Title: call the ocean waves ashore
Rating: T
Summary: Funny, the things people do in the name of Glory. [OC-centric, eSports!OC, starts pre-canon, AU]
Warnings: None.
(AN at bottom.)
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call the ocean waves ashore
"01: sea foam, saltwater spray"
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August 21st, 2002.
Xia Lan is born on a clear summer morning to Xia Hong and Wu Yueru in a quiet hospital of B City, China. The timely birth of their first child is the only reason why the headstrong young couple finally decides to put down recent thoughts of divorce, and cautiously give their sinking ship of a marriage another go.
"For our daughter," is what Wu Yueru says to her husband, mouth set in a determined line. "Maybe we should try giving this another shot. What do you say?"
Xia Hong nods silently in response, and that is that.
For the two young parents, at least.
On Xia Lan's part, she can only express complete and utter confusion. There are few things more disconcerting than suddenly waking up one day, only to find yourself regressed to the body of a newborn infant in some parallel reality. It takes a good five years of sorting out jumbled memories that sporadically flicker in and fade out for her to finally piece things together and make any real sense out of her strange, surreal situation.
… She's still not quite sure what to make of this whole 'being reborn' business, even now. Some strange quirk of the universe, perhaps?
The girl tries not to think too much on it.
At any rate, from the looks of things this alternate world seems to be more or less the same as her previous one, by and large. Certain changes in political policies and technological advancements aside, that is. Thankfully, there's none of the whole 'life-threatening fantasy world'-shtick going on here. Being thrown off the deep end into a hazardous world of fire-breathing dragons or superhuman ninjas would be… problematic.
(What a nightmarish thought.)
Her new appearance is plain, simple. Feathery ash-black hair coupled by soot-black eyes, utterly unremarkable in every respect and virtually indistinguishable from any of the other girls in her preschool class. That's fine. Xia Lan has never been one to overly care for her appearance. It's a definite shame to her mother's genes, though; Wu Yueru herself is quite the classical Chinese beauty.
As a young aspiring author, it's not an uncommon sight to see Wu Yueru daintily poised over her books and tirelessly going through her handwritten manuscripts with a cluster of multicolored pens in hand. Xia Lan doesn't really understand much about it, though. Even with all the Chinese poetry that her mother is strangely insistent on stuffing down her throat, she's never really been much for literature. Her father, Xia Hong, doesn't seem to be much interested in literature, either, but the busy lawyer is out of the house so often that Xia Lan admittedly doesn't know very much about the man's interests and hobbies at all –if he even has any in the first place. The man is a complete workaholic. It's always court case after court case for him, and…
And it's not hard to see why Wu Yueru might be upset with him nearly all the time, what with the way he's always out and about and never at home, but the quiet man provides for them with nary a word of complaint, even after the worst arguments with his wife. Xia Lan, a once-college student who'd had to support her own tuition and living expenses, can certainly appreciate that… if not approve of his methods entirely.
Honestly, she doesn't really understand why the two had a child together in the first place, if the majority of their attentions is always focused on picking arguments with each other whenever they're standing in the same room. It's probably a good thing that Xia Lan isn't really a child who needs the constant care and attentive guidance of her parents; heavens knows how an actual child would've turned out in an environment like this…
Irresponsible. How irresponsible of them.
… But at the same time, it's not something Xia Lan faults her new parents for with any real heat, because the truth of the matter is –she doesn't need them, not the way children usually need their parents, so it's a moot point, in the end. If anything, the hands-off approach is even relieving, in a way; Xia Lan isn't sure how well she'd deal with actually being treated like the young child she currently is.
(Not).
To the outer world, though, Xia Hong and Wu Yueru are excellent parents who have done a great job in raising their daughter. After all, Xia Lan is a remarkably quiet and well-mannered child who doesn't kick up any fuss the way her preschool counterparts are wont to do; every parent-teacher conference will somehow bring out a mention of Xia Lan being so well-behaved and responsible–
But the truth of the matter is, her behavior, her character, her personality… none of it has anything to do with Xia Hong and Wu Yueru's 'attentive upraising.'
Wu Yueru might smile demurely with a faint flicker of self-satisfaction at the praise she hears, but Xia Hong is a little sharper; by the time Xia Lan is seven years old, he treats her almost like a mini-adult, if with the occasional childish indulgences.
Which is fine, she is his daughter…
Maybe it's because they are her parents by blood, that any oddities are overlooked and passed over for personal quirks. It helps that Xia Lan does not go out of her way to flaunt her cognitive superiority over her peers, instead preferring to let attention gather and slide off from her like water does the feathers of a duckling. To date, her father only thinks of her as an unusually self-sufficient child, which isn't wrong, but neither is it entirely right, because–
Xia Lan is not a child.
College graduate. Junior data analyst, working at a respectable firm. And now, seven year old elementary school student.
It's… a bit of a drastic change from what she was once used to, to say the least. Quite the change.
She doesn't have any friends at school, which isn't surprising. Acquaintances, perhaps, but she only uses the term very loosely –mostly, Xia Lan has a couple of neighbors that she walks to school with, and a few familiar faces that she does school projects with. It's the most she can handle without feeling the need to throttle any of the little mischief-making munchkins.
"How was school today? Did you make some good progress on your project in your study group?"
"… Fine." Xia Lan pauses in the doorway, glancing over at her mother. The woman appears as serene as ever, shuffling the drafts on her desk as she carefully tucks a pen behind her ear, but Xia Lan also sees the way there are faint bags under the woman's eyes, and how the screen of her cellphone is lit up by several missed calls all from the same number. A very distinctive number, one that Xia Hong had personally typed into the cellphone that he'd handed to Xia Lan herself and told her to keep on her person at all times.
"Good, good." Wu Yueru's attention slides away from her daughter, and the woman adjusts her glasses, smiling softly. "Dinner will be here soon. I've ordered takeout from Meizhou tonight; it should be delivered sometime in the next half hour."
"Okay." Should she ask? Judging by what she's seen so far… "Should we wait for dad to come home before eating?"
Something in the edge of Wu Yueru's gentle smile cracks, turns thin and ice-like, bitter and jagged. "No, he's too busy. Your father will be out getting dinner with some of his associates tonight. Again. There's no point in waiting for him. Go clean up, Lanlan. Remember to wash your hands."
The unresolved tension festering between her parents finally comes to a head the year she turns eight years old; after a rather spectacularly explosive argument at 2AM in the living room, the two finally drop what little tattered pieces remain of their unconvincing pretense of being a happy family.
To be honest, it's been a long time coming. Inevitable, unavoidable.
"It's always work work work work work with you! When was the last time you came home and spent time with your daughter, you heartless man? Why don't you just go and marry your job already! I should never have married you in the first place!"
"I work so you and Lanlan can live comfortably; what will it take for you to finally see that? Why don't you understand?"
It's a rather messy affair, even more so when new arguments spring afresh when it comes to the details dividing the finances. In the end, they even take things to court, which is surprising; Xia Hong is a lawyer himself, after all. He knows the rules, the loopholes, has the connections.
In a stunning upset, Wu Yueru gains custody of the child and a good portion of their shared finances. Subsequently, the woman promptly decides to move out of the country.
"There are better opportunities in the US," is what the woman tells her, a new fire burning alight in her eyes. That might be true, but Xia Lan is certain that there's more reasoning to her decision than that pitiful explanation.
It doesn't bother her quite as much as it should've; a normal child might've balked at the thought of uprooting their life to leave for an entirely different country, but Xia Lan just nods and asks when they will be leaving. It's probably a little rusty by this point, but at least she knows how to speak the language, courtesy of a previous non-life.
The answer she receives from her mother is, "As soon as possible."
Despite everything, in the end Xia Hong still sees them off at the airport. Wu Yueru turns to the side and refuses to acknowledge her former husband's presence, but does not stop him from stooping down to Xia Lan's height and patting the little girl's shoulder.
"Take care of yourself," Xia Hong says simply to her, only a brief hesitance before the words spill out from his mouth and his gaze lowers to the side. Xia Lan stares silently at the man, feels the way his calloused fingers linger on her shoulder, and finally responds with a vague sound of assent.
"I wish you all the best, dad."
It's minuscule, but the man flinches. She is not the only one to notice; from the side, Wu Yueru is no longer able to hold her silence. The woman snorts derisively, then takes Xia Lan's hand in her own and tugs the girl away.
"There's no need to say that to someone like him. We're leaving, Lanlan. Good riddance!"
Xia Lan turns, giving her father a small wave. For a moment, it seems like the man raises his own hand in a responding farewell, but Wu Yueru only tightens her grip on her hand and quickens her pace. Xia Lan stumbles, the crowd closes in around them, and she loses sight of the quiet man in a heartbeat.
"We're better off without someone like him," her mother tells her, once they're boarded on the plane and awaiting takeoff. "You're still young, so you might not understand it yet… but you'll see. This is for the best. I'm sorry."
Maybe there are some details about the mess between Xia Hong and Wu Yueru that escape her, but it's not like Xia Lan is really an oblivious eight year old girl. Her parents' court case… with Xia Hong's abilities, there is no way such a well-respected lawyer like him would've lost a case against his aspiring-writer, stay-at-home wife, unless it was deliberate. Or at the very least, he could've put up a much stronger struggle to prolong the case, delay the final decision in deciding the custody of the child, if that was what he truly cared for.
Handing Wu Yueru most of their shared finances… something about it reads more as apology than lack of ability to Xia Lan. Her mother is not entirely wrong in her biased assessment.
For all his virtues, at his core Xia Hong is still very much a cold, heartless man.
She doesn't blame him for it, doesn't resent him for it in the least. There's no reason for her to.
Xia Lan loves her parents, but it's a very distant sort of patchwork love, vague affection, quiet gratitude tinged with regret, because it is all she is capable of offering them.
The decision to have a child might mean that the parents in question have a responsibility to take care of their child, yes, but they don't owe her anything. Fortunately, Xia Lan has long since learned to be grateful for what she has and never expect too much of anyone. It only ever leads to disappointment, in the end.
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Her new name is Lilith Xia.
… Well. It's not the first one, so she easily takes it in stride with a shrug. Just another label to get used to.
Wu Yueru –now Yolanda Wu– had been very enthusiastic about looking up unique English names after deciding their move to America, and this is the result of that.
"A new name, a new beginning," her mother smiles, and some of the tension in the woman's posture finally loosens. "We'll make a better life for ourselves here."
Xia Lan glances around at the too-quiet house, the pasty walls and the scratched counter-tops, and says nothing. It's a far cry from the home she lived in for the last eight years, but it's still a good place to live, if a bit… dusty. There's nothing wrong with being a little careful with one's purse strings. She wonders how much of Xia Hong's earnings Wu Yueru spent moving here.
America is… different, but still the same as the America in her dream-memories of another lifetime. It's a rather strange, surreal feeling. Wu Yueru is proud that her daughter speaks English with barely an accent, but pins it down to the English teachers from elementary school. The woman has no idea.
… It's probably for the best.
Back in China, Xia Lan had managed to fall into a balance of quiet coexistence with her classmates. Most of them had gone to the same preschool, and several of the girls in class lived around the neighborhood. Here, however, she quickly gains a name for herself as the weird foreign girl, and honestly, even Xia Lan herself is a little confused on the details of how that came about so rapidly. But being an adult in terms of mentality means that she isn't much bothered by juvenile attempts at teasing and taunting, which somehow only drives a deeper wedge between her and the rest of her new classmates.
Yeah, it looks like actual friends are going to have to wait until college, at this rate.
Not having very many friends means not having much reason to run around outdoors, which in turn means that Xia Lan spends a good portion of her time at home in an empty apartment. Again, it's a good thing that she's a very self-sufficient child who doesn't require much adult supervision –if any at all.
A very self-sufficient, bored child. If she had a child's mischief…
"Bored? Oh, I see. Schoolwork isn't challenging enough for you, is it?" Wu Yueru smiles, but the bright expression does nothing to hide the fatigue in the single mother's slender frame. Yet another failed meeting with a potential publisher, it seems. "What about your friends, then? It'd be good for you, to go out and get some more sun."
"… They're boring, too."
The woman pauses, and levels a flat look at her daughter. Xia Lan refuses to budge. It's the truth.
Wu Yueru tilts her head back, leaning back on her chair in a move that looks suspiciously like a quick prayer for patience. There's also a quick mutter of something along the lines of, "Why me?" Because while Xia Lan is undoubtedly a very easy child to take care of –mostly because she doesn't require much care at all, aside from the basic necessities– her distinctly un-childlike behavior is both a point of pride and a spot of worry for Wu Yueru.
But.
"If you're really against it… I won't force you to do anything," the woman sighs. "Well. If you're really that bored, then you can go and type up some of my handwritten drafts. Is that enough for you?"
It is, in a single word, tedious. Undoubtedly, her mother planned to use this as a tactic to make her so thoroughly sick of staying indoors that she'd take initiative herself in heading outdoors more often, but–
But it's something to do, which is all Xia Lan wanted in the first place when approaching her mother on this topic.
Wu Yueru writes a variety of short novels –but the ones that she is most passionate about are those of the wuxia variety, all swordsmen and adventure and whirlwind romance. The plotlines are different, the characters unique, but it still comes across as rather formulaic to Xia Lan, which might explain her mother's minimal audience back in China. The woman is trying to push forward the wuxia genre here in America in English, which…
… well. Good luck. It's not like there's not a market for it at all, but what little exists of it is almost laughably minuscule. There is no cultural background that makes the genre easily accepted, and sometimes things don't translate over quite well, only ending up rather awkward-sounding instead, which only exacerbates the problem.
Like she said: Good luck.
"It's not easy, I know that," is what Wu Yueru confesses to her little daughter one night, when she is feeling particularly stressed, but. "But when is anything worth having ever easy?"
… Good luck.
It's sometime between the mindless click-clack digital transcribing of Wu Yueru's novels and the aimless browsing of trending YouTube videos that leads Xia Lan to trying out her first MMORPG. Done purely out of boredom, out of a desperation to kill time somehow. Having gone through the schooling system once already –or at least, possessing the memories of having done so– means that Xia Lan puts much less stock into textbook bookwork; there's not really any point in it until high school/college in the American system, and even then, practical application and experience trumps theory. Unless one has their heart set on research, but that's a different matter altogether.
'Don't play games; you'll get distracted and your grades will drop. School is much more important, don't you agree?'
… Considering that school is a mixture of mind-numbingly dull and vaguely irritating, if only due to all the little hellions running around… no, Xia Lan does not agree.
Her first game, Sword Art Online, is one of the more popular online games; there are literally thousands of tutorials and guides posted by various experienced gamers, and there is even a professional stage for it; from the looks of it, SAO appears to be a well-liked favorite in the budding field of professional eSports, what with all the promotional activities and overall furor going around the online forums.
It's… interesting.
Interesting, the hype that's been built up around this. It's fun, but Xia Lan doesn't really understand the near-fanatic way some people seem to devote themselves to the game. Then again, who is she to judge?
(Sure, the graphics are pretty. Sure, the storyline is engaging. Sure, the gameplay is well-designed. But–)
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: [To:][orchid128] yooo we're challenging the floor boss wanna come?
[orchid128]: Sure.
SAO is set in the floating castle Aincrad. Initially, the goal of the game was to clear all 100 floors of the castle, but now the levels have increased to 150 in wake of the subsequent updates over the years. Floor bosses on previously-cleared floors can still be challenged for rare drops and bonus experience points.
It's quite common, for players to form parties to challenge these floor bosses. Difficulty scaled accordingly depending on the number of challenging players, and this time it seemed like Nyaa-Nyanko wanted to go ahead with a five-person group. Quite small, considering the maximum was 50 –although recent rumors on the forums claimed that the game developers were thinking of increasing the maximum capacity.
Not that it affects anything at the moment for Xia Lan, of course.
It doesn't take long before the girl is sent a set of coordinates indicating the area to meet up, and even less for her to make her way over.
[System Announcement]: [Nyaa-Nyanko] has invited [orchid128] to join the team. Accept? [Y/N].
[System Announcement]: [orchid128] has accepted [Nyaa-Nyanko]'s invitation and is now a member of [Awesome Sauce].
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: hey
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: heyyyyyy guess who finally made it here! :D
[ziGzaGziP]: hello there! welcome aboard.
[god_of_war137]: Welcome
[EMIYAisBAE]: yooooooooo
Four players. Out of the four of them, Xia Lan is only somewhat familiar with Nyaa-Nyanko, whom she initially met in a random call for gathering a twenty-person boss challenge team and kept in touch with ever since after receiving a friend request post-boss hunt. Nyaa-Nyanko is a very exuberant type of person. Or at least, that's what Nyaa-Nyanko's online personality comes across as.
[orchid128]: Hello.
It's a simple response, one that promptly receives a little heart emoticon from Nyaa-Nyanko almost immediately after Xia Lan sends it into the team's group chat window.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: so good to see you again! haven't been able to catch you the past few days. how r u?
Ah. That. She may have spent a good several days blitzing through the pile of handwritten drafts her mother left her earlier this week so she wouldn't have to split her attention between the mind-numbing work and gaming every afternoon.
[orchid128]: I was a bit busy recently. It's fine now, though.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: QwQ okok remember to take care of yourself!
[orchid128]: Thank you. :)
[god_of_war137]: … So, not to be rude or anything, but
[god_of_war137]: Are we going to challenge Bracken anytime this century?
[ziGzaGziP]: ^seconded
[EMIYAisBAE]: ^
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: !
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: rude
[god_of_war137]: [Sorry Not Sorry][JPG]
[ziGzaGziP]: ^
[EMIYAisBAE]: ^
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: RUDE
There's a small smile twitching at the corner of Xia Lan's lips as she observes the lighthearted exchange in the chat log. It's the sort of good-natured ribbing common among friends, and it makes something a tad bit wistful twinge inside of her.
… Xia Lan isn't quite a hardcore gamer just yet, but she admits there's something about playing an anonymous character online that draws her in. Because taking on such an identity in her interactions with others allows her to relax, in a way that is impossible for her in real life. In the world of SAO, she isn't Lilith Xia, the weird little eight year old kid-who-isn't-really-a-kid anymore. She's orchid128, lv.37 swordsman –or swordswoman, as the case may be– and orchid128 doesn't need to restrict her vocabulary or watch her behavior or suffer her mother's concern whenever she sees her little girl cooped up at home every day.
[orchid128]: I'm actually kind of in agreement with them. [To:][Nyaa-Nyanko] O fearless leader, when are we going boss hunting, exactly?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: ….
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: okay okay FINE we're going in rn ARE YOU GUYS HAPPY YET
[god_of_war137]: Fearless Nyanko's the greatest!
[ziGzaGziP]: ^
[orchid128]: ^
[EMIYAisBAE]: ^
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: AKSFBSVLDUGHHH.
Xia Lan laughs softly, directing her in-game avatar to follow the team's movements.
Fighting Bracken the Prison Warden, the Floor 40 Aincrad boss, is… rather difficult, but not overly so. Xia Lan might be new to games in general, but her reaction speed when concentrating is nothing to scoff at, and even if she can't reach all the keys on the keyboard so easily quite just yet, her hand speed is still a little on the fast side.
Must be from all the mindless typing she's done for her mother.
Recently, Wu Yueru is in a slightly better mood –she's found a job as an English-Chinese translator, and the knowledge that she doesn't solely depend on the money won from her court case with Xia Hong anymore successfully loosens the ever-present tension in her body. The woman still hasn't given up on her novels, and has started posting bits and pieces of her writing online; it doesn't seem like she's making any big waves, but Wu Yueru remains undaunted. Everything starts out difficult in the beginning, doesn't it? Perseverance is key.
Xia Lan's ninth birthday comes and passes with little fanfare.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: happy birthdayyyyyyyyyy [Birthday Cake][JPG]
[god_of_war137]: [Birthday Cake][JPG]
Xia Lan looks at the well-wishes from her SAO friends, and wonders what it means that they are the first ones to wish her happy birthday. Wu Yueru is busy trying to meet her editor's deadlines in her room, and it's a perfectly legitimate reason, it's not like Xia Lan is particularly miffed by her mother's frazzled oversight or anything, but–
Sometimes, she can't help but wonder.
.
.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: so so so have you heard have you heard?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: [To:][orchid128][To:][orchid128][To:][orchid128]
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: o w o
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: c'mon
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: i kno ur there stop hidinggg qwwq
Xia Lan looks away from the mob monsters that she's currently grinding EXP on, taking in the rapid-fire messages from her friend that pop up one after another with little pause, and sends a sparse response.
[orchid128]: ?
Luckily, her friend does not seem deterred.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: it's coming
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: r u ready for it
… Oh. Oh, Xia Lan knows where this is going.
[orchid128]: Is this about the latest craze on the forums again?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: GLORY IS FINALLY COMING TO NORTH AMERICA!
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: i'm
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: hELLa eXCiTeD!
GLORY.
As she's been getting into the gaming community, there are many glowing endorsements for recently-popular GLORY that she's heard, a Chinese MMORPG that seems to be the newest craze. It's not without reason; from the spoilers and teaser trailers going around online, the graphics are top-notch and the premise seems pretty interesting. Unlike SAO, however, GLORY is played from a first-person perspective –that will certainly be a challenge to adjust to.
Once the game is released, of course.
Xia Lan finishes killing the last Vampire Bat attacking her character just as Nyaa-Nyanko's next message flashes in the corner of her screen.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: hey hey you're def going to be playing GLORY too, right?
Yeah. Yeah, she is.
Granted, Nyaa-Nyanko's question is not without cause. There have actually been many complaints from other gaming enthusiasts about the requirement for buying an account card and a log-in device simply for an online game that needs to be downloaded anyways, but Xia Lan has a little money saved up on the side from bits and pieces that she's earned as her mother's personal typist over the years. Honestly, she's a bit of a gaming nerd herself now, but online games are pretty fun once you get into them, and at least–
At least it's something to kill the time.
(Life is short. It's not often that she finds something she enjoys, and it's a better alternative than throwing herself into petty squabbles with schoolyard children and meaningless competition over grades.)
[orchid128]: Yes, I'll be trying it out as well. :) Are you going to be pre-forming a guild again? Just like GGO?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: yup yup!
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: lol u kno me so well orchid :P
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: we've got the naming stuff figured out here already! the goal is to lvl like CRAZY to make a guild first, and we're gonna be the PANTHEON and all of our chara will have greek god/goddess names it'll b GR8
Xia Lan smiles, and it's a touch exasperated. Out of their usual gaming group of seven or so people, Nyaa-Nyanko is the only one who's endlessly particular about user IDs.
[orchid128]: Sounds good. Have you picked out a name already?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: hell to the YEAH
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: i'm gonna be HESTIA
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: … or hera i haven't decided. they both pretty cool.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: [Indecision][JPG][Indecision][JPG]
[orchid128]: I see.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: no u don't u don't understand this is such a PAINFUL decision orz orz
[orchid128]: :)
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: but enough about me what about u have u thought of anything yet?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: god of war over here wants to be ARES cuz he's a boring biscuit, emiya wants to be Poseidon, cygnus-starlight is going for apollo… and i can't rly remember but i think artemis, hermes, and dionysus r all taken, too?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: ooooooh wait wait.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: u should totally be AthEnA
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: god of war and all that jazz! ;) ;) ;)
[orchid128]: … isn't that Ares?
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: NUH UH
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: Athena is war, too.
[Nyaa-Nyanko]: OKAY ORCHID IS GONNA BE ATHENA OUR GROUP IS GOOD TO GO
And that is that.
Xia Lan graduates elementary school, enters middle school at eleven years old just like everyone else, and soon in the first summer of her middle school years, welcomes the NA release of GLORY just a few weeks after she turns twelve. As per Nyaa-Nyanko's request, she names her in-game avatar Athena, and surprisingly enough she actually gets the ID –one would think that 'Athena' would be a very popular name among players. Although, the same would probably hold true for the other names of divinities as well…
Best of luck with your grand naming plan, Nyaa-Nyanko. Or rather, Hera.
Adjusting to a first-person perspective game when you're used to playing from a third-person perspective turns out to be a rather challenging ordeal, as excepted. But it's quite fun, and the mechanics in GLORY allows for the player to control some fairly subtle movements of their characters as well, which is quite different from Xia Lan had grown used to in the other MMORPGs she's played. There's a wide selection of classes as well, and she actually finds herself quite torn between several of them, before eventually deciding on a Priest-class Cleric; she's done a lot of close-range melee in SAO and long-range shooter types in GGO, even dabbled briefly with various magicks in ALO, and trying out a support-class sounds fun–
[TheREALHera]: noooooooo don't do it don't do it DON'T, FOR THE SWEET LOVE OF GOD
[Ares]: There she goes again
[Ares]: [Facepalm][JPG]
[TheREALHera]: shut up i hope you get killed by goblins
[TheREALHera]: no rly listen up DON'T DO IT. Who's ever head of a support-class Athena? Athena is a goddess of WAR and BATTLE you need a MELEE class to match ur name I FORBID CLERIC
[Athena]: …
[Ares]: Wait. That's your reason? I thought it was because you wanted a balanced party and Aphrodite81 already chose Cleric.
[TheREALHera]: … DON'T MIND THE DETAILS
In the end, Xia Lan changes her class to Blade Master after reaching level 20. There would always be time to make an alternate account in the future, and wasn't the whole point of gaming with other players to enjoy it with friends?
As compared to the long, toiling days of elementary school, her middle school days seem to go by in a flash. Between running dungeons and killing bosses and learning how to make her own equipment, Xia Lan spends the majority of her days squirreled away online. It worries her mother in the beginning, when the woman finally notices, but Xia Lan reassures Wu Yueru by showing the woman her strong grades, and explaining that gaming is a way for her to relax and wind down, and increase her focus when she concentrates.
It's not a lie.
Wu Yueru nods slowly, not entirely satisfied by the explanation, but at the very least she is appeased. Although… "Do you have any interest in any sports, Lanlan? Instruments? A piano is a little expensive, but don't you think the violin is nice?"
In her past life, she'd learned to play the piano at her family's urging and kept it up all the way until college, before dropping it. There's not much she remembers aside from a few ghostly chords now, but Xia Lan knows that she has little interest in going through the same song and dance again.
"I'll think about it."
Xia Lan signs up for a math club at school and brings home extra worksheets filled with problems to solve, and this seems to make her mother happy. What the woman doesn't know is that Xia Lan only does the bare minimum as an official club member: Pick up worksheets at the beginning of the week, return them the next week, then pick up new worksheets again. It's dull and mindless, but Xia Lan puts up with it because it makes Wu Yueru happy, and she is not ungrateful for all that the woman has provided her with, for all her lacking. Xia Lan is aware that she's not exactly the easiest child to take care of, precisely because she is so easy to take care of, and the girl is perfectly willing to make some concessions here and there, if it means keeping Wu Yueru happy.
It's not perfect, but it's a balance. It's a careful balance that lasts throughout her middle school years and even well into her first year of high school, from the first server all the way into Heaven's Domain. (And boy, what a ruckus the Heaven's Domain update had stirred up among the players…)
This is how the balance breaks:
[Ares]: Hey, Athena
[Ares]: So, would you happen to be interested in playing GLORY professionally?
.
.
…
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EDIT 19.01.09: Minor misspellings corrected.
Author's Notes:
I can't believe I'm actually doing this.
… Hi all! Quan Zhi Gao Shou fanfic in the works here, hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter. (Bows, dodges tomatoes) Canon is still a ways off, patience young grasshoppers. We'll get to China eventually.
I will (probably?) be cross-posting this on AO3 as well? But stay tuned here since FFN will definitely receive earlier updates as compared to AO3. Even though no one is really in the fandom here on FFN… :v
QUESTION: Anything you'd like to see in a QZGS OC-centric fanfic, folks? Speak up, speak up; still planning things and reading the original text here, will take suggestions into consideration.
Ta,
XxZuiliu