2.5

Michael never realized the true extent of ‘Gods Online’s’ popularity until he was at his sister’s party. In his vast experience party conversation was not centered around a video game. He talked a little with some of the party goers but it felt weird talking to Anna’s friends. Especially, once they began hitting on him. He stayed sober the entire night, he had his fear of his mother’s repercussions if he didn’t. His sister didn’t actually drink much either which was a relief.

The party was generally just weird. They separated into groups then started talking about Gods Online. The 17 year old’s moaned and whined about not being allowed to play it. While the 18 year old’s most of which had the game. Gathered together to find out where everyone was spawning. Later in the night Eric’s sister found him hiding in the kitchen.

She wore a beautiful dress, conservative but elegant. She attracted far too many gazes for Michaels liking. The first thing she said was, “I’m going to need to buy that game.” She released a tiny twinge of revulsion at the idea of playing a video game. She was very school focused was his sister. She never used to be. Like him his sister had played when they were younger. Now she just wanted perfect grades while he tried to find adult things to do. Like manage his business. Well not anymore. Now he was hyped for Gods Online. “Dads making me play it”, he replied. He patted her gently on the shoulder, commiserating, receiving death glares in the process. She looked up in surprise. “Why?” Michael laughed slightly, “he has his reasons I’m sure,” Michael shrugged his shoulders in emphasis. “You should ask dad to pre-order a capsule for your birthday. They’ll be impossible to get their hands on for a while, if it turns out to be any good. I intend to ask mother to get 5 for Mary-Anne’s.” Anna looked kind of curious. In that moment he realized that they had been heading towards the door. Stepping past someone’s bodyguard she stated, “I’ve always wondered why you don’t just adopt her.” “Who?”, he asked knowing full well who she was talking about. Anna simply raised her eyebrows. Before saying, “Its funny she has adopted you. Now you just have to adopt her.” Michael sighed, “I’ll talk to mother about it.” Ending the conversation.

Once they were back in the car driving back to his parents place Annabeth asked him some questions about Gods Online. Turns out she had made an early exit because she was embarrassed that she didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. After answering some of her questions she sat in a pondering silence. Michael enjoyed it.

She left him with a hug. He waved to his mother from the car. Then the car started for his own home.

He spent the drive perusing the internet searching for any new information. There wasn’t any. All the new posts on the forum was conjecture. Frustrating as hell. Finally home he sent the driver off to pick up some dinner. Then headed up to his apartment.

Once in his apartment he was struck with boredom. It was around midnight so he could have went to bed but he wasn’t exactly tired. He was also hungry. Dinner should be here in around an hour, depending on what’s open. Although late, most take-away restaurants should be open. Someone must feed the drunk party-goers.

Eventually his eye was drawn to the spare bedroom containing the capsule. Then a thought struck him, curious he entered the spare bedroom. Typed in his code, placed his hand against the small screen next to the code keyboard. One of the lights next to the typed in code flashed green. Then the capsule opened.

Lying in the now closed capsule he wondered whether this would work. It was possible that the game wouldn’t launch but he was curious. And bored. Mostly bored.

“Startup Gods Online”

There was the now familiar rush then suddenly he stood once more in the middle of the character creation area. He once again admired the graphics, was thinking of walking around but then he was interrupted.

“Someone’s keen” came a voice of amusement.

Michael spun round and became face to face with Aphrodite.

“I missed you”, he smirked. Aphrodite laughed. It was glorious. Incredibly musical. She raised an eyebrow. (Damn he wished he could do that.)

“I was bored”, he continued. Aphrodite laughed once more.

“No doubt, anybody would be bored after a party like the one you just came from.” Realizing her mistake she swiped her hand and he forgot what she said.

This time she said, “Well how can I entertain you?” Followed by a distracting wink.

“I was wondering if you had a mirror”

Aphrodite smirked, “You’re the first person to ask, its actually been kind of funny. Especially seeing how curious people were about how they looked.” This said she waved her hand and a full-sized mirror materialized hung on the column nearest Michael.

Looking at himself Michael was kind of disappointed. He looked almost exactly the same. His hair was styled. (It was quite cool). There was also a slight beard. Where currently he was clean shaven, his character’s beard made him look like he had forgotten to shave over the last few days. But. Instead of appearing unkempt, his character’s was tidy and refined. (Cool) He appeared a few years older than he currently was which was fine by him.

Curious at Michaels look of disappointment (and a little insulted), Aphrodite asked, “So, what do you think?”

Michael sighed then stated, “It’s kind of boring.”

“Boring?”, Aphrodite asked affronted.

Noticing her expression Michael was quick to placate her. “Well the hair style is awesome and the beard is cool but…”

“But what…?”, she asked.

“It’s kind of boring, there’s nothing to make me different than anyone else.”

“What would you want?”, she asked curious.

“I dunno… Maybe a different hair colour or eye colour. Something that makes me stand out. It could be subtle but being special would make me feel better.”, he grinned.

Aphrodite nodded to herself. Then stood unmoving for nearly a minute. Meanwhile Michael took a moment to inspect the room more closely. There wasn’t much to see. Massive room. Massive columns. Massive thrones. White marble with golden decal.

Then she was back. “I’ll think about adding something ‘special’ to your appearance. When you log into the game proper it should be there. Now, anything else?”

“Is there anything else to do?”, looking around at the rather boring room. (once you get used to its magnificence) Aphrodite smiled at him. The room flashed black then recreated itself. Almost like a slow-motion blink. Michael re-orientated himself. He was now standing on a deck. There was a brisk breeze and a slight chill. Which was not surprising seeing how it appeared he was on top of a mountain. The view was incredibly. From his angle he could see lush forests. There was a river flowing through the forest starting from the mountain then heading into the distance. It was incredible. It was fortunate he was in a game otherwise he would be flinching back from the sheer drop. Even so, he could feel his stomach doing belly flops.

“It’s incredible isn’t it.” Michael gave a start as he realized that Aphrodite was leaning against the banister beside him. She was human sized now. Exactly his height. Looking at her he found himself lost within her eyes. Then she bumped him with her shoulder, embarrassed he looked back down upon the forest below. After a few moments of silence. Feeling the cool mountain air. Aphrodite bumped him once more. “Look” She pointed to their right. In the distance flew a bird. What made this bird incredible was its sheer size. Even from this far away it appeared massive. Michael felt excitement then the excitement gave way to a little bit of fear. There was no doubt in his mind that at some point he may have to fight a creature with a similar size. Then the excitement was back. Man this game is awesome.

Aphrodite smiled but then said, “You need to log out now. I’ve notified the administrators that people could still log into the character creation area. You’ll have to wait for the game to start proper like everyone else.”

Michael nodded then confused he asked, “How do you log out? In the character creation, you logged me out for me.”

Embarrassed, Aphrodite replied, “Simply will it. Just think that you want to log out. If you’re having difficulties with that in game you can log out from your status screen. If you’re in combat or somewhere with danger that’s stops you from logging out but you still need to log out. You can will yourself to do an emergency log out. This kills your character but logs you out.”

Michael tried it. -Log Out-

The screen went black. He felt the weird movement then he was once again lying inside his capsule.