It had started as a pub crawl, and ended here, an impromptu gaming expo in the middle of "the most Authentic British Pub".
The crowd had thinned down considerably from when they started - most headed back to their flat, absolutely blotto. There was just a handful, a few who'd either held back, or had a tolerance as big as Blighty.
Landon was next to Yun Sung, a middle-age compsci prof from Dentech U. Sitting on a couch, a bottle in one hand, controller in another, four geeks were staring wide-eyed at the massive 80" screen. More correctly, they were staring at IT, a stone-scaled dragon, as large as a city bus and just as ugly.
They'd been stuck at this particular place for the past hour, respawning, getting killed, passing the controller on, and knocking back another bottle.
Landon was on his second bottle of the night, a Boors Light, the least-alcoholic thing he could find on the menu.
Yun mumbled something about beer being better back in Korea./
Landon was on a stool beside the couch, Yun preferring to sit on a swiped leather cushion.
IT wiped out the band of four again.
This time, it seemed, they'd had enough. Two neckbeards stood up, dropping their controllers in perfect synchronicity.
Landon looked around. Did anybody want to join in?