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The player had been stationary at the edges of her domain for around the past ten minutes. That was longer than any player who stumbled upon her domain. Understandably, it made Stress curious what happened to them.
With flowers trailing behind her with every step, Stress quickly approached the player's location. She quickly found her, passed out against an azalea tree. The cuts along her arms alongside the bruise on her forehead conveyed the entire situation clearly — she needed medical attention.
With a gentle swipe of her hand, vibes burst out from the ground, lifting the player up. And her shield too. Stress can't just leave her belongings lying about.
Thankfully, her injuries weren't deep. Stress only needed to dab on some ointment before dressing all her wounds. In the process, she heard her communicator buzz, message after message; each from a different sender. Out of respect for her privacy, Stress didn't nosy any further (even if it really made her curious how she ended up in her earlier state).
As she gently applied a cold tower onto the player's head to help with her bruise, her vines coiled towards her shield, adorning it with alliums and other flowers. Stress couldn't help but to laugh at her vines' antics; she'd have to check with the player later if she was fine with the temporary extra flora.
A while later, the player awoke. "Who are you?" Groggily, she mumbled. She attempted to sit up but that only resulted in a groan as her wounds protested.
Finally snapping out of the daze her intense gaze put her in, Stress explained, "I found ya at the edge of my domain so I took ya in and dressed ya wounds."
"Domain?"
"Nature spirit luv,"
She paused for a moment, "ah, I see."
"Is sumthin' wrong?"
"No! It's just that you're the first nature spirit I've met. Funny, considering all the hybrids and species on my server." The player quickly explained before any misunderstanding arose. "False Symmetry by the way. Thought it'd be rude to not give my name to someone who helped me."
"Stress Monster, though Stress works just fine,"
"Thank you Stress. I'd probably be in much worse shape if you didn't find me."
"Well, ya were in my domain,"
False got up, dusting off any of the spores that still clung onto her outfit. "I should get going. The rest of them are probably all worried about me."
Stress thought back to her buzzing communicator, "they definitely are. Were messaging ya nonstop while I was treatin' ya."
False turned to face her, eyes widened. She mouthed something before fumbling with her communicator, eyes scanning through message after message that had been left unread. "Oh god I'm the last one to reply." she furiously typed a message before closing it and letting out a sigh of relief.
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah, just told everyone I was safe and apologised for not replying earlier."
The use of the word 'safe' piqued Stress' curiosity even more, "if ya don't mind askin', what led ya here?"
False sheepishly scratched her head, "well, my server is in the process of moving to a new one to start from scratch again." She started, "we kinda just picked a random open world to rest in but didn't realise it was night here so we immediately got hounded by mobs."
"Does anyone else need medical attention?"
"Not that I know of," False shook her head, "I think everyone else ended up in a pair or a group so any injuries were immediately treated. I'm pretty much the only one who ended up alone after everything settled."
"Well, ya can't really say dat when ya 'ere with me,"
"True, but I really should get going." A pang of sadness shot through Stress. Even though she had known False for the better part of a few minutes, she didn't want her to leave.
"Can I follow along?" Before she knew it, Stress had blurted out the question in her head.
"Huh?"
"Oh my god I'm so sorry luv! I just said that without really thinking!" She hurriedly apologised. "Silly me."
"N-no! It's fine!"
"Soooo can I?"
Stress looked at her with her best pleading face, oblivious to the growing blush on False's cheeks. "Y-yeah, sure!" False finally replied. "The guys are probably dying to know who helped me anyway…"
Stress cheered before reciting a quick spell, letting her body turn into the same flower crown of alliums that she wore. Sure, she could've introduced herself normally but where was the fun in that?
False blinked multiple times, "Stress?"
"Yes?" She replied, hopping up and down.
"Just making sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me." False continued, bending down to pick her up.
Stress couldn't help but to laugh, "it's alright, everyone pretty much has the same reaction to this."
Making sure Stress was sitting securely on her head, just like her own pair of goggles, False proceeded to ask, "by the way, where's my shield?"
"In the corner next to the table." She did her best to hold back her laughter, knowing full well that her vines completely transformed it.
"Oh my god…" False mumbled as her eyes landed on her shield. "Did you…?"
"My vines. They 'av a mind of their own." Stress quickly clarified as False walked over to inspect her "new" shield.
"I mean, they have a taste for design." She commented, gently running a finger along the chain of flowers.
"Really?"
"Mhm." False put on her shield as one of her vines dropped down from above to give her a poke on the cheek as a way of saying 'Thank you'. "You sure they won't get lonely or anything?"
"They'll be fine, I've gone to sleep for months and they didn't kick up a fuss. Less than a day should be nothing." Though a part of Stress wanted this trip to last far longer than a day, to spend more time with False.
"I'm pretty sure that's called hibernation, Stress."
"Hey! Rude!"
False raised her hands in a pretend surrender, "whatever you say."
Stress laughed. If she could see herself, she wouldn't be surprised if there was the unmistakable pink blush present on her cheeks. Regardless of what happens while meeting False's servermates, Stress could only hope that this won't be their last time meeting.