Modeling
"Stop following me!" I snapped.
"You're my master, I have to follow you," He explained.
I sighed and turned around. This was my first day logging back in since the hidden quest. And already this new pet was becoming a problem. Because I kept forgetting the fact he was my pet. One minute, I was trying to train him like a dog, and the next I was contemplating kicking him for fear he was a stalker.
"I have costumers to serve. If you blindly follow me around like a lost puppy, I'll definitely loose popularity with my clients," I explained.
"Well shouldn't it help you, I do look like a player, right? It just means one more person who's in favor of you," He argued.
True..With his looks he'd bring in more girls if he were working here. And just the fact he looked like a player made it seem like he was interested in mediocre me, thus I'd have more costumers because I was popular with better looking guys. Fat buffoons like to think the girls their with make them more attractive or something. This guy was clueless enough to be amazed by food, but smart enough to convince me into letting him be my stalker? His personality was so contradicting..Because it was as if he knew some abstract things better than I did, but he doesn't 'understand' them. I didn't think he understood why the costumers come here, or why certain people only come to me, he just understood it as a business. But in truth, this restaurant is for pervert guys who like having pretty girls flirt with them..
"Look..Just try not to make a scene," I said reluctantly.
"I'm not filming a movie.." He began.
"It's a figure of speech. It means, don't bring to much attention to yourself," I explained.
My corner of the restaurant was packed full. In fact, being the first one online, I was the first to see everything. Otaku Cafe in the real world hands out REM headsets on odd hours to the customers. This is because, at that time, all the customers switch to their REM avatars and replenish their HP at Maid's Healing, our restaurant on the game. And when I had come in this morning(it's Sunday, and Sunday shifts are from 10 to 3), there didn't seem to be too many people. Our normal rate of clientele.. But now, as I was in the game itself, Tons of people that are not in Otaku Cafe are pouring in the doors. They all piled in my section of the restaurant and some even stood in the door way. What was going on?
"So it is true! The legendary Ice Lord is now a maid's pet!" A man said walking up to me. He was an elf, and he seemed to tower over both me and The Ice lord- I mean,Toshiro. And even though he was heavily armored and quite honestly very scary, he looked like he was weaker than me. In fact, my auto system was confirming it. There would be a lot of people now that would be weaker than me, that was because I was now level 200..
"Sir, if you're not going to order something, I suggest you leave my master alone," Toshiro said rather spontaneously. What was with this mood change again. It was like his auto setting, though he didn't really have one. It was when he battled, or when a programing is overwriting his common sense. This icy cold aura starts to be present, and his eyes just suddenly turn empty.
"An NPC that can respond to phrases outside of his programing, now that is an interesting find," The elf guy observed.
Tch. He was sharp. I couldn't let Toshiro talk so freely now, I should confront him later about acting like a regular NPC. Like Ichi-nii said, if he was reported to an administrator, he would be deleted..
"Go on, do it again, reply to my words. It's quite interesting," He urged.
Toshiro opens his mouth to say something but a reachd behind me and tug on his shihakshou. He immediately shut his mouth and looked down at me curiously. Man I was a freaking midget in this crowd, I thought being taller was cool but, now I was still short compared to the other people on this game..
"Maybe you should visit your mother sometime, Mr. because you seem to have no manners at all. I don't know about you, but where I come from, we introduce ourselves before profiling others like criminals," I stated, pushing Toshiro back so that he didn't step in the fight.
"Forgive my rudeness," He said, bowing, "My occupation for REM is that of the journalist. I happen to write the news report for the entire world of REM. I am in need of a headline, you see. And a level one maid, scoring big, by nothing but a fluke, now that is a story, don't you agree," He began.
"Tell me, do you honestly think all those people behind me are your customers?" He asked.
My eyes widened, "..They..But I thought.." I was just on the game channel, how many people watched that!
"They could be anything from players with a model manager occupation to a level 700 hunter who's ready to challenge you and your pet. In case you haven't noticed, you my dear, are now famous," He laughed.
"And it's all because of that NPC behind you," He pointed back to where Toshiro was standing, dumb founded by how he had anything to do with this.
I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Any further conversing with my employ and I will have you kicked out of the game before you can say 'verbally abused'," I heard from behind me.
"You are now quite famous yourself. The brilliant former model who connected her Cafe to the ever popular game, REM," The elf guy admitted.
"...Then I'll be on my way.." He said reluctantly, under her intense glare.
She shot looks at him until he stepped out the door. And then, without hesitation, she shrieked,
"MAID'S HEALING IS CLOSED! SO GET OUT OF HERE YOU LAZY-ASS REPORTERS!"
She ran up to them and shooed them away like chickens. And after they had all fled out the door, she locked it and turned back to me.
I still couldn't keep my eyes off of her after all these years. Although in real life she was retired, this was how she looked in her teens. A former model, she stood tall in her petite body. Today, her pink hair was tightly curled in two pig tails that reached just past her shoulders. She fooled with her bangs and swiped them out of her Magenta eyes. This was Ichigo. And yeah, she had the same name as Ichi-nii. And yeah, she actually looks exactly like her avatar except for her hair which is actually blond. Otherwise, the 5ft 2, cute button nose, don't hurt me, look really was her. Ichigo was the manager. The creator of Otaku Cafe as well as Maid's Healing. My boss. My friend. And ironically, not a cute species at all. On REM, she was a vampire. Not a fairy, or an elf, no she was a pale skinned villain. At least, to my species. Which was the human.
"So..Hello there, Toshiro-kun," Ichigo smiled.
"Oh wow, you where right Karin, he's totally ho-" I pulled Yuzu's ear so she wouldn't speak any further.
Toshiro sat in silence. Astonished. In front of the gathering of all of the maid, his curious teal eyes trailed over all of us.
As I gazed over everyone, I noticed none of them were wearing our usual uniform. Instead, they were all wearing different maid outfits. Custom and..
"So as you can see, we've gotten a bit of a wardrobe change...This is thanks to the incident with the hidden quest," Ichigo explained.
"After you were on the game channel, we received quite a substantial 'donation'. Half of it goes into Otaku Cafe. And the other into Maid's Healing. And as you can see, we have used some of the money to buy ourselves better virtual attire," She continued.
"So then..What the reporter guy said was true..I'm famous for being on the dork channel?" I asked.
"Yep," She said, leaning back in her chair, "But so is Otaku Cafe," She smiled.
"We'll be getting more an more customers from now on, girls, not only our regular customers that we serve in real life, but nameless people from all over the world. That is why I've called you here today. And also, because we have a new opportunity coming on," Ichigo said, leaning forward.
"The donation we received came with a condition. It was, that we were to have a photo shoot with the donor and let the cafe as well as Toshiro-kun and Karin-Chan be featured in the virtual and reality REM magazines," She explained.
That was a lot of information to cram into a few sentences. It took me a second to piece things together. So the donor of the money. Wanted the cafe employs to be in a photo shoot..Which means we'd be modeling..And in a worldwide featured magazine. This..HOW IN THE HELL WAS THIS A CONDITION! I couldn't model at all..But on top of that, this offer was so good, I thought it was a bluff!
"How wha-!" I began, dumbfounded.
"Yeah! We're gonna be models!" Yuzu shot up like a rocket and grabbed two other maid's shoulders.
"Are they taking pictures of our virtual or real selves?" A maid asked.
"Virtual, otherwise Toshiro wouldn't be included," Ichigo responded.
"What's a magazine?" Toshiro asks.
I sighed, "It's a short book full of twisted true stories. In other words, almost true, lies. Gossip is what they call it," I explain.
"So a magazine is a short book full of things called gossip?" He asked.
"Yep." I said, getting irritated.
"Hey! Since I closed down the shop, why don't we introduce ourselves to Toshiro-kun and have a fashion show for him!" Ichigo suggested.
"Yeah, about that, why don't I get a custom outfit?" I asked.
"Because you're the model icon for Otaku Cafe and Maid's Healing. You need to keep the original uniform," She explained.
Ok..So now I'm a model Icon?
Ichigo lined everyone up and made a funny toon, "Da..da da da..da. DA! Welcome ladies and gentlemen to our fashion show," Ichigo laughed.
"First up tonight..Oh, pardon my french.. First off this morning, we have the cute Hana-hime97 with her darling strawberry themed maid's outfit," She proclaimed, stepping aside to let Yuzu pose.
It was hard to get used to the older Yuzu. She had long hair now, same basic hair style though. And her eyes where a bit more mature.
The outfit she wore was very cute and strangely sexy at the same time. She had a white blouse with a red breast plait over it. Obviously, the plait was meant to be a piece of armor, but she softened its look by threading a green ribbon through the top of it and pinning the bow with a strawberry pin onto it. The plait covered just her chest and the blouse stopped just before her belly button. Then, at her waist, was a red skirt with green lace. And around that, was a small, green apron with cartoon strawberry on it. It was smiling quite innocently at me. It makes me feel weird because I could have sworn it was saying the words 'eat me'. Then, bellow her skirt, where a pair of greenish-white pants that were bunched up just past her kneew. She wore standard red slippers with all of it.
"Very cute," I smiled in her direction.
She brightened up and cheerfully nodded.
"Our next lady is known as queen bee around these parts for being the reigning champion in PVP tournaments. Retiring from this, however, AhOui, our most mature employ, has added a very romantic tone to her outfit today," Ichigo announced.
AhOui, was actually the oldest off the employs in the 5th grade shift. This was because she was not part of our school's program and only helped out because Ichigo is her aunt. She was 14. Other than that..I only knew that her name was Ayame..And that she loved to read.
Ayame actually had red hair(she and Ichigo where foreigners..French I think), but on the game she had white hair. Her race was cat-type. And she had red eyes. He outfit complimented her eyes, and was entirely in the theme of red and maroon. A drafty, small, dress that reached just bellow her legs. It was strapless and had several layers to it's flowery designs. She wore a red maid's bonnet over her small white ears. And out from behind her dress, a white tail poked out playfully as she fiddled with her plain, red apron. She had white stockings and red slippers. She seemed to appear about 18, although in the age acceleration, she's supposed to be in her twenties. I was bad with ages..
"How someone like you ever completed a hidden quest, I'll never know.."She snarled at me.
Oh yeah, and one more thing.
I absolutely hated her.
"Shut your mouth and be grateful you have a new outfit," I snapped.
"Ok! Down to our last employ for today's shift!" Ichigo said, pulling Ayame away forcefully.
"Lastly, we have our only employ who was allowed to reverse her age. This girl exists within the game as a 6 year old young lady, however, Sweetheart is not your average cutey pie. She was chosen and allowed to bypass the requirements of all Otaku Cafe employs because she is special," Ichigo began, "She can draw you in with her sheer innocence. Our final employ has a certain spark that will be enhanced even further with her new outfit."
Sweetheart, because it was on the Japanese server, was not a name that was taken. So naturally, Sweetheart was known as the British traveling girl. She had huge ocean blue eyes and blond hair that was cut in your standard bangs and stretched all the was down to just bellow her heels, even though her hair was in pig tails and loosely curled. Her outfit, was standard. She reminded me of a red Alice in Wonderland. The way she wore that red dress that touched her heels and on top of that, had a white apron over it, it was quite ironically Alice-looking. And then those white stockings and porcelain doll shoes that sparked dark green.
And that was why this girl's name was Alice. She was a popular girl at my school because of the way she looked and because she was foreign. However, she wasn't British. She was American. I'm not sure where she came from, but honestly I didn't care. Because I knew if I approached her, she'd either ignore me, or treat me like dirt. All for the sake of her stupid popularity. I hate people who hide who they truly are just for appearance. In the game, her hair was a lot longer, but in real life, her appearance was pretty much the same as online.
She gave me her puppy-dog look and then spit on the ground, "You're not worth my time," She said, waddling away in her small little 3ft 5 body. (now that I thought about it..That was pretty short for a 6 year old..)
"So..Which one do you like better?" Yuzu asked.
"There all great," I laughed.
"Well then, other judge, it's time for you to decide," Ichigo proclaimed.
"I can't like anything..I'm an NPC," He explained. And somehow..That sort of hurt me..
"Brilliant! Now can you turn to the right a bit?" The donor advised.
I shifted myself slightly to the left and tried to hold in a sneeze. This bed of blue flower petals was really making my allergies work up. And the small, red dress I was wearing was was really exposing too..But it was easy because all I had to do was look back at the camera, put the Blue Rose up to my face, and look back innocently.
Toshiro was still watching me from behind the camera man. And it made me kinda nervous having someone I know watching. Oh what the hell, he was an NPC, not like he really existed.
REM was set in the mid evil ages. Anywhere from feudal Japan to Renaissance Europe, that is the setting for the whole game. That is, until the recent expansion. Now, there is a realm called the 'Media Realm' where anyone with a occupation license can come to a copy of the modern world through a portal in Central City. That means the journalist I met earlier could get into this place, and hair stylists, makeup artists. Anyone with a modern occupation comes to this world. And in this altered version of the real world, everyone will work here, and go back to the real REM to present their creations. The modern world was much more limited than REM's main realm. It was for Film, photo, journalism, and publishing. You could not invent the subway and send it to REM no, this realm was basically an office area, nothing more.
The camera's bright light flashed a few times in front of me.
"Perfect! Stay right there.." He said, taking several snapshots. As I looked to the left and right, I could see Ichigo and Yuzu posing as well. Ichigo was having fun because she was an experienced model, she just carelessly made poses and did not listen to the director because she knew what she was doing was beautiful, cute, sexy; she knew what they wanted. Yuzu, on the other hand, was struggling because they had dressed her up in the foxy outfits and had been trying to make her look like something that's not cute..And that was not happening. I can play innocent any day. Or aggressive..Anything really. Just not cute, preppy, and energetic. And Yuzu could to anything but foxy, sexy, or aggressive..So we were opposites.
"Now we'll go on to the couple shots! Get the morphing potions ready and the sheets! Oh and those school uniforms better be ready!" The donor ordered.
"Wha! Couple? What do you mean by-" The hair stylists and wardrobe artists suddenly swamped me in a wave of motion. Then Suddenly, I was in the dressing room and they were telling me to put on this blue outfit..it was really tight on me. Afterward, they let my hair down and flat iron it, quickly shoving a potion down my throat.
In REM, you can't change your appearance. However, you could constantly keep a form if you had enough money. If you decided you wanted to be a cat-type when you where an elf, you can buy a morphing potion and turn yourself into a cat-type for a week or so, or maybe even just an hour depending on what you buy. If you had enough money, you can keep buying the potions to maintain that for..but the morphing potions now a days are really expensive.
This was definitely a morphing potion. Because immediately, I could feel myself shrinking and fitting into the outfit. Until finally, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked just a few years old than what I really was in real life. Although my hair was still long, and my eyes were more innocent, I look similar to..My real life self. 13? 14? How young was I? I was wearing a dark blue school uniform. It had a white sailor collar. And besides the matching shihakshou pants, it looked like my school uniform actually. How in the hell did they plan to use this in a photo shoot? I didn't even look like my avatar!
When I stumbled back on set, all the cameras had been moved and were now peering over a ginormous mattress with silk white sheets. It was more like a pillow because, when I poked it, it sank in like it was made of feathers.
"So..You're saying she's a feisty one?" The donor whispered to another.
And suddenly they both nod. What in the world?
"Hurry up! Where's my boy!" He yelled.
Boy? What boy?
"Can you please lie back on the mattress," The poser instructed.
"Like this?" I scooted back onto the pillow-like thing and look back down to see if she nods. But all I saw was the same uniform as mine..And short..Just a bit taller than my height now. He's being pushed toward me..White hair..Holy crap! That guy was Toshiro!
They immediately shoved him onto the set and pushed him on the mattress, on top of me. I started to cringe as the only leg he was not laying on started to come up toward his side, trying to push him off. He looked at me curiously to see why I was blushing.
"Hey..You're smaller too," He said.
"You idiot! Is that all you can say when you acting like a-" I'm stopped, because instinctively I'd swung my fist at him and he catches it easily, sliding his fingers between mine and pinning my hand back to the mattress.
He was..Much younger looking. Eyes just as innocent as mine. I didn't know they programed him to have a younger appearance..It was cute the way his hair was slightly, less-spiky and subsequently gave more attention to his gaze. Which was curiously examining me and himself. I bet he didn't even know what was going on and how his body suddenly changed. I was gonna get an earful of questions when I get back to the Cafe..But that was the least of my problems..
We heard a flash. And when he looked behind him, my eyes widen. The cameras were peering over us and taking several pictures over and over and over. I saw now..When the donor was talking about earlier..He thought I was going to struggle if he told us what was going to happen so..He forced us!
"Look at this!" I yelled, "Look at this!" I command again, sliding the magazine prototype across the table, to Yuzu and the others.
"The prototype August magazine," I began.
"This isn't that bad, it's got your picture with the roses on the front, and Ichigo's picture with the strawberries on the back," Yuzu observed.
"No! No! Look, they sent us two magazines!" I exclaimed.
"Huh?" All the girls say at once.
I ran my fingers through my hair angrily, "Ah! I just wanna rip those guys to shreds!"
Yuzu picks up the letter on top of the second magazine first and read allow, "I am sorry for the inconvenience, but we have decided to use a photo from the photo shoot for an alternative magazine of ours, thanks!" She looked beyond it, to the cover, and her eyes widened.
I still remembered clearly. And it was rushing through my head and making me chatter my teeth. The picture of Toshiro and I, locking hands and looking up at the camera, I, surprised, he, half dazed and uncaring. That made the whole things seem like the wrong idea..We just fell! Ah! I hate magazines!
"'Tweens to Teens Monthly? Falling in Love with an NPC?'" Ichigo began, "What in the hell is this?" She said, slapping the magazine down on the table, "Did they use morphing potions on you?"
"They pushed Toshiro and me into that..And..AH! What am I going to do?" I asked, plopping down in a chair and pulling my hair out, "Everyone's gonna get the wrong idea!"
"No they're not," Yuzu said, walking up to me.
Alice, with her sweet, doll face, looks kind of amusing when she says the following sentence, "We're gonna stab those ugly bastards back!"
Out of game
While walking out of Otaku Cafe, I stretched and yawned. I'd been on for awhile, we even closed down the real Otaku Cafe for the photo shoot today..And it was 5 o' clock now..Yuzu went home earlier..But we were supposed to end shifts at 3. Am I becoming some sort of star? Every modeling company is grappling for a contract with the Otaku Cafe girls. I sighed, this was going to change up everything I do in the game, wasn't it. All because of that clueless pet of mine.
I continued to walk down the path, but then I paused as a young girl stood in my way. She was older than me, though. Maybe 16 or 17. I don't know..
"Can I help you?" I asked. She was staring at the ground, fists balled, as if she where about to cry.
"Karin Kurosaki?" She questioned.
"Yes? Do I know you?" I replied to the brown-haired girl.
"I declare war against your band of Maids!" She yelled, "A battle at the arena in Central City! And the winner," She looked up, and she was actually crying through clear, white-lavender eyes, "Is REM's true top model!"
?What the hell?
Author's notes:
Yeah, it didn't turn out as planned, but we'll see how things go! Like it? Hate it? Review please!
Reviews to thanks:
Thanks so so so so so much! I don't think I've ever gotten that many reviews for the first chapter! I love you! *kisses kisses!*
~*RukiaRocks*~
