I was sipping my beer while trying my best to pay attention to ‘the friend’, Tonya. Playing wingman was always an exercise in self-discipline. You had to appear social and fun enough not to come off as a weirdo to the female your friend was chasing, while at the same time dealing with whatever sort of hideous and horrible creature was accompanying said female.

“And then he walked up to me and goes… ‘So, you from around here babe?’” She laughed incredulously at her own story. Her voice was already high-pitched and the alcohol was not helping.  “We were in the middle of English class. I mean what the hell? Of course I’m from around here. That’s so dumb right? I didn’t even say anything to him. I just picked up my bag and left.”  She said, as she sipped her ridiculous drink. It was all sorts of colors and had glitter everywhere. It looked disgusting, and probably cost the girl ten dollars.

“Yeah, guys can be idiots.” I agreed half-heartedly, while my mind wandered. I was taking a sip of my beer when the band finally came out onto the makeshift stage. A cute girl with a dirty-blonde hair in a pixie-cut and carrying drum sticks, a pale brunette in full goth getup and… I choked on my beer, spraying the table-top with my over-priced import.

A latino girl with a sleeve of tattoos and long dark hair, walked on stage behind the others carrying a guitar. She was pretty, not beautiful, but definitely sexy, especially in the tight jeans and artfully torn tee-shirt. My brain seemed to lock up as I tried desperately to get some oxygen around all the beer I’d just inhaled.

“Whoa dude! What’s wrong?” Chris asked as he wiped the table with a napkin, looking at me. He followed my gaze up the the stage and his concerned look quickly turned into a laugh. “I told you man, that’s karma right there. I’m sooo winning this bet.” He said, his grin a mile wide.

“Just because I run into her ONE time, doesn’t mean you're winning the bet. She probably doesn’t even remember me.” I said reasonably, watching her chat with her bandmates and fiddle with the instruments and audio equipment they had set up.

“What are you guys talking about?” Hiromi, the girl he’d met in Otherworld, and was apparently quasi-dating now, asked as she looked back and forth between us. Chris smiled his most devilish smile while I glared at him.

“Well, Tom got into a bit of a fight with her,” nodding towards the girl on stage, “at BestPrice while we were buying our systems. Then I bet him they’d end up sleeping together.” Chris said gleefully.

“So she plays too? That’s interesting. I didn’t realize so many people around here had the game. I wonder what level she is.”Hiromi said, now looking up at the stage as well. All the eyes focused on Jasmine must have drawn her attention because she turned our direction. Her brown eyes flicked around the table before she turned back to the drummer, then her back stiffened and she slowly turned back to the table. Her eyes locked with mine, her smile faltered, and about twenty different emotions flashed across her face. Surprise, confusion, recognition, shock, anger, embarrassment, more anger, and more that I couldn’t pick up. As her brown eyes seemed to crackle with power, the look was so familiar, something started clicking in my brain.

Jasmine…???….Oh, It couldn’t be...She used her own name?

I thought, as I watched her face grow even angrier. She looked straight into my eyes, seemingly trying to melt me with the power of her rage. My look of wary curiosity and surprise slowly morphed into a wolf’s grin and, I swear to god, she blushed for the smallest instant.

It definitely is!

This time I couldn’t stop the look of smug satisfaction that settled onto my face, as I gave her a big wave and a wink. Her face turned stoney for a moment before her eyes blazed. I was fairly certain she was going to stalk over to my table and punch me again. That thought only made me smile bigger. Jasmine the orc, was Jasmine the too good for me spoiled princess. This was just too perfect. I wasn’t sure how she had recognized me but it was obvious that she had. That made it even better.

“Uhhhhh, dude? Am I missing something?” Chris asked me as he looked at my gleeful expression and then back to Jasmine’s scowl.

“Not as much as I was apparently.” I said with a chuckle, as one of Jasmine's bandmates pried her away from our staring contest. A few minutes later the lead-singer stepped up to the mic.

“Hey everyone! Thanks for coming out tonight!” She said as she waved to the crowd. “I’m not much for speeches, so raise your glasses and let’s rock!” She said just before the music started. It was an upbeat tune, not terrible exactly, if you liked angry chick music. I listened with half an ear shooting gleeful looks at Jasmine when she occasionally met my eyes.

*****************************************************************************************

Jasmine tried her best to concentrate on the music. It was mostly working. That was the good thing about music. It sunk into you, swept you away, blocked out the world. She’d needed that when she was younger. It had been the only thing to hold her together some nights. Now she just enjoyed it. As the music played she let herself fall into it.

She played furiously, her fingers dancing up and down the neck of her guitar, as the singer crooned about broken relationships and bad decisions. Jasmine swayed with the music, keeping her eyes closed, letting the sounds of the band surrounded her. Occasionally they’d switch songs and then and the music would change, but she knew the setlist by heart. It was the same one they always used for the few gigs they got. At one time, when she’d been young and full of dreams,  she’d hoped they’d really make it. Now she was sure they never would, but that only made her enjoy it all the more.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

When music was work, she’d always felt like it was weighing her down. Now that she was doing it for fun again, it just felt more pure. Something about it...freed her in a way. She smiled and her fingers danced as a refrain hit and she started her solo. Tonight she was feeling ornery and instead of just doing her normal solo she played a more complex version that she’d been working on.

Her fingers flew over the strings and the guitar wailed. She didn’t get too many opportunities to really show off, but tonight she was going to put on a show. Her eyes opened as she continued her solo, watching the audience as they listened to her play. Then she caught a pair of green eyes above a smug smile.

Her peace evaporated as she took in that smirking face. God, she just wanted to punch him again! She’d done it twice already, but she had a feeling the act would only be more fun the more she indulged in it. She could see it in his eyes, that taunting smile that only a man could really pull off. She still couldn’t believe she’d kissed him. It wasn’t the first time she’d regretted kissing a man, but this time seemed to be jumping up ranks for the one to cause her the most headaches. At least she hadn’t slept with him, his smile would have been unbearable.

The worst part was she was, she wasn’t quite sure it wouldn’t happen again the next time they ran into each other. There was just something about him that sent her emotions into turmoil. Just being around him put her on edge. What would normally only annoy her seemed to throw her into a full blown rage, one that had a tendency to teeter dangerously close to desire.

Another surge of anger shot through her at the thought, and her fingers started to falter. Recovering, she took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to mess up her music because of a silly distraction. Anger was just anger, she didn’t have to let it get to her. She wasn’t going to let a man ruin her night. So she grabbed ahold of her anger and harnessed it. It was a rock band after all, playing a little angrier wouldn’t hurt anyone.

***************************************************************************

Something was wrong. I couldn’t figure out what it was but something was definitely off. The feel of the bar had shifted, it felt smaller, grungier, the beer worse and the people more annoying. The feeling washed through me and my frustration bubbled up, why the hell was I even in this rathole. Making me piss away my money and make nice with some sow just so Chris could make nice with a woman.

“So then she walked up to Kyle and just started making out with him. Right in the middle of the party, like some slut. That bitch has screwed half the guys on campus and she had the nerve to try and take away my date.” Tonya growled as she took another gulp of her drink.

I rolled my eyes at her, my patience at an end. “Oh good lord, Just shut-up already. No one cares.” I snapped, tired of her constant chatter. She’d been blabbering all night and I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. I could hear raised voices echoing through the bar even over the din of the music. I heard the sounds, but ignored them, caught up in my own frustration.

“Screw you. I’ll talk if I want, beats just staring at that guitarist like a creeper all night.” Tonya said, rising to her feet. Chris shot to his feet as well, his mouth opening to start shouting, but he was cut off as someone smashed into our table. The table toppled, sending bottles and glasses to the floor along  with the table. I looked down, startled, watching as a man untangled himself from the table legs and broken glass. It was a thin blonde guy in khakis who staggered to his feet looking slightly dazed, before he took a wild swing at Chris.

Chris, more startled than anything, took a step back, easily dodging the man’s drunken punch. I stepped forward with a growl shoving the man away from the table. He stumbled into another person who spun on him and leveled him with a punch of their own.  

The place was in chaos. People were fighting everywhere, swinging fists, bottles, and whatever else they could get ahold of. I watched as a coed in a short skirt smashed a stool into a huge, bald guy who looked like a biker. Then one of her friends at the table threw a sucker punch into the back of her head. She was sent staggering into a group of people near the stage, who appeared to be doing their best mosh-pit impression.

What the hell is going on…?

I thought as I looked around at the place. Someone bumped into me and my anger flared. I raised a fist to strike back, but caught myself at the last second. Gritting my teeth, I tried to calm myself. Something was very wrong here. Anger seemed to throb in my mind, but something was off about it, something...familiar. I shook my head to clear it but couldn’t seem to push away the anger.

It was like… like magic. Bardic magic to be more precise, like that damn cricket girl. I sighed and looked up at Jasmine. Of course this was her fault, she towed chaos everywhere she went. She made my life so much more complicated than it needed to be.  She was still playing, but I could see the strain on her face. She was pale and sweating but her eyes were determined as she continued to play. As a faint trickle of blood started to fall from her nose, I knew I had to stop her.

I tugged on my own magic and the world fuzzed for a moment. A dull throb started behind my temple, then I could see it. Purple magic seemed to shimmer in the air, filling the entire inside of the bar. It pulsed with the music, and I could feel the alien anger that was being laid over my emotions.

“That would do it.” I muttered, as I moved towards the stage. After all, I’d had magic thrust on to me by the game. Jasmine was bard in game and rousing a bar into a brawl was about the easiest bard trick there was. Baria had told me the game had altered my brain to use magic because during beta the immersion levels had been higher. I remembered from our argument that Jasmine hadn’t needed a system at BestPrice, only the game. That meant she too had played before release, when the numbers hadn’t yet been lowered.

I could feel the anger still running through my veins, but now that I knew where it was coming from, I could separate it from my own feelings. If I didn’t stop Jasmine soon, the maddened patrons would pull the whole place down. That, and unless she practiced her magic more than I did, she shouldn’t be able to hold it for too much longer. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine how she’d even managed it, let alone why she was still going. Even a minor effort of magic in the real world made me feel like my brain was exploding, and I’d run for miles. The whole damn bar was coming apart and Jasmine, as well as her band, seemed oblivious.

I dodged a tackle from the right and shoved a pair of brawling undergrads to the side as I pushed my way forward. Then I was in the thick of the fight and I had to resort to elbows and fists until I made it to the stage. Hopping up onto the stage with the song still going, I kicked the switch on the nearest surge protector and the music died. The spell finally broke. Jasmine collapsed like a doll with her strings cut, just as two co-eds rolled onto the stage, clawing at each other and screaming profanity into each others faces.

They toppled microphones, guitar stands, and drums as they bulldozed their way across the stage. The other girls in the band screamed as they were forced out from whatever daze they had been in. They took in the full extent of the bar fight that was now well underway and panicked. At a total loss for what to do, I searched the room for a moment, taking in the chaos, screams, and smashing glass around me. Now that I’d stopped Jasmine’s playing I had no idea what to do next. How did one go about breaking up a magically fueled bar fight?

The best plan would be to run. The cops were going to show up at some point. I wasn’t sure what they would do when thirty or forty people were all participating in a bar fight, but it would probably be better if I wasn’t here to find out. I pulled Jasmine up off the floor, needing to get her out of the line of fire if nothing else. Her body felt feverish and I panicked a little as I stumbled off the low stage and back into the melee.

I looked for Chris and the girls, dodging the worst of the fighting and trying to shield Jasmine the best I could. She was damned heavy for a woman, or maybe I was just missing my in-game strength. I caught a glimpse of Chris and the girls in the middle of a group of brawlers. I didn’t have any real way of getting to them, especially with a girl still limp in my arms.

I pushed my way towards to door, intent on getting Jasmine somewhere at least a little safer, before I went back for Chris and the others. I had too many things to do and not enough time to do them in. I finally got her out of the bar and into the small parking lot behind the place. This close to the campus, parking was at a premium and most people walked. Taking off at a jog, I swore under my breath as I arrived at Chris’s car. I didn’t even have the damn keys.

Jasmine was still dead to the world, and a faint trickle of blood still flowed from her nose. I couldn’t just leave the girl passed out and bleeding while I went to find Chris and the others. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. I laid Jasmine down on the hood of Chris’s car. I was going to have to stay here with her. I might not be much for chivalry, but even I wasn’t going to leave a woman alone out here. So I leaned against the car and waited.