“It’s a Creature Lure,” she explains, relief in her voice. “It’s a pretty basic item you can buy early in the game. You use it to attract a monster to another monster, or a monster to a ship or person. You should use one while fighting your friends, make something attack them. I bet it would be funny.”
I can almost hear the wink in her tone, and I find myself grinning like a fool.
One of the beasts falls, and some of the fern-like trees come tumbling down with it. The remaining monster bites at the fallen one, presumably eating it, but I have no idea. Those animations aren’t really as in-depth as everything else, and the movements look more like an improv actor pretending to eat something.
“That...that is awesome,” I say.
“Hell yeah, it is.” D1V glances at me for a moment, and I wonder if she’s smiling off-screen. “Let’s get back to looking for resources. You got all that, right? The recording?”
“Oh yeah, definitely,” I say, checking quickly to make sure that I do.
“Great.” Another menu materializes in front of D1V as she turns to walk away. Her avatar’s fingers tap at something in the menu, making little lights blip on and off. It looks like an options screen, the sort you load up when you—
Oh.
No way.
With a soft bloop, a message pops up on my screen, pale orange against the background of the actual game.
You have received a Friend Request.
Would you like to add:
D1V
to your friends list?
You can delete a contact whenever you choose.
[YES] [NO]
I can’t help myself. I click on D1V to see her profile. Though I’ve never looked her up or anything before—I’m not a creep—I think it’s safe to assume she’s private and unsearchable on the game. But now that she’s sent me a friend request, I can look.
If anyone loads up my profile, there’s a lot of in-game nonsense. Planets I’ve claimed, people I’ve explored with, achievements and the like. If you’re friends with me, it displays where I’m from, my social media links, and all. It’s pretty public, but now, thinking about everything D1V’s been through these past few days with the trolls and the attack in the game, I’m wondering if maybe I should shut down that stuff—especially once I see how sparsely populated her profile is.
She’s eighteen, so just a year older than me, but that’s all I’m getting out of it in terms of personal information. She’s got her public social media links to Twitter and her Glitch stream, which I expected, plus her in-game email address—which everyone on here has—[email protected].
But beyond that?
Nothing.
It’s as if she doesn’t exist in real life. But I suppose that’s the point.
I click yes, and the dialogue tree disappears. Suddenly I hear D1V laughing on the other end.
“What?” I ask. “What is—”
“Nice profile you got here, Aaron.” She chuckles. “Planet Butts. Planet Hamtaro. Planet Ryan Is My Lord and King. Planet I’m Bad at This Game & Should Feel Bad. Is your email address really [email protected]? Who’s Laura?”
“Oh my God, I am going to murder Ryan,” I groan, putting my face in my hands. “That’s...that’s not it. Sometimes we log in to each other’s accounts to mess with one another. And by we, I mean mostly Ryan does it.” I open my profile and fix it, changing it back to [email protected].
“Wow. Your name as your email address. That’s impressive, Mr. Day One. Most people usually have a bunch of numbers or something,” she says, and I can hear the smirk in her voice. “Did you get all your precious collectibles with that Day One copy?”
“Don’t judge me,” I bluster, trying not to think about the pewter spaceship sculptures that came with the special edition, or the rocket-shaped keychain I’ve got on my keys right now.
“If I was going to judge you, I’d judge you by your location, Pennsylvania.”
Again, I can hear the smile in her voice, and I glare at the screen. Where she’s from isn’t listed, though I get why.
“Hey, after we sign off, can you send me that footage?” D1V asks. “I’ll totally credit you in the video and give you a shout-out—”
“Can you mention ManaPunk?” I ask, blurting it out without really thinking. But I might as well take a shot—Jason will love the publicity, and it would look good for me, too.
“What? Why?”
“I work with Jason Pherlin, the founder?” I say, trying to be careful. I’d love a chance to get the game company out there on a major channel, and show that I’m doing work for them, but the last thing I want to do is ruin this new in-game friendship here. “Doing copyediting, some light story writing and stuff. No pressure if you can’t. It would just... That would be really amazing.”
“Oh okay, that’s cool,” she says. “I can do that. Aaron from ManaPunk. Done.”
I’m grateful that it’s not my face on the stream, because I’m smiling way too big right now. My face hurts. I can feel it all the way up in my ears.
“So...what now?” I ask.
“Resources,” she reminds me. A blip pops up on my map. Now that we’re friends in the game, I can see where she’s planning to go.
We’re a party. This is awesome.
“Let’s head up toward the water, see what we can find. And then I gotta sign off, put the video together.”
“Sounds good,” I say. “And I’ll email you those files right after.”
“Perfect,” she replies, pausing for a beat. “You um...busy tomorrow?”
“Not really, it’s the summer and I—”
“Then let’s do this again. Maybe around 8:00?” she suggests, and my heart is beating madly in my chest. This is so cool. “You’re a...well, a good partner.”
There’s another bloop noise, and a message pops up on my screen.
You have received an Exploration Request.
Would you like to EXPLORE with D1V at:
8:00 p.m. EST, July 2
[YES] [NO] [RESCHEDULE]
Fighting the urge to dance around in my computer chair, I click Yes.
Reclaim the Sun: Chat Application