harsh realities

Her name, I think, was Diana, something I just found out earlier.

She was the little kid that sells scrunchies at CASAA, an idea romanticized by . I always buy scrunchies from her, even if I don't necessarily use them; that progressed into giving her part of my allowance since she didn't have any. Just a couple of hundred bucks, nothing really big, just a little something to help her survive until the end of the school week. Heck had I have a real job, I'd give more. Just to help, after all, how much would she able to make in a day? Good thing the concessionaires at CASAA are helpful, too--she sometimes gets free meals or something. And you know she's sincere--she'd listen to my worries, I listen to hers; and she would persuade me to buy her scrunchies and not just give her money, back when my hair was longer.

I saw her earlier, while I was on the way to AS101 to submit the request slip for my TCG. She had chased after me, and strangely enough, she was quite desperate. Apparently her grandmother got sick, and needs 40 grand for an operation. I could only offer her the two hundred bucks, and a promise to ask for help. I had nothing more to offer, with the week still ahead of me.

And I hated that feeling--the feeling that I couldn't do anything. If only I had contacts to some charity or whatnot. And I felt the pain, the fear of trying to fill her tiny shoes.

That is her harsh reality, a world apart from mine; yet like all realites the boundaries do blur.

------------->

The World Chat blares, in screaming yellow font: S>Lv80 WX GOOD EQUIPS CEBU AREA.

These accounts, with prices ranging in the thousands, offer a way for rich newbies to play high-levelled characters. It's a trade almost underground, and a trade that cannot be killed off by any gaming company simply by banning accounts.

After all, when you've grown weary of the game, it'd be such a waste to let your account lay dormant. Money does talk, and yes, people are willing to spend that cash on a collection of pixels. Mind you, I do play and spend considerable time playing, but I never went as far to blow off thousands in one go just to get a highbie character.

Then again, it is their reality, and I have no right to speak against what they believe is right.