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 Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 4:17 am
Reine woke with a start, covered in cold sweat, her mind reeling. All she remembered was falling endlessly, and---
Welcome back, princess.
Ally, she thought. Ally, what happened--
She knew the answer, even as she asked the question. The mission, failed so spectacularly she was sure she had won something in the Guinness book of world records. The deaths of the civilians, the horsemen, the brilliant blue of Caelius' scythe, sending her to what she was sure was her death: either this was his way of punishing her- by keeping her alive- or maybe this was some sort of second chance.
No, she was just kidding herself with that. She'd gotten chance after chance after chance, and not once had she managed to make good use of it.
Reine wished she was dead, instead of in the infirmary. Maybe they kept poisons somewhere in here, or she could simply try that thing with air in a syringe. Maybe she could just climb up to the top of the building, and jump--
I didn't bring you back for this.
Maybe you should have just left me.
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 1:50 am
They had given him funny looks when he asked for Reine, anything from "Who?" to "What?" to "Is this a joke?"
That was fine though, Justin just figured her player went for a small break, a visit back to reality, went to walk around, smell the roses, maybe buy some groceries. A small pang of something - longing perhaps, homesickness - shot through his heart for only a second. How did his real body sleep while he played this game. Was it like the Matrix? Would he end up dead and shriveled up somewhere, unable to actually log out, or even figure out how to log out, or exit game or -
- Everyone he asked just gave him a funny look.
Reine had mentioned something about a mission, which was obviously her code word for raiding, because everything was related to raiding. She hadn't returned from it, no big deal really, but after the third day, when the room beside her was vacant, when noone actually responded to the incessant texts and party requests for dungeons, he was feeling a little sad and lonely.
And finally, on the fourth day of exploring, by a pure act of chance, and a little more prodding, he found her. Or really, her player's body, lying on a bed, deathly pale, just a thin curtain separating her from the next person across. It was quiet, too quiet, it reminded him of a real hospital, it reminded him of loss. Staring at Reine's body, even the virtual one, reminded him of the same way his mom had stood over his sister's grave, no body to her name, crying, crying just the same song over and -
- But this was a game. Maybe this was some sort of game irony, that Reine had afked in the hospital. What was her real name anyway, he had never asked. Maybe she was actually a dude. Maybe she was just like him. Maybe she was -
Day six.
Justin arrived at her bed earlier that morning. Somehow, standing next to her still body, with just the signs of her fake heart beating steadily against the fake monitor, made him feel the urge to bring something, virtual flowers maybe, chocolate, maybe some of those potion mats that she really liked. He would go look for them later.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It was a shell, it was just a shell. The real player was afk. He took a seat next to her bed, looked around, at the drawers, at the floor that was too real, at the detail that was too good to be true-
- But he refused to believe anything else. It was just a game after all. He could log off, one day too. He could one day, take a break as well.
On top of the counter was a cellphone, not his. He picked it up flipping through the 12 new texts. Text From Justin /whisper let me know if u r around we can raid together still srry about the mats
She woke up. He was sitting on the same chair as usual, distant, confused, a little lost. Earlier he had asked a passing player the same question: if someone logged off how could he contact them. The same answer of a strange awkward stare and then silence. It was unnerving, even for him.
The jarring rattle of the sole occupant on the bed next to him startled the Mist trainee as he nearly dropped his own cell phone. She was back. She looked just as awful, just as pale, and for a second-
- She looked like someone else.
"Welcome back Reine." He put on his best smile, as if he had not been waiting all this time. "I'm really glad you logged back in."
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:54 am
Welcome back, Reine.
"Hey, Justin."
The words were out of her mouth before she even realised it, before she even saw him sitting by the bed. Her whole body felt like lead, and as she struggled to move, to sit up, the sudden pain in her head had her crumpling over again in the bed, whimpering, tears rushing to her eyes. The back of her neck felt cold, for some reason. Or perhaps it was just the air-conditioning in the infirmary, turned up too high.
Go away, she wanted to say. I don't want your pity. I don't want to be here anymore, either. I wish I'd stayed logged out. But something in his eyes stopped her- maybe it was because he seemed genuinely concerned, or maybe just because it was Justin, because that seemed like a valid reason.
One hand shakily reached for him, her fingers weakly clutching at his jacket. She felt like she'd forgotten how humans even felt, how warm they were. For a while, the mission felt like it had just been a nightmare, and now she'd woken up, everything would be fine. If she'd survived this, it was likely the other four had, as well- wasn't it? She had to know, had to make sure they were fine, but..
In her mind all she saw in their eyes were hatred, and she couldn't blame them, everything had been her fault. There was nothing she could do, now, to make it up to them, maybe it was best if she just.. never..
If she just never came back at all. Why did Justin look so happy to see her, she didn't deserve this, he should hate her, like everyone else probably did. Tears still trickling down her cheek, she wrenched her hand away, gripping the bedsheet instead.
Everything felt so cold and empty.
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:34 pm
He misinterpreted Reine's expression entirely, selfishly even. She was back, and she was still here, so clearly everything was okay. Everything was back to normal. "Oh yeah, that reminds me." He reached into both his jacket pockets, digging around, eventually coming out with a small Hagen-Dazs container no larger than the size of his fist.
"It's empty, but I was thinking, if we find any mats, we could just store them in here for now, I even made a chart of potential raiding times and schedules, and I know, okay okay, I gotta be flexible, but I tried to chart all your afk times properly-" Justin took the liberty of taking out a very messy sheet of paper that had the words "RAID TIMES" written in chicken scratch - everything else seemed illegible. "I mean, okay since you were away and stuff we missed today's but I was thinking maybe we could catch tomorrow's 4:00 pm raid, and then we can try to farm some mats, maybe we could even try to catch two, I mean that's up to you of course and-"
- Suddenly a pause. He glanced at Reine, head titled to one side, as if suddenly realizing something. "Huh. Going for the hair cut achievement?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:39 pm
She let herself fall slowly back on the pillow, where it was, at the very least, more comfortable. There was too much to deal with, too much to think about, all the things that she couldn't even force out of her mind. She paid no attention to Justin, after all he would probably just get bored and leave soon, on one of his raids, or maybe do his routine mat organising thing. Five minutes passed, and he was still there,watching her. If it had been anyone else, that might even have been creepy.
When he held the the ice-cream carton out to her Reine almost laughed, he'd remembered. She reached a shaky hand out to take it from him, her fingers closing around the empty container. Somehow, she didn't feel cheated, even if there wasn't actually ice-cream, it was enough to know that someone cared, someone who wasn't judging her.
Someone she didn't have to answer to.
Reine let him talk, almost thankful for the chatter. A vague sense of loneliness still haunted her, though she couldn't remember why, exactly. Maybe it had just been the dream, the endless spiralling down into nothingness; whether she said anything about it or not, she was glad for the company. She was about to fall asleep again, her eyes closing slowly, when suddenly he paused. The moment of silence was almost terrifying, and Reine sat up, panicking, had that just been a dream, was Justin not really there, had she been imagining everything--
-The ice-cream carton was still in her hand, and Justin was still there, sitting beside her. She breathed an audible sigh of relief, beginning to calm down again, when she caught the next thing he said.
Haircut achievement? Reine stared at him blankly until it finally sank in. Reaching up to her head, she ran her fingers through her hair.
It barely reached her shoulders.
"Justin," she whispered, looking straight at him for the first time. "What.. do I look like?"
And then something else occurred to her.
"How long have I been here?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:03 am
"Well," Justin scratched his head, "Ummmmmmm you stopped being afk I think like, about thirty minutes ago, so you've been logged on for thirty minutes?" He shrugged, expression entirely oblivious. "And you look like- I dunno like you always have? Well, save for the hair cut but I understand, sometimes the same hairstyle could get boring, though if you really want to get your gold's worth you really should consider dying your hair as well, I think brown would look good on you- oh, oh, oh wait, I got this!"
Excited, he began to pull random things out of from his pockets: a pile of lint, two pieces of string, some paperclips, a chewed up wad of gum, until he pulled out-
- a small tin case. The surface was, however, reflective, and he passed it over for Reine to see, angling it towards her. "See what I mean, your one side is totally not even to the other, you should have asked for a better hairstylist, I mean I could do better than that though there's not much I, Justin the Invincible can't do, including tanking, dps, heal tutor, I mean I had like three alts that were heals, and I even have a PVP spec-"
The trainee continued to ramble on, oblivious. Reine was unfortunately, not getting rid of him anytime soon.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:47 am
Thirty minutes wasn't the answer she was looking for; considering how sluggish she felt, Reine was sure she'd been here for days, at the very least. A glance to the side confirmed that her phone was still there- later, a lot later, she'd pick it up and check it.
For now it didn't matter so much, she supposed. If only Justin was here, and Justin being Justin, well- his priorities were questionable. Idly she looked into the tin case he held out, somehow less concerned about the ridiculous 'haircut' than she usually would have been. Huh. That surprised her more than the hairstyle itself.
She looked pretty awful, all in all. Even if Justin said she looked the same, Reine barely recognised the person she saw in the reflection; it was like some badly-made copy of herself, in almost black-and-white, deathly pale. She tilted her head, watching the reflection move along with her- it felt so surreal.
"Do what you want, I guess," Reine shrugged, turning her back towards him. It wasn't as if anyone could do worse than what her hair already looked like, all things considering.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:01 am
If Justin had a puppy dog tail, he would be wagging it right now. He figured Reine's tone was just her general apathetic tone (well, except for that one potion run break down incident, but she was a serious gamer, so it all made sense).
"Seriously you're letting me-?" Oh man, he hadn't cut hair since his sister had asked - that lingering nostalgia left both an odd taste in his mouth and a strange sense of excitement. "Wait lemme grab some-" Randomly, he began to pull open drawers, because they were in a virtual hospital and virtual hospitals always had cool virtual supplies. Thankfully Justin was not disappointed as he came out with a pair of surgical scissors. They were rather small, short, the ends tapered, but he didn't seemed put off.
"Here, gimme a sec." With the look of an artist, the mist trainee maneuvered himself around Reine and pulled the longer strands of hair up, using one of the elastics in the drawer to tie the longer strands of her hair up temporarily. For a second he felt a tug strongly again, a flashback, as a twelve-year-old version of himself tied up messy strands of brown hair, the owner chastising him and asking him to clip it with her rainbow hair clips. For a second longer, he instinctively reached for some on the counter- of course the didn't exist.
The rest went smoother, there were a few extra snips because of the nature of the scissors, and then a few more, and the use of a sharp razor somewhere in between, but in the end, he was proud of a work semi-well done.
At least Reine still had hair left. The trainee turned the tin back to Reine, angling it upwards. "So whaddya think, am I good or am I great? I totally think I should design the game's haircuts, I thought about applying as a game designer but the last few hundred times I submitted my application they didn't respond," he winked, "It's cuz they weren't ready for me, I know, I know, not to mention I do have a full time gaming obligation playing this game so, it all worked out."
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:53 am
At least one of them was excited about this. Reine simply sat still as Justin cut her hair, each snip of the scissors making her heart ache just slightly. There were some moments where she almost panicked, pulling away from him, but he seemed to know what he was doing, and that reassured her.
The person in the reflection stared blankly back at her. It was a lot neater, for sure, though now her hair barely reached past her ears. Reine couldn't recall a time when her hair hadn't been at least shoulder-length- granted, there wasn't much she could recall, thanks to Circe smashing into her head. Even trying to think hurt, and she was glad that Alynthe had the sense to keep quiet.
"It's pretty amazing." It was the effort that counted, really, and the fact that he'd even offered; Reine felt like she owed Justin some appreciation. It was strange, somewhat, feeling like she could rely on him, even if it was for something as trivial as this.
With a small sigh she leaned backwards, propping herself against him and closing her eyes. Just for this once, she didn't mind him talking about things she didn't understand. It was easier to pretend she wasn't really here, too, easier to immerse herself in the same world that he did. Maybe that was why he behaved like this, maybe there was something he was trying to block out, too. Maybe there was more to him than there seemed.
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Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 9:52 pm
As she sighed, the Mist trainee turned around, and eyed Reine critically again. At first it was some eyeing, which slowly turned to some odd squinting, and then leaning in a little too close as he stared at her-
- Hair.
"Hang on, sec, I got this." Snip. "Oh crap, wait, its crooked now, wait wait." Snip snip. "Oh man, now its crooked on this side." Snip snip snip snip.
Was Reine going to have any hair left after he was done 'fixing' his masterpiece?
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