"Haseo?"
Atoli wasn't quite sure how to approach this subject delicately, but it was something that had been bugging her slightly, even through the danger that was Cubia's consumption of The World and the slowing down of the worldwide network. Really, she shouldn't have been focusing on something so… silly as this, but it was… well, it was hard to not focus on it, especially when she was in a party with Haseo almost every waking moment.
"What is it?"
Haseo turned around and looked at Atoli curiously. Ahead, Endrance also paused and turned to face Atoli, looking less curious about her inquiry and more at Haseo.
"Well, it's not really a big deal, but uhm…" she began, still unsure about even bringing it up. Atoli wrung her fingers together looking everywhere but at Haseo.
"Just say it, Atoli."
Atoli kept her eyes on the grass of the field they were on. There was no delicate way of putting this, was there? She swallowed thickly.
"Well, it's… it's about your PC…"
Haseo blinked and looked over himself to see if there was some sort of graphical glitch or something. When he found none, he looked back over at Atoli.
"What about it?"
Well, here goes, she thought, lifting her eyes up a bit but diverting them to Endrance just so she wouldn't have to see how red Haseo got when she blurted it out.
"Why do you have butt plates?"
There was nothing from Haseo. At least, not immediately. A few thick seconds passed and Atoli knew she was in trouble again for being stupid and irritating Haseo. She opened her mouth to apologise for asking such a strange question when Haseo beat her to the punch and sputtered out his reply.
"I… I don't know! I didn't design this! Why are you asking such strange questions, Atoli?"
His face was definitely red and he looked flustered and embarrassed at the same time, turning himself so his backside wasn't facing either person in his party. Endrance, however, looked amused and walked in his floaty manner over to Haseo.
"But Haseo," he breathed, "It… accentuates the features of your PC."
With that, he reached down to one of the silver saucers and flipped it with the tips of his fingers lightly, just enough so that it bounced a bit off of the graphics of Haseo's player character. Haseo jerked back away from Endrance just a bit too late and his face went even more red.
"Y-you two can finish this area!"
Abruptly, Haseo disappeared in the swirl of blue lights from the area, heading back to the Netslum.
"Endrance, why did you do that?" Atoli asked the other, her face slightly pink in residual embarrassment for Haseo. Endrance just smiled.
"Because he looks so… lovely when he's flustered…"
"ZELKOVA!"
Netslum Tartarga was rife with the rage and embarrassment of Haseo as he stormed towards the bridge where the Serpent of Lore was located. His face was still red, but it wasn't entirely due to embarrassment due to his rather odd PC addition. Various other players and the hackers that littered the area turned to look at the source of the ruckus. Even Silabus and Gaspard, who would normally approach Haseo when he was raging for some reason or another to calm him down, kept out of his way, choosing to just watch their guild leader stomp away.
The source of Haseo's ire was working diligently next to Yata and Pi in the Serpent of Lore, typing quickly on the data pads that popped up around Tartarga to work on fighting Cubia from afar.
"How can I help you, Haseo?" he asked, his voice cheerful as always despite the situation.
"What's the deal with this PC?"
Zelkova's typing slowed down slightly, but his expression didn't change from the rather enigmatic small smile he kept on his lips.
"Whatever do you mean, Haseo? I thought we talked about your new character. If you're worried about CC Corp, they obviously don't—"
"What's the deal with these butt plates?" Haseo demanded, stomping his foot and focusing hard on Zelkova. Zelkova's typing stopped and his hands dropped from the data pad.
"You designed this character, didn't you? Why the hell did you put butt plates on it? What was the point."
After a moment, the typing resumed and Zelkova responded to Haseo, calm as ever.
"Well, you seem to have a lot of… special attention from several members of GU focused on you. It's just a form of armor to protect you from that attention, lest some of it be unwanted."
Haseo calmed down a little at that and said nothing for a few moments, before piping up with, "It's doing a shitty job of protecting me if Endrance can touch it. I thought you weren't supposed to be able to manipulate any part of another PC?"
Zelkova shrugged, "You're not supposed to be able to, but in the Netslum a little bit tends to be different. We like things to be closer to the real world here."
Haseo didn't appear to be satisfied with that answer, but before he could kick up anymore fuss Yata stepped in.
"Instead of worrying over how your PC looks, Haseo, you should be helping your party members fight off the gomoras."
Realisation clicked with Haseo and he looked momentarily guilty before dashing out of the Serpent of Lore and back to the area where he had up and abandoned Atoli and Endrance. For a few moments after his disappearance, things were back to normal at the Serpent of Lore. As normal as normal could be, at least.
"They really do draw more attention to his… behind than deter, Zelkova," Pi said as she typed away. Yata snorted and peered over at the Moon Tree guild leader for a moment before returning his attention back to the keypad.
"I know. I also might have made up the stuff about character manipulation. You can't do it here, either. Thank you for not telling on me, Yata," Zelkova said, the smile obvious in his voice.
"I don't want to ruin your fun, even if it is misplaced."
"So why can Endrance manipulate them?" Pi asked, her facial expression given away by the curiosity in her voice.
"Who knows?" Zelkova replied, his tone not really hiding the fact that he knew exactly why, "Maybe Endrance just has a special touch."