[FIRST LOGIN THREAD] Gilgamesh had received the infamous email with the secret client along with the invite to try out the new VRMMORPG known as TerraSphere, but due to the horrible experience he had with this genre of games in the past, he had tucked it away for fear that it would end like SAO had with its Incident. However, before long, his innately insatiable curiosity had gotten the better of him and so, he was once again possessed by his love for VRMMORPGs. As a result, he was now sitting on his comfy king sized bed before his custom order high end computer with its decently fast net connection, looking for that email. Soon, he found it and so he brought out his Full Dive gear, set it up with all the necessary connections to the internet and then accessed the client. While it was starting up, he lay down in a comfortable position, so he wouldn’t be sore after getting back to the real world. A few minutes afterward, the game booted up and away he went into the virtual world, hurtling through a seemingly endless tunnel of rainbow hues which nearly hypnotized him as he passed through it. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally came to a whitewashed area and was confronted with a standard fare avatar in plain black underwear. He examined it for a while and soon figured out that it was where he was meant to custom-make his avatar. So he opened the palm menu and set about mixing and matching various choices for hair, eyes, skin, his clothing, and other such trivial but yet necessary details of his avatar. He was engrossed in this for about three hours till he got it just the way he had pictured it in his mind’s eye. Now that he had finished the character creation step, he clicked the “Next” button which then overlaid him onto the avatar he had created and sent him hurtling once more through that same tunnel-like blur of rainbow colors till he hit the spawn point. There was a blinding white light after which he landed spread eagled on the beach in the spawn point for new players, a place called Brisshal, not that he realized it yet. He did not attempt to do anything yet, but just lay there reveling in that all too familiar shock that was coursing through his body after his Full Dive as it was something that he had sorely missed during his time away from VRMMORPGs ever since his SAO ordeal. After several minutes, he was able to sense the feeling coming back into his virtual body signifying that it had finally synced properly with his mind that controlled it. Noticing that, he slowly pushed himself up till he was on all fours, and then finally got to standing up completely. He looked around to see if anyone else was in his vicinity since by talking to them, he would hopefully get his bearing as to where he was at present and where he needed to go in order to start exploring the world of TerraSphere.
The tall, pale man turned over the medium-sized package in his hands. He'd only received it today: Full Dive Gear, which would enable him to become entirely immersed within a VRMMORPG. He'd never had one before, nor had he ever had a friend that did and shared it. After all, it was a decently expensive piece of technology; in fact, it was possible the only reason they never shared was because their parents said they couldn't. He looked up at the somewhat cramped, two-bed room. His roommate was on vacation, and had left to some forgotten place in Oregon. He had the place to himself for months, and a new interest to keep him busy. With a small grunt, he got to his feet and walked over to his desk, where his computer sat, opened and ready to be used. He maneuvered to the TerraSphere file, and, with the help of a knife to open the box and a sheet of instructions written up by him roommate, booted up his Full Dive Gear. With some suspicion, he put it on and moved to his bed, as he figured a comfortable position would be best. He waited as nothing happened, and then...... He was flying through a tunnel of rainbows. He would have screamed if he could, but all he could do was experience it. It seemed like he was hurtling through the tunnel for longer than he'd been alive when suddenly his landed in a completely white area, and the only thing besides him was a man in black underpants. He looked at him and then frowned as instructions appeared, which prompted him to literally mold him into the avatar he wanted to play as, with the help of various tools. Romeo looked him over, and adjusted his height to the game maximum, which was still a few inches shorter than himself. He changed the hair color to a jet-black, and left the hairstyle to figure out later. With some hesitation, he began to shape the face: he angled the jaw more than it had been, and pointed the chin slightly. He gave his lips a natural frown, which was easy enough, but took a good fifteen minutes shaping his nose and eyes, each. He took a step back, and almost laughed at himself. It was just a caricature. A bad one, but unmistakably. He scrolled through what seemed like a few hundred menus and options, before he found something he wished he'd saw the first time. With the tap of his finger, the avatar in front of him became an identical twin. Everything was the same, from the shape of his ears to the mole on the right side of his collarbone. Satisfied with his work, he hit the large 'Next' button and then he was flying through that tunnel again, though this time, it seemed to be much shorter. His vision was blotted by a blinding flash. He could see nothing for a few minutes until he realized his eyes were closed, and he opened them, and was confronted by a ground-view of the sky. He was spread-eagled on the ground of a forest, with trees that looked entirely real allowing only a few slivers and then one large patch of sunlight to shine through. The man groaned as he sat up, surprised at how it felt when he had to fully enter his body. It took a few minutes, but then was he up, and felt as if he were.... Well, he felt like normal, and only in a different place. He looked around. To his left was a beach, and to his right more forest. He was about to head deeper into the forest, perhaps to find something resembling civilization, when he saw a man stand up on the sand. Without a single thought, he called out to the other player. "Hey! Who are you?"
Gilgamesh was still surveying everything in his surroundings that happened to be in his sight radius when he heard a man’s voice calling out to him from somewhere in his vicinity. He debated for a brief few moments whether to respond or not since the man could easily be a hostile looking to lure him into a trap by pretending to be harmless, curious bystander. By the end though, he decided the best course of action would be to take the bait anyway, and so he called back, his voice revealed to be an arrestingly rich baritone but yet somehow melodious one “Tell me your name, stranger…and then I will tell you mine!” After that, he slowly started to walk in the direction that he had heard the voice coming from, that is to say, towards an ominous looking forest located several paces away from the shoreline. Since his frame was a towering one capping out at 6’ 3” and also due to his well-developed lower limbs, Gilgamesh was able to reach his destination with mere minutes due to his long stride. As he walked towards the man he could now see at the edge of the forest, he put all his senses on full alert just in case some hostile decided to crash the party. Fortunately though, no such thing happened in those few minutes, so Gilgamesh relaxed his guard just a little and went back to his usual nonchalant, laid-back posture and expression. Once he was within viewing range, the sunlight bathing him revealed the details of his form and raiment. His skin had a roughened look to it and a wonderfully sun-kissed tone to it while his musculature and body build was of the lean, athletic type. The bone structure that supported his musculature was clearly on the heavier side of the medium range. His face was oval shaped and of normal size in proportion to the rest of his body. He had an aquiline nose, a gently tapered chin, thin lips, and a strongly set, well defined jaw whereas his ears were situated atop his head and looked like those of a cat, marking him as one of the Felis race. All of these along with his high, wide forehead, high cheekbones, and gaunt cheeks with a pair of small, black, roughly triangular tiger stripes on each of them gave him a distinctive visage. His hair which was now being gently caressed by the zephyr blowing across the beach was jet black in color with poison green highlights. At the back, the top portion of his hair was draw back securely into a high, spiky ponytail while the rest of it fell free, overlying his neck completely and ended by covering his well-developed traps muscles, not that the man could see that at present. In the front, at the top, it was seen to be sharply pulled back due to the ponytail in the back while lower down, it hung free on either side of his face, framing it symmetrically. It ended in the front, by cascading down onto his broad, well defined, muscular shoulders and his herculean chest as well. His eyes were like those of a tiger, thin and closely set on either side of his nose. The irises of his eyes were honey colored and his pupils were currently slits due to the bright sunlight falling into them. At present, since he was curious about the other man and also about his new surroundings, his eyes mirrored that curiosity, making his gaze slightly more intense and penetrating than usual. As he walked, his movements made his athletically muscular form stand out slightly more, with all the muscle groups in the various parts of his body being accentuated in definition due to there not being more than an ounce of fat anywhere on him. His upper limbs were the same length as those of any other normal person, but his legs were several degrees above the norm in length. At this point, since he had just spawned, Gilgamesh did not have much in the way of an outfit except for what he had chosen at character creation. Up top, he had on a black high collar uwagi with long loose sleeves and a navy blue muscle tee underneath that which went up, enclosing his neck completely, and ended by covering the lower part of his face (including his nose and mouth. The upper half of his face was hidden by a navy blue half-mask shaped like an Oni. Below, he had on a black ballooning hakama modified to have pockets and belt loops through which ran the tactical utility belt that held up said hakama. His forearms and hands were covered by black tekko-kagi while his choice of footwear was a pair of black tactical tabi boots. After a few more minutes, Gilgamesh closed the gap between him and the man who had called out to him. Then, he held his hand out to the man for a handshake if the man so desired since he figured it would put the man at ease with him.
She was praying it was an illusion as she saw a man talking to himself with his hand held out, seemingly to get a handshake from an invisible player or person. His thin eyes didn't look that bad- or rather, was it possible for a player to be blind in this game? Either way, she had her concerns. But, with no medicine, she could only try to talk him out of it. Walking over with care, she opted to take the extended hand. "Hi there," She mused, a smile on her face, "I'm Solaria. I've told you mine, so will you tell me your name too?" Her grin was a bit forced, a change of pace for the usually upbeat girl. She'd rushed in knowing this could be a dangerous moment- in the midst of a hallucination, you never knew what someone was seeing, after all! In her classes, she'd been told to be wary of how you told someone to calm down. But he didn't seem disturbed. Maybe it was just a mild issue? "I'm afraid I have to tell you there was no one there, sir. But if you'll have me, I'd be glad to take over as your conversation partner. Will that be okay?" Internally, she reminded herself the beauty of her particular katana, which was crafted for quick drawn use- but, she couldn't help hoping she would have no reason to need it here.
Gilgamesh was still waiting patiently for the man he had seen and heard calling out to him a while ago with his hand held out for a handshake, but was not getting any response. He had almost convinced himself by now that the man before him was one of those rare multi-sensory hallucinations that some people were unfortunate enough to have once in a blue moon when he heard another voice call out to him, this time, one belonging to what seemed to his ears anyways, a young woman. A split second after, he felt a hand take his own in a handshake and he figured it had to be the one belonging to the owner of the voice he just heard, so he turned towards her and gave her a proper handshake lest he betray his true nature to her. In that short span of time, he set his brain and his keen eyes to the task of gleaning whatever they could about her so he would not need to ask any silly questions. She was a fairly decent looking young woman, but for some reason she had a forced smile on her face and she was speaking rather cautiously, or at least that’s how it seemed to him. The reason as to why hit him in the next split second that passed and he realized that he must have looked like someone who had recently escaped from an asylum to her since he had been standing there with his hand held out and talking, apparently to no one at all. So, he hurried to reply, first clearing his throat to reset it to its usual rich baritone but melodious nature “Oh, uh…ahem, my name is Gilgamesh, but since that can be a mouthful, you can call me Gil in short, if you so desire, Ms. Solaria. I apologize for the delay in greeting you, and I thank you for snapping me out of my stupor. “ He bowed his head towards her briefly and then looked at her again with his usual polite smile on his face that showed off his pearly-whites. As he did, the black tiger neko ears atop his head twitched slightly since he still kept a small percentage of his brain power dedicated to surveying his environment for any possible danger. He continued “And you being my conversation partner is more than okay with me, Ms. Solaria. You don’t need to worry though, I am not actually mentally unhinged as I must surely have seemed to you. You see, I just logged in a while back for the first time ever, so the shock of the entry must have had me in its clutches when you saw me just now. I apologize sincerely for having shown you such an unseemly side of me.” He bowed his head again with a sheepish laugh and rubbed the back of his neck due to that same nervous tick he had since childhood, hoping she didn’t think he was too crazy, but his eyes just couldn’t help dart, perhaps a little too warily, to the sword she had at her hip, a katana as far as he could tell from the gently curved sheath and the telltale hilt. He hoped that she would not decide to use it against him out of fear or something of that sort, but his luck with the ladies had always been pretty bad… @Solaria
"Well then, as your conversational partner, let me first start by requesting you at least drop the 'Ms'. I'm not actually big on formalities." It was an honest truth, and quite an extreme one in reality. Solaria had always been the type who, while knowing how to use her manners, rarely actually did. Honorifics of any sort tended to irritate her, for some reason. It was one thing to call a police officer by their rank, but to be called Miss or Ms felt strange. It almost made her sound old, didn't it? As she watched him keeping an eye on the surroundings, including her sword hand, she moved the hand near the hilt away from it, never actually touching the sword itself. Instead, she held the same hand out to him in hopes of offering a more proper greeting. Her smile was much more sincere now, much more at ease. "It's okay. We all have our off days." She waited for his hand, but was easily listening to his words as well. An old player returning was an interesting story, and one she'd like to hear more of. However, more so was the fact he had a shock returning. Would she feel such a shock if she took a break from this world? "Actually, I think I get that feeling. Heck, I get a shock like that sometimes just visiting my folks during a break from school. Or when I try playing the MMO's I loved as a kid. Those things change a ton more than my family does..."
Gilgamesh took her proffered hand and shook it in the standard way he had been taught to, three times swiftly and not too firm or loosely, all the while listening to her in turn. When she finished speaking, he began with a brief, rumbling chuckle "Ah, my apologies then, Solaria it is then. I will keep that in mind henceforth...and yes, some do more so than others, from what I can see anyway..." He paused, wondering whether or not he should come out and tell her his story and how he was involved with that frightening SAO incident a while back. He studied her briefly and spoke "I see, so you're no newbie when it comes to MMOs either. That's good to know...maybe you are the one I can trust with my unsavory past involvement with the VRMMO genre of games...someday that is. Before that, however, it's a pleasure to meet you, Solaria. I do hope I am not being too forward here, but I look forward to befriending you in due time." He said with another sheepish laugh and again displaying that nervous tick of his, namely him rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand.
His tendency to rub the back of his neck made her giggle- it wasn't an uncommon reaction to anxiety, but it was somehow endearing to her whenever she saw someone do it. "Really, there's no need to be so nervous. I'm glad you want to be friends. In fact, I look forward to it!" As if to prove her words as true, she moved her hands and began to set up a friend request. This way, they could easily skip the awkwardness of getting to that point. "Yep, I've been playing MMOs since I was a kid. Though, I think this is my first VRMMO myself, but that's because I never had VR equipment for a long time as a kid. My dad got me the deep dive set I'm using as a gift when I got accepted into my choice college." Her family wasn't very wealthy- in fact, they were far from it. The fact that he'd saved up to give such a lavish gift still irked her, especially when her father was against her working while in school. But, that wasn't a story this man had to hear. "You don't have to tell me such stories until you're ready. That's how it should be no matter what. It's not like I'm your clinician, right? Friends are different. Though, if you do ever have a question about your health, I'd be happy to see if I can help you find the answer! Sound good?"
Gilgamesh was glad that Solaria had made the first move in sending him the friend request since he was actually on the verge of running out of topics to talk about with her. So, he went ahead and clicked the green “Accept” button, making her the very first friend he had made in the game, which was ironic considering he expected that he would have run into his old frienemy Ayame by this point, but he had seen neither hide nor hair of her since he logged in for the first time. However, he was a “go with the flow” kind of guy, so he didn’t mind one bit, especially since Solaria looked like she would be a highly amusing and quite useful ally later in the game when they would know each other better. Now that the formalities were out of the way, he replied, having listened to her intently while figuring out how to go about accepting her request since the interface was very different from the one he was used to in SAO “Your dad seems like an awesome guy, and a very caring father too, Solaria. You’re lucky to have such a dad. I wish mine were as nice, but oh well…that’s another story for another time.” He paused, thinking briefly about her assurance that he wouldn’t need to confide in her this early in their relationship and nodded to her, with a grateful smile on those thin, firm lips of his as he said “Thank you for the offer, Solaria. I will definitely keep that in mind…and I am pretty sure I will be calling on you often, seeing as how this game seems to be a lot harder than my last VRMMO. Now if I can convince you to wear an anime-esque nurse outfit while tending to my wounds, I would be golden…” He finished with a light laugh, wondering whether she would think he was being too forward with her since this was still their first encounter.
Seeing the change on her friend's list, the woman smiled softly and let her hands glide down back to her sides after her menu was closed. Slim fingers tapped at her waist, her mind wandering a bit as he praised her family life. "Yeah, dad's always been amazing to me. He's someone I admire. I don't know what your folks are like, but I hope you'll get along with them better in the future." After all, wasn't family super important? The man was certainly forward, but Solaria happened to like that in people. Someone who could openly tell her what they liked in general was a good thing, and a sign she was trusted, which mattered a fair bit in her mind, both with friends and family, as well as patients in the future. "I don't think I can fulfill that request, unfortunately. I couldn't find a nurse's outfit...You'll just have to imagine it on your own, for the time being." Her words were said with a sly grin, one hand moving to pat his shoulder. A slight laughter left her curled lips, hair tickling her arm as her sleeve fell when she brushed it behind her ear. "Though, I wouldn't imagine it too much. You might make your girlfriend mad. I'd rather not have that happen to you, hm? We girls can be quite scary when we're jealous."
Gilgamesh was silent as he listened to her speak and after she finished, he began with a slight sigh “Well if they would just respect my personal freedom a bit more, I would be fine…but no…anyways, setting that aside now…” He made a miming gesture as if he was lifting something and moving it out of the way. Her warning about his apparent girlfriend had just registered, and so before replying, he let out a deep, hearty laugh, the sound resembling the peals of rumbling thunder from a distant storm, his thin firm lips then turning down slightly as if to signify his dejected mood “Aw man…and here I was thinking I could have this gorgeous goddess of a woman before me agree to nurse both my body and mind back to their default state, all the while wearing a sexy outfit…wait, what girlfriend are you talking about, Solaria?” He paused there, wondering who she was referring to and continued after a few moments “Believe it or not, I am in my 20s and yet in all this time, I haven’t had even one girlfriend…so I think we’ll be just fine. Besides, I doubt she would mind since I would have already convinced her over to the dark side, the one with all those delicious forbidden pleasures, hehe…and you girls get scary when you get jealous, eh? I will try to keep that in mind then.” He now shot a sly, maybe a tad perverted smirk back at her to see how she would respond since he was truly beginning to enjoy their banter.
Head on her shoulder, Solaria gave a playful grin when he noted his surprise by her assumption. "All handsome guys have girlfriends until proven otherwise. Best way to think about it so I don't get lashed at, don't you think?" She reached to pat his head with her limber fingers, ruffling his hair softly. "As for a sexy nurse, I don't think you'll really get that either way. Though I do hope a nurse's outfit would suit me, but I'd even more rather that when I become a proper one, you know!" Without a real thought as she did it, her hands gently reached to tug on one of the man's wrists, wanting to make sure he stayed with her when she moved a little bit out of the way of a crowd. He told her quite a bit about himself despite having things he wanted to hide- even things as simple as his age, which kept her rather surprised as she felt herself watched him. Still, he made it sound like he was old. Laughing at that fact internally, she winked, bringing one hand off of him to make a peace sign by her face. "Twenties or thirties, you're still plenty young to me! You'll find the right girl soon, I'm sure." Opening her scrunched eye, she felt herself soften slightly. "I had my first love when I was only thirteen. I'm sure you were someone's first love without knowing it, too. Everyone is someday...And we all have one someday, too. I don't plan to give up either, so you're not allowed to do that yourself, okay? It's a deal." She slipped the hand still holding his wrist to his hand, adding, "And unless you're a sadist planning to kill people, I don't think there's really such thing as a forbidden or guilty pleasure. Why be guilty for smiling?"
He let himself be led out of the way of the crowd, finding it amusing that she would take such an initiative with him since they were still practically strangers at this point, his mirth showing on his face as it turned the corner of his thin lips up, making it the barest hint of a smirk. He took some time to enjoy her petting his coarse, thick hair and spoke in the meantime "y'know, that just makes me more desirous of seeing you in a naughty nurse outfit someday and have you tend to me, no matter how long it takes me to achieve that goal..." He was about to go on, but her next comment made him a tad playful, so he decided to be bold this once. Without waiting for permission, he snaked his hand around her slender waist and pulled her flush against himself suddenly and continued speaking into her ears in that rich baritone but melodious voice of his "oh? I am young enough for you, eh Solaria? Well then, I take it you don't mind if I...play with you a little henceforth whenever the mood strikes me?" He had drawn back just in time to hear her next remark and it made his smirk grow all the more, becoming prominent now. He then replied "no, I am not a sadist, its just that it makes them feel so much more thrilling if I refer to them as forbidden pleasures. Thanks for the pep talk, btw. I appreciate it" He gave her a genuine smile despite his usual morose personality trying to exert its effects on him in the situation, making him wonder what it was about her that made him feel so much at ease that he revealed some of his best kept secrets to her in their first ever meeting itself.
Before she could react to his outfit idea any further, she found herself surprisingly pulled closer. The shocking part wasn't that he'd done it, but how easily he seemed to be able to- she took pride in her strength as a warrior, even if her skills were only in her abilities to wield a sword. "Strong, aren't you?" She chimed her words rather whimsically, a small relief as he let go of her, having a soft rouge taking her cheeks by storm. "You shouldn't wish to need a nurse, you know, no matter what you're into. Otherwise you seem like a sadist instead, which isn't any better...And I'd rather play with someone healthy than hurt." As she spoke coyly, she spun herself in a circle before bending at her hips, making herself appear just a bit shorter than she was so she could look up at him, hoping the height difference made her the least bit cuter for the moment. It was fun to tease people this way, after all- and, without fun, what was a game? His thanks were received with a pout, however, as she stood back to her normal height and put her hands flat against her waist. "What's a nurse who can't heal a patient? I don't aim to just heal the body, you know. The heart's important too!" She giggled and grinned once her whining was over- it was meant in good fun, even if it was honest as well. "Still, I'm more than happy to be of help. I still think it's silly to call something that makes you happy as if it's a bad thing, though. You'll have to teach me sometime why it seems to be so nice to you."
Much to his surprise, he found himself blushing at the sight of her bending forward at the hips and could not immediately respond to her remarks. So he took a few moments to compose himself and then with his usual playful smirk pasted on his face, he spoke with a chuckle "Well i have to be strong since I have a great many expectations being laid on me all the time back in the real world, and I can assure you I am quite healthy...AND red blooded too, hehe..." For a few moments as he spoke his next few lines, his eyes seemed to flash as something akin to physical desire entered them and that was mirrored by the smirk on his lips becoming more mischievous than playful "You want me to teach you why it's so nice to me, eh? well then, that's all the more reason for us to play with each other sometime, once we are a tad more comfortable with each other, of course..." With that, he stepped back a bit, turning a little towards the exit into the forest near them. Then he held out his hand to her to take if she wished to while asking, that intense physical desire for her that had manifested in his eyes just mere moments ago not being seen now "Now, what say we get out of this beach and start exploring this region? You look like one who has had a fair bit more experience than me, so would you mind showing me around, Solaria? I would appreciate it...and there will be a round of drinks for you on me and maybe something more as a treat in exchange for that..." He said, hoping to entice her to a tavern and get to know her better over a drink or two.
