Something we may have neglected....Follow

Aw crap. I just had to read it the third time and the tears fell. -.-

Makes me think about a Chinese girl taru who was following me around in La Thienne. I was at that point lvling 10-15 MNK solo because I was so tired of Valkurm partying. I was taking on crabs and as I was fighting I noticed a cure ii cast on me. I turned around after the battle and saw an AF wearing WHM taru. I bowed and quickly moved onto the next enemy thinking about my good fortune.

She followed me again and cured me again. I bowed and thanked again. It was at this point I noticed she had auto-follow on me. Then she /tells, "Sandy?" I was wondering whether she asked me where it was. So I autotranslated, "San Doria.? Where? Do you need it?" I knew she was a lvl 50 WHM, but maybe it was a friend who was messing around on a friend's account and didn't know about the map function.

I kept moving about a bit, and she kept /follow on me. I quickly killed another crab and she cured me again. I felt bad, maybe she was thinking I was desperate for help. So I tried auto-translating "Thanks for your offer, but I'll have to refuse. ^^" I moved on and she said in poor english, "is ok, I like to watch you play ^^"

I was pretty sure at this point it was a girl I had met and the picture of a girl at a computer with a little taru following around a low lvl because she had nothing better to do made me feel real uncomfortable. I must have killed another couple dozen crabs and I kept trying to communicate with her but the auto-translate doesn't help much. She knew a little bit of english and said she was a girl from Taiwan and 22. I told her I was a boy and 23. She asked if I was jp and I couldn't translate Korean. She eventually assumed NA and that I was white. -.- I then started to stop fighting monsters.

I was beginning to feel reallllly uncomfortable at that point. Maybe because there was nobody else in La Thienne. Its not like I wanted her to leave me the hell alone, but I kept hoping that she would say, "I have to leave. My friends need me elsewhere." Y'know, so I would know she wasn't lonely or anything. I started getting a lot of invites at that point, but I declined them all because I didn't want to tell her I had to go and just leave her alone. This went on for a good 15-20 minutes.

Then I saw it in auto-translate. I have no idea why they would put something in there like that. But after contemplating it for a long time, I auto-translated, "Are you alone?"

Long silence. She managed to type, "no... i have friiends." Just like that. I hoped she meant that she was just bored and wanted to help me out thinking I was a new player. But it felt more like she thought I was asking why she kept hanging around me and that I wanted her to go move on. Which is essentially what I was asking. I felt like a jerk, I mean what other response was I going to friggin get?! And then she said, "Sorry I have to go." You have no idea how many times I /tell'd ^^
in the hope that maybe if I had offended her, maybe I could raise her spirits. A couple of "Nice to meet you's" later, she ran on to Sandy.

Afterwards, I thought maybe when I asked "Are you alone?" She was wondering whether I was coming onto her or not and hastily made a retreat. Unfortunately, she /tell'd me later on when I was pt'ing in Valkurm and told me she was coming back to where we were. >< I tried to communicate that I was in Valkurm and that I happened to get killed in a party... again... She kept /tell'ing "I don't see you. I cannot find you" for a good ten minutes. Eventually she said she had to go. ;_;

In the end, I hope it was she who was feeling sorry for me. Maybe seeing a guy with a pt flag up and killin crabs in a lonely spot like the Ephemere made her feel sorry for me.

She seemed so lonely just following me around and watching me lvl a subjob. I wish I could have communicated with her. Gah. Why'd SE have to make these Tarus so cute?! Its too tragic to think of them as being sad! And now I just had to read this story. Man...