Scared And Alone

There was a scream! Followed by an intense, ugly sobbing. Marcus looked around in confusion trying to seek out the source of the noise. The trio had only traveled a short ways away from town square. The road they followed overlooked the sea at its right and possessed a row of modest housing to its left. It was towards those houses where Marcus searched, trying to peer around the crowds that simply continued on their way.

“The heck was that?” Marcus asked as he scooted on ahead.

“What was what?” Sam replied confused.

“What was what? The scream, didn’t you hear a scream!?” Marcus asked, baffled that Sam hadn’t heard it.

“What scream? I didn’t hear anything either.” Will affirmed as he stared confused at Marcus.

“Wait, you didn’t hear it either? Someone just screamed loud enough to blow out my eardrums and now they’re crying, how do you not hear that!?” Marcus implored incredulously, his arms waving in the general direction of where he heard the alleged noise.

“Cause I didn’t? How are you hearing anything anyway? there’s nobody else in our party.” Will replied, looking around trying to make sense of Marcus.

Marcus was silent for a moment, wondering that very same thing now that he was thinking about it. Before he could think much on it however, he noticed some movement to his left. Something up ahead was poking its head from around a hedge that bordered a yard in all but the entrance. Its tear covered face looked up and down the street before ducking back in when a player came too close.

“There!” Marcus called out as he pointed forward and moved towards where he saw the figure.

This time, at least, it appeared that his friends did see what he was talking about and followed behind. Reaching the house and peering around the hedge he once more saw the figure, in full this time. It was definitely a small race, much like Marcus. They had the appearance of a plush toy, mint green with white that rounded the mouth, all the way down to its belly. It had short pointy canine-like ears that flopped forward at the tip and a big puffy bunny-like tail behind them. They were wearing a big blue ribbon which adorned their neck and a parakeet green robe with fluffy white trim. They had a wooden wand at their hip and were curled up in the fetal position, puffy arms with three fingered hands wrapped around a pair of chunky legs with three puffy toes complete with paw pads on the bottoms. Their sobbing was relentless, her face buried in her knees.

Marcus Took this moment to inspect the character. They were apparently a level three Golem, of the Poppit subspecies and a Sorcerer with the Reposeful subclass. They were also going by the name Maggie Raindrop. That wasn’t the information he was searching for however as he looked at her status conditions. Once again, there was nothing to note, meaning whatever problem this girl was having was outside of the game, and there was likely little he could actually do to help. Then again, it wasn’t like he’d even know what to do even if he could. Still, he found himself here again, eyes on the status of another character. The last two times he did this, they both had that curious effect on them. Naturally, his eyes wandered to the Permanent effects section, and sure enough, there it was, orange like the first person he noticed it on. Marcus gritted his teeth, his mind eager to figure out what this was and why so many people had it on them. However, now was not the time for that. He closed the examination window and focused on the character themself.

“Hey, you okay? What’s the matter?” Marcus asked.

She shuddered and raised her head up to the voice. Her face was round, bright blue glassy eyes, a little pink nose, small mouth, and a tiny snout. She stared, still crying her eyes out as she looked over the imp before her. Her shaking slowly grew less intense before her eyes suddenly went wide and she gasped. She shoved herself backwards until she was pressed against the hedge before completely curling up once again before sobbing even louder. Turning his head and looking up, Marcus found his friends had arrived as they too peeked around the corner.

“Oops, We didn’t make things worse did we?” Will asked sheepishly.

“Dammit! Umm, N-no, no, it’s okay, these are just my friends, they’re stupid but not dangerous.” Marcus insisted, stepping out from behind the hedge and gingerly taking a few steps towards the plush.

The poor thing looked up again to see the trio still there, Sam and Will having backed off a little while Marcus stood a short ways away from her. She looked up to the other two, and then back to Marcus. Suddenly, taking everyone by surprise, she rose to her feet and dashed towards the imp, sobbing before wrapping him in a tight, shivering hug.

“M-Mr…” She barely managed to get out between sobs.

Marcus felt awkward. Sure, it was simulated, but it was wild to think of hugging a complete stranger like that. At the very least, he didn’t back away from them as she hugged his character.

“Umm, is something the matter? What happened?” Marcus asked.

The plush character sniffled and sobbed, looking to Marcus whom they were pretty much the same height as. She then opened her mouth, lips moving as if she were trying to speak, but nothing came out.

“U-umm, might wanna try that again, I umm… didn’t hear you.” Marcus told them.

They sniffled again and seemed to try repeating what they were saying. Marcus could swear he might have heard… something, but whatever it was didn’t quite register.

“U-umm, look, I don’t wanna be mean, but it sounds like you’re really upset right now. Maybe you should think about getting off the game and taking a breather.” Marcus suggested.

The plush looked him in the eyes as she had fallen completely silent, her mouth hanging agape as if Marcus’s words completely stunned her. As he stared at the eyes of this character, unsure what to do, Marcus heard a voice in the background, not of the game, but real life. It took Marcus a moment to recognize it, but it was his parents wishing him a good night as they appeared to be going to bed.

“O-oh, goodnight ma, goodnight dad, love you!” Marcus called out.

Whe Marcus turned his attention back to the girl however, her face was now resembling a dam about to burst, tears welling up like an impending tidal surge. The girl looked as if she was trying, struggling to hold back, but knew they couldn’t, and moments later, she bawled. Marcus nearly threw off the headset with how loud it was, but before it went on much longer, she suddenly stormed past him and dashed her way up the street. Marcus and the others just stood there, dumbstruck. Not a one of them could properly make sense of what just happened, and perhaps, they never would. Marcus looked back to the others, who looked down to him.

“So umm, yea, what should we do now… I guess.” Marcus asked, stepping out from the small yard he was in and looking up the road where the girl had run.

“Umm, well, I think uhh, yea, it’s starting to get pretty late. Let’s just go beat up some mobs for now, then I’m probably gonna call it for the night.” Will suggested.

Sam agreed and the trio continued along the path they started on, Marcus lagging behind again as he began to inspect every character he passed. Completely ignoring any and all racial or class information, he jumped directly into their Permanent Effects. Though he did notice a few buffs and debuffs this time around, despite his track record thus far, not a single character he inspected now had the Chosen effect on them. He then turned to Will and Sam. He had examined Will before when sending him the friend request, but he wasn’t exactly looking out for anything in particular at the time. Sure enough, there was nothing from either of them. Still though, as he examined everyone else, he realized that he hadn’t even examined his own statuses in a while, not since he leveled up back on the boat. Checking over his Codex, he pulled the tab to his character info and his eyes went wide. There, right beside Fire Resistance from a racial trait, it sat an icon of a blue greatsword, just like that streamer’s. Though he continued walking, he remained completely silent, baffled at the sight. He could not recall ever receiving this, or even imagine when, but there it was. With that, he shut his codex and looked to his friends.

“Umm, hey, either of you guys know what the status effect called Chosen is? It’s a permanent effect that I’ve noticed on a few people.” Marcus inquired.

Sam turned his head. “Chosen? No, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with it, and I don’t recall it from any of the games. Does it not say what it does?”

Marcus shook his head. “Nope, I’ve seen like, three other people with it and not one of them had anything but a name. It’s this little trident looking icon. I’ve seen two orange ones, and somehow I got one that’s blue.”

Will and Sam stopped before looking at Marcus, clearly taking a moment to inspect his character. Marcus sat there for a moment, opening his codex up once more, staring at the blue icon.

“Sorry, what was it under?” Sam asked.

“Permanent Effects.” Marcus replied.

Once more, it was silent before Will finally spoke up again.

“Dude, I don’t see it. You sure you’re not making all this up?” Will pondered.

Marcus’s gaze shot up to Will as he glared at him incredulously. “No, I aint making it up, here, look!” Marcus proceeded to turn his codex and shove it as close to Will’s face as he could. “See, right there. That blue icon in Permanent Effects!”

Will leaned forward to examine it. Apparently it was possible to show off codexes this way, but more importantly, no matter how he looked at it, Will could only shake his head. “Sorry, don’t see it dude.”

Marcus huffed, shutting the codex and stowing it. “Fine, I’ll just look this up later too. C’mon then, let’s get going. I wanna do some fighting before it gets too late.