Chapter 6: Back to Bestril

I depart from the gymnasium completely exhausted. I offer a lazy wave to my new friend Azzy as he departs for his next class and I make my way to my last class of the day. When I do make it to that class, I slump down in my desk next to Rachel. Alongside Aziel now, she used to be the only friend I shared a class with.

“The hell happened to you, Sallow?” she asks, looking me up and down in amusement.

“Gym class. Tired.”

She nods, “I can see that. ‘Coach’ Lowe run you ragged today?” she raises her hands into air quotes as she says ‘Coach’. He was technically only Mr. Lowe, but while we’re in Gym class, he always insists his students call him ‘Coach’.

I chuckle a little, sitting up in my seat. “Uh, no, ran myself ragged I guess. Don’t usually try in Gym I guess.”

Rachel leans back in her desk, quirking an eyebrow at me. “Why would you do that? Are you becoming a sports guy, Sallow?” She smirks, but I wince at her words. She must have noticed, because her smirk falls as she watches me.

I shake my head, not meeting her eyes and just looking forward. “Still not into sports. I guess I just needed to get my mind off stuff or something.”

We’re quiet for a bit and the lesson starts. Before I can get into my note-taking though, Rachel nudges my shoulder. “Do you want to talk about whatever it is that’s got you so… out of sorts today?” she whispers.

I shake my head, “Sorry, it’s um, not something I can really talk about.” I whisper back. She frowns, but still nods in acceptance.

“Okay… but, you’re gonna be okay, right?” I nod in response and she continues, “Good. Regardless, I’m always available to talk, no judgement.” she puts her hands up in surrender, pulling away and turning her eyes to the board. I give a small smile, turning back to and focusing on the lesson.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had this talk, me and Rachel. I get the feeling that maybe she knows something, or that she can tell what might be wrong. She hasn’t said anything outright though, so I don’t tempt fate by asking if she does. I trust Rachel more than anyone to be supportive, but it’s not her that I’m worried about reacting badly.

I shake my head and focus on the lesson, losing myself in my note taking. It’s been an exhausting day and I can’t wait for tonight to come sooner so I can play more Terrasite. Being in this body is exhausting and I would just love to lose myself in killing some rats in the proper body.

-

I sneak back into my house after school, attempting to avoid my mom as best I can on my way back to my room. Unfortunately, she’s in the front room when I walk in. She looks up from the dining room table at the sound of the front door closing, giving me a wave as she works on her jewelry. I wave back, continuing towards my room.

After all the exercise I’ve gotten today, I’d really like to rest for an hour or two. My eyes glance over at the headset resting on my bedside table. I desperately want to hop back in, but I promised myself I’d wait until seven thirty tonight. Deep dive virtual reality is nice in the sense that your body is allowed to rest, getting an equivalent full night’s sleep while also being able to do something the whole night. With a ten hour time limit, there’s a sweet spot in the amount of in game hours I could play.

With four in game hours equalling one real life hour, there are essentially four virtual twenty four hour day-night cycles in one real life day, they’re just referred to as ‘Cycles’. Every six hours in real life is one Cycle and the four Cycles in a day all have their own names. From midnight to six in the morning is Orion, the next six hours after that being Morna, then Aftal, and finally the last six hours of the day leading back to midnight is Vesper.

Entering the game at seven thirty at night is the equivalent of waking up at six in the morning on Vesper. A full ten hours after that is five thirty, or ten at night during Orion in game. I’d stumbled across the routine accidentally last night, but it’s the schedule that makes the most sense to adhere to. It’s almost two full days in game before I have to come back to this body again for a day.

I drop down onto my bed face first, rolling over onto my back after a couple of seconds so I can at least breathe. With all my homework finished, I don’t have anything to do for the next three hours. I pull out my phone and start going through my online groups.

My phone starts ringing while I’m still scrolling through my chats and I nearly drop it on my face in surprise. I sit up properly, looking at the caller ID. It’s my sister. I tap ‘Accept call’.

“Yo, what’s up lil sib!” My sister, Stefanie, calls through the phone cheerily.

I smile at the greeting, looking at my door to make sure it’s locked. “I’m in my room.” I tell her.

“Yo, what’s up lil sis!” she corrects, her voice is all cheer. My heart warms at the term, I’m swelling with happiness at just hearing it. Stefanie is the one person in the world that knows who I really am, she helped me figure it out after all.

“Hi Stef, what’s up?” I ask.

“Nothing on my end! Just classes and stuff. I'm living that cozy college life, you know?" She says.

"Classes going okay?" I stand up off the bed and make my way over to my desktop.

"Eh," she says, "they're fine, really. Nothing too difficult, mostly just long."

I nod in response before remembering that she can't see me. "How are things going with the roommate?"

"Oh, you know! Fine. Perfect. Wonderful, really." She says a little too quickly.

"She's in the room, isn't she." I smirk, shifting the phone into my shoulder and booting up the computer.

"Mhmm."

"Alright," I smile, "Let me know if there's any progress."

"So, what about you?" She asks, her tone turning soft with concern. "Has school been okay?"

"No worse than it always is, I guess." I shrug to myself. My mind drifts to the extra dysphoria, but I decide it isn't worth mentioning.

"Well, take care of yourself, Sis. Only a couple more years and then you're out of there." Her voice is soft and comforting. I appreciate her worry.

"Yeah, right."

We end up talking for an hour longer about various things of no consequence. Movies that are coming out, anything interesting happening in either of their lives. I don't tell her about Terresite. She tends to be a little overprotective and I don't want her worrying about me or my dysphoria. Besides, Stef doesn't play deep dive at all, she claims that it freaks her out.

Our phone call comes to a close after a little over an hour of continuous conversation, Mom interrupts briefly near the end of the call to let me know that dinner is ready. With that in mind, we say our goodbyes and I promise Stef that I'll relay her regards to our parents.

Dinner passes by quickly with only some brief conversation about what Stef is up to. After dinner, the time for me to log back into Terresite grows closer. I say my goodnights and prepare for bed, my body buzzing with excitement at the idea of being able to be me again.

As seven thirty draws ever closer, I pull my hair tie out of my hair with a relieved sigh and slip on my headset. With anticipation, I turn the headset on and lay down in bed.

"Dive sequence, launch." I say to the device. I can hear the device working it's magic faintly as I begin to lose consciousness.

“Welcome to your virtual home environment, User: Purple Prose” the familiar voice of Adira calls out to me as I feel myself stirring. I push away the awful feeling of my body, my mind already thinking about Terresite once again when an idea comes to me.

"Adira? Can I change my default user model?" I call out tentatively.

"Certainly, User Prose. Would you please select a user model from the system files?" Adira's sentence ends with a file directory popping up in front of me.

I navigate through the file system, looking for my Terresite user model. Thankfully the organization for the local files is fairly simple. I find my Terresite User model and load it up.

"User model selected," Adira's voice intones, "confirm changes?" I feel my consciousness blur briefly while my User model shifts. My vision clears after a few seconds and I look down at my body happily.

"Yeah, this is right." I press the confirm button happily. "With that taken care of… Adira? Please connect to Terresite."

"Connecting to Terresite. Enjoy yourself, User Prose." Adira's voice fades away once more as I feel my consciousness slip.

Groggily, I sit up and thin blankets fall off my body. I realize with a start that I'm in the logging room in the tavern. I hop to my feet happily, looking down at my body. My sky blue adventuring clothes are still clean and soft, answering my questions about whether I'd need to do laundry at all.

"Good morning." I say softly to myself, letting out a delightful giggle at the sound of my voice. Getting up, I inspect my gear briefly. With everything gathered, I step out of the log room and make my way out of the tavern.

Stepping out into the early morning light, I take in a deep breath of the air. It smells cleaner in some ways than the city air I'm used to. I can smell the nature of the woods nearby strongly, reminding me of camping trips with my family.

Taking off my gear and setting it on the ground beside me, I use the relatively empty streets to warm up in. I try to remember the stretches from gym class as best as I can, but when I finish I get the distinct feeling I might have missed a stretch or two.

I pick my gear back up, affixing my scabbard to my waist once more and slinging my leather bag over my shoulder. I steady myself at the extra weights. I take a deep breath, and then I start running further into town.

I manage to keep the pace up for a few blocks before becoming slightly winded. Not wanting to overwork myself already, I slow down. During my run I happen to come across a small fresh food cart that I order some quick breakfast from. The sandwich I pick up this time seems to be a relatively plain tuna salad sandwich. As plain as it is, it's tasty and filling enough for breakfast.

After finishing breakfast, I look to the sky and see that the sun has officially risen and the day has begun. The bustle of the city has picked up a bit as not only npc's start their days, but also as other adventurers are getting their days started. I recognize some of the other players wearing similar outfits to mine, most of the colors are different to mine, though. The color of the outfit you get from the starter bundle is randomized, but I recall reading that dyes can be purchased in stores.

Speaking of stores, I look around myself at the shop fronts around me. A lot of the shops around seem mundane. There's even a shop that just sells hardware supplies. It makes me wonder to what extent you'd be able to create here.

I pause from my looking at the shops and open my menu. That's right, there had been a mention of unlocking craft subclasses that enhance your craft skills. Looking in my menu, I don't see any mention of craft skills.

"Huh…" I hum to myself in thought for a couple moments before closing the menu. It must be unlocked later through a level locked quest or something.

I adjust my leather bag and make sure my scabbard is secured properly. Then I begin jogging my way towards the town gate. I was burning daylight and there's still plenty more practice to get in with using the sword. The rats around Aberystwyth make some of the best live targets.

SylkWeaver

Just realized I'm technically a day late on this chapter! Well, here it is now <3