literature

[C0NSTANTS] The Decision Is In Your Hands

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Jeanne hadn’t logged into Ingressus in over half a month.

Originally, it had been by choice—she had brought up a statistic at random on how long she had been spending in the virtual reality lately, and the numbers had honestly come as a surprise to her. She knew she’d been logging in for quite a while each session, but, well, she supposed all of her time had been spent trying to get away from the log in point. It wouldn’t due for her to lose focus on her studies, she had told herself, and so had taken off her headset after logging out the last time and set it in a desk drawer, where it would be out of sight and out of mind. She would focus on her studies, and re-enter the next time she had the time to spare to make a decision.

It didn’t hurt that she was still scared of her nightmares.

A couple of days later, the only thing Jeanne’s classmates could talk about was a certain Mary Jewess.

Her decision had wavered, her mind repeating the plea from Mary’s parents. They had sounded desperate; Mary’s condition had sounded critical.

She wasn’t sure why Mary had given up on the real world, but she also didn’t know Mary very well after all. In fact, she didn’t know Mary at all. Jeanne only had a vague memory of who Mary was—that quiet girl who had left their impromptu group at the log in point and wandered away to play a nearby piano. The picture she had seen in the news certainly matched the memory, so she could only assume they were the same person.

But everything she knew—long hair, tall, an air of elegance and quiet around her—were superficial details, just as easily gleaned by a 10 second interaction as by the brief description the news report had given of her. Even if Jeanne logged in and tried to convince Mary, what would she even say? “Hi, I’m the girl you met that one time, please come back and live”? She highly doubted the other girl would respond with enthusiasm to that. “Your parents miss you”? Surely, Mary must know that already. “Everyone wants you back”? Jeanne couldn’t say that was 100% true.

Sure, Jeanne hoped that Mary would return to the real world, but it wasn’t out of concern for Mary herself—after all, they were strangers at best. She was concerned, yes, but only as concerned as she could be for a stranger. Mary wasn’t anyone close to Jeanne—they weren’t friends, by any definition of the word. They were barely even acquaintances, united by fate for a brief few seconds before parting ways once more. Jeanne had no obligation to go in and convince her to return, so why should she? Mary must have other friends who would try to help, ones who better understood her, ones who would be able to sympathize and convince her to leave.

Jeanne wondered why she felt guilty.

Her eyes sometimes wandered down to the drawer where she had placed her headset. With the parents’ plea had come rumors on where Mary was—in the middle of the lake, on the island, where Mary had supposedly been granted her own personal domain in the virtual reality. Jeanne knew where it was; she had been to the lake in her last log in, the only time she had logged in after her nightmare. It was a vast stretch of water, and unless she had a boat, she would never be able to make it across. Without a boat, even getting to the lake would be pointless. There was nothing Jeanne could do to help. Surely, one of Mary’s friends would go and help her in Jeanne’s stead?

(Jeanne suddenly remembers her own ex-friends, and the guilty feeling in her chest grows deeper.)

(Maybe if she goes, a miracle will happen.)

(Maybe if she goes, she’ll find the words to convince Mary, despite their unfamiliarity with one another.)

(Maybe if she goes, she’ll finally be able to help.)

(Would Mary welcome her help, or shun it?)

A little later, the Co-CEOs of Ingressus Inc announced the shut down of the servers, rendering any attempts to go online futile.

Just like that, the decision was no longer in her hands.

(Or maybe it never was?)
:iconc0nstants:

iafter being told that Ingressus was no longer available to the public, Jeanne wouldn't even try to log in. she still feels guilty about not going in while she could, though, because she remembers all the friends who had been chased away by her indecision in the past--she doesn't want this to be the reason Mary's friends abandon her. but she also doesn't think they're close enough to be considered friends.

not sure where exactly i was going with this but have jeanne's reaction to the w0 event \ o /


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Always-Tea-Time's avatar
Jeannneeee ;o;;;; babyyyy