Complete Vintergard Immortal Heroine: Tenshi and Sai Salvage for Scraps

[Tenshi]

I'm being totally serious. Her ears perked up. Her heart thumped hard against her chest, and even Sai could feel it.

The tigress grinned widely and giggled, followed by a squeal. Her tail was apparently warm enough now to have started swaying to and fro, expressing yet more excitement by his words. Her eyes were wide as she stared up into his, still in shock... but the good kind. Everything suddenly felt like a dream. As though she were wrapped in the fog of soft fluffy clouds that were steaming in the heat between herself and the wolf she had been intertwined with.

Outside of the game, they could only be friends. If that was the case...

"That's... perfect." Tenshi giggled once again and pressed her head against his collar. "That's perfectly fine with me. Sai..." She took a deep breath in, then let out yet more giggling in a fit of unrestrainable glee. "Saiiii~..."

Not dating outside of the game was about perfect for Tenshi, since she was nothing like her apparently lovable self in the real world. "To be honest... I can't really date anyone either, outside of Terrasphere... So I'm going to give this everything I've got for you."

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai wasn’t quite ready for the incredible reaction he’d just received. He supposed after-the-fact that he really should’ve, but the whole situation was so darn new to him! And as much as he wished he could say he know what it felt like, well… that wasn’t an option.

But in this moment, he felt his own kind of warmth as she snuggled up to him, cooing his name (which was especially hilarious, knowing its origin). Obviously, she wasn’t physically warm, but she nonetheless gave Sai a warm feeling inside, simply glancing down at her and nesting her under his chin.

"Oh, really…?" Sai answered in surprise, though decided that perhaps he’d better not press that matter too far. "Well I guess that works out perfectly then," he quickly tried to shift the subject. "Ahaha, I guess ‘my gal’ is actually even more accurate now, isn’t it~?" Sai chuckled at the irony, stroking Tenshi gently on the head.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Tenshi began to giggle, more and more until she was laughing what she considered an embarrassing amount by the end of it. She couldn't help it though! Sai was being cute--too cute! And she was reveling in it. His cuteness, how she found him cute to begin with, their hot-and-cold dynamic, and every other little thing she could think of in this moment. If it had to do with Sai, it came to mind, and she was reveling in it.

The tigress's tail curled up and her ears adjusted to point out to the sides and forwards just a bit as she buried her face against him for just a little while longer. Sadly, she had to respond eventually. As much as she wanted to right now, they couldn't just stay there forever... Though she also wasn't going to hurry the touching moment away.

"Yeah... Your gal... Shame I don't have any cute nicknames like that for you, though..." She took a deep breath and let out a breathy sigh. The end of her exhalation was interrupted by a nervous laugh. "Although, I guess this is as good a time as any to ask you. Was Sai the name you picked out first?"

As she rubbed the side of her head against him--half to warm up, half for the feeling--she continued. "I mean, we've met people with some interesting names, and sometimes I wonder if other people name their characters with some sort of meaning in mind. Your introduction to me was... well, it seemed like you were torn on a name, so I've always wondered if it means anything to you."

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai joined in Tenshi’s laughter with a chuckle of his own, the joy being infectious. He really enjoyed the smile and that laugh, even if it felt a bit overdone. Thus was love, he supposed! It was cute as heck!

"Cute nicknames… well, Sai’s already pretty short, so…" he shrugged. "Maybe you can think of something interesting though!"

… and then she dropped the question. Oh dear. Sai felt his heart skip a beat, and he gulped, feeling a bead of sweat drop down the side of his face.

"W-well… sorta!" He answered, not exactly lying, but… should he tell the truth here? It certainly would be a leap forward in his quest for the ultimate chill attitude. That said, Tenshi was now his new girlfriend, and not just some stranger, so she’d be around a lot more than a random nobody!

"O-okay, well… you know how I’ve been playing as a quest to relax and not care as much what people think of me? Well… uhm… you see…! It’s actually short for… Snipeyboi."

Sai continued sitting there, forcing a smile as he felt himself die inside. He continued glancing down at Tenshi, waiting for her reaction like a train ready to splatter him over its tracks.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

The tigress blinked a few times as she was obviously caught off-guard by Sai's sudden confession. She had to look up at him and gauge the look on his face for herself. Was he joking?... No, he was obviously embarrassed about it. Tenshi even suddenly recalled how much trouble he had introducing himself in the first place, and her brow went from furrowed in curious confusion to raised as she suddenly reached enlightenment.

Then she began to giggle, then snicker, then even laugh full on. She couldn't really help it that much though, since she was already in a giddy mood from just having acquired the closest thing to an actual boyfriend she'd ever had. At the very least, she stifled it pretty quickly. It's not like she hadn't heard worse online handles before.

"So you wanted a carefree name, and you went with Snipeyboi? That's so cute, Sai!" She smirked at him as she raised her right hand up to his face and poked his nose with her index finger. "My Snipeyboi~ Hehehe~." With a little bit more giggling, she shifted to be less laying against him and more sitting against him. Her warmth gauge had plateaued at this point, so she might as well get comfortable.

"I could introduce you to people like that for you if it helps. It's pretty cute once you get past how silly it is!" She was in such a great mood, she almost didn't mind the purring coming back. "Plus, it's not like my name is... much better." She closed her eyes. The more the two talked about things, the more Tenshi wanted to open up, and be understood by her now-boyfriend. She had to be wary of how much she said about her real self though, now more than ever. Not for the sake of hiding a sore truth, but because the two wouldn't be able to date outside of the game anyways, so why did anything about the real world matter?

The tigress took a deep breath and swiped away all of the philosophy for now. "I named myself after a musician I really like, just in Japanese."

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai slowly slouched and then pouted a bit as Tenshi let out a laugh that felt a bit too hardy for his taste. Then again, maybe this was a good thing? Wasn't it kinda the reason he'd picked the name out in the first place? It was just that deep-seated impression seared into his brain that getting laughed at and mocked were bad things.

... But they didn't have to stay that way! And he was darn well going to fight that urge, because he was here to relax and enjoy some casual chillax...ness. Yeah.

"O-okay, you don't have to keep saying it..." Sai blushed, waving his hand dismissively in front of his nose as she gave him a proper boop. Sai didn't mind it when Tenshi got all cute like that, but even in a lovey-dovey relationship, this went so far into the cringe territory that he couldn't even make out the border anymore!

"Oh? But I like Tenshi, it's pretty cute," Sai answered quickly, before receiving the more detailed explanation. "Favorite musician? Which one is that? I loved... well..." Maybe he'd better shut up before things got too obvious. "I listened to all kinds of music, so I can't really think of a favorite..."


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

"Aww, come on! I swear, it's cute!" Tenshi couldn't help but to keep giggling just a while longer. "It kind of takes me back to those memes about online game handles from back when the internet was a lot newer, and you'd have people with like, 'X-X-No Scope-X-X' as their name. You didn't put any X's after Snipeyboi, did you?"

Tenshi began to blush, as though it were strange for a woman like her to answer what she was about to. "Um..." The tigress cleared her throat, somehow leaning more into Sai's warmth than before. "W-Well I wouldn't say she's my favorite of all time, but she's definitely... up there."

"Usually I listen to pretty upbeat stuff like eurobeat or metal, but there's... Mhh... So Tenshi in Japanese means Angel, and there's this idol singer named Angelique who's really big where I live, so I mean, of course I got into her." It still sounded like Tenshi was trying to justify listening to an idol of all things, despite her attempts not to. She really had to get better at this whole being Tenshi thing still, she mentally noted.

The tigress closed her eyes and grinned up at the hot dog wolfboy. "Hah, so I guess my name here is technically also Angel... Not that I'm anything close to an idol!"

@Sai"

 

[Nobody]

Sai didn’t seem to buy much of Tenshi’s insisted enthusiasm, even though it was technically his own idea. He scratched the side of his head awkwardly. "Uhm… that definitely would’ve been even better… or worse, depending on how you think about it! But no, haha, I didn’t think of it," he finished with a chuckle.

"Hm…?" Sai subtly pressed Tenshi to keep going as she kinda appeared a bit sheepish about the artist. Maybe it was a boyband or something she’d grown out of? Oh, a she? Oh, that…… oh…………

…
………
…………………

"Ahahah! Yes! You’re nowhere close to an idol!" Sai confirmed with the most forced grin imaginable, sweat running down the side of his head like a waterfall. "N-no, no, I don’t mean the… ahem, You could definitely be an idol if you tried! You know… with the right training and everything! I mean to say…"

It wasn’t like Sai hadn’t heard this sort of thing before, but this sort of admiration almost always came from someone who was there specifically for that purpose. It was incredibly bizarre to meet someone outside of that circle, who he’d not only inspired, but in such a major and intimate way!

"…You see, what I mean is… you… you’d need to change all your masteries and everything! If you wanted to go all in on the idol theme! Is what I meant. Ahem… sorry, that was awkward…" he lamented, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

With an awkward grin of her own, the tigress's fuzzy ears flopped down as Sai shoved his entire foot in his mouth. With his attempts at recovery afterwards, Tenshi's smile remained, albeit forced for the sake of being understanding of Sai and his tendency to be awkward. Still, this seemed like a bit much for a simple correction. It began to quickly feel as though he really did mean what he said and was simply trying to regard Tenshi's feelings after he blurted it out so blatantly.

"Ahaha... Yeaaaah, I don't really wanna change builds, or anything. Plus I only have like, ten or so dances memorized, and I'm not a great singer anyways..." Tenshi stared down through Sai's chest at nothing, a broken smile on her now hidden face trying not to show her utter devastation at being called 'nothing like an idol'. She knew it, yeah, but usually things hurt more because they were true.

And then she fell silent for a long while. She wasn't even sure if Sai was trying to say something anymore. She had spent this entire time--these several long weeks--playing Terrasphere completely devoid of the feeling of utter despair that plagued her in her regular waking life, but now... here it was. Her fingers curled into Sai's back for a couple seconds as she chased her distress away, but she still felt totally deflated. She felt the cold wind whipping past her once again. She closed her eyes as she wondered where all that joy she had been feeling literal seconds ago had gone in an instant, and how to get it back.

Sai liked her. He said he'd be lucky to date her. So, that means... these things that Tenshi was lacking, that Sai had never actually complained about... She didn't need them. She didn't have to be that girl's shadow anymore to have someone appreciate her. She severed herself from the hurt and clung to Sai--already physically, but now in spirit and heart as well--tightly. "Sorry, I'm-... Hah... I'm sorry. The cold is starting to get to me again. Did you say something?"

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai felt a disturbing knot form in his stomach. That silence was awfully telling, and his attempt at fixing things was a major failure: it couldn’t be more obvious! Quiet was worth a thousand words, in this case.

"Hey, I’m sorry, I should’ve been more sensitive about it," he admitted, only now realizing how hard his words had actually hit her. Giving her a few quick pats on the head, Sai stood up, careful not to bonk Tenshi on the head as he did so, and pointed a finger forward.

"But I meant it! You might not have the mastery build for it, but you could totally pass for an idol in that avatar, if you wanted to!" he insisted. "Really! You’re already pretty close, you just have to push it a little further! Fully embrace the cutesy attitude~! And then, you just do the dances!"

Sai put his hands together in the shape of a heart and repeated one of the dances from one of the yet-unreleased songs (albeit intentionally messed up a bit - he didn’t wanna give things away!). It… did not feel right in this body. The dance was clearly meant to show off certain curves that weren’t there. But even so, and despite intentional screw-ups, it was obvious Sai was a skilled dancer.

"Like that, right? You try! Go ahead, I’d like to see it!" he smiled. "You can be my own, private idol~!"

The irony was so incredible…


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Sai stood, and Tenshi's true feelings overtook her expression just a little more as he began to apologize, but at the same time his apology had brightened her heart just a little bit as well. Someone noticing when she was emotionally hurt by something was pretty rare. It was pretty nice, too.

Regardless of her feelings, she simply couldn't help but watch in stupefaction as she stood up to see him break out a whole string of idol-like dancing. It was certainly no Angelique, but it was... cute, and reassuring for the tigress who was still embarrassed on the down low about being such a big fan of an idol in the first place. If Sai could do it in such a carefree way, Tenshi barely had the right to be nervous about it.

Instead her face began to redden for a completely different reason. 'You can be my own, private idol~!' Her brow raised a bit as she stood there processing most of what Sai had just done, at least in terms of the dance routine. Idol dancing could often be broken down into common components, but one of the things Tenshi learned that made her like Angelique a lot more was that she really only had common components with herself. It was like some strange dance language she never really got into in time to be able to say she was into it.

"O-Okay, so..." She took a deep breath, then brought her hands to her chest in a heart, imitating the moves Sai had done. Again, she was no Angelique, but for a random woman on Terrasphere doing a dance, it was about as good as it got. Or at the very least, it was obvious even to the sort of guy Sai was trying to portray that she did this kind of thing in her free time often. Probably even in Terrasphere, as her tail and ears also seemed to position to suit each move.

As it ended she posed and held it, looking back over at Sai expecting a much harsher judgment than he was probably about to give.

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

"There you go~!" Sai nodded with a grin as Tenshi began to copy some of the moves, adding several of Angelique‘s that were… more familar to Sai than he’d ever admit in this situation. Clearly, she really was a pretty big fan! It was honestly refreshing to have such a level-headed fan for once. If only they could all be this way.

As she finished up, Sai flashed her a thumbs up, "Now you’ve got it, my gal~!" he winked. "I wonder, can you curl your tail into a heart like all the anime girls do? Catgirls can always do that in all the fanart…" he questioned more quietly, making it clear it was more of a side-thought. He had to try hard to stop himself from imagining new dance routines using the whole new limb… it just had so much potential!

"A-anyway, nice job! That was cute," Sai insisted with a nod.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Despite already knowing the answer to Sai's question, she bent her tail this way and that, creating more of a squiggly circle than anything resembling a heart. "Ahaha, I suppose it's not possible." She spent the next several seconds thinking it over while basking in the praise of a wolf she just realized all over again that she was now dating as he called her 'his gal'.

And then her eyes widened. "Actually- Hey, Sai. Could you look away for just a second? I wanna try something kinda... uncomfortable." The tigress gave him a pleading smile and waited for him to look away before she got to work. She opened her UI to see if there was anything she could do to make this dumb fantasy happen, and sure enough, she could manage it with a little bit of careful morphing.

Rolls

Mastery Check
1d100 (95) + 10 = 105
Metamorph | Tenshi | 1182

"Aaahahahahaha~! This is so dumb! Sai, look what I can do!" With a grin, Tenshi turned sideways and looked back over her shoulder at her tail, which was now actually in the shape of a heart. "I think you're full of it, honestly! Look at this and tell me I should re-spec if I wanna be an idol, hahahaha~!"

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

"Aww… I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though, it kinda looked impossible to begin with," he shrugged. Of course cat tails couldn’t bend like that; he really should’ve known (but also, he was no biologist, so who knew how those things worked!).

"Uncomfortable…? Not on me I hope…" he gulped, turning around. In the few moments where he was left to wonder about all the disturbing things his new girlfriend might be doing behind him, he hadn’t even come close to realizing what she’d meant to do until he turned around again to answer Tenshi‘s call.

"What…? That… that actually looks really painful, now that I’m seeing it for real," was his first thought, imaging his own tail twisting like that. Yeesh. "That’s impressive though! I didn’t know that morphy mastery could do stuff like that!"

Wishing to feel it out, Sai wandered closer to poke the tail a few times, confirming it still felt and acted like a normal tail. "Just crazy, it feels totally normal!"


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Tenshi flinched each time he poked the tail. With how she had to morph it, it ended up a bit more sensitive than she realized--and not the cutesy anime trope either. "Oouugghhhh, that feels weeeeiirddd!" With a couple of sudden cracking noises her heart-shaped tail snapped back to being a tail-shaped tail once again, and Tenshi twisted halfway to look back at it as she moved it here and there. "Mmh... Of all the things I expected to feel from this tail, I never expected the nervous representation of TV static..."

She turned to Sai again as her tail hugged her leg, trying to keep warm. "Still, if you really mean what you said, I..." The tigress gulped, then scratched her cheek with her right index finger with a glance to the left. "Er, I'd love to be your... private idol." She gave a sentimental smile the wolf's way. "I mean, normally I'd assume you're just being polite about it, but it's rare to meet a guy who's into the dancing enough to do what you did, so..."

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai stepped back as Tenshi showed obvious discomforting at the poking and prodding. "Oh, uhm... sorry," he apologized, taking a few steps back. He felt shivers run down his spine (and particularly his tail) as Tenshi's cracked and snapped back into place. Disturbing. Probably, it would've been even more so, if he wasn't already kind of accustomed to Tenshi doing this sort of thing with her hands.

"Nervous representation of TV static...?" Sai echoed back, showing a bit of confusion on his face. Must've been a 'Morphy Mastery' thing. "I already feel weird having a tail at all. Although, I'm finally starting to get used to it... I think!"

And then his face paled. "I uhm... well..." Right, most guys didn't practice the dances like that. "I do like dancing, it's just that... this sort of thing is... what I grew up with, so... ahem..." Sai scratched his head a few times. "A-anyway, you should probably find a real dance tutor if you're interested in that kind of thing! Erm... right?"


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

"Ah, r-right." Tenshi cleared her throat and crossed her arms to keep her hands warm, or at least as warm as her cold-blooded self could keep them. "To be honest, I'm pretty much self-taught. I wouldn't even know where to begin finding a dance tutor, so I'll just stick to what I do now, h-haha..." The tigress arched her back, stretching for a few seconds. "Wooh, all this cold is making me sleepy. You think we've got enough parts to finish the quest up?"

She looked Sai over as her eyes couldn't really figure out where they were supposed to be as she asked her small-talk-like question, but they eventually fell on his face, and her eyes began to slowly take in every inch of his face. She couldn't help but wonder how much or how little Sai and his player looked alike outside of the game. It could even be that he was just like Tenshi. That'd be funny, right? If he wasn't actually into dance for any other reason than he grew up with it because he was raised like a normal girl would be.

But that was hoping for a world far too small. How many people like her could there be playing this illegal VR game? It was the perfect medium to indulge in for it, but that didn't necessarily mean everyone was as desperate as Tenshi was to be logged in as much as possible, even if Sai did get on as often as he could. It was just to play with her, after all. Now that she thought about it...

The felis let out a sigh. "By the way, are you busy any of these upcoming days? I have a lot of chores to catch up on, but I don't really want to do them if you're going to be around that day." It was a seemingly innocuous question, but there was something in asking it that she didn't really mean to reveal.

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

"Yep, yep... yeah..." Sai nodded his head slowly, noticing Tenshi looking over him kinda weird. Probably the new girlfriend/boyfriend awkwardness. He'd heard about this sorta thing, and even felt it a little bit himself now too. The best plan was to ignore it until it went away. That was his strategy for it, anyway. "The tough part will be getting past all those nasty things and back to Solvale. Maybe if we're stealthy about it, we can avoid all the death robots."

Sai raised an eyebrow, which he only now noticed also triggered a tilting of one of his pointy ears. Interesting quirk, he thought, wondering if that was a universal beastfolk thing, or just him. Tenshi scheduled her life around him? Yikes, that was a bit worrying. He was excited to play the 'best boyfriend ever,' admittedly, but he was getting a bit worried his new girlfriend was going to take it too seriously.

"Well... alright, uhm..." he paused for a moment. His brain had to reorder itself around the fact that Tenshi, whoever she was IRL, had to do them all by hand. Her words seemed to imply a maid wasn't even an option! Yikes.

"I'm free for the next couple of days, but then I'll be pretty busy for the next week or two. So if you need some time away from Terrasphere, that'd probably be the best time," he explained.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Hearing that he was free the next couple days, her ears perked up, though she didn't seem to be as aware of it as Sai was of his own ears at the moment. "Nice! I work tomorrow, but then I'm off the next two days, so we'll have one long day to play together, and then a long day of chores while you're gone!" She grinned, starting to shiver just a bit. Her eyes glanced slightly up and to her left for just a moment, obviously checking something on her display.

Then her arms began to cover with fur in one smooth wave as she got her signature tiger claws back on. "Anyways, if we stay here much longer, I'm just going to want to lay against you all night, s-so... Let's get going, yeah?" She stood on her toes, and she squinted and twisted to look all around as she tried to figure out which direction Solvale would be. "I'm at a little over half health, but I think the way out'll be faster than the way in since we're not obligated to find parts, so it should be fine."

@Sai