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Goodie. I was the topic of her video. Those were my favorite.
Totally not.
Her face appeared in the thumbnail, her hair in purple and black pigtails and a too-tight T-shirt with the neck cut into a V. Which made her look both sweet and seductive at the same time. Not a lie, and not that I gave a fuck.
“In case you hadn’t heard, our old friend E.T. Howard has a new game out this week.” Her video started with her doing an exaggerated, cockney version of her British accent, and bled into her real voice. “Is it today? It’s today.”
I might love that she tended to give me credit for the entire game, but the credit she gave me was never complimentary.
“And your favorite, most overpowered character, Jarlett Scohansson, is here for release day domination.” Fallyn had a character she’d been building up since the start of beta. It didn’t matter how many times we reset the servers, or that we’d threatened to just wipe her character, she always brought Jarlett back.
For the next half hour, Fallyn’s video was a combination of insultingET’s intelligence, pretending I demanded virgin sacrifices to make my evil games, and anime memes interspersed with Jarlett becoming so powerful she could explode and destroy everyone within a city by walking into it.
“I thought we fixed this.” Obviously the video hadn’t been made today, but she was releasing it now… The longer I watched, the higher my blood pressure rose. The more my fury skyrocketed.
My phone rang, and Kittie’s number—Fallyn’s number—popped up over the video. I ignored it.
I dialed Dustin on my desk phone while a chibi character made an obscene face over some in-game destruction. “I needyou to send a takedown on a video,” I said as soon as he answered.
“Fallyn?”
“Who else?”
He sighed. “I won’t do it. She never breaks the rules, and we don’t need her telling her audience we issued strikes against her. Not today.” He clipped off the words. “Anything else?”
I snarled at the receiver, but his answer didn’t surprise me. “No.”
The line went dead.
“What now?” Link asked from where he was watching over my shoulder.
I didn’t know. I couldn’t think past the rage. I was used to this from her, but after this weekend—
The video stopped. I hitRefreshand the black screen told meThis content is currently unavailable.
I stared at the screen, processing. Or rather, not wanting to. The anger that simmered inside wasn’t productive right now, but I could bottle it for use later.
I am so sorry. The text was from Fallyn.
Fuck that. I deleted it without responding.
Link made a half-grunt, half-sigh and moved into view again.
“Donotdefend her.” I looked him in the eye. “I need you to have my back on this.” It wasn’t just the video. It was how cold it was. How many times she pulled my name into things. Had she done this before? Of course. Why did I think…?
Nothing had changed, and I never should have expected otherwise for a second.
“I’m with you on this.” Link looked somber. Almost angry.
I wanted to look her in the eye when I talked to her, but I wasn’t walking away from launch day for a petty fight. “I need to take a walk. Make a call. Come with me?” I said to Link.
He nodded.
We headed down to the street, and picked an empty spot in the currently unoccupied loading dock of the building next door. The sun had dipped behind the mountains already, and there was a bite in the air, but I didn’t care.
I called Fallyn back on Facetime, and was a little surprised when she answered.
“I’m so sorry.” The apology was clear in her eyes and her voice.
