18. Jess #2
Danny hung his head chuckling. “Oh god. I know that’s ending up on the internet.”
“It’s okay,” I said, leaning up to kiss him again. “They ship us.”
“Daniel! Jessica! What in the name of St. Genesius are you doing?”
We both jerked back to see Sebastian Glass, his arms crossed and a disgruntled expression on his face. “Have you two no shame? I’ve seen less tawdry emotional displays in brothels of Eastern Europe!”
Danny pulled me in closer. “Sorry, Sebastian. I was chasing down my favorite critic.”
I only had an inkling what that meant, but it seemed to mollify Sebastian.
His cross expression turned warmer. He turned to the crowd and shooed them away.
“All right, people. The show’s over! Go on!
This isn’t the Royal Mile in Edinburgh! If you want to stick around, you’ll need to pay for admission! ”
“What do we do now?” I asked.
Danny smiled. “We’re getting pancakes.”
“Oh, no you are not!” Sebastian declared. “Paige has been calling me every fifteen minutes for the last hour and a half trying to get a hold of you.”
Danny let out a sigh of frustration. “Reuben was calling me. I shut off my notifications and ringer.”
“Well, turn it on, dimwit!” Sebastian scolded. “She has news.”
He pulled out his phone and held it up. There were thirty-five missed calls and more than two hundred unread text messages. Danny blinked at the numbers and frowned. “What the hell?”
I peered over his arm at his phone. The calls were from “Criminal” and “Reuben - Studio A-Hole.” The texts, however, were mostly from a new message group.
Opening up the chat revealed a massive communication sprawl between Paige, Faye and two unlabeled numbers I recognized as Bray and Bennet’s.
As he started to scroll through them, a single text from Paige came through. “Hey! Dumbass!”
He tapped on the message for the full text:
Criminal: Hey! Dumbass! When you FINALLY look at your phone, read your FUCKING messages.
Check these links out and then get your butt back to the room!
Text me if you find Jess. Marv called back and the publisher’s lawsuit is bullshit.
It doesn’t cover any of JKC’s personal work that wasn’t meant for publishing.
I heaved a giant sigh of relief. I would have cried, but at this point I was out of tears.
“Should I click on the link?” Danny asked.
I nodded. He tapped his phone, and the MeTeeVee app opened, showing Bennet on his D&D set, Megaverse20.
“Hey there, my chaotic adventurers!” He said, a wild grin on his face. “Bennet Risengard here with a special PSA for you all! Hey! Do you know what’s worse than toxic masculinity? Ruthless corporations who will do anything to make a buck.”
He leaned back in his chair and smirked. “Now if you guys are Tyrant fans, and I know you are, you know there’s a whole lot of dog crap being thrown around in the fandom today. I’m telling you right now, it’s all false. Bullshit. Ca-ca. About as worthless as a press release from the government.”
He stood up, leaning down on the table and gazing into the camera.
“I’ve known Jess Richards forever, and she’s as clean as they come.
Is she involved with Danny Finnegan? Yes.
But I’ve been a part of this entire story, and I’m telling you here and now there was nothing underhanded about what happened.
Jess brought me on set to watch Danny that night the trailer was filmed so she could remain impartial.
Bray, too. And, yes, she is the granddaughter of JKC Richards, but that had nothing to do with them getting together.
It was fate. Kismet… No, sorry Danny, not kismet, but whatever forces there are in this universe brought them together.
There was no coercion. There was no plan to get viewers or drum up publicity for Danny.
It’s two people coming together. It happens every day. ”
He pulled himself up to his feet and crossed his arms. “And now it’s all in jeopardy.
Here’s the thing. You all know that MaxFlick is going to use this hubbub as an excuse to cancel the show.
They’ve said as much. On top of that, they’re going to ruin the lives of two people I’ve grown to care about very much. So, this is what we’re going to do.”
He slammed his hands down on the table. “Stick it to the corporate bastards where it hurts! Cancel your MaxFlick subscription! Go. Do it right now. Hit those jerks where it does the most damage. Share this video. Get the word out. Even if you don’t like Jess or Danny, it doesn’t matter.
If MaxFlick has one excuse, you’ll never get to see Tyrant content again in your lifetime.
That’s all I’m going to say. Thanks, everybody, and share this with your favorite Tyrant compadres! ”
Danny and I shared a look of disbelief. He went back to his messages. The next link led to a livestream on Glitch with Bray talking live to fans.
“-Okay, you Brandon lovers can fuck off right now if all you’re going to do is rant about Jess.
She did absolutely nothing wrong. Yes, she is involved with Danny, but the whole thing with her original stream where she called him ‘meh’ was the truth.
She and Danny were in cosplay when they hooked up.
They didn’t know each other! She didn’t even recognize him in the interview the next day!
Hell, I didn’t recognize him myself until he posted the con photos. ”