The sound of someone joining the call chimed. A moment later, a high voice rang out over the call.
“Hey guys. Sorry I’m late, dinner took forever.” That was in no way the voice I was expecting. I was expecting the voice of an overweight armchair armorer, not the voice of a cute girl.
“Wait, you're a girl?”
“My nick is literally ‘Not a Guy In Real Life’” Yeah, but no one believes names like that! Wait, this has to be a trick. Yeah, this guy must be one of those dudes who can disguise his voice!
“How can I hear your thoughts through a microphone? And I’m not a dude!”
Dean only managed to drag us back in to discuss the game instead of NotAG.I.R.L.’s gender after another 15 minutes of back and forth.
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“Holy shit.” The boss's corpse gave no response. “HOLY SHIT! WE JUST DID THAT!” I screamed with joy. Not many players could say they beat a dungeon over double their level after passing level ten, let alone with a party of three.
“FUCK YES! FUCK YOU, YOU SNAKE BASTARD! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO HAVE THAT MANY HEALTH BARS!” Samantha, NotAG.I.R.L., was more focused on insuting the boss’ corpse than celebrating, but after how many times it spawned a horde of skeletons right under her in the number of attempts it took us to finally win, that was fair. I had finally been forced to accept that Sam was a girl on our first boss attempt. There was no way a dude could continue to sound like a girl while screaming with that much rage, training and voice changers be damned.
“I GOT THE ENTIRE ARMOR SET! WITH THE SHIELD! WE DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS EVER AGAIN!” Dean had been reluctant to raid the dungeon, even with a halberd on the line, up until he learned that the boss had a chance to drop a growth armor set. After that, Sam and I were forced to continue trying until we won, and would have needed to continue repeating the dungeon until he got it. Luck was on our side that day.
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My legs wobbled as I got off the plane. We had met most of these people less than a couple months ago online, three months at the earliest, but Dean and I were already flying out to San Diego Comicon to meet them. My parents thought I was insane, but I managed to convince them that me and Dean could take care of ourselves. My Dad ended up helping me convince my mom after he realized I was going for one person in particular, even though I myself hadn’t realized it at the time.
Sam was also going to be there, as a founding member of our guild, [Dawn Wolves]. Cringe in real life? Yes. Badass in a video game with deep lore into every monster? Definitely. Don’t even need the lore. One of our members worked as a graphic designer, so we had even imported a custom insignia into the game.
Point is, this was my chance to meet Sam irl. I was nervous as all hell to meet my ‘second best friend’. My legs threatened to wobble themselves out from under me as I walked out into the terminal. I looked around before spotting her.
She looked just like her in-game character. A short girl with long brown hair, and bright green eyes. I’d have believed you in that moment if you told my her eyes were carved from emeralds. Hell, I still would.
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“Hey Sam!”
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I parked outside Sam’s hotel with the engine still running. I had dropped off Dean already, so it was just me and Sam in the car. I scratched my neck nervously before stealing my mind. This was a massive risk, but one I had to take.
“Thanks for driving me home, Art.” Sam opened the door and turned to get out of the car.
“Hey Sam,” She stopped and turned back to me, “would you like to go to dinner with me on Friday, um, but like, not as friends?”
I felt something on my lips before my vision caught up. Sam had her arms wrapped around my neck as she kissed me. I closed my eyes and kissed her back, wrapping my arms around her too. After a moment that could never be long enough, our lips separated and we looked into each other’s eyes.
“I was hoping you’d ask tonight.”
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The recruiter looked me in the eyes as he spoke. “Son, I usually don’t do this, but please don’t join the infantry. Your scores are high enough for you to do anything. The Army’s got enough infantry, but you’ve got an opportunity a lot of those guys didn’t. I’ll keep my promise and get you to an E-3 straight out of basic regardless, but please do something else.”
I was sitting in an Army recruitment office. I had scored a 93 on the ASVAB and high enough on the other tests that I could do just about whatever I wanted. However, what I wanted to do and what the recruiter thought I should do were two different things. I wanted to be on the ground, fighting the good fight, not some dude in a chair. It was naive, especially since most of those dudes in chairs were doing some badass shit, but it was what I wanted.
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Dean swung his arm over my shoulders. “So, you're a Corporal now. Do you prefer Corporal Greaves, or Boss?”
I had been promoted to Corporal for leading my squad to safety after our Squad Leader got knocked unconscious by the shockwave of an RPG round that had missed its target. We had been in the field in what used to be Russian wilderness on a standard patrol when we were ambushed by the Russians. We all made it out alive, but Corporal Davis would be out of commission for half a year at least with his injuries. In the meantime, someone needed to take his place; I was eligible, and had shown my competence when I led my squad out of there and back to base at the old border. In short, I was a corporal at 22.
“Shut up Dean, we’ve been lucky so far, but you don’t know that I won’t get transferred.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just finish this deployment and enjoy our time back home.”
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“I’m so glad you’re back, Art. It's been too long since we had dinner together, and this really helps with everything going on right now.”
I’d just gotten in yesterday morning, and flew straight to Sam’s place to spend the night with her and her parents. I took the opportunity to get permission from her father, and the next day we were dining at the nicest place in town. Apparently her brother had cut himself off recently, and it's been really weighing on her. As we talked, I wondered if tonight was really a good night for this, but I decided it was now or never.
“You know, I didn’t pick this place just because it’s nice. Exactly ten miles away from the table we’re sitting at is the place where we slept outside under the stars because you said you were tired of walking. I offered to carry you, but you refused, saying that I should save my stamina for, and I quote, “All the fun stuff we’ll do tomorrow morning.” Said fun stuff was interrupted before it even got to start when two sharp obsidian rocks stabbed me in the back and we had to go to the ER. I kept those rocks, because for some reason, they looked like you and me.” I stood up from the table and took out a small box before getting down on one knee. Sam gasped as I opened the box, revealing a gold ring decorated by a diamond and two shards of obsidian.
“Samantha Dillans, will you marry me?”