Two teenagers Adam and Julie were loitering near the entrance to the downtown pedestrian mall. They each were dressed oddly for the environment, one in the N7 armor of the Mass Effect series, and the other in the familiar clunky looking Power Armor of the Fallout universe. While they got odd looks from the older folks, moving past for an afternoon of shopping, each of them was nervously waiting in anticipation.
”Delta Squad! She’s taken down Beta squad and is heading for the objective, take her down!”
Their coms squawked loudly and suddenly they were both at full attention, their cosplay armor and guns at the ready. A skater punk was making his way over, a mocking grin with board in hand ready to teach these weirdos to grow up. That grin turned into a panicked yell as the two cosplayers suddenly turned their guns on him.
Paintballs flew through the air and almost pelted the skater who fell to the floor as a young Korean girl ran past clutching a glowing, golden rifle in her hands. Her sneakers hit the ground hard as she kicked up to dodge the flurry of pellets. Bringing the scope to her eye, she took half a second to aim before.
BLIP! BLIP!
A glowing symbol appeared on Julie’s gut and Adam’s shoulder, both having just enough force to knock them down onto the ground. The Korean girl landed in front of them. She wore a cosplay outfit of a game not yet released, and her eyes shone golden as she reloaded her magazine, the spent one dissipating as she threw it behind her. She smiled as her signature symbol, the winking wide smile emoji popped up where she had hit them.
”Thanks for playing guys!” she said excitedly as she bounded into the pedestrian mall, to face the next squad attempting to stop her.
----------After the Event---------
Yu Na Byeol, took the longest gulp of water she had since the event began. Running around streaming and entertaining was one thing, but doing it in full cosplay with fans literally running after you was far more taxing than she realized.
But it had been a blast.
Her contact at Real Pixel was still raving about the amount of pre-orders that had been placed. It was always numbers with him, always subscriber counts, ad revenue, and viewer counts.
The fans were numbers to him and most of corporate, but she loved her audience, her friends, her community.
Even now her channel was still being flooded with excited messages about the day’s events and people watching it now that they were off work or out of class.
She just lay there, in her private tent for a while, smiling as she watched the love (and the small amounts of hate and pervs) scroll by.