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Stevie was trying not to be nervous because it wasn’t a big thing; her friends had all met Ruth before. Maybe not in a ‘this is my girlfriend, Ruth’ kind of way, but they weren’t strangers. It wasn’t going to be awkward unless Stevie made it awkward, and she was trying really hard not to do that.
Anyway, it couldn’t be worse than telling Mr. Rose about the change in their relationship status. He had gone way overboard on being supportive, which was sweet, but it was also a lot. The bouquet of flowers that found her in International Falls had been overkill for sure. She didn’t like daisies, but she didn’t tell him that.
It wasn’t even introducing Ruth as her girlfriend that made her nervous; not really. That had already happened a month ago in a text chain.
So she’s not sure why, but she’s definitely making dinner a bigger thing than it needs to be. She really wants her friends to like Ruth, though.
“Deep breaths, in and out,” Ruth teases her, squeezing her hand as they step through into the restaurant lobby. It works to pull Stevie away from the anxiety ledge she’s teetering on and reminds her part of why she fell for Ruth to begin with.
Stevie exhales the breath she was holding.
“And if we don’t get along," Ruth says, "we’ll just find you new friends.” Stevie inhales sharply and slants her eyes at Ruth, who waits a minute before she breaks into a small mischievous smile and laughs softly, adding, “It’ll be fine, I promise. Just relax.”
Stevie’s trying.
“Well, maybe now I don’t want them to like you.”
Ruth reminds her three more times to breathe before David and Patrick show up, but she doesn’t think she actually starts relaxing until Twyla, Alexis, and Ted come breezing in. Ted’s flight was late and he’s apologetic for that, but it serves as a reminder to Stevie that he’s taking precious time out of his weekend with Twyla and Alexis to have dinner with all of them. It’s not like he gets that many weekends away from the Galapagos.
It also reminds her that they care about her and aren’t going to be total dicks to Ruth, even if they don’t get along.
“They have a table set up in the back, on the patio,” David tells them now that they’re all assembled.
Stevie smothers the snort that threatens to escape at the disdain that he is clearly wearing on his face. He couldn’t sound more offended if he tried, honestly. Like being seated on the patio was as bad as being put near the bathrooms.
But if David’s acting normal, then she probably needs to stop waiting for things to go badly. Patrick and Ruth have been chatting since they showed up, so it’s obvious that the night isn't going to suddenly take a turn and she should stop being a fatalist waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“What, they couldn’t find space next to the dumpster instead?” she snarks back, raising her eyebrows.
David huffs at her, but only says, “You are all very lucky I even came. The apothecary is very busy.”
She gives him her widest, most sarcastic -maybe a just a little fond- smile in return, and helps Alexis usher them all towards the back patio.
Dinner is normal. Or normal enough. Alexis and Twyla keep throwing excited smiles her way, which she’s not used to, but they’re not doing more than that so it’s okay – even if it reminds her of excited parents and gives her flashbacks of the look on Mr. Rose’s face.
It’s fine.
Nobody even looks at Ruth weird when she mentions her Twitch channel during dessert.
“I think Brie Larson was doing that for a while,” Alexis says, and honestly Stevie could kiss her for being so nonchalant. Not that Alexis is doing it for Stevie’s benefit, but she just wasn’t sure if her friends would understand Ruth’s hobby.
They’re not exactly the gaming crowd.
“What games do you stream?” Patrick asks from across the table.
“I was doing League of Legends for a while, but it got really stressful and toxic. So, I’ve been sticking to Fortnite lately,” Ruth answers without missing a beat, either ignoring the tense way Stevie’s holding her shoulders or unaware of it completely.
Stevie knows from experience that Ruth really likes talking about her gaming, and she only knows what either of those games are because Ruth also taught her how to play both on their second date.
She really hates League of Legends, but Fortnite is fun.
It had been a nice way to fit a second date in when they were technically six hours away from each other.
“Oh, Fortnite! My little cousin taught me how to play that at Christmas once,” Twyla says. “I thought that it was just for kids, though.”
“I don’t think so. My whole research team has been playing. Our intern got everyone into it.” Ted looks like he’s admitting some terrible secret, but it’s probably just because he’s under some impression that they think he’s doing research 24/7. “We should play sometime!”
Stevie wills her shoulders to relax, risking a look around the table, but nobody’s saying it’s a dumb idea. David is obviously trying not to look confused, but he’s not doing that squinty thing he does when he thinks something is dumb, so she forces herself to chill out.
“Definitely!” Ruth agrees. “I can send out a tutorial for anyone who hasn’t played before. It’s easy once you know the mechanics.”
Stevie doesn’t think it will actually happen, though, is the thing. Getting all their schedules to match is herculean on the best of days, and it doesn’t seem that likely that any of them are really going to make a lot of effort for a game.
Yes, she knows she might be a little pessimistic.
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It’s Patrick who creates a Discord channel for them. He does it three weeks after their Brooklyn dinner and encourages everyone in their group text to create an account and join.
Stevie stares at her phone for a full two minutes before she responds: mind if I forward to Ruth? And Alexis is the first to come back with: Oh my god, you haven’t added her to this group yet?
Stevie forwards the Discord link to Ruth and adds her to the group text. She doesn’t respond to Alexis.
She’s still 50/50 on whether they’ll actually use it.
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She needs to stop underestimating her friends.
She’s somewhere in Montana, with spotty cell service, when her phone finally picks up a signal and pings repeatedly with Discord notifications. The messages are all from a couple hours ago, so she just types out: what happened while I was offline??? Into the chat, prays that her service holds up overnight, and goes to bed.
The next morning, Ruth texts her directly: sorry, babe. we were playing fortnite, it was a last minute thing. She tries not to be disappointed that she missed out and instead tries to be happy that Ruth is bonding with the group. It’s what she wanted.
Except for a while, it keeps happening that way. She’s relieved she never shared her doubts about whether they would actually play so she doesn’t have to deal with any “I told you so’s”, but it doesn’t stop her from feeling left out when she sees that everyone else is online and she can’t be.
Her schedule just never seems to match theirs.
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The first time Stevie gets to play -only because the internet Gods in Canada must like her and she doesn’t have to drive five hours- she learns that David panics over everything in the game in really hilarious ways.
“‘Hello?’” Stevie mimics him from minutes before. Her impression isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough. “That was your first reaction? Is that always what happens?”
“They surprised me! At least I closed the door before they could shoot!”
She smiles at the way his voice tilts up at the end, obviously trying to contain some of his outrage at her teasing.
Honestly, she’s still a little surprised he plays at all.
It makes her miss him a little bit less. She likes travelling, but she never realizes how much she misses him until it hits her at random. They usually text while she’s on the road, but don’t call each other that much (schedules, ugh!).
“And the shriek about the chickens?” she asks, only sort of reining in her laughter.
“Ok, I’m logging off now! Good night.”
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“I think I’m going to ask Patrick if he wants to stream with me,” Ruth tells her on one of their late night phone calls. They’re half a country away from each other this time, and Stevie has had a bad day. Her rental car blew a tire on some middle-of-nowhere country road and she spent four hours waiting for a tow. Talking to Ruth has saved her day from being a total loss. “Do you think he would want to?”
“I don’t think he wouldn’t,” Stevie replies, since she feels weird actually speaking for him. “It might be more fun for the both of you anyway, since we stress you out sometimes.”
Patrick and Ruth are so competitive. Even though Stevie hasn’t played as often as everyone else, even she’s figured that out. They play Duos a lot because of it.
It has honestly saved friendships.
“It’s not that you stress --” Ruth tries to argue, but ends up cutting herself off and continuing, “-- okay, point. I’ll send him a message.”
Stevie’s been sure for a while that Ruth is part of the group now, but something warm bursts in her chest at the casual way Ruth mentions messaging Patrick. She doesn’t say anything sappy though, because it’s late and she would probably just mess it up anyway, so instead she says, “Ask him to do it next Tuesday. David told me he has a surprise planned for that day.”
Ruth laughs again. “I’m not going to troll our friends.”
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“My god,” David mutters, stress rolling off his words in waves. Stevie can relate. None of them like the raptors in-game. Not even Ted, who refused to shoot any of the wildlife, including the raptors, until very recently.
Stevie guesses that convictions change once you’ve had a few game deaths worthy of Jurassic Park.
“No more Misty Meadows,” Stevie agrees with some finality. She can still see the raptors that took out their squad wandering around her screen while she waits to be loaded back into the game lobby.
The thing is, they all thought it would be safer than Stealthy Stronghold.
“Add it to the list,” Ted advises, and at least he sounds less shaken than the last time it happened. Stevie thinks it’s probably a lot for a veterinarian to get killed by animals, even if it is just a video game.
Maybe she’ll suggest they drop at the farm next match so Ted can see the chickens.
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When Stevie signs onto the voice channel the next time, Ted, Twyla, Ruth, and Alexis are in a match already and the channel is just full of their yelling. She quickly jams the volume down on her phone so her neighbors in the motel don’t make a noise complaint.
It takes another minute to realize that her friends are trying to outrun the storm. Ruth is streaming, so she clicks into the video to watch.
“I’m down!” Ted yells.
“Just pick up his body,” Ruth orders. She has her Serious Voice, so Stevie knows not to make a joke.
“Shots, too,” Twyla informs them all. Stevie can see her avatar running on the stream with Ted thrown over her shoulders.
“Just ignore them!” That’s Alexis. Ruth is at the back of the group, so Stevie can see all of them dashing for safety.
Their health bars are decreasing alarmingly quickly; it must be towards the end of the match. Stevie’s been there, and it’s high-key stressful.
“Oh no!”
There’s the familiar ping of a player turning into a reboot card and Stevie watches as Ted disappears. Then another ping as Twyla goes, then Alexis, and finally Ruth. The screen flashes with a bold white #12.
“Sorry, guys,” Stevie tells them. “That was brutal.”
“Another one?” Ted suggests the same time Ruth asks, “Stevie, you want to hop in?” But she hasn’t turned her console on.
“No, you can play a redemption match. I’ll watch.”
It’s enough to chat with them while they play.
“Alexis is really good.” Stevie can see the way Ruth’s eyebrows draw up like she’s a bit surprised by the fact. They’re FaceTiming since it’s been a few days since they’ve actually gotten to do more than send text messages and funny memes back and forth. “My money would have been on Ted, with the surgical dexterity.”
Stevie holds back her amusement, shaking her head. “You should never underestimate Alexis,” she tells her girlfriend sagely. “You’re probably lucky that she’s not competitive, otherwise she might create her own Twitch stream and steal all your followers.” She schools her face into neutrality when Ruth looks horrified.
She knows Ruth’s streaming channel is just a hobby, but she also knows that Ruth really likes the number of followers she has and she’s worked hard to get them.
“Not funny.” Ruth is trying so hard to be serious, it’s adorable. “But that reminds me, do you think Alexis would help with some publicity?”
“For RMG?”
“No, for my Twitch channel.” It’s the first time that Ruth has asked for help, and if Stevie’s being honest, she likes that Ruth thinks of Alexis first over any of her other friends in PR.
“Are you going pro?” Stevie raises her eyebrows.
“No, but my viewers really liked the matches I played with Patrick, so I wanted to pick Alexis’s brain on how I could do more of that and diversify my content.”
“You should definitely ask her about it. I bet she would have some great ideas.”
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“How are you level 175, Twyla?!?!” Stevie exclaims.
Ruth surprised Stevie with a girls weekend with Twyla and Alexis in New York. It’s the first time that she hasn’t been on the road in a month, and while part of her really wanted the weekend alone with Ruth, it’s been really nice to see her friends too and catch up in person.
“The quests,” Twyla replies. “Don’t you complete them?”
“Twy’s figured out how to complete all of them so far,” Alexis adds, sounding proud. “She and Ruth did a stream last week where they completed a whole series.” Stevie mouths an apology to Ruth, since she had not known that had happened. “It has two thousand views.”
“Still, 175! Doesn’t that mess with your lobby and make things really hard?” If anyone asked Stevie, she would tell them she misses the early days of playing before the game had figured out any of their skill levels.
“Sure, but it’s just better practice,” Twyla reasons with a shrug, and Stevie wishes she could be that relaxed about losing games. David tells her she’s intense, whatever that means.
She just doesn’t like losing.
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For David’s sake, they all agree not to bring up the match when Twyla set a building on fire while he was inside, and how he jumped and died from four stories up.
They’ve honestly all done dumb things while playing. Ruth says it’s a rite of passage, but Stevie secretly thinks she might just be trying to make them all feel better.
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Stevie wins her first solo match six months after they all started playing. She sends the screenshot to the Discord group.
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“You know, that’s not really how a submachine gun sounds,” Alexis says while they’re waiting for their match to load. At this point Stevie has stopped being really surprised by things that Alexis says, but she still scrunches her face skeptically, even though nobody can see her.
“I mean, maybe they do," Alexis adds. "But they didn’t sound like that the time the Russian mob crashed a club opening in Moscow.”
Stevie’s halfway to saying something when Patrick cuts in with, “Good one, Alexis. Did they take you hostage?”
“Obviously! But it was fine, we snuck out the back when they weren’t looking and got a flight to Warsaw, then London.”
“Okay, sure.” Stevie’s not sure whether Patrick really doesn’t believe Alexis or whether he’s just trying to get more of the story, but either way, it gets cut off because of an ambush in game.
Stevie will ask later if she was being serious.
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“I’m down!”
“Me too!”
“Shit, me too!
“Twy, where are you?”
“I missed the waypoint, I’m almost there.”
They walked into a firefight at Dirty Docks. It was on the line, so they should have known it was going to be hot.
“Okay, we’re all crawling to safety. There are still three people, but they’re pretty banged up,” Ruth says as she, Stevie, and Alexis crawl their way into one of the buildings.
“I see them!”
Twyla downs them all in short succession. Stevie thinks they probably weren’t expecting her.
“Nice, Twy!”
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It doesn’t hit Stevie how fully Ruth has become a part of their group until she gets an invite to Schitt’s Creek. Patrick and David are hosting a thing, and David had made it known to everyone that nobody was allowed to miss it. Not even Ted.
So that’s how Stevie finds herself in Schitt’s Creek with Ruth and the rest of her friends.
They’re in the middle of dinner when the conversation veers from serious things and takes a turn towards gaming.
“But seriously, who thought that the UFOs would be worse than the raptors?” Ted throws out between bites. Stevie can tell he’s jetlagged, but for once he probably has time to get over it before he needs to head back to the Galapagos. Alexis mentioned he was given a week off.
“The raptors are still so much worse! And we lost the bows!” Stevie argues, just for argument's sake. She really is upset about the bows getting taken out of the game, though. She was just getting good with them before the season switched.
“The sniper rifles aren’t that bad,” Twyla reasons. “They’re not as easy to use for distance shots, but once you get the hang of them they make headshot challenges easier to complete.”
“Still, they don’t beat an explosive bow.”
“Nothing beats that.”
The conversation goes like that for a while, until Patrick gets a look on his face and says, “You know what we should try next? Among Us.”
Stevie wonders -not for the first time- if any of them could have guessed that a video game would have been something they would all really get into. Even if it still sometimes seems like the last thing that would have brought them closer together as a group, she’s grateful that it has.
“Because we really need to play a game where everyone lies to everyone,” Stevie shoots back dryly.
But who knows, it might actually be fun...