33.i Like Scooping the Moon from the Water

~ Bodhi ~

Though Bodhi the monk had spent the better part of the season locked behind bars, they really couldn’t complain.

The so-called jail cell looked more like a child’s dream nursery. There was a realistic depiction of the moon and the night sky painted across the ceiling. The stars even twinkled against the blanket of midnight velvet.

The starry night overlooked a circular chamber filled with life sized rattles and even larger than life teddy bears.

“Don’t you just love how they treat us like we’re babies?”

The question came from Bodhi’s cellmate. A dog spirit, who claimed to be a shiba inu even though her glamour gave nothing away. She introduced herself as Billie upon arrival. Bodhi only cared because talking to someone was one of the few ways they could take their mind off of booze.

Billie told Bodhi that she was an indie game developer with an immersive project in the works called Lucky Dungeon.

“I was arrested for creating a game that is ‘deceptively cute’ and making ‘profitless gestures in public’ according to the record.”

In other words, Billie was caught handing her demo out for free for beta-testing. The second offense was apparently worse than developing a game that wasn’t cute enough.

When Billie was through, she asked, “What are you in here for?”

Bodhi shrugged. “Misconduct.”

The monk didn’t feel like talking about the real problem. Detoxing had been bad enough. Thankfully, no one else was sharing a cell with Bodhi at the time of their intake. The more sober the monk was, the more embarrassed they felt about everything. This acutely painful awareness of how much they were lacking was precisely the reason why they drank in the first place. After reaching a certain threshold, self awareness was not an issue. Sure it was there. It would always be there, but…

At least when they were drunk, they didn’t care as much.

Caring, for whatever reason, hurt more than going through withdrawal.

“You ever heard of E-Village?”

It was the damn dog talking to them again. Bodhi wished that they cared enough to apologize for being such a shitty cellmate.

“Can’t say I have,” Bodhi mumbled, glancing in the shiba inu’s direction with vague curiosity. Billie’s glamour flickered in eagerness to explain. By now, she’d been around Bodhi long enough to tell when they were open to one of her long winded rambles.

“E-Village is dead smack in the middle of the Snake and the Rat Province, it’s pretty much a game developer’s paradise. Anyone can make it out there. And I’m going to be the first spirit from the Rabbit Province to do it.”

Bodhi had no idea why Billie was so fired up, but she kept barking about how E-Village was this wild wild west where gamers and creators alike could try anything they wanted and receive a constant flow of feedback and trades of services.

Bodhi replied with “That’s nice” a few times. Their overall lack of enthusiasm did nothing to steer Billie away from the topic. Part of Bodhi was kind of thankful that she didn’t stop talking. The monk remembered when they used to be excited about things. Well, things other than getting a drink.

The day before Billie’s sentence was up, she left Bodhi with something small and plastic.

“What’s this?” Bodhi asked, holding it up before their cool gray stare, wondering if it could be sold for some rice wine.

“That dungeon crawler I was telling you about. This is my very last demo,” Billie whispered, placing her glamoured paw over the monk’s hand. Once she had encouraged Bodhi to stash the plastic chip somewhere safe, she explained, “Lucky Dungeon is totally immersive. Works like a paper space. Once you and whoever else goes inside, you can’t get out until you beat it.”

When Bodhi gave her a look, she reassured them that the game wasn’t some sort of trap. She designed it to be very player-friendly on purpose. And that no one could disturb the gamers once they were inside the program.

It sounded like a portable safehouse Bodhi mused to themself long after Billie had been released and the monk was left alone with their thoughts.

The last thing Billie had done before leaving was hug Bodhi soundly. This sort of affection was not something spirits were prone to do unless they were mentally ill like Sun Ritsu.

“Thank you for being here,” Billie woofed softly before letting Bodhi go. “Because of you, I didn’t go crazy in this place.”

Bodhi wasn’t sure what it was the dog was referring to. The monk was so depressed that they barely moved during the day. And they never initiated conversation with Billie.

Blushing and dimly bewildered, Bodhi silently watched the dog be escorted out by two half-glamoured security guards.

The monk pressed their fingers to the chip in their pocket, wondering how long it would be until Sun Ritsu showed up with some food.