Huffing out a breath, he envelops me in a tight hug before kissing my cheek and getting to his feet. “You’re too good to me.” At my snort, he shakes his head. “Seriously. I’ve been nervous to bring it up, worried you’d be pissed and I wrecked things between us before they even actually started. I have a bit of a record getting carried away in the heat of the moment when somethingsoundslike a genius idea, only to find out later I was the only one to see it that way. So it means more to me than I can say that you were willing to hear me out and try to see my side of things before just condemning me. Thank you.”
Licking my lips, I watch him fix the cuffs of his shirt sleeves, heading for the elevator to go to work for the day. “I’m sorry for whatever happened that made you think the worst of people.” Flipping open my new laptop, I hide from his scrutiny as I add, “But I’m not surprised. People are garbage and humans wrecked this world, yet continue to play the victim. I commend you for being a better person than me and focusing so much of your efforts on keeping them alive. Where I grew up, humans were awful towards mages, manipulating them into submission, and treated shifters worse than wild dogs. I can’t imagine investing in saving them.”
Following the start up procedure, I begin all of the various sign ins and picking settings, avoiding looking at him when he replies, “We don’t get to pick what we’re born as, and we shouldn’t be punished for it; children especially. Like it or not, this is the world we live in, and hating one another won’t serve any good. Making it better where I can, though?”
I glance up as the elevator door opens and he steps inside, voice dropping. “I can try to save future generations the hardships we’ve been forced to endure, even if I’m not alive to see it come to fruition. I like to dream of a future where things are better, and it gives me a purpose. It’s why I’m helping the Underground in the middle of the country; peoplewantchange, they’re just afraid of taking the first step because we all know the path to peace is paved in more blood than most are willing to shed.”
The doors close on him, leaving me in stunned silence. I’m not even sure where to start picking apart that final bombshell. I’d heard rumors of the Underground, but I thought they were just that; rumors. And Malcolm’s tied up with them?
All of the hospitals he owns, all it would take is switching out some medications and he could wipe out hundreds of thousands of humans if he wanted. Humanitarian, or angel of death.
“No, he’s too good of a person,” I decide, shaking off the morbid thought. “The Underground supposedly wants equality, not to put supes at the top of the food chain.”
Right?
Lost in thought, I finish setting up my laptop and downloading my favorite RPG game. It kills me not to sign into my old account, years of progress wasted, but it’s sort of poetic in a sense. That was the avatar I created when I was a human desperate to lose myself in the only sort of magic I had the ability to access, and I’m not that girl anymore. Now, I’m the monster that needs slaying, respawned on the opposite side of the mythical war.
It’s time to start over. To look at things from a new perspective, and actually believe in what I’m fighting for rather than going through the motions.
Starting back at square one, I repeatedly click to try and speed all of the intro dialogue along, not that it actually helps. After several agonizingly long minutes, I’m finally set loose in the online fantasy world. No equipment or gold coins, a list of quests a mile long, and the only experience my character has is in my head, but if there’s one thing I have plenty of, it’s time.
Hours pass of slogging through the trenches before recruiting a party large enough to tackle the first boss. It’s annoying to coordinate in the chat box, but without a headset, it’s my only option.
Not that these people bother to fucking look half the time until it’s too late and they wind up beheaded.
As the next story screen progresses, a dangerous thought crosses my mind that I try to shut down. But by the time I’m dropped in the next level, I’ve already lost the mental battle with myself, bringing up my brother’s username in the search box on the side bar.
Of course he’s online. Don’t do it, Scar. Don’t you fucking do it.
Physically smacking myself in the face to snap myself out of it, I exit out of that section and go back to my game. The only way I could even plausibly start a conversation out of the blue without revealing myself is by asking for a team up. And I’m a level seven as opposed to his one hundred and forty- two. Unless we cross paths in the game or wind up in the same raiding party, it would be suspicious as hell to cold call and he’d assume I was a bot.
Back at it, I make quick work through the next few levels when a message shows up in the chat window.
Biteme92:On your left!
Without second guessing it, I dive right, rolling to my feet as a fireball slams into the wraith that appeared out of nowhere. Between the two of us, we bring it to the verge of death, only for some jackass to swoop in and strike the killing blow, forcing us to split the XP three ways instead.
SavageScars:Thanks. Fuck that guy, though.
Biteme92:Eh, too much of a dick, even for me.
SavageScars:You know what? Same.
Swapping out for my bow and arrow, I fire one into the back of the guy’s skull, grinning as his character flops face first into the grass before exploding in a puff of light blue smoke, off to respawn in the center of the nearest town.
Biteme92:Ouch, brutal. Remind me never to snipe any of your kills.
SavageScars:Pretty sure I just did.
The two of us start walking across the field that leads to the forest.
Biteme92:Next time I won’t give you a heads up when you’re about to be mauled, yeesh. So ungrateful.
SavageScars:I don’t remember taking a shot at you, ya whiner. We were bringing it down just fine. I’ve just got a thing about vultures pulling cheap shots and being dicks rather than put in the work.
We enter the forest and the next ten minutes are spent avoiding the shadow beasts that try to rip our heads off while searching for the key that’s hiding in here somewhere. I take several hard hits, grumbling at the loss of my gear that would make this child’s play, but manage to free myself and take down the one pinning down my new friend before he runs completely out of health. Tossing back a couple of potions, we scour the forest and finally find it, only for the jackass to snatch it first.
SavageScars:Oh, you motherfucker!
