My Virtual Lover

Live 8: Kani and Tempesta

Jury enters the Holorealm app using a 3D avatar with the username Tempesta, a petite young-looking girl with red glasses. She wears a cute blue sailor uniform with a white plaid short skirt. Her crimson wavy hair strolls through the air as she descends from the clouds above, underneath her is other people’s avatar walking in the middle of a city called Digicity. 

She strolls through the minimalistic Digicity square, seeing her surrounding in curiosity. It has only been two weeks since Jury plays Holorealm, it’s just a simple social gathering app where people gather using their customized avatar to chat and converse with strangers. Her avatar onyx eyes scan her surrounding, seemingly searching for something.

Her smile brightens when she sees the glasses male in the crowd, sitting on a bench alone while lowering his head.

“Kani!” she yells as she approaches the male with a blue winter jacket, his violet eyes look up only to see the cheery Tempesta grins at him.

“Tempest, I see that you’re already online” he smiles a bit. “You woke up awfully late, don’t you think?”.

Jury groans a bit, knowing that Kani’s straightforwardness is as blunt as ever. The young woman uses the cursor on the cellphone to move her avatar, sitting next to the spiky raven hair man. She asks him if he’s currently interested in a game, Jury’s petite avatar sits on the bench while her feet float above the ground due to her height.

Kani’s thought drifted somewhere else as he thinks of a game he currently plays, the two strangers converse as if they already knew each other for a month despite they’ve been talking for two weeks. He tells her about his Discord account, they can stay in contact through that social app if she wants to play a game with him.

“But I do like APEX, if you know what that is” he coughs awkwardly. “It’s been popular lately, I do think you know”.

Jury widens her eyes in disbelief when she hears the word APEX escapes his mouth, it’s his favorite game that her ‘oshi’ plays. Her Idol is a Vtuber with the name Kano, a suave flirty male that can hang out with almost everyone. Jury is excited to see that she finally made another friend with the same hobby as she is, gaming.

However, she knows how APEX is a hard game for her since she barely touches FPS (first-person shooter) games. She giggles sweetly when she thinks of her gaming with a new friend she found online, it has always been her motivation to have gaming mates online since her real-life friends aren’t exactly interested in her hobby.

“You seem happy, why’s that?” Kani brushes his hair. “Is APEX your favorite game?”.

“Not really, it’s more like my Idol favorite games” she giggles. “If you know Kano, it’s my favorite Vtuber from Shinji Agency”.

As if they almost click, Kani’s smile brightens as he mentions his favorite Vtuber as well. Nowadays, since the pandemic has quelled the country into a state of stagnation; people focused their attention on digital entertainment on the net. In this case, Virtual Tuber causes a huge stir in the world of the internet.

A person who masks their internet persona with a cute anime avatar is a Vtuber, Jury herself is the one behind the face of Rhapsody. Her Vtuber persona is known as a maid who is a klutz but a game maniac. Rhapsody is clumsy but firm in what she does, resembling her personality with a bit of cuteness in her tone.

Their meeting doesn’t seem to be fateful, nevertheless, she feels a bit of connection with him when they first met. 

*   *   *

A few weeks ago…

Jury strolled through the new app she just downloaded on her android, it was a cute social app game with a variety of costumes and customization. Her orange-ish gems sparkle in excitement when she sees the features, somewhat disappointed that some of the costumes need in-app purchase so that her avatar can wear them.

She talked randomly to various strangers, her loneliness overtook her as she looked at the strangers around her to find people with similar hobbies. Jury felt alone as if no one understands her passion and enthusiasm in games. The young woman thought that she can find someone with the same interest as her, the one that could fill the gaps in her heart.

Her orbs sparkle once she stumbles upon someone’s house, a random avatar house quite far away from the Digitcity square. The avatar house is decorated with posters of 2D gunner girls along with other game official posters, it is visible that a house owner is a gamer person himself. Jury swallows her saliva as she knocks on the door bravely, a soft voice then answers him.

“Oh, wait please” the random person replied gently.

After a while, the windowed door open magically before her. 

“Hello there, sorry! I’m focusing on playing APEX now” he smiles awkwardly as he sits on a black gaming chair. 

There’s a holo screen above his head, showing that he’s currently playing the popular APEX games that everyone is talking about. It’s an FPS game that only the pros are interested in, her pupils dilated once she sees the stranger gameplay. It was beyond her expectation, the young man’s avatar nails every of his movement.

Fast and precise, he attacks aggressively like a wolf hunting for its prey. Jury is awestruck by the strength he showed on his Livestream. He’s keen on his surrounding, the man knows what he’s doing as he gunned down every team he encounters. Sadly enough, the stranger only ends up in the tenth place.

“That’s tough, sheesh” he sighs in annoyance. “Sorry, you were saying something?”.

As a gamer herself, she was overwhelmed by the stranger gameplay. She admires his technique and sharpness as an FPS player, something she can’t achieve herself. Jury who masks herself as an avatar with the name Tempesta bowed to him and asked him to be her gaming friend.

“Your skill is remarkable! That marksmanship is impressive! You must have played the game diligently!” Jury said excitedly. 

The stranger is taken back by the sudden compliments he receives from a stranger, her voice sounds so excited and cheery when she glosses over his skill. 

“So you’re Tempesta, nice to meet you!” he looks at Jury’s username from above her head. “As you can see, my name is Kani, I’m a crab! Nice to meet you”.

None of them would have known that their eventful meeting will impact their future relationship as friends.