Chapter 47: Video Review

My words hung in the air.

You couldn’t get in a Third Eye fight in the middle of a commercial district. I mean, you could, but you’d look like a lunatic. If you got too into it, you might even get booked for disturbing the peace.

On a side street, though? On this block of Sycamore, at this moment, we were the only people on the sidewalk. If we wanted to throw down in an AR game, no one would be around to object. They’d all be at work or school or the store or in their rooms, playing normal-ass games.

If you wanted to encourage PVP, especially unstructured, invasion-style PVP, you had to give players reasons to come to places like this.

Or better yet, places like the tunnel from last night.

Miguel took a long drag on his cigarette.

Lena nodded.

So did Erin.

Which annoyed the shit out of me. “You already figured this out.”

It took her a moment to decide how to respond. Finally, she sighed. “I wouldn’t call it ‘figured out.’ It’s a possibility I’ve considered. There are a few other data points leading in that direction, as well. All the same, I’m trying to operate on the idea that it's not true for as long as possible.”

“Which is fine,” I said, “unless it is.”

She thrust her chin forward. “Unless it’s proven to be.”

“I’ve trawled your whole Discord archives,” Lena said. “You never said boo about this.”

“I... didn’t post it. I didn’t want to encourage anyone else to believe it.”

Lena balled her fists. “More like you let us waste our time!”

Erin lowered her eyes. Her polished voice broke and she rasped, “I’m sorry.”

I lay my hand on Lena’s arm. “Before we say we wasted time,” I said, “let’s watch the video.”

Her shoulders slumped, but her fists remained. In Third Eye, I knew her wings would be battering Miguel’s roof and that one scraggly tree. Outside the app, the tree’s branches shook in the breeze.

“Let’s not fight,” Miguel said. He ground his cigarette out on the sidewalk, scooped up the butt, and strode to his front door. After a twist of his keys, it swung open. “Here. Mi casa es su casa.”

“Gracias,” Erin murmured. She didn’t look up, though, or move, except to shy away when Lena stormed past.

I paused beside her. To say – what? It wasn’t like I thought Lena was wrong. Overreacting? Maybe. But not wrong.

If Erin wanted to save Third Eye from itself, she could start by being honest with the people who were supposed to be part of her team.

Finally, when she showed no sign of following the rest of us in, I lowered my voice and leaned closer. “You don’t have to protect us, Erin. It’s nice that you’ve tried, but we can handle ourselves.”

Was I aware of the irony? Of course I fucking was. Why do you think I didn’t want Lena to hear me?

Erin’s eyes met mine. Or at least the general vicinity of my face. She reclaimed her smile, braces glinting in the pale morning sun. “I’m sure you’re right.”

Which should’ve put me at ease.

We made it into the house before I realized why it hadn’t.

Like her voice, Erin’s smile seemed practiced. Calculated? I trusted her a lot more when she allowed herself to look upset.

The sight of Miguel’s entertainment center distracted me. He’d expanded it in the years since I last visited, upgrading his old couch to a plush leather sectional that wrapped around his mahogany coffee table with its leather-bound artbook, granite ashtray, and bowl of nuts carved in the shape of a squirrel.

The TV was new, too, vast and gleaming. Miguel obviously didn’t spend more on his jacket or his computer chair than on his television. Hell. I wasn’t sure his whole computer cost more than this television. It might be closing in on his car.

Not even the smell of cigarettes baked into every surface could spoil the atmosphere. If anything, it made the place feel kind of like an old-school sports bar.

Miguel held out his hand and I pressed my phone into it. With a few taps, Discord appeared on his TV. The text looked shockingly crisp for such a huge display.

Lena and Erin settled in on opposite ends of the sectional. Lena folded her arms and perched her chin on her fist. Erin reached for a nut, glanced at Lena, and decided to study the outside window.

I found myself wishing I hadn’t ever speculated about Material placement. All it had done was create tension. This should have been a triumphant moment, or at least a fun one.

Miguel handed the phone back to me and sat down.

I tried to plaster on a smile. “Who’s ready for a show?”

“Let’s just get it over with,” Lena muttered.

I joined them on the couch and pressed play.

A minute in, after the Lena on TV had finished her intro, the Lena on the couch covered her face and looked away. “Oh God, I can’t watch. Goldie was right. Cringe AF.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I think it’s cute,” Erin whispered.

“Cute is even worse.” What happened to max adorbs, yo? But Lena peeked out through her fingers and so did her smile.

The me on screen blitzed through Wood. I recognized some of the clips as coming from my first attempt, others from the second. DU_Goldie and LikeItsNinetyNine really had done a fantastic job editing the footage. There were even a few shots of me outside Third Eye, which I assumed came from Zhizhi’s phone.

One shot was definitely taken from my second attempt: I successfully spun a unit of Stone around me with the two-handed technique I’d learned from Albie.

Erin clapped. “Are you doing that with smart glasses?”

“I just learned the hand movements.” I paused the video, set my phone on my lap, and demonstrated the same motions I had on screen. I didn’t have an object manifested, so it didn’t do anything.

Nonetheless, she started to nod as she squinted to follow the movement of my hands. “That’s... really cool.”

“This is nothing.” I picked my phone back up. “You should’ve seen what Albie could do. She made me look like a piker.”

“So you met another player while you were filming? One with Air?”

“Yeah,” Lena said. “Super cool little girl. She was a total Third Eye expert, too. Kicked Cam’s ass when they played catch, that’s for sure.”

“You’ll get no argument from me,” I said.

“I wonder how she learned so much, so fast,” Erin said. “I’d love to talk to her.”

Miguel coughed. “Why don’t we finish watching the video.”

I knew he didn’t want us to dwell on the idea of Erin meeting Albie. Had he overheard us talking about her? Or had he just figured out that someone who could follow social media patterns to his hospital room could probably help us find a little girl, too?

Either way, he was too late. Let’s say he somehow persuaded me not to ask Erin. The only thing that might have stopped Lena was if she was too pissed to talk to her. I didn’t believe she would be. Not after watching this.

I pressed play again. On Miguel’s giant TV, day-old versions of Lena and I launched back into our performances.

Once we got through Iron – and past the PSAs, which, in all honesty, were kinda cringe – I found it hard to look away.

It was weird to see myself like this.

For one, my family didn’t have the mania for home video that Lena’s did. I doubted I had more than twenty minutes of footage from my entire life from before yesterday. Five from a neighbor kid’s seventh birthday party where I huddled at the back of the room, miserable in my party hat. Fifteen from my one visit to Lena’s parents’ house.

For another, almost all of this was of my avatar, and while he – I? – didn’t look as spectacular as Lena’s or Erin’s, this was still my Hollywood self. Dressed for a big-budget fantasy movie, hair swept back and blowing in the breeze I created, amulet gleaming on my chest.

For yet another, what I was doing with Air looked genuinely really damn cool. This was the longest stretch of Third Eye objects in motion I’d seen, aside from Lena’s avatar, and, while I still couldn’t compare to Albie, I really had leveled up with Air.

And that was just me! I’d already thought Lena looked her best that day, and the streamer persona she affected had made me laugh. Now, I wasn’t even laughing. She looked like she belonged on that TV. Cool and confident where she should be, unironically funny, with just enough moments of goofiness left in to keep her seeming approachable.

One of the editors – probably LikeItsNinetyNine, if her and DU_Goldie’s reactions to the finished product were any indication – had sprinkled in shots of Lena from the second shoot, the one where I’d thought she looked too content to pull off her persona. Maybe so, but I was willing to bet a whole hell of a lot of players would like to be smiled at the way she smiled at Albie. I certainly would.

By the time we got to Glass, all four of us fell silent, staring as Lena walked around the swirling pane, showing off its reflections with sweeps of her hands and wings.

By the time we got to Plastic, all four of us leaned forward, even Miguel, who probably should’ve done a better job keeping his head upright instead. The Plastic twirled and soared through Harvard Park, not like an extension of myself, but like a version of myself that could actually dance.

When Lena and I did our sign off, the video ended and popped us back to the Discord screen. Nobody moved.

The silence got awkward. Miguel broke it. “Where do I subscribe?”

“That...” Lena shook her head. “I mean. Is it just me? Or was that awesome?”

“It’s not just you,” Erin said. She took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you. Both of you.”

I shifted on my seat. That seemed a little much. “We’re doing this for our benefit, too. You don’t have to thank us.”

“Yes I do.” She had a frog in her throat. She took a moment to compose herself, coughed, pressed her hand to her mouth. She stood. She clasped her hands together and gave a little bow. “That was absolutely awesome. It’s so much more than I expected when you proposed the idea. I can get people to go along with me because what I do is too useful to them to disregard me. But like this? You can actually get them to listen.”

I hated to drag the mood down, but –

“Will it matter?” I asked. “If the developers want invasion PVP, will it change anything even if we get ninety percent of the playerbase opposed to it?”

“It will. It must.” She shook her head. “No, those are two things that can’t be allowed to go together. How’s this? A beta exists to get feedback, right?”

“It usually exists to get some cash before release,” Lena said. “But let’s go with that.”

Erin bobbed her head. “If we can get enough players to listen to what you say, to agree, then Third Eye Productions will hear it.”

“If,” I said.

“I think there’s a good chance,” Erin said. “They have reason to watch, and once they do, I just know they’re going to want to emulate what they see.”

I didn’t know how to respond. Lena shrank into the couch.

This was what we wanted, right? All Erin’s praise meant was that, at least in her opinion, we’d accomplished our objective. I tried to grin but I don’t think I managed.

Miguel said, “I believe it. People emulating Lena and Cameron.” He paused just long enough to let it sink in. “God help us all.”

Lena snorted. She nudged his foot with hers. “Still think we should stop playing?”

He rose, stepped away from the couch, turned his TV off, and took out another cigarette. He raised it to his lips but didn’t light it with us sitting there. “Absolutely.”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, man.”

“But. I understand why you won’t.” He turned his back to us. The cigarette appeared in his hand again, twirling between two fingers. “I wouldn’t either. Even if I really did feel what I thought I did down in that tunnel. Perhaps especially.”

“Felt?” Erin asked.

“Especially?” I asked.

“I know it was probably just disorientation. All right?”

“Nobody holds it against you, man,” I said. “You had a goddamn concussion.”

He nodded. For a moment, I thought that was all we were going to get out of him. Then he glanced over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. “But if I thought it really was real, even for a moment? If I could control it?”

I glanced at Lena. She gulped.

Who could give that up? Not Miguel, but he’d never had a choice. Not Lena.

Not me.

I glanced at Erin.

Her eyes were wide behind her glasses. She cupped her chin and tapped a finger on her lips, like she was letting Miguel’s words sink in.

But she’d only done that after she noticed me shift to look her way.

While Miguel spoke, she hadn’t reacted at all.