lucas shrugged. Flarefox disengaged with the opponent he was facing on the lower platform and double-hopped up to immediately assault Plumber Princess Maria.

   “Yeah, yeah,” Foxy grinned, watching the character he’d taken control of immediately blasted mercilessly into the air by a laser barrage. Flarefox leapt up and performed a flare kick to send Maria hurling off of the upper level. “Have you guys been in touch at all? Does she know you’re here?”

   “I think we’ve both put all that way behind us,” Lucas had Flarefox drop down a platform, brushing past one of the other players to pursue Maria again. “Ancient history.”

   “Still…” Foxy gave Lucas a meaningful look from the corner of his eye. “Might be a good time to finally bury the hatchet, and all that. She just won Best in Show at the cosplay contest, you could go and congratulate her or something, right?” The clear implication in his voice being that if he didn’t go, he did still have issues with Sarah and was being petty.

   “Hah,” Lucas let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Dude, I bet she barely even remembers me.”

   “Want me to ask her?” Foxy chuckled.

   “...No.” Lucas was firm.

   “Well, hang onto that room number,” Foxy stood up, passing the controller off to one of the nearby attendees who’d been watching the game. “Think it over.”

   What are the odds I’d run into him, Foxy thought to himself in amazement. He felt like the final missing card he’d been waiting on had just been drawn into his hand. This is a perfect scenario. Him showing up is the perfect angle for putting that last little bit of pressure on Sarah that I needed. Luke’s already a total has-been now anyways, he’s the perfect fall guy to job for me at the party.

   Sarah, I’m so sorry— I thought he was just a fan of yours. I never realized he was your ex! Foxy could say. He seemed real keen on the party as soon as he heard you’d be here. Is he creeping on you? I’ll throw him out right here in front of everybody if he’s making you uncomfortable. The past few parties he’d held had been a little too tame, and Foxy hadn’t had the opportunity to assert himself as an authority, as someone who took charge of situations and dealt with things. That’s right, I’m the guy who gets things done.

*     *     *

   “Hey, a couple of friends and I were gonna go grab a bite to eat, in case you wanna join us?” Liz offered, casually stopping by Fletcher before she left the game room.

   “I’m good. Thanks, though,” Fletcher gave her a nod. “We got together at the ramen shop before the show.”

   “Oh,” The smile on Liz’s face turned awkward. “So, what are you up to now?”

   “I dunno,” Fletcher shrugged. “Joe’ll probably want to show off at triple R—Rhythm rhythm Rebellion, that is—so, we’ll head to the game room, I guess. Have you ever played?”

   Man, Liz is completely gorgeous, Fletcher couldn’t help but think. More so every single year. I really need to work up the nerve to ask her out one of these conventions.

   “Yeah, I’ve got pretty good rhythm,” Liz said, fidgeting with the hem of her Priestess cosplay. “Do you play much?”

   “I’m not bad,” Fletcher said. “Joe’s the real pro, though. Earlier today, at the tourney—”

   “I don’t care about Joe, though,” Liz waved her sleeve dismissively. “Can I come watch you play?”

   “Yeah, sure,” Fletcher said, surprised. “Whenever you and your friends are done eating, head over and—”

   “I didn’t have any friends,” Liz pointed out. “I made that up, just so that I’d sound cool.”

   “Oh,” Fletcher blinked, following after her. “I’ve always thought you’re cool, though?”

   “Perfect!” Liz laughed, taking Fletcher by the arm and tugging him in the direction of the door.

   Looking back towards the judge’s table, Fletcher caught Joe grinning at him like an idiot and slapping blindly at Ghost Wine’s shoulder. The Filipino woman scowled in response until she saw Liz pulling Fletcher away, and then her face broke into a big smile as well. She raised both hands in two big thumbs-up.

   “See?” Fletcher said, arching an eyebrow suspiciously at his immature friends. “Everyone thinks you’re cool.”

   “We want him back safe and sound before ten o’clock, missy!” Ghost Wine shouted over.

   “And, we better not find any marks!” Joe added. “We’re gonna check.”

   “Grow up, it’s not like that,” Fletcher retorted, shaking his head. So embarrassing. What’re they gonna do if Liz takes them seriously? She’s WAY out of my league.

   “I’ll try to be gentle!” Liz called back, smiling brilliantly.

   “So... what do you think is really cool about me?”

/// Didn't do great on visual detail this time, I'm struggling to balance this many things going on at once and having it still readable. Probably edit it with more description later and see if the pace slowing down doesn't mess things up.