Chapter 453: 5: Stars Aren’t Black and White

The first two places Jade tried seemed to cater mostly to girls, which had been a little awkward. He had examined a few androgenous items, and done a more specific search before selecting the third shop. 

"No, that one is no good either," Jade grumbled as he eyed the low score the system offered for what he regarded as a perfectly reasonable looking selection. He carried the pants back to the display and eyed the other options glumly.

"You shop just like a girl," Eric groaned.

"Sorry," Jade apologized.

"What are you looking for anyway?" Eric asked.

Jade eyed the quest the system had highlighted for him again and mumbled, "Stylish clothes."

"Got a date?" Eric asked with interest.

Jade shook his head quickly.

"I bet you have a cute digital girlfriend," Eric suggested teasingly.

Jade pondered the statement seriously before replying, "I don't think so. Some of my friends are female, but I don't think any of them count as a girlfriend."

Eric's eyes glinted and then slid away from Jade as he tucked his arms casually behind his head. He looked around and then declared, "I guess if I don't help you out a little we'll never get done in time for the movie."

Jade shrugged helplessly.

Eric dropped his arms, and waved at the display of pants. "None of those plain ones are any good if you want to do something stylish. You need to pick a striking image and run with it," he explained.

"Running clothes?" Jade asked doubtfully.

Eric glanced at Jade again and asked suddenly, "What's the most amazing thing you've ever seen?"

Jade blinked, and then closed his eyes. He let his mind flash through a thousand of the incredible views that he'd already experienced. Shining sunsets and shimmering sunrises, snow capped mountains and tumultuous rivers, wide oceans and empty sand, even colorful crowds of people and interesting animals, flashed up and were dismissed.

Eric started to say, "It doesn't have to…" 

Jade's eyes snapped open and he asked, "Does it have to be in the real world?"

Eric gazed at him for a moment, and then shook his head.

Jade told him, "Then I think the most amazing thing I've seen so far was when a girl I play with online, who knew that dying again would force her to start a new character, insisted on taking the opportunity to ride a celestial dragon clear to the top of the sky."

Eric froze.

Jade explained quickly, "All I could see was the way she disintegrated into a rainbow hued cloud when she reached the top, but afterwards she told me that it felt like she was a mermaid that rose out of the sea and saw the stars for the first time before dissolving into foam." He shook his head and added, "She gave up everything she'd built up for that one moment."

Eric seemed to be staring at him with a strangely incredulous gaze.

Jade offered nervously, "I know most people would say something like the sunrise from a mountain top, or a mother and child, but… it was truly amazing."

Eric covered his face and then said firmly, "Shut up."

Jade stopped talking.

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"Fine," Eric declared after a long silent moment. He rubbed his face briefly and  finally dropped his hands. "A celestial dragon ride. We can work with that, but we'll never find anything that really shows it."

Eric walked over to a rack that held printed T-shirts and rummaged through them until he pulled out one that had a dark galaxy printed at the bottom. It lightened through a soft rainbow of colors until it reached the shoulders, where everything was hazy white and blue.

Despite having declared that the plain pants Jade had been looking at before were no good, he pulled a pair of simple dark jeans off the pile and tossed them at Jade with the shirt. Then he strode toward the girls side of the shop, and without hesitation pulled down a half jacket in white suede that was covered in silver sparkles.

Eric shoved the jacket into Jade's arms and ordered a bit roughly, "Try those on together."

--

Jade gazed at his reflection in the mirror. The outfit wasn't anything he'd ever have chosen, but it looked good on him, and somehow it really did faintly reflect the memory of her ending and beginning.

Eric asked impatiently, from where he leaned against the wall outside the booth, "So? Are you going to stay in there all day? The movie starts in less than an hour and you said you need underwear and socks too."

Jade checked his quest list almost out of habit, as he completed the purchases. The quest completion tone chimed softly as soon as he'd laid the last packet of socks on the counter. 'Ask if Eric wants more food,' glowed softly.

"Want to get more food?" Jade asked.

"Sure, if you're hungry now," Eric agreed easily. "We can grab something on the way, or at the theatre."

--

When the VR movie started everything was in grey. The seats were small and Jade struggled to find a position that didn't impose an elbow on the person beside him. Eric lounged almost casually, but he was also careful to keep his limbs contained within his seat's small space.

Jade watched for a while, expecting the colorless effect to disappear as time passed, but when the scene changed again and everything remained grey he asked quietly, "Why is it all in grayscale?"

"Black and white," Eric corrected.

"It's not just black and white, there are all kinds of shades of grey," Jade objected.

Eric chuckled. "No, that's what they called it. This movie was reconstructed from a 2D movie made in the 1900s. That is why all the sets are so small too, they didn't have much data about what was outside of the scenes shown in the flat pictures."

"You like historical film making?" Jade asked curiously. He was pretty sure that 'historical' would be the correct name for it.

Eric shrugged. "No idea. I just like this story, and am not sure that it has ever been remade."

Jade watched in silence, but he was busy asking the system about the history of the movie. The very pretty and slightly plump main female character turned out to be played by Monroe, and the name was actually slightly familiar to him. Her fame had been long lasting, although he'd never heard the name of this movie that he could recall.

When the movie ended, Eric asked hopefully, "What did you think?"

Jade shrugged and saw that Eric looked a little disappointed. "It was ok. Definitely a different style," Jade assured him quickly. "I think I liked that line from the end best."

Eric's face brightened a little as he asked, "Nobody's perfect?"

"Yeah," Jade agreed.

Eric grinned at him and agreed, "Yeah, that's the best part."

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