The cool light of the dual moons overhead touched my cheeks.  The soft blades of the Veldt’s grassy field tickled the back of my ears, causing them to flick occasionally while I unconsciously wove the velvet purple fur of my tail between my fingers.  I could be doing something productive with my playtime, like gathering crafting materials, or raiding a dungeon packed with fiends and monsters.  Instead I basked in the moonlight on the tallest hill in the Veldt region, watching the drifts and currents of aspected Aether. My friend, the blue-skinned Oni, TankTastic, or just TT fidgeted beside me, mind lost in his 'nothing-box' as ever-shifting constructs of shimmering [Blue] orbited his head cartoonishly while we waited for Tekkie to finish... something.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"Hey,"[/color][/b] I broke the silence, and couldn't suppress a smirk as his constructs popped, showering us in blue Aether sparks. [b][color=#CE2B95]"Entertain me. I'm borrred,"[/color][/b] I commanded imperiously. A low chuckle hissed through my teeth as he squinted annoyance. [b][color=#CE2B95]"Tell me where you're from,"[/color][/b] I interrupted, before he could retort.

[b][color=deepskyblue]"Oh... I'm studying Electrical Engineering at the Aerie,"[/color][/b] he replied after some hesitation. Most likely realizing that I would continue to pester him until he gave an answer.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"No shit?! I live in the tower too!"[/color][/b]

[center][i][color=#CE2B95]We should meet in person...[/color][/i][/center]

Yue stood in the doorway of Dean's house for a long minute staring into the space between. The oversized cherry pit pressed stickily against her palm. If she had voiced that thought to him would he still have died? It was much easier for her to be social as her online persona: TetsuKasha, and she'd pinned the idea at the time. 

No. He wasn't dead. Alex wasn't at the University during the attack. She struggled to reconcile the fact that "[color=deepskyblue]TT[/color]" and Alex were the same person as she stepped inside.

[center][i][color=#CE2B95]Didn't keep him from vanishing... and it didn't save Tekkie.[/color][/i][/center]

TankTastic and TekkieRave both stopped logging on to Final Odyssey following Usurper's attack on the university. Tank... Alex told her they were friends, and she'd always just assumed he'd met the energetic cyber-medicine enthusiast in one of his engineering classes. So when they vanished from Final Odyssey two years ago...

Yue's vision shifted. She could feel the firm tingle of her lenses flexing as a table came into focus, drawing her attention to the object that was laid across it. She sensed some vague dissatisfaction from Dean's direction, but more pressing was the aura of static [Blue] that rippled across the weapon's surface, intermingled with accents of caramel and [Green] wisps trailing from the edge of the jade piece.

She leaned forward, reaching for it instinctively until her fingertips pressed against the spear's shaft. The living room resonated as the spear struck an electric bass note, with a subtle background alto playing in harmony. Burgundy eyes flicked up towards Dean as she was pulled back to the present.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"... What's this?"[/color][/b]