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

PLAYER/USERNAME

Xia/Genevieve

-------------------------------

It was the last session with Xia's psychologist before the big event that in a certain sense she herself had triggered by giving to Xia her son's outdated NexNetVR. Xia's mother accompanied her to the door and she watched her walk briskly down the corridor to probably go do some business. No blame on her part: she had to stay locked up in the psychologist's office for an hour, it would have been absurd for her mother to sit outside the door with her arms folded and wait.

“Welcome, Xia!” Addison said after opening the door for her, “please, come in!”

Addison's office hadn't changed at all over the months Xia spent going in and out of that door: she sat down on the two-seater sofa and placed her crutches next to her side, sometimes her spine ached from how much she used crutches to walk , but Xia categorically refused to use a wheelchair even when she could have. The psychologist closed the door and settled comfortably in her chair and crossed one leg over the other, relaxing against the soft backrest.

“How's it going with the virtual world?” Addison asked her when they were both comfortable.

“I'll be participating in a local tournament soon.”

“So you found some friends to play with? If it's the tournament my son told me about, you can't enter alone,” she looked at Xia patiently, hoping that her patient had found someone to bond with, even if only to win in a video game.

“Yes…” Xia looked away from her psychologist, “I found them.”

“Do you also know any of them outside the game or are they just online acquaintances whose faces you don't know?”

Xia didn't answer.

This didn't help Xia in any way since when she looked back at Addison, Addison was looking at her, waiting for her to speak.

“Let's say yes, I know some of these players even offline. What changes for me? I'm still the same girl, still walking around this world even though I'm supposed to be dead,” Xia lowered her head and looked at her hands, she was twiddling her thumbs, “the power of friendship only fixes things in anime. Natalie and Hannah will remain dead.”

“But you're alive, and you're not crippled.” Addison objected, “you're just different from before, you've changed, changes are natural things that are defined on a spectrum of good or bad depending on how you make them affect you.”

Different, yeah, different in the way Xia couldn't run or jump anymore. Oh and her best friend was still dead.

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“I don't want to lose anybody else,” Xia confessed in a low voice, as if it were something that she didn't want to hear either, as if that awareness wasn't already within her. “What if I make friends with someone only to lose them again?”

“This is something that many people fear, not only towards other people, but also towards animals,” Addison smiled at her friendly, “can I tell you a story?”

"Sure, tell me."

Addison lowered her head and looked at Xia's toes, “when I was about your age, my family had a cross breed between a husky and a German shepherd, he was a beautiful dog, his name was Cooper.” she brought her eyes to Xia's again, "at that time he was thirteen years old, old, deaf, had little vision but always found time to come and give me his paw or wag his tail."

Xia saw her with tears in her eyes, an event that had happened so long ago was still paining her when she thought about it. Addison sniffed, “the day before, it was there, I went to sleep like every day and when I woke up the next day, it was no longer there. Suddenly, all the good memories I had of Cooper had become thorns that caused me pain every time I thought about him.”

Xia didn't interrupt her, it was clear what Addison was getting at, but it seemed rude to say that Xia understood the moral of the story and that she still didn't understand how knowing it could have helped her.

Addison reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her smartphone, Xia saw her unlock it and after a few seconds her pained expression transformed and a small smile came to life tugging at the corners of her lips, “this is Tilly.” Addison turned the phone towards Xia, showing her a photo of a cute cocker spaniel with a red bow for a collar. She looked nice and clean and combed, perhaps she had just been taken to the dog hairdresser when the photo was taken. “I know that with all probability I will outlive and bury her, but if I focus myself on that sad thought, I would lose years of happiness. Maybe if I didn't adopt her I wouldn't be sad in that day, but then I would have a much longer streak of less joyful days.”

"So?" Xia asked, still looking at the photo of the little cocker spaniel.

“Maybe a little suffering is inevitable if you want to be happy,” Addison concluded, blocking the phone again and replacing the image of the beautiful dog with a black mirror in which Xia saw the reflection of her face.

Xia pursed her lips, “and Cooper? Don't you feel like you betrayed him when you replaced him with Tilly?”

The psychologist put the phone back in her trouser pocket and shook her head, "no, Cooper will always remain part of my heart, I haven't replaced him, I just decided to give myself another chance." She smiled faintly, “I'm sure if he were still alive and had met Tilly, they would have become friends fast.”

Xia understood what Addison meant, but in her case it wasn't a dog, it was a human being, a person she cared about a lot and who had not died peacefully at the end of her life but prematurely and in a catastrophic road accident. What right did Xia had to move on as if nothing had happened? Looked at from another perspective, it could be said that she had already moved on without realizing it or wanting to at first: Xia didn't want to distance herself from Amber, and especially not from Grace.

“Thank you for sharing this story. I…” Xia sighed, “I'll think about it.”

“Good. I'm glad,” Addison crossed her fingers, “your college activity? How is it going?"

“The professors are very competent and patient…”

- - -

After another half an hour of chatting about how Xia's life at home was going, she was finally released to go. Her mother was at the door, leaning with her back against the wall and her head bowed, watching news or funny videos on her smartphone. Her face, rejuvenated by anti-aging creams, rose to allow her to focus her gaze on her daughter and Addison. She smiled and put the phone away.

"Here you are!" Xia's mom moved away from the wall, “everything okay? Ready to go?"

Xia nodded a few times and began to move towards the elevator on her own.

Xia had to meet Grace, fortunately, there was no shortage of opportunities.

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