Terraspehere – a game he first heard about four years ago, or rather heard about it getting banned, due to it stimulating all sensory effects. Back then, it was just a thing he heard in passing, too busy with his real life to bother about a game that got shut down.
But now, for years later, here he was, having installed the illegal game and jumping into it early in the morning. Already in the system, in the avatar creation he felt the difference between this game and other VR games and programs. He felt more present, less floaty. And without he pain and the tiredness that made him often hunch.
It was a little bizarre, instead of seeing a mirror with avatar, his-self was sitting on the chair in plain black underwear.
Hyacinth grimaced at the very, very accurate portrayal of his self. He looked horrible. For the last few years he always tried to not look too closely at his whole body. But now it was thrust before his eyes.
A skeletal man with his ribs clearly visible, slightly bent out of proper alignment leg and numerous scars from the surgeries that could not heal better. The paleness of his skin that the occasional sunbathing could not really help. The sunken cheeks and the eye-bags so dark they almost looked like khol. There was even the latest set of bruises from the fall when his leg stopped working.
It was like a doll, a mannequin staring at him with his eyes. It was uncanny just how very real it looked. It made him hate it, despise it. Because this was him, the poor caricature of man, that if his health was better he would not look that bad.
The first thing he did, was ‘lock’ his eyes and then randomize everything else. Already he could breathe easier. And then, he started to create the perfect avatar. Because he actually had thought about it as the game was downloaded to his VR set - he even sketched out the idea. And he kept to the human race.
First, he started with height, trying to go as high as he could, and then pushed it even higher. He always wanted to be tall. Then he worked on skin colour. As a part-time artist with ready sketch, he had even a colour scheme ready in his mind. So he went for something darker than what he had, a lightly tanned look. He also cleaned up the skin, freeing it from imperfections and scars, but dotted it with a beauty mark here and there – on the body that is. One on his inner thigh, three on his back, two on hand, one on shoulder and one on the big toe.
He wanted something away from his blonde hair but not black, so he went with the grey-silver colour with, mixing the colours and playing with highlights, so that in the darker lighting it had almost light brown edges, yet in strong light was silver. After which he changed how long the hair was and changed its texture. It was much softer to touch, almost silky, but using the anime physics, it stood straight in the style he chose.
He then worked on the shape, something typically masculine and yet with hint of ‘pretty’. It took him a while to make it perfect, until he was satisfied with the shape of his jaw, cheekbones, brow-bones, forehead, brows, nose, lips, teeth, eyes, ears. He tinkered with eyelashes and texture of the lips, with the way he looked from each angle, moving around. He sculptured a new himself, a beautiful man. He kept the colour of his eyes – the only thing he really liked about himself.
Face done, he worked on the rest of the body, adding muscles which he never really had, broadening his shoulders, thinning his hips a little, checking the neck and proportions.
He even managed to get the avatar to stand up – in order to check the back, the thighs and calves and making sure that his legs was just right – the game randomiser erased the unevenness. Hyacinth ran his hand over the skin there, fiddling with the texture bit more, checking the firmness of the muscles. The avatar was positioned in few different positions, as he fiddled with details. Like hands and toes. He erased the additional hair option, if only because he knew how some clothes rubbed those fine (and less fine) hairs.
And he could do all that without the tiredness, without the aches, shortness of breath and fatigue that plagued his real-life body,.
He glanced at the time and felt bit sheepish; 3 hours passed like that and yet it felt like nothing.
Butt he end result was very satisfying, especially as he chose tanking plus damage dealing, putting it all into the body and fitness.
Lastly, he focused on the voice. Which took him 20 minutes to find just the right voice. Then he quickly disabled few options. The pain safety and auto-attack help – the thought of something moving his body was just disgusting to him and he was here in the first place to experience what he could not.
As there was still some time before it was time to get his meds and food, so he typed in the name earlier prepared (a shortened spelling of his name in Greek and nod to the sun-theme he meant to play with) and Hyakin Heliodoros was ready to enter the world of Terrasphere.
The world dissolved in pixels and light, the avatar too, the mixture of pixels and light flowed into him and-
+++
A shooting star flew over the sky in Brisshals…
+++
-he found himself standing amidst the grass, no, a forest. Sun shone through the leaves, there was an open space, a glade.
The sun felt warm on his skin.
The wind ruffled his hair and face.
The ground felt solid.
The air felt fresh.
He took in a deep breath and surprised himself with how he could continue long past what he was used to and how realistic it felt. Releasing the air, he laughed, delight and excitement flowing out.
“Hahaha! This feels real!” He raised his hands, seeing the muscular arms and took a step forward – only to wobble and fall down on his knees; hands touching the cool, slightly moist grass. His different gait and different height threw him off.
His body felt – it felt healthy, yet somewhat unwieldy.
It made sense of course. And there was a glorious lack of pain and perfect eyesight. Sure his clothes were very simple and he had no weapons (despite choosing his skills), but his body was perfect.
“Now then… Time to check things out.” Grinning eagerly, Hyakin stood up and started to get used to his new, better body, going into the clearing and walking around it, touching the flowers, grass, dirt, and working out a bit, feeling absolutely tickled that he could do so much without the sharp pain in his lungs or feeling his stamina depleting from normal things. He jumped and ran and even climbed up a tree and picked up a heavy rock.
This.. Opened so many possibilities, he almost was giddy with excitement. No, in fact, he was giddy with excitement.
Of course he noticed the glaring lack of the quests and tips that other games had, but he was far too happy right now to just enjoy this current situation to care about it much. And as he spotted a few weird red lines, a thought came to mind that maybe this is an intuitive, quite literal quest-lines.
But now, for years later, here he was, having installed the illegal game and jumping into it early in the morning. Already in the system, in the avatar creation he felt the difference between this game and other VR games and programs. He felt more present, less floaty. And without he pain and the tiredness that made him often hunch.
It was a little bizarre, instead of seeing a mirror with avatar, his-self was sitting on the chair in plain black underwear.
Hyacinth grimaced at the very, very accurate portrayal of his self. He looked horrible. For the last few years he always tried to not look too closely at his whole body. But now it was thrust before his eyes.
A skeletal man with his ribs clearly visible, slightly bent out of proper alignment leg and numerous scars from the surgeries that could not heal better. The paleness of his skin that the occasional sunbathing could not really help. The sunken cheeks and the eye-bags so dark they almost looked like khol. There was even the latest set of bruises from the fall when his leg stopped working.
It was like a doll, a mannequin staring at him with his eyes. It was uncanny just how very real it looked. It made him hate it, despise it. Because this was him, the poor caricature of man, that if his health was better he would not look that bad.
The first thing he did, was ‘lock’ his eyes and then randomize everything else. Already he could breathe easier. And then, he started to create the perfect avatar. Because he actually had thought about it as the game was downloaded to his VR set - he even sketched out the idea. And he kept to the human race.
First, he started with height, trying to go as high as he could, and then pushed it even higher. He always wanted to be tall. Then he worked on skin colour. As a part-time artist with ready sketch, he had even a colour scheme ready in his mind. So he went for something darker than what he had, a lightly tanned look. He also cleaned up the skin, freeing it from imperfections and scars, but dotted it with a beauty mark here and there – on the body that is. One on his inner thigh, three on his back, two on hand, one on shoulder and one on the big toe.
He wanted something away from his blonde hair but not black, so he went with the grey-silver colour with, mixing the colours and playing with highlights, so that in the darker lighting it had almost light brown edges, yet in strong light was silver. After which he changed how long the hair was and changed its texture. It was much softer to touch, almost silky, but using the anime physics, it stood straight in the style he chose.
He then worked on the shape, something typically masculine and yet with hint of ‘pretty’. It took him a while to make it perfect, until he was satisfied with the shape of his jaw, cheekbones, brow-bones, forehead, brows, nose, lips, teeth, eyes, ears. He tinkered with eyelashes and texture of the lips, with the way he looked from each angle, moving around. He sculptured a new himself, a beautiful man. He kept the colour of his eyes – the only thing he really liked about himself.
Face done, he worked on the rest of the body, adding muscles which he never really had, broadening his shoulders, thinning his hips a little, checking the neck and proportions.
He even managed to get the avatar to stand up – in order to check the back, the thighs and calves and making sure that his legs was just right – the game randomiser erased the unevenness. Hyacinth ran his hand over the skin there, fiddling with the texture bit more, checking the firmness of the muscles. The avatar was positioned in few different positions, as he fiddled with details. Like hands and toes. He erased the additional hair option, if only because he knew how some clothes rubbed those fine (and less fine) hairs.
And he could do all that without the tiredness, without the aches, shortness of breath and fatigue that plagued his real-life body,.
He glanced at the time and felt bit sheepish; 3 hours passed like that and yet it felt like nothing.
Butt he end result was very satisfying, especially as he chose tanking plus damage dealing, putting it all into the body and fitness.
Lastly, he focused on the voice. Which took him 20 minutes to find just the right voice. Then he quickly disabled few options. The pain safety and auto-attack help – the thought of something moving his body was just disgusting to him and he was here in the first place to experience what he could not.
As there was still some time before it was time to get his meds and food, so he typed in the name earlier prepared (a shortened spelling of his name in Greek and nod to the sun-theme he meant to play with) and Hyakin Heliodoros was ready to enter the world of Terrasphere.
The world dissolved in pixels and light, the avatar too, the mixture of pixels and light flowed into him and-
+++
A shooting star flew over the sky in Brisshals…
+++
-he found himself standing amidst the grass, no, a forest. Sun shone through the leaves, there was an open space, a glade.
The sun felt warm on his skin.
The wind ruffled his hair and face.
The ground felt solid.
The air felt fresh.
He took in a deep breath and surprised himself with how he could continue long past what he was used to and how realistic it felt. Releasing the air, he laughed, delight and excitement flowing out.
“Hahaha! This feels real!” He raised his hands, seeing the muscular arms and took a step forward – only to wobble and fall down on his knees; hands touching the cool, slightly moist grass. His different gait and different height threw him off.
His body felt – it felt healthy, yet somewhat unwieldy.
It made sense of course. And there was a glorious lack of pain and perfect eyesight. Sure his clothes were very simple and he had no weapons (despite choosing his skills), but his body was perfect.
“Now then… Time to check things out.” Grinning eagerly, Hyakin stood up and started to get used to his new, better body, going into the clearing and walking around it, touching the flowers, grass, dirt, and working out a bit, feeling absolutely tickled that he could do so much without the sharp pain in his lungs or feeling his stamina depleting from normal things. He jumped and ran and even climbed up a tree and picked up a heavy rock.
This.. Opened so many possibilities, he almost was giddy with excitement. No, in fact, he was giddy with excitement.
Of course he noticed the glaring lack of the quests and tips that other games had, but he was far too happy right now to just enjoy this current situation to care about it much. And as he spotted a few weird red lines, a thought came to mind that maybe this is an intuitive, quite literal quest-lines.
