Assigned Task 1: Record a cover song. Upload to YouTube and the Pixie Portal when finished!
"Literally, how do the physics of the internet work…" I thought to myself. The task didn't seem that hard however.
"Maybe it won't be so bad…"
When I exited the portal, there I was, in a small room, where the light was dimly lit except for one corner. There… on what looked like an expensive gaming chair sat…
"SKILL ISSUE DAYO…"
Sat Calypso, whose image matched pretty much exactly to the profile picture given to me outside of her hair that was tied up in a way which I was sure somehow related to maximizing gaming mechanic efficiency.
"WHOOOOOO let's gooooooooooooooo"
-GOOD GAME… YOU WIN!-
The screen read.
"Oh, good timing," I thought as I began to approach her.
"Hello Calypso! My name is Sol and… Calypso?"
As I looked closer, it appeared she had headphones on as she began queuing up for another game. Hastily, I flew up towards where she could hear me.
"Calypso? Calypso!?"
"AHHHH" She let out a screech dropping her mouse when she saw me.
"Okay, don't be startled, let me introduce myself… my name is…"
"IRL DEMON FAIRY AHHHHHH"
*Bam*
She swung her hand down swatting me and sending me flying towards the wall.
"Owwww… what the hell?"
It's a good thing our bodies were made of pixie elastics meaning we couldn't get hurt in this world.
"You… you can talk?" Calypso asked, staring at me, "were those brownies I ate earlier… wait no, I'm on T-break."
"No no… this is for sure not your drugs," I said dusting myself off, "believe it girl, this is real life,"
I smiled looking at her for I had prepared for this moment.
"FOR IT IS I," I did a pose pointing at myself with my thumbs, "Your star light Pixie, Sol!"
"…"
"…"
I stood there awkwardly maintaining my pose as Calypso blankly continued to stare at me.
"Pretty cool, right?"
She began to walk towards me. Her messy hair waving around in a rather charming manner.
"Calypso? Wait, what are you… Calypso?"
"OMG SO CUTE!!!!!!"
"Umpf"
She knelt down and picked me up, squeezing me for a hug.
"OMG OMG OMG, what's your name?"
"It's… Sol," I managed to get out as her suffocating hug continued.
"Like… Aurelian?"
"Aurelian?"
"Heh heh sorry…" she chuckled, "you said you were a pixie, right?"
"That's our species, yes,"
"Your species speaks English?"
I rolled my eyes.
"It is humans who copied our language actually…it's Pixie tongue…"
"But…"
"Ignore what the history books say!"
"Uhh…"
"Ignore them!"
I gave her my best intense stare for indeed plagiarism was a serious issue close to my heart.
"Umm… alright, whatever you say, magical fairy man!"
"It's Pixie!" I shrieked irritated… so much so that my wings popped out of my back, "We are much different than the fairies! Do I look like I have 4 wings? That's for wannabe showoffs at the fairy academy! We get 2 because that's the most efficient!"
"Ohhh… pretty!"
She leaned down and began to pat my wings… which did feel kind of good actually… but I wasn't going to say that out loud to some noob I just met.
"Hey, watch it," I said instead, flying into the air to be at her head level, "These aren't just given to anyone you know… only the academy graduates!"
"Academy?" she said tilting her head, "What, let me guess, is there some kind of magical school from a magical land that you're from?"
"Umm… yes actually? It was quite prestigious! Top of the state in fact!"
"Wait, really?"
"Yes… in fact I had to take several exams to get in that took quite a bit of studying. Do you have any idea how hard mastering rhythm tests are? It's not like we were born with wings; it's a tool that each of us had to master to… HEY… ARE YOU LISTENING?"
"Huh… no sorry… one of my noob friends wants to play ranked…"
"…"
"Alright, hold on, I got to carry some scrubs really quick, give me one sec."
"… are you…"
But she had already put on her headset and was back in position to play another game. The academy had taught us several protocols of what to do. From the human's perspective, we were, as the professor called us… supernatural occurrences. Some humans were known to freak out and call the police. In such a scenario, we were trained to sprinkle pixie dust putting them to sleep. Most however… were looking for change in their life and accepted us rather easily. But at no point in the academy… did they teach the "girl is so dedicated to gaming that I'm completely ignored despite being a supernatural phenomenon" protocol.
"Hey, are you listening! What the fuck…"
"Yeah, what's up what's up noob! Aiight, let's stomp some chumps."
"You can game later! This is important Calypso… don't you want to know why I'm here?"
She didn't even look at me.
"No wait, go mid, I'll go jungle this game, I've been practicing!"
"Hey, Hey…"
I tried waving my hand in front of her to which she quickly swatted away.
"Sorry… some pixie just showed up in my room and I am trying to chat restrict him Irl!"
"…"
"No no, I'm on T-break! I swear, there's a pixie here…"
"Calypso! This is very important… if you don't follow my instructions… Calypso?"
She looked at me extremely annoyed. Before I could do anything else, she grabbed me by the wing and threw me against the wall.
"Oww…" I said, falling off the wall like a fly. It's a good thing we were immortal in this dimension.
"No wait! I swear I am not on drugs! Huh? I don't know… aliens or something? Jane? Jane?!?! Wait no… Jane, don't go! I'm sober, I swear I won't feed! Jane? Jane?! Urgh…"
She walked over and stood over me.
"Look what you've done! Now I can't duo queue because my friend thinks I'm on drugs and won't take the game seriously!"
I sighed… dusting myself off and flew up to her face.
"Look… my reports say your obsession with video games is why I was assigned your pixie in the first place. Maybe it's for the better that you can't duo and instead focus on something more important such as…"
"What?!?! There are things more important than video games?"
"…"
"…"
We stared at each other blankly for a moment before Calypso began to go back to her computer and solo qu…
"YES, THERE ARE THINGS MORE IMPORTANT…"
Enraged myself now, I went and pulled the plug on her computer.
*Gasp*
. She held a hand to her mouth.
"Young lady… I have received reports that you have played record hours of video games in the past 3 months. If you continue playing video games, then…"
I stopped talking for a moment as…
"But but…"
"Wait no… please don't…"
"BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
The adult woman began sobbing uncontrollably.
"Okay… just…"
Calypso decided to jump on her bed at that moment, turning away from me.
"Mmmmmm…."
She let out a whimper.
"Umm… Calypso are you?"
"Go away! I don't need a magical fairy!"
"It's pixie…"
"Whatever… I can just play Zelda… speaking of which…"
She suddenly turned around, face brightening up and reaching under her bed grabbing what looked like a Gameboy advance with a Zelda cartridge already loaded in.
"Let me get this straight…" I said flying close to her as she began loading the game. "From your perspective… I am literally a supernatural being from another world…"
"Yeah?" She said not even turning to face me, "So?"
"You would rather spend your time with a digital not real pixie…"
"Well yeah! They're not as bossy as you!"
"…"
I sighed, flying in front of her face this time.
"NONE OF THAT IS REAL LIKE ME THO…"
I snatched the game boy and threw it back under the bed.
"Grrr…" She said looking at me annoyed, "what do you even want? Can't a girl game in peace?"
"No… not when…"
"Let me guess… the world needs saving?"
"Umm… well…more like…"
"Am I the 'chosen one' or something cliché like that? '
"Well, I mean… in a way…"
"Boooooooorrrrriiiiiiiinggggggg" she said, reaching under another part of her bed and pulling out this time what looked like a Nintendo Switch.
"That's like every Fire Emblem game!"
"…"
"Why would I want to do your silly 3D quest when I can play this instead! Especially when you're not nearly as hot as Marth!"
"…BECAUSE THAT'S A VIDEO GAME CHARACTER…"
I snatched the Switch and threw it under the bed again.
"And this is a real-world task I need you to do…"
"What? But I don't care about the real world… why do I do have to save it?"
"No… it's actually not even that dramatic… you're not saving your world Calypso…"
"Then?"
"We just need some energy to power our society… but let me tell you why you should help anyways."
I got out from the pocket of my jacket, a packet, handing it to Calypso.
"What's this?"
"Just a quick info guide of what we're actually here for."
I gave her a stern expression.
"Because Calypso…I'm going to make you…"
I waved my hand in the air.
"A star!"
"…"
"…"
"Like in Mario Party?"
"…"
"What? Do they have that in your universe? I mean if you want, we can play a round and…"
"YES, THEY HAVE MARIO PARTY… NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT…"
I sighed, making her sit back down before she reached for a Nintendo Wii that was also under her bed…
"What I mean is… a real star."
"Huh? Like in outer space? I don't know what happens to you pixies… but physically, us humans…"
"NO, AS IN…"
I paused for a moment trying to remember exactly what the academy taught me to say.
She tilted her head.
"As in?"
"As in… you'll be able to give a performance in front of a large audience… in as artistic of a way as possible…and receive grand applause!"
She continued to look at me confused.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Because… us pixies need the stardust."
"Stardust?"
I pointed to a part of the packet I just handed to her.
"Yes… stardust. Stardust is gathered when there is a large audience of people who watch the show you performed. Or when you get views for performances on the internet. Us pixies need it to fuel our society."
She quickly began reading the rest of the brochure.
"Don't worry… you won't be able to see the stardust yourself. It's something I'll gather from the audience's applause afterwards. You just have to be the one to generate the stardust from the audience…"
"Uhhh… I mean…"
She finished reading the packet and set it down.
"Why me? Couldn't you like… I don't know… pick an actual musician or something?"
"There's some history as to why that is that I'm not going to go over right now… Other Pixie academies in fact pick people who have already displayed incredible talent, but our specific academy is only assigned to artistic rejects!"
"…"
She sighed, sitting onto her bed.
"I never did really see the point of all that. Why do I need other people to acknowledge me when hot video game characters can instead?!?!"
"…"
"…"
"What?"
"BECAUSE THOSE AREN'T REAL PEOPLE…"
"…so?"
"…"
"…"
I sighed, sitting down next to her.
"Have you ever received audience applause for something you've done?"
"Uhhh…"
"…"
"Well, this one time I beat my friend so bad at Super Smash Brothers he started crying, and then my other friends began applauding. Does that count?"
"…how many other friends were there?"
"Uhh… 3 others?"
"Then no…"
"What? Why not? Because it was gaming? This is gamer oppression!"
"No… actually, showing off professional level gaming skills is a perfectly acceptable way of gathering stardust…"
"Oh… well why didn't you say so? Time to get back to gaming then since…"
I flew up and sat down on her stomach before she could get back up.
"Hey, what the heck! I thought you said…"
"That's not efficient based on what our data of you says. You should just follow the guide set by the academy."
"I don't have to do anything!" she said, pushing me off the bed, "in fact, why do I care about all this Mr. Aurelian?
"It's Sol… Sol Ying."
She squinted at me.
"You're sure… it's not Aurelian?"
"No… and like I said… us pixies use stardust as an energy source to keep our civilization running. So, while you won't be directly saving the universe or anything… just know you will be doing all of this for a good cause!"
"…"
"…"
"Great…" she said, starting to reach under her bed again for another gaming device.
"And why should I care about doing that? I could work for a charity if I really wanted to…"
"Well, what do you do now?"
"I'm in grad school and interning for a gaming company!"
"…and your future plans?"
"I plan to get fully hired at the company! Hopefully as a product tester!"
"…"
"…"
"Sigh…"
I didn't want to do this… but for the particularly unmotivated it had to be done. The offer we can give in case of emergencies the academy had deemed okay...
"You've left me no choice then Calypso… for us pixies don't really have a choice in who we are assigned… I can offer you however… the one thing I know you secretly desire most."
She raised an eyebrow.
"You can get me copies of unreleased Animal Crossing Games?"
"Even better…" I replied, "I can take you into… a video game itself!"
"What?"
"Yeah, like instead of just seeing a game on a screen? Wouldn't you want to… actually… go into a game world?"
She thought this over for a moment. Then for another moment… and then a dumb grin began appearing on her face.
"Wait… go into the world and like… meet the characters too?"
"…yes… you can meet Marth."
"ALRIGHT, I'M IN!"
"Okay… but be warned that…"
I thought about, in that moment, explaining the conditionals of how the characters would have no idea who she was if we succeeded but then thought better of it as I did not want to think of another motivational method…
"Be warned that?"
"Uhh… nothing, just that… the tasks aren't going to be easy!"
"Well, let's start at least! You should have just led with the reward! What do we have to do. Sing something basic? Write movies like Shakespeare? How hard could it be?"
"Shakespeare was a playwriter…"
I sighed, then pulled from my pocket a tablet displaying the list of tasks.
"Let's see… the first one's pretty easy, all you have to do is…"
"What?"
"All you have to do is…"
"What?"
"…on second thought, let's start with the second task."
"What?!? How hard could the first task be, let me see that!"
She snatched the tablet from my hand and held it close to her face since it was quite the small tablet relative to her size.
"Wait no…"
"It says here the first task is to… record a cover song? Well, what's so hard about that? It even says here what the datapoint of my favorite song is!"
"Yes… but do you know Korean?"
"Uhh…"
"Exactly…"
"Well, I can just do an English song! How about Avril?!? Why'd you have to go make things so complicated?!?!"
"…"
"What? THIS ISN'T SO HARD… I've done this on Rock Band!"
"Singing alone is not the same as recorded singing, dear Calypso… your pitch is a bit off right now. The second task is objectively easier."
"Which is?"
"Recording a short 10 second dance."
"WHAT… no way…"
She curled into ball.
"Dan… dancing?!?! That's way more difficult! Don't you have to like… memorize intense movements and stuff?!?"
"Yeah! That's not too bad! And then you just post online after! You don't even have to perform it live or anything yet!"
"WHAT…"
She began rolling around in her curled ball.
"That's way harder than live! There are like… total creeps online or worse…"
She darted her eyes back and forth.
"Redditors."
"You don't have to do a lewd dance just…"
The advice from the professor's lectures was coming to me now.
Flashback 1 year ago in Professor Palavi's lecture
Professor Palavi: Okay, so today's lesson is on motivation.
She wrote the word onto the blackboard.
Professor Palavi: Can anyone tell me what is the number one motivating factor for humans to do artistic tasks?
One of my classmates raised his hand.
Professor Palavi: Yes, Robles?
Robles: Money?
Professor Palavi: Ohhh… good answer, that's in the top 5. Unfortunately, we can't offer money to humans…
Another one of my classmates raised her hand.
Professor Palavi: Yes Laura.
Laura: Love?
The Professor Smirked.
Professor Palavi: Another good answer! But not number one. Many people have found love without turning to art. It certainly helps, but it's not a pre-requisite.
No one else raised their hand.
Professor Palavi: Well, that's not a surprise. Humans are complicated, aren't they? Let me tell you class… the real number 1 motivation of why humans make art is…
Flashback to the present
I remembered the words the Professor had told me clearly.
"Just… do what dance best expresses you."
"Represents me?"
"Yeah like… what dance do you think… defines you? It doesn't have to be original by the way… the starting tasks are always covers."
"Hmm… represents me, represents me… I know!"
She began swinging her hips back and forth and waving her hands around.
"Uhhh…"
It seemed quite basic for a dance.
"This is what Bob does in animal crossing!"
"Oh really… I never would have guessed…"
"What!?!? You said any dance! Surely this is acceptable!"
I blushed a bit as her smile was very warm as she did the silly dance. Pixies didn't look too different from humans despite the size difference. Her messy hair only added to her aesthetic.
"No no… it's fine, just…"
"Whooo whoooooooo"
I smiled, I was glad she was having fun at least.
"If you feel like it represents you… then sure, that'll work."
The second part of the lecture was also coming back to me now.
Flashback Part 2:
Professor Palavi: Yep! The day-to-day life of a human is quite mundane, mostly consisting of sitting in a corporate office all day as their soul rots! Many need an outlet to be an individual and not part of a machine.
Another one of my classmates raised his hand.
Professor Palavi: Yes Dame.
Dame: Yo, I know all about expressing myself. Do humans really care just as much?
Professor Palavi: They do Dame, mere mortals, unlike us Pixies, even more so, since they have a finite lifespans.
Dame: Dang… that's wild.
Professor Palavi: Yes, it is. But maybe not for the same reasons as we think. It's definitely… different, when your time is finite… and there have been so many humans in general throughout history. I guess you can say for them… in such a finite amount of time, it's too easy to feel…
Flashback to Present:
"Do you feel less alone when you do that dance?"
"Huh?"
Calypso stopped for a second and gave me a weird look.
"Where the hell did that come from? I just do it because it's fun."
"No but… you feel less lonely right? Since it's like…"
I tried to come up with the right words.
"Since like… you're always gaming by yourself. Not interacting with others except on discord. And you live alone too. Don't you just… feel less alone when you did that dance? Since you know other people would recognize the same thing you did?"
"…"
"I don't know, it's just like…"
"I have no fucking idea what you're yapping about Pixie man…"
"Oh no, I was just…"
"Also, I don't live alone, I have a roommate… who's out right now…"
"Huh?"
This was not in Professor Palavi's reports at all… and this is not the first time I wondered how Professor Palavi earned all her credentials while sleeping through many of the lectures… not that I didn't as well, but that's not the point.
"Yeah… she's on a trip with the orchestra she plays for. She should be back later this week though. Hold on… explain again why I specifically was assigned to collect stardust? You know my roommate is a grammy winner, with multiple theater performances and ballet merits, right?"
"Even if she is… it's our academy specifically that gets assigned to people who historically did not show much interest in entertainment before."
"That sounds like something you made up on the spot…" Calypso snapped, "But who am I to question a magical pixie that just appeared in my room…"
"Uh-huh… and how did you become roommates with…"
"Rachel?"
"That's her name?"
"Yeah… Rachel, Rachel Alto! Oh… well you see…"