Post by CYPHER on Apr 30, 2022 3:49:34 GMT -5
OFF STREAM
Cypher embraced his computer like it was the last one on earth.
Two weeks of living on an island (albeit with frequent helicopter trips back and forth to ensure he could meet commitments at other feds) and several days held captive by its inhabitants had really worn him down.
He felt skinner, scrawnier than when he had left. Huge bags hung under his eyelids and his clothing was ripped and torn from where he had been poked and prodded by the natives’ spears.
The journeys back and forth between the island and civilisation had been exhausting. Even though it gave him a chance to reconnect to the net, that feeling of reintegration never lasted.
He had literally left the island (and Australia) to go to a Maimstream show (in the US) where he was pinned by a freakin CAT WITH SUPERPOWERS and had to return immediately after his match.
Why?
Apparently he was “contractually obligated” to remain on the island.
CLASSIC OCW BAY BEE!
Falling back into his dark blue Secret Labs gaming chair, Cypher booted up his PC for the first time in what felt like forever. The Intel i9 processor wired to life, the fans mounted inside the case spinning valiantly to keep the beast cool. He felt a sense of comfort as the familiar RGB lighting bathed his tired body in its neon glow.
“Man it feels good to be home.”
The irony of the statement was not lost on him. He was born and raised in South Australia, the place that OCW continued to insist wasn’t real. But did “The Island”, which appeared to be located somewhere off the Australian coast, feel like home?
Not in the slightest.
His own mother had refused to meet him at the airport, and he had long since lost contact with Rob Langdon - the man who treated him like his own son after he approached him with the wild dream of transitioning from e-sports to wrestling. But he didn’t want to bother worrying about that - his Mum was a bitch and his former mentor was a clown.
What he needed right now was to click some n00bs’ heads.
–
“Come on bro, one more!”
Cypher took a second to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He looked at the time displayed in the right hand corner of his BenQ monitor - 6am. He and his pals had been gaming for 12 hours, and despite the copious amount of Redbull he had consumed, Cypher was beginning to feel the strain of that many hours awake. He still hadn’t slept since he left the island.
Another teammate chirped up.
“Dude I’m fucked, like, more fucked that than last team.”
“I was’ the carry on dat one mannn…”
Cypher’s speech is slurred, his eyes red and unable to focus on the screen.
“That’s cap, you were bottom frag.”
“Nuhhhh…”
He drew out that syllable as he slowly fell into unconsciousness, his head slumping against his keyboard. The world faded, the last sounds through his headphones the chirping of his uneducated teammates.
…
When Cypher awoke his face was pressed up against something cold and damp. He grasped at the ground to push himself up, his hand coming into contact with leaves and twigs. Cypher sat up, and took in his surroundings. He was in a small clearing, pine trees pushed up against him from all sides as if trying to suffocate him. The sun chose that moment to peak through the clouds, and the sliver of light caused him to catch his reflection in a small puddle.
“Wait…what?”
His cheeks were softer, his hair much shorter and his eyes were…still abnormally large. But the rest of him was much…younger. He touched his cheek, leaving a stain of mud across his skin. It felt so real, but at the same time, he knew it couldn’t be. This was just a dream, there was no way he was actually here.
There was no way she was actually here.
“P33KAB00!”
Cypher recoiled, stunned by the sudden noise. As he stepped back, his foot caught on a root, and he tripped over into the muck. Dirty water flew into the air and the droplets rained over him, filling his mouth with the foul-tasting liquid. He hacked violently to clear his airway before gazing up at the figure before him.
“I F0UND Y0U!”
No.
It couldn’t be.
She couldn’t be.
But there she was, standing in her denim overalls and pink t-shirt. Her dimples and inquisitive eyes were framed by her blonde pigtails. She was reaching out to him, a helping hand she would so often lend whenever he was in trouble.
“Anna…”
“CM0N BIG BR0”
Taking his hand, Anna pulled him out of the puddle. Her touch was light, but she felt so real. He wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her into a hug that had been decades in the making. The guilt that had plagued him for years slowly faded away. He had her, and he would never let her leave again. Anna’s sweet smell, the cute way she blushed whenever shown any kind of affection, the way the corners of her mouth crinkled when she laughed…it was all coming back to him.
But then it was torn away.
She broke away from his embrace, giggling to herself.
“HIDE AND G0 SEEK, REMEMBER?”
No.
“I F0UND Y0U…N0W IT’S MY TURN.”
NO.
Cypher reached out to her, but she was too quick for him, springing out of his grasp and running to the treeline.
“Anna, Anna WAIT!”
His little sister paused, looking back over her shoulder at him. Her innocent green eyes met his, and for a moment it seemed like she would re-consider.
But then those eyes hardened.
She had made her decision.
“D0N’T W0RRY TYL3R, Y0U’LL FIND M3.”
…
“Y0U ALWAYS D0.”
With that, Anna turned, and fled into the brush.
Choking down a scream, Cypher tried to follow her. He took a step forward, then went for another, but something from below wrapped around his ankle. He fell flat onto the ground, the impact knocking the wind out of him. He turned around to see roots from the undergrowth gripping ontohis legs, pulling him back down into the earth. Cypher tried valiantly to fight it, but there was nothing he could do as the lower half of his body was now submerged in the ground.
Just before he sank beneath the undergrowth, he looked back up to the surface, and saw the face of a small girl leering back at him. Her skin was deathly pale, and her eyes black as the night.
A smile spread across her lips as Cypher was pulled down and out of view.
–
ON STREAM
“And that’s how you clear a site when down two attackers.”
Cypher slumped back into his chair and watched his chat scroll wildly with the unsolicited comments and opinions of neckbeards and virgins.
The typical responses were there, some positive (5head, watermelon brain cypher, etc), some negative (that’s cap, monkas, pepega), but sandwiched between all of those was a recurring request.
“Can u talk about ur match now?? Also WTF happened after u passed out last night?”
He sighed, content to leave the second part of that question without an answer.
But he was more than happy to answer the first part.
“Brett Daniels was the runner up of the Margarita Mix, and apparently that is supposed to impress me.”
Cypher chuckles.
“I get it, it was a big tournament, lots of luck involved and you somehow managed to fight through all of that adversity annnnddd…finish in second place.”
He holds up two fingers to the camera.
“If you ain’t first, you’re last, that’s something I learned growing up Brett, and it still holds true today. I also learned that you can’t cling to past achievements to try and remain relevant. It doesn’t work like that nowadays, Brett. People’s memories are shorter, their attention spans even more so. Just take my Twitch chat, for example, they can’t remember the name of the demon that ‘s been haunting me for the past week.”
The chat explodes again, this time each member trying to recall Sadie Ko’s name.
“Judy”
“Lady”
“Juno”
“Lazy Ho”
That last one gets a rise out of Cypher, who quickly tries to suppress the fact that chat just made him laugh.
“You see what I’m saying cowboy? Flash. Pan. That’s you. Where did you even go after that? You got carried to second place then decided you were out? Looks like you graduated to tweeting nonsense on Twitter. That your day job now? Meanwhile ya boi’s out here, battling half the roster, everyone wants a piece of me. Seems like they’ve all forgotten about you.”
Cypher shrugs as the chat asks if Brett needs ice for that burn.
“I’m sick of people underrating me and overrating people like you, Brett. At Massacre, I expose you for the fraud you are and claim my first win in OCW. Bet on it.”
Satisfied, Cypher switches back to his game of Valorant as the chat discuss amongst themselves all the bad things "The Superior Design" could do to Brett on Monday.
Cypher embraced his computer like it was the last one on earth.
Two weeks of living on an island (albeit with frequent helicopter trips back and forth to ensure he could meet commitments at other feds) and several days held captive by its inhabitants had really worn him down.
He felt skinner, scrawnier than when he had left. Huge bags hung under his eyelids and his clothing was ripped and torn from where he had been poked and prodded by the natives’ spears.
The journeys back and forth between the island and civilisation had been exhausting. Even though it gave him a chance to reconnect to the net, that feeling of reintegration never lasted.
He had literally left the island (and Australia) to go to a Maimstream show (in the US) where he was pinned by a freakin CAT WITH SUPERPOWERS and had to return immediately after his match.
Why?
Apparently he was “contractually obligated” to remain on the island.
CLASSIC OCW BAY BEE!
Falling back into his dark blue Secret Labs gaming chair, Cypher booted up his PC for the first time in what felt like forever. The Intel i9 processor wired to life, the fans mounted inside the case spinning valiantly to keep the beast cool. He felt a sense of comfort as the familiar RGB lighting bathed his tired body in its neon glow.
“Man it feels good to be home.”
The irony of the statement was not lost on him. He was born and raised in South Australia, the place that OCW continued to insist wasn’t real. But did “The Island”, which appeared to be located somewhere off the Australian coast, feel like home?
Not in the slightest.
His own mother had refused to meet him at the airport, and he had long since lost contact with Rob Langdon - the man who treated him like his own son after he approached him with the wild dream of transitioning from e-sports to wrestling. But he didn’t want to bother worrying about that - his Mum was a bitch and his former mentor was a clown.
What he needed right now was to click some n00bs’ heads.
–
“Come on bro, one more!”
Cypher took a second to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He looked at the time displayed in the right hand corner of his BenQ monitor - 6am. He and his pals had been gaming for 12 hours, and despite the copious amount of Redbull he had consumed, Cypher was beginning to feel the strain of that many hours awake. He still hadn’t slept since he left the island.
Another teammate chirped up.
“Dude I’m fucked, like, more fucked that than last team.”
“I was’ the carry on dat one mannn…”
Cypher’s speech is slurred, his eyes red and unable to focus on the screen.
“That’s cap, you were bottom frag.”
“Nuhhhh…”
He drew out that syllable as he slowly fell into unconsciousness, his head slumping against his keyboard. The world faded, the last sounds through his headphones the chirping of his uneducated teammates.
…
When Cypher awoke his face was pressed up against something cold and damp. He grasped at the ground to push himself up, his hand coming into contact with leaves and twigs. Cypher sat up, and took in his surroundings. He was in a small clearing, pine trees pushed up against him from all sides as if trying to suffocate him. The sun chose that moment to peak through the clouds, and the sliver of light caused him to catch his reflection in a small puddle.
“Wait…what?”
His cheeks were softer, his hair much shorter and his eyes were…still abnormally large. But the rest of him was much…younger. He touched his cheek, leaving a stain of mud across his skin. It felt so real, but at the same time, he knew it couldn’t be. This was just a dream, there was no way he was actually here.
There was no way she was actually here.
“P33KAB00!”
Cypher recoiled, stunned by the sudden noise. As he stepped back, his foot caught on a root, and he tripped over into the muck. Dirty water flew into the air and the droplets rained over him, filling his mouth with the foul-tasting liquid. He hacked violently to clear his airway before gazing up at the figure before him.
“I F0UND Y0U!”
No.
It couldn’t be.
She couldn’t be.
But there she was, standing in her denim overalls and pink t-shirt. Her dimples and inquisitive eyes were framed by her blonde pigtails. She was reaching out to him, a helping hand she would so often lend whenever he was in trouble.
“Anna…”
“CM0N BIG BR0”
Taking his hand, Anna pulled him out of the puddle. Her touch was light, but she felt so real. He wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her into a hug that had been decades in the making. The guilt that had plagued him for years slowly faded away. He had her, and he would never let her leave again. Anna’s sweet smell, the cute way she blushed whenever shown any kind of affection, the way the corners of her mouth crinkled when she laughed…it was all coming back to him.
But then it was torn away.
She broke away from his embrace, giggling to herself.
“HIDE AND G0 SEEK, REMEMBER?”
No.
“I F0UND Y0U…N0W IT’S MY TURN.”
NO.
Cypher reached out to her, but she was too quick for him, springing out of his grasp and running to the treeline.
“Anna, Anna WAIT!”
His little sister paused, looking back over her shoulder at him. Her innocent green eyes met his, and for a moment it seemed like she would re-consider.
But then those eyes hardened.
She had made her decision.
“D0N’T W0RRY TYL3R, Y0U’LL FIND M3.”
…
“Y0U ALWAYS D0.”
With that, Anna turned, and fled into the brush.
Choking down a scream, Cypher tried to follow her. He took a step forward, then went for another, but something from below wrapped around his ankle. He fell flat onto the ground, the impact knocking the wind out of him. He turned around to see roots from the undergrowth gripping ontohis legs, pulling him back down into the earth. Cypher tried valiantly to fight it, but there was nothing he could do as the lower half of his body was now submerged in the ground.
Just before he sank beneath the undergrowth, he looked back up to the surface, and saw the face of a small girl leering back at him. Her skin was deathly pale, and her eyes black as the night.
A smile spread across her lips as Cypher was pulled down and out of view.
–
ON STREAM
“And that’s how you clear a site when down two attackers.”
Cypher slumped back into his chair and watched his chat scroll wildly with the unsolicited comments and opinions of neckbeards and virgins.
The typical responses were there, some positive (5head, watermelon brain cypher, etc), some negative (that’s cap, monkas, pepega), but sandwiched between all of those was a recurring request.
“Can u talk about ur match now?? Also WTF happened after u passed out last night?”
He sighed, content to leave the second part of that question without an answer.
But he was more than happy to answer the first part.
“Brett Daniels was the runner up of the Margarita Mix, and apparently that is supposed to impress me.”
Cypher chuckles.
“I get it, it was a big tournament, lots of luck involved and you somehow managed to fight through all of that adversity annnnddd…finish in second place.”
He holds up two fingers to the camera.
“If you ain’t first, you’re last, that’s something I learned growing up Brett, and it still holds true today. I also learned that you can’t cling to past achievements to try and remain relevant. It doesn’t work like that nowadays, Brett. People’s memories are shorter, their attention spans even more so. Just take my Twitch chat, for example, they can’t remember the name of the demon that ‘s been haunting me for the past week.”
The chat explodes again, this time each member trying to recall Sadie Ko’s name.
“Judy”
“Lady”
“Juno”
“Lazy Ho”
That last one gets a rise out of Cypher, who quickly tries to suppress the fact that chat just made him laugh.
“You see what I’m saying cowboy? Flash. Pan. That’s you. Where did you even go after that? You got carried to second place then decided you were out? Looks like you graduated to tweeting nonsense on Twitter. That your day job now? Meanwhile ya boi’s out here, battling half the roster, everyone wants a piece of me. Seems like they’ve all forgotten about you.”
Cypher shrugs as the chat asks if Brett needs ice for that burn.
“I’m sick of people underrating me and overrating people like you, Brett. At Massacre, I expose you for the fraud you are and claim my first win in OCW. Bet on it.”
Satisfied, Cypher switches back to his game of Valorant as the chat discuss amongst themselves all the bad things "The Superior Design" could do to Brett on Monday.