✅3️⃣ Treating the Babysitter [Camp NaNoWriMo July 2023]

3. Player Two

This chapter is dedicated to Ddude. Thank you for all your support!

"Are we crazy?" Adam asked, as they watched a progress bar on Claudia's computer screen tick up from 92.4 to 92.7%. It wasn't going quite as quickly as it could have done; while she was only staying with her mum for a short time over the summer, Claudia hadn't thought it made sense to pay the boost fee to keep their internet speeds up. And this time, progress was even slower because there were probably over a million obsessive gamers trying to be the first to get their hands on a copy of War of Aegis: Forbidden Mission.

"Maybe," Claudia said, and gave a shrug that Adam only felt through the movement of the hand that was resting on top of his. They were sitting on her bed now, but all they were looking forward to was finally being able to play the game. "But you know you're curious. Sure, we could be doing a whole bunch of weird stuff while Mum and Lorelei are away, but I don't think I'm likely to give up gaming. So if you want to spend more time with me again, you'd better get used to it."

"Oh yeah, I'm curious. It's just... kind of mood whiplash, you know? I was expecting to be struggling to keep things normal with your little sister this weekend, and I'll admit I was a little scared. And then you're actually making me be cruel to you, and before I had time to think about how I'm supposed to feel about that, we go back to doing something normal like blasting giant cockroaches together... Wait, roaches? Or zombies? I don't actually know."

"Nobody knows," Claudia answered, and her hand tightened on his this time. "I mean, there's been a bunch of people talking about whether the zombies will be the same in the new game, but a lot of people are laughing at them. War of Aegis has always been about the shriekers, and zombies only show up in the prequels. So if you say zombies, or lizards, it's kind of like a sign that you only got into the series after Shadow Covenant. So most people are expecting to be fighting giant roaches. But... I have to admit I'm not sure. I mean, this isn't War of Aegis 7 here, and it isn't War of Aegis Shadow Covenant VII: Some Dumb Subtitle. It's a completely new spin-off, so who's to say what kind of weird aliens we'll be fighting?"

"We'll be among the first to find out," adam said with a laugh.

"And that's what makes it special. But not so special as sitting here playing it with you. Hey... do you mind if I set it up to record? I mean... I got a hardware upgrade so I can stream, but I've not really gone into that side of it much. I know I won't be able to do it live today, the connection wouldn't handle it. But I can record my reactions as I go into the game blind, and see if that helps me pick up some followers. After editing out the bits where you can't keep your hands off me, of course."

"Yeah, sure," he said. "Do you just record the game, or a cam as well? Because depending how the weekend goes, there might be some bits I'd like to rewatch. Mementoes."

"I usually have the cam on my hands. So you can see the controller, and just a bit of my chin as I'm talking. I mean, it's always been my dream to be a pro gamer, you know that, and it seems that now you need to be a streamer to be taken seriously. But I'd rather not show my whole face in case somebody at work sees me and takes offence to it. I know in a lot of places, there's all kinds of weird stereotypes about girls who game, and I don't want rumours that I'm like a camgirl or something."

"Smart," Adam answered, glancing down at her. She was dressed casually today, but he couldn't help noticing that if there was a camera trained on a game controller in her lap, it would also be keeping her cleavage in the centre of the frame. Adam had no doubt that detail would make it easy to retain fans once they found her, but he couldn't quite be sure if it was intentional. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if saying something might seem creepy, or if not saying something would be taken as an admission that he didn't want her as much as he could have done. But thankfully, his moment of indecision was interrupted by a tinny chime from the computer's speakers.