Private Eastern Brisshal Second-Time Newcomer

[Juniper Lockton]

After a night of tears due to her absence from Terra, Juniper was finally able to logon again after a brutal day of her parents being shitty, petty, and overall bad parents. Her first meeting with that woman she'd bumped into was fated, it seemed, but she was just happy to be happy for once more than anything.

This time, though, as she spawned in at the starting location, looking like she was fresh off a star, she felt at a loss about what to do. This notion was written all over her face, struggling to figure out where to go or what to do, lost as could be in all the ways that mattered. Right now, dressed in newbie attire, she tried to look busy looking over some signs for new adventurers, hoping to just bait someone into helping her out, hopefully.

Hopefully.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

The birds were chirping, the wind was blowing, and the giant would find himself whistling as he trudged through the woods. As the resident hero of the woods and the local town of Honeyhome, he often took to patrolling for any local dangers. The wolves had grown more aggressive as of late, alongside with goblins and all sorts of nasty plant creatures. He would find himself trudging through the same clearing he'd landed in, a place he tended to wander by on the off chance he found a-

Oh would you look at that.

A new woman was standing in the clearing, clearly confused as she looked around. A smirk crossed his lips, he'd been there once. He'd done sung the song, danced the dance. Now it was time to engage in the time honored tradition of aiding those in need.

"Yo!" He would call out, entering the clearing with a warm smile and a wave. "You must be new eh?" He would cross the clearing in a matter of a couple long strides. He found himself towering over her, a hand extended to shake. "Welcome to Terrasphere! Name's Brutus, Brutus Dahlgren, pleasure to meet you."

@Juniper Lockton

 

[Juniper Lockton]

"Oh!" She started a little as she realized someone was addressing her, glancing at him nervously once before it made sense to her brain. Her voice still felt unfamiliar, making her heart skip a beat as she stumbled at first verbally, clearing her throat as she looked up at him shyly,

"Yea, thanks!" She replied, nervousness still overwhelming her. He was hot and it was so unfortunate that that seemed to be the case with pretty much everyone on Terra that she'd seen. How could she make it through a day if she was constantly flushed and flustered over everyone she interacted with?

"I'm Juniper Lockton, the pleasure is mine." She smiled and nodded, smirking after and suddenly not knowing what to do with her hands. She awkwardly ended up folding them under her breasts but it was clearly not something she was used to for whatever reason. Somehow she felt small more than just physically, struggling to look up at him.

"I'm just a little overwhelmed, there's so much to learn and I think I picked a difficult set of masteries to start with." She seemed to explain away her nervousness for her own sake, understating just how nervous she was and how awkward she was being because of this tall, hot guy interacting with her.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

It's always cute waifu avatars.

Brutus mused to himself as he looked her over subtly, his tail flicking idly. He would let her go about introducing herself and explaining her predicament, nodding along slightly. "There sure is a lot to learn all at once, the important thing is to take it in small doses. I guess the first thing to do is go into your options and fiddle with some of the settings like this" He would show her the motion to open the palm UI.

"You can turn auto aid on and turn your pain settings off realistic by going to settings and scrolling down." He would walk her through how to mess with some settings. "Now whenever you try to use your masteries you will find it to be intuitive. You'll be like ah yes, I want to blast them with fire and it will walk you through the motions of blasting them with fire. It kinda feels like being yanked around like a puppet, so I would advise getting some practice with it, learning the basics, and then swapping off it."

He would demonstrate by showing her a light little flash of fire from his palm before shooting a gout of flame upwards. "See?"

 

[Juniper Lockton]

His voice was so big and bold that she couldn't help but fixate on everything he said. She'd already learned some of this, but letting him explain it still helped her feel more at ease. If someone as supposedly competent as him was willing to help her, then maybe that was a good sign that this community was good. But how many of them would care that she was trans? The thought bummed her out a bit but she smiled anyway, laughing a little at the idea of being yanked around like a puppet, even if it was a little weird.

"That's...one way to learn, I suppose? Let's see..." She began to look through her menus and soon enough she wasn't feeling pain realistically and she was performing actions with assistance. She thought about her powers with lightning and earth and imagined one of the spells she might have. To her horror, it released an attack in the form of a lightning bolt summoned by the sphere floating to her right. She looked wide-eyed at him, covering her mouth with a free hand.

It hadn't hit anyone but it had certainly scared quite a few. Looking apologetic to those that made eye contact, she sheepishly turned to him for some kind of safety from onlookers, ears flattening against her head and her tail falling still for once.

"Nope, didn't like that..." She said almost under her breath, back to awkwardly crossing her arms in front of her. It took a steadying breath before more words would come, "Would you maybe be willing to help me practice somewhere that isn't here?" Tail wagging with a flicker of hope now as she looked shyly up at him. Without knowing it, she'd already perfected the look she would come to use many times in the future to get her way.

But perhaps being a natural at looking pathetic wasn't something to brag about.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

He would quickly jump as a crack of lightning would jolt to his left, nailing a poor tree and scaring the shit out of another player. He would give them an apologetic wave and turn back to Juniper. "Somebody is in desperate need of a training montage it would seem," He would gently pat her on the shoulder and give her a warm smile. "No worries! I know a place we can go practice without having to worry about hitting anyone, follow me." He would lead her over to the edge of the clearing to a dirt trail.

"I have a little shack out in the woods that me and my teammate live out in. We got it as a reward for clearing out some goblins from it, used to be a woodcutters shack, now it's our fort so to speak. Not too far from the village, not too deep into the woods, but just deep enough and enough space that we can practice without you having to worry about breaking anything or hurting anyone."

He would lead her down the trail, taking marginally shorter strides so he wouldn't leave her in his dust. He would reach up and pluck and apple from a tree and toss it gently to her.

"Also, make sure you check your needs bars every now and again. If you ever start to feel groggy, or sick, those will basically tell you why you're feeling the way you're feeling so you can fix it. It's really helpful!"

 

[Juniper Lockton]

She rubbed the back of her head nervously as he mentioned a training montage. He wasn't serious, right? Oh, wait, no, he totally was. She fell into further suspicion at mention of a shack in the woods. That he'd taken from...goblins.

She eyed him as if he might be about to murder her any moment, or worse, but then realized she was probably being paranoid based on the real world. This wasn't always like the real world, right? That was the whole point. So, perhaps naively, she trusted him instead and hoped that it wouldn't bring her any consequences.

"Sounds...convenient." She said, trying to think of a polite way to prove that she'd listened, catching the apple as he tossed it her way, "Wish we had something like that in real life." She laughed half-heartedly, still having a hard time taking all of it in just yet. To someone who had been sheltered for most of her life, the culture of such a place was alien to say the least.

"How long have you been playing?" Just before she took a crisp bite of the apple. She was a bit hungry so it worked out that she'd been given a snack.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I know right?" He would pull another apple from his inventory, demolishing it in a couple of bites before tossing the core off the trail and into the underbrush where it could hopefully grow into another apple tree. He would turn back to her, raising an eyebrow. Subtle hints in her posture, mixed in with a raised heartrate betrayed her nervousness to him. He'd become a bit of a detective in the game, reading people like a book the more and more he realized what he needed to look for.

"Look, I promise I'm not some creepy slasher creep or something. I'm Brutus Dahlgren, Hero of the people! You could go ask any of the landers-" he paused, pivoting to walk backwards facing her as they continued onwards. "That's uh, slang for NPCs. You can ask any of em about me and they'll tell you nothing but good things about how I go out of my way to help them with anything and everything! From wackin weeds to wackin goblins. Gathering herbs to getting rid of Grizzleys." He gave he a beaming grin as he announced his heroes way like some sort of anime character.

"I've been playing for about a month or so now, been have a great time. Just gotta be careful on what sort of adventure you go on. You can do a lot of solo stuff, but it's better to team up with people!"

 

[Juniper Lockton]

"I see, I suppose you suit the hero type. Yea, it looks good on you." She said, appraising him up and down before nodding sagely, then smirking. So he'd read her, and somehow that didn't make her more nervous. Instead, it calmed her down some. At least he was self-aware that this was a bit of a sketchy situation.

"Only a month? Wow, you seem like you might have been playing longer than that just based on your confidence and stuff. I hear you get respawns if you die, right? Have you died? Wait, sorry! Is that like...a taboo question?" She realized too late, hoping that she hadn't offended him.

"Yea, I guess I would feel a lot safer about going on some kind of adventure with people. Going alone sounds suuuuuuper scary." Just in general, she was a little paranoid about how things might play out if she didn't have any friends in a situation. Brutus seemed to be a friend so far, and she hoped it stayed that way, but you just never really knew with most people. Worth a shot in this case, though.

"Anyway, here are my masteries. Whaddya think?" She showed him her UI, hoping that was something he could see also. If he couldn't, she'd just relay them to him a little sheepishly, feeling silly about not knowing that.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I've been sinking a lot of free time into this. I've read a few studies saying that VR can safely replace sleep, plus I get a lot of free time when we travel. I plug myself into my mobile hotspot and zonk out during roadtrips." He would shoot her a grin. "As for death, nah I haven't died, and be careful." He frowned at the subject. "Death can really fuck you up if you're not careful. Realistic pain or not." He didn't want to scare her by straight up telling her the game could kill her or not, but he would simply state.

"I've heard if you die three times in the game you die in real life and wake up locked in the game. Your UI goes away and you're stuck as a...Lander. One more death and you're gone for good. I know a couple people who claim they're UI locked, but I couldn't tell you for sure if they're being real or not"

Hopefully that would thread the needle on warning her without scaring her away. Terrasphere was safe if you were careful.

She would try to show him her masteries through her UI, and he would blink for a moment. "I can't see your UI."

"Oh, right! Um, I picked geomancy, aeromancy, and weapon arts. I wanted to do something caster-y and so I'm using weapon arts as two spheres that represent my lightning and earth magic abilities. Eventually, I hope to have summons related to the spheres, but we'll see if I keep playing that long."

"Ah, gotcha." Brutus would nod along. "I have Hyper Sense, Ranged Weapons, Crush Weapons, Pyromancy, and Tank Arts. If you're going castery you have some good picks there. You could always pick up like Astramancy to keep in line with the elemental theme but get more defensive and ofeensive options, Pyromancy is a personal favorite of mine and looks fucking rad. Hydromancy can be pretty cool too, as a general rule of thumb if it had mancy in it it's probably pretty cool."

 

[Juniper Lockton]

Replace sleep? That made sense. Perhaps that would give her even more time here. What followed set her mind turning, though. You could die permanently in this game? And be stuck here? She hadn't heard of that before. Something to consider as a cautionary tale later. Perhaps she should stay away from dangerous adventures and just live a simple life here?

As she tried to show him her skills, she didn't realize that he couldn't see until he spoke up,

"I can't see your UI."

"Oh, right! Um, I picked geomancy, aeromancy, and weapon arts. I wanted to do something caster-y and so I'm using weapon arts as two spheres that represent my lightning and earth magic abilities. Eventually, I hope to have summons related to the spheres, but we'll see if I keep playing that long."

To which he replied with his own choices and some suggestions for picks for the future when she unlocked her other two slots. She promptly noted them down in a notepad in her UI that was neatly labeled 'A D V I C E' and quickly saved and put away.

"That's really helpful, thank you so much!" She said happily, then cleared her throat again and realized that she was still in need of a training montage, "What would you suggest I do to get some experience after we train here for a bit? I'm a quick learner, I'm just really nervous. Do you think maybe you could go with me as a guide on my first adventure or something? Not to like...do it for me but I'm just...I dunno." Rubbing her arm with her other hand, she looked very nervous asking for help like this and suddenly seemed to fall into herself. A little mercurial, mood-wise, it seemed.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Once you get comfortable using your masteries we could always go on a forest patrol." The giant would offer, motioning to the woods. "There's a lot of things to deal with here. You can run into Goblins from the west, or wolves, plant monsters, all sorts of things that make the woods dangerous." He would turn around, walking the right way up the path and slowing his rate so he was walking side by side with her.

"A heroes job is never done in this game. Any of those things could threaten another player or a Lander. The Lander's don't get back up if they die, so their deaths mean something and change this world. If you get a chance to walk around Honeyhome you will quickly forget that these are NPCs, and I would recommend you forget that notion." he would shake his head. "The Landers have hope and dreams, wants and desires, and lives that are so real you could hardly tell them from real people. I treat them real people, you should too."

After his speech they would arrive in a large clearing in the woods. In the center was a small building, barely tall enough to house the giant standing up straight and slightly larger than a shed, warranting the title of shack instead. On one end was a small fire pit with several rocks gathered around them to serve as seats, and the other side bore a small garden with a bed of lush verdant herbs.

"That all aside, welcome to Fort Gundame, home to Honeyhome's premier heroes!"

 

[Juniper Lockton]

"That sounds easy enough." She hoped it did, anyway. Sometimes games like this subverted expectations by making even simple or low-level enemies dangerous if not taking them seriously. Not that she would ever be caught doing such a thing. Not that she was a hardcore gamer, but she knew enough and valued her life enough to not want to die to something like that.

She listened to his speech about the landers with interest and intent, ears twitching a little as she took the words to heart. "Ah, okay, I'll forget they're NPCs entirely then. Sounds like I'll be getting attached quickly."

The shack was exactly what he said it was and she was surprised that heroes could live or work out of such a place. Funny, though. She laughed a little at his welcome, giggling, "Thanks! This is a lovely spot, I can see why you chose it." Then she changed topic quickly back to training. She was eager, "What should we start with?"

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I would swear that the Sheriff for Honeyhome was a UI locked player if it wasn't for the fact that everyone calls him Old Man Stankins." The giant would shuffle about the clearing. He would fiddle with a few things inside the shack. He would late reemerge carrying a large chest, and two kittens, a black one on his left shoulder and a tabby on his right. He would plop the chest down, kicking it open, and then would clearly be making strange motions as he fiddled with the UI.

Suddenly, he would pull a large straw target like those used for Archery practice, walking it to the edge of the clearing. "WE should start with some target practice so you don't accidentally dome your partner in the back of the skull when their back is turned." He would chuckle to show that that was meant as a joke rather than an actual concern. He would set it up on the far end of the clearing, and then take several paces back and drop a rock, repeating the process several times.

"I've got a couple standard ranges marked out here. Let's start with the closest one and work our way back eh?"

 

[Juniper Lockton]

Juniper laughed a little at the name. Old Man Stankins? That sounded funny but also it was really hard to take a sheriff seriously with that kind of name. She watched as he moved around, finally seeing him setup a target of straw. Right, target practice.

"Yea, sure." Shouldn't be too bad. Just focus and stop thinking about the fact that a hot guy is watching you make every move. It was AI assist, though, right, so it shouldn't be too hard in general. Learning to do it all without assists would be a quick goal, for certain.

She thought about casting lightning at the closest target and lightning came down from the sky to strike it after her body was pulled through the motions. But maybe target practice was more meant for actual projectile attacks. She looked a little contemplative, nervous still as she was, and moved to a version of lightning that shot from her hands instead. The components to the spell were similar but this time lightning arced from her hand to the target, scorching some of the straw.

This process repeated several times until she'd hit all the targets, missing more than she would have liked.

"It's a lot harder to aim than I thought it would be." She said, a little bummed out about how many she'd missed, "You wanna see some of my other AoE stuff? Looks like a lot of what I have is AoE. Hardly anything that I have to aim, which is good."

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Go ahead and cut loose." he would instruct as he observed her. The silver haired vixen was finding her legs in the game for the first time. It was curious watching her go through the auto motions, it was like watching watching a puppet dance about and send out blasts of lightning. Once she had a feeling for it all, she could probably get around to coming up with her own style, but what was for another time.

"The whole purpose of this it to get a feel for how to cast. Don't just let it tug you along, get a feel for how you're drawing the power out, get comfortable with the motions. It's kinda like..." he would muse. "Learning how to use a muscle you didn't know you had, like your new ears" he would motion to her fox ears. "Or your tail" he would swish his own lion tail.

"These are things we don't have in the real world, so it's best to figure out how to use em when you don't have a angry goblin trying to shiv you while you're doing it. Panic will make it exceptionally more difficult to cast."

@Juniper Lockton

 

[Juniper Lockton]

"Oh, good." The idea of cutting loose and getting a feel for how to cast was exactly what she wanted out of this, so that worked out. She nodded to his idea about it being a new muscle. That was a good way to think about it. Typical himbo-looking guy: looks strong and dumb, holds wisdom close to his giant heart.

"You're right, I will do my best to remember the actions and turn off the assist as soon as possible." And so she kept at it, taking a moment between casts, "You're really kind, by the way. Thank you for doing this. People like you make games a better place to escape. I hope you know that." Words that faded into lightning blasts and bolts.

Already she was starting to get a feel for it, feeling less awkward with the way she was being yanked around. Notes started to scribble down in her mind about what to do and when. What to say was the weirdest part, by far, but she was getting that down too.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"When I started playing I ran into the person I share this shack with." He would thrust a thumb over to his shack. "And we played together constantly for my first week here. It helped me find my stride, and if doing something similar helps you find your place in this world or lets you have a good time, then It's an afternoon well spent in my opinion." He would cradle the two kittens gently to his chest as he watched her work her magic.

"You getting a feeling for where the magic comes from? You should try turning the assist off and seeing how it goes." The twin felines would peer at the Vixen as she blasted away, occasionally trembling as loud claps of lightning cracked through the air before the giant Felis would soothe them.

He would roll up one of his rock seats and plop down, watching her as she worked. "Lemme know if you get hungry, I can make some sandwiches or something."

@Juniper Lockton

 

[Juniper Lockton]

"That's how I really wanna be too. I've always wanted to help people, even though my idea of helping people always seems to make my parents mad." she shrugged. Whatever.

"Yea! it's really cool!" And so she did, quickly flipping through the UI to turn off the assist. For her first try, she did pretty good, the spell failing to activate but only by a sputter. She didn't follow through. Furrowing her brow, unsatisfied, she tried again with more focus and got it right. Elated, she turned to him, subconsciously expecting praise, then back to the targets.

"A sandwich sounds lovely right now!" she replied after a few more tests of the combo chain she'd been working on. efficiently spreading damage among multiple targets and finishing with an area of effect attack.

Now that she was getting more of a feel for it without the assistance, her own style started to show in small glimpses. A flourish here, a snap of the fingers to call down lightning in response, a spin. it was clear she was having a lot more fun with it.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Excellent work." He would subconsciously reach down and pat the silver haired vixen's head affectionately, like one would a dog or a small child, ruffling her hair ever so slightly.

Brutus would nod along with her words affirming her intentions as she went to work learning her combos and talking about their desires. He would eventually lumber back into the shack, returning after a few moments with two plates, each bearing a ham and cheese sandwich, offering one to her and then motioning for her to take a seat on one of his stoney seats. Once she had sat down, he would follow suit and begin eating, speaking between bights.

"So we're going to go on a patrol after this meal, right? Focus on remembering how the magic feels and making sure you can summon it even when you're scared. I'll be focusing on keeping you safe, you just focus on getting used to using your magic in combat." He would summon a waterskin from his inventory and take a deep swig. "Also make sure you mind your needs bars, they have all the information you need to keep an eye on your status, it'll let you know when you're about out of magical juice or energy to run. All important things to keep in mind. Am I making sense so far?"

@Juniper Lockton