Private Eastern Brisshal A descent into madness, or maybe just hedonism?

[Hyacinth]

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Light flashed across the night sky as another star was called to Astorea, seemingly one of many. For a brief time, there was nothingness, almost peacefulness, until synapses fired and sensations returned to the body. Hyacinth slowly opened her eyes with a blink to ward away disorientation, gaze immediately drawn to the massive boulder just a few feet ahead in the middle of the clearing. It was impossible to miss even with the minimal light source, though she quickly shifted to inspecting her body.

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"The avatar came out perfectly.. I'm shocked," she mumbled to herself, tone a bit dry. Not shocked at all. She squinted at a strand of blue hair in her fingers and then reactivated the UI. Although it would be more fun to dig through various bags to check equipment - or, at least more realistic - she wanted to verify her inventory quickly so she could start exploring quickly too. It was going to take enough time to learn move sets, combos, and how to fight; no time to be wasted!

Perhaps that was why she didn't notice that another player had materialized nearby.​

@Nicolas​

 

[Nicolas]

He didn't adjust well, a feeling of nausea unlike any other coming over him as he spawned into this world for the first time. The provided sensory input stepped beyond the normal bounds of VR into something too uncanny valley for his brain to adjust to at first. Like some sort of infant animal his legs buckled beneath him as he took a knee, dry heaving and gasping as the same time.

"Co--- this is something."

The sound of another player interrupted his moment of weakness and prompted his immediate rebound onto his feet, an act played as if the previous vulnerable seconds hadn't occurred. When Nico had finally took a look at who had exactly had made the sound, he was taken back for a moment. The introduction of his first player in the game being a completely different race wasn't what he had expected, needless to say a member of the opposite sex. Though, could he really be sure? A strange fantastical world hatched somewhere in-between the real world and how pseudo-real this all felt meant any one thing needed to be carefully evaluated.

Examining the player and then himself he found himself sorely dressed for the occasion. Where the individual seemed to have carefully crafted every aspect of their avatar, he had done almost nothing. No, that wasn't giving himself enough credit. Clearly the face and proportions were his own - with some liberties, but his attire was far more simple. Opting only to wear what could be seen as all-back common cloth clothing of something resembling slacks and a shirt, he looked more like some sort of evil default villager than a player.

"Looking good, looking good", he whistled breaking her moment of introspection. "New player? Same."

He stretched out the digits of his fingers to get used to the feedback, knowing in reality this wasn't his actual hand even as it felt like it. The interface provided a window from which he could see the more interesting part of the game, or what had gotten him really interested in it. Its so called magic.

@Hyacinth​

 

[Hyacinth]

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? ? ?! ! !

Who the f--? She visibly startled, jumping a little as she closed menu after menu, like hiding a shameful little secret. It took a moment to remember how to react, but the blue-haired elf twisted on her heel to stare at the man. If it wasn't for his words, she might have mistaken him for a poorly designed NPC, which wouldn't have been a very good look for the developers. Whoever those were. No, it totally made sense that a random player would put so little effort into their appearance.

One corner of her lips curled into a frown, but her golden eyes remained relatively friendly, a confusing expression. Most likely he would mistake it for confusion, too. "Is this, like, a predefined spawn point or something? I didn't expect to see anyone out in the middle of.. well, here." She swept one hand around the clearing, sparing another look at the unnaturally round stone with the marking. "Oh well. Maybe it's fate. That, or 'they' thought we needed a buddy system."

Hyacinth took a few - somewhat unsteady - steps toward the man. There was a faint glow to her already preternatural eyes, having found the Investigation Mode button. She was trying to learn more about the person she was interacting with.. but no information was displayed. Huh. Were they trying to make that part realistic too? With the gap closed, she had to tilt her head back a little to look up at him, thrusting out her hand in the universal sign for a handshake.

"Name is Hyacinth. Nice to meet you, I guess? I see you chose to be a human, that's.. interesting."​

@Nicolas

 

[Nicolas]

"Probably. Newbie town? Something like that. From what I did gather from the things I could actually find, this whole area is where new player spawn. Though not necessarily right next to one another."

His own investigation mode had been enabled from the onset, something he had opted in to do when initially looking through controls mentally. He found it amusing that by investigation it meant - at least at first, the ability to dispatch some common sense. If he focused enough on the floor he'd get a description of such, some sort of label on what that focused thing was. Ground, was well ground, and upon even closer inspection it told him it was "dirt(?)" questioningly, as if it wasn't sure because he couldn't be sure. He could only assume that if he somehow found something different about the dirt it would label it accordingly. Was it possible to take notes and apply them there somehow?

Shaking his head and withdrawing from introspection of his own Nico followed Hyacinth's gaze, looking back at the elf, noting the sudden change of '???' to Hyacinth upon the giving up of her name. "Nico" he responded quickly, looking at his own body when she mentioned his human form. "Well, I'm not quite sure I could have really gotten into it if I was something else, even something as close to a human as an elf."

Taking her hand he shook, withdrawing quickly to the touch noting its alterity. It would take some getting used to the uncanny valley effect still.

"Suppose we should do shit, no? Explore. More importantly."

Among the two possible modes he had picked total direct control, not having wanted to give up the exhilaration of being able to perform supernatural feats. He could feel the tugging of his senses, the notion of knowledge he shouldn't have but had now, garbled as it was. With a willful tug he pressed his hand to the ground and expanded his influence, turning ground black and decayed, warping whatever it was into something new. With his own meager level of ability not much was possible, but something told him this could grow into something marvelous - quite literally.

The decomposition and decomposition of the organic matter spread like an infection - a biological virus, that turned things from what they were into more what he was. That sense again allowed him to feel 'them'.

"Oh. . not ominous at all, nope. Something tells me that won't go over too well with the locals."

@Hyacinth

 

[Hyacinth]

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It was incredibly weird to feel the texture of human skin against her own, the heat from his body even radiating into her own - like a real handshake. Brief, but real. She blinked, disabling the UI and contemplating just how good the sensations and visualizations were, all while forgetting to lower her hand. His voice broke her out of the reverie at least long enough to regain composure, grinning despite herself.

Or, well, she grinned for a second anyway. It was hard to keep smiling when Nico crouched down and unleashed the most contemptuous magic she had ever seen. There was a tug in her heart, or maybe it was code, but she felt truly offended to behold the corruption of the once-beautiful grass. The elf nearly jumped back in her hurry to put some distance. "Ew! No, certainly not ominous. What is that, dark magic? I almost chose that as one of my abilities too, but now I'm glad I didn't.."

Behind them, the runic stone seemed to radiate invisible energy, as if it warned the magic to keep away. Between the disgust and a certain anxiety about not understanding this world, all Hyacinth could think of was excising that corruption. She lifted her right hand, a simple bronze bangle around her wrist jingling from the forceful movement. Three fingers curled in, index pointing at the spot on the ground, heat condensing from nothingness to combustion. Like the flick of a lighter, it would catch fire, grass and Nico alike if he did not move. As if conscious, the flames stayed mostly within the boundaries of his little experiment.

Wouldn't want a forest fire.

"Exploring is fun, I agree," she mused. "That being said, we appear to be in the middle of a dense forest with no idea where the next town is located. I haven't messed around with the UI to see if it provides a map or teleportation. Likely, there are monsters to contend with if we leave this clearing, although I expect they have to be somewhat newbie-friendly. Who knows? There are lots of games where the beginning is harder than the end, where you can die from a single wrong move. How sad would that be?"

@Nicolas ​

 

[Nicolas]

"Come on, what's virtual life without a little spice? Clearly, its a spooky no-no magic that will make everyone on edge, but as you and I know from a little bit of the real world, whether or not anything is taboo is how you use it." And he certainly planned to use it in the intended nefarious manner. Like her grinned, but only for a fleeting moment, stone-facing to keep from wearing his emotions too clearly. Not that it mattered too much, it was only day one and while first impressions mattered in games like this they were seldom remembered.

Her conflagration had removed his clear sullying of ground, but he still felt a fleeting connection to it, a lingering magic. Though he didn't take Nature in his skillset, he could tell the biological nature of the organisms in and around the ground - living and dead, still held onto the toll of his energies. The clear negative disposition she kept barred him from going any further but again he could sense that another tug could bring about a secondary effect.

"You may just be right considering the hype and rumblings on this game. Its weird how until I got both it and the ability to come into it, I wasn't quite able to piece together things I had seen on it. Now if anything is spooky clearly its that, no?"

Nico stood straight now, looking around and peering into his UI, attempting to find anything that resembled a map. Really, at least on first inspection, he couldn't find one. He didn't dwell on it.

"It may be better for me if we don't find a town anytime soon. I'll tell you what I picked for my starting skills, just to outline why. Dark, Animancy, and Summoning. I'll really do well on the villain side in comparison to being some sort of hero helping grandma fetch her groceries."

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@Hyacinth

 

[Hyacinth]

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Golden eyes blinked; for a moment, this was Hyacinth's only reaction to all of what Nico said. Then she slowly lifted her hand, tapping her index finger against her chin in an almost contemplative manner. Analyzing.

"Villain? I hadn't given much thought to how my actions might lean.. To be fair, most games don't really give you a true choice in the matter. Sure, you can ignore Grandma, but in the grand scheme of things you're not bringing about the ruination of the world. If any game allowed you to, it would be this one, I guess."

She flexed her hand into a fist and the flames extinguished, allowing her to cross the distance between them again. With a bit of a flourish, the elf looped her arm through Nico's, grinning ear-to-ear for real this time - no longer bothering to hide the excitement. Yes, it must have been fate that intervened and placed her side-by-side with another player so similar to herself. They needn't get along, but they surely could benefit one another.

"Nico, I think we're gonna be friends, okay?" she laughed. "As your friend, I hope you'll take my advice to heart. Right now, both of us are so weak that even fighting another newbie is somewhat questionable. I think you absolutely should help Grandma fetch her groceries.. at least 'til you're strong enough to burn down the market, you know? Figuratively. Literally. Whichever you prefer."

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@Nicolas

 

[Nicolas]

Pragmatic, he thought, at the very least. Often individuals were never really used to thinking in the moral grey, in the lines between the extreme dos and don'ts, even if that's where the majority of individuals lived - between the lines of what's good and what's good for 'me'. When push came to shove, most were totally up to abandoning a little morals if it meant further themselves. Clearly, Hyacinth was realistic enough to see the dividing line.

Spaced out for a moment, he hadn't noticed she had looped her arms in his, dwelling on the idea of the word friends. Nico hadn't expected to hear that word, especially so early in the lifecycle of his playtime. A loner at heart the usual suspects were considered no more than acquaintances for that bettering of oneself. He didn't mind it however, as she was correct about being newbies. Their weakness could be shored up by sticking to a group, or at least duoing content every so often. Well, whatever called for content in this game.

"Well, sure we can help Grandma as friends, as long as its in hopes that when she kicks the bucket she leaves us the vast fortune she amassed selling cookies and baked goods. But really, what even counts as helping Grandma in this game? Or where are we even?"

The area they had arrived in hadn't suddenly changed or anything, being rather desolate save the rather obvious POI. It was happenstance they arrived in close proximity, and that same happenstance they are arrived so seemingly far from anything.

Raising his free hand he called upon his alterity, his call to fame as a player, "Map?!"

Nothing. It was worth a shot - he hadn't seen anything like a map function in the UI.