Private Eastern Brisshal Quick Entry

[Tristaria]

Cadence glared at hollow copy of herself, sitting in front of her like a sculpture waiting to be carved. There was something inordinately creepy about it: both seeing this hollow doll of herself, and then effectively defacing herself to create a totally new persona. And yet there was zero chance she was about to enter this very illegal game without that anonymity to fall back on.

"I can’t believe I’m actually doing this…" she shook her head in disbelief as she got to work.

---

Cadence…

No, wait, this wasn’t Cadence anymore, was it? Better get used to that now before she made a mistake and gave herself away.

Tristaria opened her eyes for the first time, just in time to catch a bright shooting star light up the sky above her head. Around that beautiful, sunset sky was a canvas of leaves, accentuating it almost like a picture frame. So she was in a forest then? That made sense: forest levels were pretty standard starter regions.

Turning her neck away from the sky above, she instead gazed at the sights around her with that "totally lost" look that only a true newbie could ever truly capture. Everything was totally new, and she had no idea what to expect from the virtual world with a reputation from claiming real lives. Despite that grim and horrific thought, everything around her was innocent and peaceful. The golden sunset glistened off the trees, a squirrel darted into a little hole, and there was even a little path through the woods lined with pretty wildflowers.

Tristaria spread her arms and felt the fabric of her (very odd) jacket tug at her back, all shockingly realistic. From what little of the lore she’d read during character creation, Tristaria understood herself to be a sort of machine person. Already, she could feel some differences in her body: a steady humming sensation in place of a rhythmic heartbeat and a rigid metallic frame under her skin being the most obvious.

She turned to the path and tried to step forward, immediately tripping and face-planting into the dirt. Right, this whole body was completely out of sync with what she was used to. Different height, different proportions, different weight balance. The attention to detail in this game truly was staggering: Tristaria could see why some might actually enjoy it. She struggled to stand up again and stood there, awkwardly shifting her weight around to get a feel for the new body. Tris could only hope that this path wasn’t well traveled enough to deny her privacy in this moment of initial exploration…

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

It was already the second day of Bianca diving into the game. Admittedly, not that much has happened the first time around. Logging into the game, being approached by two friendly strangers who showed her the ropes and led her to the city… now she was on her own. Still rather daunting, but at least she was confident in her grasp of the basics.

Of course, the lack of risks in her current situation also meant that there was little in terms of rewards. Yes, she could just stay in the city and enjoy her freedom of movement all she wanted… but variety was the spice of life. She already got to buy some essential equipment, including a weapon that should allow her to use her character's abilities. How dangerous could it be to go back to that starting forest and look around some more?

The feline set out with this perfectly sound reasoning and soon found herself exactly where she wanted to be. However, the forest was vast and unfamiliar to her. She didn't exactly spend a lot of time here the day prior. This also meant that she was unaware of any potential dangers that she could encounter in these lands. Surely there could not be anything too bad, given that it was a starting location for new players?

Then, she heard some kind of a thud, as if something heavy was tossed onto the ground nearby. While it made her jolt a bit, curiosity won over cautiousness this time as she was soon to approach the source. Still, probably best to stay at least a bit hidden to ensure she didn't run head-first into a bear or something similarly terrifying.

Making use of all the experience she gained by living in a city and never having, or even being able to, sneak anywhere, Fina's head would soon poke out of a bush, staring the mechanical lifeform down. "OH!"

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tristaria was in the middle of swaying her hips around a bit, testing out her new center of balance, when a head suddenly popped out of a nearby bush. Aside from the faint crunching of leaves that'd come before, there was hardly any warning at all! She'd been totally alone to explore the basics of this new world, and within an instant, all that had vanished.

"Gah!" Tris exclaimed in shock, the sudden surprise causing her to lose her balance and topple over once again: backwards this time. She glanced up at the "head bush." Another player? Supposedly there was some way to tell... and not long after she'd considered this, a few little icons popped into her view, displaying helpful information.

Or rather, it looked like it should be displaying helpful information, but almost everything was blank: likely because she hadn't properly learned anything about this person. The only thing she got was "Beastfolk" which, given the perky triangle ears on top of her head, wasn't shocking new information.

Between processing this brand-new UI and then considering in painstaking detail how on earth she was going to introduce herself in this strange situation, Tristaria found herself staring blankly at the bush cat for an extremely long time. An uncomfortably long time: especially given expressionless her face was. Then again, she was a machine person, right? Totally in-character... Terrasphere was supposedly pretty big on role-playing, right? That's what she'd heard, anyway.

"Erm... hello," she finally spoke with a monotone voice as she returned to a standing position. From the awkward way she was standing, it was pretty clear Tristaria was new, particular to the character's body. "I'm, uhm... Tristaria," she introduced, continuing on to the important question. "Do you always lurk in bushes like that?" There was something a bit judgmental in the way she asked... or maybe that was just Tristaria's normal face, it was hard to tell.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

A mutual surprise it was, then! While Fina wanted to bolt out of the bush to catch the poor girl as she fell back, she quickly realized she was half-stuck herself. A somewhat awkward situation to be in, for sure. Though with the girl's stat distribution, it didn't take much effort to break everything that was trying to hold her back and get up, just in time to half-heartedly offer a hand to someone who just stood up on their own. Bringing the half-closed fist to her mouth and letting out a slight cough instead, the beastfolk would wag her tail a bit as she listened to the sudden introduction.

"O-oh, right. Just call me Fina." It seemed that neither of them was all that fancy on first impressions, but there was no way they could leave this situation this awkward for much longer. However, the ice ended up being broken by Tristaria, as she introduced herself. Scratching the back of her head, Fina's eyes wandered to the side for a moment as if she didn't want to face the girl while answering. "I don't think I've been around long enough to establish that as my normal, no. But you seem pretty new yourself."

Returning her gaze, now trying to look a bit more confident, Fina would extend her hand once more to offer a handshake. "Sorry for spooking you before." Heck, this whole situation seemed somewhat similar to what she went through herself when a completely different player managed to sneak up on her as she first appeared in the world. Maybe now she could play that role and offer some guidance to a newbie? No, she probably didn't know nearly enough to do something like that and be even remotely successful at it…

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

"Fina," Tristaria echoed, noticing out of the corner of her eye that the blank space for the girl's username suddenly shifted to reflect the name she'd been given. So that was how that worked, huh? Sensible.

"Hm..." Tris raised a finger to her cheek in thought. So this girl was also new? "This place must be for new players, then..." she concluded aloud. The cat went on and Tristaria raised an eyebrow in defense. "Spooked? I wasn't spooked. Just slightly surprised by your unexpected arrival."

She glanced at the hand being offered. The girl was friendly enough, and every social grace Tris had in her (admittedly not much) insisted on taking it. Yet she wasn't here to exchange pleasantries. She was here to burn this awful place to ashes: a memorial to the friend it had claimed. Not only that, but who was to say this innocent looking cat girl wouldn't be the next victim!?

"I suggest you get out of here immediately, for your own sake," Tristaria warned, brushing the hand aside abruptly. She wouldn't let the allures of this world's fantasy trap her, nor distract from her mission, and that included potential friendships. At least this mysterious "Magia" race made it all the easier, burying the shame of committing such a rude and dismissive act. Come to think of it, it was kinda terrifying that the game was even capable of that...

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have things to explore..." Tris concluded, turning and slowly wandering off further from that path that would no doubt bother her with many more people. After a few seconds of walking in this shorter body, it wasn't too bad: after all, Tristaria wasn't that different from Cadence... sorta. But before she'd taken even ten steps away from the cat, she noticed a sudden difficulty moving.

Was this that Magia trait she'd heard about? The one where she started to refuel on magical energy. She looked down at the legs that refused to move. "Oh. Well, that's not good." Quicksand. Quickdirt? Either way, she was caught sinking in a patch of soft earth. Nearby vines? Nope. A solid rock she could grab onto? Also nope.

...

Was the cat lady still there?

"Hey, cat lady!? I mean... Fina!?" Tris called out, twisting her body to try and see behind her.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

"Yup, something like that." Honestly, Fina herself was not entirely sure if this was the only area where new players could end up, but it was undoubtedly a newbie zone of some kind. A chuckle also followed the affirmation as the poor girl denied her reaction from just moments prior. The feline could understand that, especially after the words that transpired afterward.

Her hand, and the gesture of goodwill and welcome that came along with it, were brushed aside as if they meant nothing at all. The whole thing frankly baffled Fina, who could only stare back at the mechanical girl in mild disbelief. "Wha-" Before she could even properly engage, she was left all alone again with her company storming off to god knew where. "Tsk, fine then…" Not exactly pleased with this development, Fina would just turn around and rest her hands on her hips, doing her best at portraying a disinterested cat girl.

'The people I've met so far were nothing but smiles and pleasantry… but I guess the game does have its share of bad apples as well, huh…' The thought train barely had enough time to get out of the station before that very same voice that just borderline scolded her rang out again. Although it was still rather unpleasant, it seemed that the girl at least tried to remember a name she was just given, so why not humor her for a bit.

With a sigh, Fina would turn toward the direction from which the cry came and took a few steps toward it. "Yes, yes, changed your mind, have you? That was fast…" It didn't exactly take long, just getting past a few more bushes before she'd stop dead in her tracks. "Oh." It felt like she was repeating that sound a lot today.

In front of her was something akin to a mud pit of some sort, and Tristaria, who walked away in such a confident manner just a few seconds ago, was standing right in the middle and ever-so-slowly sinking down. "So there are environmental hazards like these as well, huh…" Noting the observation for herself, Fina would proceed to squat down and look directly at the machine girl. "Need my help after all, then?" It might have been a bit mean, but it didn't look like the lass was in imminent danger.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tristaria should’ve felt some sense of shame as Fina wandered over to her to witness her, frankly embarrassing, plight. Yet, that shame was buried like most of the other emotions she probably should’ve felt. It was nice, she thought. Shame was irritating beyond belief, and there was a lot of value in being shameless, particularly when the ground was slowly eating you, and the only way out was a friendly feline girl you’d rudely dissed mere moments ago.

"No I haven’t changed my mind. No one should be playing this game. But I suppose your help would be appreciated," she admitted, staring up at Fina’s smug face. Gosh, even with her shame being repressed, that look… that look was going to haunt her the second she logged out, she just knew it. Would that shame flood back the moment she awoke from this game? She wasn’t looking forward to finding out.

"If you wouldn’t mind," Tristaria held out her hand out for Fina to grab. She wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if the girl neglected to pull her out. No doubt more sinking would be involved. Maybe then she’d suffocate, or a monster would arrive to kill her while she was stuck unable to fight back. Yikes.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

While Fina obviously wanted to help the stranded girl, she was a bit curious about something. Namely, those warnings she was dishing out like there was no tomorrow. Considering how Tristaria was in no position to negotiate here, why not take advantage of that? "I kinda agree with the sentiment. But I do find it strange that someone who would just shout that at the first person they met would even be in this game. I get that we all broke the law, so we obviously have our own reasons to be playing, but if you think it's THAT bad, why be here?"

Regardless of the answer she would get, she didn't keep the girl waiting. Though she managed to wander far enough into the puddle that their hands didn't quite reach. "Wait a moment…" Taking a step back, Fina would go ahead and open up her menus to search for the thing she explored before she set out. She still wasn't all too familiar with everything, but she could at least do this much - Arcanamancy, a mastery she chose for this character of hers. Using it, she conjured a simple pole in her hand. Shining hues of blue and purple, it almost looked like it was formed from countless gems, even if it was just magic.

With all of her strength, she would pin it in the ground between herself and Tristaria. "Use that to get closer!" Once she would, she'd grab the machine girl's hands and pull her out entirely.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tris was kind of hoping for an immediate response. Grab the hand, pull her out; it wasn’t complicated. Instead, there was a pause, and that was enough to make her question whether Fina was the sort of vengeful person who would leave her here to die (or at least experience the process of death). Instead, she got a conversation.

"I… hm…" she pondered the response. It wasn’t that she didn’t have an answer; rather she wasn’t sure how open she should be with it. After all, everyone who was here playing this game, implicitly had some form of desire to do so. Openly admitting "Yeah, I wanna destroy this game from the inside" felt a little bit like shouting "I love hamburgers" into a vegan restaurant. It was just asking for enemies.

"Personal reasons… for a friend’s sake," she answered as uselessly as possible, inquisitively watching Fina as she failed to reach her, and even more inquisitively watching as the glowy pole suddenly popped into existence. It was dazzling. "Can you just… make anything like that? Out of thin air?" In truth, that sort of thing wasn’t terribly unique to Terrasphere, and therefore Tristaria somewhat gave away the fact that she didn’t play a whole lot of VR games in general.

Gripping onto the pole, she tugged lightly, hoping this would be enough to get her unstuck. No such luck. She pulled again, this time with both arms, slowly moving forward through the muck in one of the most disgusting feeling ways possible. She could feel the thick mud all over her boots and lower part of her legs as it slowly churned by. Soon enough, however, she was able to grasp Fina’s hand and felt herself finally lifted out.

"Careful, there’s a mud trap there," Tristaria warned with her usual deadpan expression. An attempt at dry humor? She certainly had the face to sell it. After a few moments had gone by, during which Tris tried her best to clean herself off, she asked, "Alright, since we already went there, why are you here then? Because it makes you feel like a hero?" There was a big of edge to that guess. A hint that it was an answer she’d heard before and rejected as legitimate.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Fina expected to get a complete non-answer, which meant that she actually got more than expected. It even made sense, at least to the girl. If this stranger thought the game to be so bad that she'd actively warn others to stop playing, then why would she play for her own benefit? She wasn't; instead doing it for someone else. Admirable, in its own way. Perhaps the little machine was not as bad as the feline had initially thought.

Pulling the shortie out, she hummed a bit as she answered the question. "Probably not anything. The rank of that mastery is still really low, and when I experimented with it before, I could only make really simple stuff I could visualize in my head. Probably won't be making no skeleton keys with it." As fun as that would be, it'd probably also be a tad unfair to anyone who did not pick that specific mastery. Making fair game design was difficult, but there did seem to be some balance here.

Once pulled out, Fina would give Tris all the time she needed as she looked around, making sure Mother Nature set up no other unexpected traps. This sort of thing was not difficult to get out of, as was just demonstrated, but worse things could be out there still.

Turning back to face her company, the girl had to think for a bit before answering the question. She probably should have expected a rebuttal like this. However, she did have to laugh a bit at the hero persona mentioned. "Pfff, nah. I walk around anything that looks even remotely capable of seriously hurting me. No hero here. I…" A brief pause ensued, along with a sigh at the end. "Would you believe me if I said that even a game with enough reasons to be banned worldwide offered me a better life than what awaits me out there?" Saying that, she looked up as if there was supposed to be some transparent window leading to the physical world.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tris nodded as Fina explained her mastery, or rather, its limitations. It certainly sparked the imagination, leaving her to wonder just what it was, and what it could do at these "higher ranks" that were implied to exist. She was caught in-between showing great interest, and refusing to engage at all: something she might have to get used to.

In the real world, there were two main motivations she'd heard behind the crazies that hopped into the world of Terrasphere. The first and closest to her was the desire to be a hero. To have a larger-than-life experience where one could impact the world and matter to others in grand ways beyond what the outside world would allow of one individual. The second motivation she'd heard of had more to do with identifying as someone different: stepping into a life with new challenges, strengths, weaknesses, traits, and responsibilities... ones more attractive to the player.

Tristaria was fully expecting one or the other. So, when Fina suddenly answered the way she did, it took Tris completely off-guard, even to the point where her cold stare softened ever so slightly. She followed Fina's gaze up to the sky, then back to her after realizing nothing was there.

"Just how bad could it possibly be that it's worth risking your life to get away from...?" Tris asked, still not entirely buying the answer, but not outright rejecting it either. "If your situation is that bad, can't you find a way to move to a better place?"

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Taking a few steps towards Tris, Fina would find the nearest stone or stump to sit down on near the other girl while sighing. She might as well get herself comfortable until the two of them were ready to head out… wherever it would be that the machine girl wanted to be. However, the current conversation was a bit difficult. Bianca didn't like talking about her disability with people she knew in person, much less someone she didn't really know in an MMO.

"Not all problems in life are caused by what's around you." As her eyes wandered and looked Tris over from head to toe once more, a certain comparison hatched inside of the feline's head. "You could go to any zone in this game, but that mechanical humming from inside of you will follow you everywhere you go." Her ears seemed good enough to pick up on that, even from this distance. And hopefully, saying that much would get the message across without explicitly stating that her body was not what she wanted it to be.

Of course, there were plenty of arguments to be made that Bianca's life outside of this game was not that bad. She lived in comfort and had a robust support network. Plenty of people had it much worse than her. Yet, she still wanted to be selfish and be here, enjoying the fact that she could do exactly what she was doing - just running about and enjoying herself.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tris stared forward into Fina’s eyes, gaze locked in tight. It remained unnerving. Tristaria didn’t blink… ever. She didn’t have to. Couple that with the perpetually unamused look, and it really was like looking into the eyes of a soulless robot.

"Hm?" An eyebrow raised as Fina glanced her over, then continued her explanation that was as vague as Tris had been from earlier. She got the idea though. At least somewhat. "…" It was actually incredible that Fina could hear that. Incredible and unnerving. It made her kinda feel like she could never whisper again. If Fina could hear this, she could hear practically anything.

After staring back with a blank expression for another uncomfortably long moment, she articulated a better response.

"I think I get the gist," Tris nodded slowly. "That’s… really sad." She didn’t look sad, of course, but she was showing empathy in the best way she could, given what she had to go off of. It was tragic to even imagine. The lovely feline girl in front of her was perky, friendly, and most relevant: very healthy. She had no obvious injuries, diseases, or other deformations. And so, it was sad to imagine that whoever was behind the character of Fina was seriously ill in one way or another.

…maybe that really was an actual, decent reason.

…

"Let’s not talk about it then," Tris shook her head, sensing Fina’s discomfort with the topic. "I should really log off soon, but if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to know how these "masteries" work…" A subtle request for help. Though out of nowhere, Tris barreled straight into another question: "Also, doesn’t it feel strange to have cat parts?"

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Fina didn't react much. Not quite as 'not much' as her new robot friend here, but there was barely any change in her demeanor even as Tris spoke. Anyone could say things like that. That it's sad or that they feel bad for her. But did they ever really mean it? Words were almost always empty, and actions were few and far between. Ultimately, the girl appreciated it more when the conversation moved on to something else entirely.

"Masteries, right. As far as I understand it, they're this MMO's version of skills, more or less." Taking her hand and opening her palm menu, Fina ensured all of her actions were clear and easy to follow. After all, If Tris was new, then she might not have even known how to open such a vital menu. "Just do like this, and you'll get into your menu interface. You can find masteries there. There is a limit on how many you can select, so just read through them carefully and choose the ones you're most interested in." Honestly, it was a pretty rudimentary system as far as MMOs or games in general went.

"I haven't really gone too deep into it all yet myself, so I can't tell if there is more beyond that." But considering even just the one magical mastery the feline had could do as much as it did, she didn't doubt things could get pretty crazy later on. As for the second question… "Ahahah… I actually didn't even think about them much until just now. The game makes them feel so natural that I forgot to think of them as 'extras'. Though I guess the tail is pretty sensitive." Saying all that, her ears twitched a few times, and her tail swished from side to side behind her back. "Wouldn't it be even stranger if you were a machine instead of a walking bag of flesh~?" She then tossed right back at Tris.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tristaria watched inquisitively as Fina waved her hand and poked the air several times. It all had a certain intentionally to it, making clear that something specific was supposed to be there. To Tris, there was nothing but thin air. Thankfully, Fina was clear and intentional enough with the motions that Tris could follow along without actually having to see what she was doing.

Hand out, squeeze into fist, open palm toward face. Ah! There it was. Pretty little bubble icons hinting at the screen that each one would bring up. Following the feline’s direction, she was met with a wide and colorful array of masteries. Met with the myriad of options, she once again had to deliberately remind herself that she hated the game and was not at all interested in what incredibly cool potential some of them had.

"Aeromancy," she selected in defiance of Fina‘s suggestion to read through them. Being a huge fan of aircraft, obviously she was gonna select the air mastery; didn’t require a second of thought. "So three slots; potentially another two to unlock later…" she considered, actually spending some time in thought. Really, she should go for the ones most likely to be coded poorly, but that required a lot of thought.

Tris closed the window. She’d do it later. Instead, her eyes shifted over to the aformentioned "cat parts," which were now happily wiggling about. "Are you doing that intentionally, or does it just… go on its own?" Tris considered aloud. She certainly felt weird, but aside from the antennae, it wasn‘t like she had whole extra limbs or anything. The weirdest part was on the inside. That tail on the other hand…

"Not really," Tristaria was quick to answer Fina’s counter question. "Everyone always calls me a machine out the outside anyway, so I’m used to it." Of course, they were only speaking of how fast she was with computers, so the answer was more of a joke. There is where, typically, Cadence would smirk to make it clear it was humor. Tris just blankly stared ahead.

"… Okay, maybe it is a little strange," she admitted after she realized what‘d just happened. "Anyway, thanks for the help. I’ll be logging off now." She opened the palm menu again to log off, but paused as she noticed the "Contacts" section, glancing between the icon and Fina a few times. A faint look of guilt peeked through the cracks of her stone-cold mask.

After a long pause, Tristaria simply said "Bye," and hit log off. She wasn’t here to make friends. Friends would only make things harder. But it still felt like a real shame ending things like that.

…Why couldn’t she have met a real jerk instead?

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

From a student to a teacher in such a short span of time? Clearly, Bianca was doing something right because this was unheard of in her life. She gleefully observed as the other girl mimicked the movements and opened up her own menus, exploring what the game had to offer in the small amount of time that she actually gave it. "A-ah-" Was about all Fina could get out of herself before it was all done and the first mastery was chosen. Well… they were still playing an MMO, so there was probably some way of re-specing if she ended up dissatisfied with her choice.

"Yeah, that's how it looked like. The one I used before is called Arcanamancy!" Out of all the masteries available, it frankly appeared to be one of the most versatile and useful. At least as long as one intended to do more than just fight in the game. And seeing how Bianca's goal was to enjoy a new kind of life through Fina, that very much sounded like a mastery for her.

As Tris asked more about the tail, it would stop and stay still to show that the person to whom it was attached very much had control over it. "The only way I can describe it is that it's like any other limb… as if it was part of me since forever. Though I noticed that I sometimes started moving it without realizing when excited…" That part was a tiny bit embarrassing, but oh well. It was not that big of a deal, and with her attire, at least as long as she had the cape to go with it, the tail wasn't all that visible unless the other person was staring directly at it. And just like that, it was the end of their conversation.

"Ah… right. Hope you enjoyed yourself… even if you managed to get yourself stuck in a mud pit." It was a bit of a tease at the end, but deep down, the girl really did hope that she was good enough of a company that the other person had at least some fun. Especially when it was this difficult to tell. With no facial or other cues to go off of, she just wasn't enough of an expert on people to figure things out easily. As Tristaria said her goodbye, Fina would likewise, somewhat meekly, reply, "Yeah, see ya." And she was gone, just like that.

Of course, while the mechanical girl did not do so, the feline quickly opened up her menu. 'Tristaria, Tristaria…' The name repeated itself in her head until she typed it out into the interface. Request sent. With a smile, she closed the UI again and got up. There were places to explore, after all. If the other girl logged back in at some point… that friend request would be waiting for her.

@Tristaria