✅ A Dose of Humiliation

45. For Some Value of Truth

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean–" my voice trailed off, unable to focus as I heard a sudden stream of racial slurs which sounded like they were coming from the next room. I had initially thought that the words were born out of a sudden burst of someone's anger, but they continued ten seconds without pausing for breath, eventually starting to mix in scatological references and assertions about someone's sexual preferences, perhaps because they had run out of ethnic backgrounds to slander. I wanted to continue our conversation, but the sheer venom in the voice made it hard to ignore, and after a few seconds I found that I couldn't actually remember what I was about to say. I glanced over at Clint, who just gave a confused shrug. Somewhere in the torrent of invectives, there had been something to describe most of us here.

"That's Luca," Marcie explained, for the benefit of the newcomers. "My brother. Probably got a couple of friendly matches to warm up before a long gaming session later."

"That's friendly?" Serena asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah. Well, you have to practise cussing out your opponent, or you might run out of words in a tense moment. Seriously, those two treat their trash talking almost as seriously as the game itself. They use words even I had to look up."

"Is that what video games are like if you're competitive? Or is that just him? I mean... never mind. I don't think I want to know."

"You really don't," Elspeth said with a chuckle. "I've given up trying to work out if they really take any of it seriously, or if it's just some extremist parody of toxic masculinity. But it makes me sure I never want to play that game."

"It's not that bad if you join a no-taunt lobby," Jodie commented. "I mean, I played a few times. You can choose if you want to have voice chat with all players, just your teammates, or nobody. But yeah... I think some of the culture's gotten pretty toxic, and I'm not sure if it's parody or straight up. But even when I tried the open leagues, I think your little brothers are among the worst."

"Anyway," Marcoie said firmly, and then gave herself a little smile at the feeling of being able to take command of a conversation, now that she could be understood again. "Anyway, this is a party, right? Not a bitchfest. So what's next on the party checklist?"

"Watch a movie?" Lance suggested.

"Truth or dare?" was Jodie's preference.

"Okay. But the only dares I can think of are–" Serena started, but then went quiet when Marcie put a finger to her lips.

"Did you have as much trouble as I did with the math homework?" Marcie asked, as if she was continuing an ongoing conversation. "I managed it, but I don't think it was supposed to be that hard. Almost thought I'd have to miss–"

Just when we were starting to wonder what she was talking about, the door opened and Mrs Miller stepped in again. It was only then that I realised the swearing and game noises from the basement had stopped abruptly twenty seconds before. The boys knew when their mother was coming, and Marcie had obviously realised what their sudden silence meant; so she wanted to have a conversation that she wouldn't mind her mum overhearing part of.

"You okay, girls?"

"Yes thank you, Mrs Miller. We're having a great time."

"That's good. Did you all bring your sleeping bags? I hope we're not going to have a panic later when we realise somebody forgot something. I've brought some extra cushions in case you need them. I'm just going to make sure the boys are sleeping peacefully, and I thought I should check on you."

"We're fine, Mum," Marcie said. "We were just about to unroll our sleeping bags now we've finished dinner. So there's no worries about where there's space for everyone later."