CHAPTER 6

“Tonight I, I sing for you

And all the things you do

I sing for you”

- Nilu -

You know that moment where something happens to you, and no matter how big or small what actually is happening is, it will change the “you” that you “knew” forever?

For me, TantaMount was literally and metaphorically a game changer. I haven't gone down this route yet, having somewhat successfully repressed the memory for some time now (SURE, says my rational/semi-rational brain), but I suppose it's tragic backstory time. TL;DR version.

My parents died in a plane crash when I was 16, and yeah, the idea that it happens to almost no one is absolutely correct, but I'm one of the lucky few. Two years afterwards time spent floating around questionable foster homes and just wanting high school to be over with until the inheritance kicked in.

TantaMount to me became tantamount, since at the time I had a hard time connecting with people in real life and just needed a break and an escape from all of the noise out there. It gave me a tangible goal to accomplish and a way to do it:

“Find a mount worthy of climbing the first mountain, and befriend it”.

Fair enough, in game commentary.

Level 1, Knight Class, no other affiliations, off to explore the wonders of the world.

Game on.

I wandered out into to the fields, taking those three mountains and their epic ramifications in, and thinking: “Hard pass”.

Too much work, just too much, I was dealing with enough nonsense as is, and I didn't want any in game stuff piling on top of it. But then out of nowhere, a gentle giant wandered up to me and changed my life forever.

Well, that's not entirely true, I fast forwarded a bit. Here's the brief recap.

To first be able to be strong enough to leave the town that you start in (Lastlove) you have to reach Level 15, by gaining experience through helping people out in the town, and an apprenticeship that can give you a baseline trade to help you out through the rest of the game. Most people would choose the obvious ones like welder to build gear, trainer to help gain fighting skills, herbalist to help create potions or weaponized concoctions, or even cook to make sure you constantly can stay well fed and strong. I chose an apprenticeship as a Veteranarian, so my specialty was mainly in caring for wounded animals.

At the time there were no wounded animals in my life, but to me, it felt right. If I ever ended up finding the right companion to help guide me to those calamitous cliffs, I would want to be able to take care of it as best I could, were the situation to arise. So I chose it quickly and never looked back, and (at least to me) it paid off like no other in the long run.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I'll never forget the day that my parents died because honestly: how could you? I remember logging in out of habit, and just sitting there, in game, looking out at the vivid red and violet sunset with the long grass whipping against the back of my neck and thinking, for some reason, that I wish they could be here with me now, even in the virtual, to see what I was seeing, and experience it with me.

And, not realizing that my mic was on (and if affected those within a 2 mile radius of you in game), I laid back, stretched out on the grassy field, and sang a song that my mom used to sing to me when I was nothing but a stupid, cute little brat:

Alone she sleeps, in the shadow of night

Falling from her dreams, she lands

Upon a star, in a river of black

As time passes through her hands

But stars all die, as dreams all fade,

So she left to find her way,

Across the night, into the dawn

She dreamed ‘til dreams were gone

I faded into a gentle nothingness like I usually do when my mind skips back to that melody, but was rudely interrupted by a giant awkward bird squawking and flailing around like I owed it a back payment on rent.

Ran a quick stat check on the bird and confirmed Tier 1, fairly strong base stats for a lowbie but nothing too outlandish. Nothing against the idea of building from scratch, but it just didn't seem like-

The melody I had just sung was belted out very roughly and repeated back to me with a very different tone, but he/she sure nailed it, and it tugged pretty hard at ye olde heartstrings, no lie. I sat up with a blank stare at the chocobo-looking creature, trying to figure out exactly what it wanted from little old me.

I brought up its in game info but was caught off guard as the world seemed to go entirely dark, at least for the moment.

Right, the eclipse.

Once it passed I was surprised to feel Chocobo-lite behind me and pressed up against me, seemingly scared as to what was going on. Probably not a great sign.

I turned to the creature behind me almost to push it away, but the look in its eyes caught me off guard. It was alone, and scared, like I was, and it needed someone or something to hold on to, like honestly, I did.

I put on my best real life smile that translated to an in game silly jig, and the creature backflipped and bounced around seemingly delightedly in response. At this point I had such a stupid grin on my face that our bond was all but a formality, but I looked back to double check on their profile, just to make sure:

Mount Name: Clipse

Class: Unknown

Affiliation: Unknown

Rhythm: Unknown

Melody: Unknown

Soul: Unknown

All other stats that normally are displayed showed exactly the same thing. My first thought was that I'd come across a creature so weak that their stats weren't even worth showing, but that notion was snuffed out as we were ambushed by a pair of nasty looking sharks, on rollerblades of all things. How they rollerbladed through the plains, and just got onto land and survived in general, I have no idea.

Opening salvo started as expected, I was quicker than the rollersharks but my damage output still wasn't off the charts. I landed a quick hit on right shark (my heart is always with left shark, so I'll never hit them first) and then buffed Clipse with additional speed and damage, hoping that he/she could do some work.

And work she did.

Once buffed she launched into some crazy combination I'd never seen anything like before, flipping and spinning like she was Yoda from Star Wars Episode II and just going flat out crazy. I was wondering what the damage output would be but once she finished, none were left standing.

Huh.

Proverbial food for thought, I suppose, but even before the fight I knew what needed to be done. I walked up to Clipse, self exposed, and held up a hand gently to show that I meant no harm, and that I was wanting for us to partner up to conquer this mad world.

She responded in turn, in an unexplainable but meaningful way. You mess with my girl, you get the horns. And you probably don't want to see that situation in reverse.

I get caught up reminiscing about Clipse, mea culpa, we've had too many good times together.

Although at the moment my brain is still caught up in all things Sarai, My brain quick switched to her and I wonder what she's up to now...