by Prince and Krauxis
"The hell..."
Tristan mumbled to himself as he woke up from his odd dream. He wasn't used to dreaming, at least not anymore. His medication normally dulled his dreams or made them so light he forgot them. Regardless, he was far from actually attempting to figure out what it meant. Tristan rolled around his oversized futon restlessly, resistant to the idea of getting out of his bed even if he was awake. He flopped around on pillows, which he had an abundance of, and stretched out on his bed as he slowly came to. It hadn't always been like this; so difficult just to wake up. It was yet another side-effect of his medication, and something he had just grown to deal with.
It was several minutes before he was able to get out of bed and be coherent. When school was in sessionl, he had to wake up nearly an hour before the bus rolled around to make up for the time he lost getting out of the bed, but since it was summer and he'd graduated, he had no real sense of urgency. Even better, it was the summer before his first year of college. This was meant to be the best time of his life, so why would he care? As with almost any morning, his first trip was to the restroom to relieve himself. It was almost autonomous. Not exactly a complex task, but definitely a necessary one. If anything, it's what really ushered in his morning. Or, splashed in.
Tristan returned to his room and slid his laptop out from underneath his bed. That was its resting place during the night. As it powered on and went through the Windows loading screen, he could only sit there reflecting on his dream. It was clear as day, something even more odd than him dreaming itself. CosmoNET, PhyKnight, all sounding like some run-of-the-mill game he played, and he did in fact run a Demo Lock on WoW, so he was easily able to make the comparisons. He had never heard of this game, and he kept up with most gaming news. It was also a dream. Was he dreaming of games? That was an oddly specific dream about a game he had no idea about.
Neither did Google. The CosmoNET and PhyKnight literaly meant nothing to anyone in any gaming circle. Tristan was left pondering the possibilities. Champion of Earth? The fuck was that supposed to mean? Did Earth need a champion? And, what was this nonsense about it not being a game when it obviously was. Although... as he went through the arenas of WoW, it seemed hollow. Something had sparked in him. A primal curiosity that reminded him of the mundane, repetitive nature of WoW that made it an on-and-off game for him where he mostly just explored new content with a single character he had for years. He was so bothered by the idea of the CosmoNET, in fact, that he could only finish a single battleground before logging off to do something. He flipped on his television to no real avail and scrolled through site after site, spending his morning searching himself for answers and the internet for a distraction.
Maria Sable awoke from her sleep in a truer sense of the word than had been applicable in over a year. On a regular day, she would still be half asleep by the time she had completed the hour's walk to school. But today was different. Far different. It was a feeling so foreign she simply sat in bed for five silent minutes taking it in. I can do anything. she thought. I can be who I want to be. The feeling lasted for exactly one and a half minutes longer, and then faded back into obscurity, the usual fog clouding her mind like a reminder that she was still in her own body, living her own usual life.
PhyKnight, the character had called himself in the dream. He had promised... nothing, really, except great potential. He had explained a lot of things that Maria didn't really understand, and she wasn't about to try to understand this early in the morning. But he said that she was chosen. For some sort of... game? Maria played a lot of games, simply because it was an easy way to pass the time, but this seemed more real to her. It reminded her a bit of some sort of tournament anime. "Many were chosen, only one would survive," or something like that.
Slouching over to the shower, she rained cold water down on herself for as long as she could take it, which dispelled a bit of the fog around her brain, and toweled herself off lightly, slouching down to the fridge to make breakfast. It was a simple affair, dry cereal and a glass of water. Breakfast took her twelve minutes, and after eating, she was already lost for meaningful things to do. Another boring morning, as usual. Perhaps she was just a boring person.
Her thoughts didn't dwell on the subject for long. Instead, she powered up her computer and surfed the internet idly for the next few hours. She didn't really have a problem sleeping the day away, but she got the impression that wasn't quite what PhyKnight meant when he said that he would visit her in her next dream. The assumption was completely unfounded, just a gut instinct, but whether she went back to sleep, or else wasted time online, Maria felt it was all the same. Time ticking down on the clock, waiting for sleep. She liked sleep. But like going to bed on Christmas Eve, she knew it was going to be troublesome trying to get back to sleep if she kept looking forward to PhyKnight's next appearance.
Cat videos would put it out of her head.
As time went on for Tristan, he found no more results than in his initial search. It seemed so real. It seemed like a commercial more than it did a dream. It was as if he had been advertised something that he couldn't resist. The idea astounded him, in all honesty. As he reflected back, he considered more and more what the PhyKnight said and really only remembered that message; how the dream started completely eluded him. It perplexed him, too. His memory of this event was so clear it reminded him of times before his seizures, and that only made him more intrigued.
He could remember PhyKnight calling himself a Ley Master. Something about a Ley Network. And, other life-bearing worlds? That sounded like it went off-track from normal games, but at the same time it made sense. He had no idea what a Ley Master or Ley itself really was and Google yet again provided no solid answers. For a moment, Tristan was somewhat frustrated that anyone would introduce themselves as something that no one understood; what the fuck was the point?
As Phyknight went on, his speech began to sound like a game. Being chosen, trained in combat and magic. Those are lines right out of some video games, plot-based concepts that Tristan was all too familiar with and ones that he refused to just ignore. They had to mean something. They had to. They would mean even more if things were 'real', like PhyKnight said, yet those two things contradicted each other entirely. Tristan was a staunch realist that rejected the metaphysical, such as religion, but he was told he had a soul, and now he actually pondered if he did.
That was the effect PhyKnight had on Tristan. For hours, Tristan searched and searched and asked his developer friends questions, tried to get into the circles of indie gamers or vintage gamers to see if they knew anything. He spent his entire morning and part of the noontime coming up with nothing but more answers. For the first time ever, Tristan was even asking if he had a soul, which beforehand was a completely silly and utterly rejected notion. Maybe it was, as PhyKnight said, all a rouse to make a more familiar world for him, but if that was true, then what was this nonsense about a soul and magic?
Eventually, it stopped mattering, at least as much. Tristan had been texted by his buddies and they intended on picking him up to spend the evening getting high and finding bitches. It was an oddity, too. Not too long beforehand, Tristan was fighting with them in school about the second girl he ever dated and one that one of his best friends crushed on, all without ever being told. It was just a talent of Tristan's, and one that tore apart his group of friends for a while. Yet, all was good now. It wasn't as if it never happened, but it did happen and the group bounced back for their last few months together over the summer. Tristan was even taken and in a relationship at this point, too, so it made the group even more docile... no one had to compete him. Not like anyone could.
"Heh. What are you doing, cat? Cat you cannot fit inside that box, you are too fat for that box. Oh, cat."
The sun had crested through the sky outside, and had begun its descent back to the horizon, the birds outside were flying back to their nests, and Maria Sable had visited the bathroom twice. It was a day off of school, which meant that she was on a quest to leave her room as few times as possible. It was a war fought valiantly against both her stomach and bladder, and so far, it was a success. But she couldn't help but feel like there was something she was forgetting. Must not have been that important, if she forgot it that easily.
As usual, she skipped dinner with her family in favour of sitting in her room staring at a wall and mashing f5 on her keyboard, a habit that never bore any real fruit. Maria took a moment to marvel at the state of her life as her stomach complained loudly. What had gotten her to this place? What could get her out? If only there was some chance that she was given that could dramatically alter her situation... Oh yeah. That must be it. The dream from before. How could she forget? That's a whoops.
With a yawn, she wondered idly if it was time for bed yet. 1745. Not even close.
<Katerin - 1745> "Hey, Sable, you there?"
The message window popped up from her friend Kat. Katerin was the name of her best friend (online of course,) and noted as the only person who ever tried to start a conversation with her.
<Sable - 1748> "Yeah. What's up?" Maria responded sleepily.
<Katerin - 1749> "I heard something scary today. A friend of mine had this weird dream... something about a knight or a game that's not a game... I don't remember, but it kinda scared me."
<Sable - 1750> "...Huh. Never heard of it. Do you think it means anything?"
<Katerin - 1750> "The way he explained it to me, it seemed heavy. I can't tell really, lol"
<Sable -1750> "Real useful info. Thanks, The Media =p"
<Katerin - 1749> "I heard something scary today. A friend of mine had this weird dream... something about a knight or a game that's not a game... I don't remember, but it kinda scared me."
<Sable - 1750> "...Huh. Never heard of it. Do you think it means anything?"
<Katerin - 1750> "The way he explained it to me, it seemed heavy. I can't tell really, lol"
<Sable -1750> "Real useful info. Thanks, The Media =p"
1:23 AM? Is that what the clock read? Tristan wasn't for sure. All Tristan knew was that a guys-night-out with his friends was right about to come to a crash. Most of the night was a blur and for all Tristan knew, the clock read 4:23AM. His eyes were too dry and blurry to be reliable at the moment, especially with his contacts. Tristian dodged out of the last toke in favor of passing out in one of the actual beds. The fate for some of his buds might just be a floor palette, but it wasn't something any of them were unusued to.
Honestly, somewhere in the night, Tristian forgot about PhyKnight. The wonders and curio of his morning were completely doused in his innebriation, but just as before, his dream became clear. As soon as Tristan entered his deep sleep, he found himself sober and standing in a puddle of inky blackness. In the same azure armor, standing regal and without a darkened huge in the blackness of this odd abyss stood the figure that once before proclaimed himself as PhyKnight.
"Have you an answer for me, sir Tristan?" PhyKnight asked him in a calm tone, as if Tristan himself was royalty.
Tristan contemplated this for a moment. He had no idea what he was jumping into and no research he did gave him an answer about PhyKnight or the CosmoNET or what kind of game might constitute being met in dreams. The ultimate logic Tristan used was that he hardly remembered any of his night and that itself was probably a larger liability than this night would be. "I will go with you," Tristan answered after a brief pause.
Darkness. Darkness is what surrounded Tristan when PhyKnight vanished, and he did so with even less than a flicker. Darkness is what Tristan fell to and was consumed. The entire event was rought with intense pain, as if his body was being torn apart with no seams to make it easy. The reality was his soul itself was being torn apart, his spark of life itself was being folded time after time and condensed so finely that it could be transported with ease, and after a while, Tristan lost consciousness in the pain.
"He is the first," said a familiar voice. It was PhyKnight, this time without his armor and in a blue and gold shawl. Tristan had little time to make out anything else as he could feel his body slowly come to, overwhelmed with energy. At first, it felt like a nicotine rush, but it quickly went from one cigarette to a full pack to far more of a rush than he could even explain. Although he had no way of realizing it, his entire body and being was put back together in a long, glass tank; one that he just burst out of.
The 'upload' to the CosmoNET was successful; Tristan and his soul were now part of this whole new world, but this world was full of energy that he nor his soul were used to. As he began absorbing the energy within the air, he became overflowng with it. This was the fate of all new users, most commonly called the Surge. Tristan's Surge sent him into a full Omega form, making his surge more severe than most regular ones. Regardless, it wasn't one they were unprepared for.
When Tristan broke out of his tank in a fit of rage, sporting ferocious strength and feeding off of the energy around him at an increasing rate, PhyKnight simply made a gesture downward with his right hand. Materializing instantly and slamming down into the ground even faster, four decorative swords pinned down Tristan, whom at this point was entirely enveloped by a black hue and was gnarling like a beast. It took little time for these swords to drain off the excess energy and as the black hue faded from Tristan, the swords did as well.
Tristan stood on his hands and knees, broken out in sweat, feeling all of these new feelings and barely remembering what just happened. What he felt most of all was something different. He saw so much more clearly. He felt better than he had in years. His body felt stronger, even if it didn't really seem so. As he stood up, feeling that he was in a relatively heavy trenchcoat of black leather - which was fitting granted his affinity for black leather - he realized that even his clothing had changed to reflect his new outlook.
"The next one is coming," was the last thing he heard before his attention was drawn to the tank just across from him.
<Sable - 0237> "ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp"
<Katerin - 0238> "...You still there? You okay?"
<Katerin - 0250> "Sable? Helloo?"
<--User 'Sable' has gone offline: Reason: Inactivity-->
<Katerin - 0238> "...You still there? You okay?"
<Katerin - 0250> "Sable? Helloo?"
<--User 'Sable' has gone offline: Reason: Inactivity-->
Katerin sighed. Sable fell asleep at her computer desk sometimes, but this was twice this month. "What the heck is that girl doing to herself that she can't even go to bed?"
With a second sigh, she shut her laptop and flopped onto her bed. "Hope she hasn't gotten into anything serious. That girl never tells me a damned thing."
At exactly 2:35 in the morning, Maria Sable had passed out, slumped over her keyboard which had long since given up on trying to register inputs. As it beeped away in the darkness to no one, she fell into a deep sleep...
"Maria Sable. Have you reached a decision?"
She blinked. There stood the figure from her dream before, PhyKnight. He seemed incredibly stoic, and compared to him, she probably seemed like nothing more than a lump of tired flesh, blinking in a daze.
"...Speak, madam. I require a willful answer."
Oh, right, she was supposed to answer. "...Yeah. I'll do it. That thing you wanted. I'll do whatever it is that I'm needed to do."
Without another word, she was consumed by what seemed like simple empty space, released of her senses and filled instead with a searing, tearing pain from every direction. Her thoughts sparked violently to life, filled with countless shouts of things that she wanted to say, but then even that was gone, and she said nothing. She wasn't sure whether she had fallen unconscious or if perhaps her consciousness was simply not there at all.
The CosmoNET, she thought to herself, when next she could think. This must be what it is. She opened what must have been her eyes, but saw nothing but blackness. It was a strange sensation, like she was supposed to be able to sense something, some world around her, but instead there was only numb emptiness. Had the... transfer, or whatever... not gone correctly? She tried moving her body, and it seemed like something responded, but she couldn't say for sure.
Her sight was the first thing to return to her. It came slowly, like getting attuned to a new level of light after standing in a dark room, but she could make out a few things through all the blurry fog. She was... on a floor of some kind. There were people standing around her, it looks like they had been talking until just recently. Had she done something to make them worried about her...? Had she done something startling? How strange.
"...Maria Sable, can you hear me?"
Still no words came, but it was curious to her that she could hear suddenly. She nodded her head silently, and whoever had spoken seemed relieved. As he spoke again, she recognized the voice. It was PhyKnight, though she did not recognize him to look at him.
"It seems she lost all of her senses in the transfer, but is getting them back now. Does this have something to do with her ability?" Nobody said anything after that, but Maria herself seemed to gain the strength to stand and look around. There was a broken glass tank behind her, and her body was cut up as though she had landed on the shards, though she did not feel any pain like that.
"You should consider yourself fortunate. Most people are filled with energy when they enter this world, and need to be restrained. It seems as though your own body did my work for me." PhyKnight seemed amused rather than concerned.
I guess not being able to see, hear, speak or feel is just part of the plan, then...? Or maybe just for me. It was all alien to her.
"When you were able to move again, you jerked suddenly and broke the tank you were transported in," the knight gestured toward all the broken glass. "However, after breaking free with your new power, you immediately fell to the floor, limp. It is probably very important that you become aware of your new strength as soon as possible. But we must wait on the others first. Until that time, you are, unfortunately, on your own."
Maria nodded. She tried to speak, but still found herself unable. Like a computer whose systems were being powered on one at a time, a variety of new sensations coursed through her body, as well as old ones that were returning. It was strange and foreign, and she had no idea what to think of it. But if there were to be others, she would wait.
PhyKnight would explain everything, Maria thought. He just had to.
