CHAPTER 4

“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”

- Neil Gaiman -

Welcome to the world of TantaMount, where your dreams are always tantalizingly close.

On first glance, TantaMount is nothing special. You create your avatar, pick a name, choose your affiliations, play a bit with your stats, and off you go. Standard stuff. But what really sets it apart was the world itself, a sprawling landscape with three gigantic mountains, each more massive than the next, and all that was keeping you from them was a mount (be it bird or dragon) that could fly you high enough to reach the summit of each and begin the journey. And let me tell you, those summits were nothing to scoff at.

Each of the three mountains had a temple near the base of it, with each of them containing pieces of the three parts of a song you would need to create in order to tame the creatures that could lead you up the mountains. The amount of rewards collected would affect the three pieces of the song: the rhythm, the melody, and the soul. No one had ever collected all of the pieces from any dungeon, but the rhythm would affect the strength of the bird's flight, the melody its gracefulness in movement, and the soul its willingness to risk it all for its companion.

There were five total tiers of power for these birds, the first being companion, the second being ally, and the third, fourth, and fifth tiers being needed to climb their respective associated mountain summits. Now in theory, you could either start with a lower tier and gradually grow it with resources through the tiers with parts of the song that you get from the temples, instead of saving them to create a song that would lure a stronger, much more mature companion to guide you to the summits. Most veteran players employed these tactics to advance through the game quickly, taking any shortcuts available to get through the temples and gather as many parts of the song as they could to reach the mountain summits.

Me, that's just not how I roll.

Call me a purist, a completionist, or maybe just a downright moron, and you might not be wrong on any accounts. But for me, the mountains were an eventuality, not an immediate quest. I was happy to wander the quiet, peaceful plains, explore the rustic, intricately designed little villages, and slowly meander through the three temples with my best virtual friend and journey companion Clipse.

Right, Clipse. How does one describe a mute (but trust me, never silent) companion that has walked the face of a planet with you, thrown themselves in front of killing blows for you, slashed open the throats of your enemies, but also nonchalantly act as a virtual pillow on the nights where things got so real that you just couldn't handle everything going on?

Yeah, that's Clipse. Come for her and I'm coming for your heart. Consider it a promise, not a threat.

The bonding system was next level programming, but that wasn't the only thing that TantaMount had going for it apart from the looming ominous mountain-scape; talking to other non-playable characters in the world actually felt real. Like there was no code written behind what was actually happening, no wizard behind the curtain. I'm sure everyone says that for their favorite game but for someone that was struggling for any semblance of a home life at the time, it was the makeshift family that I needed, the structure that I couldn't find anywhere else.

Meanwhile.

“Pretty sure I might have just created THE BEST character of all time”, Dono announced from the other room, so I wandered over to see what nonsense was occurring.

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Out struts Blank (Dono in fact, Rogue, general degenerate), guildless, penniless, and probably heartless (burn) into the world of TantaMount. First thing on the agenda (to the surprise of no one): jogs over to the local tavern for a cold one and a meet and greet with the locals.

Here's the thing you have to understand about Dono, and no one can exactly attribute a “why” to it: he gets along with everyone. Literally, everyone. If you like don't like Dono then you're pretty much dead to everyone that does like Dono, which is everyone else, so do the math.

Doesn't mean I don't hate him on occasion though.

“I demand free ale for the night and the finest wench available for a companion”, he threw out to no one in particular after blasting through the front door. Someone at the bar immediately threw a dueling glove down at him, which he looked at, picked up, and then tossed in the trash.

“It's 2019 broseph, you have to be eco-conscious”

Duel initiated

Things were going swimmingly, as expected.

Meanwhile...

Ender (Felix) started off with the priesthood and found that things weren't quite as he expected. Anticipating a quiet group with a peaceful environment, he was caught off guard by an apparent roguish group of rowdy priests that farmed all day and drank all night. There are stories aplenty from these adventures, many of graphic nature, but none that shall be mentioned today. Let's just say there was an actual bear killed and an actual princess saved, and leave it at that. For now.

Meanwhile^2...

Sabriel (Renna) had a bit of a different in-game experience. Fifteen minutes out the gate, people knowing (or assuming) she was female had already donated all the gear she needed to quickly go out and get to Level 15, where you need to be to be able to leave the town you start in. Ignoring a couple of awkward online advances, she headed off to Rogue Wave where they're planned to meet up, not knowing Dono had already compromised everything they were trying to do.

Ender and Sabriel arrived to the town of Erso roughly around the same time to meet up with Blank, but were immediately slammed with rumors and speculation of a major duel the next morning between the mayor's son and some idiot named Blank. They'd heard about the glove but didn't know what it meant, as apparently Dono didn't either.

“Wait, I have to fight this idiot? All he did was throw a stupid glove at me”.

The reasons for said offense cascaded through my brain, but we couldn't afford any holdups, and I just wanted to see if my theory about Sarai held any weight. Desperate times, etcetera, etcetera.

To review classical dueling technique I had him go back and watch the episode Shindig from Firefly, where the proper techniques were clearly put on display. No Inara for him to bat his pretty eyelashes at, but we had to start somewhere.

The following morning arrived with a chilling announcement from those monitoring the match: “This match is one of honor and therefore will be a duel to the death, with the in-game character never being able to be revived again”.

Well then.

Blank (Dono) swaggered up to his starting position like he was god's gift to whatever.

Mighty fine shindig.

His opponent walked up to the challenge line, and I immediately wanted to punch him in the face. There aren't that many people out there that I'd say the same thing about.

Time was so pressing in real life and my mind was still processing everything that had happened, but all I could think was: “Get em, Dono”.

And let me tell you, my brother from another did not disappoint.

Starting gun popped and within a heartbeat he was flowing like a river on something special, moved in close with a feigned left and popped a right shot to the head and a low body blow with the left afterward.

“To the death, Dono!” I shouted at him, knowing he was cat-playing his opponent. “You owe me for Marle!”.

Something in his eyes changed, and I knew I'd gotten through to him. I would launch into Marle and all that, but things were over so quickly I barely had time to even think about it.

Dono enraged and sprinted across, at this point going full berserker. I would question his sanity, but, well, in general, we've been past that point for some time now.

Mission complete. He dropped his opponent like an easy kick bad habit. Problem we shouldn't have had solved and time to move on.

So there we all are, bearing witness to the destruction before us. Out of left field comes a call from an unknown party:

“Help! HELP! EHALASLSKDL!!!”

Was the gist of it anyway. We'd later learn what happened and trust me, it wasn't pretty.