LOVE PROBLEMS

“I don’t even know where to look.” BK was the newest guy on the team. “There are so many things to look at, to do.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

Billy Long Hair laughed. “I bet you never thought it would be like this.” He gestured expansively at the screens. “A million camera views, the complete world of RX6 and the war against the Tu’Cons, all at your finger tips.”

They were sitting in the ready room, the hub of Team Bloop’s work-space complex. This ready room was a place where the whole team could meet or work or relax. There were couches, desks, a table and ALOT of monitors. There were also 3 large glass walls. This was a fishbowl of a room.

One of the glass walls let them see into the data center. It was a wonderful view of servers. Some big, some small, lots and lots of computers. Lots and lots of computing power, BK thought, enough to run a small city. Maybe a large one.

Another glass wall gave them a view of the VR capsules. Maybe I should try to be on the playing squad next year. BK had played before on his own and had been one of the VR testers for this team. Janet loved that BK was the same size as Flanni who in turn was the same size as Mark. Instead of being a guinea pig, I could be the main event.

The third glass wall showed work rooms and a short hallway to the bathroom and some crash rooms- bed rooms to catch a quick nap when you were pulling an all nighter or an all weekender. Dahlia…Oh no, did I say that out loud? He looked around the room. Both Billy Long Hiar and Billy were watching the monitors. They didn’t hear anything. BK was relieved, there had been some drama with Dahlia and Billy. Just Billy, not Billy Long Hair. But Dahlia…

It had been the first time BK had slept in the same room as a woman. It had happened a couple of months ago. BK just needed some sleep. They had been working all weekend and Momma Robin sent him to bed for a few hours nap. BK had just closed his eyes when Dahlia walked in. There was a nightlight in the room. It wasn’t much light, but it was enough that BK could see her pull her shirt off. He could see her lacy bra. He didn’t dare breath and let her know he was awake and peeping. She turned and much to his dismay, and relief, her back was to him when her bra came off. The image of her, what he had seen, was burned into his brain. Dahilia crawled into her cot and was quickly asleep. It had taken much much longer for BK to fall asleep.

“YO HO!” Billy Long Hair exclaimed. On the main game monitor Angie just made a headshot. On this monitor gaming data showed:

Head Shot --- Marksman Bonus – - Critical Hit

“Wow,” Billy said. BK, Billy, Billy Long Hair, we shouldn’t have any more B’s on this team.

Billy Long Hair turned to him. “Angie started out like you did, testing the VR capsules. She was pretty good at the game. But they needed her as an engineer more than they needed a squad player.”

“Thank God,” Janet chimed in. She was sitting at a desk staring at server data as it scrolled across her screen. “she is a damn good engineer.”

“Hope she remembers us when she makes it big.”

Hope she remembers me, BK thought. I hope they all remember me. And need me. He zoned out a little bit. At this moment, only Janet, Trevon and Dahlia were officially on duty. Momma Robin too, but she was never off duty. Bill and Billy Long Hair always seemed to be around also. Some members of the team were catching a few hours of sleep. I’ll nap when Dahlia does… Other team members were exercising or getting food or something. Maybe I should get something to eat. Never know when the game will take a break and we are all working crazy.

“I miss anything?” Momma Robin asked as she walked into the room. She scanned the area, health telemetry, data, monitors, people, everything.

Billy answered, “BK here is going through information overload.”

“I am not,” BK said defensively. “There’s just a lot of stuff to keep watching. Game feeds from a million teams. There’s data, health info, server status, there’s a lot of stuff.” Including everybody in their underwear. I could go a lifetime without seeing Billy Long Hair in his tighty-whites. The ladies though.

“Don’t forget the drama,” Billy Long Hair said.

“Oh, the drama,” Rachel laughed as she came into the room. BK’s eyes were instantly glued to the short blonde haired beauty. Well, maybe not model beauty, but I liked her. Nice boobs and… She was carrying two strofoam dinner boxes. She dropped them over Bill Long Hair’s lap. He snatched them out of the air.

BK couldn’t help but stare as she peeled off her leggings. Long legs and sexy…

His thought was interrupted as Rachel spoke. “These are my tame undies.” The were high cut to show off her legs all the way up. “Don’t have a stroke when you see me in my sexxxxxxy undies.” She laughed, but it wasn’t unkind.

“Don’t worry,” Billy Long Hair said to BK, “there’s nothing really that sexy about her. Kinda average really. Maybe a bit below.”

BK felt his face burning up. He must be red as a beet. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, BK chanted in his head.

Rachel dropped onto the couch, practically in Bill Long Hair’s lap. She hit him. “You take that back right now!” She hit him again, hard. He laughed. “Nothing special for you tonight.” She turned away form him with a pout.

Billy and Momma Robin laughed. Janet even looked away from her computer and chuckled at the couple. BK was staring pointedly at the game monitor. Angie shot somebody else. The data appeared on the bottom of her screen. Many gamers, including Angie and Mark, shut off the blow by blow data info. It was easier to immerse yourself if you weren’t constantly seeing system messages. For the people in the ready room, it was helpful to see. BK read Angie’s data.

Marksman Bonus – - Major Damage to left arm

Another monitor showed SouthHaven slapping some explosives on a door.

Demolition Skill check passed --- Explosive Bonus – -

In the real world, Billy Long Hair would have failed his charisma check. “OK, OK, you win. I’m sorry you are ver ver ver very sexy.” He turned to BK. “Right BK?”

“BK just got out of this,” Rachel hit Bill Long Hair again. “Don’t drag him into your mistake.” She savagely pulled her dinner box away from Biilly Long Hair.

“Anyway,” Bill said to BK, “in other drama news, we have Mark crawling through tunnels to save pretty pixels. You got Angie and her ex and SH,” he used the current nickname for Southhaven.

Billy Long Hair laughed as he opened the styrofoam to reveal a burger and fries. “Who woulda thought that Angie, our sweet innocent Angie, was gonna be in a love triangle?”

“Not me,” Rachel said as she stole a fry.

Billy continued “And here. Here you have Janey worrying about servers- will they last, and equipment, when does the warranty expire.” there were laughs. Billy looked up at Momma Robin, “you, Momma Robin, looking after all your chicks. And don’t forget your slut sister and her friends.” There was more laughter. But Momma Robin wasn’t laughing. She wasn’t even looking at the group. “What?”

Momma Robin was looking at the server room. Her voice was puzzled. “Dahlia and Trevon making out in the server room.” She thought for a second. “This is new.”

Everybody spun around to look. Billy couldn’t see from the seat he was in, so he stood up. “Hell!” He started to slowly move towards the server door. He accelerated with each step.

Billy and Dahlia broke up a few weeks ago. That was tense. I guess he doesn’t approve.

“It’s OK Billy. You guys broke up.” Momma Robin was the voice of reason.

Billy looked back over his shoulder and yelled as he tried to rip the door off his hinges. “Soda!”

“What?” BK asked. Everybody saw it. The cup of soda perched on the edge of the server. This server was a half rack. Unfortunately half-racks made great tables. Even more unfortunate was Trevon leaning against the server, inches from the soda, as he pulled Dahlia closer into his embrace. Other times it would have been sweet, a passionate kiss, young love- or at least lust. Now, however, now it was a train wreck in slow motion.

When the door banged open, Trevon and Dahlia jumped apart. “NO!” Billy yelled.

“Billy!” Trevon yelled. The next words Trevon said were “Oh shit!”

All words were too late. Somewhere between Trevon and Dahlia, one of them hit the soda cup. It fell down. The lid popped off and a large soda erupted all over the place. Murphy’s Law was in full effect.

The arcing and sparking was immediate.

BK looked at Momma Robin. She was swearing like a sailor. BK followed her eyes to a monitor. That’s weird. The health telemetry for Mark was going crazy.

Janet was streaming words like she was competing with Momma Robin in a swear-off. BK could see that the data stream on Mark’s capsule and server was going crazy.

“What the hell Billy?” Trevon yelled. He looked around. Dahlia looked horrified. Billy had stopped dead in his tracks. On the other side of the wall Billy Long Hair, Jasmine and BK stared in horror.

Momma Robin swore again and dashed out of the server room and to her main monitor. Janet watched her go. It took her half a heartbeat to see the health telemetry. It took another half heartbeat to sprint to the data monitors. Both health and data were terrifyingly bad.

“What?” Trevon asked in a quieter voice. He looked down at the sugary watery mess. His muth moved, but no words came out.

Before he could say anything alarms started sounding in the room. Huh, the alarms should really go off as soon as there’s a problem, not 3 seconds later.

Almost everybody scrambled to do something. Do something! BK thought. Everybody was scrambling to do something, except Trevon, Dahlia and him. People were stumbling out of the nap rooms to help. Paper towels? No time.. BK pulled off his shirt and started trying to get the rest of the soda cleaned up from the top of the server. Trevon and Dahlia came up to the server. They were horrified.

BK had to speak loudly to be heard over the alarms, but he was curious. “Did you kill them?”