"Babe, can we watch a movie now, you've been tampering with the VR headset for ages... Just use the Playstation one." A slightly rounded blonde groaned, plonking herself onto a black leather couch, popcorn jumping into the air only to land back in the bowl as she fell.
"But the resolution on the playstation headset is trash, I'm trying to hook up the one I use on the computer to the xbox." Responded a rather tall male with light brown hair, his hands were buried in their entertainment unit, pushing cables aside and connecting others.
All their consoles and a PC was hooked up to their TV, each one proudly on display in it's own little cubby in the entertainment unit. Their TV displayed neatly in the center, showing the character creation screen for skyrim. The soundtrack played softly over their surround sound system.
"Jesus christ we look like assholes with all this tech on display." The woman muttered, eyes drawing over their old-gen and new-gen consoles. She settled her feet on the glass coffee table, kicking one of the remotes as she did so to get her husbands attention.
"Well, some people have kids, some people have partners who go to day spas... some people go on cruises. Me? I like to abuse my wife's employee discount to buy games... Yeah we do look like asses..." The man replied, glancing at his wife with a cheeky smirk, prompting her to toss a piece of popcorn in his direction.
"Stop being cute. Also why are you trying to hook up the headset on the xbox? It's not even VR compatible. Just play it on the PC." The blonde accused, throwing some popcorn in her mouth as she eyed her husband. Her husband threw her a sheepish look before contiuning his tinkering.
"You modded it didn't you?" She spoke for him after several moments of silence. He gave her another sheepish look before poking out his tongue, he moved back from the console as their wolf-grey coloured Husky bounded into the room happily. She was clearly on the run from something, and that something followed behind her with a series of loud squawks and chirps.
"Huckles, settle girl, Arby won't hurt you." Spoke the man, as Huckles the husky pretty much bowled straight over him. Followed promptly by the little offending blue-masked love bird.
"Hey arby, what're you doing my handsome baby!" Chirped the blonde happily, putting her hand out in the air to coax the love bird over. He flew to her with a flurry of excited chirps, nibbling her finger-nails the second he landed on her hand.
Huckles not to be left out leapt from her target on the floor, and ran over to the couch, throwing herself next to the woman.
"I guess you want mommy Kayla more than daddy hmm?" The husband pouted before standing up and grabbing the VR headset.
"Oh don't worry my dear Ryan." Kayla called, petting the husky that was settled to her left. "We have a spot right here on the right for you."
Ryan grumbled sulkily and walked over to the couch, grabbing the controller as he went. He nestled against the arm of the couch to the right of his wife, and arby made a point to quickly jump on his shoulder.
"I'm going to need your help to set this up because the screen won't configure to the headset straight away." Ryan said, passing the controller to his wife as he placed the headset over his eyes.
"Sure bub, does it have a menu or... ah. I see, menu, gotcha." She began to ask but was quickly interupted by a foreign menu popping up on the screen, overlaying the game. She ran through the settings, checking what she needed and confirming everything else, before asking Ryan several times if he could see anything.
"Nothing yet, check the game settings now, there should be another menu in there, I modded it in just incase."
She followed her husbands instructions, seeing that the menu was there, she followed the prompts as directed, before the screen flashed white several times, trying to correct it's resolution she assumed.
"Ah! It's working I can see it." Ryan exclaimed proudly.
Kayla suddenly yelped as the sound-system spiked in volume, and the TV flashed white again, but this time it was blinding, and she was forced to cover her ears and close her eyes. She could hear the bird chirping in panic, and felt Huckles move from her side. She was too stunned to react and was almost hoping the system would blow just so she could move.
She called out for Ryan but he seemed to no longer be by her side, maybe to turn the thing off? Suddenly everything went silent, and she fell forward with a feeling of severe naseua. She kept her hands on her head and her eyes tightly shut to quell the spinning feeling. Please don't puke, please don't puke.
She must have sat that way for several minutes too long, because she felt a sharp bite against her ear followed by the concerned chittering of Arby. Resisting the urge to fling the poor bird off at the sudden sharp pain, she lifted her head up, blinking several times to readjust her eyes. Once her eyes adjusted she found herself staring at the three mage stones in the Skyrim game.
"What in the... Ryan did you put the headset on me?" She inquired out loud, reaching her hands up to her head again, grasping around for the VR headset, only for her fingers to run through her long blonde hair.
"Ryan?" She called again, but was met with no response, glancing around she was amazed by the beauty of the area through her own eyes, before she began to panic.
"Ryan where are you?" Kayla's distress rose in her voice. "This isn't funny, if you're messing with me some how, knock it off, I'm not in the mood for your pranks."
She couldn't be trapped in a video game right? That shit only happened in movies, and trashy fanfic. Maybe Ryan modded the headset really, really well... like that one in that Anime she couldn't remember the name of- where they all got trapped and had to complete the RPG to escape... But that was just fantasy tech, way ahead of their current time.
But then... Arby wouldn't be here climbing over her... Oh gods, what was going on.
"R-Ryan!" Kayla cried, panic evident in her tone. "Ryan where are you!" If Arby and her were here... Maybe Huckles and Ryan were here too.
Just on that thought, she heard a distant familiar barking coming from behind the three stones. It was Huckles alert bark, the bark she used when something was wrong. Kayla launched to her feet immedeatly, only to stumble forward. She threw her hands out infront of her to catch herself, and realised with mild shock, her fingers now had... claws... or rather... elognated nails. Creamy swirls also ran in patterns along her fore-arms, she exhaled heavily, running her tongue along her mouth, realising with a fright her canines... and teeth in general felt sharper.
"Oh hell no, I do not have time to be a specific species in a fantasy game." She exclaimed, getting a foreign sensation through her body as an appengdage thumped against the ground in frustration, she quickly realised it was attached to her, and it was indeed.. a tail.
Huckles barked out again, causing Kayla to snap back to reality, getting off the ground once more she attempted to walk forward... slower this time, but still as fast as she could manage with her different body. She could feel Arby scuttling along the back of her shoulders, probably hiding himself in her long hair. Why did I get turned into a lore friendly species... But the stupid bird stays the same?
She ducked behind the three stones, expecting Huckles to probably be at the little hunters den that was nestled there, she skidded down the bank, scrambling to keep her balance as she followed Huckles barks. Sure enough the husky was where Kayla expected, and she was dragging Ryan by the arm out of the water, tugging him onto the slightly rocky shore. The VR headset was still on his face, albeit not entirely in place, and from what she could see Ryan looked more or less the same... Maybe slightly more filled out than before... and more... fair skinned? Mostly minor changes in comparison to her own. If she had to guess, he had been turned into a Nord.
Kayla wheezed as she stopped before her husband, tugging him with the help of Huckles further onto dry land. When she was satisifed with where they were, she dropped to her knees beside him, ripping off the headset and checking he was still breathing. With a sigh of relief she took note that his hair and top half of his torso was relatively dry, he hadn't gone under. His jeans how ever were soaked, along with the odd socks he had been wearing.
She lifted up his shirt, checking for any signs of injury, before running her hands over his legs and feet. Nothing seemed or felt out of place, and there were no signs of severe injury. There was how ever a red mark running along his lower back and hip, but it would only become a bruise later.
"Ryan? Babe?" Kayla called, Huckles was licking the side of his face, and Kayla shooed her away as Ryan began babbling incoherently. Instinctively the dog placed her head on her owners chest, trying to refrain him from moving to much. She felt a moment of guilt as she forgot about Huckles signaling towards her husband.
"K-Kayla?" Ryan gasped, reaching out for her immedeatly. Kayla grasped his hand with hers, mindful of her new claws as he began to have an attack. He began panting raggedly through clenched teeth, his eyes closed tightly.
"It's okay my love, I'm here." She cooed softly, clenching his hand and releasing, and repeating the motion while he rode out his panic. This went on for several moments, her muttering soft words of reassurance as his breathing slowly leveled out, eventually Huckles took herself off of him, and began whimpering and shifting uncomfortably.
"Good girl." Ryan groaned, petting the Husky as he pulled himself up, leaning on Kayla for support.
"You haven't had an attack for a while." Kayla whimpered, concern heavy in her voice. She momentarily forgot where they were, too focused on her husbands well being.
Ryan remained silent for several moments, focused on breathing as he glanced around, taking in his surroundings. Kayla watched the emotions and thoughts dance across his face, imagining that her expression was probably the same as she began to realise. Eventually Ryan looked at her directly, and looked completely dumb-founded.
"Kayla... You're a cat." He said matter of factly, staring at her with a blank expression.
"I believe I'm a khajiit." She corrected, shooting him a grin.
"Kayla... We're in the game." Still a blank face was all he displayed.
"I can see that babe."
"But Kayla... We're... We're... How?" Eventually his poker face broke and he looked a mixture of amazed, confused and scared.
"I don't know, but this is why I told you not to mess with and mod the tech." She grumbled, accusing him playfully. She tried to keep things light-hearted, fearing another attack might befall her husband. One of them had to stay strong.
He was silent for a moment, before a grin broke out across his face and he started chuckling.
"I fucked up didn't I? Maybe I should listen to you more." He said laughing at himself, she could hear the utter disbelief in his tone, and sighed in relief that while he sounded slightly mad, he wasn't having a melt-down.
"Happy wife, happy life as they say... That includes listening." She mused, pulling him to his feet.
"You still... look like you..." He said serious once more as they stood up. "I mean, you're clearly a cat person now... But you still look like my Kayla."
"That's reassuring, and here I was afraid you weren't into furries."
"Oh I'm into everything that has anything to do with you." He proclaimed, grinning. "But seriously.. You have fur and markings now.. Instead of freckles. But the fur isn't heavy? And it's still the same colour as your skin... just... creamier? Your hair is more of a goldish-reddish colour too... Slightly darker than your markings." He observed, running his hands over her light coat, tracing the shape of her body as if to re-familirise himself with it.
"Why did I get all the big changes?" Kayla barked. "You just got handsomer, I turned into a damned cat."
"I wasn't handsome before?" He accused, and she smiled warmly at their playful banter.
"Of course you were handsome before. Now you just look more like a viking." She chuckled, pulling him in tightly for a hug.
"Ah, so I'm a nord?" He mused.
"I couldn't care what you are... Atleast we're together." She breathed as his arms tightened around her. "What ever is going on... What ever is happening. We've got each other and we'll work through it."
"Well... I don't think I'm a god or anything, but somehow I've managed to make a portal into a video game... That we've spent hours upon hours playing, modding, and goofing around on. So everything should be predictable right? And if there's a way in... There's gotta be a way out."
"Are we talking old school RPG where we finish the main quest line and we're free?" She chirped, pulling back to look her husband in the eyes.
"Well... Hopefully... But that would mean one of us would have to be dragonborn... And so far... Everything feels... very, very real... And I'm not too keen on getting eaten by dragons." His brow furrowed as the math added up in his head. She watched the cogs turning as he began to process the reality of what's happening, and the world they know and love as a video game.
"So are we in the video game? Or in a real world that so happens to be exactly like our video game?" She pressed, more so asking herself outloud as she was a verbal thinker, she worked best bouncing ideas, while he worked best running invisible statistics in his mind. She knew he wouldn't know, and he was aware she was seeking perspective.
"Only one way to find out bub. Shall we go to riverwood?" He inquired, gesturing up towards the stones in the direction of Riverwood.
"We shall."
"A dragon! I saw a dragon!"
"So far so good." Ryan proclaimed, waltzing past the city gates. Kayla trailed behind him slightly, holding his hand as Huckles pranced regally by her owners side, staring down everything that looked their way.
They hadnt come across wolves as they expected along the road, and avoided the mine entirely on their way towards the small town. They had no means to defend themselves, and weren't exactly sure if this place ran by game logic, or it's own logic.
"Scripted NPC behaviour... Which means we pretty much got dropped off straight at the start of the game." Skylar rationalised. "Wanna mess with Faendal and Sven straight away?" She teased, gesturing to the Elf as he walked along carrying a bundle of wood.
"Probably not... Could get a knife in the back for all we know, atleast let's do some more research first." Ryan said confidently, pulling her along towards the Riverwood Traders. Arby chirped from under Kayla's hair, peeking through timidly.
Ryan stared at the door as they approached, trying to judge how it opened. Eventualy he decided it's probably just a push door... and he was right, the door swung open, and he ushered his wife and Huckles inside before closing it behind them.
"It's darker in here than I expected." Ryan commented, Kayla flicked her eyes over to him amused.
"It looks fine to me." She remarked, idly listening to the siblings bicker, waiting for them to subside in their diaglouge. Ryan shot her a disapproving look before clearing his throat and stepping forward.
Kayla watched Ryan engage in conversation with the Merchant, dialouge went pretty much as expected, the conversation about the claw... Commencing trade talk... Ryan placed a few things on the counter that they scavanged on the way here, a few alchemy ingredients, some salmon they took from the Hunters stand, as well as an Axe. Lucan raised an eye brow, before clearing his throat.
"I don't really need any flowers... While they're pretty and all, I have no use for them." Kayla did little to mask the expression of shock that crossed her face. Well this isn't part of the script.
Her husband remained unphased by the interaction how ever and carried on.
"No use for flowers? No lassie you're trying to woe hmm? Surely some young man would like flowers to present to a beautiful lady in this town?" Kayla internally swooned as her husband amped up his game, putting on his game voice, and getting serious. He oozed charisma.
"Oh lucan, they are beautiful." Camilla intervened, eyeing the flowers dreamily, she offered a slightly coy smile towards Ryan as he turned to look at her as she spoke. Kayla felt her new ears flick.
"Well... I suppose... But I'm only giving you 3 gold for the flowers. The fish I'd recommend selling to the Tavern Keeper, Delphine... She'll have more use for it than I do... And well the axe? This townbuilt around a lumber mill if you didn't notice... With a smith right next to it to boot... Most money you'll get out of it is from the wood you'd be chopping." Lucan crossed his arms, waiting for Ryan to speak up and argue. Kayla witnessed Ryans confidence falter slightly, before he regained his composure.
"That's fine, thanks for the advice." He said cheerily, accepting the gold Lucan handed over. Camilla beamed as she grasped the flowers, wondering away to set them up somewhere on display, she ran her hand along Ryan's shoulders as she went by.
"Hope to see you again, and are you sure you don't need a guide to walk you towards the barrow?" She offered, glancing over her shoulder at Ryan as she nestled the flowers in a mug.
"We don't need any assistance. Thank you miss." Kayla spoke up, whilst her words were polite, disapproval and annoyance were clear in her tone.
"We'll probably stay here a little before we move on... As you can see we're not exactly fitted to deal with theives." Ryan spoke, glancing at his wife curiously. Camilla frowned, looking between the two, before turning her head away from the Khajiit.
"Well if you need sharp things, Alvor is the way to go. He's right across from us.. Hard to miss the smithery." Lucan suggested swiftly, sensing the sudden tension in the air.
"Thank you." Kayla replied tersely, turning around swiftly, momentarily forgetting poor Arby was nestled in her hair, he was tossed from his little cubby and took to the air with a few alarmed chirps, before landing on Ryans head.
"That's... Quite the interesting bird you have there." Lucan remarked, sudden interest oozing in his voice. "Never seen one like it. Or so... Tame."
"Ah... Yes we've raised him ourselves since he hatched." Ryan explained awkwardly. "He's uh.. not from Skyrim."
"I can see that. Nor from the Imperical city either..." Lucan trailed on, still eyeing the bird. Camilla stepped next to her brother, they had the look of solid traders set in their expression.
"No... He's uh, from somewhere in Elswyr." Was all Ryan could manage to explain. "Y'know the jungle regions... Lot's of interesting birds in there."
"I see.. Would you be interested in selling him at all? I'd be happy to give you a generous amount of gold for him." Lucan beamed, gesturing to his shelves of wares. "Maybe throw in some more items as well."
Kayla looked at Ryan, distress evident in her face, Arby was their baby, he couldn't just give him away. He wouldn't would he?
Ryan seemed to consider it for a moment, before turning to look at his wife, he couldn't exactly read her expression with her new face, but her eyes told volumes, and that's all he needed to know.
"No, sorry he's not for sale." Ryan spoke firmly, his voice full of authority. "But thank you for your time."
With that, they made haste to leave the store, stumbling out into the fresh air. Kayla breathed in heavily.
"I never realised how stuffy the inside of those houses could be... I always imagined there'd be a draft through the wood boards." Kayla proclaimed, taking Arby off of her husbands head and hugging him to her chest. The bird chirped happily, and Huckles pressed up against Kayla's leg.
"I wouldn't have sold him." Ryan defended quickly, sensing his wife's upset.
"I didn't say anything." She responded flatly.
"Okay..." He replied, deciding not to push the topic further.
Kayla was suddenly knocked aside by a mass of grey and brown fur, she stepped back regaining her balance swiftly and glanced down at the offending creature.
"Stump?" Kayla remarked outloud, as the creature shoved his nose towards Huckles, his tail wagging furiously behind him as he began sniffing the husky.
Huckles drew her head back sharply, staring at the dog before her in confusion. She was frozen, the only reaction was her tail slightly wagging as if against her better judgement. Ryan glanced at her, before chuckling.
"At ease girl." And with those words, Huckles personality shifted instantly, she returned Stumps greetings and within moments the two were chasing each other around the place.
"Sorry Sir!" A kid ran up to them, breathing heavily. "He suddenly took off and I didn't know you had a dog too."
"It's okay, she's friendly." Ryan smiled at the kid. "Stump seems friendly too."
"Wait how'd you know his name was Stump?" The kid asked, brushing his blonde hair out of his face, emphasising his confused frown.
"Uhh.. I heard you guys calling out to him when we entered town." Ryan recovered, Kayla shook her head, this wasn't going to be as easy as they first thought. With all their knowledge of the game... This wasn't all scripts, the people reacted like real people. Emotions, logic, all the works. But the events seemed to go along the same lines... for now.
The child seemed satisfied with this, and swiftly became distracted once more.
"Can I pet your dog? What's her name?"
"Her name is Huckles, and sure you can pet her... If you can keep up with her." Kayla smiled, the child glanced at her, his eyes widening slightly at her appearance upon realising what stood before him.
"You guys sure dress funny. But thank you for letting me pet your dog!" Atleast he was polite enough to keep his mouth shut about her race, but he was right... Their clothing did look odd here.
"Well... Children are odd little creatures." Ryan remarked, turning towards his wife. "He had a point though... We need to get some new gear... and fast."
"Well." Kayla grinned cheekily. "You best get chopping my muscular man."