The city changed after the sun went down. Any doubt about whether or not this was Earth was erased by the sight of two moons in the night sky, and the expanse of stars filling the heavens took my breath away. There’d been too much light pollution where I’d grown up, the only stars anyone could see were the ones in customer ratings online, and witnessing so many actual stars spilling across the entire sky was almost more of a shock than the second moon.

There were definitely fewer people around. The shops were all closed. Almost all the NPCs had gone home. A few Players sat at the sidewalk tables of some cafes and the rumble of talk and laughter seeped out of the taverns, but I had no desire to take part in either. I saw Sigrid and Mary-Jane sitting outside a cafe. That answered the question of who Mary-Jane was going to meet.

I felt sorry for them. They must’ve felt so out of place there. They weren’t gamers. If only...

I tried not to think about how if I’d kept my mouth shut instead of trying to show off in front of Stratos they’d still be safe at home on Earth. I tried not to think about it, but I failed.

This was all my fault.

It was bad enough that they were abducted and forced into this situation, it was doubly bad because the people surrounding them were gamers.

For the most part they were safe, most of these guys would never dream of initiating a conversation with women who looked like that. It’s the ones who were the exact opposite they needed to worry about. Guys who had no idea how to behave around women except to objectify them, and who had an inexplicable lack of empathy so they didn't know better than to hit on them, and whose painful lack of social skills making their advances the absolute worst.

As for me? I know what it’s like to have to talk to a stranger, let alone one who’s way out of your league. Fear that’s burrowed so deep inside you it gnaws at your bones. Fear hiding as the belief that she will misconstrue your efforts to initiate a conversation as some kind of limp pick-up attempt and you’ll be humiliated, or even worse she does engage in a conversation with you and then you’re stuck trying not to be a complete idiot and be humiliated. The more attractive the woman, the harder it gets. I don’t know why, it just does.

Maybe that’s just me.

And yet, and I’m not looking for a pat on the head or anything, I had actually talked to Sigrid and Mary-Jane at the convention.

It was after Stratos and I had finished our break on the bench by their booth and were setting off to look at the tables where people were competing at video games. As we were just heading out, I noticed Mary-Jane leave the booth and go up to a small child, maybe about five or six years old, who was clearly lost and in distress.

She crouched beside the little boy and said something to him. He looked up at her and I could tell he was on the verge of tears but valiantly held them back. Brave kid. She stroked his hair, smoothing down the top of his bowl-cut hair, and started looking around, obviously searching for the kid’s parents. Trusting he was in good hands, Stratos and I moved toward the video gaming tables.

We didn’t get far when I saw a teenage girl searching through the crowd, desperation all over her face, and made the connection. I touched Stratos’ arm and told them to wait a second, then went over to the girl.

“Um, are you by any chance looking for a little boy?”

I make it sound like it was easy. It wasn’t. And she was just a kid, like the ones I teach. If she was more my age it would’ve been so much harder, because there was so much more that could go wrong.

She turned to look at me, big round brown eyes wide with hope. “What? Did you see him?”

I held my hand out to waist level. “Er, about yay high with red shoes and a Minecraft t-shirt? Weird sort of bowl-cut hair?”

She barked out a laugh of relief. “Yeah, that’s Connor alright. I don’t get the hair either but for some reason he likes it.”

I gestured back toward the booths. “Come on, I’ll take you to him.”

“Oh my god thank you so much!”

As we hustled back she talked a streak, nervous word vomit pouring out to mask the guilt of losing her little brother telling me what she would have to buy her little brother so that he won’t tell their parents and how many hours of her minimum wage part-time job it would cost her. “He’s my little brother, see? He was desperate to come to this thing and our parents said only if I came to look after him and I was like, do I really have to? But you know how it is, he’s the youngest so he gets whatever he wants, the little brat, you know what I mean? So, like, anyway like all he wants to do is watch people play video games and it was sooooo boring that I was like jeez there’s gotta be something better to do so I was just looking around to see if there were any cute gu— ...I mean, uh, I was just looking around and the next thing I knew he was gone! I only took my eyes off him for like a second, you know?”

Mercifully we’d made it back to the booth. The girl’s brother was there with Mary-Jane while Sigrid stood nearby scanning the crowd, probably looking for his sister. There was no sign of tears anymore, he was being thoroughly entertained by Mary-Jane. She was all bubbles and smiles and had him eating from the palm of her hand. The girl ran over to him and immediately started scolding him for running away and, like, scaring her to death, the little brat. I’d brought her to him so my job was done, but I didn’t know what to do then so I sort of just stood there watching. Mary-Jane stood up and gave me a painfully sweet smile.

I don’t know what came over me. “I found her,” I said.

“Thank you,” she replied with that smile. “You must have seen me with the boy earlier.”

“Yeah.”

“That was really nice of you,” Sigrid said, coming over to us.

I stood there feeling awkward and exposed for a bit, then noticed Stratos had followed me and was standing a few feet away watching us. As unobtrusively as possible, I slunk away and melted into the crowd with Stratos.

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Hey, I only said I’d talked to them. I didn’t say it was much of a conversation. My point is: I know how hard it is to talk to a dangerously hot woman.

“That was nice of them to help that boy,” Stratos said as we wandered to continue our mission of checking out some more gaming tables.

“Oh yeah. They’re both winners.”

“I see,” they said. Then, after a moment’s pause, “And you.”

“What about me?”

Stratos studied me with that emotionless, appraising look I’d seen them use so often when we talked about the players at the tables. “It is nothing,” they muttered and looked away. I’m pretty sure they’d been smiling, but with Stratos it was hard to tell.

Hard to believe that was only the previous day, and now they were having dinner on another world.

I decided they’d both be valuable teammates, their affinities were rare and their powers seemed potent. Their effortless affability would also help fill in the canyon-like gap in my own ability to talk to people. Plus I had a sense from what I’d seen at the convention that they were genuinely nice people, too. It had nothing to do with the fact that they were also seriously hot. Honestly. You think I like living in constant anxiety?

I do admit, however grudgingly, that when I saw those women sitting there all because my big mouth said they were winners at the game of booth babe, a big part of me wished I’d gone with Stratos to look for winners in the cosplay area, too. I’m not proud of it.

I could’ve gone up and talked to them, but I chose not to. It was a wasted opportunity, sure. I had them both together, so wouldn’t it have been better to get it over with all at once instead of having to go through this twice? I thought about approaching them then, for a whole fraction of a second, before canning the idea. I knew I’d have to do it eventually, probably sooner than later. But it was just the first night. I’d have time to talk to them later. Yeah. I’d bump into them tomorrow. No rush. Besides, at that time I had more important things to worry about, like where I was going to spend the night.

My thoughts were interrupted by a squeal. Not far along the street two young men, late teens probably, were with a girl who looked around the same age. Only she had cat ears. And a tabby-striped orange and black tail. The dress she wore was simple and drab, but dirty.

Well I'll be damned. Beastfolk. She was the first demi-human I'd seen. Outwardly, I managed to keep my cool, but my secret inner response was: squee!

I evaluated all three. The guys were Players and the catgirl was a nameless NPC. Disappointing. I would've thought that someone special like her would at least have a name. But named or not, she looked terrified, tears streaming down her face. There was an alley nearby. I was pretty sure they were trying to force her into it.

Without thinking, I switched into high school teacher mode and stormed over to them.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Piss off,” one of the boys said.

“Mind your own business,” the other said.

“I know everything here is all exciting and new, but this is wrong. How about you just leave her alone.”

“What’s so wrong about it?” said the first one. “This isn’t real, dude. It’s just some virtual reality like the Matrix.”

“Yeah,” his buddy added. He pointed at the girl she ducked behind my back and hid. “It’s not like she’s real, man. She’s just an NPC.”

“What difference does it make if this is real or not?” I said. “Or that she’s an NPC.”

“It makes a difference because this isn’t really happening. It’s only make believe.”

“No,” I said, “This doesn’t feel pretty realistic, it feels absolutely no different than real. Because this is real.”

“There’s no way. It can’t be. Look around you, dude. Look at her." He gestured at the top of his own head, tracing the outline of non-existent cat ears. Unlike the ones that were sticking out from the top of her head. "How could all this be real?”

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosphy,” I said.

“Who the hell’s Horatio?”

“Never mind,” I sighed.

“Yeah, whatever,” the second guy said, leering at the girl. “All I know is that all this feels crazy real, so if you’ll just mind your own business we’re going to see how real she feels.”

“Regardless of whether or not this is real or virtual, your actions and intent are real. Are you really the sort of person who would actually sexually harass and terrify a woman on the street? Is this who you really are, deep down? A rapist?”

“Look,” the first guy said, starting to look exasperated. “I’ve played tons of video games, and I’ve killed countless people in those games. But that doesn’t make me a murderer. It’s just a game. I wouldn’t go around shooting people in the real world.”

“Yeah man,” the other guy said. “This is just for fun.”

I leaned aside so they could see the girl cowering behind my back, but as soon as I did she ducked back behind me. “Does this look like she’s having fun?”

"She ain't real dude. Shit, she ain't even human."

I was dumbfounded by the remark. I wish I'd had an appropriately scathing rejoinder to volley back, but the truth was I just stood there gaping at him. I may or may not have blathered something incoherent, there's no proof either way.

Mercifully, at that point three people came over to join us, two men and a woman. They were all wearing what looked like martial arts outfits with green armbands. I could tell they were NPCs without having to use All Shall Be Revealed.

“Is there a problem here?” one of the men said.

“Whatever,” said one of the boys. “Let’s just go.” They wandered off, no doubt searching for more trouble. I didn’t think they’d manage to find any, though; the two male martial arts NPCs followed them, making no effort to be discreet about it. Maybe they were what passed for police around here, or some kind of neighborhood watch.

I turned around and looked at the girl. “Are you okay?” I said.

She looked up at me and nodded, wiping her eyes. I tried like hell not to stare at her ears, but it was hard. They were drooping a little and it was adorable.

The female martial artist put an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “I’ll help her get home,” she said.

“That’s good,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for stepping in.” Then she led the girl off down the street. I found myself unable to look away from the girl's flicking tail, not until I remembered Diego Fortuna and I got curious so I used All Shall Be Revealed on them both: the woman was just labeled Dragon Clan Warrior, but I was happy to discover that the girl’s Status had changed. Earlier it had identified her as simply Pretty Cat Girl. Now she had a name.

Shannon Harper Pretty Cat Girl Skills:

Gardening - Adept

She was promoted to Named NPC and got a skill. Good for her.

I wandered aimlessly for a while, but because of the city center’s wheel-shaped design, my meanderings inevitably led me back to the central courtyard. It was late enough that everything was closed and I had the entire vast courtyard to myself. If others had also been unfortunate enough to miss out on renting a room, they must have found other places to spend the night.

Suddenly, a notice popped up in front of me.

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