Private Solvale Down at the Bottom of a Bottle

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Leaning over the bar, waiting for the bartender to pass him his drink, Yu felt beyond awkward. The Starfall night club...yeah, not this sleepless introvert's thing. And yet, he was here, waiting for one Brutus Dahlgren to make his grand and boisterous appearance. Okay, maybe that sounded more sarcastic than it actually was. The truth of the matter was that, while, yes, Brutus was far more extroverted and gregarious than Yu, Yu actually really enjoyed being around the man. His confidence and larger than life demeanor was just a tad bit infectious.

Finally, with a drink in hand, Yu turned around and began to sip at his drink. Plain rum. Or at least Terrasphere's equivalent. It burned, as most alcohol did, as the liquid slid down his throat. A presence appearing at his side drew his attention. However this person who appeared was much much shorter than Brutus. "Uh, hi?" Yu said to the girl his face saying he was not looking to hook up with anyone. "Care to buy me a drink?" she said.

Listen woman, this man is not playing hard to get.

Finally, blessedly, mercifully, Yu spotted Brutus at appearing at the other side of the club, his massive form impossible eyes. Locking eyes with the man, Yu mentally pleaded with him, 'Please help me.'

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

The thrum of booming bass was something Brutus needed right about now. All hell had broken loose out in the wilderness. The giant had gambled everything on stopping some sort of demonic incursion, only for some of those to have fallen. He couldn't imagine how that would have felt, or been. His other close friend Ilya had disappeared on him shortly thereafter, and he was still trying to hunt her down at this moment. So he'd done the obvious thing and reached out to him, they were associates, friends of friends, but he had a certain air about him that made the giant want to be his friend.

As he entered the club he would find the man sitting at the bar talking to a woman. Attaboy! It was only as the giant got closer he could sense the distress and strode into the rescue sauntering up and placing a hand on Yugam's shoulder.

"Darling~" He drawled in his most flamboyant voice possible. "Were you waiting long for daddy?" he would practically purr. The woman's eyes widened and she would excuse herself, shuffling off with a huff leaving Brutus to take her spot, clearing his throat.

"You good there chief? You looked like you were not feeling her at all."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

With bated breath Yu watched as the behemoth of a man strode over to him confidently. One foot in front of the other, never looking back. The crowd of people parted around him, so massive was he. He approached, and smoothly draped an arm over Yu's shoulder. Yu almost breathed out a sigh of relief as Brutus said, "Darling~Were you waiting long for daddy?"

'Jesus fucking christ.'

Yu visibly fought to not burst out laughing, his eyes bulging as he bit down on his tongue, stifling himself just long enough for the girl to turn around and leave in a huff. As soon as she had, the smaller man exploded into a fit, turning to lean over the counter and pound a fist down on the wooden surface. "Christ man, why did you say it like that?" Yu asked, straightening his back and wiping a tear from his eye. "Oh my god, thank you for that. But uh, yeah no. I'm just uh...not really looking for that kinda stuff right now," he answered back, the smile slowly fading from his lips as he rested his elbows on the counter again. "C'mon, let me buy you a drink. Whatcha having?" he asked, gesturing towards the bartender to come over to them.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Talk about mixed signals there chief." Brutus would grunt with a grin as he ordered a glass of whiskey. He would pull out a cigar from his inventory with one hand, and a cigar cutter with the other. Snipping the tip off the smoke, he would gently bite one end with his feline teeth and banish the cutter back into his inventory. Then, with a snap of his fingers he would light the thing, pulling on it gently.

"Nothing tends to send unwanted attention scampering away like realizing you're batting for the other team. I can't tell you the number of people I've saved with that little maneuver. The more outlandish you make the situation the faster people tend to run." He would exhale a cloud of smoke upwards and away from the man before turning to look at him.

"But other than unwanted advances from pretty women, how've you been holding up my friend? Things have been..." he took another puff of his cigar thoughtfully crafting his next statement carefully. "Difficult. The Expedition north was an ass beating, exceptionally long, and incredibly harrowing. How are you taking it?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

"What can I say, I got a thing for big burly men saving me from the sexy clutches of beautiful women," the man joked as the bartender handed Brutus his drink.

Noticing that the man had pulled out a cigar, Yu reached into his inner coat pocket, taking out a pack of cigarettes (blissfully pre-rolled, even in this world that lacked a proper industry sector), and put it in his mouth, lighting it with a match in a manner far less impressive that his friend's pyromantic method.

"Well, I appreciate. You can wingman for me anytime...or would it be clip my wings?" Yu wondered with a shrug before taking another sip of of his drink.

At Brutus' question however, Yu would lean against the counter again, picking up his glass, gently swirling it as he took another drag of his cigarette. "What, you mean getting vored non-consensually by a giant demon-bug-thing and then quite literally bleeding myself dry? Water under the bridge," the man said, trying his best to be humorous about it, despite taking a long swig out of his glass.

"Fuck, who am I kidding, man? This game's so fucking real-like, I've been having nightmares about it ever since it happened," Yu said, slamming the empty glass back down on the counter, only for it to be promptly topped off by the bartender again. "And I mean...I've been hearing things lately. Like in real life. Just, like...whispers that I can't make out." Yu's brows furrowed as he stared deeply into the brown liquid of glass, illuminated by the glow of his cigarette as he drew on it again. Smoke obscured his face for a moment as he exhaled. "I feel like I'm going crazy. And to make matters fucking worse, I could almost swear that I recognize the voice." Yu paused for a moment, as if lost in thought before he turned to look Brutus in the eye. "Did Askera mention anything about players getting locked out of their UIs to you?" Yu asked, a serious look on the man's face.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus would set the cigar down in an ashtray placed before the two as the lit up, and would take a sip of his whiskey, listening keenly as the man spoke. He would set his glass down, turning ninety degrees to face Yugam, an eyebrow raised. "This game is basically a second reality, so I would imagine none of that sounds at all pleasant. I'm sorry we weren't there to save you in time..." his jaw would clench slightly. "Truly sorry... As for UI locking, I am familiar with the term, I've met two UI locked players in my tenure here. They all say the same thing, your third death in this game traps you here and apparently kills you in real life."

He would grimace and take a sip of his whiskey. "It's why the VRSA firewalled this game for four years allegedly, I don't know how it came back or why, but if you die a second time it would be well worth your consideration to log out of this game and to never come back." Shaking his head, he would take a puff of his cigar. "Though If I have anything to say about it, you won't be eating any more deaths bud."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu couldn't help but chuckle at the man's apology as he tapped his cigarette, the ash at the end falling into the ashtray. "Don't be. What were you gonna do? Stop me from casting that spell? I'm not sure if you realize this yet, but I'm pretty damn stubborn." Yu took another drag of his cigarette, the sharp features of his face softly illuminated for just a moment. "I do appreciate that though," he added, smoke billowing from his mouth.

As for the UI locking...Yu took another sip of his drink as he processed the rather daunting information. "No. I'll keep playing, even if I die a second time," the man swore, the glass gently thudding as he set it back down. Even if the thought that he was one step closer to losing his agency in the real world was terrifying, he couldn't stop playing. Besides, he hated the real world anyways. "I've got too many questions that need answering. Too many unsolved mysteries. I need...I need to know what this game did to her..." he said, almost a whisper, his gaze suddenly becoming very distant, as if he was looking at something far away.

"Anyways," the man said, suddenly piping up, the same tired smile that he'd shown in Askera's hospital room now re-emerging on his face. "You don't need to hear my sob stories. This is a club right? The fuck do you do in a place like this anyways?"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Well last time I was here I got really drunk and tried to convince Toko to have a threesome with some fox woman we'd just met." He chuckled slightly. He would raise his smoke to his lips, take a puff, and then exhale. "Now before we go all in on trying to find some delightful dame to Eiffel tower, you're gonna have to spill some tea on some of that sob story you've got going on." Once again the cigar would find its way to ashing in the tray, and the giant's sapphire eyes would glance over Yugam appraisingly.

"You cannot just drop something about an unsolved mystery that's worth risking your life over to the guy who just swore to protect you without him wanting to poke and prod into that business." He would take a long swig from his whiskey glass, draining it significantly and letting out a satisfying sigh afterwards, slamming the glass down.

"So out with it, if we're investigating anything I need to know the details."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu nearly spit out his drink when he Brutus told him what had occurred the last time the man had been at this club. "I'm sorry, you did what?" he said, eye's wide with surprise, but an amused grin playing at lips. Well, that sounded like a story and a half, and Yu wanted all the juicy details. Okay, well, maybe not all the juicy details, but he at least wanted to know how that ended.

Much like Brutus wanted to know just what in the fuck had happened in Yu's Greek tragedy (or was it a comedy?) of a life. Yu let out a long sigh, his finger circling the rim of his glass as his head hung low as he thought for a moment. "Tell you what," the man said before putting his cigarette to his fingers and taking a drag, having come to a decision. "I'm two kinds of a drunk. Horny," Yu held his index finger in the air, "and honest," his middle joined the index. "You buy me a drink this time, and tell me what's up with you and Toko, and how that whole threesome thing ended, and then we'll do story time. Deal?"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Well my friend, the way this night goes we might end up in other antics. Apparently I'm a suave motherfucker when I'm drunk." He would finish his drink and grin, ordering another. "Alright, so I was chilling here celebrating a pretty big win and feelin myself when this Fox woman keeps eye fucking me from across the place. So I motion her over to start working my magic when suddenly Toko is here. Next thing I know I'm playing Never have I Ever with them and learning quite a lot and drinking a lot. Things begin to evolve and soon I have one chick sitting on one leg, one on the other, my arms wrapped around each and I swear that the fox woman was down to start getting it on right then and there."

He would chuckle slightly and shake his head. "Toko tries to catch up to us in drunkenness and overshot the mark and we had to stop in order to make sure she was okay. Next thing I remember I'm really feelin myself on the dance floor, and things get a little hazy, I think I left with one of them? Maybe not, Toko hasn't been treating me like a manwhore so I can only assume I didn't taint my reputation too terribly." He would raise his cigar to his lips and take a light puff. "Shame, really, but I'm...glad I didn't I guess?" He would furrow his brow. "That Sentiment is a hard to explain story for another time. Now then, out with your side of the bargain.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

A smile played at Yu's lips as the man sat back and listened to Brutus tell his tale. A brow raised in only the slightest of skepticism as he sipped at his new drink. Part of Yu was tempted to call Brutus out and say 'bullshit!' but the other part of him was inclined to believe the man's stories. Hell, if this could happen in real life, it would happen more often in games. People lost their inhibitions when there was a screen between themselves and everyone else. Or, well, a headset in this case, but the point was the same. "Please tell me I won't be subjected to your dancing, I can't imagine its any good," Yu would say with a chuckle before taking a long sip of his drink.

"Now then, out with your side of the bargain."

"Right," the man set his glass down and groaned. "Alright, so short version. Back in like, uh...junior year of high school, my best friend killed herself," Yu said, blunt and to the point. "A bit later, I couldn't take losing her, so I tried to drown myself." Yu paused long enough to take a draw of his cigarette. "Or that's what they tell me at least. I fucked it up, brain went without oxygen for too long, and now I have a hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast, let alone anything that happened before that day." The man chewed on the inside of cheek for a moment as he tried to figure out how to explain the rest. "I remember bits and pieces. Like, I remember that she really used to love Terrasphere. I couldn't tell you when she started playing, but I know she liked it. And then she didn't. I dunno, I just have it written down in my memory journal that she told me to never touch the game at some point or another. And recently..." Yu frowned, eyes narrowing for a moment, glancing over at Brutus. "Recently I've been having...dreams. And, I'm not sure, cause I don't really remember what my friend looked like, but I think she keeps showing up in them." Yu took another drag of his cigarette. "Crazy right? Anyways, I just...wanna know what happened I guess. And all this shit about getting UI Locked? I'm thinking it might not be such a crackpot theory after all."

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus would squint as he listened to the mans tragic story for a moment, letting the words sink into his head like the verbal cinderblocks they were. That was a lot to take in, his memory problems were something he hadn't particularly noticed, but then again he only had a very surface level amount of interaction with the man. The death of his friend tugged at his heartstrings, and bid him to speak.

"So you think something happened here in Terrasphere? Either she got UI locked and they covered it up, or that she encountered trauma here that drove her towards her end?" He would chew on his cigar a bit, rolling it as he worked his jaw side to side.

"Either story is mad fucked up, and if you need any help you know I'm here to help you out." He would clap a hand to his shoulder in a show of support. "Tell me more about these dreams though, people say they can be prophetic or something, and if anything else its a good window into what your subconscious is trying to process."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu couldn't do anything more than shrug in response to Brutus' question. "I dunno. For all I know Terrasphere is completely unrelated. I just...I've got a gut feeling." And Yu's gut feelings tended to be pretty on top of things. Something he wished was actually not true at the moment. He didn't even have solid memories to go off of. Just vague images stored in the back of his mind, broken audio clips, and half-remembered dreams.

"Thanks, Brutus," Yu said when the man clapped a hand onto his shoulder. "Uh, I dunno. The dreams are all pretty foggy," he explained. "Uh, here's one I remember though. I'm sitting at the lunch table at my old high school," he begins, pausing long to take a frag from his cigarette. "There's a girl sitting across from me. I can't remember her face, but she's got like, really long, dark hair. We're just sitting there, eating lunch together. And then she just goes stiff, like she's staring at something behind me. I look, but there's nothing there, so I ask her what's wrong and she...I mean, I can't really hear her, but I know she says like 'nothing, I'm fine.' Ya know what I mean? Anyways, we got back to eating but she's super skittish. Then she just bolts out the door like a madwoman. I chase after her but she's just...gone." Yu drinks from his cup, eyes looking off into the distance. "I just don't get it man."

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Ive heard rumors that on your second death the game chases you into reality." The giant would take a sip of his drink, mulling this over. "Something about the trauma causing like...breaks from reality? Maybe she was having a similar event? Other than that..." He would rub his chin with one hand and swirl his glass with another.

"It's impossible to tell otherwise. Everything we talk about it would be conjecture. You could probably chalk it up to your brain fucking with you, or the game, your mind playing tricks or whatnot. Or it could be your mind trying to tell you something. You can't ignore it, but you can't let it fuck with you too terribly much either." He would take another puff of his cigar and shake his head.

"Sometimes getting it won't be something within our reach. We can reach out but we won't know until its time." He would shrug.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu frowned into his glass. He hated to admit it, but 'breaks from reality' sounded about right for what little he could remember. He couldn't confirm anything, of course, which only made it all the more frustrating. But if the man were to put on his tin foil hat...

"Yeah, you're probably right," Yu said with a sigh, taking one last drag of his cigarette and putting it out in the ashtray. "I've got a puzzle with half the pieces missing. I probably shouldn't let it get to me until the other pieces start popping up." Fat chance.

"Thanks for uh...just thanks, man," Yu said before turning towards the behemoth of a man again. "Alright, let's see if we can find you another drunk fox-girl," he said eyes immediately flicking around the room to find a suitable suitor. "Or maybe a cat-girl this time?"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus would take a sip of his drink finishing it and raising an eyebrow at the man. "I think my..." he paused as something clicked in his head. "Trying to hook up with people while drunk days are over. I'm starting to recall that the last time...didn't go well." He would take a puff of his cigar and eye the man.

"I'm more of a Lepus lover myself..." He would admit. "I uh," He would pause. "I actually JUST started dating Toko like..." he would pause, puffing on his cigar. "Well okay, the whole thing is super convoluted and the actual start time of us dating could be hotly contended since we did a lot of like, date things together but like...as besties? Who both had crushed on eachother? Either way, I realized that I..." A pause. "I told her that I loved her after the fucking Kurugar went nuclear, but her ears were fucked up and she couldn't hear." He wouldn't admit that he'd done that bit on purpose, not to Yu at least. "And then I was kinda freaking out about the whole thing and we had a moment when we were mining ore for my new canon..." he would pause. "Oh yeah, I melted my canon into slag on accident by the way. Anways." He would chuckle a bit. "We were mining and had a moment and I was like, fuck it I gotta let her know how I feel otherwise she's gonna think that what we have is just a friendly sort of thing and not like..." a pause. "What it is."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

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Ad Astra

"Oh?" Yu muttered in a curious tone, his eyebrow lifting as he took another sip of rum. Listening to the man, Yu's face every so slowly morphed into an amused grin, especially as Brutus seemed to go on for an unnecessarily long time about how everything had happened. The man was usually pretty long-winded, but typically it just screamed 'boisterous himbo'. But now it seemed more like 'flustered schoolboy'.

Yu paused a moment to take out another cigarette and light it before blowing out the smoke and look at Brutus, his eyes searching the man's face for...something. "You've never seriously dated someone before in real life, have you?" the man guessed, trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. For one, the man's in-game appearance didn't necessarily reflect his real-life look. And likewise, the personalities might not either. It was just a guess, but, Yu had the feeling he'd never really been all that serious about that kinda stuff before.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Oh I have," he replied, squinting at Yugam and his grin. "But like, not like this. My last girlfriend was nice and all, but she didn't share my passions. And the one before her..." He would grimace, looking to his empty glass and ordering another round.

"That relationship sucked too. And it's not like I'm starving for pussy either, I make do here and there." The glass would be set before him and he's take a big swig. "But Toko? It's like Cupid said fuck arrows and suplexed me. I couldn't tell you if it was her wonderful demeanor and the way she loves this world just as much as me, the competitive fire within her that forces me to bring my A game whenever she's around, her killer legs, or if it's just how cute she gets when she's flustered." He would set his drink down and turn to the man, now in full on gush about his girlfriend mode.

"I'm FUCKING smitten, and given everything we've survived together it just feels right. I know it's early and shit but hell, we're playing an actual fucking death game. We could die to a cosmic fluke of zeroes and ones glitching out."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

"Man, you are whipped," Yu replied with a chuckle, gently teasing the clearly lovestruck man. "I'm happy for you guys though. Y'all are good people, you guys deserve to be happy." The man pushed himself up off the counter, sliding the empty glass away from himself and turned around, leaning back against the count. "You guys figured out the real life thing yet?" he asked curiously, taking a draw from his cigarette. "I mean, I've tried long distance before, and it wasn't my thing. You guys figure out the secret or something?"

Ever analytic and looking for fault points that needed fixing. It was entirely possibly that the other man might mistake Ari's interest for fatalism, but in truth, this was just how the man showed his care. It wasn't like he was going to stop them anyways. The man might've been a realist, but sometimes he could be an optimist too. Matters of the heart, he believed in.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I am not whipped." The giant would scowl, glaring daggers at the man he'd just ever so graciously saved. "I am in love, and there's a fine line but I think I'm navigating it like a fucking champ all things considered. I mean, have you seen her? And don't even get me started on how cute she is out of game." He would take a puff of his cigar and watch as the man rose from his seat, adjusting to lean against the bar.

"I mean, we do like...facetimes n phone calls when we're not in game, but it's like...not the same as being able to be together in the game and..." he would reach out and flick Yu's ear. "Touch them." He would smirk slightly, straightening his back and stretching. "There's a tourney coming up at the big fuck off faire my troop is doing just outside of Dallas. The prize money should be enough to buy roundtrip tickets out there plus hotels n shit. Tack that up with what I've squirrelled away and I might try to fly out and visit her some time? All I have to do is smack the shit out of like..." he would pause, waving his hand through the hair as if manipulating an invisible abacus.

"Fifty of the top fighters in the faire scene? I mean, it's like a hundred dudes and two brackets of fifty, but I have no idea how many asses I have to beat, but if it would help me afford to see her I would kick the ass of every wannabe knight in the United States."

@Yugam