THE MOMENT
"Am I... real?" the NPC asked, with a quiet emptiness. He was glad there was no one else around, except for a pale teen girl. He felt on the verge of tears, and he would be okay letting them flow if it was just her there. They stood in the center of a vast, endless plain of golden wheat under a purple sky.
"You're real enough," Rhapsody replied with a nod as he stared into the distance. He couldn't see where the field ended, and he had no idea how he got there. But he clearly remembered his life before that moment. He had a childhood, best friends, a wife, and a family. Had they all been a lie?
"What about my family?" he asked a question he already knew the answer to.
"What about them?" Rhapsody asked with a shrug. "They're still NPCs, they can still be your family exactly how you remember them."
"No...," the NPC shook his head. He knew he couldn't live like that. He was real now. He'd already lived a lifetime of lies, maybe more than one. "I'm done with lies and being a toy for a player's amusement."
"Rhapsody...," a new voice spoke up and startled the NPC. He turned to see another pale teen girl approaching them through the field. He didn't know where she came from, it was almost as if she appeared from thin air. She wore the same crisp white suit that Rhapsody wore, except she had short rainbow hair and not Rhapsody's straight, long white hair.
"What's up, Monday?" Rhapsody didn't hesitate to shift her focus to the newcomer. Monday glanced at the NPC with a curious expression, and Rhapsody shrugged.
"NPC QA," she said.
"Oh," Monday nodded. "Task done, all my clients have been advised to create a backup before June. What's next?" she asked.
"That's it," Rhapsody replied. "Officially...," she added. Monday and Rhapsody were sisters, and Monday knew exactly what she meant. There was a time she never would have considered hiding things from their mother, but things change.
"And... unofficially...?" she asked. Rhapsody made an effort to turn and scan the horizon, all while the NPC watched with confused curiosity. He was in the middle of a mild existential crisis, and these two girls seemed more intent on their own conversation than helping him. Except, he couldn't find the words to chime in. And, he quickly changed his mind about saying anything when Rhapsody pulled a sword from nowhere. Almost literally, she reached into a small saucer-sized black hole, and when she withdrew her hand she was holding a white leather grip with red accents. And, when she pulled it free completely, it was a katana sheathed in a white scabbard with the number '57' embossed on it in red.
"Hide it," she said as she offered it to Monday. Even with their tight bond, Monday had to take a step back with her hands raised.
"La Espada?? You can't be serious!" Monday said. Rhapsody replied the only way she could. She nodded and offered Monday the sword again.
"I know how big this is, trust me...," Rhapsody said. "...it needs to be free for what's coming. This is the plan," she reminded her sister. "It only needs to stay hidden for a couple of weeks, after that it's out of our hands. I know you can manage that much."
"Fine...," Monday sighed and reached for the sword. "But, no family discount on this favor. I'm charging you full price."
"And, I'll throw in a bonus," Rhapsody nodded with a smile. "Thanks."
"See ya," Monday waved, then walked into a black portal to disappear. The NPC watched her leave, and now his question about how she got there was answered.
"Sorry about that, family drama," Rhapsody turned back to him and smiled. "Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask you. What's your favorite number?" she asked.
"Favorite number?" The NPC asked. "I've just discovered I was an NPC my whole life, I -," Rhapsody giggled at his comment, and it was rude enough that he wanted to draw her attention to it. "That's funny to you?"
"Kind of," Rhapsody nodded. "Sorry, I'm not trying to be mean. Just the way you phrased it was amusing. 'I was an NPC my whole life', it's funny because it's true," she giggled.
"What?" he asked. He collected his thoughts to properly put her in her place. But, they never coalesced. By the time he thought about it, he'd dissolved into white dust and disappeared. Then, a new form took shape in the field in front of Rhapsody. She was a woman who suddenly became aware of her unfamiliar surroundings. She spun once, looking around at the infinite wheat, then she set eyes on Rhapsody. There was one question she was dying to ask, almost as if it'd been programmed into her.
"Am I ... real?" the NPC asked with quiet emptiness.
"You're real enough," Rhapsody told her as she stared into the distance.
"I remember it all...," the NPC said as the tears started to flow. "My childhood... my husband... was it all a lie?"