TYRIA'S REAL!?
Summary: Tiffany and Fiona, natives of earth, are transported into Tyria. Several unexpected side effects are dealt with, and then they assist the Seraph in the fight against the centaurs attacking Shaemoor.
Chapter one: The 'Tutorial'
Author's Notes:
SPOILER WARNING: This is the one and only time you will be warned: There are spoilers up to the end of the Heart of Thorns expansion and the first two chapters of LS3. I know, you haven't finished those and you want to read this anyway. Well, don't. You'll be sorry you did. Very. Very. Very sorry. And not from anything I can do to you - no, this knowledge is different. Ignorance is bliss, as some say. You. Have. Been. Warned. Heed it.
Hey guys! I think this is probably my first ever GW2 fanfic posted. In all actuality, it's like the twentieth I've written... just because I never posted them. Anyway, this fanfiction, this one here? It's about what if me (Tiffany) and my sister (Fiona) got pulled into GW2 somehow. The method I chose, a glowing map, might not be the best... and I doubt you can actually get the map described in the story... anyway, me and my sister get sucked into Tyria, where everything is no longer a game, it's real. Like, don't click a button to shoot, actually do it - aim, pull the string, etc. Muscle memory is good, though, for starting weapons, so yay. Anyway, that's what this is about...enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Guild Wars series or the three books (Edge of Destiny, Ghosts of Ascalon, or Sea of Sorrows). I am not affiliated with ArenaNet or the writers of the books. I am not making any money from writing this story. I intend no copyright infringement of ArenaNet or any other.
Okay, here's the story now:
"The map arrived!" Tiffany squeals. "Let's put it up now!"
Tiffany and her sister, Fiona, had ordered a map of Tyria, and are tacking the massive map to the wall in the living room. It takes up the entire wall, but it had an awesomely large scale. Rather than the tiny version on the wiki, it spans the entire wall.
"So worth the cost!" Tiffany nods, satisfied. "And the scale on this thing..."
Fiona puts her hand on the map. "It's all... soft. It's not paper, it's cloth! No wonder it was so expensive! And it's so big!"
"Cloth? Wow!" Tiffany gasps, feeling the material.
They admire the map for a few minutes, locating cities and zones (unmarked, but not hard to find).
"One thing I love is how it shows all the zones as explored already," Tiffany says. "Not in as exact detail as the player map - it doesn't have hearts and waypoints and things, but still!"
"Well, duh, of course it would!" Fiona rolls her eyes. "Why wouldn't it?"
"I suppose..."
"Suppose, yeah right," Fiona elbows her sister and they both laugh.
Then, the map begins to glow.
"It looks like a treasure chest when someone opens it in a movie!" Tiffany observes. "Only, it's a map..."
"That looks weird..." Fiona says in a creeped-out tone of voice, taking a step back. "I'm sure something's wrong with it."
The glow grows stronger, and brighter. Both girls stumble back, shielding their eyes. Then, they are weightless, and the world around them dissolves into colors swirling around them. Through the confusion, a hole opens - no, a tunnel - and they can feel themselves flying forward through it. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it is gone.
The map is gone, the room is gone. They aren't anywhere they had ever seen before. It is blackness, nothingness. Where the map on the wall had been, an asuran-style holographic control panel shines. It is the character creation from the game! Only... it has many more controls for appearance, and extensive backstory adjustment buttons.
Fiddling with the controls, the sisters realize that there is no character to be altered, no avatar. Instead, their alterations on the control panel change their own look.
"Fiona! Look at your hair!" Tiffany gasps as her sister's hair turns an unnaturally bright red.
"What the - what's going on?" Fiona demands.
Tiffany reaches over and selects another color on Fiona's controls, and her sister's hair turns purple.
"That is so cool!" Tiffany grins.
"Tiffany!" Fiona sighs in exasperation. "Oh, look! A default button!" She presses the button and her hair returns to normal.
"That's cool. I wonder... what if we choose a different race?" Tiffany wonders, flipping back to the race selection and choosing asura. "I wonder if I could make myself look like one of the NPCs?"
"Probably, with these advanced controls," Fiona notes. "I can change my arms' length, I mean really! Everything!"
"I wonder if I could make myself look like Zojja, or Taimi?" Tiffany speculates. "Let's try it!" she decides as she fiddles with the controls. "Look, I can see what I'll look like in different armor and stuff, though it has a warning saying that's not what I'll start out as. Fiona, look at me! I look like Zojja now!"
"You sound weird," Fiona points out.
"That's because I also changed the voice option," Tiffany tells her sister smugly.
"You can do that?" Fiona queries.
"Yeah, look there!"
"Wow..." Fiona studies the controls. "We can make ourselves look like anyone!"
"Lets not create a character that looks like an NPC, though - that would just be weird," Tiffany decides.
"Yeah, you're right," Fiona agrees. "But we can still see how much we can make ourselves look like other people without creating it!"
The girls move sliders and options and customize themselves, laughing when they get it almost right but absurdly wrong.
"Alright, now I'm bored," Fiona announces, after they'd tried everyone they could think of.
"Hm. Yeah, there's only so much you can do in a character creation menu," Tiffany observes.
Then, someone starts talking. They can't see anyone except themselves and the holographic control panel in front of them, and they can't tell where the voice is coming from.
"Create a character that will represent you - forever. Once created, you will enter Tyria as a world. It will be real life from then on. You are smart enough to know what that implies," the voice finishes sternly.
"Real life?" Tiffany whispers. "The character will represent us?" she turns to look at the control panel again. "Yeah, default. If it's gonna be as real as this, I don't want somebody else's body, or at least one that's not my own. Creepy. Let's create us, then."
Appearance is one thing, but the other options - mostly backstory - are interesting. In order to preserve their appearance as themselves, they both choose human characters. Tiffany, however, in keeping with her main Guild Wars 2 character, makes herself a ranger with a pet bear. Surprisingly, she can enter the bear's name - Beorn, after the shape-changer in the Hobbit - here, rather than waiting until level six. The question about the Six makes her pause, however, unsure. Grimacing, she finally chooses Kormir - goddess of order, truth and knowledge - as she always had.
"Hey - it skipped the question about dignity, charm, and ferocity!" Tiffany realizes.
"Well, that has all to do with personality, right?" Fiona replies absentmindedly. "And since we're going to be us, it wouldn't really apply, don't you think?" Fiona had decided to become a mesmer, and, surprisingly enough, she had been able to choose whether to wear the creepy mask she is offered. She now carelessly touches the 'Dwayna' button on the question about the Six.
"Ahh, that makes sense," Tiffany notes. "What should we do for names?"
"Well, our real names, obviously," Fiona says. "It's real now, and I don't want to be called by my online alias all the time, especially if we look like us. The point of the online alias is so people don't know it's us, but if we have our own faces they'll know it anyway."
"That makes sense. Ooh, look, there's a family button! We can, in the lore be related!"
"Cool," Fiona agrees, scanning the other buttons on that part of the control panel. "Hey, we can be twins!"
"Yeah, let's do that," Tiffany says with a grin. "Not identical though, obviously."
"Right, of course," Fiona answers.
"Of course," Tiffany echoes. "Alright - lets enter Tyria!" Tiffany slaps her hand over the 'create' button, and her hand sticks. So does Fiona's. The holographic control panel disappears and the surrounding blackness becomes a rainbow of colors swirling into place. While that is going on, the mysterious voice from earlier comes back.
"Remember, this is real life," the voice warns. "There is no such thing as an NPC. There is no such thing as computer-generated effects."
"No NPCs! That means everyone is real!" Tiffany gasps, not having thought about that before. "Let's make use of Shilgni!"
Then, the surrounding colors seem to click into place and the two are standing on the streets of Divinity's Reach, just inside the city. Tiffany can see the dark gates of the city are shut, and only a narrow door is open in the wall by the gates. Curiosity and surprise nearly overwhelm Tiffany, and she gasps in surprise. Those emotions aren't hers... what is going on?
She feels a weight against her leg, and glances down to see her bear - Beorn - looking up at her. Tiffany realizes that the emotions are coming from him, and wonders what she has gotten herself into. She remembers - but this had never happened to her! - being hurt, and Beorn healing her. "Backstory," Tiffany realizes breathlessly. "We have the memories of our backstory!"
"Reall - " Fiona cuts off mid-word as she realizes the same. Her eyes widen in shock. "Oh" seems to be all she can say.
Tiffany feels a confused jumble of emotions from Beorn - interest, a possessive, protective caution, and an overwhelming sense of confusion. Right on the heels of these emotions comes an even more closely-tangled jumble, both more clear than the others and more blurry for blending with the others. Wondering what these emotions could possibly mean, Tiffany recalls other memories that had never happened - learning what the emotions from Beorn mean. She realizes that the emotion she had identified as 'interest' means Beorn is curious about what had just happened and wants to learn more. What she had identified as 'caution' is, when combined with the interest, Beorn's demand to know - literally - who she is and what she has done with Tiffany. And, of course, he doesn't know what had happened - confusion - and is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt - caution - because she still seems like the Tiffany he knows. That is what the last bit of emotion is - Beorn's 'word' for her, for Tiffany... or at least, to the Tiffany he had known before.
Other memories concerning this odd bond to her pet - companion, she realizes, her equal in both sentience and intellect - tell her that she can return her own emotions, or she can speak to him directly. Feeling both slightly odd speaking to a bear - but also quite at home, having been doing this for years - she asks cautiously, "Beorn?"
The bear returns confirmation, and sends that jumble that means Tiffany, asking in return if she is who he knows.
"I..." Tiffany had been going to say that she doesn't know, but, suddenly seized by certainty, she replies, "yes, I'm Tiffany." She isn't sure how she knows that she is the same person, but she does. After a moment of looking at her, emanating caution and skepticism - meaning he is deciding whether to trust her - he nods at her.
If a bear nodding at her - mirrored by the emotions that say he trusts her and that she is who he thinks she is - wasn't weird enough, Tiffany's attention is drawn by there suddenly being two Fionas. Beorn chuckles at her mentally, and sends another bundle of emotions - the ones that, together, mean Fiona. Fiona's name in companion-talk. Tiffany realizes that emotions are the letters and words of a whole new language - one that is as personal and private as her own mind.
Returning her attention to where there are now three version of Fiona, Tiffany laughs. "That looks weird."
"I'm a mesmer, get used to it,' Fiona smirks.
"Oh no," Tiffany sighs - even though she is already used to it. "How much do the memories affect you?" she asks.
Fiona shrugs. "I'm not sure. I know how to do mesmer magic, and neither of us are useless in a real fight - "
Tiffany's mouth drops open as she remembers using an asura gate to travel to Ebonhawke and help the last human-held Ascalonian city. "Well... whoever set this up knew what they were doing," she manages. This is a whole realm of knowledge that she had never known before.
"Yes, they did," Fiona decides. "So where are we and what are we doing?"
Tiffany's mind snaps back into gear. "We're just inside Divinity's Reach," she identifies from her memories. "That door - " she points to a small one next to the closed gates " - leads to Shaemoor. I'm guessing that first priority is finding out whether we're doing the tutorial or not."
Fiona snickers. "The 'tutorial,' yeah right."
Tiffany rolls her eyes and pulls her sister to the side-door.
As the two step cautiously outside of the city, Tiffany's eyes widen and she looks around pure awe. "This is... we're in Tyria... it's so... real. Oh... Fiona. It's so real." She'd been in Tyria before, of course, but Shaemoor is a place she recognizes.
Fiona just nods dumbly, looking around in amazement. Guild Wars 2 had had purely awesome graphics, but this is a step higher - even if just from not being computer-generated on a flat screen. It's real.
Tiffany notices someone shouting for everyone to get to the inn.
"Everything has consequence now, Fiona - let's get these people to the inn. C'mon!"
They split up, telling people to get to the inn where they would be safe, and staring in amazement at the reality of everything around them. While new and overwhelming, it is also normal - she'd grown up in this reality.
Tiffany comes to the inn leading two small children by the hand. She kneels down by them and, looking at them in the eyes, tells them softly, "Stay here. If your parents come looking for you, they might miss you if you're moving around. My sister will be back in a minute, I'm sure - and if she hasn't found your parents, they'll probably be here, or we will go find them. Okay?
"Thank you, Tiffany," the smaller of the two says tearfully.
Tiffany turns in time to see two people rushing in the door, with Fiona on their heels.
"Tiffany, did you - oh, you did."
"There they are, children. Go see your parents. I have to go fight the centaurs now, okay?"
"Come back!" one of them pleads.
"I'll try!" Tiffany waves as she runs back out the door.
"Made friends already, eh Tiff?"
"Sure did. Did you?"
"Not really, you can't talk to people who're concerned for their kids."
After a moment of silence, Tiffany realizes a problem. "We need to get used to saying 'Captain Thackeray' rather than 'Logan', because if we accidentally call him Logan I've got no idea what he would think or how it'd mess up the story."
"What do you mean?" Fiona asks.
"He'd think we were weird," Tiffany explains, "and he might not make friends with us. That would... be bad."
As the two run up to garrison where Lo - Captain Thackeray - is battling centaurs with the other Seraph, Tiffany realizes that they are a bit behind - the centaur that summoned the earth elemental is already within the garrison, and the situation is much worse than normal, because there aren't any PCs to help - only them. Of course, there's no distinction between NPC and PC anymore.
The two girls instantly launch into combat, Tiffany handling her bow gingerly - it looks weak and delicate compared to what she's used to seeing in-game, and is afraid it might break. At the same time, she is in awe of the way the arrow whizzes through the air at her actions, and how real the whole thing is. Her Tyrian memories guide her hands in the almost automatic actions of shooting. The clashing of weapons and the shouts of the fighters is so much more real. The girls' arrival instantly turns the tide of the battle, and the Modniir champion soon turns tail and runs.
Tiffany shoots a few arrows but without much spirit in them, because she knows the champion is invulnerable. Only... it isn't. She leans over to Fiona.
"Normally he's invulnerable, but it's real so he's not! Quickly, kill him before he summons the earth elemental!"
Both girls continue shooting at the centaur, but don't kill him before the earth elemental is up. He does get killed, however.
Tiffany is ignoring the elemental and letting Fiona deal with it while she fights the lesser elementals and centaurs with Logan. No, Captain Thackeray. Ugh, this is going to be hard, Tiffany complains to herself. She is not just using her bow, either - she has knives hidden up her sleeves that she's using when she gets the chance. The most awesome part of the battle, however, is the instinctive coordination she shares with Beorn because of the link. While he is off attacking the elemental with Fiona, Tiffany is fighting elementals - but, through Beorn, Tiffany knows exactly what's going on on the other side of the battlefield.
Centaurs suddenly swarm them, and she is fighting back-to-back with Logan. Jabbing an arrow into the eye of one centaur, she spins around it and kicks another away from her while one of her daggers sinks into the flank of another. After fighting hand-to-hand for a minute, the centaurs flee.
She hides a grin at the surprised look on Captain Thackeray's face as she spins and dodges, if not effortlessly, with more skill than a civilian should have.
"Showing off, sis?" Fiona asks as Tiffany dodges to her side.
"Maybe a bit - I never knew why Logan - ugh, Captain Thackeray - took such an interest in my character when I played, except that I was supposedly the only PC. Which still shouldn't make any sense - he's got a squad of Seraph here, and we're untrained civilians. It's life now, things'll probably make more sense. You should try it, too."
"Perhaps I will... some other time." Fiona winks and continues, "illusions are my forte, remember, lil' girl."
"We're twins!" Tiffany cries in mock outrage. "And if we weren't, I'm older than you!"
Fiona laughs and darts away.
Later, as Tiffany and Beorn are bringing the gigantic elemental down, Fiona is on hand to warn Logan of the impending explosion.
"Captain! I don't think that centaur would have given us any old elemental to deal with - look for a trick," Fiona tells him as she kicks a lesser elemental apart. "It's a magically-sustained bit of earth, and you know what earth is best for - rockslides, cave-ins, and other things." Before he can reply, she fragments and disappears.
Logan glances around to see four Fionas about ten yards away, and occasionally one of them will fragment with a small explosion. One of the illusions grins at him and waves. He stares at her for a moment before shaking his head and getting back to the elemental he was fighting. He's used to mesmers - he can't not be - but when they start weaving their magic, it just disorients him.
"I thought you didn't approve of showing off?" Tiffany asks Fiona with a toss of her hair.
"I thought you did? You should try it sometime."
"Copycat," Tiffany mock-scowls.
As the elemental explodes, Tiffany and Fiona turn and run away from it, remembering that in the original, they were unconscious for three days, and since this is real life now, it would hurt badly, most likely.
They are still both injured from the fighting, as well as the explosion, but are not unconscious. Tiffany casts a wary glance over the plains at the top of the hill before retreating back to the garrison, to ensure that no centaurs or lesser elementals are unleashed upon the countryside.
At the garrison, Lo - Captain Thackeray - insists the two of them get medical attention at the inn, so Tiffany and Fiona, pretending to grumble, go to the inn to be patched up.
As Tiffany goes in, she is nearly knocked off her feet by the two children she'd rescued earlier.
"Are you okay?" the little girl asks.
"I'm fine," Tiffany reassures her, "but Captain Thackeray wants to make sure, so me and my sister are going to get a checkup."
"Which one is older?" the boy questions, glancing between her and Fiona. Fiona, despite being younger than Tiffany, is taller.
"We're twins," Fiona tells him with the ghost of a smile.
"But you both look different!" the little girl exclaims in surprise.
"We don't have to look the same," Tiffany explains. "The ones who look the same are called identical twins. Do you know what identical means?"
"No."
"It means two things looks exactly the same," Tiffany tells her. "In the case of twins, two people look exactly the same, which is rare unless they're twins. So, most twins are assumed to be identical, because it occurs in twins about half the time. But me and Fiona are not identical."
"I see," the boy says slowly.
"Now, neither of you have told me your names," Tiffany reminds them.
"My name is Ayla," the little girl says shyly.
"I'm Mat," says the boy importantly.
"Nice to meet you. I am Tiffany, you know that already, and this is my sister, Fiona. This is Beorn, my companion. Now, we're friends!"
"Friends!" Ayla says happily, hugging Tiffany and Fiona.
"Now, we need to go get fixed up, but I'll see you later, okay?" Tiffany tells them.
"Later!" Ayla waves happily.
Author's Notes:
How do you like it? Tell me! Tell me! I like feedback.
Is it too short, too detailed, did I make somebody out of character, do you like the idea of us making friends with Ayla and Mat, do you like...
I've never liked cliffhangers, so I'll put in as few of those as I possibly can. I don't plan the chapter endings, I end it when I don't know how to describe what happened next.
Anyway. I hope you like it, and don't forget to like and/or follow the story when you send off your review!