"Oh Plue I'm so excited! I can't believe Father agreed to let me play this game." Lucy's fluffy white dog Plue was currently sitting by Lucy's feet tail wagging and looking up at her with as much excitement as she felt while she watched the opening screen boot up. She just hoped that this game was worth the hours of pleading she'd had with her father and the boring business gathering she'd had to sit through as pre-payment last weekend. Albeit she had a time limit for when she was allowed to play, and no doubt Virgo wouldn't allow her to go over the limit. Not that she would, she already had a timer set on her phone for 1 hour and 55 minutes, 5 minutes before her limit giving time to be able to log off the game, there was no way she was going to get the game taken from her for being tardy by a few minutes. She wasn't going to miss this opportunity for escape, she may still be in the house she hated but this was her safe-haven…at least for the next 2 hours.

Knowing she was on a time limit Lucy quickly flew through setting up her character, not having time to go through any extra armour or weapons she quickly settled on putting her player in the standard getup, the only change she made was flipping the colours on her outfit from the garish yellow and red to white and blue. Happy with the appearance for now knowing she could change her style another day when she had more time and wasn't as excited to get going, she moved through the character-building stage. Next up was to select her screen name – her father had been very clear she wasn't allowed to use her real name in the game, that had been rule number 1 in getting permission to play.

Lucy had already decided on her screen name before logging on to the game, she already knew about the rule and didn't want to miss a second so quickly entered it and kept clicking through the setup.

What type of mage would you like to be?

She'd read online some of the different mage types that would be available in the game but the list she had now was way longer and would take some time to go through to make the right choice for her. A quick glance at her timer put her at 20 minutes through which was longer than she'd planned to spend on just setting up so she clicked on a random mage type 'water wielder' and went to click next but a pop-up box made her pause

Note to player, whilst other character features can be edited at any time your 'mage type' cannot be altered. Should you wish to change your mage type you will have to start the game from the beginning. Therefore, please choose wisely!

"Oh shoot that was close, guess this'll just take longer than I thought", Lucy closed the pop-up box and started looking down through the list to pick her mage type, she thought she had it once or twice but when she finally fell on it she knew she was sold. "Geez if they put it alphabetically that would have been way faster to find, I wonder how long that took", a quick timer check confirmed her hunt took her nearly an hour and she only had 45 minutes left to actually play the game.

Happy with her choice she flicked through the next (future editable) sections with speed before getting the 'start game' button

"Here we go…", she was almost bouncing off her chair again with the excitement as she clicked to start her new (virtual) adventure, another popup came on her screen before the game was launched.

Hello AshleyL and welcome to Fiore. Throughout the game you will be able to complete missions in exchange for Jewel or special objects. Whilst you can be a solo mage we recommend that you join a guild where you can gain extra experience points, you also have the opportunity to join a team or partnership that will unlock higher level missions for you to complete. Would you like to join a guild now?

"Hmmm, they said there may be more guild's that come out soon and what about if I don't like the people in the guild? Maybe I'm best to go solo for now, or maybe it'd be a good chance to make friends, what do you think Plue?", on mention of his name Plue perked up quickly and leapt on to Lucy to lick her face making her giggle. "You're right Plue, we're in for the whole package. No matter if it's a bit scary we're going to pick a guild", pumping her fist in the air she quickly replied 'yes' to the message to move on to picking a guild, a few minutes later she'd made up her mind.

Her screen opened up on the sea before coming towards what looked like a small town, she could just about make out what looked like a cathedral in the centre before a new character popped up on the side of her screen. She had long white hair with her fringe tied up wearing a long red halter dress with pink frills and bows.

Great choice of guild AshleyL! I'm Mirajane the official guide of your new guild. This town you are seeing is Magnolia, this is the town where our guild is based, when you have levelled up or joined a strong team you will be able to leave the town boundaries for missions. For now I suggest you head to the guildhall on the outskirts of town and come meet your new nakama and the master of the guild. You can always come to me if there's anything that you need and you'll find me at the bar in the guildhall. For now let me just say 'Welcome to Fairy Tail!'

It had been 3 weeks since Lucy had started playing Fairy Tail and she honestly wasn't sure what all the hype had been about. Sure, the world was fun - she'd had fun going around Magnolia at least to start with but 3 weeks in and she still hadn't gained enough experience to move on to missions outside of town so it was starting to get slightly boring.

The missions she was able to take were small and weren't all that frequent, considering the number of players around there just weren't all that many missions to keep her occupied when shared out with the players at her same level range. She'd had plenty of free time to go to every magic shop in town, when she'd first entered the game she'd been given a magic skill that fit with her mage type but she was always searching for more ways to increase her magic skills.

It was quite fitting when she thought about it, she'd chosen to be a celestial wizard – her mother had brought her up with a love of the stars and had taught her all the constellations she knew. After she passed, Lucy had continued to look out at the stars believing her mother was now up with them watching over her, her favourite constellations were those of the zodiac, but she loved them all. When she'd seen the option in the mage type list Lucy's decision was already made, and then the starter key she'd been given was of the Canis Minor – she was given the option to name her Canis Minor and opted to call him 'Plue' thinking him akin to her fluffy real life companion (she wasn't allowed to use her name in the game but her father had never said anything about not using his).

She'd also managed to add 'Crux' to her collection finding him in one of the magic stores – a spirit great at finding out information which had proven useful on several missions even if she had to wait a while to get the information back. Although she loved Plue he wasn't a battle type spirit nor was Crux, this was something that had prompted her to purchase a whip at a weapons shop, until she found a fighter type celestial spirit she needed a way to fight her battles and she had always planned to fight alongside her spirits anyway so thought it was a good time to get practice with her character.

She had her character walking aimlessly through the town, hoping to discover something…anything exciting really! Whilst watching her character she took a minute to re-assess the new clothes she'd recently purchase. A wardrobe change had also been top on her list when she had extra time between missions whilst she'd stuck with one of the starting standard black skirts that cut off high on her thighs she'd spent some extra jewel to improve her appearance. Spending some jewel on a white cropped tube top with a blue heart in the centre, gold trim ran across the top and bottom, to go along with it she'd selected a sleeveless cropped blue jacket with a high collar with matching gold trim. The top/jacket combo had come with sleeves that started from midway up her upper arms down to her wrists, ending in a flowy style around her wrists. They went perfectly with the black thigh high socks and brown boots that came up to her calves, she'd finally decided on sharing her blonde locks with her character and even giving her the low pigtails that she usually wore.

Overall she was pleased with how she'd altered her appearance in the game and gave a small smile for what she'd been able to achieve in the game so far – sure it was just some clothes, but she'd earnt that money herself and there was just something really special about that to Lucy. She started getting lost in her thoughts as she let her character wander around town, wishing she could be more like AshleyL and to have her freedom in real life.

A loud ringing broke her train of thought, sighing loudly she reached over to turn off her alarm "well, guess I'd better log off – dang I really wish something more exciting had happened today. Maybe tomorrow eh Plue". Ever faithfully by her side when she played Plue perked up to his name and was happily licking Lucy on the knee, "that tickles Plue!".

She was just navigating to the menu when a popup came across her screen

Player message request: DragonBoy58

"Huh, well that's new. I wonder what they want…ok don't panic Lucy, not a time to panic, you wanted to make new friends and join a team. I'm sure they just want to say hello or something…just, don't blow this!", a quick 'woof' from Plue of encouragement had Lucy clicking accept.

DragonBoy58: 'Yo! Cute username'

"Wow, what an opener…guess they're just fishing around for someone to talk to" mumbling in somewhat annoyance as it seemed her 'friend chance' was just going to be some annoying guy trying to flirt with her so she decided not to reply only to have another message not 30 seconds later. She knew it showed she'd read the message so guessed he must have cottoned on she wasn't going to reply.

'Sorry that probably sounded lame! My first time sending a message to someone I don't know on here, didn't know what to say!'

"Well, ok I do have 3 more minutes…guess I can play along until I have to logoff and see what they want"

AshleyL: 'That's ok, I've not spoken to anyone on here before either. I wouldn't have known what to say!'

'Ok cool!'

'So yeah, I'm in Fairy Tail too and I'm just about to go on a mission'

'Uhhhh ok, good for you?'

'Man I'm really screwing this up! I'm going on a mission and the reward is a lotta jewel and also some key thingy'

Lucy's eyes nearly popped out of her head at 'key thingy', thinking he couldn't possibly mean a celestial key could he? A quick look at her phone said she had less than 2 minutes now and this guy was not explaining fast enough so figured she'd try cutting to the chase.

'Do you mean a celestial key?'

'Yeah! That's what it said, dang you must be smart. Anyway when I went to take the mission Mira said we had a mage in the guild who may want it so suggested I reach out…uhhh….so yeah…here I am!'

'Oh yeah, I might be interested in one of those. Would you be looking to sell it when you come back from mission?'. She was trying hard to not sound desperate, keen for him not to hike the price up

'Nah you gotta come with me and earn it! I ain't really in the business of selling my stuff, but if you come with me we can split the reward and you can have the key'

'Seriously?!'.

'Duh, you earn it you keep it weirdo'

It was fair to say she was stunned, here she'd been so close to logging off only to now have such a chance of getting a key dangled but she had to log off in less than a minute and doubted there was anyway he'd wait for her to go, whilst she was debating whether it was worth risking the wrath of Virgo he'd gotten impatient of waiting around.

'So…..you in?'

'I'd love to. But, I have to log off for the day sorry'. She finally decided that one mission wasn't worth getting the game taken away from her, even if the reward was super tempting.

'Dang that's a shame!'

She frowned back, yeah a 'shame', just a typical day for Lucy – her fathers rules were about to stop something great from happening, again.

'What about tomorrow?' her eyes bugged out, he'd seriously wait?

'Really? Tomorrow would be great, would the mission still be there though?'

'Pfft, yeah course. I already took the job so we got 72 hours to complete it, just means we lose the first day but I'm a pretty awesome player so I wouldn't worry too much ;)'

"Well he's cocky…but still this could be great – maybe with this experience I'll be able to leave town on my own and get another key!" she said beaming at Plue in excitement

'Great – tomorrow at 7? Fair warning I'm only level 8…'

'Sure – just message me when you're online and we'll get going. Uhhh yeah, I knew that when I messaged you weirdo, it says under your username in the chat'

Having never messaged someone before she hadn't even thought you may be able to see that information somewhere but sure enough looking at the top of the box "Level 18! How the heck did he get that high, geez I'm going to seem so weak to him" she puffed out in annoyance and slumped in her chair.

'Don't worry – I'll protect ya :D'

'Thanks :)'

'Shoot – I've really got to go now sorry. See you tomorrow for the mission!'

'See ya tomorrow – bye!'

She quickly shut down the game and computer, promptly rushing over to her open homework open on her bed in case Virgo came to check on her. She'd been 2 minutes late and was beyond thankful that she hadn't already been in to check on her, although after the first week with no slip ups Virgo had become less frequent in her time check on game time.

Plue had followed her over on to her bed, she scooped him up rolling on to her back before lifting him above her, "Eeeek Plue! I'm actually going on an adventure, a real adventure. It's going to be great". She brought him back down to hug against her and he promptly started licking her face making her giggle – she was so excited, even if the Dragon Boy had seemed a bit strange he was still willing to let her keep the key which would unlock so much more of the game for her she was sure.

She'd originally been trying to save all her jewel for if she saw another key out in a magic store, but after some research online she'd found out that celestial magic had been made super rare in Fairy Tail, so much so that the designers had only allowed there to be a small number of active users with that magic type at any time. Due to the rarity of the magic there were a finite number of keys to be found in magic shops and through missions – she figured that as she'd already found a key in Magnolias magic shop that she was highly unlikely to find another there, she was a few levels away still from being able to leave town on her own so reasoned that it would have been some time before a chance at a key came about – she definitely hadn't expected another user to give her such a golden opportunity.

Welcome to Now Playing: Fairy Tail!

This is actually a fic I've had in draft for over a year now, I found it again a few weeks ago and I've started adding to the start that I'd made. This is going to be my first planned long fic and I'll be aiming to make longer chapters than in my other fics (that's the plan at least!).

I've held on to this for a few weeks whilst I've been trying to prioritise SOTO but I couldn't keep it back any longer.

I hope the character text is easy enough to follow which character is which with the font formats - I didn't want it to be repetitive putting their usernames in front of everything they say but if it's hard to follow let me know in the comments and I'll make modifications :)