“We missed you so much!” Ervent yelled before hugging Kira, shocking the demon. She stared at the girl, her mouth falling open. “I was so scared I’d never see you again!”
“Yeah. Sorry. I’ve just been really busy. You got my message, didn’t you?” Kira finally managed to ask.
“Yes,” Ervent said before pulling back and staring up at her. “But I didn’t think you were coming back. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? What about?” Kira asked.
“Just sorry because I thought you were leaving,” Ervent said, continuing her tradition of confusing Kira.
“She thought you ran off because she’d annoyed you last time we played together,” Blueberry said. “’Oh no, she’s probably mad because I used her build’! It was kind of cute. Annoying, but cute.”
Kira blinked a few times, before reaching out and patting the angel on the head, a small smile on her lips. Now she understood, the angel thought that she had driven her off. “Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself. I’ve been working,” she said with a laugh. “I do commission work and sometimes I just get lost in the project. Especially near the end. When you’ve been working on something so long it’s just hard not to keep working at it and trying to make it perfect.”
Blueberry laughed and shook his head. “I see. No time for relaxation when you’re trying to overwork yourself to death, huh?”
Kira’s cheeks turned a little red at that accusation that was a little too accurate. “What? I’m not overworking myself. Besides, I just got the job done, so now all I’m doing is relaxing.”
“Really? So you haven’t done any work today?” Blueberry asked with a knowing smirk that made her squirm a little more.
Kira shifted uncomfortably before coughing into her hand. “I mean, I may have sent a few messages out. Looked at a few message boards, sent in a dozen or so inquiry letters about jobs.” With each word she could feel her cheeks getting redder. “It’s not real work, though. Nobody pays me for it.”
“Just because you don’t get paid for it doesn’t mean it’s not work,” Blueberry said. “So, you never told us what you think of the new place,” he said, mercifully changing the subject.
“Oh! Right! I was going to ask about that,” Kira said before glancing around. When she’d logged on the first thing that had popped up was a message letting her know that their guild hall had been updated and then a message from Ervent begging her to come see. Once she’d found the portal and stepped in, she hadn’t really had a chance to look around before being tackled by the clingy angel.
Now that she could see it, she couldn’t help but admire it slightly. For a pre-fab, it was fairly impressive. It was designed like a massive coliseum, however rather than dirt and dust, everything was covered in plant life. Vines snaked their way across the stone and beautiful, multi-colored flowers blossoming all around. The center of the coliseum was divided into sections. In the middle, a lake surrounded by a garden of different plant life and, surprisingly enough, birds were in it. However, on the northern side of the coliseum there was a massive, metal gate that surrounded a dirt covered clearing with multiple small marked off sections, where a few players were practicing fighting against each other. The southern end was filled with small stables where different animals were waiting inside simple enclosures.
It was impressive, the detail was incredible. However, she couldn’t help but cringe at some of the design choices. The three of them were standing at the very top of the stands, looking down over the architecture. Finally, she shook her head. “Who designed this? I know the coliseum itself is pre-fabricated but what about the attachments?”
“Orion. I think he did it last night,” Blueberry said. “Bit of a rush job, but not bad. Why?”
“I see. So he’s been busy too, then?” Kira asked.
“Yeah. We recruited about a dozen new players and he’s been really trying to help them feel at home. He finally scraped the money together to buy a guild hall for us,” Blueberry said. “The features are nice, lets you move around faster and you can get your own room set to here.”
Kira nodded, looking around. She had spent so long designing places like these, she could already see all the little tricks used to make it seem ‘original’. The trees themselves seemed varied, but in reality there were only three different ones. There were four different kinds of birds, but they were all in the same spot on the trees, not moving. There were a few sections where the vines and flowers hovered over the stands and didn’t actually touch. For a pre-fab job, it was fairly good. Though it really needed some adjustments. She brought up her friend’s list and clicked his name. He was on. She sent him a text message before glancing to Blueberry. “Is this his first guild hall?”
“Yeah. We had a player build our last one in the other game, but they didn’t come over. It’s pretty useful, though. You can teleport to any of the major cities from here,” Blueberry said, before motioning towards the northern section of the field. “And you can summon different monsters from that gate, to test your builds. And grow things in the garden.”
Kira nodded. “Function over form, I see...” She rubbed her chin. “I wonder if he’d let me take a crack at it. I do a lot of this kind of work. Designing places like this, I mean. Well, not like this, I doubt they’d let me make it completely custom. But I can probably make some modifications,” she said, eyeing the lake and her mind already filling with ideas.
Blueberry chuckled. “So, you wanna come onto the game to work, then? I can see you really are taking this relaxation thing seriously. Is that what your commissions are? Designing things like this?”
Kira felt a small knot forming in her stomach. “Well, not like this. Not exactly like this, at least. I create custom, virtual resorts and things like that. It’s not the most profitable profession, but it’s something I really enjoy.” She held her breath and waited for them to start teasing her about wasting her time.
“That’s really cool,” Ervent said softly. “What did you end up making for the commission?”
Kira paused, glancing back towards the angel. “An island, actually. Palm trees, a waterfall, hot tub, things like that. It’s for some relaxation and getaway thing they’re doing.”
“Wow. Could I see it?” Ervent asked, her eyes almost glimmering with excitement. Or maybe it was just a part of the angel race, she hadn’t spent much time looking at their eyes.
Kira stared at Ervent for a few moments just to be sure she wasn’t joking before giving a nod. She tapped on the air a few times, going through her menus. Once she finished a small folder appeared in her hands and she held it out to the angel. “This is from my portfolio. I can’t take you there, though, since it’s now their property. Part of the terms of agreement is that I don’t use it again for anything, it’s their private property to do with as they please.”
To her surprise, Blueberry moved besides Ervent to see. “This is incredible,” he said softly. “You made this all by yourself?”
“Well, no. I have a lot of different tools to make all the objects,” Kira said quickly. “I mean, some of them are made by me, but most are edited versions of other assets I’ve bought the rights for over the years.”
“But you did all this yourself, organized it yourself?” Blueberry asked softly, staring.
“Well, yeah,” Kira said, her cheeks only getting redder. “But it’s not that impressive, I just--”
“It’s incredible. I’ve been to one of these generated places at my last job. This looks a thousand times better,” Blueberry said before glancing down when Ervent flipped to the next batch of pictures. “It looks so realistic. Are you sure these aren’t just images of a real island? No wonder you were spending so much time on it.”
Kira stared at the pair, unsure of how to react. Most people she showed these things to always thought she was stupid to be wasting her time on something so ‘fake’, as most put it. “I wasn’t. I mean, I do look at a lot of images of actual islands and how the trees are positioned and things like that to make it as realistic as possible. But no, these are all my own work. Do you really think they’re that good?”
“They’re amazing. What’s your tag for these? I actually know a few people who might be interested in some of these. Do you have your rate information?” Blueberry asked, glancing up at her.
Kira froze in place, staring at the dragon. She paused and then tapped on the menus a few more times before sending over her pre-packaged rate plans. She could feel the knot in her stomach growing. She really should have seen it coming once he had praised her work, after all she’d had this talk more than a dozen times a month. Someone would look at her work, say how good it was, then the moment they saw her rates they’d laugh and say ‘all she did was cobble images together!’ It was probably the worst part of the job, most people just didn’t appreciate how many hours it took to get everything together, or how much effort she put into it. She mentally told herself that she would be firm, her rates were already rather competitive. She would not allow herself to be guilt tripped into cutting them to a fraction just because he was a guild member.
Blueberry looked over the package for a few moments before laughing. “Wow, those are your rates? Really?”
Kira gulped, slowly nodding. “Yes,” she said. She readied herself for an argument. Why did she even join this guild? This was why she liked playing solo games. She had to spend an incredible amount of time on her projects to get them perfect, trying to navigate the social minefield of human interactions wasn’t something she wanted to dedicate more time to.
“Aren’t they a bit low?” Blueberry asked.
“No, they--” She paused, her mouth falling open slightly. How was she even supposed to respond to that? “What? I mean no. I didn’t think so.”
“Are you sure? I’ve seen places half as good that cost two or even three times as much. The last one I tried was by some Crystal guy? I don’t remember exactly how he spelled his name.”
Kira gave a small nod. “Yeah, there are a lot of people like that. With gemstone or rock tags. It’s pretty common in this line of work. But I’m not the best, yet. I still have a lot of work to do before I’m anywhere near perfect,” she said, gently rubbing her head. “Thank you. I didn’t think they were that good. I don’t really get enough clients I can afford to raise my rates, anyway.”
Blueberry gave a light laugh and shook his head. “Overworking yourself, low rates. You’re like Orion, aren’t you?”
“Huh?” Kira asked. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, he does the same thing. When I first met him, he was doing the same thing he’s doing now, but for half the pay. Well, he was also working a lot more hours too. He’s gotten a little better about that. He doesn’t disappear in the middle of sessions anymore in order to deal with emergencies at work all the time.”
“He would just leave?” Kira asked. “That seems kind of rough. But if it’s for work, it’s probably important.”
Blueberry shook his head. “Not really. His boss was just taking advantage of him because Orion let him. He usually just hangs back and deals with things remotely now at his new job.”
“Really? He’s never done that with me,” Kira said.
Blueberry cocked an eye and gave another knowing grin. “He’s done it a dozen times in just the time’s we’ve been playing as a group. You never really noticed? When he just stops? Won’t respond?”
Kira’s cheeks turned a little red and she slowly shook her head. She could remember him falling behind a few times, but she never noticed him actually working during it. “No. I just thought sometimes he let us go on ahead. I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Probably because you’re always running off ahead and don’t see it when he just stops for a few minutes. He’s pretty fast, though, so he keeps up well enough. Have you ever done that?” Blueberry asked.
Kira flushed and shook her head. Though, now that she thought about it, there had been a few times she had run off ahead and had to stop for a second while she worked on something small. Usually taking down notes of a new idea that popped into her head. But she was usually so far ahead of everyone that she could do it without actually slowing anyone else down. Her cheeks got even redder. “I guess I do run off ahead too much, huh? I’m really sorry.”
“Doesn’t hurt us any now that we’re used to it. You don’t seem to die much, either, so it’s fine. Hey, Ervent, can I see that?” Blueberry said before Ervent gave him the folder and he flipped through it. “But back on the matter at hand. Do you do smaller jobs too? Or just these big ones?”
“I’ll do just about anything if they meet my rates,” she said, before shaking her head. “But, ummmm… nothing too risque. I’ve had a few people approach me with things like that. I don’t have the necessary tools for it, nor do I feel comfortable doing that kind of work.”
For once, Blueberry blushed and quickly shook his head. “No! No no no. No. Nothing like that. I was actually considering something small myself. Do you do private work?”
“Err, yeah. From individuals? Sometimes,” Kira said. “But I don’t have a special rate for that, I just--”
“Don’t worry. I’ll match these rates,” Blueberry said. “I’ll send you the details later. Okay?”
“Right. I’ll look over it,” Kira said, staring at the dragon. Of all the reactions she’d expected, that was definitely not one of them. She definitely hadn’t expected to meet someone in a game like this who was interested in giving her work.
Of course, she couldn’t rule out the possibility that Blueberry was just using this as a means to flirt with her or something. It’d be a waste of both of their time, as she had no interest in the dragon. But it would hardly be the first time somebody had pretended to be interested in her work, only to use it as a means to try and get closer to her. She didn’t understand why people couldn’t see just how incredibly creepy that was.
Kira glanced back to her message to Orion and frowned. He still hadn’t responded. She sent him a second and then a third, but there was still no response. “Orion is on, isn’t he?” she asked. “It’s not an error that I see him on, is it?”
“Huh? Yeah. Remember what I said about him being remote? Hold on,” Blueberry said before tapping a few times on the air. After a moment, a message came to Kira.
‘I’m so sorry!’ Orion’s message read ‘Was engrossed in a project for work. What do you need?’
Kira stared at the message for a few momens before shaking her head and sending a response. ‘Just wanna ask you some things about the guild hall.’
‘Sure, I’ll be on in a few more minutes, just need to finish this last bit of code before I head in,’ Orion’s message read.
“So, overworks himself?” Kira asked.
“All the time. He really likes this company, though. Apparently they really treat him with a lot of respect,” Blueberry said with a shrug. “To be honest I still think he’s being underpaid. But the benefits are nice.”
“So what kind of place would people like, anyway?” Kira asked, glancing around the coliseum. “Do you think he’ll let me do it, anyway? I mean, I don’t want to make it sound like he did a terrible job or anything. He tried his hardest. It’s not bad, really.”
“A designer he is not,” Blueberry said. “Just tell him the truth. He’s going to trust someone who actually knows what they’re doing a lot more than he would himself, anyway.”
“Fair enough,” Kira said with a light laugh, before getting another message. “Okay. So he sent me an invite to his room. How do I even get there?”
“Oh, over there,” Blueberry said, before pointing towards one of the many empty doorways in the coliseum. “If you go to any of the big, unmarked doors, a menu will pop up to transport you where ever you want to go. You can try walking to places if you prefer, but for private rooms it’s the easiest way to go about it.”
Kira nodded, before glancing back. “Hey. Ervent. If you’re around later, wanna go do a dungeon or something? Just so you know I haven’t been ignoring you or anything.”
Ervent let out an excited gasp and looked almost ready to jump with excitement at the idea. “What? No! You don’t have to do that, I just--”
“Oh, what’s a matter? Afraid I’ll hold you back?” Kira teased, enjoying watching the other girl squirm a lot more than she felt she should. But it was fun, kind of like she had a little sister of her own. “I mean, if you’re embarrassed to be seen with me, I understand. Angels probably shouldn’t hang out with demons, anyway. What would the NPCs say?”
“No, it’s not that,” Ervent said quickly. “I just don’t want you to feel obligated to--”
“Oh, okay then. I understand entirely,” Kira said, a wicked grin forming on her lips before she cleared her throat. “Ervent, I am hereby demanding that you join me on a dungeon later.”
“What?!” Ervent asked, her blush growing so much it went down her neck. “I didn’t mean--”
“Too bad. Obligating you now,” Kira said firmly.
“What?” Ervent asked.
“Obligating you,” Kira said. “Besides I still need to raise my level a bit and having an angel there to help is useful. You can come if you like, Blueberry. You’re big and easy to hide behind.”
Blueberry gave a light snort of laughter and shook his head with amusement. “Thanks for the invite. If I’m around, sure.”
Kira nodded and made her way to the door, pausing when the menu showed up. There were a dozen different options, including her own private room and Orion’s. “Oh, one last thing! Ervent?”
“Yes?” Ervent asked, her voice little more than a squeak.
“If you’re going to use my build, I’ll be expecting you to have done a good job of it! You better not be making it look bad or THEN I’ll really be mad!” Kira said in a teasing tone. “Though, I don’t think using my armor is really using my build.” She then tapped on Orion’s room. Time for her to see exactly WHERE her guild master was hiding out.
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Ah It's really fun having kind guild mates. It makes MP enjoyable.