Page 29 of Mary had a Little Harem

"Ummm..." she muttered, not entirely sure what to make of it all. None of her friends gamed. All they did was shop, drink coffee, and gossip. That was all she knew, really.

"Isn't it amazing," Sam added, looking rather proud of himself and their cave.

"Very much so?" Mary hesitantly replied, chewing on her lip. Gaming was a whole different world, one that Mary had never really explored. She always thought it was rather stupid and for nerds who had no friends. Yet, here they were. Three gorgeous men and a girl with annoyingly beautiful features, all together in a decent looking room, chatting away enthusiastically. As far as groups went, Mary had to admit she hadn't met a tighter knit group than this one.

"What kind of games do you play?" she asked, wondering if they would be playing something like... Runescape. Or World of Warcraft. Those were really the only games she had heard about.

"We play RIVER," Noel explained, pointing at a big poster hanging on the wall. Mary studied the five armoured figures posing for the picture and wondered what kind of game this was supposed to be.

"I'm sorry, that doesn't really mean anything to me," she muttered, feeling out of her depth. If it wasn't for them, she would never have touched a video game. Not even with a glove. Yet here she was, surrounded by gaming computers, tacky looking posters, and not to forget, four avid gamers herself.

"It's an open world MMORPG,” Louis grinned.

Mary frowned. “A what?”

“A massively multi online role-player game,” Noel added helpfully, except that that still didn’t mean a thing to Mary.

“A what?” she repeated herself, staring at the group. She didn’t speak nerd.

“It’s basically a massive game where everyone plays together and we all get to pick cool characters,” Nico explained, finally using regular words.

Hang on, let us start the game and you can join us." A doubtful look flashed over Louis' face as he saw Mary's reluctance. Maybe he had gauged this wrong after all. Maybe she'd think they were all nerds and she'd run in the opposite direction. He glanced at the fifth desk, the one that had been gathering dust for a while now. Valerie certainly didn't stay.

Mary inspected the beaming faces of her new group, deciding that trying something new couldn't harm her. If they were this enthusiastic over this gaming thing, it had to be good, right?

"Sure, why not."

Sam and Louis glanced at each other, relieved Mary wasn't running. Yet. They had grown quite fond of the dark-haired woman. There was just something about her vibe that they liked a lot.

With a click and a low rumble, the computers booted to life.

"Here, let me help you," Noel smiled, beckoning for Mary to join him as he opened a new screen on the fifth computer. "We'll set you up with an avatar. Here, you can grab yourself a name and change your features."

"And clothes," Nico added with a wink, pointing at a set of buttons. "They're guys. They always forget you can wear badass armour and look pretty at the same time."

Mary gratefully smiled at the brunette, suddenly quite happy she wasn't the only female in this company. As great as Louis, Sam, and Noel were, they were guys. Maybe having Nico around wasn't such a bad thing, after all.

"What class do I pick?" Mary asked, as she studied the box in front of her. There were a couple of different races and classes, but none of them rang a bell.

"What's a... Kelpie?"

Nico smiled as she leant down to help Mary out. A whiff of lavender filled Mary's nose as Nico revealed another box with the descriptions for every race.

"You can pick what kind of role you want to play. Judging from... Hmmm..." A mischievous twinkle flashed through her eyes. "Your role in our group, I'd go for healer."

"Healer?" Mary muttered, not sure what that meant. "Why a healer?"

Nico chuckled. "You'll be the one person we all have to protect. I thought it was fitting."

Mary narrowed her eyes, unsure if Nico was making fun of her or just friendly goofing around. She pushed her hair behind her ears, her pink lips curling up in a smirk. Maybe just some friendly fun.

"If you think it fits?" she hesitantly asked, glancing at the rest of the men.

Nico chuckled, her laugh cutting through the men's chatter. "I think it'll fit you just fine," she smiled, winking at Mary.

After some debate and a long list of pros and cons, Mary finally pushed her avatar into the world. It was weird to watch herself walk around in a fictional world, especially since she modeled her character after herself.

"So what do we do now?"

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