Page 17 of Love in Development

IvoryKnight: A gift.The tourney was fun.Wanted to help u out.Could we fight 2gether?

Sorry?Fun?Well...it kinda had been.I’d pretty much forgotten it was a tourney at the time.Maybe I could fight with him just this once...No.I couldn’t give in to temptation.RogueStriker had been nice at first, too.Well, he had been determined to get me on his team; maybe nice was the wrong word.

ScarlettSaber: U stole first.I needed that prize to fix my computer.Now, I can only play on borrowed machines.

IvoryKnight: U can have all the loot.

I hesitated.All ‌pros with none of the cons?There must be a catch, but my pathetic college fund beckoned.I’d probably regret this, but I added him and sent him the location.Just this once.

ScarlettSaber: Midboss evil wizard.

IvoryKnight: OMW

I switched to voice-to-text to free up my fingers for playing the game.It would translate to the chat, which was harder to read during fights, but either IvoryKnight would catch on or he wouldn’t I didn’t really care, but I was never using voice chat ever again.Between the two of us, the wizard went down easily.And lucky me, he dropped a set piece of armor along with a mid-level wand.Both would sell for a decent price.

IvoryKnight: Do you have time for me to show you something?

That cat curiosity came back to haunt me, or maybe I was in a good mood from the loot.

ScarlettSaber: Sure.

We fast-traveled to a small mountain town.The biome was a summery green with foothills.We climbed a trail surrounded by trees, tall grasses, and wildflowers.It was rather pretty.The sky was ‌a soft blue with wisps of clouds floating by, leaving the impression of a breeze.

IvoryKnight: Follow me.

I thought I had been, but uncharacteristically didn’t respond sarcastically, verbally—just in my head.I stayed close as he veered off the trail, and we crested a hill.The ground flattened, and a single giant willow stood at the edge of a cliff.The long ropes of leaves hung like a curtain, blowing gently in the soft wind.Under the tree, I could see over the edge of the cliff to a large lake below, glinting in the sunlight.No mobs roamed the lake, just birds; swans, cranes, and others flocked, dived and drank, or floated lazily along.

ScarlettSaber: What is this?

IvoryKnight: A leftover from the Alpha version.

ScarlettSaber: You played the Alpha?No wonder youre so good.

IvoryKnight: One of the devs is a friend of mine.Whats the matter?You werent completely at your best.You seemed distracted.

He could tell that?Strange.I wondered if my friends realized I had left the dance yet.And this stranger could read me over a computer.

Computer twelve was isolated in a corner.And tonight, DragonByte wasn’t very busy.Probably because of the dance.IvoryKnight and I would probably never meet.In fact, it would be best that way, but I felt a safety with him—with the anonymity of sharing my secrets with an internet stranger.So, I typed all of my problems and dreams into the keyboard.

ScarlettSaber: My mom and dad recently divorced.

IvoryKnight: That sucks.

ScarlettSaber: He found someone else.Someone prettier and younger, as if attractiveness matters more than all those years and memories together as a family.

I gritted my teeth, trying to hold back the anger and hurt.

ScarlettSaber: The worst part is people always said I was the spitting image of him.And I cant help but wonder if I have more in common with him than hair and eye color.

I tugged on my braid in shame.But now that the door was down, I couldn’t hold back and continued without waiting for a response from him, even though I could see the dots that showed he was typing.

ScarlettSaber: Also I finally made some friends and I keep messing it up.I have these irrational expectations of them and I dont always know what to say or do.

IvoryKnight: Just be honest.About what youre doing and thinking.They wont know unless you tell them.

ScarlettSaber: But I dont want them to know that I am like my dad.Im attracted to someone.Someone I dont really know just because theyre good looking.And it disgusts me.I disgust myself.How am I any different from Dad with his precious Val?

He was a great sounding board.I was a little surprised that I could type these things into the unknown aether when I felt too ashamed to say them to my friends.Maybe it was the act of typing versus saying them out loud.