Author’s Notes: This story is part of a world I call “Tower”. Inspired by Sci-Fi like Ready Player One, Summer Wars, Sword Art Online and .Hack, I wanted to create a fictional world where playing a massively multiplayer online game was a backdrop for real human problems.

This piece was written for Laura Hoffman, the friend who taught me what it meant to put myself first.

They stepped out of the convenience store as friends, but they had entered as strangers. Nicki had just moved to that end of Brooklyn.  There were a lot of new things in the city she wasn’t used to, the cold, the lights, the people. It wasn’t that finding other Tower players was hard, especially in the city with the most up-to-date and accessible Tower stands in the world. It had more to do with Travis’s hoodie.

“Holy shit, you play Tower?!” Nicki asked, her tone changing to that of an excited child.

“Was the hoodie too much of a give away?” Travis grinned, tugging his zipper to a close.

The gold trim lettering informed her of his contest winnings. “Best New Weapon Design”, displayed inside laurels fitted just between his shoulder blades. His build was trim, his arms slender. The jacket was resewn to fit, Travis’s idea.

“That’s so cool! I’m a 3D artist as well. I mean the toolset in Tower makes it really easy to build new stuff but I haven’t won anything yet. Would I know about your weapon? Is it popular?” Nicki gripped the phone in her pocket tightly. She was two questions away from a new contact.

“How about I show you?” Travis asked, cutting the small talk. He handed her a black playing card with the Tower logo on the front. His account name, housing instance ID and 15 free days of playtime were featured on the back. This was the first time she met a stranger who cared about the game as much as she did, but it’s uncertain if it was her excitement or his forwardness that blushed her into silence.

“…Okay.” She took the card from his hand and placed it against her phone. The backlight flashed as a confirmation buzzed against her grip. He’d already accepted her friend request by the time she made it home.

Nicki woke up to her alarm, a holographic teddy bear that would dance around the room until she could catch it. Her boyshorts pushed out an unappealing muffin top she gained from a lazy city living, and her originally oversized shirt was becoming closer to form fitting everyday. Ex boyfriends would describe her as snow white with messy brown hair and freckles. She called herself short, chubby and pasty with the skin tone of mozzarella. Most of her days were the same: shower, forget to brush her teeth, then mindlessly tap “Apply” to any job that vaguely fit her skillset. Most of the notifications on her phone were the same. 5 new jobs found, 12 jobs expired, 1 missed call from her mother and an e-mail from her brother. Likely photos of nieces and nephews, questions of how Brooklyn was treating her and if she needed help. There was a new notification today, one from “T-90x”. A play request. A smile crawled on her face as Nicki buried her head in her shoulder. Cute boy. Makes weapons. Wants play game with me. She swallowed her breakfast with the minimum required chewing and In a single motion pulled her monitor and handsets on.

“C’mon…c’mon….” Nicki groaned to herself. The loading screen could not have been any longer. The menu faded, and piece by piece Travis’s instance began to load.

Travis’s instance started to phase in, a level he built. Describing it as decadent would be kind. Ivory greek columns lined a silver brick road that illuminated with every step. The road led up to a pearl white dome held together with golden cement. This instance was designed for someone who believed themselves of high caliber and taste, and read just the same. For someone who believed they were more than what they are.

“Hey” Travis said, closing holographic menus and stepping off from the column he was leaning against. “Just checking some PMs and stuff.”

Travis’s avatar looked like an exaggerated, toned version of himself. Nicki looked more or less identical.

“Oh, cool.” Nicki managed, as she began to find her way around. ”Nice place, it’s really…”

“Boss?” Travis said with a smile. “So, you want to see it?”, Travis asked. He locked eyes to gauge her excitement, walking backwards to guide her into his instance.

“YES!” Nicki shouted, following him like a puppy desperate for affection. “How long did it take you to build this place?” She said in a tone that combined both awe and worry.

”It got done over time.” Travis explained, “Some of the materials I purchased through in-game trade, some came from the contest winnings, but the majority I got on my own.”

“Doesn’t it take days to mine for silver and golden ore?” Nicki replied.

“Greatness takes dedication.” Travis said with no hesitation. It sounded like something he was used to saying.

The inside of his instance looked like a museum. The center room featured a single weapon floating in place and spinning. A blade, one that looked like the sharpened wing of a bat. The hilt and spine were red, the blade itself was black. She took a look around the room and saw the other weapons on display. They were nearly identical, or variations of the same concept. Maces, flails, axes, spears all sporting the same bat like qualities and red and black color scheme. Most of them had titles from their submission dates, noting if they were nominated for prizes. A few of his earlier pieces were, but as the dates of each piece became closer to the present, the file names made no mention of contest, submissions, or nominations.

“Oh, wow you’ve made a lot of stuff…” Nicki said, looking around the room.

“Yeah I’ve been working on some new things, not really ready to show them yet.” Travis seemed like he was distracted with his own work. He hadn’t turned to look at Nicki since they walked in.

“You have a very…unique…aesthetic.” she said, looking for words that didn’t uncover her disappointment. Not willing to give up, she scanned the room to find something worth mentioning. She had nearly given up until she found a band poster. “Hey! The Cloudchasers! You listen to them?”

“Yeah, they’re pretty cool. I’ve liked them since before they changed their name. Their new stuff is kind of derivative though. I hate it when that happens to artists…”

“Yeah, it’s real shame.” agreed Nicki. She was a fan of all of their albums, but didn’t feel like bringing it up. She wanted her new friend to think she was cool.

“Well hey, do you want to level up some? This week they’re running a special Steampunk dungeon with limited loot drops and blueprints, wanna party up?”

“Of course!” Nicki said.

It was about 2 am before she signed off. Playing Tower with Travis was different. He knew how to rush through levels and skip straight to the rewards. Not her style of play, but fun with a friend. Her days began to fall into a rhythm. She woke up, checked her messages, worked out, then worked on her art.  By 8, she had enough done that she’d decide to play Tower for an hour or two. Travis only had time to talk to people if they were playing as often as he was, so they only spoke when Nikki had time to play. As the days became weeks, months piled together and Nicki decided it was time to see the real world again. She’d ask Travis to coffee but he never followed through. Sometimes he’d miss the message, some days he’d respond that he was busy. Most days he was playing Tower, and only made it outside for chores. He wouldn’t come out for Nicki’s birthday that February, something about a limited time reward that day. He couldn’t make it to the Cloudchaser’s concert either, citing their lack of originality and the new Raid being far more important. He would have gone dancing with her if it weren’t guild night, and he couldn’t find time in his schedule to video chat at all. By the time summer rolled in Tower had announced their annual contest, the same contest Travis had won only a few years back. She IMed him immediatly.

(Nicki): Hey! Did you see the summer competition?

(Travis): Yeah, it’s cool. Think I’m gonna skip it this year though.

(N): Why?

(T): Not feeling it, I mean I’ve already won once so like, what’s the point? I’m still making bank off my first prize winner and I’ve gotta earn a bit more rep before I can grow the size of my instance.

(N): Oh. Ok. I thought it’d be cool if maybe we could work on something together? Maybe I could make a creature and you could give it a weapon? That way we could both be in two categories. You’d be in Weapons and Monsters, and I’d be in Monsters and Pets!

(T): Uhm, yeah maybe! DM me later and I’ll get back to you.

Nicki focused on her work and sent him the direct message as he asked. He never got back to her.

It had been another year and a half before Nicki would hear back from Travis again. She woke up that morning to find a DM from his account.  She flipped her phone face down, crawling out from under her sheets in a way that wouldn’t wake up David. She put on last year’s yoga pants, pocketed her phone and passed her roommate’s bedroom door.  She started tightening the waist of her pants as she walked downstairs. She was going to have to buy a smaller size soon.  She checked her phone for messages and scrolled past the usual. A few invoices from clients that wanted pets tailored for them, weekly profits from her ingame store, a reminder to call her mother and a notification telling her to buy plane tickets this week. She was going to visit her brother and his kids.

She stared at the message from Travis. His icon was the same, so was his avatar. Travis wanted to know if Nicki had time to get coffee that week.  That thursday, specifically. She thought about not answering, but decided that honesty was the best policy.

“Sorry, I can’t.” She typed, “I’m seeing the Cloudchasers with my boyfriend that evening.”