A royal dance and a cup of tea

Still yawning, he scratched his head and moved towards the bathroom. He dropped his clothes down, got into the shower, and opened the water. Eyes closed it poured on him. He adjusted the water hotter. Hotter. More. Perfect. 

Next, a comfortable, fresh t-shirt, his favorite sweatpants, fashioning a large tear around his inner thigh. Socks? He opened the drawer. There were two pairs, one with bananas and one with watermelons. He took one of each and wore them. His dark hair was still damp, so he gave it another rub. That should do it.

Now it was time for a breakfast. But oh, if only it were as straightforward as the shower. Silence greeted Dave as he stumbled into the kitchen, blinded by daylight.

‘Morning,’ he said as he opened the fridge.

Dave caught Mom and Dad exchanging a look before they returned their gaze to him.

‘Morning,’ dad replied and continued to read his phone news.

‘You can find some scrambled eggs on the stove. Although they are already cold as it’s been some hours,’ mom said. She bit into a driest looking cookie, washing it down with coffee.

Dave didn’t say a thing. They didn’t say a thing. Too silent. Uh-oh. This wasn’t a good sign. Where was the ‘Did you sleep well?’ ‘How was university yesterday?’ talk?

‘Act normal. Don’t make any sudden moves.’

Carefully, with his back towards the parents, he took a plate, which completely undermined his attempts at being quiet. He grimaced in pain and scooped some eggs, feeling a gaze on him the whole time. Then it was time for an escape.

‘So. What’s with the late night walks?’ mom asked, louder than usual.

Dave stopped in his tracks and pursed lips. ‘Shit.’

‘Spring is nice,’ he blurted.

‘Spring is nice? Spring? Is nice?’ he cringed at himself.

Dad released a wheeze and as soon as he met eyes with Dave, he went back to the ‘stern dad’ mode.

‘You know. The room gets so hot. And I sit so long on my computer. It’s good to take a walk.’

‘At 2 am?’ mom continued.

Taking his chances he scurried away. Some words were still thrown at him. ‘Take Kyu with you next time!’ or something like that.

***

Since it was the weekend, they would start the runs earlier. Giddiness overcame him at the thought of joining the voice chat. He rubbed his hands and exhaled, feeling his heart racing as he joined his static call.

‘Miira,’ Dave said.

‘Sei,’ she replied.

There was something about their manner of calling each other. As if they shared a secret that no one else did and had to pretend they knew nothing.

‘Oh. So Miira gets special treatment and we don’t?’ Sanakyu moaned.

‘Hi, Sanakyu.’

‘That was not the same at all! Like opening a fridge and finding the leftovers you don’t want to eat a kind of ‘Hi’! Rude.’

Both Dave and Miira found it hard to hold back laughing. It burst out again, just like the other day.

‘Seriously… What’s with you two?’ Deilo asked.

Then, Apollo joined in and silence towered over everyone. It was time to get serious again.

This time, the first two bosses were a pleasant warm up. Not too complicated to drain the life out of them, but also not too easy to get them bored. But finally, they reached The Emperor once again.

The sound of Miira taking a deep breath was picked up on voice chat. Sanakyu approached her character, probably traded her a carrot or something of that sort. Dave gave a pet to his anti-anxiety buddy under his feet and took a deep breath himself.

‘Alright, ready?’

He popped all the buffs necessary, dodged the first combo of attacks, rinse and repeat and here they hit the 90%. The core mechanic, called ‘the cage’, had started. It created a small enclosure, which made players dodge a rapidly changing pattern under their feet. One wrong move, and you were dead. Not to mention, dodging wasn’t enough. You had to continue your role — tank, damage, heal.

‘Left, right, back, front, left, left, back, back.’

Dave checked the status of the party. Apollo alive… Sanakyu… Alive. Deilo, already in the middle of his combo, as if he never even stopped. Miira, alive and healing. He steadied himself.

‘Consistency. Don’t get distracted. Left, block, chain into the attack…’

But his focus shifted towards Miira. She was giving the most royal dance Dave had ever seen. She chained from one skill, which enveloped her in a soft yellow glow, into another, as she performed a radiant pirouette, followed by a delicate extension of her arms, head leaning back, creating a green mist all around her. Then, light as air, she tiptoed to the other side of the boss. And off she went back to other teammates, playfully raised an arm from which came a stream of gleaming vitality. All the while, her dance partner, The Emperor, futilely tried to keep up with the damage. The difference between the day before was stark. Perhaps too stark to be real.

Of course, all of that lasted only until the phase two.

‘Play time is over. You will bow before me!’ The Emperor’s voice echoed in his chamber.

At that point, the rhythm of the dance changed. Now, the cage repeated twice as much, with an addition of a new attack — a throw of a random player to the edge of the arena. This surely induced the chaos that they have not missed since the previous day. Soon, they were all on the floor once again.

Dave’s mind was racing. Was there something he could do? As they all were discussing their mistakes, Miira spoke up.

‘I have an idea. What about every time someone gets thrown away, I will pull them back?’

‘Pull? You can do that?’ Apollo said dejectedly.

‘Yup, a couple of updates ago, they added a new skill, which allows a healer to pull one person to them. It’s been pretty useless in combat so far and people only use it for fun. But in this case, we could actually save some time on running, especially if The Emperor starts the cage mechanic right afterwards.’

‘That could work,’ Deilo said.

‘What about if you get thrown away? How will you get yourself back?’

‘I… Uhh…’

‘I will reposition the boss closer towards where she was thrown to then,’ Dave said.

He surprised himself. It was not a well thought-out idea. No, it was rather an instinct, an urge.

‘That makes little sense. Then the boss could start the mechanic while you’re repositioning and screw yourself up. That’s two people down. Not to mention, you could just lose aggro and make it difficult for us,’ Apollo was not giving up his stance.

‘No, no, that might work, too. It’s all about the execution. It’s not like we will lose anything if we try. Let’s give it a go!’ Sanakyu said.

Then they tried again. The new tactics… They sort of worked. To an extent. After all, now they pushed past 30%.

It was already well past 10 pm, and they were all exhausted.

‘What about a brief break?’ Deilo asked.

‘Only if we get to keep our healer after,’ Apollo added.

‘I already said I’m sorry. I will not repeat myself. I will be back. 30 minutes,’ Miira said, with raging fury in her voice. 

***

‘Uhhh… Apollo will never allow me to live it down, will he?’ Miira messaged Dave as soon as the break begun.

‘Haha, who knows? He is a lot more mellow than he used to be.’

He went to the kitchen, phone in hand. The dishwasher appeared to be done recently as a smell of freshly washed dishes lingered in the air. The counters were shiny clean. It was obviously dad’s handiwork. It’s not that he hated the mess. Oh no, it was a lot more than that. He grabbed onto his chest at a slightest sight of mess and didn't even dare to step a foot into Dave’s room.

As Dave opened the kitchen cabinet, an aroma wafted in his face, which could only be described as an amalgamation of florals, citruses, berries, and teas. He stared at the selection available.

Dave glanced at Miira’s reply. ‘MELLOW? You call this… MELLOW?’

Mom was a real tea lover. There was special imported tea from the UK, a brand which recently closed their shops, because of an unfortunate combination of Brexit and the most recent worldwide viral outbreak. Then there was tea from a cozy downtown teahouse that she loved to frequent with her teacher friends. Then another batch which was gifted to her as a farewell gift from her previous colleagues. 

And that was only the surface. That was just the cupboard. In the living room, she had a shrine with displayed teas for everyone to see. Or rather, to admire them herself.

‘What are you doing? Not stalking me, are you?’ another message came.

‘MORE mellow. I didn’t explicitly describe him as a mellow person. And sure. I’m peeking right through your window right now. Love your Pokemon curtains.’

‘Riiiight. So what are you up to then?’

‘Trying to make tea,’ he leaned on the countertop while typing.

‘You like tea?! Yes! I love it! So so much! Make some for me too.’

He chuckled as he put the kettle to boil, entertaining an idea of having a teatime with Miira.

‘The tea is okay. My mom is the one with an obsession for it. I can’t even choose which one to take.’

‘Take a picture of your stash and I can help you.’

As the cabinet doors opened wider, the ugliness was revealed. Half opened packets, some boxes were upside down, everything stacked one on another. Who knows what was at the back and Dave got a headache just at a thought of looking behind.

‘Uhuh. I see. That is some impressive selection. I think I already love your mom. Can she adopt me? Anyway. What kind of flavor would you like?’

‘Uh… Something refreshing? A tinge of sweetness?’

‘Excellent. I can already see one you might like. In the left corner, the third one from the bottom. French Earl Grey. Try that. Also, if it’s loose tea leaves, take 1 teaspoon for 1 cup, seep it at 100 degrees Celsius for 3 minutes.’

‘Okay, sensei.’

He took his favorite, ever so rarely used, mug with Christmas foxes and poured the boiling water. Then, he dumped a clumsy teaspoon of leaves into the mug. The floaters slowly drowned in the hot tub as they unraveled from their shriveled form. A pleasant aroma wafted to his face.

‘So what are you up to?’ Dave asked as he impatiently tapped his fingers.

‘Eating.’

‘What’s on the menu?’

‘Cucumber with soy sauce.’

‘And..?’

‘That’s it. It’s delicious!’

‘Nothing more of… sustenance?’

‘Haha. I have nothing else right now.’

The timer on his phone marked the three passed minutes.

‘Okay, the tea is ready.’

Blowing it lightly, he took tiny sip, causing his nose to wrinkle as a small piece of a leaf got stuck on his teeth.

‘How is it? Do you like it?’

‘It’s a bit too hot to taste and the leaves are getting in the way, but I guess it’s… drinkable.’

‘Wait, you didn’t put the leaves in the strainer?’

‘A strainer?’ Dave vaguely remembered mom using something of that sort.

‘Oh god… I guess we will have to have a class no. 2 next time. Well, drink up, we’re starting in 4 min!’