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“They’re not as cliquey as they look,” Luna said. “Everyone’s on deadline, so they’re probably going to whisper during parts of the presentation.”
Phillip coughed.
Luna shrugged. “You do the same to them.”
“I don’t,” Phillip said.
I didn’t quite understand the dynamic here. In any of the company. Expected, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to figure it out sooner rather than later. More perplexing though, I couldn’t figure out Phillip. I wasn’t used to being unable to read people at all.
We sat in the front row. Not that there were enough rows for there to be a big difference.
Dustin stepped to the front of the room with the confidence of a man who was comfortable taking his clothes off for a class of artists. “I won’t subject you to the same crowd-working that we’ve all seen too many times, but I do want to see a little excitement. We’re here. We’re finally going live with this thing we’ve built. Who’s excited?” His tone was coaxing and energetic.
It was almost enough to make me whoop and I didn’t have the same kind of investment in this as everyone else here. Luna, Phillip, and one other person let out loud enough cheers to almost make up for the lack of response from anyone else.
Dustin didn’t look fazed. “I’ll take it. Before we dive in, since most of you apparently aren’t excited”—his tone was light and teasing—“new face in the house is Adrienne. She’s ours, so hands off.”
Did I just turn a hundred shades of red?
“We specifically have a don’t stand up and tell everyone about yourself policy, so if you want to know about her, be a normal person and introduce yourself later,” Dustin said.
I breathed a sigh of relief and light laughter rippled through everyone.
“In case no one has noticed, it’s hard to keep a secret in an office like ours. Because of that, I won’t delve into all the hot new merchandising that’s coming, or the clan details, or anything you already all know.” Dustin rolled with this as naturally as taking a breath, and he was amazing to watch. Though, my teasing memories of what lay under the clothing may be adding to my fascination.
His pause lasted longer than I expected, though. The room had gone still, and all eyes were on him.
The room went dark. A chorus of gasps and murmurs erupted around me. It wasn’t a power outage, light still seeped in from the hallway.
Phillip leaned closer. “Wait for it,” his voice was barely a whisper.
“I will get you to show excitement about this.” Dustin’s voice carried through the darkness. A dim glow grew behind him slowly enough that my eyes adjusted along with it, and the company logo appeared on a screen on the wall, back-lighting Dustin.
“We’re not a bunch of fanboys at E3,” a friendly call came from the audience. “Is the drama necessary?”
Dustin pointed in his general direction. “I’m glad you asked. It’s called hype, and yes, we absolutely cannot announce this without it.”
“That’s Elliot,” Phillip said. “He’s one of the developers, and while he’s grumbling now, he’ll be an early and long-term adopter when he sees this.”
“There’s a typo in your Introduces,” someone else said.
Dustin didn’t so much as flinch toward the screen. “No, there’s not.”
“That’s Nigel. Quality Assurance,” Phillip said quietly.
“AKA, the jerk squad.”
I’d never heard that kind of disdain from Luna. How bad were they?
Phillip tsked. “Everyone’s here because we like each other and we’re the best at our jobs. Sometimes personalities clash, but they don’t mean anything by it.”
Luna scowled. “Whatever.”
“When beta kicks off tomorrow, and over the next few weeks and months, most of us will be in game at least a little bit. And don’t pretend you won’t all be lurking in the forums.” Dustin’s confidence and stance never wavered, despite the ribbing. “And we’re going in there to present a united front, despite our different clans, as the AcesPlayed team.”
The screen changed, the new slides showing rows of illustrations, each with a name underneath and one of four symbols—a diamond, a heart, a club, or a spade. I recognized Dustin, Phillip, and Luna in the images, and the others matched the faces of the other people in the room.
Luna clapped and whistled. “If you don’t think that’s cool, there’s something wrong with you,” she said loud enough for the room to hear. “Did you guys draw those?”
Dustin grinned. “Every single one. Happy game birthday, all.”
Everyone applauded and my eyes swept the screen, trying to associate at least a few names with faces. It wouldn’t stick, but it might help me remember more easily when I was introduced to each of them. My breath caught in my throat when I landed on my avatar next to Phillip’s.
It was a pencil sketch instead of a full-color painting like the others. “How...” Or rather when did he have time?
“They have you too.” Luna hummed with excitement.
“We’ll shift it to a full color one later, but we wanted to make sure you were up there with the team.” The smooth, lightheartedness had vanished from Phillip’s voice, and was replaced with something heavier.
What had I missed?
