Chapter 29: 29: Artificial Beauty

Danika couldn't help it, she laughed.

"I'm serious," he said.

"I know I really am super cute aren't I?" she agreed with sudden enthusiasm. "And look," she said as she activated her dazzling.

He blinked and said, "Sorry, that skill won't work on me, but it does make you even cuter."

Danika grinned and agreed, "I know, right?" She looked at his expressionless face, then blushed and added, "But you look great too!" She dropped her gaze and realized that his equipment hadn't been magically restored by her spell, and his character was dressed in tatters that left his body barely decent. She returned her gaze to his face and specified quickly, "You have a really pretty face!"

His expression didn't change, but he said, "It's just a face."

Danika babbled nervously, "I know. I mean, it's just your character, but it's your aesthetic taste too. I love the look you gave yourself."

He smiled that quickly vanishing smile again and asked curiously, "You don't recognize this avatar?"

Danika shook her head and said, "No? Sorry?"

He laughed shortly and said flatly, "Nevermind, it's just some pop star."

"Ah," Danika said after a moment. No wonder the people hunting him had called him a rich brat. Using a licensed figure was really expensive, in real money. Most people who wanted to look like a particular idol just modified their appearance to be similar.

"You're using VR," he said.

"Yes," she agreed warily.

"Do you want me to get my headset so you can hear me actually talking? I haven't ever talked this much in the game before, but it must seem kind of creepy," he suggested.

Danika stared at his face and then gasped and asked, "You're on your phone?"

He nodded shortly.

"That's amazing," she declared.

"Why?" he questioned.

She waved her hands helplessly before trying to explain, "You seem totally real. Only kind of expressionless."

He laughed again, only this time the sound was richer. And when he spoke, his voice was more complex and carried inflections, even though his expression didn't change. "You're right, it is pretty amazing how fast the game translates everything you're saying into text too. It shows the power of those big computers they have out in space I guess. Say something else now that I can hear you."

Danika just stared at him open mouthed and blushed. Her wings sparkled with a rosy color.

"So cute," he said with a chuckle.

Someone else spoke faintly in the invisible background wherever he was, a voice asked, "Are you talking to a girl?"

He replied dryly, "I haven't asked their gender, don't act like a jerk." He added, "They look really cute either way."

"Only here though," Danika protested.

He was silent for a moment, but instead of commenting on her voice he said speculatively, "I don't know, but I think you're probably pretty cute all the time. I bet you didn't change your appearance much."

She rolled her eyes and said facetiously, "Of course not, I always have wings and claws."

He laughed and corrected, "You mean you're always a little plump and have green eyes?"

Danika stared at him, and he winked and smiled at her. Now that she knew that he was on his phone, she could recognize the short expressions as emotes.

"Woah, he's flirting now! Hey guys, come look at this!" called out the faint voice in the background. A bit louder, the voice asked, "What is that?"

His character gave a quick eye roll as he answered the person, "A novice fairy dragon."

"Ooh, your girlfriend's a dragon?" asked a deeper voice.

He said sharply, "You guys are idiots, shove off." And then he said uncomfortably, "Sorry, they're always like this, but not bad friends."

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"How do you kiss a dragon?" the first voice asked laughingly in the background.

"We can just be friends you know," he said with exasperation, and then there was a sharp noise that Danika thought was probably a door shutting.

A system prompt appeared in front of Danika with a friend invite from Aishin. After a moment she tapped accept.

Aishin blinked and then asked, "What? How did you just add yourself to my friend list?"

Danika replied with confusion, "You invited me."

"No I didn't," he refuted. A short silence fell between them. After a minute he said awkwardly, "I don't have anyone on my friend list. This is what I do for quiet time."

After another long moment Danika asked, "Is this actually your first time using voice in this game?"

"No," he denied, "during setup it needed voice samples and," he added a little defensively, "I've used voice a few times."

Danika flicked to her friend list and removed him, before explaining, "If you're touching someone when you say something like 'we can be friends' or 'add friend', it sends out an invitation. Your mentor in the vale should have explained that?"

"You didn't have to do that," he said quietly.

Danika shrugged without looking at his face and replied, "It's fine, you didn't mean it."

"I mean it this time, let's be friends," he said firmly, and another friend invite popped up. This time it showed Danika the option to block friend requests from him, as well as accept or decline.

"Why?" she asked without choosing a response. "You don't have to change your way of playing."

"I won't," he replied dryly, "if you send me a dozen messages every time I log on, I'll probably remove you."

Danika glanced up at him.

He laughed and asked, "You followed some convoluted quest to get here that forced you to be here at this time didn't you?"

"Yes?" Danika agreed doubtfully.

Aishin said speculatively, "We must have incredibly high compatibility then, I wonder why?"

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"Haven't you noticed that this game is always analyzing us?" he asked. "It likes putting things from your searches or that you've talked about recently into your quests and stuff. It also likes to arrange things so that you meet people you could be friends with in dramatic situations."

Danika rolled her eyes and said, "'Living Jade Empire' pretty much advertises that it uses data mining to create individualized quests, but that doesn't mean that it's arranging for us to meet. Those were players chasing you."

"Well, it's just my theory," Aishin said. "I think the game herded us all to this spot at this time. And I feel like it keeps trying to introduce me to likely people because I don't have anyone in my list."

"So put someone in your list and see if it stops?" Danika suggested logically.

Aishin winked and told her, "Accept again then."

Danika wrinkled her nose at him and said teasingly, "I don't know about adding a strange guy who says he'll remove me if I talk too much."

Aishin didn't laugh. His character didn't move at all for a long minute. Danika wondered if he'd disconnected when he said, "But it would be a lie if I said I won't."

Somehow it seemed like such a painfully honest reply. Another moment of silence passed before she asked, "But you don't seem to mind talking right now?"

"I know," he replied.

"And this is not a single player game," she pointed out.

He flicked a smile at her and answered, "I know." He raised his hands, which she'd almost forgotten that she was sitting on, so that they were eye to eye. "Will you risk it?" he asked challengingly.

After a moment she nodded, and hit accept.

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