The Transience of Her

The Revelation, Part 3

Oh. OH.

Why did I forget the name of that scrawny kid?

That kid who once played video games with me back in the days of the 32-bit consoles – the era she, him, and I all were born and grew up in?

The one who would always beat me at Battle Karting with the accursed “azure shell”?

The one who knew all the fatal finishers in Fatal Combat and used all of them to scare the bejesus out of me?

The one who always owned me in Jewellris' two-player versus mode by utilizing all those nasty power-ups?

He's now an imposing 5'8”, with a lithe muscular build – compared to me, a 5'7” slim young man.

His eyes are the same as that of his avatar in Skypaths Online – a slit shape, with an aura comparable to that of a ninja.

I... I just don't have any words I can blurt out right now.

“I know you're still in shock by this double dose of revelations. Here, have some water.”

He hands me a bottle of carbonated water.

I accept it with no hesitation, and then drink it straight; knowing that the bottle is not tampered with beforehand, and he certainly didn't slip a mickey.

“There. All calm now?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“I expect you to ask lots of questions about me, as well as my past with you and Lianna. So please, don't hesitate. I gave you water to ease the tension, remember?”

I take a deep breath first, before stating the obvious...

“Why the traps? Are you some kind of aspiring evil overlord or something?”

“Oh, why them? I'm no evil overlord, see?”

He says that in a more friendly, casual tone, entirely dropping his mysterious and intimidating pretense.

His outfit certainly is no outfit of an evil overlord – just a black long coat on top of a plain black T-shirt and denim pants.

“I just wanted to test your wits. And don't worry, those traps aren't deadly; they're just plain annoying at most. And if you're asking if I work in this very building... I don't. A distant relative of mine is working here, though.”

“And won't you be held liable for placing those traps? With no security guard around?”

“Oh, questions, questions. But I'll answer wholeheartedly. I asked the guard to have a break and have me take over the building security just for this night only, with appropriate authorization papers to match. He's currently recovering from a rather nasty bout of hay fever, by the way. So I'm off the hook here, even though I own much of the responsibility for this setup that was born out of an serendipitous opportunity.”

“So that's why you picked a specific location and time for this revelation of yours?”

“But of course.”

“Now then... I'll ask you the second question I'm itching to ask... why you, out of all people, decide to divulge the contents of her rather lengthy letter, which is against privacy laws?”

“Privacy, privacy. Oh, you must be sleeping in basic law class... even though law-related subjects are generally not taught in technology-related courses.”

“Come on, don't toy with me.”

“I am fully aware that I might be slapped with invasion of privacy, especially the part about public disclosure of private facts. The modern tort law says so. But on the other hand... what I did didn't quite violate the prerequisites to such an offense. First off, that letter isn't widely distributed; only you and me have read the letter so far. I have no plans to disclose the letter to anyone else...”

“...and I, who have read and understood the letter, will... uh...”

I stutter at the mere thought of telling her about it.

“...I just don't know if I'll bring that up to her, when I will log onto Skypaths Online next week.”

“Relax, Soren. I know, and you also know, that she's not the type to spread gossip around like some talk show chatterbox. She only confides her inner thoughts to the closest of friends... and that includes you.”

“Yeah, I know. But for the love of God, she never told me about her plans to pursue a political science degree.”

“Yes, she may not have told you about that yet right to your face, but the signs are there. For example, did you even notice the types of books she usually borrowed at the library of the high school we three all used to study at?”

“Uhh... I forget.”

“I remember them like the back of my hand. They're all political books. Machiavelli's The Prince, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Plato's Republic, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations...”

“Yes, yes, I get them. Even The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital were in her reading list, right?”

“That's correct.”

It would be weird for a girl to read, say, The Federalist Papers while chilling out to alternative rock. But then, it's Lianna we're talking about.

“We've derailed a bit here, so it's back to my second point. The second prerequisite of being slapped with unauthorized public disclosure is if the thing being disclosed is not a public record and is not in the public interest. Heh... looks like I'm guilty of this one. It's a private letter after all, and the general public is generally weary of politics, so... they might be sick and tired of yet another political voice from a 20-year-old girl who's no longer with us on Earth. But in Eleftheria, she's still with us.”

Strike one.

“As for the third and final prerequisite... the thing about offensiveness. If that letter were made public, I don't think anyone, except for the raging lunatics on opposite sides of the political spectrum, that is, would be offended by the latter. They would instead be inspired. I know you're not offended too as a reasonable person, right?”

“I don't.”

In fact, this discovery of another side of Lianna is inspirational to me. I feel like... she has grander dreams then me, whose ultimate goal is to... what, just enjoy my games and make people happy with their PCs and networks getting repaired.

“So then... Soren, I know you're still itching for me to answer your second question. So here it goes. I decided to divulge this letter to you and only you... because she once confessed to me that bringing up a rather heavy topic in an equally heavy way would be detrimental to her health... even though science has proven that it's OK to release your anger and other pent-up emotions, as long as you do it mindfully.”

“What? She never told me about her degrading health!”

“She didn't want to worry you too much, after all. There's a time and place for everything... but she didn't make the cut, unfortunately.”

“Tell me more about that degrading health of hers!”

“She was getting a little too distant from you, fearing that you would see the signs of her stress, one of the number one killers of the heart. She hated you seeing her in an always-tired disposition, she hated you hearing her voice that sounds like she's gasping for breath every five seconds, and she hated you feeling that invisible miasma encroaching her.”

“And thus, she only limited her interactions with me exclusively to the times we've had playing Skypaths Online, in the weeks leading to her death.”

“Exactly.”

So, piecing together his words, it seems that in preparation for her supposed admission into a political science degree, she studied so hard, and combined with her existing interests in games and music, she has forgotten to rest, relax, and keep tabs on her health. The end result: Stress. If stress is left unchecked, that can lead to a heart attack and certain death.

She did all of that all because she was inspired by a well-written game full of relevant messages humanity almost always forgets.

But that dream of hers eventually perished, alongside herself.

And the nightmare that started it all? Yes, she had a heart attack, for someone so young.

Now it's time for me to ask the third and most vital question in this Sunday evening of revelations.

“And most importantly... the last question I wanna ask... how did you know the both of us? Even though I forgot about you?”

He gives out a healthy, well-modulated laugh.

“Oh, that? It should be obvious. We're all residents of a quite small town in the entire United States of America. Small town equals small world, right? Everyone knows each other, so there's no room for big-time, Watergate-caliber scandals to disturb our peace. We all went to the same high school, and also the same grade school. You eventually forgot about me because you certainly are getting too close to her. As friends, of course. Not lovers.”

And I don't sense even an hint of jealousy in his eyes. He doesn't have a crush on her, as far as my limited memory of him knows.

“I also get mired in my studies, too, but not to the degree that she had. And if you want to know about my plans for the future, be my guest. I want to be... a home security analyst. In fact, that series of traps I designed earlier was something I wanted to do, in hopes of catching would-be trespassers by means of misdirection. Burglars already know that the houses they break into are fortified, so one plan I propose in order to deter them is to mess with their heads, so that they're no longer motivated to break in anymore.”

You really are a sly individual, Drake Pasteur. Not much different from when we were kids, where you would repeatedly trounce me in the many games we've played, with that trademark smug face of yours.

“That closeness you two had even crept into Skypaths Online. In fact, I saw you both once back in the game's early days, eagerly adventuring like innocent-looking novices. And if you're asking when I decided to sign up... I availed of a free trial CD I got from a cereal box a week before the actual launch. And once I got hooked, I decided to pay the really dirt-cheap subscription fee, made even more convenient via digital wallets.”

Digital wallets offer the convenience of credit cards without the worries of getting slapped with maxed-out bills. One can drop in a few bucks and they can avail of so many convenient online and offline payment applications such as paying public transportation fares or ponying up cash on online auctions.

“You certainly know me in Skypaths Online as Andth'oy Cuathra, but I haven't disclosed my actual job yet. So I'll do this right now. The current job I have... is Jonin Hashashin.”

That job fits him so well. Specializing in stealth and swift kills, this hybrid of Japanese and Middle Eastern clandestine warriors is Skypaths Online's hardest job to master, all because current builds of that job are not well-balanced to suit every situation. One Jonin Hashashin build may specialize in “one shot, one kill” types of quests, but is utterly useless in boss raids due to the sheer amount of enemies involved. Another Jonin Hashashin build may focus on elemental attack magic, but that kind of power can and will pale when faced with magic-resistant enemies. Yet another Jonin Hashashin build may emphasize the luck stat more than the agility stat, but that stat can only do so much to actually land critical hits and perfectly dodge enemy attacks, since adherents of that build are still at the mercy of the RNG.

“I've picked Jonin Hashashin for another reason. It offers me the bonus of optionally hiding practically everything about me in-game, except for the name – which is perfect for what I did next.

“I've watched every move of you two and noticed something in her eyes. They had a radiant glow, but at the same time, they're also mired in a dark cloud of uncertainty, as if prophesying her early passing.

“I wanted to warn her about her over-straining of her body in exchange for that lofty ambition of hers, but she wouldn't listen. She wanted to help others' lives, even if it means sacrificing her own?! The age of martyrs is over, man!”

His tone now gets more aggressive.

“I wanted to stop her... or at least... make her realize not to take things too seriously. For her own sake... and yours, too.”

And from an aggressive tone, he shifts to a more melancholic one.

“And then... the inevitable happened. Lianna Riversdale, 20 years old, died on Thursday night at 11:35 pm of a heart attack combined with head trauma, while going home from a family gathering. And what happened next?

“Yes, her account had stayed dormant since her passing... but not for long.

“She actually possessed her own avatar, the Holy Dragoon named Linnia Beferia, in a way that should be called magical. Or blasphemous. Or whimsical. It all depends on the reaction of someone who has heard of such a phenomenon.”

I was indeed right. My suspicions of a possessed avatar... are indeed true.

“I was able to prove it by inspecting packets of data that are transmitted from my own PC to the game's central servers, which is not that far away from where we all live. In fact, it's located in a nearby town.

“To achieve that, I used a somewhat-illegal deep packet inspection program and modified its source code to detect spiritual energy, as absurd as it may seem.

“And I indeed detected packets of data that give off a warm kind of spiritual energy. The kind of energy that would be easily conducted via cables, fiber-optics, or even wireless signals without disruptions.

“With that finding, I set out on my mission of warning you to break off your relationship with her. Because... how long will that possession last? How long will that friendship last?”

I react to his statement with an equally melancholic tone.

“Honestly... I don't know.”

“And that's why you're still under that accursed delusion! Friendships can't last forever... that's another sad fact of life.”

“But as long as I can remember our friendship, she can be immortal in another sense!”

“That's another delusion!”

We're now at a stalemate.

Of arguing how long this... so-called delusion... this so-called charade, will last.

This silent yet agitated stalemate is going on for minutes.

Finally, the silence is broken...

…as Drake gives me a stern warning.

“Before we leave, Soren, take this to heart.

To break free of your current delusion... please...

Always remember the cherry blossom.”

I think... I know what he means.