“There was a building-wide evacuation, Dan. No one is forgetting about it.”
*
“Welcome to Casa de Jenny!”
I leaned in and gave Jenny a small hug. “Thanks for the invite. Sorry I’m a little late. Traffic on the way over here was a bear. Did I miss anything?”
“Nah, Dan hasn’t shown up yet, so it’s just grown-ups here.”
“Good! I don’t want to miss any of Dan’s antics!”
I walked further into the apartment and almost ran into Wayne as he was carrying drinks into the living room. “Hey, big guy. Believe it or not, I don’t have Rogue-like reflexes in the real word. I’m less likely to be able to get out of the way here than I can in the game!”
“Sorry about that, Alex. Want a drink?”
I grabbed what looked like a margarita, thanked Wayne, and made my way into Jenny’s living room. Gary and Tim had already arrived and were accompanied by their wives.
“Hey, Alex. This is my wife, Kay,” Tim said while I shook hands with Kay, followed by Gary’s wife, Delilah.
“Pleasure to meet you both.”
“Likewise. Gary tells me you are the one responsible for keeping what’s-his-name out of trouble? TheNail?”
“TheClaw. And Delilah, I take no responsibility for any of Dan’s actions. Ever.”
It was obvious that Gary and Tim had told stories about Dan to their significant others.
The wives were sitting near each other and were in a lively conversation, so I plopped down next to Gary and Tim. “It looks like you guys have met up before. The ladies are talking like they’re old friends.”
“Yup. We’ve got kids that are roughly the same age, so we met up outside of the game early on so the young’uns could meet. I think Delilah and Kay see each other about as often as I have to look at Tim’s ugly face.”
“Shut up, Gary.”
I still remembered the first time I heard Tim tell Gary to shut up, and I thought at the time that I was about to witness a fight. Turns out, “Shut up Gary,” is used as often by Tim as Dan uses modified forms of Allister.
I knew very little about Tim and Gary. I knew Gary was a director in theatre, but I knew almost nothing about Tim. To be honest, I didn’t even know they had kids.
“I realize we have been on the same team for a while now, so I’m really embarrassed to say this, but I’ve got no idea what you did before joining the beta, Tim.”
“No worries, man. Only reason all of us know that you were an online merchant is because you told us how you’ve handled the market in Resurgence.
“Until I joined the beta, I worked protective security for people who had overinflated egos and thought they were really special. A guy makes a little bit of money, and he suddenly believes the whole world wants to take him out.”
“Wow. How did you get into a gig like that?”
“I was in the military before and had a background that fit well with the job. After doing some really crap contracting work for the government, I looked to branch out into my own thing. This seemed to work with what I already knew.”
“That is very cool.” As I was listening to Tim, I realized he wasn’t actually telling me what he did in the military. He kept using very generalized terms. I was betting he did something like Special Forces and didn’t want to talk about it. I respected him more for not beating his chest and putting on the “look how awesome I am” routine.
“You definitely need to hear some of Wayne’s bouncer stories. Between his job and yours, I bet you guys would find a bunch of similarities.”
“For sure. In fact, we already have. When he was acting as our ‘Tank for Hire,’ he and I swapped a bunch of stories.”
“Jenny had to tell Tim to stop courting her man!”
We were all laughing when I heard, “Dammit! Did I already miss Dan doing something funny?”
I turned and saw Jason walk in with his husband James. We had all heard about James, but this was our first meeting. He had a smile on his face and seemed at ease in the new setting.
While the two took in the room, I couldn’t help but notice that they made a good couple. Sometimes you can look at two people and tell that they fit each other well. That’s how Jason and James looked as they surveyed the room.
They first went over to Delilah and Kay to introduce themselves, and then James split off to join Gary, Tim, and me. Jason grabbed a glass of wine and immediately started engaging the women.
James introduced himself to us, which then led to a litany of questions about how we all got involved in playing a video game for money. Each story was different in the fine details, but overall the tale was the same. All of us were serious gamers and saw an opportunity to get involved in the beta. Just like my first meeting with Katherine O’Malley, Tim and Gary were shocked to learn they were getting offered a stipend to play the beta as well. James confirmed this was the case with Jason, too.
Each of us gave a brief background of what we were doing before Resurgence began and what we still thought of as our day jobs—those very things we would return to after the year was up. James was a financial analyst for a large bank but had never been a gamer. He admitted it took him quite a long time to get past Jason’s fascination with gaming worlds, and it even caused a fight or twelve in their early relationship.
“I couldn’t understand how he could spend hours with that pod on his head and lose himself in those games. I would get more than a little angry, and then a fight would break out. Before I knew it, we were yelling about things that had nothing to do with gaming.”
Tim smiled and said, “This all sounds very familiar. I’m sure Gary has gone through something similar as well.”
“Sure have.”
“So what changed? I’ve never had to deal with this, being a serial bachelor, but this is exactly the kind of thing that sounds like it could ruin a relationship.”
“Right you are, Alex. It possibly could have,” James said and shrugged his shoulders. “In the end, Jason showed me how selfish I was being.”
Gary and Tim leaned in—a lot—as they waited for James to continue explaining. You would have thought they were about to learn the secrets to eternal youth by the anxious looks on their faces. I guess in a relationship, winning an argument is right up there with finding the Holy Grail.
James looked at the two of them and laughed. “I shouldn’t have said that at all. No way I get out of this room now without divulging this secret.
“It’s simple, really,” James began while taking a sip of his wine. “I like to read, and I do it all the time. So one day I was engrossed in a book and Jason walked in and interrupted me while I was reading. I answered whatever his question was and went back to my book. But then he did it again and again. Finally, I lost my shit and asked him why he kept interrupting me when he could see I was busy.
“I laugh when I think back on it. He simply asked me, ‘Why are you reading?’ As you can imagine, I was more than a little snippy in my reply. I think I said something like, ‘What are you talking about? You know I love to read.’ So he comes back at me and says, ‘Right, but you do it for hours. Why spend all that time reading?’ Before I could stop myself, I responded ‘Because I enjoy reading!’ He didn’t say a word, and it took another ten seconds before it dawned on me what had just happened. Then he smiled and walked out of the room. He admitted a week later that he purposefully got me angry before asking the question, knowing that the anger would make me answer instinctually. Had I been calm, I could have come up with any number of responses that would have not proved his point. But the core of it all is that I read because I enjoy it, just like Jason plays games for the same reason.”
Gary and Tim looked at each other with the biggest smiles on their faces. They were already figuring out how to enact James’ tactics on their spouses.
“Now that Jason is playing a game for both money and fun, I imagine there aren’t any more arguments in your place.”
“You would think, but to be
honest, that game has caused more than a little heartache between Jason and I.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Now that it’s a job, I don’t mind that he is playing his eight hours. But when that offer came out for him to buy those older video games, we argued for a good hour about why it was a dumb decision to get them. Naturally, I was right. He hasn’t so much as opened the packaging on any of them. He just keeps telling me, ‘Later, later.’”
I looked over at Gary and Tim and saw them share a look, followed by Tim glancing over at the couch where their wives were sitting.
“And that wasn’t even the worst of it. Do you remember when Jason was trying to buy stock in AltCon? We nearly went to blows over that one.”
Gary and Tim shared another moment, and I could tell that they had went through similar problems with their spouses. Before James could continue, Gary quickly tried to change the subject to something entirely off topic.
But anything that happened in Resurgence could be linked to the code the Wanderer wanted me to search for. Before Gary could fully change the course of the conversation, I jumped in and asked James, “How did that go down?”
“Jason was adamant that he had to buy that stock. I kept telling him that the market wasn’t right for making a big investment of that nature. Not only did he want to buy the stock, he also wanted all of our family to do the same. I can’t even begin to tell you how angry I would have been if he had gone behind my back and started calling my relatives. Thankfully, he only contacted his mom, who wasn’t keen to buy anything. And after he got a few shares of the company, he seemed to get it out of his system.”
This time the look shared by my two teammates was more significant. Tim was about to ask James another question when there was a loud banging on the front door of Jenny’s apartment. From out in the hall we could hear music. Loud music. A steady thumping of techno.
“What the hell is that?”
“That, Delilah, is Dan. I would bet my next week’s stipend on it,” I said. “And no matter what else happens next, I can assure you, it will be epic.”
Sure enough, we crowded into the entry hallway and saw the spectacle for all it was when Wayne opened the door. Dan, dressed in the most ridiculous jacket, stood on the other side of the entrance. And the music was coming from said jacket.
As he walked in, I could see that the get-up included speakers mounted into the shoulder pads of what looked like a modified smoking jacket. The techno music was coming out of those speakers as Dan strutted into the apartment.
“Dan!” I shouted. “Turn down the music!”
“Can’t, brolicious! My theme music only has two settings. And this one is Loud!”
“Well try the other setting before the neighbors call the cops.”
Just like that, the music was turned off, and Dan looked over at Jenny a little embarrassed. “Sorry about that. I didn’t think of neighbors. I don’t really have any.”
“What in the name of all that is holy is that thing you are wearing?”
“You like it, Wayne? Some people hear a song and think, ‘Yeah, that would totally be my anthem as I walk the streets if I were in a movie.’ Well, I don’t stop at thinking.”
“Indeed that is true, Dan,” Jason stated laconically. “Stopping would imply that you started.”
“Exactly, Jasersize! So I had this awesomeness made for me. Now everywhere I go, I have my tune with me.”
“Really? You are going to butcher my real name as well?”
“Why ruin a good thing?”
I heard Delilah and Kay whispering behind me, with Kay saying, “It’s all true. I thought they were making up half the stories. Now I don’t think they were even telling us the whole truth.”
I smiled inwardly, thinking of all the stories Gary and Tim must have told the two about our eccentric teammate.
Dan looked around for a couple of seconds before asking, “Where is Kaitlin?”
“Not here yet, brother. But she is on her way.”
“Wayne! Why didn’t you call me and tell me she wasn’t here yet? Now I have to go and wait across the street until she arrives, so I can do this all over again!”
This was when Jenny and the other women in the apartment approached Dan and introduced themselves. Together they unearthed that Dan had the jacket created specifically for the purpose of impressing Kaitlin with just how cool he was.
“Take it from someone of the same gender, Dan. What you just did would not have the desired effect. Not at all.”
Dan stood there in deep thought for several seconds. Finally, he looked at all three women and then nodded his head once in determination. “Right! Too much, too soon. This would have made her go from interested to enamored almost instantly. I’ll need to rely on plan B.”
“No, Dan, I don’t think you understand…”
Tim put his hand on Kay’s arm and said, “It’s not even worth trying, sweetheart. He’s brilliant, sure. But with that brilliance comes a level of blindness that none of us could get through. Better to just watch and enjoy.”
Dan refused to explain what Plan B was.
Fifteen minutes later, Kaitlin arrived. Introductions were made all around, and the mingling throughout Jenny’s apartment continued. I was unable to find an opportunity to ask Gary or Tim more about the topic brought up by James, despite several attempts. More than the coincidence that everyone had such a difficult time with their significant others concerning the same topic, it was the fact that I had no such inclinations that bothered me.
The only person I hadn’t spoken to about the situation yet—other than Jenny and Wayne, who were busy in the kitchen—was Kaitlin. Seeing a moment to approach her and ask if she had similarly purchased the outdated games and stock, I made my way across the living room.
It was at this time that Dan decided to implement “Plan B.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen! The moment you have all been waiting for, even if you didn’t know you were waiting for it, has arrived! The Great Danferno is here to amaze!”
I was turning toward Dan when Jason suddenly reached out and seized my forearm in what was damn near a death-grip. “Alex, ‘Danferno’ sounds suspiciously close to ‘inferno!’ Stop him!”
I continued to turn toward Dan’s location and started walking toward where he was. As soon as I saw him, I stopped in my tracks.
Dan had his arms out to his sides at shoulder’s height, with his palms raised toward the ceiling. What caught my attention—and actually arrested my forward momentum—were the tiny fire balls that kept springing from his hands.
“Prepare to be awed by the magic of the ages, thought to be lost since the times of Merlin and Arthur. I, the Great Danferno, will perform the impossible!”
I slowly walked up next to Dan and leaned over so I could whisper in his ear, while avoiding the small gouts of fire shooting out of his hands. “Hey, buddy. What exactly are you planning here?”
Dan turned his head toward me and whispered back, “Don’t worry Alex, I got this. Kaitlin is going to go crazy after she sees! Trust me. Nothing could go wrong.”
“I, in fact, feel less sure about whatever this is now than I did 10 seconds ago. I don’t know what you’re planning, but please tell me you’ve done something like this before. Please.”
“I spent hours watching videos today, man. I’ve got this mastered.”
And shockingly, he did.
Dan went through an entire routine where he lit candles from a distance, made cards go up in flames only to have them appear in someone’s pocket, and several other illusions I couldn’t explain. Everyone was watching and clapping at the end of each demonstration. Even Jason looked over and gave me a raised eyebrow of respect for Dan’s abilities.
Because Dan was actually really good. That is, until he wasn’t.
At the finale of the routine, Dan shot two of the fire projections into the air and they created a fire heart for a brief second. The fire was launched in the general direction of Kaitlin,
and even a moron could have seen what Dan was doing. Unfortunately for all of us, Dan’s IQ level that night dipped below moron, and he felt the need to make a bigger demonstration of his “love” for Kaitlin.
“You have beheld only a fraction of what the ancients knew about lore and sorcery. These displays were just a sampling of the true power that resides within, as you are about to witness.”
I had to give it to Dan. He was really selling the showmanship. Any good performer knows that nine times out of ten the sleight of hand or action to complete an illusion is done fairly quickly; it’s the performance that sells the illusion and that keeps them coming back for more.
But what caught my eye wasn’t the routine Dan was going through, but the way he kept fiddling around his wrist area. I imagined that was where the contraptions for creating the fireballs were located. So I was curious why Dan would risk drawing attention to that area by constantly messing with it.
And then I processed the last sentence Dan said. And I knew. Dan was changing the settings on the fire makers. And no matter how well everything had gone so far, this had disaster written all over it.
I began moving in Dan’s direction as quickly as I could, but it was already too late.
“Behold!”
And with that Dan shot out much larger fireballs that made an even bigger heart than the one before it. Kaitlin knew Dan was doing this for her benefit, and she was clapping at him enthusiastically for his innovation.
Until the fire didn’t go away.
“Shut ‘em off, Dan!” Wayne said.
“I’m trying, man! I can’t get the fire to stop!”
The fire “heart” was now growing even larger and was getting dangerously close to the ceiling.
Dan obviously thought if he could fiddle with the gizmos on his arms he could get the fire to stop. The only problem was that by moving his arms he started spraying fire all around the apartment. All of the guests got out of the way, but one of Jenny’s chairs was not so lucky. Nor was the ceiling, which did indeed get a bit singed.
Tim and Wayne both sprang into action. Wayne ran into the kitchen and came back quickly with a fire extinguisher. He opened the valve and hit the chair with the contents, quickly putting out the fire. Dan, however, had not been idle while Wayne was away, and a few more items were beginning to burn. For the most part, all of us just kept out of Dan’s range of fire and let Wayne go to work with the extinguisher.
Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II Page 21