I found myself in an awkward position, no, not with regards to how Mira and I spent our time at the brothel. But rather in how I reflected back on it.

I was presently laying in the same bed that we had used the night before, I didn’t have to give the key back until I left, and Mira was snoring softly next to me. I believe she was asleep.

I couldn’t help but smile at her laying there half hugging me in the bed with her head resting on my stomach.

I had been changing a lot since I had first seen Mira, in some ways her presence was a driving force for me to learn and change. That wasn’t to say that Terrance, or even Tidal hadn’t also given me things to think about or learn from. It was just that one of my first memories that had pulled me from that blurry state into what I was now contained Mira. Thought she was talking to Terrance rather than me in that particular memory.

Though I could hardly blame her considering the wondrous experience she must have been having that night. Which brought me back around to my awkward position. I dislike blurry days in general, they were much the same, and tended to not stand out in the slightest. In some ways what we did last night felt a bit like that, not that it didn’t stand out. No, the problem was that the night itself seemed to be hazy indistinct excitement.

Rather than crisp memories that were easy for me to focus on and identify. I found that last night had been heavily focused on repetitions and similar actions repeated throughout our time. Thus, I found myself in a condition where I couldn't help but enjoy what we did, but at the same time I had an indistinct recollection of it as a whole.

What made it all so strange, is that it sort of made me want to do it again. Mira had taught me a great deal, and while Mira hadn’t opted to buy her own man for herself she didn’t seem to have a problem sharing the one I had purchased for myself.

There were things to consider there as well, for instance I was fairly certain that this wouldn’t have worked without Mira. Not simply because of my own lack of experience, but because something was fundamentally working against me with the man himself. He refused to accept that we were alone, even if we were.

Mira had been frustrated with it last night, but now that I was laying here considering it, the fact that I couldn’t do this again on my own without Mira was somewhat frustrating in itself. One small consolation however was that I could do it again with Mira. So that at least was comforting.

Still I’d been laying here for a long time, though I wasn’t sure that I had ever fallen asleep. Come to think of it, have I ever slept? What's more, as my mind continued to process things in the background. I found from my interactions with everyone, that I was starting to realize things that I’d taken for granted as being correct were no longer making as much sense to me.

For instance, one thing that has caused some small confusion is days. For the longest time I had the concept of days. But the more I thought about it, the less the concept itself meshed with my understanding. The definition of a day for instance is related to both the passage of a certain period of time, and the position of the sun and the rotation of the earth. Well I could check the time of day, and as I lay in bed in this brothel the time just kept on ticking by. In fact if I paid attention I could watch as days, based on time and the position of the sun in the sky changed. Though I could only see the sun's position based on the light from the window.

So it was that I questioned what my original definition of a day was. In truth I had no understanding of it. It was a thing that existed in my head without me knowing how, or why. Was this too like casual dialog, or conversations? Gradually with each passing hour of my own experience I was slowly outgrowing these strange concepts that I had had since before I could think.

Perhaps this was what it was to grow up? I didn’t understand that concept, no one I ever saw grew. Though a boy during one of the quests I did with Terrance had said something about growing up one day.

I sort of wish that the man had stayed after we had finished rather than leaving. Though he hadn’t said much at all last night, I couldn’t help but want to speak with someone. But all the same I didn’t want to wake Mira since she had such a warm expression. So instead I just focused all my processing on myself, and tried to better understand the things I’d been learning, and experiencing.

I considered things for actual days as Mira continued her slumber, she must have been quite tired to have slept for so long. But finally she woke up and blinked up at me, “Milly?” Then her eyes widened, “Oh shit… Milly!”

“Good morning.” I replied, even though it was presently evening, it seemed the more appropriate words to use.

“Shit…” Mira uttered, looking quite flustered.

“Is something wrong?” I asked her.

“Yeah…” She said standing up and starting to pull her armor and other clothing bits back on in a rush. She glanced at me with a small grin for a moment, “Get dressed! We need to turn in your key and get out of here.”

“Oh…” I replied, standing up and finding my own skirt and shirt that had been discarded on the floor at some point.

“Sorry about this… But I really need to get going, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep in-game...” Mira said, jumbling over herself.

“Should I have woken you?” I asked, concerned that I had made a mistake.

Mira looked over at me and biting her lip softly she shook her head, “No… It’s my mistake. Last night was so great that I totally just drifted off.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that, not only was I glad that she had enjoyed herself but it was basically an indirect thank you for me being involved.

Mira grinned back at seeing my smile, “You're so gosh darned adorable… who gave you those ears by the way?”

I tilted my head, “Ears?”

She patted her head, “Do this.” before pulling on the last of her armor.

Since my clothing was far simpler, only the three total pieces I had already finished and so I did as she had indicated, patting my own head. It wasn’t quite as nice as when Terrance had done it however. I found it strange that I now thought of it that way. I also couldn’t help but remember Mira running her hands through my hair as well. Was it strange that such a memory would  make me a little excited?

“What are you thinking about?” Mira asked with a dark chuckle.

“I’m remembering you running your hand through my hair.” I replied honestly.

“Ah, that's so sweet that you're blushing from that.” Mira said, rushing towards me.

Strangely I didn’t feel the need to to move away, and so Mira crashed into me wrapping me up tightly in her arms. Her breasts shoved into my face which probably only made me blush more.

Then she pulled back and laughed, “Wow you are bright red now. Too bad we can’t play more, I’ve gotta get busy. Come up, let's check out and get out of here.”

I nodded along and as we stepped out of the room we closed the door and went down stairs where the woman sat with her girls.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” She said, looking at me.

I nodded my head in reply, “I did… And Mira did too.”

Mira slapped me lightly on the back, “Don’t go telling people about me doing this.” She said with a grin.

I nodded in response to that as well as I handed the key to the woman, and then Mira pulled me along and out the door.

“We should totally do that again at some point.” She said as she came to stop a few steps into the road.

I nodded, “I would like that.”

Mira squirmed in delight, “You really are something special Milly…”

“Yeah?” I asked, smiling at the idea.

“I mean I could never do something like this with anyone else… Yet the more time I spend with you… the more you just feel like a friend…” She said her smile flickering away. What replaced it was a brief moment of concern, then it faded into a sadder expression, “Which… Which is honestly kinda sad.”

I wasn’t sure what had crossed her mind at that moment but I said, “I’d like to be your friend…”  Though I couldn’t understand why she seemed so sad about that idea.

“Thanks... Uh.. I need to go. Um, I guess I’ll see you back at the guildhall at some point right?”

I nodded, “Sure.”

Then Mira was gone, vanished in an instant. I glanced around, finding the empty street lacking without her. Finally I remembered that I had gotten distracted and gently patted my head again. I moved my hands up to my head feeling around and found two ears were there. I didn’t remember having those before. Though I hadn’t really ever felt at my head before either. Come to think of it, I recalled Terrance doing something with my head at some point. I wonder if he did that.

I resolved myself to ask him when I next ran into him, and started walking north back towards the guild hall. I considered my previous thought, and nodded to myself, that's right I didn’t need to think of it on more specific terms, I had long since stopped calling it that out-loud, but the truth was that to me there was only one guild hall, so calling it out by name seemed like a pointless indulgence. Likewise I found myself just walking, rather than accessing the map.

I took a breath and felt the gentle wind rush across my skin, something I’d never noticed before today. Was it just me, or did everything just seem more vibrant? Perhaps it was the changes in me, or my new experiences. I didn’t think there was any good way to create an experiment like Terrance usually suggested to test it. But all the same the truth was that I fully enjoyed it.

 

VGX Management Message: NPC Glitch

Kovin,
Regarding [NPC f9e403e8-1c21-11ec-9621-0242ac130002](MILLY)

I see that you’ve previously inspected it and left a note to let you know if anything came up with it. 

Well… it's causing some really strange cumulative alarms that spiked like crazy last night.

[Size: 275%]
[Stuck State: Intimate 10 hours]
[API Errors: Cumulative 331]
[Soft Associations 16]
[Location: Cumulative Absence 17 hours]

One of these might not be that odd on its own, but…

What’s even stranger than this pile of absolutely bonkers warnings is the game state surrounding it. It's stuck in intimate, yet none of its associations have gotten out of stage1.

Beyond that it's a level 5 guild keeper, which on its own is strange when you remember that guild keepers all start at level 1 cause they are system generated basic quest/merchant type.

But here's the real kicker, the reason its level 5 is because it's been completing quests. All of them are basic fetch / travel quests, but completion status and logs are attached as well so it's not just some weird API exploit marking them as completed.

Check this out when you get in, and feel free to respond back half of the DB Team was digging into this NPC last night trying to figure this shit out and we’re all a little more than curious what the hell we are dealing with.

Eric B. - NextVGX Database Team