Rat!’. Orion sat bolt upright, dislodging the startled pest. With a dismayed squeal the rat-thing dashed off, wheels spinning furiously.


    heavily, which wasn’t helped by the thin air. His vision started to get a bit red at the edges. He used a breathing exercise his therapist taught him to avoid panic attacks, and eventually he was able to climb back to his feet. Foot, he mentally corrected.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    This must have been a memory he watched, because the new figures were mostly whole, but had more pixilated chunks missing, and their faces were completely randomized. A blurry mosaic of colors obscured any recognizable features aside from their bodies.


    The tailed one folded their arms, asking casually, “So, why are we meeting here in the Sea of Souls with a brand new ship? This isn’t exactly a newbie friendly area.”


    The suit of armor interjected, “Well, we’re not exactly newbies. We’ve been playing Seas of Spiritus for years. The main reason we’re restarting is because the latest DLC has a bunch of new content that isn‘t compatible with our old save files.”


    “


    Starbeard stopped pacing in front of her, “I didn’t hear about that. I’m sorry Silky.”


    Silky shrugged, “It wasn’t public knowledge. We don’t want people knowing the game was hacked, or thinking we were collecting data. I’d never allow that.”


    The short one patted the knight’s hand comfortingly, “It’s not too bad being down here as level one characters. SoS is mostly skill based, anyway. Our equipment is under leveled, sure, but a good strategy can compensate for that. And we know the strats.”


    Orion’s attention snapped to the moment the short one spoke. That was the voice he kept hearing! He tried to float closer but the scene continued as normal. He felt an intense longing to be closer to him but was helpless to do anything except observe the conversation.


    Starbeard stepped to the middle of the group. “I know this isn’t the usual way to do things. Normally, you start at the Sea of Stone and work your way towards either the Sea of Souls or the Sea of Stars. But I wanted to do something for a long time. An epic journey across all seven seas. As you know, Star-Lynx finally released the Sea of Serenity, the last realm we haven’t explored. I wanted us to travel from the very lowest sea, battle all the bosses and work our way up to the very top level. One last saga to complete our journey together. After all, this game is how we all met.


    The crew looked at one another and came together to virtually shake hands and voice their agreements. They turned to Starbeard expectantly.


    Starbeard beamed, “Okay friends! Let’s start the stream! Our last adventure in Seas of Spiritus is about to begin!”


    Everyone cheered. But as they turned to start their stream announcements or tend to other ship tasks, Orion watched Starbeard carefully. For a brief moment the Orc’s gaze flicked down with a worried expression. It was gone in an instant, and Orion wondered if he’d just imagined it. Before he could contemplate the meaning behind that, Orion felt himself pulled away from the scene and the world went dark again.