Character

Born to a single woman who was not ready for a child of her own yet, Ari was adopted by a typical middle-class family. In all honesty, he was rather lucky in his upbringing. Even though he and his family constantly fought, he never had any illusions about how he had won the proverbial lottery.

By the time Ari was in middle school, the boy had acquired a deep seated love for video games, though his parents loathed his interest in them. Thankfully, a girl he met in middle school would share his love of video games, and the two would become close friends, going to high school together. It became incredibly rare to see one without the other.

Sadly, in their Junior year, Ari's closest friend committed suicide. Struggling with her death, Ari fell into a deep depression. With his grades slipping, overbearing parents, and the lack of a support system, Ari attempted to drown himself in his backyard pool six months later.

Waking up some time later in a hospital bed, Ari was informed that he had been out for three weeks. He'd been submerged for four minutes, twenty-six seconds. Being deprived of oxygen for so long had left some lasting damage to his brain. Symptoms could include changes in personality, poor judgment and focus, memory loss, and diminished motor skills. He simply nodded along.

Ari's memories from then on have been patchwork at best. Huge swatches of time leading up to that point in his life were missing. A trip to visit family in Greece, gone. There were photos to prove he'd been there, but he couldn't remember it. A martial arts competition where he'd won second place. Gone, despite the trophy on the shelf. And his friend...why couldn't he remember her face? Or her voice? What games they played?

Frustration at his own inability to remember the most basic things about his friend filled Ari up. Determined not forget any more, he began to write down things he could remember. His parent's birthdays. The name of his first pet. She was shorter than him. They sat together on the bus. Someone at school got in trouble for wearing their earbuds during class. She played a game called Terrasphere. Anything he could remember, past or present, Ari began to write down.

This, ultimately, has been a habit Ari's carried into college. Transitioning from engineering to game design (no, his parents were not happy about that decision), life has become normal again for him. Plus, he's managed to recover bits and pieces of things he'd forgotten. A snowboarding accident on a trip to Colorado. Her favorite food. A lot was still missing, but writing things down helped. Occasionally, he'd sit down and flip through his little notebooks of half-remembered things and re-read them. That one time he ate a raw egg for twenty bucks. Going on a movie date with a girl his first year of university. She played Terrasphere.

That game he'd forgotten about in the four years since. On a whim, Ari decided to see if the game was still around, but was met with nothing but static. Asking some of his friends in his game design classes yielded better results, and by the end of it all, the man had finally acquired the QR code to download the app.

Eager for the chance to at least connect with an important figure from a forgotten past, Ari now dives into the world of Terrasphere, unsure of what awaits him on the other side of the virtual veil.