"You signed me up for what?" That what was an ultimate cringe.

"Speed dating," came the retort.

Yes, the ultimate cringe was having to interact with others. Sebastian glared at the person, wishing them a tremendous amount of ill will.

"Don't worry!" Sam let out a laugh. "I signed myself up as well."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better because?" Sebastian continued to send him the death glare.

"Because, I'll be outside of my comfort zone as well."

"I don't believe you," Sebastian said.

"Oh, come on. It's a speed dating thing for gamers."

"You're an idiot."

"And if you don't show, it will be ruined. But we're talking girls into gaming, Sebastian."

Which meant a continued glare sent Sam's way.

"Do you really want to disappoint the ladies?" Sam asked, "Particularly a group of ladies who are doing this because they can't possibly get a date? It will be awesome!"

"I'm sure it won't be."

And yet there he was, looking at the first girl. And he found himself saying nothing. She didn't seem like a gamer but more of a popular girl who'd avoid gaming with a passion. And then she said without missing a beat, "Just so that you know, my boyfriend signed our gaming group up for this by mistake. He misread the thing completely."

Sebastian felt the corner of his mouth twist up in amusement. "That's got to be better than having your friend sign you up because you have no social life."

And then silence, no name from the girl with her long blond hair, nor did he like looking into her green eyes. He glanced around, and much to his dismay Abigail was there. "You winced."

"Just, someone is here I'd rather not deal with," Sebastian said. "Absolutely no concept of personal space."

"Ah."

--ding--

"So, I'm Risa Shiromine, and I play NewWorld," the next girl said.

Sebastian frowned. "Wait. Isn't that the virtual reality multiplayer with the super weird game mechanics? Rumor has it one of the players has become the end game boss or something like that."

"Uh," the other girl tried smiling. "That would be my friend Maple. And it's a long story. I'm Sally in the game if you play."

"I don't," Sebastian was honest. "There are just too many game mechanics to take advantage of, simply because the devs wanted to make the game too realistic. And now," he frowned.

"Now they've got Maple."

Which he knew was now the draw to get into the game, to see if one could find a way of defeating that one player, not that something like that perked Sebastian's interest, although he was curious as to what kind of person Maple was to have created such a character.

"Oh. And, um—she thinks what she's done in-game is actually normal," Sally said, just as--

--ding--

"Hi, Sebastian!" Abigail said. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"Not of you managed to hear about this from Sam," Sebastian said. "Glad to see you're actually taking an interest in someone other than me."

"Oh no! I'm not cheating on you!"

"We're not dating, so how can you be cheating on me," Sebastian said.

"I'm just here because you're here!"

Sebastian sent her a death glare. "You know I'm scoring you low, right?"

"Why would you do that? We'd otherwise be a match!"

"You know why."

"I do not!"

"Because,"

--ding--

He didn't get the chance to call her out for stalking him when another girl came over, and the first words out of her mouth were. "I don't like normies!"

He stared.

"I think normies should all die."

"So, in other words, you're a bully like the normies are?" Sebastian asked.

"What?"

"Someone who spouts off about normies needing to die," Sebastian muttered. "Sounds like someone trying to gatekeep normal people out of playing games, with just further stigmatizes us gamers. Let the normies have their fun."

"But they're so," and then she went into a rant about how lucky normies were to be able to socialize with people like an average person, while Sebastian found himself thinking there was a good reason people couldn't associate with this one, nor had she given him her name when--

--ding--

"My name is Akane, and I hate otaku."

Sebastian stared.

"And your name?"

"Sebastian and I'm wondering why you're here."

"I do play video games. Let's make it clear, though, that I don't want to date guys as it will take up my free time to play games. Even if they're hot like you are"

"Ah. So you hate male otaku because they'd want to take up your free time to play games." Sebastian said, trying to ignore the last part.

"Precisely, but before you ask why I'm here, our club is attempting to help one of our club mates learn to socialize better."

"Her?" Sebastian asked.

"Yeah. That's Ako."

"Fail," Sebastian said. "She makes us gamers look bad."

"You," Akane frowned. "Did you tell her that to her face?"

"Yes," Sebastian said as Akane continued to frown.

--ding--

"Hi, I'm Maple," said the next girl.

Sebastian stared. He then said, "Isn't that the character you play?"

"Oh! Oops!" Maple waved her hands. "I'm not supposed to do that!"

"So, I don't play NewWorld," Sebastian said.

"But you know about me?" Her face started to turn red. "How embarrassing."

"You weren't looking for the attention?"

"Well, no. It's the first game I played."

"Okay, as someone who programs games on top of playing them, I do want to know what your train of thought was when it came to creating your character."

"I didn't want to get hurt. I mean, you feel everything in virtual reality, so—does that even make sense?"

"Yeah," Sebastian said, thinking he understood now how a complete newbie could end up wrecking a game with such realistic features.

"So, it's completely normal?"

"Not for someone who's been playing long," Sebastian said. "Normally, we overthink things. Whereas you thought about things in a different way. Which I find interesting from the development side of things. Exchange numbers so I can hear more of what you're up to even if I don't ever play the game?"

"Oh, sure." And when they finished exchanging their phone numbers--

--ding--

"I want your number," said the next girl.

And Sebastian wondered what was up with the girl in front of him, who was petite, and she'd obviously dyed her hair and wore contacts, what with the pink hair and purple eyes. He stared. "Um, hold on."

"I want to be able to actually talk game stuff with my friends," she said.

"You're not a gamer?"

"Well, no, but my boyfriend is. And our club is."

"Okay," he frowned. "Are you sure..."

Only, his phone was out from trading numbers with Maple, and the girl he didn't even know the name of grabbed his phone and put his information into hers. She then handed it back, flipping through her phone. "Let's see. Wish you'd given me your gaming profile instead of your real name, but I guess if you have an online presence, I can still find out something."

"Wait," Sebastian felt panic begin to set in. "Could you not?"

"Why? I mean, the only thing you could possibly be hiding is that you're not a gamer, though that Sam person was quite honest that he was a casual player," the girl said. And then, "Oh."

Sebastian glanced at his phone that she'd handed back, realizing he'd given the same info to Maple, although since Maple was a newbie to gaming, he'd not expected her to look into things.

"Wait. You're kidding me?" She shoved her phone into her face. "Is this a good thing?"

"What?"

"The games you made?"

Sebastian opened his mouth--

--ding--

The next one muttered something about being called Chiaki and about game programming that told him she also programmed games. And then came her voicing a problem, intermingled with talking about some of the games she liked, and he blurted out a suggestion that she thankfully blew off while he found himself completely wishing this day would end, thinking it couldn't get any worse.

--ding--

Then came a newbie to LA that he didn't have the heart to tell them that the game had some of the worst game mechanics, too, mainly since Yui got into it because of her friends, and he was suspicious of exchanging numbers upon realizing what that might lead to.

--ding--

"Wow. Funny seeing you here, of all places."

Sebastian stiffened, horrified at seeing them of all people. "Kyo nee-san."

"I'm only a year older than you, you know. So, if I see you here, I shouldn't believe your younger brother when he says that you've dropped off the face of the Earth?"

Sebastian glared at her.

"Or should I take that as a yes? Sam is your friend, the one who's said he's here because his friend doesn't get out?"

He continued to glare at her.

"Phone."

"No. Absolutely not."

"I can tickle you to death in front of everyone if you don't."

So, reluctantly he handed the phone over, and she got his information, even though she already had everything she needed as she already knew his name. She simply didn't have his new number, which wasn't listed. He glared at her. "I hate you, you know."

"Sure you do," she said. "Your brother said something about you distancing yourself from your dad's side of the family."

"You know," he shook his head, not pointing out that part of his family alienated him, something she should know.

--ding--

Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief, pulling a hood over his head as he hurried out of there, not caring to get a match from the person running things.

"Hey! Wait!" Sam shoved something towards him. "Your matches."

"Don't want to see them," Sebastian said. "But officially, you have absolutely ruined my life."

"Oh, come on! It can't have been that bad!"

"Bad?" Sebastian said, glancing over. "You just made it so that people can connect me to—everything!"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know that I'm a game programmer, right?"

"Well, yeah," Sam shrugged his shoulders.

"Which means I have my name attached to games," Sebastian said.

"Wait. I thought you hadn't done anything yet."

"Is that the only reason you didn't look me up?" Sebastian said.

"Well," Sam paused.

"I thought you didn't because you knew I didn't want to."

"I'd figure you'd tell me when you wanted me to know," Sam said. "And I really didn't think you already had something published. I mean, you're still stuck in your mother's basement."

"Because," Sebastian frowned. "Maybe it's just best I remain stuck in her basement."