*Char-ring*
Entering through the entrance doors, a black-haired young Asian man with an average appearance begins surveying the already seated customers, seeming to be looking for someone.
"Dear Customer-sama, a table of one?" asked the Japanese hostess at the front desk with a bright business smile in Japanese.
The black-haired man was slightly startled from being addressed to so suddenly but he was quickly able to calmly answer back in Japanese, "No thank you. I am looking for some friends of mine."
"Did you have any reservations?"
"Yes, I was told the table was reserved under…," the black-haired man hesitated for a split second, "…..[Vers Warriors]."
"[Vers Warriors]?," the woman repeated back once and then without missing a beat checked her clipboard,"….I found it, they're at table 6, I will send someone to guide you."
Then, without further ado, the women called one of the servers passing by and quickly explained the situation. With a nod, the server shows her understanding and looked at the black-haired man.
"This way please," said the waitress with a small bow before turning around to guide the man towards table 6.
As the man got closer to table 6, which was situated around the back of the restaurant, he was now able to see a group of very unique individuals. A group made of two young men and three women. As the black-haired man got closer they started to notice him and waved at him.
"Thank you very much," the man slightly bowed back to the server that showed him the way.
"Please, have a pleasant meal," the waitress bowed back in reciprocation and then return to serve the other customers.
After the server left, one of the girls stood up and started to address the young man in English, "You must be Nor—not that, Aaron Amano, correct?"
"Yes I am," replied the young man, or Aaron Amano, "and you must be QueenA, Alyssa Evans?"
"Correct! Wow.... how did you guess?"
The beautiful young woman who stood up, Alyssa Evans/QueenA, with her long blond hair decorated with a few streaks pink highlights, revealed a bright smile and said. "It is nice to finally get to meet you face to face like this!"
Next, an exotic lightly dark-skinned beauty beside Alyssa stood up and brought her had forward for a handshake.
"Hello, Aaron. Is it fine if I call you that? Nice to meet you, I am Iris Black. You know me better as Lily-Rose," said the exotic beauty as Aaron shook her outstretched hand.
"It is nice to meet you too. I don't mind if all of you call me that. In return can I call you Iris as well?"
Iris, with a slight smile, nodded her head in acceptance.
The next person to introduce themselves is a young man. While still sitting down the young man, turns his face and raises his hand in greeting,
"Yo Aaron! You kinda late, man. Clay Rowe by the way. Or should I say Ilovethemdidys, what up?" said the red-haired man, Claye Rowe/Ilovethemdidys, with frivolous but a frank grin on his face.
Looking at his somewhat sloppy attitude, the last female of the group, a short but cute brown-haired woman with some Asian characteristics, frowned in disapproval towards Claye and said, "Mr. Rowe, it is not polite to greet a person you meet for the 'first time' in the matter that you did. Have some dignity."
Clay turned to the women with a pout, "It's fine ain't it? It is not like we never talked before this. And I said to call me Clay, Kei. Calling me Mr. Rowe is giving me the chills."
With a sigh, the woman called Kei turned to Aaron with an apologetic look in her eyes, "Sorry you had to see that, Mr. Amano. Forgive me for my late introduction. My name is Kei Cross. My handle name is HikariBoshi. It is nice to finally meet you."
"The pleasure is mine. Oh, it is fine if you call me Aaron. I'll call you Kei, too."
"I understand. Nice to meet you, Aaron."
With a slight curve, Kei Cross/HikariBoshi, sent a pure smile Aaron's way. Clay was pouting in the background and said under his breath, 'Why is it fine for Aaron and not for me?'
Finally, the last person to introduce himself stood up to greet Aaron. As he rose from his seat, it became apparent that his height by far exceeds anyone else here. If not for his slight slouch, it is obvious that this African-British man would reach a height of 6' 6" easily.
"It is good to meet you, Aaron my friend. I am Tyrell Moreno. You probably know me better by Shortkakes," said Tyrell Moreno/Shortkakes, with his right hand outstretched, left hand behind his head, and mini bowing constantly.
Aaron, taking his hand for a handshake, "It is nice to finally meet you too."
At this time, Clay clapped once which gathered everyone's attention.
"Now that greetings are out of the way, Aaron hurry up and take a seat. Let's get this party started! Am I right, guys?! Your guildmaster here is gettin' hungry! "
"What is this guildmaster bullshit you're spewing? It's not like you were the one who planned this meeting in the first place. We got Aaron and Kei to thank for that" said Alyssa with an accusatory tone towards Clay.
"It's fine ain't it? It was I who made [Vers Warriors] in the first place. It could be said that without me, we wouldn't be meeting here in the first place. So where's the gratitude?"
"Fine, fine. Thanks. GG. Just please don't shout the name here. It's embarrassing." said Alyssa with a contemptuous attitude.
Iris, with a rueful smile, started to placating the two of them, "Okay, break it up you two. Aaron, have a seat. There's an empty seat next to Tyrell and Kei."
Aaron, with a rueful grin of his own, without pretense sat between Tyrell and Kei in the circular table.
"Everyone grab your drinks, grab your drinks. Ah, you don't mind do you, Aaron, that we ordered a beer for you?", asked Alyssa, with a slightly worried look.
"No problem."
"Then it's fine"
"Hey, the guildmaster is me. Why are you the one taking the spotlight?"
"Okay, okay. Don't be such a baby."
"Jeez, you two...."
"It's okay, Iris. Mr. Rowe has long since been a lost cause from the start."
"WTF!!"
"Hahaha….."
As Aaron, Alyssa, Clay, Iris, Kei, and Tyrell were getting rowdy, each person took there own respective cups and raised it in front of them.
"Ehhh…*cough*…..ahem, I thank you, each and every one of you, for coming here today—"
"What the hell are you saying? You're being kinda disgusting."
"It's not just kinda, Alyssa. Mr. Rowe IS disgusting. Period."
"Now, now."
As the girl's side naturally spewing poison like it's nothing, the target in question, Clay, seemed to appear to have three lines drawn on his head*.
"Shut up!! Ahem, once again I thank you, as guild leader, you the members of my [Vers Warriors] for your eternal loyalty-----" Just get it over with"—Okay!!! Anyways, CHEERS!!1"
"""""CHEERS!!!"""""
Everyone raised their glasses and brought them together with a resounding ding. Thus begins the first offline meeting of the Verstronia---Dreamless Story's high-ranked guild: the [Vers Warriors].
.
.
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Aaron Amano's POV
Even now, I felt as though I was still dreaming. These guys, while I knew them for the four years that we played VDS together, this was the first time we had an offline meeting for real. In fact, I felt that our relationship itself was already a living miracle in today's society. Feeling somewhat moved, I surveyed the others as they fully enjoy themselves.
"Did you see that concert? It was amazing, right? Especially my Sylvia, her moves were soo~ good. As expected of VDS's most cutest character!!"
"Ara, I can't pretend to have not heard that. Sorry, but clearly the star of the show was obviously my Arlette."
"Now, now. We don't have to be so competitive. We can all agree that the concert was incredible. As expected of my Chloe."
The girl side is sure getting heated up about that VDS Hologram Concert they seen earlier. What a meaningless conversation. It is obviously MY Ashe who stole the sh---ah who am I kidding. He barely even appeared in it. I even had to rewatch the concert recording to make sure. As I heaved a sigh, I looked over to the guys side.
"Tyrell, are you listening? If your not, then listen up good! Don't you think that the girl members are treating me too harshly?! I mean, like, Alyssa always argues against me, Kei naturally just insults me with a straight face, and Chloe, while she doesn't insult me, she does nothing to defend me and just smiles. Isn't that just harsh? I mean-----"
"Mmm, I am listening. I'm listening. Ah, that really too bad. However, Clay I think you have just a bit too much to dr----"
"Right! Right!! I knew you would agree with me! Man, you're the best, Tyrell. So as I was saying----"
…..I'll just let sleeping dogs lie. Good luck, Tyrell. I'll pick up your bones later.
I turn my eyes back to the hotplate. The sight and smell of cooking meat stimulate my appetite.
The reason why we are even together in the first place, eating at a Yakuniku place in the middle of Tokyo, Japan, was to join the largest Game Convention ever in history to celebrate the 4th anniversary for the world's current most popular MMORPG: Verstronia: Dreamless Story. We, the [Vers Warriors], are some of many avid gamers and fan of the game and for the first time ever decided to join the event this year together.
Complete with a Hologram Concert starring holographic images of the characters from VDS, PvP tournaments, and various other events. I can even see VDS cosplayers casually walking around and who are like us because they are having dinner at various restaurants near the event area.
Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to join the group during the start of the event and was forced to enjoy the event by myself for a time. Thankfully, since we agree to have one last dinner together I was able to finally meet them face to face. Having only known their avatars the four years we been together, I truly felt blessed to finally meet with my long time friends.
I once again took a swig of my beer. Haaaaaaa….Oof, I'm starting to get a little tipsy. Seeing them together makes me reminisce a bit about how first started playing and eventually met them all.