Gamer Girl (28 page)

Eamon watched Sarah leave the party, and it took all his willpower not to run after her and beg her to stay
, but he’d already obligated himself to meet up with Heather, a woman he dated from time to time at his condo. Reluctantly he checked his watch and saw that it was time to go.

Heather met him at the apartment and once inside
began pulling off her clothes. Eamon started to reach for her and something clicked inside.
I love you. I can’t bear to watch. I can’t bear it.
Eamon stopped and stepped back. In his head, saw Sarah’s beautiful face and heard her broken whisper.

H
eather smiled and began to stroke him. “Aw, come on Eamon, let’s play.”

She was beautiful and he appreciated that, but she wasn’t Sarah.
Eamon took hold of her hand and removed it. “Sorry, Heather, but…I can’t…I don’t want this.” She took hold of him once more but he removed her hand again. “No,” he repeated. “I truly am sorry, and I don’t mean to ruin your evening, but I don’t want this, and doing it isn’t going to help either one of us tonight. Let me call the limo to take you home.”

She started to protest, but she saw the look in Eamon’s eyes and she shrugged her shoulders. “Sure.
Whatever.”

He saw Heather to the limo and went back upstairs,
stood in front of the windows and stared out into the night. He saw Sarah’s sad eyes as they looked up into his tonight. Then he remembered how happy he used to feel when he walked into the office every morning and saw her there, saw her smile, heard her laugh. He remembered how happy she was them. He remembered how nice it felt to dance with her, to hold her, to share some silly private joke. He ached remembering how sweet she smelled, how great she felt in his arms and how damn good he felt when he was inside her, being with her, being a part of her.

So what do you want, Eamon?
He asked himself. He didn’t want meaningless sex anymore. It left him empty, had left him empty for a long time now; but he had been too scared to admit it. He didn’t want his whole life to be his business either.
So what do I want?
He asked himself again but he already knew the answer.
I want Sarah. I want to wake up next to her in the mornings and sleep beside her at night, and hold her when she cries and laugh with her when she’s happy and fight with her and make up again. I’ve been so stupid, so fucking stupid!
 

He picked up his phone.

“Martin here. What the hell—”

“
Marty. Wait. I know it’s late, but you have to help me. You have to tell me where she’s working.”

“
Talk to her —”

“
Marty, I need your help. I have to win my lady back. And to do that, I have to know where she’s working.”

Martin
heard the change in Eamon’s voice. “You mean it this time? You aren’t going to hurt her again are you?”

“God no
! You were right! I love her so damn much! My life is empty without her and I want Sarah back. Marty, please!” Eamon heard his friend sigh deeply.

“All right, I’m in.
So what’s the plan?”

“Is she work
ing at a law firm?”

“Yeah, she is.”

“Do you know someone there who will give us a hand?”

“Maybe
.”

“Okay, Marty. Meet me first thing Mond
ay morning because I have an idea….”

Two weeks after the party, and Sarah had settled back down again after the emotional upheaval of seeing Eamon. She was still sad but calm and once more getting on with her life. Sarah got to work at around nine and buried herself in the ongoing crises of a big law firm when her desk phone rang.

“This is Miss Adams. How may I help you?”

It was her supervisor on the line, “Sarah, please meet me on the mezzanine level ASAP.”

“Do I need to bring anything?”

“No, just get down here.”

“Be right there.”

Wondering what new crisis had erupted, Sarah took an elevator down to the mezzanine level, a large open space above the lobby of the building. As the doors opened, two men in heavy armor took hold of her and started hustling her toward a large open set of stairs. “Hurry, my lady! Hurry, you are in danger! Korsmere has found your hiding place!”

“Korsmere? Korsmere?” Sarah looked from one helmeted figure to the other
as though they were insane. Korsmere was the arch villain who’d been introduced in the
Wickerworld
DLC. “Who are you?”

Suddenly
, someone dressed in a Korsmere costume came up the stairs flanked by a troop of armed men. Her guards began to fight, but they fell in mock death when assaulted.

Then,
Sarah remembered. In the DLC, Kiaria, the ingénue was captured by Korsmere
.
“Tie her up!” The Korsmere clone said. Sarah found herself bound with big red ribbons. Astounded and hopeful she gave herself over to the play. Music, game music, poured through some speakers followed by a large commotion in the lobby. Korsmere’s minions dragged her over to the wall so that she could see.

Crowds gathered
in the lobby, watching the show along with people who came out of the elevators and stood in the mezzanine. Then there was a flurry of people crowding into the lobby.

“
Kiaria, I’m coming
!”

Sarah knew that voice
, his voice. Tears began to fall from her eyes and a smile lit up her face as Eamon, dressed in full rogue’s costume waved a sword around in the lobby. John, Martin, Nicole and the rest of the DLC team all dressed in full costume battled their way through the evil minions until Eamon and
Korsmere
stood face to face.

“You shall not have her, Ko
rsmere,” Eamon shouted drawing a knife in addition to his sword.

“Come and take her if you
’re able.”

Eamon attacked. Sarah stood there, laughing and crying
as Eamon and
Korsmere
fought a well rehearsed battle. When
Korsmere
fell, Nicole and John untied Sarah while Eamon came and knelt on one knee, his hood pushed back and sweat beading his forehead from the exertion.

“My lady, are you well?” He asked, grinning from ear to ear
eyes shining with humor and hope and something more.

Sarah
, crying a little, remembered the dialogue. “I am well now that you have come, Wanderer.” She replied, her voice catching a little.

“I shall always come, for you are my world…
.” Eamon went off script then. He gathered Sarah into his arms, held her close, buried his face in her neck. “Sarah,” he whispered, “I love you.”

She turned her head so that her lips were close to his ear. “You idiot. All you had to do was call.”

Eamon laughed. “I wanted you to know that I love you so damn much I’d do anything for you, even make an ass of myself in front of God and everybody.”

Sarah leaned back so she could
see his eyes. “You’re not afraid anymore?”

“The only thing I fear is not having you by my side. The rest is…unimportant. Marry me, Gamer Girl?”

Sarah smiled through her tears. “Oh baby, anytime, anyplace. I love you.”

Eamon hugged her tight and then turned to face the people who were watching.
“She said YES! YES!”
he yelled.  The crowd went wild.

I’ve had people ask me if there are that many women out there playing video games. The answer is a definite – Yes! Almost half of all players of various video games are now women, and in the category of people “of a certain age” women actually outnumber men.

The games women play are different from those men play for the most part, but the number of women who play role playing games or RPGs is steadily growing.

I have done my best to portray the video gaming industry as accurately as I could from what research I could do, but I am certain that those who work in the industry or study it with an eye to becoming one of the members of its select company will find things I got wrong. Please be kind; I did my best and if you would share a correction with me (along with the appropriate data of course); I would be happy to make it right.

I am a gamer girl. I love certain RPGs out there and always preorder the new titles that come out in my favorite series, like
Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, and Mass Effect.
It is very exciting to wait in line at midnight to claim your game and then go home and play until the sun rises! I think video games are a new art form in its infancy that promises fantastic new ways to be entertained in the future. I also think that some of the best new music can be found in video games, music you won’t hear anywhere else. If you don’t believe me just YouTube and search for “video game music,” and go listen for awhile.

Here’s a list of techie
acronyms and terms used in the book.

AI (Artificial Intelligence)—
the computer programming used to run Non-player characters (NPCs) in the game. It is the programming that tells them how to fight, how to respond, etc, in the game. In some games you can program your NPCs to fight the way you want them to fight.

BOSS, BOSS FIGHT—
a villain or opponent who is very strong and hard to beat. A boss fight or battle is one in which you are matched against a very difficult opponent(s) and is difficult to win.

CONSOLE—
Game console; i.e., Xbox, Playstation, Wii, etc. In the hierarchy of the gaming world, console users are often looked down on by those who play their games on their personal computers.

DLC (Downloaded Content)
– Additional content that a gamer can purchase for a video game that can be as simple as new armor and weapons to as complicated as an entire new quest line the game.

GAMER GIRL—
a girl who likes to play games that guys like to play, particularly video games.

HIPAA (
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)—
Federal law, which among other things creates standards regarding the privacy of health information, to prevent improper use of one's medical information.

IM (Instant Message)
Self-explanatory.

MMORPG (
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) —
Games like World of Warcraft.

NPC (Non Player Character)—
A character in the game that is separate from the player’s character but who may be a companion or villain in the game.

PC (Personal Computer)

PC (Player Character)—
the character in the game that the player becomes. In some games the PC is defined at the beginning of the game by the game itself. In other games, the player defines his own character.

RPGs (Role Playing Games)—
An outgrowth of Dungeons and Dragons, role playing video games are all about playing the role, becoming the character in the game, acquiring better skills, better weapons, better armor and beating the final boss at the end of the game.

TITLE VII
LAWSUIT—
a lawsuit based on the Federal Statutes under Title VII which prohibit employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

VANILLA GAME—
the original bare bones game purchased with no additional content and no additional quests or missions.

By the way (BTW)
– His name is pronounced “A-mon” (European pronunciation: the second vowel does the talking
)