The Lone Traveler's Diary and other Short Stories

Sky Log #4: Family

Every one of us needs a family.

It could a family based on blood. Or one based on bonds. When you are just closed enough to a group of friends whom you click well enough, that can be considered family too. So long as you cherish a person and wants that person to be a part of your life, that person becomes your family.

After spending so long playing around in Sky, I realized something.

That the road to life wasn't meant to be walk on alone.

Family is something that is so simple and present, yet we often take it for granted. We often live in the bliss of it without knowing the true importance of it. It doesn't have to be based on blood, that was something I learnt in my years of travelling. Sometimes... some people don't have the luxury of having blood-related family or have good memories of spending time with them for reasons far too personal to be shared here.

The fundamentals of a family, to my understanding, is simple. It is just a desire to be together and live happily with each other

"Family"... Is certainly an overused title. Yet, I wanted to introduce the family in Sky that I did not know I needed.

... Maybe the 'lone' in 'lone traveler' needs to be taken out now. But I had grown fond of this title and identity that I had taken up that both words had to be together to create me. Or there would not be any uniqueness.

It started with a simple comment.

A simple wish born from a desire to be with a group of friends.

After my long slumber, I realized that I had completed all the maps, including Eden (it took a while, but I got my first rebirth after so long). I have more or less memorized the farming routes before I began to look into other areas of interest. I discovered that there are kids who specialized in going outside of the maps, commonly known as out-of-bound(oob) areas and kids who began to form their own small communities or families. Some have gone far enough to be a Sky couple. I heard from the distant winds of news that there were even marriages taking place, participated by their closest friends.

It was then I realized...

... I am alone.

I was alone from the moment when I first arrived in Sky to when I first finished Eden. A cold chill breeze through my body when I recognized this, even my heart was seized by the harsh truth. Suddenly, the world became a little grey and dull. It felt ironically quiet even though I was surrounded by random kids honking around.

I was looking at the Sky world with a pair of fresh eyes.

I knew what I had to do.

So, I scoured through the dusty sands of Isle, the flowery fields of Prairie, the wet lands of Forest, the polluted air of Wasteland, the fluffy snowfall of Valley, the floating specks of Vault and even through the rock storm in Eden. I battled with krills (just kidding, I ran and avoided them), had a few bar fights with the crabs (before putting them on a fire, these little thugs never learn!) and wrestled with the tentacles of the jellyfishes (they sting!).

All these...

Just to find friends.

Fortunately, the wheel of fate did not let me wait for long. However, I didn't think I would expect much out from a single comment about a post of an oob. There were widespread news outlets and connections in Sky that are easily accessible when you want to find them, so getting updates from the admins of Sky to the general public was not hard to find.

Val, the owner of the post, extended a greeting to me and invited me to join her when I had the time. I jumped at the chance and sent her an invite so that I could teleport to her. I thought she was also a lone traveler, but a traveler who welcomed company from time to time.

Little did I know, she was part of a large family and she was going to pull me in.

The moment I appeared in Sky and teleported to her, Val immediately introduced me to David, Anna, Shaz, Emma, May, Nana and... before I knew it, I was part of this family filled with such amazing friends from all over the world.

Separated by miles of seas and lands (even a bit of language barrier since English was not everyone's first language), but connected in hearts at Sky.

My dead constellations of 'lifeless' stars were packed with new, shining stars. It was a lot to take in at that time, yet talking to them made me feel like I was entering a life of unpredictable adventure.

I think the most impressionable part was when Anna asked about what was my role.

I was kinda confused. I have no idea what she meant until David, who was leading us, explained the roles in the farming group: the lighter, the honker, the talker or the poofer.

"Poofer" was a new term that I had never heard of until Anna instantly disappeared or poofed during our run in Wasteland. Apparently, she crashed or... Wasteland yeeted her out of its realm for a moment. At that moment, the Season of Enchantment had yet to start so the Wasteland at that time was getting a bit wonky and was prone to be temperamental to some kids. I failed to realize I had the same problem when I was alone but... Sky yeeted me out too after Anna. It was a good thing I had unlocked warp with Val so I could quickly join back to the group before we split again.

The first question Anna asked when I joined back again was "Welcome back, apprentice. :3"

So, in good humour, I replied, "Master? XD"

And at such a momentous time, we became master and apprentice in poofing. We had our fair shares of troubles with poofing and crashing. We related to each other on this matter much more than when we felt the burning heat in our bodies from expanding too much energy. Nowadays, our moments of poofing are like specks of memories in the past but... irreplaceable.

In this family, most members would view Val as a soothing mother and David as a silent but encouraging father. Of course, if you haven't gotten the memo, Val and David are a sweet Sky couple known as Valid, Shaz as a spazzing little kid that is hyperactive and Anna as a talkative but lovable child. If you put Anna and Shaz together, you get the world's greatest combination of chaos. Fun chaos.

I'm not quite sure where I stand in this family.

But maybe as a silent family friend who is a willing party in playful antics or a quiet kid tags along with the parents. Or maybe that one teenage kid that knows their way around the world.

Nevertheless... I love this family.

And I would never trade anything, candles or hearts, to replace them.

How about you?

Do you have a family in Sky?

~~~~~Author's Words~~~~~ 13 December 2020

There's a few  things I would clarify here. There would be occasional mentions of oob, poofing and this mysterious rise in heat in the kids' bodies. For poofing and the mysterious rise in heat, these are some problems that players often encounter during playing Sky: Children of Light. Due to high graphics in the game, our phones often heat up when we play for too long (let's say, an hour) and will lag horribly. And if our game lags too much, our phones crashed. There can be sudden instances when we were playing the game just fine and the game suddenly restarts itself, this can be loosely termed as "poofing".  While for oob, there are many spots in Sky which appears to have some mistakes in creating the game so you often see some beautiful glitches like a rainbow bridge in Isle once you fly high enough in the clouds near the temple.

I'm cutting quite close to breaking the fourth wall with LT knowing that they are just a game character and that the phone often has problems. So maybe... I should try my hand with LT breaking the fourth wall. Dannnggg, existential crisis for LT. XD