Ficly

Into the Garden

“C’mon, quick… We don’t have much time.”

Marcus waved the rest of us in to the lobby area of the department store, dimly lit during its closed hours. “This is far enough, I can feel the signal from here.”

The four of us stood in a convenient shadow and prepared ourselves. Marcus alone had the skill, but we all had a keen interest in making sure the information locked in the mainframe was properly retrieved.

There was no warning. One moment we were in the store, the next we were standing in a moonlit Japanese garden. We all seemed to be intact, but something was odd about Rinne. Her presence was shifting. First a pixellated mermaid, then a sectionalised half-moon, a yellow smiley face.. It didn’t seem like a glitch, though.

Her voice came from the still changing Avatars. “Sorry I didn’t say anything… My mother used to take me into these places for fun when I was little. It’s been so long I just couldn’t help it.” Her form reverted to the one we knew, and we made our way through the garden.

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