Private - Two Kittens

She was getting impatient.

The only thing they had agreed on was that they wanted to be the cat race because the ears and the tails were cute. But, still, that was a major chunk out of the way! Why did it take so long to pick a fur color or an eye color or even a name! Lycia had done hers in record time, zooming through the options with a critical though quick eye. She liked what she liked the first time and didn’t hoover over different options.

That’s why she was standing alone in the field, the sun high in the sky without a cloud on the horizon. There was a sweet spring breeze blowing through and her ears perked at the noise that came along with it. It sounded like chimes? Looking around, she couldn’t see an immediate reason to why she’d be hearing such a noise and was remiss to give up the pursuit before it even started.

She whined, loudly, and stomped a food on the ground. What was taking so long! Why was it taking so long! She began to pace back and forth, the soft leather soles of her shoes making tiny indents in green grass. A few weeds were repeatedly trampled, but Lycia didn’t care. Sure, this little area looked amazing, but she wanted to see what was behind those trees and where the other people spawned in and what it was like to drink virtual reality water!

Amy~ Where are you~ she whined, crossing her arms over her chest while her ears flattened against her head, her tail curling around her tiny waist.​

@Milah Ketasurin

 

She’d never been one to game much, but hen her sister had shown her the email and expressed her want to try this game out Amelia had been quite against letting her go off on her own to some virtual reality... whatever this was. So they had both downloaded the game, and her mostly ignored VR headset was finally getting some use. Their father had bought new ones go both, but Amelia hadn’t used hers as much since then.

Picking an online username had been the first of many hurdles that anelia hadn’t been ready for... and by the time ah ewww done perusing all the options and happy with her avatar she was surprised to see the amount of time that had already passed by.

”Fran...?” Her eyes opened to take in a world she had not expected, the soft breeze tickling her skin and making her ears flicker and her tail twitch. Still, as amazing and mesmerizing as this was she still couldn’t see her sister around. ”Francie, where are you?”

She had naturally assumed the game would place them both together in the same spot... but what if it had divided them over a considerably wide distance?

 

The young cat-girl had knelt down and extended her index finger to halt the path of a line of ants. She didn’t want to kill any of them, merely halt their progress and see how they reacted. She wanted to know if they were creative enough to solve problems. One of her teachers had said that about her; she had a creative mind but not enough attention to put it to good use. Lycia hadn’t known what she meant, but maybe the ants would teach her.

Their little legs tickled her skin. They felt just like real ants! They even went around her finger like real ants…until one of them decided that they didn’t want to walk around and decided to walk over. Lycia watched all this in amazement, her mouth hanging open with her tiny feline fangs visible.

It’s just like real life! she stage-whispered. So cool~

Suddenly, her ears perked forward, her tail suddenly shooting up into the air and waging furiously back and forth. That was her sister’s voice. She stood up and immediately spun in a circle, Violet eyes glancing around to see where the voice was coming from. When she couldn’t decipher the location, she whines and hustled forward, the bells on her belt jingling with her movements.

Amy~?

She looked around trees and shrubs, around half-toppled statues and under a moderately heavy bolder to no success. It wasn’t until she wandered close to a group of players – at least, she thought they were other players – that she noticed her own sister walking towards her! At least, she hoped it was her sister. They were cat-like, similar to her, but that was the only thing that matched what they had talked about before they loaded into the game.

Lycia strode up to the female Felis, stood about an arm’s length away from her, and leaned in with her small nose twitching, her ears tilting inquisitively forward. Amy. Is that you? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!​

 

They really should have planned this better, and her frustration begun to show as her tail twitched constantly and her kitten ears folded besides her head in frustration and annoyance. Was there someway to contact her sister in this game, or would they have to depend on sheer luck to find one another?

”Fraaan...? Fraaanciiieee...?”

Slowly she begun heading in one direction, hoping against all logic that maybe she’d be lucky enough to come across her sister. At some point she thought she’d heard a distant jingle of bells, similar to the ones on her own belt but seemingly from further away. Instinctively she changed her path, now walking in the approximate direction where she thought the noise had come from.

There was a group of players in the distance after a while, though from what Amelia could see none of them sported Felis ears or tails... just when she was about to change directions the bells caught her attention, spinning around as her honey colored eyes fell upon the nice violet pair an arm length away.

”Francie?! Oh heavens finally, I was beginning to worry that this game had spawned us far, far away from one another!”

Soon enough her arms had wrapped around the avatar of her sister, a content purr emitting from Milah before she finally released her. She gave one spin in from of her twin, showing off the character options she had decided upon.

”Watcha think, cute right? I named her Milah~”

 

You look really, really good! Lycia exclaimed as she pulled back from her sister’s hug, her purple eyes glinting in the sunlight. And hey, we almost look alike here too! If there was one thing that she enjoyed, it was being one half of a whole. Some people she knew hated being a twin, hated having someone who shared their looks and fingerprints, but Lycia – and Francine for that matter – found it to be a boon. She figured that she would never be alone in life and there would always be someone, somewhere, who knew exactly what she felt.

Milah, huh? Okay, I’ll call you Milah and you have to call me Lycia! She took a step back and gave Milah a wide grin, her tiny Felis fangs glinting in the high sunlight. And, uhm, we are two sisters whom came from a far-off land because, ah, uhm, our tribe was killed. Yeah yeah yeah; and we are hunting the killer and we’re the only survivors! And our parents were the leaders of the tribe so we’re basically princesses! How’s that sound?

To what was her sister’s confused look, Lycia exhaled in a huff and clapped her heads together. We must have a backstory, duh. Like a history! In case other people wanna know about us. Another sage nod was given before she stumbled into the next bit of conversation.

What did you pick for your masteries?​

 

It wasn’t much of a surprised that their avatars were not too different from one another in tastes and looks, after all even if they were fraternal twins in appearance Amelia and Francine shared many things in common personality wise—and neither would have it any other way. It was comforting knowing that you’d always have someone in the world that would truly understand you and always be by your side regardless of the situation.

”Lycia? Okay, I like the sound of it, it’s so melodic and cute~”

Still the excitement soon gave way to confusion as her twin moved on to explain what seemed to be their backstory? Milah has never thought much about it, even while creating her avatar, but from what she could understand it sounded alright enough in her book. She had no complains really, as she gave a nod to her sister.

”Oh right, those things! I picked range and, um, acrobat and... oh, and hunting!” She had to think back at it a bit more, but managed to remember all three after a moment. They seemed cool and compatible with what she envisioned in her head. ”What about you, Fran—I mean, Lycia?”

This would take a little bit of getting used to, but Milah had to admit it was rather fun already.

 

Lycia gave a little wiggle of happiness at hearing that her sibling liked her name. She was trying to go for something that sounded soft and musical, but also had an element of strength behind it because she was a strong Felis Princess! She had to stay strong for her tribe until they found the killer and stole back their…uh…rightful property! Then they could ascend the throne and rule the tribe together…or something. She was still working out the finer details.

At hearing her sister mention the masteries Milah took, Lycia had to smile and nod her head, her hands coming together in a clap of excitement. Oh oh, I took Acrobat too! It looked like fun, being able to jump off stuff and dodge incoming attacks. So I took that. And I took martial arts because I wanna punch stuff! And then Harmonic Magic because it sounded so pretty.

With a grin, she held up her palm to get face, went through a few screens, and pulled up her inventory. Extracting her trash-tier weapon, she equipped it in the right slot and watched as the tiny finger cymbals appeared on her dominant hand. She gave a squeal of happiness and quickly exited out of her menus before shoving her hand into Milah’s face.

Look, look! These are the things that make the pretty music!

She tapped her index and thumb together and gasped as the cymbals released a single beautiful note.

Wow. That was amazing. I need to learn songs! Hey, where’s your equipment? Did you equip it? You have to go into your inventory and put it on so we can go kill stuff! There should be a quest around here somewhere.​

 

”Uuuhhh... equipment? Where do I go to get that?”

She looked at her sister with a puzzled expression, clearly not used to these type of games unlike Lycia. Sure she had picked acrobatics because she liked being athletic and moving about in real life, but unlike Lycia who seemed excited to get up close and personal with monsters Milah preferred to keep her distance as much as possible.

There was a gasp of surprise as the cymbals materialized, the brunette clapping softly in positive response to the note her sister played, before shrugging slightly in response to her querie.

”You might need to walk me through this a bit, Lycia... how can I even see what items I have?”

 

Lycia made a show of sighing; hands on her tiny hips, her tail flying back and forth in what was feline agitation, her ears tilting back, and her lilac eyes rolling. C’mon Milah, it’s not that hard, she chastised with a frown.

They had different gaming styles. In the real world, Francine liked her action games, the more shooting and ducking and dodging and stealthing she was doing, the better. Amelia preferred her dancing game or Cooking Mama or something else that Frannie just couldn’t get into. Where was the high scores? Where was the unlockable content? Where was the mystery, the intrigue, the danger?

No where, that’s where!

Granted, mom and dad preferred Amelia’s choice in games over Francine’s, but she didn’t care. When Amelia got a game, she got a game, so they had to buy her what she wanted so all was right in the world!

Here, lift your hand up to your face like this!

She demonstrated for her sister, placing her palm in front of her face, tiny black talons extended for effect. She found it cool, much cooler than any of the other races that were on the starting screen.

And the buttons should appear…yup! There, and then you see inventory? So you just, ah, think about it and then it should open and there should be some weapons in there! And you just grab them! Easy, peasy!

Exiting out of the menus again, she smiled and waited for her sister to exit out of hers. Meanwhile, she kept a close eye on both her sister and the world around them. This might have been the starter area, but even they could get hurt here! Or so she hoped.​

 

It took a little while, but eventually Milah had a bow and a quiver with a few arrows equipped upon her. Still it all looked so... bleagh.

”Let me guess, were gonna have to hunt stuff to get better items huh?”

Still she guessed that so far this wasn’t too bad, the world was pretty realistic and cool looking—and certainly a welcome change to the rooms in their parents’ mention or that horrible boarding school the twins had been sent to for so many years.

”Okay, so whats the plan then Lycia?”

 

Well, kinda, she replied, hesitation making her words stick to the roof of her mouth like peanut butter. See, we go help people and they give us money and then we can buy new items! Sometimes, we might find them out in the forest or on the road or in a creature’s lair, but most of the time, we will have to buy them. It sounds fun, right?

Lycia was excited, almost enough to start jumping up and down, but she stilled herself. Her mother was very much against these online game and had said so time and time again when Lycia had asked for permission to buy said games. Even the free to play ones were banned in the house and her dad had gotten smart enough to start blocking them on the home computer once he caught Lycia playing one in the wee hours of the morning.

But it had been so fun! There were so many people and so much to do and people talked all the time and she had even been in a guild, giving them items and crafting equipment and other stuff.

Happy didn’t come close to explaining how she felt when she realized that the email was the game client for TerraSphere. Her parents would never check their VR devices; not when this game was keeping them quiet and secluded in their rooms and out of their hair.

Okay, so, equipment on and weapons on and I think we’re ready to go! Hastily, she looked around, searching for the familiar exclamation point over an NPC’s head. However, she didn’t find it. Instead, there were two girls standing off some ways from them, one trying to hush the other which was unabashedly crying.

Hey, she’s crying, Lycia murmured, her ears hanging down in a show of shared empathy. Maybe we should see what’s wrong? Maybe we could help.

Meandering over to the siblings, Lycia stood about an arm’s distance from them and blinked. She didn’t know how to interact with crying people. Anyone showing…negative emotions was usually very awkward for her.

“She’ll be okay,” the taller girl said, one of her arms hanging around her sister’s shoulders in a one-armed hug. “She lost her marbles and we can’t find them. So, she’s upset. I told her we could buy some more, but she wants the ones that Gram-Gram gave her. But they’re lost.” The sister only seemed to cry harder after the situation had been explained.

How many marbles? Lycia asked, trying to ignore the shorter girl who was still shedding tears.

“Uhm, I think there were ten in that set? They were multicolored too. They were pretty rare.”​

 

She could tell her sister was super excited, even though Lycia tried her best to hide it, and the brunette gave a half smile that eventually turned into a toothy grin. ”You’re just dying to get started no doubt.” Sure enough her sister was exclaiming exxitedly as she looked around, although what exactly Lycia was looking for Milah wasn’t entirely sure.

Ears flickered instinctively as a familiar noise rang through the air, the sound of a crying child, and soon enough Lycia was pointing out the siblings and heading towards them. She was sympathetic to their cause; for many times she’d found herself in both their roles while growing up with her twin. It might seem like a silly thing to cry for, but just because to an older person it wasn’t as important it didn’t minimize what the younger girl was feeling now.

”Where did you last see the marbles? We can start looking there, right Lycia?”

Milah wasn’t even thinking about the game or the quests or anything now; everything here felt so real that it was easy to forget this was not the real world anymore...

 

While Lycia nodded in reply to her sister, the elder sibling of the crying girl looked almost surprised at the offer of help.

“Really?” she asked, glancing between the two Felis. “You’d fine her marbles? No…no catch?”

Confused, Lycia crossed her arms over her chest, almost assuming a defensive position. Hey, we said we would do it and we’re Princesses that stick to our word!

“Right, yes, sorry about that. Usually people have a catch but, ah, I believe we were playing in the field earlier and she might’ve dropped some there. Then we went to the Undine Fountain for lunch, so there might be some there, and, finally, the church of Uene before we started walking home and that’s when she realized they were gone.” The older sibling sighed and gave her younger sister a long look.

“Any help at all is appreciated.”

How many are we looking for? Lycia asked, trying to remember the names of the places.

“Er, ten, I believe. Ten multicolored marbles.”

Alright! The Ketasurin Princesses are on the case! You can count on us to find what is lost and bring it back in prime condition! To the field!

And without a second look, Lycia grabbed Milah’s hand and dragged her off in the vague direction of where she thought a field would be.​

 

She chuckles at her sister’s words, kneeling just enough to be at eye level of the two sisters before she pats both of their heads softly. ”We promise, no catch.” The thought of trying to get something from the young siblings had never even crossed her mind.

She made a mental not of the places the older sister mentioned, and the amount of marbles, and not a moment too soon for she found Lycia dragging her away the second Milah ya stood upright again.

”Prime condition?” She raised an eyebrow at her sister, smirking softly. ”If something ate one of them you’re cleaning it then once we get it back.”

Carefully hazel-honey eyes looked over the field the girls had found, frowning lightly as she took in the sight. Finding marbles in this place could prove a bit challenging, but they had already promised to help... and the sisters never went back on their words and promises.

”Should we take one side each and meet at the middle?”

 

Lycia’s face fell as her violet eyes looked back and forth over the wide field before them. There were a few baby trees sprouting up here and there and some wildflowers that dotted the area, but, other than that, there was just space and possibility. Her ears fell, her tail hung limply behind her, and she let out a plaintive whine. Her vision scraped over the few people messing with their skills here and there and it appeared there was a couple near one of the bigger trees all the way on the other side of the field having a picnic…but, ugh, so much space!

In reality, it was about the size of a football field, minus the chalk that delineated lines and the goal posts on either side.

I dunno, she said, hesitating clouding her words. She wasn’t good at looking for things. She always got distracted and when she couldn’t find whatever she was looking for, she got frustrated. Splitting up probably wasn’t the best idea, but it was the only way they would cover a lot of ground.

What if something attacks me? Her eyes suddenly went wide and she grabbed for her sister’s hand, clutching it to her heart. What if something attacks you! We have to stay together!

Mind set, there was little in the ways of changing it and, as a show of this, Lycia marched them over to one corner of the field and looked down at the grass, trying to spy a stray marble that didn’t belong.​