********************************************************************************************************Meliadol stumbled as the portal deposited him right outside the city.
"Damn it," he muttered to himself, hoping no one saw his clumsiness, "I really need to get the hang of that."
But even as he picked himself up and dusted off his clothing, he couldn't stop from admiring the city now that he could see it up close. It wasn't all ivory and sparkle, like he had thought. Those were merely the castle-like foundation that served as Arendall's outward fortifications.
Inside was were the real gems were hidden.
The houses and buildings were of every imaginable shape and size, yet had a sense of uniformity to them that hinted at an underlying warmth and familiarity. As he followed the cobblestone road into the heart of the city, he was amazed at sheer variety of sights and sounds that greeted him.
Vendors loudly advertised their wares, selling equipment, food, and everything in between, while players argued with them and each other. He must have wandered in through the market area, because the streets were filled with a liveliness he had not expected.
Ah, and the players!
Meliadol had hit random when he made his character, getting a rather plain looking athletic human with disheveled blond hair and a few patches of facial hair. He had been anxious to begin playing, so he hadn't bothered with the aesthetics much. But it was obvious that others had not shared his nonchalance with their own ingame avatars.
Lizard men, elves, dwarves, even a fairy or two mixed together to create a diverse crowd for him to navigate through. Acting on a hunch, he finally mentally tapped on the alert that had appeared in his vision when he entered the city. Sure enough, it brought up his HUD and on the bottom left portion of his vision, a window had appeared.
It was labeled "General" and it scrolled rapidly as players chatted:
Godslayerx[22:53:25]: LF tank for Devil's Den!
Amelia Amarm[22:53:28]: LOL noob needs a tank for EZ dungeon
Catchme[22:53:31]: WTS [Tears of a Lonely God] x 3 PST
Godslayerx[22:53:35]: shutup idiot
Henrick[22:53:38]: Yo LF a god player to help me with my class quest
Dannar[22:53:45]: git good @Henrick
Amelia Amarm[22:53:51]: F U scrub
On and on it went. Meliadol was experienced with games, but not MMOs, and much of the terminology was foreign to him.
Meliadol sat down in the middle of the street, feeling temporarily overwhelmed. The sense of scale was too much, and the sheer volume of the chat spam made it only clearer to him. He could smell the foods from the vendors, and even feel the coarse cobblestone beneath his fingers. Above him, like ever watchful parents, the towers and arches of the city loomed.
It was too much.
How was he to know how unnerving a world within your mind was? SYNAPS was something he had just tried out on a whim and now he was supposed to play such an expansive game where even the NPCs were like living, breathing people?
Where would he even start?
The crowd, a mixture of players and NPCs, ignored this minor crisis of his, jostling him as they pushed through and around. Most tried to give him a bit of space, but in the end, he was sitting right in the middle of a busy intersection.
"What the fuck?" A body collided with his, sending the pair sprawling out over the street. He struggled to push the person off, but was quickly pinned.
Emerald eyes. They were the first thing he saw. They were vibrant, like light shining through ocean foam. But they were far colder than the sea and just as unforgiving. The dark leather-clad woman pushed herself off, rolling to the side, stopping for just a moment to look at him, "You! I'll remember this. Fucking idiot." She spat before vanishing into the crowd.
Meliadol stared after her, wanting to say something, but another noise drew his attention.
"Shit, did she go this way?"
"How the hell should I know? We're so damn close, hurry up!"
A pair pushed through, almost falling over Meliadol just as the woman had.
"What the hell?" A woman said, drawing herself up short just in time, "Why are you just stopped in the middle of the street like some hobo?"
"Darlia, calm down." A bear of a man put a calming hand on the fiery woman's shoulder, "I'm sure he didn't mean to get in the way."
"Yeah, but–"
"Besides," he continued, cutting her off, "She's already gone. No doubt she'll log off once the combat timer ticks down. We'll not find her now."
Meliadol looked back and forth between the pair.
The man was huge, with thick sinewy forearms, and a bushy peppered mustache that trembled with every word spoken. An exposed cut in his ornate leather armor and pauldrons showed off his turquoise tattoos, which wrapped up and around one half of his face, forming the visage of a savage wolf.
He was the very image of a proud warrior.
In contrast, his fiery woman companion, Darlia, was dainty in stature. Thin, wispy, with half her body, including her face, covered in bandages. Only her crimson eyes, behind dark bangs, peeked out at him. A loose fitting robe hid the rest of her body, and a pair of katanas were strapped on each side of her waist.
Both of them gave off an air of easy confidence that comes from knowing exactly who you are and what you're capable of. Meliadol could tell just by looking at them that they were experienced in this world, with this game, in a way that he distinctly was not.
He felt inadequate even being in their presence.
Darlia's eyes flashed blue, "Hey, Bast…look at his level.".
Bast, with eyes also bright blue, raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Level one, eh? We got a true newbie here!"
"Do you two mind?" Meliadol didn't appreciate being the sudden focus of these two senior players. He felt as if they were looking down on him.
The pair blinked, glancing at each other.
Bast suddenly burst out laughing, slapping Meliadol hard on the back. "I like this one, Darlia! He has spunk!" The man wore a large smile, friendly and warm, and extended a massive hand toward Meliadol. "My name's Bast, pleasure to meet you."
"Meliadol." He responded, his own hand engulfed in the bear-like paw.
Darlia didn't seem keen to introduce herself beyond giving him a slight nod of recognition. "Don't mind her." Bast leaned in, as if imparting a secret, "She's very shy."
"I am not, you idiot!" Darlia exploded, punching her companion in the gut, and though Meliadol doubted it actually hurt, Bast had the foresight to pretend it did, exclaiming a litany of apologies in return. He couldn't help but to grin at the scene.
The woman gave a sigh, grabbing her head as if in pain, "Look, no offense newbie, but normally you're beneath me to introduce myself to, but my buddy here seems to have taken an interest in you for whatever reason. If I don't pretend to be nice, he'll bitch and moan at me for hours…so…name's Darlia."
"Well, you don't have to pretend to like me." Meliadol countered, "I am new to the game. I was just kinda overwhelmed by it all. I didn't mean to get in your way."
"Nonsense!" Bast waved away the comment with a loud voice, but Meliadol didn't miss the glare he shot his companion, "It's just nice to see a new player. And if you're new to SYNAPS, I can understand how you might be overwhelmed."
"It's fine." Meliadol looked around. They were like exposed rocks in a stream. The crowd parted around them, but it wasn't very comfortable, "Look, I don't like standing here, being a nuisance, so I'm just gonna go look around and stuff. You know, being a newbie and all."
"Waitwaitwaitwait!" Bast moved quick for a such a large man, already maneuvering around to block Meliadol.
"What?" Meliadol was tired of the pair by now, and moved to push past the large man.
"Do you need help?"
Meliadol opened his mouth to tell him off, but then stopped. Did he need help? MMOs were designed around social interaction, and though he wasn't a sociable person, the sheer scope of this game was beyond his wildest expectations. Would it kill him to actually interact with people every once and awhile?
Still, a small part of himself rebelled against the thought.
"Why would you want to help a complete newb? To be honest, not even sure why I should keep playing." He bitterly said. His interactions with players hadn't been kind thus far. Most ignored him, and the few that didn't only stopped to call him a newb or curse at him. The initial amazement at the reality of the world now faded under the shadow of how much work one would need to understand it.
The thought of quitting the game had crossed his mind. It might just be too much for him, despite how amazing the technology was.
"Why?" Bast echoed his words, his expressive face solemn for the first time Meliadol had seen him, "Well, that's easy, Mel. I wish for you to love this game as much as I do."
"Love the game…as much as you?" He had not expected such a heartfelt statement, and even Darlia had to look away with embarrassment in the light of such a confession. Meliadol didn't have a chance against the boundless enthusiasm in Bast's eyes.
"Okay," he said with a defeated shrug, "Change my mind."
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