Ashiore's eyes opened to the smooth dark ceiling of a temple, and her first instinct was to cower. Because... because she was just being assaulted by dark beams, she was just moments ago grappled and restrained by the tendrils that battered her entire body. No longer. Not anymore, at least. This wasn't the first time she had woken up somewhere like this. So, she'd died again... Ashiore wondered if Morpheus had gotten out. The elderly man had kept fighting to the very end, and in the chaos of her last moments, she hadn't been able to tell whether he had made it out, or if he had instead been assaulted and slaughtered just like she was. Well, that didn't matter now. She'd have to figure out where she was, warn people who were looking into the area. Search for Morpheus, and Prometheus too. Yes, there was a lot to do now. Swallowing hard, she lurched out of the temple, and started making her way through the chamber- Except. Except... There was no sound in the chambers, save for her echoing footsteps. In her last moments, the fear had caused her heartbeat to echo loudly through her veins, drowning out even the sound of her own screaming. But now, there was nothing. Not even, she realized with a slowly growing horror, her pulse. Looking down at her hands, her panic began rising as she took in the brittle bony quality to her fingers, the paleness of her skin, the fact that her hands didn't look alive in the least. There were a few people mulling about, but she paid them no mind. She needed to get away, she had to find a- a mirror, or a puddle, or something, she had to see what had happened to her. She half-ran, half-shuffled down the steps of the temple, tearing off into the woods as fast as she could, uncaring of the stares she was receiving. A lake- there was a lake right nearby. Ashiore practically stumbled over to the edge, peering down at her reflection. A grotesque medley of decaying colors met her horrified stare. She screamed. @Charlotte Breuil
Well, this was quite something. Charlotte would have never imagined this could be so much fun! Especially swinging around her oversized toy at innocent little slime things! Sure, the thought of simply putting a bullet into some customers head to not allow them to reproduce, as that would be a crime, crossed her mind quite often every day. But there was, for starters, the law, and so much more. Here? However? After some initial getting used to, Charlotte didn't really feel bad for these slimes at all. Wasn't that... a bad thing? Amoral, or something? Sure, it was a game and not the first one she played but this shit was like, super duper real and all! Then again she did work in a fast-food chain that had to kill a lot of animals to get a lot of buns and stuff. Not like it mattered for now. Charlotte wasn't really looking forward to it but didn't loathe the thought either. Only time could tell. Right now, she had some simple, mindless, fun of swinging her battle axe over and over again. Naming the slimes after annoying people she knew in real life made the entire ordeal just that much more fun! This provided way more satisfaction as any punching bags could ever, too! As the smol girl continued to walk casually along the roads, whistling some random song in the air, and searching for her next target, the girl could hear it. A scream. Very, very, close. 'Is someone in need of help?!' Wasn't a thought that had crossed her mind at all. No, the only thing that mattered was her curiosity. Past this bush, past that stupid tree, oh, another stupid tree. Maybe she should become a lumberjack, and then, she saw it. "Zombie?!" This was... so cool! She didn't worry about why a single zombie was in what was essentially a beginner zone. Instead, Charlotte imagined. She compared. If this was a real-life zombie apocalypse? She probably wouldn't make it. But in reality she wasn't in possession of her cute oversized beginner-weapon nor did she have the strength to wield it. There was only really one solution to this discovery. "DIE!" Charlotte gave enough of a warning as she jumped out from the undergrowth. Her movements clumsy and slow as she brought down the instrument of death onto @Ashiore Evretto or, at the very least, close beside her! She was a beginner, after all.
Ashiore was so caught up in horror at what she was seeing that she didn't notice that she was no longer alone in the small forest clearing. What was happening to her, what was going on? The rot had spread now, no longer contained to just her fingers--every single part of her now was- The sudden voice clued her in, however. Looking up, Ashiore saw a short white-haired girl carrying an enormous axe staring in her direction. She had barely even registered the shout before she had to shriek and scramble backwards to avoid getting chopped in half. The wild axe swing slammed into the ground by her feet, sending mud splashing up Ashiore's legs. Getting to her feet, Ashiore tried saying, "Wait- wait! Stop!" If that didn't give the other woman pause, then Ashiore would frantically stammer out a spell to try and cause the nearby grass to grow tall, restrain her attacker's ankles and give her time to run. Though, with how shaky she was from her recent resurrection, her incantation probably wouldn't be all that effective. And even if it worked, the spell was temporary and she wouldn't be able to hobble far. If @Charlotte Breuil was truly intent on chasing her down, there wouldn't be much of a challenge in it.
Bloody hell! She missed. Well, that's what Charlotte got for being new and all, wasn't it? Just meant she had to try again! Zombies were, after all, slow or something. "Wait- wait! Stop!" "Huh?" Charlotte stopped in her tracks for a second. Of course, @Ashiore Evretto had to start talking, because why not? "Nonono." Rest in pieces, oh sweet immersion. "That's not how it works! You're supposed to say 'Rrrrrr...' and 'Rraaaarrr...' and 'UUhhhhh...' and sometimes even 'Braaainnnsss'!" Was the first person that Charlotte would converse with some undead NPC? It had to be an NPC, right? Only they got such special privileges! But... she kinda looked way more fresh than the zombies she used to know! At the very least, it seemed like the smol girl stopped in her intentions to slice the oh-so-much-stronger player in two, for now!
Oh... oh good. It looked like her panicked words were enough to get the axe-swinging girl to hesitate. Ashiore sighed in relief--or, tried to, anyway. Her lungs weren't cooperating, there was no air to push. But as the girl began speaking again, Ashiore's brow furrowed as she took in what she was saying. Did... did her attacker think that she was a creature, an enemy wandering about the forests of Brisshal? "Wait, this is a misunderstanding!" Ashiore said, looking right at the girl. "I'm not a zombie, not a monster. I'm just a person!" Even as she was speaking, it probably was a laughable thing to say. Looking like how she did right now, who would believe that she wasn't a monster? From the unnaturally pale tint to her skin to the stink of rot and decay that clung to her, every part of her looked like a classic horror-movie zombie. "I can prove it to you," she said, hoping to get this all cleared out. How, though? What would convince @Charlotte Breuil that she wasn't an enemy? "I, uh..."
Prove it to her? Well, the sole fact she was doing the talking was quite prooving! And while she did have some zombie-traits, the woman still lacked the horrifying torn off-face. Heck, there wasn't even a single, bare, bone! Bad zombie. BUT, for the Charlotte who had been pondering about moralities in slaughtering a human versus a slime just seconds before, there was a fundamentally other problem! "Huh? Even a Zombie, or a Monster, —wouldn't that be technically the same?— can be a person! Don't think just because you COULD be human you- Aaaaahhhh!" The great axe landed, in annoyance, closely beside @Ashiore Evretto. Charlotte saw it day after day, so many rich pricks that were full of themselves. Thinking status, money, and fame were all that mattered. Thinking they were something better by default. If not for dumb customers being dumb, that was another kind of customer she really hated. Especially when they looked at her with contempt for being just a lowly fast-food employee. Now, Charlotte wasn't a defender for monster rights whatsoever, just, humans were humans. Slimes were slimes. Zombies, zombies. Blablabla. They were all individuals, too? Well... you could argue about zombies, because they're kinda dead, no? Nonetheless. Charlotte was here to have fun and not spew some philosophical crap. And that's exactly what she would do. "Alright Mrs. Zombie, I get it. I'm not discriminating." Yeah, screw moralities! She'd probably chop a human just the same. "This is like, some plot, right? Zombie romance tropes have been a fad lately, haven't they? Well, sorry to break your undead heart but I'm not playing this to find true love." Urgh, that just reminded her of her last few relationships, promising herself over and over to spend the rest of her life alone. Woo! Way to go about the whole 'fun' business. "Aaaaahhh!" She lifted her great axe again just to hammer it down in anger, close to the zombie, once again! For being a beginner it was hard to tell if Charlotte simply missed or if Ashiore was lucky. "Alright, so, silly me. Obviously, this would be something about pure zombie-love, like another NPC, right? And I should play cupid? Well, here's my advice for yah: Love is a pain. Forget her or him and move on! You're happier alone. Aii! That should clear the quest, where's my reward?"
Okay, okay. The situation was mostly calmed down now. @Charlotte Breuil still looked like the type of person who was rather lax with her weapon, swinging it about this way and that even though there was no battle going on. Once more, the axe came very close to embedding itself in Ashiore's foot, but thankfully that didn't happen. "I am human!" she protested. "A real human, I-" Ashiore ducked out of the way of another swing as Charlotte looked to come to some sort of conclusion. Brow furrowing in confusion, Ashiore listened as Charlotte suddenly began talking about romance out of nowhere. Love? She wasn't looking for- Ohhh. Oh. She put a hand to her forehead as she finally understood what was going on, when the word 'quest' left Charlotte's mouth. She must have gotten the idea that Ashiore was some NPC. "No, I'm an actual player," she said firmly, once Charlotte had finished talking. "I'm not an NPC, this isn't a quest. I'm just a normal person playing a VR game, just like you." It sounded like Charlotte was rather new to this game, and coupled with the clumsy swings of her axe, it definitely looked like Charlotte was a new player. Given Ashiore's state of panic when she was first attacked, most competent fighters would probably have easily been able to chop her head right off. That she was still alive (...un-alive...?) right now was a whole lot of luck in her favor.
"Well..." A player, huh? How was she supposed to believe that? "If you're a player then why do you look totally-not-alive?! But... mhm, could NPCs even be conscious enough to spill nonsense like that?" AI made some great advancements over the years, Charlotte was aware of that, but going so far as to call themselves 'Players', kinda even self-aware, was kinda jumping the gun, wasn't it? "Quite the conundrum!" BUT, whatever... or? Well, the axe-wielding girl shrugged. Did it really matter? The Zompc seemed self-aware enough anyway! "Fine, fine. I believe you~" Maybe a race-change was possible or something, huh? Unlock it and pay real money and all that! BUT who would want to become a stinky undead? Boo! Ceasing her aggression by comfortably putting her axe into the dirt beside, the smol girl got a step closer to give @Ashiore Evretto a hand! After all, she was still there stuck on the ground. "No biting! As for me, I am..." Mhm, how should she go about this? This... or that? Ah... why the hell not. "I am the one and only, the untold Legend, Charlotte Breuil!" ... ... ... The girl blushed strongly. "Okay... that sounded way better in my head. That was stupid-stupid... we don't do stupid-stupid."
"Yes, I am just a player. A human. I don't know what happened," Ashiore said, looking down at her mottled fingers again. "It was just my fingers first, for a few weeks... I couldn't find any cure, and now-" She couldn't even say it. And she didn't have to, her appearance now spoke for itself. Ashiore accepted the offered hand and pulled herself up. She tried to dust herself off a bit, try to look presentable as best she could after, well, almost being decapitated once or twice. It probably was not successful. "Nice to meet you," she said politely as @Charlotte Breuil introduced herself, lying through her teeth. No, she didn't really consider this to be a nice meeting... But it was always better to be polite. Charlotte's sudden embarrassment about her greeting did startle a laugh out of Ashiore, though. "It really wasn't that weird," Ashiore said after she had finished chuckling. "There are some people out there who... ah..." What was a polite way of saying this? "Well, some people really, really get into character. That wasn't the worst I've heard, you're fine." "My name is Ashiore, by the way. Ashiore Evretto." She offered Charlotte a small smile. "You sound like you're new to the game? Are you doing all right? It can be a bit overwhelming at first."
"Ooohhh.... so you're like, totally cursed? Well, sucks to be you!" Unlike the polite @Ashiore Evretto, this brat didn't seem to keep her tongue in check. And while she knew exactly what she was saying, there wasn't any malice in her words. Swallowing down a little ball of disgust in her throat as she heard her real self in the woman's 'nice to meet you', Charlotte nodded. "'Not the worst I've heard'? You know, if you wanna be nice and all, you shouldn't even use negative terms in the first place! Though even if you try to be nice, sometimes it doesn't help! Good thing we never talk about my greeting anyways" It wasn't like that Charlotte saw right through Ashiore's false intentions. No, not at all. But Charlotte worked in a food-industry that had extra-weird customers. Entitled children and parents. 'Your kid looks adorable!' - 'ADORABLE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN JUST ADORABLE? HE'S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SNOWFLAKE! I WANT TO SPEAK WITH YOUR MANAGER!' ... yeah, there were some fun times. Turning down her mental cinema again, Charlotte concentrated on the task at hand. Right, the Zompc she could converse with! She didn't seem like a bad person! "A-sh-io-re? E-vvrr-eto?" Did she get that right? Fantasy names could be weird, sometimes. "Anyway! Yeah, I'm totally new to this game! And am I doing alright? It's a blast!" The smol girl started to beam happily. "I'm not going to tell-this-not-zombie-I-just-met my entire life-story but ESSENTIALLY it feels great doing whatever I want! You see, real-life, I have a job that requires me to be the NICEST person to the most ANNOYING of people! It-should-be-a-crime-if-they-reproduce-kind-of-annoying!" Wow, hearing her say that out loud sounded just outright rude, didn't it? "Ah, scratch that last part! I might just start feeling sorry for them!" Or did Charlotte? Guess she did have some morals after all. "Alright, so. Just earlier I was slicing up some slimes and gave them names of the really-really annoying people that I'm regrettably closer to! And daaaamnnn that felt way more satisfying than using a punching bag!" So... the small girl had some issues, maybe? Just how old was she anyways.
A curse was probably a good way to put it. Ashiore's light smile strained a bit at the flippant way that @Charlotte Breuil spoke about it. She supposed that was fair enough, though. She was basically just a stranger. She couldn't expect every person she ran into to be so fully invested in her own personal problems. "That's right," Ashiore said, nodding when Charlotte pronounced her name. It was a strange name, to be fair. "And, uh, you've gotten a weapon already." And oh, how familiar Ashiore had gotten with that axe in just a few short minutes. "That's probably good enough, especially here in Brisshal. It's not that dangerous here, but sometimes people still get careless. Or unlucky." She raised her eyebrows in just a bit of surprise and nervousness as Charlotte described how she'd give names to the slimes she would chop up. "Ah, well... It sounds like pretty good stress relief? That is- was part of the reason why I started playing too. Sometimes it's nice to just be able to escape into a game like this." Yeah, she definitely knew the appeal of dropping into a world where she had magical powers and could go off on adventures after a long hard day of dealing with messy, picky children and the odd customer or two that seemed to have some kind of vendetta against tipping. She's certainly taken out her aggression on a monster or two in her time, though she hadn't quite gone as far as to name them... But, well, whatever works? "But, yes. Especially if you're new here, you shouldn't leave Brisshal for a while. Some of the neighboring regions like Norforva are incredibly dangerous. Astorea is probably okay. But definitely stay out of the western area there." She shivered, the circumstances of her death abruptly rushing back to her. "There's some very bad things happening there right now."
"Shouldn't go there?" Charlotte asked curiously. "Dangerous?" She added. "Some very bad things happening?" Sounded like, some big event? "Eeehhh... I'm not really keen on dying but how bad can it be anyway? It's just a game, after all!" Yeah, the players died in games all the time. Grind, death, improve. The natural cycle, or something. Regardless, for now, it looked like the zombie girl didn't really have much more else to add. It was a chance encounter, and the two of them were complete strangers. Charlotte wasn't really looking to make friends here, anyway. "Well, well..." She was about to say her good-byes. "It was nice... meeting you? Not like I can make much of a comparison considering you're the first player I've met. Good Luck with your curse and all, I guess. Also, you should try the naming thing for stress-relief, too, if you haven't. It's really great!" if @Ashiore Evretto didn't have much more of an input, the already turned away girl was about to simply leave.
"I guess there really was a reason why this is supposed to be banned," Ashiore murmured to herself, when she heard @Charlotte Breuil talk about how dying may not have been too bad. "It can be very, very bad," she said grimly, but didn't elaborate, trying hard not to think of the various gruesome things she had experienced in game: a friend tortured, acquaintances and her dearest companion burnt to death, the shadowy figure at King Theodore's assassination... Yes, Terrasphere could be brutal indeed. But, that wasn't anything that Charlotte knew. And who knows, perhaps the white-haired girl could have an experience in this game without all that doom and gloom? Ashiore certainly remembered what it was like to drop into the world, feeling heroic and invincible. Hopefully, Charlotte wouldn't grow too overconfident. "Good luck and stay safe," she said to Charlotte, when it looked like the girl was ready to go. There wasn't much reason to linger anymore. Now that she had a bit of time to come to grips with her situation, she couldn't stay here any longer. She had some things she needed to do.
