Frag fest

[OudClu] We have room for one more, he'd asked, all smiles and geekboy charm, I know someone who'd be totally down. And so, a gaming day comes - a day to hijack the AV room and test out some new FPS that won't get released until the next week or so. Sometimes, it's really handy working at a place like Best Buy . . . which is why Chuck keeps his job. He doesn't need it, could and does make far better money when he does programming or repair or building on the side, but he kind of likes it. Most of the time. And it lets him geek out with people he wouldn't necessarily meet, otherwise.

It's not slacks and white shirt and tie today, though the Converse are present as always - red, with the Communist emblem on them just for kicks - when he walks in. Emily's been given the store location and time, and now? Well, now, Chuck's on his way back with his game face on.

[angelofpwn] It's Riley's day off, which is a good thing. She usually sheds out of her work uniform as soon as she gets to her car. The shirt isn't so bad, it's the skirt. She's already railed against the establishment at every turn for the choice for women to wear slacks like the boys, and has been turned down every time.

She still fights for it, though, just on principle.

So today she saunters into the Best Buy in her casual clothes. She's wearing a black button down that looks rather like a service uniform shirt, except where there would be a patch with her name, there is an embroidered HACKER. She's wearing jeans and Converse high tops, and her long wavy brown hair has been twisted up into a clip to keep it out of her face.

Chuck is greeted with a cheeky grin. "Ready to get your ass handed to you, Carmichael?"

[lowercaseM] Enter Emily, who is still in school and therefore not as hemmed in by the natural flow of workdays and nine-to-fives. She's been on campus, most recently, so there's a demurely cut sweater and jeans under her coat this time. No dress. No witty tee. (It would be wrong to mock the students' abilities.) But her long hair has been parted and secured into two pig tails of broad curls, and her messenger bag is slung across her body, strap going from shoulder-to-hip, like always. With her keys still in hand, Emily walks over to the Geek Squad desk... and since they're in the AV room, she asks politely for Chuck.

[OudClu] "Oh, Poole. It's so cute that you think you've got a chance."

Em asks for Chuck, and he gets paged - it only takes a minute to go get her and bring her back. Toot suite! Jeans, t-shirt that says 'colege' in ivy league styled block, his curls a bit disheveled; he's come from doing something else, but is pleased to be here. He likes gaming. he likes competition. It pleases him, this. So it's back to the AV room, smiling and giddy geekboy excited. He gets this way.

"Emily, this is Riley. Riley, Emily. Riley's my partner on calls, Emily's a new friend."

It's introduction, and it's quick - he knows about Em, and she knows about him. He does not know about Riley - has not looked to check, has not had anything that might signify a need to come up in conversation just yet.

[lowercaseM] "Ah, you're missing an El," she pointed out, when Chuck came out to get her. Somewhere between the nice to see you agains, and the walk to the AV room. "Might want to get that looked at." A little jest, friendly enough, to fill what might have otherwise turned to awkward quiet.

"Hi, Riley," Emily says, and her accent immediately tags her as Other. The strongest note is British, but the bits of here and there that cling to it are so far-flung and varied that it's hard to place anything more than that. It comes out, in particular words and phrases, borrow sets of sounds she only knows in context, and a plethora of other ways. But she smiles nicely enough, and she seems a bit more polite (tightly wound) than your usual gamer chick.

She's also younger by a few years, which might lead to questions as to how she and Chuck managed to run into one another. Emily sets her messenger bag aside, and its hefty enough to house her laptop and some other peripherals (never without her toys), but she leaves them shrouded in the canvas keeping for now and offers a hand to the self-proclaimed (worn on her sleeve) Hacker.

"Nice to meet you."

Compared to Chuck, she's cool as cucumbers. Perhaps she's had significantly less coffee than he.

[angelofpwn] Emily receives a charming smile and a hand offered for a shake. If accepted, Riley's grip is firm, sure, and not at all dainty or lady-like. She's a woman who has spent all of her life in a man's world, and yet she's retained quite a bit of femininity. She's not wearing make-up today, and her clothing is rather masculine, but even though her slender figure is less than curvaceous, there's no mistaking her for anything other than a female.

"Nice to meet you." There are other people set up for the fragfest, mostly people who work at Best Buy, but also a few regular customers. Chances are, most of those assembled will be taken out in the first wave.

The computers set up are all more or less the same, so that no one player has much of an advantage over the others. This is mostly for the beneift of the plebs, as people like Riley and Chuck are capable of building powerful machines out of the most unlikely of parts, overclocking them to the max, and wiping the floor with the casual gamers.

With introductions out of the way, Riley gets up and greets the tables, welcoming everyone to the Mondy morning fragfest. A few more words of welcome, a witty joke here and there, and she takes up her place at one of the computers, sitting on the side dedicated for the RED team. Chuck and Emily are on the other side, with the BLU team.

It doesn't take long for them to take out the masses, for the teams to go from whatever on whatever to two on two, Riley and someone handled "cullensAgurl" versus Chuck and Emily.

[angelofpwn] cullensAgurl
[wits + comp vs. Emily: 6D]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[lowercaseM] (wits + computer vs OMGisThatYourScreenName?)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[OudClu] [pwnj00! Wits + Comp vs Riley]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[angelofpwn] angelofpwn
[wits (intuitive) + comp]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6) Re-rolls: 4

[OudClu] +reroll!
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[angelofpwn] [RED team wins round 1]

[OudClu] [Corr+Entropy, Look ma, I'm already there! vulgar]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 4, 6 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]

[OudClu] The Twilight reference trounces Emily, but not as soundly as Riley pwns Chuck; there is a shamefaced Virtual Adept who is no doubt getting a victory dance. But, he's a good sport - Chuck is nothing if not chill, and he has a good sense of humor. So at some point, Riley gets tickled back into her seat. Because Chuck's like that.

"We've still got time to go, you. Game's not over yet!"

And so back to fragging it is. Chuck is more serious about the game now, but it's still all fun.

[Wits + Comp, -1 diff]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1

[angelofpwn] angelofpwn
[Wits + Comp]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[lowercaseM] She's the only outsider, maybe that's it. Maybe it's that she's so much younger than the rest of them. Or the cellphone she's got on the table next to her, that buzzes and distracts, and she picks up after the match and thumbs through.

"Nicely played," she says, but it's not without a burr of irritation. She doesn't like losing. She doesn't like being less than stellar at anything. And with the way Riley & Chuck were playing... she's likely well out of her league here.

[lowercaseM] (Wits + Comp)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 5, 6, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[angelofpwn] cullensAgurl
[Wits + Comp = 6]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[angelofpwn] [TIE!]

[angelofpwn] [percept + aware]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[lowercaseM] Everyone put their game faces on for the next match. Chuck and Riley dueled it out, both going down in a blaze of glory, and the random Best Buy-er and Emily stepped up their game to an equally intense match up. Ultimately, no one won round two, but there was a lot more barely-heard cursing and close calls, trick shots and impressive skillz on display.

The other fragfest attendees might just stick around, watch the show, and learn a few things.

[angelofpwn] [Score:
RED: 1
BLU: 0

GO GO GO!]

[lowercaseM] (Per + Aware)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[angelofpwn] angelofpwn
[wits + comp]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) Re-rolls: 4

[angelofpwn] cullensAgurl
[wits + comp = 6]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 5, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[lowercaseM] (Wits + Comp, round 3)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[OudClu] [Wits+Comp, -1 diff]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 7 at target 5) [WP]

[angelofpwn] [TIE!]

[lowercaseM] Friend of Chuck is not just a pretty new face with (iffy) gamer cred. When Riley's Awareness spreads out across the room, Emily fairly glows with untapped (uncolored) energy. It's rare to see so much quint trapped up in anyone's pattern, much less someone new enough to only have the barest hints of resonance around them. There's a thin feeling of Reverence, sacred and awed, and the barely felt heartbeat of Home.
to angelofpwn

[angelofpwn] [WP: Grr ANGREH!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[lowercaseM] Ai-ya. The Chinese word was barely audible as it escaped her lips.

Emily sat back in her chair and looked at the screen with an exasperated expression. She was spotty today, at best, and it bugged her. And while there were plenty of excuses, none of them came readily enough to mind to be self-satisfying. She pulled a face at the screen and rolled her eyes a bit (sulking [ever so slightly]).

"Well played," she offered, again, to the other player. This time with a somewhat rueful expression. She looked up to catch the tail-end of Chuck and Riley's match with a low whistle of appreciation.

[angelofpwn] After that first round, Riley was riding pretty high. Take that! You arrogant, full of yourself little... For the most part, her thoughts are kept internal.

Until the second round, when she and Chuck take each other out. That's alright, though, losing that round. Because Chuck went down with her, and the round was a tie.

But now, in the third round, when Chuck came out of nowhere to blast Riley's avatar from behind with a shotgun, Riley could feel her blood pressure spike. She doesn't like to lose.

For now, she's in control of herself. It's another draw, another tie. There's an odd feeling in the air, between Chuck and Emily, that makes them stand out. Riley will have to keep an eye on them.

First, however, she looks at Chuck with arched brow, smiling tightly. "Oh, it is so on, now."

[angelofpwn] cullensAgurl
[wits + comp = 6]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[angelofpwn] angelofpwn
[wits + comp]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6) [WP]

[lowercaseM] (Wits + Comp)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 7 at target 6) [WP]

[OudClu] "I told you, sweetheart, you better bring your game face." It's teasing, and after he moves to put an arm around Emily - camaraderie, teasing, fun. "It'll get better! You're just distracted."

And then, back to his game.

[when I said bring it, I meant bring it good. Wits + Comp]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 (Failure at target 5) Re-rolls: 1

[angelofpwn] [Score:
RED: 1
BLU: 0 (stop tying!)]

[angelofpwn] Maybe it's the 'sweetheart,' casually tossed her way after such an epic defeat, and while Riley's trying to regain some of her composure. Or maybe there's some kind of mojo transference when Chuck puts his arm around Emily.

Either way, the round goes like this:

After they've managed to take out most of the room yet again, Riley hunts down chuck and clangs him over the head with a shovel.

Emily, by now having a much better grasp of the game mechanics, sneaks up behind the Best Buy employee and BOOM. Headshot.

It's another tie. Time for the final round.

[angelofpwn] cullensAgurl
[wits + comp = 6]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[angelofpwn] angelofpwn
[Wits + Comp]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[lowercaseM] (Wits + Comp)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 7, 7, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[OudClu] [Wits + Comp, once more with feeling!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 6, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 5)

[angelofpwn] [Final Score:
RED: 1
BLU: 0

gg, everyone!]

[angelofpwn] [Also, by my count:
Riley: 3
Emily: 2
Chuck: 2
BB-guy: 1]

[angelofpwn] [evens, BB-guy is a blue shirt]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9

[angelofpwn] The final round ends, the dust clears, and the RED team is declared the winner. Barely. It was a pretty even match across the board.

Riley at least waits until the customers, the outsiders and their friends, the spectators and the other Best Buy employees (one of whom gazes almost wistfully after Emily on his way out the door) are gone before a shiteating grin spreads across her face and she all but dances around Chuck.

And by "all but dances," she does something that in some cultures might be considered a dance. It involves swaying her hips and moving her arms in something that could possibly be a rhythm. There are words to a sing-song chant, as well. Something like, "You loo-ost, you loo-ost!"

When she finally stops, she's still grinning cheekily up at him. "What was that about your frag counts and a yard? Because this is the yard, and I see no boys."

[OudClu] Chuck is competetive, but he's not a bad loser, exactly - he'd had a terribly geeky white boy victory dance the one time he'd beaten Riley so soundly that had involved half-remembered moves from the Michael Jackson videos of his childhood, but that's about the extent. Now, his partner dances around him and he laughs, so. very. amused, and lets her have her triumph.

"Good game, kiddo. Just wait until next time! You better bring it at least as well."

If they knew each other better, he'd bend, but his shoulder into her gut, and lift her over his shoulder to spin her around until he tripped and fell into the closest sofa. But as is, he's already tickled her, and that's enough for one gaming session, so soon after they've met. Just because they spend a fair amount of time together doesn't mean they know each other all that well, after all!

"Didja have fun, Em? You're so gonna have to come along next time."

[lowercaseM] She's polite, enough, to the Best Buy guy who she's been pitted against for most of the afternoon. And by polite, enough, we mean only that she's better behaved than Riley. Emily's smug, self-satisfied, but nice enough to offer a "Good games," and a hand shake, or fist bump, or whatever it is these Geek Squad people do to show their solidarity.

Then the rest of the collected people filter out, and Riley's dancing around Chuck and chanting and it's enough to make Emily laugh. Not just smirk and let her eyes dance laughingly, no, but actually laugh out loud and grin broadly.

When Chuck asks if she had a good time, she has her hand pressed to her mouth to tuck that laughter in and her dark eyes were bright (brimming) with amusement. "Oh yes, quite," she said, with the clipped consonants and understatement sounding so very British next to Riley's sing-song victory anthem. "Thanks for inviting me."

[angelofpwn] Riley offers up her hand for a high five to Chuck. "I've been wearing my game face so long, I forgot to take it off. I'm up for a re-match whenever you are, whatever game, whatever platform, man."

They don't know each other well enough for Chuck to sling Riley over his shoulder and perform a modified spinning pile-driver on her into a couch, but if he had, well. It's a good thing Riley's not wearing a skirt.

Chuck turns to his friend, and Riley offers the young woman a charming smile. She's a friendly sort, that Riley Poole, and riding a wave of endorphens thanks to her stellar win over one Charles Carmichael. He's been boasting his gaming prowess since the day they met. Riley hopes her victory will take him down at least half a notch.

"You did great, Friend of Chuck," she says cheerily. "I think Max might have a crush on you now," she adds, looking out after the young nerdlet in the white shirt who had been crushed by the pretty brunette foreigner.

[lowercaseM] Friend of Chuck cannot help but mirror Riley's grin. Perhaps not as widely, perhaps not with the same endorphin rush flushing it, but broadly and freely. "Thanks!" she replies, with less restraint than when the room had been full of strangers. It is easier, in a smaller cluster, for Emily to be warm and friendly.

"And really?" she asked, looking out the direction Riley was watching. Max, was it? "That's... sort of sweet..." she adds, with an amused twist to her mouth. Then she looked over to Chuck, and back to Riley, and the sentiment passed.

"You two do this often?" A lifted eyebrow, slight cant of her head. She might be asking if they were more practiced than they were letting on. Tournament teams, raids, that sort of thing. They certainly weren't casual (she knew what casual looked like).

[OudClu] There's high five, of course, and no - her win probably won't take him down a notch. It'd be another thing entirely if she beat him some other way, but [nudge nudge wink wing saynoMORE] that's a challenge for some other time. At least his cockiness manifests in a way that is generally more amusing than annoying, or so one can hope! He's chill, and congratulatory. No hard feelings or frustration here for all his competitiveness.

You two do this often, Em asks, and Chuck laughs. "I'm the new kid, only been here for . . . what, a week? Used to at my old store, sometimes, but mostly online stuff - gamers all over the world and all that. Easier to hop into that when I need a break from coding," or hacking, or . . . "than to set up a whole space and time. Might have to keep doing this, though - I forget how to talk to people if I spend too long on my own."

[lowercaseM] Emily nodded. "I mostly play online. No one in your tourney team or raid cares where you log on from, as long as they see you online. It's nice, when you move around a lot."

She dug in her messenger bag for something, coming up with a stainless steel thermos (travel cup) of strong tea to sip at while they chatted. And she inevitably pulled her phone back out, thumbed through a few things and made a disparaging face at one of the emails she'd received.

"Haven't had the time to game much lately," she added, almost as an afterthought. Perhaps they'd find it deplorable, giving up games for something else, whatever that something else might be. Or maybe they'd been there too, at some point.

[angelofpwn] Riley tucks her hands into the pockets of her jeans and stands with feet apart, hip jutted slightly to the side. She's tall, not as tall as Chuck, but still fairly towers over the average adult female (and not a few of the average adult males, too). Her slightly poor posture could be a way to compensate for that height, or it could just be a side-effect of spending too many hours hunched over a keyboard, watching code fly across the screen.

They're asked if they do this often, and Chuck answers for the both of them, more or less.

"We don't do tournaments like this very often, but yeah. Best Buy usually throws stuff together for new games. Today was mostly just for fun, which is why employees were allowed to join in. No cash prizes or anything like that."

She looks around the by now empty AV room, and takes a step backward, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. "C'mon, let's get outta here. It's my day off, I don't want any customers catching a whiff of the yes-I-work-here smell," she adds with a grin. "Do you guys want to hit up a Denny's or something?"

[OudClu] "Denny's sounds awesome. You in, Em?" He slings an arm over her shoulder, easy, and reaches up to ruffle her hair. "Pancakes and greasy sausage for the win."

It sounds funny when people talk that way out loud, especially people over a certain age - but Chuck seems younger than he really is sometimes, in some ways. Or rather, it's difficult to tell his age at all, other than 'twenty-something'. For all that he sticks out, is different (and it's hard to figure out exactly how or why he is), he's also very much the guy next door.

"I'll even buy. Just finished a side project, so we're good." A pause, and a wide grin. "I know, I know, I'm a big spender. You can make it up to me later."

[lowercaseM] "What is Denny's?" she asks, moderately suspicious when Chuck musses her hair and calls himself a big spender in that voice. Her eyes narrow and roll back, trying to look up and over at him through her own head, then pinch shut for a moment. She leans into the loose embrace, just enough to bump him with her hip playfully.

"And sure. I've got some time before I need to be back on campus. And it'd be good to get out of the lab for a little while." She could give up her run, this once, to hang out with like-minded folk. It would be a nice change.