I had two beautiful mornings with Lucy, despite the lack of sex, where we cuddled, woke up slowly and then snuggled for breakfast and coffee. We both had to work those days, but she’d come over for dinner and stay the night, which I simply adored.

  She also hyped me up this morning, telling me that I was going to be great today. I am crushing on that woman so hard it’s difficult to focus on how important today is. Maybe that was her aim, to distract me from the pressure? Well it worked until now.

  Orion Black, White, and the Valkyries are in the practice room when I arrive. Kavita smirking at me as though she knows something I don’t but you know what? That’s okay, because DH is headed my way with a smile on his face.

  “Zhantsa. It is good to see you accept. Is this food your celebration?” This guy. For shit’s sake, is this man ever sad?

  I chuckle at his greeting and dap his food-filled fist. “Nah, I got an assistant to do this, and Orion doesn’t often tell me no.”

  “Aha! This is why I like you. You are excellent without focusing on it. Like me, you focus on what is important: Fun and . . . how you say, ‘clowning fools’.” He chuckles loudly then.

  This fucking guy. I get him on a fundamental level, and I kind of love it.

  “Well said, my friend. Is there a format to this?”

  “A good question!” a man from the corner walks over. I take a few steps back.

  “Zhantsa, this assistant manager Janx. Loud, but he’s our schedule keeper.” He daps my knuckles and walks away.

  “Everyone!” Janx shouts. “There are four and a half teams worth of gamers gathered. We are auditioning for a Valkyrie fill and our Orion Black scout team. There will be a best of three against each other where the least valuable player will be swapped. The winner will play against Orion Black. The least valuable player of the Orion Black series will swap with the most valuable player of the losing team and the contest will begin again with the lower team series.”

  For some reason, I started on the Valkyries. I was disgruntled, but I held a clinic in the mid-lane. We won our game against the white team, but they voted me LVP. Choppa must have had something to do with that. Or at least my ego says so. When Black’s roamer gets swapped for Valkyries roam, I smirk.

  My former teammates have to face me again, but this time I assert that I’m roaming this game and pick our team from the remaining players with some heavy-handed tactics: fame. We edge a victory from the Valkyries while I make a point to absolutely merc Choppah—who is fuming right now.

  Pickup white and I face Black next, and the sad bastards make me the shot caller--Damn it. Once invited, never refused, so I squawk the whole match and damned if we don’t put on a show. I know Hamster’s play like a favored book, so I harass that man like it’s my job—it is.

  We still lose, but my team gives me the votes and I swap with the Valkyrie roam. Heh, eat your hate Choppah. No shouting, no gratification, just handfuls of dust to eat. I watch the Valkyries lose to the amalgam of Orion white and I feel sad for them.

  When we trounce white, Hamster gets voted down?! I look around and see that no one reacts. Oh, this is a test. Can I help carry when the main carry is a swap. Goddess help me I get it now. I thought I would start on their team and we would just dominate. Now, I see that they wanted me to climb up, and then prove myself without an elite carry. Let’s go bitches.

  Of course, plans de-rail as white loses to Valkyries and DH gets swapped to them. DH playing top lane makes me giggle, but I’d be a fool to think he’ll be a pushover in an off-lane.

  Hamster distracts and augment’s Choppah’s reckless play and damned if they don’t almost win the first game. They win the second and Black is looking for answers.

  “Ham has learned the team, we might be beat.” The top laner of my team says.

  “But they are soft in three of five positions, we should be able to overpower!” our swapped-in bottom carry says.

  “Nah, we have to absolutely confuse their team to keep Hamster from picking up their slack.” I chime in. Not only that, but Ham is an absolute shit roamer. We role swap, crush their roamer, Hamster will try to pick up that slack and we’ll crush the team around his ears.”

  “You want mid?” Our championship mid-laner asks.

  “No way. I’m asking who’s the least shit at roam while I aggro support.”

  “Oh, to make that happen requires a full swap.” The team’s caller squawks with a laugh. “Let’s hear the girl out. Keklol, go top. Bossboi, swap mid to ADC, Top to mid, and roam, for fucks sake, stop sucking. Zhan, you sure you don’t want to roam?”

  “You got an aggro support trained?”

  “How good are you at mid?” The man asks.

  “World Semifinals, you?” I reply and he chuckles. I make that joke to the fucking champion top-laner. Gods, what is my problem?

  The swap team-mate holds his own as a top laner but has no lane awareness otherwise. That is, however, our only weakness. Shot-caller aggros like a raid tank in a different game and having me and the roam drop on Hamster is a fucking delightful game of squash the carry.

  I wish I could say it was a massacre, but we eked it out by absolutely harassing their roamer and brow-beating Hamster until his team collapsed in not knowing how to correct. That game obviously garnered Hamster the MVP, but to my surprise, I didn’t get the LVP.

  The next round, a solid Valkyrie team came back and got absolutely obliterated. I was not the LVP that game or the next two challenge matches. Not decided by players this time, but the construct’s calculus.

  I only got voted LVP once, by my former team. That feels a certain way, but mostly I feel victory. When the scrim time runs out, I’m still on Orion Black’s team and I wonder what that really means for my time here. Then Martyr comes out from the corner and the room freezes.

  Save Hamster, he gets up and daps the manager and heads to the snack table that I provided. That gamer is a legend for a reason.

  “I have news.” Martyr emerges from the background and the room quiets. “Our White team and the Valkyrie team will be changing. We are forming a new Valhalla team, from the dead, rise champions. Our analysts will contact you with your team invites. For now, I would like to congratulate Jiantsa on rising to our expectations.” He nods and walks away.

  Janx corrales the rest and instructs the rest on how to deal with the news. Not me, though. I’m left to myself.

  “Did you not think you would rise?” Hamster asks.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “Man, it’s different when you are dropped in verses when you start as a team.” I muse.

  “That was the plan. It was less about your skill and more about seeing your drive.” The assistant manager says, coming over to congratulate me as well. “A small part was also to show the other contenders that you weren’t just handed the position. Welcome to the team. We’ll get your stuff sorted out tomorrow.”

  I thank Janx and the other team-mates congratulate me as they leave. I ask D-H why they seemed so grumpy, and apparently this was intended to be a simple audition, not six plus hours of gaming. I can understand that.

  “You want to jam a few Sniper’s matches? Or even Gigavibe, I have the urge to clown some fools after the games I’ve had today.”

  “You play the engage sniper in Giga that you like, we will dominate.” The man grins, sits down with his plate of food and opens the game.

  I shake my head at his antics, but grab my own snacks and sit down to join him.

  ***

  “I don’t know if you intended for a name change, but your merch is spelled jay eye ae en tee ess ae,” Jesse says between bites of pancake across the table from me.

  I groan. “That’s how Martyr, the Orion Black coach, says it. That version is still on theme, so I don’t mind so much. My Raidcraft account is spelled with an ‘X’.”

  “Alright. Hard part solved then. For all of your future gaming sessions, you need to be in the new gear in some shape of form unless you are competing in a tournament for a different game.”

  I nod in understanding, Valkyries were the same way. “Do they have a block on me wearing that gear in my other socials?”

  “No, in fact, they have given me and by proxy, Chance, have cart blanche to publish you in that gear as long as you are gaming or with other gamers.”

  Chance coughs and sets down her coffee. “You have many demands on social engagement from your . . . four brands that sponsor you. Orion Black is the least of my worries. D-Gabba and Omicron-Lime both want more time. So I will need morning comfort and daytime business wear in those respective brands. You also have that spot with Sabrina that needs to be shot this week. You’ll be wearing Omicron-lime gear that looks like Plesius sport gear in case the spot doesn’t grab enough attention.”

  “Ophelia doesn’t care about this spot.” Jessie says, staring into my eyes. “She doesn’t want another client at Sabrina’s level, but she is open to it because of you and Lucy. If a sport brand picks this up, they will want you to get in better shape.” I scowl at her, daring her to continue on the body shaming line. “No, sorry, more athletic looking. I don’t know if that’s anything you can do or care about, so we didn’t commit.”

  “Good. I don’t know how that works in my condition. What about my peripherals?”

  “Oh, right. Orion Black doesn’t have a sponsor for those, so we’re clear on that. Your official spot on the team has sent Corvius’ gaming division into joy-gasms and you can literally get any of their gear for free because of it. But your J.J. Pear sponsorship is sadly drying up. You have barely been keeping up with your contract with them, but it honestly was not the best fit: you don’t lounge a lot.”

  I glare at her, but I know that the damned giant is right. I lounge in Alaris, but not here. I don’t want Alaris cross advertising, so that’s that I suppose.

  “What of my Orion schedule?” I ask Jesse.

  “Non-social media related, it’s mellow until February, but after that you have no free time at all. I exaggerate slightly so that you don’t think you can eek out a social life.” I open my mouth to retort, but Jesse as an interrupting glare. “You have a tournament in Gigavibe three weeks before your Fathoms of Fates regular season starts, but your practice time starts the week after the tournament.”

  That’s not ideal. Guess I’ll have to test logging over to Alaris same day.

  “If that wasn’t enough, you have a magic chess set tournament midsummer, a Snipers tournament the week after, and that’s the week before the FoF invitational. I reached out to Gigavibe’s e-sport team and they want to plan something in August or October, depending on how the game catches. I promised them a spot after this January tournament and I need you to talk to DarthHamster about joining you. He doesn’t have an agent or an assistant, I checked.”

  Yep, I was going to ask that. “I’ll ask before my next stint in Alaris.”

  “About that, how attached to that game are you?”

  Excuse me? “Very. Not only is it my current job for Orion London, I feel that is my Real.” I glare at my assistant, perhaps oversharing.

  “Oh. Okay. I, well, they just sent me a message about getting to level twenty before the open beta opens in six months . . . say, May. But that is during your whole spring season with the FoF main team.”

  Goddess save me from competing priorities. “That is going to be difficult, but it sounds possible if I can handle switching between worlds more than once in a day. It usually takes me hours to feel right after I wake, so I guess I can try it out. If it gets to be too much, I can always drop a game. Though the most logical game choice is one I don’t want to drop. Ugh.

  “Oh, speaking of drops, did Sniper’s get back to us about the outfit for motion capture?”

  “That is currently one of my ongoing headaches. Ophelia wants to play hardball with Ubersoft because they want to use your likeness in an upcoming campaign-mode release and not just the outfit for player models.”

  “I mean, I don’t want a character to look exactly like me, but lighten her skin and giver her a mole or something distinguishing and I’d be more willing.”

  Both Jessie and Chance stare at me with open mouths.

  “What? Is there something on my face?” I wipe my face just in case.

  “No, it’s just that, well, Ophelia is fighting it as though you would never allow it.”

  “Well, yeah. I was getting offers for rando ‘adventure’ games that undoubtedly had scenes where I would be naked or some shit. I did yell on that one. I should probably message her explaining the difference and including my caveats.”

  “That is literally what I get paid for.”

  I sigh. “Fine. You tell her assistant and I’ll wait for the meeting invite. Chance, how are you feeling about working for me?”

  “I’m a little confused if I work for you or I work for Jessie, but otherwise no complaints.”

  I nod, “You work for me, but report to Jessie. Side note, I put you in for an open beta employee slot in Alaris Eternum. Feel free to decline if you don’t want to test the new world, but I thought it might be the best way to prove your tester chops when there aren’t many openings. Also, I have some tester tasking I want you to do for me so I can see what level you’re at.”

  “Do I need to inform any VPs of your plans?” Jessie asks, weariness in her voice.

  “Not yet. However, it does have something to do with some creative side-stepping of some rules. Part of the testing process. Chance, I’ll brief you at lunch. You can feel free to decline after I tell you, as long as you agree not to tell anyone.”

  “Yeah, NDAs for a meeting? No thanks. Unless you’re ordering me to, I’m going to pass.”

  “Nope.” I reply. “It’s voluntary. I should be doing it myself, but as you know I have little free time, and I conveniently have a secretary that wants into the game and experience testing department.”

  Chance seems to be buzzing with excitement at the opportunity. I’m happy to enable her, but also at the loophole I plan to exploit. I was a professional bug finder before I was a social media maven, after all.

  “Can we get back to the meeting? We all have busy mornings.” I quickly check her schedule and find that it do be busy—mostly with Ophelia’s team.

  I nod at my bossy assistant.

  “Great. You,” she points at me, “Have a meeting this morning about your current Alaris experience and to further discuss what they want you to ‘test’ including that leveling thing I mentioned earlier. You have several evening engagements over the next two weeks, including an Executive’s Gala that the Founder is throwing. He invited you specifically, so you can’t turn it down or miss it.

  “I have exams to take IRL so I will be out next week, so Chance, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the schedule and tasks for that time. Two and a half weeks after that, there will be a year in review meeting that your presence has been requested at, so I’ll set a timer for four hours before that so you can do your realm swapping thing?” I nod. “Great! There will be a holiday party soon after that, but that can be handled your next ATC visit.”

  Damn, I sound super busy. Do I like being this busy? So far it hasn’t been an issue, but hearing my schedule is a bit anxiety inducing. A few deep breath’s later. “I’m putting a pause on discussing how busy my schedule is. Any current tasking I need to focus on besides gaming appointments with Hamster?” I aim that at Chance.

  “Yes. Sabrina’s athletics spot is being filmed tomorrow, and you are scheduled to be in it. Seven am to noon is your free period, and Sabrina is accommodating that. Show time is six thirty.”

  Jesse follows Chance, “I will be here at six to ensure you are caffeinated and in appropriate fit for the event.”

  “That sounds terrible, but you’ve done the job before, so you know what I’m like. That said, who is going shopping with me this morning to make sure I have the right clothes in my closet?”

  They both look at each other and frown. Did they forget I have no athletic gear?

  “I’m in meetings the rest of the morning, unless you need brand or style advice?”

  I waive her off. “I saw the meetings, if you don’t go then I have to. Plus, Chance has an eye for cute, and you’ve told me to focus on Omicron-Lime, so I think we can manage.”