With the check-in finished, the Inspector handed them both a key card for their rooms. “The arena hotel was designed for team sports and families, but the army managed to book you both rooms with only one roommate. They had originally asked that you be placed together, but the moral values of the Comor public would eat us alive if we put a Civilian couple in a mixed-gender room, so we had to split you up. There were no more rooms available, the whole arena is booked full of contestants.”
“No worries, meeting new people is good. Even though the Army doesn’t separate the sexes, I’m sure that most planets still do it that way with their civilians.” Nico answered with her creepy fake smile.
“All contestants have been given identity cards with just their gamer tag on them, so feel free to address each other that way. Blood Goddess, you are in a room with LilyPotta, and SlumDogRaider is with Lord PockiPock.”
Max shook his head at all the overly dramatic names. He had thought that they would at least be using proper names outside the game, but it seemed that for the immersion, and for the sake of their privacy from intruding fans, they would all be using their handles all the time tomorrow.
“You two are the last ones to check in, so please, feel free to peruse the amenities of the hotel after you are settled into your rooms.”
They didn’t have much, Uncle Lu had kept their hoverboards in the car to return to them tomorrow, and they didn’t bring any clothes. They would both have to buy at least one change for the tournament tomorrow unless they were going to go like this.
Max knew full well that the gaming tournaments were as much a cosplay event as anything else, and everyone dressed up, so a simple shirt and jeans wouldn’t do. It would only serve to turn the fans against him and make the Army look bad.
There was a custom clothing shop here in the arena though, that did costumes and fan items for events, so that was where they headed first.
“Nico, can you tell me what the other guys have picked for costumes? I want something good, but one that isn’t taken by anyone else.” Max whispered as they walked..
That wasn’t going to be easy. There are hundreds of contestants and hundreds of costumes. Even if the computers had some information on them, it would be nearly impossible to find out about them all.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you. I put an online order for the shop already, once I realized we forgot to get costumes. They had a pretty good listing of what the others had picked out, so I’m pretty sure nobody will have your costume.” Nico nodded.
The moment they walked in, the staff was right there to greet them. “Oh, wonderful, you’re both here. Let’s get you test fit. You’re much more buff than we expected, so the shirt might not fit. Though maybe that’s a good thing in your case?”
Max was ushered into the back where he was handed an outfit somewhat similar to the one he already had on, but tighter. There were no buttons at the top of the shirt, the faux leather pants stretched tightly to emphasize and exaggerate his every asset, and nylon sleeves with fake tattoos finished the look.
Nico had dressed him as Captain Harkness, a swashbuckling, time-traveling Mecha Pilot and sex symbol of the Kepler television networks. The show was government produced, so every planet knew it, and in the outfit that was more suited to a stripper than a military officer, Max really did look a lot like the actor, even without wearing a wig.
“Darling are you sure you’re not his illegitimate love child? The resemblance is uncanny.” The clerk gushed, fanning himself with his hand.
“No Comment,” Max answered, doing his best imitation of the famous actor and making the staff of the shop giggle.
Nico came out a few minutes later in a short, frilly, black, and gray Goth Loli dress with rose-patterned stockings and Vampire Fangs in her mouth. The character was Rosetta, the female antagonist from an adult-only age-restricted anime series that began to air during their travel to the Comor system last week. There were two episodes out now, but with the character’s small stature and the risque costume, it was unlikely to have been chosen by any of the other gamers.
Nico had also confirmed the outfits of all the other female gamers, and the petite males as well, making sure that she wouldn’t accidentally duplicate anyone. For a man, that would be embarrassing, for her, it would be rage-inducing.
“Perfect. Where did you find the fangs though? Those don’t look like the ones we keep in stock.” The clerk asked, ringing up their purchase.
“Augmented teeth, I can adjust their shape.” Nico clarified, turning the short fangs that gently nibbled her lower lip into full-length Vampire fangs.
The Vampires were an actual species, though they didn’t share a border with the Kepler Empire, being much further east in the Galaxy, while Kepler occupied a large swath of the South Central region. They weren’t undead and didn’t burn in the sun, but they did have hollow fangs and preferred to drain their meals of blood before eating. Combined with the silvery white color of their natural pigmentation, they looked enough like the old Human legend to make many people believe that they had visited human worlds at some point in the distant past.
The two quickly changed back into their more normal clothes and split apart to head to their rooms on opposite sides of the hotel.
Max knocked and entered his hotel room, finding his roommate in the middle of a live stream.
“Hi guys, it’s me, Lord PockiPock. Don’t forget to subscribe for updates, and smash that Like button.” The gamer was practically shouting at his camera setup while fluffing the hair of the outlandish rainbow wig he was wearing for today’s show.
He had stuff absolutely everywhere. On both beds, on the floor, on the walls, filling the bathtub, and even outside on the balcony. Max didn’t even own the amount of stuff that this guy brought with him for a one-day tournament.
Max decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and simply rested his back against the door, knowing that the stream was going to be a half-hour long and that it would do him no good to interrupt now and drag it out even further with his presence.
While Max suffered the clutter and an overly energetic streamer as a roommate, Nico had also found her room. She didn’t enter though, since her augmented hearing could pick up what was going on inside. It seemed that her roommate had invited a local Flect dealer over to get high and ‘assist’ her during her OnlyLewd stream.
This was the gamer who Nico was originally most concerned about duplicating her costume, but lately, LillyPotta had been on a forced-feeding fetish kick and had put on over a hundred kilos, making the character a poor match. Nico went to the lounge on her floor, finding that there were others there escaping from their roommates already, and picked a seat.
“Which one did you get?” a man in his late twenties asked, watching something on a data tablet and eating popcorn.
“LillyPotta,” Nico informed him in a dry tone and the man chuckled.
“Yeah, I don’t think we need to worry about that one. I saw the contraband alarm go off when she brought that guy to her room. I think the cops were waiting for you to arrive to see if you were in on it.” The man informed her.
His nametag read “Steve Polychronopolous” which made Nico smile at the reference. It was good to see that some people hadn’t forgotten the classics.
“Blood Goddess? Nice, I thought you retired from gaming. They don’t let fakes use existing names here, so you can be sure that if you see a famous tag, it’s authentic.” Steve assured her just as the sound of rushing boots thumped down the hallway.
“Hands on your heads.” The officer orders as the sound of a splintering door echoes through the hallway and orders are barked.
Nico simply complied, waiting to watch the show. Incoherent female shouting comes from the destroyed room as over a dozen officers enter, and then the sound of gunfire starts. It ends abruptly a few seconds later, and the officers drag a large naked man out, gun still gripped in his hand even in death.
“We need a Medic, ASAP.” The officers in the room call and more police rush in with bags in their hands.
If they’re calling for a medic, whoever is in there is most likely going to survive. Treating most gunshots that weren’t instantly fatal is a simple matter these days with Kepler medical technology.
“I need you both to identify yourselves.” The officer with his gun trained on Nico and the man beside her declared, motioning with his gun for them to bring it up on their wrist devices.
The other gamers in the lounge looked freaked out, kneeling with their hands on their heads, but the police weren’t paying much attention to them, having had the floor under surveillance since the alarm was set off.
“I’m Stephen Pembrooke, Sir. Assistant art curator at the KSP 108 Modern Art Academy.” The man says nervously, bringing up his credentials.
“You’re clear.” The officer confirms, letting him close the hologram.
“And you?” He points the gun at Nico’s smiling face as he asks.
“Major Tarith Nico, Pilot of the Crusader Class Tarith’s Rage and Executive Officer of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit attached to the 43rd Armored Regiment from Kepler 111,” Nico answered using the sultry and gentle voice setting on her audio processor.
“Holy crap, you really are her. You’re a Fething Legend.” Steve exclaimed, getting to his feet in an attempt to shake her hand before being forced back to his knees by the police.
“You’re Clear. My apologies Major, it’s just protocol, you understand.” The officer told Nico with a polite nod, much more courteous than he was with the others in the room.
“Of course.” Nico nodded, and the others in the room looked a little awestruck at having an actual Crusader Class Mecha pilot in their midst at a Gaming tournament, and not as a judge.
The streamer known as LillyPotta was alive and annoyingly loud as she was dragged away by the police on charges of drug possession, consorting with a felon, and assaulting an officer. But that left Nico with a totaled hotel room in a completely full hotel.
“Looks like I’m sleeping in the lounge.” Nico sighed, starting a new video on the holographic player while the other contestants stared at her in shock. She wouldn’t be the only one sleeping here tonight. Going by the number of people here, the personal habits of famous gamers weren’t always even up to the standard of ‘tolerable’ by their peers.