“How in the hell do you know who I am?”

Rae’s hand clamped onto my arm, and I nearly growled as I yanked it out.

“Oh my god, check your party list, dumbass! Who do you think I am?!”

Rae stiffened at that- I didn’t have time to deal with this.

“Cyrus, Jase is fighting guards in the garden, I’m gonna try and do a big blast with the rest of my Senser Light and fritz all the powers in the area, be ready to take them out with fear or confusion or something when they’re dazed.”

Cyrus barely had time to nod, before I darted towards the back, grumbling out something I didn’t care to try and discern as he took off after me. Rae followed quickly after, the four long strips of fabric that made up her cloak mimicking the swing of her arms as she ran.

“Okay, why the HELL are you on my party list?”

“Because I logged into the game with you- Rae, you’re LITERALLY bio-engineering new crop plants in your day job, I know you’re smarter than this!”

My glare seemed to finally make something click, as her eyes went wide and she stumbled for a second.

“ERI-? Er! Er… um-!”

She glanced briefly towards Cyrus, a tiny bit of panic on her face, before redoubling her pace and easily catching up to me.

Okay, don’t know what that’s about. Whatever, more important things.

“Yes, roommate, congratulations Sherlock you pieced it together.”

“Hey, you’re like a whole different looking person here! Sue me!”

“If I could make a case for compensating my lost sanity because of your general presence, you can bet I would.”

“Okay, yeah, you’re definitely- er, still you,” Rae frowned, face growing a little red. C’mon, don’t tell me you neglected Stamina this wasn’t that hard of a run.

“Good lord, is that what that’s like from the outside?” Cyrus puffed, and I nearly tripped as a laugh tore from me. We rounded a bend, officially entering the back half of the estate as the sounds of combat rang out from the misty stonework of the garden. 

I tethered to the top of a pillar, flying into the air and alighting on top, before using the same tether to push myself even further and higher. From this vantage point, I could see Jase encircled by the guards- with more than a few of them lying motionless on the ground around them.

God damn they were kinda scary, huh? With a single thought, I clenched onto the remaining reservoir of less familiar Light.

“HEAD’S UP, JASE!”

They were already flipping over the head of one of the guards- hopefully they could see what I was about to do- and I burned; ripping through that extra light with as much force as I could squeeze out of it. I could even hear the tone of it- like the high-pitched whine of a screen being turned on- as tethers broke, emotional pulses quieted, and a good chunk of the guards physically stumbled from the assault.

Jase was on them like lightning, and I was surprised to see Rae throw herself into the frey soon after- her cloak arms punching and tossing guards with a surprising amount of force, considering it was just fabric. 

I was going to be asking so many questions about her magic. I was also going to give her SO much shit for just making
‘herself, but buff’ (even if, I had to admit, she looked good- well, not like she didn’t normally look good, but like I wasn’t- she liked GIRLS and I was- fuck god dammit stop THINKING ABOUT IT, YOU JACKASS-) as a character- but lore first. 

ALWAYS lore first.

I softened my landing with a trio of tethers, beaning a guard in the throat with a ball and following it up with a tether-empowered kick to the face. I whipped around, ready to take down whoever was next but…

Well, between the three of us and what basically amounted to a psychic grenade I primed Cyrus to set off, turned out these guys were chumps. Damn- next level wasn’t going to be coming so quickly, huh?

I stood still for a moment- okay, no, no surprise level up screen. Damn, I was even prepared for it this time!

“Okay, we need to get out of the octants.”

Cyrus nodded at Jase, and I put forth a very important question.

“Where can we hide while the heat blows over?”

… Their silence wasn’t exactly comforting. Rae cleared her throat.

“Well, the Shoskarie embassy’s pretty closed off from the rest of the city, and… well, I can vouch for you guys.”

I stared at Rae for a solid second.

“... We’ve been in this game for less than an in-game day, how are you tight with a whole government embassy?”

“It’s where I loaded in,” Rae said, shrugging. Cyrus nodded, nervously glancing back to the estate.

“Capital- perhaps we can table any and all discussion while the pigs are not hot on our trail?”

Right. I waved the group to follow me, as we rushed towards the estate’s outer wall. 

“I’ll jump us over- one at a time, rope will take too long.”

“I can handle my own ride,” Rae said, grinning that ferocious grin of hers as her cloak hands grabbed onto the wall- and she just… climbed the damn thing. She was like a spider- or maybe an octopus? One of those. Show-off.

“Alright, Cyrus first.”

I won’t say it wasn’t difficult, because that would be a lie, but at the very least I recovered my breath quickly enough afterwards. Cyrus took point, and we started our way to the secret passage out of the octants.

~-?-~

“Alright, so make yourselves comfortable.” Rae said, as she pushed open the door to… I assumed her room? It wasn’t big- basically your standard inn room you’d think of in the fantasy genre. Four walls, a window, two beds, and a single trunk at the foot of each. Rustic, you might say- but god, she even got a whole room in less than a day, and here I was pretty much prepared to street-rat it for a bit. 

“You know, I’d really like an explanation on how exactly you’re so loaded up on amenities.” I said, as I flopped onto one of the beds and the digital soreness started to ebb from my body.

“I mean, it’s not much of a story- loaded up in the embassy because of my choice of magic, asked around if anyone needed help with errands, did some quests,” She said, shrugging. Cyrus laid down with a groan on the bed I was occupying, and Jase kept an eye on the door.

“And these people at the embassy- they’re cool? No feds or anything?”

Rae shrugged.

“I mean, there’s definitely political representative types here, but I don’t think that’s the same thing? They’re here representing the uh-” She cleared her throat, before rolling her eyes and finger-quoting as she spoke “God-Kingdom of Shoskarie.”

“Oh cool, another despotic empire run by someone who thinks they’re a god.”

“Gods- plural, actually.” Rae corrected, and that got an eyebrow raise out of me.

“So, an oligarchy?”

“I mean, you can go ahead and ask one of them- they’re here in the embassy. Peacebranch, the Olivine God.”

… Huh. Meeting a god on my first day in-game. That sure doesn’t sound like nothing. Probably something to save for tomorrow, I was… honestly just completely bushed. 

“So, how are we dividing up the beds?”

“I’m fine sharing with Cyrus,” Jase said, “Known him long enough to know he won’t try anything weird in the digital realm.”

Cyrus let out a chuckle, rolling his eyes as he placed his hat on the end table, “Yes, yes, well unfortunately for me, none of you are quite the rugged, strapping, bodice-ripper Fabio types. I’m sure you’re more than appealing to those that appreciate the female form- and whatever Jase is feeling like at the moment.”

Jeeze, this wasn’t even really what I looked like, why the hell did that get a blush out of me? Thank god it was dark out, with only a vial of Light slotted into a lantern-like holster to light up the room. 

“Hey, before we turn in- could I talk to you for a second, uh, Ash?”

Rae hadn’t really settled down to relax the entire time we had spent getting set up in her room here- she was still leaning up against the wall next to the door, gesturing with her head to follow once I looked up at her. Right, yeah, probably about time to catch up on plans since we got separated after character creation.

With practically no effort, I hopped off the bed, following after her, and she shut the door behind us with a soft click and a weary sigh.

God it was… SO weird having her be taller than me. She really was just the heroic fantasy version of herself in here- and like, as much as I hated to admit it, it worked pretty well for her.

Again, platonically. 

“Sooo, “Ash” huh?”

I groaned.

“Come on, it’s a little clever!”

“I’m not saying it’s not,” She held her hands up placatingly, “Just sort of assumed you’d have picked something a little closer to, uh… you? Doesn’t drifting from your normal body have some pretty adverse mental effects?”

I had read a few articles before about that, myself- digital body dysmorphia. Something about the brain rejecting digital avatars that don’t align with the user’s self perceptions- at least for long stretches of use. For older, headset-based VR simulations it was fine because the technology didn’t rely on interfering with the body’s own electrical signals- but since the Lockers did it could be a limitation.

I glanced down at myself, briefly, before looking back up at Rae with a shrug.

“I mean, honestly I haven’t had any problems so far? It’s not exactly a common condition, anyhow- real talk, this avatar feels like it fits better than any of the ones that look more like my IRL self. Probably just excited to try out something new, you know?”

Rae nodded slowly, her arms crossed over her chest- okay, what was that about, huh? 

“I mean it! I’m fine, Rae, come on!”

“Right, no, yeah- just checking in, okay? Don’t get your panties in a twist, dude.”

Eurgh. I could feel a shiver of revulsion pass through me at that, “Could you be more crass? Jeeze.”

“Yeah, yeah- listen, I just…” She paused, and I could see a little slump form in her posture as her expression went from eye-rolling sarcasm to… well, a level of sincerity that sort of made my guts churn a little.

“I just want to make sure you’re doing okay- and if you say you are, then that’s that then. Yeah?”

I nod- quickly, because I really don’t want to drag this conversation out any further.

“Yeah- I’m fine. More than fine- and not in the “Oh, I’m actually doing bad but I don’t want anyone to worry” way, I am sincerely and actually great.”

“Alright then, solid.”

She smiled at me, and I hurried to open the door so I could end the day already. She had to be getting all soft on me on purpose to wig me out- blissful unconsciousness, please take me quickly. With a quick flick through the menus, I swapped out of the armor and into just the shirt and loose trousers of my starter rags, as Rae flopped onto the bed as well and shot me a wink. Her next words came out low, like a secret she wanted to share with me.

“And don’t worry- I won’t try anything either, even if you do look a lot cuter than usual.”

… Right. Only two beds. And Jase and Cyrus were in the other one.

Fuck me, I’m going to fucking die.

artiestroke

I have a few more chapters of backlog for the next week or so, but recent illness has REALLY killed my ability to write, so there might be a gap in posts coming up. I'll try my best to bridge it, though! Also, in case you didn't notice, the cover art's been updated! Got the final version of it back from @deimosatellite on Twitter! Check 'em out, they do good art!

And now, yet another character mini, this time it's Rae!