Tales of the Pearly City (Pearly Tales Vol.1) [Completed]

43. Meeting God

BuzzBuzz. BuzzBuzz. BuzzBuzz.

Jasper woke up in his apartment. He slapped his alarm clock. Jasper turned over in his bed and looked at his lone computer, last night he'd turned it off after Tales of Yggdrasil shut off and now wondered what he'd even do with it.

Still groggy he rolled off his bed and landed on his side on the floor, it was his usual routine when he had to get up early to jostle him awake.

Wham!

That was the floor.

Jasper groaned as he sat up. It was still dark outside as the numbers [5:32] lit up his room in green. He stood up and rubbed his eyes. He looked around his room lazily.

"So this is reality." He sighed, "Better get used to it. Isn't that right Shayley." He touched his desk as if it might shatter.

After getting on his work uniform he crawled out his room like a zombie. Jasper wasn't as tall or dazzling as his roguish elven counterpart. He still had some confidence as a person but he was much better at acting confidant then actually being confident.

Jasper usually walked to work, it wasn't that far away from his house and he could save money by not buying a car to pay for his gaming addiction. But now that his addiction was a thing of the past he should probably start saving for a car or something.

But on his way, he met Mary the cute little high school graduate girl from his work.

"Hey Jasper, early isn't it?" she said as she combed some hair behind her ear.

"Morning Mary, you seem energetic."

Her plain energetic smile was what charmed him the most.

"Well duh, it's a beautiful day, silly." She changed her speed so that she would walk next to him. "You look tired, up playing games again?"

"Ya but not as late as usual, the game I play was shut down."

"Oh no, so which game are you going to play next?"

Jasper shook his head. "I'm not going to be playing another game."

"Why not, isn't that what gamers do?"

"Maybe, but I decided when I started playing that once it was over I'd do the whole IRL bit for a while."

"IRL? Oh "In real life" that's what you mean."

"Pretty much, I'm going to do something with my degree, and hopefully start dating or something. I'm not so foolish as to think that gaming isn't a major time sink."

"I didn't know you had a degree."

"Yep, I've done some stuff on the side for a few extra bucks, but I haven't gotten a better job or dated since it would take it out of my game time. Now I'm retired so I don't have any more excuses."

"Retired, you sound like an old man. Wait, does that mean you'll be leaving work." Mary looked unexpectedly sad.

"Maybe, but not for a while. In the meantime, I really should branch out and start making friends that I don't have to wear a pair of headphones to talk to."

"You don't have any friends!" she stopped.

"Haha, you're making me feel like a lonely shut in." he grabbed his heart.

"You're not?"

Jasper coughed. "Of course not! I have friends but it's hard to get together when they all live in other cities or countries."

"Oh."

"I meant, friends within walking distance. I thought you were pretty nice until you called me an old friendless shut in, maybe I should just give up while I'm ahead."