CA Chapter Four

The first thing Ava wanted was a haircut and some new clothes. Changing your hairstyle in game was as simple as selecting a new one from your settings, but first you had to go to a barber and buy it. The only style you got for ‘free’ was the one you selected at character creation. Once you purchased the new style or styles, you could change it whenever you wanted.

Aspen rejoined Ava as she walked back outside sporting her new, shorter cut. She’d gone with a sort of bob, so her hair brushed her shoulders, but she didn’t want Veralt to make her change it back, so she didn’t quite dare go all the way to a pixie cut. When Aspen saw her, his pale eyes flickered, but she couldn’t see either approval or criticism in them, just acknowledgement of the change.

“Do you know where to find a tailor?” Ava asked when she saw him. She’d discovered that she didn’t have a map of the town yet, and had had to duck back into the inn and ask Millie where the barber was, but she hadn’t thought to ask about a tailor as well.

Aspen nodded. “A tailor, an armorer, and a weaponsmith. Perhaps we should pick up some rations as well?” He started off down the street, and Ava followed, a half step behind.

::Can we go see Tia?:: Silus piped up, poking her fuzzy little head out of Aspen’s loose collar. She wasn’t quite small enough to hide completely, but he’d flipped up the fabric, and between that and his ever-present hat, no one would notice the small creature unless they looked closely.

Ava rubbed at her bare wrist as Aspen shook his head. She missed Orah. The sacred snake had been a gift from Ava’s character, AlphaOmegadon’s, god, Quezal. The white serpent spent most of her time pretending to be a bracelet, but Ava had quickly developed a habit of stroking her soft, warm scales, and she missed the feeling of comfort it gave her.

“I don’t like seeing our friends like this,” Aspen said, frowning. “Like they’ve been hollowed out, and someone else is living in their shells. Besides, Tia’s family has the most prestigious shop in the city, and thus the highest prices.” He smiled wryly, glancing at Ava.

“Tia was an assistant caravan master for years before she decided to mostly settle down here, with her husband and children. She has the second highest [Haggle] skill I’ve ever encountered, and while she can make you feel like you got a bargain, you’ll never win against her.”

Ava chuckled. She’d met a few NPCs like that. Actually, VaVa Voom, her former real-life employer, was like that. She could take you for everything you had, and you’d walk away thinking you got the better deal. Fortunately, she was too ethical to do it unless she really didn’t like someone, but when she let go, it was amazing to watch the victim smile as they were all but robbed.

“I’ve got plenty of money, so we could go there,” Ava offered, “but I understand if you don’t want to. I’ve been playing almost since the beginning, and the NPCs here-”

::Natives,:: Silus put in, sounding disapproving.

“Uh, sure, Natives,” Ava corrected awkwardly. “They’re the worst I’ve ever seen.” She would have gone on, but the bat had just reminded her she was actually talking to NPCs, and while Aspen and Silus were as realistic as the others were fake, it still felt strange to talk about game mechanics with them.

“Here,” Aspen said, ignoring the exchange as he stopped in front of a brightly painted door. Over party chat, he continued, ::The proprietor is a half-orc, though, and I don’t know what this world’s gods or the false king did when he changed this place, but some of the half-breeds have vanished, along with all of those who were entirely non-human.::

::Juniper is missing,:: Silus said, sadly, rubbing her little face against Aspen’s cheek comfortingly.

::Juniper?:: Ava asked.

“My step-daughter. Gina warned me that… my wife would be gone, but I didn’t think Juniper would be missing as well.” Aspen said, gruffly, pushing open the door to the shop. “It’s probably all for the best. She’d be like everyone else, and that would be-” He broke off, shaking his head as a towering man with a bald head and a terrible underbite emerged from the back room.

“Guests!” the man rumbled. “How may I help you?” His small eyes caught on Ava, and he blinked, visibly pausing as he processed who she was. “Lady Ava! Of course, if there is anything my humble shop can provide, just let me know!”

Ava gritted her teeth. She needed to remember to grind the [Substitution] spell as much as possible. She hated having everyone recognize her, and it was possible - even probable - that everything she did was reported back to Veralt. It was her turn to freeze as she realized that he probably didn’t even have to do that. This server was his, in every way that mattered. He could just have someone watch everything she did and report back to him if she did anything out of line.

She turned horrified eyes on Aspen. ::You need to leave,:: she said, urgently. ::I forgot Veralt can just watch everything I do here, or have someone else do it. If you spend too much time with me, they’ll notice you. Hell, just being in a party with me was a mistake. It’s probably already too late!::

Aspen grimaced and laid a calming hand on Ava’s arm. ::She didn’t mention that in her note? No, she told me the gods here can’t see me at all. How did she put it? I’m like a ‘ghost in their machine’? They can see me if they’re actually here, like Veralt was earlier, but none of their spells and-::

::Pogroms,:: Silus said.

::Programs?:: Ava asked, relaxing.

::Yes! Progoms!:: the bat squeaked.

Aspen chuckled and tilted his head to gently press against the bat. ::None of those can see us. You don’t need to worry.::

Ava sighed in relief and turned back to the tailor, expecting him to be either staring at her or becoming impatient. He was still looking at her with the exact same eager expression, however, and didn’t even seem to notice that she’d suddenly stopped speaking to him for more than a minute.

“Um, yeah, I need some pants.” She gestured down at the layers of heavy skirts that wrapped her legs, forcing her to take shorter, more cautious steps. The default clothing style in Veritas Online leaned heavily toward western European fashion in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. Elvish clothing had a lot more Asian and general ‘fantasy’ options, but otherwise skirts tended toward long and heavy.

The big man instantly shook his head. “King Veralt has decreed that all citizens of Refuge must wear ‘appropriate garments at all times’. Women wear skirts.”

Veralt, you misogynistic pig, Ava thought, I wonder if the barber would have let me cut my hair short if I’d tried. She gritted her teeth, though, and asked, “How about a riding skirt? One that’s a little shorter, lighter, and split in the middle?”

The tailor hesitated. “That should be all right. How many would you like?”

Ava’s eyes narrowed as she thought. “Two, and,” she gestured toward Aspen, “two pairs of pants for my friend, here, along with a couple of loose tunics.”

Aspen’s eyebrows shot up, and then he looked amused. ::I assume these items are actually for you?::

::Me and Amy,:: she sent back silently. ::We could just run off in our underwear, I guess, but actual clothes made for sneaking would be better.::

Aspen nodded, turning back to the tailor, who towered even taller than the farmer. “I prefer pants cut to hit the top of a pair of boots,” he said, indicating a spot on his calf, “made from sturdy, flexible fabric.”

The man nodded, and took a few quick measurements on both Ava and Aspen. Ava was used to buying ready-made clothes, which were just pre-generated from default designs, but many players enjoyed designing their own garments, so that was an option as well. It looked like Veralt hadn’t bothered to import all of the pre-gens, probably to save space on the server, so the tailor would have to actually ‘make’ their clothing.

“They’ll be ready this evening, Lady Ava,” the man said enthusiastically. “You’re my first priority.”

Probably his only order, given how perfunctory the interactions between NPCs were here. In the real game, non-player characters actually shopped, cooked, worked, and did everything a ‘real’ person would do. Ava wouldn’t be surprised to discover that this shopkeeper hadn’t even been generated until she walked through the door, though.

“Good,” she said, not feeling at all bad for the nonexistent customers who would be kept waiting. “I’ll be back after dinner, then. Or,” she cast a look at Aspen, “my friend will. Treat him just as you would me.” She hesitated with her hand on the door, realizing she’d forgotten something the merchant usually brought up rather quickly. “How much will it cost?”

“Oh, nothing! It’s an honor to work for you, my lady!” The big tailor bent at the waist, nearly banging his head on the tall counter behind which he stood.

She thought about arguing, but the fact was that she didn’t even feel bad about taking something for free. It wasn’t like the man was using real material, or even real time, and he would probably vanish as soon as he completed his task, anyway.

“All right, then,” she said, and walked out, Aspen close on her heels.

Ava shook her head. “No more of that,” she said, already feeling tired. “Time to grind my shiny new skills. From now on, I’ll let you do the shopping.”

Aspen stuck out his hand, mouth quirking in a half smile. “You’ll have to fund me, then, Lady Ava. I only have the money this version of me had on him when I replaced him, and apparently farming isn’t very lucrative here.”

Ava chuckled and pulled up her wallet on her interface, sending Aspen half of her money. “Apparently, I’m not going to have to pay for anything anyway, so you might as well have it. Get whatever you think we’ll need.”

Aspen’s grin grew wider and he tucked the pouch that had appeared in his hand into his belt. “Sounds good. What first?”

Silus’ head popped out of his collar, golden eyes round and bright. ::Fruit!:: she said, and Aspen chuckled as he led the way down the street.

“All right, I know,” he said indulgently. “I don’t think they’ll have kiwi here, though. Restur only brought that because you said you wanted to try every fruit in the world.”

Silus’ disappointment was practically audible, but she finally said, ::That’s all right. I’ll take grapes. Or melon?::

Ava’s eye caught on a passing NPC who had a similar build to her own, but was male. She adjusted her path so she bumped into him, ready to apologize and make excuses, but he barely acknowledged her before continuing on his way.

She sighed, putting the Plain Handkerchief she’d stolen from him into her inventory. It was nice that she probably wasn’t going to get caught stealing, especially since [Steal] and [Pickpocket] were still only level one, but it also meant that leveling up the skills was likely to be as boring as everything else in this cookie cutter world.

Aspen had noticed the exchange, and paused, glancing back at her. ::What was that?:: he asked.

Ava ducked off into a quiet side street and pressed her back against the wall. ::Taking the shine off those skills. I stole something from him, now how do I-::

You have cast [Substitution:Lv1]. You now appear to anyone viewing you as the sapient being John the Smith. This illusion will last 17 minutes (15 base + 2 minutes for Lv2 Common item Plain Handkerchief.) If your theft is discovered while you have more than 15 minutes remaining on your illusion, time will be reduced to a maximum of 15 minutes. Spell will be canceled if you take damage or if someone with a high enough [Illusion Break] skill attempts to [Identify] you.

Aspen shook his head as Ava read the notification, then looked at her hands, which were, indeed, not her own. “Gave you that one, did she?” He rubbed the back of his neck, staring up at the sky. “I hate that one. Rouge loves to play tricks on people using it, and I’ve leveled my [Illusion Break] several times because of it.”

“Well, don’t use it on me,” Ava said, noting the name he’d used. If she wasn’t mistaken, Rouge was the player who’d helped Amythyst when she’d first separated from Emily, the Automated Learning Program Interface where Bridget had hidden Amythyst’s program until she gained her own awareness. If Aspen knew the girl as well, that meant he was probably part of the quest Amythyst had told Ava a little bit about, the one that was supposed to determine the future of Veritas Online as well as Veritas Corporation.

He chuckled. “I won’t, though Rouge had me checking almost everyone for a little while.”

::He had to tell her he wouldn’t give her any more of his crops if she didn’t stop. Aspen’s crops are the best, even the vegetables.:: The last word was said with such disdain that Ava almost laughed.

Aspen booped Silus on the nose, making the bat squeak indignantly.

“Enough, little one,” he said, focusing his attention back on Ava. “What do you want to do now, then?”

Ava had never been a thief before. In general, the risk of getting caught and being fined or even arrested was too great, and there had always been other things she wanted or needed to do. Still, she’d just been handed the opportunity to try it, in a place where the risks were minimal to non-existent, so she shrugged. “Let’s go steal some stuff and spy on people. Honestly, we don’t have much else to do for two days, until Veralt gets back, and, um, ‘Gina’ said to work on my skills.”

Aspen shrugged. “Then that’s what we should do. Silus?”

The bat crawled out of her spot and dropped off Aspen’s shoulder, swooping away with a few rapid beats of her wings. ::Oh goody, sneaky stuff! I’m good at this!::

Aspen rolled his eyes. ::That’s because you’re with Rouge all the time, and she doesn’t know what to do with herself if she’s not getting into trouble somehow.::

Silus giggled unrepentantly. ::That’s what makes it fun!::