Private - C'est ça Tête

Finally! Zori had left that blasted forest. It had been a few hours, and several misadventures, but he was finally free from it all. The suffocating caress of ever present nature was gone. The freed Caenis no longer had to endure bugs, moss, weeds, ivy, probably some mugwort even though that wouldn't make sense, and the animals. His masteries gave him a few edges when it came to avoiding combat but he wanted to figure out how to take them out. That was the only way to get experience in every other rpg he'd played. Fight. Kill. Survive. Pick up the coins the monsters left behind. He never understood why they did that. Couldn't they just add a skinning and selling part to that instead?

The distracted Zori walked directly into a fence. He wasn't tall enough that his inertia carried him over the top. Instead, the sturdy country fence just chose not to yield. Winding the Caenis. He leaned over the fence and finally had a chance to enjoy the view of Honeyhome Village while waiting for the self-inflicted pain in his chest to subside. It was unnaturally pleasant. Like some kind of movie set. He figured the general quaintness and aesthetic of the houses reminded him of a specific director, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, while calmly devouring the environment (with his sight). His eyes locked on to some villager. Some guy who was walking around with a large hood, almost like a beekeeper's hood, in his hands. They're eyes must have met. After that, the village guy disappeared behind some building. Without breaking eye contact.

"That was weird. Kinda." Zori quietly mumbled to himself. Wondering if this region didn't have a lot of Caenis or something. Racism was something he hadn't thought could be a feature in this world. Who would make a game with racism in 2027. Terrasphere devs might have. They were working to create an alternate world after all. Probably.

With some new burden to weigh on his mind every now and then, Crotox decided to push himself off of the splintery fence. Wincing as one of those wooden buggers dug into his right ring finger. While meandering down the last part of the path into Honeyhome he shook his right arm in some meager attempt to free the wood intruder. When that ultimately didn't work he lightly sucked on the digit.

This became a problem, apparently. In the process of walking towards Honeyhome center the young Caenis saw some more villagers. He thought they were villagers at least. He waved his free hand at them while planning to walk past but they must have thought something was off. The pair, a mother and child, quickly changed direction and went (what felt like) away from Zori. It was... a bad feeling. He felt like he had done something wrong, but he couldn't come up with any good answers. The only thing he could conclude was responsible was himself? Was he wrong? No. The villagers must be the wrong ones here.

He had to get out of that head space, deciding to label both situations as exceptions rather than the rule. That's what he wanted to do... Then he realized he was alone. There were houses on both sides of the street and nobody around. Shutters were closed. Doors locked. Not even a squeaky hinge was left loose enough to loudly announce itself constantly. He felt like he must have been in a ghost town.

"Huh."

Zori took a seat at the town's fountain. Which was probably more like a glorified well if he was being honest. There he took a second to ponder. Did he do something wrong?

 

Understanding now the type of man that Shintai wishes he was in contrast to the man that Shintai sadly is is quite important for a deep understanding of the challenges he would face. The man -- more like a boy, in all honesty -- had grown tired and loathsome of his monotonous lifestyle. Log in -- Find a new waifu in a dating sim -- complete all the routes -- beat it -- sleep -- repeat. Shintai lacked the fire so commonly associated with the human spirit -- filled with life and teeming with potential. Shintai woke up, checking his email in the regular fashion -- and noticed an email from some people at... Terrasphere? Whatever, most VR games were shit in comparison to his usual waifu-filled VR RPGs. Today, however, Shintai decided to humor the email, downloading and launching the game. "Oh -- okay" Shintai spoke, looking out at the body he could sculpt to his liking "No presets huh...?" Shintai spoke, reaching over to the body. He closed his eyes, "I think... this is what I want" Shintai said, sculpting the body to his liking.

The final product -- in all his glory -- was Bjorn The Colossus. Bjorn, a hulking fine prime specimen that appealed to Shintai's lack of confidence shined like a gem into his heart. It was at that moment that Shintai looked over at the options.

FREE MODE :: ASSIST MODE
SIMULATED :: REALISTIC
​

Shintai sighed "Ugh, handholding is so dumb in these RPGs." Shintai spoke, tapping free mode -- assuming that it referred to quest-based assistance. Shintai then tapped realistic, likely because he considered that no game he had played before had a realistic setting. Shintai smiled, confirming his final decisions, and felt himself falling. Shintai felt his body, felt the wind on his skin -- and in response to that, he screamed. Shintai's body crashed into a tree, falling through the trees and landing harshly on the ground. Shintai landed with a thud, yelping with pain. "What the fuck!? Why did I feel that?!" Shintai yelled, rolling over and reaching for his back in pain. "Ooooh my god" Shintai spoke, picking himself up as he slowly regenerated HP. "Where... am I?" Shintai spoke, looking around "Why aren't I in a town square or anything?". Shintai walked along the path in the forest, viewing the life around him.

"Well... it is pretty cool." Shintai mumbled, walking along, admiring his newfound height in game. Shintai pondered the mastery he chose: Geomancy and began to look around himself for a HUD. "There's usually a spell bar around here somewhere... Where is it?" Shintai asked, opening up the palm menu. Shintai opened a skill list, observing the basic Geomancy skills available to him -- basically only being one -- Manipulate Dirt. Shintai looked at the instructions, confused by how they were listed out.

​

"...What is this bullshit?"

HOURS LATER
​

Shintai ran out from the forest, yelling out "Does anyone know what the hell these are!?" Shintai ran out into what seemed to be a town square, looking around and seeing a...boy? at a fountain. "Hey, do you recognize these types of symbols?" Shintai spoke, showing the boy the instructions for Manipulate Dirt