Reality
Videogames are – and always have been – a means of escapism. Designed for those who can only find solace in being able to control someone else, being able to be that person they've always wanted to be.
The weak can be strong. The meek can be fearless.
The lame can walk once again.
Mariko Misono knows this all too well. Sometimes, it's easiest to reject reality, all those injuries and grievances life has personally bestowed upon you. And nowhere is this easier than The World.
Thanks to a small headset and a working Altimit OS computer, she can do things she's only dreamed of in the past. As Subaru, she can kill monsters, hefting an implausibly large axe over her avatar's lithe frame. As Subaru, she can (or used to be able to, at least) command power through the Crimson Knights. As Subaru, she can walk, can feel the cobblestones of Mac Anu under her small, functional feet.
But the headset lies unused, gathering dust in a corner of the computer desk. Mariko lies, quietly contemplating her life, on the small bed in her – their – room, her arms wrapped around the taller, almost lanky girl.
As An hesitantly wraps her other arm around the smaller, more fragile girl, Mariko can't help but smile.
She has no need to escape reality. She's perfectly happy where she is.