Funnily enough, the character onscreen actually looked somewhat disturbed by the nickname. Thinking on it, Kai really couldn’t figure out what was so grotesque about the name. To begin with, Rasui had seemed somewhat pleased with the name, or at least, he wasn’t completely against it. In all honesty, he really only knew about the Norse god and that he was the deity of trickery due to the character appearing in one of the MMO’s he played. If anything, perhaps he didn’t like being likened to such a character? But what about his pleased expression… Kai was completely confused by the situation as he continued to type his username on the phone and he considered asking about it, but decided that he would wait for another time to inquire about it. Instead, he just asked if the username was satisfactory and he was surprised when he wasn’t immediately hit with a verbal attack. Instead, his new acquaintance seemed… excited?
Rasui said
“Sure. Just fine. Just so we’re clear, I’m not giving up my other name.”
With the touch of unease in his voice, Kai’s suspicions about the character’s inner despair in regards to the name were made slightly clearer. Kai fought the urge to make a jab at him and simply responded with a more neutral statement. “Yeah, whatever. Loki sounds a bit cheesy and all, so you can expect me not to use it all that often.”
It was a strange feeling, speaking like this, especially with someone he had only met a few minutes ago, barely, if ever, responding with one-liners as he usually did. If anything, it reminded him of the conversations he had with his sister when the subject wasn’t too painful for him to answer. Something in the way the “key” spoke challenged him and though he was much too weak to respond in kind on a regular basis, Kai felt motivated to become equal with him. It was the same reason why he always yearned to be the best in whatever game he played; the reason adrenaline spiked through his body whenever he saw that he had been moved from his position on the leaderboard of a virtual world that lived on the internet. Though he had no knowledge of what was currently going on in this situation and he almost felt scared to see what would happen next, something about it: the message, the man, whatever it was, pushed him forward each step of the way.
And the sad thing?
Nothing in the real world for the last four years had him motivated like this.
When Kai had stopped thinking about the whole situation, he realized that Rasui had disappeared from the screen and instinctively, he looked down at his phone, which had lit up, once again unlocked by an unknown, though now somewhat more known, force, opening the shop once again while explaining with a cheery voice, before landing on an “owned keys” page, which didn’t look dissimilar to a character selection screen in a RPG, though it was much more detailed here.
Rasui said
“See? Neat right? Psyche at 7. Sanity at 5. Speed and Agility at 6. Heck, even my Endurance is up! Consider yourself lucky. You could have gotten one of those wackos with low Sanity. I’ve got some amazing skills, too!”
Kai quickly understood that this key was quite the ranter and though he was very excited, it felt more like the excitement of someone who was to some extent endeared with himself, not the excitement of someone who was doing it for the first time. Suddenly, Kai realized just what, or, more specifically, ‘who’ he had fallen upon and some of his worries washed away as new ones came in. Would he look down upon him? He only looked a few years older than Kai, though it was very possible that he had much more experience than Kai could ever hope to gather, like a new-age Billy the Kid, the outlaw-slash-cowboy legend who, if stories are to be believed, had killed twenty-one men by the time he was twenty-one; more than a little experience for his age.
Gulp.Kai didn’t let too much of his worry show as he looked down the rather impressive and well-rounded stats of the character. The abilities read out like a game, though they seemed much more complicated than the “Aura Blade” and “Paradigm Shift Slash” skills he had seen in his adventures in virtual worlds. Suddenly, Kai felt a craving to see them in action and his heart began beating harder and harder as he read through them, but he could not figure out why he was getting excited. Once again though, as he kept drifting deeper and deeper into his own mind (he blamed the early hour of the morning; much too early to actually be waking up at), his trance was broken by the harsh, casual but perchance friendly voice of Rasui.
Rasui said
“All the info about you will be up when we log in. So, how about we do that. Get my key and unlock a door. Just don’t unlock the bathroom door! No joking here! I’ve got bad memories from the last time that happened and, trust me, it wasn’t pretty!”
The youth felt somewhat compelled to ask about this story, but he decided that, like the thing about Loki, he would save it for another time. Besides, it would totally ruin the mood.
He nodded in utter silence and he rose from his desk chair and slid his phone into his pocket. Carefully navigating through Ground Zero (AKA, his room), the dark hair boy silently stalked into the kitchen to retrieve the key. Once he had its cold metal in his hand, he gripped it as he grew ever more excited. This new opportunity, no matter how little he knew of it; Kai had no clue why, but he felt as if this would be his chance to finally do something with his life. He was scared, but he was excited. He didn’t know, but he knew that this was it. And, most of all, though he wasn’t ready for this and couldn’t have been in all of his life, he wanted to do this; he wanted to throw all caution to the wind. This man, Rasui, though at first antagonistic to Kai’s peaceful life and without a doubt a trickster, would be his companion in what would come. As said innumerous times, Kai had only a bare idea as to what would come, but if it would bring something new to his life, he would do it, without any semblance of hesitation. Besides, even if it was just a really complex prank and he unlocked his door just to be laughed at by a cunning but obviously bored hacker, it would only bring him a bit of worry for a while and eventually, it would be forgotten.
If it was all the truth though…
Kai could only imagine what would happen.
With this in mind and the metal of the key in hand, its keychain rattling as he walked, he marched up to the his walk-in closet’s door, which he kept locked in most situations unless when he wanted to retrieve something of great importance from it. Memories and souvenirs of days gone by that Kai wanted more than anything to forget were kept in there, but it was the safest door to unlock, as there was no way of coming in or going outside from the closet. Letting out an uneasy but feverish breath, he put the key into the lock and though it was of a different shape entirely than the original key to it, it entered perfectly. Closing his eyes in anticipation, Kai turned the key with a weak motion, his resolve somewhat dampened as he remember just what lay beyond the door, the reason for which he had closed his eyes, however minor they were…
