Winter settled in outside, but Danika didn't mind because her home was warm, and she was busy.
Endless Song's entertainment venue was finally paying for everything that they had put into it and more, and the credit for that could be laid at Hikaru's feet. The person, not the firefly.
Ryuske had coaxed his partner into making a character so that they could perform together, and Hikaru had come out of the beginner's vale to meet them looking very much as she did in real life. She had gazed at Ryullusion with an incredulous expression, and circled him in much the same fashion that the firefly of the same name would have, before exclaiming, "Ryu! You look so young! I've never seen you look so young! You look like you did in Edge's posters!? No, you look even prettier than that! But it's still you…" And then she had started to cry.
Ryullusion had replied anxiously, "You could have altered your appearance too!"
Hikaru had hit him and cried, "You idiot! I did! Can't you see that I'm five kilos lighter? I'm crying because I thought you would never wear your hair long again!"
Danika hadn't understood, but Ryuske obviously had, as he hugged her and told her gently, "Yeah. I know. But it's okay isn't it?"
"It's so okay," Hikaru had insisted. "So very okay! You idiot!"
Her words had made Ryullusion laugh, and afterward she had asked, "But don't you need a performing account like you said the kids had, if we're going to play on stage as Mirage?"
--
Because of that, Ryuske had been inspired to work together with Quicksilver's player outside of the game, and convince Starcraft Technologies marketing department to open up an option for professional avatar accounts for any registered and licensed performers willing to pay for them, in both 'Living Jade Empire' and their future VR games.
When Danika heard about their plan, she convinced the Jade Emperor and Logical Heart (or rather, Josh Beagle, since it took actual changes to the game), to tackle the idea that she'd had of creating permanent concert ticket types that weren't limited to Endless Song's venue. Ordinary ones that would let you into a predefined zone, like the one that had been created for Underneath, and a special concert ticket type that would shift you into a spirit form that had access to the performing space within the zone.
Logical Heart even improved it, by giving the spirits the option of making themselves visible to everyone as motes of light. That way the performers could interact with them a little if they wanted to, or easily ignore them if they didn't, and the rest of the audience members could see that other people were willing to pay for the privilege. He also set it up to let the zone creator choose whether the tickets sold in the shop for real money or in the game for coin, and both the game and the performers got a cut, but the zones themselves weren't cheap.
Mirage started holding monthly concerts within 'Living Jade Empire', like the Sugar Wings and Tundo's string quartet had been. The virtual performances were much easier on them than real lives were anymore, and they always brought in a large crowd of older people.
Danika thought that it was strange that more people seemed willing to create a game account to view them than to create an account for a dedicated virtual concert, but Ryuske told her, "I think this is more like visiting a distant city to see a concert, there are lots of other people and interesting things here already."
The Sugar Wings kept their fairy wings, but matched the rest of their performing avatars to their real performance appearances, and Penname complained about being out of a job. For about five minutes. Until Thimblepot asked with interest, "Don't you think that more pirates would like your designs? Sea Song Tione tells me that there are more than a hundred thousand pirates, and that walrus' tamer pirate that Shrubbery knows really liked them!"
Other groups of older professionals and younger aspiring artists noticed their rise in popularity, and started creating professional accounts for themselves too. Of course, not all of them booked themselves with Endless Song. But as the game's founding venue, their dome, (and Tianxia, the city of sand), got a lot of traffic.
--
Underneath had a Valentine's Day concert this year as well, but Shinichi had set aside the rest of his time to play with Danika during the 'Week of Hearts' within 'Living Jade Empire'. He had thought about keeping it a secret from her, but had been afraid that she would decide to work instead, even though Saturday was one of the two days of the event.
She really didn't like how things were going on the children's game they were creating as the last demo. They had been instructed to make it comply with current international regulations for those, which meant that it had to meet a lot of conflicting restrictions while still proving educational.
Her latest message complained, "It's so ridiculous! For example: no sexual act of any kind can be portrayed, but realistic animals must portray realistic behavior. I don't think there's a farming game in the world that can meet both requirements at the same time! I think 'Living Jade Empire' filters things pretty well based on the character's age and settings, but it doesn't comply with this mess either."
He logged in and teleported to ZipZing, who was watering her apple tree within her stone space. He grabbed one of the healing berries from a bush to heal ShinZing before turning to her and suggesting, "A world of plushies that go around solving math problems?"
She sighed as she set her aqua stone back on the stone cup that fed the small pond she'd added on one side of the little garden space. "It's actually already been suggested," she replied wearily.
She used her druidic belt and skill to shift into her pixie form and hugged him, even though he was playing from his phone. He regretted that he couldn't properly return her hug, even as he tapped the custom emote he'd built for kissing her on the nose. Even after being together for over a year, she still blushed when he did that. She was so cute.
"I'm really glad you have a couple of days off," he told her seriously.
"Should I have flown out to stay with you?" she asked worriedly.
"Nope. All five of us are crammed into one suite here. And the funny thing is, when we tried to change it they said that they are full, because of our concert!" he explained laughingly. "Besides we'll have three days together when we go to your dad's wedding, and then we'll get two whole weeks alone when we finally take our trip," he assured her quickly.
"You realize that we'll be lucky to get five minutes alone together since we agreed to stay with my grandparents," Danika warned him.
"You just won't let me keep any secrets will you," Shinichi complained with amusement.
"What?" she asked with a cutely confused expression on her character's face.
"I'm coming home Monday and I'll be there until Thursday," he told her wryly. Her happy smile as she hugged him again made giving up the surprise worth it. "Want to go win some candy?" he suggested. "MatchlessMinion sent me a link to the map of currently known event quests."
"Guess who talked him into teaming up to do the quests with her?" Danika demanded laughingly.
Shinichi hesitated. He knew that Shrubbery had made plans in advance to do the Week of Hearts with Ryullusion, because his adoptive parent had included that in his message a few days ago, and he didn't think that she would have cancelled on him. The two person teams didn't have to have couples in them, but he couldn't think of anyone else that Danika might sound so excited about.
ZipZing's wings sparkled brightly as she announced without waiting for him to guess, "Penname!"
"Oh," Shinichi replied with relief. "That makes sense."
"That makes sense?" Danika repeated doubtfully. "You're not surprised?"
"Don't those two both really enjoy the same kinds of quests?" he asked. "She's not even that much younger than he is, they have less of an age difference than we do."
ZipZing's utterly shocked expression made him laugh, and he teased, "Don't tell me that my little matchmaker never thought of pairing up those two?"
Her wings went pink as she protested, "I don't matchmake people! And I was really surprised!"