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Complete ImmersionChapter 1: An Adventure in Virtual RealityThis is an original work which is based heavily on popular media titles that have garnered large fandoms. I don't claim the ideas within to be solely my own or unique in any way, but these characters and universe are of my own creation. Please do not use them for any reason, or upload, alter, or otherwise take/publish this story. For more details on the subject, feel free to visit my profile.
When I close my eyes I can still see blurred images of my happy childhood behind my shadowed eyelids. My older sister and I play out in the yard under a big oak tree, squealing to one another as we chase the other around the soft grass woven into the earth beneath our feet. The sun beams down on us, and my parents call to us from the all glass front door, alerting us of the time. Dinner is soon approaching, and when the night falls, my best friend will be dropped off for a routine sleepover. My sister and my best friend are my world, the people who are closest to my heart, and we always do everything together. If my parents, and her parents, gave in then we always would. That inseparable bond hurls us through our youth, giving us solid ground to stand on as we deal with life's uncertainties in a changing world.

Time seems to speed up, and my sister and I sit at our beautifully crafted wooden kitchen table. Ornate tiles don the top of the table, and our mother spreads out several dishes of food before us. We dig in happily, and after our parents join us, we eat together as a family. We’re happy. We’re whole. Movement, and flashing experiences that I’m sure are mine but I can barely remember pass by my vision like objects distorting in the distance of a car window. My best friend Melanie, my sister Whitney, and I are nestled up in the loft of our two-story brick house. We giggle, play games, and swap secrets. There is an overpowering comfort in the air. The world outside may be unknown, but in the moments in which we are together, we are safe.

But days grow longer, and darker. And my happy memories all but cease there. After that evening, the unknown permeates every facet of my life and everything fractures. All I can see are the tears that Whitney and I bear in the wake of tragedy before–
My eyes snapped open as a strong and distinct scent graced my senses. The smell of warm coffee wafted through the air of the compact kitchenette space. My hands shakily poured the old, worn glass pot’s contents into a tall mug. Sighing, I watched as the dark liquid rose to the brim of my favorite mustard yellow mug. Coffee did not have a reputation for making nerves easier to manage, but I was on the brink of exhaustion and needed it desperately.Staring out the window near me with a subpar view of a parking lot, I slowly sipped my hot coffee. I didn’t even care that my mouth felt as if it was being burned in the process. I needed the company of something other than the cracked floor tiles and worn paint. Across the cramped apartment, the door swung open suddenly and my sister rushed inside. She was carrying a small bag of groceries and a load of garment bags in her arms. She shuffled inside awkwardly from the amount of items in her grasp, and ended up dropping her apartment key. I rushed to her side to assist her and she thanked me in a soft voice.“Do I smell coffee?,” she asked.“Yes, yes you do. Want some?,” I asked back.“Do you even have to ask?”I laughed lightly and returned to the kitchen as my sister sorted through her items which were now resting on our tattered tan sofa. I pulled down a red mug from the kitchen cabinets and began to pour some coffee into her mug slowly, careful not to make a mess. When Whitney was done settling in, she walked over and joined me in the kitchenette, taking her mug from me gratefully.“Was it busy at the shop today, Whit?,” I inquired.“You have no idea,” she said, sounding tired. “It’s nearly prom and graduation season, so tons of dresses are being brought in for adjustments. I don’t think I had a single moment alone today.”“I don’t know how you do it,” I said sincerely.“Well, it isn’t my first choice of employment but I was really lucky that it came along when it did. We have to pay rent somehow,” she lamented.I shifted from my place by the sink and my sister looked away. Finances were a contentious conversation topic for us. We hadn’t had the easiest lives growing up, and found ourselves on our own at young ages. My sister was four years older than me, and when she had turned into a legal adult, moved us both away from our distant relatives who had looked after us until then. They were decent people to have provided us with the necessities we needed after our parents passed away. But we never felt welcome in their home, and everything in their lives was always more important than our wellbeing. At some point my sister had enough, and she worked hard to get us our own place. Ever since then she hadn’t had a moment’s rest, constantly working part time jobs, full time jobs, side gigs, and anything else that came her way. I helped with expenses how I could, mostly by doing freelance work online. But I had also been accepted into university and my sister made sure that I had enough time to be able to keep up with my courses.“I know,” I said softly.Whitney, knowing that the air had shifted between us, brightened up immediately and smelled the cup of coffee in her hands.“You made it just how I like it,” she commented.“You mean black? There is nothing else in that cup,” I laughed.“I mean exactly that. I don’t need all the extra sugar,” she assured me.“It’s too plain without,” I argued.She shrugged her shoulders and began chugging her favorite bitter liquid. I shook my head and moved to put our coffee pot in the fridge since it had cooled down. As I opened the refrigerator door, a low and obnoxious hum met my ears to let me know that the light inside was still working, even if it was at the end of its lifespan. We didn’t have the nicest apartment in the world, but it was the only place in the world that I felt comfortable. We’d been living in it for over two years and it was by far the nicest place we’d been able to call our own. Some of the walls and tiles sported small cracks, and we had the occasional visitor in the form of a cockroach. The appliances were more than outdated and the apartment complex was older, but to Whitney and I it was home.“Hey did you get a chance to look at the mail that NWU sent you?,” my sister asked. “It had a fancy seal on the envelope and it looked important.”“Oh that, yeah, I looked at it,” I said cynically.I turned my eyes away from my auburn haired sister and sipped my coffee more aggressively.“What did it say?,” she asked.“Whitney,” I huffed. “You’re asking so many questions right now that my brain doesn’t have the capacity to answer. I just finished writing like three articles and a study guide for my next exam.”“Sorry, sorry. I just want to make sure things are still good for you with Northwestern. I’m proud that you’re still sticking with college and attending. I know the decision wasn’t easy.”Whitney’s words were more true than she could possibly know. When I had finished highschool I was eager to jump right into the workforce, and walk in the footsteps of my older sister. Because of our unusual circumstances, and our lack of wealth, I had been offered free rides to multiple universities on a scholarship. After a lot of serious conversations with my sister, and grueling internal debates, I decided to attend college. I looked at it as an investment for the both of us. If I could land a good job upon graduating, I could finally give us the edge in life we’d been waiting for. I picked Northwestern University since it had been in close proximity to the jobs Whitney worked at the time. We were able to move from our original apartment to a slightly nicer one, and now lived in the prime location for both my college coursework and Whitney’s part time jobs.“Yeah, well, don’t be too proud of me,” I sighed. “They sent me a letter saying that if my scholarship essays aren’t approved, they could give my scholarship to someone else in need. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that.”“Oh, Kat, why didn’t you tell me?,” Whitney asked.She lowered her voice in an almost motherly manner, something she always seemed to do whenever I was stressed out.“Because I didn’t want you to worry about it. They told me previously that their scholarships were competitive, but this is the first time I’ve ever been afraid of losing mine,” I admitted. “But don’t worry. I’m going to stay on top of it, and I’m sure it’ll be fine. If it doesn’t work out I can always look into loans.”“Loans? Kat, I don’t want you to do that. I can just pick up another job and we can start paying your tuition. We might have to make some changes, but it’s better than going into debt.”At times it often felt like our livelihood depended on me succeeding in college. I felt like my education would be the only arm strong enough to pull my sister out of destitution for good. That pressure constantly ate away at me. I loved Whitney, but most of our problems came from conversations like these.“Whit, you already work two jobs and you help out at the convenience store on occasion. You can’t handle taking on more work. I’ll either take out loans, or try to find a part time job myself. I’m sure I could balance it with my freelance stuff,” I insisted.I sounded confident as I attempted to assert myself, but in reality, I was just as overworked as my sister. Between studying, lectures, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining other life tasks, I was able to fit in enough freelance work to help pay for part of our rent and grocery bill. Whitney was home much less than I was, so I had taken it upon myself to cook every meal, keep the apartment in order, fix anything that needed fixing, and work when I could. It wasn’t the most conventional system, but it worked for us. Any changes to that risked what little semblance of balance we had collapsing down around us.“Kat, you already work enough to help with our major expenses. I can find something else, I’m sure of it,” Whitney insisted.Sometimes I was afraid my sister was going to risk her wellbeing and run herself into an early grave while trying to provide for the two of us. But she had always been that way. Without parents or any guiding adult figure, that responsibility had fallen to Whitney since she was four years older than me. I hated that that was the case, and I made sure that I was on track to graduate from college as early as possible so that I could find a decent full time job. I knew Whitney was stressed, and she didn’t even have to admit it audibly to clue me in. Dark circles permanently inhabited the skin beneath her eyes, and she had no hobbies and very little free time. The guilt I maintained was immeasurable, but my sister would never hear of it. She loved me, and she was happy that we had been as successful on our own as we had been.“Well, we don’t even have to talk about this right now. My scholarship may be fine, and then we won’t have to create another course of action. You’ve had a long day, I’ve had a long day, let’s just chill for the rest of the night,” I said.Whitney agreed with me with a small nod. She moved over to me and pressed a kiss on my forehead.“Sure thing. Don’t worry about it. We can handle anything. I’m gonna go take a shower now. Dinner soon?”“Yeah, sure. I’m also going to run a load of laundry if you have anything to add to it,” I said.“Whatever’s in the basket in our room needs to be washed.”“Alright, I got you sis,” I said with a small smile.
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A week passed by in the blink of an eye and I had been so stressed about my scholarship and finances that I ended up failing the exam I had been preparing for. Distraught, I sat in the bedroom of Whitney and I’s apartment and stared down at the floor. Sighing, I rose to my feet and went into the living room to try and gain some energy back. I needed to bid on some jobs and get to writing articles so that I could earn the amount we needed for groceries this week. I passed by the kitchen and realized a box was sitting on the floor next to the refrigerator. It caught my eye and I swiveled around next to it, dropping down to a crouch to read the shipping label taped to the top.In large, handwritten lettering I was able to read my address and my own name. I raised an eyebrow and began to open the package as I pondered the fact that the handwriting looked incredibly familiar to me. When the flaps of the box were fully open, I stared down at the opening which revealed another, smaller box. A flash of annoyance appeared on my face as I reached in and pulled out the light blue package.Hoisting up the square box, I let out a noise of audible shock as my eyes rested on a package for the newest edition of the XeCo virtual reality headset equipped with neural processors and haptic feedback pads. My mouth hung open as I began to lightly shake the box in order to confirm that the product I was holding was, in fact, real. Gaming was a particularly expensive hobby, and anything that involved virtual reality was even more so. The very sleek, white headset I was holding didn’t retail for any less than $4,000 and my confusion only grew as I realized the expense of the product in my hands.I placed the box down in the kitchen and went into the bedroom, grabbing my old phone with an almost depleted battery from the bed. I pulled open my notifications and let out a sigh of relief when I saw an unread text message from my childhood best friend, Melanie.Hey! We were talking the other day and I had mentioned that I’ve been playing a ton of games lately. With how busy we’ve both been, it's been hard to make time to talk. I thought you could use this and just play with me instead! Plus it might be nice for you to have something to help you blow off steam. The tracking number said it should’ve arrived today, so let me know when you get it.P.S. Please don’t be upset, or feel weird. I wanted to do something nice. Also my other friends really want to meet you. Talk to you soon!I sighed before smiling a small, hesitant grin in spite of myself. Melanie knew me well enough to know I was normally too proud to accept gifts, favors, or charity in any form. But she had just wanted to do something nice for me and had gone above and beyond in the pursuit of that endeavor. I wrote back a very grateful and sappy sounding message before staring back at the headset on the kitchen counter now.Almost as if I was having deja vu, Whitney barged in through the apartment door with arms full of various items. I rushed over to help her with it, and as usual she thanked me graciously.“How was work?,” I asked routinely.“Oh you know... same old, same old,” Whitney responded. “How was your day?”I thought about the exam I had failed, but quickly discerned that I didn’t want to discuss it at length. Plastering a fake, but hopefully convincing smile on my face I shrugged in response.“Same old, same old,” I said.Whitney smirked a little at my response then moved into the kitchen to grab something to drink. I didn’t have any coffee going, so she settled for a cup of water. Her eyes almost immediately connected with the foreign object on the kitchen counter before they darted over in my direction.“Uhhh, Kat? Is that what I think it is?,” she asked.“Yeah,” I said nervously. “Melanie sent it.”“No kidding? Wow, that is generous,” Whitney said with a long whistle. “How is she, anyway?”“Good, I think. We haven’t talked a lot lately, but she always tells me when things aren’t good. So I just assume if I don’t hear from her, she’s doing well. She’s still in art school, and she likes it and everything,” I responded.“Well that’s good. I kind of miss her,” Whitney said. “We got into a lot of trouble when we were little, huh?”It was true. When the three of us had been children we basically did everything together. Since Whitney and I didn’t have much in terms of parental supervision as we grew, we were allowed to do what we wanted as long as we went back home every few days or so. We spent a lot of time as kids with Melanie and her parents. They were well off, and happily welcomed us into their home any time we were around. Things only changed when we got older, and Melanie and her parents moved so that Melanie could attend a private highschool. With no reliable adults, no mode of transportation, and no funds, I didn’t see her much for a few years. By the time Whitney and I were both working, I caught up with Melanie and we had talked consistently ever since. But I still didn’t get to see her much in person. We lived a few hours from one another, and our separate lives were starting to take form. She was attending a prestigious art school, and I was in school and working. It just wasn’t easy to make the time to meet up regardless of how much we wished otherwise.But Whitney’s words made me realize how badly I missed her.“Yeah, we did,” I said with a small smile. “I miss her too.”A beat passed in which I’m sure Whitney and I were both thinking about how different our lives had ended up. Melanie was on track to a good career thanks to her parents’ involvement in her life, while Whit and I were just struggling to survive. I hadn’t told Melanie the extent of our financial burdens, but I was also too proud to admit it out loud to anyone. It also wasn’t like she’d be dropping by any time soon, so she wouldn’t know that things weren't the best.“Well next time you talk to her, tell her I say hi. And tell her I hope she’s doing well,” Whitney said.“Sure thing,” I smiled.“Oh, Kat, if you do intend to play games with Mel, just… be careful, okay? I’ve heard some stuff lately about Xenon, and it sounds like there are a lot of freak accidents surrounding those things,” Whitney said, nodding her head towards the box.“I’ll be careful. I promise,” I said.Whitney nodded and seemed content with my response. We sat on the couch and decided to catch up on the stuff we hadn’t talked about yet this week until it was time to make dinner.
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I had finished cleaning up dinner at a quicker pace than I did most nights, and that was because I wanted to check on my job bids before messing around with my XeCo Shift II headset. Patiently waiting for my ancient laptop to pull up the freelance website I used, I felt an anticipation growing inside my chest. To my dismay, I hadn’t received any of the jobs I was expecting to get. Feeling like an overall failure from the events of the day, I decided to try and relax while unwinding with the game that I knew Melanie played. It was called Tales of Reverie, though the player base usually referred to it as ToR. I sometimes kept up with news about it online, glanced over reviews, and read the forums. Previously I had no way to play it since I lacked the hardware to do so, but I liked reading about the creative things that took place in the game regardless. Sometimes I would even text Melanie about some of them and ask for her to give me an update on life inside her favorite game.I padded back out to the kitchen to retrieve the box, but noticed that Whitney was sleeping deeply on the couch in the living area. Softly, I walked over and moved the quilt from the back of the couch over her sleeping form. I then returned back to the bedroom and shut the door most of the way, leaving it open a crack in case Whitney decided to come sleep in our bedroom.I looked over the box of the Shift II and began to take in the disclaimers and instructions. The process seemed pretty straightforward since the headset just needed to be plugged into a wall to gain power. Supposedly if power was lost at any point, it would resort to powering itself with little photo sensors lining the top of the VR headset. These would convert light into power, and leave the headset functioning indefinitely until you closed out your session. Everything you needed for the gaming process was hard wired inside the round, goggle-like mask. A powerful CPU and graphics card existed within the heavy duty plastic-like material. This allowed it to function as a tiny computer, though you couldn’t gain access to the internet or use any services outside of the ones that XeCo specifically programmed in.I went through the entire setup process in a handful of minutes, and the headset made a pleasant audio cue to let me know it was powered on and ready to use. I texted Melanie and told her that I was checking out the Shift II after a long day, and if she was playing, I would see her in Tales of Reverie.Taking a deep breath, I laid my body onto my twin bed and placed the headset over my eyes. I was met with OLED screens displaying a plethora of game titles in the digital image of a shelf. I found the one I was looking for, then reached up to my headset to press the button that would start the boot up process for the game. A screen popped up asking for confirmation that I wanted to start Tales of Reverie.“Run game. Tales of Reverie,” I said audibly.A different prompt popped up in a neat box on the OLED screen and asked if I wanted to confirm or deny the Shift II’s ability to run a game.“Confirm,” I said quietly.I closed my eyes and suddenly a strange tugging sensation on my skin, as if I was being pulled from my physical body. It was like my mind was being separated from my physical presence and forced into another space entirely. There was no pain, but something inside me felt almost motion sick from it all. The neural processors worked on moving my consciousness from my current location into the game I had started up. In front of me was nothing but a dark atmosphere, and I suddenly felt like I was falling through astral space. Nothing but a dark blue colored void and light colored specks surrounded me for a moment. My body shuddered at the strange sensations I had never felt before. The vast space around me caused me to feel infinitesimally small, and it put my mind in an odd place between terror and intrigue.My mind wasn’t sure when my actual body began to take on weight, and I felt vague sensations like cold and air whirring around my limbs. It was like instead of my consciousness being ferried to another location, my whole physical being was teleported into an entirely new space. I wasn’t sure how long I had been falling, but at some point without warning I suddenly landed onto solid ground. My feet touched down on a cobblestone path that laid in the center of a field, surrounded by large grassy hills. Large trees, flowers, and wildlife were scattered about the space.When I looked up, I realized the cosmic emptiness that had previously kept me company was nowhere in sight anymore. The entire environment around me had shifted to a much more pleasant one, a more grounded one. The ambience sounded almost too perfect, with clear audio for every single sound that passed by my ears. Wind, the swaying of tree branches and leaves in the breeze, the skittering of animals, and the distant sounds of metal clanging either from a blacksmith or a fight, all entered my senses. My eyes widened at my surroundings. This didn’t feel like a game at all, in fact, it felt almost exactly like real life.I looked down at my hands and was shocked to discover that my left one bore the scar that adorned the pale skin on my actual body. Somehow small details like that had followed me into the game, despite the fact that my body was currently lying on a bed in Whitney and I’s apartment. A wave of unease possessed me and I looked around quickly. Off to my left was a small pond lined with cattails and other tall, green plants. I rushed over to it and dropped to my knees, glancing over the edge of the pond. I was further shocked to see my own face staring back at me. The box of the Shift II hadn’t mentioned anything about how users’ appearances would be transferred to the digital space. But there sat a crystal clear image of my own face. My bulging brown eyes bore fear inside their lenses, and blonde waves cascaded over my shoulders. I had to pull myself away from my reflection, and I took a long breath of the air around me. If it was even air.I could’ve sworn goosebumps appeared on my skin at the thought, though when I looked over to my right arm, no such bumps were present. I rose to my feet once more and realized I no longer had to consider how Melanie might find me in the digital space.I turned around and looked at the vast landscape before me, feeling utterly lost in my desire to explore its depths. Though a strange feeling still existed in my gut, I was quickly forgetting about my worries as I became completely enamored with my surroundings. Immersion had wrapped me up and convinced me to enjoy my time in this strange realm. Looking upward, the clouds in the sky caught my attention. The perfect blue hue stretching across its digital expanse was incredibly convincing, as were the white fluffy masses in several shapes up in the sky. It felt nice to be somewhere other than my university or my apartment building. Whitney and I hadn’t ever been able to travel, and I finally felt like I was able to breathe under the vast open sky. It was almost freeing in an ironic way. I knew none of this was real, but it felt real enough to lift an emotional weight off of my shoulders.Feeling a burst of giddy energy that I never experienced in real life, I took off down the rugged cobblestone path and passed by a plethora of sheep and cows in the fields. Some of the animals acknowledged my presence by letting off a warning call to their friends. Quickly the landscape turned from endless hills to a more flat and manageable shape. It was in this transition of landforms that I was able to see the crux of a small town. All of the buildings looked to be appropriately medieval with a special fantastical flair. Buildings from the Regency era in Great Britain mixed together with some more unrealistic structures that looked as though they belonged in a movie. A large stone bridge provided access to the town from the farms and fields that I had landed in. My feet stopped just before touching the bridge’s surface and I could now see most of the town from where I stood.On the edge of civilization furthest from me stood a great mushroom tower, with a large green colored cap acting as the roof of the tower. Down across from the fungal tower was a blacksmith shop, and lots of winding town streets were paved in brown and grey stones. A small canal crossed in front of both the blacksmith’s shop and the tower, and divided the large eukaryotic structure from the rest of the town. That same canal snaked over my way, and was the reason a bridge laid before me. I smiled to myself and decided to take a stroll through the town.I entered from a side street that led into the main square, and my eyes always found something new to look at. Wonder overcame me and I was smiling to myself like an excitable child. Various signs and advertisements littered the streets of the town. Flyers that seemed to mimic wanted posters hung on certain storefronts. Other advertisements included those for cooking competitions, jousting tournaments, and various trade fairs. Life seemed so vibrant here.As I was turning my head over my shoulder, taking in the sight of even just regular lampposts and crates sitting on the sides of streets, I felt myself collide into someone. Feeling immediately embarrassed, I took a step back and moved to apologize before my eyes laid on none other than Melanie. At least it was her face that I noticed, because parts of her appearance were vastly different. She had pointed elf ears, pin straight pastel blue hair, and carried a large gleaming white weapon on her back. Her locks of sky blue hair had been pulled up into an elegant ponytail with a few flyaway hairs that made the hairstyle charming. Her eyes were still their light brown mixed with a striking green color with added golden flecks inside of their rims. Melanie had always been a little taller than me, and that was true inside ToR as well. She looked down at me with a warm smile and I couldn’t help but reach out and hug her tightly.“It’s you!,” I said excitedly. “I mean it’s really you. It’s been so long.”My arms wrapped around her waist and I gave her a tight squeeze. She laughed lightly before returning the gesture. I felt as if this reunion was long overdue, and though it was occurring inside a digital space, it didn’t temper my joy in the slightest. I swore I could feel the warmth radiating from our quick embrace and I was content with any connection I could have to my best friend.“It’s good to see you too Kat!,” Melanie said.We pulled apart and grinned at one another.“How’d you know it was me? Last I checked, I haven’t always had elf ears,” Melanie asked.“We grew up together, silly. I could pick you out of any crowd with ease,” I bragged cheerfully.“Well good to know. If I’m ever a victim of identity fraud, I’ll make sure to call you so you can verify who I am,” she said.I chuckled lightly at her very dry sense of humor, and I felt the stresses of the day melt away in her presence. It had been so long since we’d been together that I almost wasn’t sure what to talk about. Melanie and I usually talked routinely, but there wasn’t as much depth to our conversations as there used to be. I almost wanted to ask her if we’d been growing apart, and tell her I only accepted her gift so that we could be close together again, like we had been as kids.“Did you have any trouble setting the Shift up?,” she asked.“Oh, not at all. It was pretty straightforward, but I must admit the process was a bit…jarring,” I admitted.“Trust me, you get used to it. It is strange at first though. But XeCo swears that it’s all safe technology. It was approved by many different divisions of the Government to be put on the shelves. And this,” she gestured to our surroundings, “Is all worth it.”I looked around at the groups of players who were bounding from one location to another. Laughter, discussions, and the general noise from bustling travelers was present. The ambience was comforting, and I let out a deep breath as I listened to it all.“Yeah, it’s amazing,” I agreed. “It feels so real. Are you sure it isn’t?”“I’m sure,” Melanie laughed. “As soon as you initiate the logout process, you’ll be back to reality. But for now, welcome to Bridgeport! The first town to ever be added inside of ToR.”“This is only the first town?,” I asked for clarification. “How big is this place?”“Huge,” Melanie answered quickly. “There’s different biomes, dungeons, and a whole map complete with offshore islands and such. Some quests even take you to other realms entirely, though the lands there are very limited.”“That’s insane,” I muttered mostly to myself.“Oh it is, but it’s so much fun. You’re gonna love it here! Since we’re here, we should pick up your starter pack. You get to choose a weapon type, get an appearance change voucher – which is unlimited use as long as it’s in your possession, an alchemy table, and a camping kit. All very useful items,” Melanie instructed.“Oh, sure, lead the way!,” I agreed.We traipsed over to a humble colorful stone storefront that held a bundle of chicken coops outside and what appeared to be a little restaurant inside. Entering the building, noise surged from every corner of the restaurant. A plethora of players were inside doing different activities together. Some sat at a table and were engaged in a seemingly serious game of cards, while others were playing instruments and singing along to songs I knew from real life in a corner booth. The floors were made of beautiful stained wood, and the walls donned posters with various notices on them. Headlines asking for able bodied players to assist with dungeons or crafting were prevalent, as were notices for available spaces within player made guilds. I stopped in my tracks as my eyes grazed over one of the paper fliers with a large symbol in the center of the sheet. It held a pair of outstretched wings wrapped around a downwards facing embellished rhombus which seemed to resemble a dagger. There was something simple about the shapes present in it, but I found myself gravitating towards it regardless. My hand reached out, but I was shaken from my thought provoking trance by Mel who called out to me.“Kat, you coming?,” she asked.I shook my head to myself, and scurried over to my best friend. Once again at her side, we were greeted by the NPC who ran the restaurant, and on my screen there was a pop up for a quest starter for new players. I obtained it and Melanie walked me through the steps. The requirements for the initial questline consisted of greeting other NPCs around town, namely those like the healer, blacksmith, and general goods merchant. There was an introduction to the economy, basic crafting, as well as the inventory system. My head was nearly spinning from the amount of information I was receiving, and I hadn’t even learned anything about combat yet. Melanie swore to me that the processes for most tasks were more simple in nature than they sounded.When we returned to the restaurant the crowd size had nearly doubled, and Melanie relayed that around the evening time in real life, most social spaces would become packed full of players. I dropped off the quest to the barmaid who looked convincingly real. She had auburn hair and wore a simple, traditional medieval dress with a white apron over top of it. She made eye contact as we spoke, and her AI was able to recognize all my actions and speech patterns. As a reward for completing the introductory quest, I was given a world map, bundles of crafting materials, a leather pack labeled “starter kit,” and everything I would need to set up a functional campsite.The depth of the game I was immersed in never ceased to amaze me. Mel acted as my guide and ushered me to a different part of town. We stopped as we came upon the blacksmith shop and I had to open my starter kit to choose which weapon type I wanted to start with. Unsure which I might excel at, I decided to be safe and selected the single handed weapon class which mostly consisted of single blades like mauls and short swords. The blacksmith was a large, burly man who spoke with gusto and greeted me before alerting me of a problem he currently had. I was to take my dinky starter sword and attack some giant rats which were cutting off his supply of ores and minerals at the local mine. I equipped my sword, and my mouth hung open as I could practically feel the weight and the texture of the blade’s hilt. Holding it still, a quick tutorial flashed on screen which dictated what stance I should use for single handed weapons. I attempted to mimic it and Melanie told me to let her know if I needed help.I drew my arm up in the air, far behind my head, and executed a slashing motion with the blade tucked tightly in my hand. It moved seamlessly through the air with a satisfying swish and I smiled as a result.“You might not want to raise it up that high when you actually attack,” Melanie instructed.“Oh, sure thing. I just wanted to see how it felt. It seems so…”“Real?,” Melanie asked.“Yeah, real. I can feel everything,” I said.“I see you’re still not used to that. Give it time. Ready to head to the mine?”I nodded and Melanie raised her arm straight up in the air. I looked on as a bright blue glow surrounded the length of her arm, encircling it and spinning at rapid speeds, keeping a close distance to her limb. After a moment, a creature of tall stature appeared before us. Its long talons and scaled body let me know immediately what it was. With a resounding roar, my eyes nearly bulged out of my skull. Right before me stood none other than a dragon bearing deep blue scales with a green sheen. It had a set of twin horns at the crux of its head, and its eyes were wide with golden swirls letting me know that it was paying close attention to me.“Mel!,” I gasped. “It’s a…”“A dragon?,” she asked with a small smirk.The creature bounded over to Melanie and she held her hand straight in front of her. I knew that stance to be the one that meant a player was interacting with their inventory or other game menus. I had used it myself a few times, but it was interesting to see it from the other person’s perspective. After swiping through a few menus, a large leather saddle appeared on the back of the dragon and it was then that I noticed the dragon lacked wings.“Wait, how come it doesn’t have wings?,” I asked.“Oh, I should’ve figured you’d ask about that. You can obviously see how advanced the game is. They just didn’t have the resources to put into developing flight mechanics for all mounts, so a good portion of mounts are grounded in this game. But they still help with both time to traverse to and from places, as well as with inventory space. You can upgrade their inventories and either add it to your own bags, or keep items stored in their saddles,” she explained.“Wow that is cool,” I said back.“So, you want to ride to the mine in style?,” she asked with a large grin.“Definitely,” I answered.I took a few steps towards Melanie and her large scaled companion before holding my arm out in front of me. I placed it close to the dragon’s face and after a moment, the large beast rested its face square against my palm. I could feel all the ridges in the scales and the surprisingly smooth texture that a lizard or a snake would possess on its body. A wide smile graced my face as I rubbed the scaled texture. Melanie watched from an angle as she got things ready on the back of her mount.“Amazing,” I let out through a deep breath.“Isn’t it? There’s a reason Tales of Reverie is the fastest growing MMO of all time. As many gripes as people have with Xenon, there is no denying that this game is incredible. A lot of people start playing hesitantly, and quickly get sucked in when they realize the advancements that have been made. And I don’t blame them since it happened to me too. Not many people actually care for Xenon as a company, but they’re critical of them when outside of the game. In here, people don’t usually discuss them much.”“I can understand that. I’m guessing escapism, or immersion, whatever you want to call it– is important to players in here. So how intelligent are mounts? Does it have the same programming as the human NPCs?,” I asked.“Sort of. It depends on the mount. The starter horse that we can get for you later is pretty simple. But it was added to be more of a time saver than anything else. Mounts like this guy you get from quest lines or events and the like. Their AI does seem more complex, but I’m not sure by how much.”The dragon let out a resounding growl that reverberated in its chest, but it was a noise of satisfaction and not distress. I removed my hand from its form and got ready to climb aboard beside Melanie. Once we were both up on the saddle, Melanie explained a few quick tips to me about riding on a mount. I nodded along with each one and soon we were headed Southwest from the edge of town to a little outcropping of raised land. In the center of it laid the mine, and Melanie explained to me that even though the mobs we’d face were low leveled for beginning players, I was mostly supposed to be learning how to move alongside my weapon and get a feel for other basics of combat. I told her that I understood and we proceeded into the mine.What struck me first was the level of detail in the assets used to create the environment. Xenon seemed to spare no expense when it came to the matter of immersion. Rocky walls held lines of various colors in them, depicting different stone or minerals in their structure. Overhead some wooden beams and infrastructure had been provided to give the illusion that the inside environment was unstable, and we might be at risk of witnessing cave-ins. Walking next to a metal track, our first enemies appeared after a few steps. Large rats with beady eyes and long whipping tails greeted us. Melanie stepped back and instructed me to fight, promising she’d step in if I needed assistance.I looked over my shoulder and noticed she had pulled out a bow. One of her hands clutched the bowstring tightly as she oversaw my first foray into combat. I took a step towards the rat closest to me, and slammed my sword down in its direction. The top portion of the blade made contact and I grinned victoriously before I realized my actions drew the aggro of the other rats. Not to mention that the first one who had been struck wasn’t out of the fight. Now three large rats sized me up, and before I could process its movements, one charged towards me. I held my blade out like a shield and attempted to parry its attack.Unsuccessful, the rat barely bounced off the metal fuller and was immediately ready to attack again. It bounced off the dirt floor of the mine and barreled towards me quickly. Drawing my sword up higher in the air, I slashed it down violently as the rat reached my legs. I had gotten lucky, and landed a critical hit on it, watching as the body of the rat pulsed red then bursted into white light. Its body remained on the floor, but its digital soul ascended above our heads. I was awarded some XP and turned my attention to the other attackers. Two rats remained, and this time they charged towards me in sync. Uncertain how I would fight off two enemies at once, I turned my attention to the one that would reach me first.Standing my ground, I moved my blade up to my left shoulder and then slashed it in front of me in a horizontal motion. My defensive attack had enough range that it hit the first rat, and nearly hit the second one. To my dismay, neither went down from my very low power slash. It was then that the second rat grabbed hold of my leg and bit into it. I groaned as my health bar appeared in the side of my vision and alerted me of the health I was losing. I took my sword and stabbed downwards, allowing the peak of the sword to hit directly into the rat’s head. Before I could pick off the third one, a sleek arrow shot by my face and landed a critical hit on the last rodent.“Thanks,” I sighed.“Don’t get too discouraged, the combat takes getting used to. This isn’t exactly a first person shooter. You did well,” Melanie said.I turned my gaze over to her and offered a defeated smile in response. I noticed the bow in her hands that was bright white in color and glowed blue under the light. It was longer than her forearm and held a thick swirling bowstring from the top recurve to the bottom one. The blue glow seemed to flash with a celestial like pattern, and a simple but elegant design stretched over the length of the bow. I found myself staring at its intricacies with a deep appreciation for the design. It made my tiny iron sword look like a kitchen knife.“I doesn’t feel like it,” I mumbled.“Well, you did. Now come on, we have some ore to find,” Melanie said.She led the way down the dark hall and we disposed of any opposing rats or bats on our way. Melanie mostly handled the bats since she was better equipped to handle combat from a distance. It didn’t take long before we closely approached a rickety mine cart holding a large deposit of ore. I went to retrieve it and nearly jumped as I was met with a larger bat than the usual roamers in the mine. It had red markings on its body and wide, angered eyes. I fell backwards onto my butt, and hit the dirt floor as I let out a startled noise. Before I could react, Mel had already shot a gleaming arrow into the bat’s face. I let out a relieved sigh and my best friend approached me to offer me a helping hand.I accepted it and was back on my feet in no time. After a quick dust of my basic clothing, I looked over at Melanie with a gaze rife with embarrassment.“Thanks. That scared me, geez,” I said, huffing.“It’s okay. I had the same reaction back when I first started playing. Luckily Crim was here for me when it happened. He had a good laugh, but he helped me out much like I did for you,” she relayed.“Wait, Crim?,” I asked. “Your friend that you play ToR with a lot?”I shuffled over to the cart to pick up the ore and it disappeared when my hands came into contact with it. It was moved to a “quest” tab in my inventory and I checked my inventory screen as I listened to Melanie’s answer.“Yeah, that’s him,” she said with a faint smile.“Didn’t you go on a date once?,” I asked innocently.I was trying to recall the circumstances of their relationship in my head. Truthfully, I wasn’t always the best friend I could be. With the financial and emotional burdens I’d faced as a young adult, they commanded most of my attention. I always made an effort to put my attention where it was needed, so sometimes Melanie and I would have to catch each other up on the events of our lives and there was enough information to fill a novel. Rather, Melanie usually had enough to write a book cover to cover. Whenever we caught up, I usually had the same things to say. I was working, trying to get through college, and had to ensure Whitney and I were healthy enough to maintain our standard of living. Those were the only things that mattered in my life. Sometimes out of exhaustion, or just pure forgetfulness, I would lose details from the excursions Melanie spoke of.“It wasn’t a date,” she insisted. “But we did hang out in person once. He was in town and we went to an art gallery, had dinner, then went to the pier.”“I see. So it was just two people doing various activities together under the guise of getting to know one another and having a good time in the process?,” I questioned.I closed my inventory menu, and Melanie looked at me with a raised eyebrow.“I suppose,” she stated stubbornly.“So a date, by definition,” I teased.“If you want to see it that way, then sure. But he doesn’t think of me like that,” she said. “His family is kind of like mine, except they made their money through business and not art. He’s always surrounded by women who dote on him. And even if he entertains their affections, I know he isn’t fond of the idea of being in a relationship. We talked about it when we first met. So how I feel doesn’t matter if the circumstances don’t align anyway,” Melanie said.She turned to leave the mine and I followed after her.“I… didn’t realize it was like that,” I offered. “Well, maybe things will work when the time is right. You’ve had feelings for him for a while now, huh?”Melanie kept her eyes focused on the path in front of us, and her bright demeanor suddenly faded into something serious. There were very few times in our lives that I had seen her in this state, so its re-emergence surprised me. The expression on her face helped me to grasp the fact that her feelings were genuine. Whoever her friend was, he likely didn’t realize the extent in which she was fond of him. Something about that made me sad, and I looked sympathetically over at her.“I guess so,” she breathed. “But it’s fine. I’m more focused on my art career anyway. If I make enough money, then you can come live near me when you’re done with school. Whitney too. I think you’d both find better job opportunities near me. And I’d never get lonely then.”My eyes widened at her words, never had I expected that Melanie missed living close by each other as much as I did. She always seemed so busy with art exhibits, trips, work, and other responsibilities related to her career. I opened my mouth to respond, but she cut me off.“Mel–”“Oh, don’t worry about me. Sorry, I guess I just got kind of nostalgic for how things were when we were kids,” she said half-heartedly.“It happens to me all the time,” I reassured. “Things seemed easier back then, huh?”“I don’t know about easier, but they were definitely simpler,” she said.I agreed with her, and watched as she physically straightened herself out.“But we’re not here to talk about the past and all that. We’re here to play a game and have fun. You haven’t seen a quarter of what Nevia has to offer,” she said with a small, widening smile.“Nevia? Is that where we are right now?,” I asked.“I forgot you probably don’t know much of the lore. You used to read the forums though, right?”“Sometimes, but I’ve had less time for that lately,” I admitted.“Gotcha. Well, yeah, Nevia is the continent we’re on right now. It’s the largest map in the game, and expands from coast to coast. There are some settlements and questlines that take place offshore, as well as in other realms, but most of what you do will be on Nevia.”“Oh cool. Well I can’t wait to learn the lore. That was always one of my favorite aspects of RPGs,” I said giddily.“Mine too,” Melanie smiled.We approached the large wooden doors to exit the mine and Melanie and I both placed our hands on the wooden boards, shoving the large arched doors wide open. The light from the land outside hit us quickly and enveloped my body, offering me the kind of comforting warmth that the sun’s rays usually provided. I felt a little better about the conversation Melanie and I had started but didn’t finish. She was right after all, this was supposed to be a way to spend some quality time together regardless of the geographical distance between us.Melanie had to re-summon her dragon, and after we climbed aboard and the dragon gave a low growl of approval of our presence, we made our way back to town. Melanie gave me a quick run-down on the starting town within Tales of Reverie. The name was Tir Na Nol, and usually held high counts of both fledgling and end game players. New players always spawned on the outskirts of town, and had to venture inward to pick up starting quests for themselves. End game players came to either scout promising new guild members, re-live their beginning days in the game, or just hang out in a quieter atmosphere. For all the buzz that came from song performances, conversation, and players busy questing, Tir Na Nol was apparently still less overwhelming than other, larger cities. From the first region of the map, Tir Na Nol was the largest settlement and first location with every crafting mechanic available to players. Guild boards, repeatable quests, blacksmithing stations, crafting tables, and everything else was available within its limits. Some casual players within the game played slowly, and spent months working their way out of Tir Na Nol. But the atmosphere was so pleasant that most didn’t even mind.As we charged down the paved stone street, I realized what it was that made this place so special. Rolling hills surrounded the humble architecture, and the outline of a forest was nearby as well. Small, winding rivers cut through town and held up bridges that made travel through Tir Na Nol easier for players. Large trees with different trunk sizes and leaf shapes lived on every corner of town. If I hadn’t known this was a game, I would’ve thought I was living in an idyllic small town in the real world. Most shops were either fully brickwork on their exteriors, or a mixture of carefully placed bricks and stucco covering the remaining structure.We crossed a large bridge at the entrance into the town and Melanie de-summoned her mount before quickly explaining to me that it was polite to keep visual clutter to a minimum. Some players used mounts when traversing out of town, but on the return trip they usually opted to walk to ensure that streets weren’t overcrowded with large mounts. We made our trek on foot now back to the blacksmith and I dropped off the ore from the quest item tab of my inventory. He thanked me profusely before awarding me with a starter kit for the blacksmithing skill. I received a pickaxe which could be upgraded but never lost durability, a crate of starting ores, and tempering stones which improved metal weapons. Melanie and I took a seat in one of the cloth booths inside the tavern while we discussed some of the preliminary information about skills.Skills were separated into two different classes, life skills and combat skills, and could be leveled up through one of three means. The most common, and easiest one, was just to use them and put time into them. So for every rock or ore vein I mined, I would be awarded a certain number of XP for it. Some weapons had special state or enchantments on them that would also level skills upon use of the weapon. So every time you entered combat with a special weapon, XP would be awarded for the enemies defeated and towards the other life skill. The third means for leveling up any skill, life or combat, was through an item called pace stones. Pace stones were only awarded via group content or special in-game activities, so dungeons or overland boss fights counted, and they also could be picked up during seasonal events. Sometimes they were awarded to new players via new player packages or could be found randomly through other activities like fishing. But they had such a low drop rate from those methods that most players discounted their existence from them.The package I had received from the NPC blacksmith was given with the express purpose of helping me level up my blacksmithing skill. Melanie said I didn’t have to do it right away if I didn’t want to, as certain life skills mainly ended up as money making sources for end game players. They would craft items and sell them to any willing buyers, or offer a steady stream of materials for serial crafters. While we were seated at the wide wooden table, Melanie pulled up a digital menu and it hovered in front of her face. From the backside, or even while looking over someone’s shoulder, you couldn’t read whatever was printed in text on their menus. I looked out the large framed window next to our table, and watched some sheep run around the pastures outside.“Oh hey I just got a message from Crimson and Phoenix, is it okay if they come join us?,” Melanie asked. “You can say no, by the way. I won’t be offended. I know we’re supposed to be spending time together.”“Oh, it’s alright with me,” I smiled. “I’ve been wanting to meet them anyway, especially Crim.”She rolled her eyes at me in response and moved her hand around in a motion which I quickly understood meant that she was typing back a message to the guys.“So Phoenix is your other friend then? You know him from ToR?,” I asked.“Uh huh,” Melanie said absentmindedly. Her hand was moving around in an odd sequential pattern as she spoke.“Have you ever met him in person? Or just Crimson?”“Just Crim– wait, why are you asking?,” she demanded.The menu whizzed out of sight and I was left with my elf eared best friend staring at me disapprovingly.“No particular reason. Just curious about the details of your friendships, that’s all. You know me, I don’t usually make friends online. So I wanted to know if I should be worried about you befriending weirdos through MMORPGs,” I said.“Yeah well you can trust Phoenix. I’ve known him for a while, and he’s around our age. He won’t tell me what his real name is, but I think he has his reasons for that. Regardless, he’s never rubbed me the wrong way or given me any reason not to trust him. He’s cool, and I think the two of you will get along.”“You trust him, but you don’t know his name?,” I asked with a raised eyebrow.“Yup. I don’t know how to explain it, but I just know that I can trust him,” she explained.“Er, okay,” I said.I dropped the conversation entirely, though something within my gut felt strange. That wasn’t unusual for me though. With the way I grew up, I often had trouble trusting other people. My heart was locked behind several thick doors, and as far as I knew, no keys to open those doors existed. I did everything in life with precision and with a great deal of caution. I couldn’t afford to live any other way.“They’re finishing up some raids on overland bosses, but Crim just said they’ll be here soon,” Melanie relayed.I nodded slowly and listened as she recounted a few of their in game stories to me. I could tell from Melanie’s soft words and laughter that she really did consider these two strangers friends. I told myself I needed to keep an open mind, because I could do with a few more friends myself. And Melanie was a tough person to crack. She had a lot of acquaintances and connections, but hardly any true friends. The two guys she spoke of must have had something special for her to think highly of them.

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Complete ImmersionChapter 2: The Party GrowsThis is an original work which is based heavily on popular media titles that have garnered large fandoms. I don't claim the ideas within to be solely my own or unique in any way, but these characters and universe are of my own creation. Please do not use them for any reason, or upload, alter, or otherwise take/publish this story. For more details on the subject, feel free to visit my profile.It wasn’t long before the sky outside started to shift from a bold blue to the streaking warm shades of an impending sunset. I pointed out the framed window and Melanie laughed as my jaw dropped in awe of the details within Tales of Reverie.“Yes, the game has day and night cycles,” Melanie said with an amused smirk.“Yeah, but they look so real,” I gasped, wide-eyed.“Trust me, they’re not that impressive the longer you see them. Something is usually missing,” a new voice said.The voice was deep, with a certain quality of roughness to it. My head whipped around behind me, and I saw two figures standing at the end of the table. One was a tall man with short light silver hair and bold red eyes clad in dark grey and red leather armor. The outfit he wore resembled that of a bandit and a samurai, wrapped up in one clever design that paid homage to the two aesthetics. He seemed approachable enough, though I did sense something almost vain about him. His red eyes stared me down and I immediately understood that he was almost too comfortable being here. The guy to his right, and the one closest to me, had slightly longer black hair with a perfect fade to its strands on the sides of his head. His appearance was much more rugged, and a wild energy swirled about in his sparkling blue eyes. His arms were crossed over his chest, and I felt as if his gaze was sizing me up. I returned the favor by cautiously giving him a once over, then met his eyes in an interwoven conflict to determine who each of us were to the other.“Oh, hey guys!,” Melanie greeted warmly.Her excited words snapped us from our exchange of intense stares, and I watched as his demeanor visibly softened.“Sorry we’re a bit later than we meant to be. You should’ve seen how many people were out at Strident Springs for the raid. We got caught up in some conversations with a few guilds,” Melanie’s silver haired friend explained.His voice carried an authoritative tone, but something about it was also pleasant and regal. It hummed through the air, and made me instantly relax in its wake. But I had to wonder if he knew he had that effect on people. His history with Melanie made me scrutinize his every behavior, as I was trying to ascertain if he’d be a good romantic partner for her.“Oh, it’s no problem. Did they mention if they’re going to change the scaling for that zone boss? I think a lot of people were hoping for a re-work,” Melanie said.“Well nothing has been stated so far. But there is a patch being pushed out later tonight, so it might be included in that. No one knows for sure though,” the dark haired one answered.From his gruff words, I discerned that he had been the one to speak first as both of them had approached our table. I was immediately curious about what his earlier words might have meant. Something is usually missing. They seemed sad somehow, and I mulled over them before Melanie uttered my name with a high level of energy.“Phe, Crim, this is Kat. She’s my childhood best friend, and it’s her first time playing ToR. So go easy on her,” Melanie stated.“First time, huh? I’m almost jealous. I wish I could go back and experience it all over again without knowing what was in store,” Crimson said with a sideways smile.His presence was very demanding somehow, and the longer he was near, the more I understood why Mel had been drawn to him. He was just as much of a larger than life personality as she was.“Yeah, well considering I almost threw up within my first few moments, I wouldn’t want to go through it again,” I threw back.Crimson let out a laugh and I noticed the faint outline of a genuine smile slip onto the face of Melanie’s other friend.“Well, either way, we’re happy to have you here. We’ve heard some interesting stories about you. All good things of course. I’m Crimson, it’s a pleasure,” Crimson introduced.“Likewise,” I said simply with a smile.My eyes drifted naturally over to the other new face standing before our long wooden table, and Melanie’s dark haired friend offered a simple nod and audible presentation of his name.“Phoenix,” he greeted.“Nice to meet you Phoenix,” I said.Crimson was quick to scoot into the booth next to Melanie, and Phoenix cautiously joined me on my side of the table.“Let me know if you have enough room. You’re… rather tall,” I told him.“I’ll be alright,” he said back.The bottom quarter of his face held a faint smile, and this one somehow looked more genuine than the last one. I could feel myself relaxing a little as his stoic exterior thawed enough to allow his humanity to grace the surface. Still, I held up my guard when I gazed over at him. Something about his tall stature, dark hair, and piercing eyes felt intimidating to me. Especially since it had been a while since I’d interacted in close quarters with a stranger in a personal manner. Usually I interacted with my coworkers or clients through a screen, so this was a step above that. But the atmosphere and Phoenix’s presence felt real enough that it didn’t feel as though we were meeting in virtual reality. The only thing that made me relax was when I surveyed Phoenix’s body language. He had his arms crossed and they sat idly just above his lap. Since he had sat near me, he’d drawn himself inward a considerable amount. I wondered if he was just on edge around me as I was in the face of his presence.“How’s your quarterly portfolio coming along?,” Crimson asked.His eyes were angled in Melanie’s direction, and I watched them light up as soon as she began to speak. He seemed to hold onto every word that she spoke, and I nearly smiled as I watched the man become enraptured with her countenance of her latest artistic endeavors.“I was brave recently, and I decided to give oil pastels another shot,” she said. “I’m not as confident as I would be with acrylics, but it was a nice little challenge. I added a few still-lifes to my portfolio and I hope they stand out.”“They will. You know I was thinking about you a few weeks ago, because I was able to see some of Hassam’s works in person. They are just as stunning as you’d imagine,” Crim replied.“Oh you’re kidding! Please tell me you took some pictures,” Melanie said.The pair devolved into a conversation about the museum Crim had been to, and about art in general. The shift in topic made Phoenix and I the odd men out, and we attempted to exist in comfortable silence on our side of the booth. I took that opportunity to give him a once over, sneakily analyzing his appearance. A stiffness was present in his posture, as he hadn’t moved an inch from the last time I’d stolen a glance of him. He was wearing mostly black cloth armor, but it held dark blue accents in certain areas. The top of his outfit held layered clothing, with a white button down shirt strapped beneath a black vest and both pieces laid underneath a long black coat with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His pants were black as well, and very simple looking in nature, but held an ornate pattern on the outside seam. It ran from the top of his thigh to as far down the pants that were tucked into black boots. His hands were mostly covered in fancy looking black fingerless gloves, and over his chest were diagonal and horizontal angled brown leather belts. The shoulder area of his coat also had brown epaulets and the angled collar of the black fabric had some similar detailing as his pants. Hanging from a loop on his horizontally justified belt was a small metal cage containing a single blue stone.Internally, I was impressed by the whole outfit and almost said something until I caught his eyes darting over to look at me.“Is there something on your mind?,” he questioned.“Uh, no, sorry,” I stuttered.“You keep looking at me, you know,” he said in a low voice.I thought that based on his discretion, he didn’t want the other two at the table to overhear our conversation.“Sorry, I get a little nervous around new people,” I explained.Something in him seemed to shift as he leaned further back against the plush cushion of the booth and angled his head in my direction.“I get the feeling,” he said softly.“Well, why don’t I ask you some questions then? Or you can ask me some, if you’d rather,” I offered.Phoenix moved his arms into a more relaxed position in his lap and raised an eyebrow at my suggestion, but he seemed intrigued by the idea. Crimson and Melanie were busy speaking to one another about all sorts of things, and their high energy conversation left little room for Phoenix or I to intervene. That left the two of us with the company of each other, and I think Phoenix realized that as he let out a low breath of air.“Sure,” he agreed. “I’ll go first, then you can ask me something after.”“Sounds fair,” I relented.“What do you do in the real world? Do you have a job, or are you a student or anything? Or maybe you’re from a rich family like the other two, and fill your time with a passion of yours instead,” he interrogated.“No, no, nothing like that. Melanie and I grew up together, so I knew her way before, well, she became a budding artist. I go to college, and I do some side gigs online. What about you? Same question.”“I’m an engineering student. I also have a part-time job, but it’s nothing too exciting,” he said simply.“Oh that’s cool! My dad was an engineer, so I really respect the craft,” I replied.“Was?,” Phoenix asked.I felt my blood run cold for a moment when I realized that utterance was the first time I’d mentioned my parents to someone else in a long time. The words had come out so naturally that I barely registered the information I offered up. Why had I done that? I didn’t want to discuss my parents, but I also didn’t want to make Phoenix feel awkward. He was mirroring my own tension in every possible way. My body nearly froze over from the silence filling each passing second until Phoenix offered me an awkward expression.“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that. Well I have no doubt, he has, or had, a respectable career. With the money I’ve invested into mine, I can only hope for the same to happen for me,” he rambled.I felt like his strung together words were an attempt to comfort me in the face of my social blunder and I smiled at him in response.“It will,” I said.“We just met, how can you possibly know that?”“I just do. We have to believe that things will work out, otherwise what’s the point in trying?,” I asked.“Well that’s a rather bleak sort of optimism. Got any career goals yourself?,” he asked in turn.“Other than getting rich? Not really. I always kind of figured my career would work itself out naturally. I’ve gotten some good experience doing gig work,” I said.Phoenix nodded along as I spoke, and we swapped a few more surface level details about ourselves before Melanie leaned over the table and raised an eyebrow at our interaction.“Well you two are getting along better than I expected,” she stated.Turning my head to glance over at her, a satisfied expression caught my attention as she watched us with a direct interest. Phoenix immediately turned quiet and stared at Melanie in response.“It’s nice,” Melanie continued. “But I believe we have somewhere to be. Are you two ready to head out?”“Wait, we do? Where are we going?,” I asked.“You’ll see. We have a tradition of sorts amongst our usual party members. All three of us present have experienced it before, and now it’s your turn,” Melanie continued.“Don’t worry, no harm is going to come to you. It’s just something fun,” Crimson pledged.“Uh, alright then. I guess I’m ready,” I relented.Phoenix slid out of the booth without another word leaving his lips. He seemed quiet, or possibly distracted, as the other two led us out of the tavern and onto the cobblestone streets. It was decided that I would travel with Mel on her mount since she was a more careful rider than Phoenix. That meant Crimson was stuck riding with Phoenix, much to his chagrin. He actively berated Phoenix for his less than stellar methods of mount traversal but Phoenix just waved off his concerns. After the two butt heads a little, Phoenix stuck his arm out in the air and the cyan blue glow produced a large bird with flaming feathers.Standing beside Melanie, my eyes bulged out of my skull and shortly after I heard some giggles from my best friend.“It’s a…”“Phoenix,” Melanie offered.I nodded, still starstruck at the regal looking bird that towered over us. The tail feathers were long and touched the ground, sparking with little dollops of flames. The bird’s head had a decorative plume right off the back, and it contrasted sharply with the curved beak that adorned its face. The one thing that I found myself stuck on was the color of the bird’s body. Instead of a flaming orange, it was a deep blue color with several other shades of blue accenting the base color. It was breathtaking.“Close your jaw, Kat. The human Phoenix likes showing off. His head will inflate if you act all wide-eyed and impressed,” Crimson scolded, shaking his head.“O-oh, right!,” I agreed.The four of us climbed onto our designated mounts, and before I knew it, we were on the road out of town. The rooftops of Tir Na Nol faded in the wind as we rushed down the stone paths which eventually turned into dirt roads. Phoenix and Crimson took the lead, and Melanie’s dragon followed behind on the ground. Every once in a while I heard Crimson shout something at Phoenix, and his words were always accompanied by a resounding laugh. Phoenix seemed to have a lighter and more carefree side, and I found myself hoping I would see more of it.My eyes traced the outline of the landscapes we passed by. Melanie told me as we were exiting the forest biome that we were making quite the trip, but it would be good for me as a new player since I would get XP for discovering new locations. I also would get the ability to fast travel to and from notable towns much quicker, since unlocking the ability involved traversing the map. I started to notice that a lot of the locations in the beginning region of the map looked visually similar. Most of the land consisted of large, round trunked trees with long overhanging leaves. Secondary flora had a wide array of models, and everything from bushes and shrubs to several breeds of flowers were present. It was interesting to see the types of plants change slightly depending on how close we were getting to other biomes, but the overall aesthetic was still similar.After a few minutes, we arrived at the edge of the familiar looking forest, and a large incline rested to our left. Phoenix’s phoenix halted right in front of the large hill, and Mel’s dragon stopped a few paces behind. Both of the mount owners de-summoned their animals, and all of our feet floated down to touch the grass beneath us.“We’re here!,” Crimson announced.“So, where is “here” exactly? This just looks like an ordinary forest trail,” I said.“Oh, just wait,” Phoenix urged.“Didn’t you see the mountains on our way in? We’re on the edge of two regions right now,” Melanie stated.Phoenix didn’t wait for me to get on board with what was happening currently, and started to make his way up the grass and dirt covered incline. His hand reached out to grab onto nearby trees, and he hauled his body upwards.“So, unfortunately, there isn’t an actual path up there. This place is kind of a secret,” Melanie explained. “Just follow us.”I agreed and after Crimson began the hike up, I joined the two guys that were ascending the large hill. I had to grab onto the tree nearest me after only a few paces because I wasn’t expecting to get so unsteady on my feet. I felt a little embarrassed as I ended up climbing a lot slower than either Phoenix or Crimson did. Melanie stayed behind me, offering me words of encouragement which seemed to ward off most of my guilt. As we approached the curve of the incline, the land on the top of it flattened out under a rocky cliffside. All four of us regrouped on the small plateau, then we followed the side of the mountain around the curve of the large formation. After a few minutes, the rocks extended out over us and we began walking through a hollowed out, short tunnel. On the other side of the tunnel’s opening I could hear a rhythmic loud noise begin to greet us.Phoenix was the first out of the tunnel, and he stepped out onto the small landing that lined the right side of the tunnel. He looked down and smiled slightly to himself. The rest of us joined him, and I got my answer as to what noise I had been hearing while inside the dark curvaceous rock formation. Water rushed from the left of the tunnel and dropped far down below into a valley, forming a powerful waterfall. The waterfall was probably two to three hundred feet in width and swallowed up the rest of the mountainside.“Woah!,” I said excitedly. “This is…stunning.”“It is,” Crimson agreed. “The view never gets old.”“How did you guys find this place?,” I asked.“Well, one of us just happened to be a Beta tester back in the day. Apparently the area was going to be used in a questline that ended up being scrapped. So now it just exists without any particular reason,” Melanie explained.“I imagine the artists who created it would be happy to know it still exists. But wait, which one of you started playing ToR first?,” I asked, tilting my head slightly.“That would be me,” Phoenix offered.“That’s really neat! Was the game a lot different back then?,” I questioned.“Very,” he said, nodding furiously.“Yes, yes, Phoenix is very cool. But I believe we came here for a reason,” Crimson said.Phoenix glared temporarily over at Crimson, and I had to wonder what strange dynamic the two of them shared. But the thoughts quickly left my mind as everyone turned their attention towards me. My heart, or a false presence replicating a heartbeat, started to pick up speed as I grew a little weary of what exactly initiation into their party would mean.“So… What exactly does initiation entail?,” I asked nervously.Melanie put her hand on my shoulder when she noticed my shift in mood. Phoenix was walking uncomfortably close to the edge of the cliff, and he turned over his shoulder to smirk in my direction. I looked at all the faces of my companions and found little comfort in any of them, even Melanie’s.“This may be a game, but we need to know that you have what it takes to join our party. We’re looking for energy, intensity, problem-solving skills, application of gameplay and class skills, and most importantly, bravery,” Phoenix said.“Hey I think you said the same exact thing to me,” Melanie noted.“Pretty sure he gave me the same spiel as well,” Crimson stated.The two shared a laugh as Phoenix threw them an annoyed expression. I chose to ignore the overly intimate manner that Crimson and Mel began to laugh in and turned my attention to Phoenix. I took a few steps over to where he stood and my feet rested next to his on the very edge of the cliff.“I have all of that,” I said confidently.“Really? Then prove it,” Phoenix challenged.“How?,” I asked, turning to face him directly.He mimicked my motions and looked down at me, narrowing his eyes as a mischievous smile tugged his lips to the sides of his face.“Jump,” he said simply.“Wh-what?,” I asked, breathless. “That’s crazy, I can’t jump!”“We’ve all done it,” Phoenix said, eyeing me critically.“R-really?,” I asked.I looked over at Crimson and Mel for confirmation and they both nodded at me.“There’s a large oasis down below. You’re guaranteed to hit the water and not solid ground,” Melanie added in an attempt to comfort me.I drew in a long and shaky breath. It should be fine to jump from a tall rock in a virtual game. It wasn’t as if I could die, or even feel pain. The scuffle I’d had with rats earlier taught me that there were no pain receptors to pick up on the damage a player received. Even if I happened to miss, it wouldn’t hurt physically. But my pride would be hurt if I didn’t make it, so I still wanted to aim for the center of the calm oasis waters.“Okay then,” I stated. “I’ll do it.”I narrowed my eyes at Phoenix and gave him a curt nod in order to signify my commitment to my word. Taking a few steps back from the edge, I started to plan my movements as I shuffled as far back against the upwards leaning rocks as I could. Getting a running start guaranteed me some momentum to twist and maneuver myself in the air, in case my judgment of the distance was off. I huffed out a long shaky breath before running towards the side of the cliff. I could see Melanie panicking from the corner of my eye, and that caused my confidence to waver slightly.But I couldn’t afford to be shaken from my intent to follow through with my jump. A few paces in and I was close enough to the rim of the rocks to push off of it. My legs were shaky and my form wasn’t the best while I was jumping, but it did the trick. Seconds later I was soaring through the air and for a brief moment, I thought the virtual world had slowed to a stop. I could feel the air rushing against my skin, and a slight chill gave me the feeling of non-existent arm hairs standing up on their ends. Being several hundred feet in the air was terrifying in concept, but I also felt so free while I was floating in the wind.I started to judge my distance with the water below and twisted my waist so that I would be centered over the large body of rippling, clear water. I crossed my arms over my shoulders the way you’re supposed to on a large water slide, and let gravity take me the rest of the way. Attempting to keep my body straight, I hit the surface of the water just a moment or two later. With a satisfying splash, my weight was pulled down by gravity and I plunged under the water’s sheer surface. After collecting myself, I pushed my top half upwards by scooping the water around me with my arms. In real life I wasn’t the strongest swimmer, but water in game didn’t carry the same viscosity that it normally would. It felt comparable, but something about the texture of it made it easier for me to glide through it.Once I surfaced, I looked up and saw my companions leaping off the edge to join me in the oasis. Shocked, I watched them hit the water one by one and laughed as they swam over to me. Phoenix was first to approach me, and I smiled as I took notice of him.“Do I pass?,” I asked.“I believe you do. I have to admit, I didn’t think you were gonna do it,” Phoenix said.“Well I’m happy to have proved you wrong,” I said, smirking.His eyebrows raised up into curious arches, and then he smirked back at me. With one swift motion, he pulled his arms up to splash water at my face. I laughed lightly, and then swam a little bit away from him. I swished my arms around under the clear oasis water, and sent a small wave over to Phoenix. He sputtered as the water entered his mouth and then he looked at me with a curious expression. As his sleek body approached me in the water, I came to realize he had worn the expression of a competitive individual. He was determined to win the little war that he had started with me.Immediately I attempted to flee, spreading my arms out to push off of the water’s fluid surface. But he caught me before I could, and pushed my head under the thin, reflective edge. I groaned and swallowed a cup or two’s worth of liquid. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt my esophagus on its way down to my gut. I tried to break free of Phoenix’s hold with one of my arms. My free arm that was extended, pulled him under the surface with me.He was shocked at the sudden turn of events, and looked over at me with wide eyes. His cheeks were puffed up with the gasp of air he’d managed to swallow before I forced him to sink under the water with me. Phoenix blinked once as if to recognize how sneaky I’d been, and I blinked back in response. We sat under the rim of the oasis, sinking a few feet deeper as time passed. As our bodies floated downwards we spent a moment gazing at one another, and I had a feeling we were both thinking the same thing. We were more alike than we had previously thought. Phoenix smiled a shallow, but confident grin before pulling on my arm. He surfaced and brought me up with him. We both took in a large breath of air, and then laughed in the company of one another.“I thought you two were actually fighting!,” Mel said anxiously as she approached us.Her strong arms were making little work of the waters’ minimal resistance. She splashed Phoenix and shook her head afterwards. Phoenix seemed to light up when Melanie rolled her eyes playfully at him. I stared at the pair and found myself smiling as I watched them interact. I was starting to understand just why Mel liked these two guys so much, and why she always bragged about her online friends.“We were just coming over to see what happened,” Crimson added.His face appeared right behind Melanie’s, and Phoenix waved him off. Crimson called him out for being so dismissive and the two began to tousle in the water. Melanie huffed and then paddled over to me, gazing at me fondly.“You’re okay, right? I know you’re not a strong swimmer,” she said with concern.“I’m alright,” I confirmed.“Good. Let’s give the guys a minute to fight it out. This happens a lot,” she said.I laughed a little. I imagined with Phoenix’s competitive nature, and Crimson’s very prim and proper one, they probably managed to butt heads often.“Sure. I am feeling a little cold though. Cold… It’s so strange that I can feel that,” I said to Mel.She smiled lopsidedly, and gestured for me with her head to follow her.“I was actually thinking the same. Let’s head over to the bank,” she said.We both crossed the clear surface of the oasis waters to a sloped bank on the far side of the large alcove. Melanie pulled herself up onto the sandy surface first and then reached back to offer me a hand. I took it and waded out of the shallow water behind Melanie. We decided to rest on a small sandy bank shaded by a sparse patch of tall trees. Our position elevated us just above the oasis waters and we watched Phoenix and Crimson fight out their feelings as they splashed, pushed, and dragged their way to a meaningless victory.After a few minutes had passed I looked over at Melanie with a raised eyebrow.“So what exactly is their deal? I thought this was going to end a lot sooner,” I stated.My eyes had been glued to Crimson’s impressive form most of the time the two guys had been fighting. He seemed like he was usually one step ahead, always anticipating what Phoenix would do next and creating a flexible plan to maintain the upper hand. He was careful about where his head and arms were placed at any given moment in time. What Phoenix lacked in foresight and planning, he made up for with brute strength. The black haired fighter was always able to wiggle his way out of Crimson’s grasp and react with appropriate force during his counterattack.“You know, I’m not sure. I think they just fight because they both have a lot of pride or something. Though they didn’t used to argue quite this much,” Mel admitted.“Something must have happened,” I acknowledged. “Though, in a strange way, it’s endearing to watch them fight. You can tell they do it partly because they care about one another.”“Definitely,” Melanie said.In a little while the guys got tired of feeling water in their throats and were ready to relax on the sand with Melanie and myself. They swam over to the bank, with Crimson in the lead, and started the trek over to the two of us that were resting. Melanie leaned over and requested that I not bring their fight up in a whispered tone. She told me with total confidence that it would just start up again at the mere mention of the struggle between the guys. I accepted her request and we greeted them as they came over to us. Crimson sat down right next to Melanie, leaving little room for anything else between them. Phoenix came and sat on my left, putting me in the middle of everyone.We all laid out on the slightly grassy patches of terrain and watched the sun descend even further in the sky. The warm tones of light were fading, and the sky threatened to fall into darkness soon.“Should we be worried about the darkness? Do mobs spawn at an increased rate or anything?,” I asked my friends.“No, spawn rates don’t change depending on time of day. Just location on the map. Though a few raids can only happen at night, same with dungeon entrances spawning and stuff. But none of that is anywhere near us,” Crimson explained.“Okay, good. I didn’t want to get up anyway,” I said back.I heard each of my friends let out a small chuckle, Phoenix included. I looked at him from the corner of my eye and smiled. His laugh was surprisingly warm when it happened unintentionally, and I really liked hearing it.“Oh, I almost forgot,” Melanie said.She moved her hands in front of her face, opening some menus that I couldn’t read from the angle I was laying in. After a moment though, I got a notice of an invite to a party flash into my own display. I smiled lopsidedly and accepted it immediately. In the top left corner of my screen, a small symbol appeared to indicate that I was the member of an active party. It looked like the outline of two people with a shield behind their forms. In small lettering, I could see the names of Crimson, Phoenix, and Melanie. Aside from their names the new box held their levels, and health status of my party members. There was also a tiny symbol that indicated what weapon type or skill they had equipped. Though I wasn’t too familiar with all the symbols yet and couldn’t tell what they meant outside of the bow that appeared next to Mel’s name.“Glad to have you on board,” Crimson said.I looked over at him and could barely make out his face from above the outline of Melanie’s outstretched body. Regardless, I couldn’t contain the giddiness I felt from the validation of a new party member and I smiled at him in response.“Glad to be on board,” I said.We laid in silence for a few moments, letting the ambience of the area sink in. The waterfall was now far enough away that the sound of roaring water sounded like white noise. The rushing water combined with the sounds of crickets emerging for the night gave me a sense of peace I had not felt in a long time. In my ordinary life things were chaotic, fast-paced, and stressful. There weren’t many opportunities for me to just lay flat on my back and enjoy the little things. In Tales of Reverie, I had already experienced several of those moments. I was feeling increasingly grateful that I was able to experience all of this, and I even found myself wishing that this was my actual life. It was going to be difficult to convince myself to log out.Beats of peace passed, and in a very in-character moment, Phoenix rose to feet and disrupted it first.“Alright, that’s enough of that. What’s next?,” he asked.“You can never just relax, can you?,” Melanie asked him, rolling her eyes.“Nope. But we also have a noob in our party now. We have a lot to teach her,” Phoenix urged.“You’re right. Well if we head back to Tir Na Nol we can probably knock out some lower level task board quests. They should award Kat with some decent low level gear too,” Melanie said.“I’m down for that,” Crimson encouraged.“That settles it,” Phoenix said.As if he had been re-energized through some external force, he hopped away from where we had been standing and summoned his Phoenix mount. In a blinding blur of blue flames, the big bird bursted forth in the air and cawed as it rested its taloned feet onto the ground.“Oh, I am not doing this again,” Crimson shuddered.Phoenix was out of ear shot and was petting his blue bird with a surprising amount of affection. I couldn’t help but feel drawn to him when I saw things like that. We really were more alike than I had realized. I turned to Crimson and placed an arm on his shoulder reassuringly.“It’s okay. You go with Mel. I’ll ride shotgun with Phoenix,” I told Crim confidently.“Are you sure about that? You saw everything earlier right?,” Crimson asked.“Yes, I did,” I laughed. “I’ve known some terrible drivers in real life. Nothing can really shock me anymore. I’ll be fine.”“If you’re sure,” Melanie said hesitantly.She summoned her dragon and after blue light brought the large beast forth, she climbed up onto his back but not before Crimson said something to her. Leaving Melanie and Crimson to fight about who would ride in front, I approached Phoenix. He wore a look of confusion as I walked over to him and raised an eyebrow at my presence as I neared him and his phoenix.“Where’s Crim?,” he asked.“Riding with Melanie. I believe he said that riding with you makes him motion sick or something along those lines,” I teased.Phoenix’s eyes flashed over to Crimson and Melanie before they rested on my face and he nodded once. As if his energy had been sucked clean out of him, he agreed to let me ride with a few, short words. He climbed up first and I followed, and we took off in silence. I found myself feeling disappointed that we weren’t talking like before, but I realized that we didn’t know each other that well. Maybe my joke was too far, or he simply was uncomfortable with me. I made sure to keep my hands to myself and tried to adjust to the newfound silence between us.Since we weren’t speaking, I found my eyes wandering around our surroundings and I noticed something about Phoenix while gliding through the air. He was taking extra care to ensure that I didn’t have a bumpy ride. The wings of the phoenix were pumping regularly, and she stayed in a perfect line as we approached Tir Na Nol. So he wasn’t a bad driver, but rather pretended to be for some reason. I had a feeling that was somehow connected to how quiet he’d gotten all of a sudden. Out of solidarity, and partly because I liked Phoenix and his strange personality, I opted to keep that revelation to myself.We touched down just on the outskirts of Tir Na Nol, and though we had been here not long ago, I felt a sense of contentment as we returned. I smiled as Phoenix helped me climb down from his mount, and he raised an eyebrow at me when he caught sight of it.“What?,” he asked.“Nothing. I just like being here,” I said simply. “Tir Na Nol is beautiful.”“You sure seem easy to please,” Phoenix huffed.“I might be, but you act like that’s a bad thing,” I threw back.“No, it isn’t. I’m just not used to that, I guess,” he admitted.I wanted to ask him what was going through his head, but after a second or two Melanie and Crimson approached on the back of Mel’s dragon. The dragon disappeared and our friends regrouped with us just outside the town entrance. We approached a board posted in the paved town square. The tall wooden board held all kinds of quests and tasks on its roughly put together surface. The whole sign had a giant exclamation point over it to alert players that there were tasks available for them to do. Wanting to upgrade my gear, my friends suggested that we claim tasks that were in between our levels. They could handle any higher level enemies, and I would be responsible for any lower level ones. I agreed, and we ended up pulling three different quests down from the task board. The first one asked that we gather mushrooms on a cliffside East of Tir Na Nol. The second quest wanted us to slay imps in a nearby forest, and the third quest needed our party to retrieve a scroll from a high leveled cave bear. All of these were more than manageable with our current party, even with my lack of experience.We charted a path that would take us to all three quests in a sequence, and luckily for us, they were all close to Tir Na Nol in some fashion or another. We headed to the forest to kill imps first, and since it was the easiest quest I had picked up, we had no issues. I got some tips about wielding a blade from Crimson and Phoenix as we fought through a few hoards of freakishly small imps. Imps in ToR had some sort of teleportation magic, and it required solid teamwork to fight through them all.After that was taken care of, Mel had to patch me up since I had taken a few blows to the back. She was able to heal me up just fine with her restoration magic, and then we were on our way to the cliffside Northeast of the forest. Climbing up was easy due to my friends’ mounts, and we found the glowing mushrooms in no time. I almost lost my footing at one point, but Melanie was there to grab my hand and keep me on my feet. We laughed about it afterwards and then were on our way.The last quest I had taken required us to travel to a cave in between the small mountain and the town of Tir Na Nol. Once we arrived at the entrance, we had to fight some low level mobs. Small bears and skeletons were plentiful inside the cave, and posed a challenge to us until we made it to the central cavern. Inside sat a large, glowing black bear with a strange symbol painted on its forehead. Melanie gave me a quick rundown of how parties typically fought large enemies. Enemies larger in stature were called colossi, and colossi had a few notable traits. Firstly their giant size gave them higher attack power so if their attacks hit a player, it would cause significant damage. Colossi also had a special skill or two, usually in the form of a status effect or form of magic. This bear in particular had dark magic since it lived in a cave with the undead and dropped a skill scroll upon its death.We formulated a small plan of attack, and then charged in. Melanie would cover us from afar, since ranged attacks were her specialty. Crimson’s build consisted of a great sword and defensive magic, so he would focus on pulling the aggro of the bear. Phoenix and I had the job of dealing close range damage but also calling out any changes in the enemy.The fight started out well, with all of our party members performing their roles flawlessly. After some damage had been dealt to the bear, his fur started to stand up and his magic was employed. A pulsating black ring spawned around his feet and extended across the ground. I had been focused on slashing at the bear’s legs and missed the new occurrence by a few seconds. Crimson was able to roll out of it, and Phoenix was right behind him. The magic seemed to be some sort of gravity magic as it pulled me closer to the bear and I was slashed a few times by his large claws. I tried to put my blade in between us, but my HP was already dropping. I started to panic since I was the only one in close range with the enemy. Before I could think about what to do, Phoenix swooped in and grabbed my arm, pulling me outside of the dark magic circle. He tossed me to the side and conjured some blue flames before engulfing the bear in them. After the bear started to burn a bright blue, Phoenix looked over his shoulder at me. The bear’s magic was gone, so I rushed it once more and dealt the final few blows.My blade sliced into its thick hide, and I watched the large rectangular bar above its head drop to zero. With one last growl, it roared in defeat before its large body dropped to the ground. My tasks were updated on my quest list, and I smiled to myself.“Wow, nice job everyone,” Phoenix said. “That didn’t go as badly as I imagined it would.”“What were you expecting to happen?,” Crimson asked.“Dunno. We’ve never had someone so low level with us before,” Phoenix said.His attitude seemed different still, and his response sounded guarded and critical in much the same way he seemed earlier. Before I could address it, Mel dropped to her knees beside me and began applying her first aid skills to fix my low health.“Stop being a downer, Phe. It’s Kat’s first day. She’s going to make mistakes,” Melanie defended.“I know that. I’m just saying,” Phoenix said with a sigh. “But we did pretty well together.”“Yeah we did,” Crimson grinned.Once I was all patched up, we boarded the mounts and headed back to Tir Na Nol square. The trip back to the square didn’t take long, and before I knew it I was handing in my quests to the same board I’d received them from. Upon completion, I was awarded with a few new items. A new sword that wasn’t the basic starter one was granted to me, and I took a minute to read over the enchantment that was applied.“Hey, why don’t we head back into the tavern and relax for a while? I’m probably going to have to get off soon,” Melanie said.“Sure, sounds good,” Crimson responded.I closed my inventory window and followed my friends back to the tavern we’d first met at. Inside less players than before were seated conversing amongst themselves, and the atmosphere was quieter than it had been earlier in the evening. Still, the warm toned lights and buzz of patrons was calming. We entered and selected a table in the back corner of the establishment. Sitting down at the square wooden table, the four of us began to chat idly. I found my heart aching a little at the thought of having to part with Melanie again. We barely spoke on a regular basis, though we did our best. Being in Tales of Reverie with her felt almost as if we were back together in person. It was the closest we could get for now, anyway. We were just missing Whitney, and then our reunion would be complete.“Oh! Before I forget, I have something for you Kat! I’m gonna open up a trade window with you. All you need to do is accept and then you’ll see what gets put into the window. You don’t need to give me anything in return,” Mel said excitedly.“I bet I know what it is,” Crimson said smugly.“Don’t ruin the surprise!,” Mel shrieked at him.“Okay, okay. Send the request,” I said with a small laugh.I saw a window pop up in front of me and I tapped on the small icon of an item that showed up in the segmented item list.“It’s a camping item?,” I asked.“Yeah! In this game camping is kind of important. Resting helps you regain HP. Camping also allows you to cook food which can raise stats temporarily. Sometimes you can get items which also boost any skill XP for a short duration as well. So say you want to train your first aid skill. You could obtain a gemstone for that, then use it while camping, and you’d gain XP twice as fast while the effect is active,” Mel explained.“Oh I see. So what’s this then?,” I questioned.“It’s a sleeping bag. It’s just an item you can use to rest on. Though there are a lot of different types. Beds, chairs, and the like. You can craft them, earn them, or buy them. But this sleeping bag is special because it was made by yours truly with the tailoring skill,” Melanie bragged.“You made this for me? That’s so sweet. Thanks, Mel,” I said.“But you didn’t even see the best part. Select it and open the “inspect” menu,” Mel suggested.She was holding balled up fists over her mouth in order to suppress an excited giggle. I wondered what she was so giddy about, and as the secondary window opened and I watched the little sleeping bag model spin around, I understood. The sleeping bag was yellow with a little white fox stitched into the largest portion of the fabric. When we were kids Whitney, Melanie, and I had always been obsessed with particular animals. For Whitney it was horses, because their sleek forms were beautiful to her and they represented the kind of freedom I believed she was still trying to obtain for herself. For Melanie it was dragons because she was always fascinated with the world as it could be, and not as it was. Just as her art depicted her ideal version of the world, so did her favorite animals. And for me, I was always drawn to the fox. It was the perfect embodiment of the traits I liked in both cats and dogs, and I felt a sense of solidarity with their magical qualities and resilience.I started to tear up, and quickly realized that the process of displaying emotions was very complex in game. I quickly wiped my eye on my shoulder and played it off. Looking at Melanie, I smiled in a deep, engulfing way and thanked her again.“Of course. I wish I could make one for Whitney too,” she stated.“But we both know Whit would never play something like this,” I laughed.My sister was a bit of an outlier when it came to the hobbies we usually had. Growing up her interests had varied from Melanie and I’s at times. The older we got, the more she gave up her free time and hobbies to take on other skills. She matured into a serious and overbearing older sister very quickly, even before our parents had passed. But I was grateful for that once we were on our own. She didn’t get overwhelmed and buckle under the pressure. Whitney just kept pushing and adding more responsibilities onto our pile slowly. I really did have the best sister one could ask for.“Definitely not,” Mel agreed with a half-grin.“Uh, who’s Whitney?,” Phoenix asked.“She’s my older sister,” I supplied. “The three of us grew up together.”“That’s why these two are really like my family,” Melanie added. “We spent more time together than apart.”“It sounds like a wonderful childhood,” Crimson said thoughtfully.“It was,” I said in a nostalgic voice.The conversation took a sharp turn as Phoenix let out a sharp swear and then rolled his eyes to himself. I turned my head to watch his eyebrows furrow in a frustrated manner, and half expected him to say something in regards to Melanie and I’s nostalgic anecdote. But he wasn’t looking at us at all, and instead had a screen pulled up in front of himself.“Oh shit,” he breathed. “We’re logged in for maintenance.”“You’re joking,” Crimson said, immediately gritting his teeth.“Wish I was. But I wouldn’t joke about that,” Phoenix stated.“They must have pushed it up, but after recent complaints I have no idea why they would do that,” Crimson said, crossing his arms.“So I’m gonna need a little context. Is that a bad thing? It sounds bad,” I added.“Sorry, yeah. Maintenance in this game is known to be a nightmare. It never happens when scheduled. And it’s been known to cause rollbacks, taking progress or items away from certain players. That’s not all either, because sometimes rollbacks cause a bunch of other smaller issues. Random teleportation, visual bugs, and the inability to interact with menus just to name a few. Most of those are very rare occurrences, but the forums have been discussing it at length lately,” Phoenix explained.He seemed as though he was letting his personality shine through once more, and his eyes were focused on me as he spoke passionately. Phoenix really seemed to enjoy games, and not just as a player. He seemed knowledgeable about many of the other inner workings of them as well, like technical issues and development. I made sure to pay attention and nod along to his words to show him that I meant no ill intent.“Sounds awful,” I stated. “What are the odds that any of that happens to us?”“Not high, but it’s also not a total impossibility,” Mel answered. “I haven’t experienced any of that myself, but some seasoned players have. There’s even someone on the forums who logs any issues regarding maintenance, or general poor performance from Xenon.”“I’ve seen those. They’re really detailed, but the guy kind of seems like a conspiracy theorist if you ask me,” Crimson stated. “I don’t pay them much mind.”“I don’t think there’s any malice behind his posts. He plays this game just like all of us do,” Phoenix said.“Some of them are a bit much,” Melanie agreed.“Whatever. Well, what do you two suggest we do?,” Phoenix asked.“Hey, I’m here too,” I reminded him.“Yeah, but you aren’t that familiar with how ToR operates. I don’t know if you can really weigh in on this one,” Phoenix said back.I relented and sat back further in my chair. I couldn’t argue against him when it came to the matter of experience. It was my total of a few hours logged versus all the hours he’d racked up since the game’s beta.“I think we should stay logged in,” Melanie suggested. “I’ve heard of issues occurring when players attempt to log out during maintenance. Likely we’d face the possibility of a rollback or an application error.”“I’d really rather not deal with that,” Crim offered.“Same here,” I agreed.“Well then I guess we can just hang out until we get confirmation that maintenance is over,” Melanie said casually.A part of me was secretly glad that we had agreed to stay, but that didn’t last long since after a few peaceful moments, something strange started to happen. The tavern began shaking, and a large rumbling noise erupted from all around us.“What, are there earthquakes in this game?,” I asked my friends.My voice immediately fell flat as I saw their wide, confused eyes. None of them showed any sign that they knew what was going on. Phoenix was the first to jump out of his chair, and as he stood on his feet on the tavern floor he quickly looked over at another group of players that sat a few feet from us.“Do any of you know what’s going on?,” he asked loudly.Melanie immediately shot up out of her seat and moved next to me in a protective manner. We both stood close to a wall of the tavern and waited for Phoenix to get some answers. The NPC tavern owner wasn’t acting in response to the new occurrence around us. She continued to wipe the bar top down and restock various baskets sitting on the counter. It was eerie to see her behave like normal, though I guessed that whatever was happening wasn’t exactly a part of planned maintenance.“I have no idea,” an orange haired player shouted back. “We were going to stay logged in during maintenance. Maybe it’s a bug.”“Yeah so were we, but I’m thinking that wasn’t a good call,” Crimson said.All of us moved to the center of the tavern instinctively and we chattered nervously amongst ourselves. In total there were probably twenty or so players present. Even as we stood in the dead center of the room, the rumbling didn’t stop and I was beginning to grow weary.“Don’t worry. It’s probably just a freak thing like an audio and visual error. This game has some issues at times,” Melanie said.“You didn’t think to mention that to me before I played it?,” I asked.“I assumed you knew. You used to read the forums a bit,” she argued.“I didn’t read that much. And I only read them so I could talk to you about your favorite game. I felt like I didn’t always have a lot to tell you, so connecting over something was better than nothing,” I admitted.My words were shaky as I said more than I meant to. I didn’t want to bother Melanie with all my issues, because we were here to spend time together. Whatever I felt in real life could stay there for the time being. I just wanted to be close to my best friend again.“Kat, I–”She never got to finish what she was saying because a player rushed into the tavern with wide eyes.“Hey you should really come see this!,” they said frantically.They turned back around and hurried out the door as quickly as they entered. I looked around at my friends and after a few hesitant glances, we nodded together. Before we could charge out the door, Melanie spoke up loudly.“Crim, you and Kat go outside and see what’s going on. I want to talk to Phoenix for a moment,” Melanie instructed.“Right now?,” Crim asked, dumbfounded.“It won’t take long. Just go,” she ushered.I looked towards Crim with an anxious expression etched on my face, but he put a hand on my shoulder lightly and directed me towards the door of the tavern. I almost protested in regards to his actions, but his steadfast demeanor helped soothe my nerves. My new silver haired friend was first to slip out the door, and I followed hot on his heels. As we stepped onto the front stone lip in front of the tavern, our eyes gravitated towards the sky. Glancing up at a swirling sky of red and wine colored clouds, I froze in place. Slowly my eyes widened in shock, and as I turned to Crimson for reassurance, I found none. His face mirrored my own fearful gaze, and I felt dread begin to spread through my core.“What is this?,” I asked shakily.“I…don’t know,” Crimson admitted.His tone of voice was lower, and he had lost all of the casual charm he’d possessed earlier when we first met. Crim’s confidence had been shaken up so much that it was drained out of his body. In its stead, discomfort flooded the now empty recess and filled him with as much shock and fear as I held.A mass of players had gathered outside, and the town square was busier than I’d seen it previously. Anxious muttering could barely be heard over echoing gusts of wind and the loud claps of thunder that spread through the blood red sky. I instinctively moved closer to Crimson and we stared wide-eyed at the sky together.“Maybe…maybe it’s just a bunch of bugs?,” I offered.Part of the reason everyone seemed so shaken was likely because in virtual reality everything felt authentic. I almost felt as if I was outside staring up at a tornado in real life. Whenever I had experienced that, a pit in my stomach grew and I always felt small in the face of nature, something that was completely out of my control. That same feeling washed over me when I understood that all the players standing outside were completely at the mercy of XeCo and their affiliated studios.“It’s possible the patch was faulty, but I’ve never seen anything like this. They could probably push out a hotfix for it, but…,” Crim trailed off.I believed that he and I were thinking something very similar. I thought about Whitney and her warnings in regards to XeCo, and I felt a pang of guilt as I wished I had taken her words more seriously. A moment later our friends rushed out to join us, and the other players who had been in the tavern filed out of the door in small waves. Soon it felt like every player in the immediate area was staring up at the same menacing sky.“What the hell?,” Phoenix demanded. “What’s going on?”Melanie stepped close to where I stood and reached down to grab my hand. She squeezed it reassuringly as she and Phoenix worked through the shock that Crimson and I had felt moments earlier.“It's been several minutes, and nothing seems to have been fixed yet,” I uttered.“That does not bode well,” Crimson agreed.“What…I mean why– what did they do?,” Melanie struggled to ask.Her words were broken as she attempted to recover from the distress she was feeling as a result of all the strange happenings around us. Phoenix was standing in front of the three of us, narrowing his eyes at the sky.“Well that’s just great. XeCo has really screwed up this time. Like it or not, we should probably log out. I’ll take whatever rollbacks or visual bugs that come with that choice. It’s better than waiting around to see what else might happen to us,” Phoenix spat.His annoyance was palpable, but more than annoyed he seemed genuinely angry. Instead of being shocked or borderline afraid, his eyes formed aggressive slits as he denounced the tech giant who had a heavy hand in ToR’s creation. It was almost strange to me that he seemed more calm than the rest of us. But then again, I didn’t think it was necessarily calm that he was embodying. Phoenix was just processing his emotions differently than any of our other party members. It was possible that anger was the only way he could keep himself from feeling the dread that threatened to weigh us all down.“I agree. We should probably log out,” Melanie rushed. “I’ll message everyone once we’re all unplugged. We can scour the forums together to see what exactly happened.”I moved my hand in front of my face and opened up the menu where I figured the logout sequence would show up at. Before I could navigate through all the screens, I heard Phoenix let out a deep swear and soon after Melanie gasped with terror. I turned my head and watched as my party members all stared at their UI, eyes filled to the brim with unending panic. My hand moved quickly and I soon mimicked their actions as I came to see what prompted their response. Even Phoenix, who had been mostly stoic and full of fury, was gazing deadpanned at his floating screen with a fist clenched at his side.There was no log-out button. The option had been completely removed from our screens. I began to take in raspy breaths and closed my window, glancing around at my friends.“Wh-what do we do?,” I asked on the verge of panicking.From somewhere deep in the crowd we heard the shrieks of other players, and I guessed that they had made the same discovery as our party. For the time being, we were completely and utterly trapped within Tales of Reverie. Before we could assess our options, the ground began to shake from beneath us. The trembling burst forth with such violence that it knocked Melanie and I clear off our feet. Landing on my back end, I felt my bones collide with the stone surface that we’d been standing on. To my surprise, I almost felt sore from the impact but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. After barely a minute, large monsters and creatures taller than the buildings in Tir Na Nol began to appear after a glint of colorful light. Some of them roared out, while others brought their large feet or extra appendages down into the streets of the town.All hell broke loose as players began to scream and flee in every direction around us.“Those are endgame bosses. We need to run. NOW!,” Crimson urged.He didn’t need to tell us twice as all of our party members bolted into action. We fled from under the canopy of the tavern’s structure and began to book it down a side street. Thankfully due to the appearance of the monsters, the trembling of the ground and everything else had stopped. But large claps of thunder raged on high in the sky, and the panic from the streets full of horrified players had taken its place. With all of the noise surrounding us, it was difficult to hear even those speaking close by. But I tried my best to keep my focus on my friends as we planned our escape route.“Should we head North?,” I called to my friends, my voice booming as I raced beside them.“No, the map ends that way. We should try and sneak around to the West!,” Melanie answered.Phoenix stuck his arm up in the air in an attempt to summon his mount, and he let out a growl of frustration as nothing was working like we expected.“We can’t use mounts!,” he relayed.“We go West then,” Crimson yelled.The four of us raced around buildings and swarms of players in an attempt to exit the sightline of the giant monsters. One of them was taller than the rest and had a design that looked to be a mixture between a dragon and a centaur. His color palette was black and red, and he wore hardy armor to cover parts of his skin and scales. His attacks were raining fire into the streets, and the giant flaming lance that he held within his hands was striking down at players every few minutes.My friends and I reached the edge of the city by using buildings and other structures for cover. Once we were on the outer rim, there was no city architecture to help shield us from the raging beasts. A golden dragon, a large eldritch beast, and a three-headed bear with a battle torn body were out the outskirts of Tir Na Nol. The largest boss was closer to the town square, but as we approached the other three we realized we still weren’t in the clear. If anything, we were much worse off due to the open field surrounding the city. With little cover, and nothing to distract the boss nearest us, the Cerberus-like bear honed in on our party.“Uh, guys! Look out!,” I yelled as loudly as I could.The bear was smaller than the boss who was wreaking havoc on Tir Na Nol, but he still towered over any nearby trees. His large feet held elongated, sharpened talons that dug into the ground as he charged close to us.“I got this!,” Crimson yelled.He quickly withdrew his large sword and an icon appeared over his head as he stopped running. Crimson’s body began to glow a deep orange before he thrusted his blade down into the ground. Cracks formed around it, and the earth under our feet began to shake once more as the shattering dirt careened over to where the boss was standing. A large gaping crevasse opened within the ground and the bear nearly fell inside as its back legs were swallowed up by the enlarging earthen pit.“That should slow it down,” Crimson said confidently.He pushed off the ground and began jogging once more, catching up to the rest of us fairly quickly. I could still hear the groans of the bear as he was struggling with his weight sinking into the pit that now laid beneath his back.“I don’t think it’s going to hold him!,” Melanie called.Without another word, Phoenix let his feet skid to a stop and a new skill icon appeared above his head. A large indigo light shot up into the air and a mass of blue fireballs headed directly for the bear who was struggling to gain a foothold. I stopped in my tracks as well, wanting to ensure that Phoenix’s attack landed and we could finally make a clean getaway. To my relief, the fireballs made contact with the bear with such force that they pushed him backwards even further. The bear finally lost its grip on the dirt and fell entirely into the pit, swallowed up by the map itself.Phoenix grinned to himself, and I let out a breath of reprieve at the sight.“Phe! Kat! Ten o’clock!,” Melanie screamed.She and Crimson had stopped a short distance away, but it was far enough that our next enemy had already set its sights on Phoenix and I. While we had been busy with the bear, the dragon had finished messing with whatever poor players had been before us. Its golden scales glinted even in the dim red haze that surrounded us, and it leaned back on its hind legs as it prepared to attack. It was a good distance away from us, but Phoenix seemed panicked as it took note of us. I pulled my sword out and Phoenix rolled his eyes to himself briefly.“We can’t fight that one, trust me. Run!,” he screeched.He grabbed my hand aggressively and tugged me with him as he began to dash through fields of wheat. Close by was a small stone bridge that led into town, and as the air around us began to glow with a menacing orange color, I was certain the dragon’s attack would hit us. In one smooth motion, Phoenix used some sort of magic skill to propel us off the ground. Our bodies made contact with the hard stones of the stream just beneath the cover of the bridge. I rolled a few times but placed my arms out in front of me to stop myself from rolling out of our new cover. As the two of us huddled under the stone arch, large bolts of fire rained down overhead. Most of the flames touched down just out of reach of the stream.“That…was close,” I breathed. “Thanks.”I pushed myself up with my elbows and Phoenix did the same. We both moved to the side of the bridge that gave us direct cover from the dragon. When I didn’t see any new fires break out around us, I tilted my head just past the safety of the cracked, grey stone and tried to catch sight of the golden beast who had chased us under here.“Do you think it aggro’d on someone else?,” I asked.“I’m not sure,” Phoenix stated.“What about Crimson and Mel?,” I asked in a panic.“They’ll be okay. They’re both familiar with the combat system of this game. Though I hate to admit it, they work well together so they’ll be able to make their way out of a bind,” Phoenix said.His voice was quieter than usual, and it sounded less gruff as well. I looked over at his face and he seemed exhausted already. I was sure that he used a great deal of his magic to get us to safety.“What should we do now?,” I questioned softly.I was mostly asking myself that question, but I wouldn’t pass up on any wisdom Phoenix had to share. I was completely out of my element, but then again, I suppose Phoenix was as well. It’s not every day that players get trapped within virtual reality, and from what our party had discussed, it sounded like when it happened to the occasional player, it was resolved within twenty four hours or so.“As much as I hate the thought of it, we should probably just wait here for a while,” Phoenix admitted. “My mana is pretty low right now, and I have no idea what else those bosses are capable of.”“You’ve never seen them before?,” I asked for clarification.“No, not these. I’m good at ToR and can hold my own in most content. But I’ve hardly had the time to grind for endgame stuff. These guys I’ve only seen screenshots of and read very brief details about,” he said honestly.“Then I guess we'll wait it out. Do you think we’ll be safe here?”“Should be,” he supposed. “I have a feeling there are a ton of other players still running around in town.. That’ll keep the bosses distracted for a good while.”“Isn’t that kind of messed up though? We’re just going to allow other people to be used as bait?,” I asked.“They’ll be fine. They’ll probably respawn somewhere and laugh it off with their friends. I have some gear in my inventory that I really don’t want to lose though. So I’d hate to respawn and find out that I was victim to even more game breaking bugs,” Phoenix huffed.“I guess that’s fair,” I replied softly.I brought my knees up to my chest and let my back fall against the large stone arch of the bridge. My entire bottom half was drenched with the water of the slow moving stream we sat in. It was slightly uncomfortable, but not as palpable as it would have been in real life so I managed to bear the minimal amount of discomfort. Phoenix had his head turned away from me, his blue eyes watching the fields beyond the stream where we had come from. Unfortunately for us, we had ended up backtracking as we tried to flee from the dragon. I hoped that Melanie and Crimson wouldn’t have been reckless enough to cross the distance required to reunite with us. But still, I missed their presence already.I agreed with Phoenix that we were out of options. Running didn’t work out, we were now missing two party members, and I wouldn’t have been any good in a fight. Not to mention we still had no clue as to what was going on yet. In the face of so much uncertainty, waiting seemed like the smartest decision. As much as it killed me, I settled in for the long haul. My eyes were drawn to the small ripples that flowed by in the stream and I watched them swirl about in order to kill time.