Luke and Rebecca had been off and on boyfriend and girlfriend for nearly three years now. They each had broken off to see other people and then returned to each other twice during that time. There was something about each of them that they loved in each other… but there just came up and had differences that seemed to great to get beyond, and those would be the times they would agree to just be friends.
The thing was, for the most part, they had succeeded in that regard. They would still go see movies together, hang out at the mall sometimes, and even head to a Con when they weren't currently together. It made their current partners at the time a bit uneasy, but they all seemed to get over themselves as time went on. It wasn't all sunshine and flowers, but their relationship hovered above average more than the few spikes below the average.
Originally, Rebecca had dumped Luke when she discovered he was bisexual. She went through two boyfriends while Luke had one of his own for a while. The two got back together and later and Luke couldn't stand Rebecca going out and getting shitfaced with her girls every Friday night instead of having time with him… or maybe with him and his friends. They each had their differences, and they had come to the surface in the past.
What changed everything, though, was when Rebecca mentioned one day that she was expecting a package and had to get home in a hurry… a Total Immersion Suit, she'd said. Luke, having had his for already two months, was surprised to find that Rebecca was getting one, as only one game supported it: Prince Herald's Unfinished Kingdom. The two met online, and began the slow trek back to being together once again.
Nearly two months had passed and Luke and Rebecca hung out more in PHUK than they did in real life… mostly because of the far-off settings of The Kingdom. They each played characters that identically resembled themselves. They went for walks along alien beaches, dove under the ocean to swim with the fishes, and even took a land rover across the surface of the moon. The had steak and wine dinners, and went to go see some epic Player Versus Player arena battles. All in all, they kept themselves true to how they were, while experiencing the fantastic settings that The Kingdom could provide.
They had other characters they sometimes played together, and other characters they would play solo or with guildmates, but they always had boyfriend-girlfriend time as themselves. They didn't have Linked Accounts, though… something that would allow them to keep the same Experience Level as the other person they were linked with. That complicated things sometimes (as the other characters), but since they agreed to only play 'Themselves' when they were together, they managed to keep their levels on those characters almost identical.
Yesterday, when the announcement came about the system-hack, Luke and Rebecca stayed up all night talking about the situation on the phone. They each had stayed away from logging into the The Kingdom in the meantime, hoping the situation had been fixed… but like many video game players, they had become impatient after putting off their time together for a whole day.
An unusual situation arose, however, when they each logged in to The Kingdom. In the grand scheme of the universe, a joke was played on them. Though neither of them had linked accounts, the two each saw in their 3D Courtyard of Character Selection that they managed to have their exact duplicates of Luke and Rebecca standing in the halls. The joke? They were on the opposite accounts.
Luke studied the image of Rebecca. He knew that his own figure was identical to himself in every way. Submitting full body scans had allowed the precision of PHUK engine to duplicate him exactly in the game world. No changes, no embellishes. He and Rebecca had already spent time under the covers before, so she would have known he 'improved' himself if he changed anything. The same was true for her as well.
Now, here she is, Luke thought to himself as he moved his ghostly hand up through Rebecca's curly black hair. Her skin had that slight-olive color like her father, it was true. She was just a hair shorter than he was, dressed in her white and hunter green school uniform with her black undies somewhat visible through the white. A gray and brown backpack was slung over her shoulder and she was wearing a green dress. She was also, for the moment, his character.
Half a city away, Rebecca was inside The Kingdom at her own creation screen looking at a copy of Luke. He was just a hair taller than she was, his brown hair and green eyes staring off as if he was a mannequin. Currently he wore a soccer jersey that resembled his college one and had on dark blue jeans that hugged his legs tight. It was strange to think that she wanted to hang out with him tonight, and here he stood. He was her character.
The real Rebecca and Luke walked up and down their stone walkways of the grassy courtyard of their respective Character Select areas. They had gone quite over friendspeak after each discovering the truth of their situation. They both wanted to hang out, and they had their characters right here. They just each had the wrong character.
"Well?" Luke asked, not certain of the situation.
"More than a little strange," Rebecca commented back across the chat. "What do you think?"
"Well, I don't know. I suppose I'd be alright with it if you were," Luke offered. "We've been together enough time, and no one else would have to know," he added.
He is Bi, Rebecca thought internally. "Well…" she started…