For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,161

to close the door. "This may be out of line, but Braden said you're pre-operative. I just wanted to let you know that if or when you decide to look into surgery, we'll support paid time off and advance the money for it."

Her body twitched, and the air around her seemed to vanish. "What?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I know what it's like to be bullied, Rhaven. I know that I used to wish for some miracle to change me. I can only imagine what being transgender would be like, and I'm fucking clueless, but I wanted to put that out there. I heard that it's often out of reach for people because it's not cheap."

"I..." She looked over at Dez. "I didn't think it was even possible. I mean, I didn't even have insurance until last year, and it's not great. I had to go to Planned Parenthood for hormones, and reassignment surgery? I never thought it would be possible."

"We talked about this on the way home," Dez admitted. "Braden didn't know if you'd want to, and we weren't sure if that was because of money. So, the offer's there. Now, later, it'll always be there."

"Thank you," she breathed.

"And," Chance said, digging into her packet, "your badge. The strip unlocks the after hours door, the server room, and the door at the back after dark. Braden's getting you a pair of laptops, as well. The black ones are for development. They're a little extra secured, but we ask that Renegade stays on there, and that you're careful that you don't surf for porn or something with it. The last thing we need is to have someone get hacked and our new engine leaked to a competitor."

"Fair enough," she agreed.

"The silver one is for everything else. You'll have a Twitter account set up, Reddit, Facebook, and the game forums. I'm assuming you want to stay Rhaven?"

"With the H," she said.

"Ok. Amy will get those sorted out, then give you the login info. Just keep in mind that any opinions that are controversial - like that WoW sucks, or Shooters are best - don't belong there. We try not to talk politics on our official accounts, but we have always stood up against racism, sexism, homophobia, and such. The company stance is that all people are equal, and games should reflect that."

She nodded. "I can get behind that."

"Ok," Dez said, dropping her feet to the floor to lean forward. "Now for the work stuff. I put you in charge of the interface team. Thing is, there isn't a team yet. This week, I want you to work with Braden - or someone else if that makes you more comfortable."

"Braden's fine," she promised.

Dez nodded. "Good. He'll show you how we integrate the code, task out issues, and such. Since you played for the PLG, I just figured that shooters was a safe place to start."

"What's Renegade about?" Rhaven asked. "I mean, the rumor is that it's Silk 2. Braden said it's the underground."

Dez nodded. "Seems you had this idea about pirates? Shit, was that just a week ago? Well, I love it. Tim's working up class ideas, and our departments aren't really cut and dry. It's more of a specialist in one and assistant in all the others. So, if you have ideas, speak up."

"What's the point of the game?" Rhaven asked.

Chance's head twitched. "Point?"

"Like Flawed," Rhaven explained. "The fact that being broken could be a superpower if used right. That we're not the only one who isn't perfect. What's the point of Silk Underground?"

"What should it be?" Dez asked.

Rhaven's eyes jumped between Chance and Dez. She had an idea, but she wasn't sure about it because she hadn't seen enough of the game. She didn't really know if her idea was completely off base. Thankfully, a tap at the door saved her. A second later, it opened.

"Laptops," Braden said, stepping into the room. "I'll make sure she knows the limits."

Then he held up a black one with the Deviant Games company logo: a neon-green voodoo doll with bright blue accents. The silver one looked normal, but both were very thin, large enough that she knew the screens would be impressive, and from the venting on the back, clearly a little overpowered.

"Gaming laptops?" she asked.

"Top of the line," Braden promised.

Dez ignored all of that. "What should it be about, Rhaven?"

Just having Braden in the room gave her that little extra confidence to speak up. "It should say that breaking the rules is often