#quest.

Fashion, Ellie decided, was stupid.

Granted, it had been worse back home. Designers cut holes in a sweater and sold it for thousands, and practicality seemed to be the last priority on people's minds. She'd known one girl at her school who seemed to be trying to get away with wearing as little as she could, every day. Once she had to be taken to hospital for hypothermia. Why people couldn't just wear whatever worked best she'd never know. Ellie had gotten by with shirts and jeans, and no-one had cared.

Now she stood in the markets at Swynden, and cursed her luck that she'd managed to come across a dilemma involving fashion of all things. Fighting off a bat that morning, the claws of the stupid creature had ripped part of the tunic she wore. It was the basic starter armor, and not something she'd expected to last for long, but right about now she was considering turning back the way she'd come and making do. But the logical part of her brain disagreed, and so she made her way towards the armour shops and vendors. 

Lanterns bobbing in the little alcoves they sat in, cut straight into the rock, made the lighting somewhat sporadic, and there were multiple times she had to push an overexcited NPC away from her as they jumped out of the darkness to sell her something. Ellie started wishing some sort of violent bat boss would rampage through the market, just to get them out of the way for a while. 

After half an hour of searching, since apparently JMat had found a way to make the amount of time it took to shop much more realistic, Ellie stopped to lean against a rock wall. So much seemed to be out of her price range, and what she could afford wasn't that much better than what she was already wearing. With a sigh, she pushed herself up, intending to walk back to one of the vendors who had seemed to have the best prices. As she slid past a group of players, a table covered in gaudy fabrics caught her eye. 

Turning to have a look, Ellie lifted up a heavy piece. Immediately she could see that they weren't made for fighting- it looked like a long, flowing dress, a strange mix of fantasy style archetypes and medieval costumes. And, on some level, she thought it was beautiful. At that moment, there was nothing more she wanted than to buy it, ignoring all sensibility of how to store it or when she was going to actually use it, but the price quickly dragged her back to earth. It was worth more than everything she was wearing, carrying and using combined, and she replaced it on the table with a hurried smile. 

One of the first things Ellie had splurged on was a tiny leatherbound notebook and a pen of sorts. It seemed inconsequential, but she'd always been an organised person, and she knew that having somewhere to jot down reminders or sketch more detailed maps might be helpful eventually. Thanking the NPC, even though she didn't really need to, she perched herself on a stack of empty crates in a corner and started to write.

I refuse to start this with 'Dear Diary' because I'm not eight any more and it's a waste of my time. This might be the only time I write about the real world in here anyway, so no point using up space. 

I don't want to go back. I made my mind up the second we were told we couldn't leave. I guess I should probably be thanking JMat. There will be things I think I'll miss, though. Apple pie for one. What I'd do for a huge slice with ice-cream right now. Lord of the Rings too. And concerts and skydiving and visiting Logan him. 

But there's too much that I won't miss. I don't want to pay taxes and have to worry about politics. This, here, is the way life should be. Your own strength can take you anywhere. Is that selfish? Wanting to stay when other people leave for the ones they love?

It's funny; I don't want to forget what it was like but I'd rather not remember. Maybe my opinion will change if I get to level 100. 

Ellie x.

Space, Ellie thought, had always been one of the greatest things about the real world. Games could be beautiful, with their floating cities or underwater metropolises, but they somehow failed to capture the sheer scale and power of the glittering stars- how infinitesimally small they made you feel. She'd always had a shortcut on the desktop of her computer straight to the Hubble telescope site, and she'd often while away hours staring at the colourful, almost painting-like images. 

Of course, she'd never really seen anything like that. Even on the outskirts of the city, even in the depths of the night, it was too light to see more than the occasional twinkle. Did astronauts see that sort of thing, she sometimes wondered, or was space really just the void people talked about? She knew she'd never be considered smart enough to get out of the planet, not in her lifetime. So Ellie made do with pixels and her imagination, for little could rival the latter.

Naxis was nothing short of incredible. It was more real than she could have imagined, and that was one thing, but the night sky was another. As soon as the sun drifted over the horizon, the darkness started to sparkle with countless points of light, clustered in streaks across the vista and shining alone. That was what really separated this world and home, Ellie thought. Sometimes reality and Naxis weren't dissimilar- there was currency and trading and exploration and learning- but never once had she seen a sky like this, not even when she and Logan had once camped out in the middle of nowhere to watch a meteor shower.