Private - Not a Normal Beastie... | Page 2

The gentle poke on her armband made her shiver as if it had given her the cold from Vanilla's hand- though really, it was just an automatic reaction to being surprised. Giggling, she rubbed the girl's shoulder with a swift glance to her, before moving that same hand to the trinket she'd touched before. "It doesn't calm me either, but... It does its job of replenishing energy. And I mean... There's a bright side. So far at least, it hasn't driven me nuts like the item it reminds me of."

It was fair to say Harveste had a rather unusual mind. Her favorite anime, books and anything else were usually things that would most certainly give her nightmares not far down the road. Despite the fear, she couldn't stop herself most of the time. Whether it was a mysterious supernatural horror or puzzles ready to kill people that took them on, she found the stories and the people in them rather fascinating.

Sadly, that didn't change that she was a naturally fearful person. So, while she enjoyed them, they certainly added more traumatic thoughts to her mind, things to worry about and the like.

"I've got a few songs up my sleeve if you really want to listen. I have some that are meant to work with my naturamancy and others that are meant to work as a separate magic of sorts. The second type, I named all my spells after the ones from an older game that had music as a magical type." It was funny that she could name them at all, but it was certainly handy.

Thinking it over, one song came to mind that might be handy. She separated herself slightly, at least from skin contact, for just a moment. Running ahead a few feet, she spun around and began to sing with a smile, her words dancing upon air with a rather drastic, energetic tone.

"Fears you must let go~
Roll with the punches!
You have to go with the flow~
It's okay to fall on hunches!

The sun is blinding!
Our hearts are shining!
Danger is no match for us, so-

Roll with the punches,
Go with the flow!
As one we shall fight, so go, go, go!"​

Her voice fell silent the moment her last high note fell into the winter wind. She could feel the effect the song had- though it was just a song in reality, something in it had a magic to make her feel stronger and more energetic, more powerful. It didn't take much energy to let the music leave her lips, but because she wasn't paying attention when she pranced in the process, she fell flat on her butt into the snow.

"I'm lucky for the soft landing... But what did you think?" She smiled up from her frozen seat, praying for a good review. "I call it my 'Striking March'. I sing it to bring the energy of a battle up. I have other songs for calming down, but energy is helpful when you're cold, right?"

Her mind wandered for a moment to the things that had been said before she sang- the concept of purple death lasers, an old concept seen often in sci-fi more than in fantasy such as the world they were in. It made her want to write a new song about the color wheel and how it effected magic, but somehow, she couldn't think of one at that point.

"I haven't gotten through to Kaede in a while, but I know she has been working on that form of magic too. If not... I know there's someone in Astorea's capital who's good at it, though I haven't really met them much... I go to Dormont regularly, though, so I might still be able to ask them."

She'd have to remember who it was, first- but she knew there was someone there with that skill, someone who worked with the king. If there wasn't, then why would astramancy have brought the rescue crews and those kidnapped by evil back to the capital with such speed? "Just be careful with the teleporting. I saw it used once in person, and well... It can be hard to control, and pretty dangerous if you're not careful. I saw people basically being dropped from the sky when one mass teleport was used."

A nervous laugh and a shake of her head, and she was slowly getting back to her feet. The shaking of her legs lessened the closer she got to Vanilla and Fluffbutt, who she basically clung onto the moment she could, calming the chill in her spine. "Fluffbutt is accurate though, isn't it? I figured you just really liked accurate names. He's fluffy for sure. I don't know what other name I'd give him myself... I mean, the only ones that come to my mind are food." Realizing this, she noted to herself she was probably getting hungry.

"Nothing wrong with looking around once in a while. Window shopping can be fun if you do it with a friend, and it at least helps you learn what's out there. And if you do find bagpipes, still tell me! It's still a good sign if you find anything. I figure I can't likely get a portable piano so... I've gotta figure out something other than my mouth that I can play~ And you need a stick that matches your needs. I don't know much about them, but I bet there are plenty that would suit you. More than me, anyway. The only thing that would really suit me is a twig."

 

Vanilla didn’t bother to mention she has no idea what particular anime the purple hair was referencing. Figuring it didn’t matter, she just didn’t feel it necessary to bring it up. On the other hand, she was glad it didn’t have any sort of insanity element to it. The last thing she needed was to learn the ropes of the game from someone missing a few of their marbles… if that could even happen in the game.

There was one conclusion she reached from that though: if the girl made a point of watching more thrilling anime with stuff like armbands of insanity, she probably wasn’t anywhere near as young as she looked. Probably. Not that it really mattered. In this world, the whole point was to leave the old one behind and try something new… as Vanilla herself was a great example of. She’d bury that realization somewhere deep in her mind and just accept Harveste as the cute little magical woodland fairy person that she was. Should be more fun that way.

“Sure, go ahead and wow me,” Vanilla urged, showing an oddly critical side to her. At the very least, she tried burying that with a friendly and encouraging smile. As Harveste began her little marching serenade, Vanilla’s expression softened even further, as she - thankfully - had nothing all that terrible to critique about it. Whether that was the girl’s legit skill in musicianship or the game helping her along, she had no idea, but - again - she wouldn’t bother thinking about it too hard.

“Haha, well it sounded really good,” Vanilla complimented, offering her hand to Harveste on the way past and yanking her back up. Proceeding to look up into the sky - or what part of the sky she could see from the forest floor - and noted the lack of a certain giant orb in the all-white overcast. “I mean, it might make more sense on a summer day, but otherwise it’s a nice pick-me-up.” She gave her a friendly thumbs up, hoping not to hurt her feeling too much with the minor jab.

“Ehh… well… that’s why I’d like a mentor, or guide, or something,” Vanilla answered, imagining herself suddenly skydiving when trying to teleport across a field. Sounded stressful, and potentially VERY painful at the end. Though in reality, it’d probably be one of the quickest and most painless ways to die. “Well alright, I’ll be careful then,” she agreed, nodding.

“Actually, I like really accurate NICKnames,” Vanilla corrected. “Fluffbutt’s technically a nickname. But since it’s probably the only thing I’m gonna call him, I guess it’ll kinda have to be his official name. After all, he has to answer to something, right Fluffbutt?” The fox glanced to the side as it heard the name being called in its direction. Unsure what the little tamer wanted of him, he just turned back again and continued alongside her. “Good thing we’re heading to a town then,” Vanilla continued, responding to Harveste’s obvious hunger.

“Well I’m not really much of a shopper,” Vanilla responded with a shrug. “But that’s mostly cause I don’t have much I wanna buy, so maybe I won’t have that problem here.” Smiling, she tried her best to seem excited - or more accurately, not dreadfully bored at the idea - for Harveste’s sake. Not missing a beat on a terrible joke, Vanilla ran off to the side a moment and returned shortly with a snow-covered twig, handing it to Harveste. “There you go. You’re welcome.” She wore her usual stupid grin that she always had when making jokes that were far too stupid to warrant even a chuckle.

 

A smile and sigh equally soft blended at her mouth as she was praised- her face still tinted pink, the blood merrily flowing through her veins with a rush to show off her inner turmoil that she'd avoid admitting at all costs. "I'm glad you think so. I worked hard on it. I've always liked writing poems and in essence, songs are poetry in their own way... So it turned into good practice all in all."

Her words escaped her with a similar sing-song tone, though she wasn't sure if it was because she had just been in the midst of musical energy or because it was just how she spoke sometimes at all. "Nicknames are still a name, in their own right. In fact, having a nickname that makes sense is sometimes even more important than your real name! Though my thinking that may be because half the nicknames I got as a kid were kinda..." How could she describe her childhood nicknames? Childish would be too obvious, but they were almost always food related, too.

"Now that I think about it, I wonder if my friend's mom kept comparing me to food because I was heavy. Was I being teased the entire time...? I never thought about it 'til now, really."

Her laughter didn't actually come from her own words, but from Vanilla's next gesture of giving her a branch that was covered in snow like most of their bodies. It earned a bit more laughter than perhaps it should have, the girl having found it punny and unusually helpful in timing considering where her brain had begun to wander.

Without thinking, she hugged the slightly smaller girl once more, nuzzling into her hair while she did so. "You should be careful. Being too cute hs its risks, Vanilla. I can't guarantee I can protect you from all the creeps of the world, though I'll try." Turning her head to the fox, she giggled a bit more and held a hand towards it. "Fluffbutt, you're in charge of protecting Vanilla if I can't, okay? We're a team~"

She let the embrace end naturally, looking up at the sky as Vanilla had been before. Considering the grayness, the dullness, the cold... She grabbed the girl's hand as fast as she'd let go of her in general, tugging lightly to have her be sure to follow. "The weather isn't going to get any warmer. If anything, it looks like a cold front. Times like this I wish there were planes in this world, but until then, we just have to use instincts. The town's not much farther, so let's get going."

Luckily for the young human, Harveste was adept more at being dense than she was in rogue skills, which was a sad but true fact in life. She hadn't noticed one bit that she might be boring her new friend at all, whether it be her ideas to help deal with passing time outside the wind chill, or whether it was simply the truth of the girl's life. When she spoke next, though, she would surely show one other area she was particularly dense in: keeping private information private, at least when it was her own.

"You don't really know much about the races yet, right? Let me tell you a funny fact while we're getting closer and closer. Faerin, which is what I chose... Age really slowly. I'm actually taller than they normally are 'allowed' to get in the system. I'm normally pretty small, though not quite this size... So a lot of things end up going over my head, rather literally. But even though the size of my character here is small... I still feel pretty big thanks to getting to be 'tall' for a fae."

Suddenly as she went on, thinking she could entertain with a lesson of the unusual traits of Faerin and also just by keeping sound in the air, the girl puffed her cheeks when she continued. "I wish I could use some of my skills in game to warm up at home. It's freezing you know? My body's all bundled up in bed while I'm here, covered with as much warmth as I could get because it's below freezing as a high. I really need a fluffy companion... Or just someone to snuggle. Snuggles would be really good right now."

 

Vanilla was glad her timing with the terrible joke was so well placed. It seems she had delivered the joke right in time to interrupt some sort of painful memory. Or at the very least, an unhealthy one to be dragging back up. The laugh she received in return noticeably surprised her, seeing as most people just groaned or rolled their eyes in response. Maybe Harveste was just the kinda person to really like stupid jokes.

“Ehh… wha...” Vanilla started several thoughts in surprise as she suddenly found herself wrapped up in a cute little hug, not finishing either one. The fairy girl then answered Vanilla’s unspoken questions. “Jeez, you’re going to make me blush if you keep this up,” Vanilla answered, giving Harveste a little squeeze in return. True to her word, there was a little bit of pinkness to her cheeks, but that wasn’t unusual, considering the cold.

“Wouldn’t planes flying around kinda ruin the feel,” Vanilla remarked? “I mean… I wouldn’t mind riding a dragon or something. That’d be really cool.” She gave a quick shiver as the air chilled even further. Definitely not comfortable, even with the reduced pain settings. She could only imagine what it might feel like without it. “Oh, nice. I almost forgot what it was like to be warm.”

Vanilla really appreciated having met this girl. Not only was it nice to have a guide, but she was also just good company on a fairly long journey that would otherwise be both dull and freezing. Plus, of all people, she was actually super nice. It definitely defied a lot of the stereotypes that circulated around about people who played these full-dive games. At the very least, she wasn’t spouting endless memes and calling her a noob.

“Is that so,” Vanilla asked as the Fae mentioned her race’s aging rate? “So are you actually like hundreds of years old or something?” Vanilla gave her a curious look. It didn’t look like she really minded either way, but she couldn’t help but wonder… “That’s tall though? If you wanted to be tall, why not be a giant or something?” Vanilla patted Harveste on the head, mostly to prove the point that she could, despite being as tiny as she was.

“Hm… maybe you could buy a dog to snuggle up with then,” Vanilla suggested? “Cat’s are nice too, but they’re not the best for that sort of thing. Too… I dunno, fickle?” She shrugged, not too sure about the chosen word. It worked. “Too bad you can’t get a Fluffbutt: that’d be perfect. Or can you? I feel like they’d be a pain to keep cool in the summer though.” Vanilla didn’t really pick up on the fact that Harveste may have been referring to another person. In the end, people were very second-rate for warmth snuggles when compared to the furrier companions.

“So what other races are there anyway,” Vanilla asked? It was an odd question, considering that they were all available on the character creation screen, but by now it was obvious that she had paid absolutely no attention to it. That, or promptly forgot what she had learned. “Human, Tiny fairy people, and…?”

 

She was struggling not to giggle further from Vanilla's embarrassment towards her remark. The reaction she had was just making her words fit better- but she would, at least for now, not mention that. If Vanilla was already embarrassed and uneasy about it, as someone naturally easy to embarrass herself, she would avoid any conflict regarding it for the moment.

"True, riding a dragon would make more sense and be really fun, but... They probably don't make contrails when they fly past like an airplane does. You can tell some things about the weather if you watch a contrail for a bit. But it'd be more fun to watch a dragon in general, I think, either way."

For a few moments, she grew silent to imagine a dragon-based taxi company. The idea would be brought back later, she decided, though. Right now, the focus had to stay on the other girl and on mutual warmth. She wasn't going to die again just because a new story idea was entertaining her!

"It's already pretty cold out in our world too, isn't it?" Harveste's question came from the fact that, generally, most TerraSphere players were from a specific part of the globe, and she was aware of it- if only a bit. Of course, there was also the fact that she'd originally logged in that day to avoid the cold, only to be reminded 'reality' was a key part in the game's genre.

Somehow, she didn't mind snow as much here, though. And distractions were helpful, making her new friend not only a blessing in being a new friend, but essential in a way for that factor. "It's not that I'm super old or anything. But... I look ten and probably won't look much older when I hit one-hundred in this world. Supposedly they live until around a hundred fifty or so, more or less like elves would. That said, for my species, I guess all in all I'm still pretty young. I randomly set myself to somewhere in the 30s. I'd have to do a look at my stats to find out exactly." And so, she did. "Okay, 32. So actually not much older than I actually am, I guess."

That she wasn't that much younger than her character was less shocking to her than that she probably looked just as young in the eyes of her own world. She was still small and, with the help of baby chub she hadn't gotten rid of in decades, she looked pretty young.

"On the plus side, I can easily at least just point out I'm a faerin to get them to let me into a tavern without having problems." No card was needed like in reality- though she seemed not to need her's half the time anyway, despite how often she was mistaken for a teenager or preteen.

Shaking off the memories of recent days with a mild laughter, the girl answered later questions "I mean, I chose to make a character smaller than me to make myself feel bigger than I am in reality. But for my species, I'm still considered taller than normal in this world, which alone is an extra I guess. I thought of making a bigger person, but... Considering I'm clumsy in my own body, suddenly adjusting to one way bigger than me didn't seem suitable or smart. I worry too much, I guess... But I also just like nature sprites, so that can be a reason by itself. A giant as a nature fairy sounds strange."

And soon, they were talking about fluffy friends to snuggle up with, about dogs over cats over foxes that likely couldn't legally be kept as pets in their world, much to her chagrin as she thought of it. "I've been thinking of getting a dog or a cat. I've met some cats that are insanely clingy and others that are super stand-offish. I've seen the same with dogs though. Grew up with 'em. I've heard good things about hedgies... Foxes are probably illegal where we're from, but I know hedgehogs often aren't." That said, she wasn't seemingly in a rush even though she had every reason to rush into it considering some other reasons she wanted a pet like a starved child would rush for a meal.

"There's four that I know of total, but... Based on the recent war there was, I'm gonna guess there are more that we just can't play yet, but are there waiting to be unlocked. So far... The closest thing to a giant is probably Yladians. Those are your standard elves that can be pretty tall in general. Felis are catfolk... I think they can get pretty big too. I've seen some that were, anyway, I think." She was sure she'd seen some at the festival at one point or another. She'd seen a lot of weird things there, though. And in general since then, surely.

 

Vanilla imagined, for a moment, a silly looking dragon flying around and make trails in the sky. It was a bizarre mental image and one that brought a silly grin to her face. Plus, it was kinda hard not to picture the dragon with the derpiest face imaginable, which only added to the silliness of that thought. “Assuming it’s tame, sure. I’d rather not watch a dragon while it torches me alive,” Vanilla concluded her thoughts on dragon watching.

“It’s freezing,” Vanilla answered, in regards to the real world, though it was such a general answer it could apply to either reality or Terrasphere. Or both, really. “It didn’t stop me from eating ice cream today though. I love me some ice cream,” she mentioned casually, potentially hinting at the origin of her name again. “Gosh… now I really want ice cream,” she claimed, ironically while her body involuntarily shivered against her will.

As Harveste mentioned her age, and promptly confirmed it, Vanilla checked her own in the same way. Thirteen. Pretty darn young, though ironically not as young as the character appeared. It was then an idea crossed her mind, causing a mischievous grin to spread across her lips. She held her thought for the moment, and let Harveste continue on to other thoughts.

“Oh, I get it,” Vanilla said, nodding. “Intentionally play something super short here, so you feel taller there. That’s pretty clever.” In hindsight, Vanilla imagined the same thing would probably happen the moment she logged off. Or rather, perhaps only if she remained long enough to get used to being this size. “I wonder how long it takes to get used to being shorter? A few weeks, maybe?” Vanilla patted her own head a few times in idle consideration.

On the topic of animals, Vanilla couldn’t help chuckling a bit at the idea of a hedgehog pet. “A hedgehog? Really? They even have those as pets,” Vanilla asked, a little skeptically? New York animal pet restrictions were pretty harsh, let alone the apartment banning pets altogether. It might have been part of the reason Vanilla had taken Beast Taming as a mastery. To make up for what she couldn’t have. “Are those even big enough to warm you up though? Seems kinda small to me.” Where was this girl from anyways, where they had hedgehog pets?

“What? Catpeople,” Vanilla asked, visibly interested? “I guess I can’t tame them if they’re all sentient? That’s a shame though. It’d be really cool to have a butler and maid follow me around everywhere or something.” Of course, if they were players, there’d be a little-to-no chance of that happening. NPCs were doubtful enough, but players were definitely a big ‘no.’

“Anyway… 32, hm,” Vanilla confirmed, trying to rewind the conversation back a few topics. Her face still had that dubious grin on it, like she was plotting some stupid prank. “I wonder how people would react if I said you were my mom?” Her smile only seemed to grow, just at the idea of it. “I mean, you’re technically old enough. At least in human years.” Vanilla slid a few clumps of hair forward to cover her ears, illustrating the fact that it was pretty easy to hide their difference in race.