Data Dragon Danika

"Oh man," Saaki complained, "if only we could really eat cake. When are you getting a VR system?"

Aishin laughed and replied, "I am still looking at them, they"re all so expensive, and most of them are non returnable. I don"t want to buy one and regret it later."

Shrubbery nodded and sat on a chair beside Kit Tay. "I know right? We have one of the least expensive models, and it works ok, but it"s almost like you have to a.s.semble it and disa.s.semble it every time. Also, it can only be used by one person, and you have to completely reset the system to set it up for someone else."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Danika commented as MatchlessMinion dragged a chair closer to Shrubbery and hopped up to stand on its seat beside her.

"I have a Visual Motion full-motion console, and my sister has a regular game console," MatchlessMinion announced.

"That"s what I"ve got now," Aishin agreed. He looked at ZipZing where she still hovered beside him and asked, "What do you have?"

Danika hesitated before replying and Kit asked a little sharply, "Aren"t you being too nosy? Why does it matter what she"s using."

Aishin blinked and looked at Kit with a startled expression. "I guess that"s true," he agreed after a moment.

Danika waved her little clawed hands and said, "No, it"s ok! I just, um…" she wasn"t sure how to explain.

"It"s really ok, you don"t have to tell me," Aishin said firmly.

Danika laughed and he raised his eyebrows at her. "I really don"t mind, it"s just that it was um," she glanced guiltily at Shrubbery, "really expensive. I have a VR-medi pod."

Everyone except Kit gazed at her with surprise.

"Wow," Aishin said after a moment.

Nao1 asked curiously, "Are you rich?"

"No," Danika replied laughingly.

Saaki scolded, "Come on Zippy, it"s ok to admit that you"re well off!" He winked and added quickly, "We"re all going to be rich in the future."

Danika met Aishin"s eyes with a puzzled look and he winked at her too. "Let"s talk more another day," he suggested, "and I"ll ask you about the system in more detail, ok?"

SilentSky returned as Danika replied, "Okay?"

A waitress pushing a cart entered behind SilentSky. The cart contained a cake frosted in a sky blue that almost matched his hair. Nao1 surveyed the cake critically and asked, "Shouldn"t it be white?"

SilentSky shrugged.

"Why does the color matter?" Kit questioned. "It"s not actually a wedding?"

Nao1 stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes in a silly emote expression, and then pulled a small paper bag out of her beginner"s pack. She held it out toward ZipZing and said, "You have to give it a name, or anyone can take it. They said that it will belong to the person who names it."

Danika glanced at Aishin uncertainly, and then zipped forward to take the bag. She expected the weight of it to drag her to the table top, but it felt like the little bag was empty. She gazed at the folded top in her claws doubtfully.

Aishin smiled at her and said rea.s.suringly, "It"s ok, just open it."

Danika cautiously set the bag on the table and awkwardly unrolled the top of it and pulled it open. She hovered over it and peered inside. A small beetle crawled across the bottom of the bag. She used her Identify Animal skill on the beetle.

The soft chime of a skill rang, and Aishin said, "Congrats? What skill did you level up just by looking at it?"

Danika gazed at the little firefly distractedly and said, "Identify Animal?"

"Oh," Aishin said laughingly.

The firefly flew out of the bag. "Did you name it yet?" Nao1 asked worriedly.

"How do I name it?" Danika questioned.

"How should I know? The shopkeeper just said name it?" Nao1 explained.

Danika zipped after the little firefly and huffed a breath attack at it. It dropped out of the air, and she caught it. As soon as it touched her hands, a dialogue popped up that read: "A pet"s name can be changed later for a Karma cost, but ownership is permanent, and the pet will always be logged in and out at the same time as the owner. Name your pet to claim it:"

"Oh," Danika said.

The dialogue box changed to ask: "Name your pet O?"

"No," Danika said quickly. "I want to name it…" she stared blankly into s.p.a.ce.

"Hikaru?" suggested Aishin.

"Hikaru," Danika repeated.

The dialogue box changed to ask: "Name your pet Hikaru?"

"Yes," Danika agreed.

A new chime rang out, and Hikaru lit up with a soft glow. The little firefly seemed to wake up suddenly, and crawled to the tip of Danika"s claw and launched itself back into the air. Instead of flying off randomly this time, it circled her.

Aishin said with satisfaction, "It says it"s your pet now."

Danika brought up her menus, and saw that she had a new one. Just beyond her own character sheet, there was a brief character sheet for Hikaru, who was: "Hikaru, the Fairy Dragon"s pet." Under details it said it was Level 1, a Firefly, and had one skill, Glow. Its energy and health bar were both full, but seemed small.

Nao1 asked with disappointment, "Don"t you like it?"

"It"s really cute," Danika replied quickly. "Thank you!"

Aishin stood up and walked over to her. He held out his hands invitingly. Danika landed on his warm palms and the little firefly circled them both. "What are you worrying about now?" he asked softly.

Danika told him, "It just seems like it could be killed really easily, so it"ll be hard to look after."

"You have plenty of Karma, so you can resurrect it just like you would yourself," Aishin pointed out questioningly.

"Yeah," Danika agreed. At Aishin"s quizzical look, she whispered, "So it"s a really cute little Karma drain?"

Aishin laughed and said, "Well, I guess you"ll have to leave Hikaru in your garden when you plan to do dangerous things then."

"Oh," Danika blushed. "Right!" she agreed with more enthusiasm.

They all ate the blue frosted cake, even Hikaru. Saaki kept Danika busy by asking what kinds of music she liked and what her favorite colors were. Kit rushed off a bit later, to meet with the traveling merchant before she had to log off.

Danika watched her go and asked, "Do you ever wonder how many complaints they"re receiving about transactions interrupted by the traveling merchant"s wife?"

MatchlessMinion stared at her and asked, "What?"

Shrubbery poked him and whispered, "She"s the girl I was telling you about."

Shrubbery logged off next, but her messenger arrived with a message a little while later. Danika read it and sweated a little: "If you do make a guild, can you make my mom one of the founding members? Their names stay in the guild records in this game permanently."

SaltySiamese complained, "We should get going too."

SilentSky replied, "Us too."

Saaki complained, "But we haven"t done any adventuring!" SilentSky appeared to simply look at him, but Saaki grumbled after a moment, "Fine, but Aishin too!"

"Me too," Aishin agreed regretfully. He reached out and poked ZipZing in the belly.

"Hey!" Danika protested.

"Don"t think too much about whatever you"re thinking about now, and text me if you want, ok?" Aishin asked.

"Ok," she agreed a bit shyly.

"Bye," Edwardian said and logged off.

Danika stared at the spot where he"d been sitting. She was embarra.s.sed to admit that she"d forgotten about him.

Aishin chuckled and said, "I"ll get him a headset if he decides he wants to play. He"s been talking out loud the whole time."

When everyone was gone, Danika exited the restaurant into the evening air, and flew up to a rooftop. She set down her pebble and entered her garden to see if Hikaru would follow her in. Hikaru appeared beside her a moment later.

"Stay in here," Danika instructed, and exited again. The little firefly didn"t reappear beside her, and Danika tried storing her pebble. It refused to go into her inventory. She frowned a little and wondered what made her pet different than her plants.

After a moment she actually opened up the help section and sent that as an inquiry. Then she reentered her garden, watered her plants with her little pet glowing brightly as it flew along beside her, and logged herself and Hikaru out for the night.