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Frag Doll came in, spying her cousin on the couch. Oh right, the cousins were over for the day, but the other lot of them had run off to do things. Warp Nine looked a little lonely and lumpy on the couch by himself. Backing up, she rummaged through her game box and floats up two controllers and two headsets.

She re-entered the room, this time fully. "Hey, Niner." A controller landed with a plop on the open book and the headset planted itself, a little haphazardly on his head. "Want to play a game with me?"

Doll smiled a bit at how excited Niner seemed to be but maintained her "cool" persona.

"Good Good" she said, her magic working her long twin tails into twin buns that sat just behind her ears. She'd already learned that over enthusiasticness, either on her part or others, was a good way to have chunks of hair yanked or pulled out. "I got this MMO type game that no one wants to play and you seem bored enough to put some time in with me."

Magic flipped on the tv and the console while she settled next to Niner, controller floating after her. It was then she noticed that Niner's tiny yellow wings and lack of a horn. Oh right... She casually rested the controller in her hooves.

"Let me know when you're ready and I'll walk you through the basics.."

It took a couple hours to get the basics, some of which Doll showed through gritted teeth because how hard could steering a character around with the directional pad BE?! But Niner got the hang of it quickly enough that she decided she wasn't going to declare him a lost gaming cause.

She guided him through some basic quests; press A to strike the monster, press B to pick up the monster pelts they needed for the NPC. Etc, etc, etc. He was picking it up a little faster now.

"Ok," she said after they had cleared the beginner's zone together. "Now we're going out into the world where everyone else is. Remember that all those other character we're going to meet are other people too, its important." It was hard to articulate why it was important but knowing how these types of games go, she'd have a way to show him sooner or later.

"mmm..it is sometimes.." she mumbled more to herself. "Ok kid, follow me.."

They spent the afternoon leveling and playing. Doll slowly introduced new concepts to Niner as they played. What type of armor he should try and find, what kind of weapons and what kind of stats that were the best for his character.

"At your level, we should do Deadman's Hollow Tomb to see if the sword of Silver Blessings drops. It's a good weapon for you at this level!" She queued the pair of them up and within a few minuets, they were put into a group with three others.

"Hi!" a bright young male voice said
"Afternoon." a teenage-ish girl voice said
"Yo. Let's do this quick so I can level more." said a slightly older male voice

Doll pressed the side of her headphone set to turn the mic on, waving her other hoof to indicate Niner to do the same.

"Good luck everyone." Doll said neutrally

The dungeon adventure was going fairly well. While Niner wasn't the hardest hitter in the team, Doll did her best to point out what he should be hitting and when, and he did so as well as he could. She was proud, often giving him hoof bumps when he made it through difficult parts. He might made a well rounded gaming companion in the future.

The rest of the team spoke rarely, except to ask for small breaks or for help.

"Here we are..last boss.." Doll said as the werelamb mob fell over with a dying bleet and the doors opened to the boss's chamber. "Niner, circle around to this spot here." ~she pointed to the screen~ "But be very careful..it's very close to the boss."

As Niner's character inches closer to the spot where she'd directed him to go, he strayed a little too close to the boss npc and..

"ALL TRESSPASSERS SHALL DIE!" the boss screams and launches himself at Niner's character, killing him in two seconds flat. Doll does her best to prevent his death but instantly flags herself as in combat and the boss goes for her next. One by one, in very quick succession, each player member is killed.

Doll snickers, as this death, while preventable if Niner had been 2 pixels further away, was a learning experence for the colt and she opened her mouth to start to explain what happened when on the other side of the headset;

"WHAT...THE....F..."

Doll uses her magic to immediately rip the headset off Niner's ears so he isn't on the other end of the swearing rant. Levitating her own head set away and to the side, one players clear dissatisfaction of the way the fight went is loudly though not clearly heard.

"Hey, Niner..here's something you gotta know. There are all kinda people in this world, and they all play this game..some are nice..some are..well..that.." she gestures to the floating headsets where ranting can still be heard. "They aren't necessarily bad people..they just get mad sometimes because something that seems so easy to them means it should be easy for everyone..and they forget that it isn't. You aren't a bad player, you're learning. And even if this other person is mean the rest of the fight, your kindness will not only make you the better player, it will get you the best rewards in the end, even if they aren't better gear or trophies. So don't feel bad!" She says this last part sternly.

Grabbing one of her headsets out of the air and sliding it back over her ears, she says rather tersely, "Are you done? Can we finish now?" She grabs the other headsets and plops it back on Niner's ears. "Just say that you're sorry and you'll do better this time. Ignore anything else that other player says and just focus on your role."

It'd been touch and go for a few tense moments. Doll was tense as Niner slowly edged around the boss again, but he managed to slip into the corner where he could jump out and do his best attacks once the fight started. The fight was still a little rough, and Doll was concentrating so hard while healing she managed to levitate the TV about 3 inches off the ground. When the fight was over, the TV thunked back onto the stand, toppled forward, and she caught it with magic, righting it before it crashed onto the floor.

"Good job Niner! High Hoof!" She stuck her hoof out to him.

The chest that the boss was guarding opened up and inside were shiny, shiny new pieces of gear. Doll got a new staff that made her healing better and the archer got boots that made her shoot faster. Doll gasped and pointed excitedly to the screen.

"Look Niner look! That sword is amazing for you!! Its the best thing you can equip right now but.."

A box had popped up under the sword Icon. The player who'd swore at Niner had indicated that he too, wanted the weapon. Doll mumbled a few things under her breath and slid close to her cousin on the couch.

"He can use that too..it's also a very good weapon for him. See that there.." she pointed to the screen "..shows that he wants that sword too." She was quiet for a moment. "It's up to you Niner. You can either let him just have the sword outright or you can roll against him and hope you win."