Page 57 of The Nanny and the Nerd
The men stared at her, more bewildered than ever.
She tried again. “You need an emotional journey. The characters should come out of this experience completely different people or androids or aliens. Whatever type of being they are, they need to change.”
“What’s going on?” another man in a hoodie with his hair twisted into a man bun asked as he descended the stairs from the third floor.
“Princess Amelia showed up and made some changes to AI-77,” the burly guy answered with a touch of awe in his voice—or maybe he still thought he was hallucinating.
“It’s Penny, not Amelia. And you are?” she asked, resting her hand on the guy’s forearm.
His cheeks burned crimson. “Boomer,” he squeaked.
She looked around the hoodie brigade. “And you?” she said, going around the group like a kindergarten teacher on the first day of school.
“Goose,” the tall man chimed as his glasses slipped down his nose again.
“What about you?” she asked the new arrival.
The guy shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Everyone calls me Man Bun because of my…” he trailed off.
“Because of the way you do your hair?” she supplied.
“Yeah,” he answered in a stunned breath as if she’d read his mind. The guy literally had a man bun. It wasn’t that tricky. These men were either high as kites or needed a shot—or fifty—of espresso.
“And you?” she asked the shorter man with auburn locks of hair curling around his eyes.
“Just Randy,” he answered with a shrug.
“Hi, Randy,” she said, but the man shook his head.
“It’s Just Randy. Two words,” he corrected.
She sized up the group. “That’s what people call you? Boomer, Goose, Man Bun, and Just Randy?” she asked. Those couldn’t be their real names?
“Yeah, it’s who we are online,” the big guy answered, and a smile pulled at the corners of his lips.
“But what do most people call you?” she asked. It wasn’t like they were online, and these guys had to have typical names. But at her question, the vibe changed.
The smile disappeared from Boomer’s pink-cheeked face. “Tubby,” the guy mumbled.
The tall guy looked away. “Stretch.”
“Randy,” Just Randy replied with another shrug.
Man Bun touched his man bun. “Most people yell at me, then tell me to lose the man bun. But my avatar has a man bun, and it’s super sweet.”
“Your avatar?” she questioned.
“We’re gamers. We create characters for ourselves. We decide how they look and how they act. Our online names are who we are,” Boomer explained.
“Yeah, it’s our tribe,” Goose added with a touch of confidence in his tone.
Penny nodded and thought of her tribe—her girls. The women who lifted her up and were there for her anytime she needed them. It didn’t occur to her that the same kind of relationships could be forged over the internet.
“What do you do at Gale Gaming?” she asked, changing tack.
“We’re part of the development team,” Boomer answered.
Goose nodded. “And we’re trying to figure out why the AI-77 beta version keeps crashing.”
