Raptured in the pixelated landscapes of WWII Europe, stylized images of mythological creatures, and sounds of battle accompanied by an epic music score, Tende, Ania, and Callen didn't even hear the door. The Heavenly pint's door slammed shut. "Do you nerds do anything besides play that game?" Sadie waltzed in. "I mean, it's almost dinner time and Rurik is gonna open the pub..." She glanced around at Rurik's employees as they prepared for the evening rush.
"We just started like three hours ago. You were, you know, doing whatever you do." Callen didn't even bother to look up from his screen. He had dark circles under his eyes and yawned without covering his mouth.
"Yeah, like after only a fifteen minute break for a sandwich. Not to mention you guys have been playing that almost non-stop for a week..." Sadie moaned. "Can we please do something else?"
"Maybe you should play." Callen hid a little smirk.
She started to sputter in annoyance, but he had stopped paying attention to her when the electronic ink painted pictures of a shadowy Nazi Laboratory across their screens. He tapped the keyboard and his leprechaun combat engineer, named Bunny-man, loaded his submachine gun.
"Alright, Tende, you tank the monsters and I'll keep you healed. I got a stasis spell ready for any adds." Ania ordered "We got this. No deaths guys." She rearranged the game interface to make the spells that her elven field medic, Kelestia, used in the game easier for Ania to access quickly.
"Seriously guys?" Sadie grumbled.
"Maybe you should play too." Tende suggested.
Callen looked over his laptop to see that she was really boiling over after being ignored for the past few days. His smirk grew bigger.
"This reminds me of those video game parties that kids in school always talk about," Sadie whined. "You know, the ones with the stacks of pizza boxes, mountain dew, and the bloodshot eyes. The kinds of things that nerds do...you know?" Sadie paused as if waiting for a response.
"Callen, there are tons of zombies in the room we gotta go through." Tende moved his half-vampire shock-trooper, named The Wall, into a defensive position near the door. He activated an in-game ability and his character raised his shield and heavy machine gun to prepare for the attack. "Can you throw a grenade to pull, Callen?"
"I'm on it." Ania cut in. "I'll pull with my stasis spell."
"Good, my incendiary bomb is on cooldown," Callen said.
"I said this is what nerds do!" Sadie grew louder.
"Wait, what?" Callen glanced at her for a second. "Nerds yell?"
"Oh, snap." Tende roared with laughter. "Sadie got burned."
"Shut up, you big oaf." Sadie crossed her arms. She let out an annoyed laugh. "Now come on, let's do something else."
"Tende, we got a necromancer. Ania, keep him counter-spelled, I'll hold off the zombies with my turret, and get my tactical advantage from flanking."
"I'm talking here!" Sadie yelled. "Real people first!"
"Buff up." Tende ordered. "Boss time."
"You guys listening to me?" Sadie asked. She paused for a second as if waiting for a response. When none came, she sighed really loudly. "Fine, since you won't listen to me, I guess you guys aren't hungry and you won't be joining me for cheesesteaks."
"Hungry?!" Tende looked up from his monitor.
"Wait, Tende! The boss!" Callen cried as the evil Nazi cyborg with chemical tanks attached to his arms sprayed their characters with poison. "Use your cleanse ability!"
"Cheesesteaks are SO good." He looked away from the screen and back at Sadie. "We going?"
Their screens flashed and soon our characters were dead.
"Now we gotta do it again." Ania sighed. "But least I can play the whole thing now."
“I’ve never had a cheesesteak,” Callen admitted as the mission failed screen popped up. "It better be good enough to cause us to die at a boss fight."
Tended spun around in his chair looking completely shocked. "You two haven't had a cheesesteak yet? We took you to Helga's first..." He sighed. "Helga's is amazing and all, but she doesn't even try to make cheesesteaks. For those, you have to go to where they were born: South Philly. Anywhere else is just sacrilegious. Going anywhere else if you can get one at their birth place is like not going to the Vatican for mass if you lived a block away."
"I guess he really likes cheesesteaks..." Callen looked at his sister and she nodded.
"If you don't, you definitely have something wrong with you." Tende logged off the game.
"I won't like them, I'm a vegetarian." Ania said.
Tende paused and gave her a confused look. "Like I said, something wrong with you. Let's do the quest again later Callen, I'm starving. Besides, there's cheesesteaks waiting!"
“I should've mentioned the food first," Sadie grumbled. "Then I might have gotten a response. Note to self: talk more about food."
"Oh, come on, you said you grew up with this guy," Ania teased. "You had to figure that food was the way to get his attention or any guys for that matter. I'm only thirteen and I know that!"
"Oooo, Sadie got told by a thirteen-year-old!" Tende mocked. "To much Sadie talkie and not enough Sadie thinkie! Oh! Double zing! Air tap Ania!"
"Shut up!" Sadie sounded slightly irritated, but she couldn't help but laugh. "Callen's on my side, he thinks I'm cute and definitely don't talk too much. Right, Callen?"
"Ah...what? Sorry, I didn't realize you were talking. You just do it so much...it makes it easy to tune you out... Logging off now." He hit the log off button and closed his laptop. She gave him a scowl as Tende walked out into the hall. Callen grinned.
"Funny, har-har." Sadie gave him another dirty look.