Open - A Witch and Coffee

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It was a bright day. Really bright and obnoxious. The streets were full of people as they were every minute of every day. It was New York after all. Wretched place never has quiet. A tall and thin woman dressed in dark a dark dress and a lab coat hung over her chair, sat alone in a small, less frequented cafe. She had extremely pale skin and a permanently bored look. This place was known to have very slow service and stale donuts so it was one of the few less crowded places to be in this city. It was however a place she stopped by for a coffee on occasion after work. She lived in a secluded area outside of the city so it made trips a painful chore especially with traffic, again something that was always a problem. If it was not for the corporation she worked for being here. She would have left the entire area the first chance she got.

Elizabeth sipped her coffee which was made extra dark with no cream or sugar. She had dropped a few of her special herbs into it as usual. A special blend to help her keep in touch with the dark spirits. Before her was a small laptop. It had a page open to various searches for virtual reality and dimensional gateway research. It had many important works that she was researching and had to get a file finished soon for a project. Elizabeth eyed the cafe. Her work and research was classified. She needed to keep watchful eyes and spies from other groups out of her business. Another drink of coffee would take some take some attention away from her wandering eyes. As usual it was mostly empty. Time to finish up soon so she could begin the frustrating task of heading home.

 

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Meatspace, I think they call it? That was definitely what Animus was going to call it in his head at this point. The clear divide between reality and game had never been clearer, even if he had spent a huge amount of his teenage years going through backlogs of classics, there just wasn't anything quite like deep dive. Naturally, he spent his Wednesday afternoon the way he spent most of his afternoons after work: getting some caffeine. The cafe near his work wasn't great, but it's lack of clientele helped when it came to his hatred of crowds.

Despite it's lack of quality, he loved coming here because it was always near-empty. Starbucks couldn't promise you wouldn't run into a thirty minute long line full of annoying teenage girls and forty year old moms trying too hard to sound young, even if the overall quality of their food and drink was leagues higher above this place.

Animus's eye was caught by a woman with a labcoat on her chair sitting alone, and sat at a spot at the coffee bar across from her. Animus was something of a regular here, so he smiled at the fifty year old woman behind the counter.

"Aria, a cup of joe and a blueberry muffin, please."

She nodded with a quiet smile and fetched his order. The plus of this place was that everything was cheap as hell. Animus took a generous gulp of his a-little-too-sweet coffee as he eyed the laptop of the woman across from him.

"Deep Dive, eh? Interested in current events, I guess?"

 

"Deep Dive, eh? Interested in current events, I guess?"

The sudden comment came out of nowhere and made Elizabeth turn her head quickly to see who said it. She stared at a young man in his early twenties. He was sitting across from her at a neighboring table. He was looking at her laptop? How nosy and insensitive... wretch. Elizabeth could not out the true extent of her research and she was unsure how much he knew, nor how much he saw. Elizabeth looked to her screen and closed her browser and a special running program. Closing her computer she looked back at him with a look of unnatural boredom and spoke quietly.

"Yes. I have much interest in technology. You could say it is part of my work as well."

Elizabeth turned away and finished the small amount of coffee at the bottom of her mug. She then signaled that she was ready to pay and go. Elizabeth looked at the young man one more time and it became apparent to her that he was the perfect age to be someone who may have played... the game. Sword Art Online. If so, maybe she could use him. She was always interested in talking to people who may have been involved with it. More information always furthered her progress, even at this late stage where she may have nothing more to learn about it.

"Excuse me, but seeing how you took interest in my research. Have you played any full drive games lately? Did you play Sword Art Online by any chance?"

She spoke with such a bored look and tone that her actual interest would be hard to notice. Her darker more sinister style that was present in Merkaba was not present here. Truly, Elizabeth was only fully alive when she was performing rituals, experiments, or otherwise accomplishing her agenda. This dull personality was how she....managed in the 'normal' society that was the masses.

@Animus Marle

 

Oh, crap. Sometimes stuff like this happened to An, and it really stung when it did. Realizing your tactlessness did not feel good, but curiosity overrided politeness for Animus. There was something... worth figuring out about this woman. She was at least five years older than he was, and there was certainly an... aura there? More solid information to stick around for was the glimpses he saw on her laptop, information worth sticking around for. Even if he was just a tech writer, Animus was still a journalist, and a journalist always went with his gut. That was the most important thing for him, to find stories worth telling, and there was certainly a story here.

"Yes. I have much interest in technology. You could say it is part of my work as well."

"Same here, actually. I'm Animus, I write Tech for The Pulse. It's crazy important to keep up to date on even the tinest stories. Always come to bite you."

And then it seemed as if the woman was leaving. Animus tried to keep his wits sharp, trying to find the words to find- but he didn't really have to- she stopped.

"Excuse me, but seeing how you took interest in my research. Have you played any full dive games lately? Did you play Sword Art Online by any chance?"

Now that was one hell of a question, and it gave a lot more cards for Animus to play: for him, conversations like this were a game that required you to stay on your feet and think fast and decide whether information was worth giving. But at this point, his gut said everything he had was worth giving: it wasn't much in the first place anyway.

"Yeah, I'm playing Terrasphere right now, first time playing one actually. I didn't get to play Sword Art, I believe those were Japanese servers only, but I got into contact with this guy who did, Takeshi Honoo. We spoke a lot about his experiences for some articles but we haven't been in contact for a couple months. Thankfully, I actually have logs and recordings if you're interested."

 

Elizabeth rose a eyebrow but showed little other reaction to him stating he was a journalist. Elizabeth could not let him learn too much about her or the corporations research. Both were classified. Especially to nosy reporters. She would have just up and left if he had known nothing but his answer to her inquiry was worth keeping her attention on him if only for a little longer.

He was a Terrasphere player and even happened to know a Sword Art Online Player. Elizabeth had only just begun to work with multi demonsional research when the game was released. The events that had unfolded were declared to be the fault of the game creator, but Elizabeth felt differently. She truly believed that the creator of Sword Art Online, Kayaba Akihiko, had actually discovered the truth. That there were other dimensions and that virtual reality full drive games were really just technological gates into them. It was too bad that she could never personally ask the man. Although the Terrasphere creators may be the same.

Also the young man here, openly spoke of a game that most kept under wraps for fear of being arrested for playing it. After all, the government had a ban on these games now. Quite the boy this one was. Or a complete idiot. He mentioned a name of a Sword Art player, Takeshi Honoo. Hmmm.... she may as well see if he'd give her the logs.

"You play a banned game? Interesting. I would like to also see those logs of yours. Perhaps you could email them to me? I may be able to send you some tidbits for your article."

A waitress came over and Elizabeth paid by credit card. Then after she left. Elizabeth would begin to pack her laptop into a small black suitcase with a computerized lock and stood up. Looking at the young man to see if he would agree.

"I am Anna. And you?"

She had no intent of giving a journalist her real name.

@Animus Marle

 

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Jin took a sip of the coffee before him as he continued to pound away on his laptop. He had work that he needed to get done, and he didn’t want to risk running it through a virtualized private network, after all now a days even those can be traced. So even he was forced into the real world if he wanted to continue to supply his black market viruses to his various patrons. He had chosen this coffee shop for this weeks’ worth of work, as it was far enough away from his downtown loft to avoid suspicion while offering private internet connections payable by crypto currency, truly it was a hacker’s paradise. Well it would be if the coffee was any good, Americans always seemed to burn it for some ungodly reason.

He was taking a minor break while from his seat in the back of the store he eyed the interaction between the two near the counter. He hadn’t paid attention when the woman in the white lab coat had come in, nor had he paid any mind when the man his age walked in, but his ears did perk up when they said the magical word, ‘Deep dive’.

“Finally a clue.” Jin had thought to himself as he tried to be as nondescript as possible while leaning forward listening in on the conversation. It has been over a month since he had received the decrypted message sending him from Japan to New York in search of answers, and still other than what seemed to be a normal MMO he had no idea the true meaning behind it all. This, however, was the first time the recluse had even heard mention of the game outside of the game itself.

To Jin the two seemed to be talking in some sort of a code that he could not really follow, and he quickly settled back down into his seat his heart racing. “Man, field work does not suit me.” He thought as he wiped away an uncharacteristically large amount of sweat from his brow. He returned to his laptop and began to type unable to shake the numbness out of his fingers. He suspected that whatever these two knew they weren’t going to say in the open like this, but he had to get more information and fast before they left, luckily he had various skills in obtaining information without saying a word. Sadly, what was once a beacon of security for him, was now a dangerous obstacle as he realized that the entire reason he had come here was because it offered private connections. Jin scratched his head furiously as he started a packet sniffing tool, and while the woman was using a laptop the man didn’t seem to be using any kind of electronic device, at least not a visible one. Worse still the laptop may not even be on the private wifi at all, instead of opting to use satellite connection, if it was even online.

Jin forced himself to take a breath as he tried to think about his available options. He could brute force the back door on the router, and upload a virus that would be disrupted to everyone currently using it, but he had no way of knowing which device connected was the one he wanted. So he began to edit one of his premade worms, while he let an automated program do the brute force for him. He edited it so that it broadcast an email to every connection it could see, the title would be simply, “Deep Dive: How to bypass the US government.” It seemed click bait enough, and in the body he just copied and pasted an old article that discussed the ban in detail. However, hidden within the text of the article he put a second virus, one that would take the personal information from the laptop and transmit it to a remote server Jin could access later. It only took a few minutes of tweaking to accomplish this, and he prepared himself to quickly send out the mass email to everyone connected to the wifi, not really knowing if those he intended to infect were truly connected to it or not.

Jin paused eyeing the duo from the corner of his eyes as he thought of a backup plan, but he was to flustered to think of anything concrete other than scanning through various social media sites looking for the two of them. No he needed a moment to catch his breath and hope he had made an opening or that he would get a new clue to go by. A few deep breaths later he pressed the button an initiated the worm and virus sending an email to everyone in the store connected via its wifi.

 

"Animus," said the journalist with a sliver of a grin. "And honestly, playing Terraverse is probably about as illegal as movie piracy and smoking marijuana in the 2000s: you just have to be smart about it. Honestly, the Pulse kind of pushed me into playing the game and they have a good team of lawyers when it comes to this stuff, otherwise I'd be toast just talking to you about this junk."

At this point he knew this woman had something to do with the Terraverse, and that she was definitely interested... and despite how common the name was, he was willing to bet anything that this woman was using a fake name. She seemed extremely careful and capable, and really if Animus had wanted more she might seem like a threat.

"So, I'd be willing to give you the logs if you're curious, but I need one thing from you. I'm a journalist first and my goal is to learn as much as I can about the Terraverse, including the people who play it. Considering your... nonchalance I'm assuming you're a player? I'd like to interview you: I won't give out your clearly-fake name or ask for a real one. I want to learn what you think and feel about the game. Doing that can help me on my journey to figure out the truth about the Terraverse, which is the ultimate goal of my job right now. If you share, I'll share, I can even have a thumbstick with my information brought here as soon as you accept. I'll even get you another cup of coffee if you do this or we can go to get a better one somewhere else."

BRRRVT!

Animus grabbed his smartphone, and noted the header of an email he'd gotten: Deep Dive: How to bypass the US government.

"Oh, crap," said Animus quietly. "Sorry, just a second: someone's already writing something about this..."

He clicked the email only to find a bunch of old, useless information.

"Just a fluff piece. Anyway-"

 

The guy's name was Animus. A interesting name honestly. It had mystical qualities to it. Elizabeth appreciated that to a very light extent. He was not fearful of authority if he could get away with it either. Elizabeth approved of that if it was not her laws being broken. The Pulse would be something she would keep a eye on. The more she thought about it, the more Elizabeth felt that she could use it for spreading her own ideals to others. This could be a good chance. He naturally assumed that she played the game. Which was true... however perhaps she should share the truth? That the game was but a dimensional gateway to the 33rd dimension? How to put this so that he would just write her off as a cook. Then again, that would get rid of him. Elizabeth did not need his logs that badly.

"The truth? Animus. The truth might be disturbing to you... I know things and can share them. This must remain confidential. Any attempts to reveal who told you this will be met by fierce consequences. In fact... simply placing this information into your article could endanger your life and the entire publisher. "

A dark look glazed over her eyes. She stood and reached for her lab coat. Placing one arm into it as she continued rather causally.

"Do you know about alternate dimensional research? Do you know that there is scientific proof that we are but one of many realities? Do you think VR is interesting? That humans can create life in virtual reality? What if the VR was another reality only disguised as a game?"

Elizabeth put her other arm into her coat and grabbed her suitcase.

"Do you get what I'm leading at? Sword Art Online, was no different. I leave the rest to your imagination. Print that in your article and see if you keep your job. My email is annabellenox53826@nexuscorp.com. Send me the data and I may tell you more. If you want more that is..."

With that, Elizabeth would leave the cafe. It was a long drive back to her home.

@Animus Marle @Roland Rutledge