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You were his Rosebud.
And hell, doesn’t that sting?
It hurts nearly as much as Jim’s dismissal of him in the first place.
Their partnership had always been complicated, ever since they were kids.
He’d always been outgoing, adventurous (well, as adventurous as a computer programmer could be) and talkative, ready to leap into business deals and create mindlessly. Jim had been quieter, more awkward, the one who’d always have to triple-check everything before they could put plans into action.
But it had been that quiet genius that had created the OASIS.
And Ogden had loved him for it.
Despite their differences, despite everything that had happened between them, there had been beauty in that simplicity, and he’d mourned it when it was gone.
But now?
To know that Jim had torn apart the OASIS just to show how much he meant to him?
It makes him want to weep, to throw up his hands and let the tirade of tears pull him under. But he can’t. Not now. There’s work to be done, deals to be signed, winners to congratulate.
(There’s also the whole matter of the IOI.)
He can let his grief run him ragged later.
Later, back in his large, lonely house, he steps into the OASIS for the first time in six years.
Ready Player One.
The Great and Powerful Og forms around him, beard growing to an incredible length, body growing more wizened and thin. The Great and Powerful Og was always supposed to be an extension of himself - someone older, wiser, more thoughtful - but now, he resembles him more in body than he ever realised.
Gods, he’s gotten old.
There’s over a billion emails in his avatar’s inbox - most of which are tagged with ‘IOI - Capitalist Scum - Don’t Read’ (looks like his autofilter’s still working), and he’s about to delete them all when he pauses.
The second message down.
Nothing in the subject line, no send date. All it says is Anorak.
There’s no way. The game’s over. Why would Anorak have a reason to contact him now? He’s just an avatar. There’s nothing else to him now.
His hands sweat in his haptic gloves as he opens the message.
Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination.
The lump in his throat grows even bigger and he bites back the tears once again. The song’s a bit before his time, but it’s relevant all the same. It had shown up in movies and albums all through their teenage years. They’d even used it to announce the opening of the OASIS.
It had symbolised hope. An escape. Somewhere where people could be themselves and not have to weather the shit that real life was throwing them. It was endless, boundless creation.
But… these words aren’t just a message. They’re an OASIS hyperlink, designed to take him wherever the message creator choses to take him.
He steels himself and taps the link.
The world dissolves around him and then suddenly he’s back. He can tell exactly where he is before his vision even returns. Wood panelling, books piled high to the ceiling, the smell of dust and hard plastic… It’s Jim’s childhood room.
And it’s empty. There’s no-one in it.
He reaches out, traces a hand across one of the bookshelves, still marvelling at how real it all feels. It’s not real, will never be real, but hell, he and Jim gave it a damn good try.
“Ogden?”
He snatches his hand back and turns, weirdly ashamed, like he’s been caught doing something very wrong.
Anorak is standing there, in all his bearded glory. He’s out of sorts with the decor of the room, tall and grandiose, with a beard that rivals Og’s.
“Anorak?” Odgen ventures, wondering if this is all just a bit of defunct code. Anorak shouldn’t be present. It shouldn’t be possible. Even if he’s a non-player character, he shouldn’t still exist like this.
“Please, my friend, we’ve known each other for so long. Drop the pleasantries.” Anorak booms, rich voice loud and welcoming.
“Is this a test, Jim? Is this just another part of the competition? I appreciate what you did, really, I do, but I can’t go on speaking to your avatar like this. Whatever you do, Jim will still be dead and gone.”
He swallows, feels a tear drip down his cheek. He doesn’t want to fall apart like this. He can’t afford to sit in the OASIS, dreaming of things long past. He’s not going to do that to himself. Not now.
“Dead? Yes.” Anorak muses. “But gone? Well, in a world like this, can we really ever be gone?”
And with that, his beard begins to recede, his robes flutter away, and he becomes James Halliday, mid-30s, dressed in his garish pink shirt from so many years ago. He looks exactly like he did the day after he took Kira on their one and only date.
Odgen looks down and finds that he’s dressed in the same clothes he was wearing that day too. They’ve both become young men again, right before his eyes.
What Jim is suggesting - it can’t be possible. They’d tried things like that. It had never worked, never had the possibility of working. “Tell me that you’re saying what I think you’re saying.”
“Can I confirm that the real James Halliday implanted his consciousness into the OASIS? Nope.” Jim looks up and grins sheepishly, “But I can certainly confirm that the real James Halliday did try.”
Do or do not. There is no try. “Jim?” He croaks, hardly managing to believe it. “It’s you.”
“It’s me.” Halliday confirms. “Good to see you, old friend.”
That’s enough to make him rush into the other man’s arms. They’d never really been huggers - it had never really been Halliday’s thing, except in the case of absolute triumph - but he welcomes the hug like he’s been waiting for it for years.
For all Ogden knows, he has.
It feels like coming home.
And he knows he’s just sitting in his haptic chair in his office, tears drying on his face, but it feels real. What they’ve created is real in this moment, and surely, that’s enough.
“You sure picked those kids well.” He sniffles into Jim’s shoulder. That’s always been his problem. Far too emotional at the best of times. He’s sure he looks quite a mess. “They’re going to fix things around here.”
“Me? Picked?” Halliday huffs. “I would never interfere with such an important competition. You, on the other hand…”
Ogden pulls back, wipes away the blurriness in his vision and shrugs. “In all honesty, you never said I couldn’t.”
“Well, we weren’t speaking at the time, were we?”
“Mmmm and who’s fault is that?”
Halliday pales almost imperceptibly. He suddenly has a lot of trouble meeting Ogden’s eyes. “I’m sorry about that. Really.”
“Yeah, I got that right after you tore apart the OASIS and created a global competition in my honour .” Ogden sighs and opens his arms again. “We cool?”
“We cool.” Jim hugs him again, though he doesn’t look totally convinced.
“You know, the entire world’s fallen in love with you. Except for IOI. They probably hate you by now.” He leans his chin on Halliday’s shoulder, stares off into the rest of the room. It’s gorgeous. Still impeccably detailed. What a damn good build.
Jim speaks so softly that he can hardly hear it. “...Which side of the equation are you on?”
“Oh, love, definitely. But I knew that before we even created the OASIS.” He speaks it so blithely that he doesn’t even realise what he’s said until Halliday stiffens.
“Do you mean that?”
“You are a genius , Jim. Brilliant, beautiful, utterly mad.” He tightens his arms around Halliday, and smoothes a hand down his back. He can feel the faint notches of spine beneath the other man’s shirt, the warmth of his skin, and the light hiss of his breath close to his ear.
Real. They’d made the OASIS real. The pair of them. Together. “How could I have not fallen in love with you?”
“I thought- I wasn’t- uh- I wasn’t sure.” Jim stammers, shaking slightly. “And then with Kira - I just…assumed-”
They’d wasted so much time.
“Want to get a drink and talk about it?”
The way that Halliday balks under his touch isn’t surprising. Social interaction isn’t exactly his forte. He’s been gone so long that Ogden’s just… forgot.
Odgen clears his throat and pats him gently on the back. “Actually, want to stay in, and get a drink and talk about it? You’re like… the consciousness of this entire universe, man, I’m sure you can conjure a couple of beers from somewhere.”
He can feel Jim grin against the side of his face. “I’d like that.”
Yeah, this might just turn out alright.