Private - Flowers For an Angel

She was finishing up a quest in a small town at the edge of one of Brisshal's forest roads, nestled in greenery and filled with plants that needed to be tended to. Her job had been something simple, and so her reward was fairly modest as well: for a tiny sum, she helped to regrow some of the flowers of a family's garden that had been eaten by the family pet. It was likely a repeatable task, based on the cause- but she was just glad to get to sing for the flowers for a little while.

Perhaps because her throat was dry, she hadn't looked where she was going when she saw a well of fresh water and some children getting some up to drink. The small girl had unthinkably followed them to it, getting a refreshing sip to soothe her cottonmouth. Looking beside the well, she noticed some of the grass was starting to get tired from being walked on by many men, women and children over the weeks and months.

"Maybe a song will lift its spirits?" She mumbled while smiling, before she began to sing a small melody to help her spell to make the grass grow thicker and stronger, dancing a bit along with the tune- that was, until she tripped on her own feet and fell face first against someone else's. Shifting on the ground, she blushed as her song got cut off. A nervous laugh left her as she got back on her legs. "Sorry for falling on your feet, miss. I really shouldn't dance without paying attention."


@Angel Singer

 

"... I can't get over how real everything is..." Angel found herself blushing as she tried to tug down her shirt over her exposed midsection. She'd really underestimated how immersive the game would be. It was actually really cool though! She'd designed the character the night before but had not had a chance to get on until after doing some school work, so this was literally her first experience as Angel.

The girl had just stopped paying attention to her new hair and started looking up at the trees. She had to shield her eyes from the sun; it felt just like she was staring into the sky on a sunny day!

She'd only just started to look back down when there was something - er, someone - on her feet. "Oh!" she hopped back reflexively, but crouched down to check on the girl. It was the one that had been singing near her before she'd been so distracted! "I hope I didn't trip you or anything, Miss!" she quickly hopped up properly when the girl stood up. "I wasn't paying much attention either! This is my first time in VR! Nice to uh, meet you." she giggled, giving a big, honest grin. "Oh, um, I'm A-Angel," she introduced herself after a moment. "Whoa, I nearly forgot I was someone else here."

 

She dusted off her dress with a timid laugh. It was always a bit funny how others apologized as if it was their fault she fell, wasn't it? It reminded her of some of her less-than-logical tendencies in their own world. Ones she'd avoid thinking of further as fast as she started to.

"It's not you I tripped over, don't worry. I'm kind of, er... Not actually good at dancing." It was one thing to sing and play an instrument, but the music skill didn't quite make her any more graceful than she was in reality- which she just plain wasn't. Rogue made her nimble so she could do acrobatics, but she hadn't quite mastered it yet. She had good level in her mind, but it wasn't enough to really dance without falling on her face, it seemed.

Maybe she really should have thought about muse, too. But really, why would she need something like that herself?

As the stranger she'd fallen on introduced herself, the name itself was enough to make the small girl smile bright and big. "I'm Harveste. It's okay, I got lost in the wonder of it all too when I first started. To be honest, I still do pretty often... And I've been here for months! It's great being able to experience things you normally wouldn't, right?"

 

It took next to no time for Angel to stop thinking about the odd things she was self conscious about. She was talking to someone online! She'd only just logged in and here she was making new friends! Probably! "Er, yeah. I just didn't expect everything to feel so real," she admitted as she grabbed one of her twintails and ran her fingers through it repeatedly.

"Wait!" she snapped out of it again and gawked at Harveste. "You've been here for months?! That's so cool!" she animatedly looked around again at that point, trying to figure everything out. "I bet you know everything about this place!" No wait, this was an MMO. Months wasn't that much unlike the games she normally played... "Would it be too much to ask you to show me around a bit? What do people do around here? Are the children real people too?" She had like thirty more questions that immediately came to mind but managed to stop herself for once.

 

She could feel the intensity of Angel's interest, the rather intent gleam in her eyes not at all unfamiliar to the almost constantly intrigued girl. "Not everyone is a player, no. In fact, there are lots of people in general no matter what age or species or anything that are NPCs. A while back, when I first started... They weren't so keen on players, either. Unusual, isn't it? They're more at ease with us now though, I think. They don't give me weird looks anymore when I talk about things like 'our world' verse 'their world' and whatnot. I've had some ask me about it."

Rambling on a bit longer, she tried her best to answer any question she got. It was a good thing to share knowledge, after all- and she was a newbie once too. If she didn't help others, what was the experience worth? Experiencing things was for the sake of sharing them after the fact!

"I'd be glad to walk around with you for a bit. Anything in particular you wanted to see? This town is one of the smaller ones, but there's a lot of nice people and flowers here... And it's nice and close to the woods, which I really like." Her arms draped behind her and her fingers fiddled together against her back. She kept her gaze upward, but found it hard to actually look Angel in the eye. So, she opted to stop at the mouth instead- it would hurt her neck to look much higher, anyway. "And... What made you decide to play? Just to keep the ball rolling."

 

"Oh hey I can smell things too," she realized after a moment. "My room doesn't smell like outdoors at all." she placed her hands over her nose and mouth in an attempt to experiment - it wasn't enough to stop herself from breathing or anything, but she wanted to know if the smell would change to, well, her hands. And it did!

Angel squee'd enough to make the children look at her questioningly before going back to what they were doing. She dropped her hands down but was in what could only be described as an excitable pose. How was this game not something everyone's talking about?! "Oh!" she realized she wasn't paying attention again.

She had no trouble paying attention to the apparently slightly more shy girl's face. In the real world, Angel's player had problems remembering people had personal space. Looking someone in the eyes was easy in that case. "Uh, I want to see everything but that might take some time..." she hooked her fingers together and dropped them to her lap. "I was looking for a way to meet people online and this was sent to my inbox," she shrugged. "I like to try new things, and I -really- like fantasy. Soooo basically this is a dream come true!"

She wondered if it would be rude to crouch down and talk to the small girl. Was there some sort of etiquette? she didn't normally think of these things but she wasn't sure what she was doing at all and didn't want to insult her new friend. Instead she just gave a sincere, appreciative smile. "I'll walk with you and see whatever you want to show me~"

 

A small laugh left her lips. "I can tell how excited you are just looking, you really don't have to try to hold it back. I mean, obviously just try to be careful, but..." She trailed off. She wasn't even sure she knew where she'd been going with the statement- but she knew there were some things better left not experienced, just like there were some things better left unsaid.

"When I first found the game, it was a fluke. The message that came with the game file said not to talk about the game, so I didn't. I don't think it's as big a secret anymore- I saw a commercial and whatnot for it, so it can't be. But... That might be part of why people don't talk about it much. A lot of players before then probably got the same warning, you know?"

Still, she did wonder why, after that commercial and the like, it wasn't becoming more notable offline. She'd seen something on a news channel about it, but it wasn't a major network or anything, so it was probably still fairly secretive. It was something to look into, she decided. But for now, there were other things to take care of.

After all, she just promised a tour! Harveste hated lies, so she couldn't just go back on her word, could she?

"Well... Since you can see some of the gardens already here, why don't we play in the woods a bit? We might see more fantastical things there than we do in town. Though... I guess my species is already fantasy-ish. You chose human, right? It's kind of hard to tell perhaps, but I'm actually not playing one. There's lots of people, both from our world and this one, that are different. Like cat people and dog people, and elves... Elves are often giants, I've noticed. Though I guess fairies in some cases are considered related to elves, so does that make me one too? Just a small elf?"

 

Whether Angel registered the not quite warning or not, she didn't show any signs. The girl was reckless at times, but also not always the most brave. Right now this was hardly her comfort zone, but she felt so much more alive than being cramped up in a city as huge and artificial as the one she lived in now. "Hmm. Oh!" she tapped her chin. "Maybe they just don't want to overload their servers with too many new people at once?" she mused as she continued to take in the world around her. So this was what having such long hair felt like in the wind...

Harveste asked if Angel was playing a human, which she definitely got right. "Yup, I dunno, I guess I think it's kind of cool to get to see all the fantastical creatures around you, and it feels a bit different if you're one of them?" she hadn't given it that much thought at the time, but now she was overthinking her choices.

"And you totally look just like a cute fairy! you're totally different from an elf!" she wasn't sure why she felt the need to encourage the girl about her digital, personally sculpted body. "Personally, I like fairies better. Oh wait do you have wings?" she hadn't even paid attention to that and quickly peered over her to see what she didn't actually have to ask out loud to figure out. Probably. Without much thought she did just like she'd do in real life and reached out to ruffle her hair a little. "Either way you're totally cute. No worries~"

 

Something told her it had nothing to do with the servers, though there was a piece of her that wanted to believe it as the cause. Instead of admitting it, she let out a nervous chortle and kept quiet, at least for a few moments.

Sadly, Harveste sucked at keeping things to herself.

"I-I have a feeling it's less to do with that and more to do with law issues. I'm not a lawyer, but... I mean, the last time I heard about it in media, it was during an underground news network mentioning it during a thing on recent mysterious deaths or something. That's... Probably a reason they wouldn't want it known well, if it's getting that kind of publicity in secret..."

Then again, there was that old saying that perfectly contradicted her current statement as she thought it over. 'Any publicity is good publicity', was it? She still didn't understand that logic, so she pushed the idea away. Besides, the conversation hadn't ended- it just moved. And this was one of the moments she particularly liked it happening for.

"I guess you have a point there. But... I kind of liked it so much that even when I was offered to change my stats when I died the first time around... I figured I'd stay with it. I mean... I already get to experience having magic this way. If I'm gonna be doing that, I might as well experience something entirely different, right? And I'm still me, generally. Just in a different form. So the experiences are still mine, to learn and grow from."

A soft blush caught her cheeks as she was complimented for her aesthetic choices. She didn't mind anymore really when people deemed her more of an elf- she was an inch taller than a normal faerin could generally be anyway, but it had surprisingly let her go for it. Still, even in the midst of cheering someone up, Angel was surprisingly energetic and distracted quickly from the topic to a small degree. "I don't have wings, no... But I'm sure some people might have them as a custom item? There's all sorts of stuff you can find... I mean, it's not often I see anyone else with a pet slime, you know?"

 

"Hmm, I'm not sure what I'd do if I died here," Angel admitted. "It hadn't really occurred to me..." she looked at the back of her still quite unfamiliar hands. It wasn't like she had any real time to get used to being Angel, but at the same time... Angel was almost her own character right? That's how RPG's worked. "But I don't think I'd want to change either~" she giggled.

She was a little jealous this girl had a pet anything. In the real world she'd been allowed goldfish once, but her parents weren't pet people, and well, she wasn't known for being especially responsible. She was probably the least mature girl in her class, but certainly not the least likable. "Hmm, I wonder what odd things I can get my hands on..." she mused. She would totally give the girl fairy wings if she ever found any. Why they didn't have them in this world she had no idea.

She stood back up properly after a moment, feeling a little bouncy after standing here for minutes. School was murder for her desire to constantly move around and do things. She wondered if she was in the real world. Hopefully not. She might hit her hand on the desk and regret it later. "Oh, um, I'm not sure the strangeness is... at least directly... related to deaths," she shrugged. "I mean, if it were that serious no one would be playing, right? They'd just shut down. And I'm glad it hasn't because this place is amaaaazing~" she giggled to herself again and did a quick twirl. She was no dancer in the real world but she was used to moving.

 

"I didn't really think much about it either. I mean, naturally I do recommend not dying if you can help it anyway. Most people would recommend that, right?" She certainly hoped not to experience it again- at least not for a while longer. Now that she was stronger, she hoped to be able to hold her ground more and be helpful to those she was close to.

On the other hand, she had courage the size of a fly. So maybe it'd take a while longer until she got back on the horse in that way.

Perhaps because she'd mentioned it, Harveste decided that now was a good time to show off a little bit. She used her UI to call upon her pet- which, admittedly, wasn't easily seen at first when. It took it crawling up her arm to become a bit more easily visible, due to it's nearly transparent gelatinous mass.

"Drip's been resting for a while now. He can join us on our walk~" She giggled, petting it as it got to her shoulder and found its way to her head. Then, she began to walk forward a bit, waiting only because she'd wanted to watch Angel twirl first. As she started to actually move forward, she kept herself focused on the other girl. "What skills did you choose? You seem like you could be a rouge with that kind of balance you seem to have on your feet~"

 

Ava shook her head. "No way, I'm not -that- cool," she insisted quickly. "I uh, I picked..." she had to bring up a menu to double check her own information. "Slashing, Illumin- er, Illumancy, and Music..." she answered as the menu disappeared from her vision. "They sounded like fun. Plus I don't like getting hurt, but swords are heroic and stuff!" she nodded to herself as she focused on the nearly transparent little pet that was climbing her new friend.

"Ohhh now I really want one!" she puffed out her cheeks jealously. "I don't even care if it was a spider if it was cute, I would love to have a pet!" she reached out to pat the blob, but pulled her hand back in surprised at the feeling of the slime creature. "I suppose I should have expected 'slimy' huh?" she giggled once again. She was in a good mood so she was extra giggly today.

She had to hurry forward a couple of steps to catch up to the smaller girl after that hesitation from touching the slime creature. "What sort of things do you do?" she asked. "I'm guessing it doesn't have anything to do with slime creatures...? I don't know how pets even work. Or... anything really. I mean... if there was some sort of manual it sent with the file I didn't pay much attention to it..."

 

"You're super cool, don't lie! What's not cool about a singing sword-fighter that can nurse you back to health?" Her lips were tugged into a wide and warm smile, her movements a bit childish as she skipped along the lane towards the forest not too far away. "I have music too. It's handy for making my spells more fun when I use naturamancy, but... On the other hand, sometimes my magic tools feel a bit useless. I should try buying an instrument sometime. What instrument suits a fairy, you think? I only actually know how to sing and play piano... And somehow, I doubt a piano exists here..."

Her rambling took some time to cease, but she managed to when she realized her words were going into a somewhat dismal tone. She really did want to play piano again. Maybe she'd save up for a keyboard offline? But she had other things to save up for too... Ah, boo! Too much thinking, not enough fun. She could worry about finances and adulting later.

Drip the slime seemed to make a coo sound of sorts, jiggling upon her head with a happy hum when it felt the other woman try to touch it. "I found an egg one time, and from that egg, Drip here was born! It kind of just sat in my inventory for a week as an egg, but... Now he's my buddy~!" One hand moved to pet her pet even as it jiggled like jelly on her hair, moistening her scalp with its goo. It squealed a sound of surprise and sheer delight.

"I don't know how come I found him, but...I bet there's all sorts of mini pets like him. There's horses you can buy too. I have one named Becky~ she's kind of aloof, but she's a real sweetie. Whenever I go riding and there's danger, she keeps me calm... and just ignores anything going on to nibble at the grass instead. Drip prefers to play on my head or run off to find something fun on his own when I nap. He's kind of like a puppy, while Becky's like a cat."

 

Angel just giggled happily at the compliment, looking rather flattered at that moment. "Uh, well, I mean, you wouldn't think I was cool in the real world I'm sure," she insisted. "Mostly cuz I'm not that different..." she knew a lot of people found her too much of a handful. It was why her father made her stay away from sugar and caffeine most of the time.

She reached out to poke-pet the slime again. She couldn't help but make a pleased sort of squeak again. It was so alive! She wanted a mini pet best friend so badly right now... "Well I plan on doing a lot of exploring and things. Maybe I'll find something really cool like uh... him too..." how could she tell it was a him? Did slimes have genders? Were the girls like, pink or something...?

"I totally can't get over all this. I feel like I really am walking around in the woods and everything!" she hopped around in a circle to try and get a better look at everything without falling too far behind, but she did jog to catch up again afterword.

 

"But if I find you cool here, then if you're the same there, why wouldn't I still find you cool? I'd just be jealous of your energy." The girl laughed, stretching her arms in the air, towards the sky. "I'm a pretty lazy klutz offline. I'm what some people call a spoonie, and also just a plain ol' hermit of a person."

It wasn't rare for her to randomly tell people about her real self. She was more than willing to be open about the fact she lived in an apartment without really meeting people. She'd tell them she was from New Jersey, that she was a writer, that she only really left the house for work trips that required her to be at weird events with more people than she could handle at a time.

'Hermit' was a way of life for her. It was safe.

"I play the game to get out of my comfort zone... So I explore a lot here too. I want to experience anything I can at least once. I'm scared easily, but... I'm not going to give up trying!"

Angel's energy was contagious, it seemed to her. Without a thought, she rushed ahead slightly and spun to smile brightly towards her. "I don't really know how to know if Slime's a guy or a girl, but... Since he seems to get happy more when I call him a 'him', I call him a him. I like it when my friends are happy~ That goes for the animals in the woods too. I try to make them smile lots when I can. There's lots of squirrels and boars there. Though... some of the boars and bears are kind of mean..."