Complete Private Eastern Brisshal How many times does this make...?

[Chako]

Chako tried to pull herself up as Rhela helped her body go up... It wasn't easy, but it was at least somewhat doable.

When she was high up enough on the shore, she just rolled herself onto the riverbank and started breathing in and out with panted breaths.

She stayed in place until Rhela finished pulling herself, and then talked about leg training... "I-it's just hard to remember how they work when you're on water for the first time in your life..." And with a current.

... And it hurt. It hurt quite a bit... And she was really wet too...

She tried putting her hand on her hair for a bit to see if it would help her calm herself down... It hurt. Her head hurt.

She took the hand out... And stared at it for a small bit.

"Uhn... Rhela..." Chako brought up... "When you put your hand on your head... Then the hand comes out red... It's a bad thing, right?"

She hoped she wasn't bleeding too much... But goodness, it did hurt. She didn't remember ever feeling this kind of pain before... Or at least, not from a wound.

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

"... Yeah, that's bad. Head wounds bleed a lot..." Rhela got up and moved closer. "But it's not as severe as it looks probably... But you most certainly have a concussion... in game." Rhela adds on the last bit before settling down... "We should head back to town... Think we've had enough excitement for now... Plus, we should get you checked out by a healer, cause I don't have any healing spells or potions or whatever- and don't know if this game has health regen..." Rhela began rambling to herself about game mechanics that may or may not make sense to @Chako. But that didn't really matter, now did it?

She put her hand on Chako's head, moving the hair a bit to get a good look at the wound. Her tail twitched in agitation. "I get it, you ain't used to walking... I picked up on that... And it's not exactly easy to learn this stuff on the fly. Especially when you're panicking." Rhela smiles gently... trying to calm the girl a lil bit so she doesn't panic about the whole concussion thing- was that a potential status one could have here? Well, it simulated pain, and concussions were a type of head injury... Who knows...? Maybe better to ask a more experienced player later on, after they get back to the safety of town.

 

[Chako]

Chako started giggling a bit as she heard Rhela talk, "Probably... In a game... Ouch. It hurts to laugh." What a way of saying it, goodness.

"I dunno if there is health regen either. If there was any tutorial, I skipped it... And I don't think I can dance a good healing song now." And she didn't want to try singing one either... Never mind the fact singing would also hurt, probably.

She let Rhela look at her wound for a bit, "Is it bad?" It was hard to know, her whole body was hurting. The head didn't feel that much worse, but that didn't mean it wasn't bad.

"Ah, yeah... Still figuring out how this whole moving legs thing works." She replied honestly, "But hey, I'm getting there, I think." She wasn't. But she was making a bit of progress each day.

Either way, she tried leaning on Rhela and forced herself to get up... Now that she was a bit calmer, she could at least feel her legs again, and slowly get them to work.

The whole process of getting herself up ached a lot though... Goodness, who decided to make a slope here!? There should be a safety rail or something to stop people from rolling down into the water!

Well, she herself thought this was ridiculous when this was just a river though, so she didn't voice any of that out.

"By the way, what made you come to Arcia? What's up with it being an illegal game and stuff?" Chako decided to ask. She figured her answer was obvious enough, so she didn't bring it up first.

But she was curious. Rhela brought up that it wasn't easy to learn those things on the fly, so... Maybe she was similar? Decided to meddle with an illegal program due to the promise of a world where she didn't have to live with her disability?

... And well, Chako was also curious to how someone would even think of making a character that was even smaller than her. But she didn't voice this one.

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

"I'd say you're getting there... Ahaha... Careful though..." Rhela made sure to keep a good grip on @Chako, so that Chako doesn't become a victim of the river rapids once again. Her gaze turns towards the direction of town, back along the river they had just tumbled on down. A soft sigh. This place sure was as dangerous as real life at times... Sometimes more so. She glanced around a bit. Her ear twitched as she heard the new question get brought up.

"Arcia...? I don't think I heard it called that name before... Reason for being here is mostly to investigate rumors and get ideas for books I'm writing back in the real world. Can only have these sort of experiences here, after all. Kinda hard to have them in other games that don't let you feel as much of the sensations... Pulling on collective knowledge and study can only go so far without putting you on some list for looking up how to make a pipe-bomb or how to skin animals..." Rhela sighs...

"The character is based kinda on my irl appearance and the appearance of some of my past characters. Anyway... Yeah, my reasoning is kinda dumb but... I have got to know if the rumors about the stuff happening in this place are true... Dunno if that blog was lying or not..."

 

[Chako]

Chako relied on Rhela to not fall down the stream again... And well, she appreciated the praise, even if she doubted Rhela meant it.

"Oh, it's the continent's name... For some reason nobody knew how to tell me the world's name, but like... Well, feels better than saying 'Terrasphere', right? That's soooo immersion breaking." Not that talking about immersion breaking stuff wasn't immersion breaking in itself, but hey, she had to explain her thought process in some way.

"And you write!? That's so cool! I can't imagine writing myself, I think I'd fall asleep in front of the desk if I tried!

"Can relate to wanting to feel the right sensations though..." She stared at her own legs, "It really isn't the same in any other VR game. I tried plenty of them."

Chako did not want to know that it was possible to look up how to make a bomb though... Out of sight, out of mind. Out of sight, out of mind. I don't need to remember any of that. Lalallaa... She tried distracting herself from the thoughts.

Though she could hardly believe it when the Rhela said her character was based on herself, "... Don't you know that it's dangerous to do that kind of stuff? You're giving people free doxxing material..." Like, even she knew that much. Come on! Where is your basic internet safety knowledge!?

"... Wait, Blog? I thought you couldn't find anything about Terrasphere online? I tried guugling about it before. I found nothing."

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

"Oh, that's it's name? Truly? I never heard it before. I just heard Falderan or something. Is that like... the name of the whole world or..." Rhela blinks as she rambles and shuts up. Her eyes mostly stayed ahead as she kept looking around to make sure no more trouble would come for them. She glances at @Chako a moment.

"I dunno if putting a general appearance out there is really gonna dox me. And it's not like I'm using the same name as those other characters I've used. I just pulled a bunch of character traits together and boom! Rhela is born!" She claps her hands a bit. "And I've always been drawn to writing, so I decided to make an actual career out of it. Something I can do while playing most video games- or even games that let me take notes while I play..."

"As for the blog... it might've been deleted? I dunno, but it was in a dangerous corner of the web, kinda like... uhh... On the dark web." Rhela smiles at Chako as the admits this. "Someplace where guugle won't lead you. Won't even send a link your way, y'know?"

"... I wanna know if all the rumors surrounding this game are true... And I've a suspicion that one of my friend's plays..."

 

[Chako]

"Falderen is the country, Arcia is the continent." Chako explained... She was honestly a bit surprised Rhela didn't know... Wasn't it like, common to speak to the people who lived in the cities you went to and talk about those kinds of things? Or was Chako the weird one there?

... Well, Chako still hadn't gone to any city yet, and had only gone to Honeyhome as far as settlements went, so she was probably the weird one, but that was nothing to worry about!

Either way, Chako felt like Rhela didn't take internet privacy with enough seriousness. She should have been more careful with that kind of thing!

... Not like anything could be done now that the character was done though.

Then she talked about making writing a career and... "Isn't that like... Really unstable?" Basically what her mom told her when Lisa said she wanted to play the harp for a living... Not like Lisa had figured out a better idea for what she wanted to do when she grew up, but... Well, she still had time anyways! For now, she was happy just playing games to enjoy those legs and to play the harp offline!

Regardless of that, Chako got really confused when she heard about dangerous corners of the web... "What does that even mean?" and then came a really chuuni name after, "Uhn... Is there a light web too or something?

"Rumors though..." Chako pondered for a bit, "Stuff like how the game is so real that it feels like real life or something? Well..." Chako shivered a bit when thinking of it, "Wolves here can be very scary at the very minimum... D-don't recommend them dealing with them to anyone." She shook her head, trying to get her thoughts away from that clearing that Magi saved her from.

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

"Well, any job can be considered unstable. I could be fired from any job I get randomly. But here if people don't read my books, well, I guess I just failed to make interesting books." Rhela chuckles a bit in response to @Chako. "But I make enough on sales and whatnot..."

She looks around some more. "So, dark web typically refers to stuff that isn't really accessible on the open net. Like guugle and metube and other such things. Some of it is illegal and some of it isn't. A lot of people who don't want to be tracked will use the dark web and whatnot."

"As for doxxing, again, my name is already out there. I don't use a psuedoname unless I'm in online chat rooms and I'm always changing my name in those anyway so people can't be sure it's me." She shrugs. Rhela could see Honeyhome coming into view now. "Besides, lot's of people will base video game appearances off of characters from books and whatnot." Rhela points at her face, and the tattoos. "My face is different from this one by a lot of different margins. And I've never used the name 'Rhela' in one of my books."

Why did she explain all that? Doesn't matter.

"The rumors of like... Death being an actual thing that happens. Or the 'hey, we died, I can't log out anymore' stuff... And tell me about it, wolves are dangerous, as I've learned. Dear Kami are they dangerous... Glad I had an experienced player to get me out of that mess..."

 

[Chako]

Chako stared in disbelief at Rhela talking about how any job can be considered unstable... Like... She didn't need to work to know that this logic was seriously flawed! What was that even!? Some jobs were obviously more stable than others! Come on!

"... Failing to make interesting books, huh?" Chako just remembered her mom telling her about how hard the entertainment market was, and about how she'd need to heavily rely on luck to be at the right place and right time to get more popularity, and about how talent and hard work were only a part of the equation, and... Huh? Mom seriously gave me some big sermons on that, didn't she? I guess she really was worried about the idea. Chako thought to herself.

Then she just perked up her ears in confusion when hearing the explanation of dark web, "Why would you browse the internet to look for illegal stuff?" Sure, they were playing an illegal game, but still! It sounded like a bad idea! Just browse normally!

Then... Rhela continued talking about the doxxing thing? ... Was my disbelief on her actually knowing how to care for her privacy that obvious? Chako wondered as the girl went on about it for a while... Until she eventually stopped talking, so Chako said, "Right, right..." had she listened? Not really! But it was important to act like she had listened!

She just tilted her head at the next one though, "There are rumors like that...? That sounds so silly, who'd believe that?" As if a game could kill you! Come on! The seven mysteries of my school are more credible than that!

"A-ah, y-yeah..." Once the topic switched to wolves, the fur on Chako's tails started standing on their ends, "I-it's definitely nice having someone save you..." She could see it again. She was back at that clearing... Come on, come on... You're safe now... The wolf was opening its mouth... Chako started trembling...

It hurt. Chako tripped and fell on her face again... It hurt... And for once, she appreciated it... The pain on her body from the fall, that heightened the pain she got after rolling down the slope... It helped her stay here. It was better... Yeah, it was better like this.

Just... "I hope it didn't start bleeding more..." Chako muttered to herself.

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

Rhela thinks a moment. "I mean, not all of it is illegal, 'dark' web just means 'inaccessible' through normal means." She smiles. "I mean- I could search normally without a VPN and whatnot, and just because I have nothing to hide doesn't mean I want to be tracked by the government- I mean, even now I'm using a VPN to play an illegal game..."

She pauses as she tries to think as she reaches down to help @Chako back to her feet. "C'mon... We're almost there, it doesn't look like you're bleeding more than you were before... But I'm not exactly a medical expert. So... Take that with a grain of salt. Anyway... Hmm... If I remember correctly..." Rhela mutters as she looks around at the edges of the town again... Trying to choose a direction, one she thought she'd seen a medical facility in or something. Just a small clinic would do.

 

[Chako]

Chako was pretty sure people use 'dark' as evil in this kind of context, but she decided to not comment on it... And then Rhela went and mentioned some weird acronyms that totally flew over Chako's head, but... "Why would the government track your guugle searches?" Chako decided to ask about the one thing she felt like commenting on... Like... Don't they have better things to do? They must have, right?

Either way, she relied on Rhela's help to get up again... She was starting to feel a bit dizzy, so she kinda leaned over Rhela before they continued moving forward... Except Rhela had stopped walking, and seemed to be looking around, so Chako pointed ahead with a trembling finger, "Mind helping me get to the temple before you take care of your errand? It's not too far." Then Rhela could go wherever she was wanting to...

... Really, Chako was getting very dizzy... It's so weird how real it feels... Better not try walking on my own... She thought while leaning over Rhela.

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

"Everyone tracks it, guugle, your browser, your internet provider... It's really easy and stuff to automate so... people just do it, so they can sell the information to advertiser people to try and get you to buy stuff." Rhela explains.

Of course when @Chako pointed out the temple, she began walking again and this time at a quicker pace- well, slightly quicker now that Chako was leaning on her. "I don't really got any errands so I'll likely linger to maek sure you're alright." She takes a breath... "Besides, pretty sure my back is a lil messed up from hitting the side of the river."

Rhela kept her pace even as the temple drew closer.

 

[Chako]

Rhela's words flew over Chako's head, she just murmured a "U-hum..." It just sounded too complicated... Conspiracy theory much? Must be that.

Then, they started walking... And it felt like it hurt more than before... Chako couldn't really keep herself straight as they moved... Everything was even getting a bit blurry...

She could still hear clearly enough though, "No errands...? What were you looking for, then...?" Her voice sounded groggy... It was so strange.

Luckily enough, the temple was pretty close and... Once a priestess saw the bleeding catgirl, she immediately rushed to Chako's side and picked her up on a princess carry, "Dear gods! What got you in this state!? I'll take care of you right away!"

Though before bringing Chako inside, she quickly turned to Rhela, "Thank you for bringing her here. We'll take good care of her." The priestess seemingly not noticing that Rhela was a bit wounded too.

Either way, she already rushed inside, brought Chako to a free bed and started applying healing magic.

... Mmmmm... It feels nice...

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

"I wouldn't know where to even start my search anyway..." Rhela murmurs before watching as @Chako was brought inside with quite a bit of haste. She glances around... Well... Maybe it's not as bad as she thought. Maybe her back is fine. Eh, whatever... She'll just wait around a bit as she steps in to keep an eye on things. Her tail wagging gently.

"We fell in the river when we were fishing, which resulted in her head injury." Rhela omits her own sore back injury and just allows for Chako to be treated. She sat down on a bench. Given her outfit, her back was visible somewhat... And a bit bruised.

 

[Chako]

Chako wondered what search Rhela was talking about, but decided to not ask... Too dizzy to process it right.

"And I rolled... On the slope... And fell later... And hit some stuff on the river..." Chako complemented Rhela's comment.

"Right... You went through quite a bit, didn't you? But it's okay now. I'll get you up and running in no time." The priestess gently said and stroke Chako's hair a bit, which caused her to purr.

For once, she didn't mind the purring that much though, so she just muttered, "Okay..." And let the priestess do her magic.

It was honestly a funny sensation that was going through Chako's mind right now... It was kinda like... Like that weird feeling of empty head that she got from some medicine. The kind she took for a while when the doctors tried making exoskeleton-like legs work... Made her feel all fuzzy, but didn't really help any... This felt kinda like that.

She felt like she could easily fall asleep there... "Moooom... Sing me a lullaby...?"

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

Rhela can't help but chuckle at @Chako asking for a lullaby. "Firstly, not your mom- and second... ain't that great at singing." Rhela comments, mostly to herself as she listens to Chako. She leans back on the bench and just began humming a lullaby her mother used to sing to her instead. Her eyes closing. Though there was a slight wince accompanying her movement.

"Was a bit of work to get her out while shielding her. Though I couldn't prevent all her injuries," Rhela explains to the nurse. Her tail gently curling around her waist.

 

[Chako]

The priestess seemed to giggle a bit too at Chako's request, "She must have lost too much blood. She might be out of it for a while."

Meanwhile, Chako just started swinging her tails in accordance to the tune of the lullaby... I think I didn't know this one... She thought as she closed her eyes.

Though Rhela's words kinda made the priestess realize something... "Wait... You wouldn't happen to be needing treatment too!? Why hadn't you said so already!? Mary! Come over here! We have another person in need of help!"

While the first priestess continued focusing on the dazed out Chako, a second priestess quickly came to help Rhela out and seemed ready to start using her healing magic on her.

This was... Not exactly how Chako expected her first fishing trip to go like, but it might become a nice memory for her once the dizziness passes.

@Rhela Elahka

 

[Rhela Elahka]

Rhela startles a bit, opening her eyes to look at the priestess. "A-ah, well, I was more concerned about her than myself. She was all dizzy so her injuries were viewed as more important---" Rhela tries to explain as the second priestess came on out to begin using her magic on Rhela. Rhela just... sighs and relaxes as the healing magic washes over her. Not much she could do... She hoped this didn't cost anything, she had no money...

But she'll just take the time and rest... maybe log out or something and leave her body in the world so she can take some notes? Yeah might be a good idea...

(Close? Close thread!)