"This is Asteria."
Always prim, always proper. Not a single thing out of place, not even a speck of dust going stray. Ash's room was the tip-top antithesis of the word disorderly. I an if cleanliness was really next to godliness, then Ash's room was basically a piece of heaven.
Sadly, there were more urgent matters at hand to attend to rather than going around complinting, smiling about what a finely made bed there was off to the side then.
Yeah, right then, complints and smiles were far out of mind.
"I don't, Master… I," Ash blinked, a warm glow of colors basking her face in soft hues of reds, whites, and yellows. "This is..."
Why the red, white, and yellows? Because those three were the primary colors that made out the triumphing trumpeting title screen of Asteria. Colors that confounded her, colors that blinded her - gazing with eyes tightly scrunched.
"Chronicles of Asteria," Ash read out loud, her neck craning close to the laptop display.
There I was standing by the sidelines, white-knuckled, staring at her with pursed lips. This day, this scenario, I never ever accounted for. In hindsight though, I really should have.
Did I seriously think I could have hidden this fact about her forever? She was bound to find out about it anyway sooner or later… hell, she already did… sooner than the soon that I would have liked.
Didn't even know where to begin, but I suppose we should start where everybody always starts.
"The start button, Ash," I muttered, urging her on with a great reluctant nod, "Press away."
Controllers are rather complicated devices apparently. They sat there uncomfortably in her palms, angled in ways that controllers should never be angled. Took a mont of fiddling and a little inspecting before she found the fabled start button staring right at her in the face.
After a quiet realizing: 'oh', Ash hovered a hand above the controller and precariously tapped the button with the tip of her forefinger because apparently the usage of her thumbs was rendered impossible due to the fact that she had them all the way around at the back of the controller.
How the heck do you even do that?
Probably should have warned her of sound effects beforehand, too late now though. Once the title screen was whisked away, she was then greeted by a thundering orchestra that nearly flung the controller out of her hands in fright.
Didn't help that I kinda forgot to set the sound levels beforehand, so what was basically a catchy fantastical tune at 100% volu output to my ears, hers was instead more of a heavy tal concert with a very nice, very light output of a 1000%.
Really, from the way her shoulders rocketed upwards, you'd think soone might have fired a shotgun against her ears. Which, in all likelihood, wouldn't be entirely inaccurate.
My bad. If anything though, her reaction at least got chuckling slightly.
Noticed I said 'slightly', because that's all it was. A small bit of reprieve in the face of what's to co next… and ca it did, as Ash shifted her eyes over to mine.
"I've… I've read ntion of this before," Ash said to . "I believe the term used was vidya - no pardon that, it was video… video - "
"Video gas," I said, walking towards her with arms crossed.
It didn't surprise one bit that she had heard and no less understood the concept that was video gas. The polished shelves on her walls were lined with the spines, both thick and thin, of many, many books. So had makeshift markers to keep track of progress, others simply did with a bookmark jutting out in-between pages. Not a single book she had in her possession went unread.
Studious, dedicated, and always curious. It's no wonder Ash got accustod so fast here… it was simply in her nature.
Yet it was also because of her nature, that we were here, right now… staring her world straight in the face from beyond the border of an LCD display. Which brings us back to now - the truth, a begrudging whisper from my lips.
"This is Asteria."
As my words resounded aloud amidst the ga's ambient noise, I couldn't help but recall back to the words spoken to that spurred all this in the first place.
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