New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Chronos re-opened his eyes, feeling something slide down his cheeks. He had trouble seeing, as his surroundings were blurry.

'Is this person crying?'

He focused on the vision, trying to make sense of it.

With quiet sobs, this person kept rubbing their eyes, drying up tears as she held someone's hand. Hearing the door behind her open, she turned her head tiredly.

"Miss Lagacé. I know you want to stay by your brother's side. But you haven't left the room in two days. You need to go home and rest. You also need to eat something before you collapse."

The person saying this was dressed in a white overcoat, wearing a clear blue shirt under it, with a grey and blue striped tie.

"Doctor. I can't just leave my brother here like this. We have no one else than each other. Who's going to watch over him?"

"Miss Lagacé… The hospital staff can take care of him. You need to go home. If you don't take care of yourself, you will end up in the same situation as your brother. We can take care of him."

Her stubbornness wouldn't allow her to get up from the chair she was in, though. She felt responsible for him.

Xavier had been living together ever since they left their parent's residence. Their bond was tight as could be, and never once did they let each other down, under any circumstance.

Even after her brother had dropped out of college to learn a trade, her respect for him had never waned. They both respected the life of the other, and their boundaries, cohabiting peacefully.

This was why it had taken her a full day to realise her brother hadn't pulled out of New Eden after the game shut down for its update. She felt responsible for her brother's situation, thinking if she had pulled him out of his pod sooner, he would have been fine.

But after a lot of coaxing from the doctor, accompanied by the threat to have her ejected from the hospital, she finally budged. Calling her best friend to come and pick her up, she went down to the lobby.

When her friend arrived, she looked at her with pity and sadness.

"Oh, Sonia. You can't let yourself down like this. I know your twin brother is a big part of your world, but what would he think if he saw you like this? You look like shit. Have you eaten anything since you came here?"

Shaking her head weakly, Sonia got to her feet, staggering her way toward her friend's car.

"All right. Then I'll take you to a great restaurant, that has the greatest soup you ever had in your life. That should put some energy back into you. Whadya say?"

Grabbing her friend's shoulders, she helped her to the car. Once she was seated and her seatbelt was on, Sonia's friend walked over to the driver's side and hopped into the car.

The drive to the restaurant was short, since Sonia's friend knew her way around town very well, taking back street after back street, circumventing traffic like it was nothing. Parking in an alley, she grabbed her friend out of the car and walked her to the restaurant.

Taking the closest empty table, she waved her hand at the waiter a few tables down. The young waiter, dressed in an open shirt that showcased his shaven chest, with the large crucifix necklace around his neck, walked up to the table.

"It is good to see you again, Bella Donna. What can I do for you, today? Mamma Mia! What happened to your friend?"

"I'm happy to see you too, Franco. My friend is feeling terrible. Family issues. She needs something to pick her back up. Can you make her your best Minestra Maritata? As for me, I'll take a bambino pizza. Authentic, please."

Glancing at the zombie-looking woman, with puffy eyes redder than the bench seat she was seated on, Franco nodded, jotting down the order and walking to the kitchen.

From the short distance, Sonia heard the man call out the order to the cook.

"Papà, una pizza bambino e una minestra maritata, carne extra. La donna sembra che stia morendo, povera ragazza."

Sonia didn't understand half of what the young waiter said, but her friend almost choked on her glass of water next to her.

"What did he say?"

After drying her mouth with the napkin in front of her, and catching her breath, Sonia's friend responded, "Nothing, sweetheart. He was just asking his father to make the soup extra hearty for you."

Nodding her head weakly, she went back to gazing outside the window next to them; her gaze half-empty. She couldn't get her mind off her brother, who was still in a coma at the hospital.

The food took a while to come, but the smell alone was enough to take Sonia's mind off her brother momentarily. Her stomach growled in hunger, finally smelling something else than cleaning products and the occasional winds of hand sanitizer.

Although her eyes were still as dull as before, her appetite still kicked in. The waiter dropped the food on the table, putting his hand on Sonia's shoulder.

"Bellissima, cheer up. Any issue with your family will resolve itself with time. I hope this food can help cheer you up, in the meantime."

"Thank you," Sonia replied, her voice still creaky from all her crying over the last few days.

As they dug in, Sonia caught her reflection in the spoonful of rich broth, and saw her pulled traits, as well as her puffy eyes. She looked like a wreck.

Chronos, who was still watching silently through her eyes, finally clicked on who this was. He had been thinking the name Lagacé was a coincidence, since there were many of them where he lived.

But the reflection in the soup, along with the fact that she had a twin brother, put the pieces into place.

'This is my sister, Sonia. Am I in a coma? When does this happen? Is it in the future, or is it now?'

He focused, pulling himself out of the vision and opening his interface. When he did, the multiple notifications about his IV being depleted suddenly assaulted him.

Soon after, the notifications that he had left his pod came next. His heart almost skipped a beat.

'Am I really in the hospital? I was wondering how I could play for so long without getting notifications. I need to get back out now.'

Climbing back down into his rented room, Chronos' curiosity was suddenly gone, as a feeling of unease was lingering in his mind. Would he be able to log out, since he wasn't in his pod anymore?

He lay down in bed before opening up the menu and tapping the logout button.

But instead of feeling the sense of being sucked downward, like he usually felt when logging out, he felt sucked up, instead. He passed through the ceiling, his body phasing through the wood and straw effortlessly, as he drifted into the stars.

He travelled extremely fast, as he felt himself pulled toward something with significant force. Then his mind snapped into place, and he lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, he was staring at a white ceiling with a familiar beeping noise next to him.

He couldn't talk, but he groaned, trying to catch someone's attention.

A man's voice to his left shouted out.

"The patient is waking up! Get Doctor Beausejour!"