"Pandot!" I looked up from my system screen to see Amai heading towards me, "Were you waiting long?" She looked exactly the same as I last saw her, only she was being followed by small-chibi like panda. "No, I just got here. What's with the panda?" I asked kneeling down to get a better look at the animal. "I went up against a boss monster for my quest, a giant panda. He gave off an egg after I defeated it."
To say that the panda was 'cute' would be an understatement. If Amai looked like Deidra (which she did), from Naruto, then this panda could be called Gaara. "What's his name?" Not bothering to call him an it, one of my greatest pet peeves was when people referred to things as 'its' when they weren't. It was one of the reasons why I despised Digimon and Pokémon.
"I haven't decided yet," She said thoughtfully, "So it's set to its default. I'm thinking of just selling it though." How can she think of selling something this adorable, I thought hugging the pet. "Why?" She better have a good reason, this poor defenseless little animal does not deserve to be treated so poorly. "It's manly a defense based pet, so its agility is really low. Although having a pet will have it's uses, it'll be a pain to care for."
"Then give it to me. I'll trade you for it." When I said that I didn't really think about it, it just blurted out. I mean it was such a cute panda. Sparkling emerald eyes that looked a little dopey. His ears, the top and back of his head, his shoulders, and a single faded stripe down his back were a deep red. The outline of his eyes, nose, mouth, the red stripe on his back, his tail, and his four paws were charcoal black. His belly, neck, arms, legs, a part of his back, and the rest of his face were a pure white.
"Really, what will you give me in return?" I really didn't like the look on her face when she said that. It was simply, a wolf that just found its prey during a hunt. A wolf… "With another pet. The warrior quest had me dangerously close to a mob boss, and I had to defeat him in order to finish the quest. I haven't hatched the egg yet, but it should be a wolf. That way instead of a defense type you can get an attack type, at the very least it should have some agility."
Unlike Prince and Lollidragon, it was easy for me to defeat the Wolf boss by myself. Fighting all of the mobs on the mountain had some benefit. I had already passed level twenty. It would be troublesome if I couldn't take on a monster designed to fight against level ten players, even if he was a boss.
"Then lets go hatch it, if I like the stats…" An evil like grin came to her face as she trailed off. She really was going to steal from the bank, wasn't she. Despite my doubts, I followed her to the shop where I could hatch the egg. A baby wolf hatched from it. It had high defense and attack, medium agility and willpower, and low wisdom, intelligence, and physique.
"At least it's better than the panda." She sighed, seconds later I saw the trade screen appear in front of me. Player Amai would like to trade you for her Blood Panda. Do you accept? I clicked yes, and moved my new pet to the trading section. A loud ding filled my ears, Trade Complete .
Would you like to name the Blood Panda? Yes, how could I call my trusty companion Blood Panda , a better name was needed. I picked the panda's namesake, for it's new name. Gaara, I thought it fit him perfectly.
"What sort of name is Gaara?" Amai asked looking over my shoulder, I forgot that ½ Prince takes place over a hundred years into the future. "It's the name of a character from an old manga, I thought it fit him perfectly." Amai shrugged, like she thought that I had some insane story instead that I picked it from a manga. What would she think if she knew that I was living in that distant time? In another world? I shuddered at the thought, of the elf thief ever finding out.
"What about you? Or are you thinking to the default name again?" I looked over the baby wolf. His ears and paws were white, the rest of his head, tip of his tail, and the base of neck were grey, and his body was a deep brown. The wolf's eyes were a pale yellow, seemed kind now but I knew that he would grow up to be a killing pet. "Hmm… I was thinking Beast. Do you think that it fits him?"
Yeah, a killing pet, defiantly. "I guess, it depends on what you want his image to be," A safe statement, that way she can't get mad at me. "I think that it's obvious. He's the prince cursed by the witch. Although he can no longer be together with his destined princess, he'll never leave her side. Always protecting her from the dangers she can't face alone, but knows when to let her fight her own battles."
No wonder she didn't want Gaara, "You really have thought of everything." She seemed to freeze when I said this, if it was something I said or just lag I don't know. When she unfroze she gave me a wry smile and what I thought was a fake laugh. "You really are something." She muttered softly, I wasn't supposed to hear it. "Not really, just your typical girl out to find fame, fortune, and most importantly fun. The three 'F's"
"It can't be… You don't even realize it," Amai said shocked. Realize what? I already knew who I was, certainly better than a girl I only met a half hour ago. Even if she realized something about myself that I didn't already know, one of my friends or even one of my family already knew whatever it was too. "Realize what?" I glared at her, I hated being left out if something concerned me, or even if it didn't. "You can break down people's wall. Reach their inner self, without them ever realizing it."
My face gave into confusion, not understanding what she just said. "There are multiple sides to every person. The first is who they are on the outside, the self that most people see. The outer self is easily affected by the people around them, and changes easily. The second self, is someone's instinct, it's the self that comes out whenever they fell threatened. This is the self that is usually displayed in fiction, the extreme side to the person and is impossible to change. The third self is their fictional self, the self they display to total strangers. Not everyone has a third self, but some do, it's impossible to tell if it's fake or not. The final and fourth self a person has is their inner self. It's someone is at their very core, it is ever changing but only those completely trusted can see it, usually at least."
"And you're saying that I get people to reveal their inner selves?" Her theory about someone having multiple selves was too close to my own personality theory to ignore. Someone else thought a similar thing as me, how could I not investigate it further. "Yeah, at least with being the self you were with me… It's possible if you're are your third or first self normally but because your in Second Life you reveal your fourth self, or at least something like that."
In theory it sounds good, but will it work if it's tested. I thought imagining what I could do if I could get anyone to spill their secrets to me. "And how do you know that I can do that?" She looked around us, to see if anyone was around, why do that when we could just use an instant message. "Not here, Bo just messaged me about his pack. He's on his way back here." Then you should hurry up and tell me now, I sighed, "On the way then."
I picked up Gaara so he wouldn't slow us down, silently I hoped that he wouldn't get any bigger than he already was. It was already hard enough to carry him, I didn't want to think of what it would be like when he was full sized. "Come on Gaara." Amai whistled for her wolf.
She nodded, her one visible eye narrowing. "I know because I showed a side of me to you, that I haven't showed anyone in a really long time. There's no way that I've gone soft, so it's the only explanation." I probe for why she was acting in public, she had her secrets and I had mine. Real life didn't matter here, you could be whoever you wanted without worry.
"What's your goal in Second Life?" I asked out of the blue, when we reached the gate. "My goal?" She sent me a questioning look, the wind as we ran blue her bangs to reveal her other eye. It was green. One blue eye and one green, did she customize for it to be like that. "Do you want to be the most popular character? Have the most money? Be the strongest? You know something to work for, instead of just playing through the game. A goal."
"Isn't clearing the game the goal, that's what is in other games." She was faster than I was so she had to look behind her when she spoke to me. "As for a personal goal, I want be legendary. Make your own legend, and all of that." She sounds just like Lollidragon and Prince, I thought, but doesn't everyone think like that when they start a new game. 'I want to be famous, everyone will know my name.' stuff like that, should be very common, but few actually make the effort to accomplish anything.
"My goal is to complete the most quests out of all of the players." To see all of the NPC's and offer whatever I could in order to help. "Heh, so that's why you climbed up that mountain before piking a class." She gestured towards Tikinol's mountain.
Tikinol, I thought looking down, the next player should have already reached the mountain. A female pixie, Tatiana, it didn't seem like she picked her class yet when I first saw her, but it's been over a week since then. "There were other reasons involved, but you could say something like that." She just nodded, not saying anything else related to the subject.
We were fifteen minutes out of the city when she spoke again. "Hey, Pandot what level are you?" I didn't know at the top of my head, we encountered several monsters as we ran from the newbie village and Beast attacked them automatically, I had put Gaara down so he could fight them to. There wasn't any need for me to fight them myself, but I still got the experience points.
"Level twenty-five, Gaara's reached level three. You?" I decided to use up my skill points since we stopped. I bumped up my physique, intelligence, and strength enough so that my intelligence was greater than my brute strength but I still had more physique. "Level thirty, Beast's just got to level four." So she out ranked me, it wasn't that much of a surprise she's had to travel to a city and back.
"Why did you ask?" Gaara ran up to me, finished killing whatever monster crossed his path. He wrapped his arms around my legs in a bear hug, happy to see me again. "Do you want to form a team with me?" A team in Second Life was the equivalent of a guild in all of the other MMORPGs that I've played before, her asking me to start a new one with her was a big deal.
"On one condition. We keep the team small. I don't want to work with hundreds of different people." By being part of a small team would make partying easier, for quests that required multiple people, someone to talk about everything in game with, and it meant I would always have backup. "Deal!" She raised her hand and I accepted it in a shake.
Team's required six people, right now we only had two. Silently I wondered just how messed up our other four members were. We were on our way to having a similar party to the Odd Squad. A warrior with anger issues and a thief with sex appeal. If we get a priest who fought on the front lines, a mage obsessed with money, or a class and race that our basically the opposite of one another. That's not including the bard who acts gay when he isn't.
