Boredom tends to bring one to one’s older tracks. All was the same for the young man. Another lonely Friday night with nothing to do. If at any point slipping on his dusty old virtual reality head piece sounded like a good idea, it would be about that time. Hence came the accursed loading screen. You would think that with all the advancements in technology made over the past few decades, information upload would be great enough to supplement not needing to wait to play a game. It could be worse, he supposed. There could be lag. Or he could just so happen to spawn a hundred metres or so above Brisshal. Pop. He spawned a couple hundred metres above Brisshal. And so, with all the manly masculinity and not the pitch of a big sissy baby, he began to plummet down while screaming at the top of his lungs. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-” Cried out Bob like a totally awesome badass under the subject of gravity that he definitely chooses to experience. “-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-” He continued while flailing his arms around and attempting to look at his rather unfamiliar UI. “-AAAAAAA-THEY UPDATED IT?” Asked the young man to no-one in particular. Of course they updated it. Winds scraped at his being as he proceeded to descend closer and closer to the dense, green sea of leaves below. No time to panic, that may very well just result in him dying more embarrassingly. What could he do? Well the last time he checked, he had body combat, some power that allowed him to shout very loud, and wear clothing. Not it looked like he could punch. Punch really hard. “Wait!” Narrowing his eyes, he collected his thoughts. “If I grab onto the branches with exact timing, maybe I can-” And then he landed onto the side of a tree by his right shoulder first. “Doh!” Then onto onto another branch on his stomach. “Gah!” Multitudes of wooden bridges between the ancient wooded giants collapsed under his weight. “DaAaAaAaAaA-” Needless to say, it was a bumpy ride. Until he finally landed onto the ground by his back first. Still alive, yet not quite as in shape as he would have appreciated. “Ha. Ha.” Bob wearily raised a fist up to signify his victory. “Bob one, game zero. Yaaaaaaaaaaaa-” Thud. His arm fell back down to his side. @Madison Freebird
Close your eyes. Inhale. Calm yourself. Find your center. Become one with the world. Exhale. Ignore the itch on your nose. Seriously, ignore it. You'll break your concentration if you don't. Slowly, the forests of Brisshal began to open up in her mind's eye. Her vision flared to life with countless colored dots and lines, a map more detailed than any her UI could've ever hoped to provide. Your fingers are rooted into the ground anyway, so couldn't even scratch it if you wanted to. Suck it up, nerd. With each breath, more and more of the world revealed itself to her. She could sense most living beings for miles around. Insects buzzing about, adorable forest animals chasing one another around, the less-adorable forest beasts stalking their prey as they chased one another around. Birds chirping as beginning adventurers trod around underfoot. The occasional pack of humanoid beings running around in circles trying to bash one another upside the noggin with crudely-designed weaponry. Each of them a unique color, each of them burning with a different intensity. The only sounds she heard were the wind blowing through the boughs overhead and the beating of her heart. Madison was currently focusing on five dots in particular; a pair of slightly different green auras and six--no, five dark red ones. The crimson ones were circling the other two. Probably adventurers, she supposed. The correlation between their experience level and the taste of their auras went without saying. As she focused on the scene in her mind, the circling red smudges converged on the green ones, and somewhere deeper in the forest all hell broke loose. In that moment, she stirred. Her arm twitched slightly, as if reaching for some popcorn but remembering that the snack didn't really exist in-game. With an inward sigh, the plagueslinger watched as the two green dots blinked out of existence over the span of several minutes. Definitely newbies, she concluded. Probably should've stuck with the grasslands and Honeyhome quests. The corner of her mouth twinged. Welcome to Terrasphere, motherfuckerrrrrs~ The scene died down and the five--now four; hey, they managed to take one down!--red dots milled around for a bit before continuing their trek around the forest. Madison tried to find another interesting thing to focus on to help hone her ability to tap into the world itself. Breath in. Do all that other zen bullshit. Exhale. Just then, a fresh emerald dot screamed into her vision, nearly shaking the witch from her trance. Madison followed it in her mind's eye as it careened through the sky, quickly falling planetside. She watched with mild interest as whatever or whoever it was crashed into the canopy, the branches of the many trees breaking their fall. The green aura hit the ground, and didn't move. A fall. Someone just spawned in the game. Madison was considering looking away, when she noticed that the four murderous red specks also noticed the fresh player hitting the woods. Slowly, they began edging their way towards the disturbance, the confusion and caution clearly visible with the flickering light of their spirits. The woman pursed her lights slightly. Normally, she'd just ignore the scene; but this bastard was already probably injured from the fall. Madison remembered the day she spawned. No control over where she landed. Her first words being of the four-lettered variety, after she spat a glob of dirt out of her mouth and picked blades of grass from between her teeth. She was thankful for the people that helped her to her feet and dusted her off. Shouldn't someone be there for this new person as well? Especially with four murderthings heading their way? Madison quickly scanned the forest for anyone else nearby who might have relieved her of her task, but sadly noted that she was alone for this one. Tearing her roots out of the soft earth and opening her eyes, the witch set out to save someone's ass.
Looking up at the sky above came easy for Bob. As he laid there, he could see where he had entered this blasted forest from. Human-shaped holes through the thick foliage above made it all the more clear of how skydiving, though probably cool in theory, did not help anyone when it came to making their way into a foreign area. Not that he voluntarily chose to make this sort of entrance either way. He just so happened to fall from the sky. Maybe it was a good time to log off and play an FPS game on his desktop like a normal person. But these graphics were so good. In addition to that, he could actually feel himself moving and existing within this virtual world. Maybe not too good of a thing seeing as he hit a bunch of trees on the way down here, though it did make him feel literally alive to some extent. The smell of fresh grass made it feel all the more real. Rustic perhaps. The more he pondered upon the state of his existence within a video game, the more he was compelled to lie down and just rest. Arms stretched before being brought to the back of his head. He could get some time to heal up after that traumatic experience at least. Then he would go to the nearest settlement. Wherever it was. Walking in a single direction usually worked in most games. A solid plan by anyone’s standards. Nothing like some peace and quiet to help him ignore the injuries sustained so far. Or it would have been if he actually got any. Boars. Dire boars. Dire boars that were out for blood were on their way. Not that he knew that in the first place before an echoing, deep squeal came from out of sight. It prompted him to sit up and look around. The thundering of hooves caused the ground to rumble and quake beneath their mighty force. A blow then promptly sent him off barreling into the trunk of a tree. Blam. Bob staggered to his feet, leaning against the tree. One. Two. Three. Four. Four boars as large as him eyed down the young man as if in warning. Encroaching on their territory, he assumed. Maybe if he just backed away slowly they woul- they charged at him. One after the other, the boars reared their hind legs and rushed him. Time seemed to come to a slow for Bob. He needed to act fast or die. Either one of the two options could work. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins. Berserk, heroic might, and martial arts. Combining raging might with insurmountable strength, even at the level of a beginning could work with ungodly effectiveness to beginner enemies. Eyes grew wide as he grit his teeth. A single haymaker was thrown towards an incoming boar. One that would shake the earth and cause it to fly and collide with another- essentially knocking them both out. Dust and splinters filled the air from the force of his blow. A smokescreen that quickly faded, leaving Bob in the very middle of a crater he made himself. A short lived effect. For all of his strength, he was still not quite acclimated to the conditions of them. He had been injured from the fall and a hit, meanwhile fatigue from the punch weighed down on his being. Hope was almost lost now, yet he continued to shakily stand. There were two more. Little to no chance in hell was present for him to win this battle. At the very least, he could continue to stand until his final hour.
Madison practically heard the squealing from a mile away. Yep, those were dire boars, alright. Thrashing through the brush, murder in their eyes and a driving hunger on their minds. Whoever decided it was a good idea to put these fuckers in the starter area needed a good slap upside the head. As she quickly rushed through the forest (but not too quick, of course), the warning squeals grew louder and louder. They were close, and they were pretty annoyed at the intruder from the sky. How rude, dropping in their territory, breaking their trees, not having the decency to immediately jump into their bellies as an apology. The witch was practically close enough she could smell the beasts--strong as their natural stink was, she was still a good ways away. She couldn't make out through the brush where exactly they were. Madison continued to navigate the woods by sound and smell as she quietly shuffled her cards up in preparation for some newbie-saving spellcasting. Maddy dropped low as a gigantic bolt of fur and muscle blasted across her field of vision. It didn't weave between the trees and bushes; it ran through them, toppling and trampling everything in its path. The beast itself was a bit too tall for her tastes, standing from hoof to shoulder about the same height she was. There was no way she'd be able to jump in and defend the new player head on; she'd have to resort to trickery to take care of these boars. She continued slinking through the brush, tapping into her understanding with the forest to keep hidden. Eventually, she spotted the boar's sky dinner, fists balled up, a look of concentration on his face. One of the beasts charged him, and he met it with a fist to the snout. The force behind the blow sent the boar rocketing into another, their momentum only stopped when a couple trees volunteered to catch them. Madison winced as splintered wood flew everywhere. That's only going to piss off the others, you nerd. Preparing herself, she flicked a card off the top of her deck. The card pulsated with green light as the witch cast her spell. Slowly, patches of vines grew from the ground around the hooves of the other enraged baconbeasts, tangling their legs and preventing them from charging the spiky-haired man. Conveniently, they were too busy working themselves into a hungry fury to notice. That's when Madison emerged from the bushes. "Excuse me," she called out to the newbie. "Everything alright? You look like you have things under control here."
His entire playtime flashed before his eyes. He could see it now: the falling, the punching, and the now. This may very well have been the most anticlimactic run-through of any game he has ever played. Save for that one Battle Royale game, but those do not count. Except he did not die there- instead having been saved by restraining vines. Well, that was quite convenient for him. He did not even know he had that kind of ability. Except, once again, he did not. His saviour came in the form of a mage from the thicket nearby. Bob blinked twice and let loose a sigh of relief thereafter. “Yeah,” he nodded, standing up straight to the best of his abilities. “Totally had it under control.” Bringing himself back to the tree he leaned against, Bob the not-liar slump down slowly to rest. “But I mean if you want to finish off those two other big-pigs, you can and should do that.” Announced the pugilist as he took the moment to catch his breath. To whatever god of probability that brought her here to save him, he owed a million thanks. This was good enough of a place for him to come to grips that this was no ordinary game, but a game nonetheless. Better than augmented reality by leagues. Though nostalgia and preference caused him to rank some of the classics higher than this experience. In those, this situation would be a cutscene of some sort and not just poor generation of a random spawn point at the starting area. Futuristic game design at it’s finest, clearly. Assuming that the threat to him was now out of the way and not grinding him to a fine past beneath their tusks, he figured this to be the perfect opportunity to begin inquiring on how to win at the game. “Sooooooooooooooo.” Truly the pinnacle of social ingenuity, of linguistic prowess, and of literary command. “What do I actually do in this game?” Bob asked with all the grace of an intoxicated dragon in the middle of New York. He knew the gist of it was basically a true virtual reality MMORPG that he could experience, but without an actual tutorial or storyline to invest himself in, he was unsure of why he was even there. “Is there a plot NPC somewhere around here?” Turning from left to right, he scratched the side of his temple.
Madison leaned against a nearby tree, bemused at this spiky-haired punchboi's confusion as to what he should actually do in the game. She couldn't really blame him, of course; it was a few hours days weeks before she finally found some direction of her own. A lot of slimes, wolves, and goblins died during that time period, of course. Not that there was anything wrong with players who made a career out of lower-tier mob extermination, of course. Depending on the guild you work for, it could be a pretty lucrative gig. But still, the guy asked some questions, and since nobody else was around to answer them... The witch shrugged her shoulders. "You don't do anything, really." Definitely wasn't the answer the newbie was looking for, by the look on his face. "Think of it like this..." Madison began to wrack her brain for a horribly out-of-date reference that the guy might have understood. Finally settling on one, she said, "Have you ever played No Man's Sky? Old-ass game that promised a galaxy as your playground? This is kind of like that. You're unceremoniously dumped in the middle of nowhere--as you can see for yourself--" The woman gestured to the surrounding wood for emphasis. "If you're lucky, you're dropped near the Beginner's Cave. It's where I first spawned, anyway. Caught a party as they were going in. One of the vets was handing out free combat lessons to people. Nice guy, really. Wonder what happened to him." Probably got caught by the feds for playing an illegal game. Or worse, his parents. She shifted her weight around a bit to get comfortable. "Yeah, direction was the one thing that the developers didn't put into the game. So as long as you learn quick that it's not like any other video game, you'll do fine. Might suggest finding a guild to join up at first. Make some friends, get into a few fights, collect some wolf pelts, and figure shit out from there." Uh oh. Now the newbie had done it. Madison felt herself beginning to reminisce. Anyone caught in that AoE field was fucked. "Once I figured things out for myself, I made a trip to Dunnstads. Now, there aren't any set classes in Terrasphere, really; but I had an interest in the occult. That province is basically a Lovecraftian wet dream. Lots of spooky shit and weird human-fish hybrids running around. People aren't the friendliest, though. Anyway, I got a job at a university for a bit, researching diseases and fungi before I fell in with a--" Madison fell short of saying "necromancer". The time she spent with Lucia was none of this guy's business. "--very nice, very knowledgeable mage," she corrected herself. "I became her apprentice soon after, and now here I am. Lurking in random forests, saving the asses of randoms who happen to drop in unannounced." Madison offered a neutral smile. "This world's pretty open. You can do whatever the hell you want in it. Just keep in mind that the world will react accordingly, and you'll be alright." She cocked her head slightly. "...So, why did you pick up the game, anyway?"
