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It wasn't just because it was the RTS scene or because she was an opponent. Liv didn't get along with people like Borgid. As two of the veterans on the scene and the only women who had been around since the early days of competitive Northgard, she had felt this constant pressure to be friends with the loud obnoxious girl. But Borgid was rude and spoke her mind without caring about offending people, and managed to be popular regardless. Liv figured that she envied her, in a way; but she and outgoing people didn't get along, ever. As a child she had either felt overshadowed by them and resented it, or made genuine efforts to connect, only to be blown off or forgotten. She had learned her lesson by now, and gave Borgid the cold shoulder. She was a rival, that's all, same as all of the other boys in the room.
So it caught her off guard when Borgid winked at her that one time. Although she was no stranger to being hit on, or the attention her appearance got on discussion boards, Liv was used to bearing it all dispassionately. It was one of the smaller tournaments, held in a colorful gaming bar in the west end of the city. After the games, some of the players had been having drinks and joking around near the front of the bar. Liv didn't pay attention to what they were saying. But as she packed up her equipment and was walking by, she heard Borgid say "you're not even my type, wolf boy." Then she turned her head and winked at Liv, and the table exploded in jokes and laughter, directed at a very discombobulated looking Egil. Liv blinked, and then kept walking, her cheeks turning red.
It made her really want to beat Borgid at their next match.
--
"scrims?"
Came the chat message from an avatar that was like an anime Medusa. Liv looked at the notification on her phone from trying to work on her thesis. Her supervisor was a major pain in the ass. Last month he had no-showed at one of her meetings to go golfing or something. She couldn't wait to be done and out of this program.
Meanwhile, Signy, one of the youngest on the scene, was a sophomore in high school, and Liv figured she had plenty of time to play video games. Since she was at a good time to stop in her work, Liv grabbed her phone and swiped the screen to unlock it.
"Sure, give me a second," she replied. She gathered her notes and books and put them aside, and clicked close, with relief, on a bunch of tabs on her computer, before pulling up the game client.
Scrimming against Signy was a race against time. Signy's play style was in late-game scaling, taking advantage of one of the newer factions that had been added in the years since Liv had won her first tournaments. With perfect resource management, Liv sent wave after wave of attacks in the early game to stymie Signy's progress. She was a rewarded with a forfeit and a "gg re?" from Signy's chat client during the midgame. On the rematch, Liv again employed her strategy to use alternate resources to mount attacks on Signy's base from the sea. This time, Signy was better prepared, with early attacks of her own. The game broke out into more even fights in the midgame, but Liv's attacks had again delayed Signy's ability to build her own forces, causing her to be unable to defend against Liv's waves of assaults.
"ggs :)" came the message in her chat window as Liv's victory screen gave way to statistic graphs, with a lead from Liv that never waned till the end of the game.
"You too," she replied. "Almost had me at the end." Sometimes Signy would be asked by journalists about whether she had been influenced by the play of the veteran women in the genre, and sometimes Signy would drop her name. It made Liv feel nice, but also like she shouldn't let it go to her head.
"did u see this?" Signy typed. Then came a link to an online discussion thread. Almost with dread, Liv opened it.
It was the most popular post on the Northgard forums today. Not about strategies or meta, but about how Borgid had winked at her at the tournament on the weekend. Against her better judgement, Liv scrolled down, and instantly regretted it. She grimaced at the comments about how good she and Borgid would be together. She quickly averted her eyes from the ones about how hot either of them were. And there were people posting scenarios...
"Those forums are hilarious," she told Signy.
"ikr. gross" came the reply.
Liv stared at the screen for a second longer. Signy's online status quickly changed to show that she had started some solo games. Liv found herself thinking about Signy's reply for longer than she was comfortable. Gross? Did Signy think she and Borgid would be a bad pair? Of course, she quickly told herself, Signy was only talking about the response from the fans. But Liv was disturbed by how much it almost upset her.
The pressure of being a mini celebrity was getting to her again. Liv decided to go outside and get some fresh air and perspective.
--
Although she always dressed in dark colors, Liv liked sunlight. It was a nice day out. Sun shone down from a smattering of clouds, and the air, while chilly with the vestiges of winter, was refreshing as it rustled new leaves and grass. Liv unchained her bike from the apartment's bike shed and went for a pedal around the neighbourhood, her long blue scarf billowing behind her.
Past the buildings that housed her apartment were rows upon rows of little shops, cafes, and convenience stores. She biked past a shopping plaza. After that came the park, with the rows of townhouses around it that formed a quieter residential zone. A nice day in spring brought out all sorts of people to the park. There were all different kinds of dogs, people sitting on the grass with speakers playing music, children playing on the swing sets. This was the neighbourhood where Mielikki lived. Liv biked around the perimeter of the park, the noise of the people fading as townhouses closed in around her. Small lawns gave way to tall, thin residences, and vines crawling up the old red bricks. Mielikki lived alone, her children having moved far away, and her husband, as far as Liv knew, had passed on some years prior. She was a kind presence in the forums and chat rooms, and would invite players for socials at her house sometimes. Liv stopped her bike outside the short yellow fencing that distinguished Mielikki's front lawn from her neighbours' and wondered if the old lady was in.
"Liv!"
Came the cry from a side-street, and she turned, pulling her scarf away from her face, to see Mielikki carrying two grocery bags and turning the corner. "Do you need help with that?" Liv called out in response, jumping off of her bike.
"You're such a nice girl," Mielikki told her, handing her one of the grocery bags. She waved at Liv's bike with her freed hand. "Come, bring that into the back yard, let me get you some coffee."
Mielikki's kitchen was adorably decorated in bright colors and floral designs, with matching sets of dishes and cutlery. The keyboard and mouse she brought to LAN tournaments were always cute and pastel, next to the black and flashing rainbow lights of the competition. She streamed, too, at odd times, her soothing voice bringing in young viewers that called her grandma. Liv took a seat in one of the wooden chairs and nodded in thanks as Mielikki poured her coffee in a mug shaped like a yellow duck. She saw a flash of white fur, that was one of Mielikki's cats, slinking into hallway from the living room. The other one gazed at her lazily, a cloud of grey fur, from his perch on top of a kitchen cabinet. There was no discernable way that Liv could tell of how he had managed to get up there.
Liv wasn't terribly good at making conversation at the best of times. But Mielikki seemed to sense that, and was very good at filling the silence with words and jokes and stories about her past. All Liv had to do was nod and react, and she found herself growing comfortable in the small kitchen with sunlight filtering in through lace curtains. Mielikki was talking about when she was younger, again. She had grown up in a small town and been taught how to hunt by her father. When she was older, she would still go out sometimes into the woods with her husband. Liv was caught up imagining the beautiful forests of Finland, the lakes, and looking for tracks in the mud with a heavy backpack on your shoulders.
"How did you and your husband meet?" Liv found herself asking.
"He was a clerk at my father's shop," Mielikki said. "He was just a young boy. But I would always hide his glasses. And although he knew it was me, he never accused me of it. So eventually... I gave his glasses back to him," she said. "And he was so grateful he cried. All of the kids would make fun of him for it. But I would protect him, from then on."
Liv smiled at the thought of a younger Mielikki, her long dark hair in braids, standing in front of a crying boy with glasses. She felt a soft weight around her legs that was Brundr the cat, and reached down to run her fingers through his fur.
--
The sun was setting when she made her way back up to her apartment. Liv made herself an herbal tea and set some of Mielikki's cookies that she had been sent home with on a plate. She settled herself into her computer chair and flexed her fingers over the keyboard. Then she opened a chat window to Borgid.
"Scrims?" she typed.
She didn't have to wait long for the "typing" status from Borgid.
"yes!! give me 5MIN" said the reply.
Liv opened up the game client. She bit into a cookie and took a sip of her tea. Then she created a 1v1 lobby.
Borgid was an opponent she had faced from the time of her first tournaments, and she knew her playstyle well, the rhythm familiar. Borgid's first offensive would come in early winter, when she had the first advantage. So Liv started small, taking few territory in the first phase of the game, in order to maximize the resources she would have to hold back the first wave. As her towers took down Borgid's first attack, Liv felt herself grow in confidence. Her economy would flourish throughout the rest of the game, and it would end with a victory screen for her. She typed into the chat. "Best of 3?"
The second game started out similarly. But this time, Liv's hubris would get the best of her, when she thought she could predict the angle of Borgid's attack. She was blindsided by an offensive from the side, where she hadn't built defense towers. As her resources were depleted, she decided she would not be able to rebuild. She typed a quick "GG" into the chat, and forfeited the game. Borgid's reply came. "GG!! LAST GAME"
The capital letters made Liv smile. Borgid sounded excited. She didn't scrim with Borgid often these days, it had been a long time. Playing these fast, casual games, felt nice, like she could relax and enjoy the game.
The third game started. Liv sat up straight in her chair, her eyes wide and focused on the game, as her fingers darted over the keyboard and her mouse clicked and dragged in precision. In her heart she felt each tick of time interval as she made the practiced moves she had made a thousand times before. Resources. Units. Buildings... When the first orange units from Borgid crossed the line of her vision and the sound bytes of clanging combat cued from the game, Liv was ready. She reassigned units. She kited. She made movements in formation and watched her opponent do the same. One by one the troops fell above the snowy terrain. She was the one who had more units standing. She had come out on top in the early game. Liv grinned. Her fingers were itching. Snowballing her advantage was a game she liked to play.
As the victory screen flashed over her monitor, Liv pushed herself back from her desk and took a deep breath. She had won both her scrims today and it felt pretty good. It wouldn't do well to become complacent, however. The matches she had lost were valuable learning opportunities, and she would have the chance to go over what she went wrong and how to improve.
The chat client on her phone said "GGS :D"
Liv picked it up to wish the same to Borgid. Somehow it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Maybe after the next tournament, she should invite Borgid out for drinks.