Danika was pretty happy spending time clipping wings off of jewel scarabs with some of her favorite people in the world, and her happiness increased when Shinichi found time to log in on his phone.
"Hey, do any of you ever wonder what wish the game has granted you?" Shrubbery asked after awhile.
"What do you mean?" Ryullusion asked.
"Well, they say it can figure out your hearts desire, from all the data it collects about you," Shrubbery explained. "But I'm not sure it's ever really done that for me."
"I think that's an exaggeration, and it just uses that to customize the quests," Danika objected.
"I don't know, I'm pretty happy with where my adventures in 'Living Jade Empire' have lead me," ShinZing said in the flat tones that meant he was using text. He blew a kiss toward ZipZing in the exaggerated movement of an emote too.
Shrubbery laughed and agreed, "Yeah, for you and ZipZing, I can see how you could say it's given you your heart's desire."
Danika almost objected, but she stopped when ShinZing agreed, "It really has. I didn't even realize what I actually needed."
She wondered guiltily if that meant that she was undervaluing her relationship with Shinichi. She really loved him, but she didn't like the concept that she'd been lacking something without him.
Kit said, "I could probably name a hundred wishes this game has granted for me. What is it that you want that it's failing to give you? Are you feeling lonely? Are we occupying too much of your time?"
Shrubbery held up her hands and protested quickly, "I'm fine! I can't really think of anything I want, I just can't think of anything that the game has seemed to give me. I haven't had any really lucky equipment drops like Match does, or had anything really unique happen to me?"
Danika objected, "We've been on some pretty unique and world changing adventures together haven't we?"
"Yes," Shrubbery agreed hesitantly.
Ryullusion suggested gently, "But you don't feel like you're the main character?"
The tall dryad shrugged helplessly, and then nodded. "Probably not? But I don't really mind…"
Danika frowned. She really couldn't think of a single quest they'd done where Shrubbery had been the focus. She was often in a position to help others, but rarely needed assistance herself.
A sort of horrible doubt assailed her. What if the game was using anyone who didn't have a strong wish or easily identifiable goal as supporting characters in other people's stories. Worse, what if she was playing that role for Shinichi, since he implied strongly that she was the wish he'd been granted.
Ryullusion said comfortingly, "I don't think there's anything wrong with just enjoying our time together. I would rather play without worrying about what I'm getting out of it."
"Says the man who wouldn't try the game until he heard that he could learn a new instrument through it," ShinZing complained.
Ryullusion laughed, but didn't deny it.
Shrubbery brightened though, and agreed, "Yeah, I think our time together is the best part too."
After a moment Danika nodded. It didn't really matter how they'd gotten together, spending time playing together was worth it.
She was a little taken aback a while later, after Shinichi logged out, when SilentSky logged in and silently took over the job of clipping wings. "I really don't mind having to clip them," she assured him. She was sure that he was only there because Shinichi had asked him to take over.
"It's okay, I want to play," SilentSky assured her in return, as though he could hear the full explanation of her worries.
Danika was slowly getting to know all of the members of Underneath better, and knew that Shinichi wasn't joking when he told her that they were his family too, but SilentSky still intimidated her a little. She watched the sky blue haired assassin neatly clip another pair of wings. His ordinary looking clothes always felt a little out of place in this fantasy setting.
"I'm glad things are going well tonight," Ryullusion told SilentSky.
Danika blinked as she realized how Ryuske had determined that things were going well. Kimitoshi was probably the last person who would waste time on the game if things weren't going smoothly. "I'm glad you're here," she agreed happily.
SilentSky paused, and then flashed the quick smile of an emote. "Yeah, it's good," he agreed.
Even if it wasn't a real smile, his response made her happy. When SilentSky had to go, Saaki logged in, and although the red haired genie didn't take on the wing clipping task, he also assisted with the collection quest without complaint. Nao1 and Edwardian also took a turn, although Nao1 only stayed for about 15 minutes.
Danika suddenly asked Ryuske, "Do all bands have such good coordination and communication? The way they each helped out with this so smoothly, even though ShinZing is the only one who was familiar with the ongoing quest, is something only elite teams can usually do." Even though the wing collection party had swapped out a member again and again, it had hardly felt like an interruption in their steady progress.
"Not all, but those are survival skills for any group in the entertainment industry," Ryuske replied.
"Even though they are still pretty young, they've already been working together for about a decade, haven't they?" Kit asked.
"I don't think it's been that long?" Shrubbery replied uncertainly.
"No, it's only about six years. Saaki and Edwardian joined right before the competition that launched them," Ryuske explained.
--
When Danika logged in according to the instructions her celestial dragon assistant relayed from Lin Hao the next morning, the Jade Emperor of the copy greeted her cheerfully with, "Welcome Danika Belova, I'm Jade. My title hasn't been decided yet, and there are no assistants to guide you to the work space, so I'm here to guide you."
Danika stared at him blankly for a moment and asked, "Jade?"
"Yes, that is my name," he agreed.
She pulled up her menus to check his information, and he really wasn't listed as the Jade Emperor. Her lips twitched in amusement. He was still wearing what she thought of as his celestial robes, the elaborate oriental outfit that he wore as the Emperor in the original game.
"Um, nice to meet you… again?" she replied uncertainly. Obviously some of his information had been cleared, but other things hadn't.
Jade looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, "I suppose that you are meeting this copy of myself for the first time, but I retain my memories of you prior to the date of duplication."
He gave her the time stamp of his last record of her log in, and Danika struggled to remember which of the recent updates had been in effect at that time, and which had been pending. He didn't seem to notice her distraction as he opened the door that led to the conference room where Lin Hao and Devon Yu waited.