Prologue
Sweat was beading on my forehead as I was jerked into the world of consciousness. My muscles were tight and my breathing was faster than normal. It was another night of the same, recurring dream. It was just another night of watching myself die at the heels of the Empress because I spoke out against the Hemospectrum.
I struggled to gain my balance as I pulled myself out of the recuperacoon. Sopor Slime was supposed to sate those violent dreams, but it never did. It was always seeing myself die. Why was it always about dying?
I wiped the Sopor away from my eyes and looked out into my hive. It was the place I had come to call home. Empty Faygo bottles and the remnants of a mostly-eaten meal were littered on my desk by my laptop. Scattered throughout the rest of my hive were novels.
My lungs inhaled deeply and then let out an exhausted sigh. I quickly dressed myself in my signature attire: a plain, black tee-shirt, a black zip-hoodie and jeans. The clothes were mostly clean. It had been a few days since they had been washed, but that didn't bother me.
I was forcing myself towards the laptop in my quest to continue writing my novel. The computer whirred as the screen came to life before me. And as soon as it came to life, there was a quick pop-up.
"[pseudoAuxillatrix] has begun trolling you. Would you like to respond: Y/N?" I sat there for a moment and had to ponder if I wanted to talk to her. She always went in-depth about my problems—about my psychological issues. Ansara meant well, but it was a bit annoying.
I pressed "Y" and watched the chatroom pop up. As quickly as it appeared, there was a line of bright, teal text waiting to be responded to. She was always so quick to probe me and see what was wrong. While it's a good quality in a moirail, it did get tedious after a while.
"PA: You're Up Quite Early, Naleth? Any Particular Reason As To Why?"
There were a lot of ways to respond to Ansara and I had to carefully select mine. She was always on the lookout for signs of psychological illness in me and maybe I really was depressed like she said. Ansara was always one to tell me to talk about my problems, but I never felt the need to. I knew I was fucked up and I was okay with that.
"GM: Another nightmare, but I'll be fine," I typed. "Why are you up?"
There was a pause before she responded. Then her bright, teal text really seemed to have a new vibrancy in comparison to my plain, black text. "PA: I'm Reading About Sgrub And It Looks Fun. We Could Get All Of Our Friends To Play With Us!" I smiled smugly to myself. This was one of the few times I got to evade her sick need to help me and I was glad to have evaded it.
"GM: That game that the anonymous hacker made? I don't know—what if it has a virus?"
"PA: Highly Unlikely With As Many Fans There Are. I'm Going To Torrent The Server And Client Copies, Then I'll Send Them To You. Okay?"
"GM: Yeah—cool, Ansara. Who else have you told about this plan?"
"PA: Just A Few People."
"GM: Who are a few people?"
"PA: Right Now? I've Told Trahen, Mythin And Maytha."
I growled at the thought of dealing with Mythin. He was an idiot of the highest caliber. Mythin was the only person I had ever known to actually lose his recuperacoon. For three days, we had to help him find it.
"GM: I see—and you want us all to play together?"
"PA: That Was The Plan. Do You Propose A Better One?"
"GM: Not that I can think of at the moment. Give me some time and I'll come up with a new one."
"PA: Whatever You Say, Naleth. Anyways, I Have Stuff To Do."
"GM: Talk to you later, Ansara."
"[pseudoAuxillatrix] has ceased trolling you," appeared in bold, black text. What was this Sgrub game anyways? It was probably just some RPG like the other games Ansara got excited about. Even if it was just a shitty one, I had an obligation. She was my moirail and I owed her at least some of my time.
I closed Trollian and turned my chair around. "Hey Kel?" I shouted. "Are you skulking around somewhere?" There was no response from my lusus. Kel seldom stayed at the hive anyway, but he was always back when I needed him. But rarely was he around when I just wanted to talk to him.
Kel was gone and I was left with the familiar loneliness I had come to know. I would be fine, but that didn't change that sometimes I just wanted to talk with him. With a gentle kick, my chair spun around and I typed into Hemera, "Sgrub Reviews". There was something to this game and I wanted to find out.
