THE MOMENT
"Raleigh the Hexforger!" The Knight, Matthew, gestured enthusiastically at empty air. "She's right here!"
"Of course she is, dear," the kindly senior citizen was just trying to get to the bakery before all the good bread was gone. As much as she respected Knights, she didn't have the time to deal with a delusional one. Her heart did go out to him, though. She patted his shoulder gently as she continued. "Such a brave man... thank you for the pain you must've suffered...," the old woman with silver hair couldn't hear the cackling laughter coming from the red-haired ghost.
"I'm doing this for you, you could be more helpful," the Knight sighed at her. Raleigh was a tall woman with orange-red hair and green eyes. She wore a pointed, sagging purple hat and charcoal grey robes, and from the Knight's perspective, she was about 60% transparent.
"I wanted to submit a ticket as soon as the first person didn't see me; you're the one who wanted to 'check a few more people'."
"It's the AlterNet! You don't know...," he replied, but his shoulders sagged, and he nodded. "Fine, let's call a mod."
"Thank you." Raleigh gave him an obnoxiously low bow because he was the only one who could see it. And, because he was the only one who could call for help, she'd already tried several times, but her ghostly form seemed to be a glitch somehow. She glanced at his wrist to make sure, and she saw the fading blue text of a Whisper.
"Where would you like to kill time?" he asked. The AlterNet was a multiversal game, and he was sure they were always busy. It was part of why he put it off, hoping they might be able to find a solution so they could start questing again. It stung a bit that he ended up having to call for help anyway, but it outright wounded his pride when an agent showed up immediately. He wasn't even vindicated with a lengthy wait.
"Hey," a portly young man with bushy dark brown hair, wearing a white blazer and red tie, stepped out of a tall black portal. "Aurelio Luna, Sharp Development mod; what's the trouble?"
"Wife's dead," Matthew shrugged and gestured at the apparition with his thumb.
"I respawned like this," she nodded.
"Huh," Aurelio gave them a curt nod, but it wasn't an acknowledgement. The movement materialized a red translucent visor over his eyes. It allowed him to see all the details of their characters, and it was something he used often. Over their heads, he could see their character names with their actual names below that, along with the Earth they were from. And he could see what loadouts they were using, color-coded and neatly organized around them like a holographic HUD.
What wasn't standard was a fountain of rainbow light gushing out of her heart.
"How'd you die?" Aurelio brought his hands to about stomach height in front of himself and began typing on invisible keys that only existed as a red outline when he pressed them. He chose to type a message to someone instead of Whispering it, in case they noticed, but they assumed he was doing diagnostics.
"PK?" Raleigh shrugged.
"I didn't see them either," Matthew shook his head. "Didn't feel like dealing with that again, so we came back 10 years before it happened."
"Same killer for both of you?" Aurelio continued to type. He'd sent his message and now was actually checking what the system had to say about her.
"Not the same weapon," Raleigh shook her head. She'd been the kingdom's best mage more than once, and she knew magical equipment. "It was a sword with a jagged rainbow edge that got me. He was shot," she said.
"Whoa...," Aurelio commented. Then, he caught himself. "Getting shot sucks," he added with a chuckle.
"Tell me about it..," Matthew agreed.
"I was stabbed in the heart!" Raleigh reminded them.
"Yeah, but that's over instantly," Aurelio nodded with a smirk. "Anyway, uh, on behalf of Sharp Development, I apologize for the ongoing inconvenience," he said.
"Ongoing?" Matthew asked.
"You can't fix it?" Raleigh had the more obvious answer.
"I'll be honest, I'm not even sure what 'it' even is, to fix. We've gotta do some more research, but we'll be in touch. I'd try to avoid dying in the meantime," he added as he dropped his hands and shook his head to dismiss the visor.
"That's really the best you can do?" Raleigh asked.
"Looking at you for only a minute? Yes," Aurelio nodded. "I've got other tickets to get to; stay safe," he waved and hurried through another portal to escape. Matthew grinned.
"Mods aren't all that helpful after all, huh?" he asked as Raleigh rolled her eyes with a playful smile. There were worse situations to be in, and at least she was with the man she loved.
"Let's go ask someone else if they can see me," she said.
"Yes, Ma'am!" Matthew was right behind her.
