.hack//USERS
Spiel: .hack and related characters and elements copyright Bandai, yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill.
Chapter 1: CHARACTERSThere are many, many players in The World. Approximately twenty million worldwide.
In The World, you pay a fee, sign up, create an edited character out of a base model, and delve into an online world. After the net crisis and the Pluto's Kiss incident, online play was banned, and The World, for the new ALTIMIT OS, was the first online computer game to be approved by the new Net Reform policies.
The World has had a lot of trouble; there were reports of people going into comas from playing the game, and an outbreak of a dangerous virus, originating in The World, threatened the entire newly reformed network. A group of players, known as the "Dot-Hackers", were able to stem the outbreak of the virus and save The World, as well as the real world.
In any case, small circles of players develop inside The World. People randomly call upon others to join parties, are introduced to friends, friends of friends, and so on. There's no rhyme or reason to the game. No plot. It's a social environment where people can meet. Maybe go on a little adventure. Collect treasures. You can play the game however you want.
This is a story about the coming together of small group of acquaintances to play The World. All of them know each other loosely, be it in the game or in real life. Some are friends, others bitter rivals. Some are new, some have been playing a long time. Some are young, some are older. But they all work in tandem towards a common goal.
~*~*~
A female Twin Blade logged into her account. She had long, violet hair that ran halfway down her back, her eyes perpetually closed in a cheerful expression, with a tattoo of a green, vertical line in the outside corner of each eye, tracing the shape of her face, almost to her chin. She wore a red, ribbed, sleeveless turtleneck and red shorts, edges trimmed with silver, and around each arm spiraled an additional blue and gray tattoo, which secluded itself under the cuffs of her blown-leather gloves. While this wasn't reciprocated on her legs, the young girl did wear similar brown boots.
The Twin Blade wandered into the courtyards of Dun Loireag. It was unusually quiet today, especially for a Saturday afternoon. She sat on a bench and looked through her item inventory with a slightly disappointed face.
"Time to restock," she said with a voice of prepubescent quality. "I wish I had more money…"
Standing, she walked to the item shop, bartering with the shopkeeper in hopes that he would let her purchase more Health Drinks than she really had the money for.
"Come on, please? I don't have that much money, and if I go on a dungeon adventure, I might not make it back!"
"I might be a shopkeeper, but I'm still human-controlled. I can see your level is high enough. Why not go to a low level dungeon and get some treasure from there to sell?"
"Can't you just help me out? Just this once?" The expression on her face was one of pure desperation, without a hint of dishonesty. The shopkeeper caved.
"Oh, alright. I can cut the price by 40 GP. But don't tell anyone."
The smile returned to her mouth. "Thank you so very much! I'll never forget this day!" She forked over a good 5500 GP, near the limit to what she had to give, and was on her merry way. Then, as she approached the Chaos Gate, it occurred to her.
"Oh, no! But now I'm totally out of money!"
~*~*~
Somewhere on the Lambda server, a male Blademaster, dressed head to toe in silver armor and wearing a white-winged helmet, blocked a female Wavemaster from entering a dungeon in a snowy play field.
"CV, get out of my way. You're being an ass again," cried the Wavemaster, her yellow gown rustling as she shifted about. Orange floral patterns speckled it, a custom texture she had been given permission to upload. Contrary to other Wavemasters, she did not wear a hat, her white hair sticking out wildly and uninhibited. Her skin tone was dark, another unusual trait for Wavemaster players. She pushed the Blademaster by the shoulder of his broad, iron mantle in an effort to get past him. He swung his sword menacingly, causing her to retreat a few steps.
"You get out of here, Diana," he teased. "You know as well as I do that you can't do this dungeon alone."
"How do you know, Car-"
CV cut her off abruptly. "Don't you dare refer to me by my real name in The World! In here, I'm known as 'CV-100'. You'd be wise to remember."
"Oh, how callous of me. Let me through, or I'm going to have to get physical." She pointed her cross-shaped staff towards him shakily.
"Was that a threat? I'm at a higher level than you, not to mention you're a Wavemaster…" He sneered a little in front of his terminal, invisible under his helm, chuckling coldly.
Diana backed up, looking hesitant. Then, suddenly:
"Merue Rom!"
CV was far too fast, and Diana fell before the spell could even resolve. Ice blocks swirled around him harmlessly.
"Foolish girl," he said, staring down at her grayed body. "This could have been avoided if you'd invited me along in the first place."
When Diana respawned into The World, she returned to the Theta server. CV was right. Carmina Gadelica and its difficult dungeons would have been far too much for her; but still, did he have to PK her like that? Sullen, she sat on a small wooden dock overlooking the misty lowlands of Theta's Dun Loireag. A mature looking Twin Blade, bearing a grayed, brush-cut hairstyle, approached her.
The Twin Blade wore a gray vest, laced in the front, over a white turtleneck. Matching slacks that tied near his ankles were accompanied by rough-looking adventurer's boots, made of what would appear to be black leather. Contrary to other Twin Blades of his base model, he wore neither a hat, nor gloves. He sat near Diana.
"Life got you down?" he asked in an older, rasped voice. His head turned to look at her, but his eyes were obscured by a long, gray bandana.
"What business is it of yours?"
"None, really. Guess I was just looking to cheer up another player. Don't see many Wavemasters who play without hats on their edits."
"Look, if you're trying to pick me up, you can forget it."
"Honestly, it's nothing like that… From the look of it, I'd say someone cut you pretty deep."
"Uh…" Diana looked away, staring down at her wand laid at her feet. It was true in both a literal and emotional sense.
"Hey, don't worry about it. But if you need to talk to someone, I'm usually around. The name's Gil."
"I'm Diana."
"That's a pretty name. Are you from Japan?"
"No, I'm from England. You probably recognized my silly accent, eh?"
Gil chuckled, speaking in English. "I don't make points of such things, being from America myself."
"And you're on the Japanese server?" responded Diana, also in English.
"I moved to Japan a long time ago."
She looked away again. "It's nice to find another player like me…"
"There are plenty of players like us," Gil finished, standing slowly.
Diana nodded. "You're logging out?"
"Yeah. I've got work in the morning."
"On Saturday?"
"Yup. What they pay me for."
"Aww, that sucks. Anyway, it was nice to speak with you. I'll be sure to contact you sometime."
"Thanks. Talk with you later." The older Twin Blade smiled and waved, a trio of gold rings dissolving his image.
~*~*~
A male Long Arm player was one of the first to log into the Sigma server the next morning, not appearing as he normally did.
The contest winner, Jinn, had received a special character edit, bearing the wings of the legendary Lord Balmung of the Azure Sky. His hair was made exceedingly long, and he was robed in deep hues of silken blue. The new facial edit graced him with a rare, elaborate dragon tattoo on the left side, snaking from under his ear to the base of his neck.
Such was the reward of a high-level player for clearing an elite event. A character edit like this would be sure to turn heads. Jinn felt unnecessarily obvious. He missed his old edit with the spiky hair and the samurai breastplate.
But he persevered. A shopkeeper greeted him as a system administrator.
"Congratulations, Player Jinn. You've completed the Gaia's Beast event. On behalf of the CC Corporation and us here at The World, I'd like to congratulate you."
"Thank you very much," said Jinn. "I'm honored to receive such a gift."
"The players on your Member Address List have been informed of the change. If you know someone who is not on your address list, I think it would be wise to contact them with the good news."
"Thank you," nodded Jinn. "I'll keep that in mind."
The ring trio dissolved the moderator, another appearing behind him to trace the figure of a male Wavemaster.
"Hey, Jinn!" This Wavemaster dressed in a style similar to the basic model; his main edits consisted of long, brown hair, compassionate brown eyes, and brown horizontal lines on either cheek. He wore green robes; the circular gems on his hat stood a sapphire hue. One could have easily mistaken him for the Wavemaster Tsukasa if they ignored his coloring, a player who made quite a buzz when he became unable to log out, a rumor spreading about his condition; His player had been thrown into a coma.
But all that was far in the past. About a year in the past.
"Taragon, what're you doing on so early?"
"I got the e-mail from an admin telling me about your new model. It looks really cool! Did it come with any cool stuff?"
"Nah, I think this is kind of a rip
off. You actually like it?"
"Of course! It's awesome. Very
powerful-looking, yet restrained. I'm a little angry that you didn't invite me
along… Jealous, I guess."
"Yeah, sorry. I went solo on this one. Would have pissed off a lot of my friends, having only been able to invite two people."
"That's understandable."
"So what've you been up to?"
"Not much. Even at my level, I'm still limited to SP consumption, so I need to play with others in order to be of any use. But it's a good way to get publicity, even in dungeons lower than my current level. 'Male Wavemaster seen working alone in Level sixty-two dungeon!'" He laughed.
"I was wondering if you'd seen that on the message boards. The description did sound like you. Wanna go on a dungeon adventure?"
"No thanks, I've got somewhere to be. But I'll see you later."
"Alright, then. Later."
"Of course." The rings returned to remove him.
~*~*~
Cursing her luck, the female Twin Blade with the purple locks wandered the bridges of Fort Ouph. The Theta and Lambda servers were down. She wouldn't gain any decent experience in Delta. "I wish I were stronger, or knew stronger people…" It was then that she spotted the winged Long Arm.
"Wow! With an edit like that, he has to be strong!" Running around a series of rather long bridges, she struggled to catch up to him.
"Hey! Hey! Hold on, I want to talk to you!"
Jinn turned to see the femme Twin Blade running towards him. "Yeah?"
"My name is Raulen, and I'm a Twin Blade… You look very strong. Would you mind terribly… going on a dungeon adventure with me?"
"Raulen? Nice to meet you. I'm Jinn. And I'd love to go on an adventure with you. What's your level?"
Raulen hesitated, but decided there was no use in lying. "Twenty-eight," she sighed.
The response took Jinn by surprise. "Why are you here on the Sigma server, then? A server like Theta would serve you much better."
"It's down…"
"Ah, I understand. I'm level seventy-three, just so you know."
"So you'll still come along with me? I'll let you keep all the treasure!"
"Of course. And you shouldn't worry about it. I'd be happy to level you up."
What could be seen of Raulen's eyes shone with gratitude. "Thank you so much! I'll never forget this day!"
Jinn lead her to the chaos gate. "Just let me do the fighting," he said. "Hang back and heal me if my HP gets too low. What restorative skills do you have?"
"Repth is the only restore skill I have…"
"Ah, sorry, I've forgotten what it's like to be a lower-level player… The monsters will be very strong, so you'll probably not want to fight."
"I understand. Thank you."
Raulen jogged closely behind Jinn, marveling at his battle skill and how much it outmatched hers. He was able to eliminate many enemies in this forested area with a single stroke, and she had already gained five levels.
Oh, wait, no. Make that six.
"Thirty-four!! Thanks, Jinn!"
"Hey, don't mention it, kid. Now I remember what it was like, being a newbie like you. I'd have killed to get people to level me up." He swung his broad spear, engraved with Chinese characters, menacingly over the corpse of a defeated monster.
Unexpectedly, a loud shriek echoed through the forest from the east. The long ears of Jinn's new edit perked up, twitching as he looked in that direction.
"Someone's in trouble. C'mon." Saying that, he raced into the distance, Raulen tagging closely behind.
Exiting into another clearing, a female Heavy Axe cowered in its corner. The edit she'd created was a bizarre one; her gown was black, her petit wings black, her hair shoulder-length and black, her shoes black… Deep blue eyes stared up at the prospect of death, her weapon far away, and a monstrous form towering over her. Her skin was deathly pale.
"Woah, that's a big sucker! Hold on, kid!" Jinn moved to hurl his spear, but something interrupted him. Mainly, the monster's death.
Another player had been in the area. She was edited similar to the legendary dot-hacker "BlackRose", the basic female Heavy Blade edit, bearing an African skin tone and a gold breastplate with a simple blue trim around its edges. The similar crotchplate bracing her pelvis had a flowing, blue loincloth extending from its base, making up for the leggings she did not wear. Her hair was long and white, her eyes gray, and her entire body covered in tribal-looking, lavender tattoos.
"You alright?" asked the Heavy Blade.
"I… I think so," replied the gothic Heavy Axe.
"Good." She was gone, after that. The rings had taken her away again. In the meantime, the Heavy Axe had gotten up and collected her weapon, looking at Jinn and Raulen rather embarrassedly.
"I'm, ahh… I'm sorry," she stammered, bowing politely. "I'm not good at this… don't know why I started playing…"
Raulen's slit-eyes arched depressedly. "Come on. You can't be that bad if you got this far."
The girl dropped her axe again and buried her face in her hands. "I'm a failure!" she cried, her wireframe hiccupping softly. Neatly and carefully, she fell to her knees. Raulen moved to approach her, but Jinn clasped a gentle hand on the Twin Blade's shoulder disapprovingly.
"So get stronger," he said to the Heavy Axe.
She glanced up, virtual tears streaming down her face. "W-what?"
"I can't have pity for you if you just give up. You shouldn't have to succumb to your weakness. What is your name?"
"K… Kaede," squeaked the pale girl.
"Well, Kaede, if you'd joined a party, you shouldn't be having a problem. There's safety in numbers. Remember that.
"…No one wants to play with me…" she muttered.
Jinn looked shocked, glancing back at Raulen, who simply shrugged. "Heavy Axes are in short supply, as not many females choose it as their class, and the male edits are just ugly. They're probably intimidated by it."
"…No, it's because they hate me. Everyone hates me."
"I seriously doubt that every player in The World could not only know, but also hate you. We don't hate you. Right, Raulen?"
Raulen nodded cheerfully in agreement, raising a dagger into the air and hopping. "I like your edit. It's pretty."
Kaede's gaze finally shifted up from the dirt in front of her.
"Why not join up with us? We've got room for another player."
With shining eyes, the Heavy Axe picked up her weapon again, showering the pair before her with humble thanks and praises. She approached them with still-watery eyes.
"Lead the way. Wherever you go, I will do my best to follow you."
~*~*~
Diana woke up around 10:00 on Saturday to play The World. She didn't have school, and only worked on Sundays, so Saturday was her day to play. She logged back on.
Feh. None of her friends were on. Besides that insipid CV-100. And with the server best for her current level down, she couldn't get any character building done. With regret, she slipped onto Mac Anu. Sure, it'd be boring. But she might be able to help a newbie in the area. Why not?
After a short jaunt around the streets, it came to Diana that the server was packed with people who weren't suited, level-wise, for either of the active servers. And ever since they established the stupid permission ward on Omega, the servers had been less one. Perhaps a gondola ride would relieve her boredom… the city of Mac Anu was beautifully constructed, strongly European in design, akin to the city of Venice in the real world. She sat down with her staff across her lap in the small boat, shelling out fifteen gold pieces as her fee. Another Wavemaster rushed over, paid his own fee, then carefully sat in front of her, seated face-to-face as the gondolier pushed off. The Wavemaster Taragon had given Diana no time to react.
"Hey, you, what do you think you're doing?" She leaned forward, giving him a stern look in the eye. "It's rude to steal others' private rides."
"You only paid fifteen, didn't you?" replied Taragon quickly. "Since you didn't pay the thirty for both seats, I should be able to purchase the other one if I'd like."
Diana hadn't expected him to retort. "You're… I guess. Sorry. A little bored today. Made me snappish, I guess."
Taragon chuckled. "Your accent is funny."
"It is not!"
"Sure is. You're British?"
"Yeah… I suppose my pronunciation isn't perfect, but it isn't bad, either!"
"You know, in Japanese, you can more freely emphasize syllables. You say everything with a very strict English emphasis. Watch more television, you'll see what I mean."
"Oh… Thanks, I guess."
There was an awkward silence, conversation avoided between the pair. The streets were packed, the construction perpetually crumbling as it was designed, and the shopkeepers hustling their goods amongst the players as best they could.
"It's marvelous," spoke Taragon. "Can you imagine the scope of a project like The World? How much effort it would have taken?"
"Umm… yeah. It's really… great." Diana had never really thought about it before… It was miraculously impressive, The World. Each town, by scale, was at least two square miles. And there wasn't a lot of texture or building repetition.
"Truth is… I was late for an appointment. I was supposed to meet a girl here. I think. Sometimes I lose track…"
"Forgetful type, eh?"
"Yeah… Poor Subaru…"
"Wait, do you mean the Subaru? Lady Subaru, formerly of the Crimson Knights?"
"Huh? Oh, maybe… I might have met her after that whole thing."
"That's so cool! You need to introduce me to her. I thought she didn't access anymore."
Taragon looked troubled. He hopped off the gondola quickly as it approached a small dock.
"Hey, wait! Where are you going?"
"I have to… take care of something."
"Oh, okay, I understand. My name's Diana, by the way!"
"I'm Taragon!" They were shouting to each other as the boat pulled further and further away. "I'll be sure to talk to Subaru for you!"
As soon as heads turned at the name of Lady Subaru, the Wavemaster was gone. Diana wondered how a player like him could move so quickly… But the excitement of being able to meet the Lady Subaru was almost too much for her to handle.