Disclaimer: I do not own .hack/ or any of the characters from the animes, games, or books or 'The World'. I DO claim Jo Velez & her family, Astral, and these stories. Also, I'll be slipping some descriptions in from the books at times. Those will be denoted by single quotes ', italics, and the source of the description in parenthesees( ).
DAYLIGHT
Jo was so excited. She had just gotten her computer upgraded as well as had 'The World' installed upon it. It was January 2010, still winter break for the American girl. This ment staying up late and playing with anyone she could meet from all over the world! Booting up her terminal, she watches as the default ALTIMIT OS background is pulled up as The World is initialized. She was a new player, so she had to find a character model. At least for her the name was easy enough, and it wasn't taken, either! Giddy with eagerness, Jo scrolls through the classes, finally settling onto three to choose from: Blademaster, Heavyblade, and Twin Blade. Sure, most girls probly went for the Heavyblade or Wavemaster, but Jo didn't like mages overly well, and she wasn't sure about that huge weapon. 'Ok, two left.' she thinks to herself. Smiling happily, she makes her choice. The available models appeared, and she made her choice, adjusting the colors with a smile unto herself. "This's going to be so cool!" she says, finalizing her character. As the login screen came up, she switches to her Face-Mounted Display and pulls it on, her guidebook within her grasp. "I hope the world's prepared for Astral."
Her avatar materialized in the world, a female blademaster with a night-like theme to her. Astral's eyes were a bright yellow, like a cat's, a stark contrast to her midnight-blue hair. At least her dark clothing was more fitting to the dark hair. Astral wore a long, black coat speckled and slashed with dots and lines of white. Her legs were covered with a pair of... what were they called back in mideival days? breeches? Astral giggled a little, thinking of the word, drawing the glances from a few nearby players. Trying to smile it off, she types the command on her keyboard, using her controller to slowly move away. 'Reading the manual DOES have it's benefits, after all.' she muses to herself. After taking a look around the city, she starts back towards the Chaos Gate. The city really was an amazing place, but she wanted to get out and explore the levels! As the menu for the area selection starts to pop up, a rather-impressive-looking male blademaster approaches her. Torn from the selection, Astral turns towards him, the command for a greeting being typed quickly.
"Hello, is there something I can help you with?" she asks, causing the blademaster to smile.
"I see that you are new, but that you are at least polite." he replies. His appearance was odd, but with the ways to customize your avatar, Astral didn't think it'd be too hard to recognize this guy if she ever saw him again. 'His upper body was a ball of muscles covered only by a harness-belt and a piece of heavy shoulder armor. He carried his sword sheathed on his back. A white X-like symbol was painted over his chest and face. The white paint stood out in deep contrast to his dark green skin and copper-colored hair. His midsection and lower arms were a more normal fleshy-tone, but the rest was green'(AI Buster).
"Uhh... yeah, I am." she nods, a slight blush crossing over her cheeks in the real world.
"I would like to offer my assistance in helping to level you up. My friend is not here yet, and I need to burn some time before he does show up." Looking up at him, that was when Astral first noticed the player's name over his avatar.
"I think... actually... err... well, yes, thank you!" she finally descides to trust him. She'd played a few MMORPGs(Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) before Pluto's Kiss, and had fallen victim to PKers(Player-Killers) a few times. The rulebook for 'The World' did not ban that sort of behavour, so she was going to be sure to keep on her guard. Within seconds of her answer, a message flashes across her display. Opening the message, it was the blademaster's member adress. Sending her own to him, he immediately invited her into his party, and Astral couldn't help but to accept. His name, Orca, along with his stats and a picture of his avatar appears in the lower-left of her screen.
"It is a pelasure to offer my assistance to you, Astral." he says, bowing a bit. This caused her to smile in the real world, and she bows lower.
"It's all mine, Orca." she replies happily. Before they set into the field, Orca switches to Party Chat and explains a bit more about the commands. Typing in the command for nodding, her avatar does so.
After several hours, but what only seems like mere minutes to Astral, she has leveled up quite a bit, especially for a newbie. At level ten, she was much less likely to die from the newbie areas.
"Thank you, Orca." she says happily to him as they return to the Root Town. Once there, she gives Orca a small wave and says she needs to get some sleep. Once Astral saves, she logs out and finally realizes it's well after midnight.
Giving a deep sigh, Jo rubs her hands over her face, laying the FMD beside the keyboard. "God, that was so fun!" she says happily, standing and streatches. "So much to do, so little time. But I can see Orca tomorrow. Heh, first day, ten levels, and a new friend. This game's great!" she says as she starts to change into her pajamas. Flicking her long, odd-colored hair out of her nightshirt, she crawls into bed. "Tomorrow I'll have even more fun on my own!" she giggles before turning off the light and going to sleep.
The next morning, Jo was up and moving about even before her parents, which was odd in itself because it was noon when she did wake. After getting to the bathroom and out of the shower, she sits on her bed, brushing the tangles from the night's dreams and such from her hair. It was wierd to her, the white streaks and occasional single long strand of the white hair amongst the otherwise black field. Once she was done getting ready, and eating breakfast of course, she returns to her room and logs into The World. Raising an eyebrow, Jo noticed she had an email from Orca, stating that he wanted to introduce her to his friend he was talking about last night. Giggling a little, she enters into the Root Town of Mac Anu, the sight one she, as a newbie, would not know about just yet.
As Astral materialized near the Chaos Gate, she was immediately overrun by goblins and other low-leveled enemies. "W-what the?" she had been completely off guard, but was soon able to destroy the low-leveled monsters. Taking a couple of her healing potions to replentish her health, she begins to start clearing what monsters she could find and could handle. Surprise overcame her, though, as she nears the central bridge of the city. Atop it were fighting a large demon-looking monster along with a longarm and a blademaster, as well as several mid-level characters. Once she was able to get a better look, Astral recognized the blademaster as Orca, the one that had helped her the previous day. As she started towards him, the final blow is struck by the longarm and the demon dies. The mid-levels behind the two begin to grumble amongst themselves. The blademaster appeared to be saying something to the longarm, who ignores him and flees across the bridge, ducking into a building. Watching this strange man, Astral couldn't help but to think she saw a small, child-like figure following him. "So odd..." she says, shaking her head. Orca and another blademaster, this one clad in what looked like a blue bodysuit with armor over his shoulders and around his waist, approach over the bridge. "Hey Orca!" Astral says happily, turning to greet her friend.
"Hello there, Astral. It is pleasant to meet you again." he smiles back. "This is the friend of mine I was waiting for yesterday. Balmung, this is Astral." Balmung looked a bit irritated to her, but he nodded. His eyes and throughts were elsewhere, or rather, his eyes were where the man with the child-like figure following him had disappeared to, and most likely his thoughts were on him.
"Orca, that man. Remember." Balmung says after a moment.
"Oh, right. Please, excuse us, Astral." Orca bows slightly, Astral returning it to them both, then waves them goodbye. Looking at the other players, she asks a couple of the nearest ones about what had happened.
"The monthly invasion." one of the mid-levels that had fought the demon. "Every month there's an event on all servers where monsters invade. This was one of the toughest I've seen so far." he says. Nodding her thanks, Astral heads over for the saving NPC, then to the Chaos Gate. Inputting the three words, she heads off to a low-level area of fifteen. Orca had explained the previous day why they were going to harder places than she should've gone alone. Leveling up was alot easier with a level thirty-something at your side, and when you were at a level twenty area.
It had been such an amazing day, Astral couldn't believe her luck. Deciding to turn in early, she sold off her extra items and saved. "Ahh, if only everyday could be like this." she sighs, closing her eyes and logs out.
Jo yawns and leans back in her chair, streaching. "Orca is the awsomest person to know." she says to the empty room, standing. Looking around, she moves to get into her nightclothes and crawls into bed, happy to be sleeping.
As dawn comes and starts to go, Jo still sleeps, up until 8:45. Waking, the dark-haired girl rubs her eyes and looks at her clock. Almost nine... what was supposed to happen at nine? Shrugging to herself, Jo brushes the hair from her face and closes her eyes for another few hours of sleep. At noon on the dot she woke again, her hair up in ruffles. Yawning and streatching big, the girl smacks her lips and gets up. She hadn't really spent much time just sitting and looking at her room since she'd known about her computer getting it's upgrade, as most her free time was online playing The World. Plopping into her chair, she logs in, using the terminal display until she was going to actually play. Opening up the BBS, she was surprised to see a thread titled 'The One Sin' by some guy named 'W. B. Yates'. Clicking it, Jo was more than surprised to read what was in it. "Orca cleared The One Sin!" she gasps. Even being a newbie she'd at least known about the hardest-to-date One Sin event. Quickly moving into the game, she wanted to congradulate Orca on the event.
Upon logging into The World as Astral, the FMD glitches, causing the colors to reverse for barely more than a second. Worried about her inventory, she sighs, happy that everything was still in place. Scrolling through, her eyes widen in the real world, one of the oddest items she'd ever seen was there: yromem.cyl. "A file extention?" she asks softly, re-reading the the titles of the items. 'Maybe they were rare event items?' Astral asks herself. Shrugging it off, she sends an email to Orca, congradulating him on clearing The One Sin.
It was at that moment that the email was sent that Jo's mother calls from downstairs. Sighing heavily, she trudges down, looking at her. Because she was called away, Jo did not know that a pair of mysterious emails had been sent to her as well: one from a person named 'Helba', and the other was slightly scrambled with the only letters readable being 'Ly' at the beginning.
Alright, so this's .hack/EPIC/DAYLIGHT, the first chapter of a(hopefully) long .hack/ fanfic. I intend to have it span from AI Buster to Legend of the Twilight Bracelet and a bit beyond.