G@m3r Fri3nd

[Erin Hackett]

It had been already been a week and a half or so since Erin had last talk to Alex. hell, since the last time she spoke, played a video game, or anything with the girl. She felt bad for pretty much ignoring the girl and not play any of her games that would alert Alex that she was online or playing this game. It just...it had been too hard to want to say or do anything with the girl once she had been informed that Alex pretty much been using her. She was still confused by it all, and even had call Tim to talk to him about it. Something she felt bad for doing because he had his own things to deal with, but...it happened.

Hey KittyBunOverlord. U free?

The clan wants 2 try out this new map. I got exclusive beta access for me & whoever I take into the matches.

U up for it?

Erin sent out the text message after hesitating for a moment while she waited for her game system to turn and and thing to load. Texting was easy, it allowed her to not hear Alex's voice, for her voice to be heard, and for nothing to be seen but words. She would have to hear Alex's voice at some point if the girl decided she would be game for joining. She hoped she would, the team really needed a one last member...and this would help getting back to being [b[just[/b] friend with the other girl. Right?

((tag: Alexandra Lawson))

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex hated math. Even though she never really liked to sincerely use such a strong word, she didn't feel 'hate' was quite enough to fully describe just how complete and all encompassing her utter loathing for math was. And yet, here she was in year two of college, eyes narrowed as she tried to decipher what seemed to be some weird, number based elven language. Whatever the hell it was there was no way it could have been from this earth. Were there really people that understood this stuff?

With a heavy sigh Alex gladly went to her phone, thankful for the distraction. She was surprised to see who the message was from and stared at the screen for a long moment until she finally unlocked it and navigated to her messages. With a deep breath she opened the text and read. It as such a simple message but it caused her to exhale in relief. Alex had been sure she'd ruined her friendship with the redheaded gamer girl and every time that day in her room had crossed her mind it nearly drove her to tears. She steeled herself and tapped out a message of her own.

Are you asking only because you need a camping sniper to fill out the team... or are we cool? I miss you Erin. Either way, I'm in. Give me five to get to the computer, k?

And with that, Alex closed her textbook and slid off her bed to cross over to where her computer sat.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin really did have some level of struggle with all of this, but after her talk with Tim she felt like she could do it. She had to do it. In order to win a person’s affection you did have to in fact deal with them. Over a video game was just one way to do it and how Erin could get herself to feel like she could be around the other girl without crying again. She didn’t want to cry in front of Alex again, not when she read up that woman wanted someone strong but still had some emotions. So she could cry, just not a lot. Anyways, she needed to reestablish contact with Alex in order to work on 'wooing' the girl.

Yes, she had read several guide books about it and while a video game was not really listed in the steps of how to go about it, she figured it would still work all the same. It felt like forever until the text came back. Erin could not help but to do a fist bump at the fact that Alex had actually responded back. Reading over the text it was true that she did need to fill the spot but that they were also cool. Well, cool as you could be when one friend-zoned you in a way and you were trying to win that affection back that you sort of had.

Both.

I need my skilled sniper and my Alex.

I missed you too, a lot.

Erin sent the text back. Damn, was adding a lot too much? Too strong? Will she know I want her already? Well, I do want her to know I want her at some point, but it can't be right off the bat. Can it? Erin thought to herself as she was already moving to find that guide book she had been reading off of on her computer.

[Alexandra Lawson]

{KittyBunOverlord has entered the game}


Alex couldn't help but feel a little nervous as she logged into the game server.  She hadn't spoken to Erin in such a long time she was worried about how it would be hearing the other girl's voice again.  The game invite wasn't unwelcome by any means, Alex was just having trouble dealing with everything that had happened since her last meeting with Erin.  A few clicks through the menu and she was waiting for to connect to the game lobby.  "You there?"  She asked through the headset.  "What mode are we playing?"

[Erin Hackett]

Erin was in the same boat as Alex when it came to not knowing what it was going to be like for her once she heard Alex's voices. Especially since she made the decision that she made after her talk with Tim. It was probably going to burst into flames in her face; which was slightly ironic given Alex's power, but she wanted to try. Her inner gamer refused for her to just quit when she really, really wanted something. Something that while it was taken, nothing was ever set in stone and that had been made cleat by past interactions.

Her heart practically skipped a beat at seeing Alex's gamer name pop up on the screen. There were others in their party but not in the kind of party would they be able to hear Erin and Alex until Erin allowed them too. She figured a little privacy at first would be fine and they could talk with the other two she had invited later if Alex was up for it. Then Alex spoke, asking two question and Erin could not help but to close her eyes and just feel happy to hear Alex's voice again. "I am. Where else would I be?" Erin asked, teasing a little and was happy that her confidence still held up over a video game.

"An underwater mod; which I already told them is not going to be successful and another mod in a hospital or something." Erin responded, shaking her head a little. She appreciated that they were trying new maps since the old ones got boring with time but she wanted to shake whoever was thinking up these new maps. Apparently for the water one they were supposed to be in a special glass container in where water was all around them but they were still on land and what not. Kind of like being in an aquarium located in the ocean with sharks and whales swimming under and around you. her computer.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex's brow furrowed at the response. She wasn't a big fan of mods as the levels usually tended to be far less thought out and lacking in proper camping spots. She didn't know why that style of game play was frowned upon these days. It was simply one method out of many that could be used to achieve the goal. Thankfully it was these kinds of thoughts that usually sprouted up pre-or mid-game that distracted Alex from the fact that she was now tentatively speaking to Erin, a girl who's feelings she had hurt just a few weeks prior.

"Yeah? Which one has the longest corridors?" She asked, not really like how either of the mods sounded. "I suck in close quarters." But Erin probably already knew that. It was nice to be thinking of the game instead of everything else. For just a moment Erin was simply 'L33tHack', her in game partner. At least for the time being Alex was perfectly content with that. Hopefully they wouldn't have to relive the last time they had talked and could just move forward with their friendship. "Hey, again thanks for the invite. I really didn't want to keep doing my geometry homework anyway." She said with a light chuckle filtering through the private channel.

[Erin Hackett]

The mods were not ideal for Alex's play-style. Erin had played with the other girl to know that but it was just a start into getting Alex to play with her and the two of them to talk. Plus she really needed to test out these new mods at least once and then they could get into a normal match afterwards. There would be places for Alex to get her job done; they literally had things laid out like most maps just with the different look to it. The underwater one; not so much, so Erin planned to go with the hospital one.

Well, a broken down hospital so there was a lot of places to be able to hide, be on a higher levels. "We will test the broken hospital one then, should have locations you can work with." Erin responded as she selected the map, allowing everyone to see it. She at least needed to test one of them and then they could get to the fun stuff. If Alex hated it, Erin was already thinking of how she could make it up to the other girl. "No problem. I really like playing with you. Your skills are sick. Even if it makes some people rage." Erin responded back with a small chuckle as she waited for the map to load.

"If...if you need homework with that math homework, I would be willing to help." Erin spoke up then, the map finishing loading after giving everyone’s screen a quick layout of the map. It had sections completely missing out of the hospital that had only been two floors, and there were even chunk out of the room missing. It was certainly going to be an interesting match. The countdown was already starting.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex nodded to herself even though Erin couldn't see and prepared herself for the map. She tweaked her class settings just a bit in hopes of compensating for the lack of large, wide open spaces that would allow her to wreak havoc on the opposing team. "I'm just here to clean up." She said with a laugh. "You know I'm just sitting around picking my nose if you didn't force them to keep moving." It was a beautifully symbiotic relationship when it came to games. "Oh, no, right there." Alex pointed to her screen, again even though Erin couldn't see. "That long corridor to the right of the map I bet gets a lot of traffic." Though she did frown some at the disjointed and unfinished looking nature of the map.

Alex let out a low grunt of disdain. "I might have to take you up on that." She said. "God, I hate math. Why do I need to know it for a music degree?" Alex was just whining now. She understood why, she just didn't want to do it. "Right now I'm sitting at a 'C'-plus but if it drops anymore I'm probably going to need help."

[Erin Hackett]

Erin chuckled a little at Alex's words about how she was just here for the cleanup and what would happen if Erin and the rest of the team didn't get the opponents moving around. "Well seeing as the map is new and probably has a lot of bugs, I'm pretty sure you will be able to get some easy kills if we slack." Erin spoke up as she was already moving around the map and trying to get a good layout of the map. Sure the game showed them the map, but this was still a work in progress set up so there were bound to be something things that didn't line up.

"You are so lucky this is a private chat. You are going to kill the image these guys have of you with this nose picking talking." Erin brought up; teasing as she quickly took cover when she was certain that she spotted someone. Erin quickly got ready to shot when Alex spoke up, but the girl was referring to somewhere else on the map. "I'll go check it out. Can you see me? I could have sworn I saw someone. You see anything?" Erin asked. She didn't want to move and get shot in her back if it could have been avoided.

Erin smiled a little at Alex speaking about how she might want to take her up on that offer; Erin hoped that she did. "I don't have the slightest clue. It's why I hate school but I'll help you out if you need it." Erin responded, getting ready to make a mad dash for the area where Alex was talking about. "I'll bring your grade up, just have to have some one on one with me." Erin responded before blushing at what thought followed those words.

[Alexandra Lawson]

A buggy map was exactly the last thing Alex wanted. Bug were never gentle with her kind, the players that relied on precision and timing to execute their plans. Bugs tended to interfere with that with choppy frame rates, clipping issues and general inconsistency. No matter. Alex had dealt with worse and the moment she was dropped into the game she began seeking out a good hiding spot. "I could say a lot worse and get away with it around here." She laughed. "You know most of these guys have never seen a woman that wasn't on a porn site before. I could probably talk about periods and cramps and they'd still try and hit on me." She said with a roll of her eyes and a short giggle.

"Oh, right! Yeah, there you are." Alex confirmed with a nod. "I didn't see anyone, but I think that corridor I was telling you about is just through that open door there to the left." She snorted and let out another giggle. "But I, uh, sort of fused together with this filing cabinet in this room back here. I think I'm going to hang out here and see how this works out." And sure enough, should someone enter said room they would find one avatar that had clipped into the scenery and was just a head poking out the top and two halves of arms holding a weapon jutting out of the front.

"I already asked ahead of time for extra credit. At least the professor was cool with that. I told him first day I never got the hang of math. I don't know." Alex gave a short shrug to herself. "I'll keep at it and hopefully I can at least stay where I'm at. Though it would be nice to nudge it up to a 'B'." There was a bit of a pause then as Alex thought over Erin's offer again. "If I know my grade's about to fall I'll let you know, 'kay?"

[Erin Hackett]

Erin could not help but to nod at Alex's words, the other girl having a very fair point about how she could probably say some other things and still get hit on. Erin even got hit on and she didn't think she was hit on material. It was just over a video game most guys pictured probably a babe or something on the other side of the screen. How wrong they were when that girl was still a possibly babe but was wearing sweat pants and their hair was all over the place because they had just rolled out of bed. "Who would not want to hit on you? Have you heard how cute you sound over the mic?" Erin asked as she was enjoying hearing Alex voice far more then she should have.

If any guys were to flirt with Alex, well let’s just say they were going to end up finding themselves kicked magically from the game. Alex's was hers. Not actually, but in her mind she was and that meant that no one got to flirt with Alex but her. If Erin could actually flirt with the girl. She was tempted to try but was also trying to not come onto strong with this whole plan she had. "Alright, thanks man." Erin responded as she headed to the place where Alex had directed her. She expected Alex to have her back but soon the other girl was talking about how she was stuck. Damn those glitches.

"For real? Make sure you get a picture of it or record it so I can see it." Erin responded as she was already chuckling a little and debating if she wanted to go see for herself. She would also have to report this to the mods so they knew they still had some bugged areas. It was good to hear that Alex had the chance for extra credit and that she was going to be hopefully about it all. Erin could not help but to pout slightly that Alex was going to wait before calling for help, but it was the girl's choice and she would not force the help on her. "I’m here for you whenever you need me." Erin responded. "Fuck." Erin let out when she got shot when she had got slightly stuck to one of the walls.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex then laughed. It was a bright, cheerful laugh not usually used when speaking over microphones. She sighed a little as the short burst of laughter died down. "You don't want to hear how fast it all changes when they find out I have a boyfriend." She said, again her head shaking. "Some of these people get vulgar. I mean, really bad." She frowned and then snickered again. It wasn't as if she had a problem with fearing what random strangers over the internet thought or said to her, even if some of the stuff was a bit shocking.

"Oh!" Alex nearly facepalmed. "Yeah, that's right. I should do that." She alt-tabbed out of the window and got the program she used to record her in-game footage going. "Thanks for the reminder." She said before switching back to the game window. "Uh... yup." She confirmed after messing around with the movement controls a bit more. "Still stuck." She snickered again before blurting out a loud "OH!" followed by a fit of giggling. "Someone came in and shot me but hit the cabinet!" She exclaimed, coming very close to losing herself in a fit of laughter again. "Best. Bug. Ever!" And then the laughter game. "Game of the year!" She was laughing so hard at this point she failed to respond to Erin's heartfelt display.

[Erin Hackett]

The other girl's laughter ate away at Erin's soul; in a good way, but still made her just feel all the same. Why did she have to like girls so much? Why did she have to like this girl in particular when she knew that she was just fooling herself. Knew that in the end she was wasting her time and was likely just going to be hurt in the end but she still wanted to try. She blamed being a gamer on all of this and the fact that she had worked so damn hard to be friendly and come out of her shell. Her dad had just better give her an increase in her allowance or takes her out somewhere or well anything for a reward.

"Y-yeah...I can imagine. It's just cause they are like...jealous that someone else scooped you up before them." Erin responded. Talk about personal experience much, Erin? You better not become like those a-holes anytime soon with her. Like Tim said, after you try, if it fails at least she is still your friend. Well...if she wants to still be my friend after I try. Erin thought to herself as she was dealing with that whole problem of trying to move to the spot Alex talked about and was dealing with getting stock against walls and the like. "Give me their gamer tags anytime they do it, and I'll handle it." Erin then added, because there was something that she could actually do about it. She had those skills.

Alex caught on to the whole record thing which had Erin smiling for a moment until the whole trying to comfort Alex further and then it quickly going away when she got shot. So while Alex missed her heartfelt words, Erin was not chocked up about it since she was busy quickly making a note of the bug that had cost her life. "Glad you are enjoying this bug infested map, they did not tell me it was going to be this bad." Erin responded, chuckling a little as she responded back in the game, moving to where Alex was on the map so she could check out this bug. "Don't shoot me, they have friendly fire on this mode." Erin pointed out, not wanting to walk in there and end up killed by her own teammate.