“I’ll vanish in just under half an hour, Stacia,” Alburet replied to her, “until then I shall hold you close to keep your beauty fresh in my mind while I am gone.”
“Ya really like me in this form, master?”
“No matter what form you take, Stacia, it is your soul that is bound to me. I have found love with you. But yes, both of your physical forms turn me on something fierce.”
A small giggle escaped her lips, “Thank ya, master.” Time ticked away in silence after that with him just holding her close, his hands gently stroking her body as the clock ticked down. Thirty minutes later he vanished and Stacia let out a small cry as he did. “Please hurry back,” she whispered to the empty room, her words unsteady as she still feared he might abandon her.
Chapter Two
Seamus found himself in the room where he’d spent time with Victoria before entering Alpha World. As he turned around he saw Victoria seated behind the desk, waving him over to the chair across from her. “Greetings, Seamus. I hope you have been enjoying yourself,” her warm voice carried a hint of amusement.
“Hello, Vicky. It has been interesting so far, that’s certain. I’ve had some fun times, but I want to register a complaint about the full pain threshold. I’m sure the waivers I’ve signed negates a whole lot, but having bolts of flame hit you or swords cutting into you is not fun in the least. Tell me that it can be arranged for the pain threshold to come down to even half?” Seamus finished his mini rant as he took the seat across from her.
Victoria let a ghost of a smile touch her lips, “Only the slider was set to maximum, Seamus. You’ve been stabbed before. Did the pain really feel that bad in the game?”
“Very, very close, Vicky. It was great when a heal would land though, the pain just faded away. I’m curious as to why we are talking, as well as what the patch is all about.”
“Well, since the game is down for the day I thought we could chat. It gives me a chance to gauge your mental state after a full week of immersion as well as get feedback from you. As for why we pulled the game for an emergency patch after a week, would you like to see the patch notes?” Vicky was suddenly holding a couple of sheets of paper.
“Yes, if that’s okay. I was also meaning to ask what am I allowed to tell people in game about me and my situation? That goes for players and the non-players as well. What are you guys calling the NPCs internally, by the way?”
“Those are some very good questions Seamus. Would you like to review the patch notes first or chat? Both have information you might want to focus on.” Victoria leaned forward, gently fanning herself with the patch notes while wearing a small smile.
“The patch notes can wait a few moments, then,” Seamus replied. “I’ve been putting people off who’re asking about me. I would like to be able to answer them.”
The papers she held vanished as she sat back, “Well then, to answer your last question first, internally we have been calling them NPCs. But if one of the workers goes in game we call them people, as all players are two-souled. As for what you can tell others, we don’t want your name or story out in public, at least not yet, so please don’t divulge that. As for how you are able to keep playing for such long periods, you can tell them you’re testing a new system that should be making the news soon. The government has given us the go ahead for a small trial run of month-long immersion systems, so we will be going public with that in the next week or so.”
“I wouldn’t think many people will be able to manage a whole month off at a go,” Seamus mused, as he considered who had that kind of time.
“We already have hundreds of people who will be invited to the initial test run. They have previously expressed an interested in longer periods of immersion. You’ve already grouped with one of them on multiple occasions,” Vicky let her smile grow.
“Karen or Fluffball then would be my guess,” Seamus replied quickly as he considered the two women. “Fluffball would be my final answer.”
“Very well done, Seamus. The person who is Fluffball was indeed the one I was speaking of. She has done some work for us in the past as a free agent. It is well known that she can easily take a month off to do something she loves to do, such as play games.”
“What kind of artwork has she done for Mindblown?”
“She designed a few of our more interesting set pieces that you won’t encounter until much later in the game. Her take on the Dark Lord’s castle, for instance, was head and shoulders above what we got from anyone else. The one other thing that was implemented in Alpha World was a quaint little café in Stormguard.” Victoria watched his eyes narrow for a moment before she continued. “Yes, that café was indeed her work. Did you like it?”
A bemused chuckle escaped Seamus, “It was fun, actually. It also seemed to do a fairly okay business with the people of the city.”
“It does well enough to get by. We do expect it to get more attention once other two-souled find it. The person behind Fluffball is such an interesting person that I look forward to how she handles a full month in game.”
“I hope it helps her break out of her mold a little. She seems like she wants to be more extroverted, but keeps failing to take the next few steps.”
“That is true, but do not most people have things in the past they would rather not deal with?” Victoria’s eyes seemed to bore into him as she asked the question.
A small shiver ran through Seamus at her words, “Human nature, isn’t it?”
Her voice was filled with sadness, “Yes it is, sadly. I have even seen people create entire false memories to avoid a horrible truth that they didn’t want to deal with.”
“Well, I hope Fluff is able to move forward. One of the NPC’s offered to help her, too, I think,” Seamus said.
Victoria could sense Seamus wanting to get away from the subject of memories, so she changed the topic. “How have you found the long-term immersion? Has it altered your view of what reality is in any way?”
“If I am going to be there for years it seems like a good idea to build up goodwill with people I will interact with repeatedly. As such, I’ve been thinking of it as an alternate reality with a game like setting more than just as a game. Most people don’t care what the NPCs think in a game, but the NPCs in Alpha World with the AIs behind them seem way more real than previous games, which makes it easier to treat them accordingly.”
“Is that why you spent time training the guards?”
A small chuckle escaped his lips, “Nostalgia mostly was the cause there, but yes, also because I wanted to have goodwill with the guards. Doubly so since Summoners don’t seem to be well liked.”
“Every world has history behind it. A question about your new minion. How did that come about?” Victoria asked, leaning forward to rest her head on-top of her interlaced fingers.
“That is an interesting question, and I’d like to know myself. I was going to ask you pretty much the same thing.”
“Do you object to it?”
“Hardly. Stacia is a good girl and we do seem to click.”
“You have no issue having a relationship with an NPC?” Victoria’s eyes focused intently on him as she asked her question.
Frowning, Seamus paused to really consider her question. “No, I don’t actually. All in all, it’s probably for the best, even. A player would eventually want to meet up and that is impossible, obviously. That isn’t an issue with Stacia. The only issue is when things like this happen and I need to step away from Alpha World for some reason. She hasn’t really tried to pry into my past and frankly I don’t think she cares about it at all. So, all in all it seems like the best possible solution I could ever get.”