Complete Eastern Brisshal Stone Steps, Chrome Rails

[Alpha]

Somewhere over the digital sky, a star falls. Ones and zeroes, a construct in a form fitting dress. A hat to match.

From the outside, the girl might look like a palm-reader, albeit one obsessed with her own creases. She holds a glove in one hand, and flexes the digits on her other, bare appendage. She squeezes that bare hand. She makes a fist. She opens it. The curtains part.

Isaac⁠—Alpha⁠—stands in quiet awe at the small galaxy of apps that springs from her hand. Out of all the symbols that adorn her small, personal screen, it's the magnifying glass that catches her eye.

Both of her synthetic, golden eyes emit a glow, and the 10-foot, oval shaped monument that marks the small clearing she had spawned in becomes a target.

"...A power stone, huh?"

Alpha—Isaac—had played that game before.

It takes a bit of dancing, but, eventually, she figures out how to attack.

A translucent card twirls above her palm, only to hurled as a projectile towards the peaceful stone. A force field eats it.

She launches another card, and another card and another, before hearing something behind her. She turns on her periwinkle heel, another card at the ready twirling above her palm.

A real fight? Already?

 

[Crimson Ruby]

The endless star shower was mesmerizing Ruby. She wondered if that was some sort of Terrasphere version of a fireworks display- It has been so long since she had joined this game, and the small moment she had with it in the past wasn't enough for her to enjoy it at most.

It felt a bit silly to her, to know this game for four years and look just as new as any other person that had just joined the game.

She took careful steps, eventually twitching her ear when listening to a curious sound of attacks. Was someone being ambushed? Maybe a monster? She hurried her steps for a moment, quickly disappearing and appearing from branch to branch, shrub to shrub until she finally revealed herself to someone.

The figure turned to look at her, and Ruby froze still for a moment seeing that the figure had something prepared to receive her in a very unfriendly way.

"That's new." Ruby blinked, tilting her head while staring intently at Alpha while her tail swayed upwards, wrapping around the grip of her Jian. Her primal aura soothed, breezing on the unknown figure like a gentle, metaphorical wind. It showed no danger, no intention of attacking. She opened the palm of her hand in a peaceful sign.

"I am here in peace." She announced, with her gaze staying focused on the woman. At any moment she could just go berserk and attack her, and Ruby certainly wanted to be prepared if such a thing happened.

@Alpha

 

[Tristaria]

After a long and thorough review of Terrasphere’s many available masteries, Cadence thought she’d finally reached a point where she was ready to choose. Slipping the VR device back on her head, she felt her consciousness shift, her senses fade, and soon after, return to her.

Tristaria opened her synthetic eyes. She was once again the stone-faced machine girl, stuck in the middle of the forest. Given how there was nothing of particular interest aside from a mud pit and a nearby path, she went right along, navigating the palm menu as she walked.

She pointed a finger and let out a blast of air. Then again, but with a spark of lightning. Alright: that seemed simple enough. She continued to navigate the menu and selected Magitech, but before she was able to explore how this worked, she heard an odd pulsing sound coming from a clearing just off the side of the path. Worth checking out, she supposed, turning to enter the clearing.

Tris watched from a distance as several cards were tossed at a giant monolith, which was sitting there minding its own business. Another approached from behind: a red-haired beastkin who evidently spooked her; almost enough to get a card to the face.

Tris appeared disinterested in all of this... or maybe that was just her normal face.

"Why are you attacking the large rock?" she finally asked, making her presence more obvious.

@Alpha @Crimson Ruby

 

[Alpha]

"Right! Sorry! Deep breaths, okay..."

The robo-girl really has no choice but to laugh it off and get to the point.

"The name's Alpha. Just logged in for the first time."

She salutes the beast-girl with a smile and the glove she had removed, its leather fingers flopping across the magia's platinum blonde strands.

"I come in peace too. And..."

Another voice; another player? No matter. Alpha addresses the second newcomer after only a single beat, her glove once again a beacon. She aims the accessory at her fellow magia like a flaccid, many-pronged staff.

"Excellent question, stranger!"

Sights set back on the power stone, Alpha walks around the monument, eyes still glowing from the moment she had tapped that magnifying glass.

"Investigation mode is telling me that you guys aren't like murderers or whatever. It also told me this pillar is called a power stone? Figured I'd get a feel for combat since it can't be destroyed or anything."

She puts her glove back on and makes a square with her fingers before bringing the square to her left eye.

"...You guys know what this symbol on it means?"

@Chanlye @Tristaria

 

[Crimson Ruby]

When it all proved to be a misunderstanding, Ruby sighed quietly and offered a faint smile. "So you are new. Welcome, just be careful with your weapon because PvP is always enabled." She said, letting her tail go from the weapon and approaching the girl, looking at her with curiosity and studying her with her eyes.

"My name is Crimson Ruby." She introduced herself, offering a hand before a voice made her jumpy and she quickly turned to face its source.

Another robot person? A friend of Alpha-

She side glanced Alpha. Judging by the reaction that was a no.

Ruby sighed and shrugged, taking her tail away from the grip of her Jian once again. Her eyes went back to the less stranger strange. "Power Stones appear everwhere around this forest, I am not shre what they are for though... Maybe someone with Geo or Arcane mastery?" She muttered, casting a glance at the newcomer.

"Maybe you can know what this is?" She asked.

@Alpha @Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tris watched blankly as the cat jumped at the sound of her voice. She watched blankly as the other magia answered and then circled around the glorified magic rock. She watched blankly as Crimson (or should she call her Ruby?) considered what the rocks were.

More importantly though, Tristaria stood there (staring ahead blankly, of course) as she felt a certain sense of relief wash over her. She’d been wandering around in these woods, testing out her masteries to their fullest extent, for several hours now. As such, she’d slowly began to notice a certain sluggishness wash over her. She wasn’t tired exactly, but it felt similar to being tired. The struggle to move as readily, the increased effort to perform activities previously effortless.

However, as she spent time here, there was a delightfully warm sensation brewing inside her. Tris stepped forward, closer to the other two and the giant stone. The sensation grew.

EnergySource powerStone = new EnergySource(power=120);
double distance = distance(tristaria, powerStone);

if (distance <= 10) {
    tristaria.regainEnergy(powerStone.power);
    tristaria.applyComfort(10 - distance);
}

"It feels nice," she answered, placing a hand on it and humming in a manner that almost sounded like the magia version of a purr. After a few moments, she stepped back. "I don’t know any of that, but I like the rock."

@Alpha @Crimson Ruby

 

[Alpha]

"Arcane huh? I've got that." Alpha says, fingers flickering from the mastery icon on her menu to the bevy of need meters. Barely a dent in any of her own stats. Those attacks from earlier had barely drawn sweat.

"...Do robots sweat?" She mutters. A fleeting thought, one she tucks away in favor of watching the other magia embrace the stone.

"It feels nice?" A rhetorical question; Alpha presses her own hands against it, feeling a subtle flow of power. She grins as her eyes light up.

"Ooh, It feels nice."

After a few more indulgent moments of drawing power from the stone, Alpha checks her palm menu once more, brows furrowing momentarily at the sight of an empty contact list.

"Hey, let's be friends." She suggests to her fellow travelers.

"Before I logged in, I knew for certain what my destination was: MIT. Finweald, basically. Now, I think I'd like to study these stones more before I go. Don't know if either of you care to join me, but I'd like to head to that starter town that's supposed to be around here. Honeyhouse, or Honeyhamlet, or...?"

Alpha holds her chin in her hands, only barely able to hold back a coy smile as she plays up her momentary lapse in knowledge regarding the town's proper name.

@Crimson Ruby @Tristaria

 

[Crimson Ruby]

"Oh, so you got that. Maybe you will find something out." Her ears perked up, but it didn't seem like the other girl knew what else to say but to state the same as the other.

"Wait, it does?" Ruby frowned, crossing her arms and looking at it with a squint. "Does it really?" She leaned in closer, she touched it for a moment... No, there was like, nothing. What was so good about this stone that they liked?

"It does look cool, I guess," Ruby said, crossing her arms and swaying her tail, feeling a bit out of place for a moment. Maybe it was a robot thing to like that, or maybe Ruby just didn't know how to appreciate a good rock with runes carved on it. Regardless of the case, it was a cool looking rock, so she was going to just accept it as something remotely pleasing.

The sudden request, however, caught Ruby completely off guard. She turned to look at both of them, staring at them momentarily only to realize--

She had never, ever, added anyone to her friend's list in this game. Not even before it closed.

"Hmm... Sure..." Ruby nodded, sheepishly, then looked at Alpha while swaying her tail. "Honeyhome. I know where it is!" Even if she wasn't the most reliable person when it came to directions.

@Alpha @Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Alpha appeared to be satisfied with a momentary touch of the rock, but Tristaria was hungry for that mana. Rubbing her cheek on the surface like a cat leans into a nice ear scratching, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the recharge, only opening them again as she faintly heard Ruby lean forward to touch the rock herself.

"It’s just a magia thing I guess," Tris answered the silent question that Ruby seemed to be implying with her lackluster response to the Rock of Comfort.

"Friends…" Tris tilted her head slightly, opening the contact page. That was now two friend-requests she’d ignored (@Fina Drago). Maybe it’d be three if the friendly cat threw her one as well. Darn social game! Dissing people felt so wrong, and these two were super friendly! Alas. Tristaria closed the menu, letting them sit there in the menu unanswered.

"I shouldn’t make friends. I don’t hate you two though: you’re both okay. Maybe we’ll meet again."

Waving goodbye, Tristaria returned to snuggling the Rock of Comfort and seemed ready to remain there for a while, even if the other two made good on their plans to move on.

@Alpha @Crimson Ruby