Chapter Two: Strangeness
School next day dragged on forever. I rushed back home, grabbing a fifty peso Top-up card; good for eight hours. Gluing myself in front of the computer, I glared at my sister who wanted to play. I loaded my account and connected to game. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I clicked on my character and watched the loading screen shot up. There was my archer, right where I left him.
"Welcome back, dude."
So it wasn't an illusion or my overactive mind working! He was still there. Fine, everything was unbelievable and I'm still not sure if I should contact Level Up! Or tell somebody. But the point is: He's still there and talking.
"Hey D, why do you call me dude?"
A giant question mark appeared again on his head. "Would you like to be called something else?"
I thought about it for a while. I bent over the keyboard, typing away.
"Yeah, just call me...Chris"
"Righty-o, Chris." /no1.
I couldn't help typing my own /no1.
There were a few things that were strange with D Arcadia (oh yeah, what wasn't strange with a talking avatar?) For instance he only speaks in perfect English. Conversing with him with in-game terms was—let's say—challenging. In any online game, certain jargon and shortcuts are created so we'd spend less time typing or we could outsiders go crazy with our talk. Take for example 'pots'. You and I know that it stands for potions, not, as D tried to guess, an item used by wizards to 'brew' stuff (like cauldrons). I have to explain the stuff that players like to say.
"Can I ask question?" D sent me.
"You already did." I typed back.
He laughed. Like all avatars, he was mouth less so naturally he used an emoticon.
"Yeah, but I've got to ask..."
"What's amp?"
"Er...uh..." I stalled. I spent a good half hour explaining to him. But D learns very fast...sometimes even too fast...
I was leading him towards Poring Island when some punk passed by and saw D shooting a PecoPeco. I messed up my archer's statistics because I didn't know you could adjust the beginning stats. D was left weaker than he should've have been. The punk began telling how pathetic my archer, in Tagalog and computer pidgin. D finished shooting the Peco and said something quickly.
"Oh yeah? AMP ka!"
I quickly dragged him away.
"Why did you say that?"
"That guy was totally insulting us. I had to say something!" D was really miffed. /pif kept on appearing on my typing bar and over his head.
"D," I typed to him. "I don't get mad, I get even. Don't worry, I'm gonna report that guy for harassment." True, I got a screenshot.
"..."
"C'mon, you're forgetting about Poring Island."
"Poring Island? Let's go!"
--oOo--
D gets so excited about adventuring, he'd willing take on monsters twice his size—and level. Good thing I still get to control his actions or else he'd be dead ten times over. I make sure he fights only what he could handle. We were at his favorite training grounds, Payon fields. We'd just upped his job level to 20 so he begged to take on a Wolf.
Double strafe was the way to go until Vagabond Wolf came our way! Within seconds we were engulfed in a mob of wolves. D could not keep up and fell. (Chris! I'm gonna...) The mob had moved on while I furiously began calling D. His name was on the whisper box but no words appeared on my screen. Something that would happen only if you try to talk with yourself.
"Wag naman, please." I pleaded, cursing myself for not buying an Yggdrasil berry. D hasn't died since he began talking and I'm not sure how it'd affect. Will he lose the ability to speak? Will he remember anything? I pressed the escape key, warping us back inside Payon. I tried again whispering; the words disappeared as soon I hit enter.
I slumped on our office chair, the reality hitting me hard. Had our talks truly ended before it began? D was just there standing then...a black, translucent box emerged above his head.
"Got you, Chris." Those four familiar characters flashed in my typing bar before transforming into his favorite emoticon.
My hands sprung to life as the words tried to express my feeling...
"Walang hiya ka!"
And if there was an emoticon na dumidila I'm sure he would've been using it impunity.
--oOo--
Betareader notes: Hoy kuya, you make your chapters too short. Heh. Far less grammatical errors but I replaced a word or two for style.
Amp- it's an expletive in pRO
Wag naman, please- roughly "Please don't"
Walang hiya ka! - roughly "You have no shame." But used here as something like "Darn you!"
Dumidila- sticking out your tongue
