NOVEL NEXT 63. Face to Face (Amy)
"Don't wait up ok?" I said as I picked up my headphones. "I might be up pretty late. I'll try to keep the noise down though."
Tess smiled as she gathered up her books and her laptop, "Ok cutie. Have fun with your game."
I smiled back, "Thanks! Good luck with the studying hon!"
She closed the door to our little office on her way out, then I turned my focus back to the computer. I slipped on the headphones as I logged into Gods and Gorgons, and within a minute or two I'd found Raven and Krissy. Our elven archer's character had changed their appearance again, though nowhere near as drastically as their actual body changed the week before.
Their hair was a bit longer again, the features slightly softer, and their clothes were a little more flowing and for want of a better word, feminine. Their character name was already updated too, so other players looking to interact with them would know they were addressed as Krissy. Their stated pronouns were still they/them, their character was still non-binary, but the needle had definitely shifted a little further along.
"Krissy! Raven!" I greeted them both. "Good to see you both."
They both returned the greeting, and our archer added a little nervously "I was just reintroducing myself to Raven..."
"I'm sure that was going well," I replied with a smile. "And your character's looking good Krissy. I love the new outfit."
Raven added, "Now we're just waiting for Leah, then we can get started. Assuming we can find any decent quests. After a year in the game it feels like we've done almost everything there is to do."
Before either Krissy or I could comment we all saw the notification that our tank had just logged on, and a few seconds later the tall strong blonde strode into view.
She hurried over to join the three of us, then stopped and commented "Love the new name!"
"Yeah..." our elven archer sounded like they were blushing as they responded, "So I'm sure you've noticed I also changed my name on discord too. I'm going by Krissy now, in the game and online and in real life."
"They/them pronouns still work for me," they added, "But I'm also experimenting with she/her."
Leah let out a happy squee and if we were in person rather than characters on a screen I'm sure she'd have pulled Krissy into a big hug.
Instead she just gushed, "I'm so happy for you! You sound great Krissy, and I bet you look amazing! Do you look like your character? Are you an elf IRL now?"
"No!" they replied quickly, though it was easy to hear the smile in their voice. "I'm um... I look better IRL. Maybe I'll share a selfie on our discord later. Amethyst... She did some amazing stuff."
Our tank laughed, "I bet she did! She's a freaking Goddess, she can do miracles! Right?"
"I'm right here gang," I mumbled. "And we were supposed to be doing a quest or something, right?"
Leah responded happily, "I'd just as soon hang out with the three of you on discord and talk about what sort of cool stuff you did for Krissy? But yeah, I guess we could play the game instead."
"Let's just pick something and go?" I suggested. "We're all here, and standing around the quest board isn't getting us anywhere. Unless you all would rather just hang out on voice in discord or something?"
Our tank sighed, "You know to be perfectly honest, I kind of wish it was possible for the four of us to get together and hang out in person? I know we can't, and even if we could I don't know if the rest of you would want to? But after all this time we've been hanging out together online I'd really like to meet you all."
"Ok I already got to meet Amethyst," she added, "But that was only briefly and we weren't hanging out."
Krissy responded, "If it weren't for the huge cost of travel I wouldn't be opposed to a get-together. Maybe we could hop on a video call?"
I found myself smiling as I pointed out, "You two remember I can teleport, right? That just leaves time zones as the biggest obstacle. And I can't do much about that I'm afraid."
The others were quiet for the next several seconds, and I got the feeling both Leah and Krissy were either excited or scared at the prospect of teleporting.
"How would that work?" our tank finally asked. "I'm assuming you wouldn't be coming here, right? It's two in the morning here, my parents would flip if I had some strangers show up."
I smiled, "I know Leah. And to be honest, it'd be inconvenient to have guests here right now? My girlfriend's studying, and I promised not to disturb her. But that still leaves Raven's place? Or Krissy's. If either of them want to volunteer to host, that is."
"Or not necessarily host," I added, "But it'd be nice to have a convenient landing pad for teleporting. Then maybe the four of us could go out? It's just after nine at night here, and I've got a car so once we were all here I could drive us somewhere. Raven, what do you think? Could we all meet at your place?"
The rogue responded, "We could. I'm not keen on the idea of driving someplace though. On the other hand I don't have much here in the way of refreshments, so I wouldn't make a very good host I'm afraid."
That made me smile, "Let's take a step back then. Krissy, Leah, are you both up for a get together? And are you both ok with teleporting?"
"Yes," Leah answered right away. "It's a little scary, but I can't pass up an opportunity like that!"
Krissy took another second or two before replying, "Yeah. It's definitely scary, but if Raven and Leah are up for it, then I am too. So um, what do we do?"
I grinned, "Awesome! I guess we all log out of the game, then if you're both presentable I can pop round and get you?"
Everyone agreed with that, and within the next minute or two we'd all logged out. I slipped off my headset and quickly wrote out a note on some scrap paper to let Tess know I'd gone to hang out with my friends in person rather than online this time. I left that on my desk incase my girlfriend came looking for me, then grabbed my phone and got to my feet.
I popped over to the UK first and quietly greeted Leah, then dropped her off at Raven's place before heading out to the west coast to get Krissy. Within the space of less than two minutes I'd crossed both the Atlantic Ocean and North America twice, but all four of us were finally having a face to face meeting in my angel's living-room.
"Wow..." Leah gasped as she looked around wide-eyed at the rest of us.
Krissy was the same, looking back and forth between Raven and Leah and myself.
Our tank was obviously the youngest, she was somewhere right around her eighteenth birthday. And while she didn't look like her character yet, she'd already changed noticeably since the first time she and I met. Three weeks ago she stood about five-foot-two like me, but unlike me she'd been very skinny. Her short messy hair was dark, and she'd been wearing glasses.
Now Leah's hair was a light brown and hung down to her shoulders. She'd grown about three inches, and her body was already starting to develop some curves and muscles. She was dressed in a tight t-shirt and stretch jeans that looked a little too short for her. And she had a pair of sneakers on her feet.
Krissy was the tallest of the four of us at about five-foot-seven. Their arms and legs were long and slender, and their auburn hair was in a cute style that ended just above their shoulders. They were wearing a pair of tight floral-pattern capris leggings and a crop-top tee in the non-binary pride flag colours and sandals on their feet.
Raven was in her typical emo goth college student form, with the black dress and boots, black make-up and silver jewelry. And I was dressed for a lazy evening at home, with black leggings and a dark grey tunic-style top and sneakers.
I was about to do some introductions just in case, when Leah suddenly squealed and pulled both Krissy and Raven into a hug. The excited teen looked at me and apologized, "I'd have hugged you too but I don't know if it's cool to hug a Goddess?"
"It's ok Leah," I replied with a grin. "Though maybe you should also check with Krissy and Raven before hugging them?"
Krissy turned out to be ok with the hug, she looked a bit awkward but otherwise happy. Raven on the other hand just looked uncomfortable. The angel pulled back out of the hug and I stepped forward to take her place, joining Leah and Krissy for a few seconds of the group hug.
Then as we all pulled back I commented happily, "So here we are, together for our very first in-person meet-up. What's everyone want to do? I'm going to rule out going to a bar on account of Leah's age, but there's cafes around. Or if Raven doesn't mind playing host maybe we could stay here?"
"I don't mind hosting," my angel responded. "However as I said, I don't have much in the way of food or drinks here."
Leah asked her, "What sort of stuff do you like to eat?"
Raven glanced at me before admitting quietly, "I don't normally eat. As we told you a few weeks ago, I'm an angel not a human."
The young Brit's eyes widened and she nodded slowly. Then she looked to Krissy and commented quietly, "We're hanging out with a Goddess and an Angel. How wild is that?"
"It's pretty wild," the enby agreed. "But they seem like regular people, mostly. So let's not make a big deal over that stuff."
"Right," Leah nodded again.
The whole exchange made me smile, while my angel just looked a little awkward. And after that the four of us had a quick conversation about what everyone wanted to do. I ended up teleporting my purse to myself, then the four of us went down to the underground parking and piled into my car. Raven was a little uptight about that, and she even looked a little carsick by the time we got to a friendly little cafe nearby.
We managed to get a table, and we all got some drinks and stuff. I had my usual coffee, Krissy got a latte, Leah had a large soda, and Raven ordered tea which I knew she wasn't going to drink.
It wasn't quite as relaxing as I'd hoped, between Raven acting a bit stiff and uncomfortable while Leah and Krissy were a little too reverent towards me. Still, it didn't take long before we were talking and getting to know each other more.
Our archer opened up a little more about what was going on in their life back home, although a lot of things were up in the air now since it was only a week since I'd given them their miracle. And our tank gushed some more about how happy she was with the way she was growing and changing. I talked a bit about my college stuff, how things were going with my girlfriend, that sort of thing.
Raven was the only one of us who didn't have much to say about herself. And I wasn't sure if that was due to a need for secrecy, or if she felt awkward hanging out in person with the mortals, or maybe she was embarrassed to share what few details she had. Not that there was anything wrong with working in a cafe, but she probably felt it was overly mundane work for an immortal heavenly creature.
At one point me and Leah and Krissy all got our phones out so we could take some pictures and selfies with the group which was kind of fun. Then we ended up spending an hour talking about games, and what the four of us might look at trying next.
"There's that space game that came out a few months ago," Krissy suggested at one point. "I've played it a bit, that might be something we could look into?"
Leah pouted, "I doubt there's much call for sword girls in space."
The enby shrugged, "Possibly not, but you could be a big tough space-marine type. Trade in the broadsword for a big assault rifle, replace the plate armour with a high-tech battle-suit."
Our tank was unconvinced, but she didn't rule it out completely. And neither Raven or I had much of an opinion either way. I no longer needed the games for escapism, I was more in it for the social interaction with my friends. So it was less important to me what game we played, as long as we all did it together.
After that the conversation swung away from gaming and onto the idea of whether or not the four of us could meet up in person again, and what we'd do if we planned it ahead of time. Like if I was ok teleporting people around, then maybe we could all go visit Leah in England next time, or go see Krissy on the west coast or whatever. And we'd work with the time zone stuff too, so if we wanted to do any sight seeing we'd make sure it was daytime at our destination.
Eventually Leah stifled a yawn then let us know, "I've really enjoyed meeting you all and I wish I could stay all night, but it's almost four in the morning back home. I think I should probably get some sleep."
"Of course," I nodded. "It's been fun though, and we really do need to do this again."
Krissy agreed, and the four of us finally left the cafe for the short drive back to the apartment. We went back to Raven's place, then we all said our goodbyes and stuff in the angel's living-room where we started. I took Leah home first, then Krissy, and finally bid my angel a good night before teleporting myself back to my apartment, into the home office where I started.
