---------LEGEND---------

PLAYER/USERNAME

Xia/Genevieve

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The bell that had been placed at the entrance to the hairdresser's shop where Xia's mother had taken her to give her hair a new cut rang when she entered, not that she really needed it since another hairdresser had given it a trim not even two months earlier, but Maylin wanted to do something nice for her daughter given the effort she was putting into her studies.

The room was quite spacious and was decorated in a sober way, with fake plants, wooden cabinets which contained some books inside which must have been placed there just to give some more detail to the shop and magazines which instead were certainly there to be read. There were two seats for the customers and a sort of miniature lounge where any companions could sit and wait. The service was made up by a woman and a girl who, judging by their resemblance, must have been mother and daughter.

“Hi Maylin!” The older of the two smiled to them and then pointed her eyes to Xia, “you must be Xia, your mother told me about you when she first came here.”

Xia nodded a few times.

The woman frowned, perhaps expecting a slightly more cordial response. “I am Charlene and I am the owner of this place. She,” Charlene pointed to her younger clone, “is my daughter Amber, she work here with me and she will serve you.”

“Nice to meet you,” Xia looked from Charlene to Amber; unlike her mother, her daughter had her hair long almost to her back, golden and cared for in gentle waves, well-combed bangs reaching her eyebrows and eyes of a splendid light blue sapphire. Amber returned her gaze with a smile so radiant and vital that Xia felt her cheeks firing up and had to look away.

“Come Xia, let's take a seat and tell me what you want me to do!” Amber exclaimed cheerfully and encouraged Xia with her hands in a way that almost made her look like an idol.

“We'll sit on the sofa instead,” said Maylin, “you can take your time and ask for what you prefer, today we won't spare any expense!”

"All right…"

Meanwhile Amber had come around Xia and placed her hands on Xia's shoulders, “heard it? I already have a lot of proposals to make you!” she pushed her gently, Xia felt the pressure but she didn't put enough to make her lose balance and fall, it wasn't even enough to really push her against her will.

Xia looked at herself in the mirror, in those days she rarely did it and without focusing too much on what she saw, in that case she paid more attention because the mirror was very well lit and therefore she could notice how badly she was looking: her cheeks had sunken as Xia struggled to find the appetite necessary to keep herself from constantly losing weight, she had the corners of her lips curved downwards like those of an elderly lady and her eyes were surrounded by evident dark circles.

How can people have sympathy for Xia? She didn't have any either…

“So, first of all… how about some mesh? We could do some streaks of violet and blue here, here, here..." Amber said, touching Xia's head and pointing to various locks, taking them between her fingers, "maybe we could even go wild and do a nice long bob cut, I can see it well with your face.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“N-no! If they have to be shortened I don't want them to be cut off by more than half an inch!” Xia replied immediately, if at the end of the job she found herself with hair that barely reached her shoulders she would have attacked Amber, doesn't matter if Xia couldn't walk properly, Amber was at arm's reach, that was more than enough!

Amber snorted, “okay, okay, as the customer orders…” Xia saw that Amber smiled at her again thanks to the mirror, “and about the meshes? Shall we do those?”

"...Maybe another time?"

- - -

During the hair cutting and care operation Amber never stopped talking, she began to discuss almost alone the fact that she was Xia's age but that, unlike her, she had chosen to dedicate herself to her mother's work and, one day, inherit her activity rather than going to university or college to be bored just to get what she called 'useless pieces of paper signed and stamped by someone important'. At first she practically spoke to herself while Xia limited herself to groaning or making slow nods, but when it came to the scalp massage and Amber's fingers began to creep into Xia's hair the defensive wall she placed between her and the rest of the world began to crumble against her will.

Why Xia suddenly felt the need to play with herself?

“...And so I opened a YouPipe channel to give vent to my personality. For now I have uploaded some videos but I'm not convinced of the contents I want to propose", Amber kept talking in that fluted little voice of hers, as melodic as a nightingale.

“You would be perfect at anything you do…” Xia whispered softly and with half-closed eyes.

“You're too kind!” Amber exclaimed, chuckling, “I was thinking of trying to combine two of my passions into one thing… do you happen to know of any VRMMO-RPG that is nice and doesn't require a huge investment to play? It doesn't matter if it has microtransaction in it as long as I can play freely.”

“...Legacy of the Ancestors,” Xia said in a low voice, she couldn't manage to disturb the sacred work that the other girl was doing, she lacked the willpower to do it.

“I think I've heard of it, but I'm not sure,” Amber muttered thoughtfully, if she had insisted for another five minutes with those fingers of hers, Xia's mind would have gone blank. “Do you play it? What character do you have?”

“Yes… my character is called Genevieve, she is a [Guardian].” She then added, "it's a support type of character."

"Sounds cool! And…” Amber leaned down slightly to Xia's ear to whisper, “could we play together? So you can teach me the basics of the game…"

"Yes, I'll do it gladly…"

Wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE!

"Wait a moment!" Xia raised her head, escaping the hands of her 'torturer', "t-that's not what I meant!"

"Meant what?" Amber cocked her head and fluttered her eyelashes in obvious confusion, “what did you mean? That you don't want to play with me?”

"Yes! I-I mean, no!” Xia stumbled on her tongue and instinctively looked over at her mother and Charlene; they weren't paying attention to them and were busy chatting among themselves, but the suspicion that Xia's mom had brought her there on purpose knowing that Amber would have been able to get under her skin persisted.

“So what did you mean?” Amber asked, puffing out her cheeks and trying to lock her gaze with Xia's again.

“I-I-I meant…” Xia pursed her lips and looked back at her mother, any detail to escape Amber's eyes, “yeah, well, I'm… I'm trying to keep my real life and my virtual life separated, and t-there's a player who accompanies me… surely you'll meet her too in that case, so I would like that while we are in the game we don't talk about our lives outside of it.” It seemed like a better excuse than telling her that she was actively trying to avoid spending time socially with other people in flesh and bone as much as possible.

“Mmh…” Amber became thoughtful, “agreed! It's a deal!" she winked at her and gave her a thumbs up, “now we've washed, conditioned and had a nice massage… for the haircut? Which one would you like?”

Xia looked at her beautiful golden hair, it reminded her so much of Lasair's, except that Lasair had chosen a race for her avatar that was golden from head to toe, making her look more like an angel than a human "I want it like yours."

"As you wish!"

And so, while Amber started talking again and telling Xia all the things that were going through her head, Xia found herself with another small crack in the wall that she had put between her and the world and with the hope that others would never appear again. Even the sturdiest wall crumbles after a crack too much.