In the morning Danika made faces at herself in the mirror in her bathroom, and scolded aloud, "You should act more like a grown-up and take control of your own gaming schedule." She felt as tired after her day off as she had been while trying to work a regular shift and complete the quest for 10,000 acorns. There were even still shadows under her eyes this morning.

With the new skills ZipZing had learned, her accumulated level was 8 points more than her Karma balance again. If she didn't play "Living Jade Empire" for a week, and just logged on once a day to collect the new login bonus, she'd be caught up. Danika stuck her tongue out at herself in the mirror and admitted that she wasn't going to do that, but she told herself firmly that she'd get more sleep this week.

Despite starting the day out lethargically, she managed to complete her morning exercises and eat something before her grocery delivery arrived. She felt like a squirrel stocking up for winter as she tried to cram everything she'd ordered into the cupboards and chiller that had seemed nearly empty.

She snacked on a plate of vegetables that she'd prepared mostly because the drawer wouldn't shut as she started her next job search. She felt disappointed by the pay offered for most of the small jobs available, and then scolded herself again. The leveling jobs had paid a lot more than usual, and if she started refusing jobs because they didn't pay as much, she wouldn't be working much.

Danika selected a job that barely paid a minimum wage, but looked simple. The poster begged someone to sort and compound their equipment in one of the mobile collection games, and they had chosen one of the more reputable account link sites to hold their account access during the job.

Once she'd accepted and gained access to the account, she could actually see why they were paying someone else to sort it. The person had paid for the maximum inventory space, and apparently played often, but without any kind of organized system. Their inventory was crammed with everything from garbage drops to exclusive items. She began sorting out which items could be compounded to make better items.

Once Danika had a routine going, she propped her phone up beside the screen and opened the "Living Jade Empire" application. She had a message waiting from Logical Heart: "I didn't realize that they interfered with location skills, but it makes sense. Thanks. My guildmate who agreed to sell them in her booth already priced them at 200k. I thought that was crazy, but if you guys agree, that's great."

Danika sent a message to SaltySiamese asking: "What guild are you in?"

She tried logging in to the game to see if the meditation skill was something she could keep going in the background, but discovered that it was almost like a minigame in the mobile version. She had to tap for each breath when the gauge was green. ZipZing was also still a cat and her experience in the elven capital made the busy human capital city feel dangerous, so she logged back out again. Her sorting job needed most of her concentration so she left her phone on the messenger screen and focused on her work.

Aishin sent her a message in the early afternoon, about an hour after she'd stopped and eaten lunch. She thought there was only a bit more to go on the sorting job, so she was trying to finish it up, but his message made her come to an abrupt halt as she read the two words: "Hello sweetie."

Danika wrote, "Sweetie?" but then erased that and sent back, "Who are you?" instead. She had let him pet her, but he always said hi or hey, not hello, and he always called her by her character name. She didn't think she'd ever heard him use a casual endearment toward anyone yet.

She decided that she was probably overthinking it until the reply arrived: "OMG you're hurting my feelings!"

Danika didn't reply. Another message arrived: "I just wanted to ask you something, are you really a girl?"

Danika huffed a laugh. One of Aishin's friends must have his phone. She replied honestly, but obliquely: "I was still a cat when I checked this morning."

Another message arrived before they'd have had time to read her answer: "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Danika snickered, and replied with a return question: "Why? Don't you have a girlfriend?"

She regretted her flippancy a little when the next reply arrived: "Sorry about that. That's a long lasting spell, maybe we should check that you weren't cursed, but I can't play much for a few days. I don't, but I'm not looking for one either. How did you know it wasn't me?"

The screen in front of her still flashed for attention, but Danika sat and stared at her phone. She was pretty sure her cheeks were flaming red. Finally she tried to answer Aishin's question: "The phrasing? I wasn't certain until they replied with the 'oh my god' abbreviation."

Aishin replied: "LOL, should I start calling you sweetie?"

She knew he was just making fun of her but she replied swiftly: "Please don't."

A simple "Ok" was the last response.

Danika returned her attention to the flashing screen in front of her and scolded herself, "Stop blushing you idiot. He's still just a kid anyway."

--

SaltySiamese replied about the time that Danika was submitting the completed sorting job. She finished up before checking it. When she read it her nose wrinkled, it read: "It's funny that you're asking that right now! Until yesterday only Shrubbery had joined a guild, she kept saying how great it was, but none of us wanted to join that gardening club with her. Today the rest of us joined the guild Justin the Grey is in! It's not a big guild, but it's one of the oldest in the game and they still agreed to take us all, even our idiot horse. Cool right?"

Danika replied: "Shrubbery?"

SaltySiamese answered quickly: "Ah, you might remember her as PrincessPrincess? She always says she's still waiting for her knight to take her home? *eye roll* I'll tell her to send you a friend request."

Danika made herself do a couple of chores before pulling herself back into the VR-medi pod. She smiled at her sleeping kitten and dragon sticker as she completed the hook up.

ZipZing was still a cat, which meant that in the game she'd already been a cat for almost four days. She checked her character sheet and it still said reassuringly that she was a Fairy Dragon and a Novice.

After thinking for a few minutes, she turned her feet in the direction that she thought the market lay. It was morning in the game, and Aishin had said that the traveling merchant was usually available during the day.

Seeing the world from the perspective of a housecat was interesting. She was also able to leap impressively high and far, which she discovered when someone almost stepped on her. Everyone ignored her, players and NPCs alike.

She actually checked to make sure that she didn't have her stealth skill activated, and then she activated it out of curiosity. She wondered if being a cat made her ignored, would a stealthy cat be invisible? After awhile she decided that if she wasn't invisible, the effect was pretty close. She had to touch someone before they'd look at her. She turned it off again so that at least they would mostly avoid stepping on her.

She leapt up onto a table and then onto one of the taller booths in the market once she arrived, and scanned the area for the traveling merchant. She finally spotted him talking with a couple of players near the center of the market. She leapt down and trotted in his direction.

Unlike all the other vendors in the market, the traveling merchant watched her approach and greeted her cheerfully, "Good morning ZipZing! Your fur is lovely today."

Danika asked, "Can you tell if I'm under a curse or if this will wear off soon?"

The merchant winked at her and replied, "You'd need to ask an enchanter, or someone from a magical path who has the skills to examine enchantments. I might know an enchanter who's been having some trouble with mice?"

"Ordinary mice?" Danika questioned.

The merchant spread his hands and asked innocently, "Would ordinary mice be able to trouble any reasonably competent enchanter?"

Danika huffed a silent laugh and asked, "Where do I find this enchanter then?"