The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Marissa

"They said they'll come hang out with us for a bit." Marissa said.

"So if they do end up joining us, we'll have almost the whole crew here tonight, then." Jazz said.

"Guess so." Marissa nodded to herself. "I'm kinda interested to see what they look like in-game."

"Oh? Why's that?" Ash asked.

"Well, after meeting Firo, I realized how used to you all I am. Mello, you and Caoimhe regularly put your characters in cute outfits, and Aleister always wears, like, a brooding, Elizabethan noble's attire. It's refreshing to see someone wearing something apt for a fantasy game."

Marissa hadn't really thought too deeply about it the day before, but it was true. She always felt like she stood out a bit among her friends, always keeping Hibiscus dressed in what she imagined a hunter or tracker would wear. Natural colored leathers, very earthy tones.

Firo, being the only Corvus in the group obviously would have stuck out given the crow's head complete with a beak and feathers, but his dress felt like it matched Hibiscus. As a [Mage], he wore long flowing robes that really fit the wizard aesthetic. The [Glamour] Firo picked even had straps and pouches with potion bottles and dried plants on it.

"I see," Ash said, a teasing lilt to his voice. "you're hoping that the other new people are as fashion challenged as you are."

Marissa rolled her eyes as Kieran and Jazz chuckled. "Yes, that's it, exactly." She said dryly. It wasn't the first time the group had made fun of her 'lack of fashion sense'. Which wasn't even real, because outside of the game she did dress well. And even worse, Jazz knew that.

Even if she often went for soft and cozy outfits, especially at home.

"Don't feel bad about it, Bisky." Kieran said. "I honestly think you dress Hibiscus really well. You may look out of place next to the three of us, but your outfits always look great."

"Thanks."

"I actually thought Hibiscus was the better dressed between the two of you yesterday." Firo chimed in, somewhat quietly. "I thought the leather hunting armor looked awesome."

Kieran sputtered as if he'd been slapped. "Firo! How could you? After all those stuns I fed you for those perfect Soul Shatters. I'm hurt."

"I like your outfit today better!" Firo said quickly. "Still not as much as Bisky's to be fair, but you look nice."

"You wound me!" Kieran whined. Caoimhe was dressed in a pretty, lavender colored dress that really just accentuated the contrast between the cute three foot tall Fae and the five foot long massive weapon she carried.

"I think Firo just has a bad sense of fashion, too." Jazz said. "That's fine. He'll learn."

"He just doesn't appreciate my theme of cute girl versus massive weapon." Kieran said.

"I'm sending the other two people invites to the chat. Behave, y'all. Please?" Marissa said as she sent the link over to Nyx.

"No way - Ow." Jazz said, as presumably Ash bumped her in real life for being difficult.

Marissa closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she heard the two chimes indicating new arrivals to the voice chat.

"Hello there."

"Hi!"

"Hey."

"Yo."

Greetings flew around the group quickly with the new arrivals.

"Hi Nyx. I'm Hibiscus, the one you were chatting with." Marissa said.

"Oh, hi! It's nice to meet you. Again?" Nyx laughed. "But yes, I'm Nyx, and my friend is Evie."

"Hello." Evie said cheerily.

"Well, it's nice to meet you both."

"Likewise."

There was a small awkward moment of silence that followed before Marissa cleared her throat. "I don't think you'll learn names and voices immediately, but does everyone else want to introduce themselves?" She prodded.

"Oh! Uh, hello. My name in game is Caoimhe. I'm our Slayer. Nice to meet you both." Kieran said brightly.

"Hey there. I'm Aleister, usually an Ebon, and one of your two tanks." Jazz said.

"Guess I'm next," Ash said, "I'm Mellody, the Muse. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Uh, I'm Firo. Also a newbie to the group like you both. I'm a Mage."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"And I guess I'll add that I'm an Arrow, usually Seeker." Marissa said, wrapping it up.

"Well then. My name is Nyx, I mostly play Shroud, but I switch it up fairly often. I also like Tenebrae a lot. Nice to meet you all." Nyx said, sounding particularly friendly.

"I'm last then? You can call me Evie. I usually play Soul but I also have Mystic and Hallow fully geared."

"Very nice." Kieran said. "I like when people are flexible for more options."

"That might really matter when it comes to the raids, too." Ash said. "We don't know how they're going to function yet, but given the game is clearly designed for players to swap Paths within their Trinity, it's possible that they'll build the encounters to want specific Paths."

"While I hope they don't require anything specific, there's no doubt that some Paths will be better for some fights than others." Kieran agreed.

"We're not going to force anyone to play anything they don't want to just because it's meta. Just to clarify." Marissa said pointedly. "You're all welcome to change Paths however and whenever you like."

"Cool." Evie said. "I'm pretty flexible with what I play but I'd prefer it be my choice."

"We have no plans on dictating how anyone has fun." Marissa said again. "Don't worry about it."

"So…" Nyx began, "You just said we can meet in Falias. Where are you? The city's massive."

"Oh, right. Let me send you a party invite, then you can invite Evie." Marissa said, and quickly sent an invitation to Nyx. She joined almost immediately, and Marissa promoted her to party lead. Nyx and Evie should be able to find the group easily enough once they were all in the same party thanks to the game's map showing where party members were.

They had chosen to meet up at [Ley Park], which was a large park area within the city that was set aside for fun activities and mini-games. There were tables scattered about the park set up for chess, checkers, and other tabletop games that allowed players to play against NPCs or each other.

There were also tables for simple card games and other leisure type mini-games. Altogether the whole area was like a miniature in-game casino that used its own separate currency. It was a nice place to spend some time as a break from actual content if you needed it; and Marissa had thought that it would be perfect for some easy icebreakers.

A snickering laugh caught Marissa's attention when Evie joined the party. She wasn't sure what the laughter was about until she read Evie's full in-game name - Evie Lucian. She caught on immediately once she read the name to herself.

"Evie, I have to ask," Jazz said, "you picked your name on purpose, right?"

"I did." Evie responded, sounding proud of herself. "One hundred percent on purpose. I thought it was genius."

"I won't lie, knowing you did it on purpose, I am impressed." Marissa said. "It's a fully functional name on its own. But you must know by now what our next question is gonna be."

"Which one is your favorite?" Kieran asked. "You must have strong opinions, right?"

"I do." Evie intoned. "Suffice to say it's Espeon, but I'll spare you the small rant about the others."

"Espeon's a good choice. I'd go Umbreon myself, I think. An Umbreon helped carry me through Silver, and I loved that little guy." Kieran said.

"Jolteon." Ash said. "It's been my favorite since the originals. When I played through Yellow as a kid, I even dumped the Pikachu they give you in favor of my Jolteon. It and Blastoise won me that game."

"I'm with Caoimhe. Umbreon all the way. That black and blue shiny, too? Perfection." Jazz chipped in. "And I know Bisky's is Sylveon. She might lie and say Espeon like she usually does, but it's Sylveon."

Marissa narrowed her eyes at the screen. Jasmine was right, unfortunately, so she may as well just own it. "Aleister is right. It's Sylveon. The pastel color scheme is great. And when you had to do all of the special affection stuff to get the Eevee to love you to evolve it? I was so attached to mine afterward that it was over for me."

"I'm partial to Flareon." Firo said. "It just looks too fluffy, and I had a big fluffy dog like that growing up."

"Solid reasoning." Kieran said. "And Nyx?"

"Umbreon."

"Damn, lots of Umbreon love in here!" Jazz said happily.

"And not a single mention of Glaceon or Leafeon." Evie said sourly.

"That sounds like the beginning of the rant." Ash laughed.

"It is." Nyx chuckled. "Trust me, I've heard it before."

"Well, you may as well go for it." Kieran said. "We gotta get to know each other somehow, and a heated rant is a great way to start."

"...Seriously?" Evie said, sounding hesitant. It might have been the most obvious emotion Marissa had heard from the woman so far. She had sounded pretty disinterested up until then.

"Yeah, hit us with it." Jazz said. "We clearly all like Pokémon at least a little bit in here."

"I still play them." Marissa said, and she got a bunch of agreements in response.

"Hit it, Evie." Nyx said with a chuckle.

"Alright…" Evie said, taking a breath. "I just…don't understand why they keep leaving Glaceon and Leafeon out in the cold. Espeon and Umbreon were added in generation two, and they've been treated well ever since. They're even probably the two most common picks to be favorites - don't quote me on that."

"Then, two generations later, they introduce Glaceon and Leafeon, basically lock them behind the end game, and have treated them like third rate additions ever since. Even Sylveon is treated much better, where Glaceon and Leafeon are all but forgotten."

"To be fair, she's right." Jazz said. "I like Glaceon too - Leafeon not so much - but like…they both feel lacking compared to all the other options."

"True." Marissa said. "They get forgotten a lot, too."

"Right?" Evie said. "I don't understand why. It bothers me a lot, considering how many people love Eevee so much."

"No, I totally get it." Ash said, and Kieran agreed.

"I won't lie," Firo said, "When I first played Pokemon, I learned about the Eeveelutions pretty quickly. But Glaceon and Leafeon were completely left out for me for a while. I didn't know they existed, straight up, for like two or three games."

"Oh, damn." Nyx said, right as the two of them finally arrived into the area. "Oh, damn." She repeated, when the group finally gathered up.

The immediate response was from seeing Evie and Mellody near one another. They looked like they could be sisters. They were similar heights - both short Cait-Sidhe - and their hair colors were similar shades of light brown.

Given her name, Evie's hair was certainly reminiscent of the color of an Eevee, while Mellody's was a bit lighter, but they still looked very similar. They had even come up with similar facial designs, although Evie had brown eyes to Mellody's blue and purple mismatched eyes.

"Well, I see why Nyx's favorite was Umbreon." Jazz said, and Marissa wholeheartedly agreed.

Nyx was dressed head to toe in black. She dressed in fantasy-appropriate thief and assassin type attire, which matched her [Shroud] Path, but a lot of her choices in armor seemed as though they would be at home in the closet of a 2010s emo or goth teenager.

Evie burst out laughing at that. "Right? You should see her in real life. You'd never guess what her actual taste in fashion was from what she actually wears."

"Hey, that's not nice." Nyx pouted. "I can't exactly go to work in all black, people would think someone died."

Marissa snickered. Things were at least off to a solid start.