Spiteful Healer

Shinji and Eli had gotten a seat in the corner of a moderately fancy asian-themed restaurant. As they sat down at the table across from each other, both of them swiped their wrist implants over a black plastic bar built into the center of the table. After they had, a menu of the restaurant's dishes was loaded up into their eye implants, displaying what food was available to order on a small, scrollable screen floating in their peripheral vision.

“It’s on me, since it’s your birthday. Well, a day late I guess.” Shinji said as he eyed the rising sun that was peeking up over the roofs of the buildings outside the window their booth was next to. “Only place around here still open at this hour, so… Just pick whatever you want.” He shrugged.

“Thanks.” Eli replied as he kept his head down, reading the menu. No more words were exchanged until a waitress arrived to take her order, then left once she’d heard their requests, leaving nothing for them to stare at but each other.

“You wanted to talk to me about something, right?” Eli asked to break the silence.

“Yeah. Yeah, more or less.” Shinji replied, taking a deep breath. “I worked at VGN for a while. I thought it would be the next step in my career - an upgrade if you will, from my work at Fanta-See network. I left my friends behind. Hae-won, and Tommy, you’ve met them. Even though I did that, they never held it against me.” Shinji spoke as his eyes wandered down to the table and he began fiddling with the glass salt shaker that’d been placed in between him and Eli.

“Because of my ability to edit fast, in real time, they quickly put me to work for the biggest money makers. Whenever Feng was live, I’d edit his stream. When Makaroth was live, I would edit his. Normally, if you told an editor they’d be working on the number one streamer’s broadcast, they’d be thrilled. I was.” Shinji chuckled to himself. He briefly held off speaking to gauge Eli’s reaction, but he had none and was just staring blankly down at the table in front of him.

“But, it was short lived. Very quickly, I saw through all of their staged events. VGN regularly worked with planted players, and other streamers, to set up exciting scenarios where the outcomes were rarely not known beforehand. They were and are funneling extra resources to keep their top streamers on top.”

“What’s your point? That Makaroth and Feng really aren’t that great, and shouldn’t even be in their first spots in the first place?” Eli asked him.

“No, not exactly. I can’t tell you how Makaroth, Feng, and the other high streamers got into those positions. But even with VGN’s help, they wouldn't be able to keep those spots if they weren’t good at what they do. My point was that, when you picked a fight with Makaroth, it was never just going to be you vs him. It was going to be you vs all of VGN. Just like when he lawyered you out of streaming a couple days after you started playing. VGN is the largest streaming and broadcasting network in the virtual simulation space, and they’re not about to give up their control so easily.” Shinji explained.

“If they’re so great and powerful, why’d you quit?” Eli asked, raising his head up to look at Shinji with skeptic curiosity.

“Because they’re only interested in their hold over the viewer base. It’s all about making money for them. I can’t blame them, but that's not why I became an editor. There’s no sense of wonder, or adventure. No genuine story to be found, no matter how hard I looked.” Shinji continued as he leaned back into the bench on which he sat, while Eli listened silently and tilted his head downwards once more.

“Then you came along. You pulled your pants down to win a fight with your classmates. You didn’t care what you had to do to win, you just did it, and you had passion behind it. Sure, you had a bit of anger, but that gave you the drive to push the game to its limits, doing whatever was necessary to come out on top. I saw something in you that I was hoping to find in the VGN streamers. That’s why I quit, and signed a contract with you, but…” Shinji tried to look into Eli’s eyes,

“It was selfish of me. I did it in complete disregard for your motivations, only caring about mine. I wanted you to help me tell a great story within the Shattered World Online. I encouraged your anger towards your father for the sake of content. In a way, I staged this - knowing full well what tricks VGN would pull to keep things in their favor, and prop up their top money making streamer.”

“It’s not your fault that I made the deal with my dad. I made those choices, to play like that.” Eli shook his head shamefully.

“Yeah, maybe. But I enabled it.” Shinji shrugged. “For that, I am sorry.” He bowed respectfully towards Eli. Eli hesitated in replying, and at that time a waitress arrived with their food and set the plates out on the tables in front of them. They both respectfully thanked the waitress as she left, then turned to their meals.

“I’m actually starving.” Shinji commented as he quickly dug in.

“It doesn’t matter either way now. I ended it all. Gave leadership of Rene away.” Eli explained to Shinji.

“Is that what you really want? For it to be over?” Shinji asked as he finished swallowing a mouthful of food.

“I only played to get back at him, and it was stupid. It ended up hurting my mom, which is the last thing I wanted to do. And, well, he won anyway, right?” Eli motioned across the restaurant towards a bar, where several broadcasts were being played. None of them were clearly visible to the pair, given their distance from the screens across the restaurant, but Shinji understood what Eli meant.

“Hm. Maybe.” Shinji nodded. “But did you really actually care about that?” Shinji stopped eating to stare at Eli with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s why I was aiming for the top.” Eli replied.

“Hm.” Shinji nodded again before taking another mouthful of food.

“What?” Eli asked him curiously, seeing that he had more he wanted to say.

“It didn’t look like that to me.” Shinji put his fork down after swallowing the next bite. “I watch everything you do. In some ways, I know you better than you know yourself. I can angle your livestream cameras to capture your next actions, because I can predict them. To predict them, I need to understand intent. What does Aegis want to do in this situation? Why does he want to do it? What is he willing to do to get it done? These are questions I have to be able to answer, constantly. It’s my job.” Shinji began to explain as Eli decided to take his first dig into his own food.

“You saved Arallia. That had nothing to do with your dad.”

“I got all of those viewers from it…” Eli replied.

“Yeah, you did. But I know you - you didn’t plan for that, it was just a happy side effect. You didn’t save Arallia for the viewership. You did it because you wanted to.”

“Well, yeah, those bandits messed with my quest giver.”

“Not just your quest giver, the entire island. All those players and NPCs…” Shinji nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, exactly.” Eli joined in nodding.

“But, you were having fun doing that. Everything you’ve done since you founded Rene, you’ve been having a blast with. I saw it in your eyes, and your enthusiasm. I think that's why now, you want to quit.” Shinji explained.

“I don’t follow…” Eli looked at him curiously.

“Well, based on your words, it seems like you think that if you admit you enjoy the world inside the simulation, and accept the reality within that world for what it is, you’re also admitting that Makaroth was right. That’s what’s angering you so much right now, right?” Shinji asked before focusing on his food once more. Eli didn’t immediately reply, but instead thought on his words for a moment.

“I’m angry because all of it is stupid. They worship him in that fake world, with fake gods. Fake islands. Fake NPCS…” Eli’s voice trailed off into silence as Shinji stopped eating and gave him a judgemental stare. “None of it really matters. It’s just a game. Because money is involved, they all take it so seriously. But at the end of the day it’s just a stupid game.”

“Hm. You don’t really believe that, do you?” Shinji asked, and got no immediate response. “If you think this is just a useless hunk of metal, then that’s what it is for you.” Shinji held up his fork. “If you think it’s a tool for eating, then that’s what it is, to you.” He went on. “If you think it’s just a game, then it’s just a game. But…” Shinji didn’t need to finish his next sentence, Eli already knew what he was going to say.

“You’re allowed to have fun in that world, and be immersed in it. It never needed to have anything to do with him.” Shinji said after a few more mouthfuls, while Eli fell into silence with his head down. “Deal or not, I think those adventures still would’ve taken place, because you were having fun with your friends. You got so into the game world that all of your viewers were pulled in along with you. You showed everyone a different way to experience the game, without all of those theatrics that VGN uses.”

“That’s all gone, now, though.” Eli replied weakly.

“Because Makaroth came after you? You really think you can’t come back from that? I’ve seen these tricks pulled a few times. There’s ways back, trust m-”

“No. Not because of him. Because of me.” Eli replied as Shinji watched tears drip down from his face onto his plate in front of him. “You’re right, but I got so mad after seeing him, I lost it. I lied to my mom, I yelled at Renault, Derrick, even Lina and the others… I already ended it all.”

“Yeah, that sounds tough. I didn’t see what happened, but I can imagine. Something like that’ll hurt.” Shinji nodded, reaching over and putting his hand on Eli’s shoulder.

“There’s no way they’re gonna trust me after that. They all think I’m exactly what Makaroth is saying I am. Angsty kid with anger issues, throwing a tantrum at his dad.”

“Hah.” Shinji let out a burst of laughter, but quickly pulled it back in as Eli looked up at him with surprise. “Sorry, just, that’s rich coming from him, based on what I know.” Shinji shook his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. If they’re truly your friends, I guarantee you that they’ll forgive you, if you explain yourself properly. But before that you’re going to have to admit something that might be hard for you.”

“What’s that?”

“That it’s not just a game to you. That you love playing the Shattered World Online. That the world that Makaroth currently sits on top of is real, and does matter.” Shinji pulled his arm back from Eli’s shoulder and leaned into his bench once more, while Eli tilted his head back down to stare at his table in silence again.

Eventually, the two went back to eating without exchanging many more words, until finally finishing, paying for the check, and standing up to leave. As they headed out of the restaurant though, Shinji nudged Aegis and pointed out one of the livestream broadcasts on display on the wall of the restaurant as they passed by it. The sound was muted, but there were subtitles on display at the bottom.

“Don’t believe Makaroth’s lies. It’s all a setup!” Keldan shouted to his audience, with Swiftstar, Vriflow and Rocknight nodding along with him in agreement. “I was Winters’ classmate, I know the truth. Makaroth’s just trying to make his son look bad. What kind of decent dad does that, huh?” Keldan continued.

His viewership sat well above 100,000 much to Eli’s surprise.

“You’ve sown a lot of seeds already, since you started playing the game.” Shinji smirked as he watched Eli’s dumbfounded expression. Of all the people Eli thought might stick up for him, Keldan had to be near the bottom of the list. The pair continued out of the restaurant side by side, back into Shinji’s rented autopod. As it automatically drove back towards Eli’s home, he began fidgeting with his wrist implant out of sheer curiosity, navigating to Miranda’s stream. Sure enough, her viewership was also abnormally high and sitting at above 250,000. She was also defending him, in a similar manner to Keldan, whilst walking around Kordas.

When the autopod finally pulled up to Eli’s house, he closed out of his implants and turned to Shinji who smiled at him.

“There we are.” Shinji leaned back in the chair and sighed. “Ultimately, it’s up to you if you quit, or keep playing. My intention was not to come here to convince you. Like I said, you’ve done so much for Fanta-See network already, we can never thank you enough. I only want to help you see what I saw in you, as I worked as your editor these past months. Because sometimes it can be hard to see things about yourself.” Shinji explained. “Whatever you choose to do, just know that me, Tommy, and Hae-won, will support you to our fullest ability.” He gave a polite bow.

“Thanks…” Eli bowed back respectfully before opening the door and stepping out. Once he had, he spotted Jillian’s autopod already parked in the driveway once more.

“Good luck.” Shinji said with finality before the door was shut, and his autopod drove off down the street by itself.

Eli stood on the street for a few moments, knowing full well that Jillian would be home now. He wondered if she’d be sleeping already, or waiting for him, and took a deep anxious breath to try and calm himself down. As he stepped forward and walked across their lawn towards his front door, he pondered heavily on everything that Shinji had said.

Once in front of the door, he stopped again and hesitated before finally turning the knob and opening it. Immediately upon entry, the smell of his favorite meal wafted into his nose. As he was processing this, he looked down to take his shoes off and saw two other pairs set up beside Jillians’ that he didn’t immediately recognize. Once his shoes were off, he slowly walked forward down the main hall of his house until he came into view of his kitchen table, where he saw Jillian, Selena, and Derrick all sitting there, waiting for him.

“Hey, you’re back.” Jillian smiled. “They were both waiting at our front door for you when I got home, so I invited them in.” Jillian explained while motioning to Selena and Derrick, and Eli nodded back as he glanced between the three of them. “I was… we were worried about where you went. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Shinji just came by, took me out to dinner.” Eli explained.

“Oh… Well, I guess you aren’t hungry anymore, then.” Jillain shrugged, awkwardly motioning to the plates of food that she’d set out for everyone. Eli nodded weakly in response, followed by an awkward silence as everyone refused to look at one another. The silence was finally broken by the sound of Selena’s chair scraping out from under the table, and she shot up from her chair and lunged at Eli, throwing her arms around him with tears in her eyes.

“Even if you don’t want to play, I still want to be your girlfriend. Please don’t break up with me. I know it was just a game, but I really love being together with you.” Selena cried out, her voice muffled as she dove her head into the shoulder of Eli’s black dress shirt. Derrick and Jillian both watched Eli and Selena with expressions of concern, anxiously waiting for how Eli would react as he looked down at the top of Selena’s head, seeing nothing but her shiny black hair but feeling her arms around him.

He put his arms around Selena to pull her in tight and hug her back, but didn’t respond. Rather, he looked up to meet Derrick and Jillian’s eyes.

“I’m sorry too. I kept pressuring you to play, even though I knew how you felt about it. It was a shitty thing to do, I was only thinking of myself.” Derrick said once he was sure he had Eli’s eye contact.

“I also should not have yelled at you.” Jillian spoke up, “Seeing him again, with that woman, triggered a lot of dark feelings inside of me, and I may have lashed out at you for it. Truthfully, I should have told you that I turned down his money. I was angry at him, too, for a long time. But I tried so hard to convince you not to be. I was, and am, a hypocrite. I can’t blame you for trying to hold such a grudge.” Jillian explained as she shamefully lowered her head.

Just as Shinji had told him, they were all still there. There was still the one thing Eli knew he had to do though, and he took a deep breath before saying it, feeling Selena hold him tighter.

“It’s not just a game.” Eli spoke, the three listening to him intently. “I didn’t want to admit it so I got angry when he came after me and I lost. But, I don’t think it’s just a dumb game.” Eli explained as Selena pulled back just enough to be able to look up at him. “You talked me into playing, and I’m glad you did.” Eli turned to Derrick. “Because of that, I got to know my mom better than I ever have. I got to get close to Selena, who I’ve grown really close to, and I’ve made a lot of friends and experienced things that are just not possible in the real world. I love the game. I started out taking it seriously because I wanted to tear down David, yeah, but, to be honest, it’s barely been on my mind lately. I want to just keep playing with you guys. This has been the best Summer of my life. I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Eli motioned to Derrick again as he began to smile. “And, I’m sorry for hiding it from you. I really just want to keep playing together, with everyone.” Eli said with desperation in his voice, and tears streaming down his cheeks.

It wasn’t long before both Jillian and Derrick rushed forward and joined in on the hug, the three of them squeezing Eli together.

“I really messed things up with everyone, huh?”

“Nah, after you left, Quinn scolded everyone pretty badly. I’m pretty sure they’re all waiting for a chance to apologize.”

“Even Ruffily?” Eli asked.

“Eh, you should probably apologize to Ruffily, that was pretty mean with the woof thing.” Derrick nodded as he backed out of the hug, as did Jillian, but Selena continued to hold on tight.

“And Rakkan… you think he’ll forgive me?” Eli asked.

“He should understand what it means to lose your temper more than anyone.” Selena answered.

“Just, be careful, he’s young, and our friend.” Jillian cautioned Eli.

“Right.” He replied while wiping his tears away. “Man.” He let out a deep sigh of relief. “It feels good to finally admit that I like the game.”

“I know, right? You don’t need to act like you’re just playing to get back at him anymore. We can forget all about him and just play.” Derrick grinned.

“Nuh uh.” Jillian shook her head at the three of them, cracking her neck excitedly. The three turned to look at her, slightly confused.

“Earlier, I said I’d be mad at him if I wasn’t so busy being mad at you. Well, I’m done being mad at you, so…” Jillian smirked.

“What, you want me to keep trying to get revenge on him?” Eli asked her with a look of surprise.

“No, not you. Me. I’m already over what he did to me. But this time, he came after you, his own son, and tried to tear you down right in front of my face.” Jillian looked forward with a terrifying expression of determination whilst pushing past the three into the hallway, then heading towards her Simbox. “No more miss nice Pyri.” Jillian growled.

“Guess we better get back to our Simboxes?” Derrick asked the others, and both Selena and Eli nodded. Derrick moved past into the hall, leaving Selena and Eli alone in the kitchen, but Selena gently tugged on his shirt to stop him from leaving the room.

“I didn’t bring the birthday present with me right now, so…” her face flushed bright red as she used all of her courage she could muster to rise up onto her tippy toes and quickly kiss Eli on the lips. He, too, quickly flushed red in the face and the pair looked away from each other awkwardly.

“Can’t get forced to log out in the real world, huh?” Eli chuckled after a few seconds of awkward silence between the two, causing Lina to giggle as well.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Derrick snapped his fingers to hurry Selena along.

“Right. Bye.” Selena nodded, smiling at Eli one last time before she rushed out of the house with Derrick, leaving Eli alone with Jillian. Eli headed to the living room to see Jillian already putting on her Simsuit.

“Did you say anything to your boss?” Eli asked her.

“Didn’t have to. He’s a big fan of your stream and knows who we are now. He practically forced me to go back home to do something about this VGN character attack going on.” Jillian shook her head while pursing her lips to the side.

“Heh.” Eli let out a huff of air as he began putting on his simulation suit as well. “Do you have a plan, then?”

“Nah, well… maybe.” Jillian shrugged. “First, we’re going to need to get things back to normal. You need to properly apologize to everyone and be honest with them, so they can forgive you. Also, get the leadership of Rene back from Chax.” Jillian explained.

“Right.” Eli nodded, but once he’d finished putting on his Simsuit he stood frozen in front of his Simbox, staring at it and going deep into thought.

“Hey, relax. Just keep playing the way you’ve been playing.” Jillian put her hands on his shoulder to snap him out of his trance.

“How have I been playing?” Eli asked her.

“Hmmm. Well, you’ve always been a protector. When you see someone who needs help or is in trouble, no matter who they are, you try to protect them.” Jillian shrugged. “You did it with me, that’s why you made that deal. You did it with Rakkan, even though he attacked you. Luryala, Arallia, Savika, the Dark Elves, Quinn… And anytime someone has messed with us or any of your friends, you aim to take them down no matter the cost. You’re pretty spiteful, in that way.” She smiled. “That’s how you’ve always been, even before this stuff with your father.” She added

“Right.” Eli nodded back with hesitation, as once again his mind filled up with ideas and possibilities on his path forward - and this time there was no guilt or anger seething into his thoughts alongside it.

“That kid hurt Rakkan, burned down Rene, and stole Snowflake’s soul.” He clenched his fists shut tight, grinning demonically to himself which Jillian caught a glimpse of. “Someone’s gotta stop him.” He mumbled as he and Jillian climbed into their Simbox’s and loaded up the simulations.

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