“Aw shit.”
Owen glanced over at the rest of the players in the room, with only Aoife noticing the sudden stillness of Owen’s character model and turning to face her. “Hey uh- Richie? Richie can we pause?” Richie clumsily pulled off his headphones, resulting in the headphones falling forwards off his head and into his lap.
“What?! I can’t even pause the match, dude!” Richie’s hands were whirling around in an awkward attempt to put the headphones back around his neck while still moving his character around in the game. The somewhat dramatic display and ongoing conversation caused the other players to slowly remove their own headphones to figure out why the game had come to a sudden halt.
“What do you mean you can’t pause? Competitive matches have a pause feature in them!” Owen was very accustomed to the pause button. Her mom didn’t often call, but when she did it was important that Owen always answer. Catastrophizing was something Owen’s mom had never learned to overcome throughout years of parenting. Every single buzz of her phone sent another pulse of panic through her fingers. She hadn’t been able to count the amount of rings the call had gone through, meaning it could cease at any moment. Owen would need to callback immediately anyway, so there was very little choice in the matter.
“This isn’t technically a competitive match, dude! We’re running a 4v4 custom, it doesn’t fit the criteria for competitive. Can it just wait?” At this point, all of the other players were listening to Richie and Owen’s conversation.
[Missed Call: Mom]
“Fuck. I gotta go, I'll be back in just a second I swear! Get ready for that final push!” Owen frantically stood up from her chair and let her headphones fall onto the lip of the table just underneath the keyboard. As she was headed towards the door, she tapped the missed call notification to begin dialing her mother. The seven remaining gamers spent the next few seconds looking around at each other in disbelief. Deacon, in particular, was keen on venting his frustrations. “Are you fucking kidding me? We just have to let our time tick down because he needs to call his mommy?” Clearly Deacon had seen the same phone screen that Aoife had spotted. Aoife squirmed in her seat with every intention to speak up and say something in the defense of Owen. No words came to mind, only idling remarks of ‘it won’t be long’, which she didn’t feel like voicing aloud. The words might only add fuel to the fire that was Deacon “Wr4th” Moore.
Outside of the room, Owen was leaning against the wall with her phone cradled closely against her ear in order to avoid any noises from the room polluting the audio of her conversation.
“Owen! Oh you had me worried for a second. How’s my computer whiz doing?” She started the conversation cordially, as Rebecca often did, but it didn’t stop Owen from noticing the genuine relief that reverberated through her words.
“Uhhh, I’m kinda super busy right now? I’m in a match for our team’s practice and I really need to get back to it.” Owen was betting heavily on the fact that her urgent tone might be able to end the conversation almost immediately. Every second that passed reminded her that she was forcing seven other people to wait on her.
“Oh! Is that one of those ‘I can't pause!’ kind of games that you told me about? What was that game called again? First Persona… shotgun- or first person-”
“Mom!” Owen had one hand on the doorknob of the meeting room, ready to race back through the door the second Rebecca hung up the call. Their conversation felt equivalent to watching an elderly couple cross the road with the urgency of dried moss.
“Sorry! I just wanted to call you about having dinner tomorrow!” Owen felt like the elderly people crossing the road were followed swiftly by an entire nursing home, and there was nothing she could do but hover her foot over the gas pedal. “I thought it might be a nice opportunity for us to meet your girlfriend! We could put together a little feast, I could even make some vegetarian or vegan options if she-”
“Wha- I don’t- How do you- Where did you hear that?!” Owen tripped over her words as she desperately choked out nearly every thought as they entered her mind. Her head reeled from the blunt force trauma of such a sudden revelation.
“Oh I didn’t hear anything about her diet restrictions, I just thought I’d ask to be safe.”
“No! I’m not- How the fuck do you know about her?! And we’re not dating!!”
“Cameron showed us a picture of your esports thingy! You were in a picture with this girl and the two of you were looking at each other like… well you looked cute together! I was almost positive she was your girlfriend or something.” Owen felt like every part of her body was going to turn 180 degrees and promptly explode. Someone had taken a picture of Owen and Aoife together during the tryouts, and somehow Owen’s younger brother Cameron had seen it. Was it an instagram post? Was it displayed on the school’s website for all the different college clubs? Owen had no way to know for sure, and it sent a feverish panic throughout her body to be so uninformed. She couldn’t help but wonder just how many people had seen the picture and made a similar assumption.
“I have to go. I’ll call later.”
“Okay, sweetie! We can-” Owen ended the call and slipped her phone back into her pocket. Her hand shook relentlessly as she twisted the knob to the door. The second the door swung open, she felt seven pairs of eyes examining her. It felt like a silent interrogation of Owen had just begun. She couldn’t help but feel like every step she took towards her computer was being carefully monitored. Did they suspect something? Was a part of the conversation overheard? Owen was suddenly replaying the entire practice today in her head in a desperate attempt to determine if the other players suspected the same thing that her mom and younger brother assumed just by looking at a picture. She immediately became self conscious of her closeness to Aoife as she sat down in her chair. She had spent nearly all of her time in tryouts and practice next to Aoife. ‘We’re just friends’. Owen repeated the three words in her head as she pushed her headphones back over her ears, which relentlessly burned with embarrassment. A simple friendship was the only explanation she could think of to excuse the obvious closeness that the two of them shared whenever they were together.
[NintendoFemicom: Are you okay?] This story is hosted at g.com.
[Wr4th: Who fuckin’ cares! We’ve only got 40 seconds on the clock! We need to make this push count, because it’s the only one we’ve got left thanks to mama’s boy.]
[Sarah6258: I don’t think Owen would have taken the call if it wasn’t important, Deacon. I’m sure there was an important reason for them to step out.]
[Witchofthew3st: It’s okay, Deacon is right. We only have one shot, so we need to make it count.]
Owen felt the disgusting presence of eyes examining her once more. She didn’t need to move to see that out of the corner of her eye, Aoife was staring intently at Owen. With a quick glance towards her, Owen could see the very visible concern in her eyes. It made perfect sense to her. With Aoife’s troublesome family dynamic a phone call from a mother must seem like an intense thing. Aoife’s gentle concern was addressed plainly, with Owen turning to face her and mouthing ‘it’s fine’.
Owen felt anything but fine. But there were 30 seconds left on the game timer, and she didn’t want to be the reason her team threw away their lead. Deacon would never let her hear the end of it.
[NintendoFemicom: What’s the strategy then? The last stretch is always the hardest on this map.]
[Witchofthew3st: I just need a distraction. I can take care of the rest.]
It was an astounding amount of confidence for a person with shaking hands to display. Owen felt like her looming panic attack could be kept at bay as long as she was focusing on the game. The game itself could not be paused, but perhaps a breakdown could be, so long as the closeted gamer girl could keep her mind focused solely on UMDK.
[Sarah6258: We can definitely be a distraction! Between Deacon and I, we can draw fire for at least 10-15 seconds. Aoife could add even more to that.]
Owen thought through the plan in her head as she ran alongside her team towards the final section of the map, and the last few meters of the payload’s path. There were a lot of factors to consider with every player having their abilities off cooldown due to the two and a half minutes of Owen’s absence. 4 enemies, 16 augments, and only 25 seconds left in the game, plus whatever overtime could afford them.
[NintendoFemicom: Do what you need to do, Owen.]
If her words hadn’t cued the final fight of the match, the bullet that followed definitely did. Her bullet clipped the shoulder of Steven, who immediately crouched into cover to avoid being hit by a potentially lethal follow up. The glow of energy behind the cover indicated that he was already being healed, but the surprising start to the fight had allowed Deacon and Sarah to get slightly closer to the objective than they otherwise could have. [Terminal Velocity] provided the defenders with an abundance of natural cover towards the end of the level, which combined with the small choke point to be a brutal approach. Deacon was intelligently placing himself in front of Sarah as they darted between tipped benches and fallen Machnum checkpoint signs with ‘NO TRESSPASSING’ written all over. Aoife was pleasantly surprised by the rare display of chivalry from Deacon. Even if it was technically a tactical decision since Sarah could continuously heal Deacon from behind as he took protective fire, it was notable to Aoife that he was considering her character’s safety.
The chaos of the ensuing fight was of little note to Owen. She had her attention focused entirely on lineups that she had not practiced for multiple months. This map was rarely selected in competitive play due to the obvious defender advantage, which meant she only ever played on the map when she queued in unranked. The casual nature of those matches meant she rarely had to use this specific lineup for an ambush because it was much easier to just run up to the final window and perform the ambush from there. With the lack of time on the clock, and the likelihood that she would get gunned down before getting that close, this was her only option.
“...third line on the left… reticle on the letter R… first shot in the ceiling…”
The idle murmurings that Owen recited to herself were barely audible, but it helped her to remember every step of the lineup so that she wouldn’t screw up the only chance she had to pull off her ambush tech. With everything in place, Owen moved her mouse upwards to prepare for the first of the two shots needed.
[Witchofthew3st: You’ve got to be shitting me.]
[NintendoFemicom: What happened?]
In order to launch herself with the momentum of both [Gravplazz] alt fires, she needed to fire one up into the air first to time the second shot with the descent of the first. Unfortunately for Owen, the ceiling above her had never been destroyed. Without a gap in the roof of the skybridge, she couldn’t fire the [Gravplazz] alternate fire without it hitting the ceiling and detonating early.
[Witchofthew3st: I need you to blow out the roof above me, Aoife.]
[NintendoFemicom: I can’t! If I stop covering for Deacon and Sarah, they’ll get burst down by all four of them!]
[Witchofthew3st: I can’t do what I need to do if the ceiling is there!]
Owen turned her attention to her teammates for the first time since setting up the lineup. Deacon and Sarah had made it quite the distance with Aoife’s covering fire, but they would absolutely be put in danger if Aoife turned around to blast the skybridge apart. If she could destroy the ceiling herself with the [Gravplazz], she would. The plasma shotgun was dreadful at terrain destruction, however. The alternate fire deliberately didn’t destroy anything due to its properties of being a pseudo movement tool. If it demolished every surface it hit, the movement tech it provided would be significantly diminished.
[Witchofthew3st: I’m sorry, but it’s our only option! Just trust me.]
[Wr4th: Trust you? You’re gonna get half your team killed, you fuckin’ dipshit!]
[Sarah6258: We’ll be fine, just do it, Aoife.]
Aoife had been riding on top of the payload in order to escort it towards the destination. Without leaving her improvised Uber out of fear they wouldn’t have an ally within range when their remaining time ran out, she instead maneuvered her way into getting a clean line of sight of the ceiling above Owen. She took aim, activated her [Concussive Shot], and fired the small exploding bullet into the section of the skybridge directly above the oddly positioned pink punk she adored playing with.
The light of her monitor illuminated Owen’s bright smile as she fired off the first shot of her [Gravplazz]. Aoife couldn’t help but steal a glance towards Owen after clearing the way for her strategy to come to fruition. The confident smile filled Aoife with an odd mixture of pride and… other emotions. Emotions that would need to be picked apart another time, when she wasn’t occupied by the complaints of Deacon.
[Wr4th: Could use a little help if you’re done coddling the mama’s boy!]
Owen waited for the raging ball of plasma to reach the apex of its trajectory before starting her count. “3… 2… 1!” She flicked her camera down to her character’s feet and fired the second shot just as the first shot landed. With a crouch and an immediate 180, Owen was soaring through the skybridge at ridiculous speeds, ensuring that with proper air strafing and bunny hopping she could maintain that momentum as she approached the final window on the left side (for attackers) of the skybridge.
Only eight seconds left on the game timer, but overtime was all but certain with Aoife still positioned on top of the payload. Owen was confident that it was enough time. The pink blur of Witchofthew3st quickly approached the window, firing a single primary fire to shatter the weakened glass. As she approached the shattered window overlooking a rather dramatic fall of thousands of feet, she hit the ground into a slide and lined up another alternate fire to hit the support beam of the skybridge just as she impacted the same support beam. The added speed was necessary, but the direction of the blast would send her in the opposite direction and away from the backlines of the enemy.
But who cares about direction when you can change it on a whim?
As soon as Owen rocketed away from the support beam, she activated [Momentum Redirect] to slingshot herself directly through the broken window on the other side of the skybridge. The broken window on the defender’s side was always broken, which allowed Owen to avoid immediately alerting the enemy when she flung herself into the back of the map next to the spawn room for the defenders.
While providing covering fire to her teammates, Aoife noticed sudden movement behind the enemy team. There, in her familiar green and pink outfit adorned with an unreasonable amount of spikes, was Owen. Owen felt like a bull in a candy shop, or a kid in a china shop. Whatever fits your fancy. With four unaware enemies in front of her, she was living a flanker's wet dream.
Five seconds, four enemies, three anticipatory teammates, two unused augments, and one specific girl that Owen was desperate to impress. Her plan was to combine her final two augments that she had deliberately hidden from the enemy. Owen had taken to calling the synergy “Reflective Inevitability”, as a mashup of the augments names. If executed well, her strategy would end the game in a matter of seconds.
A steady exhale and a glance to her side set her nerves at ease. Aoife’s focused expression siphoned the smallest smile out of Owen as she activated her ULTRA augment. She couldn’t help but think that her mom was right. There was something in the way they looked at each other.