“Gallagher?”
A strained voice called over a muffled intercom, to the notice of everyone in the waiting area but the owner of the name.
The boy of whom the named belong to was in another world.
Another world ruled by anxiety, self-loathing, and all the other voices in his head that he seemed to never quite master how to shake them. It also contained the overwhelming excitement that if all went well today he’d be in the same realm as the people he practically worshipped for what felt like most of his life, but he was much less concerned about that.
Or so he’d told himself about a million times in the last several hours.
It was definitely nerves that had him distracted and unfocused, anything else was just a lame afterthought.
“Gallagher?” The voice repeated, the reverb in the sound system almost gratingly intense.
The boy wrung his hands, taking a deep breath as he wondered how much longer it would be until they called his name, not realizing that they were, in fact, doing just that.
He wondered if anyone could tell he was more worried about the physical exam than the psychological one. Sure, he had his hang ups, but who didn’t?
You could overcompensate for a psyche, but you couldn’t overcompensate for being weak and completely unathletic. Would he need to be athletic? It was video game, after all.
It seemed a bit stupid.
Then again, most WNDRLND players looked incredible outside of the stupid game, why did he think he would be the exception?
He wasn’t even that good.
He’d overestimated himself, he’d made a mistake. He shouldn’t be here. He was unathletic and unskilled. Maybe if he grabbed his backpack off the linoleum floor and got out of there before they called his name, no one would notice and-
A throat cleared, snapping him from his thoughts.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re Gallagher?”
A girl about his age glared down at him, arms crossed and a deep frown taking up most of her otherwise small face. Her skin was a dark olive, accentuated by her taste in clothes which seemed to only contain various shades of black. Leather and band patches littered her jacket, and her pants a faded black denim with holes that the bottoms clearly weren’t purchased with. Her hair a matching inky black, shaved into a mohawk that pulled into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. The ponytail itself wasn’t too long, going only to about her shoulder blades before it transformed into what was a very obvious teal clip-in.
Finn blinked back in confusion, “I’m sorry?”
“Gallagher?” She furrowed her eyebrows, making the glare in her startlingly icy blue eyes even more intimidating than they would have perhaps been otherwise, “You know, the name they’ve been calling for the last five minutes? You’re the only white boy here who’s white enough to look like a Gallagher.”
Finn scrambled to his feet, nearly falling as he did, “R-Really?”
“No.” The girl said flatly, “I just decided to troll a white boy because I was bored.”
He had absolutely no way of knowing whether or not the girl standing in front of him was kidding or not. Picking someone random to mess with seemed entirely like something she would do. Granted, he had only known her about a minute, but the girl certainly had an aura about her.
“Final call, Gallagher?” The intercom rang again.
Finn looked at the girl and she apathetically shrugged in response.
Finn thanked her and debated one final time about leaving or not before heading to the doors.
~
The waiting area had reminded Finn a lot of being stuck in an airport. Plenty of small food vendors, lots of windows to the sprawling mountainside view outside, and absolutely nothing to do.
Once he stepped through the large, metal doors, however, that changed dramatically.
It was clear from the choice in decor that IA Entertainment was incredibly proud of it’s latest achievement, the massively successful MMO WNDRLND.
Screens of what Finn assumed was current gameplay lined the hallway, making it almost impossible to make it through.
Especially once he saw a familiar player name in the bottom corner of the screens.
It was without stating, of course, that White Rabbit was going to participate in this new, avant garde adventure IA was about to embark on. The man had achieved fame from their game on a scale that hadn’t been done before. He was Hollywood level famous.
Which wasn’t surprising, the battle system in WNDRLND required a lot. Brilliant critical thinking, mastery of a battledome, the ability to outsmart, outwit, and overpower your opponent.
And no one did it better than White Rabbit.
He didn’t seem too keen on fame outside of the game, however, which only seemed to make him more popular.
He was an elusive enigma.
He was beautiful.
Not that Finn thought he was beautiful, of course.
That was a conversation for a day when he could have it.
Finn took a deep breath, making his way down the industrially decorated hall.
He had to remind himself with every step he took that IA had reached out to him. Of all of the frequent players, he had been contacted.
Hundreds of other kids had been too, but he was among them.
It counted for something.
If all went well today, he would be not only among the first to participate in IA’s new immersive virtual reality, but he’d be in a tournament.
The same tournament as the elusive White Rabbit.
Not that it was the sole motivator of him being here today, but the idea of meeting his hero was enough to keep spurning him forward.
This stupid game had gotten him through so much, and sure, maybe he was unfairly directing these positive emotions on some guy he didn’t know, but it’s not like they’d actually be friends. They’d meet and breathe the same air and then White would completely destroy his ass in the game and then he’d go back to life outside of this.
Finn didn’t want to think about life outside of this, however.
It was always better to focus on the present, especially when the present was an interview process for a pseudo-reality show (virtual reality show?) and a tournament with his beautiful, bronze-skinned idol with hair like snow and a voice that seemed to make the world a calmer place.
Again, not that Finn cared.
A man stood at the end of the hall, dressed casually which came as a surprise to Finn for some reason. A part of him had expected a bunch of suits to meet him.
The man smiled warmly, extending a hand, “Hey there! Finn Gallagher, right?”
“Yeah…” Finn took his hand, shaking it awkwardly in response.
The man nodded in the direction of a room, continuing to smile, “I’m Masato Ikari, most people end up calling me Mark and you won’t offend me if you join them, and I’m sort of the lead guy for the new VR program we’re starting. Right this way?”
Finn followed while the man continued to ramble cheerfully, “I hate using the term VR, though. It makes us sound like we’re late to the game, when in reality we had the stupid headset crap the same time as everyone else. They’ve all started moving on to AR, but we really want to push the boundaries of what VR has to offer, you know?”
He didn’t, but Finn nodded anyways.
“I’m not gonna lie, Gallagher- you’re actually one of the players I’ve personally gotten kind of invested in watching. I hope that’s not weird to say, but you’re here so I guess not. You don’t look anywhere near like I thought you would, with the amount of time you’ve logged I was expecting like...ten more of you.”
Rude...wait, should I be offended?
“Why?” Finn squeaked instead of asking if the lack of expectations met was good or bad.
“You’ve got one of the longest log-in times, for starters. Anyone who gives us a lot of time and money is already on the top of the list of people we adore.” He winked, “But you’re also one of the most passive players in the system. No one else with even half of your log-in time has as low of a kill count.”
Great, so I’m here because I’m a wuss, “Sorry.”
Masato looked genuinely offended as he swung open the door to a small conference room, a large computer taking up most of the side opposite the door, “What? Sorry? No, no no no no. Don’t apologize! It’s a good thing. You’re an observer. I like that.”
“You do?”
“Buddy,” Masato patted his shoulder, “If everyone had the same strengths and weaknesses the world would be a really boring place.”
Finn smiled, “Fair enough.”
“Speaking of, you ready to get the part of this out of the way that’s going to be the exact opposite of fun?” Masato grinned, “Don’t worry. It’s not a physical physical exam, I just gotta run some tests to make sure the VR hub won’t kill you.”
Finn’s mouth went dry, “What?”
“Oh you poor thing, you thought you’d have to run or something, didn’t you?”
He did. And while Finn felt momentary relief at the realization that he would not, in fact, have to run- he wasn’t too thrilled at what the alternative could have been. Mostly because he wasn’t too big on unknown variables.
Judging by the mass of wires that lay strewn between the massive computer screen and the table in front of it, this was going to be nothing but.
Finn followed Masato’s instructions, laying on the table as the man scurried about, sticking little band-aid like fixtures to his face and various other parts of him.
Masato was incredibly energetic, which wasn’t a huge surprise, but did strike Finn as noticeable. He looked young, too. Late thirties at the oldest.
Finn hadn’t figured out how to talk to adults, quite yet.
On the one hand, he was only nineteen. He was acutely aware that regardless of any life experience he might have under his belt, he would still be a child.
Still was a child, technically.
On the other hand, he hadn’t ever figured out how to relate to people his age either, and it certainly wasn’t because he was more mature.
He definitely wasn’t.
He was just quiet and had no idea how socialization worked. But at least he didn’t feel like he needed to prove himself to people his age.
Adults, no matter how young, always seemed like they expected a lot more out of him than he could give. Maybe it was because of how quiet he was. Maybe it was because he felt the need to impress people regardless. He wasn’t sure, but either way.
Finn had no idea how to talk to adults yet.
Masato, however, was incredibly easy to relate to and talk to.
Maybe because he did most of the talking.
~
The tests were over in the way Finn new the results could never be good.
Things seemed to go by much faster and fuzzier when he failed. Which wasn’t always a bad thing, at least he got to know before actually knowing.
It made the soul-crushing disappointment that much easier.
Masato had actually hugged him when he bid him farewell, the final proverbial nail in the coffin.
As Finn made his way back down the hall, his footsteps feeling much more heavy as he did, he wondered how many other people had cried as hard as he did during the psychological tests.
It was their fault, they had no business asking about his family.
This was all for a stupid video game, that shit was as far from conductive as he was from being a part of the new branch of Avalon.
The waiting room had changed dramatically as the doors swung open, for one thing there were a lot more people there than there had been when Finn went in.
It was only a fleeting moment before Finn realized why.
There, in the lobby, signing autographs and taking photos was his hero.
They were breathing the same air so much sooner than he had expected. A part of Finn wanted to rejoice, he wanted so badly to walk over and meet him, so much so that he could feel it in his bones.
But as the wave of defeat washed over him, reminding him of just how bad he had failed, he decided it was probably better to leave instead.
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