[PP:F2] A Case of Mistaken Identity (Lindow)

[Mayuri 0]

Mai stumbled out of the back door of her shop coughing while a black plume came floating from within the bowels of her workshop. The young alchemist had been cocky; she’d been working with materials far higher than her level. It’d been told to her that she would level much faster if she worked above her level, but all she managed to do was nearly burn down her shop. She’d managed to snuff out the fire, but her shop was still rather smoky. The young woman stood in her alleyway bent over trying to catch her breath and was covered in soot; even her round little cheeks were dusted with it. Her white dress, blue blazer and even her little blue dancing slippers were all terribly dirty.

Leaning against the wall, Mai closed her eyes and coughed again. She wasn’t feeling so hot. Her head grew think and foggy and began to pound. “Agghhh,” she whined as she placed her hands to her temples not feeling at all right. Things blurred and then came into focus and the pretty raven haired girl stumbled off the wall. She began to walk down the alleyway in a bit of a stupor rather unsure as to what was going on.The girl found herself turning down out of her alleyway and into the main street. Her shop was on a rather busy strip of town and it was bustling with NPC’s and the other denizens of her neighborhood. She teetered as she moved along and bumped into people left and right bouncing off them the way a pinball might off the bumpers. People shouted at her and pushed her off them but Mai had little idea of what was going on or where she was it was like all the contents of her mind had been taken out, shaken and then poured back into her all pear-shaped.

The crowd eventually thinned and Mayuri found herself on the edge of town still wandering away. She’d no idea where she was going nor what she was doing; she only kept moving. As she cleared the border between town and the wilderness something caught the young woman’s eye. A man moved toward her; not just any man, one she knew quite well. She rubbed her eyes wondering if what she saw was actually real. Upon second glance she saw that it was. A huge smile came over the young woman’s face as she held out her arms and moved toward him still staggering about.

“Daddy?” she said as she finally reached the man, only to collapse in front of him. 

[Lindow 0]

It had been one of those days for the Mass Wielding Swordsman, another day out slaying boars only to find he hadn’t really done much work. He was up at sunrise, even here his internal clock kept ticking and he went to sleep and went to bed at exactly the same time. Rubbing his shoulder totting his massive blade behind him, he was coming towards entrance of town on the second floor. As he was stretching his big arms, his eyes caught a glimpse of a young girl off in the distance. He smiled briefly, reminding of his daughter and how quickly this game needed to be completed.

 

He was going to turn back into the field when he noticed she was coming towards him, a dumbfounded look as she said the name, ‘Daddy,’ to him. Mouth and mind alarmed, he caught her elbow lightly, a quick reflex he used often when Jasmine was learning to ride her bike for the first time. Swiftly he knelt down by her side and peered into her eyes.

 

“Are you ok, little Miss?” He didn’t quite know what the problem was; perhaps she was hurt or was running from something? The way she stumbled though, he saw this in his career as a police officer when he first started out. Teens and drinking, he understood the life, he was a wild child at one time or another and he made sure that his daughter would not follow in those same footsteps. He couldn’t watch her twenty-four, seven. But that didn’t stop him from asking so many questions. “What were you doing last night? Who were you with? Were you drinking? It wasn’t that Daniel kid again, was it?” He didn’t even want to think that she was dating; there was none of that going on in his household.

 

Lindow straightened the young girl out, “Are you hurt? Did someone try to attack you?” she called him, Daddy. Perhaps she was just lonely girl trying to find some resemblance of real life here. His silent eyes looked over her, who knew how many children in this game were lost now and without parents. There was a sincere look in his eyes though, he wanted to help if he could. 

[Mayuri 0]

“Owww…” Mai whimpered as she had fallen to the floor. It didn’t hurt; it was only the feigned memory of the pain of falling that caused her to react in such a way.

“I fell…” She responded as the man asked her if she was okay.

The man came closer and Mai rubbed her eyes again and then looked over at him woth a soft half smile on her face. “How did you get in here daddy? I left you outside… no one could get in after the game was started.” Her vision crossed and blurred again and Mayuri sat up and curled into a ball bringing her knees to her chest as she placed her hands over her face and rocked herself gently so terribly confused as to what was going on.

“Are you hurt? Did someone try to attack you?” he asked her.

Mai raised her head and removed her hands looking at the man again. Wait… was he her father? He certainly resembled him but Mai’s head hurt too much to be certain of anything.

“No…” she finally responded to his inquiry. “But I think I blew up my shop,” she whimpered.

A heavy sensation hit her chest and she began to cough hard still trying to clear the soot from her lungs. She’d inhaled quite a bit of smoke and fumes from her ruined potion. She dry heaved but nothing would come and eventually she laid herself on her side on the floor too out of it to want to move on her own. 

[Lindow 0]

Once more she called him Daddy. The girl coughed and hacked, clearly something was wrong with her but now he wasn’t thinking it was alcohol, but more along the lines of drugs. Another case he had seen in many young teens. There was soot on her face, however, and she said something about her shop being destroyed. His eye brows rose, “Your shop was destroyed? You must have a profession then, so it seems something backlashed against you.”

The girl seemed disoriented and confused as she was calling him father and asked he got into the game. Clearly, he was not her father and if it was Jasmine, she would have been scolded, confined to her room and the door locked until the end. He scratched his peppered beard as she sprawled out on the floor, ill. If she inhaled smoke, this could cause her to cough and hack, but he was unsure of why she was calling him Daddy. Perhaps he needed to investigate a little bit. He looked down at her, he couldn’t just leave her there and she was in no condition to be walking about.  He sighed.

“Alright. Well, we need to find out what happened to you and we can’t just leave you out here where people could possibly take advantage of you.” He got down on his knees and lifted her up and over her back as he set his massive sword back to the inventory clearing room from his strong shoulders, “Ugh! I haven’t done this in a long time, I used to give my daughter piggy back rides a long time ago…that was…” It was ten years, and the memories of his daughter growing up surfaced, he was now more determined than ever to help this young girl out.

 

“My name is Lindow, by the way. What is your name?” As they walked up the alley from where she came from, the looks on strangers eyes adverted to them, shameful whispers spread as he passed by. He was merely giving the girl a piggy back ride; he couldn’t just leave her there. His hands were under her legs, there was no foul play here. His shoulders adjusted to her weight, and while he moved more slowly than usual, it was not at all a strain to help her like this. 

[Mayuri 0]

“Yes… I’m an Alchemist. I messed up…” she tried to explain, her mind still fuzzy from whatever it was she inhaled.

Before Mai knew what was going on she was being hoisted off the ground and now rested against the back of the man she’d insisted was her father. She put her arms loosely around her neck and rest her head against his back remembering how much she loved it when her father would give her piggy back rides when she was smaller. It’d been a number of years since he had given her one, but the memory was a terribly happy one for the young woman. He carried her easily, as if she weighted practically nothing. Mai was but a slip of a girl so that very well could have been the case.

Daddy had given her a name she’d not recognized, but that’s just how it was in the game. No one called her by her given name so she could understand why he’d gotten used to giving his game name over his real one.“It’s me… its Shay remember? Shay Yoshida… Did you inhale the smoke too? That must be why you don’t remember.”  The girl rubbed her eyes again and tried her very best to focus. “Umm… antidotes… in the shop, if you drink one that should make things better.”

She was carried through the main street until she pointed to the alleyway she had come down and then again to the back door that was wide open which lead to her shop. “The potions are in the shop, all my stuff in back is probably contaminated if I haven’t bottled it. “

[Lindow 0]

Although she couldn’t see it, he smiled from her explanation.  She was a troubled girl who seemed to have inhaled something terrible to give her such a crazy idea that he was her father. Perhaps it was best to keep things light as to not confuse her further, “Ah! Shay! Of course, I remember. Silly me…” he replied and chuckled lightly as she asked if he inhaled smoke too, in all honesty…he wish he had, this game was one giant nightmare after another.

 

As they were coming up to the street, he noticed that one of the shops was still billowing with a mixture of green and black smoke, that was unsafe and it seemed the entire walkway was barricaded, “Looks like we won’t be able to get back to your shop. We’ll have to find an antidote in another location. Also, I wouldn’t risk you getting hurt by going back and inhaling more of those fumes,” he stopped in front of the barricades and saw the Alchemist shop barely visible through those dark clouds. The area must be quarantined; he didn’t see any other players walking along. He turned around, “We’ll have to find someplace else. I am sure there is another shop that can help.”

Lindow adjusted the woman on his back and continued on a straight path down around the ally, “So, what were you working on? Had to be something dangerous to cause an entire block to be shut down like that.”

[Mayuri 0]

Shay’s shop was blocked. It seemed that she had not gotten the fire out, and now there was more smoke billowing from her shop. “OHHHHH NOOOOOOOO!” Mai frowned as she buried her face in her hands. Would her shop burn down? Would something happen to her because she messed things up so badly? She hid her face in her hands mortified at the scene that was unfolding in front of her father too.! This was not good!

 Instead of getting mad at her however, he told her that they would have to try another location for an antidote and May nodded. She didn’t know where the other Alchemists were at the moment, but there were more of them out there. “Okay…” she said rather relieved she was saved from a lecture. Mai was hoisted up again and she slumped back against the man’s back feeling rather awful about everything. He asked what she was doing and Mai sighed. She had no choice but to explain; Mai was an honest girl and she could never lie to her parents, so she began to spill everything.

“There were these other players talking about how you could level up your crafting faster if you tried making things above your level. I was trying to just that and make advanced antidote crystal. I was doing okay at first, but then I added a few too many drops of the green stuff to the crystal… I can’t remember what it was called right now, but it exploded! I opened all the windows but it kept smoking. I thought I snuffed out the fire though, I swear!”

At this, tears began to well up in Mayuri’s eyes as she continued to explain.

 “I was just trying to get better at crafting faster so I could go to the front lines and help. I don’t want any more people to die, and if I can help them with my potions then I want to do that.  You know I’m responsible! That’s why you put me in charge of Javi and Marcus while you and mom are working. I cook for them all the time and never once have I even burned anything, or set the stove on fire!”

The girl began to sob and wipe her eyes on the belled sleeve of her kimono.

“I’m sorry daddy… I’m sorry! Just don’t be mad at me okay?” In the real world, Mai was a terribly good girl who would never think to cut corners as she had. The game and its death toll had made her desperate and she felt rather guilty for it now that she’d been found out.

“Will you tell mom what I did?” She asked still sniffling as she dried her face upon her sleeves. Her mother would kill her if she knew Shay were putting herself in danger.

[Lindow 0]

Lindow had a downcast expression as the girl seemed to sob after telling him what happened, she was very much like own daughter in the real world, "You know, Shay," he started to explain, "It's admirable that you want to help and save as many lives as you can while being here, but going faster than you can, well...you'll just trip yourself up. Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself..." Lindow had stopped to have a heart to heart talk with her as he pressed around the corner looking for another Alchemist shop.His deep ivory silver eyes reflected over the many shops in the area, but there was no Alchemist shops nearby. Seemed like more blacksmiths or tailors. Readjusting himself, his black tunic swayed behind him as he continued his march and thinking of something to say to calm her down.

"Shay, if your mother knew what you were trying to accomplish here, trying to help all these people...She would be proud of you. As I am. The lives of all these players around us are not expendable and even the smallest step will make the greatest difference in the long run. So dry those tears, my girl needs to be brave and strong. But we are not perfect, and we will fall on occasion. But you know why we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up and then we go higher, reach higher than we ever did before."

Lindow said that from the heart the best he could, normally it was Crystal, his wife that spoke to their daughter about these sort of things. He was not great at parent-child talks. So he wasn't sure if any of his words were coming in right, "It'll be our little secret..." he said finally as he looked around one corner, there seemed to be a small group of people crowding around another Alchemist shop, "Hey, it looks like we might have found someplace to nab an antidote. Let's explain to them what happened, perhaps they can give us some insight as to this slight case of confusion."