Chapter 13 #2
Cait shakes her head. “No, he’s really into you. I’ve known him for months. Not only are you hot, but you both have a lot more in common than you know.”
That’s a huge relief. So much so that I close my eyes and even my breathing for a moment.
Our attendants return, ready to rinse me off and then take me to get my pedicure. My thoughts once more return to how the rest of our day will unfold.
“Girls’ day out!” I call out to Cait as she’s escorted back to the changing room.
She responds with a big smile and a thumbs up. “We’re going to have a blast!” she promises.
I didn’t have much time to enjoy Guy’s appreciative glances when I finished with my bathhouse pampering because Cait whisked me away.
To my delight, when we bumped into Tara and Sylvia, they decided to join us as well, even though earlier they’d chosen to clean up with fresh water using our camp’s wooden barrel bathtub.
They both seem refreshed from their clean ups. We’re fortunate that video game logic means our entire camp’s worth of supplies and furniture are stored in some mysterious nether space until we need them. All they have to do is snap their fingers, and every item is available for us to set up.
This town is a pleasant change of pace from our tents, though.
It’s bigger than the last two villages we’ve gone to.
The temple stands tall and grand within a concentric circle of roads.
On the very outer edge are roads for the homes, then inward from those are the basic shops, and the more elite stores stand closest to the temple.
We walk the innermost roads as we shop for the best accessories and clothing.
None of this is just for show, of course.
It’s a video game. We can’t wear stuff that doesn’t serve a purpose.
My new chiton grants me the ability to light up dark spaces.
That would have been really helpful in the spider village, but I try not to dwell on it.
My earrings grant me the ability to communicate with a partner who wears a matching pair.
We decide to give the other pair to Tara so she can let us know what she spies when she lurks around our enemies.
My new bangles add enough of a strength boost to negate my penalty.
I also get a small, delicate laurel of tiny brass leaves.
This brings my wisdom score to seventeen so that it’s even with intelligence.
Cait still prompts me to train in wisdom, however.
After that, we all get an updated hairdo.
Cait usually keeps her hair in a practical ponytail until we’re relaxing at the end of the day, when she brushes it out.
However, she lets the hairdresser give her braids that make her seem even more like a Viking princess.
It is, of course, incredibly hot. Sylvia’s hair gets teased and manipulated so that her pink afro takes on the shape of a cloudlike mohawk with gold hair pins keeping it in place.
Tara gets her dark hair trimmed so that it is chin length.
As pretty as I know my golden blonde hair is, I rarely do anything with it. Like Cait, it’s usually in a ponytail. But my friends prompt me to do something special. And why not? Maybe it will only last for the day, but today’s my day to feel girly. So, I give in to that urge all the way.
The stylist makes a crown of loose braids at the top of my head, a perfect place to perch my laurel.
The thin layer of hair not braided is curled into wispy spirals that brush against my shoulders.
This will be a bitch to undo later, but I don’t care because of how good I feel when my friends gasp and fawn over how pretty they think I am.
After all our vanity shopping is done, it’s time to head to the temple where I’ll get an upgrade on my staff and check in with Aphrodite. I wonder what my deity will have to say, but I’m more interested in presenting her with a list of questions of my own.
First, how do I improve my faith and wisdom scores? How likely is it I’ll accidentally attract people? Is it a good idea for me to date anyone, let alone someone in my party? Most importantly, what’s up with this personal quest she’s given me?
All of my thoughts pause the moment we enter the temple. It’s more like a tourist trap than a place of worship here. Crowds of players and NPCs alike have packed every inch of the place. With so many real people in there, the sound of their chatting is too much for me.
I clap my hands over my ears and shake my head. “I can’t.”
Cait nods and guides me out of the temple, while Sylvia and Tara follow us. We make our way to an alley that’s relatively quiet compared to the interior of the place of worship. I lean against the wall with my hand over my heart as I count breaths until they’re even.
When I finally feel somewhat normal again, I nod at my friends. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Cait says. “It was overwhelming for me, too.”
“I guess the newbies caught up with us,” Sylvia says.
“How?” Tara asks. “There was no one within sight of our whole trip here. They all were just starting the harpy quest when we left the starting zone.”
“Because they didn’t have anything slowing them down on the way here,” Guy says from behind, surprising us all.
We turn around to see him and Joshua. Guy’s mouth drops open, and his eyes might as well be heart-shaped with the way he’s looking at me.
“God, you look good,” he whispers to me and strokes one of my curls with his index finger. I warm under his praise. “Better than good. You look like Aphrodite herself.”
Cait shushes him. “Are you dumb or something?” She points at the temple while glaring at Guy.
Guy drops his hand and looks at the building nervously. “That was a joke,” he says. “No human could come close to being as beautiful as Aphrodite.” But then he turns back to me. “But wow, you’re gorgeous.”
“You’re so sweet,” I say, blushing.
“What did you say about nothing slowing them down?” Tara asks, bringing us back to reality.
“While you were out shopping, Joshua and I came here to check in with our deities, and we had to wait in line for a long time,” Guy says. “We eavesdropped on the people near us. Seems that the spider village quest is glitched.”
“Glitched?” Tara asks.
“Yeah, there’s no web, and no one needs saving,” Joshua answers. “They’re all rattled, but living regular lives. So, the newbs all skipped that one and went straight for the escort mission. That cut out a couple of days of work for them.”
We’re all silent for a moment, each of us wondering the same thing.
Did we break that quest when I helped Arachne’s children make peace with the villagers?
That shouldn’t be possible. It should have reset once we were out of sight.
The web should have been back, and the humans should have been cloistering in their homes in fear.
I should be horrified that the game can be changed that way. If a quest can glitch, what else can? What if a boss just never shows up for a battle? What if enemies respawn the moment a player vanquishes them? Worst of all, could we all suddenly die for no reason?
Despite all that, though, I’m happy. I don’t want the spiders or the villagers going through any of that all over again. I want to have impacted their lives positively for good, even if that’s foolish. They’re NPCs for fuck’s sake. They don’t have feelings or know they’re in an endless loop.
I think back to that mother and her two small children.
What if they do? What if I should stop assuming that this game’s NPCs are just like those in a normal game?
I’m in Peripeteia. Many of the video game’s rules completely changed the moment I stepped foot here.
The fact that I’m here at all doesn’t make sense.
Is it such a leap that NPCs have lives of their own?
“Maybe Tara’s right,” I say, breaking the silence. “Maybe the NPCs have feelings but are coded so that they can’t express them.”
“That still doesn’t explain why the quest didn’t reset,” Guy responds.
“If you felt something strong, like terror or grief, wouldn’t you fight anything holding you back from expressing that?” I ask.
Tara taps her chin thoughtfully. “What if all it takes to help them break through their coding is to break the quests?”
“Should we be more careful, then?” Cait asks.
“Fuck no!” I shout, earning a gasp from everyone. “Sorry, but I’m glad we actually helped those people. Imagine living in terror like that, getting a quick break from it, and then being thrown back into the dark? And then not even being able to tell players they can’t take it anymore?”
Cait nods and then the rest quickly follow.
“You’re right,” Cait says. “If there’s a chance that these NPCs are more real than they seem, we need to do everything we can to help them. Even if it means breaking the game.”
“Especially if it means breaking the game,” Tara says. “What if that’s the offering our gods want from us? What if that is how we get back home?”
It’s as good a theory as any, but we have no way of knowing whether or not it’s correct. There’s too much we can’t explain, too much we don’t understand. But there’s one thing I do know: if we’re to have any hope of getting out of here, we have to figure out how we’re able to break things at all.