Rosalind didn’t know what to say.
“But I mean, like, the launch is literally in four hours, so this wouldn’t even make any sense because I played such an important part -”
“Look. Rose. I really don’t want to have to call security on you. All of your equipment will be shipped to your house. You can walk out right now with your reputation secured.”
Martin was as professional as ever.
“My… reputation? I’ve spent, like, the whole last decade supporting the vision you’ve been trying to build. All of my time. Why would my reputation be at stake if I and everyone else here helped you make this in the first place?”
“Your contributions have been noted, and they are appreciated,” Martin responded. “Your severance payment will be phenomenal. And you can go on with your life and do all of the things you’ve dreamt of doing.”
Martin pulled out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and put it on the table.
“A glowing recommendation letter from me. Your resume is already perfect, but if this won’t get you across the finish line anywhere you want to go next, then I don’t know what will.”
Rosalind didn’t want to admit it, but the most jarring thing about this moment was the fact that her identity for the past near-decade had been ‘Lead Engineer at XPeriential’. She wasn’t really sure what would come after. In all of her planning for the future, the thought that she could ever get fired and have to pick up the pieces wasn’t a scenario that came up… because it wouldn’t have made any sense. She was invaluable. Irreplaceable. Everything about this was irrational.
Martin got up from his seat.
“I’ll give you a minute to make your call. You can leave of your own accord. Or… via security.”
They locked eyes. Rosalind, unable to shake the fact that this was all some weird, twisted dream, slowly got up from her seat. Martin watched as she left the room.
In a haze, she walked down the stairs, traversed through the office towards the main lobby, and finally stepped out the front door of the building, as if the day had never happened in the first place.
–
As the students approached the door to the lecture hall for another ‘educational’ lecture from Professor Jasper Whitmore, they realized that the door to the room was locked. A small post-it note was affixed to the door. It read:
Class is canceled for today - you all get an A!
The students, though perplexed, seemed overall enthused at the easy victory Jasper was granting them.
–
Jasper, donning the full suit of armor he had been gifted, sat on a shuttle bus filled to the brim with passengers dressed in various medieval costumes: knights, peasants, nobles, thieves, clerics, archers and more.
For reasons he couldn’t fully understand, he had canceled class for the day so that he could attend Medieval Madness! - a one-day Live-Action-Role-Playing (LARPing) event taking place not too far from the university where he taught.
He looked down at his suit of armor, and then scanned the shuttle bus to take in the full nerdom of the company he was surrounded with. His sigh was inaudible to the passengers seated next to him due to his helmet muffling the sound. His life was riddled with regrets, and this was another one to add to the list.
As the bus arrived at its destination, the passengers, clad in their elaborate garments, shuffled out. Jasper stayed inside and walked up to the bus driver.
“Any chance that you’re willing to do return trips?” Jasper asked the driver.
The driver chuckled and shook his head. “You’ll be fine,” he responded. “Heck, you might even have fun.”
“I wouldn’t make foolish assumptions like that, sir,” Jasper retorted as he disembarked from the bus.
Jasper took his final step off the bus and emerged onto a large open field near a gothic-looking manor. “Perhaps… this was a dumb idea.”
–
A lifeless and miserable Rosalind had slumped into her sofa in her living room, transfixed by a large TV. Her house was gorgeous - unsurprisingly, given that years of working at one of the most highly valued start-ups of all time would naturally set her up well.
The TV was broadcasting a news channel counting down to the launch of “XPerential Points”. The lively banter of the news anchors excitedly discussing the launch was nothing more than white noise to her. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
As each minute bled into the next, the logical part of her realized that dissociating from reality on such a big day made no sense. If I watch the launch, it’s only gonna make me feel worse, she thought to herself.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
She picked up her cellphone and started scrolling through her texts. There was a backlog of messages, all of which were some variation of “What happened?!” or “Did you seriously leave right before the launch?!”. She was never good at responding to stuff like this. She was a slow texter, and almost always preferred making phone calls instead.
Amongst the sea of redundant messages, she saw one that stood out to her. One from Willow.
“Hey girl, I’m sure you’re swamped rn with messages. I have no idea wtf happened, but if you wanna get your mind off this, Medieval Madness is in town. Literally starting now. I know you love that nerdy shit. Love you. Have fun. Xox respond whenever.”
She lingered on it. She looked back at the TV and as the static infiltrated her ears again, she grabbed the remote and turned it off. She walked to her room, opened her closet, and found the elaborate outfits (relics from her cosplaying days) hanging behind her professional ‘work attire’.
–
Standing in the center of a large group, including Jasper, stood a game master wearing a bright golden satchel. He was addressing the participants of Medieval Madness! on a vast field adjacent to a romanesque manor that had been rented for the event.
“Alright, so all of you should now have your character sheets,” the game master began. “We’ve gone over the ground rules a few times, but if anyone else has any final questions, please let me know.”
There was silence from the crowd. Jasper was tempted to raise his hand, but decided against it. It seemed like everyone else here had done this song and dance before.
Suddenly, a panting Rosalind, who’d made the journey straight from her house in an attempt to flee from the abyss of despair that she was feeling after getting fired, joined the group, character sheet in hand. She was wearing an elaborate red mage costume. The game master gave her a quick nod, and then signaled to some staff members standing near the large manor.
“By the way, I think it’s super cool that all of you came out today during the launch of XPeriential Points. Here’s to imagination over technology!” proclaimed the game master.
“Amen! Who needs cutting-edge technology anyway?! We can all just have a good time in this imagined world of thrill and adventure!” Rosalind shouted.
The game master shot her a weird look, but the awkward interlude was cut short by the sound of horns echoing across the field. Without missing a beat, the crowd split into two nearly-even halves, with each group dashing to opposite sides of the manor.
…all except for Jasper, clad in a full suit of armor, who stood still, bewildered, watching both groups scatter. “Wait, so… so does that mean that we’ve started now?” he asked, to pretty much no one.
Rosalind, realizing there was a straggler left in the middle of the field, ran back towards Jasper, and promptly snatched the character sheet from his hands.
“Hey! You give that back to me this instant! This bandit just stole my life force! At least I think that was my life force. What was the piece of paper for again?”
“It’s your character sheet,” Rosalind explained as she scanned the sheet. She handed it back to Jasper. “So… you’re part of the resistance, which means you’re supposed to come with me and the others to the right side of the manor”.
“...right.”
“Is this your first time LARPing?” Rosalind asked.
“No. Yes. I don’t know what LARPing means so I’m going to assume yes.”
Slowly, Rosalind lifted the helmet off from Jasper’s head. She took a look at his face, and sized him up the same way she sized up everyone around her. She felt a familiar feeling. Like Martin, a face she couldn’t fully read.
“So you’re wearing a full suit of armor and you came all the way here to Medieval Madness, but you have no idea what LARPing is…”
“I’m aware that this is odd. I’m aware that I probably don’t fit in with you people.”
“You people?”
“Nerds. With your little nerdy games.”
“Comin’ off just a liiiiittle bit spiteful, sir.”
Jasper put his helmet back on. “I’m on a quest -”
“You’re on a quest and yet you think everyone here is the nerd?”
“I was gifted this suit of armor by an acquaintance. She told me to come here. So, I’m on a quest to figure out why.”
“Have you tried asking her?”
“It’s a bit more complicated than that. She’s kind of, well, dead.”
Rosalind, puzzled, watched as Jasper trudged ahead of her, taking weighty strides on the grass as he journeyed towards the manor.
“Welp, that was… a confusing conversation…” she said to herself.
“What was that?”
“Nothing!” Rosalind covered.
Rose trailed Jasper as they neared the manor, against the backdrop of the setting sun.
As they closed in, Jasper turned around to address Rosalind again. “So, do you win something? If you’re part of the victorious team.”
“Not really.”
“Then that’s even more puzzling. Why would you play a game if you don’t even win a prize at the end? That just seems like work.”
“Well,” Rosalind responded, “People come to events like this for a whole host of reasons. We’re in a technology-driven world, so it’s nice to take a break from all that, bond with a bunch of nerds you’ve never met before, and get lost in the spectacle of it all. Bonus points if you’ve had a stressful day.”
“Are you having a stressful day?”
“No! Not at all. Today is awesome, why wouldn’t it be?” responded Rosalind, in a mildly manic tone.
The ring of Rosalind’s phone disrupted their conversation. “Hold on, just one sec.”
“Didn’t that satchel-wearing fellow tell us to turn off our phones because we’re supposed to be in medieval times?” asked Jasper.
“Shhh, just something important, might be work related. The place I… work at, ‘cause I still work there haha, big launch, hard to explain, something I designed, I just, yeah…” Rosalind responded as she fumbled through her outfit to dig her phone out of her pocket. Finally, she was able to secure it, answering just as the final ring echoed.
“Rose,” the voice on the phone started before Rose could even say hello, “I can’t say too much, but the XPeriential Points launch is about to be sabotaged. You have five minutes to pick your party. Make it count - the fate of our world and everyone you know and love depends on it.”
A few seconds passed as Rosalind took this in
“Uh… what?” she said.