The mountaintop was devoid of life. Not even the tiniest plant could be seen resting upon its peak.
As a single creature slowly approached the peak, rocks littered its landscape. She was short, wearing a long white cloak with a down hood. The cloak had golden highlights around the wrists and an upside-down heart on the back, the bottom portion sporting a diamond pattern. The cloak itself ended above her ankles.
Beneath the cloak was a plain light green shirt with sleeves of unknown length. Around her waist was a red cloth belt holding up her white skirt.
She wore simple black dress shoes with dark green toe tips and heels. In her Right hand was a medium-sized white Ivory staff that doubled as a spear, with a blade of green crystal resting atop it.
She said nothing as she walked to the top, tapping the staff against the ground with every other step. Upon reaching the peak, she looked out across the land. Massive structures and towns littered the skyline. Slowly, she turned and took in all that there was to see, the skyline changing drastically depending on the direction she was facing.
To the south, a large kingdom took up most of the skyline. She could see a volcano billowing out a large volume of smoke and ash to the east. To the north, all she could see was a frozen wasteland, and to the West, a large forest. The Sun was slowly lowering behind the trees, and she sighed as she took in her surroundings.
She had dark green hair curled up on the left and right, with three small tufts atop her head. Her ears ended in points long enough to easily peek out of her hair.
Completing her look, she had emerald green eyes that were fairly large compared to the rest of her very rounded face. Her perfectly round eyes were half open, making them look like half circles.
"It's such a shame," she decided, averting her gaze to the sky. A massive meteor blotted out the sky and slowly approached the land. "I liked this game," she held up her hand and tapped her index finger in the air; a menu burst to life.
The name, The Pillars of Eternity, was flashing at the top. Beneath it, the name Bree was flashing next to a multicolored 250
A timer at the top right of her menu confirmed she had less than 10 minutes before the servers shut down. "Suppose I should spend these last precious moments at home," Bree decided as she took one last look at the massive game world she would never be able to explore again.
She held out her staff, and the Jade end began glowing as she opened a rift to her homestead. Upon entering, she looked out at the floating island, which was her home base. Even though she had no in-game friends to show it to, she had used every resource available in the game when making her home, going as far as to spend real money on it.
Her virtual home, a seven-story mansion, had the first five floors curved like a horseshoe, with the first floor jutting out slightly to either side at the end of the curve. The sixth floor was comprised of three separate towers and the roof area: two towers on either end of the curve and one in the center of the bend. The seventh floor rested atop the centermost tower and housed her throne room.
Next to the rightmost first-floor extension on the right side of the mansion was a small farm area for growing the ingredients required for multiple recipes, from food to potion recipes. Near the far left edge of her property was a shabby-looking cottage with a tall, somewhat crooked tower sticking out of it, a Windmill turbine spinning near the top. She made her way down the paved path to her mansion. A Garden filled the area. One of the 12 NPCs around her home stood by the front door.
It was a Humanoid figure covered in swaying blue robes; a hood was drawn over its head, letting only a few of its silvery hair strands free. On its face was a mask shaped and painted like an Oni's face. A Greatsword was set firmly in his grasp, a set of shining silver gauntlets were the only hints at the armor hidden beneath his clothes.
She held up her hand and said as clearly as she could, "Open; Door." It didn't touch the door, but it still opened for her while the NPC bowed. She walked in and looked at the large entrance hall. There was a two-sided staircase at the very back leading to the upper level, with a set of doors between the two stairs and a set of two doors on either side of the entry hall.
A golden statue of herself sat between the two stairways with her default expression, half-opened eyes, and a sweet and innocent-looking smile. The room's walls were decorated with armor and a set of non-metallic gear with a cape. On the wall above the two mannequins with the two gear sets were a framed Great Sword, Bow, and Wizard's staff. She had originally obtained these as a reward for playing the pre-launch beta.
Her avatar's expression stayed the same, but she smiled at the memory of her reward becoming worthless before the end of her first night of playing the day of launch. Some pieces hadn't even made it past the tutorial.
She walked past it, chuckling slightly at what a waste of time and money it had all been. Bree continued down the corridor before arriving at a set of stairs. She held out her hand and watched as her time slowly wasted away.
"There's no time to see it all," she said sadly as she ignored the stairs, cut another doorway into the air with her staff, and went to the seventh floor of her home, where her throne sat waiting for her.
A Large window was behind the Throne; although the throne could swivel around three-hundred and sixty degrees, it usually only faced one way. Standing illuminated by the window, three creatures dressed as maids were around her throne.
On the right was a girl made entirely out of plush; she had one round blue plastic eye and one large red button eye, with a pink yarn-like substance for hair that didn't pass her neck; despite being made of stuff and fluff, she was shaped like a human. She held a large sewing needle for a sword like a rapier and a massive button for a shield in her plush hands. Her outfit had stitch marks running all across it, on her chest the name Annie was sewn into her dress.
On the left was a Catgirl. She had cat ears where human ears would be and a long tail wrapped around her waist like a belt. Her hair, ears, and tail were a soft shade of lavender. She held dual Axes in her hands, and her maid outfit was black with gold Trimmings. The name Zoey was engraved into her dress in cursive.
The last of the maids was both the tallest and the buffest. She was slightly over 3 meters tall and held a Kanabo over her shoulders. She was lean and muscular and had a single long, pointed black horn in the midpoint of her forehead; she had a long mane of coal black hair, her right canine was a snaggle tooth, and her skin was deeply tanned. Her species was that of an Ogre, she was Bree's favorite lean mean, well-built killing machine, her maid outfit was plain black and white, and on her chest, a name tag had Bella neatly printed on it.
All three maid uniforms lacked head accessories, and their dresses fell below their knees.
Bree walked up to her throne and felt just as amused as always at the size difference.
The Throne was large and lavish, occupying about the same space as a typical loveseat. She sat on her throne easily and looked at the time she had left—less than a minute now. She tapped her staff against the ground as she looked around the throne room.
"I've spent more money on the Pillars of Eternity in a week than I spent on food in a month," She decided with a sad laugh. "Can't believe I wasted 12 years of my life obsessed with this stupid game," She smiled as she looked at her three maids one last time. "I'll never financially get over this loss," she decided as she waited for the server to go down and closed her eyes. Once she opened them, she knew that all there would be in place of the game was an error message, and she'd have to take her headset off and start living her life in the real world.
Then she opened them. Instead of an error message or her home screen, all she saw was the throne room, the game's U.I no longer visible as she looked around before moving her hand to activate the button for toggling between sitting and standing, and instead watched her Elf character's hand do the motion as though she was holding the controller.
She attempted to open her menu and instead poked at the air, with nothing happening. She sat in silence as she tried to figure out what was wrong. After a moment, she figured that since the server was now down, she had glitched her headset and was now stuck staring at her throne room with no game controls for her to use.
She reached to the sides of her head in an attempt to take off her headset and instead touched the side of her face. She was silent for a very long moment before she spoke. Her voice was no longer rough and boisterous; it was now softer and sweeter, which only fueled her fear and confusion.
"Something is wrong," she declared in panic. As soon as she spoke, her three Maids raised their weapons and looked around. Then, a voice rang out from behind her.
"Don't worry, My Lady. We will investigate the grounds for intruders." Bree slowly turned to look up as Bella the Oger bowed to her before she and the other two maids marched to the entrance; Bree watched them leave and, once alone, cried out.
"What is happening!?" She got to her feet, and her character did the same. Unprepared for her character to move as she did, she fell to the floor painfully.
"That hurt!" She realized in absolute panic, "And Bella spoke to me; NPCs don't talk, and they certainly don't run off to investigate the grounds without being expressly commanded to!"
Bree began breathing heavily and attempted to make sense of what was happening as she pulled herself up, moved her free hand around, and grasped her staff. She could feel it smack against the floor and felt the vibrations running through her arm as she tapped the staff against the ground.
"I'm not holding my controllers," she realized. I'm not in my apartment anymore, either. If I were, I would have hit my desk by now." As she began to panic, the door to the throne room suddenly opened. She turned as another one of her NPCs entered the room.
"My Lady," Winnie the Harpy spoke as she approached. I beg your forgiveness, but I could sense your panic from my tower." Winnie had blue hair and feathers. She wore a plain black suit with no tie and a pair of half-moon spectacles on her face. She had normal human legs that ended in Bird claw feet instead of full bird legs.
As she had wings in lieu of arms, her suit had no sleeves and instead had rips where they had been removed. She used her wing to push up her spectacles as she spoke. "I also see you have deployed the Maids. Is there anything I can do to ease your panic, My Lady,"
Bree looked up at her NPC in silence for a moment. "What the hell do I even do in this situation?" she wondered. Hiding her panic and confusion, she decided to play her part until she could piece together what was happening.
"Winnie, I need you to go out to my maids and come back to me immediately if anything is found to be out of place,"
"At once, Mistress Bree," Winnie said with a notable tone of happiness before calmly making her leave of the throne room. Bree stood her ground while trying to activate her control console; eventually sighing in defeat.
"This is like one of those stories where the video game sucks you in, and it becomes real," She made her way towards the door and pushed it open, feeling the wood against her hands as she did so. She entered the stairwell that attached her throne room to the rest of the building. She slowly made her way down to the sixth floor; instead of heading to the first floor, she chose to exit at roof level.