Private Eastern Brisshal Only You Can Start Forest Fires...

[Norbert Inigo]

In The Eastern Brisshal Woods Near Honeyhome....

Norbert couldn't help the laughter that had overtaken him, as he threw fireballs with wild abandon. It was his first day in the game, and Nick had just run off and left him to do whatever he wanted. So, he was here to have a good time, and in his mind, a good time was testing out his new powers.

An old man outside the game, he had no idea how video games worked. He had seen Nick play a few times on a non-VR headset game, usually on his computer, but it was not like he could sit and watch for long before something else in the mansion needed tending to. And so, this was his first real interaction with a video game landscape. Unfortunately for the landscape, things weren't going so well.

Trees were alight all around him, and the brush scorched around his fur, spreading quickly to nearby trees and brush. The entire scene was an unfortunate inferno, with one wolf-man hellhound in the middle of all of it, barely even feeling the heat. More laughter, more fireballs. Despite not having any idea how to cast the magic he was casting, the Auto-Assist made it all seem as natural as if he had been doing it his entire life.

Norbert believed truly that there were no consequences for this. It was a video game, nothing lasting, real, or permanent ever happens in video games. Even an old man like him knew that. He'd just be able to reset the level when he was done lighting it on fire. Even the old consoles had a reset button, surely this VR headset did too.

And so, burning away daylight, he kept practicing his fireballs, getting better with each one, and laughing as yet more trees caught fire. This was way too much fun, why hadn't Nick shown him sooner?!

@Toko

 

[Toko]

"OOOII!!!" A loud cry prefaced the arrival of a lepus, her breaths rapid and shallow as she struggled to fill her lungs with the oxygen they so desperately craved.

She’d been minding her own business back in Honeyhome when the familiar shooting stars of new players had flashed across the sky. They weren’t as common of an occurrence as before, in fact she couldn’t remember when was the last time she’d spotted one of those, but she had made a mental note to go and check it out after finishing a current errand for the local baker.

The last of the flour sacks had been unloaded and safely stored away when the nervous whispers of landers caught her attention, only to have the faint scent of smoke tickle her nose with each breath the hare took. Although forest fires weren’t exactly uncommon in the hotter months of the year (both IRL and in-game) the current weather shouldn’t have been favorable enough for such an occurrence so late into fall.

Concern had caused Toko to volunteer to check out the source of it, wondering if bandits or goblins might’ve been the source of the unexpected development… and worried about the new players that might’ve been in the surrounding parts. Instead she’d been met with a rather unique sight as a beastman stood in the middle of a small clearing, cackling like a madman as he continued to shoot fireball after fireball haphazardly around the place.

"Nani yattenda yo!?!"

The anger that danced within her sharp crimson eyes was hard to miss as the hare stomped her way over to the newcomer, before a good leap earned her enough height for a tight fist to knock the caenis harshly atop his head.

@Norbert Inigo

 

[Norbert Inigo]

In The Middle of a Raging Inferno...

Norbert had been continuing on with gleeful abandon, hardly aware of anything that was going on around him. He could feel the heat, but he cared little for it, sticking to the idea that this was just a video game. There was no consequences, even to fire literally licking the fur on his ankles and arms. Why would they ever make a game where a person could feel pain?

So, as blissfully unaware as the wolf-man was, he did not hear the lupus woman as she screamed at him. It really could have been the crackling of the fire all around him, or it could have just been his own inattentive naivety, but he was caught completely off-guard by the strike to the head.

He went down, not being nearly sturdy enough to withstand a blow from the martial arts master, and he was pretty sure he could see stars. But more than that, it hurt? Confusion screwed up Norbert's face as he rubbed the top of his head and looked up at the lupus woman who had presumably been the one to strike him. She was huffing, and puffing, and looked incredibly angry.

Norbert had no idea how to handle this. Was this another player? Was this one of the monsters? She did just attack him. Should he attack back? Suddenly Norbert really wished Nick was here to explain things to him. But, with no other direction, Norbert simply looked up at @Toko and said, "Ow. What was that for?"

 

[Toko]

Perhaps the most surprising part about the whole thing had been the reckless abandon of the caenis, gleefully continuing to hurl flames in any and every which way he could. Toko could only presume his pain limiter was on and absorbing most of the feedback, it was the only logical explanation as to why he’d yet to notice the flames eating away at the fur and skin on his ankles and arms.

"Baka janai no?" Bless the game for it’s automatic translating feature, because Toko had forgotten her filter back in Honeyhome as she spoke. His question was met with one of her own as the hare huffed, allowing a few moments to pass before an exasperated sigh left her lips. "You’re on fire."

She pointed towards the flames that had begun to lick up his legs now, one of her feet rhythmically tapping against the soil in a vain attempt to alleviate some of the frustration she currently felt.

@Norbert Inigo

 

[Norbert Inigo]

Norbert blinked up at the woman as he continued to rub his head. He wasn't sure what surprised him more, the fact that she was so intensely upset at him, or the fact that he was able to understand her despite speaking another language.

But, what got his attention was the simple message of his current state of being. Finally having his eyes drawn to the fire that was crawling up his fur on his leg, he yelped. "AH! AH! I'm on fire!" he yelled, as he managed to put out the flames eating away at the singed fur. His leg stung a bit, though didn't seem to match the burned redness of his ankle that he would expect from such a wound. Having burned himself plenty of times cooking for the family, he would have expected this pain to be far worse.

That said, the raging inferno around them suddenly seemed to click in Norbert's mind. They were in danger. Quickly popping back up to his feet, he looked around, trying to think of a plan. But Nick wasn't here, and he had no idea how this game worked aside from him now knowing how to cast fireballs. This was a forest, there was no water, and as much as was burning he wasn't sure he could do a whole lot to fight the fire anyway.

So, he looked at @Toko, "Oh god I messed up. I really messed up. What do we do?!"

 

[Toko]

The hare facepalmed as the caenis finally became aware of his current spicy predicament, unamused despite the comical scene displayed before her eyes as he began to pat down the flames. At least it was enough confirmation for the fighter to know his pain limiter was currently on, otherwise it would’ve been impossible to miss the fire burning his skin and fur.

"Ttaku..." A whispered complaint left her lips before Toko turned to look at the flames that surrounded them, hands on her hips as a foot rhythmically tapped the soil in annoyance. A hand reached for some of the nearby flames, letting the fire singe her fur and burn the skin as the beastfolk beared the pain with grunted effort.

"What do we do?!" His panicked cries showed that perhaps the man had begun to realize the extent of his mistakes, frantic now as he seemed at a loss on how to undo the hellish decor he’d unleashed on this part of the woods. "O-Ochitske... you’re making it harder to concentrate."

She finally pulled the singed arm out of the flames after enough damage had been sustained, a pained hiss leaving her lips before a layer of moss and bark wrapped around the wounds—both to protect her from further damage and slowly mend them. Ojama shimass, Tsukito Seereh-sama... it’s time to work. She felt a second consciousness stir within her mind, a groggy and huffy grunt the only mental confirmation of the spirit that he’d woken from his slumber.

What fresh hell did you walk into now, Toko? It was her turn to huff in response, a hand pointing back towards the dark furred caenis, unbothered by the fact the newbie had no idea of the conversation currently transpiring about him. This was all him.

A deep exhale is released in preparation before the hare takes a slow and deep breath, eyes closed and one fist pressed against her open palm as Toko begins to focus. The shift is subtle at first, imperceptible for most without honed senses, before a soft golden aura begins to gather at her feet and surrounds the fighter.

Let’s get this over quick, Toko.
"Haaai!"

It’s the only verbal acknowledgement she gives to her spirit before borrowing the energy he offers, a solid stomp unleashing tremors into the ground underneath her feet, before the soil bends and shifts to her will. It crumbles into fine granules before the hare’s movements are mimicked by it, the flames quickly extinguished as the sand rolls and compacts against their fuel source.

"Don’t just stand there," She addresses the newbie like a mother would while scolding their child, Toko’s eyes never moving away from the task at hand as she speaks. "Find a way to put out the smaller flames, I’ll deal with the big ones."

@Norbert Inigo

 

[Norbert Inigo]

Norbert watched entranced by whatever the bunny woman was doing. He couldn't even attempt to parse it, but something tickled in the back of his mind like there was more here than just him and the woman. A spirit or ghost of some sort. He had signed up for Spirit Magic when he started the game, but that was just because it sounded cool and seemed like it would align with the whole "demonic forces" thing. But there was no way for Norbert to be sure, as inexperienced as he was.

All he really knew, is that her actions were beautiful and entrancing, despite the danger surrounding them. Even when she caused what felt like a minor earthquake, and Norbert had to do his best to keep his balance, there was still an odd beauty to the magic.

He was finally snapped out of it when she scolded him, instructing him to take care of the smaller flames. Suddenly, Norbert was back into panic mode, as he had absolutely no idea how he was going to do that. All he knew how to do in the game was make fire, not put it out.

Running to the nearest batch of small brush that was still smoldering, Norbert stomped wildly on it. It was hard to tell if this worked because of the stomping, or because he had destroyed the brush that was smoldering in the first place. Though, in the end, Norbert supposed it didn't matter, as he ran from spot to spot, stomping on whatever was still on fire that wasn't put out by @Toko's magic. It was frantic, and Norbert didn't actually feel like he was helping any, but eventually, a large majority of the flames were put out, at least where they were standing.

Huffing and puffing, Norbert fell to his knees in the dirt, looking up at the bunny woman, apologetic and tired. "Wow... I had... I had no idea this game was..." he tried to get out, before pausing a bit longer to catch his breath, "...hoo... I had no idea this would be so intense."

 

[Toko]

She was oblivious to the gaze that followed her every movement, the new player finally snapped out of his trance upon hearing Toko’s request. How long has she been playing this game now? About a year… no, almost a year and a half now if memory serves her right. Once she’d been as amazed as him at the freedom it provided, but now it all felt second nature—sometimes it was easy to forget she hadn’t always been the cheery and helpful lepus fighter that had taken residence in the small and cozy village of Honeyhome.

His erratic stomping caught her attention then, one eyebrow carefully raised high as she observed the rather rustic approach of the caenis to rectify his mistakes… brutish, but the result she’d asked for had been achieved regardless so Toko wasn’t about to complain.

The glow around her body dissipated along with the last of the flames, before the adventurer took a moment to catch her breath as a wave of exertion finally hit. Hands rested on her knees as Toko focused for a few moments on simply breathing and slowing down her erratic heartbeats, an elongated ear flickering before shifting in the hound’s direction as he spoke. "First time… logging in, huh?"

If his actions until now hadn’t been clue enough his words certainly were, the hare taking a final deep inhale and holding it as she stretched her arms and back. "Fuuu... it’s been a while." It wasn’t often that her work around the small village tested the limits of her magic, but extinguishing the small inferno this caenis had started had certainly taken a toll.

"Alright, spit it out." This was never a fun conversation to have, but necessary with any shooting star that decided to graze the skies before crashing into this world. "What brought you into this death game, and how much do you actually know about it?"

Best to rip that band-aid off quickly.

@Norbert Inigo

 

[Norbert Inigo]

Norbert managed to finally catch his breath, and slowly got to his feet. He looked at the bunny woman and was very confused as to why she was so angry. Then she mentioned something about a... death game? This gave Norbert pause. Video games couldn't be dangerous like that, could they? That sounded like something out of a... video game.

Norbert sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he considered how to respond to this strange inquiry. He had no idea what she was talking about, but she seemed very angry about it regardless. "I... honestly have no idea what you're talking about," he finally admitted to her. "My... nephew said he had this game to play and didn't want to play it alone. So he gave me a headset and gave me the QR code to get in, and here I am."

He looked around, trying to think of how to explain things without making it all that much worse. "I... I didn't think there would be consequences for this. It's just a video game. I've seen my nephew play games before on his computer, they were always just... games. That's all this is... isn't it?"

Norbert couldn't help the sudden dread that washed over him from the simple word 'death' being placed in the woman's question. What had Nick brought him into? Did Nick know the game is dangerous? If he did, why did he abandon him? So many questions suddenly began to run through Norbert's head, and the grey matter sitting there was having trouble processing it all as he rubbed one of his temples in frustration.

"Look, for what it's worth, I'm sorry if I caused any permanent issues. It wasn't my intention. I thought this was just a game," Norbert said, closing his eyes and trying to think through what he could currently wrap his head around.

@Toko

 

[Toko]

Hands rested on her hips as the lepus listened to the words that sputtered out of the caenis’ mouth, her gaze never straying away from his face as she seemed to study his features as he spoke. He looked and sounded like any fresh new player that crashed into the wilderness of Brisshal on their first login, though it had been a while since she’d come across one so reckless… though that trait often seemed to go hand-in-hand with the mastery he’d chosen.

"Mattaku—wait, hold up. Did you say your nephew?" A hand was held up as she cut him off then, waiting long enough to receive confirmation that she’d herald correctly, before that same hand ran along the long strands of hair on her head as the hare audibly groaned.

"How old are you?" It was a question she’d normally think at least five times before asking in her homeland, and certainly not in the crude way that she’d tossed it out right now. "Actually, how old are they too?"

While the avatar itself didn’t look too older from her own Toko personally knew that wasn’t always the case with the person actually diving. From his actions and words alone when she’d arrived the rabbit would’ve assumed he was a late teen at best, but if that was the case their nephew must’ve been young to be diving… and certainly too young to be running around this game unsupervised.

Granted, there was always the chance that external family situations had caused uncle and nephew to be closer in age than anyone would expect… and right now Toko was hoping that was the case. "Kuso... so they gave you a QR code and said ’hey, come play this game with me’ and you didn’t even think to look it up before jumping head first into it?" The kettle calling the pot black really, but her circumstances had been different—or at least that’s what the beastfolk chose to mentally tell herself.

"No, this isn’t just a game." Usually she would’ve been kinder with her delivery but, after spending a good half hour ensuring a raging forest fire didn’t suddenly set ablaze a good chunk of Brisshal—including Honeyhome, perhaps her irritated behavior was understandable. "It’s as real as the world you and I come from, but far more dangerous than anything we’d see back there."

Hands rose to rub gentle circles around her temples as the beginning signs of a headache became evident, the quiet snickering in her mind that belonged to the voice of another—clearly amused by this turn of events—ignored for the time being. Toko shook her head as the caenis began to apologize, taking a deep breath to try and calm down her own emotions, before finally opening her eyes and glancing at him.

"You didn’t know any better then, just make sure it doesn’t happen again." Grilling him further over his mistake wouldn’t turn time back and undo the damage already done to the forest, or the exhaustion that still ached in her muscles. "Has this nephew of yours been playing for a while now, or did they login for the first time along with you today?"

She’d reserve her judgment about them until her question was answered.

@Norbert Inigo

 

[Norbert Inigo]

Norbert stared at the bunny woman, his face a mask of confusion and regret. She hit him with a barrage of questions, and asked one that he legitimately dreaded answering honestly. She asked him about his age.

Norbert let out a heavy sigh, trying instead to focus on everything else she hit him with, be it the questions or the explanation of the game itself. It really did sound like Nick had gotten Norbert into a heap of trouble this time around, and he'd have to really give the kid a good talking to once they got out of this mess.

But, once the bunny woman finished talking, Norbert sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and got started picking through her inquiries little by little. He felt like navigating this would be like a minefield. He had already lied to her once, technically, about Nick being his nephew. How many more lies could he stack on this before he caught himself. Now he saw why he avoided the internet so much. People asked too many questions and wanted to know too much personal stuff. Social media truly was a nightmare.

"Well, I'm..." Norbert started, he had to think of a realistic age for him to be for him to have a nephew that was 16 years old. His mind raced, and kept screaming at him to just be honest and tell the truth. But in this young body, he didn't want people to know he was actually some old man playing pretend. "...I'm 27." He finally admitted, lying through his teeth. "My sister is much older than me. 10 years older. She had her son when she was young. He's 16."

All of it a lie. But this random stranger had no reason to know anything about his life outside of this game he'd probably only play once anyway. Let alone the truth. Norbert just needed to be more confident in this lie. He needed to own it as if it were true. He was just a young man, looking over his teenage nephew. Which led him to the rest of the questions:

"I honestly didn't even think video games could be that dangerous. I'm still a bit confused on how this one is, but I suppose you'll clear that up eventually."

"My nephew is some kind of tech genius, so I didn't think too much about the idea of him putting me in a dangerous situation. I'm his family. I figured he'd care about me a bit more than that."

"I have no idea how long he's been playing the game. He asked me to join him because his mom found out and she doesn't have time to play so she wanted him to have some sort of supervision inside the game. And then he ditched me. Which doesn't surprise me all that much, the kid is 16. He didn't actually want supervision, he's just using me as a scapegoat."

This was honestly the way it always was with the two kids. They were selfish little spoiled brats, if Norbert was being honest. He was the butler, and he served them, and so anytime they wanted something Norbert was the one to get it for them, by any means necessary.

A heavy sigh escaped Norbert as he admitted these things he truly didn't want to. He'd talk to the family after all this, but Norbert knew it wouldn't do any good. Nick wouldn't care, probably wouldn't ever actually play the game with Norbert. The dad would scold Norbert for playing some game, even at his son's behest rather than doing his housework. And the mom would try to make Norbert feel better, but ultimately come around to the fact that she "honestly can't control her children nowadays." Which is terrible parenting, but what was Norbert to do?

Norbert's fists balled up in frustration, but he didn't want to take any of it out on this bunny woman who had been patient with him so far. Another heavy sigh and he looked back to her, "Look, I'm sorry for the mess I've caused. For the mess my nephew has caused. I apparently have a lot to sort out with my family, and with this game. In the meantime, I don't even have any idea where to begin looking for him."

@Toko