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Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 004 - Part 1

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Dassah Through The Looking Glass

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TheirWorld

“...hey, heeey!” Dassah sang softly, dancing a little as she watched her fish sizzling in it’s pan. “... till the sea of stars turns to dust… wishing on a broken star…”

Bahena being the only really eventful moment of the day, her work day had ended without further trouble - something she was tremendously thankful for. Now she could focus on what was really important: food, and waiting for TheirWorld to arrive.

“...hey, heeey!”, she sang, pulling the fish out of the pan and onto her plate where her sweet chili with rice was waiting for it’s protein. “...I forgooot the rest ooof the wooords! And tuuune! I’m so hungryyyy! You look deeeliciouuus!”

After pouring herself a glass of water, Dassah walked her food over to her desk where a bowl of soup was already waiting for her. As she was about to sit down, the apartment phone rang loudly, making her jump in her seat.

Picking up the phone, she answered, “Hello, Graydon residence.”

The man on the other end of the line gave her the best news she had heard all week: Her TheirWorld equipment had finally arrived.

“Ah -Yes!” she answered when he asked her to open the door to the apartment complex. She hit the pound key on the phone to let the delivery man in, and quickly tidied up her kitchen mess and room. A few minutes passed before the doorbell rang, and after exchanging a quick greeting and signing her delivery slip, the kind man brought the box of equipment right into her room, leaving her to tinker with it. In her excitement, she ate her dinner so quickly she didn’t even taste it.

Breaking the box’s seal with her nails, she took great pleasure in opening the box for the first time. It’s finally here, she thought to herself, warmth growing in her heart. It was beautiful to behold.

The first thing in the box was the instruction manual - which Dassah took a moment to appreciate the cover art for and then quickly discarded it to be lost in some corner of the room. Carefully she removed the extra packing material and pulled out each piece of the game’s equipment. It was relatively straightforward - though she knew that it differed from species to species. For humans, though, there were two bracelet-like things with finger attachments, two ankle bracelet-like things, a collar with an attached mouth guard, and an eye visor attached to a circlet. It also came with a game manual that was nearly thick as her hand - which of course also made it’s way to the Corner of Lost Things after another moment of cover art admiration.

It had already been six months since the release of the game. Years of following the TheirWorld project and lurking over every forum and article she could find had given her plenty of knowledge about the game, and the last six months gave her plenty of warning about what to expect. Stella may have thought she was taunting her with the information about character creation and the tutorial, but the truth was, Dassah had already known. In fact, she always felt as if she had known about it all along; as if she took a part in it’s making. And thus is my arrogance, she scolded while grinning to herself.

She began buckling herself in. The first time doing it was a process. She put on the leg bands first, then the collar and the circlet with the visor up. Lastly she slipped on the bracelets. On the left wrist was the power button, while the right wrist held a status monitor screen with it’s own on off switch. Flicking it on, the screen glowed with a greenish tinge as it began to take note of her physical status. Eventually, the machine asked her for a DNA sample, which she supplied with a cotton-y doohickey that came with it. After the system accepted that, she hooked the finger attachments onto each of her fingers, and put the mouth guard between her teeth.

She was ready.

Laying down on her bed, Dassah hit the power button her left wrist and pulled down the visor. The system began by doing it’s first startup checks, popping up with various warnings about safety and prompts to test languages, brightness, textstyles, sounds, and dozens of other things. Because of the game’s high level of realism and the ability to affect people’s brains, there was a lot of things one had to be aware of. Eventually, the word “ENTER” appeared on the visor screen, along with instructions to close her eyes and relax.

After some time of staring at the back of her eyelids, sitting in an endless, empty black, a white speck of light came into view. It bobbed up and down in a calming way as it drifted toward her.

“Welcome!” a small voice from the light said. “You have begun the exciting journey of TheirWorld! You are about to undertake a great adventure to the vast reaches of the world of “Uldarin”, a world of great power, magic, and mystery,” went the little sprite in a sweet, but rather high pitched voice. “First, you must register your account! You system account code is 2131HE6M5T791-0079134. Once this account code is registered under your name, this system will be tied to you. Please enter the name and data that you wish to register under.” The little sprite’s greeting was followed by a text box which Dassah filled out:

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“I see!” it said. “Your name is Hadassah Graydon! It’s nice to meet you! My name is Biku Biku, and I will be your guide through this tutorial! To start with, before setting foot into Uldarin, you must create your character! Creating a character in TheirWorld is a long, but thrilling process! Are you ready to begin?” Dassah nodded and Biku Biku bobbed up and down in excitement as another window came up:

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Dassah hit the accept button quickly.

Biku Biku did a spin in the air, and then told her, “Let’s take a look at you, now!” it said, and it materialized into a naked copy of Dassah herself. Creepy, Dassah twitched. “This is how you look!” Biku Biku said in Dassah’s voice. “You can’t really change what you look like, but you can make small edits to hair color, hair style, skin quality, skin color, eye brightness, and eye color. Is there anything that you would like to change?”

Though looking at herself made her cringe a little bit, she couldn’t really say that she wanted to change anything with such limited ability. “... can you do something about the bags under my eyes?” she asked. Biku-Dassah waved a hand and the bags under her eyes became a much nicer color. “Brighten my eyes? Maybe fix my hair so it isn’t so crazy?” she asked, and it was done. “Okay.”

Biku-Dassah snapped her fingers and was clothed in ragged looking clothing. “When you enter the main game, this will be your avatar! However, for the tutorial -” Bikku-Dassah snapped it’s fingers again and was turned into a much younger version; maybe ten years old or so. It continued, “- this is what you will look like. Let me tell you the basics! You see this black dot on your right wrist?” Dassah checked her right wrist and found it. “This is your menu button. You will receive more information on how to use the menu later in the tutorial, but for now, I will use it to show you your information!” Biku-Dassah turned back into it’s original form. That’s so much better...

Biku Biku then went on: “Every character beings life with the same base stats and skills that are altered and affected by various choices that you make at various waypoints in the game. As you begin your journey through this tutorial, keep in mind that you will meet three fates: The first of the fates shall question you in reference to your past. The second of the Fates shall question you in reference to your present. The third of the Fates shall question you in reference to your future. After you meet with all three Fates, you will receive your character’s main story quest, and be free to interact with the world if you have not already done so,” the sprite whirled around in it’s apparent excitement. It swirled around her, and said, “Ah! I see that you are human! Humans are rather basic, balanced creatures. As such, your character will begin it’s life with the following stats:

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<< -------------------- Level 0 No Profession >>

<< Human - ---------- - ----------- >>

<< Mother: ----------- Father: --------- >>

<< Stats: >>

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“From here,” The light continued, “You shall meet with the First Fate who resides in this very realm. The First Fate shall lead you to be born into the world. If you have not read the manual on Character Creation, please do!”

Another screen popped up:

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Dassah refused, and the sprite led her forward until they were surrounded by a silvery mist. It started at her feet, and then engulfed them both.

A cool breeze brushed against her skin. Almost instantly, she felt calmer, and the tension in her muscles relaxed. The world and it’s technology amazed her - even more so than the Enclave.

“Who are you?” the breeze seemed to softly ask with an echo. “Who are you?”

“I-I’m Hadassah Graydon,” she answered, hesitantly.

“Not that name,” the wind said like it was just a breath, “Not that name.”

Ah. Dassah filled in the name ‘Guin Grey’, which the game accepted. It must have recognized and refused the register’s name.

“Who are you?” the wind breeze asked again. “Who are you?”

“I’m Guin Grey,” she said with more confidence.

“Guin, Guin,” it wondered, then: “Why have you come to this place? This place, where the world is made of dreams...”

The world around her plunged into darkness...