Chương 60: Holiday Special: Gardentide

Westshire was far more popular than it had any right to be. For a very small town in the human starting zone that didn't even have a flight path, it attracted much more attention than was strictly necessary. At any given point in any given day, the remains of half a dozen skeletons could be seen littering the single main road connecting the four buildings; evidence of griefing or duels gone wrong.

Just because player-versus-player wasn't the primary feature most people enjoyed didn't mean those who did couldn't force it on those who didn't. It was always a contentious case between those outraged at getting ganked and those who laughed and said, "Get wrecked, scrub." Even with the prevalence of skeletons, duels, and players sneakily killing other players, that represented only a fraction of the population commonly found milling about in the low-level town.

As always, there were people hoping to sell their services, be those legitimate crafting professions looking to craft gear for newer players, or simply veteran players hoping to make a quick buck by boosting noobs through quests or powerleveling alts who had more gold than sense. Yet, still… still… that did not represent the grand total of diverse people to call Westshire their home away from home, as it was frequented quite heavily by a type of person Melia was slowly becoming familiar with…

and how she learned the lesson that no community, no matter how endearing, was perfect. The first time she spotted a group of high elf ladies slowly walking into the inn stripped of all their armor, she was confused. She was under the impression, rightly so, that the only reason a high elf would be naked was to dance on top of mailboxes, which Brandy assured her was the only proper way to do it.

But when she finally got Brandy's attention and pointed at them, commenting that they were heading the opposite way from the mailboxes, Brandy nearly panicked. Her best friend immediately insisted that they go somewhere else, do anything else, but Melia was confused. They'd specifically marked this date on their calendar for grinding, and an equitable zone with all the same requirements was halfway across the world in the dwarven lands.

Brandy laughed darkly, saying there was about to be plenty of grinding going on, but thankfully, the joke flew over Melia's gnomish head. That was years ago, and whenever Melia stood in the streets of Westshire, that conversation popped up and she grinned.

Of course, that grin came with a healthy dose of mortification from the time she eventually made Brandy and Hank explain what was going on, which was very awkward all around and made the next few days very weird for all involved, but they all looked back on it fondly now. Mostly. At least they could laugh. Sadly, Hank wasn't with them today, since it was a holiday in real life, which was why Zeke and Miguel weren't around either.

Zeke complained loudly that his parents were making him attend a family gathering, full of cousins and grandparents and all sorts of relatives he only saw once or twice a year. At least they were going to have tons of food, and Melia always did want to try baked ham glazed with honey and brown sugar. The same couldn't be said for Hank, who, of course, was called into work. Corporate cared not for pathetic things like family, holidays, or time off. They had deadlines, and Hank was the only man fit for the job.

Or so HR always seemed to say. Miguel's excuse was a lot more reasonable. The twins were getting older, and it would be their first real Easter. No longer were they at a danger of choking on small objects like eggs by instantly sticking them into their mouths, even if they probably didn't completely understand what was going on.

They weren't quite old enough to handle dyeing eggs by themselves, even with supervision, so Miguel was spending the morning hiding plastic eggs around the house and in the yard for them to find later. At the very least, they were excited for the small treats hidden inside, which even as toddlers a few years old, their young minds quickly picked up on. Melia herself wasn't able to do much to celebrate Easter. Most traditional activities were denied to her as she was contained safely in her medical pod.

She couldn't even enjoy the same meal as everyone else when they came to visit her, even though she still greatly looked forward to it. But, right now, it was still morning and people wouldn't show up for many more hours. Her parents and little brother would attend a service at church in the morning before having lunch with her dad's side of the family in the early afternoon.

Brandy said she was going to log in intermittently throughout the day as she had free time, but she, too, would be unavailable after a while if she decided to visit with Melia's family. Melia was looking forward to it. Her two lives, real and virtual, had slowly been reversing in importance to Melia over the years, as pain and misery became more prevalent while her body broke down.

Most of her early joys were gone, as the activities she could do virtually outpaced what her real body allowed, but certain things simply couldn't be replaced. Like watching a real board game with pieces and dice getting set up, or forcing her eyes to stay shut during the start of a game of Werewolf, before the inevitable cheating ramped up several rounds in. More than once had friendships been declared over, and yet they kept coming back for more; yelling, screaming, resolute denial, but most of all, laughter.

But that wasn't for many hours. The in-game clock told her it was only 8: 47 in the real world, which meant Melia needed to find something to do to pass the time. Usually, this would be the perfect opportunity to complete any seasonal events added by a holiday, but this year's Gardentide event was sadly lackluster. The developers hadn't actually added anything new; they'd just re-released last year's event and slapped a fresh coat of paint over it.

Melia had already earned all the achievements and completed the short quest chain. That still left dailies, but those wouldn't take hours to knock out. Melia didn't have long to mill around before Brandy eventually logged in.

"Little munch!" Brandy's voice knocked Melia out of her AFK status, where she was huddled in a corner of the Westshire inn common room. She was balanced precariously on the top of a bookcase, which didn't sound nearly as impressive as the amount of work it took to get there. It wasn't like she could just jump up on top from the ground and call it done. And it wasn't due to her status as a gnome, because all players had the same base jump height without using skills.

Instead, she had to first go to the second floor of the inn, climb up a trunk and some shelving, make her way through the exposed rafters of the ceiling, crawl across some support beams, then hop from the beam, to a small candelabra on the wall, and eventually jump across, down, and over, landing on the bookcase. The icing on the top was after the jump, standing as far forward as she could on the tip of the book, because as far as game physicals were concerned, it might as well have been welded to the bookcase.

It cared not for leverage or gravity. Which was the same thing for climbing over every object on the way over there, because gnome or not, nobody was going to be standing on a candelabra. The jump from rafter to candle was what separated the rookies from the pros, because the geometry to stand on top of it only felt like a couple of pixels at best (even if pixels weren't really applicable to a 3d game).

From her loft overhang perched above the door, Melia could observe the comings and goings of players as they wandered through the inn, almost completely unnoticed. As everybody knows, gamers don't look up. As for the few that did, Melia was at least treated to a spectacle of players trying, and usually failing, to figure out how she got up there. Surprisingly, very few thought to ask.

That's why Brandy's voice startled Melia, because despite the soft background music and ambient noises, there wasn't actually much local chatter. At least none that Melia hadn't muted on her end.

"What the heck are you doin' up there?" Brandy asked, amused.

"Eh, you know," Melia said, hopping down.

"People watching."

"Get any good people on the top of bookcases?"

"You'd be surprised," Melia grinned.

"Really?" Brandy asked.

"No."

"Haha."

"So!" Melia asked brightly.

"Have you finished the Gardentide event?"

"Eh, technically no," Brandy sighed.

"I mean, I've almost gotten everything I want from it, but even if I already had that, I'd still be far from done. But, like, deliver Easter baskets to every city with a flight path in every zone? Ain't nobody got time for that."

"Technically not Easter," Melia sassed.

"You know what I mean," Brandy sighed.

"Why even have an Easter seasonal event if it doesn't have anything to do with Easter?"

"Come on," Melia laughed.

"You know as well as I do that no seasonal event has anything to do with the actual holiday."

"Except the commercial side," Brandy countered.

"How else are they going to shill out for limited-time drops and costumes if they aren't rare and exciting?"

"Have you seen the [Battle Bunny] cosmetic set?" Melia asked, wiggling her eyebrows. It was a shame her VR headset didn't pick up on the motion, and there wasn't a /suggestive_eyebrows emote.

"Ughh," Brandy groaned. She'd thought it might be amusing to pick up the limited-time holiday costume, but before she even got a chance to try it on in the [Changing Room], everybody else who'd already grinded the event currency purchased it, and the main cities were flooded with them. The name was completely misleading; there was nothing "Battle" about it.

The set was one hundred percent fan service: the kind of costume found in magic shows or casinos, with a tight leotard, fishnet stockings, high heels, and a giant white puffball on the butt. At least the bunny-ear headband was cute and could be worn separately.

"I'm aiming for the pet and you know it," Brandy sighed, glossing over the fact that she did have the costume in her inventory, never to see the light of day.

"I've collected 47 [Brightly Colored Eggs], but the [Floppy Eared Lop] costs 120. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it."

"Oh, we can get it for you, no problem," Melia grinned.

"I've been studying their spawn locations. I bet you we can finish that in under 2 hours."

And so they set out to collect the small, pastel-colored eggs hidden around Westshire. Technically, they could have gone to one of four different towns to farm the event items, but there was a reason they chose Westshire. The game had something called dynamic loading, which sounded impressive, was probably complicated, and nobody really knew how it worked. It was introduced for holiday events to prevent certain player groups from hogging all the limited-time goodies.

Special items that spawned in the world for seasonal events were gatherable by anybody. No matter their level, no matter their class: if a player spotted an item (such as the Gardentide [Brightly Colored Eggs]), they could pick it up. The item would then either disappear entirely or else become un-interactable. Certain items had limited spawn locations, randomized within small zones on variable timers. Once an item was grabbed, it wasn't guaranteed to spawn in the same place at the same time.

Some guilds liked to drive up scarcity, or maybe they were just plain mean, and they'd go around hogging all the limited-time events. Dynamic loading was the developers' answer to loot hogs. Basically, what it boiled down to was this: the more players there were in an active area, the more limited-time items spawned. More locations, quicker respawns, the whole deal. On top of that, it had a side effect of drawing players into large clumps, making normally quiet places look much busier.

Not that Westshire really needed the boost of tourism, but it was amusing to see so many people bustling about in an otherwise low-level zone. As Melia had said, she'd done her homework. She spent the last few days scouting out every inch of Westshire, and she had what was most likely the most accurate map of [Egg] spawn locations anywhere. She and Brandy partied up, connected by voice chat, and quickly dominated the playing field.

Melia would call out places she saw [Eggs] glittering, under bushes and behind barrels, or else did everything she could to be a nuisance to other people also searching for [Eggs]. She went so far as to spam [Duel] on some poor kid to try and block his line of sight, but that turned out to be a bad decision. Melia got her butt handed to her, but in the end, Brandy got the [Egg], so in her mind, Melia counted it as a win. Melia's guess turned out to be correct.

At roughly 2 [Eggs] per minute, it took them a little over an hour for Brandy to collect enough of the seasonal currency to buy the limited-time pet. She practically had stars in her eyes as she rushed to the event npc, traded the rest of her goodies in, and found herself the proud owner of a small brown rabbit.

"D'awww," Brandy gushed, crouching down as soon as she claimed the pet and added it to her collection. On summoning it, the [Floppy Eared Lop] materialized at her feet, hopping forward skittishly, its little nose twitching as it sniffed a brand new environment. Not that it had the mind of a real prey animal. Most pets had the most basic governing AI and they could only be interacted with in certain ways.

They weren't targetable by monsters, and they couldn't gain or draw aggro, so the most common interaction they received was a /hug or /pet from time to time. That didn't stop Brandy from playing with it as much as she could, though.

As soon as 11 o'clock rolled around, Brandy had to go. She groaned, told Melia she'd be back on after a meeting, and logged out. Melia watched the outline of her friend freeze momentarily as the server did whatever it had to whenever players exited the game, their characters stuck like a polaroid of their final action. Then, after only a second or two, Brandy's avatar faded into a million pixels as it dissolved, vanishing like a wisp of smoke in the wind.

Melia had her hand out, reaching toward her friend, but she let it fall. That was when she noticed something else. The [Floppy Eared Lop] was also there, slowly dissolving into the aether. Melia wasn't sure she had ever paid special attention to how pets behaved when players logged out. She'd never had any reason to before, since logging out in a main city was slightly different from doing so out in the wild.

Players were encouraged to return "home" to log out, be that in their own housing, an inn, or any major city. They'd be awarded with rested xp by doing so, helping them make up time spent away from the game by letting them level faster. Logging out in the middle of nowhere obviously didn't give that same bonus. It also seemed to treat the whole disconnection process slightly differently. Melia wasn't sure why, but when logging out in a city, players almost instantly vanished. Like, POP, gone.

As opposed to here, where it was more like a slow "vanishing" filter over two to three seconds. During that whole time, the little rabbit had been stuck in its last animation (hopping), its body going through the motions without actually going anywhere. Melia tilted her head. She smiled. This could be interesting. Now all she had to do was visit the bank, maybe visit the cash shop, and wait for Brandy to come back.

"Ugghhhh," Brandy groaned as she logged back in.

"Glad that's over with. Took longer than I expected, but-... Melia?" This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She looked around, finding herself in the same exact place as she was earlier, only she was missing one vital gnome. Brandy didn't think anything about it; it wasn't like Melia had to wait right there the entire time she was logged off. [Little Munch, where you at?] Brandy sent a direct message. [Oh! Coming coming coming] Brandy rolled her eyes. Melia was always so excited. Excited to play, excited to share new things… excited to be alive. It wasn't an act and Brandy didn't know how she did it. If she were in Melia's shoes… she didn't think she'd have made it this long. Brandy didn't have to wait long. She summoned her newest pet, sat down, and watched as it went through all its programmed motions. She wiggled her finger at the rabbit's nose; perhaps she'd get a bunny of her own.

They were irresistibly adorable and might not be as much work as a dog. After several moments of tabbing out and looking at various breeds of dwarf bunnies and impulsively subscribing to several feeds that featured daily bunny pictures, a small gnome came bounding around the corner.

"Hey, there you are," Brandy smiled.

"Where'd you go?"

"Ufufuf," Melia cackled. Brandy narrowed her eyes. Melia only got that laugh when she was up to no good.

"Melia," Brandy said slowly, "What did you do?"

"Nothing~!" Melia chirped.

"Yet! But, I had an idea! Want to try?" Brandy closed her eyes. It was a 50-50 shot that this would be hilarious or end in disaster.

"Melia," Brandy sighed, but shook her head. Actually, now that she thought about it, she could use a distraction from her classes. That meeting she'd just come from hadn't gone poorly, but it wasn't great either.

"You know what? Let's do it. But remember, I've got to log off again in about an hour so I can drive over to your parents' place. We're coming for dinner, remember?"

"How could I forget!" Melia grinned.

"I blocked out my whole schedule- I'm not going anywhere!" Melia's humor could be a tad…dark…but it was strangely innocent, so Brandy forgave it. What went unspoken was, of course, that Melia was stuck where she was, locked in that glass tube, and she couldn't go anywhere. That's why they were coming to her.

"So what do you have in mind?"

"Ok!" Melia said brightly.

"So I watched you log out and I got this crazy idea…." Brandy listened as Melia described her plan… and it was crazy. Insane, even. And if it worked… it was totally going to get them banned. Brandy grew more dubious the longer Melia rambled on, thinking there was no way in hell this was going to fly. But then again… Melia had a special knack for poking holes in the strongest sets of armor. And if Brandy understood correctly, she was really excited to see the outcome.

Melia's "experiment" had to do with Brandy's new pet. Technically, it could be done on any pet, not just the [Floppy Eared Lop], but since her bunny was brand new, Brandy thought it might be fitting. Normally, pets could only be interacted with in limited ways, and one of those ways was a consumable item called a [Brixxi Biscuit], which increased the size of a pet by 50 percent, as long as that pet was summoned.

Only one [Biscuit] could be applied, and if a pet was fed a second one, the buff was canceled before being reapplied. There was a very small window where it returned to normal before growing big again. If the pet was dismissed or otherwise de-summoned, the buff wore off. [Brixxi Biscuits] were a slightly rare item born from a time when the devs tried branching out into the trading card market. The collection found mild success at best and lasted several years before eventually getting discontinued.

Some of those trading cards had scannable barcodes which could be transferred into a player's inventory; the [Biscuits] being one of them. As a common card, they were mostly considered garbage filler, though people made a little bit of money trading the in-game [Biscuits] on the Auction House. Melia had spent a small fortune acquiring just under a hundred [Biscuits].

Now, as should be obvious, Brandy could see where Melia was going with this, but there was no way they should be able to stack one hundred [Brixxi Biscuits] onto her [Floppy Eared Lop] and create a Giga-bunny. That's when Melia revealed her plan. If the pet was summoned when Brandy logged out, it remained active for several seconds. When Brandy tried to log back in, it would be de-summoned and re-summoned, effectively losing the buff.

But what would happen if Brandy force-closed her game and logged in again as if it had crashed? Technically, the game never went through the proper logout procedures and should treat the pet as if it had merely disconnected rather than been de-summoned. She would need to log back in as soon as possible to keep the game from fixing her logout state, but in theory, they'd have a couple of seconds to work with. Brandy summoned the [Floppy Eared Lop] and Melia fed it a [Biscuit].

As soon as Melia had the item in her hands and clicked on the rabbit, the biscuit vanished and a munching sound could be heard, along with several generic crumbs flying rapidly out of the bunny's mouth. Then, in the blink of an eye, the pet shot up in size. A whole one and a half times bigger, still twitching nervously as it bounded around Brandy's legs, sniffing for grass, even though it was now roughly the size of a Cocker Spaniel. Brandy looked down at Melia, both girls sharing massive grins. Now for the test.

Brandy's figure flickered as she force-closed her game, but Melia's eyes were focused on the pet. Halfway through an idle animation, it almost seemed to glitch, frozen mid-hop, and Melia quickly slammed another biscuit into it. She could see the first buff vanish, the second buff reappear, but the rabbit itself never shrank back down, locked as it was in the same idle animation. Half a second later, Brandy's figure flickered again, and she stumbled forward.

"Whoa," Brandy said, gaining her balance, but at the same time… the [Floppy Eared Lop] grew again. Brandy stared down at her now very large pet, scarcely believing her eyes. There was no way that should have worked. But it did. Melia's smile threatened to squeeze her eyes shut; it was so huge. But Brandy couldn't blame her, because she felt the same exact way. Time to get to work. Brandy crashed her game, and Melia fed [Biscuits]. Crash, [Biscuit], crash, [Biscuit]. And the [Floppy Eared Lop] grew.

From a normal-sized, small brown bunny, it reached the size of a golden lab. Then a horse. Then a large car. Then a small house. It wasn't smooth, and more than once, they missed their window and had to start again. But now that they knew it worked, they couldn't be stopped. Once the rabbit reached a certain size, it started getting hard to find its actual hitbox to feed it another [Biscuit] in time, too.

By the time Melia had used 90 of her original 100 [Biscuits], she and Brandy were hiding an absolutely monstrous rabbit in the woods behind the inn. It had to be close to 50 feet tall, and they didn't want to risk shrinking it back down to normal, since they didn't have enough [Biscuits] left to grow it back to this point. Brandy stared at her pet in shock. She barely reached the top of its foot, yet it retained its programmed nature to act like a tiny prey animal. Brandy and Melia shared a look.

They glanced back at Westshire. It was time to take a walk.

"What the hell?!"

"Oh god, what is that?!"

"Holy crap!" Brandy couldn't actually see what was going on, since her [Floppy Eared Lop] was clipping through her as she walked slowly down Westshire's main street, but she could easily imagine all the shocked looks on the players' faces. Judging from the rising shouts of confusion, panic was quickly escalating. And yet, she could barely keep herself from falling over; she was laughing so hard. [Another ten steps forward!] Melia typed furiously in group chat.

She was acting almost like a control system for a parade float Brandy was piloting. Melia was [Stealthed], slinking forward in the shadows so all people could see was a gigantic bunny "attacking" Westshire. [Great! Turn right! No, your other Right! There we go, that's the doorway!] Brandy found herself walking straight into the wall next to the door frame, but she quickly adjusted and maneuvered herself inside the inn.

More screams erupted from unsuspecting players inside, but like everybody else, as soon as they figured out that some new mob hadn't spawned to kill them all, they quickly gathered around to try and find out what was going on. The screams were slowly being replaced by roaring laughter and heavy grumbles as the crowd around them grew. Word was spreading quickly about the "giant monster rabbit" attacking Westshire, and people were flying in by the dozens.

Brandy maneuvered herself into the center of the inn's common room and sat down. The [Floppy Eared Lop] hopped one more time, adjusting itself to stay in Brandy's zone of influence, and… stopped. All Brandy could see was weird, glitchy internal geometry, but people were starting to post screenshots of Westshire and the inn, and she actually had to hold her sides because they hurt so much from laughing so hard.

One screenshot in particular showed the front of the inn, the door completely filled with a gigantic white tail-puff; another, from the side, showed a pair of ears sprouting from the roof as if the building had grown them.

"Melia," Brandy wheezed, "Not gonna lie, this was an excellent idea!"

"Right?!" Melia laughed.

"Right?! And-" Whatever Melia was about to say was lost as Brandy's screen instantly went black. She barely had time to blink, thinking something must have gone wrong with her headset, but she found herself back at the character selection screen with an ominous message.

[Due to suspicious activity, this account has been temporarily suspended.] Oops. Busted.

The login button was greyed out, and even if it wasn't, Brandy wasn't sure she wanted to go back into the game right now anyway. She glanced at the clock, nearly 3 o'clock. She needed to get going if she was going to make it to the Marcus' before they left for the hospital. She threw on a fresh pair of pants, despite knowing that Mr. and Mrs. Marcus didn't care what she wore when she visited, even if they tended to put on their finest every Sunday. Brandy paused at the exit of her dorm room, staring at her coat.

April in Los Angeles was hot, and she didn't want sweat rings. She threw on a floppy hat and grabbed her keys, her smile already creeping back up her lips. She wondered how long they'd be banned for. It wasn't the first time, and it probably wouldn't be the last. The drive across town was short with minimal traffic, and Brandy soon found herself joining the small family in their minivan as they all trundled down to the hospital.

Melia lived in a special section of a long-term patient ward, and the hallways were mostly deserted. It wasn't the type of place people usually brought kids to, and the decorations around the sterile halls felt more forced than joyous. A few posters and a single helium balloon that escaped and got stuck on the ceiling were all the color to be found. But Brandy was determined to change that, at least in Melia's room.

She'd been visiting her best friend for years, and she'd become familiar with all of Melia's caretakers, as well as the general rules and regulations of the hospital. She knew where she could push boundaries and what they'd let her get away with. She knew the nurses were always glad to see people visit Melia, because despite how cheery the small girl was, even entering her room was incredibly depressing.

The interns working in Melia's ward generally changed every 6 months because they couldn't bear to see what was happening to the poor girl.

"Happy Easter!" Brandy cheered loudly the moment she entered Melia's room. She didn't expect a response; Melia's synthesized voice didn't project very far and she didn't want to waste her breath. And yet, Brandy's expectations were broken.

"Hello," Melia greeted. The voice that came out here was vastly different from the one Brandy remembered from when she was running around the park as a little girl, but she didn't let that affect her smile. Nor did she let the tears pooling in her eyes cloud her vision as she stepped in front of the glass cage. They called it a medical pod, an incredible advancement of science, but Brandy knew better. A prison, a tomb.

How Melia didn't let the knowledge that she was sleeping in her own coffin drag her down was a mystery Brandy would never solve. Opaque shielding blocked most of Melia's form, from her ribs all the way down to where her toes would be, but Brandy knew her legs had long since rotted away. Melia smiled, her lips thin and cracked, but her eyes full of light. She raised one frail hand weakly and waved.

"Thanks for coming."

"My baby girl," Mrs. Marcus cooed, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief even as she forced a smile.

"How are you feeling today?"

"Good, Mom," Melia said cheerfully. Brandy watched as the machines helped Melia's lungs inflate, pumping air into her lungs. And yet, Melia would never let that dim the love she had for her family.

"We pulled a fun prank today."

"Oh, really?" Mr. Marcus said. He was busy wrangling their little boy into a chair next to the table. There wasn't much for him to do when visiting his sister, so they usually brought games. Today was painting, and it was going to be special.

"Ah," Melia laughed weakly.

"I think I might have gotten us banned from Fantasy Online."

"Oh no," Mrs. Marcus frowned. She knew how much that game meant to Melia.

"Is there anything we can do?" She asked seriously, turning to Brandy.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Brandy shook her head with a small smile.

"It wasn't anything major. I'd be surprised if it were more than a day. A slap on the wrist, really, for breaking something the developers probably didn't think could ever be broken."

"What will you do in the meantime?" Mrs. Marcus asked, not entirely convinced.

"Homework," Melia sighed, turning slightly. Her condition exempted her from the need to go to school or from any responsibility at all, really, but Melia was diligent. She'd gotten her GED on track with what would have been her class, and she was taking one or two online courses so she could experience the "college life." It was remote, impersonal, and sterile, so she wasn't having the most success, but she was pressing through.

"Oh, darling," Mrs. Marcus cooed again, laying her hand lovingly on top of Melia's glass dome. Melia slowly lifted her hand to match her mother's…she did it whenever someone got close enough for contact. Brandy had to look away to blot her eyes. She cursed, but she was glad she wasn't wearing makeup.

"Have you eaten yet, Mel?" Mr. Marcus asked. Brandy turned in time to see an orderly entering the door with a briefcase. She knew, from years of experience, that the stainless steel box didn't contain documents…or Hollywood-levels of money. Instead, it held delicate glass tubes that could be inserted into the side of Melia's pod. Nutritional gels.

"Just coming now," the orderly said cheerfully, though the man looked tired and grim.

"Our kitchens received your package; your meal will be delivered shortly." Even something as simple as a holiday meal with her family had to be carefully monitored so nothing dangerous could seep into the machinery. Melia herself was sealed away from the world, but much of the equipment that kept her pod functional was not. Or rather, it was simply more delicate than the glass shell. The orderly placed the briefcase on the table and everybody peered into it curiously. Brandy instinctively grimaced.

Twelve long, clear tubes the size of a permanent marker all contained gel of a different color. One was a light beige, labeled as "mashed potatoes," while a deep red gel was theoretically "cranberry sauce."

"Do you want to try some?" Melia asked. Brandy looked at her in horror, but Melia appeared serious. At least, the small smile creeping up her lips told Brandy she knew exactly how flavorless that goo was. Brandy's curiosity had ruined her once; she'd never willingly eat this…"food" again.

"I'm good," Brandy groaned. She wished dearly she could find a way to share real food with Melia again. But it simply wasn't possible. Brandy watched, the pain in her chest growing as the orderly inserted several vials into ports on the pod, and the colored contents quickly flowed into several tubes. Melia tilted her head and sucked on a nearby straw, the light in her eyes fading just a little as she "ate".

"So," Brandy said brightly, as the man packed his things and left the family for their visit.

"I brought paint! The staff told me we can draw on your glass if we use the right stuff, and it took a while, but I found some. See?" She held a box containing a dozen paint pens aloft and Melia's smile returned. She didn't say anything, but nodded as Brandy pulled up a stool right next to Melia's pod.

"What do you want?" Brandy asked.

"Crosses? Eggs? Little chicks?"

"It's Easter," Melia giggled.

"Let's do them all. Start with a cross." Brandy wondered how Melia could still have faith, with all she went through, but that wasn't her business. Or, maybe, faith was all she had? She supposed she might never know. Her pens were pastels, mainly blues and pinks, with a grassy green and a sunshine yellow. Pink was always Melia's favorite, so she started with that. Brandy shook the pen, getting it nice and mixed, then popped the cap. She bit her lower lip in concentration.

If she were honest, art was never her strong suit. And yet, Melia never complained. Just like now, as she began with a simple, shaky cross made of two simple lines, Melia's eyes were locked onto Brandy's fingers as they moved. Brandy tried adding embellishments to the edges of the cross, but it only smeared more and more. This was not working out nearly as well as she had imagined. But Melia didn't care in the slightest. She smiled, said it was wonderful… and raised her hand to touch the glass.

A small ring of fog puffed out from the heat of her fingers.

"Draw me?" Melia asked.

"Huh?" Brandy parroted.

"Like we used to do in kindergarten," Melia giggled.

"You know, like making hand turkeys. Trace my hand."

"Sure," Brandy said with a lopsided smile. They hadn't done anything like that for over a decade, but sure. Why not? And, the best part was, tracing Melia's hand meant she wasn't reliant on her own terrible skill when she had a pattern. A pattern that was small, frail, malnourished, and falling to pieces. The top knuckle of Melia's pinky finger was gone, but that didn't stop Melia from laughing with glee as Brandy traced it.

Brandy's eyes grew moist, but her ears burned with the lingering echoes of a girl unburdened by her lousy lot in life. It only took a moment, but soon enough, there was a shaky, slightly misshapen handprint painted on Melia's pod. For some reason, Melia didn't remove her hand.

"Now do yours," Melia said, still smiling. Brandy gulped, but she didn't dare complain. She placed her left hand over Melia's, grimacing at how much larger it was compared to her best friend's. A hand that should have been equal, in a different life. And yet…Melia smiled. It was getting harder for Brandy to see, and she didn't know how she managed to trace her entire hand without her tears blotting out all the paint.

"Perfect," Melia grinned, finally letting her hand fall down. She stared at the two handprints, layered over each other, once neatly framing the other. She must have known Brandy's pain, as she quickly shot her eyes to the side of the room, where Brandy could flee to be out of sight.

"How about you give those to Mom and Dad? We can line everybody's handprint up, like a mural."

"Sure, Mel," Brandy nearly wailed, all too glad to leave her stool. As she retreated to the counter with a sink, she washed her hands and her face. Her eyes were going to be all puffy, and she would probably look like an absolute goblin, but if Melia didn't care, why should she? Brandy let the cool water flow over her, calm her, as Melia laughed out loud and cheered with her family. Eventually, somebody knocked at their door, announcing dinner, and Mr.

Marcus pulled the table over by Melia's pod so they could all be together. Brandy helped and took a seat where she could see Melia clearly. A buzz from her pocket told her she had a new notification, one she was eagerly waiting for. Seeing the sender was an automated newsletter from Fantasy Online, Brandy let out a mirthful laugh. While it didn't address their bans directly, it did give her a tiny hint of how the developers saw it.

"Looks like there's a hotfix hitting servers tonight when the event ends," Brandy said with a huge grin.

"I took a look at the patch notes. There's this tiny little blurb down at the bottom, saying that 'due to a surprise attack of a giant rabbit, [Brixxi Biscuits] are now soulbound items.' Way to go, Melia, you just broke the biscuit market!"