Discontinued Private Solvale Synthetic Heartbeats

[Fina Drago]

Mail

Heya, Tris!

It has been a while, and I know I might not have left the best impression. But you accepting my friend request made me really happy, and I was wondering if we could meet up again? I'm visiting the Southern side of Cloud Peak in Solvale, Astorea. I hear it's really lovely there, so if you have free time, I'd love to see you again, and maybe we could get up to something as well!

Hope to see you there,
Fina

Gosh, this felt so awkward. The girl had never written a letter in all of her life, much less a message inside of a virtual world. With a sigh, she planted her face in her palms before pressing the send button, only hoping that the magia would not think even worse of the feline after reading such a silly message.

As for Fina herself, she was already pretty close to the base of Cloud Peak. The hill certainly was quite imposing, with its peak hidden behind the fluffy clouds. But aside from those, the weather was sunny and damn-near perfect for a lovely picnic. The whole of Solvale seemed very nice; the girl could see why Astorea had become the new capital.

Well, there was little left to do but head up some way, hoping that Tristaria would arrive and the two girls would manage to find each other. And, as fate would have it, the cat girl managed to eventually run into a small run-down shack neatly hidden behind some larger rocks and foliage. She didn't dare to go inside, but it felt like a nice landmark. Setting up a small campfire, she was eager to get something delicious in her stomach, and the smoke would perhaps draw in the curious magia.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Mail

ok

Tris wasn’t sure she was exactly looking forward to this meeting. Mainly, the idea of explaining why she’d taken several weeks (or was it a whole month even…?) just to accept the friend request. That said, Fina had been helpful and honestly a pretty great first meeting in the game, so there was a certain sense of obligation she felt in explaining herself, at least somewhat.


Later…

"South of Cloud Peak…" she repeated the line from the message, arms out as she cut through the air, her strange jacket acting as a wingsuit glider. There were a couple players dotted around here and there, and it was hard to tell who they were from above, but none had that pinkish-white hair she remembered, so she continued on.

It took her a while, but she finally noticed the smoke billowing up nearby the shack, and Fina shortly after. With a large puff, Tris dove and landed on a magic cushion of air, nearly blowing the campfire out as she did so.

"Hello again." Tris wandered up to inspect the food she was cooking, before ultimately remembering that, as a magia, she kinda didn’t care what it was at all. "You’re still playing I see. You haven’t died yet, have you? In-game, I mean."


@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

The wait wasn't exactly long. Not to mention that Fina was plenty occupied by sharpening up some sticks that she would prop up next to the fireplace, sticking pieces of marshmallows and sausages bought in a nearby village onto them. Some even disappeared very quickly, causing the feline to lick her lips in delight before her magia friend would arrive.

And when she did, it was hard to miss. Standing up, the girl smiled as she watched the air-borne player descend, offering a gesture of a salute before they were both within a hearing distance. "Hey there!" She was just as stoic as she remembered her to be. But in a way, that was good. Better than getting worse, anyhow.

"Of course I'm still playing. I have a good reason for it, after all. Haven't died a single time, either. I'm plenty careful." Hopefully, that much would reassure Tristia, at least for now. Sitting back down, Fina would pat the ground next to her, offering it to her new company. "Wanna warm up by the fire? Must have been pretty cold up there in the skies… actually, can magia feel cold and heat..?"

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tris stared back with her standard non-expression as Fina greeted her. She was chill as chipper as Tris remembered… maybe even more so? Hard to tell, it’d been a while. After all, Fina was her very first meeting in this world.

"Right, that very good reason you never told me," she shrugged. It was hard to tell from her face, but the tone did make it sound a bit more casual and friendly than harsh and critical. "Well, as long as you aren’t chancing the three-death thing, I guess you’ll be fine. I assume you learned it too by now."

Tris wandered up closer to take the seat she was offered, but froze as she was about to pass Fina. Was one eyebrow higher than the other? It kinda looked like it was. "Yes, we can feel temperature. In fact, my internal armor is made of metal, so it conducts heat more than I’d like sometimes." Then she glanced at the fire for a moment before sitting down.

"So it’s been a while. I take it you can do more than summon a magic stick now?"


@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Fina smirked a bit when she heard the comments from Tristaria. They might not have interacted for long when they first met, but it sure seemed like the magia kept her sharp humor, if it could be counted as such. That was good. This world could sometimes get to people a bit too easily, in all the worst ways. "I could tell you right now, but it might make things a bit awkward and heavy." She replied rather frankly. After sharing her story with a few other players, she no longer feared sharing her reasons for playing with others. But it was still not something she would just say out of nowhere.

"I've also come to this game already knowing that little tidbit. I've done plenty of research before I opened the client up, believe me." Years of forbidden research, even. She wouldn't be surprised if she were on some kind of list as a result. But such dreadful topics aside, she could only laugh when Tris sat down and brought up the life-saving mud stick. "Well, sticks work just fine in a fight, so there was no need to change anything~! But it looks like you upgraded quite a bit… no more mud pits if you can fly, heh."

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

"Fair enough," Tris shrugged, not pressing the deep topic any further for now. "I still think you’re a little crazy for it though. Also, I’m a little crazy too, I guess," she added.

As the conversation went on, Tris stabbed a marshmallow with a stick and casually turned it around over the fire as she continued to listen. "You mean to tell me, you’ve been playing the game this whole time, and you’re still whacking things with magic sticks?" Granted, it wasn’t that crazy of a concept, and no doubt Fina was better by now, but still! There were so many creative mastery combos! Way too many for "whack with stick!"

"I don’t really fly that much. Flying eats up a lot of energy, so I usually find a high place like this hill and just glide. You get a lot more airtime that way." She raised an arm to display one of the wings of her wingsuit. "I think Summon is one of the most interesting though. It’s very versatile. For example…"

Thrusting her hand out, Tris whispered a short incantation, causing blue magic to coalesce on her hand, and then expand into a full summoning circle, out of which stepped a similarly-colored magia.

Hello, Summoner Tristaria~! What do you need today? Also, who is this with you?

"Here," she thrust the stick into her summon’s hand. "Cook me a marshmallow."

Uhm… right away, Summoner Tristaria!

The girl appeared a bit confused as to why she was summoned for such a menial task, but nonetheless carried it out dutifully.

… By burning it to a crisp.

Uhm… here you go! Ehehe…

Tris shrugged and ate it anyway. "I would complain, but it tastes about as good as a well-cooked one. Anyway, you can use her for all kinds of things, as long as she stays within a close-ish distance and it doesn’t require too much intelligent thought."

…

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Crazy was probably a good descriptor for many, if not all, of TerraSphere players, in all honesty. Those truly sane would never risk actually being killed in horrible ways by the things that this world had to offer. Especially if one was eager to take on said dangers with nothing more than magic sticks. "I mean… they can be very varied magic sticks! Heh, the truth is that my selection of masteries might have been a bit flawed… they all just facilitated the core one instead of having any real synergy."

That said, both to impress Tris and show her that it was more than she was probably imagining, she decided to conjure a few arcane weapons. A dagger, an axe, a war hammer, a trident… they all floated around them in a wide circle before they would break and dissipate as quickly as they appeared. No use wasting mana on such a display. "I can make just about any weapon and use it with high proficiency. Well, except for ranged weapons… I seem to be a terrible shot. It's frankly easier to make normal weapons and use arcanamancy to toss them at the enemy…"

So that was her very boring set-up and combat style. It seemed that Tristaria was already going to show something much more enjoyable. Fina was not wrong in that assumption as a summoned appeared, surprisingly similar to Tris herself in appearance. "Oooh! I'm Fina, a pleasure to meet you!" Being far more friendly, the feline even offered the summon a hand to shake before the poor thing would be downgraded to a mere marshmallow burner. "Err… I'm sure she is competent if given a chance? But yeah, summoning does seem really neat! Better than what I got anyway, heh…"

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tris glanced at the display of sparkly, magical weapons. "That’s not what I’d call sticks, but okay. Nice though. That sounds a lot more useful that I was imagining."

As Fina complemented the summoned magia girl, she received two very different reactions. A glance of suspicion from Tristaria, and a perky smile from the one she’d just complimented.

Thank you very much, Fina! I try to do what I can to be helpful for Summoner Tristaria, but she doesn’t seem to appreciate it much…

"Because you keep screwing things up…" Tris answered shortly.

Sorry…!

"… Anyway, shoo. You’re expensive on the energy meter."

Aww, okay. Nice meeting you, Fina~!

Suddenly, her summon waved goodbye, then vanished into thin air with a small burst of blue energy. Tris went on to explain, "I can also summon little flying drones to repai— I mean... heal people. Magitech is pretty useful," Tris cracked a small grin, before standing back up. "Oh, speaking of which, while I was flying overhead, I thought I saw something that looked like magitech scraps over this way if you’d like to check it out with me…"

Pointing in a general, downhill direction, she started off, not really waiting for an answer.


@Fina Drago (Feel free to find&describe the NPC by the way!)

 

[Fina Drago]

Somehow, Fina was getting the feeling that Tristaria wasn't exactly imagining a great deal of positive things about others, ever. However could she be getting that idea? Either way, she felt rather sorry for the summon. The girl seemed very nice, but was quickly tossed back into whatever realm she was called from in the first place. Waving her goodbye as well, all of the feline's attention returned back to Tris. "Certainly sounds useful. Didn't quite think you'd be the supportive type, though."

And speaking of support, apparently there was something the magia wanted to check out. "Downhill? Strange that I didn't see it on my way here then— w-wait for me!" There was barely any time to even finish all of the food that was being prepared over the fire. Hopefully, some of it would remain unburned by the time they were back. Quite unlikely, though.

There was indeed some manner of a pile that contained metallic parts, far more futuristic looking than most things a player could see in this world. What was rather notable was a single hand of someone buried underneath it sticking out. Fina noticed it first, given her enhanced sense of sight. "H-hey, it looks like there might be someone under it! Help me clear it all out of the way!"

Sure enough, there was someone below it all. A magia, in fact. Strange one, too, given how he seemed far less human-like than all the magia Fina had seen so far. He also appeared to be powered down, or something to that effect.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

"Yes, well, it’s important to keep people alive in a death game, see. Of course, if people would play more responsibly— or better, not play at all —I would hopefully be completely unnecessary. We all know how likely that is." Tris shrugged as she headed off.

"Well it helps to be able to pick up higher frequencies as well… magitech has a certain hum and you can kinda follow it along to notice things more easily," she explained. "It might’ve just been a player messing around or something though, I don’t hear it anymore."

Even so, Tris did manage to lead Fina to the pile of half-buried metal (or rather: led her close enough to notice it and take the lead instead). "Right…"

She flicked her hand out and summoned Una again, pointing to the pile. "Help her clear it all out of the way."

Right away, Summoner Tristaria! Oh! Hello again, Fina~!

She was friendly (or maybe just stupid) enough to introduce herself again, despite having gone away not even 10 minutes ago. Either way, Tristaria calmly circled the two as they did the physical labor she had no intention of doing herself.

"Huh… how did a magia get buried and neglected like that…? This is practically murder…!" Her face appeared just a bit more enthused by the revelation than usual. "Lemme take a closer look."

Stepping closer, she started inspecting the thing more closely. "The chassis is stripped of all the valuable parts, and the mana reserves aren’t just empty but missing. It looks like whatever scumbag did this jumped the magia and stripped it for useful magitech materials!"

Y-you don’t think they’re still nearby, do you Summoner Tristaria…?

"They better not be," she growled.


@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Tristaria's mindset appeared to be just as same as it was back during their first meeting as her verbal behaviour. That was good, hopefully. Sometimes, it looked like the game could change people, and not for the better. The way she almost aggressively wanted to protect others did also make Fina chuckle a bit. She was not the only one who had a goal like that. Cleo Looker quickly came to mind, the crimson lancer making it her mission to ensure people playing this game remained deathless.

Regardless, they were quickly on their way and the source of the sound Tris described showed itself once the summon helped the felis clear out the rubble. It was quite a shock to Fina as well, seeing such a humanoid lying lifelessly on the floor. For one, it was the first magia she had seen that did not perfectly resemble a human in their appearance. Secondly, well, it looked like they were dead. Thankfully the other, still living, magia confirmed ot be false.

"I-I see. Since magia are different from other races, it's not like missing organs that would be lethal, right? He can still be brought back?" Frankly, she had no idea. While she had met quite a few people already, she never really came into contact with magitech, surprisingly. Or other magia, for that matter. Tris was still the only one she knew. As a result, she was rather... 'intelectually unenlightened' when it came to these specific topics.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Tris held her gaze on Fina for a long and uncomfortable moment after she’d spoken. "Ya know, in any other context, asking something like that would sound incredibly creepy," she mentioned, just for the heck of it. Maybe Tris was teasing Fina in her own way? As usual, her face gave absolutely no hints.

"It looks like the personality core is still in place. I have a lot of parts in my inventory, so I could be able to fix him… probably. Una, you know what to do."

Tristaria’s considerably-more-perky summon offered a salute as her summoner conjured several more circles behind her. Out of them flew a swarm of a dozen-or-so floating magitech drones, resembling white, medical versions of the flying scouts from Vintergard.

Of course, Summoner Tristaria~! Just give me the parts and I’ll have it fixed right away!

The next several minutes passed by with Tris flipping through her inventory and spawning in various magitech parts, as Una commanded the little drone army to carry them over to the ‘dead’ magia. They screwed, hammer, soldered, and even some more magical form of attachment that there was really no word for. Maybe gluing? Gluing with strange, glowy-blue goop.

Not 5 minutes later, it was starting to appear clean and recognizable, and another 5 saw the wrecked magia good as new! The drones then vanished into the magic circles from whence they’d come, together with Una, who waved another goodbye before leaving. Tris, meanwhile, looked exhausted.

"Summons can… really eat up a lot of energy…" she explained, struggling to stay standing. "Anyway, it just needs a source of mana. And I guess that makes two of us, now…"


@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

One loud moment of silence later, Fina would narrow her gaze at the comment brought forth by the magia. "Wha- which part?! Agh, anyway, just help him!" Of course any other context would make her sound strange at best, she was considering the possibility that missing so many seemingly vital organs was not lethal for someone. But that aside, there was frustratingly little the felis could do in this situation, or at least that's how the girl felt. Taking a few steps back and waiting for Tris to summon her faithful servant once more, so that she could do all the work.

Giving Una a sincere look, she urged her as well. "I know this is probably super hard, but.. do your best, okay?" Part of her recalled the burnt marshmallow and how Tris said her summon would always screw things up... that wasn't meant literally, right? Surely the magia on the floor would not end up in an even worse state than before as a result of this... well, there was only one way to find out. And sure enough, the next 10 minutes felt more like an hour as FIna seated herself in the grass and patiently waited, observing the entire process. It certainly looked impressive.

Once the victim was repaired, the cat girl would walk around it once to take a look. It still looked far less like a human than Tris, were magia this diverse? A question that mattered little right now, the other player was clearly exhausted and apparently the lying magia also needed some magic. "I think I can do that. Got plenty of magic to make all of my constructs... how do I funnel it into it? Or into you, for that matter?" Probably best not to leave Tris in that sorry state.

@Tristaria

 

[Tristaria]

Una turned her head and beamed a wide smile in Fina’s direction, giving her a quick hug. There were almost tears in her eyes, even. Fina easily could’ve got the impression that this summon wasn’t the slightest bit used to compliments or positive reinforcement.

Aww, thanks~! I’ll do my best, for sure~!

Clearly, Una (and probably Tris as well) was a lot better at repairing magitech than cooking marshmallows. Either that, or Fina’s complement had gone a long way. Or both!

"Right, uhm…" that was an awfully good question, wasn’t it. "It depends on the magic, usually. My first thought would be… uhm… erm…" Tristaria’s eyes narrowed in a particularly tired look, evidently finding her own idea weird. "Well see, if I need to consume magic energy, it would make sense for Arcanamancy if you just summoned… you know… things I can consume," she explained. "So basically, create a magically-saturated edible simile resembling an appetizing meal filled with nutrients… maybe one popular in America, since that’s where I’m from…"

That was the best she could do to avoid simply saying, Give us magic burgers.


@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

A hug out of nowhere was certainly quite surprising for the felis, but after a moment of reluctance, she heartily accepted it. Looking over Tris' and Una's handy work once everything was done, Fina was most certainly impressed. Though the way the conscious magia suggested that her battery gets replenish did take Fina aback. "Er... arcanamancy food, huh..." Now that was a concept she hadn't even considered before. Normally it would be pointless, given that the construct would break apart and turn back into mana once in the stomach. That said, such a thing might have been exactly what was needed with Tris?

"Right, an American diet, huh... I'll do my best. That said... do pardon me if something turns out a bit more crunchy than intended..." For the most part, she created weapons. Those were hard and sturdy. Food was usually soft and... bitable? Not to mention that she never tried to make a texture similar to food. Well, for starters she would begin with something simple in shape - fries! Fries and chicken nuggets. Though she suspected it would all be perfectly tasteless anyway. Burgers were a bit more complex as she had to conjure up each ingredient separately and then put them together.

But as the feast was almost ready, Fina would look over at the unconscious machine they had just repaired. "So the food is for you, but I don't think he'll be able to eat much in that state." Unless they literally wanted to force it all down his throat.

@Tristaria