An Old Friend in a New Encounter

There was just something nostalgic about the sea, Solaria told herself. That, or maybe it was the sand that stuck to her shoes. Green hair she'd never normally have until now was closely curled against her mid-back, the salty air stinging her eyes just a little. A deep breath came from the normally rambunctious young woman.

"In two three, out two three."

Because of her rather hyperactive nature in recent years, and her finally opting to get a therapist for her personal problems, it was decided that the young lady behind Solaria had to learn to meditate or generally use breathing to gain composure. As her family and friends put it, her impulses were surely going to be the death of her. Even older friends likely would have agreed, if she had any other than her roommate.

Another deep breath in, another out. As she tried to keep her focus on the waves and keeping her breath in tune with them, she let out a deep sigh. "I'm just not cut out for this meditation stuff...Learning it will help my patients, but it's not helping me gain patience..." It wasn't something she'd implied to be a pun, nor was she expecting anyone to catch it when she did. No- she merely sighed at the silence of the sea.

"Normally the coast is pretty busy...Did my therapist tell everyone I was going to come here to practice meditating? Is my therapist a mind reader...?"

With a groan, she fell on her rump, legs flailing in the air for a moment before landing on the sand, her skin itching from the texture of it as she looked around, a light of some sort catching her attention. "That's the new login sign, isn't it? Finally, someone's come to take my boredom!"

@Davrus Gaust

 

Davrus was blinded momentarily as he was transported from the character creation room and onto a beach. The character creation had been......odd? It was a little strange being in a room and morphing what looked like a mannequin with your hands to create what you'd look like in the game but it wasn't enough to keep him from playing. The last experience he'd had wasn't the best but he needed this now, needed to escape into another world for awhile. And he was finally here.

The light from the setting sun sparkled off the waves as Davrus lowered his hand and adjusted to being logged in. The thing that threw him off the most was how real everything felt: the colors in the sunset blending and reflecting on the waters surface, sinking into the sand beneath his feet, even the sea breeze carried the fresh salt smell of the ocean on it. "I'd better be careful or I'll end up confusing reality and Terrasphere" Davrus thought. Glancing down Davrus inspected his handiwork as he stretched a bit and got a feel for the new body.

As he was turning and glancing around he noticed a girl with striking green hair sitting in the sand a short distance away. Davrus grinned slightly, "Good evening! I've only just arrived and still getting adjusted, it's all somewhat avant-garde at the moment. Where would I be able to find the nearest town?" Davrus finished speaking with a slight bow. He'd forgotten how much fun it was to play as someone else! Davrus wasn't sure if this person was an NPC or a PC, either way they should be able to help him out. Davrus grinned again, "If it's not too much trouble?"

@Solaria

 

Finding the man's mannerisms somewhat entertaining, the elf smiled and glanced him over. He wasn't abnormal to look at- it was just that his words were strangely formal, or at least held some sort of weight in them that hurt to her. Why were people so formal, anyway? Considering she had a fascination with Japan, her distaste for more formal etiquette had always confused even her.

"I'm happy to help you," She soon chimed anyway, ignoring the inner angst that was bubbling up. Holding a hand out, she smiled merrily. "I'm Solaria. I've been playing about a month now. You just started, right? I'm sure it may take some time, but you'll get used to things pretty quick. You look like a bright fellow!"

Of course, it was clear in her words that she was just assuming things without reason- but really, if the ever impulsive Solaria could figure out how the controls worked, couldn't anyone? "I'll happily lead you to a village that's near here if you want. I was thinking I'd head there myself soon, to see if I can pick up any quests."

 

"Much obliged Solaria," Davrus grinned and bowed in thanks, "my name's Davrus Gaust, I'm very grateful for any help that you may be able to offer." Davrus felt lucky to have met another player so soon after logging in, NPC's were great and all but it was always better to make friends that were players so you could group up and tackle larger problems that would be difficult alone. Double lucky that he met someone so bubbly and helpful! A lot of players could be real assholes. Besides, he'd noticed that people in Terrasphere weren't very keen about those who used Malefimancy so it was nice to not have to worry about being run out of town before actually making it to town.

Remembering the stigma surrounding Malefimancy users also reminded him of a few of the other things he'd read in the email. Despite already being in a conversation Davrus brought his hand into a fist and quickly opened it again which brought up the game menu. Davrus flicked and tapped through a few different of the menu items and associated panels before closing the menu and turning his attention back to Solaria, "Apologies, just looking through the menu and getting myself acquainted with the system. It would seem that I also require better gear, does Terrasphere seem very......."Davrus paused as he searched for a good term, "grindy?"

When she had first mentioned it he hadn't really noticed but, subconsciously, the name "Solaria" bounced around inside his head. When he'd finished asking his question his memory had been jarred and he was reminded of a similar situation years ago, a new player getting used to a new game with the help of someone who'd played already. Back then he'd played with someone named Solaria in various games before finally moving to Japan for college and lost touch. Of course online you could never be sure if this Solaria was the Solaria, so many people used similar usernames it was impossible to tell after a few years. Davrus decided he wouldn't say anything just yet, he'd been using "Davrus" as his screen name since he started gaming, he'd let her recognize him. If, in fact, it really was her.

 

"What good is a person that doesn't help other people? Not very, that's what I say!" Her words were said with a small dose of laughter. Since she was young, she'd been playing many, many games. There was no reason not to help others, when she knew what it was like not to get the help herself- as well as what it was like when you did!

Watching him mull over the systems and UIs, Solaria couldn't help laughing a bit. "Yeah, it can seem that way at first, but you get used to things faster than you'd think, I swear!" His name, which had been buzzing through her head, finally made sense. "Say, did you play Elder Scrolls Online ages back? It's kind of similar to that when you're new to it."

And, if he did know it, she'd have to thank him again for his past exploits in aiding a then new player himself. Though, she couldn't make assumptions, and even she knew better. "I played it a lot as a kid. The world may have changed, and so have the methods, but things like a learning curve are still inevitable, huh?"

 

Davrus smiled widely as part of his personality showed through his characters at the mention of ESO, "I played that! I thought I recognized your name but I couldn't be sure, it's been so long! How've you been?" Davrus cleared his throat as he got control of himself, after all he was playing a game and enjoyed roleplaying his characters in the games he played. It felt strange readapting a formal demeanor after allowing such an outburst to occur but he hoped that Solaria wouldn't mind.

"That's true, they can change the looks and genre of game but they won't ever get rid of that learning curve. So what about Terrasphere? Anything out of the ordinary you could point out or any tips you wish you'd known before you started?" Davrus was determined to get skilled as fast as possible, being in an MMO of any kind was definitely a community focused environment and he wanted to be an asset and not a liability. From his cursory glance at the menus and different windows a second ago he knew that there a lot of things that he was going to get to dive into and keep track of, it was always a mark of a good game with heavy RPG elements. Usually if the RPG elements were heavy it meant that the game was story heavy as well, they needed things to fill out all the RPG stuff it would be pretty bland and uninteresting if they didn't give you a reason to care about taking quests or exploring the areas of the map. Granted there were those few backward games who, for some inexplicable reason, attempted making an MMO or RPG game without getting their characters to care about anything. These were usually very shallow on the lore/RPG stuff and ended up being wastes of time and money and, if the universe was merciful, quickly faded into oblivion.

Davrus quickly realized that he'd been mostly absorbed by his thoughts, "Apologies Solaria, I was momentarily lost in my own thoughts."

 

A soft smile caught her face as the swordsman hugged onto the man, the memories that flooded her mind momentarily easily pushed out of her head. There were far more interesting things going on right now than a trip down memory lane, after all. "It's been ages! I've been okay~ Playing games when I'm not studying. Just the usual. Worst thing was probably having to convince dad to let me go to med school further from Concord. That's about it."

Her words left her laughing as she watched his thoughts seem to swallow him. It'd been a while- so, she forgot his usual play style involving playing a role. A part of her, after stopping herself from complaining that he was being too formal, wanted to get advice on how to do just that. She was far from an actor, and her persona was usually about the same online and offline. In fact, the only difference was her head- or rather, her use of it.

"TerraSphere so far...It's pretty open-ended. There's definitely a lot of story to it, but the story is kind of...Heavy duty? It's hard to explain. There's a lot of branches and complicated things going on, whether it be specific to the races of the world itself or the people of the world versus us players."

A deep breath left her body as she finally let go of the man she was hugging. She'd forgotten her manners for a moment, naturally clinging to the friends even if it was a long while since last meeting, and even if he was trying to play the role of a stranger. She shook off his apologies, having ignored his spacing out as she was rather insistent on rambling, her smile slightly broader. "Basically...It's kind of something that requires way more research than it's easy to do since the game's a secret. Though...I swear I saw an ad for it on TV when I was playing with my brother recently on one of my weekend breaks..."