Talkin with My Avatar

By RWC-High PriestWill

Chapter One: Huh?

It's been over a year now since I've started playing Ragnarok Online. There were several times I wanted to stop but I kept on going. My efforts paid off. My acolyte Kinoa is near to being a priest and I'm planning on to be a High Priest when the updates come around to pRO. Kinoa is my favorite character and fairly generous to anyone who's looking for help. But the present builds on what is past and I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for him.

I've never been into RPG but when I heard of the Philippine's first Massively Multi Online Role Playing Game, I signed up for the three day trial. Three days later I was only level 5 but I was having a blast. Everything was new and exciting. I choose a cool looking guy with long brown hair in a ponytail and had him named D Arcadia. (My sister thought the name was cute.) Remember your first times? First time I beat a Rocker, first time I sold something to another player...first you got an item and not sure if you should sell it...then the first time I changed jobs. It took me near forever but I was assigned to be an archer. So there I was, thinking being an archer is the coolest job ever because I got to be one. I could almost laugh at my beginning mistakes but unfortunately the bad times outweighed the good. Novelty wore off: you could only level up so many times. Talking was moot since 70 of the people I meet are jerks. The guys anyway, the girls (if they really are girls) just ignore me. No one CTC. For a multi player game, it grew quite lonesome. I'm not used to being a party, online or in "Real life." I don't have friends who'd hang out with me after school and play together or stuff. I'm kinda an outcast in my "real" life and now in the game. Yup, so much for the great online experience. To tell the truth I'd like someone to chat with, be my bud and confidante and all that... I read stories of great friendships that last forever and blah...I'm envious of that. I see people flock and laugh together but if I even try to join I eventually get mocked. I hate people who mock, very unkind too. Jerks. Still I persisted, a part of me believed in good players and in friendships. I couldn't play regularly since there are troubles at home and I'm stuck with school work but I play every chance I get. Aside from t.v. or manga, computers were my passion.

Three months after I've started playing, I was growing quite tired. I decided to log out...maybe forever or maybe for a while. I was rubbing my eyes with one hand while the other was hovering on the Esc key when someone "whispered" to me. Perfectly normal, I've gotten those before. What happened next made my jaw drop. Written on my chat window was the name of...D Arcadia?

"Hey, dude, what's up?"

Ano ang nangyayari? Virus ata. I better log out and reboot immediately.

"Dude, answer back, please?"

Please? That was new. No one ever said please to me, so to be polite I whisper the first answer that came to my mind...

"WTF! How is this happening!" By its own will /heh appeared in my typing bar, a second later a laughing emoticon above my character.

"Nice to finally meet you too."

Impossible as it may seem...so began the talks with my avatar.

"How can you possibly talk to me???" I whispered back quickly. Was there some sort of oversight from Level up! Na pwedeng two players will have the same name? Pero I was alone in this area. And that didn't explain the emoticon appearing in my typing bar and over D's head.

"Uh, dude, could you sit me down first, please?" You can talk, why don't you sit yourself down, I wanted to respond, nevertheless I pushed the insert key. D kneeled down. Again characters appeared in my typing bar, /thx and the bubble of thanks appeared over his head. I repeated my question.

"I don't know dude but it's pretty nice being able to talk to you." He gave me a thumbs up. I twisted my face trying to figure out what to say next.

"It's pretty weird for me. Paano kaya nagkaganito?" I finally replied.

Confusion in his emoticon. "Aaaahhh…sorry, dude, didn't catch your last word…"

"Never mind." I typed.

"Sure. Hey! I feel better now. Let's go hunting!" He was standing now, eager to start to act. I just noticed that his hp was full, a nice green color. Awhile back it was red.

"C'mon,dude, let's move."

"Right. You can talk, can't you move too?"

A giant question mark over his head.

"Never mind, D, let's go."

I was having too much fun, D kept making crazy remarks to the monsters (Hey, I don't like your music, now quit hitting with that violin!) that I totally forgot that not only was it past midnight and I had school; my load was almost used up! D and I had just finished whacking another Rocker (I had no arrows left) when that dreaded message popped. I dumbly watched my archer still going up and down, a question mark frozen on top his head. I reluctantly log off and shut down my PC. But as I swerved out of chair, I realized something.

I couldn't wait to play again.

Special thanks to L.C. Techno,my little sister,who beta read my fanfiction and corrected my grammatical mistakes even though she was dead tired from her trip and rather wanted to work on her own fics.

(whatever)