ZipZing and Aishin stayed logged on until the sun rose and daily skills reset. In a way, dawn in 'Living Jade Empire' really was a magical time of day. Unlike the clock in the real world, the day truly started as the sun rose.
Danika shifted back into her human shape. She equipped the new outfit, and then hugged Aishin tightly. He smiled as he returned her embrace and reminded her, "We'll be home in a week."
"Yeah," she agreed.
"We're going to watch that movie together for the first time," he added.
"Yeah," she agreed again.
"Move in with me?" he suggested.
She almost agreed before the words fully penetrated. "I… isn't it too soon?" she questioned doubtfully instead.
"You want to get married first?" he asked lightly.
"Okay," she replied dryly, but she continued before he did more than draw half a breath, "it's definitely too soon for that."
His laughter huffed through her hair as he bent to hug her tighter. She leaned into him and he murmured, "Just make sure you tell me before it's too late for that, OK?"
"Yeah," she agreed again.
--
Shinichi logged out with a grin on his face. Naoki smacked his shoulder hard as soon as the waiting technician had disentangled him from the VR system. Shinichi raised an eyebrow at him.
Naoki exclaimed, "So annoying!"
"I didn't spend that much longer," Shinichi protested.
Kimitoshi snickered, and then tried to pretend he hadn't laughed. "Shut up," Naoki grumbled.
"Jealous," Kimitoshi announced.
"I am not jealous of such an oblivious pair!" Naoki protested as they made their way out of the labyrinthine corridors of the brand new VR recording studio, that had been crammed into the historic building of one of the world's longest running Movie Studios.
"What am I being oblivious to?" Shinichi asked curiously.
Naoki stopped and asked, "Are you sure you want to know?"
Shinichi turned and nodded. "Now I definitely want to know."
"That wizard definitely saw her naked and assumed that you coerced her into taking a human form so you could play around with her," Naoki grumbled.
"So what?" Shinichi asked with a real smile.
Even Toshi raised his eyebrows at that. Naoki stared open mouthed for a moment. Shinichi turned and followed the next exit sign around the corridor. Kimitoshi and Naoki caught up a moment later.
"Mister that-girl-is-mine, who gets jealous over silly little things, suddenly doesn't care if other guys are ogling his little dragon girl?" Naoki asked skeptically.
Shinichi grinned and replied, "She's always really cute, isn't she?" Naoki glanced at Toshi, who just shrugged. Shinichi's grin widened. "She is mine."
Naoki just rolled his eyes, but Kimitoshi murmured, "Ah, so."
--
Danika found herself at loose ends within the game the next morning.
None of the members of Underneath had time to play, and Kit wouldn't be on for hours yet. Shrubbery had logged on briefly, and said that she'd play more in the evening. SaltySiamese and MatchlessMinion were doing something with their family.
Lin Hao and Josh Beagle were working on something, even though they should have had the day off too, so Magna Silvam and Logical Heart were also missing.
Icieth, Melodious, and Tundo did a guild quest together and then vanished.
Ryullusion often played in the morning before she woke up, and he seemed like he would often skip playing entirely on weekends, so she was unsurprised by his absence.
It had been so long since ZipZing hadn't had any long term quests to work on, or some definite goal, that she wasn't sure what to do after completing the last guild quest for the day. She had already tended the guild hall tree and her own garden too.
It was the Sunday that she'd planned to spend with Mei originally, and she even considered giving her cousin a call to see what she was doing, when she logged out for lunch. She actually went out for lunch anyway, and decided to go around the park before returning home.
The weather was quite warm, but there was a bit of cloud in the sky and a fair amount of wind to keep the day from baking. The spring flowers had faded away, and only some sturdy long blooming things like roses were still in bloom, but Danika found herself drawn to them.
Even though the VR-medi pod could produce scents and tastes to a certain extent, they were simplified or faded in comparison to the scents of the real world. Visually and audibly there was less difference, even though Danika knew from the morning session with Myles Blue that those things were actually also simplified.
In this kind of weather the water features, like the artificial stream and the small fountain in the pond were drawing the most attention. Danika closed her eyes and listened to the water, the kids playing, and beyond those, the muffled traffic and less identifiable layers of noises.
She suddenly wondered if Ryullusion playing his harp was very different from Kobayashi Ryuske playing his harp. After the harp had taught him, he'd gotten one in the real world, but she didn't remember him giving an opinion on it.
--
Lin Hao growled at the screen and muttered, "I'm missing something obvious."
Josh shrugged wordlessly. He couldn't find anything to indicate that the traveling merchant had actually created Kit Tay a quest either.
They had already examined the list of hidden quests that Kit had activated, and none of them involved the merchant.
Lin Hao tried looking at it from a different layer. After a moment he brought up all of the quests across the entire game that the traveling merchant was linked to. The number of them was daunting. He sorted out all of the active ones which left a list that was merely very long.
"Maybe she hasn't accepted it yet, she didn't really seem to understand that he might have been offering her a task," Lin Hao suggested.
He divided the list, 60/40, and sent the smaller portion to Josh, who groaned when he opened it.