by K. T. Hanna
“Shit,” muttered Murmur. She’d just had to ask.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Software Development Team Offices
Launch Day (Evening)
Laria frowned at the reports she’d just received from Brandon. That constant misplaced line really bugged her perfectionist qualities. While it didn’t make a difference to anything she could see, it still gave her an off feeling. That line shouldn’t be there. She’d checked and triple checked everything to make sure the system calibrated and recalibrated its results with deliberate and easy identifiable needs. That nothing related to her little experiment would show up as anything, not even a glitch, but this line wasn’t in her projections and it bothered her.
Everything was running smoothly. Complaints about playing the characters the game chose for them had been a surprisingly low percentage. But the system, the AIs, their scanning capabilities were scarily accurate, and most people were excited to play a class they’d always secretly wanted to, but never thought they could.
Perhaps their advertising campaign had paid off after all. She ran a hand through her hair and checked to see if Wren was still playing. Laria frowned. Was it the right choice to let her do this? Letting her play as much as she wanted over break was a fantastic short-term solution for a much larger problem. It was all Laria could do to hope she hadn’t screwed things up, again.
Maybe it would help her in the long run, bring her back to the little girl who’d been her mommy’s sweetheart. But the game was a long way from a loving environment, and all Laria could do was hope that all her research was correct. That prolonged exposure might even enhance brain function.
“Laria?”
“Hm?” Laria glanced up to see Shayla leaning against the door.
“I called your name three times but you looked engrossed in that report.” She moved closer, standing up straight and crossing her arms. “Is there something I should know about?”
Laria shook her head. “No, just a spacing problem in the reports. No impact to computations or any of our main features, it’s just irritating and requires the extrapolation team to triple check every sheet.”
Shayla stared at her for a long moment, before heaving a huge sigh. “Look, Laria. I know there’s something going on with you. We’ve been working together for over a decade. I hope that one of these days you’re going to confide in me, and I hope that confidence doesn’t mean I’ll have to fire you.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong for you to fire me.” Laria’s eyes flashed. “This game wouldn’t even run without me. Don’t think that just because I don’t have your title, my work is any less important, Shayla.”
Laria snapped her mouth closed, before she dug herself in any deeper and said something she’d regret.
“You do have a point.” Shayla smiled a little sadly. “I’m not sure how you pull some of this coding out of your ass, but you do. Please, when you’re ready, come tell me. I can feel your stress levels all the way over in my office.”
Shayla waved as she left, effectively terminating the conversation. Laria groaned and bumped her head against her desk. There were just some days when she wished everything wasn’t so damned complicated.
Real World Day 3: Somnia Online
“He said spiders, Mur!” Sinister was beside herself again, and Murmur could feel a headache coming on.
“In the opposite woods to the gnolls, Sin,” Mur repeated for the umpteenth time since they had gated back to Ululate to sell all of their crap. “Just hurry up and sell, and we’ll make sure to go into the left side of the woods.”
Sin grumbled under her breath. “Well you never know, maybe the spiders and the gnolls formed an alliance.”
Murmur chuckled to herself as she looked through the stalls in the market square. Realizing her clothes were still largely from level eight, she picked up a new and silvered robe that she absolutely adored, new boots, gloves and bracers, and finally pants from a player who stood at the cart.
The small luna looked up and smiled. “Thank you so much. Oh wow, wait, you’re from that guild!”
Murmur started. “What?”
“Fable. You’ve like killed nameds and stuff already, right?”
“Yeah,” After a moment’s hesitation, Murmur continued. “How did you come to make all this? You’re still so little.”
The girl laughed. “Yeah, my big brother likes me to craft for him, so he brings back stuff from his adventures, but he’s only just level eleven, and I barter for the rest. I like crafting.”
“Well, I’m Murmur. It’s a pleasure to meet you. As you level up, I may need some stuff, so I’ll keep you on my friends list, if that’s okay.” Murmur triggered her UI to add it to her friends list that she’d yet to use because all of her friends were in the guild.
“Thank you!” The luna’s eyes went round as the moon. “I’m Neva. I hope I run into you again.”
Murmur gave the girl a few more gold and bid her farewell, figuring she’d strip off and get dressed once they reached their destination. It was always good to make friends where you could, you never knew when you might need someone’s skills. She loved the gear. It was high quality and had a decent armor class rating on it for level thirteen equipment.
She waited for the rest of the groups to meet her at the front. They weren’t going to raid the area, as Tel had assured them that while good for one group, the gnolls just weren’t raid material. However, he’d also seemed quite gleeful when he announced that there were plenty to kill.
Murmur suddenly realized she’d forgotten to allocate her attribute points when she hit thirteen. Groaning, she pulled her character sheet up and frowned.
Up until now she’d basically sort of done her routine, one Intelligence, one Stamina, two Charisma, done. But her hit points were pretty solid now, and she felt like she desperately needed Agility. Not a huge amount, and she’d probably stop once it hit about fifteen, but she felt so clunky, and it was the one sensation she wasn’t used to feeling at all.
She added two Agility, one Intelligence, and one Charisma, accepted the changes, and frowned again. After she’d done the Agility she’d probably concentrate on just Intelligence and Charisma. Right now they were sitting at twenty-eight to thirty without gear, and forty-three to forty-six with gear, respectively. She studied them with a bit of skepticism. After having been so used to stacking wisdom as a healer, her current path still took her by surprise sometimes.
CON 22
STR 10
AGI 13
WIS 12
INT 28 (30)
CHA 43 (46)
HP 268
MANA 279
MA 100 (125)
“Hey, sleepy head.” Devlish ruffled her hair, although her locus hair wasn’t exactly as easy to ruffle as her human hair was. It was bulky, sleek, and very dense, and she could barely take her eyes off the fairy lights at the bottom when they glowed during combat.
“I’m not sleepy, I’d just forgotten to allocate my attribute points from hitting thirteen in all of the ‘oh my god a thing just spoke to us.’” She hoped they’d realize she didn’t want them to mention that Tel was a dragon where anyone else could hear them.
Devlish blinked at her, and she could see a few of the others getting that vague sort of stare in their eyes as they too scrambled to allocate their points.
Murmur laughed. “Now I don’t feel as bad at least.”
“Hey, we had a lot going on,” Jinna said somewhat defensively.
“Let’s get cracking then.” Merlin strode to the fore, taking his place as the head scout in their team, mainly because Exbo was often lazy, and Jinna didn’t do front and center well. He claimed he was a rogue, and sneaking in the back went with the territory.
“Yep! We’re off to see the spiders.” Beastial grinned evilly at Sinister, who yelped and punched him as they walked along the path.
Murmur waved to Jan as they were leaving and he was just entering the
town. He pulled up just short of the entrance and called out to her.
“Where ya goin’ miss?”
“Just going to see if we can flush some gnolls out,” she said.
“Aye, you be careful. Those things have nasty teeth. I should know.”
She halted the others and closed the distance to Jan to hear what he had to say.
“I often do a run to Frangit, but lately the gnolls have been little shits. I even lost some cargo to them. I don’t believe I’m the only one.”
“Thanks Jan. You take care, right?” Murmur waved at him and ran to catch up with the others just as the text scrolled across her screen. She knew it.
In talking to Jan, he mentioned that he and others have had cargo stolen by the gnolls who inhabit the far west woods. Should you recover any of the stolen cargo intact, there is sure to be a reward with anyone you return it to. But beware, for gnolls are smart and fast.
Murmur shared the quest with their group, and with their guild, grinning.
The sun was hot, but not too hot, and the breeze was just right, serving to ruffle Murmur’s robe as she walked instead of making it fly up at all angles. In all her search for gear back in Ululate she’d completely forgotten that she didn’t want a robe. Tunics always seemed harder to come by. She’d have to remember next time.
The banter between the two groups was fun as usual, and Beastial added trial members to their rostered ranks as they traveled. Overall, Murmur was in a great mood. She even sent a note to her mom.
Sorry I missed you while I was sleeping last night, but I must have needed it since I passed out. Don’t worry, Harlow forced me to eat before logging back in.
It took a while for mother to respond, but then it always did. The woman was busy all the time.
Laria: Oh good, I was a bit worried, but you two seem okay. Are you having fun? Discovered anything cool yet?
You know we have, Murmur replied, trying not to laugh out loud and cause her friends to look at her strangely.
Laria: True true, but I love it when you tell me things.
Love you Mom, we’re off to hunt some gnolls.
Laria: Love you dear, good luck!
Of course she should have known better. As they walked down the path following the directions given to them by Tel, just before they reached the crossroad, they ran into another group, headed by Jirald. She’d almost forgotten about him.
His eyes immediately strayed to her, and a smirk crossed his face. “Well, well, we meet again.”
Devlish rolled his eyes. “Was there something you wanted?”
The Exodus group fanned out around Jirald, similar smirks on most of their faces, except for one who stood behind the rest, shorter than the others. Murmur couldn’t make out their face. They were probably smirking too. She was really growing tired of the whole Jirald attitude thing.
Jirald’s smirk finally gave away to a serious expression and he took a few quick steps forward, obviously aiming to land right in front of Murmur, but Devlish moved his body slightly, and Jirald stopped. “No. Not right now.”
“I don’t even get what your problem is. I have no idea why you hold this grudge against us. It was a mob who dropped a bloody weapon in a freaking game. It’s like being angry at your Scrabble opponent for having a better vocabulary.” Murmur finally had enough. There was being polite and ignoring people and hoping they’d just bugger off on their own, and then there was Jirald, who couldn’t seem to take, I got a weapon before you could get it in a digital game, so deal with it, as an answer.
Anger flashed through Jirald’s eyes and his form suddenly dissipated, vanishing into thin air. Jinna gasped, but Murmur reacted on instinct, hitting her area stun immediately, knowing her guild wouldn’t be affected. She turned during the four seconds, her fingers flying as she cast Nullify quickly followed by Mez, and slammed the spells onto Jirald’s revealed and scowling face.
“Fuck you, dude. What the hell is wrong with you? Do you realize I can keep a hold of you like that indefinitely? What on earth made you attack me?” The voice in the back of her mind urged her to charm him, to cast Allure and make him walk around with her for hours on end unable to break out of it. Like a torture. With all of his stupid little stalker tactics, would it really be so bad to do that?
Devlish and Beastial moved to guard Murmur’s back, she refreshed her Mez and turned back to the group he was with. All of them were eleven and twelve. They’d been working hard as a team, trying to obtain their own goals, and here Jirald was with this weird vendetta against her, side-railing all their efforts. At least she assumed that was the case, because vendettas weren’t the best thing for guild relations. She took a deep breath before speaking to them.
“I don’t know what his problem is, and I really don’t care. But if he comes at me again, he’ll regret it. I will refresh that spell on him and we will leave here. Make sure he doesn’t come after me, please.” Her voice remained steady and firm, and it was a miracle she managed to keep her irritation out of it. Instead, she was quite impressed with her rather effective leader voice.
The person Murmur hadn’t been able to see before stepped forward. He was a tiny gnome and his expression was a very sober one. “We apologize on behalf of Exodus. We prefer clean battle, and for our rivals to be met with pride and respect. Jirald can be a bit of a dick.”
Devlish laughed, and stood with his sword-hand on his hips, his shield carelessly hanging off the other. The massive piece of metal Telvar had gifted him was imposing. It was tall, but not quite a tower shield, and held filigree patterns all down the front. “You don’t say. Then we’ll leave him in your capable hands. It’d also be great if he could stop harassing our guild leader, thanks. We have shit to do, and constantly having to be aware of a stalker trying to stab her in the back is going to get annoying.”
The little gnome’s eyes widened, and he seemed slightly flustered. “I’m our second in command, and I apologize again. He’ll be warned. Thanks for not beating the shit out of him. I doubt it would have changed his attitude, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t deserve it.”
“Probably only make it worse,” Mur mumbled as she Mez’d the very angry rogue once again. Murmur gave a slight bow, and continued walking past the Exodus group. Mez might make you freeze but it didn’t stop your other senses from working. He had to be seething right now, but what choice had she had? Being shanked in the kidneys wouldn’t have been pleasant at all.
“He’s going to hate you even more now, but you know that already, right?” Havoc caught up to her, his skeleton clicking along happily in their wake. Murmur wasn’t sure, but she thought it might look stronger.
“Yeah, but what was I going to do, let him kill me so he would think he could just do it again? There was no way to win that, for some reason he hates me, and frankly, I’m a little scared of him.” She whispered the last, because she didn’t like saying it out loud. When things were spoken out in the open, they often brought karma with them. Whether that was just a coincidence or not, she didn’t know. “You know, it wouldn’t matter how powerful I get, if he had been walking behind me and used that weird skill of his I wouldn’t have survived. While my sensory net may have picked something up, I doubt I could have reacted in time to do anything.”
“It’s okay, Mur,” Havoc gave her shoulder a quick squeeze. “You know we’d all fight to the death for you.”
She smiled, even though she hated feeling like this was out of her control. “I know. I truly do know.” Being with her friends in this world helped calm her moods, and was maybe even helping her learn a bit of gratitude.
“Although,” he paused before continuing. “I’d feel safer if you didn’t wander around alone.”
They walked together for a few moments, and Murmur knew Havoc wasn’t sure how she’d taken his comment, but with the way Jirald kept behaving, there wasn’t any predicting his actions. So frankly, Havoc was right. He wasn’t being an overprotective ‘oh we must save the princess’ jerk, no, he was bei
ng her friend who was worried about the weird hyper-sensitive stalker dude who just tried to stab her in the back.
So instead of her usual hasty react first and think later mode, she waited until she’d fully accepted her reality, and answered. “I know, and I don’t plan on walking around alone anywhere in the world. Just in case.”
Havoc heaved a sigh of relief. “Well, that went better than expected.”
“Shut up.” She mock punched him in the arm and watched him stagger up the right path at the crossroads. Rolling her eyes, she asked the question that had been bothering her. “What did that blocking out death give you?”
“Oh!” His face lit up, albeit briefly. “I have this thing called bone clouds now, and I can reinforce my pet to make him stronger, quicker, and smarter. I should get some new stuff with my next level too. So yeah, that paying attention to find the hidden class is awesome, even if I’m not actually named differently.”
Murmur smiled, happy for her friend. Even if she constantly felt something was off in the world, if something didn’t quite sit right with her mind, it had nothing to do with her friends.
After a short way, the rest of the path sort of faded out and they were left with two sides of a rather thick wood.
Beastial pointed to the south, shading his eyes. “We avoid that side and all the eight-legged infidels. This is what Shir-Khan thinks, and so I’m not taking him that way.”
Sinister chuckled. “Your cat is smarter than you.”
“You take that back, you blood sucker.” Beastial growled at her.
But Sin shook her finger. “Uh-uh-uh! I’m a blood drainer. There’s a huge difference. Trust me.” Her eyes twinkled merrily.
“Okay, everyone. Listen up.” Devlish motioned for them all to get into a huddle so they could talk quietly and not alert anything. Murmur liked that plan, the memory of the Brute still way too fresh in her mind.
“We need to be quiet as we move into the trees. Once we get to the camp we can split up and each take a side and be ready to back one another up if one of us needs assistance, but we have to be quiet while we approach. Remember the Brute.”