I had dreamed Ryujin’s dreams, I think. Soaring through the stars in Jackdaw, a great machine of black and gold, with a bird theme. I hadn’t really looked at its description, but I did wonder idly for a moment before sitting up in bed...why had the Vulper Empire, a people not native to Earth and likely unaware of what a Jackdaw actually was given their isolationist tendencies in the lore named an experimental super Battleframe after one? I shook my head, shaking the sleep fuzz off.
Standing up and getting dressed, I let out a small sigh has I noticed the red crosshatch covering the door frame with ‘In-Character Zone’ in all-caps. I guessed that I’d have to flex my rusty acting chops today, though that made me nervous as I hadn’t honestly acted since drama club in high school. My heart was thudding in my chest looking at the door, but I couldn’t stall forever.
I pushed out of the room, setting my face into the most neutral expression I could manage. My HUD flashed on few a few seconds to inform me that...sixteen cameras were focused on me. Internal screaming. I heard slow, easygoing background music with a slight air of tension, too.
“Morning, Ryujin. You should probably use an alias.” Achilles grinned, letting out a small laugh as I walked into the room. He didn’t object when I poured myself a cup of coffee. “Sakura recognized you, and the Frame that’s been transferred to our personal hangar.“ he had a more serious tone than he’d had out of character, and I knew he was a great actor. Watching me closely, he didn’t seem angry, more curious. He was incredibly in character. I noticed that nobody else was in the office at the moment, too, and my breath caught in my throat. “What’s Vulper royalty doing absconding with an experimental Frame? There was battle damage, too, so you didn’t leave peacefully.”
My mind quickly raced through the backstory details. When my voice came forth I did indeed have that weird Scottish, French, and Irish mixed accent. Jeez, grandpa’s design for the Vulper was really weird. Eccentric old man that he was.. “Full disclosure and all that, I suppose. This is the longest I’ve ever been out of my room...well, cell. They did a ton of experiments on me and expected me to just study tactics alone in my cell. I’m a weapon, not a prince. I survived because Jackdaw’s...well, really fast. Who is...Sakura? I’ve not met many people before.”
“Yeah, extracted sim data says it can reach lethal speeds and should be decommissioned. You must have been worked on if you managed to fly the fucker.” A happy sounding chuckle as his nose twitched. He was being so chill about this, his character must be really laid back. “Not met many people before? They kept you locked up in the tallest tower, fed you tactics and enhancements, and just expected you to fight for them? That’s pretty messed up, dude.” His nose twitched like a rabbit’s, almost, and as I gingerly sipped the hot coffee, “well, you are welcome to stay with us. Sakura was in a similar boat...if you’re a prince, I think you two might actually be cousins, but vulper royal lines are wicked tough to parse.”
“No, you’re right.”came a woman’s voice. She sounded much gruffer than she had last night, it sounded like her character was no-nonsense. “Distant cousins, though. I’m obviously not in line for the throne like he should have been, given me being a ‘Lesser’ by Kel Vulpes decree.” she growled, letting out a derisive snort. “Lessers are what they call us folks who are basically ‘anthro’ foxes instead of just fox like traits. They’re fine with us existing as long as we’re subservient.” She growled, glaring at me. I shrank back a little instinctively, that glare was almost as familiar as last night’s curry...I shoved the thought out of my mind, it would have been way too big a coincidence. I was sure a lot of people probably had that same glare.
“I...uh, that really sucks? I had no idea. I’ve been basically confined to quarters my whole life.” I stammered, trying to make myself sound like a confused kid, despite my character’s age being 20 in the bio. Peppering in military terms somewhat because of his upbringing of being fed tactics books. “...I know more about how to ambush than I know about The Empire. I don’t think I’ve ever met my parents.” I played the sympathetic angle, and she sighed, laying off the glare.
“Doesn’t surprise me at all, rea-” She was cut off, as a display screen flicked to life. The sounds of gunfire, both lasers and slugthrowers, and screaming was heard. Along with an unfamiliar voice. Sakura immediately turned her attention to the screen.
“Trouble on the promenade! Spindra’s hit, she’ll need the regen tubes! Achilles, Frida’s snuck off but I’m pinned down!” I watched the guy pull Spindra back from the cover he was using, and blindfire at whoever was shooting. Two of the spider woman’s arms ended in stumps. “The Wild Ones are living up to their namesake for once, we need backup!”
I was out of the room before Achilles could respond, pulling up the minimap on my HUD and sprinting towards the promenade. I was being quite stupid, but I checked my inventory for weapons. My pistol was loaded, but it was all I had. I ignored Achilles shouts for my to not be stupid as he was rushing to put on his powered armor, and Sakura shouted something, but I was off like a rocket. As Sakura tried to run after me, I heard her swear as slight energy crackled around me and my speed kicked up a notch.
“Shit, he’s got wired reflexes! Ryujin, stop!”
Rounding the corner onto the promenade, things seemed to be moving slower than the video feed. I saw in the corner of my HUD that I’d activated wired reflexes, and it had a two minute duration with a four minute cooldown. I’d read that was a higher end upgrade, my parents must have hit me with some good shit. Drawing my gun, I fired my first shot and almost dropped it from the amount of recoil. Barely managing to hold on to it, I saw the round impact one of the very obvious Wild Ones in the W on his anachronistic leather jacket, just below his left shoulder. His entire chest exploded outward, and the character model faded into nothing as he fell. My first thought was holy shit, this pistol. My second thought was to plug the next two as they were turning. As the two fell, vanishing as player corpses did, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned just in time to get clotheslined.
I impacted the ground hard, choking and gasping, my back hitting the ground and knocking even more air from my lungs. My vision darkened for a few seconds, and I saw the guy who’d hit me standing over me, his sneering face almost jovial. “Wow, kid. You iced three of my guys. I’m gonna take this slow, these losers are just shock troops.” He let out a guffaw, hefting a sword crackling with lightning , shining in the artificial light of the space station. He tapped it against my left arm, where it burned away bits of my jacket sleeve and singed the flesh. “Hope this ain’t your fappin’ arm, kid.”
I couldn’t breathe. My vision was blurring, his foot was on my chest making it harder to breathe.He pressed the blade against my flesh, the edge cutting easily, but he didn’t press it deeper. I couldn’t even cry out. I could only grit my teeth and try to suck in air that wouldn’t come.
“Boss, he’s a vulper! Cut off his damn ears! He skragged Smitty!”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. You’re goin’ place, Plecks. I hear they’re hella sensitive on these fuckers-”
Then his head exploded, the weight on my chest leaving as he fell backwards and vanished. A hammer had completely demolished his upper body, actually...my vision was swirling from lack of oxygen, and everything went black.
-Perspective Shift: Achilles Lago-
“Shit! Leslie, get him to safety, he’s out cold.”
I heard Spindra grumping about regeneration tanks on the comms. “Les is on his way, I’ll check him out as soon as I take out these fuckos approaching from the back. They just opened fire in the middle of the promenade, I got caught in the fucking opening salvo!”
I growled, leveling a plasma pistol at a goon who’d stepped into view, vaporizing his upper body. Weird that these guys didn’t have shielding. We usually called them The Mild Ones because all they ever did was harass people, even if they called themselves a PVP gang on the forums. They were starting to scatter because I’d turned their boss into a fine pink mist.
When I looked back, Leslie had carried Ryujin back a ways and Spindra was checking him over and...wincing every few seconds. That couldn’t be good. She pulled out a nanosurgeon hypo and jammed it into his neck. Before I turned my attention back to cleanup, other people were starting to come out and fight now, I kept watching Ryujin, until…
A deep,rasping breath. He stayed out like a light but he was breathing again. Weird how he didn’t fade out like a normal character, maybe it was because his heart was still beating? Death was usually a lot...faster than that. Codex entry had said Vulper could endure more physical trauma than most, and I guessed it hadn’t been lying. Webby looked up at me and grinned.
“Got him just in time. Trachea was crushed.”
The gunfire was dying down. I didn’t respond to Webby, raising my pistol as I turned back to the fighting. A cyborg in a black, leather trimmed trench coat was appearing and disappearing, extending arm blades felling the gangers left and right, while a familiar mauve energy blast was burning holes in heads from across the promenade. I shot Frida a thumbs up, and heard two beeps in the commlink as acknowledgement. That girl was all business.
The Mild Ones seemed to have been all bark and no bite, through one of them had shoved a bearded human into the path of Dominic’s whirling blades. The cyborg was a friend of Rabbit’s Foot, and he looked absolutely disgusted at the flailing man who coughed blood into his scruffy reddish brown beard, crooked glasses falling off his nose as his character model vaporized on death. As the Mild One was running away, a blast of energy took him in the back of the head, and he cartwheeled forward before vanishing. That guy that had nearly killed Ryujin seemed to be the only one of note.
Curious and vexing.
I noticed in my HUD that about 30 cameras were focused on the squad. Interesting, that was more than usual. 18 of them were still focused on Ryujin, a few on me, and some on Webby tending to his wounds. One on Frida, for the fan-cast that followed her. “Of all the stupid….is he safe to move, Webby?”
“Yeah, Les and I will take him back to base. I’ll dumpie my stumpies in the regen pod, too.” she groaned, waving the two missing arm’s stumps at me in mock salute. I kept forgetting how strong she was, so I kind of balked at her hefting Ryujin under her three remaining arms on her left side and start walking off towards the base, Leslie’s sheepish elf-like form following after her.
“The new recruit is a little hot headed, is he not?” Leslie questioned, and I nodded. “I will cover Spindra on the way back. I assume you want to help with cleanup. I will keep an eye on Ryujin for you, since you seem to be protective of him.” he gave a smug smirk as he chided me with that last bit, and I felt my cheeks heat up slightly. He patted me on the shoulder, and scurried off giggling to himself.
“Little shit…” I growled, as Leslie reloaded his pistol and holstered it, sprinting to catch up with Webby.
--Perspective Shift: Ryujin Kel/Ryudo Kelekolio
The first thing I was aware of was that my throat hurt. A lot. I stirred slightly, clutching at it without opening my eyes yet, and felt my arms being snatched up and held down. My eyes shot open and I saw Spindra’s purplish gray face staring down at me looking a bit miffed.
“Hands off for about five more minutes, that guy crushed your trachea, the nanosurgeons are working but you won’t be able to talk for a bit yet, either.” I tried to talk anyway, eliciting a pained croak, and she bapped me gently on the head with a smaller-than-normal hand. “Boyo, I will pap you with my still regrowing hands until you get incredibly uncomfortable.” She punctuated this statement by gently grabbing my cheek with two tiny hands, before I remembered she had lost them in the opening salvo of the altercation earlier. My head was swimming, and I didn't remember much from before I passed out. I gave a half hearted glower as she gently slapped my cheek several times as if she were playing patty cake.
I managed to choke out “Please...I don’t like being...touched” and to my surprise she immediately withdrew her hands. I felt like my throat was on fire, but I accepted a bottle of water Webby handed me and she gave a sheepish grin.
“Hey, sorry, used to bein’ all touchy feely with friends. If it makes you uncomfortable, though, I’ll do my best to hold back. Even if your tail IS super fluffy.” She reassured me, even if she was pouting. I was fairly certain personal space and Webby were bitter enemies and she’d forget again fairly shortly, but it was nice to be listened to. She reached up with an arm that wasn’t regrowing and swiped something I couldn’t see, and blue crosshatch patterns appeared over the doors. “Whew, OOC now. You okay, kiddo? You took a big hit and I don’t want you to have to worry about being IC. Wait, Achilles mentioned this was your first VR game...do...do you even know how death works?”
The pain in my throat was slowly fading, but instead of speaking, I shook my head no. It seemed like this recovery was more painful than just letting me die and respawn would have been. I really didn’t get why anyone would go through this instead of just respawning. I sipped the water I was provided and winced slightly at the pain when I swallowed, and then she cleared her throat theatrically for an explanation.
“First off, dying sucks and it’s traumatic for the human mind. You did read the disclaimer, right? They have AI Citizens on payroll as counselors before you respawn, so you can talk that shit out. The worst bits are filtered out, but our brains still receive a bit of the aftershock of thinking we died. Second, the attached cloning debuff lasts for like...a week. To discourage reckless play. You’ll be all shaky and at half strength after dying,..it really sucks. Recovering has shortened in-game length compared to real life, you should be able to talk again now without pain. “
“I see...oh, yeah, it doesn’t really hurt now. That’s pretty wild.” I still sounded a bit croaky, but the pain was pretty much gone. I was really thirsty, though, so I ended up downing half the water in one go. She practically smacked me in the face with a pastry next, and I flopped backwards onto the cot before picking it up. A little meter in the corner of my eye with a chicken drumstick next to it was in the red, so I started eating it.
“Jeez, you run off without eating and almost get yourself killed. Had us worried half to death. Did you think you were some kind of anime hero because you have explosive rounds and wired reflexes? ” Crossing two sets of arms, and two tiny hands drumming against chitinous plating, she glared at me in honest to goodness anger. This was just a game, though, she shouldn’t be that worried, right? I decided not to ask that particular question.
Taking another bite of the pastry I noted that yet another thing tasted familiar. I knew my parents were devs, and so was Yua’s dad, did she have some kind of brand deal to promote her restaurant chain? This tasted exactly like her apple turnovers, complete with two different types of apples in the filling, distinct but complementary. “I swear this tastes just like my s- my favorite restaurant makes it...”
Webby smirked knowingly, and was about to make what I assumed to be a snide comment before a gore splattered Achilles, a ruffled but otherwise unscathed Sakura. Leslie had just come out of the back with a tray of...chocolate chip cookies. Was this a normal day for them?
“I am sorry it took me so long to make the logout cookies for this week, my friends. Today’s hectic bits aside, the weekly ritual shall not be disrupted. Apologies for taking longer than normal, I have a few legal cases running on spare processor banks at the moment, it is making me slightly sluggish.”
Logout cookies? I checked the in game time on my HUD and realized I must have been out for a while. We were quickly approaching the weekend, dubbed ‘Self Care Weekend’ by VR enthusiasts. I sighed, downing the last of a turnover that tasted exactly like my sister’s cooking before speaking up. “Hey, uh...sorry for running off on my own, there. I didn’t really do the most intense research before starting the game, and I didn’t expect the damage model to be so hardcore.”
Then, as I swung my feet off the cot and got ready to stand up, a voice from right behind me sounded, and I nearly face planted, barely managing to stop my forward momentum.
“Easy there, tiger, we were all newbies at one point.” Frida chuckled from behind me. How the hell had she gotten back there? I would have choked if I hadn’t already finished that turnover. I looked over at her and she was gone. That was some pop culture ninja stuff right there. She was standing next to Achilles as he used some weird device to clean the gore off his armor, the little whines making me think it was a sonic device of some sort. “Just don’t do it again. The distraction actually saved Spindra and Leslie but jeez...make a plan of attack next time. Coulda coordinated with Thumper over here.” She pointed at Achilles and he nodded, not as gravely as I’d expected. I think they assumed I’d gotten the message via crushed trachea, and they were completely correct.
A timer in the upper right corner of my vision appeared, two hours until the weekend shutdown, and with these guys having their own ritual for this, I really didn’t want to get in the way of it. I figured it was time to excuse myself and log out, do some research, then. Not hold them back.
“Hey, I’m gonna log out and clean up a bit before bed. Thanks, everyone. Sorry for bailing, I left some dishes in the sink and they’re...probably a little crusty.” I explained hastily, and it wasn’t actually a lie. I had rinsed them, though, so it was definitely an embellishment. Sakura sighed and shook her head.
“Well, alright. This is your first time in VR, though, yes? Get something to eat the moment you’re out of the pod, dear. It can keep you going but can’t actually put food in you.”
“Yeah, uh...thanks.” I said awkwardly, stumbling over my words as I quickly hit logout, waving as my character model disappeared from the room and my consciousness slid back into my body.
------
“Thank you for using Full Dive! Enjoy your weekend, see you soon!” The pod chimed as I climbed out of it. Sakura had been right, I was ravenously hungry. My body had the proper nutrients but my stomach was empty. My muscles were surprisingly not sore or stiff, either. I didn’t really care, at that particular moment. I stumbled into the bathroom and used it for what felt like ages. Like a scene in an unfunny comedy movie where pee is the punchline, it just kept happening.
When that nightmare was over I went to raid the fridge. I noticed it was a bit empty. A sigh followed. I’d have to venture out tomorrow...I decided to stop by Pike Place, might as well make a day of it and get some high quality stuff while I was at it. Maybe Yua would even be happy she didn’t have to drag me out this time.
I grabbed some leftover curry and decided to spend the rest of the night reading. I could deal with all this emotional crap about having people wanting to be my friend later, when I wasn’t slightly unsteady and ravenously hungry.
