{-Tinath-}
“What do you do when you’re with Mr. Mair anyway?”
“I mostly just… sit there. Usually they let me try out one of the older games or something new they were working on. They haven’t done anything like that with their most recent project, though.”
“It sounds like it’s going to be pretty big. Mom keeps muttering about all the stuff she’s in charge of. Do your parents think it’s going to be bad for you?”
“I don’t know, really. I want to try it—they make it sound so interesting, a lot more than everything else they’ve done. Maybe I’ll try asking about it once they’ve got more figured out. They only started the project a couple of weeks ago.”
“It probably wouldn’t hurt to try. At least they might be able to tell you why you shouldn’t.”
…
It always amazed her how real things could seem here. A lot of people would just say this was how games were these days; anything the big companies came up with, which could barely be distinguished from reality. She never wanted to be a part of this but she had to admit that there was something more to it. Perhaps it was because it, in a way, was its own little world. The NPCs here didn’t just do as they were told. They took care of the land, tried to improve it, and learn more about it… The kind of thing that erased any other flaw in Nankohm’s games.
The same kind of thing Tinath, in exchange for talking with Cassidy, was supposed to help get rid of.
She never thought she cared. But being here, seeing them, possibly having too much time to think it over… She spent more time than she wanted to admit having to remind herself they weren’t human. Nothing could completely get rid of the fear that she was going to end up doing something she’d regret.
Tinath wandered along Kehnore’s shores. She wasn’t expecting to find anything. Someone at the beach caught her attention—a boy was crying and, despite her better judgment, she walked up to him.
“What’s wrong?” she prompted gently. Looking around to see no adults, she guessed, “Did you lose your parents..?”
He shook his head. It took him a few more moments to calm down enough to say, “I—I lost my toy…”
“Do you remember where you last had it?”
“I was—was playing by the water… Mama called me… I left it there and now I—I don’t know where it is…”
[https://i.imgur.com/gxN47EQ.png]
No quest menu appeared, nothing stated she’d be rewarded with anything. Most people wouldn’t have bothered, and yet… “I’ll help you find it.”
“Really? You will?” She was surprised when he hopped up and hugged her. “You’re the best bird lady in the whole world!”
“Can you show me exactly where you lost it?”
She was glad when he stepped away, unable to muster the ability to do it on her own. The boy wandered off, practically running for a little while before looping back to be beside her.
“It looks like one of those little birds,” he explained. “When Mama saw the tear in it, she wanted to get me a new one. But I didn’t want a new one! I wanted to take care of it, so she let me keep it! It’s my favorite.” He paused. “Don’t tell the others that, they’ll get jealous.”
Somehow, she managed a small smile. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“This is where I lost it,” he said after a while.
“Stay right there,” she instructed, “and you’ll have it back before you know it.”
…
As it came closer to that fateful release date, she kept hearing more about it. It seemed every game-related catalog, website, and blog in the US had at least one article dedicated to it. Her friends discussed what it meant for the company, the details few average people would’ve cared about. Cassidy talked about their decisions and how they only just now decided to get rid of what gave them the popularity they had.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Then Cassidy came to her one morning with such a smile that she knew she wasn’t going to like what was said.
“Guess what!”
“I’ll actually be able to go to England this summer?” she tried, knowing it wasn’t true.
“Dad’s letting me test the new game!”
“Oh, yeah? That’s great.”
“You sound even less excited than I thought you would.”
“You’ve spent so much time talking about it. For some reason I thought you’d just let them handle it themselves.”
“I know they’re making a mistake with this and, even if they aren’t listening to me, they can thank me later.”
“I guess there’s nothing I can do to stop you.”
At that point, she’d just decided to be happy Cassidy wasn’t just letting others talk her down. Later, it just became one of several regrets.
…
“Is this it?” Tinath asked, showing the toy to the boy. It seemed to match his description of it, at least, and there wasn’t exactly much more to look for.
“Yes!” He practically snatched it from her, laughing and twirling it around. He mumbled some things to it before hugging her again. “We both want to thank you! It was scared, too. But because of you, we’re back together!”
She tried not to show how unused she was to all of this. She was never good with kids and, besides that, she couldn’t imagine ever getting used to such admiration. “It’s not a problem, really…”
“We want to thank you,” the boy announced after stepping away. “Stay right here!”
“Wait, you don’t—“ But he had already run off.
He came back a moment later with a shell the size of his palm. He presented it to her with a bright smile. “Go on, take it! It’s the best I could find quickly. I bet you’ve got a lot of other people to help!”
For a moment, she considered denying it. She didn’t deserve it, not with the kinds of stuff she did. But he honestly believed she was good. So, she managed a smile and accepted the gift.
She completely expected to be yelled at when she heard other voices.
“Jun, there you are! We’ve been searching the whole beach for you!” the woman remarked. Her male companion seemed to care much less, though still having a look of relief.
“Mama, Mama, this cool bird lady helped me find my toy!” The boy rushed up to them and showed them the toy.
The man smiled and he looked at Tinath. “He was devastated when he lost it, and ran off when he realized it was missing. Thank you for finding it.”
“I was in the area anyway,” she said casually.
“Really, not a lot of players would go out of their way to help us. I don’t think we could truly thank you enough.”
“I-it really wasn’t a big deal…”
But the woman, after observing her for a minute, must’ve realized something. “Actually, have you been around Kehnore before? I have a feeling I remember someone talking about a person that looked just like you…”
To make matters worse, the boy was still giving her that hopeful look. He didn’t understand what his mother was trying to imply—all he saw was a friend, not an enemy.
Tinath chose her words carefully. “You know what, I think it’s about time that I get going.”
She took to the sky without giving them any more time to question her.
…
She would’ve thought that her expression would warn others to stay away from her. Yet still people walked up to her, tried to talk to her and gain some kind of reaction.
“Congrats on graduating,” came in the same breath as, “I heard what happened, I’m so sorry.”
She’d known from pretty much the first week that it was bound to happen eventually. That moment just came a lot quicker than she expected.
Rachel tried being comforting, but she quickly grew quiet the moment she dwelled on it. It seemed like Mr. Mair, probably the closest to actually sympathizing, quickly got over it. Any plans of social outings she’d previously made she either canceled or simply didn’t show up to. For a while she never left her room, her “social interaction” coming from Rachel bringing down dinner and the voice chat she largely just listened to.
“Erin! You’ll never believe what I found off a totally legitimate site!” one of her friends announced on the chat.
“What we found,” another corrected.
“Yeah, yeah. So, Erin, any guesses?”
Silence was their only answer.
They said it together: “Old movies!”
“The ones with that terrible CGI and laughably bad acting!”
Still no answer.
“Come on, those are your favorite…”
Finally, she mustered the will to say, “I don’t think this is something you guys can help with.”
What she didn’t say was that she thought of something that might.