Ready Player: START (Parzival x Reader)

This Ain't a Scene

Without any warning, Parzival's face popped up in front of you and you let out a yelp and tried to jump away, "dude where'd you go?" he shouted.

"What happened to you?" you blurted and regained your balance on the steps. His hair had turned black and was slicked back ridiculously, and over his eyes were a pair of rectangular glasses.

"Hmm?" he asked in confusion before he figured it out, "oh, it's a disguise. That's not the point though, where are you?"

"In the archives," you frowned, "where are you?"

"About to go in," he replied, "how'd you get in?" he tilted his head to the side in confusion.

You waved a hand, you definitely did not want to tell him about your breakdown in front of the Curator. Oh no, the Curator. He totally saw that, what was he going to think about you now? Did he hate you even more now? Would he mention this to Parzival?

"We're about to watch the scene for the second clue, come on!" he grinned at you.

"We?" you questioned dubiously.

"Yeah, Art3mis is here," he explained off-handedly and your mouth turned sour, of course she was here. "But that's all right, the more minds the better, right?" he gave you a happy grin and your heart skipped a beat. You couldn't stay mad at him

"Yeah," you sighed and pulled up the menu, "I'm heading over." You clicked on his name and teleported with a flash of light.

"About time you arrived," Art3mis gave you a smug grin and you glared back at her.

"Yeah, yeah, I was looking at something else," you suddenly remembered how just moments before you were ugly crying on the ground and frantically rubbed at your face to remove the tear tracks.

"What'd you find?" Parzival asked eagerly.

"Nothing important," you waved it off. Nope, you weren't planning on telling him what happened, and with Art3mis here, you were definitely not explaining what happened.

"Not surprised," she rolled her eyes.

"You-" you were about to cuss her out when the line moved forward as the Curator returned.

"Where would you three like to go today?" he questioned primly, not even giving you a second glance. You breathed a sigh of relief, hopefully he was just going to ignore what happened.

You let Parzival handle the talking as you glared at the pink form of Art3mis. She was standing a little too close to Parzival for your liking. With a nod, the Curator turned around and led the way into the archives. Once again, he gave the mandatory explanation as the four of you walked through the dimly lit halls. It made the encounter earlier even more strange. Wasn't he just a bot? But that was a strangely human experience.

The four of you stepped up next to the memory as it began to play, and Art3mis grabbed the glasses on Parzival's face and tore off his disguise. It made an uncomfortable squelching sound before she put it in her inventory. "This is right before the OASIS went live." Art3mis noted.

"Six days prior." The Curator answered, "December 2nd, 2025." You heard a hum and looked to see Parzival stealing the control pad from said person.

"Check this out," he said with a grin and zoomed in on a part of the scene. You frowned when you remembered something. The two of you had already dissected this scene, what were you looking at now? "You know who that is?" he asked with an easy grin towards Art3mis.

She gasped and leaned down to look closer, "is that Sorrento?"

"Sorrento started as an intern," Parzival explained and you boredly watched the scene, "he claims he learned at the feet of the master. That's how he convinced IOI to create the Sixers for him, his Halliday knowledge." He explained to the female next to him as she watched the scene in awe and shock, "but ask Ogden Morrow?" Parzival continued, and you looked around the Curator to see Parzival, "he says the only thing Sorrento actually knew about Halliday was how he liked his coffee."